19. And now, Almighty God, I first must pray Thee to forgive my excess of indignation, and permit me to address Thee; and next to grant me, dust and ashes as I am, yet bound in loyal devotion to Thyself, freedom of utterance in this debate. There was a time when I, poor wretch, was not; before my life and consciousness and personality began to exist. It is to Thy mercy that I owe my life; and I doubt not that Thou, in Thy goodness, didst give me my birth for my good, for Thou, Who hast no need of me, wouldst never have made the beginning of my life the beginning of evil. And then, when Thou hadst breathed into me the breath of life and endowed me with the power of thought, Thou didst instruct me in the knowledge of Thyself, by means of the sacred volumes given us through Thy servants Moses and the prophets. From them I learnt Thy revelation, that we must not worship Thee as a lonely God. For their pages taught me of God, not different from Thee in nature but One with Thee in mysterious unity of substance. I learnt that Thou art God in God, by no mingling or confusion but by Thy very nature, since the Divinity which is Thyself dwells in Him Who is from Thee. But the true doctrine of the perfect birth revealed that Thou, the Indwelt, and Thou, the Indweller, are not One Person, yet that Thou dost dwell in Him Who is from Thee. And the voices of Evangelists and Apostles repeat the lesson, and the very words which fell from the holy mouth of Thy Only-begotten are recorded, telling how Thy Son, God the Only-begotten from Thee the Unbegotten God, was born of the Virgin as man to fulfil the mystery of my salvation; how Thou dwellest in Him, by virtue of His true generation from Thyself, and He in Thee, because of the nature given in His abiding birth from Thee.

19. Quid Scripturis de Deo edoctus sit Hilarius.---0171B Ac primum orata a te impatientissimi doloris mei venia, loqui me apud te, omnipotens Deus, patere, et me terram ac cinerem, charitatis tamen tuae religione devinctum, liberum in haec verba permitte. Ego infelix nihil antea fui, et vitae sensu expers, sine mei intelligentia, eo quod sum carebam. Sed misericordia tua ad vivendum mihi causa est: et non ambigo, quin tu bonus bonum mihi statueris esse quod natus sum. Neque enim, qui mei non eges, ad mali me originem inchoasses. Sed cum me in vitam animatum, rationis quoque intelligentem praestitisses; ad cognitionem me tui sacris, ut arbitror, per servos tuos Moysen et prophetas voluminibus erudisti, ex 146 quibus te non in solitudine tua venerandum prodidisti. Cognovi tecum illic Deum, non 0171C alterum in natura, sed in sacramento substantiae tuae unum. Cognovi te in Deo Deum, non ex permixtione confusum, sed ex virtute naturae, dum quod tu Deus es, in eo qui ex te est, inesses: non ut idem tu esses, et inesses; sed inesse te in eo, qui ex te esset, perfectae nativitatis veritas edoceret. Hoc mihi 0172A rursum evangelicae atque apostolicae voces loquuntur, et ex ipso sacro Unigeniti tui ore condita in libros (al. in libris) verba testantur, Filium tuum ex te ingenito Deo unigenitum Deum, hominem ex Virgine ad mysterium salutis meae natum: in quo te generationis ex te veritas contineret, et quem in te manentis ex te nativitatis natura retineret.