Homilies on Second Corinthians

“Nevertheless when [one] shall turn to the Lord,” which is, to forsake the Law, “the veil is taken away.”

Do you see that not over the face of Moses was there that veil, but over the eyesight of the Jews? For it was done, not that the glory of Moses might be hidden, but that the Jews might not see. For they were not capable. So that in them was the deficiency, for it caused not him to be ignorant of any thing, but them. And he did not say indeed, “when you shall let go the Law,” but he implied it, for “when you shall turn to the Lord, the veil is taken away.” To the very last he kept to the history. For when Moses talked with the Jews he kept his face covered; but when he turned to God it was uncovered. Now this was a type of that which was to come to pass, that when we have turned to the Lord, then we shall see the glory of the Law, and the face of the Lawgiver bare; yea rather, not this alone, but we shall then be even in the same rank with Moses. Do you see how he invites the Jew unto the faith, by showing, that by coming unto Grace he is able not only to see Moses, but also to stand in the very same rank with the Lawgiver. 'For not only,' he says, 'shall you look on the glory which then you saw not, but you shall yourself also be included in the same glory; yea rather, in a greater glory, even so great that that other shall not seem glory at all when compared with this.' How and in what manner? 'Because that when you have turned to the Lord and art included in the grace, you will enjoy that glory, unto which the glory of Moses, if compared, is so much less as to be no glory at all. But still, small though it be and exceedingly below that other, while you are a Jew, even this will not be vouchsafed you; but having become a believer, it will then be vouchsafed you to behold even that which is far greater than it.' And when he was addressing himself to the believers, he said, that “that which was made glorious had no glory;” but here he speaks not so; but how? “When one shall turn to the Lord, the veil is taken away:” leading him up little by little, and first setting him in Moses' rank, and then making him partake of the greater things. For when you have seen Moses in glory, then afterwards you shall also turn unto God and enjoy this greater glory.

5. See then from the beginning, how many things he has laid down, as constituting the difference and showing the superiority, not the enmity or contradiction, of the New Covenant in respect to the old. That, says he, is letter, and stone, and a ministration of death, and is done away: and yet the Jews were not even vouchsafed this glory. (Or, the glory of this.) This table is of the flesh, and spirit, and righteousness, and remains; and unto all of us is it vouchsafed, not to one only, as to Moses of the lesser then. “For,” says he, “we all with unveiled face reflecting as a mirror the glory of the Lord,” not that of Moses. But since some maintain that the expression, “when one shall turn to the Lord,” is spoken of the Son, in contradiction to what is quite acknowledged; let us examine the point more accurately, having first stated the ground on which they think to establish this. What then is this? Like, says one, as it is said, “God is a Spirit;” so also here, 'The Lord is a Spirit.' But he did not say, 'The Lord is a Spirit,' but, “The Spirit is the Lord.” And there is a great difference between this construction and that. For when he is desirous of speaking so as you say, he does not join the article to the predicate. And besides, let us review all his discourse from the first, of whom has he spoken? For instance, when he said, “The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life:” and again, “Written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God;” was he speaking of God, or of the Spirit? It is very plain that it was of the Spirit; for unto It he was calling them from the letter. For lest any, hearing of the Spirit, and then reflecting that Moses turned unto the Lord, but himself unto the Spirit, should think himself to have the worse, to correct such a suspicion as this, he says,