Against Praxeas.

 Chapter I.—Satan’s Wiles Against the Truth. How They Take the Form of the Praxean Heresy. Account of the Publication of This Heresy.

 Chapter II.—The Catholic Doctrine of the Trinity and Unity, Sometimes Called the Divine Economy, or Dispensation of the Personal Relations of the Godh

 Chapter III.—Sundry Popular Fears and Prejudices. The Doctrine of the Trinity in Unity Rescued from These Misapprehensions.

 Chapter IV.—The Unity of the Godhead and the Supremacy and Sole Government of the Divine Being. The Monarchy Not at All Impaired by the Catholic Doctr

 Chapter V.—The Evolution of the Son or Word of God from the Father by a Divine Procession. Illustrated by the Operation of the Human Thought and Consc

 Chapter VI.—The Word of God is Also the Wisdom of God. The Going Forth of Wisdom to Create the Universe, According to the Divine Plan.

 Chapter VII.—The Son by Being Designated Word and Wisdom, (According to the Imperfection of Human Thought and Language) Liable to Be Deemed a Mere Att

 Chapter VIII.—Though the Son or Word of God Emanates from the Father, He is Not, Like the Emanations of Valentinus, Separable from the Father.  Nor is

 Chapter IX.—The Catholic Rule of Faith Expounded in Some of Its Points.  Especially in the Unconfused Distinction of the Several Persons of the Blesse

 Chapter X.—The Very Names of Father and Son Prove the Personal Distinction of the Two. They Cannot Possibly Be Identical, Nor is Their Identity Necess

 Chapter XI.—The Identity of the Father and the Son, as Praxeas Held It, Shown to Be Full of Perplexity and Absurdity. Many Scriptures Quoted in Proof

 Chapter XII.—Other Quotations from Holy Scripture Adduced in Proof of the Plurality of Persons in the Godhead.

 Chapter XIII.—The Force of Sundry Passages of Scripture Illustrated in Relation to the Plurality of Persons and Unity of Substance. There is No Polyth

 Chapter XIV.—The Natural Invisibility of the Father, and the Visibility of the Son Witnessed in Many Passages of the Old Testament. Arguments of Their

 Chapter XV.—New Testament Passages Quoted. They Attest the Same Truth of the Son’s Visibility Contrasted with the Father’s Invisibility.

 Chapter XVI.—Early Manifestations of the Son of God, as Recorded in the Old Testament Rehearsals of His Subsequent Incarnation.

 Chapter XVII.—Sundry August Titles, Descriptive of Deity, Applied to the Son, Not, as Praxeas Would Have It, Only to the Father.

 Chapter XVIII.—The Designation of the One God in the Prophetic Scriptures. Intended as a Protest Against Heathen Idolatry, It Does Not Preclude the Co

 Chapter XIX.—The Son in Union with the Father in the Creation of All Things. This Union of the Two in Co-Operation is Not Opposed to the True Unity of

 Chapter XX.—The Scriptures Relied on by Praxeas to Support His Heresy But Few. They are Mentioned by Tertullian.

 Chapter XXI.—In This and the Four Following Chapters It is Shewn, by a Minute Analysis of St. John’s Gospel, that the Father and Son are Constantly Sp

 Chapter XXII.—Sundry Passages of St. John Quoted, to Show the Distinction Between the Father and the Son. Even Praxeas’ Classic Text—I and My Father a

 Chapter XXIII.—More Passages from the Same Gospel in Proof of the Same Portion of the Catholic Faith. Praxeas’ Taunt of Worshipping Two Gods Repudiate

 Chapter XXIV.—On St. Philip’s Conversation with Christ. He that Hath Seen Me, Hath Seen the Father. This Text Explained in an Anti-Praxean Sense.

