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Objection 1: It seems that God is not truth. For truth consists
in the intellect composing and dividing. But in God there is not
composition and division. Therefore in Him there is not truth.
Objection 2: Further, truth, according to Augustine (De Vera
Relig. xxxvi) is a "likeness to the principle." But in God there
is no likeness to a principle. Therefore in God there is not truth.
Objection 3: Further, whatever is said of God, is said of Him as
of the first cause of all things; thus the being of God is the cause
of all being; and His goodness the cause of all good. If therefore
there is truth in God, all truth will be from Him. But it is true
that someone sins. Therefore this will be from God; which is
evidently false.
On the contrary, Our Lord says, "I am the Way, the Truth, and
the Life" (Jn. 14:6).
I answer that, As said above (Article 1), truth is found in the
intellect according as it apprehends a thing as it is; and in things
according as they have being conformable to an intellect. This is to
the greatest degree found in God. For His being is not only
conformed to His intellect, but it is the very act of His intellect;
and His act of understanding is the measure and cause of every other
being and of every other intellect, and He Himself is His own
existence and act of understanding. Whence it follows not only that
truth is in Him, but that He is truth itself, and the sovereign and
first truth.
Reply to Objection 1: Although in the divine intellect there is
neither composition nor division, yet in His simple act of
intelligence He judges of all things and knows all things complex; and
thus there is truth in His intellect.
Reply to Objection 2: The truth of our intellect is according to
its conformity with its principle, that is to say, to the things from
which it receives knowledge. The truth also of things is according to
their conformity with their principle, namely, the divine intellect.
Now this cannot be said, properly speaking, of divine truth; unless
perhaps in so far as truth is appropriated to the Son, Who has a
principle. But if we speak of divine truth in its essence, we cannot
understand this unless the affirmative must be resolved into the
negative, as when one says: "the Father is of Himself, because He
is not from another." Similarly, the divine truth can be called a
"likeness to the principle," inasmuch as His existence is not
dissimilar to His intellect.
Reply to Objection 3: Not-being and privation have no truth of
themselves, but only in the apprehension of the intellect. Now all
apprehension of the intellect is from God. Hence all the truth that
exists in the statement---"that a person commits fornication is
true"---is entirely from God. But to argue, "Therefore that
this person fornicates is from God", is a fallacy of Accident.
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