students' Series Do 
 
 THE 
 
 BLESSED TRINITY 
 
 BY 
 
 REV. C. F. BLOUNT. S.J. 
 
Pamphlets on the Catholic Church and 
 Catholic Teaching 
 
 Do 140. The Priestly Vocation. By Rev. T. E. Bridgett, C.SS.R. 
 Do 98. An Introductory Talk on the Catholic Religion. By Rev. 
 
 G. J. MacGillivray, M.A. 
 Do 32. What the Catholic Church is and What She Teaches. 
 
 By Rev. E. R. Hull, S.J. 
 C 55. The Catholic Church and the Bible. 
 S 79. The Catholic Church and the Principle of Private Property. 
 
 By Hilaire Belloc. 
 Do 97. The Catholic Doctrine of the Atonement. By Mgr. P. E. 
 
 Hallett. 
 
 H 50. The Church and the Catacombs. By B. F. C. Costelloe. 
 
 H 51. The Church Catholic. By the same. 
 
 Do 11. What Catholics Believe : A Simple Explanation of Catholic 
 
 Doctrine. By Mother Loyola. 
 Do 44. Does the Catholic Church Persecute ? By Rev. J. Keating, 
 
 S.J. 
 
 Do 90. Inspiration. By Rev. C. Lattey, S.J. 
 Do 58. Hell. By Rev. Joseph Rickaby, S.J. 
 Do 74. The Immaculate Conception. By Rev. J. B. Jaggar, S.J. 
 Do 92. Original Sin. By Rev. C. C. O'Connor. 
 Do 63. Personal Immortality. By Archbishop Downey. 
 Do 28. Purgatory. By Bishop Graham. 
 H 74. The Mass. By B. F. C. Costelloe. 
 Do 75. The Real Presence. By Rev. F. Mangan, S.J. 
 Do 85. The Supernatural Life. By Rev. O. R. Vassall-Phillips, 
 C.SS.R. 
 
 Do 59. Why Catholics Pray to the Blessed Virgin and A Word 
 upon the Rosary. By Mgr. Canon Moyes. 
 
 Do 70. Words of Life. (Explanations of the Catholic Faith.) 
 By Rev. C. C. Martindale, S.J. 
 
 Do 120. What is he Doing at the Altar ? By the same. 
 
 Do 123. What you see in a Catholic Church. By the same. 
 
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THE BLESSED TRINITY 
 
 By Rev. C. F. BLOUNT, S.J. 
 
 THE DOCTRINE STATED 
 
 Whereas the divine nature is one, one in the sense of 
 unique, and absolutely incapable of being multiplied, there 
 are three divine Persons, three Persons who exist in this 
 single divine nature ; and each of them is truly God, 
 inasmuch as each has this one divine nature as his own. 
 
 The three Persons have been revealed to us as The Father, 
 The Son, and The Holy Spirit. The Son has also been 
 revealed imder the appellation of The Word. They are all 
 equal and infinite in perfection, as possessing each of them 
 the entire nature of God. 
 
 There is a certain order and relation among the Three, 
 an order and relation founded upon origin ; for the Son 
 proceeds from the Father from all eternity by a mode of 
 Procession, which is rightly and properly called Generation, 
 while the Holy Spirit proceeds from both the Father and 
 the Son as from one principle, by a procession which is 
 sometimes called Spiration, though this term is perhaps 
 more commonly used to signify the relation which, according 
 to our way of regarding the matter, follows upon the 
 procession. 
 
 Such is the doctrine of the Catholic Church regarding the 
 Blessed Trinity. Her theologians also teach as certain that 
 the procession of the Son from the Father is to be accounted 
 for in some way by the activity of the Godhead regarded as 
 intdlectual, and that of the Holy Spirit by the self-same 
 activity regarded as volitional. Moreover theologians 
 observe that human language furnishes us with no proper 
 term for the mode of the procession of the Holy Spirit, and 
 that the term Spiration is metaphorical. 
 
