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26. There is yet another difficulty which troubles most people,
viz. that it is written, "And the Lord spake unto Moses face to
face, as a man speaketh unto his friend;" whereas a little after,
the same Moses says, "Now therefore, I pray Thee, if I have
found grace in Thy sight, show me now Thyself plainly, that I may
see Thee, that I may find grace in Thy sight, and that I may
consider that this nation is Thy people;" and a little after Moses
again said to the Lord, "Show me Thy glory." What means this
then, that in everything which was done, as above said. God was
thought to have appeared by His own substance; whence the Son of God
has been believed by these miserable people to be visible not by the
creature, but by Himself; and that Moses, entering into the cloud,
appeared to have had this very object in entering, that a cloudy
darkness indeed might be shown to the eyes of the people, but that
Moses within might hear the words of God, as though he beheld His
face; and, as it is said, "And the Lord spake unto Moses face to
face, as a man speaketh unto his friend;" and yet, behold, the same
Moses says, "If I have found grace in Thy sight, show me Thyself
plainly?" Assuredly he knew that he saw corporeally, and he sought
the true sight of God spiritually. And that mode of speech
accordingly which was wrought in words, was so modified, as if it were
of a friend speaking to a friend. Yet who sees God the Father with
the eyes of the body? And that Word, which was in the beginning,
the Word which was with God, the Word which was God, by which all
things were made, who sees Him with the eyes of the body? And the
spirit of wisdom, again, who sees with the eyes of the body? Yet
what is, "Show me now Thyself plainly, that I, may see Thee,"
unless, Show me Thy substance? But if Moses had not said this, we
must indeed have borne with those foolish people as we could, who think
that the substance of God was made visible to his eyes through those
things which, as above mentioned, were said or done. But when it is
here demonstrated most evidently that this was not granted to him, even
though he desired it; who will dare to say, that by the like forms
which had appeared visibly to him also, not the creature serving God,
but that itself which is God, appeared to the eyes of a mortal man?
28. Add, too, that which the Lord afterward said to Moses,
"Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see my face, and
live. And the Lord said, Behold, there is a place by me, and thou
shall stand upon a rock: and it shall come to pass, while my glory
passeth by, that I will put thee into a watch-tower of the rock, and
will cover thee with my hand while I pass by: and I will take away my
hand, and thou shalt see my back parts; but my face shall not be
seen."
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