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by the definition, as when we ask; What is man? and we answer: A mortal rational animal. Sometimes it refers to the _suppositum,_ as when we ask, What swims in the sea? and answer, A fish. So to those who ask, Three what? we answer, Three persons.
Reply Obj. 3: In God the individual--i.e. distinct and incommunicable substance--includes the idea of relation, as above explained.
Reply Obj. 4: The different sense of the less common term does not produce equivocation in the more common. Although a horse and an ass have their own proper definitions, nevertheless they agree univocally in animal, because the common definition of animal applies to both. So it does not follow that, although relation is contained in the signification of divine person, but not in that of an angelic or of a human person, the word "person" is used in an equivocal sense. Though neither is it applied univocally, since nothing can be said univocally of God and creatures (Q. 13, A. 5).
QUESTION 30
THE PLURALITY OF PERSONS IN GOD (In Four Articles)
We are now led to consider the plurality of the persons: about which there are four points of inquiry:
(1) Whether there are several persons in God?
(2) How many are they?
(3) What the numeral terms signify in God?
(4) The community of the term "person."
FIRST ARTICLE [I, Q. 30, Art. 1]
Whether There Are Several Persons in God?
Objection 1: It would seem that there are not several persons in God. For person is "the individual substance of a rational nature." If then there are several persons in God, there must be several substances; which