CHAPTER 10
THE PROOF OF THE GOSPEL
Bk. V. there.
For they who were entertained by Abraham, as represented in the picture,^ sit one on each side, and he in the midst surpasses them in honour.
This would be our Lord and Saviour, Whom though men knew Him not they (d) worshipped, confirming the Holy Scriptures.
He then thus in person from that time sowed the seeds of holiness among men, putting on a human form and shape, and revealed to the godly ancestor Abraham Who He was, and shewed him the mind of His Father.
CHAPTER
(235) From the sarne.
Tliat the same Prophet shews more clearly in the Matter of Jacob the said Person to be Lord, Whom also He calls God, and an Angel of God Most High, in addressing Him.
[Passage quoted, Gen. xxviii. 10-19.] (bjTHis Being who here answers him at such length, you will find, if you read on, to be Lord and God, and the Angel of God, from the words Jacob himself sa\s to his wives
(Icn. xxxi "And the angel of the Lord said to me in sleep, "
Jacob.
And I said. Here am L"
And also (236) " I have seen, he says, all that Laban doelh to thee.
I am the God, that was seen of thee in the place where thou anointedst the pillar for me, and offeredst prayer to me."
Therefore He that said before, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy Father, and the God of Isaac, to whom godly
^ sir! ypa(pr)s avaKfi/xfvoi, that is, a picluie.— For condemnation of paintinij sec Tertullinn, nd:: HerniP". c. i.
; dc Idolatr. c.
5. Clement Alex., Fiolrcpt. c. 4; Oiigcn, r.
Celstiiii, iv. 31.
Pures)'mbolism only slowly j^avc way to historical subjects, which were limited to a conventional cycle, typifyini^ church doctrines.
Abraham and the Angels were not in this cycle, but ihey formed one of the twenly-one scriptural frescoes painted in the latter half of the fourth century for llie Ambrosian Basilica at Milan.
See /'. C.A., art. " Fresco," by W'na'iles.
E. does not seem here to suggest that a picture was an unusual ornament of shrines connected with sacred events.
Ch. II.
AXGEL OF GREAT COUNSEL
^D3 Jacob raises the pillar, was indeed God and Lord : for we must believe that which He Himself says.
Not of course the Almighty, but the Second to Him, Who ministers for His Father among men, and brings His \\'ord.
Wherefore Jacob here calls Him an Angel : "The Angel of God said to me, speaking in my sleep, 'I am the God who was seen (b) by thee in this place.'
'"'
So the same Being is clearly called the Angel of the Lord, and God and Lord in this place.
And by Isaiah the Prophet he is called " Angel of Great Counsel," as well as God and Ruler and Potentate, where His Incarnation is prophesied in the words :
" For unto us a child is born, and to us a son is given, Isa. ix. 6, on whose shoulder shall be the rule, and his name shall be called the Angel of Great Counsel,^ Prince of Peace, the Mighty God, the Potentate, the Father of the Age to Come."
(c) CHAPTER
(d) That Jacob also beholds the Bcfore-uamed as Both God and Lord, and also as an Angel in Human Form in Common with Abraham, in the Course of the History thai so tells.
[Passage quoted. Gen.
.\xxii. 22-31.] It was said to Moses, No one shall see My face and live. (237) But iiere Jacob saw God not indefinitely but face to face, (b) And being preserved, not only in body but in soul, he was thought worthy of the name of Israel, which is a name borne by souls, if the name Israel is rightly interpreted "Seeing God."'
Yet he did not see the Almighty God.
For He is invisible, and unalterable, and the Highest of all Being could not possibly change into man.
But he saw Another, Whose name it was not yet the time to reveal to curious Jacob. ^ And if we were to suppose that (c) he saw an angel, or that one of the divine spirits in heaven whose duty it is to bring oraf les to the holy, we should ' The A^llowinjj titles do not occur in LXX.
^ iro\virpayfioyoi'yTi tu 'laKu-fi.
THE PROOF OF THE GOSPEL
Bk. V. clearly be wrong ; firstly, because He is called Lord and God, for certainly Holy Scripture calls him God in distinct terms, and names Him Lord, honouring Him with the name signified by the Tetragram, which the Hebrews only apply to the unspeakable and secret name of God : and secondly, because when Scripture desires to speak of angels, it clearly distinguishes them as such, as when the God and {(1) Lord Who replies to Abraham no longer thinks the sinners of Sodom worthy of His presence, and Holy Scripture says
"And the Lord departed, and ceased speaking with Gen xxxii.
Abraham.
And the two angels departed to Sodom at 2. evening."
And to Jacob "There came two angels of God : and he saw them.
Gen. xxxii. and said, It is the camp of God.
