The Summa of Theology of Saint Thomas Aquinas volume 1
1. Is it suitable for a divine Person to be sent?
2. Is the mission eternal or only temporal?
3. How is a divine Person sent?
4. Is it suitable for every divine Person to be sent?
5. Is there an invisible mission of the Son as well as of the Holy Spirit?
6. Who is granted the invisible mission?
7. The visible mission.
8. Can a Person send Himself, visibly or invisibly?
Article 1 — Is it suitable for a divine Person to be sent?
Objections:
1. The one sent is inferior to the one who sends him. Now no divine Person is inferior to the other. Therefore no divine Person is sent by another.
2. What we send separates itself from what sends it: as S. Jerome says: “What is united and joined in one and the same body cannot be sent. ” Now, there is nothing separable in the divine Persons, according to S. Hilaire. Therefore a Person cannot be sent by another.
3. He who is sent leaves his place for another. But this too does not suit a divine Person, since he is everywhere. Therefore it is not fitting for a divine Person to be sent.
On the contrary , we read in St. John (8, 16): “I am not alone: I have with me the Father who sent me. ”
Answer:
The idea of mission or sending implies a double relationship: from the sent to the one who sends him, and from the sent to the end to which he is sent. To be sent, this first denounces, between the sent and the one who sends him, a procession: whether it is a mandate, like the case of the master sending his servant; or of a council, as it is said that the adviser sends the king to war; or of an origin, as we say that the stem emits the flower. This also denounces a connection with the term of the sending; it is a question for the envoy of beginning to be there in some capacity, whether previously he was not in any way where he is sent, or whether he was not there in the way in which he was sent. is starting to be there.
We can therefore speak of the mission of a divine Person, thereby evoking, on the one hand, his original procession with regard to the Person who sends him; on the other hand, a new way for her to exist somewhere. It is thus said of the Son that he was sent into this world by his Father, inasmuch as he began to be in this world by the flesh which he took, although previously “he was already in the world” as St. John says (1, 10).
Solutions:
1.The mission implies an inferiority in the envoy, when it is by order or by advice that the envoy proceeds from the principle which sends him; for he who advises is wiser. But in God the mission only evokes the original procession, and this respects the equality of the divine Persons, as we saw above.
2. What we send to begin with being in a place where it was not in any way, moves with a local movement in the execution of its mission; it must therefore be separated locally from the person who sends it. But there is nothing of the sort in the mission of a divine Person: the Person sent does not begin to exist in a place where he was not; neither does it cease to exist in the place where it was. In other words, this mission does not involve separation, but a simple distinction of origin.
3. The last objection reasons on the mission (or sending) which involves a local movement: such a mission has nothing to do in God.
Article 2 — Is the mission eternal or only temporal?
Objection:
1. S. Gregory speaks thus: “The Son is sent by the fact that he is begotten. ” Now the generation of the Son is eternal. So too is its mission.
2 . That which receives attribution over time undergoes change. But a divine Person does not change. The mission of a divine Person is therefore not temporal, but eternal.
3 . Mission involves procession. Now the procession of the divine Persons is eternal. Their mission is therefore too.
On the contrary , we read in the epistle to the Galatians (4, 4): “When the fullness of time came, Dicu sent his Son. ”
Answer:
In the words evoking the origin of the divine Persons, there are differences to note. Certain terms only evoke in their meaning the relationship between emanation and principle: such are “procession” and “exit”. Others, in addition to this relationship to the principle, specify the term of the procession: some evoke the eternal term, such as “generation” and “spiration”, because generation is a procession which puts the divine Person in possession of the divine Nature , and passive spiration evokes the procession of subsisting Love. The other expressions, with the relationship to the principle, evoke a temporal term, such as mission and donation. Indeed, we are sent to be in some place. We are given to be possessed. Now, that a divine Person comes to be possessed by a creature, or exists in it in a new way, that is indeed something temporal.
Also, in God, mission and donation are used only as temporal attributes; generation and spiration, only as eternal attributes; finally procession and exit are used in God both eternally and temporally. Indeed, from all eternity, the Son proceeds to be God; in time, he proceeds to also be man by his visible mission, or even to be in man by his invisible mission.
Solutions:
1 . The words of S. Gregory relate to the temporal generation of the Son, who is then born no longer from the Father, but from a mother. Or we mean that the Son, simply because he is eternally begotten, finds himself in a position to be sent.
2. If a divine Person exists in someone in a new capacity, or is possessed over time by someone, it is not due to a change in this divine Person, but to a change in the creature. Thus God receives in time the attribute of Lord, due to the change of the creature. 1.
