t quantity, as Augustine says (De Trin.
i, 1) it follows that a real relation in God can be based only on
action. Such relations are not based on the actions of God according
to any extrinsic procession, forasmuch as the relations of God to
creatures are not real in Him (Q. 13, A. 7). Hence, it follows that
real relations in God can be understood only in regard to those
actions according to which there are internal, and not external,
processions in God. These processions are two only, as above
explained (Q. 27, A. 5), one derived from the action of the
intellect, the procession of the Word; and the other from the action
of the will, the procession of love. In respect of each of these
processions two opposite relations arise; one of which is the
relation of the person proceeding from the principle; the other is
the relation of the principle Himself. The procession of the Word is
called generation in the proper sense of the term, whereby it is
applied to living things. Now the relation of the principle of
generation in perfect living beings is called paternity; and the
relation of the one proceeding from the principle is called
filiation. But the procession of Love has no proper name of its own
(Q. 27, A. 4); and so neither have the ensuing relations a proper
name of their own. The relation of the principle of this procession
is called spiration; and the relation of the person proceeding is
called procession: although these two names belong to the processions
or origins themselves, and not to the relations.

Reply Obj. 1: In those things in which there is a difference between
the intellect and its object, and the will and its object, there can
be a real relation, both of science to its object, and of the willer
to the object willed. In God, however, the intellect and its object
are one and the same; because by understanding Himself, God
understands all other things; and the same applies to His will and
the object that He wills. Hence it follows that in God these kinds of
relations are not real; as neither is the relation of a thing to
itself. Nevertheless, the relation to the word is a real relation;
because the word is understood as proceeding by an intelligible
action; and not as a thing understood. For when we understand a
stone; that which the intellect conceives from the thing understood,
is called the word.

Reply Obj. 2: Intelligible relations in ourselves are infinitely
multiplied, because a man understands a s