§ 1.
So much then being firm and fixed, that no other is set forth by the Spirit as God and Lord,1 save Him Who being God rules over all, with His Word, and those who receive the Spirit of adoption, i.e., who believe in the only and true God, and in Jesus Christ the Son of God: and the Apostles in like manner of themselves gave not to any other the Name of God or the surname of Lord; and much less our Lord, Who did even enjoin us to confess none our Father,2 save Him Who is in Heaven, Who is one God and one Father—the falsehood is evidently shewn of what is said by deluders and most perverse sophists, affirming that He is by Nature both God and Father, whom they have themselves invented; but that the Creator is naturally neither God nor Father, but is so called merely by way of speaking, because He rules over the creature—so say the perverse critics, devising thoughts against God. And while they neglect the teaching of Christ, of themselves they divine falsities, arguing against the entire government of God. For their Æons they say are called both Gods and Fathers and Lords, and withal likewise Heavens, with their Mother, whom they entitle both Earth, and Jerusalem; and there are many other names whereby they designate her.
§ 2.
But who can help seeing, that if the Lord had known of many Fathers and Gods, He would not have enjoined His Disciples to recognize one God only, and Him, the very same, alone to call Father? Yea, and He hath marked the distinction between those who are Gods in word only, and Him Who is so in deed: that men might not err in His doctrine, nor misunderstand one for another.
But if, while He bade us call One only Father and God, He Himself is confessing meanwhile other Fathers and Gods in the same sense, He will appear to be commanding His disciples one way, and Himself acting the other way. Now this is not conduct for a good Master, but for a deceiver and a grudging person.
And the Apostles too by their account are shewn to be breakers of the commandment, in confessing, as we have shewn, the Creator to be God and Lord and Father, if He is not the only God and Father. They will have transgressed then by the sanction and teaching of Jesus, Who enjoined that one only should be called Father, thus imposing on them, as we have shewn, the need of confessing the Creator as their Proper Father.