Scotus Academicus, Tomus septimus: De Incarnatione Verbi Divini

WHETHER GRATUITOUSLY GIVEN GRACES WERE IN CHRIST.

NOTE 1. That by the name of gratuitously given grace the Theologians understand nothing else than some supernatural gift, principally instituted for the salvation and spiritual utility of others: or, as St Thomas says, 2 qu. 3, art. 1, ordered to this, that man cooperate with another so that he be brought back to God; but man cannot cooperate with that interiorly, since to move and govern the heart of man belongs to God alone; but only exteriorly, either by teaching or by persuading. And therefore the Apostle numbers nine gratuitously given graces, 1 Cor. 12, saying: To one indeed by the Spirit is given the word of wisdom: and to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit: to another faith in the same spirit: to another the grace of healings: to another the working of miracles: to another prophecy: to another the discerning of spirits: to another kinds of tongues: to another interpretation of speeches.

The reason of this division St Thomas brings forward; in order that a man may instruct another in divine things, three things are necessary: first, that he have plenitude of the knowledge of divine things, that from this he may be able to instruct others. Second, that he may be able to confirm and prove those things which he says, otherwise his doctrine would not be efficacious. Third, that he may be able fittingly to set forth what he conceives to his hearers. For the first it is necessary that the principles of that science which he ought to teach be most certain to him, and this the grace of faith freely given supplies: that he be rightly disposed concerning the principal conclusions, and this wisdom supplies; and that he abound with examples and knowledge of effects through which sometimes causes must be manifested, and that is supplied through knowledge. For the second it is required that he be confirmed either by works, which God alone can do, and for this two things are necessary: the first is the grace of healings, because in confirmation of the truth announced health is restored to the sick; the second is the working of miracles, whereby he works stupendous things e.g. dividing the sea, stopping the sun; or by the manifestation of those things which are known to God alone; and these are of two kinds, future contingents, and hidden things of hearts. For the first Prophecy is given. For the second discernment of spirits. Finally for the third, which is to set forth to hearers what he has conceived, two things are required: namely kinds of tongues, and interpretation of speeches: because this faculty of setting forth conceptions can be regarded only as to two things, or as to the idiom in which someone can be understood, to which the kinds of tongues avail; or as to the sense of those things which are to be set forth, to which the interpretation of speeches is ordered.

NOTE 2. That gratuitously given graces differ chiefly from grace gratum faciens, or justifying, in that grace gratum faciens is granted for the proper utility of the recipient, but grace freely given for the utility of the whole Church, or of another person to be ordered to God. Moreover grace gratum faciens is found in all and only the just; for it is the formal reason by which someone is formally constituted just; but grace freely given is found neither in all nor only in the just. Not indeed in all, because it is not necessary that all be adorned with such graces, since it does not belong to all to direct and order others to God. Nor even only in the just, because grace freely given is not incompossible with sin; since very many even most grievous sinners, as Caiphas and Balaam, were illumined with the gift of Prophecy; hence St Paul, 1 Cor. 13, teaches that Prophecy can be had without charity, which is inseparable from grace gratum faciens. Thirdly, finally, it differs chiefly in this, that grace gratum faciens is a habit permanent in the will: but grace freely given is not a habit, nor is it possessed permanently, but only by way of passing; which is most evident from this, because, as Aristotle says, we use habits when we will: but, as the Theologians teach, the Prophets e.g. did not use the gift of Prophecy whenever they willed, but only when God held it pleasing.

NOTE 3. That faith, which is numbered among gratuitously given graces, can be taken: first, insofar as it says the same as fidelity, and thus regards moral virtues. Second, insofar as it is taken for confidence, and thus is reduced to hope whether natural or supernatural. Third, insofar as it is credulity, or assent to things revealed and obscurely proposed; and this, if it rest on human testimony, must be reduced to human faith; if truly on divine, it is itself the theological and supernatural virtue. Fourth, finally, it is taken for a certain sure trust, or confidence, whereof Mark 11 speaks of faith: Have the faith of God: amen I say to you, that whosoever shall command this mountain to remove and cast into the sea, and shall not stagger in his heart, but believe, that whatsoever he saith shall be done, it shall be done unto him. But faith accepted in this last mode is called grace freely given.

Single conclusion. — IN TRUTH CHRIST OUR LORD HAD ALL GRATUITOUSLY GIVEN GRACES. This is common among Theologians, except Abulensis, who on chapter eleven of the book of Numbers qu. 61 denies that prophecy properly taken was in Christ.

