Breviloquium

After the treatise on the Incarnation of the Word, which is the origin and fountain of every gratuitous gift, something must be said about the grace of the Holy Spirit, which presents itself for consideration in four ways. First, insofar as it is a divinely given gift. — Second, in comparison with free will. — Third, in comparison with the habits of the virtues. — Fourth, in comparison with the exercises of merits.

Concerning grace, therefore, insofar as it is a divinely given gift, these things must be held: that it is a gift immediately given and infused by God. For together with it and in it the Holy Spirit is given, who is the uncreated, best, and perfect gift, which descends from the Father of lights¹ through the incarnate Word, according to John’s vision in the Apocalypse of a bright river, like crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. — It is nevertheless a gift by which the soul is perfected and made the spouse of Christ, the daughter of the eternal Father, and the temple of the Holy Spirit; and this happens in no way except through the gracious condescension and condescending graciousness of the eternal Majesty, through the gift of its grace². — Finally, it is a gift that purifies, illuminates, and perfects the soul; gives it life, reforms it, and stabilizes it; elevates it, makes it like God, and unites it to God, thereby making it acceptable; for this reason such a gift is rightly called—and had to be called—“grace that makes pleasing”³.

The reason for understanding the aforesaid is this: because, since the first productive principle, in its supreme benevolence, made the rational spirit capable of eternal blessedness⁴; and the reparative principle repaired that capacity, weakened through sin, unto salvation; and eternal blessedness consists in having the highest good; and this is God, a good surpassing beyond proportion all the dignity of human service: no one at all is worthy to reach that highest good, since it is altogether above every limit of nature, unless, with God condescending to him, he himself is raised above himself. But God does not condescend through his immutable essence, but through an influence flowing from him; nor is the spirit elevated above itself by local position, but by a deiform habit. It is necessary, therefore, for the rational spirit to become worthy of eternal blessedness⁵, that it become a participant in deiform influence. But this deiform influence, because it is from God, according to God, and for God, renders the image of our mind conformable to the most blessed Trinity not only according to the order of origin, but also according to the rectitude of election and the quietude of fruition. And since whoever has this is immediately led back to God, just as he is immediately conformed to him, that gift is therefore immediately given by God as by an influxive principle; so that, just as the image of God immediately emanates from God, so God’s likeness immediately remains from him, and this likeness is the deiform perfection of the divine image; therefore it is called the image of recreation⁶.

Again, since whoever enjoys God has God, therefore together with grace, which by its deiformity disposes one to the fruition of God, the uncreated gift, which is the Holy Spirit, is given; and whoever has him also has God⁷.

And since no one has God without being more specially had by him; no one has and is had by God without loving him chiefly and incomparably and being loved by him as a bride by her bridegroom; and no one is loved in this way without being adopted as a son for the eternal inheritance: hence it is that grace that makes pleasing makes the soul the temple of God, the spouse of Christ, and the daughter of the eternal Father. And because this can be only through the supreme gracious regard and condescension of God, it cannot be through some habit naturally implanted, but only through a gift freely infused by God; this is expressly apparent if one considers how great a thing it is to be the temple of God and the son of God, yet indissolubly and, as it were, matrimonially joined to God through the bond of love and grace⁸.

Finally, because our mind is not made conformable to the most blessed Trinity according to the rectitude of election except through the strength of virtue, the splendor of truth, and the fervor of charity, and because the strength of virtue purifies, stabilizes, and elevates the soul; the splendor of truth illuminates, reforms, and makes the soul like God; and the fervor of charity perfects, vivifies, and joins the soul to God—and from all these things man exists pleasing and acceptable to God—hence that deiform influence is said to have all ten aforesaid acts, yet in such a way that it is named from the last as from the most complete. — For it is called grace that makes pleasing because it makes the one who has it pleasing to God, since it is not only freely given by God, but is also according to God and for God; since its purpose is that through it the work flowing from God return to God, in which, after the manner of an intelligible circle, the fulfillment of all rational spirits consists⁹