Exodus, ''I will cover thee with mine hand was manifested, as the consideration of this
52 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN. [Boox II. I preaching to them by the Apostle Peter that it behoved Christ to suffer and rise again, they were pricked in their hearts with the grief of repentance,® that that might come to pass among the baptized which is said in the beginning of that Psalm, '* Blessed are they whose transgressions are forgiven, and whose sins are covered;"' therefore, after it had been said, "' Thy hand is heavy upon me,"' the Lord, as it were, passing by, so that now He removed His hand, and His back parts were seen, there follows the voice of one who grieves and confesses and receives remission of sins by faith in the resurrection of the Lord: '*' My moisture,'' he says, ''is turned into the drought of summer. I acknowledged my sin unto Thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord, and Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin.''??. For we ought not to be so wrapped up in the darkness of the flesh, as to think the face indeed of God to be invisible, but His back visible, since both appeared visibly in the form of a servant; but far be it from us to think anything of the kind in the form of God; far be it from us to think that the Word of God and the Wisdom of God has a face on one side, and on the other a back, as a human body has, or is at all changed either in place or time by any appearance or motion.® shalt stand upon a rock?'? What earthly place is '' by" the Lord, unless that is "* by Him" which touches Him spiritually? For what place is not ''by'' the Lord, who '*reacheth from one end to another mightily, and sweetly doth order all things,''* and of whom it is said, '' Heaven is His throne, and earth is His footstool;'' and who said,
Where is the house that ye build unto me, and where is the place of my rest? For has not my hand made all those things?"'? But manifestly the Catholic Church itself is understood to be '' the place by Him,"' wherein one stands upon a rock, where he healthfully sees the '*' Pascha Domini,'' that is, the ''Passing by"3 of the Lord, and His back parts, that is, His body, who believes in His resurrection. ''And thou shalt stand,'' He says, ''upon a rock while my glory passeth by.'? For in reality, immediately after the majesty of the Lord had passed by in the glorification of the Lord, in which He rose again and ascended to the Father, we stood firm upon the rock. And Peter himself then stood firm, so that he preached Him with confidence, whom, before he stood firm, he had thrice from fear denied;+ although, indeed, already before placed in predestination upon the watch-tower of the rock, but with the hand of the Lord still held over him that he might not see. For he was to see His back parts, and the Lord had not yet "* passed by,'' namely, from death to life; He had not yet been glorified by the resurrection.
32. Wherefore, if in those words which were spoken in Exodus, and in all those corporeal appearances, the Lord Jesus Christ was manifested; or if in some cases Christ was manifested, as the consideration of this passage persuades us, in others the Holy Spirit, as that which we have said above admonishes us; at any rate no such result follows, as that God the Father never appeared in any such form to the Fathers. For many such appearances happened in those times, without either the Father, or the Son, or the
31. For as to that, too, which follows in Exodus, ''I will cover thee with mine hand while I pass by, and I will take away my hand and thou shalt see my back parts; ' many Israelites, of whom Moses was then a figure, believed in the Lord after His resurrection, as if His hand had been taken off from their eyes, and they now saw His back parts, And hence the evangelist also mentions that prophesy of Isaiah, '' Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes.''5 Lastly, in the Psalm, that is not unreasonably understood to be said in their person, °° For day and night Thy hand was heavy upon me.'' **By day,'' perhaps, when He _ performed manifest miracles, yet was not acknowledged by them; but °"' by night,'' when He died in suffering, when they thought still more certainly that, like any one among men, He was cut off and brought to an end. But since, when He had already passed by, so that His back parts were seen, upon the
Holy Spirit being expressly named and designated in them; but yet with some intimations given through certain very probable interpretations, so that it would be too rash to say that God the Father never appeared by any visible forms to the fathers or the prophets.
For they gave birth to this opinion who were not able to understand in respect to the unity of the Trinity such texts as, '* Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God;" 9 and, '' Whom no man hath seen, nor
6 Acts ii, 37, 41. 7 Ps. xxxii. 4, 5. 8 [This explanation of the '' back parts'' of Christ to mean his resurrection, and of ''the place that is by him,'' to mean the church, is an example of the fanciful exegesis into which Augustin, with the fathers generally, sometimes falls. The reasoning, here, unlike that in the preceding chapter, is not from the immediate context, and hence extraneous matter is read into the text.
2 Isa. Ixvi. 1, 2. 4 Matt. xxvi. 70-74.
X Wisd. viii. 1. 3 Transitus. 5 Isa. vi. 10; Matt. xiii. 15.
shee Exot 91 Tim. i. 17.
