SERMO 12
TREATISE AGAINST THE MANICHAEANS
CONCISUM EST IN IRA SUA CORNU MEUM
"And behold, angels came into the presence of God"
And the devil in their midst" and so on.
"And that which is in the Gospel:"
"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."
In the divine and holy ancient Books, the most deceitful trickery of the Manichaeans lies in wait, as your prudence, dearest Brothers, has sufficiently proven. Yet we continue to offer their deceits for the inspection of your hearts, so that you may not only avoid them as much as lies in your power, but also teach others who are weak and unlearned in the divine readings, to avoid and despise them as each of you is able.
"It is written in Job," they say, "Behold, the angels came into the presence of God, and Satan came among them. And God said to Satan: Whence do you come? He answered and said: I come from going around the whole earth." Here, they say, it is shown that Satan not only saw God but also spoke with Him.
Yet in the Gospel it says: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. And again, it says: I am the door, no one can come to the Father except through me. Then they add reasoning, saying: If therefore those only who are pure in heart see God, in what way could Satan, with the most filthy and impure heart, see God? Or how could he enter through the door, that is, through Christ? Again, the Apostle, they say, testifies and confirms, saying that neither Princes, nor Powers, nor Virtues knew God."
The accusation of those is proposed.
Indeed, their calumny is presented up to this point with these words, and truly, the question must be discussed by a Christian. But the intention of those propounding this calumny is to similarly draw the unlearned from the most wholesome authority of the Scriptures to believing in them. But first, I would like to ask them where Adimantus has read this from the Apostle – for he is the author of such calumnies – I would therefore want him to say where he has read the Apostle testifying and confirming, as he says, that neither the Princes nor the Powers nor the Virtues knew God, when the Lord also says that the angels of those believing in Him see the face of the Father daily. Unless perhaps what the Apostle Paul said: “We speak wisdom among the perfect, but wisdom not of this age, nor of the princes of this age, who come to naught. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, which is hidden, which God predestined before the ages unto our glory, which none of the princes of this age knew. If they had known, they would never have crucified the Lord of Glory.” If he was thinking to write this passage, why did he add Powers and Virtures, which is not said there, and omit “of this age,” which is said there? But if he did this more out of error than malice, I wish it were so. Nevertheless, even if the Apostle had said this way, could not the devil hear the voice of God for this reason? For it is written that he came into the sight of God; it is not written that he himself saw God. For the princes of this age are understood either as proud men elevated by the vain pomp of boastfulness or the devil himself and his angels. For the Lord most openly calls him the prince or magistrate of this age, because by the name of this age sinners are understood, whose hope is only in this world. For as it is said a bad house when the inhabitants are signified, so we say this bad age when we signify those who dwell in this age with their heart, that is, whose conversation is not in heaven. For ours, says the Apostle, is a conversation in heaven. But all sins serve the devil, who by free will wanted to be the prince of sin: therefore he is called the prince of this age. I advise you to impress this rule of understanding in your hearts. With this the Lord will aid in discussing and solving many of the Scriptures, from which they bait traps of their error.
A very brief response to their proposition.
Since it is not written that the devil saw God, but only that he came with the angels into the sight of the Lord and heard His voice, why do these wretched ones strive to calumniate the Scriptures on the vision of God and to pervert the ignorant? Therefore, this proposition of theirs is overcome by the shortest response. For however much they might seek to explain how the devil saw God, we answer: The devil did not see God. They will say: "Then how did he speak with Him?". Here indeed, their blindness of heart must be convicted, not by us, but by blind men. For those who are blind with carnal eyes can daily speak with those whom they cannot see. They ask: "Then how did he come into His presence?". In the same way a blind man is in the presence of one who sees, whom he himself does not see. And indeed, these comparisons, dearest brothers, are spoken so that the wickedness of carnal men may be refuted, so that if possible being thus repelled they might turn their pious hearts to the meekness of learning. For is God contained in a place, whom every angelic and human conscience has present, not only of the good but also of the evil? Yet this is the difference: to good consciences, He is present as a Father, to evil ones as a Judge, for it is written: The Lord examines the righteous and the wicked. Also, it is written: In the thoughts of the wicked is questioning. Nor does God question more vehemently in the ears of the body than in the secret of thought, where He alone hears, He alone is heard. Do not even wicked men, when they speak the truth and are not believed, swear and say: "God is my witness," and say it most truly? Where, I ask, is He a witness? In the tongue, or in the heart? In the sound of the voice, or in the silence of conscience? Why else do they often get angry because they are not believed when they know they speak the truth, except because they cannot open their heart to us where God is a witness?
Many are the ways in which God speaks.