3. The word mission does not only evoke the procession from the principle: it also assigns to this procession a temporal term. There is therefore only a mission in time. Or let us say that the word mission includes in its concept the eternal procession and adds a temporal effect to it; because the relationship of the divine Person to his principle can only be eternal. And if we speak of a double procession, eternal and temporal, it is not that there is a double relationship to the principle; what is double is the term, eternal and temporal.
Article 3 — How is a divine Person sent?
Objection:
1. For a divine Person, to be sent is to be given. Therefore if the divine Person is only sent because of the gifts of sanctifying grace, it is not the divine Person Himself who will be given, but His gifts. Now this is precisely the error of those who say that the Holy Spirit is not given to us, but only his gifts.
2 . The preposition secundum (according to, due to, as of) notifies a causal relationship. Now it is the divine Person who is the cause of our possessing this gift of sanctifying grace, and not the other way around, according to the words of St. Paul (Rm 5:5): “The love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. ” Therefore, we cannot say that the divine Person is sent because of grace.
3 . According to S. Augustine, “the Son is said to be sent when in time the spirit perceives him.” But the Son is not known only by sanctifying grace, he is also known by “free grace”, for example by faith and science. It is therefore not solely because of sanctifying grace that there is a mission of the divine Person.
4 . Raban Maur says that the Holy Spirit was given to the Apostles to work miracles. Now, this is not a gift that belongs to sanctifying grace, but a gift of “free grace.” The divine Person is therefore not given only because of sanctifying grace.
In the opposite sense , S. Augustine says that “the Holy Spirit proceeds temporally to sanctify the creature. ” However, the mission is a temporal procession. And since there is sanctification of the creature only by grace which makes it acceptable to God, it follows that there is no mission of a divine Person except by sanctifying grace.
Answer: A
divine Person is said to be “sent,” insofar as he exists in someone in a new way; it is “given”, insofar as it is possessed by someone. Now neither one nor the other takes place except because of sanctifying grace. There is in fact a common way for God to exist in all things through his essence, his power and his presence; he is thus there as the Cause in the effects which participate in his goodness. But, above this common mode, there is a special mode which is specific to the rational creature: it is said that God exists in it as the known in the knower and the loved in the magnet. And because by knowing and loving him, the rational creature reaches through its operation to God himself, it is said that, by this special mode, not only is God in the rational creature, but also that he dwells in her as in her temple. Therefore, apart from sanctifying grace, there is no other effect which can be the reason for a new mode of presence of the divine Person in the rational creature. And it is only because of sanctifying grace that there is mission and temporal procession of the divine Person. Likewise, it is said that we “possess” only that which we can freely enjoy. Now, we only have the power to enjoy a divine Person because of sanctifying grace.
However, in the very gift of sanctifying grace, it is the Holy Spirit that is possessed and that indwells man. Also it is the Holy Spirit himself who is given and sent.
Solutions:
l. The gift of sanctifying grace perfects the rational creature to enable it, not only to freely use the created gift, but also to enjoy the divine Person Himself. It is therefore indeed because of sanctifying grace that there is an invisible mission; and yet the divine Person himself is given to us.
2. Sanctifying grace disposes the soul to possess the divine Person; This is what our formula means: “The Holy Spirit is given by reason of grace.” ” However, this very gift of grace comes from the Holy Spirit; and this is what S. Paul expresses when he says that “the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.”
3 . It is true that we can know the Son by certain effects of grace, different from sanctifying grace; However, these other effects are not enough for it to live in us and for us to possess it.
4 . The gift of performing miracles is ordered to sanctifying grace, which it is a question of manifesting; it is the same with the gift of prophecy and with any “free grace” 3. Also the first epistle to the Corinthians (12:7) calls free grace “a manifestation of the Spirit”. It is therefore said that the Holy Spirit was given to the Apostles to work miracles, because sanctifying grace was given to them by the sign which manifested it. But if the sign of free grace were given alone without grace, we would no longer say that the Holy Spirit is given, purely and simply. This formula then receives a determinative complement; we will say, for example, that the spirit of prophecy, or the spirit of miracles has been given to someone, if he has the power to prophesy or to work miracles.
Article 4 — Is it suitable for every divine Person to be sent?
Objections:
l. For a divine Person, to be sent is to be given. Now the Father gives himself: for no one can possess him unless he himself gives himself. We can therefore say that the Father sends himself.
