Whether Counsel Should Be Reckoned Among the Gifts of the Holy Ghost?
Objection 1: It would seem that counsel should not be reckoned among
the gifts of the Holy Ghost. The gifts of the Holy Ghost are given as
a help to the virtues, according to Gregory (Moral. ii, 49). Now for
the purpose of taking counsel, man is sufficiently perfected by the
virtue of prudence, or even of _euboulia_, as is evident from what
has been said (Q. 47, A. 1, ad 2; Q. 51, AA. 1, 2). Therefore counsel
should not be reckoned among the gifts of the Holy Ghost.
Obj. 2: Further, the difference between the seven gifts of the Holy
Ghost and the gratuitous graces seems to be that the latter are not
given to all, but are divided among various people, whereas the gifts
of the Holy Ghost are given to all who have the Holy Ghost. But
counsel seems to be one of those things which are given by the Holy
Ghost specially to certain persons, according to 1 Macc. 2:65:
"Behold . . . your brother Simon is a man of counsel." Therefore
counsel should be numbered among the gratuitous graces rather than
among the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost.
Obj. 3: Further, it is written (Rom. 8:14): "Whosoever are led by the
Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." But counselling is not
consistent with being led by another. Since then the gifts of the
Holy Ghost are most befitting the children of God, who "have received
the spirit of adoption of sons," it would seem that counsel should
not be numbered among the gifts of the Holy Ghost.
_On the contrary,_ It is written (Isa. 11:2): "(The Spirit of the
Lord) shall rest upon him . . . the spirit of counsel, and of
fortitude."
_I answer that,_ As stated above (I-II, Q. 68, A. 1), the gifts of
the Holy Ghost are dispositions whereby the soul is rendered amenable
to the motion of the Holy Ghost. Now God moves everything according
to the mode of the thing moved: thus He moves the corporeal creature
through time and place, and the spiritual creature through time, but
not through place, as Augustine declares (Gen. ad lit. viii, 20, 22).
Again, it is proper to the rational creature to be moved through the
research of reason to perform any particular action, and this
research is called counsel. Hence the Holy Ghost is said to move the
rational creature by way of counsel, wherefore counsel is reckoned
among the gifts of the Holy Ghost.
Reply Obj. 1: Prudence or _euboulia_, whether acquired or infused,
directs man in the research of counsel according to principles that
the reason can grasp; hence prudence or _euboulia_ makes man take
good counsel either for himself or for another. Since, however, human
reason is unable to grasp the singular and contingent things which
may occur, the result is that "the thoughts of mortal men are
fearful, and our counsels uncertain" (Wis. 9:14). Hence in the
research of counsel, man requires to be directed by God who
comprehends all things: and this is done through the gift of counsel,
whereby man is directed as though counseled by God, just as, in human
affairs, those who are unable to take counsel for themselves, seek
counsel from those who are wiser.
Reply Obj. 2: That a man be of such good counsel as to counsel
others, may be due to a gratuitous grace; but that a man be
counselled by God as to what he ought to do in matters necessary for
salvation is common to all holy persons.
Reply Obj. 3: The children of God are moved by the Holy Ghost
according to their mode, without prejudice to their free-will which
is the "faculty of will and reason" [*Sent. iii, D, 24]. Accordingly
the gift of counsel is befitting the children of God in so far as the
reason is instructed by the Holy Ghost about what we have to do.
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