1.

Ye have heard what the Lord God, Jesus Christ, the Only Son of God, born of God the Father without any mother, and born of a Virgin mother without any human father, said, "I and My Father are One." ¹ Receive ye this, believe it in such wise that ye may attain ² to understand it. For faith ought to go before understanding, that understanding may be the reward of faith. For the Prophet hath said most expressly, "Unless ye believe, ye shall not understand." ³ What then is simply preached is to be believed; what is with exactness discussed, is to be understood. At first then ⁴ to imbue your minds with faith we preach to you Christ, the Only Son of God the Father. Why is added, "The Only Son"? Because He whose Only Son He is, hath many sons by grace. All the rest then, all saints are sons of God by grace, He Alone by Nature. They who are sons of God by grace are not What the Father is. And no saint hath ever dared to say, what that Only Son saith, "I and My Father are One." Is He not then our Father too? If He be not our Father, how say we when we pray, "Our Father, which art in heaven"? ⁵ But we are sons whom He hath made sons by His Own will, not begotten as sons of His Own Nature. And in truth He hath begotten us too, but as it is said, as adopted ones, begotten by the favour of His adoption, not by Nature. And this too are we called, for that "God hath called us into the adoption of sons;" ⁶ we are though adopted, men. He is called the Only Son, the Only Begotten, in that, He is That which the Father is; but we are men, The Father is God. In then that He is That which the Father is; He said, and said truly, "I and My Father are One." What is, "are One"? Are of one Nature. What is, "are One"? Are of one Substance.