2 . There is a mission of the divine Person when there is a dwelling of grace. But by grace, it is the entire Trinity which dwells in us, according to this word in St. John (14, 23): “We will come to him and we will make our home in him. ” Each of the divine Persons is therefore sent.
3 . Any attribute which is suitable for one of the Persons is suitable for all, except notions and persons. Now the term mission does not mean a person, nor a notion, because there are only five notions, as we have said. Of every divine Person we can therefore say that he is sent.
On the contrary , S. Augustine tells us: “In Scripture, only the Father is never said to be sent. ”
Answer:
By definition, mission implies procession from another; and in God, procession of origin, as we said above. Since the Father does not come from any other, it is therefore in no way fitting for him to be sent; it belongs only to the Son and the Holy Spirit, because it suits them to be from another.
Solutions:
1. If giving means communicating something freely, then the Father thus gives himself, since he communicates himself liberally to the creature so that it enjoys him. But if giving wants to evoke an authority of the donor over what is given, then in God only the Person who proceeds from another can be given, and similarly sent.
2. The effect of grace also comes from the Father who, through this grace, indwells the soul in the same way as the Son and the Holy Spirit; but we do not say that it is sent, because it does not proceed from another. This is the explanation given by St. Augustine: “When the Father is known to someone in time, we do not say that he is sent; for he has no one from whom to come or proceed. ”
3 . The term mission, insofar as it evokes a procession starting from the one who sends, does include a notion in its meaning; not undoubtedly any particular notion, but in a generic sense, in the sense where “being of another” is an aspect common to the two notions of filiation and passive spiration.
Article 5 — Is there an invisible mission of the Son as well as of the Holy Spirit?
Objections:
l: It is because of the gifts of grace that we consider the invisible mission of a divine Person. Now all gifts of grace arise from the Holy Spirit, according to the words of St. Paul (1 Cor 12:11): “They are all the work of the same and one Spirit. ”There is therefore no invisible mission except of the Holy Spirit.
2. The mission of the divine Person is linked to sanctifying grace. Now the gifts which perfect the intellect are not gifts of sanctifying grace, for they can be possessed without charity, says St. Paul (1 Cor 13:2): “If I had the gift of prophecy, when I would know all the mysteries and all the knowledge, when I had all the faith, a faith that could move mountains, if I do not have charity, I am nothing. ” Since the Son proceeds, as Word, from the intellect, it is therefore not his responsibility to be sent.
3 . The mission of a divine Person, we said, is a procession. But the procession of the Son and that of the Holy Spirit are two distinct processions. So if these two Persons are sent, that will also make two separate missions. And then the second would be superfluous, because only one is enough to sanctify the creature.
On the contrary , it is written of Divine Wisdom (Wis 9:10): “Send it from your most holy heavens, send it from the throne of your glory. "
Answer :
By sanctifying grace, it is the whole Trinity which inhabits the soul, according to what is written in St. John (14, 23): “We will come to him and we will make our home in him. ” Now, to say that a divine Person is sent to someone by invisible grace is to signify a new mode of habitation of this Person, and the origin that it comes from another. Since these two conditions: indwelling the soul by grace, and proceeding from another, are equally suitable for the Son and the Holy Spirit, let us conclude that it is suitable for both to be sent invisibly. As for the Father, it undoubtedly belongs to him to inhabit the soul through grace, but not to be of another, nor consequently to be sent.
Solutions:
l. It is true that all gifts, as gifts, are appropriate to the Holy Spirit, because this, as Love, has the character of the first gift, as we have said. However, certain gifts, considered according to their own and specific content, are attributed by appropriation to the Son: all those precisely which are linked to the intellect. And according to these gifts there is a mission of the Son. S. Augustine says thus: “The Son is invisibly sent to everyone, when he is known and perceived. ”
2. Grace conforms the soul to God. Also for there to be a mission of a divine Person to the soul through grace, the soul must be conformed or assimilated to this person through some gift of grace. Now the Holy Spirit is Love; it is therefore the gift of charity which assimilates the soul to the Holy Spirit, and it is because of charity that we consider a mission of the Holy Spirit. The Son is the Word and not just any verb, but the one that inspires Love. “The Word that we seek to make heard,” says St. Augustine, “is a knowledge full of love. "There is therefore no mission of the Son for any improvement of the intellect, but only when the intellect is endowed and enriched in such a way that it comes to overflow in a surge of love, according to which it is written in St. John (6, 45): “Whoever has heard the Father and received his teaching, comes to me”, or in Psalm (39, 4): “In my meditation, a fire will burn . ” Also S. Augustine uses significant terms: “The Son, he says, is sent when he is known and perceived. ” The word perception in fact means a certain experimental knowledge. This is properly “wisdom”, or tasty science, according to the maxim of Ecclesiasticus (6, 22): “The wisdom of doctrine well deserves its name. ”
3.As we have said, the mission has a double aspect: origin of the Person sent, and habitation by Grace. If, in speaking of mission, we consider the origin, then the mission of the Son is distinct from that of the Holy Spirit, as the generation of the one is distinct from the procession of the other. But, if we consider the effect of grace, the two missions have a common root, grace, while distinguishing themselves in the effects of this grace, which are the illumination of the intellect and the kindling of the affection. We see from this that one mission does not go without the other, since neither is accomplished without sanctifying grace, and one Person is not separated from the other.
