1 Objection 1: It would seem that an exclusive diction can be joined to the personal term, even though the predicate is common. For our Lord speaking to the Father, said: That they may know Thee, the only true God Jn. 17, 3). Therefore the Father alone is true God.
1 Ad quartum sic proceditur. Videtur quod dictio exclusiva possit adiungi termino personali, etiam si praedicatum sit commune. Dicit enim dominus, ad patrem loquens, Ioan. XVII, ut cognoscant te, solum Deum verum. Ergo solus pater est Deus verus.
2 Objection 2: Further, He said: No one knows the Son but the Father Mt. 11, 27); which means that the Father alone knows the Son. But to know the Son is common to the persons). Therefore the same conclusion follows.
2 Praeterea, Matth. XI dicitur, nemo novit filium nisi pater; quod idem significat ac si diceretur, solus pater novit filium. Sed nosse filium est commune. Ergo idem quod prius.
3 Objection 3: Further, an exclusive diction does not exclude what enters into the concept of the term to which it is joined. Hence it does not exclude the part, nor the universal; for it does not follow that if we say Socrates alone is white, that therefore his hand is not white, or that man is not white. But one person is in the concept of another; as the Father is in the concept of the Son; and conversely. Therefore, when we say, The Father alone is God, we do not exclude the Son, nor the Holy Ghost; so that such a mode of speaking is true.
3 Praeterea, dictio exclusiva non excludit illud quod est de intellectu termini cui adiungitur, unde non excludit partem, neque universale, non enim sequitur, solus Socrates est albus, ergo manus eius non est alba; vel, ergo homo non est albus. Sed una persona est in intellectu alterius, sicut pater in intellectu filii, et e converso. Non ergo per hoc quod dicitur, solus pater est Deus, excluditur filius vel spiritus sanctus. Et sic videtur haec locutio esse vera.
4 Objection 4: Further, the Church sings: Thou alone art Most High, O Jesus Christ.
4 Praeterea, ab Ecclesia cantatur, tu solus altissimus, Iesu Christe.
5 On the contrary, This proposition The Father alone is God includes two assertions, namely, that the Father is God, and that no other besides the Father is God. But this second proposition is false, for the Son is another from the Father, and He is God. Therefore this is false, The Father alone is God; and the same of the like sayings.
5 Sed contra, haec locutio, solus pater est Deus, habet duas expositivas, scilicet, pater est Deus, et, nullus alius a patre est Deus. Sed haec secunda est falsa, quia filius alius est a patre, qui est Deus. Ergo et haec est falsa, solus pater est Deus. Et sic de similibus.
6 I answer that, When we say, The Father alone is God, such a proposition can be taken in several senses. If alone means solitude in the Father, it is false in a categorematical sense; but if taken in a syncategorematical sense it can again be understood in several ways. For if it exclude all others) from the form of the subject, it is true, the sense being the Father alone is God, that is, He who with no other is the Father, is God.
In this way Augustine expounds when he says De Trin. vi, 6): We say the Father alone, not because He is separate from the Son, or from the Holy Ghost, but because they are not the Father together with Him. This, however, is not the usual way of speaking, unless we understand another implication, as though we said He who alone is called the Father is God. But in the strict sense the exclusion affects the predicate. And thus the proposition is false if it excludes another in the masculine sense; but true if it excludes it in the neuter sense; because the Son is another person than the Father, but not another thing; and the same applies to the Holy Ghost.
But because this diction alone, properly speaking, refers to the subject, it tends to exclude another Person rather than other things. Hence such a way of speaking is not to be taken too literally, but it should be piously expounded, whenever we find it in an authentic work.
6 Respondeo dicendum quod, cum dicimus, solus pater est Deus, haec propositio potest habere multiplicem intellectum. Si enim solus ponat solitudinem circa patrem, sic est falsa, secundum quod sumitur categorematice. Secundum vero quod sumitur syncategorematice, sic iterum potest intelligi multipliciter. Quia si excludat a forma subiecti, sic est vera, ut sit sensus, solus pater est Deus, idest, ille cum quo nullus alius est pater, est Deus. Et hoc modo exponit Augustinus, in VI de Trin., cum dicit, solum patrem dicimus, non quia separatur a filio vel spiritu sancto; sed hoc dicentes, significamus quod illi simul cum eo non sunt pater. Sed hic sensus non habetur ex consueto modo loquendi, nisi intellecta aliqua implicatione, ut si dicatur, ille qui solus dicitur pater, est Deus. Secundum vero proprium sensum, excludit a consortio praedicati. Et sic haec propositio est falsa, si excludit alium masculine, est autem vera, si excludit aliud neutraliter tantum, quia filius est alius a patre, non tamen aliud; similiter et spiritus sanctus. Sed quia haec dictio solus respicit proprie subiectum, ut dictum est, magis se habet ad excludendum alium quam aliud. Unde non est extendenda talis locutio; sed pie exponenda, sicubi inveniatur in authentica Scriptura.
7 Reply to Objection 1: When we say, Thee the only true God, we do not understand it as referring to the person of the Father, but to the whole Trinity, as Augustine expounds De Trin. vi, 9). Or, if understood of the person of the Father, the other persons are not excluded by reason of the unity of essence; in so far as the word only excludes another thing, as above explained. The same Reply can be given to OBJ 2. For an essential term applied to the Father does not exclude the Son or the Holy Ghost, by reason of the unity of essence. Hence we must understand that in the text quoted the term no one is not the same as no man, which the word itself would seem to signify for the person of the Father could not be excepted), but is taken according to the usual way of speaking in a distributive sense, to mean any rational nature.
7 Ad primum ergo dicendum quod, cum dicimus, te solum Deum verum, non intelligitur de persona patris, sed de tota Trinitate, ut Augustinus exponit. Vel, si intelligatur de persona patris, non excluduntur aliae personae, propter essentiae unitatem, prout ly solus excludit tantum aliud, ut dictum est. Et similiter dicendum est ad secundum. Cum enim aliquid essentiale dicitur de patre, non excluditur filius vel spiritus sanctus, propter essentiae unitatem. Tamen sciendum est quod in auctoritate praedicta, haec dictio nemo non idem est quod nullus homo, quod videtur significare vocabulum non enim posset excipi persona patris), sed sumitur, secundum usum loquendi, distributive pro quacumque rationali natura.
8 Reply to Objection 3: The exclusive diction does not exclude what enters into the concept of the term to which it is adjoined, if they do not differ in suppositum, as part and universal. But the Son differs in suppositum from the Father; and so there is no parity.
8 Ad tertium dicendum quod dictio exclusiva non excludit illa quae sunt de intellectu termini cui adiungitur, si non differunt secundum suppositum, ut pars et universale. Sed filius differt supposito a patre, et ideo non est similis ratio.
9 Reply to Objection 4: We do not say absolutely that the Son alone is Most High; but that He alone is Most High with the Holy Ghost, in the glory of God the Father.
9 Ad quartum dicendum quod non dicimus absolute quod solus filius sit altissimus, sed quod solus sit altissimus cum spiritu sancto, in gloria Dei patris.