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divine nature is distinguished from the human nature in that it can subsist wholly and indivisibly
in more than one person. While three persons among men have only a specific unity of nature
or essence, that is, share in the same kind of nature or essence, the persons in the Godhead
have a numerical unity of essence, that is, possess the identical essence. Human nature or
essence may be regarded as a species, of which each man has an individual part, so that there is
a specific (from species) unity; but the divine nature is indivisible and therefore identical in the
persons of the Godhead. It is numerically one and the same, and therefore the unity of the
essence in the persons is a numerical unity. From this it follows that the divine essence is not an
independent existence alongside of the three persons. It has no existence outside of and apart
from the three persons. If it did, there would be no true unity, but a division that would lead
into tetratheism. The personal distinction is one within the divine essence. This has, as it is
usually termed, three modes of subsistence. Another conclusion which follows from the
preceding, is that there can be no subordination as to essential being of the one person of the
Godhead to the other, and therefore no difference in personal dignity. This must be maintained
over against the subordinationism of Origen and other early Church Fathers, and the Arminians,
and of Clarke and other Anglican theologians. The only subordination of which we can speak, is
a subordination in respect to order and relationship. It is especially when we reflect on the
relation of the three persons to the divine essence that all analogies fail us and we become
deeply conscious of the fact that the Trinity is a mystery far beyond our comprehension. It is
the incomprehensible glory of the Godhead. Just as human nature is too rich and too full to be
embodied in a single individual, and comes to its adequate expression only in humanity as a
whole so the divine Being unfolds itself in its fulness only in its three fold subsistence of Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit.
d. The subsistence and operation of the three persons in the divine Being is marked by a
certain definite order.
There is a certain order in the ontological Trinity. In personal subsistence
the Father is first, the Son second, and the Holy Spirit third. It need hardly be said that this
order does not pertain to any priority of time or of essential dignity, but only to the logical
order of derivation. The Father is neither begotten by, nor proceeds from any other person; the
Son is eternally begotten of the Father, and the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son
from all eternity. Generation and procession take place within the Divine Being, and imply a
certain subordination as to the manner of personal subsistence, but no subordination as far as
the possession of the divine essence is concerned. This ontological Trinity and its inherent order
is the metaphysical basis of the economical Trinity. It is but natural, therefore, that the order
existing in the essential Trinity should be reflected in the opera ad extra that are more
particularly ascribed to each one of the persons. Scripture clearly indicates this order in the so-
called praepositiones distinctionales, ek, dia, and en, which are used in expressing the idea that
all things are out of the Father, through the Son, and in the Holy Spirit.