Article 6 – To whom is the invisible mission granted?
Objections:
l. The Fathers of the Old Testament shared in grace, while it does not seem that the invisible mission reached them, according to St. John (7, 39): “The Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus had not yet been glorified. ”The invisible mission is therefore not given to all those who participate in grace.
2 . There is no progress in virtue except through grace. But the invisible mission does not seem linked to the progress of virtue; because, virtuous progress being continuous, it seems, since charity either grows constantly, or disappears, we would then have a continuous mission. Let us not therefore say that the invisible mission is done “to all who share in grace.”
3 . Christ and the blessed have grace in fullness. But it does not seem that a mission is given to them, for a sending is only made to those who are at a distance, whereas Christ, as man, and the blessed are perfectly united with God. It is therefore not “to all those who share in grace” that the invisible mission is carried out.
4 . The sacraments of the new law contain grace; yet no one says that an invisible mission is given to them. There is therefore no invisible mission to all who have grace.
In the opposite sense , according to S. Augustine, there is an invisible mission “to sanctify the creature”. Now every creature that has grace is sanctified. There is therefore an invisible mission to every creature who has grace.
Answer:
As has been said, the concept of mission implies that the one sent either begins to be where he was not before, as happens in created things; or it begins to be in a new way where it already was, and it is in this last sense that we speak of a mission of the divine Persons. There are therefore two conditions to be verified in the one to whom they are sent: the indwelling of grace, and a certain character of novelty in the work of grace. And to all those in whom these two conditions meet, there is an invisible mission.
Solutions:
l. There was a mission invisible to the fathers of the Old Testament. S. Augustine thus says that the Son, through his invisible mission “becomes present in men and with men: a mystery already realized formerly among the Fathers and the Prophets.” Therefore, when we read in St. John that “the Spirit was not yet given,” we mean this giving with visible signs which took place on the day of Pentecost.
2. There is invisible mission even in virtuous progress or the growth of grace. S. Augustine says that the Son “is sent to each one when he is known and perceived as much as he can be according to the capacity of a soul which progresses in God or which is already consumed there”. However, if there is an increase in grace where there is reason to consider an invisible mission, it is above all that which leads to a move to some new act or to a new state of grace; for example, when one is raised to the grace of miracles, to that of prophecy, or when one comes, out of fervor of charity, to expose oneself to martyrdom, to renounce all one's possessions, or to undertake some work difficult.
3. An invisible mission is granted to the blessed from the first moment of their beatitude. Subsequently, they are given invisible missions, no longer by intensification of their grace, but in the sense that they receive new revelations touching certain mysteries; so it is until the day of judgment. Here progress consists of an extension of grace to new objects. Christ received an invisible mission from the first moment of his conception; but he had no other, since he was filled with all grace and wisdom from the first moment of his conception.
4. In the sacraments of the new law, grace exists instrumentally, in the manner in which the form of the work exists in the instrument of the artist, that is to say as passing from the agent in the patient. But we only speak of mission for the end of the sending. It is therefore not to the sacraments that the mission of a divine Person is made, but to those who receive grace by means of these sacraments.
Article 7 — Is it suitable for the Holy Spirit to be sent visibly?
Objections:
l. The Son, precisely insofar as he is sent visibly into the world, is said to be inferior to the Father. But nowhere do we read that the Holy Spirit is thus inferior to the Father. It is therefore not fitting for the Holy Spirit to be visibly sent.
2. There is a visible mission due to the assumption of a visible creature by a divine Person; such is the case of the mission of the Son in the flesh. But the Holy Spirit did not assume a visible creature. We cannot therefore say that it is present in certain visible creatures otherwise than in others, except as in a sign which manifests it; but it is the case of the sacraments, it is the case of all the figures of the ancient law. Let us therefore not speak of a visible mission of the Holy Spirit, otherwise we will have to say that it takes place in all the cases that we have just listed.
