PART I.

ACKNOWLEDGED WRITINGS.

A DECLARATION OF FAITH.¹

THERE is one God, the Father of the living Word, (who is His) subsistent Wisdom and Power and Eternal Image: perfect Begetter of the perfect (Begotten), Father of the only-begotten Son. There is one Lord, Only of the Only, God of God, Image and Likeness of Deity, Efficient Word, Wisdom comprehensive of the constitution of all things, and Power formative of the whole creation, true Son of true Father, Invisible of Invisible, and Incorruptible of Incorruptible, and Immortal of Immortal, and Eternal of Eternal. And there is One Holy Spirit, having His subsistence from God, and being made manifest by the Son, to wit to men:² Image of the Son, Perfect (Image) of the Perfect;³ Life, the Cause of

¹ The title as it stands has this addition: "which he had by revelation from the blessed John the evangelist, by the mediation of the Virgin Mary, Parent of God."
² The words "to wit to men" are suspected by some to be a gloss a marginal or interlinear explanatory note that has found its way into the text.
³ So John of Damascus uses the phrase, "the Son is the Image of the Father, and the Spirit is that of the Son," lib. 1, De fide orthod. ch. 13, vol. i. p. 151. See also Athanasius, Epist. 1 ad Serap.; Basil, lib. v. contra Eunom.; Cyril, Dial. 7, etc.