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;”690 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.”691 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.”692
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;”693 and, “Ye shall not follow other gods.”694 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;695 even I am witness, saith God.”696 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.”697 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?698 If the Lord be God,699 follow Him.”700 And again,
690 Ex. iii. 14.
691 Ex. iii. 8.
692 Isa. xliii. 10.
693 Ps. xcvi. 5.
694 Ps. lxxxi. 9.
695 These words are an interpolation: it is supposed they have been carelessly repeated from the preceding
quotation of Isaiah.
696 Isa. xliv. 9.
697 Jer. x. 11.
698 Literally, “In both houghs,” in ambabus suffraginibus.
699 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.
700 1 Kings xviii. 21, etc.
1069
Chapter VI—The Holy Ghost, throughout the Old Testament Scriptures, made…