Bellarmine · De Controversiis · On the Grace of the First Man
Chapter 3: That the first man received in his creation the grace that makes pleasing
Our translation, from the Latin of the Opera Omnia (Paris: Vivès, 1870–74), vol. V, De Gratia Primi Hominis. The Latin source text is public domain; this English rendering is released with the site. Scripture quotations follow Bellarmine's Vulgate citations, rendered in Douay-Rheims wording where he quotes exactly. Click “Show the Latin” for the original (raw OCR of the scan; scanning errors remain — the scan itself is the authority).
Now follows the second proposition: “The first man received in creation not any rectitude of soul whatever, but the very grace that makes pleasing.” There are indeed not wanting theologians who separate the original righteousness granted to the first parent in creation from the grace that makes pleasing, and teach that Adam received at the beginning a certain habit which subjected the lower part to the higher, but did not receive that grace which makes men sons and friends of God, and which is necessary for meriting eternal life. In which opinion Peter Lombard seems to have been, in book 2 of the Sentences, distinction 24, and those who follow him — John Scotus, and certain others. We follow Albert the Great, in the commentary on the same distinction, and St. Thomas, part 1, question 95, article 1, and others, who so join original righteousness with the grace that makes pleasing that the obedience of the lower part to the higher depends, as from a fountain and root, on the grace that makes pleasing, which rendered the higher part obedient to God. And whether the grace that makes pleasing is to be called a part of original righteousness, or only its root and cause, seems to matter little. Wherefore we shall undertake to prove this only: that our first parent was created with the grace that makes pleasing.
And first, the divine writings indicate this plainly enough, when they say that we are renewed through Christ to that righteousness in which we were created at the beginning: be renewed, says the Apostle, Ephesians 4, in the spirit of your mind: And put on the new man, who according to God is created in justice and holiness of truth. He who is bidden be renewed was at some time new; and if the renewal consists in this, that we put on a man like Christ, created according to God in justice and holiness of truth, then we were at some time — namely in our first parent — new men, created according to God in justice and holiness of truth. And blessed Paul says, “be renewed in the spirit of your mind,” both that we may understand that in Adam not the flesh alone, but our mind also, was vitiated through the loss of grace; and because we are not renewed in this world to that innocence which was in the flesh of the first man, but only to that which was in his mind — awaiting meanwhile the redemption of our body, as the same Apostle says, Romans 8. A like place is in the epistle to the Colossians, chapter 3: Lie not one to another: stripping yourselves of the old man with his deeds, And putting on the new, him who is renewed unto knowledge, according to the image of him that created him. The man who is renewed unto knowledge according to the image of God, to which he had been created at the beginning, is our soul, which through the grace of Christ daily advances in the knowledge of God, and holiness, and righteousness; and in that way is renewed in it the divine image which had been darkened through sin. From which it follows that before that oldness and darkening there was in man the knowledge of God, and holiness, and so a new and most splendid image of God. Nor unlike is that place from the second epistle to the Corinthians, chapter 4: But though our outward man is corrupted, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.
Besides these testimonies of divine Scripture we have the testimony of the Second Council of Orange, canon 19, in these words: “Human nature, even if it remained in that integrity in which it was created, would in no way preserve itself, its Creator not helping; whence, since without the grace of God it cannot guard the salvation which it received, how without the grace of God will it be able to repair what it has lost?” From which place we gather that we, when we are justified through the grace of Christ, repair that which we lost in Adam; but we repair the grace that makes pleasing, by which we are made sons of God through adoption; this grace, therefore, we lost in Adam. The Council of Trent, session 5, in the decree on original sin, speaks thus: “If anyone does not confess that the first man Adam, when he had transgressed the commandment of God in paradise, straightway lost the holiness and justice in which he had been constituted, etc., let him be anathema.” And a little below: “If anyone asserts that Adam's transgression harmed himself alone and not his progeny, and that he lost the holiness and justice received from God, which he lost, for himself alone and not for us also, etc., let him be anathema.” Adam therefore was in paradise not only just, but also holy; but none makes holy save the Holy Spirit, dwelling through grace in the hearts of men, as St. Basil teaches in the book On the Holy Spirit to Amphilochius, chapter 16. Wherefore Adam in paradise had the indwelling Holy Spirit.
