PRETERNATURAL GIFTS
### I. NOTION
By this expression are usually indicated the privileges which Adam and Eve received at the beginning, in the state of innocence, along with sanctifying grace, the infused virtues, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit. Sanctifying grace, the infused virtues, and the gifts which derive from it are called supernatural gifts inasmuch as they are “a participation in the divine nature” (v. CONSORZIO DIVINO) and the germ of eternal life, which consists in the immediate vision of the divine essence; they are supernatural gifts not only because God alone can produce them in us and because they are gratuitous, but also because they intrinsically surpass every created and creatable nature, whether human or angelic. While life miraculously restored to a corpse is a natural life (vegetative and sensitive), supernaturally caused by God, sanctifying grace is a life essentially supernatural both for the angel and for man; it is a participation in the intimate life of God and disposes us to see Him face to face and to enjoy Him for all eternity (v. DONI SOPRANNATURALI E GIUSTIZIA ORIGINALE).
The preternatural gifts are far inferior to sanctifying grace; although God alone can produce them in us, and they are not owed to us and are therefore gratuitous, they are not intrinsically, by their very essence, superior to any created or creatable nature; indeed, they are inferior to angelic nature and constitute the integrity of our human nature, whence they are called gifts of integrity. Integrity is a perfection of natural order that can be gratuitously superimposed upon human nature. Man by nature is a rational animal, nothing more; profound philosophical knowledge and a single virtue of human order belong to his integrity or natural perfection; if, instead of acquiring them slowly, he received them gratuitously from God at the moment of creation, they are called preternatural gifts, because they are not superior to nature, but outside of what is owed to II. They proceeded from grace as from their cause, but were inferior to it, forming its adornment and defense.
### II. DIVISION OF THE PRETERNATURAL GIFTS
According to Revelation, the preternatural gifts are four: in the state of innocence, man was in his body preserved from death and pain, and the soul was preserved from disordered concupiscence and ignorance. The testimony of Revelation contained in Gen. 1 and 2 is more explicit regarding the existence and gratuity of the first two privileges, immunity from death and pain, but it also indicates the more excellent and less manifest privileges, immunity from concupiscence and ignorance. Thus it is seen that in the state of original justice there was a threefold harmony: the subordination of the soul to God through grace; the subordination of the lower part to the higher part of the soul; and the subordination of the body to the soul. From the first derive the other two; when the first was destroyed, the other two also disappeared.
1. **In the state of innocence, man was immune from death.** — Although by nature he was subject to death, as were animals, he was nevertheless preserved from it by a singular privilege, so long as he remained faithful to God. This privilege is read in Gen. 2:16: “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, ‘You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.’” Likewise, after disobedience, it is read in Gen. 3:19: “By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” The same doctrine is found in Wis. 2:23–24 and in St. Paul, Rom. 5:12–17, in tradition, and in many conciliar definitions (Denz.-U., 101, 175, 788). St. Thomas (Sum. Theol., 1a, q. 97, a. 1) explains the suitability and gratuity of this privilege. So long as the soul was totally subject to God, it was fitting that from God it should have the power to preserve the body in life. This, as a material composite, is naturally corruptible, like that of animals; immortality was therefore gratuitous, not owed to our nature, but a privilege of the state of innocence. The gratuity of this gift is affirmed by the Church in the condemnation of several propositions of Baius (Denz.-U., 1021, 1026, 1055).
2. **Man was also immune from pain.** — Sacred Scripture in part indicates that in the earthly paradise man had all that he could reasonably desire, worked without tiring, and that animals and inferior beings were subject to him (Gen. 1:26; 2:8, 15; Sir. 17:3–4). Pain appears in Genesis as a consequence of sin (Gen. 3:19). Moreover, immunity from death presupposes immunity from the pains and illnesses that lead to death. Tradition explains this doctrine as follows (cf. R. De Journel, Enchiridion patristicum, 1762, 1923, 2013, 2122), and St. Thomas (Sum. Theol., 1a, q. 97, a. 2, ad. 4) demonstrates the suitability of such a privilege. Certainly the human body, like that of animals, is by nature subject to pain, but so long as the soul remained subject to God, Providence preserved the body from pain and death.
