Dist. 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/1/d/1/q/bon-sent-I-d1-littera
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## BOOK ONE OF THE SENTENCES.

### ON THE UNITY AND TRINITY OF GOD.

### DISTINCTION I.

#### Chapter I.

*All teaching is about things or about signs.*

As we, by God's grace going before us, considered again and again with diligent investigation the contents of the Old and New Law, it became known to us that the treatment of sacred Scripture is chiefly concerned with things or with signs. For, as the eminent doctor Augustine says in his book *On Christian Doctrine*: «All teaching is either of things or of signs. But things also are learned through signs. Properly however things are here called those which are not employed to signify something; while signs are those whose use lies in signifying». But of these there are some whose whole use is in signifying, not in justifying — that is to say, those which we use only for the sake of signifying something, like certain Sacraments of the Law; and others, which not only signify but also confer that which inwardly assists, as the evangelical Sacraments. «From this it is plainly understood what are here called signs, namely those things which are employed to signify something. Every sign therefore is also some thing. For that which is no thing, as in the same place Augustine says, is altogether nothing; not however conversely is every thing a sign», because it is not employed for signifying something. And when the studious and modest speculation of theologians applies itself to these matters, it will recognise that the divine Scripture observes a prescribed form in its teaching. Concerning these things, therefore, we who wish, God leading, to open up some access toward understanding divine things, must discourse; and we shall treat first of things, afterwards of signs.

#### Chapter II.

*On the things which are to be enjoyed or to be used, and on those which enjoy and use.*

«This therefore must be considered in things, as in the same place Augustine says, that some things are those which are to be enjoyed, others which are to be used, others which both enjoy and use. Those which are to be enjoyed make us blessed; by these which are to be used we are helped, while striving toward blessedness, and as it were supported, so that we may be able to reach and cleave to those things which make us blessed. The things which enjoy and use are we ourselves, constituted as it were between the two», both Angels and Saints. «But to enjoy is to cleave with love to some thing for its own sake; to use is to refer that which has come into use toward obtaining that which is to be enjoyed; otherwise it is to abuse, not to use. For an illicit use ought to be named an abuse or misuse». «The things therefore which are to be enjoyed are the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Yet this same Trinity is a certain supreme thing and common to all who enjoy it — if indeed it ought to be called a thing and not the cause of all things, if even cause. For a name cannot easily be found which befits such great excellence, unless that it is better said: This Trinity is one God». But the things which are to be used are the world and what is created in it. Whence Augustine in the same place: «This world must be used, not enjoyed, so that the invisible things of God may be seen, being understood through the things that are made — that is, that from temporal things eternal things may be grasped». Likewise in the same place: «Among all things, those alone are to be enjoyed which are eternal and unchangeable; the rest must be used, so that we may attain to the enjoyment of those». Whence Augustine in the tenth book *On the Trinity*: «We enjoy those things known, in which the will, delighted for their own sake, comes to rest; but we use those things which we refer to something else, which is to be enjoyed».

#### Chapter III.

*What it is to enjoy and to use.*

But it must be noted that the same Augustine in the tenth book *On the Trinity*, taking *to use* and *to enjoy* otherwise than above, says thus: «To use is to take up something into

the power of the will; but to enjoy is to use with joy not still of hope, but already of the reality; and therefore everyone who enjoys also uses, for he takes up something into the power of the will with the end of delight. But not everyone who uses also enjoys; if that which he takes up into the power of the will he seeks not on its own account, but for the sake of something else».

And note that Augustine seems to say that those alone enjoy who rejoice in the reality, not yet in hope; and so in this life we do not seem to enjoy, but only to use, where we rejoice in hope — even though it was said above that to enjoy is to cleave with love to some thing for its own sake, in which way also many here cleave to God.

These things, then, which seem to contradict one another, we resolve thus, saying that we enjoy both here and in the future, but there properly and perfectly and fully, where by sight we shall behold what we shall enjoy; here, however, while we walk in hope, we do indeed enjoy, but not so fully. Whence Augustine in the tenth book *On the Trinity*: «We enjoy those things known, in which the will, delighted for their own sake, comes to rest». The same in the book *On Christian Doctrine* says: «The Angels enjoying Him are already blessed by that whom we also desire to enjoy; and the more we already enjoy in this life — whether through a mirror or in a riddle — the more tolerably we bear our pilgrimage and the more ardently we desire to end it».

It may also be said that he who enjoys, even in this life, has not only the joy of hope but also of the reality, because he is already delighted in what he loves, and so already in some measure holds the thing. It stands therefore that we ought to enjoy God, not use Him. «For by that», as Augustine says, «you enjoy by which you are made blessed and in which you place your hope, that you may come to it». On this the same says in the book *On Christian Doctrine*: «We say that we enjoy a thing which we love for its own sake, and that we are to enjoy a thing only by which we are made blessed; the rest, however, are to be used». Yet frequently it is said *to enjoy* with the sense of *to use with delight*. For when that which is loved is present, it brings delight with it. If, however, you pass through it and refer it to that wherein one must abide, you use it, and abusively; you are not properly said to enjoy. But if you cleave and abide, placing the end of your gladness in it, then you are truly and properly to be said to enjoy; which is not to be done except in that Trinity, that is, the supreme and unchangeable good».

