Dist. 15
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/15/q/bon-sent-I-d15-littera
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### DISTINCTION XV.

#### Chapter I.
*That the Holy Spirit is given by himself, and the Son is sent by himself.*

Here it must be considered: since the Holy Spirit is given to men by the Father and the Son — which is for him to proceed temporally from both, or to be sent — whether also he is given by himself. If he is given by himself, then he proceeds or is sent by himself. To this we say that the Holy Spirit is both God and gift (or *given*); and therefore he both gives and is given. He gives indeed insofar as he is God, and is given insofar as he is gift. But since the donation or giving of the Holy Spirit is the operation of God, and is the common and undivided operation of the three persons, the Holy Spirit is given therefore not only by the Father and the Son, but also by himself. Whence Augustine in the fifteenth book *On the Trinity* says that *he gives himself*. «Just as, he says, the body of the flesh is nothing other than flesh, so the gift of the Holy Spirit is nothing other than the Holy Spirit. To that extent, then, is he the gift of God, in that he is given to those to whom he is given. With himself however he is God, even if he is given to no one — for he was God coeternal with the Father and the Son before he was given to anyone. Nor because they give and he himself is given, is he therefore lesser than they. For he is so given as the gift of God that he also gives himself, as God. For it cannot be said that he is not of his own power, of whom it is said: *The Spirit breathes where he wills*». Behold, he plainly says that the Holy Spirit gives himself. For if the Holy Spirit cannot give himself, while the Father can give him and the Son [can], the Father can therefore give something — and the Son [can] — that the Holy Spirit cannot. Likewise, if the Father and the Son give the Holy Spirit, but he does not give [himself]: then the Father and the Son work something which the Holy Spirit does not work. Therefore the Holy Spirit gives himself. But if he gives himself, then also he proceeds and is sent from himself; which is indeed true. For the temporal procession of the Holy Spirit, or his mission, is donation, and this is the operation of God. Therefore the Holy Spirit proceeds temporally from himself and is sent by himself, since he is given by himself.

But do not be amazed that the Holy Spirit is said to be sent or to proceed from himself. For also of the Son of God Augustine says in the second book *On the Trinity* that he was sent not only by the Father, but also by himself and by the Holy Spirit, asking how the Son or the Holy Spirit can be *sent*, since each is everywhere as God. For both — Augustine says — are read as having been sent. For of the Holy Spirit it is read: *Whom the Father will send in my name*. And again: *If I go away, I will send him to you*. And the Son says of himself: *I went forth from the Father and came into the world*. And the Apostle says: *God sent his Son*. But in the Prophet it is written in the person of God: *I fill heaven and earth*. Therefore God is everywhere — and so the Son is everywhere; the Holy Spirit also is everywhere. They were sent therefore where they were.

#### Chapter II.
*How the mission of each is to be understood.*

«Wherefore it must be asked how the mission of the Son or of the Holy Spirit is to be understood. For the Father alone — Augustine says in the same [book] — is nowhere read as sent».

[Sent] rather are the Son and the Holy Spirit. And let us first see, of the Son, in what way [he was] sent. «The Apostle says: *God sent his Son made of woman*; in which he sufficiently shows the Son to have been sent by that very thing by which he was made of woman. Accordingly he could not be sent by the Father without the Holy Spirit, since the Father is understood to have sent him when he made him from a woman; which indeed he did not do without the Holy Spirit». Behold, here he says that the Son was sent by the Father and by the Holy Spirit.

#### Chapter III.
*That the Son was sent also by the Holy Spirit.*

And that the Son was sent by the Holy Spirit, as Augustine says in the same [book], is confirmed by authorities. Christ himself says through Isaiah: *Now the Lord and his Spirit have sent me*. On this Ambrose in the third book *On the Holy Spirit* thus says: «Who is he who says, *The Lord and his Spirit have sent me*, except he who came from the Father to save sinners» — that is, Christ? «Therefore both the Father has sent the Son, and the Spirit». The same in the same: «He was given by the Father, as Isaiah says: *A child is born to us, and a Son is given to us*. He was given — I dare say — also by the Spirit, since he was sent also by the Spirit». «For the Son of God says: *The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because of which he has anointed me; he has sent me to evangelize the poor, to preach release to captives*, etc. And when he had read this from the book of Isaiah, he said in the Gospel: *Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your ears*, signifying that it had been said of himself. He spoke well in saying *upon me*, since as it were *son of man* he was both anointed and sent to preach. For according to divinity the Spirit is not *upon* Christ, but *in* Christ». Behold, with these words Ambrose shows that the Son was sent and given to us not only by the Father, but also by the Holy Spirit.

