See Gal. iv., 6 ; Kom. viii., 9 ; Phil, i., 19 ; 1 Peter i., 11. As the form of expression is identical in the several phrases, Spirit of God, and Spirit of the Son, and as the Scriptures, with one exception, John xv., 26, uniformly predicate every thing of the relation of the Spirit to the Son, that they predicate of the rela- tion of the Spirit to the Father, it appears evident that he is called Spirit of the Son for the same reason that he is called Spirit of God.
This phrase also additionally sets forth the official relation which the Spirit in his agency in the work of redemption sustains to the Godman, in taking of his, and showing them to us, John xvi., 14.
76. What is meant by the theological phrase, Procession of the Holy Ghost ?
Theologians intend by this phrase to designate the relation which the third person sustains to the first and second, wherein by an eternal and necessary, i. e., not voluntary, act of the Father and the Son, their whole identical divine essence, without alien- ation, division, or change, is communicated to the Holy Ghost.
77. What distinction do theologians make between "proces- sion" and "generation ?"
ETERNAL PROCESSION OF THE SPIRIT. 155
As this entire subject infinitely transcends the measure of our faculties, we can do nothing further than classify and contrast those predicates which inspiration has applied to the relation of Father and Son with those which it has applied to the relation of the Spirit to the Father and Son.
Thus Turrettin, Vol. L, L. 3., Q. 31. They differ, " 1st. As to source, the Son emanates from the Father only, but the Spirit from the Father and the Son at the same time. 2d. As to mode. The Son emanates in the way of generation, which affects not only personality, but similitude, on account of which the Son is called the image of the Father, and in consequence of which he receives the property of communicating the same essence to an- other person ; but the Spirit, by the way of spiration, which effects only personality, and in consequence of which the person who proceeds does not receive the property of communicating the same essence to another person. 3d. As to order. The Son is second person, and the Spirit third, and though both are eternal, without beginning or succession, yet, in our mode of conception, generation precedes procession."
" The schoolmen vainly attempted to found a distinction be- tween generation and spiration upon the different operations of the divine intellect and the divine will. They say the Son was generated per modum intellectus, whence he is called the Word of God. The Spirit proceeds per modum voluntatis, whence he is called Love."
78. What is the Scripture ground for this doctrine ?
What we remarked above (question 53,) concerning the com- mon theological definition of the eternal generation of the Son, holds true also with reference to the common definition of the eter- nal procession of the Holy Ghost, viz., that in order to make the method of the divine unity in trinity more apparent, theologians have pressed the idea of derivation and subordination in the order of personal subsistence too far. This ground is at once sacred and mysterious. The points given by Scripture are not to be pressed nor speculated upon, but received and confessed nakedly.
The data of inspiration are simply as follows : 1st. Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, three divine persons, possess from eternity the one whole identical, indivisible, unchangeable essence. 2d.
156 THE HOLY TRINITY.
The Father from his characteristic personal name, and the order in which his name uniformly occurs in Scripture, and from the fact that the Son is called his and his only begotten, and that the Spirit is called his, the one proceeding from him, and from the order of his manifestation and operation ad extra, is evidently in some way first in order of personal subsistence relatively to the Son and Spirit. 3d. For the same reason (see below, question 80) the Son, in the order of personal subsistence, is before the Spirit. 4th. "What the real nature of these distinctions in the order of per- sonal substance may be is made known to us only so far, (1.) that it involves no distinction as to time, since all are alike eternal. (2.) It does not depend upon any voluntary action, for that would make the second person dependent upon the first, and the third upon the first and second, while they are all "equal in }3ower and glory." (3.) It is such a relation that the second person is eternally only begotten Son of the first, and the third is eternally the Spirit of the first and second.
79. What was the difference betiveen the Greek and Latin churches on this doctrine ?