Chapter 3.—The Argument of the Arians is Refuted,
Which is Drawn from the Words Begotten and Unbegotten.
4. Wherefore,—to being now to
answer the adversaries of our faith, respecting those things also,
which are neither said as they are thought, nor thought as they
really are:—among the many things which the Arians are wont to
dispute against the Catholic faith, they seem chiefly to set forth
this, as their most crafty device, namely, that whatsoever is said
or understood of God, is said not according to accident, but
according to substance, and therefore, to be unbegotten belongs to
the Father according to substance, and to be begotten belongs to
the Son according to substance; but to be unbegotten and to be
begotten are different; therefore the substance of the Father and
that of the Son are different. To whom we reply, If whatever is
spoken of God is spoken according to substance, then that which is
said, “I and the Father are one,”
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is spoken according to substance.
Therefore there is one substance of the Father and the Son. Or if
this is not said according to substance, then something is said of
God not according to substance, and therefore we are no longer
compelled to understand unbegotten and begotten according to
substance. It is also said of the Son, “He thought it not robbery
to be equal with God.”
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We ask, equal according to what?
For if He is not said to be equal according to substance, then they
admit that something may be said of God not according to substance.
Let them admit, then, that unbegotten and begotten are not spoken
according to substance. And if they do not admit this, on the
ground that they will have all things to be spoken of God according
to substance, then the Son is equal to the Father according to
substance.
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John x. 30
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Phil. ii. 6