It is therefore plain that the divine nature is invisible, but the flesh visible, and that through the visible the invisible was seen, by its means working wonders and unveiling its own power, for with the hand He fashioned the sense of seeing and healed him that was blind from birth. Again He gave the power of hearing to the deaf, and loosed the fettered tongue, using his fingers for a tool and applying his spittle like some healing medicine. So again when He walked upon the sea He displayed the almighty power of the Godhead. Fitly, therefore, did the apostle say "God was manifest in the flesh." For through it appeared the invisible nature beheld by its means by the angel hosts, for "He was seen," he says, "of angels."
The nature then of bodiless beings has shared with us the enjoyment of this boon.
Eran. -Then did not the angels see God before the manifestation of the Saviour?
Orth. -The apostle says that He "was made manifest in the flesh and seen of angels."
Eran. -But the Lord said, "Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones, for I say unto you that their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven."
Orth. -But the Lord said again, "Not that any man hath seen the Father save he which is of God, he hath seen the Father." Wherefore the evangelist plainly exclaims, "No man hath seen God at any time," and confirms the word of the Lord, for he says, "The only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father He hath declared Him," and the great Moses, when he desired to see the invisible nature, heard the Lord God saying, "There shall no man see me and live."
Eran. -How then are we to understand the words, "Their angels do always behold the face of my Father which is in heaven"?
Orth. -Just as we commonly understand what is said about men who have been supposed to see God.
Eran. -Pray make this plainer, for I do not understand. Can God be seen of men also?
Orth. -Certainly not.
Eran. -Yet we hear the divine scripture saying God appeared unto Abraham at the oak of Mamre; and Isaiah says "I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne high and lifted up," and the same thing is said by Micah, by Daniel and Ezekiel. And of the lawgiver Moses it is related that "The Lord spake to Moses face to face as a man speaketh unto his friend," and the God of the universe Himself said, "With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently and not in dark speeches." What then shall we say; did they behold the divine nature?
Orth. -By no means, for God Himself said, "There shall no man see me and live."
Eran. -Then they who say that they have seen God are liars?
Orth. -God forbid-they saw what it was possible for them to see.
Eran. -Then the loving Lord accommodates his revelation to the capacity of them that see Him?
Orth. -Yes; and this He has shewn through the Prophet, "for I," He says, "have multiplied visions and by the hands of the Prophets was made like."
He does not say "was seen" but "was made like." And making like does not shew the very nature of the thing seen. For even the image of the emperor does not exhibit the emperor's nature, though it distinctly preserves his features.
Eran. -This is obscure and not sufficiently plain. Was not then the substance of God seen by them who beheld those revelations?
Orth. -No; for who is mad enough to dare to say so?
Eran. -But yet it is said that they saw.
Orth. -Yes; it is said; but we both in the exercise of reverent reason, and in reliance on the Divine utterances, which exclaim distinctly, "No man hath seen God at any time," affirm that they did not see the Divine Nature, but certain visions adapted to their capacity.
Eran. -So we say.
Orth. -So also then let us understand of the angels when we hear that they daily see the face of your Father. For what they see is not the divine substance which cannot be circumscribed, comprehended, or apprehended, which embraces the universe, but some glory made commensurate with their nature.
Eran. -This is acknowledged.
Orth. -After the incarnation, however, He was seen also of angels, as the divine apostle says, not however by similitude of glory, but using the true and living covering of the flesh as a kind of screen. "God," he says, "was made manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels."