On the Trinity 6

And although the heavenly Scripture often turns the divine countenance into a human form, when it says, “The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous”; or when it says, “The Lord God smelled an odor of sweet fragrance”; or when tablets written by the finger of God are handed to Moses; or when the people of the children of Israel are set free from the land of Egypt by a strong hand and a lofty arm; or when it says, “For the mouth of the Lord has spoken these things”; or when the earth is said to be the footstool of God's feet; or when it says, “Incline your ear and hear”: we who say that the Law is spiritual do not enclose the measure or shape of the divine majesty within these outlines of our body, but spread it out without any limit over the plains (so to speak) of its boundless greatness. For it is written: “If I go up into heaven, you are there; if I go down to the underworld, you are present; and if I take my wings and go away across the sea, there your hand will lay hold of me and your right hand will hold me fast.” For we recognize the reasoning of divine Scripture from the adjustment of its arrangement. For the prophet then still spoke of God in parables, suited to the stage of faith at that time, not as God was, but as the people were able to grasp. That these things are said of God in this way, then, is to be charged not to God but rather to the people. So too the people are permitted to set up a tabernacle, and yet God is not shut up and contained within the tabernacle; so too a temple is built, and yet God is by no means fenced in within the narrow bounds of a temple. It is not God, then, who is limited, but the understanding of the people that is limited; not God who is narrow, but the understanding of the people's reason that is narrow.

Finally, in the Gospel the Lord said, “The hour will come when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem”; and he gave the reason, saying, “God is Spirit; and therefore those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth.” There, then, it is the workings of God that are shown by the members, not the outward form of God or bodily outlines that are set out. For when eyes are described, it is expressed that he sees all things; and when an ear, it is put forward that he hears all things; and when a finger, a certain meaning of his will is disclosed; and when nostrils, his perception of prayers as though of fragrances is shown; and when a hand, it is proved that he is the author of every creature; and when an arm, it is declared that no nature can resist his strength; and when feet, it is explained that he fills all things and that there is nothing where God is not. For neither members nor the functions of members are necessary to him at whose will alone, even unspoken, all things both serve and are present. For why should he require eyes, who is Light? Or why should he seek feet, who is everywhere? Or why should he wish to walk, when there is nowhere outside himself to which he could go? Or why should he want hands, whose silent will is the artisan for establishing all things? Nor does he need ears, who knows even unspoken wishes. Or for what reason should he seek a tongue, for whom to think is to command? These members were necessary to men, not to God, because man's purpose would have been ineffective had the body not carried out his thought; but to God they are not necessary, since works not only follow his will without any effort, but the works themselves come forth at once together with the will. Rather, he is himself wholly eye, because he wholly sees; wholly ear, because he wholly hears; wholly hand, because he wholly works; and wholly foot, because he is wholly everywhere. For whatever he is, he is wholly equal and wholly everywhere. For whatever is simple has no diversity of itself within itself. For only those things fall into a diversity of members which come by birth into dissolution. But things that are not compounded cannot suffer this. For what is immortal, whatever it is, is itself one and simple and eternal. And therefore, because it is one, it cannot be dissolved; since whatever is itself placed beyond the rule of dissolution is freed from the laws of death.