There the finger of God worked upon tables of stone: here upon the hearts of men. So there the law was set outside men to be a terror to the unjust: here it was given within them to be their justification. For this: you shall not commit adultery, you shall do no murder, you shall not covet, and if there be any other commandment—written, as we know, upon those tables—it is briefly comprehended, said the apostle, in this saying: you shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love works not a neighbor’s ill: and charity is the fullness of the law.^[1] This law is not written on tables of stone but is shed abroad in our hearts through the Holy Spirit which is given to us. Therefore the law of God is charity. To it the mind of the flesh is not subject, neither indeed can be. But when, to put fear into the mind of the flesh, the works of charity are written upon tables, we have the law of works, the letter killing the transgression. When charity itself is shed abroad in the hearts of believers, we have the law of faith, the Spirit giving life to the lover.

If to hear the voice of God speaking is a cause of death, how will the sight of God not cause death? And why wonder? Even Moses himself says, I am greatly terrified and trembling. What then? Would you that he who came for our salvation become a minister of destruction because men could not bear him? Or rather that he should temper his grace to our measure?

[Celsus] continues by making further remarks as if they were what we should agree to, although none of those Christians who have any intelligence would agree to them. Not one of us says that God participates in shape or color. Nor does he partake of movement; because it is his nature to be established and firm, he calls the righteous man to imitate him in this respect when he says, But as for you, stand with me. If, however, some texts suggest that there is movement of some sort on his part, as for example that which says They heard the Lord God walking in the garden in the evening,^[1] we should understand such sayings in the sense that God is regarded as being moved by those who have sinned. Or we should interpret such texts in the same way as we do when there is a figurative reference to God’s sleep or his anger or anything of this sort.

Blessed is the mind of that man who, overstepping the bounds of species and race, deserves to hear what was said to Moses when he stood apart from his people: Stand here with me.