2 
 
 The Blessed Trinity 
 
 THIS DOCTRINE A MYSTERY 
 
 For the right understanding of the following pages and 
 of the method followed it is essential to bear in mind that, 
 according to the teaching of the Church, the dogma of the 
 Blessed Trinity as stated above, is a mystery in the fullest 
 sense ; that is to say, it cannot be proved by reason as can, 
 for example, the existence of the Godhead : nay, it cannot 
 even be proved to be possible. Indeed, if it could be shown 
 by reason to be possible, it would follow that it was actually 
 true ; for God certainly is all that it is possible for Him to 
 be. Proof, therefore, of a mystery consists in showing that 
 it is contained in revelation, in Holy Scripture for example ; 
 the task of reason lies in endeavouring to make as clear as 
 possible the data of revelation, and in showing that these 
 data can be so explained as not to involve any evident 
 contradiction. Before such a doctrine as that of the 
 Blessed Trinity can be accepted by faith, reason has in some 
 way to be assured that God has deigned to reveal certain 
 truths to us, and that this doctrine is of the number of these 
 truths. The fact of revelation in general is assumed in this 
 tract, and to show that the doctrine of the Blessed Trinity 
 is contained in revelation, our appeal will be made to H0I5/ 
 Scripture. 
 
 THE NOTIONS OF NATURE AND PERSON 
 
 If as the result of some world-wide catastrophe there 
 remained on earth but one man, one specimen, so to say, 
 of human nature, it w^ould certainly follow that there 
 remained but one human person ; but how strangely distinct 
 are the two concepts of nature and person ! The nature 
 is that which makes the being in question to be of a certain 
 kind, to be spiritual, for example, or material, animate or 
 inanimate, rational or non-rational, to have certain activi- 
 ties, to be liable to certain influences. The Personality on 
 the other hand adds nothing to the nature that we can 
 describe or classify, and yet the Person is regarded as 
 dominating, possessing, using the nature as his very own. 
 
l^he Blessed Trinity 
 
 3 
 
 I, the person, speak of the nature as mine ; it is my body, ' 
 my soul, and yet what is the / but soul and body, and 
 what is left if both soul and body are taken away ? Or 
 again, whatever may be the changes that take place in my 
 body or in my soul, the person, the /, remains the same, 
 identically the same, notwithstanding the fact that I 
 cannot say what the Person is, apart from and in addition 
 to the changed body and soul. Is there any sense in the 
 wish that / had been born a century earlier than I was ? 
 in what sense would it have been the same person ? It is 
 little wonder that philosophers have put forward one theory 
 after another as to what it is precisely that constitutes 
 personaUty as such. With these theories we need not 
 trouble ourselves : our philosophy in these pages is that of 
 ordinary language ; and this compels us to admit some kind 
 of distinction between the nature, which places the being in 
 a certain class and makes it to be of a certain kind, and the 
 person who exists as a distinct being in the nature, who rules, 
 possesses, and acts through the nature that belongs to him. 
 
 NATURE AND PERSON IN GOD 
 
 There is but one God. Our direct assertion here is, that 
 the divine nature is numerically one. Uncaused, self- 
 existent being not ovXy is, but can be only one ; there cannot 
 be two distinct cases of such being. Sound, catholic 
 philosophy is agreed and positive on this point. Moreover, 
 self-existent being must be absolutely simple, i.e., not made 
 up of really distinct parts ; it must be all-perfect, infinite, 
 just all that pure being can possibly be. It cannot be 
 limited or conditioned in any way by time and space ; it 
 must be spiritual, supremely active by way of intellect and 
 will, free, omnipotent. Such in general is the nature of the 
 one self-existent being, of God. This nature is unique, and 
 this is what we mean directly by saying that there is and 
 can be only one God. Reason can assure itself of this, and 
 revelation has from the first urged it and insisted on it. 
 Indirectly and by way of consequence reason would 
 naturally regard this one God as one, not only in nature but 
 