TRINITY. 53
Cuap. XVIII.] ON THE can see.''* Which texts are understood by a sound faith in that substance itself, the highest, and in the highest degree divine and unchangeable, whereby both the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit is the one and only God. But those visions were wrought through the changeable creature, made subject to the unchangeable God, and did not manifest God properly as He is, but by intimations such as suited the causes and times of the several circumstances.
the sight of him who prophesies, in a visible form. It is not, therefore, unsuitably believed that God the Father also was wont to appear in that manner to mortals.
34. Unless, perhaps, some ore shall say, that the Father is therefore not visible, because He appeared within the sight of one who was dreaming; but that therefore the Son and the Holy Spirit are visible, because Moses saw all those things being awake; as if, forsooth, Moses saw the Word and the Wisdom of God with fleshly eyes, or that even the human spirit which quickens that flesh can be seen, or even that corporeal thing which is called wind;—how much less can that Spirit of God be seen, who transcends the minds of all men, and of angels, by the ineffable excellence of the divine substance? Or can any one fall headlong into such an error as to dare to say, that the Son and the Holy Spirit are visible also to men who are awake, but that the Father is not visible except to those who dream? How, then, do they understand that of the Father alone, '*Whom no man hath seen, nor can see.''? When men sleep, are they then not men? Or cannot He, who can fashion the likeness of a body to signify Himself through the visions of dreamers, also fashion that same bodily creature to signify Himself to the eyes of those who are awake? Whereas His own very substance, whereby He Himself is that which He is, cannot be shown by any bodily likeness to one who sleeps, or by any bodily appearance to one who is awake; but this not of the Father only, but also of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. And certainly, as to those who are moved by the visions of waking men to believe that not the Father, but only the Son, or the Holy Spirit, appeared to the corporeal sight of men,—to omit the great extent of the sacred pages, and their manifold interpretation, such that no one of sound reason ought to affirm that the person of the Father was nowhere shown to the eyes of waking men by any corporeal appearance; —but, as I said, to omit this, what do they
CHAP. 18.—THE VISION OF DANIEL,
33. ?I do not know in what manner these men understand that the Ancient of Days appeared to Daniel, from whom the Son of man, which He deigned to be for our sakes, is understood to have received the kingdom; namely, from Him who says to Him in the Psalms, ** Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten Thee; ask of me, and I shall give Thee the heathen for Thine inheritance; ''3 and who has "put all things under His feet.''4 If, however, both the Father giving the kingdom, and the Son receiving it, appeared to Daniel in bodily form, how can those men say that the Father never appeared to the prophets, and, therefore, that He only ought to be understood to be invisible whom no man has seen, nor can see? For Daniel has told us thus: "'I beheld,'' he says, °' till the thrones were set,> and the Ancient of Days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of His head like the pure wool: His throne was like the fiery flame, and His wheels as burning fire; a fiery stream issued and came forth from before Him: thousand thousands ministered unto Him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him: the judgment was set, and the books were opened,'' etc. And a little after, **I saw,"' he says, 'Sin the night visions, and behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought Him near before Him. And there was given Him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all say of our father Abraham, who was certainly awake and ministering, when, after Scripture had premised, '' The Lord appeared unto Abraham,"' not one, or two, but three men appeared to him; no one of whom is said to peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him: His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.''°®
Behold the Father giving, and the Son receiving, an eternal kingdom; and both are in have stood prominently above the others, no one more than the others to have shone with greater glory, or to have acted more authoritatively ?? 35. Wherefore, since in that our threefold division we determined to inquire, ® first, tx Tim. vi. 16. 2 (The original has an awkward anacoluthon in the opening sentence of this chapter, which has been removed by omitting Be: and substituting '' autem' for ' exrgo.''.-W. G.
3 Ps. ii. 7, 8. 5 Cast te n—A Ve 4 Ps, viii. 8. © Dan. vil. 9-14.
7 Gen. xvii. 1. 8 See above, chap. vil.
54 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN. [Boox II.
body or likeness of body, unless when the context attaches to the narrative some probable intimations on the subject. For the nature itself, or substance, or essence, or by whatever other name that very thing, which is God, whatever it be, is to be called, cannot be seen corporeally: but we must believe that by means of the creature made subject to Him, not only the Son, or the Holy Spirit, but also the Father, may have given intima. tions of Himself to mortal senses by a corporeal form or likeness. And since the case stands thus, that this second book may not extend to an immoderate length, let us consider what remains in those which follow.
whether the Father, or the Son, or the Holy Spirit; or whether sometimes the Father, sometimes the Son, sometimes the Holy Spirit; or whether, without any distinction of persons, as it is said, the one and only God, that is, the Trinity itself, appeared to the fathers through those forms of the creature: now that we have examined, so far as appeared to be sufficient, what places of the Holy Scriptures we could, a modest and cautious consideration of divine mysteries leads, as far as I can judge, to no other conclusion, unless that we may not rashly affirm which person of the Trinity appeared to this or that of the fathers or the prophets in some