#### Chapter IV.
*That the Son was given also by himself.*

Then he shows that he was given also by himself, saying thus in the same book: «Since it has not been defined by the Prophet by whom the Son was given, he is shown to have been given by the grace of the Trinity — so that the Son himself also gave himself». Behold, here he says that the Son gave himself, since the Trinity gave him. But if the Son was given by himself, then he was sent by himself and proceeded from himself. And this is indeed true and must be granted, since his mission is a divine operation.

#### Chapter V.
*That the Son is sent by himself.*

But that he is sent by himself, Augustine establishes in the second book *On the Trinity* saying: «Perhaps someone may compel us to say that the Son was sent also by himself — since Mary's conception and childbirth are an operation of the Trinity. But, says someone, how did the Father send him, if he sent himself? To whom I respond, asking him to say how the Father sanctified him, if he sanctified himself? For the Lord says both: *Whom the Father*, he says, *sanctified and sent into this world*. And elsewhere: *I sanctify myself for them*. Likewise I ask: how did the Father hand him over, if he handed himself over? For both are read. He will reply, I trust, if he is well-versed: that there is one will of the Father and the Son, and an inseparable operation. Let him understand thus that the Incarnation and birth from the Virgin — in which the Son is understood to have been sent — were done by one and the same inseparable operation of the Father and the Son, with the Holy Spirit not separated from this. Therefore the same Son was sent by the Father and the Son, since by the Father and his Word it was brought about that he should be sent — that is, that he should appear incarnate to men. For he was not sent by changing place, since he was in the world. Wherefore the invisible Father, together with the Son invisible with him, by making the same Son visible, is said to have sent him: who if he became visible in such a way that he ceased to be invisible together with the Father — that is, if the substance of the invisible Word were changed and converted into a visible creature — then the Son would be understood to have been so sent by the Father that he would be found *only sent*, and not *also sending with the Father*. But since the form of a servant was so taken on that the unchangeable form of God should remain, it is plain that what appeared in the Son was done by the Father and the Son, who do not appear — that is, that by the invisible Father, with the invisible Son, the same Son visible should be sent».

##### *Epilogue.*

From the foregoing it is plainly shown that the Son was sent by the Father and by the Holy Spirit and by himself; and what the mission itself is — namely, the Incarnation, that is, that he was made man, by which he appeared visible — which is the common work of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

#### Chapter VI.
*How that saying — «From myself I did not come» — is to be understood.*

But against this it is objected: if the Son was sent by himself, why then does he say: *From myself I did not come*? To this Augustine responds in the second book *On the Trinity* saying: «This was said according to the form of a servant, according to which he did not act so as to be sent» — that is, he did not bring about the Incarnation [in the form of a servant], but [did so] according to the form of God.

##### *Whether the Son was sent only once, or often.*

Here it is asked whether the Son was sent only once, or is sent often. For if the mission of the Son is only his Incarnation — since he was incarnate only once — he seems to have been sent only once. But if he is often sent, there is also another mission of his besides the Incarnation. But what is that? Should the eternal generation be called his mission? Or is some other mission to be sought?

