The First Incarnation

Et audierunt vocem Domini Dei ambulantis in paradiso ad vesperam. Ea quippe hora tales iam convenerat visitari, qui defecerant a luce veritatis. Fortassis enim aliis intrinsecus vel effabilibus vel ineffabilibus modis Deus cum illis antea loquebatur, sicut etiam cum Angelis loquitur ipsa incommutabili veritate illustrans mentes eorum, ubi est intellectus nosse simul quaecumque etiam per tempora non fiunt simul. Forte, inquam, sic cum eis loquebatur, etsi non tanta participatione divinae sapientiae, quantam capiunt Angeli; tamen pro humano modulo, quantumlibet minus, sed ipso genere visitationis et locutionis; fortassis etiam illo qui fit per creaturam, sive in ecstasi spiritus corporalibus imaginibus, sive ipsis sensibus corporis aliqua specie praesentata vel ad videndum, vel ad audiendum, sicut in Angelis suis solet videri Deus vel sonare per nubem. Nunc tamen quod audierunt vocem Dei ambulantis in paradiso ad vesperam, nonnisi per creaturam visibiliter factum est, ne substantia illa invisibilis et ubique tota, quae Patris et Filii est et Spiritus sancti, corporalibus eorum sensibus locali et temporali motu apparuisse credatur. Et absconderunt se Adam et mulier eius a facie Domini in medio ligno quod est in paradiso  Cum Deus avertit intrinsecus faciem suam, et fit homo conturbatus; non miremur haec fieri, quae similia sunt dementiae, per nimium pudorem ac timorem; illo quoque occulto instinctu non quiescente, ut ea nescientes facerent, quae aliquid significarent, quandoque scituris posteris, propter quos ista conscripta sunt. Sanctus Augustinus Hipponensi, De Genesi Ad Litteram, Liber XI Migne PL 34 447

'And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the Garden in the evening.' 1 And certainly this hour is most fitting for the visitation of those who have fallen from the light of truth. Perhaps in other describable and indescribable ways God had spoken to them before, as He speaks to angels His unchangeable truth with the enlightening of their minds, when the intellect may know at the same time whatever in time does at not once appear. Perhaps he spoke so with them, even if they did not not have such a great participation in the Divine wisdom as angels do; however by human measure, as much as it is less, so is the visitation and the speech. Perhaps then it was through a created thing, either through the ecstasy of the spirit by corporeal images, or in some form of presence to senses of the body, either to sight or hearing, as via his angels God is accustomed to appear, or to speak through a cloud. Now, however, because they heard the sound of God walking in the garden in the evening, it could not be so unless he was made visible as a created thing, so that it should be thought that the invisible substance which is everywhere, The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, appeared to their corporeal senses in space and time and in motion.  'And Adam and the woman hid themselves from the face of the Lord in the midst of the wood that is in paradise.' 1 When God averts his face man is troubled, and thus we should not be amazed that this happened, which is like the acts of madmen, on account of excessive shame and fear, and that by this instinct to hide they found no peace, since they did these things they did ignorantly. Saint Augustine of Hippo, from On Genesis to the Letter, Book 11 1 Gen 3.8