Arg. 1 1. If the personality of the divine and human nature in Christ is the same, divine personality must be part of the notion of the Man who is Christ. But it is not part of the notion of other men. Therefore the applica- tion of the common term 'man* to Christ and to other men is an instance of the use of the same term not in the same sense; and thus He will not be of the same species with us.
Reply 1 1. Variation of the sense of a term comes from diversity of form connoted, not from diversity of person denoted. The term * man ' does not vary in sense by denoting sometimes Plato, sometimes Socrates. J The term 4 man ' then, whether used of Christ or of other men, always connotes the same form, that is, human nature, and is predicated of them all in the same sense. But the denotation varies in this that, as taken for Christ, the term denotes an uncreated person; but as taken for other men, a created person.
# May we then argue that a little State will be t Supponitur: see the chapter on suppositw in the the better for being annexed by a large empire? Very Latin logic boob.
often it will. But the goodness of States does not J I use 'connote' and 'denote' here as those vary simply with their size: the little State may be terms are defined in Mill's Logic. For ' connote ' St the better of the two. Justice also has to be con- Thomas has significare, and for ' denote ' suppontre pro. sidered, which does not permit us to do to our neighbours, against their will, everything that we take to be for their good.
CHAPTER XIAV-That the Human Nature, assumed by the Word, was perfeEi in Soul and Body in the instant of Conception THE Word of God took a body through the medium of a rational soul: for the body of man is not more assumable by God than other bodies except for the rational soul.* The Word of God then did not assume a body without a rational soul. Since then the Word of God assumed a body from the first instant of conception, in that very instant the rational soul must have been united with the body.
4. The body which the Word assumed was formed from the first instant of conception, because it would have been against the fitness of things for the Word of God to have assumed anything that was formless. Moreover the soul, like any other natural form, requires its proper matter. Now the proper matter of the soul is an organised body: for " the soul is the a&uali- sation of an organic, natural body, that is in potentiality to life."f If then the soul was united with the body from the first instant of conception, the body must needs have been organised and formed from the first instant of conception. Moreover in the order of the stages of generation the organisa- tion of the body precedes the introdu&ion of the rational soul: hence, posit- ing the latter, we must posit the former stage also. But increase in quantity up to the due measure may very well be subsequent to the animation of the body. Thus then, concerning the conception of the Man assumed, we must think that in the very instant of coftception His body was organised and formed, but had not as yet its due quantity. J * St Gregory Nazianzen in his poem Against His Body was complete from the first, a fit receptacle ApolTmaris, 50 sq., asks how two things so far apart as Deity and humanity could be united, and replies: Tis mystery, I but conjecture make.
Divinity with flesh unmeet to blend: But thinking Soul, as 'twere a frontier power, Image of God, in body domiciled, Is apt to mediate between the twain.
The Godhead then conjoined itself with Soul, And so assumed dimensions of a man.
t Aristotle, De anima, I, ii. t The links of St Thomas's argument are these: (a) The Word was made flesh the very instant that His Humanity was conceived, the very instant that Mary spoke the word: Be it done to me according to thy word.
(S) The Word would not take flesh otherwise than by assuming a body there and then animated with a rational soul.
(r) A rational soul cannot inform a body not yet developed to human shape. In the ordinary course of human embryonic development, the embryo at conception, being incapable even of a sentient, still more of a rational soul, is animated with a vegetative soul, which after some days gives place to a sentient soul, and that after more days are expired, and the foetus is come to human shape, is finally replaced by a rational soul: all which process is drawn out at length in B. II, Chapp. LXXXVIII, LXXXIX.
(d) This ordinary process of nature had to be set aside in the formation of Mary's miraculous Child.
for a rational soul. His Body consequently did not develop, it simply grew.
Now the link (c) of this chain is broken by modern Catholic theologians. They see no difficulty in a rational soul informing a body not yet developed to human shape. They hold that the rational soul is always infused in the very instant of conception. Thereupon they conclude that the way of formation of Christ's body, after conception, in no way differed from that of other human bodies, nihil different Juisse a rebquis fcetibus humanis (Pesch, Pr*le8iones Dogma- Scripture is silent on the subject; modern biology would be amazed at such a mode of growth as St Thomas and Suarez after him suppose; and miracles, as Suarez himself here owns, are not to be multiplied without necessity or high congruity (Suarez, De mys- tiriis Christi, disp. 1 1, seel. 2, nn. 2, 4).
