Chapter VI.
On the ramification of grace into the habits of the beatitudes and consequently of the fruits and senses.
Concerning the ramification of grace into the habits of the beatitudes, these things are to be held: that there are seven beatitudes, which the Savior enumerates in the Sermon on the Mount, namely poverty of spirit, meekness, mourning, hunger for justice, mercy, purity of heart, and peace.
To these beatitudes, on account of their perfection and fullness, the twelve fruits of the Spirit and the five spiritual senses follow: which do not denote new habits, but states of delight and exercises of spiritual contemplations, by which the spirits of just men are filled and consoled.
Now the reason for understanding the aforesaid is this: since the restorative principle is most perfect and most perfectly restorative and reformative through its gratuitous gift, therefore the gift of grace flowing from it liberally and abundantly ought to ramify even unto the habits of perfections, which, since they approximate the end, are rightly called by the name of beatitudes: whose sufficiency, number, and order are gathered from the integrity of perfection, from the modes of perfections, and from the dispositions toward perfection.
First, therefore, for the integrity of perfection there is necessarily required a perfect withdrawal from evil, a perfect advance in good, and a perfect standing in the best. Since evil proceeds either from the swelling of pride, or from the rancor of malice, or from the languor of concupiscence, therefore for perfectly distancing oneself from this threefold kind of evil, three beatitudes are necessary, namely poverty of spirit, distancing from the evil of swelling; meekness, distancing from the evil of rancor; and mourning, distancing from the evil of lust and concupiscential languor.
Since indeed a perfect advance in good is considered according to divine imitation, and all the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth : hence it is that there is a twofold beatitude according to these two ways, namely hunger or zeal for justice, and the affection of mercy.
Since standing in the best is either through limpid cognition or through tranquil affection, hence it is that there are two final beatitudes, namely purity of heart for seeing God and peace of mind for perfectly enjoying him.
Secondly also, if the modes of perfections are considered, there ought to be seven habits of the beatitudes. For there is the perfection of religious life, of prelacy, and of interior sanctity. For the perfection of religious life, there is necessarily required the renunciation of private good, the acceptance of fraternal good, and the desire for eternal good; the first is accomplished through poverty of spirit, the second through meekness of affection, the third through the bitterness of mourning.
For the perfection of prelacy, two things are necessarily required, namely zeal for justice and the affection of mercy: for mercy and truth preserve the king. According to these two, the governance of prelacy in the Church militant ought to be ordered.
For the perfection of interior sanctity, there is necessarily required purity of conscience and tranquility of the whole soul through the peace of God surpassing all human understanding.
Third, if the preliminary dispositions are considered, the beatitudes ought to be seven. For fear causes one to withdraw from evil and from the occasion of evil; and because the root of all evils is cupidity, therefore fear disposes to poverty of spirit, in which humility is joined together with poverty, so that the perfect man may thus be distanced from the fount of all fault, namely from pride and cupidity. And hence it is that poverty of spirit is the foundation of all evangelical perfection. Whence he who wishes to come to the summit of perfection must first lay this foundation, according to that passage in Matthew nineteen: If you wish to be perfect, go and sell all that you have: behold, perfect poverty, which retains absolutely nothing for itself: and follow me: behold, humility, which causes a man, by denying himself, to take up his cross and follow Christ, who is the most principal foundation of all perfection. Fear therefore disposes to poverty of spirit. — But piety disposes to meekness: for he who is piously disposed toward another neither provokes him nor is provoked by him. — Knowledge disposes to mourning, since through knowledge we recognize that we have been banished from the state of blessedness into this valley of misery and tears. — But fortitude disposes to hunger for justice; for he who is strong holds so eagerly to justice that he would rather be separated from bodily life than from justice. — Counsel disposes to mercy: for there is nothing God counsels more in Scripture than to show mercy, which he esteems above all holocausts. — Understanding disposes to cleanness of heart: for the contemplation of truth cleanses our heart from all phantasms.
Wisdom disposes to peace: for wisdom joins us to the highest truth and good, in which is the end and tranquility of our whole rational appetite.
When this peace has been attained, there necessarily follows a superabundant spiritual delight, which is contained in the twelvefold number of the fruits to intimate the superabundance of delights. For twelve is an abundant number, in which is intimated the exuberance of spiritual charisms, in which the holy soul takes delight and rejoices; and then the person is fit for contemplation and for the gazes and embraces of the Bridegroom and the Bride, which take place according to the spiritual senses, by which is seen the supreme beauty of Christ the Bridegroom under the aspect of Splendor: is heard the supreme harmony under the aspect of the Word: is tasted the supreme sweetness under the aspect of Wisdom, which comprehends both, namely the Word and the Splendor: is smelled the supreme fragrance under the aspect of the Word inspired in the heart; is clasped the supreme gentleness under the aspect of the Word incarnate, dwelling among us bodily and rendering himself palpable, kissable, and embraceable to us through the most ardent charity, which causes our mind to pass over through ecstasy and rapture from this world to the Father.
From what has been said, therefore, it is clearly gathered that the habits of the virtues principally dispose one to the exercise of the active life; the habits, however, of the gifts to the repose of the contemplative life: while the habits of the beatitudes dispose to the perfection of both. The fruits of the Spirit, however, which are charity, joy, peace, patience, longanimity, goodness, benignity, mildness, faith, modesty, continence, chastity , denote the delights consequent upon perfect works. The spiritual senses, moreover, denote mental perceptions concerning the truth to be contemplated. This contemplation indeed was in the Prophets through revelation with respect to the threefold vision, namely corporeal, imaginative, and intellectual; in other just persons, however, it is found through speculation, which begins from sense and arrives at imagination, and from imagination to reason, from reason to understanding, from understanding to intelligence; from intelligence, however, to wisdom or ecstatic knowledge, which begins here on the way but is consummated in everlasting glory.