Let there come now the testimonies of the ancient Fathers. St. Irenaeus, book 3 against Heresies, chapter 37 [al. 23], brings in Adam speaking thus: “Since the robe of sanctity which I had from the Spirit, I lost through disobedience,” etc. And in the same book, chapter 20 [al. 18], he had said before: “That what we had lost in Adam we might recover in Christ Jesus.” The robe of sanctity received from the Holy Spirit seems able to signify nothing else than the grace which is poured into hearts through the Holy Spirit — especially since this is the sanctity which we recover through Christ; and, Irenaeus being witness, we recover through Christ what we lost in Adam. St. Cyprian, sermon 3, which is on the good of patience: “Adam, impatient of the heavenly precept concerning the deadly food, fell into death, nor did he keep the grace received from God with patience for its guardian.” The same, in the epistle to Pompey, expounds those words of Genesis, and breathed into his face the breath of life, of the grace of the Holy Spirit infused by God into the soul of the first parent — as also before him St. Irenaeus had expounded the same place, book 5 against Heresies. St. Basil, in the homily on Psalm 48, explaining that verse, “man when he was in honour,” etc.: “He breathed into his face — that is, he put into man some portion of his own grace, that by like he might know like.” The same, in the book On the Holy Spirit to Amphilochius, chapter 15: “Through the Holy Spirit comes the restoration into paradise, the return into the adoption of sons,” etc. We were therefore, before Adam's sin (St. Basil being witness), sons of God through adoption. And in the homily That God is not the author of evils, he speaks thus of Adam: “And what was his chief good? The sitting with God, and the union through love,” etc. See the whole of that place. St. Ambrose, book 6 of the Hexameron, chapter 7 [al. 42], where, having said many things of the image of grace, and among the rest having taught that according to this image the soul shines with the grace of the virtues and the light of piety, wisdom, and justice, he subjoins: “According to this image was Adam before sin; but when he fell, he laid down the image of the heavenly, and took up the effigy of the earthly.” The same, book 7 on Luke, chapter 15 [al. on Luke 10], explaining the parable of the Samaritan: “Who are these robbers, but the angels of night and of darkness? These first strip off the garments of spiritual grace which we have received, and so are wont to inflict wounds. Beware, therefore, lest thou be first stripped, as Adam was first stripped.” Adam therefore had before sin the garments of spiritual grace. St. Gregory Nazianzen, in the oration on Easter, narrating the creation of the first man, says that he was an earthly angel, the same both spirit and flesh — spirit on account of grace, and that he might remain with God, and glorify his benefactor. St. John Chrysostom, homily 16 on Genesis: “Seeing therefore upon earth an earthly angel, and pining with envy, the demon, the author of evils, used great machination, that he might both deprive man of the grace of God, and, having made him ungrateful for so great goods granted him through the divine goodness, might strip him bare.” St. Augustine, in the book On Rebuke and Grace, chapter 11: “What then? Did Adam not have the grace of God? Nay indeed he had a great grace, but a different one.” And below: “Nor did God will even him to be without his grace, whom he left in his free choice.” And book 11 On Genesis [to the letter], chapter 31 [al. 39], and book 13 On the City of God, chapter 13: “As soon as they transgressed the precept, grace deserting them within, they were altogether stripped naked, and cast their eyes upon their own members.” And as for what the same St. Augustine writes in the book On Rebuke and Grace, chapter 10 — that God so created the angels and the first man that he might first show in them what their free choice could do, then what the benefit of his grace and the judgment of his justice could do — it does not signify that the angels and the first man were at the beginning without the grace of God (for the contrary is contained in the following chapter); but the sense of those words is that God willed first to show, in the angels and in Adam, what free choice could do — aided indeed by grace, but not confirmed in grace; then what the benefit of grace could do in those who are confirmed in good through beatitude; and what the judgment of justice, in