Chapter XIII.
Second, concerning punishment through graver penalties ordained for condemnation, it is determined in two ways.
But vain etc. Above he determined concerning the punishment of adversaries through lighter penalties ordained for correction, but here concerning their punishment through graver penalties ordained for condemnation. And first he determines concerning the desert of their fault, namely up to the sixteenth chapter; second, concerning the torment of their punishment, namely from the sixteenth chapter onward.
First, the demerit of fault is determined in three ways.
The desert of fault with respect to their condemnatory punishment was idolatry, by which they transferred divine honor to a creature or exhibited it to a creature. And therefore first the manifold error of idolaters is touched upon, namely in this chapter; second, the detestation of idols, namely in the fourteenth chapter; third, the commendation of the true God, namely in the fifteenth chapter.
First, the error of idolaters is treated.
The error of idolaters is touched upon as twofold: the first, of those worshipping God's creatures; the second, of those worshipping their own fabrications: But unhappy.
Their first error.
In the first part, there is first touched upon in them the cause of so great an error, namely ignorance of God: second, the effect of the aforesaid cause, namely the worship of creatures: But either fire: third, of both the greater inexcusability: If by their beauty: fourth, in comparison to other idolaters: Yet nevertheless. - In the first part a twofold ignorance is touched upon, namely that they neither acknowledged by faith God nor knew by reason Him : And from those things which are seen. (Vers. 1.). He says therefore: Vain, etc. Thus it has been said that some knew God amid afflictions, but did not worship Him: however, for but: vain are all men, etc.; Ecclesiastes 1: "Vanity of vanities," etc. "For they walked after the vanity of the creature and became vain," as is found in Jeremiah 2: vain, I say, with the vanity of thought: whence Romans 1: "They became vain in their thoughts," etc.: likewise in the Psalm: "The Lord knows the thoughts of men, that they are vain." Likewise, with the vanity of speech: whence in the Psalm: "They have spoken vain things every one to his neighbor," etc. Likewise, with the vanity of action: whence Jeremiah 51: "Their works are vain and worthy of derision." In whom there is not the knowledge of God, that is, knowledge of God through faith. Augustine: "Nor do I attribute to this knowledge, namely divine knowledge, whatever can be known by man in human affairs, where there is a great deal of superfluous vanity and harmful curiosity: but only that by which the most salutary faith is begotten, nourished, defended, and strengthened, in which knowledge they do not excel," etc. And from those things which are seen to be good, namely openly: they could not, namely an inability following upon the will, not preceding it: whence the Gloss: " They could not understand, etc., the blindness of sin standing in the way," according to that above in chapter 2: "Their malice blinded them"; in the Psalm: "He would not understand, that he might do well"; understand, that is, know by the intellect: for God cannot be known by the senses: 1 John 4: "No man has seen God at any time"; Him who is, that is, God, for whom being is substantial, not accidental: whence Hilary: "Being is not an accident in God, but subsistent truth." Likewise, for whom being is always present, never past or future. For God, according to Augustine, always is, neither was nor will be, because He does not know, namely through experience, past or future. Likewise, whose being is pure, because whatever is in Him, He Himself is: Augustine: "Whatever is in God is God." Likewise, whose being is not from another, is immutable: whence Jerome to Marcella: "God, who alone has no beginning, held the name of true essence, because in comparison with Him, who truly is, because He is unchangeable, those things which are changeable, as it were, are not," as are all creatures, according to that of the Psalm: "As a covering You shall change them, and they shall be changed: but You are the selfsame," etc.: likewise Malachi 3: "I am," God, or "the Lord, and I change not." For the aforesaid reasons, to Moses asking His name He said in Exodus 3: "I am who I am. He said: Thus shall you say to the children of Israel: He who is has sent me to you." Nor attending to the works, which He Himself made, did they recognize who was the maker, namely of these things, and yet they could easily have known: Romans 1: "For the invisible things of God, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made."
(Vers. 2.). But either fire, namely Vulcan, as the Chaldeans worshipping fire: or spirit, that is, the ether, namely the upper part of the air, which some understood by Jupiter the thunderer; or the swift air, that is, the lower part of the air, which they called Juno: or the circle of the stars, that is, the starry heaven, as those who worshipped the host of heaven, of whom it is said in Deuteronomy 17: "That they go and serve strange gods, and adore them: the sun and the moon and all the host of heaven"; or the great water, which they called Neptune; or the sun, which they called Phoebus or Apollo, which the Babylonians worshipped: or the moon, which they called Diana, or "the queen of heaven," of which in Jeremiah 44. They supposed them to be gods that rule the world, on account of certain of their effects necessary to the world.