4 
 
 The Blessed Trinity 
 
 also in person ; reason, if left to itself, would easily take it for 
 granted that the personahty is as much one as the nature. 
 But in so doing, reason does not really see its inference to be 
 evident. To take the nature of God, such as reason declares 
 it to be, and then to multiply it, to declare that this nature 
 exists twice over, this indeed would be for reason to con- 
 tradict itself. Or again, to say that God belongs to those 
 beings to whom the word Person cannot possibly be apphed 
 at all, — this would be contradiction, it would be to deny 
 perfection to the all-perfect. But as to the precise shape, 
 so to say, which personality takes in the infinite being, as to 
 whether it is as impossible that there should be more than 
 one Person, as that there should be more than one Godhead, 
 or God-nature, reason, the more it examines the question, 
 recognises the more clearly, that the data are wanting for an 
 evident judgement. Three Persons in God, utterly mysteri- 
 ous though the idea may be, is yet no self-evident contra- 
 diction, any more than is the idea of a single person truly 
 possessing and acting through two distinct natures. We 
 simply cannot formulate the relation between nature and 
 personality with sufiicient precision, as to decide on the 
 possibility or impcssibiUty of either of these hypotheses. 
 As a matter of fact the two chief mysteries of Christianity 
 turn upon this connection of Person and Nature. Reason 
 must acknowledge its inability to come to a final decision, 
 and must bow to God's own declaration and revelation. 
 
 What does revelation teach in regard to Person in God ? 
 in regard to the number of Persons, for this is our first and 
 immediate inquiry ? It teaches that while there is but one 
 God, one God-nature, in this one God, there are three 
 distinct persons. 
 
 THE DISTINCTION OF PERSONS 
 
 IN HOLY SCRIPTURE 
 
 Although indeed there are some indications, some hints, 
 as we may say, in the Old Testament of a distinction of 
 Persons in the Godhead, yet speaking generally Almighty 
 God was content before the time of Christ to make Himself 
 
The Blessed Trinity 
 
 5 
 
 known as One, a trae though incomplete revelation of the 
 divine being. Nor is it necessary to enter here upon any proof 
 that the singleness of God, in the sense already explained, 
 has always been taught in revealed religion and in the 
 Church of Christ. This being supposed, we may proceed 
 at once to inquire what Christian revelation teaches us in 
 regard to a distinction of Persons in God. The New Testa- 
 ment leaves us in no doubt whatever that we are being 
 instructed to distinguish Three Persons, and three only, 
 from all others, and to regard them all three, as truly and 
 equally divine, as possessing each of them the whole divine 
 nature, and therefore as being each of them truly and fully 
 God. 
 
 THREE PERSONS CLEARLY INDICATED IN 
 
 THE NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 And first, that three persons are brought before us 
 constantly in the closest connection with one another, and 
 with the one, true God, is certainly evident enough. In 
 Matt, xxviii. 19, we have Our Lord instructing His Apostles 
 to go forth and teach all nations, baptizing them in the 
 name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost." 
 There can be no doubt that the Father is God, and the other 
 two persons mentioned are certainly brought into the 
 closest connection with Him, brought under the one name, 
 whatever may be the exact sense to be given to this word. 
 In John xiv. 26, Our Lord says to His Apostles : The 
 Paraclete, the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in 
 my name. He will teach you all things, and bring all 
 things to your mind." Here are the same three persons, 
 the Father, the Holy Ghost, and the person who is speaking. 
 This last is the Jesus of the Gospels who is judged worthy of 
 death by the Jewish Sanhedrin for declaring Himself to be 
 verily the Son of God. In 2 Cor. xiii. 13, St Paul writes : 
 " The grace of Our Lord Jesus Christ, and the charity of 
 God, and the communication of the Holy Ghost be with you 
 all." Evidently the same three Persons are mentioned, the 
 Son being put in the first place, and the Father being styled 
 
6 
 
 The Blessed Trinity 
 
 God, in accordance with a form of speech which need not be 
 dealt with here, inasmuch as we are only insisting for the 
 moment on the fact that the two other Persons are brought 
 into the closest connection with the one God. In 1 Pet. i. 2, 
 we read : According to the foreknowledge of God the 
 Father, unto the sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience 
 and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ." Here again, 
 in still another order, is mention of the same three Persons 
 as in the former texts. As surely then as we are taught to 
 beUeve the Father to be God, so surely are we guided to 
 believe in two other Persons, connected in the closest way 
 with God, and yet truly distinct from the Father. The one 
 text (John xiv. 26) Whom the Father will send in my 
 name,'' is conclusive as to the true distinction of the three. 
 
