Chapter III. Argument.—That God is the Founder of All Things, Their Lord and Parent, is Proved from the Holy Scriptures.

Him, then, we acknowledge and know to be God, the Creator of all things—Lord on account of His power, Parent on account of His discipline—Him, I say, who “spake, and all things were made;”8    Ps. cxlviii. 5. He commanded, and all things went forth: of whom it is written, “Thou hast made all things in wisdom;”9    Ps. ciii. 24. of whom Moses said, “God in heaven above, and in the earth beneath;”10    Deut. iv. 39. who, according to Isaiah, “hath meted out the heaven with a span, the earth with the hollow of His hand;”11    Ps. ciii. 32. “who looketh on the earth, and maketh it tremble; who boundeth the circle of the earth, and those that dwell in it like locusts; who hath weighed the mountains in a balance, and the groves in scales,”12    Isa. xl. 22, 12. that is, by the sure test of divine arrangement; and lest its greatness, lying unequally, should easily fall into ruins if it were not balanced with equal weights, He has poised this burden of the earthly mass with equity. Who says by the prophet, “I am God, and there is none beside me.”13    Isa. xlv. 22. Who says by the same prophet, “Because I will not give my majesty to another,”14    Isa. xlii. 8. that He may exclude all heathens and heretics with their figments; proving that that is not God who is made by the hand of the workman, nor that which is feigned by the intellect of a heretic. For he is not God for whose existence the workman must be asked. And He has added hereto by the prophet, “The heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: what house will ye build me, and where is the place of my rest?”15    Isa. lxvi. 1. [No portable or pocket god.] that He may show that He whom the world does not contain is much less contained in a temple; and He says these things not for boastfulness of Himself, but for our knowledge. For He does not desire from us the glory of His magnitude; but He wishes to confer upon us, even as a father, a religious wisdom. And He, wishing moreover to attract to gentleness our minds, brutish, and swelling, and stubborn with cloddish ferocity, says, “And upon whom shall my Spirit rest, save upon him that is lowly, and quiet, and that trembleth at my words?”16    Isa. lxvi. 2.—so that in some degree one may recognise how great God is, in learning to fear Him by the Spirit given to him: Who, similarly wishing still more to come into our knowledge, and, by way of stirring up our minds to His worship, said, “I am the Lord, who made the light and created the darkness;”17    Isa. xlv. 7. [A lesson to our age.] that we might deem not that some Nature,—what I know not,—was the artificer of those vicissitudes whereby nights and days are controlled, but might rather, as is more true, recognise God as their Creator. And since by the gaze of our eyes we cannot see Him, we rightly learn of Him from the greatness, and the power, and the majesty of His works. “For the invisible things of Him,” says the Apostle Paul,” from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood by those things which are made, even His eternal power and godhead;”18    Rom. i. 20. [“So that they are without excuse.”] so that the human mind, learning hidden things from those that are manifest, from the greatness of the works which it should behold, might with the eyes of the mind consider the greatness of the Architect. Of whom the same apostle, “Now unto the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honour and glory.”19    1 Tim. i. 17. For He has gone beyond the contemplation of the eyes who has surpassed the greatness of thought. “For,” it is said, “of Him, and through Him, and in Him are all things.”20    Rom. xi. 33. For all things are by His command, because they are of Him; and are ordered by His word as being through Him; and all things return to His judgment; as in Him expecting liberty when corruption shall be done away, they appear to be recalled to Him.

CAPUT III. Deum esse omnium conditorem, dominum et parentem, e sacris Scripturis probatur.

Hunc igitur agnoscimus et scimus Deum, conditorem rerum omnium: Dominum, propter potestatem, et parentem, propter institutionem: hunc inquam qui dixit, et facta sunt omnia (Psal. CXLVIII, 5); praecepit, et processerunt universa; de quo scriptum 0891B est (Psal. CIII, 24): Omnia in sapientia fecisti; de quo Moyses (Deuteron. IV, 39): Deus in coelo sursum et in terra deorsum; qui secundum Isaiam (Isa. XL, 12), mensus est coelum palmo, terram pugillo: qui aspicit terram, et facit eam tremere (Psal. CIII, 32); qui continet gyrum terrae, et eos qui habitant in ipso quasi locustae; qui expendit montes in pondere, et nemora in statera (Isa. XL, 22, 12); id est, certo divinae dispositionis examine: ac, ne facile in ruinam procumberet magnitudo inaequaliter jacens, si non paribus fuisset librata ponderibus, onus hoc moderanter terrenae molis aequavit. Qui dicit per Prophetam (Isa. XLV, 22): Ego Deus, et non est praeter me. Qui per eumdem Prophetam refert (Isa. XLII, 8): Quoniam majestatem meam non dabo alteri; ut omnes cum suis figmentis 0891C ethnicos excludat et haereticos, probans Deum non esse qui manu artificis factus sit, nec eum qui ingenio haeretici fictus sit. Non est enim Deus, cui, ut sit, quaerendus est artifex. Quique adhuc adjecit per Prophetam (Isa. LXVI, 1): Coelum mihi thronus est, terra autem scabellum pedum meorum: qualem mihi aedificabitis domum, aut quis locus requiei meae? ut ostendat quoniam multo magis illum templum non capit, quem mundus non capit: et haec non ad sui jactantiam, sed ad nostri scientiam refert. Neque enim ipse a nobis desiderat magnitudinis gloriam, sed nobis vult religiosam, qua pater, conferre sapientiam. Quique praeterea ferinos nostros animos, et de agresti immanitate tumidos et abruptos ad lenitatem 0891D trahere volens, dicit (Ibid. v. 2): Et super quem 0892A requiescet Spiritus meus, nisi super humilem et quietum, et trementem verba mea? ut Deum aliquatenus quantus sit possit agnoscere, dum illum per Spiritum collatum discit timere. Qui similiter adhuc magis in notitiam nostri volens pervenire, ad culturam sui nostros excitans animos, aiebat (Isa. XLV, 7): Ego sum Dominus, qui feci lucem et creavi tenebras; ut vicissitudinum istarum quibus noctes diesque moderantur, non Naturam, nescio quam, putaremus artificem; sed Deum agnosceremus potius (quod erat verius) conditorem. Quem quoniam obtutu oculorum videre non possumus, de operum magnitudine et virtute et majestate condiscimus: Invisibilia enim ipsius, inquit apostolus Paulus, a creatura mundi per ea quae facta sunt intellecta conspiciuntur; 0892B sempiterna quoque ejus virtus et divinitas (Rom. I, 20): ut animus humanus ex manifestis occulta condiscens, de operum magnitudine quae videret, mentis oculis artificis magnitudinem cogitaret. De quo idem Apostolus (I Tim. I, 17): Regi autem saeculorum immortali, invisibili, soli Deo honor et gloria. Evasit enim oculorum contemplationem, qui cogitationis vicit magnitudinem: Quoniam, inquit, ex ipso et per ipsum et in ipso sunt omnia (Rom. XI, 33). Nam et imperio ejus omnia, ut ex ipso sint: et verbo ejus digesta, ut per ipsum sint: et in judicium ejus recidunt universa; ut dum in ipso, exspectant libertatem corruptione deposita (Rom. VIII, 21), in ipsum videantur esse revocata.