Tractatus de Deo Trino secundum personas

« By a certain general consideration of the doctrine of Christ and of the Apostles, « as it is set forth in the books of the New Testament, are shown to be the Father, « the Son, and the Holy Spirit, three distinct, who are one God ».

• In the Gospels, in the apostolic epistles, and in the other books of the New Testament, mention is made very frequently and the doctrine is handed on of Christ Himself and of the Apostles concerning God the Father, who is the Father of His only-begotten Son; concerning the Son of God, who has God as His own Father; concerning the Holy Spirit, who is the Spirit of the Father, the Spirit of the Son, the Spirit of God. Here we are content with a still general and obvious consideration of those things which are taught about each one; about the Son, I say, and about the Holy Spirit, since from these very things are understood those things which pertain to the Father for the present question. We say, therefore, that as often as, whether as if in passing or deliberately, there is speech in the Scriptures of the New Testament about the Son of God according to His more sublime nature (for the human nature of the incarnate Son does not come into consideration here), and as often as there is speech about the Holy Spirit in relation to the Father or the Son or to both, all things absolutely conspire to this opinion: that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are three really distinct from one another, i.e. not by our consideration alone, but in themselves the Father is one, the Son another, the Holy Spirit another; nevertheless, however, both the three together and each one singly are one God.

I. The Lord Christ Himself in all His life and teaching always exhibited, and the Apostles afterwards handed on, the relation of the Son of God to God the Father in this sense: that the Son of God is Son not by adoption, but Son by the nature which is one of the Father and of the Son.

1°. He is everywhere proclaimed by His own proper name Son of God, beloved Son. Matth. III. 17; Son of paternal love Col. I. 13; own Son Rom. VIII. 32; whose own Father is God Io. V. 18; true Son 1. Io. V. 20¹; Son over the house and family Heb. III. 6; who is not Son for this reason, because He is obedient to the Father, but was made obedient, although He was Son καίπερ ὢν υἱός Heb. V. 8; Son abiding forever Io. VIII. 35²; Son by generation and for that reason in the sense in which none of the angels can be called son Heb. I. 5; only-begotten Son of God Io. III. 16; only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father ib. I. 18³; Son, who gave to others the power to become sons of God ib. I. 12.

2°. By this very fact, that the Father is Father and the Son is Son of the Father, the Father is one and the Son another. « I and the Father are one »; « the Father is in me, and I in the Father »; « glorify me, Father, with the glory which I had with you, before the world was »; « the Father works and I work »; « I am not alone, but I and the Father who sent me »; « whoever loves me will be loved by my Father » etc.

3°. But because He is the Son of God in the proper sense, therefore God the Father and the Son are simply one. « I and the Father are one ». Io. X. 30. The operation of the Father is the operation of the Son, and the relation of the Father and of the Son to their faithful is one. « My Father works until now, and I work.... Whatever He has done, these things the Son also does in like manner (ὁμοίως) » Io. V. 17. 21. « Whoever loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him.... and we will come to him, and we will make our abode with him » ib. XIV. 21. 23.

Those things which in the Old Testament were said of the one God of Israel (יהוה) were said of the Son of God. « But to the Son (the Scripture says): your throne, O God, is for ever and ever.... And (again the Scripture says): you, Lord, in the beginning founded the earth » Heb. I. 8 sq.

Therefore the nature of the Son is the nature of God, by which He is equal to God. « Who, when He was in the form of God, did not think it robbery to be equal to God » Phil. II. 6. The essential life which the Father has in Himself, the Son also has, communicated by the Father, and therefore as the Father, so the Son is life itself. « As the Father has life in Himself, so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself ». Io. V. 26⁴. Therefore the Son is « the splendor of the glory of the Father (ἀπαύγασμα τῆς δόξης αὐτοῦ) and the figure (χαρακτήρ) of His substance, upholding all things by the word of His power » Heb. I. 3⁵.

On account of these things the Son demands the same supreme worship which is owed to the Father. « That all may honor the Son, as they honor the Father » Io. V. 23. (See Tract. de Incarnat. th. III. seq.).

