De Sacrificiis Abelis Et Caini

But when Moses says that God swears, we must consider whether he really asserts this as a thing appropriate for him to do; since to very many people it appears inconsistent with the character of God; for the meaning implied in an oath is, that it is the testimony of God in a matter which is doubtful. But to God there is nothing uncertain and nothing in doubt;

as it is he who demonstrates clearly to others all the [*](Genesis iv. 3. ) [*](Exodus xiii. 11, )

Now it is for the sake of obtaining credence that those men who are disbelieved have recourse to an oath. But God is to be believed when simply he says any thing; so that, as far as certainty goes, his words do in no respect differ from oaths. And it happens, indeed, that our opinions are confirmed by an oath; but that an oath itself is confirmed by the addition of the name of God. God, therefore, does not become credible because of an oath, but even an oath is confirmed by God.

Why, then, has this hierophant thought fit to introduce him as swearing? That he might demonstrate the weakness of the created being, and after he had demonstrated it, might comfort him: for we are not able at all times to have ready in our soul that principal fact which ought to be remembered concerning God, namely, that "God is not as a man," [*](Numbers xxiii. 19. ) So that we may rise above those assertions which are advanced concerning man;

but we, since we have the greatest share in what is mortal, and since we are not able to conceive any thing apart from ourselves, and have no power to go beyond or to escape our own calamities, but since we have got into mortality as snails have into their shells, and since we are revolved round and round ourselves in a ball, like so many hedgehogs, and have only the same opinions about the blessed and immortal God which we have about ourselves, avoiding all absurdity of assertion, such for instance as that God has the same form as man, but in reality being guilty of the impiety of attributing [*](The similarity to Horace is here again very remarkable. Horace, speaking of the Parent and Governor of the universe, says— Undo nil majus generatur ipso, Nec viget quicquam simile, aut secundum.—Od. I. xii. 17. ) [*](Numbers xxiii. 19. )

we do on this account fashion for him in our minds hands and feet, a coming in and a going out, hatred, aversion, alienation, and anger; parts and passions very inconsistent with the character of the Cause of all things, an oath by which is often an assistant of our weakness.