His attributes there were any that could be said to “proceed,” then the very attribute they name “the Son” would be the one. They themselves explain that the Son is divine knowledge and speech, or utterance and wisdom—qualities that are far more susceptible to the notion of procession than life, for life is even less amenable to such a description than speech.
They also say that He is worshiped and glorified together with the Father, even though an attribute inherent in the Lord is not, along with Him, an object of worship. And they maintain that He speaks within the prophets, whereas an attribute that subsists in the Lord does not speak in the prophets at all; rather, all of this belongs to the Holy Spirit whom God places in the hearts of the prophets, or to an angel such as Gabriel. If this “Spirit” is said to proceed from the Father—and procession means to come forth—what clearer instance of partition and division could there be?
Should they liken that procession to a ray issuing from the sun, the comparison fails on several grounds:
- A ray is a transient quality that subsists in air and earth; it is not a self-subsisting substance, while the being they venerate is, in their view, living, worthy of worship, and a substance in his own right.
- That ray diffused through air and earth is neither an attribute of the sun nor something that inheres in it, whereas the life of the Lord is an attribute that inheres in Him.
- They have restricted the idea of procession to the Holy Spirit and have not said of the Word that it proceeds, though if procession were true it would resemble the Word far more than it does life.
The more a discerning mind ponders their Creed and related statements, the more contradiction and corruption it uncovers.