Latin original · 40 verses · some words can be tapped for a gloss · long chapter, split into parts; this part covers 5:2429–5:2468 (4615 verses in all)
'Isaiah saw the Lord of Sabaoth, but another could not see, because He appeared to whom it pleased Him. And why do we speak of men, when even of the heavenly powers and virtues themselves we have read that: No one has ever seen God? And he added that which is beyond the heavenly powers: The Only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.'
'Either, then, it must necessarily be granted, if no one has ever seen God the Father, that the Son was seen in the Old Testament—and let the heretics cease to give a beginning from the Virgin to Him who, before He was born of the Virgin, was seen—or certainly it cannot be refuted that either the Father or the Son or indeed the Holy Spirit (if, that is, there is a vision of the Holy Spirit) is seen in that form which the will has chosen, not which the nature has fashioned, since we have received that the Spirit too was seen in a dove. And therefore no one has ever seen God, because no one has beheld that fullness of divinity which dwells in God, no one has comprehended it with mind or eyes; for 'has seen' is to be referred to both. Finally, when it is added:'
'The Only-begotten Son Himself has declared Him,' the vision of minds rather than of eyes is declared. For a form is seen, but power is declared; the former is comprehended by the eyes, the latter by the mind. But what shall I say of the Trinity? The Seraphim appeared when it willed, and Isaiah alone heard its voice. The angel appeared and is now at hand, but is not seen. For it is not in our power to see, but in that One's power to appear. Yet, even if the power of seeing is not ours, may there be the grace of meriting, that we may be able to see. And therefore he who had the grace obtained the abundance; we do not merit the abundance, because we do not have the grace of seeing God. And what wonder if in the present age the Lord is not seen except when He wills?'
'In the resurrection itself, too, it is not easy to see God, except for those who are pure in heart, and therefore: Blessed are the pure in heart; for they shall see God. How many blessed had He already reckoned, and yet He had not promised to them the faculty of seeing God! If, then, those who are pure in heart shall see God, surely others shall not see Him; for neither shall the unworthy see God, nor can he who has been unwilling to see God see God. Nor is God seen in a place, but in a pure heart; nor is God sought with bodily eyes, nor circumscribed by sight, nor held by touch, nor heard by speech, nor perceived by gait; and, when He is thought absent, He is seen, and, when He is present, He is not seen. Finally, not even all the apostles saw Christ, and therefore He says:'
'I have been with you so long a time, and yet you have not known Me. For he who has known what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, has seen Christ also, has seen the Father also. For we now no longer know Christ according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the Spirit before our face is Christ the Lord, who in His mercy may deign to fill us into all the fullness of God, that He may be able to be seen by us.' If you understand these words, what remains that could be further required of me, since now that question which seemed difficult has been solved? For it has been distinguished in what manner it was said:
'No one has ever seen God,' and in what manner the righteous of old saw God—if the former was said for this reason, that God is by nature invisible, but those saw for this reason, whoever saw God, because He appears to whom He wills, as He wills, in that form which the will has chosen, His nature nevertheless remaining hidden. For if, when the fathers saw God, His very nature appeared to them—although, if He had not willed, it surely would not have appeared—in what manner has no one ever seen God, when, at His willing, His very nature was beheld by so many fathers? But if it is said that the Son was seen by the fathers,
so that it be taken as said of God the Father, that no one ever saw Him, Ambrose indeed did not lose the opportunity of thereby refuting certain heretics, that is, the Photinians, who ascribe to the Son of God a beginning from the womb of the Virgin and are unwilling to believe that He existed also before. But because he saw others—that is, the Arians—more perniciously plotting, whose error is beyond doubt built up if the Father's nature is believed invisible but the Son's visible, he asserted the nature of both to be one and alike invisible, adding also that of the Holy Spirit. This he intimated briefly indeed but admirably, where following on he says:
'Or certainly it cannot be refuted that either the Father or the Son or indeed the Holy Spirit (if, that is, there is a vision of the Holy Spirit) is seen in that form which the will has chosen, not which the nature has fashioned.' He could have said 'not which the nature has shown,' but he preferred to say 'has fashioned,' lest that very form in which God chose to appear should be thought to be fashioned out of His own nature, and from this He should certainly be convicted of being a convertible and changeable substance—which may the merciful and kindly God Himself avert from the faith of the pious!
