7. This being the case, I ask how a
distinction can be made in the words, Let Us make man after Our own
image and likeness, between a true God and a false. The words
express a meaning, the meaning is the outcome of thought; the thought
is set in motion by truth. Let us follow the words back to their
meaning, and learn from the meaning the thought, and from the thought
attain to the underlying truth. Thy enquiry is, whether He to
Whom the words Let Us make man after Our own image and likeness
were spoken, was not thought of as true by Him Who spoke; for they
undoubtedly express the feeling and thought of the Speaker. In
saying Let Us make, He clearly indicates One in no discord with
Himself, no alien or powerless Being, but One endowed with power to do
the thing of which He speaks. His own words assure us that this
is the sense in which we must understand that they were
spoken.