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Book iii.]
IRENÆUS AGAINST HERESIES.
271

that have not made the heavens and earth, let them perish from the earth which is under the heaven."[1] 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?[2] If the Lord be God,[3] follow Him."[4] 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,[5] 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."[6]

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,

  1. ↑ Jer. x. 11.
  2. ↑ Literally, "In both hocks," in ambabus suffraginibus.
  3. ↑ 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.
  4. ↑ 1 Kings xviii. 21, etc.
  5. ↑ The Latin version has, "that answereth to-day" (hodie),—an evident error for igne.
  6. ↑ 1 Kings xviii. 36.
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