There are many ways in which God speaks to us. He sometimes speaks through some instrument, such as through the codex of the divine Scriptures. He speaks through some element of the world, as He spoke to the Magi through a star. For what is speech, if not the signification of will? He speaks through lot, as He spoke when appointing Matthias to the place of Judas. He speaks through the human soul, as through the Prophet. He speaks through an angel, as we accept He spoke to some of the Patriarchs, Prophets, and Apostles. He speaks through some vocal and sounding creature, as we read and hold that voices were made from heaven, though none saw with their eyes. Finally, to man himself, not externally through his ears or eyes, but inwardly in the soul, God speaks in not just one way, but either in dreams, as He spoke to Laban the Syrian so that he would not harm his servant Jacob in any way, and to Pharaoh regarding the seven years of abundance and the same number of barren years. Or with the spirit of man taken up, which the Greeks call "ecstasy," as it was shown to Peter while praying that a vessel filled with symbols of the future gentiles was descended from heaven. Or in the mind itself, when one understands the Majesty or will, as Peter himself realized what the Lord wanted him to do through that very vision, by pondering it within himself. For none can recognize this unless a certain silent cry of truth sounds within them. God also speaks in the conscience of the good and the wicked. For no one can rightly approve what is done well or condemn what is sinful unless in the silence of the heart, a voice of truth either praises or rebukes. But truth is God: who, when speaking to humans in so many ways, both to the good and the bad—although not all to whom He speaks in such ways can perceive His substance and nature—who among men can, by supposing or pondering, gather in how many and which ways the same Truth speaks to angels, whether to the good who, contemplating and enjoying Him through wonderful love, delight in His ineffable form and beauty, or to the wicked who, corrupted by their pride and placed by Truth in lower realms, can hear His voice in certain hidden ways, though they are not worthy to see His face?
The devil was able to hear the voice of God speaking.
Wherefore, most beloved Brothers, faithful children of God and true-born sons of the catholic mother, let no one deceive you with poisoned foods, even if you still need to be nourished with milk. Now walk perseveringly by the faith of truth, so that at the certain and appropriate time you may be able to come to the vision of its Truth. For as the Apostle says: While we remain in the body, we are away from the Lord; for we walk by faith, not by sight. But the Christian faith leads to the vision of the Father. Hence the Lord says: No one comes to the Father except through me. Therefore, it is vain for these people to ask how the devil could come to God through Christ. For the devil cannot reach that happiness of contemplation, to which the Christian faith leads those who are pure in heart. Nevertheless, this does not mean that the devil could not hear the voice of God speaking, just as many men who did not believe in Christ could hear the voice of God speaking from heaven: I have both glorified it and will glorify it again, when the Lord had said: Father, glorify your Son.
What the sight of God is.
But that which is written, that the devil came into the presence of God, is not written because anyone can ever flee from the sight of God, to whose eyes all things are subjected, and to whom the depth of any heart is open, but because these events happened in the secrecy of creation, which the Scripture has narrated. Therefore, it is written: "And behold, the angels came into the presence of God," although they never depart from the sight of God. For wherever they are sent, there also is present the sight of God. But that is properly called the sight of God, which human sight cannot penetrate, such as the secrets of the conscience. Therefore, when we reproach a liar, we do not say he spoke in the sight of God, because he did not speak that which God sees in his mind, where human sight cannot direct itself. Because these things were conducted so secretly that they could not be indicated to men through the Holy Scriptures unless revealed by the Holy Spirit, it is narrated that they came into the presence of God and were conducted there.
The devil could hear the voice of God, but he could not see Him.
However, that the devil was in the midst of the angels, if you understand good angels, understand the devil in their midst as the accused stands in the midst of guards to be heard by the judge. For the scripture does not declare what kind of angels those were. But if it was in the midst of evil angels, what is surprising about the leader and guide being surrounded by the crowd of his servants? But if you accept that which is said in the sight of God, so that those come into the sight of God, who are not only seen by Him but also see Him, then it is to be understood that the devil was in their midst, but that nevertheless he did not see God whom they saw, so that God would have spoken to the devil through one of the holy angels. Yet it is not written in the book except: God said. Just as even in public matters, although the judge speaks many things through a herald, the judge's name is inserted when the records are written, but not the herald's. However, just as some man unworthy of prophetic vision can nevertheless stand in the midst of Prophets, so that he only hears what the Lord says through them, but does not see what they see, so could the devil be in the midst of the holy angels who see God, through whom he would hear the voice of God, whom he himself could not see.
The impudence of the Manichaeans.
And indeed you perceive that the machinations of the Manicheans, as far as this question is concerned, have been resolved in many ways, so that you no longer think, dearest Brothers, that the devil truly has spoken with God in such a way that he could have seen the face of truth, which pure hearts gaze upon, or that he could have come to that contemplation of blessedness to which no one is permitted to come except through the Lord Jesus Christ. However, I am greatly astonished at the impudence of these people who wish to accuse us regarding the vision of the divine substance, and they lie about what is not written in our Scriptures, claiming that the devil has seen God. They attempt to create so much envy from this that anyone who shudders and judges it unworthy that the devil has seen God may be turned away from the authority of the divine Scriptures by suspicious ignorance, not understanding what is written, while they themselves do not deny that our Lord Jesus Christ is God, and they falsely claim that He has appeared to men without the assumption of a human body.
Certain angels had real bodies.