If we look only at this place of Numbers 27, we shall think it to be nothing more than a rite and some ceremony, by which the governor and Prince of the people might be externally declared — as though the right and power were bestowed on him of having and ruling the people under his hand; or, if we think it something greater, it will be a ceremony of a good and auspicious prayer, of which kind [are] those other impositions of hands, of which above, [Qq.] 9, 10. And then it can be asked: was anything obtained for [Joshua] himself from God by that blessing? and what [was] that? Again, [was it], as in Genesis 48, that he had some prophecy made [thereby]? But if we go to the last chapter of Deuteronomy, verse 9, [something] greater than may [at first] appear will be seen to have proceeded from that action. For thus it is read: “Joshua the son of Nun was filled with the spirit of wisdom, because Moses laid his hands upon him.” And in the Hebrew, with the sense altogether the same: “Joshua the son of Nun — the spirit of wisdom filled him, because, &c.” Is it not clearly signified by these words that that imposition of hands was the cause why Joshua was filled with the spirit of wisdom? Yet Abulensis in that place denies [it], for two causes: One, because the will of God was the cause that he was filled with wisdom; the Other, because before that imposition of hands the spirit of wisdom was already in Joshua, as is plain from those words, “in whom is the spirit,” about which before, question 7. But these reasons effect nothing much. For the former argues from the affirmation of a general and principal cause to the negation of a particular and secondary or instrumental [cause]. For who, whether in Physics or in Ethics, would bear one reasoning thus: “God’s will illuminates the world; therefore not the Sun. God’s will gives grace; therefore not baptism, not the Eucharist, not other things of that kind”? But the latter [argument] concludes only that Joshua was not empty of the spirit before the hands were imposed; but it does not at all prove that he was not, afterward too, gifted and augmented with the spirit. For not [everyone] who, adorned with God’s grace, approaches the Eucharist, therefore receives no grace. Before hands were imposed on Timothy, he was already exhibiting no vulgar grace; yet where hands have been imposed, a more abundant [grace was] given (2 Timothy, ch. 1). And this very [thing] at last Abulensis himself confesses, when he subjoins: “That grace, given before, could be augmented by the imposition of hands — just as in those receiving a sacrament, pre-existing grace receives augmentation.” And on Joshua ch. 1, quest. 4, he does not indeed wish that at the time when Moses imposed [his] hand the spirit of wisdom in Joshua was completed; yet he refers the cause why, when he [Moses] was dead, it was completed, to that [imposition]. But truly the text clearly demonstrates that a fuller spirit was given to him, when, in the Hebrew, it says: “And the spirit of wisdom filled him.” [That is,] before, indeed, the spirit was in him; but now it fills him. So, therefore, I think: that the imposition of hands was the cause of this spirit — not indeed a physical [cause], but a moral [one], and by way of impetration — namely, that God assented to Moses well praying, and augmented wisdom in Joshua. And this St. Augustine teaches (on Num-—
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—bers, question 54. Although, however, Scripture makes mention of wisdom alone, yet I think the like reckoning [holds] of the other spirits, of which question 7. Or certainly this one [wisdom] alone now the more increased, because in a prince it is required most of all; and therefore also by Solomon alone [it was] once asked (3 Kings 2 [3]), and [was] by God greatly amplified in him, and adorned at once with other endowments. And so, again, there is a certain figure of that which is written (Luke 2, v. 52): “JESUS advanced in wisdom and age, and grace with God and men.” St. Augustine adds, in the cited place: “Moses was commanded to impose hands, lest any man, [howsoever] excelling in whatever grace, should dare to refuse the Sacrament of Consecration.” The Lutheran Chytraeus, on that chapter 27 (fol. 534): “By all the saints,” he says, “by the imposition of hands and other rites, the ordination of Ecclesiastical ministers was made.” And on ch. 29 of Exodus (fol. 39) he says [it is] “a rite doubtless received from the first fathers, which signifies a thing pleasing to God, blessed and destined to divine offices, or to divine worships.” And yet afterward, in the same place, he so often repeats “that this imposition of hands is not necessary, [that it] pertains not to the essence of ordination, but, according to Luther’s formula, is Pious and Grave” — [and] which, he says, “it were to be wished should be most diligently retained in all reformed Churches.”