Note 188 — Chapter XXXIV · A.D. 1600-1700. THE JEWS IN HOLLAND.—DA COSTA, SPINOZA.

It should be here observed that the Scriptures do not teach anthropomorphism of any kind as actually true, but as the only mode by which man, in the bounded and darkened condition of his intellect, during his present state of being, can apprehend God at all. The Scriptures contain the most distinct denials of anthropomorphism, considered otherwise than as metaphor. Thus, Exod. xxxiii. 20: ‘Thou canst not see My face, for there shall no man see Me, and live,’ i.e., ‘He must be wholly out of the body, in order to apprehend Me’—apprehend Me, that is, with the eye of the spirit, not of the body. See the use of the two words expressing bodily and spiritual vision (John i. 18; John xvi. 16; Rev. iv. 2, etc.). Again, ‘God is not a man, that He should lie,’ or ‘that He should repent’ (Num. xxiii. 19). In the anthropomorphic images of Scripture, ‘God is seen only through a glass, darkly,’ as St. Paul says.