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CHAPTER II."

GOD IS A SPIRIT, UNCREATED, IMMORTAL, INVISIBLE, INCOMPREHENSIBLE, IMMUTABLE, IMPASSIBLE, OMNIPRESENT, AND OMNISCIENT.

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Exod. III, 14. Moses saith to God: Lo, I shall go to the children of Israel, and say to them: The God of your fathers hath sent me to you. If they say to me: What is his name? What shall I say to them? God said to Moses: I am who He said: Thus shalt thou say to the children of Israel: He who is, sent me to you. And God said again to Moses : Thus shalt thou say to the children of Israel: The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me to you: this is my name forever, and this is my memorial unto all generations.

Exod. XXXIII, 20. Thou canst not see my face; for man shall not see me and live.

Numbers XXIII, 19. God is not as a man, that he should lie, nor as the son of man that he should be changed. Hath he said then, and will he not do? Hath he not spoken, and will he not fulfil ?

Josue. II, 11. For the Lord your God, he is God in heaven above and in the earth beneath.

1 Kings II, 11. There is none holy as the Lord is; for there is no other beside thee, and there is none strong like our God: for the Lord is the God of all knowledge, and to him are thoughts prepared.

2 Paral. VI, 14. O Lord God of Israel, there is no God like thee in heaven, nor in earth. 18. Is it credible then that God should dwell with men on the earth? If heaven, and the heaven of heavens do not contain thee, how much less this house which I have built?

Psalm CI, 26. In the beginning, O Lord, thou foundest the earth, and the heavens are the works of thy hands.

They shall perish, but thou remain ; and all of them shall grow old like a garment; and as a vesture shalt thou change them; and they shall be changed. But thou art always the self same, and thy years shall not fail.

Psalm CXXXVIII, 5. Behold, O Lord, thou hast known all things, the last and those of old. Thy knowledge is become wonderful to me, it is high, and I cannot reach to it. Whither shall I go from thy spirit? Or whither shall I flee from thy face? If I ascend into heaven thou art there; if I descend into hell thou art present. Jeremias XXIII, 23. Am I, think ye, a God at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God afar off? Shall a man be hid in a secret place, and I not see him, saith the Lord? do I not fill heaven and earth, saith the Lord?

Malac. III, 6. I am the Lord, and I change not.

1 Tim. I, 17. To the king of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever.

1 Tim. VI, 15. The King of kings, and Lord of lords, who only hath immortality, and inhabiteth light inaccessible, whom no man hath seen, nor can see, to whom be honor and empire everlasting.

Heb. IV, 13. Neither is there any creature invisible in his sight but all things are naked and open to his eyes, to whom our speech is.

James I, 17. Every best gift, and every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no change, nor shadow of alteration.

JUSTINUS A. D. 160.

Ans

Question 6. "How is it known that there is a God? wer. From the constitution, continuance and perpetuity of the things that exist. For the things that exist, would not exist, if there had not been God, before they had existed, who has micely arranged all the parts of the creation for the use and convenience of every creature."

THEOPHILUS ANTIOCHENUS, A. D. 170.

Lib. I ad Autolycum. "The form of God hidden from us, cannot be explained, neither can it be seen by corporal eyes.For it cannot be perceived with the sensitive powers of the mind, nor can its magnitude be comprehended, nor its height conceived by the mind. He cannot be compared with any being in fortitude; his wisdom is truly deemed incomprehensible, there is none that can imitate him in goodness; our imbecility is such that we could not attempt to explain in words his beneficence. If I call him light, I name his own creature (for surely the light was created by God), if I call him word, I pronounce his dominion; if I call him mind, I understand his wisdom; if I should say Spirit, I point to his breathing; if I say wisdom, I understand his Son; if I should say his fortitude, I admit his power; if I should say power, I wish that his efficacious operation be understood. He is without a beginning, for he is unbegotten; he is subject to no change, for he is immortal. He is called God, because he has placed all things under his providential care. He has assumed that name also currendo, from motion, for he moves all things into operation, nourishes by his wisdom, disposes, governs, vivifies and brings them to vegetation. He is called Lord because all things are subject to his

dominion.

He is called Father because he existed before this world. He is called Maker and Creator, because he built and created this machine of the universe. He is styled the Highest, because he is above all things. He is called Emperor, because he embraces and governs by his power all things. For the heights of the heavens, the depths of the abyss, and the ends of the world are in his hands; there is not a place in which he delays and rests. As the soul is not seen in the human body, being invisible, it is known only from the motion of the body; so God cannot be seen by human, or corporeal eyes, but he is seen and apprehended from his providence, by which he regulates all things, and from his works. As if a man see a ship under full sail, ploughing the deep, and putting into harbor, he certainly believes that there is a pilot on board by whom she is steered so there is no man of such weak understanding, as not to believe that God is the ruler of all things, although we cannot see him with our carnal eyes. For if man cannot fix his eyes upon the sun, which is indeed but a small element, by reason of the greatness of its heat and power, much less is mortal man able to behold the glory of God, which is to man ineffable."

IRÆNEUS, A. D. 180.

Lib. 2 Cap. 16. "The heretics, if they knew the Scriptures, and were instructed by the truth, would surely know that God is not like men, and that his thoughts are not as the thoughts of men. For far distant is the Father of all, from the things that proceed from men by passions and affections. He is both simple and without parts, self-similar, self-equal; he is all a spirit, all sensitive, all a being, all a reason, all an hearing, all an eye, all a light, and the entire fountain of all good things, as it is proper for the pious and religious to say of God. But he is above all these things, and therefore inexpressible. shall be well and truly called a sense capable of knowing all

For he

things, but unlike the sense of mankind, and will very properly be called light, but in that he has nothing similar to what is light according to us."

ATHENAGORAS, A. D. 180.

Legatione pro Christianis. "The unbegotten and impassible God knows no division, neither does he consist of parts. God is unbegotten, and so are all his properties. He so transcends the world, that he fills all things round about, neither is there any place in which he is not."

De mortuorum resurrectione. "It is impossible that God would be ignorant of the nature of the bodies destined for resurrection, in regard either to any part or particle of them.— Neither could he be ignorant to what place each of the decomposed members have gone, and what places have received and incorporated with their own nature the sensual parts of the elements, although the fate of the elements in general, is unknown and incomprehensible to us. For to him was not unknown before the creation of each thing, the nature of the future elements, from which the bodies originated; nor were the parts of the elements unknown to him from which he was pleased to make the human body; it is manifest that he will not be ignorant to what place the different parts have gone, which he had assumed for the perfection of the work, in what place were the whole scattered."

EUSEBIUS CÆSARIENSIS, A. D. 320.

"See how true, for first we think

De præparatione Evangelica, lib. 8, c. 2. how simple and how perfect are our opinions of God, that he is most perfect, and most holy, sufficient both for himself and for others; that he is the beginning, the middle, and the end of all things; being from his works known and most manifest, but his substance is totally invisible; to whom we can neither see nor conceive anything similar. Consequently neither

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