Question II: How the gift of counsel orders the mind

WHEN the Gift of Counsel is set forth, as it were an economus, for the powers of the soul to be directed toward supernatural things, the Saintly Doctor here proceeds to show how he orders his family.

He observes therefore, that the Soul is a certain noble creature, from the book de spiritu, et anima, cap. 17. under D. August. tomo 3.; for it is that City of God of which glorious things are said, Psalm. 86. But in the city there are many peoples; namely, the Wise for counseling, Soldiers for fighting, and Artisans for working; So in the Soul there are the vigor of genius and of nature, as it were Natives, as the Saintly Doctor says, distinguished into three grades; the first grade the Intellectual faculties obtain, the middle the Rational possess, the lowest the Sensible, or Animal, retain.

Therefore the Gift of Counsel presides over the whole soul, assigning the Intellectual powers to penetrating and persuading supernatural goods; whence these senses are the best Counselors of the soul; For they counsel: Fear God, and keep his commandments; for this is all man, that is, the whole man: To these, as Advocates, are joined Faith, Hope, and Charity, as called from on high to plead the cause of human salvation.

Likewise this Gift subordinates the rational powers to the Intellectual, for despising evil with the eye of discretion, and choosing the good manfully; whence they are as it were the Soldiers of the Soul, fighting the insolence of concupiscence according to their powers; to which, as Auxiliary troops, are added the acquired habits, namely Prudence, Temperance, Fortitude and Justice; for these virtues strongly repel the vices, and bravely defend their right.

Finally, in the lowest place, Counsel orders the animal senses, to supply the visible things needed by the body; whence they are as it were Rustics and Artisans, persisting in works of the hands, and working with a coarser wit, serving the other faculties of the soul. These, as it were instruments of the arts, take to themselves the exterior senses, which are also as it were Recruits pursuing coarser rudiments; Likewise to the animal senses are associated certain passions, as Love, Hatred, Sorrow, and Joy, with which, being furnished, they obey the higher faculties the more expeditiously; but all these the Gift of Counsel provides, mediately or immediately, ordering each sense in its order and to its function, as the Seraphic Doctor here concludes most excellently; but of these he speaks wondrously cap. 6. and 7. seqq.