{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/211/2111167.htm","path":"chr/ecf/211/2111167.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/211/2111167.htm","text":"He shows further that this teaching is destructive of the confession of the Trinity.\nBut 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\u2014At 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 \u201ca mere man,\u201d according to that which He Himself said: \u201cThat which is born of the flesh, is flesh.\u201d 2565 But He cannot be called a mere man who was begotten not after the law of human creation alone. \u201cFor that which is conceived in her,\u201d said the angel, \u201cis of the Holy Ghost.\u201d 2566 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, \u201cemptied Himself by taking the form of a servant,\u201d and \u201cthe word was made flesh,\u201d and \u201chumbled Himself by becoming obedient unto death,\u201d and \u201cwho for our sakes, though He was rich, became poor,\u201d 2567 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 p. 600 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, 2568 you see that you have utterly denied the whole Trinity.\nS. John iii. 6.\n599:2566\nS. Matt. i. 20.\n599:2567\nPhil. 2:7, 8, John 1:14, 2 Cor. 8:9.\n600:2568\nCf. Augustine, Tr. 78 in Joan.","title":"Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Ser. II, Vol. XI: The Wor...","type":"page"}