Chapter IV
In which it is demonstrated that God exists.
Seeing as there were atheists in ancient times, and there are today, who deny God, there, we will briefly teach that God exists, though it is a principle; that is, an axiom that is self-authenticating and indemonstrable, and therefore, it should be believed by all simply, and without demonstration.
Theodorus Cyrenaeus and Evemerus Tegeates thought there is no God, as Plutarch testifies, and after him, Bishop Theodoret of Cyrus, in the second sermon of de curatione Graecarum affectionum. But how many are Christians only in name, and in matter of fact are atheists, and deny God? Ps. 14. “The fool has said in his heart, There is no God.”
It can be demonstrated by a demonstration of ‘because’ that God exists, even though Petrus de Alliaco, in I. Rabbini Mosis, following the delusions of the Jews, denied it. Moreover, this demonstration is the cause of the knowledge of God that we call acquired, which must be distinguished from innate and infused knowledge.
Therefore, nature and reason teach all men, even those ignorant of the Word of God, that God exists, sufficiently for them to be inexcusable, Rom. 1:19-20, as the following indications show:
- The consideration of the world, the mass, the skillful production, the form, the continuous sustaining, the very wise governance, the innumerable variety, the order of bodies, the diverse movement, and the admirable virtues of which teach that there is some intelligent nature from which all of these things come. Ps. 8, 19, Rom. 1:19-20. “Seeing as τὸ γνωστὸν τοῦ θεοῦ, that which can be known of God, is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For the invisible things of him are clearly seen from the creation of the world, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.” Act. 14:17, “Nevertheless, he did not leave himself without witness, in that he did good and gave us rain from heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.” From here, that axiom repeated by the gentile philosophers: “nothing is the cause of itself,” unless the prior and the consequent are the same as it. It would be no less foolish than false to affirm that the same thing is in the same sense simultaneously in potency and act. At any rate, a cause was needed which would produce the world and all its parts. Diagoras openly and explicitly denied that God exists, and not having wood to cook his turnips with, he cut up a statue of Hercules, as Athenagoras relates in Legatio pro Christianis. And in the same place, he recalls that an infamous rumor of three scandalous acts was spread concerning Christians: impiety, that they did away with Gods, cannibalistic feasts, and incestuous copulation. But Athenagoras proves that these scandalous deeds were slanderously attributed to Christians. Justin Martyr testifies that Christians were called atheists, Apologia II. ad Antoninum Pium Imperatorem. But Christians by no means deny that God exists. It is a delusion of the heathens; and therefore, we take up nature arguments to prove that God exists. Hermes Trismegistus said in Poemandres, “Indeed, God cannot be penetrated by human reason, but he can be touched by hands.”
- The principles innate in us, which are the starting points of doctrines, which it is necessary to have been engraved in the minds of man by an intelligent nature. Rom. 1:19.
- The special knowledge naturally inherent in us that God exists.
- The proper testimony of our conscience, upon thunder and other unusual storms, earthquakes, which is frightened, and fears God the judge on account of wicked deeds, and thus, shudders with some trepidation, as may be seen in Caesar Caligula, as Suetonius testifies on Caligula, ch. 51.
- Punishments for evil deeds, inflicted upon the wicked even in this life, concerning which Thucydides says, μεγάλων ἀδικημάτων μεγάλαι τιμωρίαι εἰσὶ παρὰ Θεοῦ. “To great evil deeds belong great acts of vengeance from God.”
- The establishing and conserving of political order.
- Particular virtues and motions in heroic persons. Hence, by Homer, heroes are called “god-like.”
- Indications of future things. Cicero said concerning divination, “If there is divination, there are gods.”
- The end of all natural things. For, since it is most certain in all things, and so very few things, rather, have a view to or perceive that end to which they constantly are inclined and continue, it is wholly necessary for there to be some mind that understands all things, and governs particular things and directs them to their ends.
- The series of causes that does not progress into infinity, leading by hand, as it were, to some first mover, upon whom all motions, actions, and effects depend.
- Worship itself, whether religious or superstitious, introduced by fear of the deity.
- The common confession and consent of all peoples, even the most savage. “For no people is so barbaric that it does not judge that there is some god, indeed, so that men prefer to have a false god to none at all: certainly, a sense of the divinity sits so highly in our hearts.” Cicero, Tusc. Sen. 1.21. ep. 118. Divinus ille Jamblichus, de mysteriis. ch. 1.
- A sense of the goodness of God; that is, of the immense spiritual and corporal benefits of God. For that we live, that we move, and that we exist is a benefit of his. Act. 14:15. And so many benefits of his surround us that he is nearly felt by us, Act. 17:27. Seneca, de benefic. 4.4.
- The excellence of our mind. For, that we reason, that we dispute in our mind, and that we think up various arts and exercise them, is done by the benefit of God. The soul, in itself, is immobile, and at the same time, by its will it governs all the motions of the body, it reveals itself by admirable effects, and yet, it is not discerned with the eyes, nor can it be comprehended with sharpness of mind. This compels us to think that there is some mind that goes, moves, and guides all these things: that there is a Spirit in whom we live, move, and have our being. Man even sees and feels in himself that there is a God, whether he beholds the body or considers the soul.
- The immortality of our soul. For the soul goes forth to God, when it departs this body, and flies away as from a prison: and the gentiles said that the soul is our little part of the divine breath.
- Admirable, remarkable, and unexpected events that could not be done except by a most powerful nature, with which the theater of human life is full.
From these very many arguments, it can be clear to any, even one ignorant of the Holy Scriptures, that God exists. And thus, absolutely all men know that God exists from the touch of divinity, before all use of reason. And thus, Thomas Aquinas and other scholastics deny in vain that God is known in himself.
The Holy Scripture, rather, and the Christian Faith sufficiently teach for salvation that God exists and whatever is to be believed concerning him, as shall be clear further on.
