The Greek
theologians, founding on the primary sense of the Greek term
Πνεῦμα, and on certain
passages of Scripture in which the word seemed to retain that sense
more or less (especially Psalm xxxiii. 6. in the Vulgate rendering,
verbo Dei cœli formati sunt: et spiritu oris ejus omnis
virtus eorum), spoke of the Holy Ghost as proceeding from the Father
like the breath of His mouth in the utterance or emission of His
Word. See ch. 15 of this Book, where we have the sentence,
οὐδεμία γὰρ
ὁρμὴ ἄνευ
πνεύματος.
Compare also such passages as these—Greg. Naz., Orat. i.
3: Cyril. Alex., Thes., assert. 34, De Trin. dial. 2, p.
425, and 7, pp. 634, 640; Basil, Contra Eunom., B.V., and De
Spiritu Sancto, ch. 18; Greg. Scholar., Contra Latin., de
process. Spiritus Sancti, i. 4, where we have the
statement οὕτω
καὶ τὸ ἅγιον
Πνεῦμα ὥσπερ
ὁρμὴ καὶ
κίνησις,
ἐνδοτέρα τῆς
ὑπερφυοῦς
ἐκείνης
οὐσίας, so the Holy
Spirit is like an impulse and movement within that supernatural
essence.