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| Chapter VI—The Holy Ghost, throughout the Old Testament Scriptures, made mention of no other God or Lord, save him who is the true God.
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Chapter VI—The Holy Ghost, throughout
the Old Testament Scriptures, made mention of no other God or Lord, save him
who is the true God.
1. Therefore neither would the
Lord, nor the Holy Spirit, nor the apostles, have ever named as God,
definitely and absolutely, him who was not God, unless he were truly God;
nor would they have named any one in his own person Lord, except God the
Father ruling over all, and His Son who has received dominion from His
Father over all creation, as this passage has it: “The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit Thou
at my right hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool.”3329
Here the [Scripture] represents to us the
Father addressing the Son; He who gave Him the inheritance of the
heathen, and subjected to Him all His enemies. Since, therefore, the
Father is truly Lord, and the Son truly Lord, the Holy Spirit has fitly
designated them by the title of Lord. And again, referring to the
destruction of the Sodomites, the Scripture says, “Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon
Gomorrah fire and brimstone from the Lord out of heaven.”3330
For it here points out that the Son, who had
also been talking with Abraham, had received power to judge the Sodomites
for their wickedness. And this [text following] does declare
the same truth: “Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever; the
sceptre of Thy kingdom is a right sceptre. Thou hast loved righteousness,
and hated iniquity: therefore God, Thy God, hath anointed
Thee.”3331
For the Spirit designates
both [of them] by the name, of God—both Him who is anointed as
Son, and Him who does anoint, that is, the Father. And again: “God
stood in the congregation of the gods, He judges among the
gods.”3332
He [here] refers to the
Father and the Son, and those who have received the adoption; but these
are the Church. For she is the synagogue of God, which God—that
is, the Son Himself—has gathered by Himself. Of whom He again
speaks: “The God of gods, the Lord hath spoken, and hath called the
earth.”3333
Who is meant by God? He of
whom He has said, “God shall come openly, our God, and shall not
keep silence;”3334
that is, the Son, who came
manifested to men who said, “I have openly appeared to those who
seek Me not.”3335
But of what gods [does he
speak]? [Of those] to whom He says, “I have said, Ye are gods, and
all sons of the Most High.”3336
To
those, no doubt, who have received the grace of the “adoption, by
which we cry, Abba Father.”3337
2. Wherefore, as I
have already stated, no other is named as God, or is called Lord, except
Him who is God and Lord of all, who also said to Moses, “I am that I am. And thus shalt
thou say to the children of Israel: He who is, hath sent me unto
you;”3338
and His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who
makes those that believe in His name the sons of God. And again, when the
Son speaks to Moses, He says, “I am come down to deliver this
people.”3339
For it is He who descended
and ascended for the salvation of men. Therefore God has been declared
through the Son, who is in the Father, and has the Father in Himself
—He who is, the Father bearing witness to the Son, and the Son
announcing the Father.—As also Esaias says, “I too am
witness,” he declares, “saith the Lord God, and the Son whom I have
chosen, that ye may know, and believe, and understand that I
am.”3340
3. When, however, the
Scripture terms them [gods] which are no gods, it does not, as I have
already remarked, declare them as gods in every sense, but with a certain
addition and signification, by which they are shown to be no gods at all.
As with David: “The gods of the heathen are idols of
demons;”3341
and, “Ye shall not
follow other gods.”3342
For in that he says
“the gods of the heathen”—but the heathen are
ignorant of the true God—and calls them “other gods,”
he bars their claim [to be looked upon] as gods at all. But as to what
they are in their own person, he speaks concerning them; “for they
are,” he says, “the idols of demons.” And Esaias:
“Let them be confounded, all who blaspheme God, and carve useless
things;3343
| 3343 These words are
an interpolation: it is supposed they have been carelessly repeated from
the preceding quotation of Isaiah. | even I am witness, saith
God.”3344
He removes them from [the
category of] gods, but he makes use of the word alone, for this
[purpose], that we may know of whom he speaks. Jeremiah also says the
same: “The gods that have not made the heavens and earth, let them
perish from the earth which is under the heaven.”3345
For, from the fact of his having subjoined their destruction, he
shows them to be no gods at all. Elias, too, when all Israel was
assembled at Mount Carmel, wishing to turn them from idolatry, says to
them, “How long halt ye between two opinions?3346
| 3346 Literally, “In both houghs,”
in ambabus suffraginibus. | If the Lord be God,3347
| 3347 The old Latin translation has, “Si
unus est Dominus Deus”—If the Lord God is
one; which is supposed by the critics to have occurred through
carelessness of the translator. | follow Him.”3348
And again, at the burnt-offering, he thus
addresses the idolatrous priests: “Ye shall call upon the name of
your gods, and I will call on the name of the Lord my God; and the Lord that
will hearken by fire,3349
| 3349 The
Latin version has, “that answereth to-day” (hodie),
—an evident error for igne. | He is God.”
Now, from the fact of the prophet having said these words, he proves that
these gods which were reputed so among those men, are no gods at all. He
directed them to that God upon whom he believed, and who was truly God;
whom invoking, he exclaimed, “Lord God of Abraham, God of
Isaac, and God of Jacob, hear me to-day, and let all this people know
that Thou art the God of Israel.”3350
4. Wherefore I do also call upon thee, Lord God of Abraham, and God of
Isaac, and God of Jacob and Israel, who art the Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the God who, through the abundance of Thy mercy, hast had a
favour towards us, that we should know Thee, who hast made heaven and
earth, who rulest over all, who art the only and the true God, above whom
there is none other God; grant, by our Lord Jesus Christ, the governing
power of the Holy Spirit; give to every reader of this book to know Thee,
that Thou art God alone, to be strengthened in Thee, and to avoid every
heretical, and godless, and impious doctrine.
5. And the Apostle Paul also, saying,
“For though ye have served them which are no gods; ye now know God,
or rather, are known of God,”3351
has made
a separation between those that were not [gods] and Him who is God. And
again, speaking of Antichrist, he says, “who opposeth and exalteth
himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped.”3352
He points out here those who are called gods,
by such as know not God, that is, idols. For the Father of all is called
God, and is so; and Antichrist shall be lifted up, not above Him, but
above those which are indeed called gods, but are not. And Paul himself
says that this is true: “We know that an idol is nothing, and that
there is none other God but one. For though there be that are called
gods, whether in heaven or in earth; yet to us there is but one God, the
Father, of whom are all things, and we through Him; and one Lord Jesus
Christ, by whom are all things, and we by Him.”3353
For he has made a distinction, and separated those which
are indeed called gods, but which are none, from the one God the Father,
from whom are all things, and, he has confessed in the most decided
manner in his own person, one Lord Jesus Christ. But in this [clause],
“whether in heaven or in earth,” he does not speak of the
formers of the world, as these [teachers] expound it; but his meaning is
similar to that of Moses, when it is said, “Thou shalt not make to
thyself any image for God, of whatsoever things are in heaven above,
whatsoever in the earth beneath, and whatsoever in the waters under the
earth.”3354
And he does thus explain
what are meant by the things in heaven: “Lest when,” he says,
“looking towards heaven, and observing the sun, and the moon, and
the stars, and all the ornament of heaven, falling into error, thou
shouldest adore and serve them.”3355
And Moses
himself, being a man of God, was indeed given as a god before
Pharaoh;3356
but he is not properly termed Lord, nor is
called God by the prophets, but is spoken of by the Spirit as
“Moses, the faithful minister and servant of God,”3357
which also he
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