Question IV: Whether servile fear is honorable, and a gift of God

I JOIN together these two questions of St. Bonaventure, because they have much in common and the one proves the other; for if it is a gift of the Holy Spirit, it is certainly a good.

I ASSERT, I ASSERT, that servile fear is honorable, and a gift of the Holy Spirit.

IT SEEMS defined in the Council of Trent session 14, chapter 4, where it teaches that Attrition, by which we detest sins for fear of eternal punishment, is a gift of God, and is brought about by the impulse of the Holy Spirit.

So too D. Bonaventure says, dub. 1. Fear indeed from grace is either from grace freely given, and so it is servile; or from grace that makes pleasing, inchoate, and so it is initial; or from perfect grace, and so it is filial. In this sense the Council of Trent also speaks, defining also session 6, canon 8: If anyone shall say that the fear of hell, by which we take refuge in the mercy of God grieving for sins, or by which we abstain from sinning, is itself a sin, or makes sinners worse; let him be anathema. Hence in question 1 he says it is a gift of the Holy Spirit, which the Alexians also assert part 3, question 76, member 2, and D. Augustine, and D. Gregory, to cite them.

IT IS PROVED by the Saintly Doctor from the authorities of Scripture and of the Fathers.

Isaiah 26: Like as a woman with child, when she draws near the time of her delivery, cries out in her pangs: so have we been in thy sight. Where St. Bonaventure reads according to the LXX: From thy fear, O Lord, we have conceived, and been delivered of the Spirit of salvation. Where by servile fear the prophets call the Spirit of salvation, says St. Jerome.

He also brings forward in the Diaeta that Psalm 118: Pierce my flesh with thy fear, according to the exposition of D. Augustine enarr. 25, related in question 2 and chapter 4, there; and here he brings forward that Ecclesiasticus 1: The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, as St. Augustine expounds Tractate 9 on the epistle of John. Which the Saints also teach: Basil in the oration on the beginning of Proverbs; Bede on the first chapter of Proverbs; Gregory homily 19 on Ezechiel; Bernard homily 23 on the Song. The Master with the Scholastics dist. 34, and to Luke 12 St. Bonaventure brings forward that: Do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have not more that they can do; but fear him who after he has killed has power to cast into hell. Where he first turns away from worldly fear. Of which also Isaiah 51: Who art thou, that thou shouldst fear a mortal man, and the son of man, who shall wither like grass, and 1 Machabees 2: Fear not the words of a sinful man: for his glory is dung, and worms.

Next he urges holy servile fear: Fear, etc. So Jeremias 10: Fear them not, for they can do no evil, nor any good. And after: Who shall not fear thee, O King of nations? etc. the earth shall be moved at his indignation. And Psalm 32: Let all the earth fear the Lord: and let all the inhabitants of the world be moved at him. And Isaiah 8: Sanctify the Lord of hosts himself: and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread. And Jeremias 5: Will you not then fear me, saith the Lord: and will you not dread at my presence? He adds here that of Proverbs 15: In the fear of the Lord every one declines from evil.

Hence the Saintly Doctor in question 2 draws out, that it is a good, because the habit of this is a gift of God: Therefore also the act. The consequence is proved, because as the habits are, such are the acts; otherwise if its use were evil, it would not be from God.

IT IS PROVED secondly by the Saintly Doctor from the Gloss on Romans 8: You have not received again the spirit of slavery, where it has: Take care lest, because he says the spirit of slavery and of adoption, you understand a different spirit, since it is one and the same spirit; but the Spirit of adoption is the gift of the Holy Spirit: Therefore. It is confirmed. For he teaches that the spirit of slavery was received divinely by the ancients, as Bellarmine notes. For God gave also the old law.

NEXT he proves it from D. Augustine on Psalm 127: Servile fear is good and useful, whereby the habit of justice is gradually formed.

IT IS PROVED thirdly by the Saintly Doctor questions 1 and 2 in the foundation, by reason. That which prepares for justice and grace is from the Holy Spirit: Servile fear is of this kind: Therefore.

This is the argument which the Council of Trent uses above, where it also declares that it is such only as excludes the will of sinning, in which way the Saintly Doctor also speaks in the places cited.

IT IS PROVED fourthly by the Saintly Doctor. To fear God is more than to believe: for many believe who do not fear; and holy fear arises from faith in life eternal, etc. But faith is a gift of God, as I showed in dispute one: Therefore.