 THE DIVINITY OF EACH CLEARLY REVEALED 
 
 But there now arises the further question : Are these 
 three Persons all truly and equally divine ? Is it simply 
 true to say of each that He is God, that He is the one true 
 God, not as excluding the other two, but as attributing to 
 Him in aU its fulness the one divine nature of God ? Is 
 each of these Persons as truly and perfectly (to say the 
 least) identified with the unique nature of God, as /, the 
 human person, am identified with my own nature ? 
 
 What is the alternative to this afhrmation, that each is 
 true God ? The nature of God is, we know, absolutely 
 simple and indivisible ; it cannot be shared among the 
 Persons, so that each shall possess only a part. What in 
 truth is the nature belonging to any one of these three 
 Persons, if it be not the simple, unique nature of God ? 
 It could not be a self-existent nature, for there can be 
 no self-existent nature besides the one divine nature. It 
 would be, then, a created nature ; the Son and the Holy 
 Ghost would be mere creatures, brought out of nothing by 
 the one omnipotent God, with nothing whatever in common 
 with Him, both infinitely beneath Him in dignity, power, 
 perfection. And yet we must suppose that in the revela- 
 tion God has made of Himself to us. He has put forward 
 
The Blessed Trinity 
 
 7 
 
 these two in such a way as to lead to the consequences which 
 have actually followed among the believers in this revela- 
 tion. The only conclusion to be drawn would be that the 
 Christian revelation is the work rather of the father of lies 
 than of the God of truth. 
 
 DIRECT PROOF THAT THE HOLY GHOST IS GOD 
 
 As for direct and positive proof of the Divinity of the 
 Son and of the Holy Ghost, it will hardly be questioned that 
 if either is shown by direct testimony of Holy Scripture 
 to be truly God, the other cannot be of an inferior nature. 
 The direct proof for the divinity of the Son is nothing but 
 the proof of the divinity of Jesus Christ. It would seem 
 out of place to develop any such proof in this short treatise 
 on the Blessed Trinity, and the reader may be referred to 
 other pamphlets.^ The divinity of Jesus Christ is indeed 
 a fundamental doctrine of Christianity, and might be taken 
 for granted here. It may not be out of place, however, to 
 devote a little of our space to the proof of the divinity of the 
 Holy Spirit, and thus supply the defect of any direct argu- 
 ment for that of the Son. Here the proof is not complicated 
 as in the case of Jesus Christ, by the assumption of a created 
 nature. The Holy Ghost, as we have already shown, is a 
 distinct Person, distinct from the Father, who is certainly 
 God : is this distinct Person as truly God as the Father 
 Himself ? 
 
 There are in the first place the remarkable words of Our 
 Lord (Matt. xii. 32) : " Whosoever shall speak a word 
 against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him ; but he 
 that shall speak against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be 
 forgiven him, neither in this world nor in the world to come.'' 
 We may well ask what possible meaning such words can 
 have on the supposition that the Holy Ghost is a mere 
 creature. In Acts v. 3, 4 we have St Peter speaking to 
 Ananias : Ananias, why hath Satan tempted thy heart 
 that thou shouldst he to the Holy Ghost ? . . . Thou hast 
 
 ^ e.g., The Godhead of Christ by Hugh Pope, O.P. ; The Doctrinal 
 Witness of the Fourth Gospel by V. McNabb, O.P.— C.T.S. 
 
8 
 
 The Blessed Trinity 
 
 not lied to men but to God/' St Paul, 1 Cor. iii. 16, 
 writes : Know you not that you are the temple of God, and 
 that the Spirit of God dwelleth within you ? The Spirit of 
 God is surely no mere created person, but one altogether 
 divine. It is the Holy Spirit that is to abide with the 
 Apostles and teach them all truth (John xiv. 16, 26), in 
 whose power the Apostles are to remit sin (John xx. 22), 
 nay, to whom Christ Himself attributes his power to drive 
 out the evil spirits. It would be intelligible to argue that 
 the Holy Spirit is not a distinct Person, but is simply a 
 name by which to refer to the one, pure Spirit, who is God ; 
 but uninteUigible to admit that He is a distinct Person, as 
 we have shown must be admitted, and yet a mere creature. 
 
