38. And therefore we look to Thy support for the first trembling steps of this undertaking, to Thy aid that it may gain strength and prosper. We look to Thee to give us the fellowship of that Spirit Who guided the Prophets and the Apostles, that we may take their words in the sense in which they spoke and assign its right shade of meaning to every utterance. For we shall speak of things which they preached in a mystery; of Thee, O God Eternal, Father of the Eternal and Only-begotten God, Who alone art without birth, and of the One Lord Jesus Christ, born of Thee from everlasting. We may not sever Him from Thee, or make Him one of a plurality of Gods, on any plea of difference of nature. We may not say that He is not begotten of Thee, because Thou art One. We must not fail to confess Him as true God, seeing that He is born of Thee, true God, His Father. Grant us, therefore, precision of language, soundness of argument, grace of style, loyalty to truth. Enable us to utter the things that we believe, that so we may confess, as Prophets and Apostles have taught us, Thee, One God our Father, and One Lord Jesus Christ, and put to silence the gainsaying of heretics, proclaiming Thee as God, yet not solitary, and Him as God, in no unreal sense.

38. Exspectamus ergo ut trepidi hujus coepti exordia incites, et profectu accrescente confirmes, et ad consortium vel prophetalis vel apostolici spiritus voces: ut dicta eorum non alio quam ipsi locuti sunt sensu apprehendamus, verborumque proprietates iisdem rerum significationibus exsequamur. Locuturi enim sumus, quae ab iis in sacramento praedicata sunt, te aeternum Deum, aeterni unigeniti Dei patrem: et unum te sine nativitate, et unum Dominum Jesum Christum ex te nativitatis aeternae, non in deorum numerum veritatis diversitate referendum: 0049C neque non ex te genitum, qui Deus unus es, praedicandum; neque aliud quam Deum verum, qui ex te Deo vero patre natus est, confitendum. Tribue ergo nobis verborum significationem, intelligentiae lumen, dictorum honorem, veritatis fidem: et praesta, ut quod credimus, et loquamur; scilicet, ut contingat nobis, unum te Deum patrem et unum Dominum Jesum Christum de Prophetis atque Apostolis cognoscentibus, nunc adversum negantes haereticos, ita Deum et te celebrare, ne solum; et eum praedicare, ne falsum.