II. In like manner the Holy Spirit, both in the life and doctrine of Christ Himself and in the subsequent preaching of the Apostles, is everywhere set forth as another from the Father and the Son, and nevertheless as one God.

1°. The distinction of the Holy Spirit as a third from the Father and the Son is clearly exhibited. While the Father bore testimony to the Son, the Holy Spirit appeared in bodily form, distinct from both Matth. III. 16. 17 (with the parallels). Christ Himself declared in many ways the doctrine of the Holy Spirit in the discourse held at the Last Supper, where it is constantly said that the Holy Spirit or the Spirit of truth is another Paraclete, distinct from the Son, and distinct from the Father and the Son: who proceeds from the Father, who likewise receives from the Son, because all things which are the Father's are also the Son's; the Spirit of truth, whom the Father sends in the name of the Son; whom the Son sends from the Father. « I will ask the Father and He will give you another Paraclete, that He may abide with you forever ». « But the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things » τὸ Πνεῦμα τὸ Ἅγιον, ὃ πέμψει ὁ Πατὴρ ἐν τῷ ὀνόματί μου, ἐκεῖνος ὑμᾶς διδάξει Io. XIV. 16. 26. Therefore, although spirit is said in many ways, and even God considered absolutely is spirit, it is nevertheless certain that this name Holy Spirit in revealed doctrine has been determined to the character of a proper hypostatic name, by which He is designated as distinct from the Father and from the Son (cf. Epiphan. haer. 74).

2°. The divinity of the Holy Spirit is declared so evidently in the whole revealed doctrine that, unless the distinction from the Father and the Son were equally expressed, no one would not hold for certain that God considered absolutely, or — what amounts to almost the same — a divine attribute, is designated in the Scriptures by this name. The very names Spirit of God, Spirit of the Father, Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, cannot signify anything other than God.

No less clearly is this very thing established from the descriptions of the attributes and operations of the Holy Spirit. He is « the Spirit of truth, who teaches all truth... another Paraclete, who may abide with the Apostles forever, the Spirit of truth ». Io. XIV. 16. 26⁶; XVI. 13. Who therefore is absolute truth. Hence God reveals all things through His Spirit; yet He who is said to reveal and he through whom He is said to reveal are distinct; for He is the Spirit of God and the Spirit from God, who searches the depths of God. « But God has revealed to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. For who among men knows the things of a man, except the spirit of the man, which is in him? so too the things of God no one has known except the Spirit of God. But we.... have received the Spirit, who is from God » 1. Cor. II. 10-12. These things are to be compared with those which are said of the relation between God with whom the Word was, and the Word of God who was God. As to the distinction: « the Word was with God » — « God through His Spirit.... the Spirit, who is in Him, who is from God ». As to the unity: « and God was the Word » — « the Spirit searches even the depths of God... no one has known except the Spirit of God ».

Furthermore, just as the Father and the Son come to us and abide in us, so with the Father and the Son comes and abides the Holy Spirit Io. XIV. 17-23. The just are the temple of the Holy Spirit, and by this very fact the temple of God. « Do you not know that you are the temple of God, and the Spirit of God dwells in you » 1. Cor. III. 16; « your members are the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own » ib. VI. 19. cf. 2. Cor. VI. 16.

The Holy Spirit Himself is in us the author and cause of supernatural regeneration. For just as we are said to be born of God (Io. I. 13), so it is said: « unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Spirit » Io. III. 5. Just as it is said: « charity is from God; and everyone who loves has been born of God... God is charity; and he who abides in charity abides in God and God in him » 1. Io. IV. 7. 16; so it is said: « the charity of God is poured forth in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.... You have received the Spirit of adoption of sons.... for the Spirit Himself gives testimony to our spirit, that we are sons of God » Rom. V. 5; VIII. 15. 16⁷; Gal. IV. 6.

