Whether the Person Proceeding Is Co-eternal with His Principle, As
the Son with the Father?
Objection 1: It would seem that the person proceeding is not
co-eternal with His principle, as the Son with the Father. For Arius
gives twelve modes of generation. The first mode is like the issue of
a line from a point; wherein is wanting equality of simplicity. The
second is like the emission of rays from the sun; wherein is absent
equality of nature. The third is like the mark or impression made by a
seal; wherein is wanting consubstantiality and executive power. The
fourth is the infusion of a good will from God; wherein also
consubstantiality is wanting. The fifth is the emanation of an
accident from its subject; but the accident has no subsistence. The
sixth is the abstraction of a species from matter, as sense receives
the species from the sensible object; wherein is wanting equality of
spiritual simplicity. The seventh is the exciting of the will by
knowledge, which excitation is merely temporal. The eighth is
transformation, as an image is made of brass; which transformation is
material. The ninth is motion from a mover; and here again we have
effect and cause. The tenth is the taking of species from genera; but
this mode has no place in God, for the Father is not predicated of the
Son as the genus of a species. The eleventh is the realization of an
idea [ideatio], as an external coffer arises from the one in the mind.
The twelfth is birth, as a man is begotten of his father; which
implies priority and posteriority of time. Thus it is clear that
equality of nature or of time is absent in every mode whereby one
thing is from another. So if the Son is from the Father, we must say
that He is less than the Father, or later than the Father, or both.
Obj. 2: Further, everything that comes from another has a principle.
But nothing eternal has a principle. Therefore the Son is not
eternal; nor is the Holy Ghost.
Obj. 3: Further, everything which is corrupted ceases to be. Hence
everything generated begins to be; for the end of generation is
existence. But the Son is generated by the Father. Therefore He
begins to exist, and is not co-eternal with the Father.
Obj. 4: Further, if the Son be begotten by the Father, either He is
always being begotten, or there is some moment in which He is
begotten. If He is always being begotten, since, during the process
of generation, a thing must be imperfect, as appears in successive
things, which are always in process of becoming, as time and motion,
it follows that the Son must be always imperfect, which cannot be
admitted. Thus there is a moment to be assigned for the begetting of
the Son, and before that moment the Son did not exist.
_On the contrary,_ Athanasius declares that "all the three persons are
co-eternal with each other."
_I answer that,_ We must say that the Son is co-eternal with the
Father. In proof of which we must consider that for a thing which
proceeds from a principle to be posterior to its principle may be due
to two reasons: one on the part of the agent, and the other on the
part of the action. On the part of the agent this happens differently
as regards free agents and natural agents. In free agents, on account
of the choice of time; for as a free agent can choose the form it
gives to the effect, as stated above (Q. 41, A. 2), so it can choose
the time in which to produce its effect. In natural agents, however,
the same happens from the agent not having its perfection of natural
power from the very first, but obtaining it after a certain time; as,
for instance, a man is not able to generate from the very first.
Considered on the part of action, anything derived from a principle
cannot exist simultaneously with its principle when the action is
successive. So, given that an agent, as soon as it exists, begins to
act thus, the effect would not exist in the same instant, but in the
instant of the action's termination. Now it is manifest, according to
what has been said (Q. 41, A. 2), that the Father does not beget the
Son by will, but by nature; and also that the Father's nature was
perfect from eternity; and again that the action whereby the Father
produces the Son is not successive, because thus the Son would be
successively generated, and this generation would be material, and
accompanied with movement; which is quite impossible. Therefore we
conclude that the Son existed whensoever the Father existed and thus
the Son is co-eternal with the Father, and likewise the Holy Ghost is
co-eternal with both.
Reply Obj. 1: As Augustine says (De Verbis Domini, Serm. 38), no mode
of the procession of any creature perfectly represents the divine
generation. Hence we need to gather a likeness of it from many of
these modes, so that what is wanting in one may be somewhat supplied
from another; and thus it is declared in the council of Ephesus: "Let
Splendor tell thee that the co-eternal Son existed always with the
Father; let the Word announce the impassibility of His birth; let the
name Son insinuate His consubstantiality." Yet, above them all the
procession of the word from the intellect represents it more exactly;
the intellectual word not being posterior to its source except in an
intellect passing from potentiality to act; and this cannot be said
of God.
Reply Obj. 2: Eternity excludes the principle of duration, but not
the principle of origin.
Reply Obj. 3: Every corruption is a change; and so all that corrupts
begins not to exist and ceases to be. The divine generation, however,
is not changed, as stated above (Q. 27, A. 2). Hence the Son is ever
being begotten, and the Father is always begetting.
Reply Obj. 4: In time there is something indivisible--namely, the
instant; and there is something else which endures--namely, time. But
in eternity the indivisible "now" stands ever still, as we have said
above (Q. 10, A. 2, ad 1; A. 4, ad 2). But the generation of the Son
is not in the "now" of time, or in time, but in eternity. And so to
express the presentiality and permanence of eternity, we can say that
"He is ever being born," as Origen said (Hom. in Joan. i). But as
Gregory [*Moral. xxix, 21] and Augustine [*Super Ps. 2:7] said, it is
better to say "ever born," so that "ever" may denote the permanence
of eternity, and "born" the perfection of the only Begotten. Thus,
therefore, neither is the Son imperfect, nor "was there a time when
He was not," as Arius said.
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