the obstinate and those condemned to hell. St. Cyril, book 2 on John, chapter 3 [al. book 1]: “Adam was in paradise so long as he kept the grace of the Creator, the Holy Spirit dwelling in him.” See the same, book 1, chapter 13; book 11, chapter 25; book 12, chapter 56; and in the book On Adoration in Spirit, before the middle. St. Leo, Pope, sermon 1 on the fast of the tenth month: “To which the grace of the Savior daily restores us, while what fell in the first Adam is raised up in the second.” St. Gregory, book 5, epistle 14, and book 6, epistle 31, affirms that the soul of Adam, as soon as he sinned, died — namely, by the privation of grace. For so he declares himself, when he says: “His soul was not so dead as not to be, but so as not to be blessed.” And he understands the beatitude begun through grace, not consummated through glory; for he straightway subjoins: “Which Adam nevertheless afterwards, through penitence, returned to life.” Where he signifies by “life” the same as a little before by “beatitude”; nor can it be doubted that after penitence Adam was blessed with the beatitude of grace, not of glory. The same we gather from the preceding words, where St. Gregory says that we died with Adam, and are now indeed freed through Christ from the death of the soul, but are afterwards to be freed also from the death of the body.
From these things it can be understood that the author of the Questions on the New and Old Testament not only is not St. Augustine, as is written in the title of his book, but is not even a Catholic man — though St. Thomas, part 1, question 95, article 1, ad 2, strives to interpret him piously. For that author, in question 123, refutes in express words those who say that Adam received the Holy Spirit, and was a son of God through adoption, and that that adoption, lost through Adam's own disobedience, we recover through the obedience and merits of Christ. Which opinion is not, as that author says, of certain simple Fathers, but of the most learned Fathers, both Greek and Latin, and is gathered plainly enough from the Apostle, as we showed above. Nor is that author convicted of having erred in this matter only, but in very many others besides. For in question 2 he writes that the world was created by God on account of the devil's presumption; in question 21, that woman was not created to the image of God; in question 43, that Jephte has no testimony of righteousness — whereas he has so illustrious a one with the Apostle, Hebrews 11; in question 109, that Melchisedech is the Holy Spirit, and a priest, yet not the highest. Which opinion St. Jerome reprehends in the epistle to Evagrius on Melchisedech, where he admonishes that the author of that work in which Melchisedech is asserted to be the Holy Spirit is unskilled in knowledge and in speech. And it is very probable that this very man of whom we treat is he whom St. Jerome reprehends: for this author was a little earlier than St. Jerome, seeing that in question 44 he witnesses that from the destruction of Jerusalem to his own times about three hundred years had flowed by; and he truly shows himself unskilled in knowledge and speech. But (it may be said) not without a testimony of Scripture does that author affirm that Adam lacked the Holy Spirit; for the Apostle writes in the first epistle to the Corinthians, chapter 15: The first man — that is, Adam — was made into a living soul; the last — that is, Christ — into a quickening spirit. I answer: the Apostle in that place compares the newly formed body of Adam, which was animal, and needed food and drink to be sustained, with the glorious body of Christ after the resurrection, which could be called spiritual, since it was subject to no hunger, nor thirst, nor any bodily necessity or want. For blessed Paul discourses in that place of the resurrection of bodies, and says that first is the animal body, then the spiritual body; and of the animal body he expounds those words of Genesis, “man was made into a living soul”; of the spiritual body he himself adjoins, “the last man was made into a quickening spirit.” And this is the exposition of Chrysostom, Theophylact, Ambrose, Anselm, Thomas, and others in the commentary on that place, and of St. Augustine in epistle 146, and book 13 On the City of God, chapters 22 and 23. But although the body of Adam in paradise was animal, yet his soul could be spiritual — as in very truth it was, through the Holy Spirit dwelling in his breast.
Show the Latin (Vives edition, OCR)
in creatione accepisse.