 An indirect argument follows, as we have noted for the 
 divinity of the Son : besides the Father, a second of these 
 three Persons who are conjoined in so intimate a way in the 
 Christian revelation, is shown to be truly divine : there is 
 no other possible conclusion but that the remaining Person, 
 the Son, the one with whom Jesus Christ is identified, is 
 also divine. 
 
 There are then in God three distinct Persons, the Father, 
 the Son, the Holy Ghost : the Father is God, the Son is God, 
 the Holy Ghost is God. 
 
 THE NAMES, AND PERFECT EQUALITY OF THE 
 THREE PERSONS 
 
 So far we have dealt with the first of the three paragraphs 
 in which the doctrine of the Blessed Trinity was briefly 
 stated in the first section of this pamphlet. If the reader 
 will look back at the second paragraph, he will see that it 
 can be left without much proof or comment. It affirms 
 that the Three Persons have been revealed to us under the 
 names of The Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit. This 
 is clear from what has already been said. Moreover it 
 states that the Son has been revealed also under the 
 appellation of The Word. This too is clear from the opening 
 verses of St John's Gospel, in which we are told that the 
 Word was with God in the beginning, was God (v.l), became 
 
The Blessed Trinity 
 
 9 
 
 flesh (v. 14), and is the only-begotten Son, who is in the 
 bosom of the Father (v. 18). It will perhaps be advisable 
 to recur to this point later on. Lastly, the perfect equality 
 and infinite perfection of each person is affirmed, as resulting 
 from the fact that each possesses the entire and infinitely 
 perfect nature of God. 
 
 THE ORDER EXISTING BETWEEN THE DIVINE 
 PERSONS 
 
 We have next to examine the doctrine of the third 
 paragraph, and to see what revelation teaches as to the 
 relations in which the Three Persons stand to one another, 
 relations, as there stated, of origin, or, to use the term 
 which theology has taken over from Holy Scripture, of 
 " Procession." As in the treatment of the first paragraph 
 concerning Nature and Person, we shall anticipate the con- 
 tradictions that suggest themselves to the mind as implied 
 in the doctrine, and then develop the Scriptural proof of 
 the doctrine. This appears to be the most suitable way to 
 proceed in the case of a doctrine so strictly mysterious as 
 that of the Blessed Trinity. 
 
 THE NOTIONS OF ORIGIN AND PROCESSION 
 CONTRASTED WITH THOSE OF CAUSE AND 
 PRODUCTION 
 
 Is there not an apparent contradiction impUed in attribut- 
 ing origin or procession to a divine Person ? Not, we 
 answer, the evident contradiction that there is in supposing 
 anything produced or caused in God. Nor is it at all evidently 
 contradictory to deny production and true causality, 
 while affirming origin and procession. If we compare the 
 two pairs of words, it becomes clear that the word cause 
 signifies more expressly an activity that brings about an 
 effect distinct in its very being from its cause ; whereas the 
 word origin suggests only the idea of a relation between two 
 terms in virtue of which the one finds its principle and 
 
10 
 
 The Blessed Trinity 
 
 explanation in the other. The idea of origin is a very wide 
 and general one. It may be connected with place, as when 
 we say that a river has its source or origin in a certain range 
 of hills ; though even here it is not merely a relation of 
 place, inasmuch as the hills have a certain function to 
 exercise in giving rise to the river. Yet no one would say 
 that the hiUs were the cause of the river. Again, in 
 mathematics the word origin is used to signify a point from 
 w^hich measurement or motion commences ; here again no 
 one would say that the point is the cause of the motion. 
 Not every origin then is the cause of that which is related to 
 it as to its origin. Again, what is produced is regarded as 
 being made to be what it was not before ; there is a transi- 
 tion from non-being to being. But procession does not 
 necessarily imply any such transition. In this pamphlet 
 as complete, there is a certain procession of thought 
 running through the whole, but no part is produced by any 
 other part. When therefore we say that in God, the Son 
 proceeds from the Father, we are not affirming the evident 
 contradiction that there has been productive action on the 
 part of the First Person, resulting in the coming into being 
 of the Second Person, but only a mysterious relation of 
 origin between the one Person and the other. 
 
