Scotus Academicus, Tomus septimus: De Incarnatione Verbi Divini

The present difficulty is raised chiefly concerning the threefold circumstance of the time at which the Incarnation ought to have taken place, namely at the beginning, the middle, and the end of the world's duration: for since Adam fell at the world's outset, it seems to have been more fitting that relief be brought to his misery a little after he fell from the state of his felicity: for that medicine appears healthier and more opportune which is prepared and administered not after a long illness, but at its beginning. Since, however, divine Wisdom weighs all its acts and motions with a just and even balance, and disposes all things sweetly, the reasons must be investigated why it deferred so long, and so late, that wholesome and saving medicine being bestowed upon the human race.

Note 2. The time in which the Incarnation was accomplished is designated by various names in sacred Scripture. First it is called the last day. Thus Isaiah 2: It shall come to pass in the last days that the mountain of the Lord shall be prepared. Second, the fulness of time: thus to the Galatians 4: When the fulness of the time was come, God sent his Son. Third, it is called the midst of years, thus Habakkuk 3: Thy work, in the midst of the years thou shalt quicken it; in the midst of the years thou shalt make it known. It is called the midst of years not as though by that name the middle of the world's duration were signified — otherwise we could know at what time the day of judgment would be: which directly conflicts with that oracle of Christ: But of that day no man knoweth, etc. — but so that the time appointed by God might be declared: for it is familiar in Scripture to call that thing "in the midst" of something which lies within it. Thus Psalm 100: He that worketh pride shall not dwell in the midst of my house. Jeremiah 51: Flee out of the midst of Babylon. It is called the fulness of time, moreover, to signify either the time in which God willed to fulfil what he had promised and destined, or in which the figures were to be fulfilled, or especially that in which the fulness of grace was to be bestowed and made manifest. Finally it is called the last day: since this inestimable Mystery was accomplished in the last age of the world, through which the law of grace is to endure, nor is it to have any further age succeeding to itself: that this may be declared more fully and more fully

NOTE 3. The whole duration of the world is wont to be distributed through six ages, according to the notable variations and most celebrated events which befell in the world, but especially among the people of Judah. The first is reckoned from Adam as far as Noe, or the flood: the second from Noe as far as Abraham; the third from Abraham as far as David; the fourth from David as far as the Babylonian captivity: the fifth from the captivity as far as Christ: the sixth finally from Christ the Lord as far as the end of the world. On which account Christ the Lord is said to have come in the last days, because he came in the last age, and at the world's eventide. The first age lasted one thousand six hundred fifty-six years, as is clearly gathered from Genesis 5 and 7, according to the old Hebrew edition and the new. The second seems to have lasted 322 years, for although from Genesis 11 only 292 years are gathered, nevertheless since there the generation of Cainan was passed over, which the Seventy Interpreters added, and also S. Luke chapter 3, therefore at least thirty years must be added to that number, by which Cainan lived before he begat sons. The third seems to have lasted 941 years: for from the birth of Abraham down to the promise made to him there flowed 75 years, Genesis 12; but from that promise down to the end of the people's captivity in Egypt, or down to the giving of the law, which happened three months after that exodus, there flowed 430; but from the giving of the law down to the beginning of the kingdom of David there were 436, as is evidently taken from book 3 of Kings chapter 6; which 436 added above five hundred make the said number 941, through which this third age seems to have lasted. The fourth age, moreover, in which the kingdom of the Jews endured, from the beginning of David's reign down to the captivity

Babylonian, was completed in 170 years, as is to be gathered from book 3 of Kings chapter 2 verse 11 and chapter 22, and book 1 from chapter 5. The fifth age is of all the most difficult as regards its duration; for sacred Historians and Chronologists are torn into various opinions on this matter. For Genebrard, book 2 of the Chronologia, assigns to this age 501 years. Bede, however, in the book De sex aetatibus, numbers 560. Driedo, book 3 De Dogmatibus, chapter 5, computes 596. Eusebius, in the Chronica, wills it to be 785. Certain others, with Suarez in 3 part. q. 1 disp. 6 sect. 1, assign six hundred years to this age; from which he gathers that the Incarnation took place about the fourth thousandth year from the creation of the world: whether that opinion be the truer is not the business of this place to resolve, but only to open up the reasons which can persuade that it was accomplished at a fitting time.

Single Conclusion. — It was fitting that the incarnation of Christ the Lord neither be sought from the beginning of the world, nor deferred to its end, but be wrought as it were about the middle of the ages. This Conclusion consists of three parts, of which

The first S. Bonaventure thus proves in 3 dist. 1 q. 1, and that by a fourfold reason: the first indeed is sought from the side of divine justice. For in this, he says,

the severity of divine vengeance is made manifest, in that for so long a time it endured so many cries and so many lamentations of men, whereby they besought the Saviour, and did not hear them sooner: and that there might appear to Adam himself exiling in tears, and to all his posterity, how great was the gravity of his offence, and with how bitter a vengeance God chastised him.

