Chapter 8.—No Addition Can Be Made to the Nature of God.

Since, therefore, the Father alone, or the Son alone, or the Holy Spirit alone, is as great as is the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit together,608    [Each trinitarian person is as great as the Trinity, if reference be had to the essence, but not if reference be had to the persons. Each person has the entire essence, and the Trinity has the entire essence. But each person has the essence with only one personal characteristic; while the Trinity has the essence with all three personal characteristics. No trinitarian person is as comprehensive as the triune Godhead, because he does not possess the two personal characteristics belonging to the other two persons. The Father is God, but he is not God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.—W.G.T.S.] in no manner is He to be called threefold. Forasmuch as bodies increase by union of themselves. For although he who cleaves to his wife is one body; yet it is a greater body than if it were that of the husband alone, or of the wife alone. But in spiritual things, when the less adheres to the greater, as the creature to the Creator, the former becomes greater than it was, not the latter.609    [The addition of finite numbers, however great, to an infinite number, does not increase the infinite. Similarly, any addition of finite being to the Infinite Being is no increase. God plus the universe is no larger an infinite than God minus the universe. The creation of the universe adds nothing to the infinite being and attributes of God. To add contingent being to necessary being, does not make the latter any more necessary. To add imperfect being to perfect being, does not make the latter more perfect. To add finite knowledge to infinite knowledge, does not produce a greater amount of knowledge. This truth has been overlooked by Hamilton, Mansell, and others, in the argument against the personality of the Infinite, in which the Infinite is confounded with the All, and which assumes that the All is greater than the Infinite—in other words, that God plus the universe is greater than God minus the universe.—W.G.T.S.] For in those things which are not great by bulk, to be greater is to be better. And the spirit of any creature becomes better, when it cleaves to the Creator, than if it did not so cleave; and therefore also greater because better. “He,” then, “that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit:”610    1 Cor. vi. 17 but yet the Lord does not therefore become greater, although he who is joined to the Lord does so. In God Himself, therefore when the equal Son, or the Holy Spirit equal to the Father and the Son, is joined to the equal Father, God does not become greater than each of them severally; because that perfectness cannot increase. But whether it be the Father, or the Son, or the Holy Spirit, He is perfect, and God the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit is perfect; and therefore He is a Trinity rather than triple.

CAPUT VIII.

Dei naturae nulla fit accessio. Cum itaque tantus est solus Pater, vel solus Filius, vel solus Spiritus sanctus, quantus est simul Pater et Filius et Spiritus sanctus, nullo modo triplex dicendus est. Corpora quippe adjunctione sua crescunt. Quamvis enim qui adhaeret uxori suae, unum corpus sit; majus tamen corpus fit, quam si solius viri esset, aut solius uxoris. In rebus autem spiritualibus, cum minor majori adhaerescit, sicut creatura Creatori, illa fit major quam erat, non ille. In iis enim quae non mole magna sunt, hoc est majus esse quod est melius esse. Melior autem fit spiritus alicujus creaturae, cum adhaeret Creatori, quam si non adhaereat; et ideo etiam major quia melior. Qui ergo adhaeret Domino, unus spiritus est (I Cor. VI, 17): sed tamen Dominus non ideo fit major, quamvis fiat ille qui adhaeret Domino. In ipso 0930 igitur Deo cum adhaeret aequali Patri Filius aequalis, aut Spiritus sanctus Patri et Filio aequalis, non fit major Deus quam singuli eorum; quia non est quo crescat illa perfectio. Perfectus autem sive Pater, sive Filius, sive Spiritus sanctus, et perfectus Deus Pater et Filius et Spiritus sanctus: et ideo Trinitas potius quam triplex.