Note that they ought not to have supposed creatures to be gods, first on account of the corporeality of their nature, because
God is a spirit; John 4: "God is a spirit." Likewise on account of position and determination of figure: for God is everywhere wholly present: likewise He is unfigurable according to the Godhead. Likewise on account of the determination and limitation of power to certain effects: for God is omnipotent: above in chapter 11: "You have mercy on all, because You can do all things." Likewise on account of the necessity and inevitability of natural effects; for God is of free will. Likewise on account of local motion: because God is immovable, since He is the principle of all motion; Boethius:
Remaining stable, You give all things to be moved.
Likewise on account of deficiency of eternity: for God is eternal, but eternity is lacking or wanting to creatures.
According to the spiritual sense, the lustful worship fire; the proud, spirit: the wrathful and impetuous, the swift air; the curious in knowledge, the circle of the stars: the voluptuous, the great water; the covetous, the sun which begets these lower things: the slothful and acedious, the moon. If by their beauty. Here is shown their inexcusability, because they were able to know the Creator either through the beauty of creatures, or through their power: which is shown there: Or if their power etc.; or through both together, which is shown there: From the greatness etc.
(Vers. 3.). He says therefore: If delighted by their appearance, that is, by their beauty — Daniel thirteen: "Beauty has deceived you," etc. — they thought them to be gods, supply: that they themselves were gods; they thought, I say, by a false and erroneous opinion, since there is but one God — Deuteronomy six: "Your God is one." Let them know how much the ruler over them, namely their Creator, governor, preserver, and possessor, according to that passage in Judith nine: "God of the heavens, creator of the waters, king of all your creation"; is more beautiful than these, namely he who made such beautiful things; more beautiful, I say, by an infinite distance, because God is beautiful through his essence, but creatures through participation — above in chapter seven: "He is more beautiful than the sun." For the begetter of beauty, of the beauty, namely, of creatures through their production, according to that passage of Boethius:
He himself most beautiful, bearing the beautiful world in his mind and forming it in a like image.
Or: of beauty, uncreated, that is, of the Son through eternal generation. He established all these things, namely the higher, the middle, and the lower.
(Vers. 4.). Or if the power, that is, the greatness of their might, and their works, that is, the effects proceeding from their power, they marveled at, namely so much so that they believed them to be gods, let them understand from these things, that is, from the consideration of them, according to that passage in Job twelve: "Ask the beasts, and they will teach you"; that he who made these things, namely God, is stronger than they, that is, more powerful — whence Ecclesiasticus forty-three: "He himself is almighty above all his works and exceedingly great"; likewise Job nine: "If strength is sought, he is the most mighty."
(Vers. 5.). For from the greatness of the beauty that is, of the loveliness, and of the creature, that is, of the power of creatures, knowably, not sensibly, that is, by the intellectual eye, not the sensible one, the Creator of these things can be seen. Augustine: "All things cry out: God made me"; for the whole world is like a certain book in which the Creator can be known through his power, wisdom, and goodness, shining forth in creatures — whence Ecclesiasticus twenty-four: "All these things are the book of life"; Isidore: "The Creator is praised through his creature, and how excellent he is, is shown from the condition of his work."
But yet etc. Here he shows the fault of those who worship creatures in comparison to other idolaters; and first they are shown to be in some way excusable in comparison to those others; second, it is shown that nevertheless they are simply inexcusable: But again.
(Vers. 6.). But yet etc., as if to say: thus do they err; but yet still in these, namely those who err in this way, the complaint is less, that is, the ground for complaint, than in those who worship graven images, because, as it is said in the last chapter of Baruch, "they will not shine like the sun, nor give light like the moon," namely the graven images themselves. For these also, namely those who worship creatures, perhaps err: "perhaps" is here a mark of free will, not a mark of doubt. Seeking God, namely with a certain curiosity, according to that passage in Acts 17: "He made from one every nation of men to dwell upon the whole face of the earth, etc., to seek God, if perhaps they might grope after him, or find him." And wishing to find him , namely by the intention of the affections: Song of Songs 3: "I will rise and go about the city," that is, the entirety of creatures. For according to Boethius in the Consolation, "there is implanted in the minds of men a desire for the true and the good."
But it is objected: because in Luke 11 it is said: "Everyone who seeks, finds": therefore these people find the true God.
It must be said that that passage is understood of those who seek piously, not curiously.
(Vers. 7.). For when they are occupied with his works, namely by disputing about them as regards the intellect, according to that passage in Ecclesiastes 3: "He delivered the world to their disputation"; and by using them, namely as regards the affections and their effect, because Matthew 5: "He makes his sun to rise upon the good and the evil." They search, namely by reasoning, and they are persuaded, namely by judging: that the things which are seen are good: Genesis 1: "God saw all that he had made, and they were very good." In this these people are better, or less evil, than the Manicheans themselves, who say that these visible things are evil.