101. With the consideration whereof we must join
another most blasphemous objection of theirs, which covers a subtle
purpose to confuse the sense and understanding of simple folk.
They ask whether everything that comes to an end had also at any time a
beginning. If they are told that what has an end also had a
beginning, then they return to the charge with the question whether the
Father has ceased to beget His Son. This by our consent being
granted them, they conclude that the generation of the Son had a
beginning. The which if you allow, it seems to follow that if the
Generation had a beginning, it appears to have begun in Him Who was
begotten; so that one, who had not existed before, may be called
“begotten”—their intent being to close the inquiry by
laying down as conclusive that there was a time when the Son existed
not.