"Person" to distinguish it from every thing else which it is not, and which it cannot be, for there is no other thing like it, and all comparisons used to express it are therefore necessarily defective. On this subject also the language of the author just quoted is remarkably plain: "The Self-existent can in no wise be susceptible of accidents. The three proprieties in the Divinity must be essential, and are on this account called Persons, and not accidental powers, and do not cause any change or plurality in the essence of the Self-existent; for He is the Mind, the Same He, [or, as in the original, He He,] is the Wisdom, the Same He is the Life, Who ever begets without cessation, [i.e. there was no time in which He did not beget the Son,] and puts forth, [i.e. makes to proceed,] without distance, [i.e. without removal from Himself."]
Should any further testimony be required in order to establish the perfect unity of the Son with the Father, as held by the Nestorians, it is supplied by the following clause in § 6. c. "The spiritual essences, those who dwell in the regions of the Spirit, were enraptured, and the earthly, such as were alive, and such as were in the grave, rejoiced, saying: 'He is One to all generations;'" and, again, in par. o. "Whilst these shepherds were engaged round about the manger, the angels in heaven were singing praises unto Him;" which declaration is equivalent to saying, that He Who was worshipped in the manger at Bethlehem was the same Who was being praised by the hosts above, and is of like import with our Blessed Lord's own
Father is Fatherhood, the propriety of the Son is Sonship, or Filiation, and the propriety of the Holy Spirit is Procession.
The above remarks are illustrated by a doxology contained in the Gezza, and appointed to be read in the service for the Epiphany: "Come, my beloved, and let us together ascribe triple glory unto Him whose from everlasting are ܟܝܢܝܵܛ݄ܐ Kianayâtha, ܕܝܠܝܵܛ݄ܐ deelayâtha, and ܡܪܢܿܝܛܐ maranayâtha. [By] Kianayâtha [we understand] eternity and creation, which are His Who is the Cause of all. [By] deelayâtha, which are also truly His, [we understand] Paternity, Filiation, and Procession. [By] maranayâtha, which are also undoubtedly His, [we understand] immutability, incomprehensibility, and infinity."
The term "essential attribute" might have been used to express the Syriac deeleita; but the word "attribute" being also used to designate other properties of God immeasurably distinct from this peculiar thing, would have been somewhat equivocal; so I chose to adopt another less liable to be misunderstood.