3. Every visible creature is an effect that manifests the entire Trinity. In the visible creatures mentioned, there is therefore no mission of the Holy Spirit rather than of another Person.
4 . The Son was sent visibly according to the most worthy of visible creatures, that is to say with human nature. Therefore, if the Holy Spirit is sent visibly, it must be with reasonable creatures.
5 . For S. Augustine, what is visibly accomplished by divine virtue is entrusted to the ministry of angels. Therefore if there was an appearance of visible forms, it was through the ministry of angels; so it is the angels who are sent, and not the Holy Spirit.
6. If there is a visible mission of the Holy Spirit, it is never other than to manifest his invisible mission, because invisible realities are manifested by visible things. Consequently, he who did not receive an invisible mission must also not have received a visible mission; and all those who, in one or the other Testament, received the invisible mission, must also have received the visible mission: which is obviously false. The hypothesis is therefore also; in other words, the Holy Spirit is not sent visibly.
On the contrary , we read in St. Matthew (3, 16) that the Holy Spirit descended on the Lord, when he received baptism, in the form of a dove.
Answer :
God provides for everything in the way that suits him. Now, it is the mode natural to man, to be led by the visible to the invisible; we said it above. So it was necessary to manifest to man, through visible things, the invisible mysteries of God. Just as God, through visible creatures presenting some revealing signs, has in some measure shown himself to men, himself and the eternal processions of his Persons, so it was fitting that in their turn the invisible missions of these divine Persons were manifested by some visible creatures. With a difference, moreover, depending on whether it is the Son or the Holy Spirit. Since the Holy Spirit proceeds like Love, it belongs to Him to be the gift of sanctification; the Son being the principle of the Holy Spirit, it belongs to him to be the author of this sanctification. The Son is therefore visibly sent as the author of sanctification, while the Holy Spirit is sent as the sign of sanctification.
Solutions:
l . The Son assumed in the unity of his person the visible creature in which he appeared, so that the attributes specific to this creature are attributable to the Son of God. It is thus, because of his assumed nature, that the Son is said to be inferior to the Father. But the Holy Spirit did not assume in the unity of his person the creature in which he appeared; what suits it is not attributed to him. We cannot therefore argue that the visible creature which manifests it is inferior to the Father.
2. We do not consider a visible mission of the Holy Spirit in the imaginary vision, in other words in the prophetic vision. According to S. Augustine, the prophetic vision is not offered to the eyes of the body in corporeal forms: it is presented to the mind under the spiritual images of corporeal realities. But the dove and the fire were seen by the eyes of the witnesses. Moreover, the Holy Spirit was not there simply as Christ was in the rock: “The rock,” says St. Paul (1 Cor 10:4), “was Christ.” This rock was already a creature, and it is its operation which enabled it to represent Christ and take his name. But dove and fire suddenly existed for the sole purpose of signifying these mysteries. We must, it seems, compare them to the flame which appeared to Moses in the bush, to the column which the people followed in the desert, to the lightning and thunder which accompanied the revelation of the law on the mountain. If the bodily form of all these things existed, it was to symbolize and predict something.” We therefore see that the visible mission is not verified either for the prophetic visions, which were imaginary and not corporeal; nor for the sacramental signs of the Old and New Testaments, where pre-existing things are used to symbolize a sacred reality. There is only question of a visible mission of the Holy Spirit when it has manifested itself by creatures formed expressly to signify it.
3 . It is indeed the entire Trinity which produced these visible creatures; but their production intended them to specially manifest this or that Person. As distinct names designate the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, so different things may have signified them, although there is no separation or diversity between the divine Persons.
4 . It was necessary, we said just now, to manifest the person of the Son as the author of sanctification by means of a reasonable creature, capable of action and sanctification. But to act as a sign of sanctification, any other creature was enough. Nor was it necessary that the visible creature, formed for this purpose, should be assumed by the Holy Spirit in the unity of his person; it was not taken to act, but only to notify. This is why it only had to last as long as it fulfilled its function.
5 . No doubt these visible creatures were formed by the ministry of angels, but to signify the person of the Holy Spirit and not that of the angel. And, since the Holy Spirit was in these visible creatures, as the signified reality is in the sign, it is said that there was there visible mission of the Holy Spirit, and not of the angel.
