XX. I will look also at this further point, which
is not without its bearing on the subject. One and One added
together make Two; and Two resolved again becomes One and One, as is
perfectly evident. If, however, elements which are added together
must, as your theory requires, be consubstantial, and those which are
separate be heterogeneous, then it will follow that the same things
must be both consubstantial and heterogeneous. No: I laugh
at your Counting Before and your Counting After, of which you are so
proud, as if the facts themselves depended upon the order of their
names. If this were so, according to the same law, since the same
things are in consequence of the equality of their nature counted in
Holy Scripture, sometimes in an earlier, sometimes in a later place,
what prevents them from being at once more honourable and less
honourable than themselves? I say the same of the names God and
Lord, and of the prepositions Of Whom, and By Whom, and In Whom, by
which you describe the Deity according to the rules of art for us,
attributing the first to the Father, the second to the Son, and the
third to the Holy Ghost. For what would you have done, if each of
these expressions were constantly allotted to Each Person, when, the
fact being that they are used of all the Persons, as is evident to
those who have studied the question, you even so make them the ground
of such inequality both of nature and dignity. This is sufficient
for all who are not altogether wanting in sense. But since it is
a matter of difficulty for you after you have once made an assault upon
the Spirit, to check your rush, and not rather like a furious boar to
push your quarrel to the bitter end, and to thrust yourself upon the
knife until you have received the whole wound in your own breast; let
us go on to see what further argument remains to you.