God, therefore, is by nature invisible—not only the Father but also the Trinity itself, one God—and because He is not only invisible but also unchangeable, He appears to whom He wills, in what form He wills, so that with Him His invisible and unchangeable nature remains entire. But the desire of the truly pious, whereby they long to see God and burn with eager yearning, does not, I think, blaze forth to behold that form in which, as He wills, He appears—which He Himself is not—but toward that substance whereby He Himself is what He is. For the flame of this his desire holy Moses, His faithful servant, showed, where he says to God, with whom as a friend he spoke face to face: 'If I have found grace before You, show me Yourself.' What then?
Was not He Himself the One present? If He had not been that very One, Moses would not have said to Him, 'Show me Yourself,' but 'Show me God'; and yet, if he had beheld His nature and substance, much less would he have said, 'Show me Yourself.' He Himself, then, was in that form in which He had willed to appear, but He Himself was not appearing in His own proper nature, which Moses desired to see; for that is promised to the saints in the other life. Whence, what was answered to Moses is true, that no one can see the face of God and live—that is, no one living in this life can see Him as He is. For many saw, but what the will chose, not what the nature fashioned; and that also which John says, if it be rightly understood:
'Beloved, we are the sons of God, and it has not yet appeared what we shall be; we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is'—not as men saw Him, when He willed, in the form in which He willed, not in the nature in which, in Himself, even when He was seen, He lay hidden, but as He is—which was that which was sought from Him, when it was said to Him:
'Show me thyself'—by him who spoke with him face to face—'not because anyone has at any time comprehended the fullness of God, not only with the eyes of the body but even with the mind itself.' For it is one thing to see, and another to comprehend the whole by seeing; since indeed that is seen which is somehow perceived as present, but that is comprehended by seeing which is so seen that none of it lies hidden from the one seeing, or whose boundaries can be looked round about—just as nothing of your present will lies hidden from you, and you are able to look round about the edges of your ring. For example I have set down two things, one of which pertains to the gaze of the mind, the other to the bodily eyes;
for sight, as he says, is to be referred to both, that is, both to the eyes and to the mind. Further, if for this reason no one has ever seen God—because, as the disputant says, whose words we are considering, no one has beheld the fullness of his divinity, no one has comprehended it with mind or eyes ('he saw' being referred to both)—it remains to inquire in what manner the angels see God, on account of that which I recalled from the Gospel: Their angels always behold the face of my Father.
For if even to them he appears not as he is, but with his nature hidden, in whatever form he wills, then all the more must it be inquired in what manner we shall see him as he is—as Moses too desired, when he asked that God, who was in his sight, should show himself to him. For this is promised to us as the highest reward in the resurrection, that we shall be equal to the angels of God; and thereby, if not even they see him as he is, how shall we be about to see him thus, when in the resurrection we have been made equal to them? But see what our Ambrose consequently says: 'Finally,' he says, 'when it is added: The only-begotten Son himself has declared him, a vision of the mind rather than of the eyes is set forth.
For a form is seen, but power is declared; the former is comprehended by the eyes, the latter by the mind.' He who a little before had said that vision is to be referred to both, now attributes it not to the mind but to the eyes—not, I think, from carelessly regarding his own words, but because in speaking it is more customary for us to attribute vision to the eyes, as form to the body. For this manner of speaking too more frequently claims usage in things that are contained in places and vary in colors. But if there were no form to be beheld by the mind, that One would not be called beautiful in form beyond the sons of men. For this was not said according to the flesh and not according to spiritual form. Therefore form is spoken of as pertaining also to the gaze of the mind;
but because it is more customarily spoken of in bodies or in likenesses of bodies, therefore he said: 'Form is seen, but power is declared; the former is comprehended by the eyes, the latter by the mind.' Accordingly, when the Only-begotten, who is in the bosom of the Father, declares him with an ineffable declaring, the rational creature, clean and holy, is filled with the ineffable vision of God, which we shall then attain when we have been made equal to the angels; because, just as these visible things known to the bodily senses are seen, so no one has ever seen God—for if he has at any time been seen in that manner, he was seen not as this nature is seen, but by will, in a form in which he willed to appear, his nature remaining hidden and abiding unchangeably in itself.
