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6. Wherefore nothing in Him is said in respect to accident, since
nothing is accidental to Him, and yet all that is said is not said
according to substance. For in created and changeable things, that
which is not said according to substance, must, by necessary
alternative, be said according to accident. For all things are
accidents to them, which can be either lost or diminished, whether
magnitudes or qualities; and so also is that which is said in relation
to something, as friendships, relationships, services, likenesses,
equalities, and anything else of the kind; so also positions and
conditions, places and times, acts and passions. But in God nothing
is said to be according to accident, because in Him nothing is
changeable; and yet everything that is said, is not said, according
to substance. For it is said in relation to something, as the Father
in relation to the Son and the Son in relation to the Father, which
is not accident; because both the one is always Father, and the other
is always Son: yet not "always," meaning from the time when the
Son was born [natus], so that the Father ceases not to be the
Father because the Son never ceases to be the Son, but because the
Son was always born, and never began to be the Son. But if He had
begun to be at any time, or were at any time to cease to be, the
Son, then He would be called Son according to accident. But if the
Father, in that He is called the Father, were so called in relation
to Himself, not to the Son; and the Son, in that He is called the
Son, were so called in relation to Himself, not to the Father;
then both the one would be called Father, and the other Son,
according to substance. But because the Father is not called the
Father except in that He has a Son, and the Son is not called Son
except in that He has a Father, these things are not said according
to substance; because each of them is not so called in relation to
Himself, but the terms are used reciprocally and in relation each to
the other; nor yet according to accident, because both the being
called the Father, and the being called the Son, is eternal and
unchangeable to them. Wherefore, although to be the Father and to be
the Son is different, yet their substance is not different; because
they are so called, not according to substance, but according to
relation, which relation, however, is not accident, because it is
not changeable.
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