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In this question 27 we have seen that in God there are
processions ad intra, why there are two and only two
processions, and why the first procession alone is called
generation.
In the first article, in the light of revelation, we saw
that in God there is a procession after the manner of
intelligible emanation of an intelligible Word from one
who enunciates. It is a procession ad intra, not
"ad extra"; it is not a procession like a being
of the mind, but a real procession.
In the same article we saw that the Word has the same
nature as the Father from whom He proceeds. The
perfection and propriety of this procession "ad
intra" became manifest in the light of the following
principle: "that which proceeds "ad intra" by
an intellectual process should not be diverse in nature
from him from whom it proceeds; indeed the more perfectly
it proceeds the more it will be one with that from which it
proceeds, like the intellectual concept with the
intellect. Thus the Word understood and enunciated by
the Father is one with Him in nature; nor is the Word
an accidental word—it is substantial, just as the divine
intellect is not an accident, since it is subsisting
intellect itself.
As St. Thomas says in the "Contra Gentes",
"The higher any nature is, the more intimate with it
will be that which proceeds from it."[195] Thus the
Angelic Doctor safeguards the principle that good is
essentially diffusive of itself, and the higher the nature
the more intimately and fully will it be diffusive of
itself. In God there is, then, a diffusion "ad
intra" transcending the order of efficient and final
causality.
In the second article we saw that the procession of the
Word is rightly called generation because it is the origin
of a living being from a conjoined living being in the
likeness of its nature. The concept of the intellect is a
likeness of the thing understood; so also the Word is the
likeness of the Father knowing Himself, existing in the
same nature, since in God intellect and being are the
same. That knowledge which is had by means of an
expressed likeness of the thing known is essentially
assimilative.
In the third article, in addition to the procession of
the Word, we learned of the procession of love, inasmuch
as the love of the good follows the conception of the
good.
In the fourth article it was explained why the procession
of love is not generation; because it is through the
will, which by its own power is not assimilative and does
not assimilate a thing to itself, but inclines toward the
thing that is willed, like a weight, in the words of
St. Augustine, "My love, my weight."
As a complement to this teaching on the processions, we
shall explain below that the three persons understand (by
essential intellection), but that the Father alone
enunciates and enunciates adequately; as when three
persons are confronted by a difficult problem, one
discovers an adequate solution and all three equally
understand what is enunciated by one of the
three.[196] In the same way we shall explain
proportionally that, although the three persons love
(with essential love), only the Father and the Son
spirate the Holy Ghost, who is the terminus of this
active spiration.[197]
In this present question, St. Thomas did not intend as
yet to solve these various doubts because their solution
will be much more patent later on.[198] The holy
doctor proceeds without haste, passing gradually from the
confused concept to a more distinct concept of the same
thing. His commentators, however, are obliged at times
to examine these doubts earlier because they are sometimes
proposed as objections against the articles under questions
27 and 28.
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