Dist. 15, Part 2, Art. 1, Q. 3
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-q3
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### QUESTION III.

*Whether the Son and the Holy Spirit are sent when the gifts of grace are augmented.*

Third it is asked whether the mission of the Son and of the Holy Spirit is according to the same gifts of grace augmented. And that it is so, seems [clear] by example, by authority, and by reason.

1. By example thus: it is plain that on the day of Pentecost the Holy Spirit was sent to the Apostles — not only visibly, but also invisibly, since the visible mission without the invisible does not confer [grace]; but they previously had grace: therefore etc.

2. Likewise, this seems [clear] by the authority of Rabanus: «In baptism the Holy Spirit is given to consecrate a habitation for God, but in confirmation he comes into a man with all the fullness of holiness»: therefore he is given in confirmation after baptism: therefore etc.

3. Likewise, the augmentation of grace is by the addition of grace; but where there is addition of grace, there is donation of grace; but «the Holy Spirit is sent or given when his grace is given», as Bede says: therefore in the augmentation of grace the Holy Spirit is given or sent.

4. Likewise, it is no less a gift to *consummate* charity than to begin it: therefore if the Son or the Holy Spirit is sent when grace is begun, much more strongly when it is consummated; but it is consummated through augmentation: therefore he is sent in the augmentation.

**On the contrary:**

1. The Holy Spirit is not sent into a man in order to be in him anew, but in order to be in him otherwise [than before]; but in him in whom grace is augmented, there is no other [mode] than before: therefore he is not sent to him.

2. Likewise, if he is sent in the augmentation of grace, then either because he is sent *anew*, or because he is sent *more abundantly*; not because anew: therefore because more abundantly. But on the contrary: *to be sent* is *to proceed*; therefore *to be sent more abundantly* is *to proceed more abundantly*; but he always proceeds equally: therefore etc.

3. Likewise, if he is sent in the augmentation of grace, then since grace daily increases in us — even with the man unaware — it seems that the Holy Spirit or the Son is sent without the man's awareness, and that he is sent to the man daily; which is not to be said.

4. Likewise, it happens that the grace of charity is in someone remitted [diminished] through negligence: therefore if the Holy Spirit is sent in the augmentation, and withdraws in the remission: therefore when someone sins venially, he loses the Holy Spirit: which is false.

### CONCLUSION.

> The Holy Spirit is not said to be sent when there is merely progress in the grace previously had, but in the bestowal of a new use, or of a new freely-given gift, he is said to be sent.

**I respond:** To this some say that *to be augmented in grace* is twofold — namely, *perceptibly* and *imperceptibly*. If perceptibly, then they say that in such augmentation the Son and the Holy Spirit are given or sent; but if imperceptibly, then they say [the person] is not sent. And the reason for this is that he is then said to be given or sent when he is perceived in the mind.

But it can be said otherwise, that the augmentation of grace is twofold: either according to *progress* in the grace already had and in its use, or by the bestowal of a *new use* or even of a *new freely-given gift*. If only by progress — as the last arguments show — the Holy Spirit is not said to be sent. But if by the bestowal of a new gift, as was the case in the Apostles on the day of Pentecost; or of a new use, as is the case in confirmation: then it can be said that the Holy Spirit is sent or given, since he is in some way there *anew* with respect to that gift or use of the gift, and because he is there more abundantly.

**1.** To what is objected — that there is no other mode of being there — it must be said that, although this is not another mode of *being*, it is nevertheless a more perfect mode of *indwelling* and another mode of *use*, and therefore [it is] a *new* mode.

**2.** To what is objected — if he is sent more abundantly, he proceeds more abundantly — it must be said that *to be sent* or *to proceed more abundantly* is twofold: either *from this* [side], or *into this* [side]; in the first mode it is uniformly to be sent, in the second mode it is not.

**3.** To what is objected — that [grace] is augmented daily — it must be said that it is augmented daily as to *fervor*, but not as to the bestowal of new gifts or new uses.

**4.** To what is objected — that diminished grace ought to withdraw — it must be said that, as will appear below, grace is augmented as to its *substance*, but is not diminished except as to *fervor* alone; but the Holy Spirit is not said to be sent in the augmentation of fervor, but only of the substance of charity.