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Objection 1: It seems that the essence of God can be seen by the
corporeal eye. For it is written (Job 19:26): "In my flesh
I shall see . . . God," and (Job 42:5), "With the
hearing of the ear I have heard Thee, but now my eye seeth Thee."
Objection 2: Further, Augustine says (De Civ. Dei xxix,
29): "Those eyes" (namely the glorified) "will therefore have
a greater power of sight, not so much to see more keenly, as some
report of the sight of serpents or of eagles (for whatever acuteness of
vision is possessed by these creatures, they can see only corporeal
things) but to see even incorporeal things." Now whoever can see
incorporeal things, can be raised up to see God. Therefore the
glorified eye can see God.
Objection 3: Further, God can be seen by man through a vision of
the imagination. For it is written: "I saw the Lord sitting upon a
throne," etc. (Is. 6:1). But an imaginary vision originates
from sense; for the imagination is moved by sense to act. Therefore
God can be seen by a vision of sense.
On the contrary, Augustine says (De Vid. Deum, Ep. cxlvii):
"No one has ever seen God either in this life, as He is, nor in
the angelic life, as visible things are seen by corporeal vision."
I answer that, It is impossible for God to be seen by the sense of
sight, or by any other sense, or faculty of the sensitive power. For
every such kind of power is the act of a corporeal organ, as will be
shown later (Question 78). Now act is proportional to the nature
which possesses it. Hence no power of that kind can go beyond
corporeal things. For God is incorporeal, as was shown above
(Question 3, Article 1). Hence He cannot be seen by the sense
or the imagination, but only by the intellect.
Reply to Objection 1: The words, "In my flesh I shall see God
my Saviour," do not mean that God will be seen with the eye of the
flesh, but that man existing in the flesh after the resurrection will
see God. Likewise the words, "Now my eye seeth Thee," are to be
understood of the mind's eye, as the Apostle says: "May He give
unto you the spirit of wisdom . . . in the knowledge of Him, that
the eyes of your heart" may be "enlightened" (Eph.
1:17,18).
Reply to Objection 2: Augustine speaks as one inquiring, and
conditionally. This appears from what he says previously:
"Therefore they will have an altogether different power (viz. the
glorified eyes), if they shall see that incorporeal nature;" and
afterwards he explains this, saying: "It is very credible, that we
shall so see the mundane bodies of the new heaven and the new earth, as
to see most clearly God everywhere present, governing all corporeal
things, not as we now see the invisible things of God as understood by
what is made; but as when we see men among whom we live, living and
exercising the functions of human life, we do not believe they live,
but see it." Hence it is evident how the glorified eyes will see
God, as now our eyes see the life of another. But life is not seen
with the corporeal eye, as a thing in itself visible, but as the
indirect object of the sense; which indeed is not known by sense, but
at once, together with sense, by some other cognitive power. But
that the divine presence is known by the intellect immediately on the
sight of, and through, corporeal things, happens from two
causes---viz. from the perspicuity of the intellect, and from the
refulgence of the divine glory infused into the body after its
renovation.
Reply to Objection 3: The essence of God is not seen in a vision
of the imagination; but the imagination receives some form representing
God according to some mode of similitude; as in the divine Scripture
divine things are metaphorically described by means of sensible things.
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