##### *Whether man is to be enjoyed or used.*

But since men, who enjoy and use other things, are themselves certain things, it is asked, «whether they ought to enjoy themselves, or use, or both». To which Augustine in the book *On Christian Doctrine* thus replies: «If man is to be loved for his own sake, we enjoy him; if for the sake of another, we use him: to me, however, it seems that he is to be loved for the sake of another. For that which is to be loved for its own sake is that in which the blessed life is constituted, the hope of which also consoles us in this time. But hope is not to be placed in man, for *Cursed is he who does this*. Therefore, if you note clearly, no one ought even to enjoy himself, because one ought not to love oneself for one's own sake, but for the sake of that which is to be enjoyed». But to this seems contrary what the Apostle in speaking to Philemon says: *So, brother, I shall enjoy thee in the Lord*. Which Augustine thus settles: «If he had said only *I shall enjoy thee*, and had not added *in the Lord*, he would have seemed to set the end of love and of hope in him; but because he added that, he signified that he had set his end in the Lord and that he was enjoying the same». «For when», as the same Augustine says, «you enjoy a man in God, you enjoy God rather than man».

##### *Whether God enjoys us or uses us.*

But since God loves us, as Scripture frequently says, which much commends His love toward us, Augustine asks how He loves us, whether as one using or as one enjoying; and he proceeds thus: «If He enjoys us, He has need of our good, which no sane man would say; for the Prophet says: *Of my goods Thou hast no need*. For all our good either is Himself or is from Him: He does not therefore enjoy us, but uses us. For if He neither enjoys us nor uses us, I do not see how He loves us». «Yet He does not so use us as we use other things. For we refer the things which we use to this, that we may enjoy the goodness of God; but God refers our use to His own goodness: for He has mercy on us because of His own goodness, but we on one another because of His goodness; He has mercy on us, that we may enjoy Him fully, but we have mercy on one another, that we may enjoy Him. For when we have mercy on someone and counsel someone, we do it indeed for his usefulness and look to that, but ours follows as a consequence, since God does not leave without reward the mercy which we show to others. But this reward is the highest, that we may enjoy Him fully». Likewise: «Because He is good, we are; and inasmuch as we are, we are good. Further, because He is also just, we are not evil with impunity, and inasmuch as we are evil, by so much also

we are less. That use therefore by which God uses us is referred not to His utility, but to ours; to His, however, only to His goodness».

##### *Whether the virtues are to be enjoyed or used.*

Here it must be considered whether the virtues are to be used or enjoyed. To some it seems that they are to be used and not enjoyed, and they confirm this by the authority of Augustine, who, as has been noted above, says that none is to be enjoyed except the Trinity, that is, the supreme and unchangeable good. Likewise they say that they are not to be enjoyed because they are not to be loved for their own sake, but for the sake of eternal blessedness. But that which is to be enjoyed is to be loved for its own sake. And that the virtues are not to be loved for their own sake, but rather for blessedness alone, they prove by the authority of Augustine, who in the thirteenth book *On the Trinity* says against certain ones: «Perhaps the virtues, which we love only for the sake of blessedness, dare to persuade us thus, that we should not love blessedness itself; if they do this, we cease at any rate to love them also, when we do not love that for which alone we have loved them». Behold, by these words Augustine seems to show that the virtues are to be loved not for their own sake, but for blessedness alone. And if this is so, therefore they are not to be enjoyed. But to others on the contrary it seems, namely that they are to be enjoyed, because they are to be sought and loved for their own sake. And this they confirm by the authority of Ambrose, who says, on that passage of the Epistle to the Galatians: *But the fruit of the Spirit is charity, joy, peace, patience* etc.: «He does not name these works, but fruits, because they are to be sought for their own sake». But if they are to be sought for their own sake, therefore they are to be loved for their own sake. We, however, desiring to remove from the midst the apparent repugnance of these authorities, say that the virtues are to be sought and loved for their own sake, and yet on account of blessedness alone. For their own sake indeed they are to be loved, because they delight their possessors with sincere and holy delight and bring forth in them spiritual joy. Nevertheless one must not stop here, but pass beyond. Let not the step of love adhere here, nor let the term of love be here, but let this be referred to that supreme good, to which alone wholly one must cleave, because that alone is to be loved for its own sake, and beyond it nothing is to be sought; for that is the supreme end. Therefore Augustine says that we love them for blessedness alone — not but that we love them for their own sake, but because that very fact, that we love them, we refer to that supreme good, to which alone we must cleave, and in which we must abide and place the end of gladness; wherefore the virtues are not to be enjoyed. But someone will say: To enjoy is to cleave with love to some thing for its own sake, as has been said; if therefore the virtues are to be loved for their own sake, they too are to be enjoyed. To which we say: in that description, where it is said *for its own sake*, it must be understood only thus, that namely it should be loved for its own sake alone, so that it should not be referred to another, but the end should be placed there, as Augustine showed above saying: «If you cleave and abide, placing the end of your gladness, then you are truly and properly to be said to enjoy. Which is not to be done except in that Trinity, that is, the supreme and unchangeable good». Therefore the virtues are to be used and through them the supreme good is to be enjoyed; and so likewise we say of the good will. Whence Augustine in the tenth book *On the Trinity* says: «The will is that by which we enjoy»; and so also through the virtues we enjoy; not them, unless perhaps some virtue be God, as charity, of which it will be treated afterwards.

##### *Epilogue.*

Of all things therefore that have been said, since we have specially treated of things, this is the sum: that some are those which are to be enjoyed, others which are to be used, others which enjoy and use; and among those which are to be used there are also certain ones through which we enjoy, such as the virtues and powers of the soul, which are natural goods. Concerning all these, before we treat of signs, it must be dealt with, and first concerning those things which are to be enjoyed, namely concerning the holy and undivided Trinity.

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