Chapter VI.
On the fullness of wisdom in the intellect.
Concerning the fullness of wisdom of Christ in the intellect, this must be held: that in the incarnate Word, namely Christ our Lord, there was the fullness of all wisdom not only with respect to things known, but also with regard to the modes and differences of knowing. — For in Christ there was sempiternal cognition on the part of the Deity, sensible cognition on the part of the sensuality and the flesh, scientific cognition on the part of the mind and spirit — and this was threefold: one namely through nature, one through grace, and one through glory. Whence He had wisdom both as God and as man, as comprehensor and as wayfarer, as one illuminated through grace and as one rightly formed through nature; and thus in all there were in Christ five modes of knowing.
The first is according to the divine nature: and in this mode He knew all actual and possible things, finite and infinite, by actual and comprehensive cognition. — The second is through glory: and in this mode He knew all actual and finite things, by actual and comprehensive cognition; but infinite things only perhaps by habitual or excessive cognition.
The third, through grace; and in this mode He knew all things pertaining to the redemption of the human race.
The fourth, according to integral nature, of the kind that existed in Adam; and in this mode He knew all things that pertain to the constitution of the universe.
The fifth, according to sensible experience: and in this mode He knew those things that come to the organs of the senses, according to which mode it is said that He learned obedience from the things which He suffered.
The reason for understanding the aforesaid is this: because, just as it belongs to the restorative principle to restore us through most liberal grace, so also through most provident wisdom. For that which was established according to the order of wisdom cannot be restored without the light and order of wisdom; and therefore, just as Christ ought to have been immune from all fault, so He ought to have been far removed from all ignorance, and through this totally filled with the light and radiance of supernal wisdom. Wherefore He had perfect cognition according to each nature and cognitive power and according to every existence of things.
Because, therefore, things have being in the eternal art and in the human mind and in their proper kind; it was necessary for Christ to have this threefold knowledge of things. Because indeed a thing can be known in two ways in the art, namely either by the artisan himself, or by another contemplating the art: similarly it has being and is known in two ways in the mind, even apart from acquisition, which does not befit Christ on account of its imperfection, namely either according to an innate habit, or according to an infused habit: hence it is that it was necessary for the perfect fullness of wisdom that the five aforesaid modes be found in Christ, God and man, so that in the eternal art he might know things both through the nature of the Godhead and through the glory of comprehension: in his mind through a natural and innate habit, as Adam and the Angels knew; and through a gratuitous and infused habit, as the Saints of God illuminated by the Holy Spirit; but in their proper kind he would know by way of sense, memory, and experience, which in us causes an unknown thing to become known, but in Christ caused a thing known according to one mode to be known according to another.
Since, moreover, the divine substance, power, and operation is immense, hence it is that according to the first mode, which is through the nature of the Godhead, he actually comprehends infinite things: for in a certain ineffable manner, to the supremely infinite, all infinity is finite.
Because indeed the substance, power, and operation of a creature, however exalted, is finite, yet such that the human mind does not rest except in the infinite good, nor yet does it properly comprehend it, because the infinite is not comprehended by the finite, taking comprehension properly: hence it is that with respect to the second mode of knowing, the soul of Christ through the glory of comprehension grasps as much as a finite nature can grasp, beatified by the infinite good, to which it is supremely united; and through this it extends itself to finite things by actually comprehending them, but to infinite things only perhaps habitually, or even by exceeding. For the soul cannot be equaled to the Word, neither in knowledge nor in anything else.
Again, because grace especially regards the work of reparation: hence it is that according to the third mode of knowing, through the most perfect grace, Christ knew all things that pertain to our reparation, far more excellently and better than any of the Prophets, or even of the Angels.
Furthermore, because the nature of man, well established, was born to preside over all creatures and to know them as those which ought to serve him, as was evident in the condition of the first man: hence it is that with respect to the fourth mode of knowing, Christ knew all things that pertain to the construction of the world-machine, far more excellently than Adam.
Finally, because sense is not perceptive of things except in the presence of the object, it follows that according to sensitive cognition, he did not know all things simultaneously, but now these, now those, according as it was opportune for accomplishing the reparation of the human race.