Page:Ante-Nicene Christian Library Vol 3.djvu/233

Rh it who made it. And therefore He alone is the true God, who not only Himself lives, but also bestows life upon others, which He can also take away when it pleaseth Him.

"Wherefore the Scripture exclaims, in name of the God of the Jews, saying, 'Behold, behold, seeing that I am God, and there is none else besides me, I will kill, and I will make alive; I will smite, and I will heal; and there is none who can deliver out of my hands.' See therefore how, by some ineffable virtue, the Scripture, opposing the future errors of those who should affirm that either in heaven or on earth there is any other god besides Him who is the God of the Jews, decides thus: 'The Lord your God is one God, in heaven above, and in the earth beneath; and besides Him there is none else.' How, then, hast thou dared to say that there is any other god besides Him who is the God of the Jews? And again the Scripture says, 'Behold, to the Lord thy God belong the heaven, and the heaven of heavens, the earth, and all things that are in them: nevertheless I have chosen your fathers, that I might love them, and you after them.' Thus that judgment is supported by the Scripture on every side, that He who created the world is the true and only God.

"But even if there be others, as we have said, who are called gods, they are under the power of the God of the Jews; for thus saith the Scripture to the Jews, 'The Lord our God, He is God of gods, and Lord of lords.' Him alone the Scripture also commands to be worshipped, saying, 'Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve;' and, 'Hear, O Israel: the Lord thy God is one God.' Yea, also the saints, filled with the Spirit of God, and bedewed with the drops of His mercy, cried out, saying, 'Who is like unto Thee among the gods? O Lord, who is