 THE NOTION OF RELATION 
 
 To confine our attention for purposes of explanation and 
 illustration to the two Persons, the Father and the Son, we 
 say that a relation of origin exists between the Father and 
 the Son. When we reflect upon this statement, we are 
 inclined to imagine (somewhat as from oneness of nature, 
 w^e are inclined to imagine oneness of Person) that some- 
 thing has taken place within the Godhead, which constitutes 
 the First Person Father, and the Second Person Son, and 
 that the relation attaches itself to the two Persons as 
 already constituted. But if this way of imagining the 
 matter were the true and correct way, it would follow that 
 Father and Son were distinguished from each other pre- 
 viously (previously at least in order of nature if not of 
 
The Blessed Trinity 
 
 11 
 
 time) to any relation existing between them, and therefore 
 by something not merely relative in its nature, but by 
 something absolute ; and if by something absolute, then 
 certainly by something which renders the perfection of the 
 Father different from, if not greater than, the perfection of 
 the Son. So we should be led straight to the conclusion 
 that neither person could be infinite in perfection. 
 
 But it is to be carefully noticed that although the notion 
 of a relation is usually that of something pertaining to a 
 thing fully constituted in its own proper and substantial 
 perfection and being, and therefore of something accidental 
 to, and distinct from the substantial being which has the 
 relation or is related, yet that the notion of relation 
 precisely as such, is that of regarding something else, and so 
 really prescinds as such from inhering in and being added 
 to the substance. Why should not the relation be subsis- 
 tent ? that is to say, why should it not be really the 
 substance itself, not of course precisely as substance or as 
 existing in its own absolute right, but as regarding some- 
 thing else ? The notion of relation is therefore not contra- 
 dicted or destroyed, if we suppose the divine substance to 
 identify with itself relative perfection, no less than it 
 identifies with itself all pure absolute perfection. Of course 
 the notions of substance and relation are distinct, quite 
 distinct ; but so are those of intellect and will : and yet 
 reason itself assures us that intellect and will cannot be 
 really and objectively distinct things in God, but must be 
 both identical with the one simple substance of the God- 
 head. And so the simple divine Essence is identically 
 substantial perfection and relative perfection, nothwith- 
 standing that these two kinds of perfection are quite 
 distinct as far as our notions are concerned. Thus it appears 
 that we need not, nay we must not regard the relation of 
 Paternity as coming upon and added to the Father, as 
 though the First Person were previously constituted Father, 
 and consequently put on a relation to the Son ; but rather 
 we must consider the Father as constituted Father by the 
 subsistent relation itself, because the relation is a subsistent 
 
12 
 
 The Blessed Trinity 
 
 relation. The divine Essence as identified with the relation 
 of Paternity is the Father, and so for the other Persons. 
 Thus we seem to escape the contradiction of distinguishing 
 Father from Son by the existence of any absolute perfection 
 in the one which does not exist in the other. And if it be 
 still further urged that at least the two Persons differ in the 
 relation which constitutes them as Persons, we answer, 
 somewhat as in regard to Personality in general, that there 
 is no evident contradiction in saying that they differ 
 precisely by the opposition, as such, of their mutual 
 relations. Strikingly indeed has this point been made by 
 the Council of Florence in the Decretiim pro Jacobitis, 
 where we read in regard to the Blessed Trinity : Omnia 
 sunt unum ubi non obviat relationis oppositio ; Everything 
 in the Trinity is one, except where the opposition of relation 
 interferes. The Council does not say : except v/here the 
 relation interferes ; but, except where the opposition of 
 relation interferes. Reflection upon this dictum of the 
 Council will not indeed render the mystery evidently 
 possible, but will serve to deepen our assurance that it is 
 not evidently impossible. 
 
