26. Blasphemy is incompatible with wisdom; where the fear of God, which is the beginning of wisdom, is absent, no glimmer of intelligence survives. An instance of this is seen in the heretics’ citation of the prophet’s words, And they shall bless Thee, the true God, as evidence against the Godhead of the Son. First, we see here the folly, which clogs unbelief in the misunderstanding or (if it were understood) in the suppression of the earlier part of the prophecy: and again we see it in their fraudulent interpolation of that one little word, not to be found in the book itself. This proceeding is as stupid as it is dishonest, since no one would trust them so far as to accept their reading without referring for corroboration to the prophetic text. For that text does not stand thus: They shall bless Thee, the true God, but thus: They shall bless the true God250    Isai. lxv. 16.. There is no slight difference between Thee, the true God and The true God. If Thee be retained, the pronoun of the second person implies that Another is being addressed; if Thee be omitted, True God, the object of the sentence, is the Speaker.

26. Haeretici subdole Scripturam interpolatam citantes revincuntur.---Nihil plane in se habet sapientiae impietas: et Dei timor, qui sapientiae initium est, ubi deest, aufert secum omne exordium prudentiae. Ad infirmandam enim Dei veri in Filio fidem propheticus 0147A sermo profertur, quo dictum est, Et Benedicent te Deum verum. Primum haec impietatis stultitia fuit, ut quae (supple, ab eodem propheta) superius dicta sunt, aut non intelligerentur; aut intellecta cum essent, tacerentur. Tum deinde ad quam se fraudem syllabae adjectione, quae in libris non exstat, instruxit: stultitiae suae in eo usa mendacio, tamquam dictis suis eo usque adhibenda fides esset, ut requirendam esse ipsam dictorum propheticorum auctoritatem non putaret. Non enim ita scriptum est, Benedicent te Deum verum (Esai. LXV, 16): sed Benedicent Deum verum. Nam non exiguum ambiguitatis momentum est inter te Deum verum, et Deum verum. Personae enim alterius videtur esse pronomen, ubi te est: caeterum ubi pronominis syllaba non erit, ibi 0147B ad auctorem dicti refertur et nomen.