Dist. 34, Part 1, Art. 2, Q. 3
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/3/d/34/q/bon-sent-III-d34-p1-a2-q3
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### Question III. *Whether the gifts of the Holy Spirit remain in the Blessed.*

Third, the question is raised concerning the doing-away of the gifts, and the question is whether the gifts remain in the Blessed. And that they do, it seems:

1. By the authority of Ambrose, which the Master sets down in the text, in this place: « The City of God, that heavenly Jerusalem, is washed not by the channel of any earthly river, but the Holy Spirit, proceeding from the fount of life, seems to flow into those heavenly and overflowing spirits, fervent with the full channel of the seven spiritual virtues »; and afterward he expounds that he understands this of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

2. Likewise, Christ was the most perfect comprehensor; and yet in him there were all seven gifts, according to what is written in Isaiah, chapter eleven: therefore it seems that much more strongly can they stand in any other Blessed.

3. Likewise, the habits of the gifts are more perfect than the habits of the cardinal virtues; but the habits of the cardinal virtues will remain in the fatherland, as was shown above: therefore so too the gifts.

4. Likewise, fear is the most inward gift among all; but fear will remain in the fatherland, according to what is said in the Psalm: *The holy fear of the Lord remains for ever and ever*: therefore it seems that all the other gifts remain, by an argument from the lesser.

**On the contrary:**

1. The habits of the gifts are ordered to healing the symptoms [of sin], as was said above; but

in the fatherland there will be no infirmity: therefore there will be no necessity nor usefulness of the gifts. If, then, they were to remain there, it seems that they would be in vain.

2. Likewise, the gifts, as was said before, are for intermediate acts; but in the fatherland all our acts will be perfect and final: therefore there will not be in the fatherland the habits of the gifts, but rather they will pass over into the habits of the beatitudes.

3. Likewise, this is shown specially concerning the gift of *understanding*: for if through the gift of understanding God is known *in* creatures and *through* creatures; since in the fatherland God is known in his essence, it seems that the gift of understanding does not remain in that highest beatitude.

4. Likewise, an objection is raised concerning the gift of *counsel*, since the gift of counsel belongs to one doubting and deliberating: if, then, in the fatherland there will be no defect of doubting nor course of deliberating, it seems that the gift of *counsel* is not to be found there.

5. Likewise, the gift of *fortitude* equips us to endure dangers; but in that beatitude there will be no dangers: therefore etc.

6. Likewise, an objection is raised concerning the gift of *knowledge*: for knowledge teaches us to « live *in the midst of a depraved and perverse nation* », according to what is had in the following distinction; but in the fatherland there will be no depraved and perverse nation with which one must live: therefore it does not seem that the gift of knowledge ought to remain there.

7. Likewise, the gift of *piety* is for having compassion on one's neighbor; but in the fatherland, on account of the highest impassibility, there can be no compassion: therefore either there will not be *piety* there, or there will be no usefulness of that gift.

8. Likewise, the gift of *fear* is for drawing back from evil; but in the fatherland there can be no turning aside to evil: therefore it seems that there will come about in that place an utter doing-away of *fear*.

### Conclusion.

> The gifts of the Holy Spirit will remain in the fatherland, but with more excellent acts than they have in the way.

**I respond:** It must be said that, without doubt, as Ambrose and the Master say, the gifts will remain in the fatherland, yet according to nobler and more excellent uses and acts than they have in the way, as was said before concerning the cardinal virtues.

And *if you ask* what is the necessity of these habits, since for perfect beatitude it suffices to see and love and hold God perfectly; one must attend to this, that the perfection of glory is of much greater abundance than the perfection of grace; but the perfection of grace, by reason of its dignity and eminence, bestows on a human being all the habits making for the integrity of justice according to varied comparison to acts and objects, and according to the states and occasions which are found in the state of the way: much more strongly, then, does glory, which renders the soul wholly deiform and abounding in all goods and deficient in nothing, require perfect habits to be found in the soul according to its every comparison. And therefore the *virtues* and *gifts* and *beatitudes*, as regards all the habits which are in the state of the way and have nothing essential repugnant to the perfection of glory, are perfected and consummated in glory itself; and since all the *gifts* are of this kind, as is plain, because they were all in Christ, in whom was the fullness of perfect beatitude: hence it is that it is reasonably said and commonly held that the gifts will not be done away in the fatherland, but will remain more perfectly. — Hence the reasons which show this are to be granted.

