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State of the question. This is a question of
terminology. The difficulty arises from the use of the
genitive, "If one essence"; or it might be better to
say, "One essence of three persons."
Reply. The reply is in the affirmative. The formula is
found in the councils, for example, "We confess and
believe that the holy and ineffable Trinity, the
Father, the Son, the Holy Ghost, one God in nature
to be of one substance, of one nature, and of one majesty
and power."[535]
In the preface of the Mass of the Holy Trinity we say:
"One God, one Lord: not in the singleness of one only
person, but in the Trinity of one substance, " that
is, the three persons are of one essence. Thus the
Church uses this genitive. As is said in the argument
sed contra, this is a translation of the Greek
homoousios, of one substance, that is to say, that the
three persons are consubstantial, as was defined by the
Council of Nicaea.
The theological argument, given in the body of the
article, is the following. We cannot denominate divine
things except in the manner of our own intellectual
processes with the ever-present reference to creatures
from which our concepts are derived. But in creatures the
essence signifies the form of individuals and persons and
is attributed to them. Thus we say the sanity of this
man, or by means of the genitive we say, a man of perfect
virtue.
Similarly in God, where the persons are multiplied and
the essence is not, we say, the one essence of three
persons, and the three persons are "of one essence, "
and the genitive is construed as signifying the form.
Reply to the fifth objection. We cannot say that the
three persons are out of the same essence, because the
preposition out of does not express the formal cause but
the efficient and material cause, which do not exist in
God with reference to the divine persons.
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