34. Thus the Only-begotten Son, Who is in the
bosom of the Father, has told us of God, Whom no man has seen.
Either disprove the fact that the Son has thus informed us, or else
believe Him Who has been seen, Who appeared to them who knew Him not,
and became the God of the Gentiles who called not upon Him and spread
out His hands before a gainsaying people. And believe this also
concerning Him, that they who serve Him are called by a new name, and
that on earth men bless Him and swear by Him as true God.
Prophecy tells, the Gospel confirms, the Apostle explains, the Church
confesses, that He Who was seen is true God; but none venture to say
that God the Father was seen. And yet the madness of heresy has
run to such lengths that, while they profess to recognise this truth,
they really deny it. They deny it by means of the newfangled and
godless device of evading the truth, while making a studied pretence of
adhesion to it. For when they confess one God, alone true and
alone righteous, alone wise, alone unchangeable, alone immortal, alone
mighty, they attach to Him a Son different in substance, not born from
God to be God, but adopted through creation to be a Son, having the
name of God not by nature, but as a title received by adoption; and
thus they inevitably deprive the Son of all those attributes which they
accumulate upon the Father in His lonely majesty.