7.  He is then the Son of God by nature and not by adoption φύσει καὶ οὐ θέσει.  Cf. § 2, note 4., begotten of the Father.  And he that loveth Him that begat, loveth Him also that is begotten of Him 1 John v. 1.; but he that despiseth Him that is begotten casts back the insult upon Him who begat.  And whenever thou hear of God begetting, sink not down in thought to bodily things, nor think of a corruptible generation, lest thou be guilty of impiety.  God is a Spirit John iv. 24.  Cf. § 5., His generation is spiritual:  for bodies beget bodies, and for the generation of bodies time needs must intervene; but time intervenes not in the generation of the Son from the Father.  And in our case what is begotten is begotten imperfect:  but the Son of God was begotten perfect; for what He is now, that is He also from the beginning γεγεννημένος ἀνάρχως.  Cf. § 5, note 4., begotten without beginning.  We are begotten so as to pass from infantile ignorance to a state of reason:  thy generation, O man, is imperfect, for thy growth is progressive.  But think not that it is thus in His case, nor impute infirmity to Him who hath begotten.  For if that which He begot was imperfect, and acquired its perfection in time, thou art imputing infirmity to Him who hath begotten; if so be, the Father did not bestow from the beginning that which, as thou sayest, time bestowed afterwards ὃ χρόνος.  Bened. c. Codd. Roe, Casaub. Coisl. ὃ χρόνοις Ottob. Mon. 1, 2.  A.  With the latter reading, the meaning will be—“if He did not bestow from the beginning, as thou sayest, what He bestowed in after times.”  Cyril does not here address his auditor, but an imaginary opponent,—“O man.” Compare Athan. (de Synodis, § 26)..