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E
CHAPTER 10.
SCRIPTURE, TO CORRECT ALL SUPERSTITION,
HAS SET THE TRUE GOD ALONE OVER AGAINST
ALL THE GODS OF THE HEATHEN F299

1. THE SCRIPTURAL DOCTRINE OF GOD THE CREATOR

b
We have taught that the knowledge of God, otherwise quite clearly set
forth in the system of the universe f300 and in all creatures, is nonetheless
more intimately and also more vividly revealed in his Word. But now it is
worth-while to ponder whether the Lord represents himself to us in
Scripture as we previously saw him delineate himself in his works. This
would indeed be a long matter, if anyone wished to pause and treat it more
thoroughly. Yet I shall be content to have provided godly minds with a
sort of index to what they should particularly look for in Scripture
concerning God, and to direct their search to a sure goal. eI do not yet
touch upon the special covenant by which he distinguished the race of
Abraham from the rest of the nations [cf. <011704>Genesis 17:4]. For, even
then in receiving by free adoption as sons those who were enemies, he
showed himself to be their Redeemer. We, however, are still concerned
with that knowledge which stops at the creation of the world, and does
not mount up to Christ the Mediator. But even if it shall be worth-while a
little later f301 to cite certain passages from the New Testament, in which
the power of God the Creator and of his providence in the preservation of
the primal nature are proved, yet I wish to warn my readers what I now
intend to do, lest they overleap the limits set for them. Finally, at present
let it be enough to grasp how God, the Maker of heaven and earth, governs
the universe founded by him. Indeed, both his fatherly goodness and his
beneficently inclined will are repeatedly extolled; and examples of his
severity are given, which show him to be the righteous avenger of evil
deeds, especially where his forbearance toward the obstinate is of no
effect.
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2. THE ATTRIBUTES OF GOD ACCORDING TO SCRIPTURE
AGREE WITH THOSE KNOWN IN HIS CREATURES
b
Indeed, in certain passages clearer descriptions are set forth for us,
wherein his true appearance is exhibited, to be seen as in an image. f302 For
when Moses described the image, he obviously meant to tell briefly
whatever was right for men to know about him. “Jehovah,” he says,
“Jehovah, a merciful and gracious God, patient and of much compassion,
and true, who keepest mercy for thousands, who takest away iniquity and
transgression … in whose presence the innocent will not be innocent, who
visitest the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s
children.” [<023406>Exodus 34:6-7, cf. Vg.] Here let us observe that his
eternity and his self-existence f303 are announced by that wonderful name
twice repeated. Thereupon his powers are mentioned, by which he is
shown to us not as he is in himself, but as he is toward us: f304 so that this
recognition of him consists more in living experience than in vain and high-
flown speculation. Now we hear the same powers enumerated there that
we have noted as shining in heaven and earth: kindness, goodness, mercy,
justice, judgment, and truth. For power and might are contained under the
title Elohim.
By the same epithets also the prophets designate him when they wish to
display his holy name to the full. That we may not be compelled to
assemble many instances, at present let one psalm [<19E501>Psalm 145]
suffice for us, in which the sum of all his powers is so precisely reckoned
up that nothing would seem to have been omitted [esp. <19E505>Psalm 145:5].
And yet nothing is set down there that cannot be beheld in his creatures.
Indeed, with experience as our teacher we find God just as he declares
himself in his Word. In Jeremiah, where God declares in what character he
would have us know him, he puts forward a less full description but one
plainly amounting to the same thing. “Let him who glories, glory in this,”
he says, “that he knows that I am the Lord who exercise mercy, judgment,
and justice in the earth.” [<240924>Jeremiah 9:24; <460131>1 Corinthians 1:31.]
Certainly these three things are especially necessary for us to know:
mercy, on which alone the salvation of us all rests; judgment, which is
daily exercised against wrongdoers, and in even greater severity awaits
them to their everlasting ruin; justice, whereby believers are preserved, and
are most tenderly nourished. When these are understood, the prophecy
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witnesses that you have abundant reason to glory in God. Yet neither his
truth, nor power, nor holiness, nor goodness is thus overlooked. For how
could we have the requisite knowledge of his justice, mercy, and judgment
unless that knowledge rested upon his unbending truth? And without
understanding his power, how could we believe that he rules the earth in
judgment and justice? But whence comes his mercy save from his
goodness? If, finally, “all his paths are mercy” [<192510>Psalm 25:10],
judgment, justice [cf. <192508>Psalm 25:8-9], in these also is his holiness
visible.
Indeed, the knowledge of God set forth for us in Scripture is destined for
the very same goal as the knowledge whose imprint shines in his creatures,
in that it invites us first to fear God, then to trust in him. By this we can
learn to worship him both with perfect innocence of life and with
unfeigned obedience, then to depend wholly upon his goodness.

3. BECAUSE THE UNITY OF GOD WAS ALSO NOT UNKNOWN

TO THE HEATHEN, THE WORSHIPERS OF IDOLS ARE THE
MORE INEXCUSABLE
e
But here I propose to summarize the general doctrine. And first, indeed,
let readers observe that Scripture, to direct us to the true God, distinctly
excludes and rejects all the gods of the heathen, for religion was commonly
adulterated throughout almost all ages. Indeed, it is true that the name of
one God was everywhere known and renowned. For men who worshiped
a swarm of gods, whenever speaking from a real feeling of nature, as if
content with a single God, simply used the name “God”; and Justin
Martyr, wisely noting this, composed a book, God’s Monarchy, in which
he showed by very many testimonies that the unity of God has been
engraved upon the hearts of all. f305 Tertullian likewise proves the same
point by phrases in common use. f306 But all the heathen, to a man, by their
own vanity either were dragged or slipped back into false inventions, and
thus their perceptions so vanished that whatever they had naturally
sensed concerning the sole God had no value beyond making them
inexcusable. f307 For even the wisest of them openly display the vague
wanderings of their minds when they long for some god or other to be
present among them, and so invoke dubious gods in their prayers. Besides
this, in imagining a god of many natures — although they held a view less
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absurd than the ignorant multitude with its Jupiter, Mercury, Venus,
Minerva, and the rest — they, too, were not free of Satan’s deceptions.
As we have already said elsewhere, f308 all the evasions the philosophers
have skillfully contrived do not refute the charge of defection; rather, the
truth of God has been corrupted by them all. For this reason, Habakkuk,
when he condemned all idols, bade men seek God “in his temple”
[<350220>Habakkuk 2:20] lest believers admit someone other than him who
revealed himself by his Word.