Commentary on Genesis and Exodus, Chapter 33 · Questions · Question 44
QUEST. XLIV. Whether God may be seene with the eyes of the body in this life.
FIrst, it is not possible to see God in this life with the eyes of the body. 1. For it must needs follow, that God should be of a corporall and materiall substance, if he might be seene with carnall eyes; for nothing by the eyes of flesh can bee discerned, but that which is visible, finite, and circumscriptible: but the Lord is infinite: Anthropomorphites and Audi… Heretikes did hold indeed, that God himselfe had an humane and visible shape, and that man according to his body is the image of God; which heresie is contrarie to the Scripture, which saith, that God is a Spirit: therefore of no bodily shape.
2. And God being of a spirituall nature, cannot be seene by the eyes of the body; for that which is of a spirituall nature, non cadit sub sensus corporis, doth not come under the sense of the body, Simler.
3. It is said that God is love, which sheweth his substance, no… a qualitie, as our love is: then as faith, hope, and love in us cannot be seene, much lesse can God.
4. The image of God in man, which is the inward renovation of the minde, cannot bee seene, much lesse God himselfe, whose image we beare.
5. The minde also of man is invisible, mul…o magis simplicissima illa & infinita mens, much more that most pure and infinite minde, Simler.
Hom. 4. de incomprehens. natura Dei.6. Chrysostome giveth this reason, Deus simplex omni concoctione abjunctu…, nulla forma aut figura effigiatus; God is of a simple nature without any composition, he hath no forme or figure, &c. But nothing is perceived of the sense, but that which is of a mixt and compound nature that hath forme and fashion.
7. Gregorio Nyssene: Est interminabilis divina natura, & interminabile comprehendi non potest; The divine nature is infinite, and not to be confined or limited, and that which is not to be limited cannot be comprehended, &c. And that God cannot be confined or determined, he thus sheweth: Quod continet majus est contento; That which containeth is greater than that which is contained: and it is also heterogene… natura, of another nature: as the fish is confined in the water, and the bird in the aire. But nothing is greater than God, and he being perfectly good, that which should confine him, being of a divers kinde, must be perfectly evill. So it would follow, Deum vinci à malo, that God should bee overcome of evill.
Super Ioan. lib. 9. cap. 36.8. Cyrill useth this argument: God is said to have beene seene of divers of the Saints, but none of them did thinke that they saw the verie nature of God: Aliter alius vidit, aliter Esaias, aliter Ezechiel, &c. Therefore everie one saw God after a divers sort, otherwise Esaias, after another manner Ezechiel saw him, &c. If they had seene the verie substance of God, then God must be of a divers nature and substance, for he was diversly seene.
Cyril. ibid.9. And that it is impossible: Oculis corporis substantiam Dei aspicere; with the eyes of the body to see the substance of God, it is evident by our blessed Saviours answer unto Philip, who desired Christ to shew them the Father:Io…. 14.9. He that hath seene me, hath seene the Father: insinuating thereby, that God cannot otherwise be seene of us, than in Christ his Son, who is the verie engraved forme of his person. And if Christ would not grant any such carnall vision of God unto his Disciples,Heb. 1.3. who were conversant with him in the flesh, who can in this life expect it?
10. Whereas then the Prophet Isaiah saith, I saw the Lord sitting upon an high throne, and he is said to have beene seene of other of the Saints:Isai. 6.1. wee must not thinke that they saw Gods substance with their carnall eyes, sed juxta possibilitatem humanam, non ut est, sed ut voluit se videre, but as mans nature could see him,Hierom. Damascu. … verb. Isaia. not as hee is, but as it pleased him. Hierom, who in the same place reproveth the Jewes, who affirme that Isaias was slaine of their fathers, because he writeth he saw God with his eyes, whereas Moses saw only Gods back-parts: for seeing Moses also writeth, that God talked with him face to face, interficite & Mosen cum Esaia, yee might as well have killed Moses as Isaias.