Sequitur nunc altera propositio : «Primus
homo non quamlibet animi rectitudinem, sed
ipsam etiam gratiam gratum facientem in
creatione accepit. » Non desuntquidem theo¬
logi, qui justitiam originalem primo parenti
in creatione concessam separent a gratia
gratum faciente, ac doceant accepisse Ada-
mum initio habitum quemdam, qui partem
inferiorem superiori subjiceret, non tamen
accepisse gratiam illam gratum facientem,
qu<e filios et amicos Dei efficit, quaeque ad
vitam aeternum promerendam necessaria
est. In qua sententia videtur fuisse Petrus
Lombard. in ii. lib. Sentent. dist. 2i. et qui
cum sequitur, Joan. Scotus, et alia quidam.
Nos Albert. Magnum in commentar, ejusdem
distinet, et S. Tliom. i. par. quaest. 93. art. I.
et alios sequimur, qui justitiam originalem
cum gratia gratum faciente ita conjungunt,
ut obedientia partis inferioris ad superiorem,
a gratia gratum faciente, quae partem
superiorem Deo obsequentem reddebat,
veluti o fonte, et radice dependeat; sive au¬
tem gratia gratum faciens dicenda sit pars
originalis justitiae, sive tantum radix, et
causa, non multum referre videtur. Quare
id solum probare aggrediemur, primum pa¬
rentem nostrum cum gratia gratum faciente
conditum fuisse.
Ac primum divinae litterae satis aperte hoc
indicant, cum dicunt, nos per Christum re¬
novari ad eam justitiam, in qua initio conditi
simus : Renovamini , inquit ApostolusadEphes.
iv, Spiritu mentis vestrae. , et induite novum
hominem, qui secundum Deum creatus est in
justitia, et sanctitate veritatis (2). Qui reno¬
vari jubetur, fuit aliquando novus ; quod si
renovatio consistit in eo, ut induamus homi¬
nem Christo similem, creatum secundum
Deum, in justitia, ct sanctitate veritatis,
fuimus igitur aliquando, videlicet in primo
nostro parente, homines novi, conditi secun¬
dum Deum-in justitia, et sanctitate veritatis.
Dicit autem B. Paulus : Renovamini spiritu
mentis vestra;, tum ut intelligamus in Adamo
non solam carnem, sed etiam mentem no¬
stram fuisse vitiatam per amissionem gra¬
tia;; tum quia non renovamur in hoc mundo
ad eam innocentiam, qua; fuit in carne pri¬
mi hominis, sed solum ad eam qua; fuit in
mente, expectantes interim redemptionem
corporis nostri, ut idem Apostolus ait ad
Roman. vra.
Similis locus est in epist. ad Coloss. cap. m :
Nolite, inquit B. Paulus, mentiri invicem,
expoliantes vos veterem hominem cum actibus
suis, et induentes novum, eum qui renovatur
in agnitionem, secundum imaginem ejus, qui
creavit illum (3). Homo qui renovatur in agni¬
tionem secundum imaginem Dei, ad quam
initio conditus fuerat, animus noster est, qui
per Christi gratiam quotidie proficit in agni¬
tione Dei, et sanctitate, ac justitia, et eo
modo renovatur in eo divina imago, qua; per
peccatum obscurata fuerat. Ex quo sequitur ut
ante vetustatem, et obscurationem istam, fue-
ritin homine agnitio Dei, ct sanctitas, atque
adeo nova, et splendidissima Dei imago. Ne¬
que absimilis est locus ille ex posteriore epis¬
tola ad Corinth. cap. iv : Sed licet is , qui foris
est , noster homo corrumpitur : tamen is, qui
intus est, renovatur de die in diem {i).
