Commentaria in Isaiam
The spirit of the Lord. Some understand by the spirit of the Lord the very substance of the Holy Spirit, who was always to be with Christ; because Christ, as Son of God, together with the Father breathes forth the Holy Spirit. So Origen and Justin, Against Trypho. Hence Galatinus, book 2, chapter 6, for “the spirit of the Lord” renders “the Spirit the Lord,” that is, the Holy Spirit, who is God; and so it can be rendered from the Hebrew. Here, however, the question is not of spiration, but of the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit. Spirit, therefore, in general is an aroused movement of the soul, an impulse and ardour, sent in either by nature and desire, or even by the demon, and then it is called madness and insane craving: thus are called the spirit of pride, of anger, of sloth, and so on; or by God, and then it is called the spirit of the Lord: and it is sometimes permanent, sometimes quickly passing. Again, it is either in the intellect, and then it is the spirit of wisdom, counsel, understanding, knowledge; or it is in the will, and then it is the spirit of godliness, of fear, or of fortitude. Thus Exodus 31:3 says that God filled Beseleel with the spirit of knowledge in every work, that is, inspired him with the art of making the tabernacle. Thus the Apostle, 2 Timothy 1:7, says: “God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love.” Thus elsewhere, by metonymy, spirit is commonly called the virtue or thing inspired, so that the spirit of gentleness, of humility, of charity, is called gentleness, humility, charity itself, inspired by God.
The spirit of wisdom. Note first: hence the Fathers and theologians rightly gather, whatever Oecolampadius may carp, the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, namely the principal ones.
Second, under these seven, as under the number of fullness, the Prophet understands all his other gifts; as if to say: the Holy Spirit with the fullness of his gifts shall rest upon Christ. So St. Jerome and Cyril. Third, St. Thomas and some others distinguish gifts from virtues in this way: acquired virtues, they say, are given to a man that he may rightly direct his acts according to the law and rule of reason; infused and Christian virtues are given to him that he may direct himself according to the rule and law, supernatural, of faith, hope, charity, and so on; but gifts are given to him that he may direct himself according to the more vehement impulse and breathing of the Holy Spirit, by which, beyond the common laws, he is divinely carried to acts of faith, hope and charity; or, as St. Thomas says: “They are called gifts because by them a man is disposed to become readily moved by divine inspiration, as is said in Isaias chapter 50: The Lord hath opened my ear, and I do not resist: I have not gone back.”
Those of the gifts which are identified with the moral virtues are infused together with grace and charity: yet in Christ alone were they infused most excellently and most perfectly, and therefore of him alone Isaias says that the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him.
I say, “those which are identified with the moral virtues”: for the gift of understanding, and in part the gift of wisdom and of knowledge, since they are not moral virtues, are not infused into everyone in justification.
Morally, learn here that a great gift of God is wisdom (which is placed first here, and is the parent of the rest) and prudence, both the supernatural, of which the question is here, and also the natural: for this directs all the actions of men to their end, natural or supernatural. Wherefore Seneca, epistle 85, concludes by this chain of reasoning that the prudent man is happy: “He who is prudent is also temperate. He who is temperate is also constant. He who is constant is also unperturbed. He who is unperturbed is without sadness. He who is without sadness is happy. Therefore the prudent man is happy, and prudence is enough for the happy life.”
He gives the reason: because the wise man is not weighed down by evils but makes use of them; for he knows how to display his virtue in adversity as in prosperity. He makes the same point by a double comparison. The first is: “Phidias knew how to make statues not only of ivory; he made them of bronze; if one had offered him marble, or a still cheaper material, he would have made of it the best that could be made from it. So the wise man will display virtue, if he may, in riches; if not, in poverty; if he can, in his native land; if not, in exile; if he can, as a commander; if not, as a soldier; if he can, whole in body; if not, crippled: whatever fortune he receives, he will make something memorable of it.”
