e order of
creatures produced, the beauty of the divine wisdom is displayed. So
if from the one Person of the Father, two persons proceed, the Son and
the Holy Ghost, there must be some order between them. Nor can any
other be assigned except the order of their nature, whereby one is
from the other. Therefore it cannot be said that the Son and the Holy
Ghost proceed from the Father in such a way as that neither of them
proceeds from the other, unless we admit in them a material
distinction; which is impossible.

Hence also the Greeks themselves recognize that the procession of the
Holy Ghost has some order to the Son. For they grant that the Holy
Ghost is the Spirit "of the Son"; and that He is from the Father
"through the Son." Some of them are said also to concede that "He is
from the Son"; or that "He flows from the Son," but not that He
proceeds; which seems to come from ignorance or obstinacy. For a just
consideration of the truth will convince anyone that the word
procession is the one most commonly applied to all that denotes origin
of any kind. For we use the term to describe any kind of origin; as
when we say that a line proceeds from a point, a ray from the sun, a
stream from a source, and likewise in everything else. Hence, granted
that the Holy Ghost originates in any way from the Son, we can
conclude that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Son.

Reply Obj. 1: We ought not to say about God anything which is not
found in Holy Scripture either explicitly or implicitly. But although
we do not find it verbally expressed in Holy Scripture that the Holy
Ghost proceeds from the Son, still we do find it in the sense of
Scripture, especially where the Son says, speaking of the Holy Ghost,
"He will glorify Me, because He shall receive of Mine" (John 16:14).
It is also a rule of Holy Scripture that whatever is said of the
Father, applies to the Son, although there be added an exclusive
term; except only as regards what belongs to the opposite relations,
whereby the Father and the Son are distinguished from each other. For
when the Lord says, "No one knoweth the Son, but the Father," the
idea of the Son knowing Himself is not excluded. So therefore when we
say that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father, even though it be
added that He proceeds from the Father alone, the Son would not
thereby be at all excluded; because as regards being the principle of
the Holy Ghost, the Father and the Son are not opposed to each oth