#### Chapter VII.
*On the two modes of the Son's mission.*

To this we say that the Son is said to be sent in two modes, besides that eternal generation which is ineffable — according to which he could even be said to have been *sent* (as it seems to some) — but according to which he is rather better and more truly said to be *generated*. Setting that aside, then, he is said to be sent in two modes: namely, either when he visibly appeared to the world clothed in flesh, or when he so passes into pious souls as to be perceived and known by them. These two modes of mission Augustine plainly distinguishes in the fourth book *On the Trinity* saying: «The Son is not said to be sent by that very thing by which he is born of the Father, but either by his having appeared to this world as the Word made flesh — whence he says: *I went forth from the Father and came into the world*; or by his being perceived from time in someone's mind, as it is said of Wisdom: *Send her forth from your holy heavens and from the seat of your majesty, that she may be with me and may labor with me* — that is, that she may teach me to labor. And then he is sent to each one when he is known by anyone and perceived, as far as he can be known and perceived according to the capacity of a rational soul progressing toward God or perfected in God.»

#### Chapter VIII.
*That according to one mode he was sent once, according to the other often; and according to one mode he is said to be sent into the world, according to the other not.*

Behold, two modes of the Son's mission are distinguished; and according to one the Son of God was sent only once, according to the other he was sent often and is sent daily. For according to the one he was sent in order to be man — which was done only once; according to the other he is sent in order to be with man, in which mode he is sent daily to the Saints — and was sent even before the Incarnation, both to all the Saints who were before, and even to the Angels. Whence Augustine, speaking of the Son — that is, of the Wisdom of the Father — in the fourth book *On the Trinity* says: «Wisdom is sent in one way to be *with* man, in another way she was sent to *be* man. For she passes into holy souls and constitutes [them] friends of God and prophets, just as she also fills the holy Angels. But when the fullness of time came, she was sent — not in order to fill the Angels, nor to be an Angel, nor to be with men or in men (as before she was in the Patriarchs and Prophets) — but in order that the Word himself should become flesh, that is, become man».

Furthermore it must be noted that, since the Son is sent in these two modes, in the one he is said to be sent *into the world*, but in the other not. For he is said to be sent *into the world* in that mode in which he appeared visibly to the world. Whence Augustine in the same book says: «When he is perceived from time in someone's mind, he is said indeed to be sent — but not *into this world*. For he does not appear sensibly — that is, he is not present to the bodily senses. For we ourselves, insofar as we grasp something eternal in the mind, are not in this world; and the spirits of all the just, even those living in the flesh, insofar as they

savor divine [things], are not in this world». From the foregoing it is clear that, besides the ineffable generation, the Son is sent in two modes — namely, when he appeared visibly, or [when] he is invisibly perceived in the mind.

#### Chapter IX.
*Why the Father is not said to be sent.*

Here it is asked why the Father is not said to be sent, since he is from time known by anyone, just as the Son [is]. To this we say that in him is the *authority of the principle*, who does not have [a person] from which he is — from whom the Son is, and the Holy Spirit. «For the Father — as Augustine says in the same book — is the principle of the whole divinity, or if better said, of the deity», since he is the principle of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. For, as Augustine says in the same [book], «if God the Father had also wished to appear visibly through a subjected creature, it would still be most absurd to say that he was sent either by the Son whom he generated, or by the Holy Spirit who proceeds from him». But fittingly is he said to *have been sent* who appeared in the flesh; and [fittingly] *to have sent* he who did not appear in it.

#### Chapter X.
*That the Son and the Holy Spirit are not as it were lesser than the Father, because sent.*

And so certain heretics have supposed that, since the Father is not sent, but the Son and the Holy Spirit [are], the Father is greater and the Son and the Holy Spirit are lesser — and that the Father, as it were the greater, has sent both, as it were the lesser. This Augustine refutes in the fourth book *On the Trinity* contradicting them: «Therefore — he says — it is not to be thought that the Son is lesser because he was sent by the Father, nor that the Holy Spirit is lesser because both the Father sent him and the Son [did]; for whether on account of the visible creature, or rather on account of the commendation of the principle, [these things are] not on account of inequality, or disparity, or dissimilarity of substance — these things are to be understood as set down in the Scriptures». Therefore the Father is not said to have sent the Son or the Holy Spirit because he were greater and they lesser, but chiefly for the commendation of the *authority of the principle*, and because he did not appear in a visible creature as they [did]. Behold, it has been shown what the mission of the Son is, and in what modes he is sent.

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