加尔文，《基督教要义》，「上帝的低就」
1.13.1上帝的本质﹕无限，属灵；《圣经》用拟人法；
上帝迁就我们的层面，好像乳母与婴孩说法一般
GOD’S ESSENCE: INFINITE, SPIRITUAL;
ANTHROPOMORPHISMS IN SCRIPTURE:
GOD ACCOMMODATES TO OUR LEVEL, AS NURSES “LISPS” TO BABES
《圣经》所显示关于上帝本体的伟大和灵性，不仅可以推翻俗人愚蠢的见解，而且可以驳倒一般世俗哲学的诡辩。有一位古人（指辛尼加）很巧妙地说，凡我们所看见的，就是上帝。但他以为上帝是充满于世界各部份里。虽然上帝为了叫我们不超出思想应有的限度，很少讲到祂的本体。可是从我刚才所说的两种属性而论，祂打破了一切的幻想，并压制了人心中的骄傲。因为祂的伟大真足以叫我们油然生敬，叫我们因此不致以感官去测量祂；而且祂的灵性也不容许我们对祂有任何属世的或属肉体的猜测。
因着同一理由，祂以「天上」象征祂的居所；虽然祂是不可思议的，却是充满于世间；但因为我们愚鲁的心灵只注视尘世；为求消除我们的迟钝和懒惰，祂把我们提高到世界以上。摩尼教徒（Manichaei）以为有善恶二元，所以将魔鬼当作几乎是与上帝同等，这种错误也就被摧毁了。他们的这种说法分明是破坏了上帝的独一性，和限制了祂的伟大。他们大胆滥用《圣经》的见证，适足以显露他们的无知，正如错误的本身证明了他们的卑鄙和疯狂。「拟人论」者因为《圣经》有时候以口、耳、目、和手足形容上帝，便以为上帝是有形的，他们这种讲法也不难驳倒。因为稍有才智的人，谁不知道上帝和我们谈话，隐约含糊地，像乳母惯于对婴儿谈话一般呢？所以「拟人论」的说法，并不能全部解释上帝的本性，只不过使对祂的认识适合于我们的肤浅见识而已。因此《圣经》不得不将祂的崇高性格大大降低，好适合我们的有限才智。
The Scriptural teaching concerning God’s infinite and spiritual essence ought to be enough, not only to banish popular delusions, but also to refute the subtleties of secular philosophy. One of the ancients seems aptly to have remarked, “Whatever we see, and whatever we do not see, is God.” According to this, he fancied that divinity was poured out into the various parts of the world. But even if God to keep us sober speaks sparingly of his essence, yet by those two titles that I have used he both banishes stupid imaginings and restrains the boldness of the human mind. Surely, his infinity ought to make us afraid to try to measure him by our own senses. Indeed, his spiritual nature forbids our imagining anything earthly or carnal of him. For the same reason, he quite often assigns to himself a dwelling place in heaven. And yet as he sees that our slow minds sink down upon the earth, and rightly, in order to shake off our sluggishness and inertia he raises us above the world. And hence falls to the ground the error of the Manichees, who by postulating two principles made the devil almost equal to God. Undoubtedly this was to wreck God’s unity and restrict his infinity. Indeed, that they dared abuse certain testimonies of Scripture was due to base ignorance; just as the error itself sprang from execrable madness. The Anthropomorphites, also, who imagined a corporeal God from the fact that Scripture often ascribes to him a mouth, ears, eyes, hands, and feet, are easily refuted. For who even of slight intelligence does not understand that, as nurses commonly do with infants, God is wont in a measure to “lisp” in speaking to us? Thus such forms of speaking do not so much express clearly what God is like as accommodate the knowledge of him to our slight capacity. To do this he must descend far beneath his loftiness.
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