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| Whatever is Spoken of God According to Substance, is Spoken of Each Person Severally, and Together of the Trinity Itself. One Essence in God, and Three, in Greek, Hypostases, in Latin, Persons. PREVIOUS SECTION - NEXT SECTION - HELP
Chapter
8.—Whatever is Spoken of God According to Substance, is Spoken of
Each Person Severally, and Together of the Trinity Itself. One
Essence in God, and Three, in Greek, Hypostases, in Latin,
Persons.
9. Wherefore let us hold this above
all, that whatsoever is said of that most eminent and divine
loftiness in respect to itself, is said in respect to substance,
but that which is said in relation to anything, is not said in
respect to substance, but relatively; and that the effect of the
same substance in Father and Son and Holy Spirit is, that
whatsoever is said of each in respect to themselves, is to be taken
of them, not in the plural in sum, but in the singular. For as the
Father is God, and the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God,
which no one doubts to be said in respect to substance, yet we do
not say that the very Supreme Trinity itself is three Gods, but one
God. So the Father is great, the Son great, and the Holy Spirit
great; yet not three greats, but one great. For it is not written
of the Father alone, as they perversely suppose, but of the Father
and the Son and the Holy Spirit, “Thou art great: Thou art God
alone.”573 And the
Father is good, the Son good, and the Holy Spirit good; yet not
three goods, but one good, of whom it is said, “None is good,
save one, that is, God.” For the Lord Jesus, lest He should be
understood as man only by him who said, “Good Master,” as
addressing a man, does not therefore say, There is none good, save
the Father alone; but, “None is good, save one, that is,
God.”574 For the
Father by Himself is declared by the name of Father; but by the
name of God, both Himself and the Son and the Holy Spirit, because
the Trinity is one God. But position, and condition, and places,
and times, are not said to be in God properly, but metaphorically
and through similitudes. For He is both said to dwell between the
cherubims,575 which is
spoken in respect to position; and to be covered with the deep as
with a garment,576 which is
said in respect to condition; and “Thy years shall have no
end,”577 which is
said in respect of time; and, “If I ascend up into heaven, Thou
art there,”578 which is
said in respect to place. And as respects action (or making),
perhaps it may be said most truly of God alone, for God alone makes
and Himself is not made. Nor is He liable to passions as far as
belongs to that substance whereby He is God. So the Father is
omnipotent, the Son omnipotent, and the Holy Spirit is omnipotent;
yet not three omnipotents, but one omnipotent:579
579 [This phraseology appears in the
analytical statements of the so-called Athanasian creed (cap.
11–16), and affords ground for the opinion that this symbol is a
Western one, originating in the school of
Augustin.—W.G.T.S.] | “For of Him are all things, and
through Him are all things, and in Him are all things; to whom be
glory.”580 Whatever,
therefore, is spoken of God in respect to Himself, is both spoken
singly of each person, that is, of the Father, and the Son, and the
Holy Spirit; and together of the Trinity itself, not plurally but
in the singular. For inasmuch as to God it is not one thing to be,
and another thing to be great, but to Him it is the same thing to
be, as it is to be great; therefore, as we do not say three
essences, so we do not say three greatnesses, but one essence and
one greatness. I say essence, which in Greek is called οὐσία, and which
we call more usually substance.
10. They indeed use also the word
hypostasis; but they intend to put a difference, I know not what,
between οὐσία and hypostasis: so that most of ourselves who treat
these things in the Greek language, are accustomed to say,
μίαν οὐσίαν,
τρεῖς ὑποστάσεις
or in Latin, one essence, three substances.581
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