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Against Praxeas
Chapter XX.--The Scriptures Relied on by Praxeas to Support His Heresy But Few. They are Mentioned by Tertullian.
But I must take some further pains to rebut their arguments, when they make selections from the Scriptures in support of their opinion, and refuse to consider the other points, which obviously maintain the rule of faith without any infraction of the unity of the Godhead, and with the full admission 1 of the Monarchy. For as in the Old Testament Scriptures they lay hold of nothing else than, "I am God, and beside me there is no God;" 2 so in the Gospel they simply keep in view the Lord's answer to Philip, "I and my Father are one;" 3 and, "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and I am in the Father, and the Father in me." 4 They would have the entire revelation of both Testaments yield to these three passages, whereas the only proper course is to understand the few statements in the light of the many. But in their contention they only act on the principle of all heretics. For, inasmuch as only a few testimonies are to be found (making for them) in the general mass, they pertinaciously set off the few against the many, and assume the later against the earlier. The rule, however, which has been from the beginning established for every case, gives its prescription against the later assumptions, as indeed it also does against the fewer.
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Adversus Praxean
CAP. 20.
[1] Sed argumentationibus eorum adhuc retundendis opera praebenda est si quid de scripturis ad sententiam suam excerpent, cetera nolentes intueri quae et ipsa regulam servant, et quidem salva unione divinitatis et monarchiae sonitu. nam sicut in veteribus nihil aliud tenent quam, Ego deus et alias praeter me non est, ita in evangelio responsionem domini ad Philippum tuentur, Ego et pater unum sumus, et Qui me viderit vidit et patrem, et Ego in patre et pater in me.
[2] his tribus capitulis totum instrumentum utriusque testamenti volant cedere, cum oporteat secundum plura intellegi pauciora.
[3] sed proprium hoc est omnium haereticorum. nam quia pauca sunt quae in silva inveniri possunt, pauca adversus plura defendunt et posteriora adversus priora suscipiunt. regula autem omni rei semper ab initio constituta in prioribus et in posteriora praescribit, utique et in paucioribus.