(6) Now if thou art of any other matter than God himself, how then canst thou be his child? Or how can the man and king Christ be God's bodily or corporeal Son, whom God has generated or begotten out of his heart?

(3) And now I will adduce Plato himself, who clearly deems it fit to believe the children of God. For, discoursing on gods that are visible and born, in Timaoeus, he says: "But to speak of the other demons, and to know their birth, is too much for us. But we must credit those who have formerly spoken, they being the offspring of the gods, as they said, and knowing well their progenitors, although they speak without probable and necessary proofs." I do not think it possible that clearer testimony could be borne by the Greeks, that our Saviour, and those anointed to prophesy (the latter being called the sons of God, and the Lord being His own Son), are the true witnesses respecting divine things. Wherefore also they ought to be believed, being inspired, he added. And were one to say in a more tragic vein, that we ought not to believe, "For it was not Zeus that told me these things," yet let him know that it was God Himself that promulgated the Scriptures by His Son. And he, who announces what is his own, is to be believed. "No one," says the Lord, "hath known the Father but the Son, and he to whom the Son shall reveal Him." This, then, is to be believed, according to Plato, though it is announced and spoken "without probable and necessary proofs," but in the Old and New Testament. "For except ye believe," says the Lord, "ye shall die in your sins." And again: "He that believeth hath everlasting life." "Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him." For trusting is more than faith. For when one has believed that the Son of God is our teacher, he trusts that his teaching is true. And as "instruction," according to Empedocles, "makes the mind grow," so trust in the Lord makes faith grow.

(88) Ye say, There is but one being in God, and that God has no Son. Answer.

(39) Many also of those who called to the Lord said, "Son of David, have mercy on me." A few, too, knew Him as the Son of God; as Peter, whom also He pronounced blessed, "for flesh and blood revealed not the truth to him, but His Father in heaven," 3 - showing that the Gnostic recognises the Son of the Omnipotent, not by His flesh conceived in the womb, but by the Father's own power. That it is therefore not only to those who read simply that the acquisition of the truth is so difficult, but that not even to those whose prerogative the knowledge of the truth is, is the contemplation of it vouch-safed all at once, the history of Moses teaches, until, accustomed to gaze, at the Hebrews on the glory of Moses, and the prophets of Israel on the visions of angels, so we also become able to look the splendours of truth in the face.

(60) Or what didst thou, who art a Christian, know [as to] how God would redeem and deliver thee from evil? What friendship and familiarity hadst thou with HIM? or what covenant hadst thou made with HIM, when God caused his Son to become man, or be incarnate, to redeem mankind? Is he only thy king? Is it not written, [Haggai ii. 7] He is the comfort of all the Heathen.

(59) Or dost thou think that God is the God of Christians only? Do not the Heathen also live in God, [Acts x. 35] whosoever does right or righteousness God loveth and accepteth him.

(31) The Turks and Heathen say, God has no Son: Set wide open your eyes here; and do not make yourselves stark blind, and you will see the Son.

(376) A man who is worthy of God, he is God among men, and he is the son of God.

(15) For the Son of God is the person of the truth which is exhibited; and the subject is the power of faith, which prevails over the opposition of every one whatever, and the assault of the whole world.

(60) If it be not so, then go before the face of God, and justify thyself. But thou seest it plain enough without that; and besides, thou darest not look on that matter: Wouldst not thou fain have a friendly kiss of the Son of God, that thou mightest once be eased or refreshed? If thou art in the right, then do but once look upon HIM: Perhaps thou may be made sound or whole again.

(5) Dost thou boast thyself to be a Christian, why dost thou not then believe his Word, when he said; He would be with us to the End of the World; and said moreover, He would give us his Body for Meat, and his Blood for Drink; also his Body is Meat indeed, and his Blood is Drink indeed? What do you understand by this, an absent [Christ?] O thou poor sick Adam, why art thou gone again out of Paradise? Has not Christ brought thee in again, why didst thou not stay there? Dost thou not see, that the Apostles of Christ and their Successors (who dwelt in the Paradise of Christ with their Souls) did great Wonders? Wherefore art thou again entered into the Spirit of this World? Dost thou suppose that thou shalt find the Paradise with thy Reason in thy Art? Dost thou not think it has another Principle, and that thou shalt not find it, except thou art born anew?

(5) And that He whom we call Saviour and Lord is the Son of God, the prophetic Scriptures explicitly prove. So the Lord of all, of Greeks and of Barbarians, persuades those who are willing. For He does not compel him who (through choosing and fulfilling, from Him, what pertains to laying hold of it the hope) is able to receive salvation from Him.

