The Most High's Majesty is in
Himself; infinite in his substance and attributes, eternal, exalted above all,
being three in Person, and one true God. Three in Person, because of the three
activities of knowing, comprehending and loving each other; one, so as to
secure the boon of eternal unity. It is the Trinity of the Father, the Son and
the Holy Ghost. The Father is not made, nor created, nor begotten, nor can He
be generated or have a beginning.
 |
| The Eternal Father |
The Son derives his origin from the Father alone by eternal generation; and that They are equal in their duration from eternity; and that He is begotten by the fecundity of the intelligence of the Father.
The Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and the Son through love. In their indivisible Trinity there is nothing which can be called first or last, greater or smaller: all three Persons are equally eternal and eternally equal; there is unity of essence in a trinity of persons. Nor are the Persons mingled in order to form one God, nor the divine substance separated or divided in order to form three Persons, being distinct as the Father, as the Son and as the Holy Ghost. They are nevertheless one and the same Divinity, equal in Each is the glory, and majesty, the power, the eternity, the immensity, the wisdom and sanctity, and all the attributes. And though there are three Persons, in whom these infinite perfections subsist, He is the one and true God, the Holy, the Just, the Powerful, the Eternal and the Measureless.
 |
| The Eternal Son |
There is a manner in which this Trinity comprehends Itself by simple vision, so that no new or distinct cognition is necessary: the Father knows that, which is known to the Son, and the Son and the Holy Ghost know that which is in the intelligence of the Father. There is how they love One another with one and the same immense and eternal love; how there is a single, indivisible and equal oneness of intelligence, love and action, how there is one simple, incorporeal and indivisible nature, a divine essence of the true God, in which are joined and united all the perfections in their highest and in an infinite degree.
There is quality of these perfections of the highest Lord: He is beautiful without a blemish, great without quantity, good without need of qualification, eternal without the duration of time, strong without any weakness, living without touch of decay, true without deceit, present in all places, filling them without occupying them, existing in all things without occupying any space. There is no contradiction in his kindness, nor any defect in his wisdom. In his wisdom He is inscrutable, in his decrees He is terrible, in his judgments just, in his thoughts most hidden, in his words most true, in his works holy, in his riches affluent.
 |
| The Holy Ghost |
To Him no space is too wide, no narrowness causes restraint, his will does not vary, the sorrowful does not cause Him Pain, the past has not passed for Him, nor does the future happen in regard to Him. O eternal Immensity, what illimitable expansion? What vastness in thy infinite Being? Vision does not terminate, nor ever exhaust itself in thy abyss of being. This is the unchangeable Essence, the Being above all other beings, the most perfect sanctity, the most constant truth; this is the infinite, the length, the breadth, the height and the depth, glory and its cause, rest without fatigue, goodness immeasurable.
 |
| The Majesty of God |
God has his being in Himself,
and He stands in want or need of none of the created things. For He is infinite in his attributes before as He is after creating them, and He will
possess and hold these attributes during the whole of eternity, because they
exist in Him as in an independent increated Essence. No perfection which is in
itself purely and essentially such, can be wanting to his Divinity: for the
Godhead is the only thing that is, and contains all the perfection of created
beings in an eminent and ineffable manner. All the other beings, in so far as
they exist, have their existence solely in that infinite Being, as effects in
their cause.
 |
| Oneness in the Triune God |
The Most High was in the quiescent state of his own being, when
the three Persons (according to our way of understanding things), decreed to
communicate his perfections as a free gift. For greater clearness, God comprehends in Himself all things by one indivisible, most
simple and instantaneous act. He does not go on from the understanding of one
thing to the understanding of another like we do, distinguishing and perceiving
first one thing by an act of the understanding, and after that proceeding to
the knowledge of others by their connection with those already known. God knows
them conjointly all at once, without before or after, since all are together
and at once contained in the divine and uncreated knowledge and science, just
as they are comprehended and enclosed in his infinite Being, as in their first
beginning.
 |
| The Trinity |
In this knowledge of God, which primarily
is called the knowledge of pure intelligence (scientia simplicis
intelligentise), we must, according to the natural precedence of the
intelligence before the will, not overlook a certain succession, not indeed of
time, but of nature. Hence we perceive that the act of intelligence preceded by
its nature the act of the will For in our way of reflecting on things, we think
of the act of intelligence by itself, abstractedly from the decree of wishing
to create anything. In this first stage or instant the three Persons through an
act of intelligence confirmed the opportuneness of the work ad extra and of all
creatures, which have been, are, and are to be.
