Therefore we ought to believe that God is good, eternal, perfect, almighty and true, such as we find him in the Law and the Prophets and the rest of the Holy Scriptures,^[1] for otherwise there is no God. For he who is God must be good, seeing that fullness of goodness is of the nature of God.^[2] God, who made time, cannot be in time. Again, God cannot be imperfect, for a lesser being is plainly imperfect, seeing that it lacks somewhat whereby it could be made equal to a greater. This, then, is the teaching of our faith—that God is not evil, that with God nothing is impossible, that God does not exist in time, that God is beneath no being. If I am in error, let my adversaries prove it.^[3]

You may know both that the Father is eternal and that the Son is not different from him. The source of his generation is he who is,^[1] and he is begotten of the Eternal. He is God, coming forth from the Father. He is the Son.^[2] He is from God. He is the Word. He is the radiance of the Father’s glory, the expression of his substance,^[3] the counterpart of God, the image of his majesty. He is the bounty of him who is bountiful, the wisdom of him who is wise, the power of the mighty One, the truth of him who is true,^[4] the life of the living One.^[5]

But if heretics deny that either the heavens or the earth were made by you, O Lord, let them take heed of the abyss into which they are hurling themselves by their own madness. The prophet writes, Perish the gods that have not made heaven and earth. Shall he then perish, O Arian, who had found and saved that which had perished?

He said, The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, let them perish from the earth and from under the heaven. He did not say, The gods that have not made the heaven and from the earth, because they never were in heaven. What did he say? He said, Let them perish from the earth and from under the heaven, as if, while the word earth was repeated, heaven did not need to be (because they never were in heaven). He repeats earth twice, since it is under heaven. Let them perish from the earth and from under the heaven, from their temples. Consider whether this is not now taking place, whether in a great measure it has not already happened. For what, or how much, has remained? The idols remained rather in the hearts of the pagans than in the niches of the temples.

In reading what is said in this psalm of Christ and of the church, one would find that what is there foretold is fulfilled in the present state of the world. He would see the idols of the nations perishing from off the earth, and he would find that this is predicted by the prophets, as in Jeremiah: Then shall you say to them, ‘The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth shall perish from the earth, and from under heaven,’ and again, O Lord, my strength and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come to you from the ends of the earth and shall say, ‘Surely our ancestors have inherited lies, vanity and things in which there is no profit. Shall a person make gods for himself, and they are not gods?’ Therefore, behold, I will at that time cause them to know, I will cause them to know my hand and my might, and they shall know that I am the Lord.^[1] Hearing these prophecies and seeing their fulfillment, I need not say that he would be affected. We know from experience how the hearts of believers are confirmed by seeing ancient predictions now being fulfilled.

Because they can be called gods, though they cannot be so, for a time they are even called so. What does the prophet say, or what warning does he give them? The prophet is told to say this to them: The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth, and from those that are under the heavens. He is not such a god, for our God is above all gods. Above all what gods? For all the gods of the nations are idols, but the Lord made the heavens.^[1]

Next, he adduces what indeed is the greatest token of divinity, of whom are all things.^[1] For this implies also that those others are not gods. For it is said, Let the gods who made not the heaven and the earth perish. Then he adds at the end nothing less than this, and we to him.^[2] For when he says, of whom are all things, he means the creation and the bringing of things out of nothing into existence.

Who has understood the sense of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor or has taught him?^[1] Of him we also read elsewhere: For he holds the circuit of the earth and made the earth as nothing.^[2] And Jeremiah says, The gods that have not made heaven and earth will perish from the earth and from among those places that are under heaven. He that made the earth by his power and prepared the world by his wisdom and stretched out the heavens at his knowledge and a multitude of waters in the heaven. And he adds, Humankind is become a fool for knowledge. How can one who pursues the corruptible things of the world and thinks that from these things he can comprehend the truth of divine nature not become a fool as he makes use of the artifices of sophistry?

Jeremiah the prophet, gifted with consummate wisdom, or rather the Holy Spirit in Jeremiah, exhibits God. Am I a God at hand, he says, and not a God afar off? Can a person hide himself in secret places so that I cannot see him? Do I not fill heaven and earth? declares the Lord.^[1] . . . For the Lord who created the earth by his power, as Jeremiah says, has raised up the world by his wisdom. For wisdom, which is his word, raises us up to the truth. It raises us who have fallen prostrate before idols. And this raising through the word is itself the first resurrection from our fall.