And in these degrees consists the ladder of Jacob, whose summit reaches heaven: and the throne of Solomon, upon which sits the most wise King, truly peaceful and loving as the most beautiful bridegroom and wholly desirable: upon whom the Angels desire to gaze, and toward whom the desire of holy souls sighs, as the hart longs for the fountains of waters. By which most fervent desire, in the manner of fire, our spirit is not only made agile for ascent, but also by a certain learned ignorance is rapt above itself into darkness and ecstasy, so that not only does it say with the bride: We will run in the fragrance of your ointments, but also sings with the Prophet: And the night is my illumination in my delights. Which nocturnal and delightful illumination no one knows except he who experiences it, nor does anyone experience it except through grace divinely given, nor is it given to anyone except to him who exercises himself toward it; therefore henceforth we must consider the exercises of merits.
Ch. VII.
On the exercise of grace with respect to things to be believed.
In the fourth place, therefore, it remains to consider grace with regard to the exercises of merits. And concerning these, four things must be considered. First, the exercise of grace in things to be believed, such as the articles of faith; second, in things to be loved, such as those things which pertain to the order of loving; third, in things to be carried out, such as the precepts of the divine law; fourth, in things to be asked for, such as the petitions of the Lord's Prayer.
Concerning the articles of faith, the following must be held: that although through faith we are bound to believe very many things which are above reason, and generally all things which are contained and set forth in the canon of Sacred Scripture; yet specially and properly, those are called articles of faith which are contained in the series of the Apostles' Creed: which in one way are twelve, if regard is had to those who composed the Creed, and in another way fourteen, if we consider what things are radically to be believed as the foundations of all things to be believed.
Now the reason for understanding the aforesaid is this: since the first principle in itself is supremely true and good, and in its work is supremely just and merciful: and to the supremely true is owed firm assent, to the supremely good fervent love, to the supremely just universal subjection, to the supremely merciful trustful invocation: and grace is that which orders our mind to the due worship of the first principle: hence it is that grace itself directs and regulates toward due and meritorious exercises in things to be believed, things to be loved, things to be carried out, and things to be asked for, according as the supreme truth, goodness, justice, and mercy in the blessed Trinity requires.
Since therefore truth is to be believed, and a greater truth is to be believed more, and consequently the supreme truth is to be believed supremely; and the truth of the first principle is infinitely greater than every created truth and more luminous than every light of our intellect: hence it is that, in order that our intellect may be rightly ordered in things to be believed, it is necessary that it believe the supreme truth more than itself, and that it bring itself into the obedience of Christ; and through this, that it believe not only those things which are according to reason, but also those which are above reason and contrary to the experience of the senses: for if it refuses, it does not exhibit due reverence to the supreme truth, since it prefers the judgment of its own industry to the dictate of the eternal light; which cannot be without the swelling of pride and blameworthy elation.
Again, because truth that is above reason or beyond reason is truth neither seen nor apparent, but rather hidden and most difficult to believe: therefore, in order that it may be firmly believed, there is needed an illumination of truth elevating the soul, and there is also needed a testimony of authority strengthening the soul. The first is accomplished through infused faith, the second through authentic Scripture, both of which come from the supreme truth through Jesus Christ, who is the Splendor and the Word, and through the Holy Spirit, who shows and teaches the truth and nonetheless causes belief. Hence it is that authority provides the support of faith, and faith assents to authority. And because authority principally resides in sacred Scripture, which was composed entirely by the Holy Spirit for the direction of the catholic faith: hence it is that true faith does not disagree with Scripture, but assents to it with unfeigned assent.
Finally, because the truth to the belief of which we are bound by faith, and which sacred Scripture principally treats, is not just any truth, but divine truth, either as it is in its own nature or as it is in the assumed nature — for in the knowledge of this truth consists both the reward of the fatherland and the merit of the way —: hence it is that the articles of faith, which are the foundations of faith, pertain either to the Divinity or to the humanity. And since the Divinity is to be considered in three persons, namely the Father begetting, the Son begotten, and the Holy Spirit proceeding, and in a fourfold operation, namely creation in the being of nature, recreation in the being of grace, resurrection in the restoration of life, and glorification in the bestowal of glory: hence it is that the articles pertaining to the Divinity are seven.
Similarly, because Christ's humanity is to be considered as conceived of the Holy Spirit, as born of the Virgin, as suffering on the cross, as descending into hell, as rising from the dead, as ascending into heaven, as coming to the final judgment; hence it is that there are seven articles of the humanity, and thus fourteen in all, after the manner of the seven stars and the seven golden lampstands, in the midst of which the Son of Man walked.
Since therefore there is one Christ in divine and human nature; and there is only one supreme truth, which is the one, first, supreme, and sole ground of believing, which does not change through the ages: hence it is that concerning all the aforesaid articles there is only one faith about the same, unchanged in those of the present as in those of the past as in those of the future, although it is more clear and explicit in those who follow Christ than in those who preceded his coming; just as the New Testament is clearer than the Old, in which the aforesaid articles are contained.
And because the Holy Spirit brought together these articles of faith, contained in the depths of the Scriptures, into one through the twelve Apostles as through the most steadfast witnesses: hence it is that the aforesaid articles were collected into the one Creed of the Apostles. And therefore, according to the Apostles who composed it, they can be called twelve articles, because each Apostle, for the building up of the faith, set down one article as one living stone: which the Holy Spirit rightly prefigured in the twelve men who drew twelve stones from the bed of the Jordan for the construction of the altar of the Lord.