7. Who can fail to see here the slimy windings of
the serpent’s track: the coiled adder, with forces
concentrated for the spring, concealing the deadly weapon of its
poisonous fangs within its folds? Presently we shall stretch it
out and examine it, and expose the venom of this hidden head. For
their plan is first to impress with certain sound statements, and then
to infuse the poison of their heresy. They speak us fair, in
order to work us secret harm. Yet, amid all their specious
professions, I nowhere hear God’s Son entitled God; I never hear
sonship attributed to the Son. They say much about His having the
name of Son, but nothing about His having the nature. That is
kept out of sight, that He may seem to have no right even to the
name. They make a show of unmasking other heresies to conceal the
fact that they are heretics themselves. They strenuously assert
that there is One only, One true God, to the end that they may strip
the Son of God of His true and personal Divinity.