the grace which is bestowed by Him. According to this reasoning, therefore, the angels of the devil and the sons of the wicked one are those who believe the devil and perform his works. These, indeed, were all made by one and the same God from the beginning. But when they believe and persevere in subjection to God and keep His doctrine, they are sons of God; but when they have departed and transgressed, they are ascribed to the devil, the chief, who became the cause of the departure first to himself, and then to the others. Since, therefore, there are many, but all announce one and the same Father, the Maker of this world, it was necessary for us, on account of those who are held in many errors, to refute them by many things, if by any means, being refuted by many arguments, they might be turned to the truth and be saved. 289 It is necessary, moreover, to this writing, to subjoin in what follows the doctrine of Paul, and to examine his sentiment, and to expound the Apostle, and to explain whatever things have been said by the heretics under other interpretations, and to show the madness of their lack of sense; and from the same Paul, from whom they bring forward questions against us, to demonstrate that they are indeed liars, but that the Apostle was a preacher of the truth, and that he taught all things consonant with the proclamation of the truth, [proclaiming] one God the Father, Him who spoke to Abraham, who gave the legislation, who sent forth the prophets, who in the last times sent His Son, and bestows salvation upon His own creation, which is the substance of the flesh. Therefore, by arranging in another book the remaining discourses of the Lord, which He taught not through parables but in the very words concerning the Father, and the exposition of the Epistles of the blessed Apostle, we shall furnish you with the complete work of the refutation and overturning of the knowledge falsely so called, by the grace of God; and we shall be exerting both ourselves and you in these five books for the contradiction of all the heretics.