Sentences, Books I–II

Chapter 1 (66).

Whether it should be granted that gifts are given through the gift. Here it is asked: since the Holy Spirit, through whom gifts are distributed, is himself a gift, should it be granted that gifts are distributed and given through a gift? — To this we say that through the gift which is the Holy Spirit, proper gifts are distributed to each person, and all good people possess him in common. Hence Augustine says in Book XV of The Trinity¹: "Through the gift which is the Holy Spirit, common to all the members of Christ, many gifts which are proper to each are distributed. For not every individual has all of them, but one has this and another that, although all possess the gift from which each person's proper gifts are distributed, namely the Holy Spirit." He plainly says that gifts are given through the gift.

Chapter 2 (67).

1. Whether the Holy Spirit is called gift and given or bestowed in the same respect. Moreover, it must be carefully considered whether, since the Holy Spirit is called gift and given, both names apply to him in the same respect.

2. Why this might seem to be so. This may indeed seem possible. Since the Holy Spirit's being given and his being bestowed are the same thing, it seems that for the same reason the Holy Spirit is called given and gift. Augustine also seems to indicate this in Book XV of The Trinity² when he says: "The Holy Spirit is the gift of God insofar as he is given to those to whom he is given; in himself he is God, even if he is given to no one." Here he plainly says that the Holy Spirit is called gift because he is given. — But if he is called gift only because he is given, he was not eternally a gift, since he is given only in time.

3. Response: why the Holy Spirit is called given or bestowed. To this we say that the Holy Spirit is called both gift and given or bestowed; but he is called given or bestowed only because he is given or bestowed, which he has only in time. — Why he is called gift. He is called gift not only because he is bestowed, but because of the property he possessed from eternity; hence he was a gift from eternity. For he was eternally a gift not because he was given, but because he proceeded from the Father and the Son. Hence Augustine says in Book IV of The Trinity³: "Just as being born is for the Son to be from the Father, so being the gift of God is for the Holy Spirit to proceed from the Father and the Son." Here it is plainly shown that the Holy Spirit is a gift because he proceeds from the Father and the Son, just as the Son is from the Father because he was born from him.

4. What it means for the Son to be from the Father and for the Holy Spirit to be from him. For the Son's being from the Father is not the same as the Holy Spirit's being from the Father; that is, the Son is not said to be from the Father by the same property by which the Holy Spirit is from the Father. For the Son is said to be from the Father because he was begotten by him because he was begotten by him; but the Holy Spirit is said to be from the Father and the Son because the Spirit is the gift of the Father and the Son, that is, because he proceeds from both.

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5. The Holy Spirit is called Spirit insofar as he is gift, and gift insofar as he proceeds. For he is called Spirit insofar as he is gift, and gift insofar as he proceeds. Hence Augustine says in Book V of The Trinity⁷: "The Holy Spirit, who is understood not as the Trinity but in the Trinity, is spoken of relatively in what he is properly called the Holy Spirit, since he is referred both to the Father and to the Son, because the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of both the Father and the Son. But this relation does not appear in the name; it appears when he is called the gift of God: for he is the gift of the Father and the Son because he proceeds from the Father and from the Son." These words plainly show that the Holy Spirit and gift are said by the same relation, while he is gift because he proceeds from the Father and the Son. The property by which he is called the Holy Spirit or gift is therefore procession itself, which we shall discuss more fully later⁸ along with the others.

6. Augustine: the Holy Spirit always proceeds. Since, then, he proceeded from both from eternity and was therefore a gift from eternity, the Holy Spirit is not called gift only because he is bestowed; he was a gift even before he was bestowed. Hence Augustine says in Book V of The Trinity⁹: "The Holy Spirit always proceeds, not in time but from eternity; but because he proceeded in such a way as to be capable of being given, he was already a gift before there was anyone to whom he could be given. For he is understood differently when called gift and when called bestowed. A gift can exist even before it is given; but something bestowed cannot be called so unless it has been given." "The Spirit¹⁰ is therefore eternally a gift, but temporally something bestowed." These words plainly show that just as the Holy Spirit proceeds from eternity, so he is a gift from eternity—not because he was given by the Father to the Son or by the Son to the Father, but because from eternity he proceeded as capable of being given.

