and on the bliss that is to be found there.

Then consider his words to Simon when the crowds came and seized him:

“Do you suppose that I am unable to call upon my Father, and He would at once send to me twelve legions of His angels—or even more? Yet how, then, are the Scriptures to be fulfilled, seeing that it must be so?”

He did not say, “I am able to drive them off myself,” nor, “I command the angels to keep them from me,” as would be said by one who possessed power and authority.

He went on: We also hear you say about the Messiah, peace be upon him, that he is eternally begotten of his Father. Anyone who advances such a claim is obliged to furnish decisive proof and to realize that he will be called to clarify it—especially in a matter of such gravity, one that allows of no trifling and into which souls should not rashly plunge amid doubtful notions. Long-lasting woe awaits whoever propounds an interpretation that has no substance, for he destroys his own soul and the souls of those who follow his word.

If this Son is eternal, as your creed asserts, then he cannot be begotten; and if he is begotten, he cannot be eternal, for the designation “eternal” applies only to one who has neither beginning nor end. The very meaning of “begotten” is that he is a contingent, fashioned being, and every fashioned being has a beginning. How, then