This discussion has an extrinsic interest as illus- trating two several views of another mighty develop- ment, that of Church government and doctrine. The development of the Bridegroom may well be the pattern of that of the Bride.
Accepting St Thomas's supposition of the three successive souls, as a supposition not yet quite ex- ploded, there is still some doubt as to his conclusion, in point of link (b). The Word remained united with the dead Body of Christ, from whence all soul was departed: might it not then unite itself with a living Body into which in due course of nature a rational soul was soon to come?
CHAPTER XLV-That Christ was born of a Virgin without prejudice to His true and natural Humanity GOD'S power being infinite, and all other causes deriving their efficacy from that, any effedt produced by any cause may be produced by God without aid of that cause, and yet be of the same species and nature as though it had been produced in the ordinary way. As then the natural power of the human semen produces a true man, having the species and nature of a man, so the divine power, which has given that power to the semen, may produce the effect of that power, without calling the cause into a&ivity, and so constitute a true man, having the species and nature of a man. Nor is anything lost to the dignity of the Mother of Christ by the virgin conception and birth: there is nothing in that to prevent her being called the Mother of the Son of God: for by the working of divine power she supplied the matter physically requisite for the generation of the body of Christ: which is all that a mother need do.
CHAPTERS XLVI, XLVII-That Christ was conceived by the Holy Ghost THOUGH every divine activity, whereby anything is done in crea- tures, is common to the entire Trinity, nevertheless the formation of the body of Christ is appropriately attributed to the Holy Ghost: for in Scripture every grace is wont to be attributed to the Holy Ghost, since what is given gratuitously is reckoned to be bestowed out of the love of the giver;* and there is no greater grace bestowed on man than his coming to be united with God in union of person.f Still the Holy Ghost cannot be called the father of Christ in His human generation; because the Holy Ghost did not produce the human nature of Christ out of His own sub- stance, but merely by an exertion of His power.
CHAPTER lAV-Ofthe Incarnation as part of the Fitness of Things BY the fa<5t of God having willed to unite human nature to Himself in unity of person, it is plainly shown to men that man can be intel- ledtually united with God and see Him with an immediate vision. It was therefore very fitting for God to assume human nature, thereby to lift up man's hope to happiness. Hence since the Incarnation men have begun to aspire more after happiness, as Christ Himself says: I have come that they may have life and hafte it more abundantly (John x, 10).
2. Although in certain respefts man is inferior to some other creatures, and in some respe&s is likened to the very lowest, yet in respedt of the end for which he is created nothing is higher than man but God alone: for in God alone does the perfedt happiness of man consist. This dignity of man, requiring to find happiness in the immediate vision of God, is most aptly shown by God's immediate assumption of human nature. The Incarnation # And the Holy Ghost is the Spirit of love. But Ghost; and the conception of the Word is the especially every miraculous grace is put down in greatest of miracles.
Holy Scripture as a special charisma of the Holy t Commonly called 4 the hypostatic union.'
has borne this fruit, visible to all eyes, that a considerable portion of man- kind has abandoned the worship of creatures, trampled under foot the pleasures of the flesh, and devoted itself to the worship of God alone, in whom alone it expefts the perfedt making of its happiness, according to the admonition of the Apostle: Seek the things that are above (Col. iii, i).
3. Since the perfect happiness of man lies in a knowledge of God beyond the natural capacity of any created intelligence (B. Ill, Chap. LII), there was wanted for man in this life a sort of foretaste of this knowledge to guide him to the fulness of it; and that foretaste is by faith (B. Ill, Chapp. XL, CLIII). But this knowledge of faith, whereby a man is guided to his last end, ought to be of the highest certitude: to which perfedt certitude man needed to be instructed by God Himself made man. So it is said: No man hath seen God ever: the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath told us (John i, 18): For this I was born, and for this I came into the world to give testimony to the truth (John xviii, 37). Thus we see that since the Incarnation of Christ men have been instructed more evidently and surely in the knowledge of God, according to the text: 'I he earth is filled with the knowledge of the Lord (Isai. xi, 9).
4. Since the perfedt happiness of man consists in the enjoyment of God, it was requisite for man's heart to be disposed to desire this enjoyment. But the desire of enjoying anything springs from the love of it. Therefore it was requisite for man, making his way to perfect happiness, to be induced to love God. Now nothing induces us to love any one so much as the experi- ence of his love for us. Nor could God's love for man have been more effectually demonstrated to man than by God's willing to be united with man in unity of person: for this is just the property of love, to unite the lover with the loved.
