said the Giant. "Of the race of the
Franks."--"What law do you follow?" "The law of Christ, so far as his
grace permits me."--"Who is this Christ in whom you profess to believe?"
"The Son of God, born of a Virgin, who took upon him our nature, was
crucified for us, rose again from the dead, and ascended into heaven,
where he sitteth on the right hand of his Father."

"We believe," said Ferracute, "that the Creator of heaven and earth is
one God, and that, as he was not made himself, so cannot another God
spring from him. There is therefore only one God, not three, as I
understand you Christians profess." "You say well," said Orlando; "there
is but one God, but your faith is imperfect; for as the Father is God,
so likewise is the Son, and so is the Holy Ghost. Three persons, but one
God."--"Nay," said Ferracute: "if each of these three persons be God,
there must be three Gods."

"By no means," replied Orlando; "he is both three and one. The three
persons are co-eternal and co-equal. There is indeed distinction of
person, but unity of essence, and equality of majesty. Abraham saw
three, but worshipped one. Let us recur to natural things. When the harp
sounds, there is the art, the strings, and the hand, yet but one harp.
In the almond there is the shell, the coat, and the kernel. In the sun,
the body, the beams, and the heat. In the wheel, the centre, the spokes,
and the nave. In you, likewise, there is the body, the members, and the
soul. In like manner may Trinity in Unity be ascribed to God."

"I now comprehend," replied Ferracute, "how God may be three in one, but
I know not how he begot the Son." "Do you," answered Orlando, "believe
that God made Adam?"--"I do." "Adam himself was not, then, born of any,
and yet he begot sons. So God the Father is born of none, yet of his own
ineffable grace begot the Son from all eternity."--"Your arguments,"
said the Giant, "please me exceedingly, but still I am at a loss to
know how he that was God became man." "The Creator of heaven and earth,
who made all things out of nothing, could certainly," said Orlando,
"engender his Son of a pure Virgin, by divine afflation."--"There lies
the difficulty," returned Ferracute, "how without human aid, as you
affirm, he could spring from the womb." "Surely," said Orlando, "God,
who formed Adam from no seed, could form his Son in like manner; and as
from God the Father he was without Mother, so from his Mother did he
spring without an earthly