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The question is whether the essential names are predicated
of the three persons only singly or also in the plural,
for example, whether we can say, in God there are three
Gods, or at least three divine beings.
In reply we refer to the distinction between the
substantive and adjective. Those things which signify the
essence substantively are predicated of the three persons
only singly and not in the plural; thus we do not say,
three Gods. Those things, however, which signify the
essence adjectively are predicated of the three persons in
the plural: thus we say three wise beings.
It should be noted that what grammarians today call
substantive and adjective were formerly called a
substantive noun, as stone, wood; and an adjective
noun, as white. It was called adjective because it
denoted something that inhered in a subject like an
accident.
The point is that a substance is in itself and not in
another, and thus it has in itself its own unity or
plurality. Therefore if a substantive noun is predicated
in the plural it signifies a plurality of substances, for
example, many men, in which the essence or substantial
form is multiplied. Therefore we do not say, three
Gods.
On the other hand an accident is not in itself but in
another, and therefore the accident receives unity or
plurality from its subject. In adjective nouns,
therefore, the singularity or plurality follows on the
subject or suppositum, and the multiplication of the
suppositum suffices without the multiplication of the
form, for example, if the same whiteness pertains to two
supposita, we may say, two that are white.
Thus we do not say, three Gods, but three divine
beings, three who exist, three who are eternal, three
uncreated, if these terms are taken adjectively. In the
Athanasian Creed we read: "The three persons are
co-eternal together and co-equal." If these words are
taken substantively, we say One uncreated, as we read in
the same Creed, "is also they are not three uncreated,
nor three infinites: but one Uncreated, and one
Infinite."
Reply to the second objection. St. Thomas notes that
in the Hebrew "Eloim" is used in the plural. But we
do not say in the plural, Gods or substances, lest the
plurality refer to the substance.
Reply to the third objection. That which pertains to a
relation is predicated in the plural; that which refers to
the substance is predicated in the singular. It is better
to say three real relations than three relative realities,
because the relations in God are not multiplied according
to their "esse in" but according to their
"esse ad". St. Augustine is quoted here as
saying, "The very Trinity is the highest thing."
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