7. This being the case, I ask how a distinction can be made in the words, Let Us make man after Our own image and likeness, between a true God and a false. The words express a meaning, the meaning is the outcome of thought; the thought is set in motion by truth. Let us follow the words back to their meaning, and learn from the meaning the thought, and from the thought attain to the underlying truth. Thy enquiry is, whether He to Whom the words Let Us make man after Our own image and likeness were spoken, was not thought of as true by Him Who spoke; for they undoubtedly express the feeling and thought of the Speaker. In saying Let Us make, He clearly indicates One in no discord with Himself, no alien or powerless Being, but One endowed with power to do the thing of which He speaks. His own words assure us that this is the sense in which we must understand that they were spoken.

7. Pater dicens Faciamus aequalem sibi significat cui id dicit.---Quae cum ita sint, interrogo inter verum et falsum Deum quomodo hoc dictum intelligatur: Faciamus hominem ad imaginem et similitudinem nostram (Gen. I, 26). Verba sensum enuntiant, sensus rationis est motus, rationis motum veritas incitat. Ex verbis igitur sensum sequamur, ex sensu rationem intelligamus, et ex ratione veritatem apprehendamus. Cui enim dicitur: Faciamus hominem ad imaginem et similitudinem nostram, quaero in quo non secundum eum verus sit, qui sibi dicat: nam sine dubio dictum hoc ex affectu sensuque dicentis est. Ergo qui dicit Faciamus, significat secum ad faciendum non dissentientem, non alienum, non infirmum, sed qui potens sit ad id, unde est sermo, faciendum. 0134B Hoc ergo sine dubio sensisse qui loquitur, quia id locutus est, intelligendus est.