Chapter XXXI.—Retrograde Character of the Heresy of Praxeas. The Doctrine of the Blessed Trinity Constitutes the Great Difference Between Judaism and Christianity.

But, (this doctrine of yours bears a likeness) to the Jewish faith, of which this is the substance—so to believe in One God as to refuse to reckon the Son besides Him, and after the Son the Spirit. Now, what difference would there be between us and them, if there were not this distinction which you are for breaking down? What need would there be of the gospel, which is the substance of the New Covenant, laying down (as it does) that the Law and the Prophets lasted until John the Baptist, if thenceforward the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are not both believed in as Three, and as making One Only God? God was pleased to renew His covenant with man in such a way as that His Unity might be believed in, after a new manner, through the Son and the Spirit, in order that God might now be known openly,433    Coram. in His proper Names and Persons, who in ancient times was not plainly understood, though declared through the Son and the Spirit. Away, then, with434    Viderint. those “Antichrists who deny the Father and the Son.” For they deny the Father, when they say that He is the same as the Son; and they deny the Son, when they suppose Him to be the same as the Father, by assigning to Them things which are not Theirs, and taking away from Them things which are Theirs. But “whosoever shall confess that (Jesus) Christ is the Son of God” (not the Father), “God dwelleth in him, and he in God.”435    1 John iv. 15. We believe not the testimony of God in which He testifies to us of His Son. “He that hath not the Son, hath not life.”436    1 John v. 12. And that man has not the Son, who believes Him to be any other than the Son.

CAPUT XXXI.

Caeterum judaicae fidei ista res , sic unum Deum credere, ut Filium adnumerare ei nolis, et post Filium, Spiritum. Quid enim erit inter nos et illos, 0196B nisi differentia ista? Quod opus Evangelii, quae est substantia Novi Testamenti, statuens Legem et Prophetas usque ad Joannem, si non exinde Pater et Filius et Spiritus, tres crediti, unum Deum sistunt? Sic Deus voluit novare sacramentum, ut nove unus crederetur per Filium et Spiritum, ut coram jam Deus in suis propriis nominibus et personis cognosceretur, qui et retro per Filium et Spiritum praedicatus non intelligebatur. Viderint igitur antichristi, qui negant Patrem et Filium. Negant enim Patrem, dum eumdem Filium dicunt; et negant Filium, dum eumdem Patrem credunt, dando illis quae non sunt, auferendo quae sunt. Qui vero confessus fuerit Christum Filium Dei non Patrem, Deus in illo manet, et ipse in Deo. Nos credimus testimonio Dei, quo testatus est de Filio 0196C suo: Qui filium non habet, nec vitam habet (I Joan., V, 12). Non habet autem Filium, qui eum alium quam Filium credit.