Monologion: Chapter 55/Chapter 56
BASIC WRITINGS
Chapter 55 That this love is not their son What then? Since this love has being equally from the Father and the Son, and since it is so much like them that it is in no way unlike them but is in every respect the same as they are, should it be considered their son or offspring? Now as soon as the Word is contemplated he gives most compelling proof that he is the offspring of him from whom he exists, for he bears the unmistakable image of his parent; whereas this love just as openly denies that he is an offspring, since when he is understood to proceed from the Father and the Son, he does not immediately exhibit to one who contemplates him his likeness to him from whom he exists, although the argument we have considered shows that he is indeed in every respect the same as the Father and the Son are.
Furthermore, if he is their offspring, either one of them is his father and the other is his mother, or they are both his father or mother. But all these possibilities seem inconsistent with the truth. For since he does not proceed from the Father any differently than from the Son, the truth will not permit dissimilar words to be used to express the Father's and the Son's relation to him.
So it is not the case that one is his father and the other his mother. But no nature provides any example of two things, each of which equally has a complete and altogether identical relationship of father or mother to some one thing. Therefore, it is not the case that both the Father and the Son are the father or mother of the love that flows forth from them. And so the claim that this love is their son or offspring does not seem at all consistent with the truth.
Chapter 56 That only the Father is begetter and unbegotten, only the Son is begotten, and only the love is neither begotten nor unbegotten
Nevertheless, it seems that this love cannot absolutely be called 'unbegotten' in our common way of speaking, but neither can he be called 'begotten' as properly as the Son. For we are accustomed to say frequently that something is begotten from the thing from which it exists, as when we say that heat or light is begotten from fire,or an effect from its cause.55 So in this sense the love that comes forth from the supreme spirit can in no way be called unbegotten.
55 Of course we do not say things like this in English. The verb gigni, which I have translated as "to be begotten" in view of its use in Trinitarian theology, is here being used in its wider sense to mean "to come to exist."