§ 108. THOMAS AQUINAS. 669
the semi-Pelagian standpoint. The elect are substituted for the angels who lost their first estate,1 even as the Gentiles were substituted for the Jews. The number of the elect is unknown, but they are the minority of the race. Repro bation is not a positive act of God. God's decree is per missive. God loves all men. He leaves men to themselves, and those who are lost, are lost by their own guilt. God's decree of election includes the purpose to confer grace and glory.
In his treatment of the angels, Thomas practised a com mendable self-restraint, as compared with Bonaventura and other Summists.
When he takes up man, the Angelic doctor is relatively most elaborate. In the discussion of man's original condi tion and his state after the Fall, many questions are proposed which dialectical dexterity must answer in view of the silence of Scripture. Here are examples. Could Adam in his state of innocence see the angels ? Did he have the knowledge of all things ? Did he need foods ? Were the children born in his state of innocence confirmed in right eousness and had they knowledge of that which is perfect ? Would original sin have passed down upon Adam's posterity, if Adam had refused to join Eve in sinning ? 2
Thomas rejected the traducian view as heretical, and was a creationist.3 Following Peter the Lombard, he held that grace was a superadded gift to Adam, over and above the natural faculties and powers of the soul and body.* This gift disposed man to love God above all things.6
1 In locum angelorum cadentium substituti sunt homines. Summa, I. 23, 6 ; Migne, I. 828.
2 Summa, I. 2, q. 72, 5 ; Migne, II. 633 sq. Thomas replies that in this case original sin would not have passed down to Adam's posterity, for accord ing to philosophers, the active principle in generation is the father. But if Adam had sinned and Eve had not sinned, original sin would have passed down to Adam's descendants.
3 Hcereticum est dicere quod anima intellectiva traducatur cum semine. Summa, I. 118, 2 ; Migne, I. 1556.
* Superadditio gratia. Summa, I. 95, 1 ; Migne, I. 1405 sq. Comp. Loofs, Dogmengesch., pp. 292-295.
6 Ad diligendum Deum natural-tier super omnia. Migne, II, 909,
670 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1049-1294.
Man's original righteousness, but for the Fall, would have passed down upon Adam's posterity. The cause of sin was an inordinate love of self.1 Original sin is a disorder of the moral constitution, and shows itself in concupiscence, that is irrational desire. It has become a fixed condition of the race, a corrupt disposition of the soul, — habitus corruptus, — just as sickness is a corrupt condition of the body. The corruption of nature, however, is partial, — a wound, not a total deadness of the moral nature.
Thomas approaches the subject of Christ and redemption by saying that "our Saviour, Jesus Christ, has shown us the way of truth in himself, the way by which we are able to attain through resurrection to the beatitude of immortal life.*'2 Three main questions are taken up: the person of the Saviour, the sacraments, which are the channels of salva tion, and the goal or immortal life. The Anselmic view of the atonement is adopted. The infinitude of human guilt makes it fitting that the Son of God should make atonement. God was not, however, shut up to this method. He can forgive sin as He pleases. Thomas takes up all the main data of Christ's life, from the conception to the crucifixion. Justification is not a progressive process, but a single instan taneous act.3 Faith, working by love, lays hold of this grace.
Scarcely any teaching of Augustine and Thomas Aquinas arouses so much revolt in the Christian theology of this age as the teaching about the future estate of unbaptized chil dren dying in infancy. These theologians agree in denying to them all hope of future bliss. They are detained in hell for the sin of Adam, being in no wise bound to Christ in His passion and death by the exercise of faith and love, as the baptized and the patriarchs of the Old Testament are. The sacrament of faith, that is, baptism, not being applied to
1 Migne, II. 603.
2 Summa, III. Prologus ; Migne, IV. 10.
s Justiflcatio irnpii non est successiva. Summa, I. 2, q. 113, 7 sqq. Migne, II. 955. Justification is defined as "an infusion of grace whereby the freewill is moved and guilt is pardoned."