5. Friendship resting on a certain equality, persons very unequal cannot be conjoined in friendship. To promote familiar friendship then between man and God, it was expedient that God should become man, "that while we know God in visible form, we may thereby be borne on to the love of His invisible perfections " (Mass of Christmas Day).
6. For the strengthening of man in virtue it was requisite that he should receive doCtrine and examples of virtue from God made man, since of mere men even the holiest are found at fault sometimes. / have given you an example, that as I have done so ye also do (John xiii, 1 5).
8. The tradition of the Church teaches us that the whole human race has been infeCted by sin. And it is part of the order of divine justice that sin should not be forgiven without satisfaction. But no mere man was able to satisfy for the sin of all mankind, since every mere man is something less than the whole multitude of mankind. For the deliverance then of mankind from their common sin, it was requisite for one to make satisfaction, who was at once man, so that satisfaction should be cxpeCted of him, and some- thing above man, so that his merit should be sufficient to satisfy for the sin of the whole human race. Now in the order of happiness there is nothing greater than man but God alone: for though the angels are higher in con- dition of nature, they arc not higher in respeCt to their final end, because they are made happy with the same happiness as man.* It was needful • Man in his final state is to be as blissful and (Luke xx, 36). — The « need ' of the Incarnation, glorious as an angel. There is equality between spoken of throughout this chapter, is a necessity of angels and saints in heaven, urayyeXtn y&p ctcrt consequence only. The Incarnation was a boon to therefore for man's attainment of happiness that God should become man, to take away the sin of the world (John i, 29: Rom. iv, 25: v, 18: Heb.
CHAPTER IN-Points of Reply to Difficulties touching the Economy of the Incarnation E must bear in mind that, so immovable is the divine goodness in its perfection, that nothing is lost to God, however near any creature is raised to Him: the gain is to the creature.
3. Man being a compound of a spiritual and a corporeal nature, and thereby, we may say, occupying the borderland of two natures, all creation seems to be interested in whatever is done for man's salvation. Lower cor- poreal creatures make for his use, and are in some sort of subjedlion to him: while the higher spiritual creation, the angelic, has in common with man its attainment of the last end. This argues a certain appropriateness in the universal Cause of all creatures taking to Himself in unity of person that creature whereby He is more readily in touch with all the rest of creation.
4. Sin in man admits of expiation, because man's choice is not immova- bly fixed on its obje6t, but may be perverted from good to evil, and from evil brought back to good; and the like is the case of man's reason, which, gathering the truth from sensible appearances and signs, can find its way to either side of a conclusion. But an angel has a fixed discernment of things through simple intuition; and as he is fixed in his apprehension, so is he fixed also in his choice. Hence he either does not take to evil at all; or if he does take to evil, he takes to it irrevocably, and his sin admits of no expiation. Since then the expiation of sin was the chief cause of the Incarna- tion, it was more fitting for human nature than for angelic nature to be assumed by God.
7. Though all created good is a small thing, compared with the divine goodness, still there can be nothing greater in creation than the salvation of the rational creature, which consists in the enjoyment of that divine good- ness. And since the salvation of man has followed from the Incarnation of God, it cannot be said that that Incarnation has brought only slight profit to the world. Nor need all men be saved by the Incarnation, but they only who by faith and the sacraments of faith adhere to the Incarnation.
8. -The Incarnation was manifested to man by sufficient evidences. There is no more fitting way of manifesting Godhead than by the performance of adts proper to God. Now it is proper to God to be able to change the course of nature {natura leges), by doing something above that nature of which Himself is the author. Works over-riding the ordinary course of nature {opera qua supra leges natura Jiunt) are the aptest evidences of divine being. Such works Christ did; and by these works He argued His Divinity. When asked, Art thou he that is to come? He replied, The blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead rise again (Luke vii, 22).* And if it be said man; and 'needful' as the central part of a divine much more God. The forces of physical nature, dispensation, which however in itself was not an were they endowed with consciousness, would re- absolute necessity (Cf. B. II, Chap. XXVIII). gard all man's manipulation of nature as miraculous: • Miracles show that physical nature, the cosmos a house would be a mjracle to them or a railway, of necessary cause and effect, is not everything; that Geology does not build railways, nor gravitation some cause of another order has stept in to alter the cathedrals. There Mind and Will has come in. God, effect from what it would have been, had physical too, has Mind and Will and Power, beyond that of causes alone operated. Such a cause is man himself man; and a miracle shows it. A miracle does not that the same miracles have been wrought by others, we must observe that Christ worked them in a very different and more divine way. Others are said to have wrought miracles by prayer, but Christ wrought them by command, as of His own power. And He not only wrought them Himself, but He gave to others the power of working the same and even greater miracles; and they worked them at the mere invocation of the name of Christ. And not only corporal miracles, but spiritual miracles, were wrought through Christ and at the invocation of His name: the Holy Ghost was given, hearts were set on fire with divine love, minds were suddenly instrudted in the knowledge of divine things, and the tongues of the simple were rendered eloquent to propose the divine truth to men (Heb. ii, 3, 4).
