80. For if the Father is Almighty by reason
of begetting the Son, then, certainly, either the Son is co-eternal
with the Father, because if the Father is eternally Almighty, then the
Son also is eternal, or, if there was a time when there was not an
eternal Son, there was by consequence a time when there was not an
Almighty Father. For when they would make out that there was a
time when the Son began to be, they are sliding back into [the error
of] saying that the Father’s Power also has not been from
everlasting, but began to be in consequence of the generation of the
Son. So, in their desire to do dishonour to the Son of God, they
do so increase His honour as to seem to make Him, contrary to all right
belief, the source of His Father’s Power, though the Son saith,
“All things that the Father hath are Mine” S. John xvi. 15.—that is to say, not the things which
He has bestowed upon the Father, but which He has received from the
Father, by right as the Son Whom the Father has begotten.