1. To that, then, which is objected first to the contrary, that the gifts are for healing; it must be said that the use of a perfect medicine consists not only in restoring health, but also in preserving and continuing it. Hence the gifts would, in the state of *innocence*, have been for preserving health; in the state of *fallen nature* they are for repairing health; in the state of *glory* they will be for continuing health perpetually. For although in that state there is no curing of sickness, yet there is in it a continuation of everlasting salvation.

2. To that which is objected, that the gifts are for intermediate acts, and all the acts of glory will be perfect; it must be said that just as in the state of the way one kind of work surpasses another in dignity and act, so it will be also in the state of *glory*; as we can also see in the members of one and the same body. Hence just as the members of one and the same body will all be perfect, and yet one member will be judged in a certain way more excellent than another, as the eye is more excellent than the foot: so too it is to be understood in the fatherland, that the acts of the virtues, of the gifts, and of the beatitudes will all there be perfected; and yet nothing will prevent that, as regards the kind of

work, some acts be called prior, and some intermediate, and some last. For if we shall be equipped for all the good and praiseworthy operations of the soul befitting that state; what wonder if, amid so great a variety of acts and works, as regards the kind of work one act can be set before another?

3. To that which is objected concerning the gift of *understanding*, it must be said that although in the state of the *way* the gift of understanding comes about through a discursive course and a certain inquiry; in the fatherland, however, it will be through a simple gaze, where God will be seen manifestly in all creatures. Hence, as the Philosopher says, « if we were above the moon, we should not ask why it was eclipsed, because we should see by a simple gaze the interposition of the earth »; so, indeed much more excellently, is it to be understood in the matter proposed.

4. To that which is objected concerning the gift of *counsel*, it must be said that in counsel there are two things, namely a certain weighed discussion of the alternatives, and an excellent and stable *choice of the better and worthier part*; and the first belongs to imperfection and will be taken away, but the second belongs to perfection and will remain. For the first is not of the essence of the gift of counsel, but the second.

5. To that which is objected concerning the gift of *fortitude*, that it will not remain in the fatherland because there are no dangers to be endured there; it must be said that just as was said concerning the *virtue of fortitude*, so is it to be understood of the *gift of fortitude*, namely that its use will be more excellent in the fatherland. For the gift of fortitude will dispose [a person] to this, that one cleave to God bravely and inseparably, and this not only according to sufficiency, but also according to excellence; and therefore it is not superfluous in the fatherland.

6. To that which is objected concerning the gift of *knowledge*, it must be said that to live in the midst of a depraved and perverse nation is of it [the gift] as it is in the state of the *way*. But in the fatherland its use will be for knowing and discerning how and in what manner each one ought to bear himself toward another, not toward the wicked, who will be outside that supernal city, but toward the good, who in that supernal city will be in all things in concord.

7. To that which is objected concerning the gift of *piety*, it must be said that to the gift of piety it belongs not only to have compassion on one suffering, but also to have a certain affection of kindness and sweetness toward every human being in whom one beholds the image of God; and this belongs not only to the state of the *way*, but also to the state of the *fatherland*, and according to that act it will remain, though not according to the other.

8. To that which is objected concerning *fear*, that it will not there draw back from evil; it must be said that the use of fear will not be there as regards *caution against evil*, but rather as regards *reverence for the highest height*, such that it will make [a person] recoil from that highest Majesty into one's own littleness. But this will be better made manifest when, below, the question is raised concerning the gift of fear specially; for now let it suffice only to have spoken of the doing-away of the gifts in general.

Now from these six [gifts] problems could be formed, so that first the question would be raised concerning the doing-away of the gift of understanding, then concerning the doing-away of the gift of counsel, and so of the individual gifts. It is better, however, to inquire about these together, because they have one general solution; and in the distinguishing of problems the usefulness of the solution is more to be attended to than the wordiness of reasonings is to be increased.

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