9. Human nature is so conditioned as not to be apt to be led to perfec- tion at once; but it must be led by the hand through stages of imperfedtion, so to arrive at perfedtion at last, as we see in the training of children. If great and unheard-of truths were proposed to a multitude, they would not grasp them immediately: their only chance is to become accustomed to such truths by mastering lesser truths first. Thus it was fitting for the human race to receive their first instrudtion in the things of salvation by light and rudi- mentary lessons (levia et minora documented), delivered by the patriarchs, the law7 and the prophets; and that finally in the consummation of ages the per- fedt dodtrine of Christ should be set forth on earth. When the fulness of time was come, God sent bis Son (Gal. iv, 4). The law was our pedagogue unto Christ, but noVr we are no longer under a padagogue (Gal. iii, 24, 25).* 1 2. It was not expedient for the Incarnate God in this world to live in wealth and high honour: first, because the objedt of His coming was to with- draw the minds of men from their attachment to earthly things, and to raise them to things heavenly, for which purpose He found it necessary to draw men by His example to a contempt of riches: secondly, because if He had abounded in riches, and had been set in some high position, His divine doings would have been ascribed rather to secular power than to the virtue of the Divinity. This indeed forms the most efficacious argument of His Divinity, that without aid of secular power He has changed the whole world for the better, f 13. God's commandment to men is of works of virtue; and the more perfectly any one performs an act of virtue, the more he obeys God. Now of all virtues charity is the chief: all others are referred to it. Christ's obedience to God consisted most of all in His perfect fulfilment of the adt of charity: for greater charity than this no man hath, that a man lay down his life for his friends (John xv, 13).
15. Though God has no wish for the death of men, yet He has a wish for virtue; and by virtue man meets death bravely, and exposes himself to danger of death for charity. Thus God had a wish for the death of Christ, inasmuch as Christ took upon Himself that death out of charity, and bravely endured it.
clash with 'nature9; but evidences that what we call cute the enquiry, which did not occur to St Thomas, ' nature ' is not all the power that is. People who what development Christianity had attained in the believe in nature, physical nature, and nothing but apostolic age, and how it further unfolded itself in physical nature, will not hear of miracles. But what the centuries that followed.
is there in physical nature to assure them that such t Not however without considerable aid from nature is all in all, and that there is nothing be- the secular power since the days of Constantine yond it? downwards. And it is the common doctrine of the • St Thomas here recognises that Christianity schools that the aid of secular power is necessary for could but develop slowly. It remains for us to prose- the well-being of the Church.
17. It is well said that Christ wished to suffer the death of the cross in order to give an example of humility. The virtue of humility consists in keeping oneself within one's own bounds, not reaching out to things above one, but submitting to one's superior. Thus humility cannot befit God, who has no superior, but is above all. Whenever any one subjects himself out of humility to an equal or any inferior, that is because he takes that equal or inferior to be his superior in some respect. Though then the virtue of humility cannot attach to Christ in His divine nature, yet it may attach to Him in his human nature. And His divinity renders His humility all the more praise- worthy: for the dignity of the person adds to the merit of humility; and there can be no greater dignity to a man than his being God. Hence the highest praise attaches to the humility of the Man God, who, to wean men's hearts from worldly glory to the love of divine glory, chose to endure a death of no ordinary sort, but a death of the deepest ignominy.
19. // Was necessary for Christ to suffer (Luke xxiv, 46), not only to afford an example of braving death for the love of truth, but also for the expiation of the sins of other men; which expiation He made by His own sinless Self choosing to suffer the death due to sin, and so satisfying for others by taking on Himself the penalty due to others. And though the sole grace of God is sufficient for the forgiveness of sins, nevertheless in the process of that forgive- ness something is required on his part to whom the sin is forgiven, namely, to offer satisfaction to him whom he has offended.* And because men could not do this for themselves, Christ did it for all, suffering a voluntary death for charity.
