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AND THEIR REFUTATION, 350
made him his natural Son. If we admit this, however, then we
must say that Jesus Christ is not true God, but only a creature,
and that for two reasons, first because Faith teaches us that
there are only two internal operations (ad intra) in God, the
generation of the Word, and the spiration of the Holy Ghost ;
every other operation in God is external (ad extra), and external
operations produce only creatures, and not a Divine Person.
The second reason is because if Jesus Christ were the natural
Son of God, subsisting in three Persons, he would be the Son of
the Trinity, as we have already stated, and that would lead us to
admit two grievous absurdities first, the Trinity, that is, the
three Divine Persons would produce a Son of God ; but as we
have already shown, the Trinity, with the exception of the pro
duction of the Word and the Holy Ghost, ad intra, only pro
duces creatures, and not Sons of God. The second absurdity is,
that if Jesus Christ was made the natural Son of God by the
Trinity, he would generate or produce himself (unless we exclude
the Son from the Trinity altogether), and this would be a most
irrational error, such as Tertullian, charged Praxeas with :
se Filium sibi fecit" (18). Therefore, we see, according
"
Ipse
to Ber-
ruyer s system, that Jesus Christ, for all these reasons, would not
be true God, but a mere creature, and the Blessed Virgin would
be, as Nestorius asserted, only the Mother of Christ, and not, as
the Council decided, and Faith teaches, the Mother of God ;
Jesus Christ is true God, seeing that his humanity had only
the Person of the Word alone to terminate it, for it was
the Word alone which sustained the two natures, human and
Divine.
14. Berruyer s friend, however, says that he does not admit
the existence of two natural Sons one from eternity, the other
in time. But then, I say, if he does not admit it, where is the
use of torturing his mind, by trying
for
to make out this second
filiation of Jesus Christ, made in time the natural Son of God,
subsisting in three Persons. He ought to say, as the Church
teaches, and all Catholics believe, that it is the same Word who
was from all eternity the natural Son of God, generated from
the substance of the Father, who assumed human nature, and
(18) Tcrtull. adv. Praxcam, n. 50.