Assertio vera de Trinitate, contra quorundam deliramenta quae ex Serveti aliorumque phanaticorum hominum opinionibus nunc primum in quibusdam Hungariae partibus exorta ac publicata sunt

A decorative drop cap 'N' begins the paragraph.

II. ON THE ESSENCE OF GOD.

The name of Essence is taken from the name Iehouah Jehovah. For this name arises from the word Haiah or Houah and Houeh. These words signify to the Hebrews the same as IS does to us. This is said of nothing unless it has substance and is something. Therefore, Iehouah signifies that which subsists, or "He who is." For God alone, speaking properly, is such that He has or obtains His essence from no one. It is an eternal, incomprehensible, infinite, perpetual, constant, and immutable essence, lacking nothing. All creatures are also something, and they have substance, but they do not have it from themselves, but from God the Creator. He gives His being to all created things; He fosters, nourishes, vegetates, and preserves all things. However, they have debated about essence and subsistence, whether they are the same or different. For some (witness Rufinus, Ecclesiastical History, book 10, chapter 29) said that substance or essence and subsistence appear to be one: and because we do not say three substances in God, we ought not to say three subsistences. But others, to whom substance seemed to signify something far different than subsistence, said that substance designates the nature and reason of something of which it consists, whereas the subsistence of each Person shows this very thing which exists and subsists.