through which he expresses himself, he changes
when he pleases. Thus he has abolished circumcision and instituted
baptism, whereas the will of his good pleasure, fixed from eternity,
abides.

155. While I do not condemn this interpretation, a simpler meaning of
the Scripture seems to be that the Holy Scriptures express the thought
of men in the ministry. For when Moses says that God sees and regrets,
this is really done in the hearts of those who have the ministry of
the Word. Thus he said above: "My Spirit shall not strive with man,"
but he does not say this simply of the Holy Spirit as existing in his
own nature, or of the divine majesty, but of the Holy Spirit in the
hearts of Noah and Methuselah, that is, the Holy Spirit as officiating
and administering the Word through the saints.

156. In this manner God saw the wickedness of man and repented; that
is, Noah, who had the Holy Spirit and was a minister of the Word, saw
the wickedness of men and, seeing such things, he was moved by the
Holy Spirit to grief. So Paul says in Ephesians 4, 30, that the Holy
Spirit in the righteous is grieved by the ungodliness and malice of
the wicked. Inasmuch as Noah is a faithful minister of the Word and an
organ of the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit is said to grieve when Noah
grieves and wishes that man rather did not exist than to be thus
iniquitous.

157. The meaning, therefore, is not that God did not see these things
from eternity; he saw everything from eternity; but inasmuch as this
wickedness now manifests itself in all its fierceness, God now first
reveals the same in the hearts of his ministers and prophets.

From eternity, therefore, God is firm and constant in his purpose. He
sees and knows everything. But only in his own time does God reveal
this to the righteous so that they, also, may see it. This seems to me
the simplest meaning of this passage, nor does Augustine differ from
it much.

158. However, I constantly follow the rule to avoid, whenever
possible, such questions as draw us before the throne of the highest
majesty. It is better and safer to stand at the manger of Christ, the
man. To lose one's self in the labyrinths of divinity is fraught with
greatest danger.

159. To this passage belong also other similar ones in which God is
pictured as having eyes, ears, mouth, nose, hands and feet, as Isaiah,
Daniel and other prophets saw him in their visions. In such passages
the Bible speaks of God in the same man