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St. Thomas recalls that an incommunicable relation as
subsisting is the same as a person, which is something
subsisting and incommunicable. Moreover, in his reply to
the first objection he shows that personal properties,
like paternity and filiation, are not really distinct from
the persons because as God and the Deity are the same
(God is His own Deity), so the Father and paternity
are the same. In God the abstract is not distinct from
the concrete because there is no matter in God; on the
contrary, humanity is only an essential part of the
concrete man, who besides has individuating notes. God,
however, is pure form without matter, and He is His own
being and His own act. Properties that are not
personal, such as active spiration, are not really
distinct from the persons to whom they are attributed,
because the simplicity of God excludes every real
distinction except where there is opposition of relation.
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