7. It is asked to whom he was capable of being given [and how he was capable of being given otherwise than the Son]. But it is asked to whom he was capable of being given: to the Father and the Son, or only to us, who did not yet exist? If he was not capable of being given to the Father and the Son, but only to us, and was a gift because he proceeded as capable of being given in this way, it seems that the Son was always a gift for the same reason: because he proceeded from the Father from eternity as capable of being given to us in time, for it is also read that the Son was given to us. ¹¹ — To this we say that the Holy Spirit proceeded as capable of being given only to us, not to the Father or the Son, just as he was given only to us. The Son too was truly given to us, and from eternity proceeded from the Father not merely as capable of being given, but as begotten, though he could also be given. He therefore proceeded as begotten and capable of being given; but the Holy Spirit does not proceed as begotten, but only as gift. He was always a gift—not only because he was capable of being given, but because he proceeded from both and because he was capable of being given. Hence Augustine says in Book V of The Trinity¹²: "By the very fact that God was going to give him, he was already a gift even before he was given," and therefore capable of being given. But he was capable of being given otherwise than the Son, for he was given and proceeded otherwise than the Son. The Son's procession is begetting or birth; the Holy Spirit's procession is not birth. Both, however, are ineffable.

¹³

Chapter 3 (68).

1. Just as the Son received by being born not only that he should be Son but also that he should be essence, so the Holy Spirit received by proceeding not only that he should be gift but also that he should be essence. It must be noted that just as the Son, by being born, received not only that he should be Son, but simply that he should exist and that he should be substance itself, so the Holy Spirit, by proceeding from the Father and the Son, received not only that he should be the Holy Spirit or gift, but also simply that he should exist and that he should be substance. He did not receive this from being given, since he is given only in time; if he had this by being given, he would therefore have received in time that he should exist. Hence Augustine says in Book V of The Trinity¹⁴: "The Son does not receive by being born only that he should be Son, but simply that he should exist. It is therefore asked whether the Holy Spirit, by being given, receives not only that he should be gift, but simply that he should exist. But if he exists only because he is given—that is, if he has being only by being given—then, just as the Son by being born receives not only that he should be Son, which is said relatively, but simply that he should be substance itself, how was the Holy Spirit already substance itself when he was not given until there was someone to whom he could be given?" Therefore, he has being as gift and essence not by being given, but by proceeding; just as the Son, not by being given but by being born, received not only that he should be Son, but that he should be essence. Hence Augustine says in Book XV of The Trinity¹⁵: "Just as generation from the Father, without any beginning of time and without mutability of nature, gives essence to the Son, so procession from both, without any beginning of time and without any mutability of nature, gives essence to the Holy Spirit."

2. Question: from the foregoing it seems that the Son is not Son by birth alone, but also God or essence, and the Holy Spirit is essence by procession. Here a question arises: if the Son by being born receives not only that he should be Son but that he should be essence, and the Holy Spirit by proceeding receives not only that he should be gift but that he should be essence, then the Son is essence by birth and the Holy Spirit is essence by procession; whereas elsewhere it is said¹⁶ that the Father is not Father by the same property by which he is God, nor the Son Son by the same property by which he is God, nor the Holy Spirit gift by the same property by which he is God, because, as Augustine says in Book VII of The Trinity¹⁷, "their relative character, not their essence, is shown by these names"; hence we shall discuss this more fully later¹⁸.

— Response. Responding briefly, we say that neither is the Son essence by birth, but only Son, nor is the Holy Spirit essence by procession, but only gift; nevertheless each of them—he by being born, the other by proceeding—received that he should be essence. "For the Son," as Hilary says in Book V of The Trinity¹⁹, "is not God from God by cutting off, extension, or derivation, but by the power of nature subsists by birth in the same nature"; and by the power of nature the Holy Spirit subsists in the same nature by procession.

3. He explains Hilary's words. This can be understood as follows: from the Father, who is unbegotten power, the Son possesses the nature he has by birth, that is, by being born, and the Holy Spirit by procession, that is, by proceeding. — He confirms the explanation by Hilary's words. The same author, speaking more clearly, explains what he had said by adding²⁰: "The birth of God cannot fail to retain the nature from which it proceeded; for what subsists from no other than God is nothing other than God." These words disclose how the statement²¹ is to be understood: "Generation from the Father gives essence to the Son, and procession from both gives essence to the Holy Spirit"—not because the Son is essence and the Holy Spirit is essence, but according to personal property; rather, because the Son by being born and the Holy Spirit by proceeding possess the same whole essence that is in the Father.

