I GLORIFY the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who by Him has given you such wisdom. For I have observed that ye are perfected in an immoveable faith, as if ye were nailed to the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, botli in the flesh and in the spirit, and are established in love through the blood of Christ, being fully persuaded, in very truth, with respect to our Lord Jesus Christ, that He was the Son of God, " the first-born of every crea- ture," ^ God the Word, the only-begotten Son, and was of the seed of David according to the flesh, ^ by the Virgin Mary ; was baptized by John, that all righteousness might be fulfilled 5 by Him ; that He lived a Ufe of holi- ness without sin, and was truly, under Pontius Pilate and Herod the tetrarch, nailed [to the cross] for us in His flesh. From whom we also derive our being,^ from His divinely-blessed passion, that He might set up a standard for the ages, through His resurrection, to all His holy and faithful [followers], whether among Jews or Gentiles, in the one body of His Church.