Praeter ha;c testimonia Scriptura; divina;
habemus testimonium concilii II Arausicani,
can. 19. in ha;c verba : « Natura humana
etiamsi in illa integritate, in qua condita est,
permaneret, nullo modo seipsam creatore
suo non adjuvante, servaret : unde cum sine
gratia Dei salutem non possit custodire,
quam accepit, quomodo sine Dei gratia po-
(t)Rom. VII, 24; Eccl.XL, I ; Job. XIV, 1 . - (2) Epii IV, 23. ~(3) Coi, III, 9.-(4) II Corin.lV.lG,
LIRER I.
m
terit reparare quod perdidit ? » Ex quo loro
colligimus, nos, cum per Christi gratiam
justificamur, id reparare, quod in Adamo
perdidimus : reparamus autem gratiam gra¬
tum facientem, qua filii Dei per adoptionem
efficimur; hanc igitur gratiam perdidimus
in Adamo.
Concilium Tridentinum sess. 5. in decret.
de peccato originis, sic ait : « Si quis non
confitetur primum hominem Adam, cum
mandatum Dei in paradiso fuisset trans¬
gressus, statim sanctitatem, et justitiam, in
qua constitutus fuerat, amisisse etc. anathe¬
ma sit. » Et paulo infra : « Si quis Adse prae¬
varicationem sibi soli, et non ejus propagini
asserit nocuisse, et acceptam a Deo sancti¬
tatem, et justitiam, quam perdidit, sibi soli,
et non nobis etiam eum perdidisse etc. ana¬
thema sit. » Fuit igitur Adam in paradiso
non solum justus, sed etiam sanctus : san¬
ctos autem non facit, nisi Spiritus sanctus
per gratiam inhabitans corda hominum, ut
S. Basilius docet in lib. de Spiritu sancto ad
Amphilochium, cap. 16. Quare habuit Adam
in paradiso Spiritum sanctum inhabitantem.
Accedant nunc testimonia veterum Patrum.
S. Irenaeus lib. m. contra hsereses, cap.
37. Adamum ita loquentem inducit : « Quo¬
niam eam, quam habui a Spiritu sanctitatis,
stolam amisi per inobedientiam etc. » Et in
eodem lib. cap. 20. ante dixerat : « Ut quod
perdideramus in Adam, in Christo Jesu re¬
cuperemus. » Stola sanctitatis a Spiritu san¬
cto accepta non videtur aliud significare
posse, nisi gratiam, qua: infunditur in cor¬
dibus per Spiritum sanctum. PrEesertim cum
heee sit sanctitas, quam per Christum recu¬
peramus Et Irenaeo teste, id recuperamus
per Christum, quod perdidimus in Adamo.
S. Cyprianus serm. 3. qui est de bono pa¬
tientia: : « Adam, inquit, contra praeceptum
coeleste cibi lethalis impatiens in mortem ce¬
cidit, nec acceptam divinitus gratiam patien¬
tia custode servavit ». Idem in epist. ad
Ponpeium exponit illa verba Geneseos : In¬
spiravit in faciem ejus spiraculum vitae (1),
de gratia Spiritus sancti, a Deo in animam
primi parentis infusa. Quemadmodum etiam
ante ipsum eumdem locum exposuerat S. Ire¬
naeus lib. v. contra hsereses.
S. Basilius homil. in Psalm. lxviii. expli¬
cans illud : Homo cum in honore esset, etc. : <i In¬
sufflavit, inquit, in faciem, hoc est, propriae
gratia: partem aliquam homini immisit, ut
per simile simile cognoscat. » Idem in lib.
de Spiritu sancto ad Amphilochium, cap.
15 : «Per Spiritum sanctum, inquit, contingit
restitutio in paradisum, reditus in adoptio¬
nem filiorum etc. » Fuimus igitur ante pec¬
catum Adse (S. Basilio teste) filii Dei per ado¬
ptionem. Et homil. Quod Deus non sit au¬
ctor malorum, de Adamo sic loquitur : « Quod
vero erat ei praecipuum bonum ? assessio
Dei, et conjunctio per dilectionem etc.» Yide
totum hunc locum.
S. Ambrosius lib. vi. Examer. cap. 7. ubi
cum multa dixisset de imagine gratia:, ac in¬
ter crctera docuisset secundum hanc imagi¬
nem animam nitere gratia virtutum, et luce
pietatis, sapentia: atque justitia:, subjungit :
« Secundum hanc imaginem Adamante pec¬
catum, sed ubi lapsus est, deposuit imagi¬
nem coelestis, sumpsit terrestris effigiem».
