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,701 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 ex-
claimed, “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.”702
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.
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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,”703 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.”704
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.”705 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.”706 And he does thus explain what are meant by the things in
701 The Latin version has, “that answereth to-day” (hodie), —an evident error for igne.
702 1 Kings xviii. 36.
703 Gal. iv. 8, 9.
704 2 Thess. ii. 4.
705 1 Cor. viii. 4, etc.
706 Deut. v. 8.
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Chapter VI—The Holy Ghost, throughout the Old Testament Scriptures, made…