§ 1. On God and His Attributes or Perfections.
'I believe in God.'
3. Who is God?
God is an infinitely perfect Spirit, the Lord of Heaven and earth, and the Author of all good.
4. Can we see God?
No; we cannot see God with corporeal eyes, because He is a Spirit.
5. How, then, can we come to a knowledge of God?
God has made Himself known to us in two ways; that is, in a natural, and in a supernatural way.
6. How has God made Himself known to man in a natural way?
1. By the visible world, which He has created and continually governs; for nobody can reasonably think that the world has made itself, or that the regular and perfect order in it originated and subsists by itself. Only 'the fool hath said in his heart. There is no God' (Ps. xiii. 1).
Therefore St. Paul says of the Gentiles that they are inexcusable, if they do not believe in God: For the invisible things of Him, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made: His eternal power also, and Divinity' (Rom. i. 20). 'Nevertheless He left not Himself without testimony, doing good from Heaven, giving rains and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness' (Acts xiv. 16; comp. Wisdom 13).
2. By the voice of conscience, which admonishes us to dread an invisible avenger of sin, and to hope in a rewarder of virtue (Rom. ii. 15).
Conscience has not been made by man. Its action is often so painful that man would prefer, if he could, to be without it. It exists in us by the will of God, who made it an essential part of our human nature, in order that we might be taught by its voice,
7. How has God made Himself known to man in a supernatural manner?
