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Against Praxeas
Chapter IX.--The Catholic Rule of Faith Expounded in Some of Its Points. Especially in the Unconfused Distinction of the Several Persons of the Blessed Trinity.
Bear always in mind that this is the rule of faith which I profess; by it I testify that the Father, and the Son, and the Spirit are inseparable from each other, and so will you know in what sense this is said. Now, observe, my assertion is that the Father is one, and the Son one, and the Spirit one, and that They are distinct from Each Other. This statement is taken in a wrong sense by every uneducated as well as every perversely disposed person, as if it predicated a diversity, in such a sense as to imply a separation among the Father, and the Son, and the Spirit. I am, moreover, obliged to say this, when (extolling the Monarchy at the expense of the Economy) they contend for the identity of the Father and Son and Spirit, that it is not by way of diversity that the Son differs from the Father, but by distribution: it is not by division that He is different, but by distinction; because the Father is not the same as the Son, since they differ one from the other in the mode of their being. 1 For the Father is the entire substance, but the Son is a derivation and portion of the whole, 2 as He Himself acknowledges: "My Father is greater than I." 3 In the Psalm His inferiority is described as being "a little lower than the angels." 4 Thus the Father is distinct from the Son, being greater than the Son, inasmuch as He who begets is one, and He who is begotten is another; He, too, who sends is one, and He who is sent is another; and He, again, who makes is one, and He through whom the thing is made is another. Happily the Lord Himself employs this expression of the person of the Paraclete, so as to signify not a division or severance, but a disposition (of mutual relations in the Godhead); for He says, "I will pray the Father, and He shall send you another Comforter...even the Spirit of truth," 5 thus making the Paraclete distinct from Himself, even as we say that the Son is also distinct from the Father; so that He showed a third degree in the Paraclete, as we believe the second degree is in the Son, by reason of the order observed in the Economy. Besides, does not the very fact that they have the distinct names of Father and Son amount to a declaration that they are distinct in personality? 6 For, of course, all things will be what their names represent them to be; and what they are and ever will be, that will they be called; and the distinction indicated by the names does not at all admit of any confusion, because there is none in the things which they designate. "Yes is yes, and no is no; for what is more than these, cometh of evil." 7
"Modulo," in the sense of dispensation or economy. See Oehler and Rigault. on The Apology, c. xxi. ↩
"In his representation of the distinction (of the Persons of the Blessed Trinity), Tertullian sometimes uses expressions which in aftertimes, when controversy had introduced greater precision of language, were studiously avoided by the orthodox. Thus he calls the Father the whole substance, the Son a derivation from or portion of the whole." (Bp. Kaye, On Tertullian, p. 505). After Arius, the language of theology received greater precision; but as it is, there is no doubt of the orthodoxy of Tertullian's doctrine, since he so firmly and ably teaches the Son's consubstantiality with the Father--equal to Him and inseparable from him. [In other words, Tertullian could not employ a technical phraseology afterwards adopted to give precision to the same orthodox ideas.] ↩
John xiv. 28. ↩
Ps. viii. 5. ↩
John xiv. 16. ↩
Aliud ab alio. ↩
Matt. v. 37. ↩
Übersetzung
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Contre Praxéas
IX.
Ne perds jamais de vue le principe, établi par moi, que le Père, le Fils et le Saint-Esprit sont inséparables, et par-là, tu reconnaîtras toujours dans quel sens on le dit. Car voilà que je soutiens maintenant qu'autre est le Père, autre est le Fils, autre l'Esprit saint. L'ignorant ou le pervers se scandalisent de ce mot, comme s'il signifiait diversité, et qu'il impliquât par suite de cette diversité la séparation du Père, du Fils et de l'Esprit. Quand je dis que le Père est autre que le Fils et le Saint-Esprit, je le dis par nécessité pour répondre à mes adversaires qui, partisans de la monarchie exclusive, confondent dans une seule et même personne le Père, le Fils et l'Esprit; toutefois je le dis, non pour marquer la diversité, mais la distribution, non la division, mais la distinction, parce que le Père n'est pas le même que le Fils, différent en personne, mais non en substance. Le Père est la substance tout entière- Le Fils est la dérivation et la partie de ce tout, ainsi qu'il le déclare lui-même. «Mon Père est plus grand que moi.» Le Psalmiste lui-même ne chante-t-il pas, «que Dieu l'a abaissé un peu au-dessous des anges?» Le Père est donc autre que le Fils, en ce sens qu'il est plus grand que le Fils; en ce sens que celui qui engendre est autre que celui qui est engendré; en ce sens que celui qui envoie est autre que celui qui est envoyé; en ce sens que celui qui produit est autre que celui qui est produit. Heureusement pour notre cause, le Seigneur lui-même a employé ce mot à l'occasion du Paraclet, pour marquer non pas la division, mais l'ordre et la distribution: «Je prierai mon Père, et il vous donnera un autre consolateur, qui est l'Esprit de vérité.» Que fait-il par là? Il prouve que le Paraclet est autre que lui, de même que nous soutenons que le Fils est autre que le Père, afin de montrer le troisième degré dans le Paraclet, comme nous montrons ]e second dans le Fils, en respectant le principe de l'économie. D'ailleurs, le nom de Père donné à l'un, le nom de Fils donné à l'autre, ne prouvent-ils pas qu'ils sont distincts? Tout ce que représente leur nom, ils le seront; tout ce qu'ils seront, leur nom le représentera. La diversité de ces deux noms ne peut pas se confondre, parce que la diversité des choses, dont ils sont la signification, ne le peut pas. «Oui, oui; non, non; car ce qui est de plus est mal.»