6. It is not necessary that the invisible mission always be manifested by an external visible sign: “The manifestation of the Spirit,” says St. Paul (1 Cor 12:7), “is given according to what utility requires.” from the church. It is a question, through these visible signs, of confirming and propagating the faith; Now this was mainly the work of Christ and the Apostles, as the Epistle to the Hebrews (2, 3) affirms: “First published by the Lord, salvation was attested to us by those who had heard him. this. ”There was therefore special need for a mission of the Holy Spirit to Christ, to the Apostles and to a certain number of the first saints, who were in some way the foundations of the Church. Let us note, however, that the visible mission given to Christ manifested an invisible mission accomplished not at this moment, but from the beginning of his conception.
The visible mission addressed to Christ, in his baptism, was carried out in the form of a dove, a very fertile animal; it was to show the privileged power of Christ as the source of grace through spiritual regeneration. Therefore the voice of the Father was heard, saying: “This is my beloved Son”; for the rest were to be regenerated into the likeness of the only-begotten Son. In the Transfiguration, the Holy Spirit was sent to him in the form of a luminous cloud, to show the fertility of his teaching; the voice added, in fact: “Listen to him.”
To the apostles it was sent in the form of a breath, to show their power as ministers in the dispensation of the sacraments; in fact it was said to them (Jn 20:23): “Whose sins you forgive, their sins will be forgiven. ” Also in the form of tongues of fire, to demonstrate their office as teachers: “They began, says Acts (2, 4), to speak in various tongues. ”
As for the Fathers of the Old Testament, they were not to receive a visible mission from the Holy Spirit. Indeed, the visible mission of Christ had to precede that of the Holy Spirit; for the Holy Spirit manifests the Son, as the Son manifests the Father. There were many visible appearances of divine Persons to the Fathers of the Old Testament; but we cannot speak in this regard of visible missions, because, according to St. Augustine, these apparitions did not occur to signify the habitation by grace of the divine Person, but to manifest something else.
Article 8 — Can a Person send Himself visibly or invisibly?
Objections:
1. S. Augustine affirms: “The Father is not sent by anyone, because he does not proceed from anyone. ” Therefore, if a divine Person is sent by another, he must proceed from it.
2. The one who sends has authority over the one sent. Now, with regard to a divine Person, it is of authority only by way of origin. It is therefore necessary that the Person sent comes from the one who sends.
3 . If the divine Person can be sent by the one from whom it does not proceed, nothing will prevent us from saying that the Holy Spirit is given by the man from whom it does not proceed. Now S. Augustine opposed this last thesis. It is therefore that the divine Person is only sent by that from whom it proceeds.
In the opposite sense , the Son is sent by the Holy Spirit, according to these words of Isaiah (48, 16): “Now the Lord God sends me. ” Now the Son does not proceed from the Holy Spirit. A divine Person is therefore sent by one from whom it does not proceed.
Answer:
On this question, various opinions are expressed. According to some, the divine Person is only sent by the one from whom it eternally proceeds. In this system, if we say that the Son of God is sent by the Holy Spirit we must relate it to his human nature according to which the Holy Spirit sends him to preach. But S. Augustine says that the Son sends himself and that he is sent by the Holy Spirit; and again that the Holy Spirit is sent by himself and by the Son. So that in God, if it does not belong to every Person to be sent, but only to a Person coming from another, on the other hand it belongs to every Person to send.
Both points of view each have their truth. When we say that a Person is sent, we mean the very Person who proceeds from another, and the visible or invisible effect by reason of which we envisage a mission of the divine Person. Therefore, if we consider the one who sends as the principle of the Person sent, from this point of view it is not any Person who sends, but only that one to whom it belongs to be principle of the Person sent ; the Son is thus only sent by the Father, while the Holy Spirit is sent by the Father and by the Son. But if the Person who sends is considered as the principle of the effect for which a mission is contemplated, then it is the whole Trinity which sends the Person on mission. It does not follow, moreover, that man gives the Holy Spirit, since he cannot cause the effect of grace.
Thus, the solution of the objections is self-evident.
THE PROCESSION OF CREATURES FROM GOD, FIRST CAUSE OF ALL BEINGS
Having considered the procession of the divine Persons, it remains to consider the procession of creatures from God. This study will consist of three parts: first the production of creatures (Q. 44-46); second, their distinction (Q.47-102); thirdly, their conservation and government (Q. 103-119).
On the production of things, we will consider: 1. What is the first cause of beings? (Q. 44) 2. How do creatures proceed from the first cause? (Q. 45) 3. What is the principle of their duration? (Q.46).