Tertullian · a new plain-English translation from the original language
It opens with an attestation of God and the reward due to faith, in the words: OUR FATHER, WHICH ART IN HEAVEN — for by this we both address a prayer to God and lay claim to our faith, of which such an address is itself the recompense. It is written: "To those who believed in him, he gave the power to be called sons of God." [2] Although the Lord repeatedly proclaimed God to us as Father — indeed he expressly forbade our giving any man on earth that title, reserving it for him above — so by praying in this manner we are also fulfilling a precept. [3] Blessed are those who acknowledge the Father! This is what is charged against Israel, what heaven and earth are called by the Spirit to witness against it, when he says: "I have raised children, and they have refused to acknowledge me." [4] But in saying "Father" we are also naming him God. This title carries both devotion and power. [5] Likewise, in the Father the Son is invoked. "For I," he says, "and the Father are one." [6] Nor is our mother the Church passed over, since in the Son and the Father the Mother too is recognized, seeing that from her comes the very possibility of the name of Father and of Son. [7] By one single term, then, and one address, we both honor God together with his own, and call to mind the commandment, and mark those who have forgotten the Father.