But in that manner in which he is seen as he is, he is now perhaps seen by certain angels, and by us he shall then be so seen, when we have been made equal to them. Then, when he had added that not even the powers of heaven, such as the Seraphim, are seen except when they will and in the manner they will, so that from this too might be conjectured how great is the invisibility of the Trinity: 'Nevertheless,' he says, 'even if there is no power of seeing, there is grace of meriting, that we may be able to see. And therefore he who had the grace merited the abundance; we do not merit the abundance, because we do not have the grace of seeing God.'
By these words, surely, he who teaches not his own things but expounds the Gospel did not wish it to be understood that some of them will see God, but others will not—those believers to whom he gave power to become sons of God—since that which is said pertains to all of them: We shall see him as he is. But by saying 'we do not merit the abundance, because we do not have the grace of seeing God,' he signified that he was speaking of this present age, in which God has deigned to appear to certain ones, though not in his own nature, but in the form in which he willed—as to Abraham, as to Isaiah, and others like them; but to the rest, innumerable though belonging to his own people and eternal inheritance, he shows himself by no such form at all.
But in the age to come, those who are about to receive the kingdom which was prepared for them from the beginning shall all see him with a clean heart, nor shall there be any in that kingdom except such as these. Attend therefore to what he adds, now beginning to speak of that age: 'And what wonder,' he says, 'if in the present age the Lord is not seen except when he wills? In the resurrection itself too it is not easy to see God except by those who are clean of heart, and therefore: Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God.' How many blessed had he already numbered, and yet had not promised them the faculty of seeing God! If therefore these who are clean of heart shall see God, surely the others shall not see him;
for neither shall the unworthy see God, nor can he who has been unwilling to see God see God. You perceive how circumspectly he now speaks of those who in the age to come shall see God—for not all, but those who are worthy. For both the worthy and the unworthy shall rise again to that kingdom where God shall be seen; since all who are in the tombs shall hear his voice and shall come forth, but with a great difference: for those who have done well, unto the resurrection of life; but those who have done evil, unto the resurrection of judgment. Here 'judgment' signifies eternal punishment, just as it is also said: He who does not believe is already judged.
When therefore holy Ambrose says 'nor can he who has been unwilling to see God see God,' what else did he wish to be understood, except that he who is unwilling to expend upon the cleansing of his heart the care that so great a thing deserves, is unwilling to see God? See then what he adds: 'Nor,' he says, 'is God seen in a place, but with a clean heart.' What more evident, what more express could be said? From this vision, therefore, the devil and his angels and all the impious with them are, without any cloud of doubt, shut out, since they are not clean of heart. And thereby, though it is written in the book of Job that the angels came into the sight of God and that the devil came with them, the devil is not on that account to be believed to have seen God.
For they themselves are said to have come into the sight of God, not God into their sight. Now those things come into our sight which we see, not those by whom we are seen. Therefore they came, as is read in many manuscripts, that they might present themselves before the Lord, not that God might present himself before them. Nor is there need to linger in this place, that we might, to the best of our powers, attempt to show in what manner even this comes about temporally, since all things are always in the sight of God. For now the question is, in what manner God is seen—not in that form in which he willed to appear to certain ones in this age too, when he spoke not only with Abraham and other righteous men but even with Cain the fratricide—but in what manner he is seen in that kingdom where his sons shall see him as he is.
For then indeed their desire shall be satisfied in good things—that desire with which Moses burned, for whom to speak to God face to face did not suffice, and who said: Show me thyself manifestly, that I may see thee, as though he were saying what is sung in the Psalm out of the same desire: I shall be satisfied when thy glory shall be made manifest. With this desire Philip too burned, and thus longed to be satisfied, saying: Show us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Speaking of this vision, its own lover and desirer Ambrose himself: 'Not in a place,' he says, 'is God seen'—as at the oak of Mamre, as on Mount Sinai—'but with a clean heart'; and there follows, one who knows what he desires and for what he is aflame and for what he hopes:
'Nor,' he says, 'is God sought with bodily eyes'—with which he showed himself to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and others in this age—'nor is he circumscribed by sight,' on account of that which was said: Thou shalt see my back parts; 'nor is he held by touch,' as he even wrestled with Jacob; 'nor is he heard by address,' as he was heard not only by so many saints but even by the devil; 'nor is he perceived by walking,' as once when he walked in paradise toward evening. You see in what manner the holy man strives to call away our minds from all the senses of the flesh, that he may make them fit to see God. And yet what does such an external planter and waterer accomplish, unless he works inwardly who gives the increase, namely God?
