Whether There Are More Than Three Persons in God?
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 (A. 1). But there are four
relations in God as stated above (Q. 28, A. 4), paternity, filiation,
common spiration, and procession. Therefore there are four persons in
God.
Obj. 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.
Obj. 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.
Obj. 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.
Obj. 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 John 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 (Q. 27, AA.
3, 4). We must consequently 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 Obj. 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 Obj. 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 (Q. 27, A. 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 Obj. 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 (Q. 27, AA. 1, 4).
Reply Obj. 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 Obj. 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 (Q. 42, AA. 1, 4), and the same is not measured by the same.
_______________________