3. **Man was immune from disordered concupiscence.** — Gen. 2:25 and 3:7 lays the foundation for this doctrine: before sin, Adam and Eve were naked and were not ashamed, after sin they felt the need to clothe themselves on account of the disordered concupiscence awakened within them. St. Paul (Rom. 6:12; 7:19–25) clarifies this teaching. The Council of Trent (Denz.-U., 792) declares that concupiscence is sometimes called by St. Paul sin (Rom. 6:22) because it was born of sin and inclines to sin, but that in the baptized it is not, properly speaking, a sin, but rather a wound in the process of healing. Following the holy Fathers, especially St. John Chrysostom, St. Augustine, and St. Cyril of Alexandria, St. Thomas (Sum. Theol., 1a, q. 95, a. 1) shows the suitability of this privilege: so long as reason remained subject to God, it was fitting that the lower faculties should also remain subject; but this subjection was not natural, otherwise it would have remained, like nature, even after sin (cf. Sum. Theol., 1a, q. 81, a. 3, ad. 2).
4. **Man was immune from ignorance.** — This is a theologically certain truth (cf. Sum. Theol., 1a, q. 94, a. 3, 4). To be ignorant does not mean merely not to know, but not to know what, according to one’s age and condition, one ought to know. Therefore, of a European who does not know Chinese, it is not said that he is ignorant of II. Now the first man, with the supernatural knowledge of infused faith, founded on the authority of God revealing, had the natural knowledge proportionate to his state of original justice and necessary to govern himself and to instruct and educate his children. It is the common teaching of theologians that, according to what Sacred Scripture intimates, Adam was created an adult with an already formed intellect, though still perfectible. It is further said (Gen. 2:19–20) that God brought the animals before man so that he might give them names. Finally, Adam knew the meaning of the elements of language. The first man must also have known what distinguishes him from the animal, what distinguishes intellect and the senses, will and sensibility; he must have had certain knowledge of the real value, necessity, and universality of the first principles of contradiction, causality, and finality, without which the existence of God, the first cause and ultimate end, cannot be demonstrated. The first man, as Genesis says, in the familiarity of God, must finally have had sure knowledge of moral and religious things, which was necessary for the conduct of his own life and the education of his children (Sir. 17:1–8).
This is also clearly affirmed by tradition, through St Augustine, St Cyril of Alexandria, St John Damascene (cf. R. de Journel, Enchir. Patrist., index theol., 272). St Thomas (Sum. Theol., 1a, q. 94, a. 3) explains it thus: “The creatures formed by God in the beginning were created not only to exist, but to be the principle (and model) of future things; for a just reason they were produced in a perfect state.” And if the first man, in the state of innocence, had a most perfect body, free from death and pain, as Genesis openly states, still more perfect must his soul have been, in order to govern himself and his children aright. This lofty knowledge of moral and religious laws could coexist with a rudimentary material civilisation; thus certain founders of religious Orders, such as St Benedict and St Francis of Assisi, received from God a very high knowledge of the Order they were to found long before the technical drafting of its rule; the spirit preceded the letter to enliven it; subsequently, technical and material progress was often accompanied by moral and spiritual regression.
The knowledge of the first man remained always a knowledge of faith illumined by the gifts of the Holy Spirit; he did not see God intuitively, nor the angels, nor did he know future contingents, nor the secrets of hearts.
III. Conclusions
These four privileges of the state of innocence constituted the gift of integrity which accompanied sanctifying grace, the infused virtues and the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. This integrity was not due to human nature; it was gratuitous (or preternatural), as the Church declares against Baius (Denz-U, 1026). From this it follows that the state of pure or merely natural nature is possible, namely that God could have created man without grace and without the gift of integrity. This is evident from the condemnation of several propositions of Baius (Denz-U, 1021, 1023, 1055, 1070, 1516). Nevertheless, according to St Thomas (C. Gent., I. IV, cap. 52), the disordered concupiscence found in man, and the weakness of resistance to the higher part of the soul, are a probable sign of original sin having disturbed the harmony established by the Creator.Had the first man not sinned, the gift of integrity would have been transmitted by him to his descendants along with human nature (Conc. Trid., sess. V, cann. 1 and 2; Denz-U, 788-89). The sons of Adam would not have had the perfection which he possessed by being created an adult and as educator of the human race, but they would have had a special acme for knowing the truth, especially moral truth, without danger of error.