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Wherefore the substance, or, if it is better so to say, the essence
of God, wherein we understand, in proportion to our measure, in
however small a degree, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit
since it is in no way changeable, can in no way in its proper self be
visible.
22. It is manifest, accordingly, that all those appearances to the
fathers, when God was presented to them according to His own
dispensation, suitable to the times, were wrought through the
creature. And if we cannot discern in what manner He wrought them by
ministry of angels, yet we say that they were wrought by angels; but
not from our own power of discernment, lest we should seem to any one
to be wise beyond our measure, whereas we are wise so as to think
soberly, as God hath dealt to us the measure of faith; and we
believe, and therefore speak. For the authority is extant of the
divine Scriptures, from which our reason ought not to turn aside; nor
by leaving the solid support of the divine utterance, to fall headlong
over the precipice of its own surmisings, in matters wherein neither
the perceptions of the body rule, nor the clear reason of the truth
shines forth. Now, certainly, it is written most clearly in the
Epistle to the Hebrews, when the dispensation of the New Testament
was to be distinguished from the dispensation of the Old, according to
the fitness of ages and of times, that not only those visible things,
but also the word itself, was wrought by angels. For it is said
thus:
"But to which of the angels said He at any time, Sit on my right
hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool? Are they not all
ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs
of salvation?" Whence it appears that all those things were not only
wrought by angels, but wrought also on our account, that is, on
account of the people of God, to whom is promised the inheritance of
eternal life. As it is written also to the Corinthians, "Now all
these things happened unto them in a figure: and they are written for
our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world arecome."
And then, demonstrating by plain consequence that as at that time the
word was spoken by the angels, so now by tim Son; "Therefore," he
says, "we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we
have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip. For if the word
spoken by angels was steadfast, and every transgression and
disobedience received a just recompense of reward; how shall we
escape, if we neglect so great salvation?" And then, as though you
asked, What salvation? in order to show that he is now speaking of
the New Testament, that is, of the word which was spoken not by
angels, but by the Lord, he says, "Which at the first began to be
spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard
Him; God also bearing them witness, both with signs and wonders,
and with divers miracles, and gifts of the Holy Ghost, according to
His own will."
23. But some one may say, Why then is it written, "The Lord
said to Moses;" and not, rather, The angel said to Moses?
Because, when the crier proclaims the words of the judge, it is not
usually written in the record, so and so the crier said, but so and so
the judge. In like manner also, when the holy prophet speaks,
although we say, The prophet said, we mean nothing else to be
understood than that the Lord said; and if we were to say, The Lord
said, we should not put the prophet aside, but only intimate who spake
by him. And, indeed, these Scriptures often reveal the angel to be
the Lord, of whose speaking it is from time to time I said, "the
Lord said," as we have shown already. But on account of those who,
since the Scripture in that place specifies an angel, will have the
Son of God Himself and in Himself to be understood, because He is
called an angel by the prophet, as announcing the will of His Father
and of Himself; I have therefore thought fit to produce a plainer
testimony from this epistle, where it is not said by an angel, but
"by angels."
24. For Stephen, too, in the Acts of the Apostles, relates
these things in that manner in which they are also written in the Old
Testament: "Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken," he says;
"The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in
Mesopotamia." But lest any one, should think that the God of glory
appeared then to the eyes of any mortal in that which He is in
Himself, he goes on to say that an angel appeared to Moses. "Then
fled Moses," he says, "at that saying, and was a stranger in the
land of Midian, where he begat two sons. And when forty years were
expired, there appeared to him in the wilderness of mount Sinai an
angel of the Lord in a flame of fire in a bush. When Moses saw it,
he wondered at the sight: and as he drew near to behold it, the voice
of the Lord came unto him, saying, I am the God of thy fathers,
the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.
Then Moses trembled, and durst not behold. Then said the Lord to
him, Put off thy shoes from thy feet," etc. Here, certainly, he
speaks both of angel and of Lord; and of the same as the God of
Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; as is
written in Genesis.