 Chapter XXV.—The Paraclete, or Holy Ghost. He is Distinct from the Father and the Son as to Their Personal Existence. One and Inseparable from Them as

 Chapter XXVI.—A Brief Reference to the Gospels of St. Matthew and St. Luke. Their Agreement with St. John, in Respect to the Distinct Personality of t

 Chapter XXVII.—The Distinction of the Father and the Son, Thus Established, He Now Proves the Distinction of the Two Natures, Which Were, Without Conf

 Chapter XXVIII.—Christ Not the Father, as Praxeas Said. The Inconsistency of This Opinion, No Less Than Its Absurdity, Exposed. The True Doctrine of J

 Chapter XXIX.—It Was Christ that Died.  The Father is Incapable of Suffering Either Solely or with Another. Blasphemous Conclusions Spring from Praxea

 Chapter XXX.—How the Son Was Forsaken by the Father Upon the Cross. The True Meaning Thereof Fatal to Praxeas. So Too, the Resurrection of Christ, His

 Chapter XXXI.—Retrograde Character of the Heresy of Praxeas. The Doctrine of the Blessed Trinity Constitutes the Great Difference Between Judaism and

Chapter X.—The Very Names of Father and Son Prove the Personal Distinction of the Two. They Cannot Possibly Be Identical, Nor is Their Identity Necessary to Preserve the Divine Monarchy.

So it is either the Father or the Son, and the day is not the same as the night; nor is the Father the same as the Son, in such a way that Both of them should be One, and One or the Other should be Both,—an opinion which the most conceited “Monarchians” maintain. He Himself, they say, made Himself a Son to Himself.101    [Kaye, p. 507, note 3.] Now a Father makes a Son, and a Son makes a Father;102    As correlatives, one implying the existence of the other. and they who thus become reciprocally related out of each other to each other cannot in any way by themselves simply become so related to themselves, that the Father can make Himself a Son to Himself, and the Son render Himself a Father to Himself. And the relations which God establishes, them does He also guard.  A father must needs have a son, in order to be a father; so likewise a son, to be a son, must have a father. It is, however, one thing to have, and another thing to be. For instance, in order to be a husband, I must have a wife; I can never myself be my own wife. In like manner, in order to be a father, I have a son, for I never can be a son to myself; and in order to be a son, I have a father, it being impossible for me ever to be my own father. And it is these relations which make me (what I am), when I come to possess them: I shall then be a father, when I have a son; and a son, when I have a father. Now, if I am to be to myself any one of these relations, I no longer have what I am myself to be: neither a father, because I am to be my own father; nor a son, because I shall be my own son. Moreover, inasmuch as I ought to have one of these relations in order to be the other; so, if I am to be both together, I shall fail to be one while I possess not the other. For if I must be myself my son, who am also a father, I now cease to have a son, since I am my own son. But by reason of not having a son, since I am my own son, how can I be a father? For I ought to have a son, in order to be a father. Therefore I am not a son, because I have not a father, who makes a son.  In like manner, if I am myself my father, who am also a son, I no longer have a father, but am myself my father.  By not having a father, however, since I am my own father, how can I be a son? For I ought to have a father, in order to be a son. I cannot therefore be a father, because I have not a son, who makes a father. Now all this must be the device of the devil—this excluding and severing one from the other—since by including both together in one under pretence of the Monarchy, he causes neither to be held and acknowledged, so that He is not the Father, since indeed He has not the Son; neither is He the Son, since in like manner He has not the Father: for while He is the Father, He will not be the Son. In this way they hold the Monarchy, but they hold neither the Father nor the Son.  Well, but “with God nothing is impossible.”103    Matt. xix. 26.True enough; who can be ignorant of it? Who also can be unaware that “the things which are impossible with men are possible with God?”104    Luke xviii. 27. “The foolish things also of the world hath God chosen to confound the things which are wise.”105    1 Cor. i. 27. We have read it all. Therefore, they argue, it was not difficult for God to make Himself both a Father and a Son, contrary to the condition of things among men. For a barren woman to have a child against nature was no difficulty with God; nor was it for a virgin to conceive. Of course nothing is “too hard for the Lord.”106    Gen. xviii. 14. But if we choose to apply this principle so extravagantly and harshly in our capricious imaginations, we may then make out God to have done anything we please, on the ground that it was not impossible for Him to do it. We must not, however, because He is able to do all things suppose that He has actually done what He has not done. But we must inquire whether He has really done it. God could, if He had liked, have furnished man with wings to fly with, just as He gave wings to kites. We must not, however, run to the conclusion that He did this because He was able to do it.  He might also have extinguished Praxeas and all other heretics at once; it does not follow, however, that He did, simply because He was able. For it was necessary that there should be both kites and heretics; it was necessary also that the Father should be crucified.107    An ironical reference to a great paradox in the Praxean heresy. In one sense there will be something difficult even for God—namely, that which He has not done—not because He could not, but because He would not, do it.  For with God, to be willing is to be able, and to be unwilling is to be unable; all that He has willed, however, He has both been able to accomplish, and has displayed His ability. Since, therefore, if God had wished to make Himself a Son to Himself, He had it in His power to do so; and since, if He had it in His power, He effected His purpose, you will then make good your proof of His power and His will (to do even this) when you shall have proved to us that He actually did it.

