Whether the First Man Was Created in Grace?
Objection 1: It would seem that the first man was not created in
grace. For the Apostle, distinguishing between Adam and Christ, says
(1 Cor. 15:45): "The first Adam was made into a living soul; the last
Adam into a quickening spirit." But the spirit is quickened by grace.
Therefore Christ alone was made in grace.
Obj. 2: Further, Augustine says (QQ. Vet. et Nov. Test., qu. 123)
[*Work of an anonymous author, among the supposititious works of St.
Augustine] that "Adam did not possess the Holy Ghost." But whoever
possesses grace has the Holy Ghost. Therefore Adam was not created in
grace.
Obj. 3: Further, Augustine says (De Correp. et Grat. x) that "God so
ordered the life of the angels and men, as to show first what they
could do by free-will, then what they could do by His grace, and by
the discernment of righteousness." God thus first created men and
angels in the state of natural free-will only; and afterwards
bestowed grace on them.
Obj. 4: Further, the Master says (Sent. ii, D, xxiv): "When man was
created he was given sufficient help to stand, but not sufficient to
advance." But whoever has grace can advance by merit. Therefore the
first man was not created in grace.
Obj. 5: Further, the reception of grace requires the consent of the
recipient, since thereby a kind of spiritual marriage takes place
between God and the soul. But consent presupposes existence.
Therefore man did not receive grace in the first moment of his
creation.
Obj. 6: Further, nature is more distant from grace than grace is from
glory, which is but grace consummated. But in man grace precedes
glory. Therefore much more did nature precede grace.
_On the contrary,_ Man and angel are both ordained to grace. But the
angels were created in grace, for Augustine says (De Civ. Dei xii, 9):
"God at the same time fashioned their nature and endowed them with
grace." Therefore man also was created in grace.
_I answer that,_ Some say that man was not created in grace; but that
it was bestowed on him subsequently before sin: and many authorities of
the Saints declare that man possessed grace in the state of innocence.
But the very rectitude of the primitive state, wherewith man was
endowed by God, seems to require that, as others say, he was created
in grace, according to Eccles. 7:30, "God made man right." For this
rectitude consisted in his reason being subject to God, the lower
powers to reason, and the body to the soul: and the first subjection
was the cause of both the second and the third; since while reason was
subject to God, the lower powers remained subject to reason, as
Augustine says [*Cf. De Civ. Dei xiii, 13; De Pecc. Merit. et Remiss.
i, 16]. Now it is clear that such a subjection of the body to the soul
and of the lower powers to reason, was not from nature; otherwise it
would have remained after sin; since even in the demons the natural
gifts remained after sin, as Dionysius declared (Div. Nom. iv). Hence
it is clear that also the primitive subjection by virtue of which
reason was subject to God, was not a merely natural gift, but a
supernatural endowment of grace; for it is not possible that the
effect should be of greater efficiency than the cause. Hence Augustine
says (De Civ. Dei xiii, 13) that, "as soon as they disobeyed the
Divine command, and forfeited Divine grace, they were ashamed of their
nakedness, for they felt the impulse of disobedience in the flesh, as
though it were a punishment corresponding to their own disobedience."
Hence if the loss of grace dissolved the obedience of the flesh to the
soul, we may gather that the inferior powers were subjected to the
soul through grace existing therein.
Reply Obj. 1: The Apostle in these words means to show that there
is a spiritual body, if there is an animal body, inasmuch as the
spiritual life of the body began in Christ, who is "the firstborn
of the dead," as the body's animal life began in Adam. From the
Apostle's words, therefore, we cannot gather that Adam had no
spiritual life in his soul; but that he had not spiritual life as
regards the body.
Reply Obj. 2: As Augustine says in the same passage, it is not
disputed that Adam, like other just souls, was in some degree gifted
with the Holy Ghost; but "he did not possess the Holy Ghost, as the
faithful possess Him now," who are admitted to eternal happiness
directly after death.
Reply Obj. 3: This passage from Augustine does not assert that angels
or men were created with natural free-will before they possessed
grace; but that God shows first what their free-will could do before
being confirmed in grace, and what they acquired afterwards by being
so confirmed.
Reply Obj. 4: The Master here speaks according to the opinion of
those who held that man was not created in grace, but only in a state
of nature. We may also say that, though man was created in grace, yet
it was not by virtue of the nature wherein he was created that he
could advance by merit, but by virtue of the grace which was added.
Reply Obj. 5: As the motion of the will is not continuous there is
nothing against the first man having consented to grace even in the
first moment of his existence.
Reply Obj. 6: We merit glory by an act of grace; but we do not merit
grace by an act of nature; hence the comparison fails.
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