as it is
made actual by the intelligible species, is considered absolutely;
likewise the act of understanding which is to the actual intellect
what existence is to actual being; since the act of understanding
does not signify an act going out from the intelligent agent, but an
act remaining in the agent. Therefore when we say that word is
knowledge, the term knowledge does not mean the act of a knowing
intellect, or any one of its habits, but stands for what the
intellect conceives by knowing. Hence also Augustine says (De Trin.
vii, 1) that the Word is "begotten wisdom;" for it is nothing but the
concept of the Wise One; and in the same way It can be called
"begotten knowledge." Thus can also be explained how "to speak" is in
God "to see by thought," forasmuch as the Word is conceived by the
gaze of the divine thought. Still the term "thought" does not
properly apply to the Word of God. For Augustine says (De Trin. xv,
16): "Therefore do we speak of the Word of God, and not of the
Thought of God, lest we believe that in God there is something
unstable, now assuming the form of Word, now putting off that form
and remaining latent and as it were formless." For thought consists
properly in the search after the truth, and this has no place in God.
But when the intellect attains to the form of truth, it does not
think, but perfectly contemplates the truth. Hence Anselm (Monol. lx)
takes "thought" in an improper sense for "contemplation."

Reply Obj. 3: As, properly speaking, Word in God is said personally,
and not essentially, so likewise is to "speak." Hence, as the Word is
not common to the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, so it is not true that
the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are one speaker. So Augustine says
(De Trin. vii, 1): "He who speaks in that co-eternal Word is
understood as not alone in God, but as being with that very Word,
without which, forsooth, He would not be speaking." On the other
hand, "to be spoken" belongs to each Person, for not only is the word
spoken, but also the thing understood or signified by the word.
Therefore in this manner to one person alone in God does it belong to
be spoken in the same way as a word is spoken; whereas in the way
whereby a thing is spoken as being understood in the word, it belongs
to each Person to be spoken. For the Father, by understanding
Himself, the Son and the Holy Ghost, and all other things comprised
in this knowledge, conceives the Word; so that thus the whole Trin