God has placed the knowledge of himself in human hearts from
the beginning. But this knowledge they unwisely invested in wood and stone.
They thus contaminated the truth, at least as far as they were able. Meanwhile
the truth itself abides unchanged, possessing its own unchanging glory. . . .
How did God reveal himself? By a voice from heaven? Not at all! God made a
panoply which was able to draw them by more than a voice. He put before them
the immense creation, so that both the wise and the unlearned, the Scythian and
the barbarian, might ascend to God, having learned through sight the beauty of
the things which they had seen.
Homilies on Romans 3.19, in NPNF
1.11:352
