Bad Advertisement?
Are you a Christian?
Online Store:Visit Our Store
| In How Many Ways the Creature is to Be Taken by Way of Sign. The Eucharist.
PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP 
Chapter 10.—In
How Many Ways the Creature is to Be Taken by Way of Sign. The
Eucharist.
Excepting, therefore, all these
things as I just now said, there are some also of another kind;
which, although from the same corporeal substance, are yet brought
within reach of our senses in order to announce something from God,
and these are properly called miracles and signs; yet is not the
person of God Himself assumed in all things which are announced to
us by the Lord God. When, however, that person is assumed, it is
sometimes made manifest as an angel; sometimes in that form which
is not an angel in his own proper being, although it is ordered and
ministered by an angel. Again, when it is assumed in that form
which is not an angel in his own proper being; sometimes in this
case it is a body itself already existing, assumed after some kind
of change, in order to make that message manifest; sometimes it is
one that comes into being for the purpose, and that being
accomplished, is discarded. Just as, also, when men are the
messengers, sometimes they speak the words of God in their own
person, as when it is premised, “The Lord said,” or, “Thus
saith the Lord,”393
or any other such phrase, but
sometimes without any such prefix, they take upon themselves the
very person of God, as e.g.: “I will instruct thee, and
teach thee in the way wherein thou shalt go:”394
so, not only in word, but also in
act, the signifying of the person of God is imposed upon the
prophet, in order that he may bear that person in the ministering
of the prophecy; just as he, for instance, bore that person who
divided his garment into twelve parts, and gave ten of them to the
servant of King Solomon, to the future king of Israel.395
Sometimes,
also, a thing which was not a prophet in his own proper self, and
which existed already among earthly things, was assumed in order to
signify this; as Jacob, when he had seen the dream, upon waking up
did with the stone, which when asleep he had under his head.396
Sometimes a
thing is made in the same kind, for the mere purpose; so as either
to continue a little while in existence, as that brazen serpent was
able to do which was lifted up in the wilderness,397
and as written records are able to
do likewise; or so as to pass away after having accomplished its
ministry, as the bread made for the purpose is consumed in the
receiving of the sacrament.
20. But because these things are
known to men, in that they are done by men, they may well meet with
reverence as being holy things, but they cannot cause wonder as
being miracles. And therefore those things which are done by angels
are the more wonderful to us, in that they are more difficult and
more known; but they are known and easy to them as being their own
actions. An angel speaks in the person of God to man, saying, “I
am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God
of Jacob;” the Scripture having said just before, “The angel of
the Lord appeared to him.”398
And a man also speaks in the person
of God, saying, “Hear, O my people, and I will testify unto thee,
O Israel: I am the Lord thy God.”399
A rod was taken to serve as a sign,
and was changed into a serpent by angelical power;400
but although
that power is wanting to man, yet a stone was taken also by man for
a similar sign.401
There is a
wide difference between the deed of the angel and the deed of the
man. The former is both to be wondered at and to be understood, the
latter only to be understood. That which is understood from both,
is perhaps one and the same; but those things from which it is
understood, are different. Just as if the name of God were written
both in gold and in ink; the former would be the more precious, the
latter the more worthless; yet that which is signified in both is
one and the same. And although the serpent that came from Moses’
rod signified the same thing as Jacob’s stone, yet Jacob’s
stone signified something better than did the serpents of the
magicians. For as the anointing of the stone signified Christ in
the flesh, in which He was anointed with the oil of gladness above
His fellows;402
so the rod
of Moses, turned into a serpent, signified Christ Himself made
obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.403
Whence it is said, “And as Moses
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of
man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in Him should not
perish, but have everlasting life;”404
just as by gazing on that serpent
which was lifted up in the wilderness, they did not perish by the
bites of the serpents. For “our old man is crucified with Him,
that the body of sin might be destroyed.”405
For by the serpent death is
understood, which was wrought by the serpent in paradise,406
the mode of
speech expressing the effect by the efficient. Therefore the rod
passed into the serpent, Christ into death; and the serpent again
into the rod, whole Christ with His body into the resurrection;
which body is the Church;407
and this shall be in the end of
time, signified by the tail, which Moses held, in order that it
might return into a rod.408
But the serpents of the magicians,
like those who are dead in the world, unless by believing in Christ
they shall have been as it were swallowed up by,409
and have entered into, His body,
will not be able to rise again in Him. Jacob’s stone, therefore,
as I said, signified something better than did the serpents of the
magicians; yet the deed of the magicians was much more wonderful.
But these things in this way are no hindrance to the understanding
of the matter; just as if the name of a man were written in gold,
and that of God in ink.
21. What man, again, knows how the
angels made or took those clouds and fires in order to signify the
message they were bearing, even if we supposed that the Lord or the
Holy Spirit was manifested in those corporeal forms? Just as
infants do not know of that which is placed upon the altar and
consumed after the performance of the holy celebration, whence or
in what manner it is made, or whence it is taken for religious use.
And if they were never to learn from their own experience or that
of others, and never to see that species of thing except during the
celebration of the sacrament, when it is being offered and given;
and if it were told them by the most weighty authority whose body
and blood it is; they will believe nothing else, except that the
Lord absolutely appeared in this form to the eyes of mortals, and
that that liquid actually flowed from the piercing of a side410
which
resembled this. But it is certainly a useful caution to myself,
that I should remember what my own powers are, and admonish my
brethren that they also remember what theirs are, lest human
infirmity pass on beyond what is safe. For how the angels do these
things, or rather, how God does these things by His angels, and how
far He wills them to be done even by the bad angels, whether by
permitting, or commanding, or compelling, from the hidden seat of
His own supreme power; this I can neither penetrate by the sight of
the eyes, nor make clear by assurance of reason, nor be carried on
to comprehend it by reach of intellect, so as to speak thereupon to
all questions that may be asked respecting these matters, as
certainly as if I were an angel, or a prophet, or an apostle.
“For the thoughts of mortal men are miserable, and our devices
are but uncertain. For the corruptible body presseth down the soul,
and the earthly tabernacle weigheth down the mind, that museth upon
many things. And hardly do we guess aright at things that are upon
earth, and with labor do we find the things that are before us; but
the things that are in heaven, who hath searched out?” But
because it goes on to say, “And Thy counsel who hath known,
except Thou give wisdom, and send Thy Holy Spirit from above;”411
| 411 Wisdom 9.14-17" id="iv.i.v.xi-p23.1" parsed="|Wis|9|14|9|17" osisRef="Bible:Wis.9.14-Wis.9.17">Wisd. ix. 14–17 | therefore we
refrain indeed from searching out the things which are in heaven,
under which kind are contained both angelical bodies according to
their proper dignity, and any corporeal
action of those bodies; yet, according to the Spirit of God sent to
us from above, and to His grace imparted to our minds, I dare to
say confidently, that neither God the Father, nor His Word, nor His
Spirit, which is the one God, is in any way changeable in regard to
that which He is, and whereby He is that which He is; and much less
is in this regard visible. Since there are no doubt some things
changeable, yet not visible, as are our thoughts, and memories, and
wills, and the whole incorporeal creature; but there is nothing
that is visible that is not also changeable.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
