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| The Creator Was Known as the True God from the First by His Creation. Acknowledged by the Soul and Conscience of Man Before He Was Revealed by Moses.
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Chapter X.—The
Creator Was Known as the True God from the First by His Creation.
Acknowledged by the Soul and Conscience of Man Before He Was Revealed
by Moses.
For indeed, as the Creator of all things, He was
from the beginning discovered equally with them, they having been
themselves manifested that He might become known as God. For although
Moses, some long while afterwards, seems to have been the first to
introduce the knowledge of2443
the God of the
universe in the temple of his writings, yet the birthday of that
knowledge must not on that account be reckoned from the Pentateuch. For
the volume of Moses does not at all initiate2444
the knowledge of the Creator, but from the first gives out that it is
to be traced from Paradise and Adam, not from Egypt and Moses. The
greater part, therefore,2445
of the human race,
although they knew not even the name of Moses, much less his writings,
yet knew the God of Moses; and even when idolatry overshadowed the
world with its extreme prevalence, men still spoke of Him separately by
His own name as God, and the God of gods, and said, “If God
grant,” and, “As God pleases,” and, “I commend
you to God.”2446
| 2446 See also De
test, anim. 2, and De anima, 41. [Bp. Kaye refers (p. 166)
to Profr. Andrews Norton of Harvard, with great respect:
specially to a Note on this usage of the Heathen, in his
Evidences, etc. Vol. III.] | Reflect, then,
whether they knew Him, of whom they testify that He can do all
things. To none of the writings of Moses do they owe this. The
soul was before prophecy.2447
| 2447 Prophetia, inspired
Scripture. | From the beginning
the knowledge of God is the dowry of the soul, one and the same amongst
the Egyptians, and the Syrians, and the tribes of Pontus. For their
souls call the God of the Jews their God. Do not, O barbarian
heretic, put Abraham before the world. Even if the Creator had been the
God of one family, He was yet not later than your god; even in Pontus
was He known before him. Take then your standard from Him who came
first: from the Certain (must be judged) the uncertain; from the Known
the unknown. Never shall God be hidden, never shall God be wanting.
Always shall He be understood, always be heard, nay even seen, in
whatsoever way He shall wish. God has for His witnesses this whole
being of ours, and this universe wherein we dwell. He is thus,
because not unknown, proved to be both God and the only One, although
another still tries hard to make out his claim.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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