 THE PROCESSION OF THE SECOND PERSON 
 PROVED {a) FROM THE NAME SON 
 
 We may now proceed to the proof of the third paragraph 
 of our opening statement of doctrine. 
 
 It is revealed doctrine that the Second Person of the 
 Trinity proceeds from the First, for He is Son, true Son 
 (Rom. viii. 32), only begotten Son of the Father (John i. 18). 
 It is not as Incarnate only that He is Son ; but the Divine 
 Person as such, who became Incarnate, is Son from all 
 eternity within the Godhead, Indeed, were it as man only 
 that Christ is to be held Son of God, then of course He 
 would not be the true and proper Son at all. He would 
 not be truly begotten of the Father ; for a son in the full 
 sense must be of the same nature as his father, and derive 
 that nature from his father. But Christ is revealed to us 
 as true Son, and therefore He is Son precisely in virtue of 
 
The Blessed Trinity 
 
 13 
 
 his divine nature, being begotten of the Father from all 
 eternity. 
 
 [h) FROM THE NAME ''WORD'' 
 
 Further, the Son has also been revealed to us as the 
 Word ; and from this appellation theologians rightly 
 conclude, — not, be it noted, that the generation of the Son 
 is an action of the divine intellect, but — that the fact that 
 in the one God there are these two Persons related to each 
 other as Father and Son, finds its ultimate reason in the 
 intellectual activity of the divine nature. In ordinary 
 language, by the word we understand usually that which is 
 uttered by the bodily organs of speech, as when we utter 
 the word God ; but this outwardly uttered word is a sign of 
 the intellectually and spiritually expressed concept or idea, 
 of the mental word : and of course it is rather in this latter 
 sense that the second Person is called the Word. He is 
 related to the Father in some way analogous to that in which 
 the concept in our mind is related to the mind which con- 
 ceives it, and from which it proceeds. The relation of the 
 Second Person to the First is, as it were, that of the Godhead 
 intellectually expressed, to the same Godhead thus express- 
 ing and adequately uttering Himself. 
 
 THIS PROCESSION IS TRUE GENERATION 
 
 This revelation of the Son as the Word, besides leading 
 the theologian to refer the procession of the Second Person 
 to the intellectual life of the Godhead, also throws light 
 upon the manner of procession, which is revealed as 
 generation in the fullest sense of the word. For what is 
 generation ? What is the idea for the expression of which 
 this word generation is the proper one ? It seems to include 
 three elements : (1) a living being proceeding from another 
 living being, (2) so proceeding that the very substance of 
 the parent goes to form the substance of the offspring, 
 (3) proceeding by virtue of a process that tends to issue in 
 a likeness between the two, a likeness because of the nature 
 belonging to each. Now the Second Person of the Trinity 
 is a living being, as is evident, and proceeds from one who 
 
14 
 
 The Blessed Trinity 
 
 also has life in Himself ; moreover, the very substantial 
 nature of the Father is communicated to the Son, both being 
 of the very same nature and substance ; and lastly, the 
 activity which accounts for the fact of there being a 
 Second Person in God is, as the appellation Word of God 
 implies, an intellectual activity, an activity whose whole 
 tendency is towards likeness, towards an image, likeness of 
 the concept to that of which it is the concept, likeness of the 
 mental word to that v/hich it expresses. These three 
 elements, then, in the idea of generation, find their fullest 
 realisation, reach their limit of perfection, in the generation 
 of the Second Person of the Trinity by the First. 
 
