Chapter 20

§ 1.

In respect of His Greatness, then, one cannot know God, for it is impossible to measure the Father. But in respect of His Love (for this it is which by His Word leads us to God) we, obeying Him, are ever learning, that God is so great, and that it is He who by His Own Self, created, and elected, and beautified, and preserved all things: and among them also both ourselves and this world, to which we appertain. We therefore were also made, with the things which are contained therein. And it is He of whom Scripture saith,¹ And God formed man, taking clay of the earth, and breathed into his face the breath of life.

Angels therefore did not make us, nor form us, neither could Angels make an image of God: nor any other but the Word of the Lord,—no Virtue, far distant from the Father of all.² For neither did God stand in need of these, to do the things which He had in Himself determined before to do, as though He had no Hands of His own: since to Him is ever present His Word and Wisdom,³ the Son and the Spirit, by whom and in whom He made all things freely and voluntarily: to whom also He speaks,⁴ saying, Let us make man after our Image and Likeness; Himself receiving from Himself the being of His creatures, and the pattern of His works, and the form of the things wherewith the world is furnished.

§ 2.

Well therefore spake the Scripture which saith,⁵ First of all believe thou that there is One God, Who created and perfected all things,⁶ and caused all to come out of non-existence into existence: comprehending all, and comprehended by none. Well again in the Prophets also saith Malachi,⁷ Is there not One God Who created us? is there not one Father of us all? And agreeably the Apostle too speaks,⁸ There is one God, saith he, the Father, who is above all, and in us all. And the Lord also in like manner,⁹ All things, saith He, are delivered unto Me of My Father; plainly, of Him who made all things.

(For not that which is another’s,¹⁰ but His Own, did He deliver unto Him. And in all nothing is excepted: and for this same cause He is judge of quick and dead, having the Key of David:¹¹ He will open, and none shall shut; He will shut and none shall open. For no one besides was able, neither in Heaven, nor in earth,¹² nor under the earth, to open the Father’s Book,¹³ nor to see it, but the Lamb which was slain and redeemed us by His Blood.)

From the same, I repeat, who made all things by His Word,¹⁴ and adorned them by His Wisdom, He receiveth all power, when the Word was made flesh: that even as the Word of God had the first place in the Heavens,¹⁵ so He might also have the first place in the earth,¹⁶ because He is the Just Man, who did no sin, neither was guile found in His Mouth: and again, that He should have the chief place of the things which are under the earth,¹⁷ as having been Himself made the First-born from the dead:¹⁸ and that all things (as we said before) might behold their King: and the Father’s Light might meet us in the Flesh of our Lord, and might come to us from His glorious Body¹⁹, and so man might arrive at incorruption, being compassed about with the brightness of the Father.

§ 3.

Now that the Word, i.e., the Son, always was with the Father, we have proved at large.²⁰ But that Wisdom also, which is the Spirit, was with Him before all Creation, He saith by Solomon; The Lord by Wisdom founded the earth, and by prudence prepared Heaven.²¹ By His Knowledge the Deeps brake forth, and the clouds dropped down dew.²² And again, The Lord created Me the beginning of His ways over His Works, before the worlds He founded Me, in the beginning before He made the earth, before He established the Deeps, and before the fountains of waters came forth, before the mountains were strengthened: and before all the hills He begat me. And again, When He prepared the Heaven,²³ I was with Him, and when He made firm the fountains of the deep,²⁴ when He made strong the foundations of the earth, I was with Him, putting things together. It was I with whom He was glad, and I rejoiced daily at all times before His Face, when He was rejoicing in the finished world, and delighting Himself in the sons of men.

§ 4.

