18. With divinely inspired comprehension,
then, our Lord said, not “There is none good but the
Father alone,” but “There is none good but God
alone,” and “Father” is the proper name of Him Who
begets. But the unity of God by no means excludes the Godhead of
the Three Persons, and therefore it is His Nature that is
extolled. Goodness, therefore, is of the nature of God, and in
the nature of God, again, exists the Son of God—wherefore that
which the predicate expresses belongs not to one single Person, but to
the [complete] unity [of the Godhead].
Lat.—“non quod singularitatis, sed quod unitatis
est, prædicatur.” The Son is “in the nature
of God” inasmuch as the eternal Fatherhood of God implies an
Eternal Son—His eternal Love an eternal object of that
Love.