Chapter 8.—How the Apostle Says that God is Now Seen by Us Through a Glass.

14. I know that wisdom is an incorporeal substance, and that it is the light by which those things are seen that are not seen by carnal eyes; and yet a man so great and so spiritual [as Paul] says, “We see now through a glass, in an enigma, but then face to face.”953    1 Cor. xiii. 12 If we ask what and of what sort is this “glass,” this assuredly occurs to our minds, that in a glass nothing is discerned but an image. We have endeavored, then, so to do; in order that we might see in some way or other by this image which we are, Him by whom we are made, as by a glass. And this is intimated also in the words of the same apostle: “But we with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.”954    2 Cor. iii. 18 “Beholding as in a glass,”955    Speculantes he has said, i.e. seeing by means of a glass, not looking from a watch-tower: an ambiguity that does not exist in the Greek language, whence the apostolic epistles have been rendered into Latin. For in Greek, a glass,956    Speculum in which the images of things are visible, is wholly distinct in the sound of the word also from a watch-tower,957    Specula from the height of which we command a more distant view. And it is quite plain that the apostle, in using the word “speculantes” in respect to the glory of the Lord, meant it to come from “speculum,” not from “specula.” But where he says, “We are transformed into the same image,” he assuredly means to speak of the image of God; and by calling it “the same,” he means that very image which we see in the glass, because that same image is also the glory of the Lord; as he says elsewhere, “For a man indeed ought not to cover his head, forasmuch as he is the image and glory of God,”958    1 Cor. xi. 7—a text already discussed in the twelfth book. He means, then, by “We are transformed,” that we are changed from one form to another, and that we pass from a form that is obscure to a form that is bright: since the obscure form, too, is the image of God; and if an image, then assuredly also “glory,” in which we are created as men, being better than the other animals. For it is said of human nature in itself, “The man ought not to cover his head, because he is the image and glory of God.” And this nature, being the most excellent among things created, is transformed from a form that is defaced into a form that is beautiful, when it is justified by its own Creator from ungodliness. Since even in ungodliness itself, the more the faultiness is to be condemned, the more certainly is the nature to be praised. And therefore he has added, “from glory to glory:” from the glory of creation to the glory of justification. Although these words, “from glory to glory,” may be understood also in other ways;—from the glory of faith to the glory of sight, from the glory whereby we are sons of God to the glory whereby we shall be like Him, because “we shall see Him as He is.”959    1 John iii. 2 But in that he has added “as from the Spirit of the Lord,” he declares that the blessing of so desirable a transformation is conferred upon us by the grace of God.

CAPUT VIII.

14. Deum nunc videri a nobis per speculum quomodo dicat Apostolus. Incorporalem substantiam scio esse sapientiam, et lumen esse in quo videntur quae oculis carnalibus non videntur: et tamen vir tantus tamque spiritualis, Videmus nunc, inquit, per speculum in aenigmate, tunc autem facie ad faciem (I Cor. XIII, 12). Quale sit et quod sit hoc speculum si quaeramus, profecto illud occurrit, quod in speculo nisi imago non cernitur. Hoc ergo facere conati sumus, ut per imaginem hanc quod nos sumus, videremus utcumque a quo facti sumus, tanquam per speculum. Hoc significat etiam illud quod ait idem apostolus: Nos autem revelata facie gloriam Domini speculantes, in eamdem imaginem transformamur de gloria in gloriam, tanquam a Domini Spiritu (II Cor. III, 18). Speculantes dixit, per speculum videntes, non de specula prospicientes. Quod in graeca lingua non est 1068 ambiguum, unde in latinam translatae sunt apostolicae Litterae. Ibi quippe speculum ubi apparent imagines rerum, a specula de cujus altitudine longius aliquid intuemur, etiam sono verbi distat omnino; satisque apparet Apostolum a speculo, non a specula dixisse, gloriam Domini speculantes. Quod vero ait, In eamdem imaginem transformamur: utique imaginem Dei vult intelligi, eamdem dicens, istam ipsam scilicet, id est, quam speculamur; quia eadem imago est et gloria Dei, sicut alibi dicit, Vir quidem non debet velare caput suum, cum sit imago et gloria Dei (I Cor. XI, 7): de quibus verbis jam in libro duodecimo disseruimus. Transformamur ergo dicit, de forma in formam mutamur, atque transimus de forma obscura in formam lucidam; quia et ipsa obscura, imago Dei est; et si imago, profecto etiam gloria, in qua homines creati sumus, praestantes caeteris animalibus. De ipsa quippe natura humana dictum est, Vir quidem non debet velare caput, cum sit imago et gloria Dei. Quae natura in rebus creatis excellentissima, cum a suo Creatore ab impietate justificatur, a deformi forma formosam transfertur in formam. Est quippe et in ipsa impietate, quanto magis damnabile vitium, tanto certius natura laudabilis. Et propter hoc addidit, de gloria in gloriam: de gloria creationis in gloriam justificationis. Quamvis possit hoc et aliis modis intelligi, quod dictum est, de gloria in gloriam: de gloria fidei in gloriam speciei; de gloria qua filii Dei sumus, in gloriam qua similes ei erimus, quoniam videbimus eum sicuti est (I Joan. III, 2). Quod vero adjunxit, tanquam a Domini Spiritu; ostendit gratia Dei nobis conferri tam optabilis transformationis bonum.