There is therefore One God, Who by His Word and Wisdom made and arranged all things: and this is the Creator, Who also assigned this world to the race of man. In respect indeed of His greatness He is unknown to all them that were made by Him, (for no one hath traced out His highness, neither among the ancients who are gone to rest, nor among those who now are:) but in respect of His Love He is known always, by Him, through whom He created all things. And this is His Word, our Lord Jesus Christ, Who in the last times was made a man among men, that He might join the end unto the beginning, i.e., man unto God. And therefore the Prophets, having received from the same Word the gift of Prophecy, announced His coming in the flesh, whereby was wrought the commixture and communion of God and Man according to the Father’s good pleasure;²⁵ the Word of God announcing before from the beginning, that God shall be seen of men,²⁶ and converse with them on earth, and that He should discourse, and be present with that which He had formed, saving it, and having become such as to be received by it; delivering us also from the hands of all that hate us,²⁷ i.e., from the whole spirit of transgression; and causing us to serve Him in holiness and righteousness all our days;²⁸ that man, having welcomed²⁹ God’s Spirit, may tend to the glory of the Father.

§ 5.

These things the Prophets intimated in a prophetical manner; not however, as some say, that the Father of all being invisible, He who was seen by the Prophets was another. These are altogether ignorant what Prophecy is. For Prophecy is the foretelling of things future, i.e., the foreshewing of what shall be hereafter. The Prophets therefore foreshewed how that God should be seen of men;³⁰ as also saith the Lord, Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

I grant that in respect of His greatness and marvellous glory,³¹ no man shall see God and live;³² For the Father is incomprehensible: But in respect of His Love and mercifulness, and of His Almightiness, He grants even this to such as love Him, I mean, to see God; which also the Prophets foretold.³³ Because the things which are impossible with men are possible with God.

For what if man of himself beholdeth not God? yet He of His own Will appears unto men, to whom He will, and when He will, and as He will. For God is mighty in all things; having been then first seen by the Spirit of Prophecy; next, seen again through the Son in the way of adoption; and lastly He shall be seen in the Kingdom of Heaven as a Father: the Spirit first preparing man in the Son of God, then the Son leading him to the Father, the Father lastly bestowing incorruption unto eternal life, which ensues unto every one from his beholding God.

For as those who see the light are in the light,³⁴ and partake of its splendour, so those who see God are in God, partaking of His splendour. And the brightness quickens them: those therefore who see God will partake of life. And therefore the Unlimited and Incomprehensible and Invisible exhibited Himself to the faithful as seen and comprehended and limited: that He might quicken those who receive Him and see Him by faith. Because as His greatness is unsearched, so is His Goodness also untold: whereby being seen, He gives life to them that see Him. Because to live without life was a thing impossible, and the possession of life accrues from the participation of God. And the Participation of God is to know God and enjoy His goodness.

§ 6.

Men therefore will see God so as to live: by the vision made immortal, and reaching even unto God.³⁵ Which thing, as I said before, was set forth by the Prophets in figures: how that God shall be seen of those Men who carry His Spirit and continually await His coming. As Moses saith also in Deuteronomy,³⁶ In that day we shall see that God will speak to man, and he shall live. For some of them saw the Prophetic Spirit, and His operations lavished on every kind of gift: others again the coming of the Lord, and the Economy which is from the beginning, whereby He did the will of His Father, which is in Heaven, and which is in earth: others again saw also the glories of the Father, such as were suited to the seasons; both to the persons who were seeing and hearing at the time, and to the men who afterwards should hear in their turn.

And so God was manifested:³⁷ for in all this God the Father is shewn forth, the Spirit first working, then the Son ministering, the Father again approving, and man lastly made perfect unto salvation. As He saith also by the Prophet Hosea:³⁸ I, saith He, have multiplied visions, and by the hands of the Prophets I have been made the subject of similitudes. But the Apostle hath expounded the same,³⁹ saying, Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are diversities of ministries, but the same Lord; and there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God who worketh all in all. But unto every one is given the manifestation of the Spirit unto profit.

