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from the Father and Son, or from the Father alone. But the issue is not quite so simple as that. Catholics say that he proceeds from both Persons as from one principle. The Orthodox in the first place admit that the temporal mission of the Holy Ghost (his office as source of grace among men and angels) comes from both Father and Son. On this point our Lord's words are too clear: "The Comforter whom I shall send you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father" (John xv. 26).^[1] Some of them at any rate are disposed to admit that the Holy Ghost receives the Divine essence from (or, as they prefer to say, through) God the Son,^[2] but they all deny that his Personality proceeds from or through the Son. And that is the point about which we have argued for a thousand years. Yet the issue is not really so unimportant as might seem. It is involved by two different ways of considering the mystery of the Blessed Trinity. The Latin Church through her schoolmen has evolved a system of metaphysics that is one of the most wonderful examples of subtle consistency ever thought out. As far as it concerns this point it is this: All creatures are made up of two principles called actus and potentia. The actus is the principle of perfection, the potentia receives and by receiving limits that perfection. Throughout nature these two principles are seen, always in couples. Potentia alone would have no perfection, could not be. Actus alone would be unlimited perfection. So all creatures that have a limited nature and limited perfection are made up of double principles. All creatures are composite. God alone has no potentia, he is pure actus, unlimited, infinite perfection. God alone is simple. Therefore in God all things are really the same, they are all identified with his one simple, infinite essence. Goodness, might, wisdom, love, all perfections that in us are received into a potentia and are really distinct from our essence which limits them, in God are not received into anything; they are his essence.

1. Mogilas: "The Spirit proceeds from the Father alone as from the cause, but he is sent into the world by the Son" (i. qu. 71). Kritopulos, chap. i. (Kimmel, p. 29), &c.
2. See, for instance, Palmer's Visit, p. 142, &c.