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Chapter
18.—The Vision of Daniel.
33.343
343 [The original has an awkward
anacoluthon in the opening sentence of this chapter, which has been
removed by omitting “quamquam,” and substituting
“autem” for “ergo.”—W.G.T.S.] | I do not know in what manner these
men understand that the Ancient of Days appeared to Daniel, from
whom the Son of man, which He deigned to be for our sakes, is
understood to have received the kingdom; namely, from Him who says
to Him in the Psalms, “Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten
Thee; ask of me, and I shall give Thee the heathen for Thine
inheritance;”344 and who has
“put all things under His feet.”345 If, however, both the Father giving
the kingdom, and the Son receiving it, appeared to Daniel in bodily
form, how can those men say that the Father never appeared to the
prophets, and, therefore, that He only ought to be understood to be
invisible whom no man has seen, nor can see? For Daniel has told us
thus: “I beheld,” he says, “till the thrones were set,346 and the
Ancient of Days did sit, whose garment was white as snow, and the
hair of His head like the pure wool: His throne was like the fiery
flame, and His wheels as burning fire; a fiery stream issued and
came forth from before Him: thousand thousands ministered unto Him,
and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him: the judgment
was set, and the books were opened,” etc. And a little after,
“I saw,” he says, “in the night visions, and behold, one like
the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the
Ancient of Days, and they brought Him near before Him. And there
was given Him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all peoples,
nations, and languages should serve Him: His dominion is an
everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom
that which shall not be destroyed.”347 Behold the Father giving, and the
Son receiving, an eternal kingdom; and both are in the sight of him
who prophesies, in a visible form. It is not, therefore, unsuitably
believed that God the Father also was wont to appear in that manner
to mortals.
34. Unless, perhaps, some one shall
say, that the Father is therefore not visible, because He appeared
within the sight of one who was dreaming; but that therefore the
Son and the Holy Spirit are visible, because Moses saw all those
things being awake; as if, forsooth, Moses saw the Word and the
Wisdom of God with fleshly eyes, or that even the human spirit
which quickens that flesh can be seen, or even that corporeal thing
which is called wind;—how much less can that Spirit of God be
seen, who transcends the minds of all men, and of angels, by the
ineffable excellence of the divine substance? Or can any one fall
headlong into such an error as to dare to say, that the Son and the
Holy Spirit are visible also to men who are awake, but that the
Father is not visible except to those who dream? How, then, do they
understand that of the Father alone, “Whom no man hath seen, nor
can see.”? When men sleep, are they then not men? Or cannot He,
who can fashion the likeness of a body to signify Himself through
the visions of dreamers, also fashion that same bodily creature to
signify Himself to the eyes of those who are awake? Whereas His own
very substance, whereby He Himself is that which He is, cannot be
shown by any bodily likeness to one who sleeps, or by any bodily
appearance to one who is awake; but this not of the Father only,
but also of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. And certainly, as to
those who are moved by the visions of waking men to believe that
not the Father, but only the Son, or the Holy Spirit, appeared to
the corporeal sight of men,—to omit the great extent of the
sacred pages, and their manifold interpretation, such that no one
of sound reason ought to affirm that the person of the Father was
nowhere shown to the eyes of waking men by any corporeal
appearance;—but, as I said, to omit this, what do they say of our
father Abraham, who was certainly awake and ministering, when,
after Scripture had premised, “The Lord appeared unto Abraham,”
not one, or two, but three men appeared to him; no one of whom is
said to have stood prominently above the others, no one more than
the others to have shone with greater glory, or to have acted more
authoritatively?348
35. Wherefore, since in that our
threefold division we determined to inquire,349
349 See above, chap. vii. | first,
whether the Father, or
the Son, or the Holy Spirit; or whether sometimes the Father,
sometimes the Son, sometimes the Holy Spirit; or whether, without
any distinction of persons, as it is said, the one and only God,
that is, the Trinity itself, appeared to the fathers through those
forms of the creature: now that we have examined, so far as
appeared to be sufficient what places of the Holy Scriptures we
could, a modest and cautious consideration of divine mysteries
leads, as far as I can judge, to no other conclusion, unless that
we may not rashly affirm which person of the Trinity appeared to
this or that of the fathers or the prophets in some body or
likeness of body, unless when the context attaches to the narrative
some probable intimations on the subject. For the nature itself, or
substance, or essence, or by whatever other name that very thing,
which is God, whatever it be, is to be called, cannot be seen
corporeally: but we must believe that by means of the creature made
subject to Him, not only the Son, or the Holy Spirit, but also the
Father, may have given intimations of Himself to mortal senses by a
corporeal form or likeness. And since the case stands thus, that
this second book may not extend to an immoderate length, let us
consider what remains in those which follow.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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