Chapter 4 (69).

1. The Holy Spirit is called gift and something given according to the two foregoing modes of procession. From the foregoing it is clear that the Holy Spirit is eternally gift, and temporally given or bestowed. This reveals the distinction of the twofold procession discussed above²². According to one procession he is called bestowed or given, and according to the other he is called gift.

2. Insofar as he is gift, he is referred to the Father and the Son; insofar as he is given, he is referred to the one who gave and to those to whom he gave. And insofar as he is eternally gift, he is referred to the Father and the Son; but insofar as he is called given or bestowed, he is referred both to the one who gave and to those to whom he is given; he is said to belong to the one who gives and to those to whom he is given. Hence Augustine says in Book V of The Trinity²³: "What is given is referred both to the one who gave and to those to whom he gave. Thus the Holy Spirit is called not only the Spirit of the Father and the Son, who gave him, but also ours, who received him. The Spirit is therefore God's, who gave him, and ours, who received him."

3. That the Holy Spirit is called ours in one way, and the natural spirit in another. "It is not²⁴ that spirit of ours by which we exist, for that spirit is the spirit of a human being, which is in him²⁵, although we certainly received that spirit which is called the human spirit; but this spirit is called ours in one way, and that one in another. For what we received in order to exist is one thing, and what we received in order to be holy is another."

— The fact that the Holy Spirit is called ours is shown by Scripture²⁶: "For it is written of John that he would come in the spirit of Elijah²⁷; behold, Elijah's spirit is named—the Holy Spirit whom Elijah received. And the Lord said to Moses²⁸: I will take from your spirit and give to them, that is, I will give them some of the Holy Spirit whom I have already given to you": here too he is called Moses' spirit. It is therefore clear that the Holy Spirit is called our spirit because he has been given to us, and given so that we might be holy; whereas the created spirit was given so that we might exist.

²⁹

Chapter 5 (70).

1. Whether the Son, since he has been given to us, can be called ours, as the Holy Spirit. Here it is asked whether the Son too, since he has been given to us, is called or can be called ours. — To this we say that the Son is called our bread, our redeemer, and the like; but he is not called our Son, because "Son" is said only relatively to the one who begot him. Therefore he cannot be called our Son, but only the Father's. In being called "given," however, he is referred both to the one who gave him and to those to whom he was given, as is the Holy Spirit.

2. That the Holy Spirit is not called our Holy Spirit, but our Spirit. Although in Scripture, as was said above, he is called our Spirit, or your Spirit, or his Spirit, as was said of Moses and Elijah, Scripture nowhere nevertheless has the expression "our Holy Spirit," or "your Holy Spirit," or "his Holy Spirit," but "our Spirit," or "your Spirit," or "his Spirit," because he is called Holy Spirit insofar as he is gift, and both expressions are referred eternally to the Father and the Son. If he is sometimes called our gift, "gift" is taken for something given or bestowed. But when gift is taken in the way in which the Holy Spirit is a gift, he is called only the gift of the Father and the Son, not of a human being. Thus the Son too cannot be called ours under the designation "our Son," just as the Holy Spirit is not called our Holy Spirit. Nevertheless the Son is called our bread, and the Spirit our Spirit: the former is our bread because, given to us, he refreshes us; the latter is our Spirit because he is breathed into us by the Father and the Son, and breathes in us as he wills. Hence Augustine says in Book V of The Trinity: "What is born from the Father is referred to the Father alone when it is called Son; and therefore he is the Father's Son and not ours. Yet we say, Give us our bread, just as we say, our Spirit."

Chapter 6 (71).

1. Whether the Holy Spirit is referred to himself. After this it is asked whether the Holy Spirit is referred to himself. For from the foregoing it seems possible to prove this: if what is given is referred to the one who gives and to the one to whom it is given, and the Holy Spirit is given by himself, as was said above, then he is referred to himself.

³⁰ supradictum MVX, tamen OPRX; 20–21 noster panis trp. RVW.]

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2. This question is not resolved here, but deferred to what follows. We defer the determination of this question to a later point, until we treat of those things that are said relatively of God in time, among which "given" and "bestowed" are included.