For if they say that these are immortal in such a way as nonetheless to have been made by the supreme God, and that they are blessed not through themselves, but by adhering to Him by whom they were made, they are saying what we say, by whatever name they call them. That this is the opinion of the Platonists, whether of all or of the better, can be found in their writings. For even concerning the very name, that they call this sort of immortal and blessed creature gods, there is almost no disagreement between us and them, because in our sacred writings too it is read: "The God of gods, the Lord, has spoken"; and elsewhere: "Give thanks to the God of gods"; and elsewhere: "A great King above all gods." But where it is written: "He is terrible above all gods," why it is said is shown thereafter. For it follows:
"For all the gods of the nations are demons, but the Lord made the heavens." "Above all gods," then, He said—but of the nations, that is, those whom the nations hold for gods, which are demons; therefore "terrible," under which terror they said to the Lord: "Art Thou come to destroy us?" But that where it is said: "The God of gods," it cannot be understood as "the God of demons"; and "a great King above all gods"—far be it that it should be said "a great King above all demons." But the same Scripture calls men also in the people of God gods. "I have said," it says, "You are gods, and all of you sons of the Most High." It can therefore be understood as the God of these gods, who is called the God of gods, and above these gods a great King, who is called a great King above all gods. Yet when it is asked of us:
If men are called gods, because they are in the people of God, whom God addresses through angels or through men, how much more are the immortals worthy of that name, who enjoy that blessedness to which men, by worshipping God, desire to attain—what shall we answer, save that it was not in vain that in the holy Scriptures men were more expressly named gods than those immortal and blessed beings, to whom we are promised to be equal in the resurrection, lest, forsooth, on account of their excellence, unbelieving weakness should dare to set up any one of them as a god for us? Which in the case of a man is easy to avoid.
And men in the people of God ought to have been called gods more evidently, that they might become certain and confident that He is their God who is called the God of gods; because, although those immortal and blessed ones who are in the heavens be called gods, they are nevertheless not called gods of gods, that is, gods of men established in the people of God, to whom it was said: "I have said, You are gods and sons of the Most High, all of you." Hence it is that the Apostle says: "For although there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth—as indeed there are many gods and many lords—yet to us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things and we in Him, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and we through Him."
But as for our saying that angels are sent from that number of the immortal and blessed to announce the will of God to men, while it does not please them—because they believe this ministry is performed not through those whom they call gods, that is, immortal and blessed, but through demons, whom they dare to call only immortal, not also blessed, or at any rate immortal and blessed in such a way as nonetheless to be good demons, not gods loftily placed and removed from human contact—although it may seem a controversy of the name, yet the name of demons is so detestable that we ought by all means to keep ourselves away from it in dealing with the holy angels.
Now, then, let this book be closed in such a way that we may know that the immortal and blessed, by whatever name they be called, who nevertheless have been made and created, are not intermediaries for leading wretched mortals to immortal blessedness, from whom they are separated by both differences. But those who are intermediaries, having immortality in common with the higher and misery with the lower, since by the desert of malice they are wretched, can rather envy us the blessedness which they do not possess than furnish it. Whence the friends of the demons have nothing worthy to offer us, why we should worship them as helpers, whom we ought rather to shun as deceivers.
But as for those whom they think good, and therefore not only immortal but also blessed, and to be worshipped under the name of gods with sacred rites and sacrifices for the sake of attaining a blessed life after death—of whatever kind they may be and worthy of whatever appellation—that they do not wish, through such an obeisance of religion, any to be worshipped save the one God, by whom they were created and by participation in whom they are blessed, we shall, with His own help, discuss more diligently in the following book.