Sketch of the Life and Works of Saint Basil the Great

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Page 64

On Ps. xviii. 31, LXX. Who is God, save the Lord? Who is God save our God?

"It has already been sufficiently demonstrated that the Scriptures employ these expressions and others of a similar character not of the Son, but of the so-called gods who were not really so. I have shewn this from the fact that in both the Old and the New Testament the son is frequently styled both God and Lord. David makes this still clearer when he says, Who is like unto Thee?' [462] and adds, among the gods, O Lord,' and Moses, in the words, So the Lord alone did lead them, and there was no strange god with him.' [463] And yet although, as the Apostle says, the Saviour was with them, They drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ,' [464] and Jeremiah, The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth,...let them perish under the heavens.' [465] The Son is not meant among these, for He is himself Creator of all. It is then the idols and images of the heathen who are meant alike by the preceding passage and by the words, I am the first God and I am the last, and beside me there is no God,' [466] and also, Before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me,' [467] and Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord.' [468] None of these passages must be understood as referring to the Son."

[462] Ps. lxxxvi. 8.

[463] Deut. xxxii. 12.

[464] 1 Cor. x. 4.

[465] Jer. x. 2, LXX.

[466] Is. xliv. 6, "God" inserted.

[467] Is. xliii. 10.

[468] Deut. vi. 4.

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