But since He who worketh all in all,⁴⁰ is God, in quality and in quantity He is invisible and unutterable by all the things which He made, yet by no means unknown: for they all learn by His Word, that there is one God the Father, who comprehends all things, and imparts being to all things: as it is written in the Gospel,⁴¹ No man hath seen God at any time, except the only begotten Son, who is in the Bosom of the Father: He hath declared Him.

§ 7.

He declares therefore, from the beginning,⁴² Who is the Son of the Father: by whom both the prophetical visions, and the diversities of gifts, and his own ministries, and his Father’s glorification, have been orderly and systematically revealed unto mankind, in meet time to profit withal. For where order is, there is also consistency, and where consistency, there also is reference to the time: and where there is reference to the time, there is profitableness. And so the Word became the dispenser of the Father’s grace for the good of men, and for their sake He wrought such mighty and manifold works; on the one side revealing God to men, on the other, presenting man unto God: and as He guards the invisibility of the Father, lest at any time man should become a despiser of God, and that he might always have something to grow towards, so on the other hand in many and manifold ways He reveals God unto men, lest men altogether falling away from God, should cease to be at all. For the glory of God is a living Man⁴³, and the life of man is to see God⁴⁴. For if that revelation of God which is by the creature imparts life to all who live on the earth, much more that manifestation of the Father which is by the Word imparts life to such as see God.

§ 8.

We see that as the Spirit of God did by the Prophets foreshew things to come,⁴⁵ forming and fitting us beforehand to be subject unto God, and so it was to be, that man should have sight by the good pleasure of the Holy Ghost: it followed of course that those, through whom things future were announced, should have sight of God, whom they were themselves suggesting to men as an object of sight: and so not only should prophetic mention be made of God, and the Son of God, of the Son and the Father: but that He should even be seen of all His members, sanctified, and taught the things which belong unto God: that man might be formed beforehand and exercised in appropriating to himself⁴⁶ that glory which shall be hereafter revealed unto them that love God.

For not by discourse alone did the Prophets prophesy, but by vision also, and conversation, and acts which they did, according to the suggestion of the Spirit.

In this invisible sense then, they had sight of God: as saith Esaias, The King, the Lord of Hosts,⁴⁷ I have seen with mine eyes: signifying that man shall see God with his eyes, and shall hear His voice. In this sense I say, they did also see the Son of God, as man, conversing with men, when they were prophesying what should be; saying that He was present, Who was not yet present: and declaring the Impassible to be capable of suffering, and affirming that He who was then in Heaven had gone down to the clay of death⁴⁸. And the other provisions too of that crowning work of His,—some of them indeed they saw in visions, some they announced by word, some again by deed they typically signified: and what things were to be seen, they saw with their eyes: what to be heard, they proclaimed in their discourse: what to be done they fulfilled in deed: and in all they were making prophetic announcements.

Wherefore also Moses, while to the people who violated the Law he said that God was a Fire, threatening that a Day of fire should be brought upon them by God; to those on the contrary who had fear towards God he said,⁴⁹ The Lord God is merciful and gracious and longsuffering; and of great pity and a lover of truth; keeping righteousness and mercy for thousands, taking away iniquities and transgressions and sins.

§ 9.

And to Moses indeed the Word spake, appearing in his sight,⁵⁰ as if one should speak to one’s own friend. But Moses desired to see openly Him who was speaking with him,⁵¹ and it was said unto him, Stand in the high place of the rock,⁵² and with My Hand I will cover over thee. And when My glory shall have passed by, then shalt thou see clearly My back parts; but My face shall not be seen by thee:⁵³ for no man seeth My face and shall live: signifying both points; as well that man is incapable of seeing God, as that by the Wisdom of God in the last times man shall see Him in the height of the rock, i.e., in His coming as Man. And therefore He spake face to face with him in the top of the mountain, Elias also standing by, as the Gospel hath related,⁵⁴ making good in the end the promise of old time.

§ 10.