(53) And there he spoke clearly of the Son of Man, of his Humanity, and not of his Deity merely; for he says plainly, The Son of Man. But God from Eternity was not the Son of Man, and therefore no Son of Man can proceed from the Trinity; therefore we must look upon it right. If Mary had proceeded out of the Trinity, where should our poor captivated Souls have been? If Christ had brought a strange Soul from Heaven, how should we have been delivered? Had it been possible to redeem Man [without it,] what Occasion was there for God to come into our Form, and be crucified? If it could have been so, then God should instantly have separated or freed Adam from Death, when he fell. Or dost thou suppose that God is so maliciously zealous, as to be so angry without a Cause?

(19) ] saith: Verily the Son can do nothing of Himself; but what he seeth his Father do, the Son does also: Also, [Matt. xviii. 3] If you do not convert, and become like children, you cannot come into the kingdom of heaven.

(116) 1. We Christians believe and acknowledge, that the eternal Word of God the Father became a true self-subsisting Man (with Body and Soul) in the Body [or Womb] of the Virgin Mary, without Man's interposing: For we believe, that he was conceived by the Holy Spirit, and born of the Body of the Virgin, without 1 blemishing of her Virgin [Purity or] Chastity. II. Also we believe, that (in his human Body) he died and was buried. III. Also [we believe,] that he descended into Hell, and has broken the Bands of the Devil (wherewith he held Man captive) in Pieces, and redeemed the Soul of Man. IV. Also we believe, that he willingly died for our Iniquities, and reconciled his Father, and has brought us into Favour with him. V. Also we believe, that he rose again from the Dead on the third Day, and ascended into Heaven, and there sits at the Right-Hand of God. VI. Also we believe, that he shall come again at the last Day, to judge the Living and the Dead, and take his Bride to him, and condemn the Ungodly. Or becoming Man. Or defiling, VII. Also we believe, that he has a Christian Church here upon Earth, which is begotten in his Blood and Death, [and so made] one Body with many Members, which he cherishes, and governs with his Spirit and Word, and unites it continually (by the holy Baptism, of his own appointing, and by the Sacrament of his Body and Blood) to one only Body in himself. VIII. Also we believe, that he protects and defends the same, and keeps it in one Mind. And now we will, in what follows, set down all out of the deep Ground (according to every Thing's own Substance) what our Knowledge is, as far as is now necessary.

(28) If a man will see God the Son, he must once more look upon natural things, otherwise I cannot write of the Son: The spirit indeed beholdeth him, but that can neither be spoken nor written; for the divine being consisteth in power, which can neither be written nor spoken.

(10) Does not the Son see plainly what the Father does in his House? And now if the Son learns to do the same thereby, what Displeasure will the Father have towards his Son for it? Nay, will not the Father be well pleased that his Son is so apt [and forward to learn?] Then why should the heavenly Father be so displeased with his Children in this World, which depend upon him, and enquire after him, which would willingly learn to know him, willingly labour in his Works, and do his Will? Does not the Regenerator bid us come to him, and whosoever cometh to him, he will not reject? Why should any resist the Spirit of Prophesy, which is God's? Look upon Christ's Apostles, did any other teach them than God, who was in them, and they in Him? 11.0 dear Children of God in Christ, fly away from Antichrist, who has set up himself over all the Coasts of the Earth, and who sets a painted Image before you, as the Serpent did before our Mother Eve, and paints your own Image of God [as if it were] far off from God: But consider what is written, the Word is near thee, yea in thy Heart and Lips. And God himself is the Word which is in thy Heart and Lips.

(3) Hereto I adjoin a parable. There were a certain man and wife; the woman by accident lost an eye, and was sorely troubled thereat. Her husband then said to her, "Wife, why are you troubled? "She answered, "It is not the loss of my eye that troubles me, but the thought that you may love me less on account of that loss." He said, "I love you all the same." Not long after he put one of his own eyes out, and came to his wife and said, "Wife, that you may believe I love you, I have made myself like you: I, too, now, have only one eye." So men could hardly believe that God loved them till God put one of His eyes out, that is took upon Himself human nature, and was made man.

Just as fire infuses its essence and clearness into the dry wood, so has God done with man. He has created the human soul and infused His glory into it, and yet in His own essence has remained unchangeable. If you ask me whether, seeing that my spiritual birth is out of time, whether I am an eternal son, I answer "Yes," and "No." In the everlasting foreknowledge of God, I slumbered like a word unspoken. He hath brought me forth His son in the image of His eternal fatherhood, that I also should be a father and bring forth Him. It is as if one stood before a high mountain, and cried, "Art thou there?" The echo comes back, "Art thou there?" If one cries, "Come out." the echo answers, "Come out."

(61) The Son seeth, tasteth, heareth, feeleth, smelleth and comprehendeth all, as the Father does; in his power all liveth and is, whatsoever is good, as in the Father; but that which is bad or evil is not in him. Of GOD the HOLY GHOST.

(34) This light is the true Son of God, whom we Christians worship and honour, as the second Person in the Holy Trinity.