The Equality of the Divine Persons

The divine persons are coeternal and coequal, for theyare, in undivided essence, one and the same God.

That the divine Persons are coeternal means that”whensoever the Father exists, the Son exists, and the Holy Ghost exists.” There is no time in God, no succession of before-and-after. The eternal proceedings in God are one with his timeless essence and exist always in his changeless nature.

The standing or order of the Persons, as First, Second, Third, is not an order of priority, as though one Person should bein any way more excellent than another. It is an order of nature. Sometimes it is called an order of origin, taking the word origin in the sense of principle, not in the sense of a start or beginning, for there are no beginnings of the eternal Persons.

The Son is the Father’s equal in greatness, as isthe Holy Ghost. For greatness is a perfection of nature, and the divine nature is one and undivided in the three Persons.

By reason of the undivided divine essence, each Person is in each other Person of the Trinity. Our Lord says (John 14:10),“I am in the Father, and the Father is in me.”

The divine Persons are equal in power, for power, like greatness,is a perfection consequent upon nature, and the divine nature is one and the same in the three divine Persons.