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State of the question. This article was written because
the Greek Fathers and St. Hilary used this
expression.[466]
Reply. The reply is in the affirmative in the sense that
the Son has from the Father that by which the Holy
Ghost proceeds from Him. Analogically, a statue
proceeds from the sculptor through the hammer or chisel,
because the hammer is operated by the power of the
sculptor. But the Son is not like an instrument of the
Father or His assistant, but an intermediate person
who, by reason of origin, has from the Father that by
which the Son proceeds from Him.
Doubt. Does the Holy Ghost proceed immediately from
the Father?
Reply. In his reply to the first difficulty, St.
Thomas replies in the affirmative, namely, that the
Holy Ghost proceeds directly from the power of the
Father because the spirative power in the Father and the
Son is the same, indeed it is one act of spiration.
More than this: the Holy Ghost proceeds immediately
from the Father directly from His suppositum (as Abel
proceeds from Adam), although there is an intermediate
person. Analogically, between Adam and Abel there is
Eve, who herself proceeded from Adam and from whom Abel
proceeded. This analogy is quite inept, of course, with
regard to the divine processions.
In his reply to the fourth objection, St. Thomas
explains why we cannot say conversely that the Son
spirates the Holy Ghost through the Father. The reason
is that the Father does not receive from the Son that by
which the Holy Ghost proceeds from Him. But the
Father is not a more immediate principle by reason of His
power since this power is the same in the Father and the
Son.
In the triangle the third angle constructed proceeds
immediately from the first and second, and the second
angle is not less necessary for the construction of the
third than the first.
Similarly, the will proceeds immediately from the soul,
of which it is a faculty, although the activity of the
intellective faculty is presupposed, without which the
will would not be the rational appetite. The will,
then, is a faculty, not of the intellect, but of the
soul itself and immediately pertains to the soul, although
the intellect comes from the soul prior to the will.
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