Of all the charisms, whose author cannot be other than God, the Holy Spirit is the author. « It will be given to you in that hour what you are to speak; for you are not the ones who speak, but the Spirit of your Father, who speaks in you » Matth. X. 19. 20; « they began to speak in various tongues, as the Holy Spirit gave them to utter » Act. II. 4; « the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city, saying that bonds and tribulations await me at Jerusalem » ib. XX. 22; « they attempted (Paul with his companions) to go into Bithynia, and the Spirit of Jesus did not permit them » ib. XVI. 7. (compare as to the matter itself Act. XXII. 18); « prophecy was never brought by human will, but holy men of God spoke, inspired by the Holy Spirit (ὑπὸ Πνεύματος Ἁγίου φερόμενοι) » 2. Pet. I. 21; « the prophets searched.... into what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ in them signified (τὸ ἐν αὐτοῖς Πνεῦμα Χριστοῦ προμαρτυρόμενον), foretelling those sufferings, which are in Christ, and the subsequent glories » 1. Pet. I. 10. In general, « no one can say (by faith, hope, and charity, as is fitting), Lord Jesus⁸, except in the Holy Spirit. But there are divisions of graces, but the same Spirit.... To one indeed is given through the Spirit the word of wisdom.... But all these things one and the same Spirit works, dividing to each one as He wills » 1. Cor. XII. 3 seqq.; Heb. II. 4.

What is called the voice of the Lord in the Old Testament, the same is called in the New Testament the prediction of the Holy Spirit. « I heard the voice of the Lord (אדני): go and say to this people: hearing hear, and do not understand » Is. VI. 8. 9. « Well did the Holy Spirit speak through Isaiah to our fathers, saying: go to this people and say to them: with the ear you will hear, and you will not understand » Act. XXVIII. 25. 26.

Moreover, Christ the Lord Himself, according to His humanity and in His humanity, is anointed, sanctified, sent by the Holy Spirit. « And as He unrolled the book (in the synagogue of Nazareth), He found the place where it was written: the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He anointed me, He sent me to evangelize the poor.... But He began to say to them, that today this prophecy is fulfilled in your ears » Luc. IV. 18 seqq. (On the matter and mode of this sanctification see Tract. de Incarnat.). Hence, just as it can be understood according to His humanity that Christ says: « the Father is greater than I » (Io. XIV. 28); so according as He is man, He exhibits the Holy Spirit as greater than Himself: « But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, therefore the kingdom of God has come upon you.... the blasphemy of the Spirit will not be forgiven.... And whoever has spoken a word against the Son of man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever has spoken against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him » Matth. XII. 28 sqq. As in this place, before those Jews who thought Christ to be only a man, a comparison is made between sin against the Son of man and against the Holy Spirit (see Athanas. contra Arian. orat. I. n. 50), and the operations, which the Jews were bound to acknowledge as operations of God, are expressly attributed by Christ Himself to the Holy Spirit; thus s. Peter takes as synonyms: to lie to the Holy Spirit, and to lie to God Act. V. 3. 4. 9: and so much so that even by the very name he declares the Holy Spirit to be God. See Bellarmin. de Christo 1. I. c. 13.

III. The whole doctrine, therefore, of Christ and of the Apostles, although proposed on many and various occasions, under different aspects, and in other and other words, always conspires to the same opinion, and even at first glance and by an obvious consideration exhibits the revelation about unity and distinction in God most clearly in that sense in which it is understood and believed by all Catholics, and (no one denying it, for many centuries at least) has been understood and believed in all the creeds, in the definitions of the Councils, in the declarations of all the Catholic Doctors, finally in the profession of the whole universal Church. Namely, three are taught to be really distinct from one another: one the Father, another the Son, another the Holy Spirit, and these three — the Son and the Spirit equally as the Father — are true God. But since God is one with the unity of singularity and with multiplicity excluded, and so much so that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are taught to be the very true God, who revealed Himself as one, besides whom there is no other God; by this very fact the Godhead or absolute perfection is not distinct, but one in number, common to those three distinct from one another, by which they are one God.

But now, where there are several distinct from one another, who are constituted in the same essential perfection, by which there is answered the question of what a thing essentially is (τὸ τί ἦν εἶναι), that common essential perfection is called by all learned and unlearned essence or (insofar as essence is the principle of operation) nature, while those distinct from one another, whose common nature it is, are called hypostases and (if the nature is intellectual) persons⁹. The Christian profession, therefore, by which we believe one nature and three divine persons, or God one in nature and trine in persons, contains nothing else than that which we have demonstrated to be proposed in the very doctrine of the Scriptures.