Dist. 15, Part 2, Art. 1, Q. 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/15/q/bon-sent-I-d15-p2-a1-q1
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### THE SOLE ARTICLE.

*On the invisible mission, both of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.*

### QUESTION I.

*Whether the invisible mission is according to the gifts of grace freely given, or of the grace that makes pleasing.*

Concerning the first [question] — that this mission is according to the gifts of grace freely given — it is shown thus.

1. Rabanus says of the Holy Spirit that the Holy Spirit was given three times. And first he says that he was given for the working of miracles; but it is plain that the working of miracles is grace freely given: therefore etc.

2. Likewise, the Holy Spirit is given when the gift of prophecy is given. Whence 1 Kings 10: *The Spirit of the Lord came upon Saul, and he prophesied*; but the gift of prophecy is frequently given to those who do not have the grace that makes pleasing, as is plain in the case of Saul from the text: therefore etc.

3. Likewise, that the Son is sent according to the gifts of grace freely given seems [also clear]. For the Son is then said to be sent when revelation of hidden things occurs; but revelation of hidden things can take place without the gift of grace that makes pleasing: therefore etc.

4. Likewise, Augustine says — and it is held in the present distinction — that «then Wisdom is sent when she is perceived in someone's mind», or when she becomes known to someone; if therefore she is perceived and becomes known through the gifts of grace freely given (such as through unformed faith): therefore she seems to be given in those: therefore etc.

**On the contrary:**

1. Augustine says that the Holy Spirit is given to someone when he is so given as to make him a lover of God and of neighbor — that is to say, when charity is given to a man; but charity is not [a gift] except of grace that makes pleasing: therefore etc.

2. Likewise, the same seems to be the case of the Son, since it is said in Wisdom 7: *She passes into holy souls, and constitutes [them] friends of God*; but [men] are not called friends of God without the grace that makes pleasing: therefore etc.

3. Likewise, by reason it is shown thus: the Holy Spirit is then given or sent when he indwells in a man; but he is not said to indwell in a man without the grace that makes pleasing: therefore etc.

4. Likewise, when the Son or the Holy Spirit is sent to someone, he is sent not in order to be where he was not before, but in order to be in him otherwise than before; but a new mode of being, added on top of being by nature, is not [given] except through the grace that makes pleasing: therefore etc.

### CONCLUSION.

> In the invisible mission, neither person is given simply, except by the gift of grace that makes pleasing; but in a qualified sense [each] is also given through grace freely given.

**I respond:** Some draw a distinction here, that for the Holy Spirit to be given or sent invisibly can be either insofar as he is *Spirit*, or insofar as he is *holy*. Insofar as *Spirit*, he is given through the gift of grace freely given; insofar as *holy*, or sanctifying, he is given through the gifts of grace that makes pleasing. Similarly, Wisdom or the Son can be sent either as making [one] *to know* (*sapere*), and so through the gifts of grace freely given; or insofar as *sapientia* (wisdom) is named from *sapor* (taste), and so through the gifts of grace that makes pleasing. But this does not seem to solve [the question], because one who grants the opposite of this solution can still be solved against and asked about the Spirit and the Word, how each is said to be given and not to indwell.

On account of this it must be said otherwise, both of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, that *to be given* or *to be sent* is twofold: either *simply*, or *for this* [particular end]. He is given *simply* when he is simply had — namely, not only for use, but for enjoyment; this however is only through the gifts of grace that makes pleasing, and therefore only in [that grace] are the Son or the Holy Spirit given *simply*. In another mode he is said to be given *for this* [particular end], when not for enjoyment, but for assistance or for some use, certain gifts are given; and this happens when certain gifts of grace freely given are bestowed, in which

the Son or the Holy Spirit is manifested; and so the [first] arguments proceed as to the first part [of the conclusion].

**1.** For the saying of Rabanus is to be understood thus; for he speaks of mission in a common way; whence he says that the Holy Spirit was given thrice. But Augustine speaks only of giving or mission which is *for indwelling* or for being had simply.

**2.** To what is objected concerning prophecy, it must be said that in one mode the Holy Spirit is given simply *in* it, insofar as it asserts a knowledge according to the fitness of the recipient and according to the piety of the one carrying [it] out. In another mode, insofar as it is mere revelation, the Spirit is not given in it simply, or rather is not sent except for *this* [particular end]. Whence it is not said in the book of Kings that the Holy Spirit was sent *to* Saul, or made *in* Saul, but *upon* Saul.

**3.** To what is objected — that the Son is sent when there is revelation of hidden things — it must be said that this is not the case in every revelation; for some revelation occurs not through the mission of the Son, but through the mission of an angel — for many things are revealed through angels — but it is to be understood of that revelation in which there is illumination of the soul through grace; and if through grace freely given, [the Son] is not sent simply; but if through grace that makes pleasing, then he is sent simply and had.

**4.** To what is objected last — that he is then sent when he is perceived — it must be said that it does not suffice to know the Son to be from another; rather, [the soul] must know him to be in itself as in his own dwelling. But this I say not of cognition by necessity, but of cognition by conjecture; nor of actual cognition, but of habitual.