Not openly then did the Prophets see the very Face of God, but certain preparations and mysteries⁵⁵, whereby man was beginning to see God. As was said to Elias also:⁵⁶ To morrow thou shalt go forth, and stand in the sight of the Lord, and behold the Lord shall pass by, and behold, a great and strong wind, which shall melt the mountains, and shatter the rocks before the Lord; and the Lord is not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake: and the Lord is not in the earthquake, and after the earthquake a fire, and the Lord is not in the fire: and after the fire a slight voice of a breeze.⁵⁷ For both the Prophet himself, full of indignation at the sin of the people and the slaughter of the Prophets, was hereby taught to deal more gently: and the coming of the Lord as Man was intimated, to take place after that Law which was given by Moses:—a mild and tranquil coming, wherein He neither brake bruised reed,⁵⁸ nor quenched smoking flax. Yea, and the repose of that Kingdom, mild and peaceful, was shewn forth: in that after the wind which shatters the mountains, and after the earthquake and after the fire, the tranquil and peaceful times of His Kingdom approach: wherein with all gentleness the Spirit of God gives life and increase unto man.

And it was made even still more evident by Ezechiel,⁵⁹ that the Prophets had a partial sight of God’s providential doings, but saw not properly God Himself. For Ezekiel, having seen the vision and the cherubim and their wheels, and having related the whole mystery of His going forth, and having seen the likeness of a throne above them, and on the throne the likeness and figure of a man: and the parts indeed above His Loins as a figure of Amber, but below, as a vision of fire; declaring also all the rest of that vision of the Thrones:—lest any one haply should think that herein he had properly seen God, subjoined, This is the vision of the likeness of the glory of the Lord.⁶⁰

§ 11.

Therefore if neither Moses saw God, nor Elias, nor Ezekiel, who did see many of the heavenly things, and if the things which they did see were resemblances of the Lord’s glory and prophecies of things to come; it is plain that the Father indeed is invisible, concerning whom also the Lord Said,⁶¹ No man hath seen God at any time. But His Word,⁶² at His own pleasure, and for the profit of such as behold, revealed the brightness of the Father, and explained His Providences (as the Lord also said, The Only Begotten God, who is in the Bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him:—and as for the word He, it means the Word of the Father): He as rich and manifold in His Being, was seen by those who beheld Him not in one figure only, nor in one character, but according to the occasions, or to the working, of His several economies: as it is written in Daniel. For at one time He appeared unto Ananias, Azarias, Misael, standing by them in the furnace of fire, and in the oven, and delivering them from the flame.⁶³ And the vision, saith he, of the Fourth was like the Son of God.⁶⁴ At another time, a stone cut out of a mountain without hands, and smiting the temporal kingdoms, and fanning them, and itself filling the whole earth.⁶⁵ Again This same Person appears as the Son of Man coming in the clouds of Heaven, and drawing near to the Ancient of Days, and taking from Him all Power and glory and Royalty.⁶⁶ And His Power, saith he, is Eternal Power, and His Kingdom shall not perish. Yea, and John the Lord’s disciple, in the Apocalypse beholding the priestly and glorious coming of His Kingdom saith,⁶⁷ I turned to see the Voice which spake with me, and being turned I saw seven golden candlesticks, and among the candlesticks one like unto the Son of man, clad with a garment reaching to the feet, and girt about the paps with a golden girdle. But His Head and hairs were white, as white wool, as snow: and His eyes as a flame of fire, and His feet like unto fine brass, as it is kindled in the furnace. And His Voice as the voice of waters; and He hath seven stars in His right Hand, and from His mouth went out a sword sharp on both edges, and His Face as the sun shining in its strength. Now in these words some part intimates His brightness from the Father; as the Head: some again is priestly;⁶⁸ as the Long Robe; (and therefore Moses clothed the chief Priest by this Pattern:)⁶⁹ and some relates to the End, as the fine brass heated in the furnace; which is the strength of Faith, and the persevering might of prayers: therefore it is the fire which is to blaze out, which cometh in the end of the times. But when John endured not the vision (For he saith,⁷⁰ I fell at His feet as dead; that it might be fulfilled which is written, No man seeth God and shall live),⁷¹ the Word, both to quicken him and remind him that it is He on Whose Bosom he lay at supper, inquiring who it was that was beginning to betray Him,⁷² said, I am the First and I am the Last, Who am both living, and was dead, and behold I live for ever and ever, and have the keys of death and hell.

