Chapter XXXIII.
As Celsus supposes that we uphold the doctrine of the resurrection in order that we may see and know God, he thus follows out his notions on the subject: "After they have been utterly refuted and vanquished, they still, as if regardless of all objections, come back again to the same question, How then shall we see and know God? how shall we go to Him?'" Let any, however, who are disposed to hear us observe, that if we have need of a body for other purposes, as for occupying a material locality to which this body must be adapted, and if on that account the "tabernacle" is clothed in the way we have shown, we have no need of a body in order to know God. For that which sees God is not the eye of the body; it is the mind which is made in the image of the Creator, [4752] and which God has in His providence rendered capable of that knowledge. To see God belongs to the pure heart, out of which no longer proceed "evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies, the evil eye," [4753] or any other evil thing. Wherefore it is said, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." [4754] But as the strength of our will is not sufficient to procure the perfectly pure heart, and as we need that God should create it, he therefore who prays as he ought, offers this petition to God, "Create in me a clean heart, O God." [4755]
[4752] Bouhèreau follows the reading, "the mind which sees what is made in the image of the Creator."
[4753] Matt. xv. 19 and vi. 23.
[4754] Matt. v. 8.
[4755] Ps. li. 10.
Chapter XXXIV.
And we do not ask the question, "How shall we go to God?" as though we thought that God existed in some place. God is of too excellent a nature for any place: He holds all things in His power, and is Himself not confined by anything whatever. The precept, therefore, "Thou shalt walk after the Lord thy God," [4756] does not command a bodily approach to God; neither does the prophet refer to physical nearness to God, when he says in his prayer, "My soul followeth hard after Thee." [4757] Celsus therefore misrepresents us, when he says that we expect to see God with our bodily eyes, to hear Him with our ears, and to touch Him sensibly with our hands. We know that the holy Scriptures make mention of eyes, of ears, and of hands, which have nothing but the name in common with the bodily organs; and what is more wonderful, they speak of a diviner sense, which is very different from the senses as commonly spoken of. For when the prophet says, "Open Thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law," [4758] or, "the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes," [4759] or, "Lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death," [4760] no one is so foolish as to suppose that the eyes of the body behold the wonders of the divine law, or that the law of the Lord gives light to the bodily eyes, or that the sleep of death falls on the eyes of the body. When our Saviour says, "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear," [4761] any one will understand that the ears spoken of are of a diviner kind. When it is said that the word of the Lord was "in the hand" of Jeremiah or of some other prophet; or when the expression is used, "the law by the hand of Moses," or, "I sought the Lord with my hands, and was not deceived," [4762] --no one is so foolish as not to see that the word "hands" is taken figuratively, as when John says, "Our hands have handled the Word of life." [4763] And if you wish further to learn from the sacred writings that there is a diviner sense than the senses of the body, you have only to hear what Solomon says, "Thou shalt find a divine sense." [4764]
[4756] Deut. xiii. 4.
[4757] Ps. lxiii. 8.
[4758] Ps. cxix. 18.
[4759] Ps. xix. 8.
[4760] Ps. xiii. 3.
[4761] Matt. xiii. 9.
[4762] Ps. lxxvii. 2, according to the LXX.
[4763] 1 John i. 1.
[4764] Prov. ii. 5, Eng. Vers. and LXX., "Thou shalt find the knowledge of God."