And he called the I. name of that place. Encampments."
Here, then, the godly man clearly distinguished the nature of the visions, since he now called the name of the place Encampments, from his seeing the encampments of the angels.
Whereas when he communes with God, he calls the name of the place. Sight of God, adding, "For I have seen God face to face."
And when an angel appears to Moses, Holy Scripture also (238) makes it plain, saying :
" The angel of the Lord appeared Exod. iii. to him in a flame of fire in a bush."
But when it refers to 2the actual being who replies, it calls him God and Lord, and no longer an angel.
It is equally clear in its distinction between the angel and the Lord in the account of what happened at the Red Sea, where it says :
" And the angel of the Lord that went before the Exod. xiv. children of Israel, removed and went behind them
; and 19. the pillar of the cloud also removed from before them."
And as in the former passage the Lord is introduced as (b) answering the men of the old time in human form, so also is He here by the cloud.
For it is said afterwards :
"And it came to pass in the morning-watch, that the Lord looked upon the cam]i of the ICgyptians in a pillar of fire and cloud.
Atul God answered Moses in the pillar of the cloud through the whole of the wanderings in the wilderness."
So Scripture is quite exact when the nature of an (c) angel is meant, for it rails him neither God nor Lord,
Ch. T2, 13.
A SECONDARY GOD
but simply Angel.
But when it knows that He that appears was Lord and God, it clearly uses those terms.
And that by Lord and God they do not mean the First Cause, the passages of Holy Scripture clearly shew which call Him the Angel of God, Who had previously been called Lord and God in the part concerning Jacob.
It only remains for Him then to be God and Lord among beings, after the Almighty
(iod of the Universe.
And He would thus be the Word of God before the ages, greater than all angels, but less than the First Cause.
CHAPTER
- (d) That again in the Story of Jacob the Story supposes a Secondary God.
[Passage quoted, Gen. xxxv.
1-3.] Here the very God of the Universe, the only Unbegotten '239) and Most High (not seen, for He answers Jacob invisibly, and moving him bv His unspeakable power), speaks clearly of Another than Himself.
God then said to him, "Make an altar to the God that appeared to thee."
I have already shewn Who this was that was described before as appearing to him, and proved that it was the W^ord of God.
CHAPTER U
From Exodus.
That the Almighty Cod, being He that answered Moses by an Angel, teaches that He was seen by the Fathers, not by means of an Angel, but by His Son.
[Passages quoted, Exod. iii. i, 2, 4, 5, 14; vi. 2-4:] In the case of the Prophets, Isaiah, say, or Jeremiah, or those like them, a man was seen, and God prophesied
THE PROOF OF THE GOSPEL
Bk. V. through him that was seen, as by an instrument; and now the Person of Christ, now that of the Holy Spirit, and now that of Almighty God, answered through the prophet.
So we must suppose the Most High and Almighty God now prophesies the things before us to Moses who is under (240) instruction ^ by the angel that appeared to him.
TIic intention of which must have been of this nature :
" To you, O prophet, as one being instructed and not fit for aught but angelic visions, hitherto I have willed to send my angel ; and I make my Name clear to thee alone, teaching thee that I am what I am, and that my Name is the Lord but I not only showed this to thy fathers, but I gave them a greater gift, I appeared to them."
I have already shewn ^Vhoitwas that appeared to the fathers, when I shewed that (l>) the angel of God was called God and Lord.
It will naturally be asked how He that is beyond the universe, Himself the only Almighty God, appeared to the fathers.
And the answer will be found if we realize the accuracy of Holy Scripture.
For the Septuagint rendering, " I was seen of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, being their God."
Aquila says, "And I was seen by Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as a sufficient God," clearly shewing that the Almighty God Himself, Who is One, was not seen in His own Person ; (c) and that He did not give answers to the fathers, as He did to Moses by an angel, or a fire, or a bush, but "as a suffu ient God : so that the Father was seen by the fathers through the Son, according to His saying in the Gospels, " He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father."
For the knowledge of the Father was revealed in Him and by Him.
13ut in cases when He appeared to save men. He was seen in the human form of the Son, giving an earnest before the time to the godly of that salvation which should come {<]) through Him to all men ; whereas when He was going to be the avenger and chastiscr of the wicked Egyptians, He appeared no longer as a suflicient God, but as an angel ministering punishment, and in form of fire ami. flame, ready at once to devour them like wild and thorny undergrowth.
So thi-y say that the hush darkly refers to the '
(l(raynfx(f(f> a calccluiiiieii.
* iTpflapfia0a)vi(i'i/.i(fos.
Tlie veil>, apimfimft^fffOai is used by Kiisthius in r//.
