Against Praxeas

So, it is either the Father or the Son, and day is not the same as night. In the same way, the Father is not the same as the Son, so that both of them would be one, and one or the other would be both. That is the view held by the most arrogant Monarchians. They say that He made Himself a Son to Himself. But a father makes a son, and a son makes a father. When persons are related to each other in that way, they cannot somehow become related to themselves by themselves. So the Father cannot make Himself a Son to Himself, and the Son cannot make Himself a Father to Himself. And the relations God establishes, He also preserves. A father must have a son in order to be a father. In the same way, a son must have a father in order to be a son. However, having something is one thing, and being something is another. For example, to be a husband, I must have a wife. I can never be my own wife. In the same way, to be a father, I have a son, because I can never be a son to myself. And to be a son, I have a father, because it is impossible for me ever to be my own father. These relations make me what I am when I come to possess them. I will be a father when I have a son, and a son when I have a father. Now if I am to be one of these relations to myself, then I no longer have what I myself am supposed to be. I do not have a father, because I am to be my own father. I do not have a son, because I am to be my own son. Moreover, since I must have one of these relations in order to be the other, if I am to be both at once, I will fail to be one because I do not possess the other. For if I must be my own son, while I am also a father, then I stop having a son, because I am my own son. But if I do not have a son, because I am my own son, how can I be a father? I must have a son in order to be a father. Therefore I am not a son, because I do not have a father, who makes a son. In the same way, if I am my own father, while I am also a son, then I no longer have a father, but am myself my father. But if I do not have a father, because I am my own father, how can I be a son? I must have a father in order to be a son. Therefore I cannot be a father, because I do not have a son, who makes a father. Now all this must be the devil’s scheme. He excludes and separates one from the other. By putting both together into one under the pretense of the Monarchy, he causes neither to be held and acknowledged. So He is not the Father, since He does not have the Son. Neither is He the Son, since in the same way He does not have the Father. For while He is the Father, He will not be the Son. In this way they hold to the Monarchy, but they hold neither the Father nor the Son. Well then, they say, with God nothing is impossible. Matthew 19:26. True enough. Who could be ignorant of that? And who does not know that the things impossible with men are possible with God? Luke 18:27. God has also chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise things. 1 Corinthians 1:27. We have read all that. Therefore, they argue, it was not hard for God to make Himself both Father and Son, even though that is contrary to the way things are among men. It was no difficulty for God that a barren woman should have a child against nature, nor that a virgin should conceive. Of course, nothing is too hard for the Lord. Genesis 18:14. But if we choose to use this principle in such a wild and harsh way, according to our own random imaginations, then we can make God out to have done anything we want, simply because it was not impossible for Him to do it. However, we must not suppose that because He is able to do all things, He has actually done what He has not done. We must ask whether He really did it. God could, if He had wanted, have given man wings to fly, just as He gave wings to kites. But we must not rush to conclude that He did this, just because He was able to do it. He could also have destroyed Praxeas and all other heretics at once. Yet it does not follow that He did so, simply because He was able. For it was necessary that there should be both kites and heretics. It was necessary also that the Father should be crucified. In one sense, there will be something difficult even for God, namely, what He has not done; not because He could not do it, but because He would not do it. For with God, to be willing is to be able, and to be unwilling is to be unable. Yet whatever He has willed, He has been able to accomplish, and He has shown His power in doing it. Therefore, if God had wanted to make Himself a Son to Himself, He had the power to do so. And if He had the power, He would have carried out His purpose. So then, you will prove His power and His will to do even this only when you prove to us that He actually did it.