Idem lib. vii. in Luc. cap. 47. explicans pa¬
rabolam Samaritani : « Qui sunt, inquit, hi
latrones, nisi angeli noctis, et tenebrarum ?
Hi ante despoliant, qua: accepimus indu¬
menta gratia: spiritalis, et sic vulnera infer¬
re consueverunt. Cave ergo ne ante nuderis
sicut Adam ante nudatus est. » Habuit igitur
Adam ante peccatum indumenta gratia: spi¬
ritalis.
S. Gregorius Nazianzenus in orat, de Pa¬
scha, enarrans primi hominis creationem, di¬
cit, eum fuisse angelum terrestrem, eumdem
spiritum, et carnem, spiritum propter gra¬
tiam, et ut cum Deo maneret, ac benefacto¬
rem glorificaret.
S. Joannes Chrysostomus homil. 16. in
Genes : « Videns igitur, inquit, super terram
angelum terrestrem, et invidia tabescens da:-
mon malorum auctor, magna usus est ma¬
chinatione, ut et hominem gratia Dei pri¬
vare, et ingratum factum tantis bonis per
divinam bonitatem ipsi concessis nudaro
posset » .
S. Augustimus lib. de correptione et gra¬
tia, cap. 11 : «Quid ergo? Adam non habuit
Dei gratiam? imo vero habuit magnam,
sed disparem. » Et infra : «NecipsumDeuses-
se voluit sine sua gratia, quem reliquit in ejus
libero arbitrio». Et lib. xi. de Genes, cap.
31. et lib. xm. decivit. Dei, cap. 13 : « Mox,
inquit, ut prteceptum transgressi sunt, in¬
trinsecus gratia deserente omnino nudati in
sua membra oculos injecerunt . » Quod au-
(1) Gen. II, 7.
CAPUT III.
173
tem idem S. Augustinus scribit libro de cor¬
reptione et gratia, cap. 10, sic Deum con¬
didisse Angelos, et primum hominem, ut
prius in eis ostenderet, quid posset eorum
liberum arbitrium, deinde quid posset suae
gratia; beneficium, justitia;que judicium,
non significat, Angelos, et primum ho¬
minem initio, sine gratia Dei fuisse (con¬
trarium enim habetur cap. seq.), sed sensus
eorum verborum est, primum voluisse Deum
ostendi in Angelis, et Adamo quid posset
liberum arbitrium, gratia quidem adjutum,
sed in gratia non confirmatum : deinde quid
posset gratiae beneficium in iis, qui confir¬
mantur in bono per beatitudinem : quidve
justitiae judicium in obstinatis, atque ad in¬
feros condemnatis.
S. Cyrillus lib. ii. in Joannem, cap. 3 :
« Fuit, inquit, Adam in Paradiso, quousque
gratiam creatoris Spiritu sancto inhabitante
servavit. » Yide eumdem lib. i. cap. 13. lib.
xi. cap. 23. lib. xn. cap. 36. et in lib. de
adoratione in spiritu ante medium.
S. Leo P apaserm. 1. de jejunio decimi
mensis : « Ad quam, inquit, quotidie nos
utique reparat gratia Salvatoris, dum quod
cecidit in Adam primo, erigitur in secundo.»
S. Gregorius lib. v. epist. 14. et lib. vi
epist. 31. affirmat animam Adae statim atque
peccavit mortuam esse, nimirum privatione
gratiae. Sic enim ipse se declarat, cum ait :
« Non est ejus anima ita mortua, ut non
esset, sed ut beata non esset. » Intelligit au¬
tem de beatitudine inchoata per gratiam,
non consummata per gloriam ; nam subjun¬
git continuo : « Qui tamen Adam postmodum
per poenitentiam ad vitam rediit. » Ubi idem
significat per vitam, quod paulo ante per
beatitudinem : neque dubitari potest, quin
post poenitentiam fuerit Adam beatus bea¬
titudine gratiae, non gloria;. Quod idem col¬
ligimus ex verbis superioribus, ubi S. Gre¬
gorius dicit, nos mortuos esse cum Adamo,
et nunc quidem per Christumliberari a morte
anima;, postmodum autem liberandos etiam
esse a morte corporis.