And afterwards in the second vision seeing the same Lord;⁷³ For I saw, saith he, in the midst of the Throne, and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the Elders, a Lamb standing as it were slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God, sent out into the whole earth. And again of the self-same Lamb he saith, And behold a white horse, and He that sate on him was called faithful and true, and in righteousness doth He judge and make war, and His eyes as a flame of fire, and on His Head many crowns; having a name written which no man knoweth but Himself; and clad with a garment died in blood, and His name is called, The Word of God. And the armies of Heaven followed on white horses,⁷⁴ clothed in fine linen, white and clean; and from His Mouth issueth a sharp sword, that with it He may smite the nations; and He shall feed them with a rod of iron, and He Himself treadeth the winefat of the fury of the wrath of Almighty God; and He hath on His vesture and on His thigh a name written, King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Thus in each instance the Word of God hath a sort of outline of things to come, and hath manifested unto men as it were the special features of the Father’s providences, teaching us the things of God.

§ 12.

And not only by visions which were seen and by Discourses which were preached,⁷⁵ but in deeds also He appeared to the Prophets, that by them He might prefigure and foreshew things to come. For which cause also Hosea the Prophet received a wife of whoredom,⁷⁶ by his act prophesying that the earth should utterly go a whoring from the Lord; i.e., the men who are on the earth: and of this sort of men shall God be pleased to take to Himself a Church to be sanctified by partaking of His Son, even as she was sanctified by the Prophet’s communion.⁷⁷ And therefore Paul saith that the unbelieving wife was sanctified in the believing husband. Moreover also the Prophet named his sons,⁷⁸ Not-obtaining-mercy, and Not a people:⁷⁹ that as the Apostle saith, That which was not a people might be made a people, and she that had not obtained mercy might have obtained mercy: and being delivered in the place, where she was called Not a people, there shall they be called sons of the living God.

That which the Prophet in his act did typically, the Apostle shews to have been truly done by Christ in the Church.⁸⁰

And so Moses too took an Ethiopian woman to wife, whom he made an Israelite: foreshewing how the wild olive is graffed into the good olive,⁸¹ and shall partake of its fatness. For because the Christ Who was born after the flesh, had to be sought out by the people to be slain, but to be delivered in Egypt, i.e., among the Gentiles, so as to sanctify the young children who were there, from among whom also He formed a church there (for Egypt from the beginning is Gentile, as well as Ethiopia): therefore by the marriage of Moses, the spiritual marriage of Jesus was pointed out, and by the Ethiopian bride, the Church from among the Gentiles was manifested: which whosoever speaks against, and calumniates, and derides, shall not be clean:⁸² for they shall be leprous, and shall be banished from the camp of the righteous.

And so too Rahab the harlot,⁸³ while she condemned herself as a Gentile, guilty of all sins, did nevertheless receive the three explorers who were exploring the whole earth, and hide them in her house, the Father I mean and the Son, with the Holy Ghost. And when the whole city wherein she dwelt had fallen into ruin at the sound of the seven trumpeters, Rahab the harlot was saved at the last,⁸⁴ with her whole house by faith in the sign of scarlet: as the Lord also said to those, who did not receive His coming, I mean to the Pharisees: who also make void the sign of scarlet, which was the Passover, the redemption and going forth of the people from Egypt;⁸⁵ where He says, The Publicans and the harlots go before you in the Kingdom of Heaven.