Ex oro altissimi prodivi (EccL 24). These words, which I have quoted in Latin, we may speak in the Person of the eternal Word. He says, ‘ I proceeded forth out of the mouth of the Most High.’ This is the exalted source which uttered from the Father’s heart the eternal Word which took on human nature in our Lady’s womb. Not of this carnal birth am I going to tell, for much is told you of it. It is on the eternal birth that I propose to speak, and I will broach the subject by answering two questions.
The first one is. Whether the eternal Word can be called the perfect Word seeing it is still in the throes of birth ? — Yes, for the eternal Word is gotten in the essential light and abides therein, untold to anything outside it, and is withal infallibly uttered by the Father. Hence it may well be called the perfect Word.
The second question is. Whether our intelligence can at all conceive the perfect Word ? for it is proper to every understanding that it should understand. Is it not the same as our understanding in itself? — I say no, because our word is gotten in a fitful light. Our understanding is a changing thing, so it cannot conceive a perfect word. The word you hear from me is not infallible, it is a sign of the Word within me.
Now mark the way of the eternal birth. The Personal understanding as confined to its unity of nature is one with the understanding whereby the Father understands himself in his characteristic nature. Were this not the case there would be two intelligible essences. But there are not : there is but one intelligible essence wherein the Father sees himself in his characteristic nature. The object of his thought is the eternal Word. Where this is confined to the natural understanding of the Father it is none other than the Father- nature. Where this same Word is directed to itself there is ever distinction of Person and withal one simple essence divine in nature. Here I will put four questions the better for you to understand the mode of the eternal birth, though, let me say at once, that this is inconceivable to the multitudinous mind. However, I will tell you as much as it is possible for your minds to grasp.
The first question is, Why is the Person of the Son called born and the Person of the Father not ? The answer is, that it is the personal understanding of the Father wherewith he understands himself in his characteristic nature, but the product of this conception is the eternal Word. Hence the eternal Word is said to be begotten and the Person of the Father not. — Question two : Is the work of the eternal birth wrought by his personal power or by his natural power ? Some theologians say it is due to the personal power of the Father since it is proper to all begotten things to receive the same nature they are gotten by. Where saw ye the father that imparted not his own nature to his son ? So runs the argument for the eternal birth being due to personal power. This is not my view. Where the personal understanding keeps to its unity of nature there is this nature Person. Now the eternal Word originates in the essential thought wherein the Father understands himself in his characteristic nature. It follows that the work of the eternal birth must be due to his natural power, for if the eternal Word sprang from the personal understanding of the Father then this eternal Word would be the cause of its own self, for this conception is the Word.
The third question is. Where does the Father-nature have maternal names ? Where it does maternal work. Where personal understanding keeps to its unity of nature and has intercourse therewith, there the Father-nature has maternal names and is doing mother’s work, for it is exclusively a mother’s work to receive the seed of the eternal Word. In essential thought the mothernature has paternal names and docs paternal work.
The fourth question is. Whether this work is essential or does the Father play a casual part therein ? I say, no. If he stopped a single instant he would negate himself. For the eternal Word is the image of the Father as he conceives himself in his character of Person, with the added dignity which the eternal Word receives in its own Person, all the perfection which the Father has and all the omnipotence peculiar to his nature. The heretical doctor Arius observes concerning this ; It appears to me to be untrue that the eternal Word receives all the perfection that the Father has and all the omnipotence peculiar to his nature, for it cannot do what the Father does ; he cannot beget another Son. But as St Augustine says, That he does not beget another Son is not due to impotence, but it behoves him not to. A statement which some doctors misconstrue, giving to understand that the Son an he would could beget another Son. Which is erroneous, for in that case the Person of the Son would be the Person of the Father. The reason for not doing it is this. Each Person receives the same nature albeit variously : the Father as fatherhood, the Son as sonship and the Holy Ghost as the common product of them both. Here the Persons are an hypostasis of the nature, each Person receiving the one nature all at once as essence. Where (the Word) receives its dignity the three shine with one light, they having this light as their common being. The dignity the eternal Word receives by birth is that of being equal with the Father, for it springs from the essential conception of the Father. As confined to this conception it is none other than divine nature ; in its aspect of the Word it is distinct in Person and withal in nature one impartible essence.
Here arises the question. How can the eternal Word be at once discrete and one simple essence divine in nature ? The best answer theologians have to this is that it is due to the impartibility and simplicity of that nature. The entire content of divine nature is one impartible essence which operates by divine nature. May we attain this oneness so far as it is possible to us. So help us God. Amen.