XXII. If therefore he be the only True God, as being only Wise, and only Unbegotten, the Son is his Only Begotten, because he alone is a Being begotten by the Unbegotten Being: which yet he would not be alone, if the Nature was common to both, on account of their Likeness.

We ought therefore to lay aside the Notion of Likeness as to Substance, and to embrace that of the Likeness of a Son to the Father, in agreement with his own words; that is, so to reduce the intire Cause and Origin of all to the One and Only Being, that the Son may be esteem'd subject to his Father. We ought also exactly to purify our Notions about these matters, and not to esteem the manner of his Operation to be after the manner of Men; but with ease, and divine : and not to esteem his Operation to be any fort of division, or removal of his Substance; such as those cannot avoid who are led by the Sophistry of the Greeks, and connect the Energy to the Substance; and because they suppose the World to be coeval with God, fall into all sorts of Absurdities on that account. For those that allowed no Period to the World, no wonder that they assign'd to it no Beginning : nor would that cease or come to an end which was not deriv'd from a certain Beginning.