Whether Sin Diminishes the Good of Nature?
Objection 1: It would seem that sin does not diminish the good of
nature. For man's sin is no worse than the devil's. But natural good
remains unimpaired in devils after sin, as Dionysius states (Div.
Nom. iv). Therefore neither does sin diminish the good of human
nature.
Obj. 2: Further, when that which follows is changed, that which
precedes remains unchanged, since substance remains the same when its
accidents are changed. But nature exists before the voluntary action.
Therefore, when sin has caused a disorder in a voluntary act, nature
is not changed on that account, so that the good of nature be
diminished.
Obj. 3: Further, sin is an action, while diminution is a passion. Now
no agent is passive by the very reason of its acting, although it is
possible for it to act on one thing, and to be passive as regards
another. Therefore he who sins, does not, by his sin, diminish the
good of his nature.
Obj. 4: Further, no accident acts on its subject: because that which
is patient is a potential being, while that which is subjected to an
accident, is already an actual being as regards that accident. But
sin is in the good of nature as an accident in a subject. Therefore
sin does not diminish the good of nature, since to diminish is to act.
_On the contrary,_ "A certain man going down from Jerusalem to
Jericho (Luke 10:30), i.e. to the corruption of sin, was stripped of
his gifts, and wounded in his nature," as Bede [*The quotation is
from the _Glossa Ordinaria_ of Strabo] expounds the passage. Therefore
sin diminishes the good of nature.
_I answer that,_ The good of human nature is threefold. First, there
are the principles of which nature is constituted, and the properties
that flow from them, such as the powers of the soul, and so forth.
Secondly, since man has from nature an inclination to virtue, as
stated above (Q. 60, A. 1; Q. 63, A. 1), this inclination to virtue
is a good of nature. Thirdly, the gift of original justice, conferred
on the whole of human nature in the person of the first man, may be
called a good of nature.
Accordingly, the first-mentioned good of nature is neither destroyed
nor diminished by sin. The third good of nature was entirely
destroyed through the sin of our first parent. But the second good of
nature, viz. the natural inclination to virtue, is diminished by sin.
Because human acts produce an inclination to like acts, as stated
above (Q. 50, A. 1). Now from the very fact that thing becomes
inclined to one of two contraries, its inclination to the other
contrary must needs be diminished. Wherefore as sin is opposed to
virtue, from the very fact that a man sins, there results a
diminution of that good of nature, which is the inclination to virtue.
Reply Obj. 1: Dionysius is speaking of the first-mentioned good of
nature, which consists in "being, living and understanding," as
anyone may see who reads the context.
Reply Obj. 2: Although nature precedes the voluntary action, it has
an inclination to a certain voluntary action. Wherefore nature is not
changed in itself, through a change in the voluntary action: it is
the inclination that is changed in so far as it is directed to its
term.
Reply Obj. 3: A voluntary action proceeds from various powers, active
and passive. The result is that through voluntary actions something
is caused or taken away in the man who acts, as we have stated when
treating of the production of habits (Q. 51, A. 2).
Reply Obj. 4: An accident does not act effectively on its subject,
but it acts on it formally, in the same sense as when we say that
whiteness makes a thing white. In this way there is nothing to hinder
sin from diminishing the good of nature; but only in so far as sin is
itself a diminution of the good of nature, through being an
inordinateness of action. But as regards the inordinateness of the
agent, we must say that such like inordinateness is caused by the
fact that in the acts of the soul, there is an active, and a passive
element: thus the sensible object moves the sensitive appetite, and
the sensitive appetite inclines the reason and will, as stated above
(Q. 77, AA. 1, 2). The result of this is the inordinateness, not as
though an accident acted on its own subject, but in so far as the
object acts on the power, and one power acts on another and puts it
out of order.
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