Dist. 29, Art. 2, Q. 1
by St. Bonaventure
Source text: Public Domain Mark 1.0. English translation/apparatus/encoding: CC BY-NC 4.0, Wroot Press.
https://bonaventure.wrootpress.com/browse/2/d/29/q/bon-sent-II-d29-a2-q1
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### Article II. *Whether man before sin had sanctifying grace.*

Next it is asked whether man in the state of innocence had sanctifying grace. And concerning this two things are asked. First, it is asked whether he had grace before the fall. Second, it is asked whether at the same time as he was created he was constituted in things of grace and in natural things.

### Question I. *Whether man before the fall had grace.*

Concerning the first the procedure is as follows, and it is asked whether man before the fall had grace. And that he did seems to be the case.

1. Luke chapter ten: *Who also stripped him and, having laid blows upon him,* etc.; and the Saints and the Gloss expound this to mean that « they stripped him of his *gratuitous gifts* and wounded him in his *natural endowments* »: therefore if this is understood of the first man, the first man had not only natural endowments, but also gratuitous gifts before sin.

2. Likewise, Bernard: « When the enemy of all men saw our father girded about with charity and clothed with every virtue, and that this earthly man had received what he himself had lost through pride; the insatiable murderer envied him ». From this, therefore, it is clear that the first man both had charity and had every virtue.

3. Likewise, Adam after his sleep prophesied, as is intimated in the text of Genesis and in the Glosses; but this happened only because he was introduced in that sleep into the secret of the heavenly court, as many authorities say; but it was fitting for no one to be introduced there who did not have sanctifying grace: therefore, etc.

4. Likewise, he received from God a command of discipline, but if he had kept that command without grace, he would have merited nothing. If, therefore, that command was given to him for the merit of obedience, it seems that God did not give it to him as a precept apart from the help of grace; otherwise He would have given it unto evil, which it in no way befits God to do.

5. Likewise, the sin of Adam is argued to have been of the greatest ingratitude; but no gift in this life is greater than sanctifying grace: therefore if there was greater ingratitude in Adam's sin than in the sin of his other descendants, and his descendants offend God after they have received the gift of grace; it seems that he before sin had the gift of sanctifying grace.

**On the contrary:**
1. God knew that he was straightway about to fall: therefore He knew that that gift of grace would be in no way useful to him, but rather would be to his harm. If, therefore, a wise craftsman ought not to do anything in vain, or even anything that turns to the damage and harm of his work; it seems that He did not give him grace.

2. Likewise, Adam, because he had original justice, when he sinned and voluntarily lost it, never recovered it: therefore by parity of reasoning, if he had had the gift of sanctifying grace, neither he nor any of his descendants would have recovered grace. If, therefore, he did recover sanctifying grace, it seems that before the fall he did not have it.

3. Likewise, Adam had the best natural endowments and had no proneness to evil nor difficulty toward the good: therefore if he had had charity and grace, he would have clung wholly to God, therefore he would never have fallen into sin. But it is certain that he did fall: therefore he did not have grace before the fall.

4. Likewise, Lucifer did not have sanctifying grace, as was proved above. If, then, Adam had sanctifying grace and fell from it, then he fell from a higher degree than the Angel: therefore it seems that his sin was more incurable than the angelic sin. If, therefore, this is established to be false, Adam before sin did not have the gift of grace.

5. Likewise, one ought first to be proved before he is taken up as a friend; this is true not only in human friendship, but also in divine friendship. Hence

it is said in Judith chapter eight: *Abraham, our father, was tempted, and through many tribulations being proved, was made the friend of God.* If, therefore, no one has the grace of God without having the friendship of God; it seems that before the temptation Adam did not have grace. But straightway after the temptation he sinned: therefore he did not have grace before the fall.

### Conclusion

> Adam before the fall had sanctifying grace.

**I respond:** For the understanding of what has been said, it must be noted that concerning this there were wont to be two opinions. — For some have wished to say that Adam did not have *sanctifying* grace, on the ground that it does not seem credible that he would have fallen, if he had had such help. And to the authorities and reasons they reply, saying that Adam had many gratuitously-given graces and had a very good nature. And therefore the Saints sometimes seem to say that he had gratuitous gifts before the fall, not because he had the gift of *sanctifying* grace, but the gift of *gratuitously-given* grace, and through it he was able to resist temptation and to dispose himself for sanctifying grace.

But since the authorities of the Saints seem expressly to speak of *sanctifying* grace, as is clear in those which the Master adduces in the text, and to this also the authority of Scripture and the probability of reason seem to consonate: therefore there is another opinion, more common and truer and more probable, which the Master also maintains in the text, namely that Adam before the fall had sanctifying grace, by which he was able not only to resist evil, but also to advance in good; and aided by that grace, he would have merited as well by observing the command of the Lord as he demerited by transgressing it. — Maintaining this opinion, therefore, we can grant the reasons which are adduced for the first part.

1. To that, however, which is objected on the contrary, that God knew he was straightway about to fall; it must be said that on this account He ought not to have forborne to give him the gift of grace, for a twofold reason: first indeed, because together with this He foreknew the good that He was to draw out of his fall; but secondly, because God in conferring grace does not regard future sins, but present fitness for grace; as is clear, since He confers grace in time upon those foreknown, and upon those whom He has reprobated from eternity; and in each of these the largesse and wisdom of God is commended; and the ingratitude and injustice of man is arraigned in this, that he turns away without cause from one so beneficent and so kind.

2. To that which is objected, that he could not recover the original justice which he had when he sinned; it must be said that this is not the whole reason, namely that he voluntarily lost that justice, but along with this there is the fact that original justice regarded not only the *deliberative will*, but also regarded the *constituted nature* itself; whereas grace regards the *free will* itself, insofar as it is free. And since the *will* is easily turned and turned back, but *nature*, when it is corrupted, is not so easily restored; hence it is that grace can be recovered more readily than the first justice, although both were lost through sin. — There is also another reason why original justice is not recovered; but this will be made manifest below, when original sin is treated.

3. To that which is objected, that if Adam had had grace, he would have clung inseparably to God; it must be said that this does not follow, because free will, having grace, can be moved *apart from* the inclination of grace, and is frequently so moved, considering nothing of that toward which grace moves. Hence it frequently happens that a man of great charity is inordinately affected, on the ground that he is not always actually borne toward that highest good, concerning which he has an immense desire; thus it must be understood to have befallen Adam himself. For what man, having charity, would sin, if he always had God before his eyes and actually considered how lovable God is, and how great a wickedness it is to offend Him?

4. To that which is objected, that Lucifer did not have sanctifying grace; it must be said that it is true. Yet from this it does not follow that man sinned with greater ingratitude, on the ground that Lucifer was nearer to the state of glory; for he would have received grace and glory together. Man, however, was so constituted that he had grace long before glory; and therefore he was placed on earth as though far distant from heaven, and through this in transgressing he neither fell from so high a place as Lucifer, nor was he so ungrateful nor so depraved by sin.

5. To that which is objected, that a man ought first to be tempted before he is taken up as a friend; it must be said that this is understood of that friendship which makes a man intimate and familiar with God; in which way the Lord Himself says to the Apostles, John chapter fifteen: *But I have called you friends,* etc. Of friendship

taken in a broad sense, however, this cannot be understood with regard to God, although it could be understood of friendship among men, on the ground that, unless God were to give grace, in proving He would rather reprove than approve. For we have nothing whereby we can be approved by God, except through His gift; but it is not so of man with respect to man; and thus that point is clear.