20. Although when it is a question of punishing sins, he must be punished who has sinned, nevertheless, when it is a question of making satisfaction, one may bear another's penalty. When punishment is inflicted for sin, his iniquity is put into the scale who has sinned: but when satisfaction is made by the offender's voluntary taking upon himself a penalty to appease him whom he has offended, account is taken in that case of the affection and good will of him who makes the satisfaction. And this appears best in the case of one taking upon himself a penalty instead of another, and God accepting the satisfaction of one for another (B. Ill, Chap. CLIX ad Jin.) t 25. Though the death of Christ is sufficient satisfaction for original sin, there is nothing incongruous in the miseries consequent \ upon original sin remaining in all men, even in those who are made partakers of the redemp- tion of Christ. It was a fit and advantageous arrangement for the punish- ment § to remain after the guilt was taken away: — first, for the conformity # Where sanctifying grace is given, sin is forgiven: say: 'I was a fool in doing as I did, and now I see but sanctifying grace would not be given to any man, my folly and repent of it *: the satisfaction that if Christ had not made satisfaction to His Father for Christ made becomes available for that man, and the sin of all mankind. Sanctifying grace is in fact according to the nature of his sorrow he is either the forgiveness of sin. forgiven or on the road to forgiveness.
t What St Thomas here calls * satisfaction,' an- I These panalitates consequently as St Thomas swers fairly well to the French amende honorable. As calls them,— death, suffering, dulness of heart, con- St Thomas here teaches, it is not correct, in the cupiscence, — are no longer punishments, after bap- strictest theological parlance, to say that Christ was tism. The Church has condemned the proposition, 4 punished* for the sins of the world. Great authori- that " all his life long a man ought to do penance ties may speak popularly and loosely on this as on for original sin " (Denzinger, Enchiridion, n, 1 1 76). other topics. But in strict theology we say that Christ § That is to say, it was originally a punishment, made the amende honorable for the sins of all His and after baptism still remains a misery: cf. Council brethren, and that in the manner most humiliating, of Trent, Sess. 5, Can. 5. It is to be observed that painful, and costly to Himself. When any sinner, exemption from these miseries is not due to man: identifying himself with this amende honorable and they go with human nature, as such, unless God satisfaction of his Saviour, cries with Him: * Father, grants an exemption, as He did to the first man, forgive me, for I knew not what I did'; that is to who sinned and lost it.
f of the faithful with Christ, as of members with their head, that as Christ endured many sufferings, so His faithful should be subject to sufferings, and so arrive at immortality, as the Apostle says: If we suffer with himysothatwe be glorified with him (Rom. viii, 1 7): — secondly, because if men coming to Christ gained immediate exemption from death and suffering, many men would come rather for these corporal benefits than for spiritual goods, con- trary to the intention of Christ, who came into the world to draw men from the love of corporal things to spiritual things: — thirdly, because this sudden impassibility and immortality would in a manner compel men to receive the faith of Christ, and so the merit of faith would be lost.
26. Each individual must seek the remedies that make for his own salva- tion. The death of Christ is a universal cause of salvation, as the sin of the first man was a universal cause of damnation.41 But there is need of a special application to each individual for the individual to share in the effe6t of a universal causc.f The effeft of the sin of our first parent reaches each indi- vidual through his carnal origin. The effe<5t of the death of Christ reaches each individual by his spiritual regeneration, whereby he is conjoined and in a manner incorporated with Christ.
CHAPTER L-Tbat Original Sin is transmitted from our First Parent to his Posterity THIS expressly appears from the words of the Apostle: As by one man sin came into the worlds and by sin deaths so death passed on to all men, seeing that all have sinned (Rom. v, 1 a)- J It cannot be said that by one man sin entered into the world by way of imitation, because in that inter- pretation sin would have reached only to those who imitate the first man in sinning; and since by sin death came into the world, death would reach only those who sin in the likeness of the first man that sinned. But to exclude this interpretation the Apostle adds: Death reigned from Adam to Moses even over those who did not sin in the likeness of the transgression of Adam. The Apostle's meaning therefore was not that by one man sin entered into the world in the way of imitation, but in the way of origin.