When God, who has authority over all things, was making the human race through His own Word, He saw the weakness of their nature: by itself it could not know its Maker or even form any conception of God. For God is without origin, while created things came from non-existence; He is incorporeal, while human beings were fashioned here below in a body; and in every respect created beings fall far short of comprehending and knowing their Maker. Therefore, because He is good, God again took pity on the human race and did not leave them without the knowledge of Himself, so that their very existence would not be useless.
For what benefit is there to creatures if they do not know their Maker? How could they be rational if they did not know the Word of the Father, in whom they came into being? They would differ in no way from irrational animals if they knew nothing beyond earthly things. And why would God have made them if He did not wish to be known by them?
Therefore, to prevent this, because He is good, God gave them a share in His own Image, our Lord Jesus Christ, and made them according to His own image and likeness. Through this grace they might perceive the Image—that is, the Word of the Father—and through Him form a conception of the Father. By knowing their Maker, they might live the truly happy and blessed life.
But human beings again acted senselessly. They treated the grace given to them with contempt, turned so far away from God, and darkened their own soul so greatly that they not only forgot the conception of God but also invented one thing after another for themselves. They formed idols in place of the truth, preferred things that do not exist to God who is, and worshiped the creation rather than the Creator. Worst of all, they transferred the honor due to God to wood, stones, every kind of material thing, and even human beings. And they went still further, as was said in the preceding work.
Their impiety went so far that they worshiped demons and proclaimed them to be gods, satisfying their own desires. As was said before, they offered sacrifices of irrational animals and slaughtered human beings as offerings appropriate to these powers, binding themselves ever more tightly under their maddening influence.
For this reason magic arts were taught among them, and oracles in various places led people astray. Everyone attributed their own birth and existence to the stars and to all the heavenly bodies, considering nothing beyond visible things.
In a word, impiety and lawlessness were everywhere, and only God and His Word remained unknown. Yet He had not hidden Himself from people or given the knowledge of Himself in only one way; rather, He had revealed it to them in many different ways.