Disputation — Bontempi, Palladium Theologicum V · from Schola Thomistica
Disputation V: On the Gift of Fear
Of that fear there is chiefly to be disputed, whence God begins to taste of wisdom to the mind, and the creature to be foolish; of this the Seraphic Doctor says on the seven Gifts, cap. 3. on the gift of fear, that it never departs from wisdom, but grows with it, and advances unto the perfect day: and he brings forward Hugh of S. Vict. lib. 2. de Arca morali, cap. ult. saying: In the hearts of the Saints Wisdom is sown through fear, watered through grace, dies through sorrow, is rooted through faith, germinates through devotion, rises through compunction, grows through desire, is strengthened through charity, flourishes through Hope, buds and spreads its branches through circumspection, etc. With this gradation the Seraphic Doctor shows also in this fear the twilight, the noon, and the evening of Wisdom: but since it seems to be identified with hope, therefore this must first be seen.
DE illo timore praecipue disputandum est, unde incipit Deus menti sapere, creaturaeque desipere; de hoc dicit Seraphicus de septem Donis, cap. 3. de Dono timoris, quod a sapientia nunquam recedit, sed cum ea crescit, et proficit in perfectum diem: affertque Hugonem de S. Vict. lib. 2. de Arca morali, cap. ult. dicentem: In cordibus Sanctorum per timorem Sapientia seminatur, per gratiam rigatur, per dolorem moritur, per fidem radicatur, per devotionem germinat, per compunctionem oritur, per desiderium crescit, per charitatem roboratur, per Spem viret, per circumspectionem frondet, et expandit ramos, etc. Hac gradatione ostendit etiam Seraphicus in hoc timore Sapientiae crepusculum, meridiem, et vesperam: verum cum spei videatur identificari, ideo de hoc primo videndum est.
Within this disputation
- Question I: Whether fear is a habit distinct from hope
- Question II: What the object of fear is
- Question III: Whether worldly fear is always evil
- Question IV: Whether servile fear is honorable, and a gift of God
- Question V: Whether servile fear is cast out when grace comes
- Question VI: Whether initial and filial fear differ specifically
- Question VII: Whether, as charity grows, fear diminishes
- Question VIII: Whether gratuitous fear remains in heaven
- Question IX: Whether poverty of spirit corresponds to the gift of fear
- Question X: On the effects, and the precept, of the fear of God