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BUT still even if your obstinacy and dishonesty are not restrained by
this faith of the Creed, are you not, I ask you, overwhelmed by an appeal
to reason and the light of truth? Tell me, I ask, whoever you are, O you
heretic--At least there is a Trinity, in which we believe, and which we
confess: Father and Son and Holy Ghost. Of the Glory of the Father and the
Spirit there is no question. You are slandering the Son, because you say
that it was not the same Person who was born of Mary, as He who was
begotten of God the Father. Tell me then: if you do not deny that the only
Son of God was begotten of God, whom do you make out that He is who was
born of Mary? You say "a mere man," according to that which He Himself
said: "That which is born of the flesh, is flesh." But He cannot be
called a mere man who was begotten not after the law of human creation
alone. "For that which is conceived in her," said the angel, "is of the
Holy Ghost." And this even you dare not deny, though you deny almost all
the mysteries of salvation. Since then He was born of the Holy Ghost, and
cannot be termed a mere man, as He was conceived by the inspiration of God,
if it is not He who, as the Apostle says, "emptied Himself by taking the
form of a servant," and "the word was made flesh," and "humbled Himself by
becoming obedient unto death," and "who for our sakes, though He was rich,
became poor," tell me, then, who He is, who was born of the Holy Ghost,
and was conceived by the overshadowing of God? You say that He is certainly
a different Person. Then there are two Persons; viz., the one, who was
begotten of God the Father in heaven; and the other who was conceived of
Mary, by the inspiration of God. And thus there is a fourth Person whom you
introduce, and whom (though in words you term Him a mere man) you assert
actually not to have been a mere man, since you allow (not however as you
ought) that He is to be honoured, worshipped, and adored. Since then the
Son of God who was begotten of the Father is certainly to be worshipped,
and He who was conceived of Mary by the Holy Ghost is to be worshipped, you
make two Persons to be honoured and venerated, whom you so far sever from
each other, as to venerate each with an honour special and peculiar to Him.
And thus you see that by denying and by severing from Himself the Son of
God, you destroy, as far as you can, the whole mystery of the divinity. For
while you are endeavouring to introduce a fourth Person into the
Trinity, you see that you have utterly denied the whole Trinity.
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