The conclusion is proved: first, by the authority of St Augustine, epistle 57, which is to Dardanus, where he says thus: As all the senses are in the head, so all graces are in Christ. Which truth St Cyril also gathers, book 2 on John, chapter 20, from these words: Of his plenitude we all have received; and likewise from that to Ephesians 4, To every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the giving of Christ. From which places one may thus reason: in whomsoever there is the plenitude of all grace, and from whom all and any grace overflows into others, he ought to have each single grace that de facto are granted to some; otherwise he would not have the plenitude of the whole of grace, and grace would have been given him by measure: but Christ had every plenitude of grace, and from his plenitude are derived not only graces gratum facientes, but also gratuitously given graces, into men who are illumined by them: therefore he ought equally to have them.

It is proved secondly: Christ was given to us by God that he might be our leader, Lawgiver, Master, and Doctor of faith: therefore he ought to have all that which most conduces to exercising the office of Lawgiver and Doctor most perfectly: but gratuitously given graces contribute most to that, therefore he ought to have them: The antecedent is proved from Isaiah 55 and Joel 2, where of the Messiah it is said: Be glad and rejoice in the Lord our God, because he hath given you a teacher of justice. And John 13, Christ our Lord professes himself Doctor, when speaking to the disciples he says: You call me, Master, and Lord; and you say well, for so I am. But the subsumption appears from the first Notable; for from it it is evident that each gratuitously given grace contributes most perfectly to executing the office of Doctor of justice and eternal beatitude.

It is proved third: Examining each species of those graces one by one: First indeed of faith this stands, for it is taken either as signifying a singular and excellent knowledge of the things of faith with certitude, or facility and readiness for setting forth matters accommodated to faith, or finally fervor of faith and special confidence in obtaining and working miracles: but in whatever way that faith be taken, it was most perfectly in Christ; for He had the most excellent knowledge of all the mysteries of faith, and supreme facility in revealing and explaining them. Hence He said Matthew 11: No one knoweth the Father but the Son, and he to whom it shall please the Son to reveal Him; and He said to the Apostles John 15: All things whatsoever I have heard of my Father I have made known to you. Similarly He had supreme confidence in God for obtaining and working miracles from Him: hence John 11 He said, when about to raise Lazarus: I give thanks to thee, because thou hast heard me; and I knew that thou hearest me always. — Of Wisdom likewise the knowledge of the mysteries of faith, by which we draw down the deepest causes and easily explain them to others. That it was in Christ is clear from Luke 2, because He sat in the midst of the Doctors, where our reading has, They were astonished at His prudence, the Greek has "at His intelligence"; by which He most acutely and easily explained to them the profound mysteries of faith and sacred Scripture. Likewise from Matt. 22, where against the Sadducees He most wisely showed the future resurrection, and His divinity against the Pharisees. — The same stands of Knowledge, which is nothing else than knowledge of created things, as e.g. of virtues and vices, and skill in curing ⟦final line of leaf garbled in OCR: "Curicendi cotenl usi nas ex e unmtai, rebuex elenit alie sctepoie tat" — unreadable, left flagged; sentence continues on next leaf⟧ infused, than beatific, which He had, as we shall say in the following part: both from the fact that He taught that obedience was owed to Magistrates, Parents to be honored, and other precepts pertaining to moral philosophy, adding also similitudes drawn from natural things, as appears from His countless parables. — Of the grace of healings and the grace of virtues, it is proved similarly, because they are nothing else than the gift by which health is restored to the sick, and a miraculous work, that is unusual and exceeding the order of nature, is exercised: but that Christ healed the sick and worked miracles is clearer than that it needs proof. — Of interpretation of speech it is proved, because it is nothing else than skill in explaining obscure and hidden senses of sacred Scripture, even in a foreign idiom: but that Christ accomplished this stands especially from all those testimonies by which He proves against the Pharisees His divinity, eternity, and consubstantiality with the Father, especially from that when David calls Him Lord saying: The Lord said to my Lord, etc. For He uttered these words in Hebrew and interpreted them most profoundly of Himself, to whom the divine Father was to say at the Ascension: Sit at my right hand. — Hence it also appears He had the gift of tongues, both because by force of infused science and beatific science He had knowledge of all the things which He saw in the Word: and because He had also the power of using them when He willed, because for this there was in Him the readiest faculty and the most perfect organ: then He was universal Doctor, and it belonged to Him to teach every man concerning his own salvation; on which account it was fitting that He speak in the tongues of all. Therefore although it be not expressly read that He spoke in various tongues; nevertheless it is derived sufficiently evidently from many testimonies of the New Testament; for it stands first that He spoke Hebrew on the cross, when He said, eloi, eloi, lama sabacthani; that He spoke Punic, as to the Chanaanean woman, and Latin to the Romans, with whom He conversed in Jerusalem. — Of discernment of spirits it is clear, because it is nothing else than that cognition by which it is judged and penetrated by what spirit someone is impelled to say or do something; that it was in Christ stands from Matt. 22, where He indicated that the Pharisees proposed to Him a question about paying tribute to Caesar, that they might catch Him in speech, and that the complaint of Judas over the effusion of the ointment was from avarice and an inclination to robbery. — Finally it is proved of the prophetic gift, because Deut. 18 Christ is predicted and expressed under the name of Prophet; A Prophet, says Moses, will the Lord raise up out of the midst of thy brethren: which passage St. Peter expounds of Christ, chapter 3, and St. Ambrose sermon 8 on Ps. 18, around that text, I am a partaker; Christ, he says, has partakers, He has partakers of flesh, and He has Prophets, because the Lord, he says, will raise up to you a Prophet, etc. And below: He Himself is the true Prophet, who without the gift of another knows things to come.