25. Can there be any one who will say that the Lord appeared to
Moses by an angel, but to Abraham by Himself? Let us not answer
this question from Stephen, but from the book itself, whence Stephen
took his narrative. For, pray, because it is written, "And the
Lord God said unto Abraham;" and a little after, "And the Lord
God appeared unto Abraham;" were these things, for this reason,
not done by angels? Whereas it is said in like manner in another
place, "And the Lord appeared to him in the plains of Mature, as
he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day;" and yet it is added
immediately, "And he lift up his eyes and looked, and, lo, three
men stood by him:" of whom we have already spoken. For how will
these people, who either will not rise from the words to the meaning,
or easily throw themselves down from the meaning to the words, how, I
say, will they be able to explain that God was seen in three men,
except they confess that they were angels, as that which follows also
shows? Because it is not said an angel spoke or appeared to him, will
they therefore venture to say that the vision and voice granted to
Moses was wrought by an angel because it is so written, but that God
appeared and spake in His own substance to Abraham because there is no
mention made of an angel? What of the fact, that even in respect to
Abraham an angel is not left unmentioned? For when his son was
ordered to be offered up as a sacrifice, we read thus: "And it came
to pass after these things that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto
him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am. And He said,
Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get
thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a
burnt-offering upon one of the mountains that I will tell thee of."
Certainly God is here mentioned, not an angel. But a little
afterwards Scripture hath it thus: "And Abraham stretched forth his
hand, and took the knife to slay his son. And the angel of the Lord
called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he
said, Here am I And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad,
neither do thou anything unto him." What can be answered to this?
Will they say that God commanded that Isaac should be slain, and
that an angel forbade it? and further, that the father himself, in
opposition to the decree of God, who had commanded that he should be
slain, obeyed the angel, who had bidden him spare him? Such an
interpretation is to be rejected as absurd. Yet not even for it,
gross and abject as it is, does Scripture leave any room, for it
immediately adds: "For now I know that thou fearest God, seeing
thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, on account of me."
What is "on account of me," except on account of Him who had
commanded him to be slain? Was then the God of Abraham the same as
the angel, or was it not rather God by an angel? Consider what
follows. Here, certainly, already an angel has been most clearly
spoken of; yet notice the context: "And Abraham lifted up his
eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by
his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for
a burnt-offering in the stead of his son. And Abraham called the
name of that place, The Lord saw: as it is said to this day, In
the mount the Lord was seen." Just as that which a little before
God said by an angel, "For now I know that thou fearest God;"
not because it was to be understood that God then came to know, but
that He brought it to pass that through God Abraham himself came to
know what strength of heart he had to obey God, even to the
sacrificing of his only son: after that mode of speech in which the
effect is signified by the efficient, as cold is said to be sluggish,
because it makes men sluggish; so that He was therefore said to know,
because He had made Abraham himself to know, who might well have not
discerned the firmness of his own faith, had it not been proved by such
a trial. So here, too, Abraham called the name of the place "The
Lord saw," that is, caused Himself to be seen. For he goes on
immediately to say, "As it is said to this day, In the mount the
Lord was seen." Here you see the same angel is called Lord:
wherefore, unless because the Lord spake by the angel? But if we
pass on to that which follows, the angel altogether speaks as a
prophet, and reveals expressly that God is speaking by the angel.
"And the angel of the Lord," he says, "called unto Abraham out
of heaven the second time, and said, By myself I have sworn, saith
the Lord; for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not
withheld thy son, thine only son, on account of me," etc.
Certainly these words, viz. that he by whom the Lord speaks should
say, "Thus saith the Lord," are commonly used by the prophets
also. Does the Son of God say of the Father, "The Lord
saith," while He Himself is that Angel of the Father? What
then? Do they not see how hard pressed they are about these three men
who appeared to Abraham, when it had been said before, "The Lord
appeared to him?" Were they not angels because they are called men?