Ex his intelligi potest, auctorem Quaestio¬
num novi, ac veteris testamenti non solum
non esse S. Augustinum, ut in titulo ejus li¬
bri scribitur, sed neque esse hominem Ca¬
tholicum, tametsi S. Thomas in 1, par.
quaest. 93. art. 1. ad 2. pie eum interpretari
conetur. Nam is auctor in quaest. 123. diser¬
tis verbis refellit eos, qui dicunt Adamum
accepisse Spiritum sanctum, et filium Dei
fuisse per adoptionem, et eam adoptionem,
per ipsius Adami inobedicntiam perditam,
nos per Christi obedientiam, ac merita recu¬
perare. Qua; sententia non est, ut ille auctor
dicit, Patrum quorumdam simplicium, sed
Patrum doctissimorum, cum Graecorum, tum
Latinorum, et ex Apostolo, ut supra ostendi¬
mus, satis aperte colligitur. Neque in hac re
solum auctor ille erravisse convincitur, sed
in aliis etiam plurimis. Siquidem qu. 2. scri¬
bit, mundum a Deo conditum ob diaboli
praesumptionem, quaest. 21. scribit fcemi-
nam non esse creatam ad imaginem Dei,
quaest. 43. scribit Jephte nullum habere
justitia; testimonium , cum tamen habeat
tam praeclarum apud Apostolum ad Hebraeos
xi ; quaest. 109. scribit, Melchisedech esse
Spiritum sanctum, et sacerdotem, non ta¬
men summum. Quam sententiam reprehen¬
dit S. Hieronymus in epistola ad Evagrium
de Melchisedech, ubi admonet auctorem ejus
operis, in quo asseritur Melchisedech esse
Spiritum sanctum, esse imperitum scientia,
et sermone. Est autem valde probabile hunc
ipsum, de quo agimus, illum esse, quem S.
Hieronymus reprehendit. Fuit enim hic au¬
ctor paulo antiquior S. Hieronymo, quippe,
qui quaest. 44. testatur, fluxisse ab excidio
Ilierosolymae usque ad sua tempora annos
circiter trecentos : et vere imperitum se pro¬
dit scientia, et sermone.
At non sine testimonio Scripturae affirmat
auctor ille, Adamum Spiritu sancto caruisse.
Scribit enim Apostolus in epistola priore ad
Corinth. cap. xv : Primum hominem , id est,
Adamum, factum in animam viventem; se¬
cundum, id est, Christum, in spiritum vivifi¬
cantem (1). Respondeo, Apostolum eo loco
conferre corptis recens formatum Adami,
quod animale erat, ciboque ac potu, ut sus¬
tentaretur egebat, cum corpore Christi glo¬
rioso post resurrectionem, quod spirituale
dici poterat, cum nec fami, nec siti, nec ulli
corporali necessitati, aut indigentiae subja¬
ceret. Disserit enim eo loco B. Paulus de re¬
surrectione corporum, ac dicit prius esse
corpus animale, deinde corpus spirituale,
ac de corpore animali exponit illa verba
Geneseos : Factus est homo in animam viven¬
tem , de corpore spirituali, adjungit ipse,
secundus homo factus est in spiritum vivifican-
(< ) I Corin. XV, 45.
1TG
UBER I.
tem. Et haec est expositio Chrysostomi,
Theophylacti, Ambrosii, Anselmi, Thomae,
et aliorum in commentario ejus loci, et S.
Augustini in epist. 146. et lib xm. de civita¬
te Dei, cap. 2. et 23. quamvis autem corpus
Adami in paradiso animale fuerit, potuit ta¬
men animus ejus spiritualis esse, ut revera
fuit per Spiritum sanctum in ejus pectore
habitantem.
CAPUT IV.
Non eguisse primum hominem in statu inno¬