IT IS PROVED fifthly. That which opens the heart, that we may receive God through sanctifying grace, is a gift of God; for the disposition is toward the supernatural form, and therefore must be of the same order: but servile fear is of this kind from the Council of Trent. Therefore: The minor is expounded by St. Augustine tractate 9 on the epistle of John, in D. Bonaventure question 3 in the body: If there is no fear, there is no one who enters into charity. As we see by the seta the linen thread is introduced, when anything is sewn, the seta first enters, but unless it goes out, the linen does not succeed; so fear first occupies the mind, but fear does not remain there, because it entered for this reason, that it might introduce Charity. For John expounds it: Perfect charity casts out fear. Then the minor is proved by D. Bonaventure from the opposite, in those words, Isaiah 63: You have hardened our heart, that we might not fear you: for God hardens by not giving grace, as Bellarmine notes from D. Augustine epistle 105.

IT IS PROVED sixthly by the Saintly Doctor. An act takes its species from its object; but the object of servile fear is an honorable good, namely eternal punishment, making sin displeasing from the motive of Divine justice, and through fear of those punishments man ceases from the perpetration of sins, though he does not altogether cease from the will, as the Gloss on Psalm 118 says, which is D. Augustine's above; which whole thing (says the Saintly Doctor) is from the divine gift. Whence he concludes that it is a gift of the Holy Spirit; and question 1 and question 2 he infers that it is a good, because by it sins are avoided.

For the understanding of these words note from D. Bonaventure question 2 that two quasi-degrees can be distinguished in holy servile fear. The first is, when it impedes the external work of sin, but because it is joined with an evil will, it does not beget Contrition, nor Attrition. The second is, when it not only impedes the external act, but also coerces the will, and this is the Fear of which the Council of Trent says it is the motive of attrition, and with the sacrament accompanying it justifies, as I related from the Council of Trent session 14, chapter 4, saying that Attrition disposes to justification, if it excludes the will of sinning: And it is the better.

Of the former, moreover, D. Augustine spoke sermon 25 on Psalm 118, on those words which he relates in question 1. The Saintly Doctor in the body, and question 2 ad 1: Pierce my flesh with thy fear: The fear by which justice is not loved, but punishment is feared, is servile, because it is carnal, and therefore does not crucify the flesh. For the will of sinning lives: which then appears in act, when impunity is hoped for. But when punishment is believed to follow, it lives hidden, yet it lives: for it would rather be lawful, and it grieves that it is not lawful, which the law forbids: because it does not spiritually delight in its good, but carnally fears the evil threatened. This is the Gloss which D. Bonaventure brings forward, who says that through this fear the will of sinning does not altogether cease habitually, though it ceases in some manner; whence it is evil; for if the will remains still actually resolved, such a will of sinning, if there were no punishment, would already be inordinate, as St. Bonaventure says question 2.

Therefore this Saintly Doctor thus receives the servile fear brought in above, and likewise concerning the seven gifts, in the place cited.

IT IS PROVED secondly by D. Bonaventure in the places cited, and in the Biblia Pauperum, chapter 38, for God himself therefore struck into the scriptures the terrors of punishments, that he might deter from sins: but surely God would not send an evil fear, as is plain, Exodus 14 and 20, when he gave the law. Whence also Job 31: I always feared God as waves swelling over me. Deuteronomy 32: A fire is kindled in my wrath, and shall burn even to the lowest hell. Psalm 7: Except you be converted, he will whet his sword. Isaiah 33: Who of you shall dwell with devouring fire? Jonas 3: Yet forty days, etc. Matthew 3: Every tree that does not bring forth good fruit shall be cut down, etc. Matthew 5. 13. 24. 25. Mark 9. Luke 12, and elsewhere.

LET THERE COME FORWARD the holy Fathers related by Bellarmine Book 2 on Penance, chapter 17, where he uses the same means as St. Bonaventure.

From these is washed away the error of Luther, who at the beginning of his perversion condemned this Fear, although the Lutherans now confess with us that it is useful. To these is added Calvin Book 3 of the Institutes, chapter 3, § 7.

YOU WILL OBJECT first. Every gift of the Holy Spirit stands with him himself; but while the Holy Spirit is infused through grace, servile fear is taken away: therefore. The minor is from D. Augustine above on the epistle of John.

The SAINTLY DOCTOR ANSWERS, that the Major is false concerning the gift of the Holy Spirit, which is a disposition and preparation to grace; such is servile fear, which upon the coming of Sanctifying grace is not altogether taken away, but is perfected. The Minor also is false.