Finally it is proved by reason: To be a Prophet is nothing else than to understand by supernatural cognition those things which are distant from the ordinary cognition of wayfarers, and to announce them to men: but Christ by supernatural cognition understood many such things and announced them to men, as the future destruction of Jerusalem, that He would rise again the third day, and many others, as appears from the Gospel: therefore Christ truly was a Prophet.

Abulensis objects against this last gift of graces: first,

that John the Baptist was more than a Prophet: therefore much more Christ, and consequently He did not have the gift of Prophecy, but something else far more excellent. Second, of the nature of Prophecy it is that the revealed thing should not be known to the Prophet except only under veils and in an enigma: but in Christ nothing was obscure, nothing abstruse to and impenetrable by His divine cognition. Third, nothing that was to be evacuated existed in Christ, because evacuation implies imperfection: but according to the Apostle 1 Cor. 13, Prophecies shall be made void: therefore the gift of Prophecy did not exist in Christ. Finally, if Christ had been a Prophet, especially either as God or as man: but not as God, as is known per se: nor even as man: because as such He was blessed: but the blessed are not Prophets: therefore, etc.

I answer to the first, St. John the Baptist is called more than a Prophet, not by way of exclusion, but of preeminence: so that with a more excellent gift of Prophecy than the other Prophets he was illumined. Hence his father St. Zachary prophesies of him: Thou child shalt be called the Prophet of the Highest. Whence that particle, more than a Prophet, is not exclusive of the gift of Prophecy, but significative of a certain prerogative of St. John the Baptist himself above the other Prophets, which consisted chiefly in this, that not like the other Prophets did he announce Christ obscurely and afar off, but openly he knew Him and made Him manifest, pointing Him out with his finger.

To the second I say, that although revealed things were mostly not open to the Prophets, but hidden, this happened by accident to the gift of Prophecy, to which it precisely pertains to perceive and announce those things which exceed man's natural capacity and knowledge, whether they be past, present, or future: but this the Lord Christ had most perfectly, as appears from all those things which He announced as future. To the third I say, that Prophecy would be made void by reason, namely of obscurity, which it ordinarily involves, because it is incompatible with beatific vision: but in Christ Prophecy involved no obscurity; whence there was no reason why it should be evacuated in Him. Or I say the Apostle signifies Prophecy to be made void, just as there he says knowledge is to be destroyed, not as to habit, but as to the effect of instructing others, because namely in the other life none will remain to be taught. To the fourth finally I answer, that Christ was a Prophet as man. Nor does it matter that He was blessed, because He was at once Wayfarer and Comprehensor; whence He could claim for Himself the excellencies of both states. Nor does it avail to infer thence that Christ was a Prophet only extrinsically and by reason merely of state: for that I will deny, because although that cognition be Prophetical extrinsically by reason of state; yet Christ intrinsically was a Prophet by reason of the aforesaid cognition inhering intrinsically.

But here observe, that although in the other Prophets Prophecy is after the manner of an act quickly passing away, yet it was in Christ after the manner of a habit continually persevering, whereby He knew most perfectly all things past, present, and future, as St. Jerome signifies, Epistle 125 to Damasus On three questions of sacred Scripture, in the third question, because He Himself was the habit of infused science, and Himself the habit of the light of glory, through which He knew all things clearly. The same judgment must be borne of the other graces, wisdom, knowledge, faith, discernment of spirits; but not of the grace of miracles and healings, and of the gift of tongues.