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Objection 1: It would seem that the notional acts are understood
before the properties. For the Master of the Sentences says
(Sent. i, D, xxvii) that "the Father always is, because He is
ever begetting the Son." So it seems that generation precedes
paternity in the order of intelligence.
Objection 2: Further, in the order of intelligence every relation
presupposes that on which it is founded; as equality presupposes
quantity. But paternity is a relation founded on the action of
generation. Therefore paternity presupposes generation.
Objection 3: Further, active generation is to paternity as nativity
is to filiation. But filiation presupposes nativity; for the Son is
so called because He is born. Therefore paternity also presupposes
generation.
On the contrary, Generation is the operation of the person of the
Father. But paternity constitutes the person of the Father.
Therefore in the order of intelligence, paternity is prior to
generation.
I answer that, According to the opinion that the properties do not
distinguish and constitute the hypostases in God, but only manifest
them as already distinct and constituted, we must absolutely say that
the relations in our mode of understanding follow upon the notional
acts, so that we can say, without qualifying the phrase, that
"because He begets, He is the Father." A distinction, however,
is needed if we suppose that the relations distinguish and constitute
the divine hypostases. For origin has in God an active and passive
signification---active, as generation is attributed to the Father,
and spiration, taken for the notional act, is attributed to the
Father and the Son; passive, as nativity is attributed to the Son,
and procession to the Holy Ghost. For, in the order of
intelligence, origin, in the passive sense, simply precedes the
personal properties of the person proceeding; because origin, as
passively understood, signifies the way to a person constituted by the
property. Likewise, origin signified actively is prior in the order
of intelligence to the non-personal relation of the person
originating; as the notional act of spiration precedes, in the order
of intelligence, the unnamed relative property common to the Father
and the Son. The personal property of the Father can be considered
in a twofold sense: firstly, as a relation; and thus again in the
order of intelligence it presupposes the notional act, for relation,
as such, is founded upon an act: secondly, according as it
constitutes the person; and thus the notional act presupposes the
relation, as an action presupposes a person acting.
Reply to Objection 1: When the Master says that "because He
begets, He is Father," the term "Father" is taken as meaning
relation only, but not as signifying the subsisting person; for then
it would be necessary to say conversely that because He is Father He
begets.
Reply to Objection 2: This objection avails of paternity as a
relation, but not as constituting a person.
Reply to Objection 3: Nativity is the way to the person of the
Son; and so, in the order of intelligence, it precedes filiation,
even as constituting the person of the Son. But active generation
signifies a proceeding from the person of the Father; wherefore it
presupposes the personal property of the Father.
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