Pars 5, Cap. 1
by St. Bonaventure
Source text: Public Domain Mark 1.0. English translation/apparatus/encoding: CC BY-NC 4.0, Wroot Press.
https://bonaventure.wrootpress.com/browse/5/d/5/q/bon-brev-p5-c1
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### PART FIVE. *On the grace of the Holy Spirit.*

### Chapter I. *On grace, in so far as it is a gift divinely given.*

After the treatise on the incarnation of the Word, which is the origin and fount of every gratuitous gift, some things must be said about the *grace* of the Holy Spirit, which presents itself to us as to be considered in a fourfold way. First, in so far as it is a gift divinely given. — Second, in comparison with free choice. — Third, in comparison with the habits of the virtues. — Fourth, in comparison with the exercises of merits.

Concerning grace, therefore, in so far as it is a *gift divinely given*, these things are to be held: that it is a gift which is given and infused by God immediately. For indeed with it and in it is given the Holy Spirit, who is the *uncreated* gift, *the best and perfect gift*, *which descends from the Father of lights* through the Word incarnate, according as John in the Apocalypse saw *a bright river after the manner* *of crystal proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb*. — It is nonetheless a gift through which the soul is perfected and is made the bride of Christ, the daughter of the eternal Father and the temple of the Holy Spirit; which comes about in no way except from the condescension that dignifies and the dignifying that condescends of the eternal Majesty, through the gift of his grace. — It is finally a gift which purges, illumines and perfects the soul; gives it life, re-forms it and makes it stand fast; raises it up, makes it like to God and joins it to God, and through this makes it acceptable; on account of which a gift of this kind is rightly called, and had to be named, *grace making gracious*.

Now the reason for the understanding of the foresaid is this: since, when the first *productive* principle, out of its highest benevolence, made the rational spirit capable of eternal beatitude; and the *reparative* principle repaired unto salvation that capacity weakened through sin; and eternal beatitude consists in having the highest good; and this is God, a good exceeding beyond all proportion every dignity of human service: no one at all is worthy to arrive at that highest good, since it is altogether beyond all the limits of nature, unless, God condescending to him, he himself be raised above himself. But God does not condescend through his own unchangeable *essence*, but through an *influence* flowing from himself; nor is a spirit raised above itself through *local position*, but through a *deiform habit*. It is necessary therefore for the rational spirit, that it may be made worthy of eternal beatitude, that it be made a participant of the deiform influence. And this deiform influence, because it is from God and according to God and on account of God, therefore renders the image of our mind conformed to the most blessed Trinity not only according to the *order of origin*, but also according to the *rectitude of choice* and according to the *quietude of enjoyment*. And since he who has this is immediately led back to God, just as he is immediately conformed to him; therefore that gift is immediately given by God as by an inflowing principle; so that, as the *image* of God immediately emanates from God, so the *likeness* of God immediately remains from him — which is the deiform perfection of the divine image, and is therefore called the *image of re-creation*.

Again, since he who enjoys God has God; therefore, along with grace, which by its deiformity disposes to the enjoyment of God, there is given the *uncreated* gift, which is the Holy Spirit — and whoever has this has God also.

And since no one has God but that he is more specially had by him; no one has and is had by God but that he loves him above all and incomparably and is loved by him as a bride by a bridegroom; no one is so loved but that he is adopted as a *son* unto the eternal inheritance: hence it is that grace making gracious makes the soul the *temple of God, the bride of Christ* and the *daughter of the* eternal *Father*. And because this cannot be except from the highest dignation and condescension of God; therefore it cannot be through any habit naturally implanted, but only through a gift divinely and gratuitously infused; which appears expressly, if one should weigh how great a thing it is to be God's temple, God's son, and joined to God nonetheless indissolubly and as it were matrimonially by the bond of love and of grace.

Lastly, because our mind is not made conformed to the most blessed Trinity according to the rectitude of choice except through the *vigor of virtue, the splendor of truth* and the *fervor of charity*; and the *vigor of virtue* *purges, makes fast* and *raises up* the soul; the *splendor of truth* *illumines* the soul, *re-forms* it and *makes it like* to God; the *fervor of charity* *perfects* the soul, *gives it life* and *joins it* to God, and out of all these the man comes to be *pleasing and accepted* to God: hence it is that that deiform influence is said to have all the ten foresaid acts, yet in such a way that it is named from the last as from the most complete. — For it is called *grace making gracious*, because it makes him who has it gracious to God, since it is not only given gratuitously *by God*, but is also *according to God* and *on account of God*; since it is unto this, that through it the work flowing forth from God may return into God, in which, after the manner of an intelligible circle, the completion of all rational spirits consists.

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