Bonaventure
Medieval
c. A.D. 1221–1274
“For if you are a Cherub contemplating the essential attributes of God, and you wonder that the divine being is at once the first and the last, eternal and most present, most simple and greatest, that is, uncircumscribed, wholly everywhere and nowhere comprehended, most actual and never moved, most perfect and having nothing superfluous nor diminished, and yet immense and infinite without limit, supremely one, and yet all-inclusive, as having all things in itself, as all power, all truth, all good: look upon the mercy seat and wonder that in it the first beginning is joined with the last, God with man formed on the sixth day, the eternal is joined with temporal man, born of the Virgin in the fullness of time, the most simple with the supremely composite, the most actual with one who supremely suffered and died, the most perfect and immense with the small, the supremely one and all-inclusive with a composite individual distinct from all others, namely the man Jesus Christ. But if you are the other Cherub contemplating the proper attributes of the persons, and you wonder that communicability coexists with propriety, consubstantiality with plurality, configurability with personality, coequality with order, coeternity with production, cointimacy with sending forth, because the Son was sent by the Father, and the Holy Spirit by both, who nevertheless is always with them and never departs from them: look upon the mercy seat and wonder that in Christ there stands personal union with a trinity of substances and a duality of natures; there stands complete agreement with a plurality of wills; there stands the co-predication of God and man with a plurality of properties; there stands co-adoration with a plurality of nobilities; there stands co-exaltation above all things with a plurality of dignities; there stands co-dominion with a plurality of powers.”