YOU WILL OBJECT secondly. The gift of the Holy Spirit has a corresponding exemplar in God; but in God there is no exemplar of fear: Therefore.

The SAINTLY DOCTOR ANSWERS, that there exists an exemplar only as to those things which are said of perfection, as in fear it is to turn away from evil: for God turns away from evil.

YOU WILL OBJECT thirdly. The gifts of the Holy Spirit are given to raise up the soul to noble things; but servile fear rather depresses: Therefore.

The SAINTLY DOCTOR ANSWERS, that holy servile fear turns away from evil and raises up to good. For by it one begins to revere God.

YOU WILL OBJECT fourthly. Fear is related as love is: but to love God for temporal goods is not a gift of the Holy Spirit. Therefore neither to fear.

The SAINTLY DOCTOR ANSWERS, that love toward God on account of temporal things, inasmuch as they are ordered to him as a supernatural end, is holy: so also the fear of the Justice of God from eternal or even temporal punishments, as scourges for stirring up toward the justice of God to be reverenced, and him to be reverenced, is holy; not inasmuch as they regard precisely this life. Therefore he says, not always, etc.

YOU WILL OBJECT fifthly. To fear the gallows the robber has no need of a holy Gift: Therefore still less to fear heavier punishments. But these are equal, those who fear only punishments.

The SAINTLY DOCTOR ANSWERS by denying that they are equal; for the fear of God is from faith, and is of some goodness disposing to grace. Nor indeed is it unfruitful for this, but only for merit, as St. Bonaventure says at the end of the body, question 2. As of faith also St. Paul says 1 Corinthians 3: If I should have all faith, etc. Nor is it hypocrisy, because it is not made simulatedly, nor duplicity of heart with God turned away, as Luther feigns; indeed from this begins the conversion of the sinner. Nor is it evil, because it regards punishment more than fault, although the one having it, because he is a servant, still acts imperfectly; whence this malice is of the subject, not of the form, even if it itself be imperfect. See Bellarmine at the end. Nor is it from fear, though it is from fear; but fear, and pride, can be concomitant by reason of the subject, which is a sinner not yet justified. And in this sense D. Gregory says in D. Bonaventure: When punishment is feared, and the face of God is not loved, fear is from fear.

YOU WILL OBJECT fifthly. Every fear arises from love; for we fear lest the beloved good be snatched away, as D. Augustine teaches brought in above, question 2. But servile fear does not arise from Charity in the sinner, nor from natural love; otherwise it would be natural fear: Therefore from lustful.

The SAINTLY DOCTOR ANSWERS, that it does not arise from Charity; but from love of his own eternal good, which he fears may be snatched from him through hell, which he knows from faith; and so it is from natural and gratuitous love, arising from the supernatural knowledge of faith, though not from the habit of charity.

YOU WILL OBJECT sixthly. No act incompossible with Charity is good: The act of servile fear is of this kind: Therefore. The Major is evident, because Charity does not conflict with good. The Minor is proved from D. Augustine tractate 9 on the first epistle of John, and from the Apostle Romans 8, where the spirit of slavery is said to conflict with the spirit of adoption.

The SAINTLY DOCTOR ANSWERS, that the act which is from its intrinsic nature incompossible with charity is evil; but the act of servile fear is not intrinsically conflicting with charity, because a just man can fear God from the motive of hell: it conflicts indeed per accidens by reason of the subject; Whence it does not follow that it is evil.

YOU WILL OBJECT seventhly. As it is to love God, so also to fear; but to love God on account of temporal goods is evil: Therefore also to fear on account of punishments.

The SAINTLY DOCTOR ANSWERS by denying the likeness; for he who loves on account of temporal things only places the end in them, and therefore is depraved, while he enjoys what he should use; not so he who fears God on account of punishments, in the way said ad 4.

Then by another reason the parity is denied; for he who loves God on account of temporal things loves two things: but he who fears God on account of punishments fears one thing; for he who fears one holding a sword, fears at once the sword and the blow, as one and the same thing.

YOU WILL OBJECT eighthly. Servile fear is named from the slavery of sin: Therefore no one fears servilely without the circumstance of sin.

The SAINTLY DOCTOR ANSWERS, that the circumstance is placed in the subject, not in the act, which is not deformed by reason of the subject, since it takes its essence from the object, from which it is good.