For who without the aid of the Spirit of God could be able to think that there is something, and that it is more truly than all the things which are perceived through the body—something which is neither seen in a place, nor to be sought with the eyes, nor heard by address, nor held by touch, nor perceived by walking, and yet is seen with a clean heart? For he was not speaking of this life when he said this, since indeed he sufficiently distinguished the life of the age to come, by a most manifest distinction, from this age—in which God appeared not as he is, but in the form he willed, to whom he willed—where he says: 'And what wonder if in the present age the Lord is not seen except when he wills? In the resurrection itself too it is not easy to see God except by those who are clean of heart, and therefore:
Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God.' From here he has already begun to speak of that age, where not all who rise shall see God, but those who rise unto eternal life—not the unworthy, of whom it is said: Let the impious be taken away, that he may not see the glory of the Lord; but the worthy, of whom sort the Lord himself spoke, when present he was not seen: He who loves me keeps my commandments, and: He who loves me shall be loved by my Father, and I will love him and will show myself to him. Not those to whom it shall be said: Go into eternal fire, which was prepared for the devil and his angels, but those to whom it shall be said: Come, blessed of my Father, receive the kingdom which was prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
For they indeed shall go into eternal burning, but the righteous into eternal life. And what is eternal life, except what Life itself says elsewhere: And this is eternal life, that they may know thee the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent—but in such a way as he promised he would show himself, together with the Father, one God, to those who love him; not in the manner in which in this age he was seen in the body by the good and the evil? For in the future judgment too, in which he shall so come as he was seen going into heaven—that is, in the same form of the Son of man—those to whom he shall say: I was hungry and you gave me not to eat, shall see the same form, since the Jews too shall see him,
him whom they pierced—not that form of God in which he thought it not robbery to be equal with God. In that form of God those shall then see him who shall see him as he is. Nor shall they see him because they were poor in spirit in this life, because meek, because mourning, because hungering and thirsting after righteousness, because merciful, because peacemakers, because suffering persecution for righteousness' sake—although the very same are also all these things—but because they are clean of heart. For this reason indeed, among those beatitudes, though those who have a clean heart do all these things, yet nowhere is it placed 'they shall see God' except where it is said:
Blessed are the clean of heart, for with a clean heart he shall be seen who 'is neither seen in a place, nor sought with bodily eyes, nor circumscribed by sight, nor held by touch, nor heard by address, nor perceived by walking.' For no one has ever seen God, either in this life, as he himself is, or even in the life of the angels, as these visible things which are discerned by bodily vision, because the Only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, has himself declared him. Whence it was said that what he declares pertains not to the vision of the bodily eyes but to the vision of minds. But again, lest our desire should migrate from the sense of the body to another sense of the body—that is, from the eyes to the ears—therefore, when he had said:
'Nor is God sought with bodily eyes, nor circumscribed by sight, nor held by touch,' he also added: 'Nor is he heard by address,' so that, if we can, we may understand the Only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, to be declaring in such a way as the Word too is not a sound striking the ears but an image becoming known to minds, so that there may shine forth by that inner and ineffable light what was said: He who has seen me has seen the Father also—which was said here to Philip, when he was seeing and yet not seeing. For there follows that eminent yearner after this vision, Ambrose, saying: 'And when he is thought absent, he is seen, and when he is present, he is not seen.' He did not say 'when he is absent' but 'when he is thought absent';
for he is nowhere absent who fills heaven and earth, nor is he enclosed by small spaces nor diffused through great ones, but is everywhere whole and is contained by no place. He who understands this with a transcending mind sees God even when he is thought absent; but he who cannot do this, let him pray and act that he may be worthy to be able, and let him knock not at the man the disputant, that he may read what he has not read, but at God the Savior, that he may be able to do what he cannot. But whence he said, 'And when he is present, he is not seen,' he consequently opened up, saying: 'Finally, not even all the apostles saw Christ, and therefore he says: Have I been so long a time with you, and you have not yet known me?' Behold in what manner God was present and yet was not seen.
