|
Objection 1: It would seem that there are more than three persons in
God. For the plurality of persons in God arises from the plurality
of the relative properties as stated above (Article 1). But there
are four relations in God as stated above (Question 28, Article
4), paternity, filiation, common spiration, and procession.
Therefore there are four persons in God.
Objection 2: The nature of God does not differ from His will more
than from His intellect. But in God, one person proceeds from the
will, as love; and another proceeds from His nature, as Son.
Therefore another proceeds from His intellect, as Word, besides the
one Who proceeds from His nature, as Son; thus again it follows
that there are not only three persons in God.
Objection 3: Further, the more perfect a creature is, the more
interior operations it has; as a man has understanding and will beyond
other animals. But God infinitely excels every creature. Therefore
in God not only is there a person proceeding from the will, and
another from the intellect, but also in an infinite number of ways.
Therefore there are an infinite number of persons in God.
Objection 4: Further, it is from the infinite goodness of the
Father that He communicates Himself infinitely in the production of a
divine person. But also in the Holy Ghost is infinite goodness.
Therefore the Holy Ghost produces a divine person; and that person
another; and so to infinity.
Objection 5: Further, everything within a determinate number is
measured, for number is a measure. But the divine persons are
immense, as we say in the Creed of Athanasius: "The Father is
immense, the Son is immense, the Holy Ghost is immense."
Therefore the persons are not contained within the number three.
On the contrary, It is said: "There are three who bear witness in
heaven, the father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost" (1 Jn.
5:7). To those who ask, "Three what?" we answer, with
Augustine (De Trin. vii, 4), "Three persons." Therefore
there are but three persons in God.
I answer that, As was explained above, there can be only three
persons in God. For it was shown above that the several persons are
the several subsisting relations really distinct from each other. But
a real distinction between the divine relations can come only from
relative opposition. Therefore two opposite relations must needs refer
to two persons: and if any relations are not opposite they must needs
belong to the same person. Since then paternity and filiation are
opposite relations, they belong necessarily to two persons. Therefore
the subsisting paternity is the person of the Father; and the
subsisting filiation is the person of the Son. The other two
relations are not opposed to each other; therefore these two cannot
belong to one person: hence either one of them must belong to both of
the aforesaid persons; or one must belong to one person, and the other
to the other. Now, procession cannot belong to the Father and the
Son, or to either of them; for thus it would follows that the
procession of the intellect, which in God is generation, wherefrom
paternity and filiation are derived, would issue from the procession of
love, whence spiration and procession are derived, if the person
generating and the person generated proceeded from the person
spirating; and this is against what was laid down above (Question
27, Articles 3,4). We must frequently admit that spiration
belongs to the person of the Father, and to the person of the Son,
forasmuch as it has no relative opposition either to paternity or to
filiation; and consequently that procession belongs to the other person
who is called the person of the Holy Ghost, who proceeds by way of
love, as above explained. Therefore only three persons exist in
God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost.
Reply to Objection 1: Although there are four relations in God,
one of them, spiration, is not separated from the person of the
Father and of the Son, but belongs to both; thus, although it is a
relation, it is not called a property, because it does not belong to
only one person; nor is it a personal relation---i.e. constituting
a person. The three relations---paternity, filiation, and
procession---are called personal properties, constituting as it were
the persons; for paternity is the person of the Father, filiation is
the person of the Son, procession is the person of the Holy Ghost
proceeding.
Reply to Objection 2: That which proceeds by way of intelligence,
as word, proceeds according to similitude, as also that which proceeds
by way of nature; thus, as above explained (Question 27, Article
3), the procession of the divine Word is the very same as generation
by way of nature. But love, as such, does not proceed as the
similitude of that whence it proceeds; although in God love is
co-essential as being divine; and therefore the procession of love is
not called generation in God.
Reply to Objection 3: As man is more perfect than other animals,
he has more intrinsic operations than other animals, because his
perfection is something composite. Hence the angels, who are more
perfect and more simple, have fewer intrinsic operations than man, for
they have no imagination, or feeling, or the like. In God there
exists only one real operation---that is, His essence. How there
are in Him two processions was above explained (Question 27,
Articles 1,4).
Reply to Objection 4: This argument would prove if the Holy Ghost
possessed another goodness apart from the goodness of the Father; for
then if the Father produced a divine person by His goodness, the
Holy Ghost also would do so. But the Father and the Holy Ghost
have one and the same goodness. Nor is there any distinction between
them except by the personal relations. So goodness belongs to the
Holy Ghost, as derived from another; and it belongs to the Father,
as the principle of its communication to another. The opposition of
relation does not allow the relation of the Holy Ghost to be joined
with the relation of principle of another divine person; because He
Himself proceeds from the other persons who are in God.
Reply to Objection 5: A determinate number, if taken as a simple
number, existing in the mind only, is measured by one. But when we
speak of a number of things as applied to the persons in God, the
notion of measure has no place, because the magnitude of the three
persons is the same (Question 42, Articles 1,4), and the same
is not measured by the same.
|
|