CCXXVII. Corollary XXIII

COROLLARY XXIII.

The diseases by which humanity, cast down from its original dignity, is sick and most miserably afflicted are reduced to ignorance and infirmity: first, to ignorance, overwhelmed by which man either does not see what is in reality true and useful, or sees it in a malignant light, or most easily confounds it with the appearance of truth and the shadow of utility; then, to infirmity, which, having arisen from unbridled cupidity, drives man headlong, subjects him to the senses, and turns him away from those things which are honorable and eternal and are perceived by the mind and soul alone. Before the fatal ruin, provision was made against each disease by a twofold preternatural gift. Provision was made by knowledge, by which the mind, imbued with necessary and opportune notions, both attained the truth of its own accord and distinguished it from error and falsehood without any difficulty. Provision was made by integrity, by which the lowest and brute part of man, restrained and bound, neither plotted against the superior and rational part nor hindered it from freely and unencumberedly pursuing whatever is consonant with virtue and duty. But what shall we judge to have now been effected by restoration? Namely, if we place any faith in the Fathers¹, it has been effected by restoration that the good and merciful God is so present to men by his light and his power that none, provided they will and strive vigorously, suffers detriment to salvation either from ignorance or from infirmity—

—For he is present to men by his light and dispels harmful ignorance; he is also present by his power and strengthens enervated and broken humanity. Therefore, that efficacy of the restored state which manifests itself in the supernatural order through graces opportunely distributed is also wonderfully unfolded in the preternatural order through aids supplied against ignorance and infirmity.