 THE PROCESSION OF THE HOLY GHOST FROM 
 THE FATHER AND THE SON 
 
 The Catholic faith teaches also the procession of the 
 Third Person from both the Father and the Son. At the 
 time of the Council of Constantinople in A.D. 381, certain 
 heretics were denying the divinity of the Third Person, and 
 were making this Person depend directly from the Second 
 Person alone. Accordingly the Council replied by so 
 describing the Holy Spirit as to leave no doubt of His true 
 divinity, and by affirming explicitly the procession from the 
 Father. Later on, error took a different shape, and the 
 procession of the Holy Spirit from the Son as well as from 
 the Father came to be explicitly professed in the Creed. 
 There is evidence enough in the writings of both Greek and 
 Latin Fathers to show that this was the true primitive 
 teaching of the whole Church, and it finds solid foundation 
 in the words of Holy Scripture itself. In John xvi. 14, 
 Our Lord says of the Holy Spirit : He shall glorify me, 
 because He shall receive of mine and shall show it to you." 
 And He explains His own words in the following verse : 
 *'A11 things whatsoever the Father hath are mine. Therefore 
 I said that He shaU receive of mine.'' The future tense, 
 " He shall receive,'' creates no difficulty ; that which takes 
 place eternally within the Godhead may be described in the 
 past, present or future, according as it is connected in some 
 
The Blessed Trinity 
 
 15 
 
 way with what belongs to these differences of time in 
 temporal events. Our Lord's hearers must all have felt 
 instinctively that everything must find its ultimate origin 
 in the Father, and accordingly that the Holy Spirit, like the 
 Son, must receive all from the Father. But Our Lord, 
 Himself the Son and Second Person of the Trinity, declares 
 that the Holy Spirit receives of what is His, because all 
 that the Father has (except of course to be Father and 
 First Person) is His also. So the Holy Spirit receives from 
 both Father and Son what is common to both, viz., the 
 whole divine nature and substance ; in other words He 
 proceeds as a divine person from both Father and Son. 
 
 THE NAME LOVE AS PROPER TO THE HOLY 
 
 SPIRIT 
 
 In the first section of this pamphlet it was given as the 
 teaching of theologians that, as the Procession of the Son 
 from the Father is to be accounted for in some way by the 
 activity of the Godhead regarded as intellectual, so the 
 procession of the Holy Spirit is to be accounted for by the 
 self-same activity regarded as volitional. Hence a name 
 proper to the Holy Spirit corresponding to that of Word 
 for the Son, i.e., the name Love. As the Son is the Word 
 of the Father, so the Holy Spirit is the Love of Father and 
 Son ; as the Son is the uttered or conceived Word, so the 
 Holy Spirit is the breathed-forth Love. It is true that the 
 word Love seems to belong rather to the activity that 
 breathes-forth, so to say, than to the term of such activity ; 
 but this is but an instance of the general lack of proper 
 words to express what belongs to volitional activity, as 
 compared with intellectual activity. 
 
 CONCLUSION 
 
 Thus we have given some explanation of the doctrine 
 stated in our first section, shown how its various headings 
 are contained in Holy Scripture, and as far as the limits 
 assigned to such a pamphlet as this will allow, we have 
 shown that mysterious as the doctrine certainly is, it does 
 
16 
 
 The Blessed Trinity 
 
 not imply anything repugnant to right reason. There are 
 indeed other aspects of the subject that one is reluctant to 
 pass over in silence even in the most elementary treatment ; 
 let us hope they may find a place in some future tract of 
 this series. 
 
 We close with the majestic words of the Preface of the 
 Mass for the feast of the Blessed Trinity, words which will 
 perhaps contain a fuller significance for those to whom the 
 preceding pages have served as a first introduction to a 
 systematic consideration of the dogma : 
 
 ''It is truly meet and just, right and available unto 
 salvation that we should at all times and in all places give 
 thanks unto Thee, O holy Lord, Father Almighty, ever- 
 lasting God : who with thine only begotten Son and the 
 Holy Ghost art one God, one Lord : not in the Oneness of 
 a single person, but in the Trinity of one substance. For 
 that which we believe from thy revelation concerning thy 
 glory, that same we believe of thy Son, that same of the Holy 
 Ghost, without difference or separation. So that in 
 confessing the true and everlasting Godhead, we shall adore 
 distinction in persons, oneness in being, equaUty in majesty ; 
 which Angels and Archangels, the Cherubim too and the 
 Seraphim do praise ; day by day they cease not to cry out, 
 saying as with one voice : Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of 
 hosts." 
 
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