The psalmist writes, Such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high; I cannot attain unto it.^[1] In another: When I thought how I might know this, it was too painful for me until I went into the sanctuary of God and considered their latter end.^[2] And later in the same psalm, I was as a beast before you; nevertheless I am continually with you.^[3] And Jeremiah says, Every person is become brutish and without knowledge.

If everyone has become foolish from knowledge, and Paul is a man, Paul has become foolish from knowledge because he knows in part, prophesies in part, has become foolish from knowledge because he sees through a mirror, sees dimly, sees and comprehends matters in small part and—if one can say—an infinitely tiny part. And seen from the opposite, you will understand that everyone has become foolish from knowledge. There are sins of Jerusalem, sins also of Sodom, but in comparison with the worse sins of Jerusalem, the sins of Sodom are righteousness. For Sodom, he said, was justified due to you. Thus, as the sins of Sodom are not righteousness but injustice, and as there arises righteousness when compared with a greater injustice, so this is understood as knowledge seen from the opposite. The knowledge that is in Paul, with respect to that knowledge that is in the heavens, is as foolishness compared with the mature knowledge. Hence, everyone was made foolish by knowledge. In considering I think something such as this, the Preacher said, I have said, I will become wise. And it was made far from me, beyond what was, and deep, so deep; who will discover it?

He refers to the kings and priests as [stupid] shepherds because they were the guardians of this wandering people.

The Lord protested against their wickedness through the voice of the prophet, saying, Alas for the shepherds, who destroy and scatter the sheep of my inheritance,^[1] and again, The shepherds have become foolish and have not sought the Lord. Therefore did none of the flock understand and were scattered. Such, then, was their state. But we are under the rule of the chief Shepherd of all, even Christ, by whom and with whom to God the Father be praise and dominion, with the Holy Spirit, forever and ever. Amen.

The saints have never claimed that their own efforts would have enabled them to find their way along the road they were traveling to perfect virtue. Rather, they sought it from the Lord, praying, Direct me in your truth^[1] and direct the road I take in your sight.^[2] And someone else asserts that he grasped this not only through faith but also through direct experience of how things are: I learned, Lord, that a person is no master of the road he takes, nor is it in man’s power as he goes his way to control his steps. The Lord had this to say to Israel: I will lead him on, like a greening fir tree, and the fruit you bear comes from me.^[3]

It is clear, therefore, from what was said at first and what was added, that the verse I know, Lord, that the people’s way is not their own, neither subjects our free will to nature’s enslavement nor submits our affairs to an ordained necessity. Instead, it expressly teaches us that the Lord God keeps his hand on the tiller of the universe and wisely directs it. He provides blessings but also corrects with justice whenever he perceives that despite his extended long-suffering we persist in evildoing.

All are governed by their own free choice. What Christian can bear to hear this? For if not one, or a few or many, but all of us are governed by our own free choice, what becomes of the help of God? How do you explain the proverb that A person’s goings are ordered by the Lord?^[1] Or A person’s way is not in himself? Or No one can receive anything, unless it be given him from above?^[2] And elsewhere, What do you have that you did not receive?^[3]

Unless God works in us, we cannot be partakers of any virtue. For indeed, without this Good, nothing is good. Without this Light, nothing is bright. Without this Wisdom, nothing is wise. Without this Justice, nothing is right. For the Lord says through the mouth of Isaiah, I am, I am the Lord, and there is no one besides me who saves,^[1] and through Jeremiah, I know, O Lord, that the way of a person is not in him. Neither is it in a person to direct his way.

Jeremiah, explaining that humankind receives wisdom from God, states, I know, O Lord, that the way of a person is not his. Neither is it of a person . . . to direct his way. Again the Lord proclaims through the same prophet that God effects the conversion of a heart to him and says, I will bring them again into this land. And I will build them up again and not pull them down. And I will plant them and pluck them up. And I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord. And they shall be my people and I will be their God, because they shall return to me with whole heart.^[1]

The inspired author knows the usefulness of discipline and understands that the Lord is exercising loving-kindness in applying it to human beings. This is the reason he asks to have a share in it. God exercises goodness in applying correction, and correction produces knowledge. Likewise the prophet Jeremiah begs, Correct us, O Lord, but in just measure, not in anger, lest you make us few. Thus, a sick person who longs for health goes in search of a cure through cutting by steel and burning.