|
Neither need we be surprised that God, invisible as He is, should
often have appeared visibly to the patriarchs. For as the sound which
communicates the thought conceived in the silence of the mind is not the
thought itself, so the form by which God, invisible in His own
nature, became visible, was not God Himself. Nevertheless it is
He Himself who was seen under that form, as that thought itself is
heard in the sound of the voice; and the patriarchs recognized that,
though the bodily form was not God, they saw the invisible God.
For, though Moses conversed with God, yet he said, "If I have
found grace in Thy sight, show me Thyself, that I may see and know
Thee." And as it was fit that the law, which was given, not to one
man or a few enlightened men, but to the whole of a populous nation,
should be accompanied by awe-inspiring signs, great marvels were
wrought, by the ministry of angels, before the people on the mount
where the law was being given to them through one man, while the
multitude beheld the awful appearances. For the people of Israel
believed Moses, not as the Lacedaemonians believed their Lycurgus,
because he had received from Jupiter or Apollo the laws he gave them.
For when the law which enjoined the worship of one God was given to
the people, marvellous signs and earthquakes, such as the divine
wisdom judged sufficient, were brought about in the sight of all, that
they might know that it was the Creator who could thus use creation to
promulgate His law.
|
|