Let them read Daniel, saying, "Behold the man Gabriel."
26. But why do we delay any longer to stop their mouths by another
most clear and most weighty proof, where not an angel in the singular
nor men in the plural are spoken of, but simply angels; by whom not
any particular word was wrought, but the Law itself is most distinctly
declared to be given; which certainly none of the faithful doubts that
God gave to Moses for the control of the children of Israel, or
yet, that it was given by angels. So Stephen speaks: "Ye
stiff-necked," he says, "and uncircumcised in heart and ears, ye
do always resist the Holy Ghost: as your fathers did, so do ye.
Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? and they have
slain them which showed before of the coming of the Just One; of whom
ye have been now the betrayers and murderers: who have received the
Law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it." What is
more evident than this? What more strong than such an authority? The
Law, indeed, was given to that people by the disposition of angels;
but the advent of our Lord Jesus Christ was by it prepared and
pre-announced; and He Himself, as the Word of God, was in some
wonderful and unspeakable manner in the angels, by whose disposition
the Law itself was given. And hence He said in the Gospel, "For
had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me; for he wrote of
me." Therefore then the Lord was speaking by the angels; and the
son of God, who was to be the Mediator of God and men, from the
seed of Abraham, was preparing His own advent by the angels, that
He might find some by whom He would be received, confessing
themselves guilty, whom the Law unfulfilled had made transgressors.
And hence the apostle also says to the Galatians, "Wherefore then
serveth the Law? It was added because of transgressions, till the
seed should come to whom the promise was made, which [seed] was
ordered through angels in the hand of a mediator;" that is, ordered
through angels in His own hand. For He was not born in limitation,
but in power. But you learn in another place that he does not mean any
one of the angels as a mediator, but the Lord Jesus Christ
Himself, in so far as He deigned to be made man: "For there is one
God," he says, "and one Mediator between God and man, the man
Christ Jesus." Hence that passover in the killing of the lamb:
hence all those things which are figuratively spoken in the Law, of
Christ to come in the flesh, and to suffer, but also to rise again,
which Law was given by the disposition of angels; in which angels,
were certainly the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit; and
in which, sometimes the Father, sometimes the Son, sometimes the
Holy Spirit, and sometimes God, without any distinction of person,
was figuratively signified by them, although appearing in visible and
sensible forms, yet by His own creature, not by His substance, in
order to the seeing of which, hearts are cleansed through all those
things which are seen by the eyes and heard by the ears.
27. But now, as I think, that which we had undertaken to show in
this book has been sufficiently discussed and demonstrated, according
to our capacity; and it has been established, both by probable
reason, so far as a man, or rather, so far as I am able, and by
strength of authority, so far as the divine declarations from the Holy
Scriptures have been made clear, that those words and bodily
appearances which were given to these ancient fathers of ours before the
incarnation of the Saviour, when God was said to appear, were
wrought by angels: whether themselves speaking or doing something in
the person of God, as we have shown that the prophets also were wont
to do, or assuming from the creature that which they themselves were
not, wherein God might be shown in a figure to men; which manner of
showing also, Scripture teaches by many examples, that the prophets,
too, did not omit. It remains, therefore, now for us to consider,
since both in the Lord as born of a virgin, and in the Holy Spirit
descending in a corporeal form like a dove. and in the tongues like as
of fire, which appeared with a sound from heaven on the day of
Pentecost, after the ascension of the Lord, it was not the Word of
God Himself by His own substance, in which He is equal and eternal
with the Father, nor the Spirit of the Father and of the Son by
His own substance, in which He Himself also is equal and co-eternal
with both, but assuredly a creature, such as could be formed and exist
in these fashions, which appeared to corporeal and mortal senses, it
remains, I say, to consider what difference there is between these
manifestations and those which were proper to the Son of God and to
the Holy Spirit, although wrought by the visible creature; which
subject we shall more conveniently begin in another book.
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