The second is: “Tamers of wild beasts teach the fiercest animals to bear the yoke, and even soften them into companionship. A trainer puts his hand into the mouths of lions; a keeper kisses a tiger; the smallest Ethiopian bids an elephant kneel down and walk upon a rope. So the wise man is an artist in taming evils: pain, want, disgrace, prison, exile, whatever is dreadful, once they have come to him, are tame.” Socrates in Plato’s Phaedrus.
Others, however, more probably think that these gifts of the Spirit are ordinarily distinguished from the virtues of the same name only in concept, as the gift of godliness, of fortitude, of wisdom, from the virtue of godliness, of fortitude, of wisdom: for they are called virtues because they perfect the soul; they are called gifts of the Holy Spirit because they are given and breathed into souls by him, either as habits or as acts; especially when the acts are heroic, to which the Holy Spirit moves and stirs with a vehement impulse, because they are effects of the Holy Spirit; as Samson is read to have accomplished those heroic works of fortitude when the spirit of the Lord rushed upon him, Judges 14 and following. Hence for heroic works there is almost always need of a new and strong breathing and stirring of the Holy Spirit. Let those, therefore, who aspire to such works call upon him frequently. So St. Jerome, Basil, Nazianzen, Ambrose, Athanasius, Augustine, Hilary and Cyprian, whom Leo Castrius cites, and most of the modern Scholastics. Hence it follows that these gifts are infused into every believer in justification, at least those which are identified with the moral virtues.
Socrates asserts that the wisdom of the soul is divine gold. Iamblichus in Stobaeus, sermon On Prudence: “Prudence,” he says, “is the prince of the virtues, and makes use of all the rest, and shows their order, measure and occasion, like the eye of the mind, most lucid on every side; it makes its possessors like to God.” Socrates, asked what prudence is, said: “It is the harmony of the soul.” Philo: “Prudence,” he says, “is the soundness of the mind.” The author in St. Augustine, to the brothers in the desert, sermon On Prudence: “Prudence,” he says, “teaches you to be always the same in all things, in prosperity as in adversity, like the hand, which is the same whether it is stretched out in a palm or closed in a fist.” Bion, in Laertius, book 4, chapter 7, asserts that prudence excels the other virtues as sight excels the other senses; prudence is to the virtues of the soul what the eye is to the senses. “For how,” he says, “would the just man render to each his own, unless prudence showed what is due to each?” Do you want the precepts of prudence of the Gentiles? Take three out of many. Bias used to say: “Consider, and afterwards undertake the matter.” Also: “Undertake slowly; having undertaken, act constantly. Neither desist quickly nor begin rashly.” So Laertius. Periander: “Do those things,” he says, “of which you will not repent.” Again: “Undertake nothing but what you see you can accomplish.” Democritus said that the most precious of all things is prudence, which admires nothing.
The spirit of wisdom and understanding, and so on. The spirit of wisdom, or wisdom, is a gift or Christian virtue by which we contemplate divine and eternal things, and according to them judge of all things. Second, knowledge is a gift or virtue by which we know the temporal things that conduce to salvation and the way to use them well: this shines forth most in Proverbs, Ecclesiasticus and Ecclesiastes. Third, understanding is the virtue or gift of penetrating obscure matters, especially in the Scriptures, and their allegorical figures and ceremonies: this gift the doctors have. Fourth, the gift of counsel is almost the same as the virtue of prudence (the Christian, that is, a part of it), which together with faith is infused into all Christians in baptism, and by which we direct all our actions honestly and in a Christian way: for counsel is the chief act of the prudent man. Hence the Gentiles set the god Consus over counsel. Plutarch, in the life of Romulus, says that he found “an altar built under the earth in the Circus,” and gave it the name “Conso,” from counsel; and that this altar lies hidden at other times, but is opened at the equestrian contests. Hence Tertullian, On the Spectacles, chapter 5: “The altar,” he says, “of that Consus is buried in the Circus at the first turning-posts under the earth, with an inscription of this kind: Consus mighty in counsel, Mars in war, the Lares in assembly.” Fifth, by the gift of fortitude we endure adversities and martyrdoms.