Monologion: Chapter 43
MONOLOGION
But surely the real reason why it is more appropriate for the supreme spirit to be called Father rather than Mother is that the first and principal cause of offspring is always in the father. For since the paternal cause always in some way precedes the maternal, it would be quite incongruous to apply the word
'mother' to that parent who begets his offspring without any other cause that either accompanies or precedes him. Therefore, it is most true that the supreme spirit is the Father of his offspring.
Now given that a son is always more like his father than a daughter is, and nothing is more like another than his offspring is like the supreme Father, it is most true that this offspring is not a daughter but a Son. Therefore, just as it is the distinguishing characteristic of the one that he most truly begets and of the other that he is most truly begotten, so it is the distinguishing characteristic of the one that he is most truly begetter and of the other that he is most truly begotten. And just as the one is most truly parent and the other most truly offspring, so the one is most truly Father and the other most truly Son.
Chapter 43 A reconsideration of what is common to both and the distinguishing characteristics of each Having discovered so many and so great distinguishing characteristics of each, by which it is proved that there is a marvelous plurality—as ineffable as it is inevitable—in the supreme unity, it seems to me most delightful to reconsider so impenetrable a mystery again and again. For behold, it is impossible for him who begets to be the same as him who is begotten, and for the parent to be the same as the offspring—so much so that it is necessary that the begetter be one thing and the begotten something else, and that the Father be one thing and the Son something else. Nevertheless, it is necessary that he who begets be the same as him who is begotten, and that the parent be the same as the offspring—so much so that it is impossible for the begetter to be other than what the begotten is, and for the Father to be other than what the Son is.
Now the Father is one thing and the Son is another, so much so that it is altogether obvious that they are two; and yet that which they both are is so much one and the same thing that it is completely obscure what they are two of. For the Father is one thing and the Son another, so much so that when I speak of both, I see that I have spoken of two things; and yet that which is both Father and Son is so much one and the same thing that I do not understand what two things I have spoken of. For although the Father individually is completely the supreme spirit, and the Son individually is completely the supreme spirit, nevertheless, the Father-spirit and the Son-spirit are so much one and the same that the Father and the Son are not two spirits but one spirit.