Co/isf.
5. for "loliiic."
Of.
2 Cdi. i.
22, v.
5, and Kpli. i.
14, for appafiwv.
Ch.
14. 15.
THE PILLAR OF CLOUD
wild, savage, and cruel character of the Egyptians, and the fire to the avenging power of the chastisement that overtook them.
(241)
CHAPTER U
(^) That God the Word appeared in the Form of a Cloud to Moses and All the People, as in Human Form to the Patriarchs.
[Passages quoted, Exod. xix. 9
; xxxiii. 9
; Num.xii.
5.] The people then beheld the pillar of cloud, and it spoke (c) to Moses.
But who was the speaker?
Obviously the pillar of cloud, which before appeared to the fathers in a human form.
And I have already shewn that this was not the Almighty God, but another Being Whom we name, as the Word of God, the Christ Who was seen for the sake of the multitude of Moses and the people in a pillar of cloud, because it was not possible for them to see Him like their (<1) fathers in human shape.
For, surely, it was reserved for the Perfect to be able to see beforehand His future Incarnate appearance among men, and since it was impossible then for the whole people to bear it, He was seen now in fire in order to inspire fear and wonder, and now in a cloud, as it were in a shadowy and veiled form ruling them, as He was also seen by Moses for their sake.
CHAPTER
(242) Thai it was not an Angel, who gave Answers to Moses, hut Some One Mote Excellent than an Angel.
[Passages quoted, Exod. xxiii. 20,
j ; xxxii. 34
; xxxiii. i.] It will be plain to all that these could not be the words of a mere angel of God.
But of what God could they (c) be, but of the One seen by the forefathers, whom Jacob
26o
THE PROOF OF THE GOSPEL
Bk. V. clearly called the Angel of God ?
And He we know was the Word of God, being called both the Servant of God, and God Himself and Lord.
CHAPTER IG (d) That the same Lord teaches of another Lord, namely, His Son.
(243) [Passage quoted, Exod. xx.
2, 5, 7.] From the Decalogue.
Here, too, the Lord Himself teaches in the passage before us about another Lord.
For He says :
" I am the Lord thy God," and adds: "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God."
The second Lord is here mystically instructing His Servant about the Leather, that is to say, the God of the Universe.
And you could find many other similar instances occurring in Holy Scripture, in which God gave answers as if about another God, and the Lord Himself as if about another Lord.
CHAPTER
That this L^ord again Who gave Answers to Moses, knmcing another I^ord Greater than Himself as Father, called Him the True God.
(d) [Passages quoted, I'^xod. xwiii. 17-1S; xxxiv. 5-S.] NoTiCK, then, here how the Lord that descended in the cloud, and stood by Moses in the name of the Lord, called
Another beside Himself, \Vho is twice called Lord, in a common form of reduplication, as one reckoned as God to be His own Master and Master of all others, and His Own Ivithcr, and tliat here it is not Moses, as nu'ght be supi)oscd, but the Lord Himself Who calls another Lord His Father ; for He speaks first, and say to Moses :
" 1
Ch.
18.
VISION OF MOSES
will pass before thee in my glory, and will call upon the name of the Lord."
And when He has so said, Scripture goes on in narrative form :
" And the Lord descended in (244) a cloud, and stood beside him there, and called on the name of the Lord."
Thus the Lord Himself in fulfilment of His promise descends and passes before the face of Moses.
And the Lord Himself calls and says: "O Lord, the God of pity and mercy,"' and that which follows, clearly teaching His servant Who He was, and teaching mystically the knowledge of a Lord greater than Himself.
And Moses implies this, when in his ])rayer for the people he records the (b) words of the Lord before us, that the Lord spoke them, and not he himself, when he says :
"And now let the hand of the Lord be exalted, as thou saidst, The Lord is long-suffering and very pitiful and true, taking away sins and injustice, and iniquity, and will not clear the guilty with purification, avenging the sins of fathers upon their children to the third and Exod. fourth generation." xxxiv.
Notice the way in which the Lord Himself addressing the Father in these words as " long-suffering and of tender mercy,"' calls Him also "true," agreeing with the words: folm xvii "That they may know thee the only true God," spoken "3. in the Gospels by the same Being, our Saviour.
Yea, (c) with exceeding reverence He calls the P'ather the only true God, given meet honour to the Unbegotten Nature, of which Holy Scri])ture teaches us He is Himself the Image and the Offspring.
CHAPTER
From Numbers.
That Holy Scripture teaches that God was seen by Israel, darkly meaning the Word of God.
Ix the Book of Numbers Moses prays, saying:
" Since (d) thou art the Lord of this people that art seen of them Num. xiv. face to face."
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