CAPUT X.

Ita aut Pater aut Filius est, et neque dies eadem et nox, neque Pater idem et Filius, ut sint ambo unus et utrumque alter: quod vanissimi isti 0164D monarchiani volunt. Ipse se, inquiunt, Filium sibi fecit. Atquin Pater Filium facit, et Patrem Filius. Et qui ex alterutro fiunt, a semetipsis sibi fieri nullo 0165A modo possunt, ut Pater se sibi Filium faciat, et Filius se sibi Patrem praestet. Quae instituit Deus, etiam ipse custodit. Habeat necesse est Pater Filium, ut Pater sit; et Filius Patrem, ut Filius sit; aliud est autem habere, aliud esse. Verbi gratia, ut maritus sim, habeam oportet uxorem, non ipse mihi ero uxor. Sic etiam, ut pater sim, filium habeo; non ipse mihi ero filius. Et ut filius sim, patrem habeo, non ipse mihi ero pater. Quae enim me faciunt si habuero, tunc ero pater, si filium habeam; filius ero, si patrem. Porro si ipse ero quid eorum, jam non habeo quod ipse ero: nec patrem, quia ipse ero pater; nec filium, quia ipse ero filius. In quantum autem alterum ex his habere me oportet, alterum esse; in tantum si utrumque fuero, alterum non ero, 0165B dum alterum non habeo. Si enim ipse ero filius qui et pater, jam non habeo filium, sed ipse sum filius. Non habendo autem filium, dum ipse sum filius, quomodo pater ero? Habere enim filium debeo, ut pater sim. Non sum ergo filius, quia patrem non habeo, qui facit filium. Aeque si ipse sum pater qui et filius, jam non habeo patrem, sed ipse sum pater; non habendo autem patrem, dum ipse sum pater, quomodo filius ero? Habere enim patrem debeo, ut filius sim. Non ergo ero pater, quia filium non habeo, qui facit patrem. Hoc erit totum ingenium diaboli, alterum ex altero excludere, dum utrumque in unum sub monarchiae favore concludens, neutrum haberi facit. Ut et pater non sit, qui scilicet filium non habet; et filius non sit, qui aeque patrem non habet. Dum enim pater est, filius non erit. Sic monarchiam 0165C tenent, qui nec patrem nec filium continent. Sed nihil Deo difficile. Quis hoc nesciat? et impossibilia apud saeculum, possibilia apud Deum (Matth. XIX, 26) quis ignoret? Et stulta mundi elegit Deus, ut confundat sapientiam (I Cor. I, 27) : legimus omnia. Ergo, inquiunt, difficile non fuit Deo, ipsum se et patrem et filium facere, adversus traditam formam rebus humanis, nam et sterilem parere, contra naturam, difficile Deo non fuit, sicut nec virginem. Plane nihil Deo difficile. Sed si tam abrupte in praesumptionibus nostris hac sententia utamur, quidvis de Deo confingere poterimus, quasi fecerit, quia facere potuerit. Non autem quia omnia potest facere, ideo utique credendum est illum fecisse, etiam quod non fecerit; sed an fecerit, requirendum. Potuit , ita salvus sim, Deus pennis hominem ad 0165D volandum instruxisse, quod et milvis praestitit; non tamen, quia potuit, statim et fecit. Potuit et Praxeam, et omnes pariter haereticos statim extinxisse; non tamen, quia potuit, extinxit. Oportebat enim et milvos esse, et haereticos: oportebat et Patrem crucifigi. Hac ratione erit aliquid et difficile Deo; id scilicet 0166A quocumque non fecerit, non quia non potuerit, sed quia noluerit. Dei enim posse, velle est; et non posse, nolle; quod autem voluit, et potuit, et ostendit. Ergo quia si voluit semetipsum sibi Filium facere, potuit; et quia si potuit, fecit: tunc probabis illum et potuisse et voluisse, si probaveris illum fecisse.