The second is sought from the curing of the disease; for man ought first to know his own impotence to provide for himself the necessary remedy, before he received it divinely, that thus convicted of his infirmity he might take refuge in divine grace, and thus taking refuge might be cured. The third it repeats from the order of the universe: for because, he says, this was the plenary and greatest benefaction, it ought to be deferred even to the fulness of days. The fourth reason was on account of commending the benefit of the Incarnation; which, since it is the most precious among the benefits of God, ought first to be desired and expected, than exhibited. Therefore it was fitting, for the commendation of so excellent a mystery, that most many ages precede its execution: that namely through the course of so many centuries Christ the Saviour should be sought by the Patriarchs, foretold by the Prophets, prefigured by the shadows of the Mosaic law, and be desired by all nations: for, as S. Aug. says, tract. 31 on John, The greater the judge who was coming, the longer the series of heralds that ought to precede him. — S. Thomas adds, q. 1 art. 5, that it was not fitting for the Word to become incarnate immediately after sin was committed: First on account of the condition of sin, which drew its origin from pride; for man had to be humbled before he was delivered; wherefore the Lord left him first in the liberty of free choice under the natural law, and under the written law, that thus by his own nature he might acknowledge his infirmity; which known, he might cry out to the physician, and seek the help of grace. Second, that befitted it on account of the order of promotion into good, for man ought to be promoted from the animal state to the spiritual state, according to that of 1 Corinthians 15: Not first that which is spiritual, but that which is animal; afterwards that which is spiritual. The first man of earth earthy: the second man from heaven heavenly. Third, on account of the dignity of the Word becoming incarnate: for, as Tertullian says, book 3 against Marcion, chapter 2: So great a work was preparing for man's salvation, inasmuch as it was about to be believed, that it might profit, in so much did it desire to be prepared, that it might be able to be believed, laid beneath the foundations of disposition and preaching, by which order faith being informed, it was deservedly both enjoined upon man by God, and God exhibited in man.

The second part also holds: both because, whereas Christ came to merit grace and glory for us, and glory ought to be bestowed chiefly at the end of the world, it seems fitting that he come first bestowing grace, before glory: and because if he had deferred the advent of his Word into the world even to the end of the world, while the sins of men grew strong day by day, the knowledge and reverence of God, and the honesty of morals, would have been utterly spent upon the earth: wherefore as he delegated Abraham, that he might restore the knowledge of God among men, among whom it had already begun to be extinguished: as afterwards he delegated Noe, that he might restore the worship and reverence due to himself, which had well nigh been spent: so also it was congruous that when he saw the Jews and the gentiles to have shaken off all fear and law of God, he should delegate his Son to the lands, that he might reform the morals of men: and finally, that through the more abundant largition of grace very many might be saved.

From these, therefore, the third part is gathered, namely that the Incarnation took place at a fitting time, around the fullness and middle of time; so that just as the Sun, placed in the midst of the planets, illumines those above and those below it: so Christ, that true sun of justice, coming in the midst of the ages and manifesting himself to the world, would enlighten and illume the ages that went before through faith and hope in his future advent, and would sanctify and consecrate those that followed through evangelical doctrine and the Sacraments.

You will say 1. To one who is sick, laboring perilously and at the point of death, aid must be brought as soon as possible, and more effective remedies prepared: but as soon as man fell into mortal sin, he labored under a most dangerous disease: therefore it was fitting that God should come to his aid through the Incarnation, which is the remedy and most efficacious means of removing the sickness of sin. —

I distinguish the major: if it be thus expedient for curing the sickness, I concede; otherwise, I deny. Now it was not expedient for healing man's infirmity that he should cure him by the Incarnation as soon as he fell into sin: lest he either despise that remedy out of pride, or consider it owed to him: he ought therefore first to acknowledge his own infirmity, poverty, and weakness, and thus more effectually implore the charity of the physician.

You will say 2. From 1 Timothy 1: Christ came into this world to save sinners: but more would have been saved if from the very beginning of the world they had been enlightened by his doctrine, grace, and examples: therefore, etc. —

The Seraphic Doctor answers, that divine wisdom, and the chief order of providence, require that the common good be preferred to the private good, and the perfection of the whole universe to the perfection of any single person: and therefore it pleased the Creator of the universe to reserve the benefit of the Incarnation for the last age, that he might show forth in some the benignity of mercy, preserve in others the severity of justice, yet pour out his grace upon all more abundantly. Where sin abounded, grace did more abound. Whence it is that he furnished sufficient means to men in every age of the world, whereby, if they wished, they could merit their salvation.

You will say 3. And that against the second part: things done through many are done in vain which can be accomplished through fewer: but men could have been saved through the last advent of Christ the Lord: therefore the prior advent was superfluous for the salvation of men. —

I distinguish the major: if they be thus opportunely done, I concede; otherwise, I deny. To the minor I say, that although indeed men could have been saved through a single advent of Christ, had God so ordained that whoever placed in him their faith, hope, and love would straightway have been predestined, even as the holy Angels were predestined because of the obedience rendered to God by man in a single moment of time, as St. Bernard holds; nevertheless it was more fitting that men, who are subject to time and succeed one another in their operations, should have various advents of Christ, inasmuch as through them they might advance themselves more diligently and more excellently toward the later one. Hence the same St. Bernard, in Sermon 3 De Adventu, says:

We know a threefold advent of Christ: to men, in men, against men: to men indeed indifferently, not so in men or against men. The first was through the Incarnation: the second takes place through the infusion of sanctifying grace: the third will be through the last appearing of Christ in his majesty. The first in the humility of the flesh: the second in the consecration of the mind: the third in the retribution of the reward. The first was unto the good and the evil, that they might become just: the second only unto the just, that they might persevere in holiness: the third unto the elect and the reprobate, that unchangeably they may pay the penalty, or be illustrious with crowns.

Now it was more fitting that the two prior advents go before, in order that by a just ordination the third might follow.