32. In the order of our defence, as I have arranged it in my mind, this has seemed the most convenient place for proving that, thirdly302    Firstly, the Father’s witness is given in §§ 23–27; secondly, the Son’s, §§ 28–31; thirdly, that of the Apostles, §§ 32–46., the Apostles believed our Lord Jesus Christ to be the Son of God, not merely in name but in nature, not by adoption but by birth. It is true that there remain unmentioned many and most weighty words of God the Only-begotten concerning Himself, in which the truth of His Divine birth is set so clearly forth as to silence any whisper of objection. Yet since it would be unwise to burden the reader’s mind with an accumulation of evidence, and ample proof has been already given of the genuineness of His birth, I will hold back the remainder of His utterances till later stages of our enquiry. For we have so arranged the course of our argument that now, after hearing the Father’s witness and the Son’s self-revelation, we are to be instructed by the Apostles’ faith in the true and, as we must confess, the truly born Son of God. We must see whether they could find in the words of the Lord, I went forth from God, any other meaning than this, that there was in Him a birth of the Divine nature.

32. Christus ab apostolis filius ex natura non ex adoptione creditus.---Et quidem secundum propositae a nobis responsionis ordinem opportunissimus hic nobis locus est, ut tertio nunc doceamus filium Dei Dominum nostrum Jesum Christum ab apostolis creditum non ex nuncupatione, sed ex natura; neque ex adoptione, sed ex nativitate. Quamquam enim plures et maximae adhuc unigeniti de se Dei exstent professiones, quibus generationis suae veritatem sine levi saltem ementiendae licet calumniae occasione testetur: tamen 157 quia neque legentium 0183B onerandus est sensus coacervatis ad copiam dictis, et cum jam nonnulla de proprietate nativitatis ostensa sint, caetera omnia aliis erunt quaestionibus reservanda. Nunc vero quia hic sermonis nostri ordo institutus est, ut post Patris contestationem, post Filii professionem, fide quoque Apostolorum de vero et secundum nativitatem confitendo Dei filio doceremur; videndum est, an in eo quod ait Dominus, Ex Deo exivi, aliud in eo aliquid potius quam naturam intellexerint nativitatis.