Sentences, Books I–II

Chapter 1 (58).

1. On the sending of the Holy Spirit, which occurs in two ways, visibly and invisibly. We must now consider, besides that ineffable and eternal procession by which he proceeds from the Father and the Son and not from himself, what the temporal procession of the Holy Spirit is, which is called sending or donation. — We say that, just as the Son is said to be sent in two ways—one by which he appeared visibly, the other by which he is perceived invisibly by pure minds—so the Holy Spirit is also said to proceed, be sent, or be given by the Father, the Son, and himself in two ways: one visibly, the other invisibly. He was given through the manifestation of a visible creature, as on the day of Pentecost and on other occasions; and he is given daily by entering invisibly into the minds of the faithful.

2. First, the mode of sending which occurs in visible form. Let us first discuss the mode of sending which occurs in visible form. — Augustine says this in Book II of The Trinity¹: «It is readily understood why the Holy Spirit too is said to be sent. For a certain form of a creature was made in time, in which the Holy Spirit would be shown visibly, either when he descended upon the Lord himself in the bodily form of a dove², or when on the day of Pentecost a sound suddenly came from heaven as of a mighty wind being borne, and tongues divided as if of fire appeared to them and rested upon each of them³. This operation, expressed visibly and offered to mortal eyes, is called the sending of the Holy Spirit: not so that his very substance, by which he too is invisible and unchangeable like the Father and the Son, might appear, but so that, when human hearts were moved by outward visions, they might be turned from the temporal manifestation of the one who was coming to the hidden eternity of the one who is always present». By these words Augustine explains the mode of sending that is displayed visibly, although the Spirit himself is not seen in his own nature. He was not more in those creatures than in others, but he was there for another purpose. For he was in them so that through them he might be shown to be in the human beings to whom those creatures came. The Holy Spirit did not then come or descend upon human beings through a temporal movement; rather, through the temporal movement of the creature the spiritual and invisible infusion of the Holy Spirit was signified. And, to speak more plainly, through that mode of sending in which the Holy Spirit was displayed bodily, his spiritual and interior sending or donation, which must be treated, was shown.

3. Since the Son is less than the Father according to the created form in which he appeared, why is the Holy Spirit not likewise less? But first it must be asked: since the Son is called less than the Father according to the sending by which he appeared in a created form, why is the Holy Spirit also not called less than the Father when he appeared in a created form?

4. He proves it concerning the Son. For Augustine plainly shows in Book IV of The Trinity⁴ that the Son is less than the Father according to the form in which he appeared when sent, saying: «God sent his Son, made from a woman, made under the Law⁵: so little that he was made; therefore he was sent insofar as he was made. Let us therefore confess that he was made less, and less insofar as he was made, and made insofar as he was sent». Behold, the Son, insofar as he is sent—that is, made—is less than the Father.

5. Why this is not so of the Holy Spirit. Why, then, is the Holy Spirit not called less than the Father, since he too assumed a creature in which he appeared? Because the Spirit assumed the creature in which he appeared in one way, and the Son in another; for the Son received it by union, whereas the Spirit did not. The Son received a human being in such a way as to become human; but the Holy Spirit did not receive a dove in such a way as to become a dove. — Augustine says this in Book II of The Trinity⁶: «For this reason it is nowhere written that God the Father is greater than the Holy Spirit, or that the Holy Spirit is less than the Father, because the creature in which the Holy Spirit would appear was not assumed in the same way as the Son of man was assumed, in which form the person of the Word of God would be presented: not so that the Word of God would be possessed as by the other senses, but because it was the Word itself. For the Word in flesh is one thing, and the Word flesh another, that is, the Word in a human being is one thing, and the Word a human being another. Flesh is set in place of the human being in what he says⁷: The Word became flesh. Therefore the creature in which the Holy Spirit appeared was not assumed in the same way as that flesh and human form assumed from the Virgin Mary. For he did not glorify the dove, that breath, or that fire, nor join it to himself in the unity of person for eternity». — From these statements it is plainly shown in what respect the Son is called less than the Father, and why the Son is called less than the Father but the Holy Spirit is not.

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¹⁰

Chapter 2 (59).

1. That the Son, insofar as he became human, is less not only than the Father but also than the Holy Spirit and even than himself. It must be noted that the Son, insofar as he became human, is said to be less not only than the Father but also than the Holy Spirit and even than himself.

2. Augustine shows that he is also called less than himself according to the form of a servant in Book I of The Trinity¹¹, saying: «People have erred by transferring to his eternal substance what was said of Christ according to his humanity, such as what the Lord himself says¹²: The Father is greater than I, which Truth says on account of the form of a servant; according to this manner the Son is also less than himself. For how was he not also made less than himself, who emptied himself by taking the form of a servant¹³? He did not take the form of a servant in such a way as to lose the form of God, in which he was equal to the Father. In the form of God, therefore, the Father’s only-begotten Son is equal to the Father; in the form of a servant he is also less than himself. Scripture therefore does not without reason say both things: that the Son is equal to the Father and that the Father is greater than the Son. The former is understood on account of the form of God, the latter on account of the form of a servant».

3. On the same subject he says in Book II of The Trinity¹⁴: «The Son of God is equal to the Father according to the form of God in which he exists, and less than the Father according to the form of a servant which he took; in that form he was found to be less not only than the Father but also than the Holy Spirit, and not only this, but also less than himself». «Because of this he was made less not only than the Father but also than himself», as the same author says in the book Against Maximinus¹⁵, he was made less not only than the Father but also than the Holy Spirit, and also made a little lower than the angels¹⁶. «The Son of God is therefore», as he says in Book I of The Trinity¹⁷, «by nature equal to God the Father, but less in condition, that is, in the form of a servant which he took». — These authorities plainly show that the Son according to the form of a servant is less than the Father, himself, and the Holy Spirit.

4. Hilary gives another account: the Father is greater, yet the Son is not less. Hilary, however, seems to say that the Father is greater than the Son, yet the Son is not less than the Father. The Father is called greater on account of authority, because the authority of begetting is in him, according to which he says¹⁸: The Father is greater than I; and the Apostle¹⁹: He gave him the name which is above every name. Therefore, when he says, ‘The Father is greater than I’, it is as though he said: ‘He gave me the name’. «If, then», Hilary says in Book IX of The Trinity²⁰, «the Father is greater by the authority of the giver, is the Son less through the confession of the gift? The giver is therefore greater, but the one to whom it is given to be one is no longer less. For he says²¹: I and the Father are one. If it is not given to Jesus that he should be joined in the glory of God the Father²², he is less than the Father; but if it is given to him to be in that glory in which the Father is, you have both, in the authority of the giver, that the Father is greater, and, in the confession of the one who receives, that they are one. The Father, therefore, is greater than the Son, and plainly greater, since he gives him to be as great as he himself is; he imparts to him, through the mystery of birth, the image of unbegottenness, and begets him from himself in his own form». You have heard, reader, what Hilary says on this matter; wherever his words occur, note them carefully and understand them devoutly.