Turretin: The Simplicity of God, Continued

The following is an excerpt from the Institutes of Elenctic Theology, III. VII. II-IV

Seventh Question: The Simplicity of God

Is God most simple and free from all composition?  We affirm against Socinus and Vorstius.

 II.  Simple is used in two sense: either absolutely and simply; or relatively and comparatively.  Absolutely is such as in every kind of being excludes composition; comparatively is such as excludes it only with respect to some.  Heaven and the elements are called simple bodies with respect to mixed, but do not exclude composition from theri matter and form and quantitative parts.  Angels and souls are simple with respect to bodies, but not absolutely such because they always involve a composition.  Here we speak of absolute and not of comparative simplicity.

III.  The simplicity of God considered not morally, but physically, is his incommunicable attribute by which the divine nature is conceived by us not only as free from all composition and division, but also as incapable of composition and divisibility.

IV.  This is proved to be a property of God: (1) from his independence, because composition is of the formal reason of a being originated and dependent (since nothing can be composed by itself, but whatever is composed must necessarily be composed by another; now God is the first and independent being, recognizing no other prior to himself); (2) from his unity, because he who is absolutely one, is also absolutely simple and therefore can neither be divided nor composed; (3) from his perfection, because composition implies imperfection inasmuch as it supposes passive power, dependency and mutability; (4) from his activity, because God is a most pure act having no passive admixture and therefore rejecting all composition (because in God there is nothing which needs to be made perfect or can receive perfection from any other, but he is whatever can be and cannot be other than what he is).  Whence he is usually described not only by concrete but also by abstract names – life, light, truth, etc.