21. These are the men who have taught me the
doctrines which I hold, and so deeply am I impregnated with their
teaching that no antidote can release me from their influence.
Forgive me, O God Almighty, my powerlessness to change, my willingness
to die in this belief. These propagators of blasphemy, for so
they seem to me, are a product of these last times, too modern to avail
me. It is too late for them to correct the faith which I received
from Thee. Before I had ever heard their names, I had put my
trust in Thee, had received regeneration from Thee and become Thine, as
still I am. I know that Thou art omnipotent; I look not that Thou
shouldst reveal to me the mystery of that ineffable birth which is
secret between Thyself and Thy Only-begotten. Nothing is
impossible with Thee, and I doubt not that in begetting Thy Son Thou
didst exert Thy full omnipotence. To doubt it would be to deny
that Thou art omnipotent. For my own birth teaches me that Thou
art good, and therefore I am sure that in the birth of Thine
Only-begotten Thou didst grudge Him no good gift. I believe that
all that is Thine is His, and all that is His is Thine. The
creation of the world is sufficient evidence to me that Thou art wise;
and I am sure that Thy Wisdom, Who is like Thee, must have been
begotten from Thyself. And Thou art One God, in very truth, in my
eyes; I will never believe that in Him, Who is God from Thee, there is
ought that is not Thine. Judge me in Him, if it be sin in me
that, through Thy Son, I have trusted too well in Law and Prophets and
Apostles.