But why did he not dare to say 'finally, not even the apostles saw Christ,' but said 'not even all the apostles,' as though some at that time saw with that vision in which he and the Father are one? Or perhaps he attended to this: that when Peter had said: Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God, he received the answer: Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona, because flesh and blood has not revealed it to thee, but my Father who is in heaven. Although whether that revelation was made in his mind through faith in so great a matter believed, or through the vision of it beheld, does not seem to me to be clear—since Peter himself showed himself still so very little to him, that he feared lest he should lose the dying one whom a little before he had confessed to be the Son of the living God, that is, the fountain of life.
Then it may raise the question, in what manner the very substance of God could already have been seen by certain ones placed in this life, on account of that which was said to Moses: No one can see my face and live—unless because the human mind can be divinely caught up out of this life into the angelic life, before it is released from the flesh by this common death.
For thus was he caught up who heard there ineffable words, which it is not lawful for a man to speak, where there was made so great a turning-away of intention from the senses of this life, that—whether he was in the body or out of the body, that is, whether, as is wont in more vehement ecstasy, his mind was alienated from this life into that life while the bond of the body remained, or whether a complete dissolution had been made, such as happens in full death—he said he did not know. Thus it comes about that both this is true which was said:
No one can see my face and live—because it is necessary that the mind be drawn away from this life when it is taken up into the ineffability of that vision; and it is not incredible that even this excellence of revelation was granted to certain saints not yet so deceased that corpses remained to be buried. This I think that man considered who was unwilling to say 'not even the apostles saw Christ,' but said 'not even all the apostles saw Christ,' believing that to certain of them the vision of that very divinity too, of which he was speaking, could even then have been granted—certainly on account of blessed Paul. For he too, though last of all, was surely an apostle, who did not keep silent about that ineffable revelation of his.
Although even to that ancient most faithful servant of God, Moses—who, it would be marvelous, was yet to labor on this earth and still to govern that people—was granted what he asked, that he might see the glory of the Lord, to whom he had said: If I have found grace before thee, show me thyself manifestly. For he received in the present a fitting answer, that he could not see the face of God, which no one could see and live—God signifying in this manner that that vision belongs to another and better life. Then in the words of God the mystery of the future Church of Christ was figured. For Moses bore the type of the people of the Jews who would afterward believe in Christ who suffered; therefore it was said to him:
When I shall have passed by, thou shalt see my back parts, and the other things which are said there—a marvelous sacrament foreannouncing the Church that would come afterward, whereof to discourse now would be too long. But what I had set out to say—that to his desire even that which he had asked was granted—was afterward demonstrated in the book of Numbers, where the Lord rebukes the obstinacy of his sister and says that to other prophets he appears in a vision and in a dream, but to Moses through a form, not through riddles; where he also added, saying: And he saw the glory of the Lord.
What then is it that made him so excepted, unless perhaps because he held even then such a ruler and minister of his people, faithful in all his house, worthy of that contemplation—so that, as he had longed, he might see God as he is; which contemplation is promised to all the sons at the end? Considering these things, I believe, that holy man whose words we are handling said: 'Not even all the apostles saw Christ,' since perhaps some of them, even at that very time, had seen according to those things which I have said. But to prove what he said, that not all saw, he immediately subjoined: 'And therefore he says: Have I been so long a time with you, and you have not yet known me?'
Then subjoining by what sort of persons God is seen in that contemplation, as he is: 'For he who has known,' he says, 'what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and the surpassing love of the knowledge of Christ, has seen both Christ and the Father.' I am wont to understand these words of the Apostle Paul thus: in the breadth, the good works of love; in the length, perseverance unto the end; in the height, hope of heavenly rewards; in the depth, the inscrutable judgments of God, whence this grace comes to men; and to fit this understanding also to the sacrament of the cross, so that in the breadth is taken the transverse wood, on which the hands are stretched out, on account of the signifying of works;
in the length, from that same wood down to the earth, where the whole crucified body is seen to stand, which signifies to persist, that is, to remain with long-suffering endurance; in the height, from that same transverse wood upward, which rises above toward the head, on account of the expectation of things above, lest those good works and perseverance in them be believed to be done for the sake of earthly and temporal benefits of God, but rather for the sake of that eternal thing which faith, that works through love, hopes for from above; and in the depth, that part of the wood which lies fixed and hidden in the secret place of the earth, but from which rises up all that which stands above—just as out of the hidden will of God a man is called to the participation of so great a grace, one in this way and another in that;