Monologion: Chapter 63
MONOLOGION
Chapter 63 How in him there is only one of one59 Now certainly the Father, the Son, and their Spirit—about whom it is already most certain that they truly exist—are not three who utter, even though each of them individually utters.Nor is there more than one thing uttered when each utters himself and the other two. For just as knowledge and understanding are present in the supreme wisdom, even so it is natural for that eternal and immutable knowledge and understanding always to behold as present that which it knows and understands. Now for the supreme spirit there is no difference between uttering something in this sense and beholding it in thought, as it were, just as the utterance of our mind is no different from the thinker's observation. Now the arguments we have already considered have made one thing quite certain:whatever is essentially present in the supreme nature belongs completely to the Father, the Son, and their Spirit individually; and yet if the same thing is said of the three of them together, it does not admit of plurality.60
Now it is established that just as knowledge and understanding belong to his essence, even so his knowing and understanding are nothing other than his uttering—that is, his always beholding as present—that which he knows and understands. Furthermore, the Father individually and the Son individually and their Spirit individually know and understand, and yet the three of them together are not several* who know and understand, but one who knows and one who understands. In the same way, therefore, it must be the case that each of them individually utters, and yet the three of them together are not three who utter but one who utters.
From this we can also clearly recognize that when the three of them are uttered, whether by themselves or by one another, it is not the case that more than one thing is uttered. After all, what is uttered there except their essence?
So if that essence is only one, that which is uttered is only one. Therefore, if in them that which utters is one, and that which is uttered is one—for in them there is one wisdom that utters and one substance that is uttered—, it follows that there are not several words there but only one. So although each of them utters himself and all of them utter one another, it is impossible for there to 59 That is, despite how things looked in the previous chapter, it is not the case that in God there are many sons born from many divine persons. Rather, in God there is only one Son born from one divine person (namely, the Father).
60 In other words, for any perfection you choose (call it p), if p belongs to God essentially, then the Father is fully p, the Son is fully p, and the Holy Spirit is fully p. And yet you cannot say that there are three things that are p; there is only one. See the argument in Chapter 38.