These Individuating Subsistences, are by Divines generally called Persons, not only from just consequence deduced from other Scriptures; but expressly, according to our last and best Translation of the Text fore-quoted, Heb. 1.3. by a similitude taken from a Created Person: the Reason whereof will ⟨p. 23⟩appear by considering the nature thereof,1 as we have it described diversly. By some, that it is an individual Substance of a reasonable Nature. By others, that it is an incommunicable Existence of an intellectual Nature. By later Writers, that it is an individual, or singular Being, subsisting, living, understanding, incommunicable; not sustained of another, not a part of another. The Sum is, that the term Person, signifying that which is most perfect in the whole reasonable Nature, whether Angels, or men; it is aptly used to express the Subsistences of the Divine Nature, which is of absolute perfection: which aptness of a created, to express an increated person, notwithstanding: Observe yet these differences between them: Every created person hath a distinct essence from another. Two created persons, whether Angels, or men; have two distinct, particular, and individual Essences, or Natures, though they have the same general Essence: But all the increated persons have the same Essence, John 10.30. One created person hath not his in-being in another, but one increated person is in another, John 14.10. One created person proceeds from another in time: but amongst the increated persons, though there be an Eternal Order of their Original one from another, yet there is no priority of Time, Duration, or Nature; the one being God, the other a creature: we must always remember that in applying the term Person by way of similitude unto God, we remove from him all imperfection.
These Individuating Subsistences, are by Divines generally called Persons, not only from just consequence deduced from other Scriptures; but expresly, according to our last and best Translation of the Text fore-quoted, Heb. 1.3. by a similitude taken from a Created Person: the Reason whereof will ⟨p. 23⟩appear by considering the nature thereof,1 as we have it described diversly. By some, that it is an individual Substance of a reasonable Nature. By others, that it is an incommunicable Existence of an intellectual Nature. By later Writers, that it is an individual, or singular Being, subsisting, living, understanding, incommunicable; not sustained of another, not a part of another. The Sum is, that the term Person, signifying that which is most perfect in the whole reasonable Nature, whether Angels, or men; it is aptly used to express the Subsistences of the Divine Nature, which is of absolute perfection: which aptness of a created, to express an increated person, notwithstanding: Observe yet these differences between them: Every created person hath a distinct essence from another. Two created persons, whether Angels, or men; have two distinct, particular, and individual Essences, or Natures, though they have the same general Essence: But all the increated persons have the same Essence, John 10.30. One created person hath not his in-being in another, but one increated person is in another, John 14.10. One created person proceeds from another in time: but amongst the increated persons, though there be an Eternal Order of their Original one from another, yet there is no priority of Time, Duration, or Nature; the one being God, the other a creature: we must always remember that in applying the term Person by way of similitude unto God, we remove from him all imperfection.
- 1Persona est rational is Naturae substantia individua. Boethius. Persona ost intellectualis Naturae, incommunicabilis Existentia. Richardus. Victorinus ex Smisingo. de Trin. to. 2. disp. 2. qu. 5. num. 108. Ursin. Explic. Care. part. 2. qu. 25Persona est rational is Naturae substantia individua. Boetius. Persona ost intellectualis Naturae, incommunicabilis Existentia. Richardus. Victorinus ex Smisingo. de Trin. to. 2. disp. 2. qu. 5. num. 108. Ʋrsin. Explic. Care. part. 2. qu. 25
