3. He therefore, the Unbegotten, before time was begot a Son from Himself; not from any pre-existent matter, for all things are through the Son; not from nothing, for the Son is from the Father’s self; not by way of childbirth, for in God there is neither change nor void; not as a piece of Himself cut or torn off or stretched out, for God is passionless and bodiless, and only a possible and embodied being could so be treated, and, as the Apostle says, in Christ dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily129    Col. ii. 9.. Incomprehensibly, ineffably, before time or worlds, He begat the Only-begotten from His own unbegotten substance, bestowing through love and power His whole Divinity upon that Birth. Thus He is the Only-begotten, perfect, eternal Son of the unbegotten, perfect, eternal Father. But those properties which He has in consequence of the Body which He took, are the fruit of His goodwill toward our salvation. For He, being invisible and bodiless and incomprehensible, as the Son of God, took upon Him such a measure of matter and of lowliness as was needed to bring Him within the range of our understanding, and perception, and contemplation. It was a condescension to our feebleness rather than a surrender of His own proper attributes.

0077A 3. Filius quid nascendo a Patre accepit. Quid nascendo in carne pro nobis assumpserit.---Hic ergo ingenitus ante omne tempus ex se filium genuit, non ex aliqua subjacente 51 materia, quia per Filium omnia; non ex nihilo, quia ex se filium : non ut partum, quia nihil in Deo demutabile aut vacuum est; non partem sui vel divisam vel discissam vel extensam; quia impassibilis et incorporeus Deus est, haec autem passionis et carnis sunt, et, secundum Apostolum, in Christo inhabitat omnis plenitudo divinitatis corporaliter (Coloss. II, 9). Sed incomprehensibiliter, inenarrabiliter, ante omne tempus et saecula, Unigenitum ex his quae ingenita in se erant procreavit, omne quod Deus est per charitatem atque virtutem nativitati ejus impertiens: ac sic ab ingenito, perfecto, 0077B aeternoque Patre, unigenitus et perfectus et aeternus est Filius. Ea autem, quae ei sunt secundum corpus quod assumpsit, bonitatis ejus ad salutem nostram voluntas est. Invisibilis enim et incorporeus et incomprehensibilis, utpote a Deo genitus, tantum in se et materiae et humilitatis recepit, quantum in nobis erat virtutis ad intelligendum se et sentiendum et contuendum; imbecillitati nostrae potius obtemperans, quam de his in quibus erat ipse deficiens.