23. Let Sabellius, if he dare, confound Father and Son as two names with one meaning, making of them not Unity but One Person. He shall have a prompt answer from the Gospels, not once or twice, but often repeated, This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased92    St. Matt. xvii. 5. See the note to § 8.. He shall hear the words, The Father is greater than I93    St. John xiv. 28., and I go to the Father94    Ib. 12., and Father, I thank Thee95    Ib. xi. 41., and Glorify Me, Father96    Ib. xvii. 5., and Thou art the Son of the living God97    St. Matt. xvi. 17.. Let Hebion try to sap the faith, who allows the Son of God no life before the Virgin’s womb, and sees in Him the Word only after His life as flesh had begun. We will bid him read again, Father, glorify Me with Thine own Self with that glory which I had with Thee before the world was98    St. John xvii. 5., and In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God99    Ib. i. 1., and All things were made through Him100    Ib. i. 3., and He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world knew Him not101    Ib. i. 10.. Let the preachers whose apostleship is of the newest fashion—an apostleship of Antichrist—come forward and pour their mockery and insult upon the Son of God. They must hear, I came out from the Father102    Ib. xvi. 28.and The Son in the Father’s bosom103    Ib. i. 18., and I and the Father are One104    Ib. x. 30., and I in the Father, and the Father in Me105    Ib. xiv. 11.. And lastly, if they be wrath, as the Jews were, that Christ should claim God for His own Father, making Himself equal with God, they must take the answer which He gave the Jews, Believe My works, that the Father is in Me and I in the Father106    Ib. x. 38.. Thus our one immovable foundation, our one blissful rock of faith, is the confession from Peter’s mouth, Thou art the Son of the living God107    St. Matt. xvi. 16.. On it we can base an answer to every objection with which perverted ingenuity or embittered treachery may assail the truth.

23. Testimonia contra Sabellium, contra Hebionem, contra Arianos. Petra Petri confessio.---Patrem et Filium, si audet, Sabellius eumdem praedicet, et ipsum illum esse qui utrumque sit nuncupatus; ut cum eo unus sit ambo, non unum. Audiet statim de Evangeliis non semel neque iterum, sed frequenter, Hic est filius meus dilectus, in quo bene complacui (Mat. XVII, 5). Audiet, Pater major me est (Joan. XIV, 28). Audiet, Ego vado ad Patrem (Ibidem, 12); et, Pater gratias tibi ago (Joan. XI, 41); et, Clarifica me, Pater (Joan. XVII, 5); 40 et, Tu es Filius Dei vivi (Matth. XVI, 17). Subrepat Hebion, initium filio Dei ex Maria concedens, et Verbum a diebus carnis intelligens. Relegat, Pater, clarifica me apud temetipsum ea claritate, quam habui apud te prius quam mundus esset (Joan. XVII, 5); et, In principio erat Verbum, 0065C et Verbum erat apud Deum, et Deus erat Verbum (Joan. I, 1); et, Omnia per eum facta sunt (Ibid. 3); et, In mundo erat, et mundus per ipsum factus est, et mundus eum non cognovit (Ibid., 10). Existant novelli apostolatus, sed ab antichristo, praedicatores, omni contumelia Dei filium illudentes: et audiant, Ego de Patre exivi (Joan. XVI, 28); et, Filius in Patris sinu (Joan. I, 18); et, Ego et Pater unum sumus (Joan. X, 30); et Ego in Patre, et Pater in me (Joan. XIV, 11). Et postremo una cum Judaeis irascantur, 0066A quod Christus proprium sibi patrem Deum confitens, aequalem se Deo fecerit: et una cum iis audiant, Vel operibus meis credite, quia Pater in me, et ego in Patre (Joan. XIV, 28). Unum igitur hoc est immobile fundamentum, una haec felix fidei petra Petri ore confessa, Tu es Filius Dei vivi (Matth. XVI, 17), tanta in se sustinens argumenta veritatis, quantae perversitatum quaestiones et infidelitatis calumniae movebuntur.