the true God, because He is really God, while the gods of the heathen are vanity and nothing, mere imaginary beings, having neither existence nor attributes. (2.) The true is that which completely comes up to its idea, or to what it purports to be. A true man is a man in whom the idea of manhood is fully realized. The true God is He in whom is found all that Godhead imports. (3.) The true is that in which the reality exactly corresponds to the manifestation. God is true, because He really is what He declares Himself to be ; because He is what He commands us to believe Him to be ; and because all his declarations correspond to what really is. (4.) The true is that which can be depended upon, which does not fail, or change, or disappoint. In this sense also God is true as He is immutable and faithful. His promise cannot fail ; his word never disappoints. His word abideth forever. When our Lord says, " Thy word is truth," He says that all that God has revealed may be confided in as exactly corresponding to what really is, or is to be. His word can never fail, though heaven and earth pass away.
The truth of God, therefore, is the foundation of all religion. It is the ground of our assurance, that what He has revealed of Him- self and of his will, in his works and in the Scriptures, may be relied upon. He certainly is, and wills, and will do, whatever He has thus made known. It is no less the foundation of all knowl- edge. That our senses do not deceive us ; that consciousness is trustworthy in what it teaches ; that anything is what it appears to us to be ; that our existence is not a delusive dream, has no other foundation than the truth of God. In this sense, all knowl- edge is founded on faith, i. e., the belief that God is true.
The theologians are accustomed to say : (1.) " Veritas Dei in essentia, est convenientia omnium eorum, quae ad'naturam perfec- tissimi pertinent eamque totam constituunt ; qua ratione Deus verus opponitur fictis et commentitiis." (Jer. x. 8, 10, 11 ; John v. 20, 21.) (2.) " Veritas Dei in intellectu, est convenientia cogitationum cum objecto." .... (Job xi. 7 ; Acts xv. 18.) (3.) " Veritas Dei in voluntate est convenientia decreti ac propositi efficacis cujusque cum rationibus in intellectu probe cognitis et judicatis." (Rom. xi. 33.) (4.) '^ Veritas Dei in fuctis, est convenientia ac- tionum cum proposito." (Ps. xxv. 10, . . . . ) (5.) " Veritas Dei in dictis, quae singulatira vocari solet veracitas, est convenien- tia verborum omnium cum recta cogitatione animique sententia, et efficaci voluntatis proposito." (Num. xxiii. 19 ; 1 Sam. xv. 29 ; Tit. i. 2 ; Heb. vi. 18.) " Hsec cernitur (a), in doctrin's (Is. xvii.
438 PART L — THEOLOGY. [Ch. V. — Ditlne Attributes.
17) ; (5), in prasdictionibus, promissionibus, ut et comminationibus. (Num. xxiii. 19.) "1
To the same effect the Reformed theologian Endemann, says, " Veracitas Deo duphci sensu recte adscribitur, (1.) Quatenus nunquam errat, quia est omniscius, nunquam errorem ahis significat,
quia id repugnat bonitati ejus (2.) Quatenus Deus ea
actu sentit, quae verbis vel factis entibus intelligentibus significat. Deus actionibus et sermonibus suis eum intendit finem, ut sibi homines credant, confidant, etc., quern finem everteret si semel a veritate discederet. Scriptura docet idem soil, quod Deus ....
[est] verax, immunis ab omni errore et mendacio Fidehs
est Deus, quatenus ingenue ahquid promittit ; atque promissum
certissimo complet Severitatem Deo tribuimus quatenus
comminationes suas implet." ^
The philosophical theologians virtually deny that there is any such attribute in God as truth. They say that what is intended by that term is only the uniformity of law. The efficiency of God is always exercised in such a way that we may confide in the regu- lar sequence of events. In this respect it may be said that God is true. Bruch " admits " That this idea arises necessarily out of our religious consciousness, inasmuch as we embrace with full confi- dence what we regard as a divine revelation, and are persuaded that God in due time Avill fulfil whatever He has purposed, prom- ised, or threatened. This confidence is in the strongest terms often expressed in the sacred writings, and is the source of the firm faith by which the Christian receives the revelation made in Christ ; and of the unshaken confidence with which he anticipates the fulfil- ment of the divine promises." Nevertheless, although this idea of the truth of God has its foundation in our own nature, and is so clearly recognized in Scripture, and although it enters so deeply into the religious experience and hopes of the believer, it is a delu- sion. There is no such attribute in God. It is unphilosophical, and thei'efore impossible that there should be the distinction, which must then be assumed, between purpose and act in the divine mind. The ascription of truth or veracity to God rests, says Bruch, " on the assumption of a distinction in Him between thought and its manifestation, between his promises and threatenings, and their accomplishment, which not only destroys the unity of the divine essence, but reduces Him to the limitations and changes of time,
1 Hollaz, Examen Theologkum, edit. Leipzig, 1763, pp. 243, 244. '■^ Compendium Tlieologicum, I. § 33 ; edit. Hanoviae, 1777, pp. 97, 99. 8 Eiffenschaften, p. 250.