The moral virtues may be reduced to four, viz.: prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance. These are called the “cardinal” virtues; first, because they perfect the principal faculties of the soul; secondly, because all the other virtues may be scientifically deduced from them.[1120] In the supernatural order the infusion of the cardinal virtues and of the other virtues subordinate to them has for its object the government of intellect and will in their relation towards created things and the guidance of these faculties to their supernatural end.
a) The existence of supernaturally infused [pg 367] moral virtues is intimated in Wis. VIII, 7: “And if a man love justice: her labors have great virtues; for she teacheth temperance, and prudence, and justice, and fortitude, which are such things as men can have nothing more profitable in life.”[1121] The teacher of the three cardinal virtues here mentioned is “Divine Wisdom,” i.e. God Himself, and we may assume that He inculcates them by the same method which He employs in infusing the theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity.
Another relevant text is Ezechiel XI, 19 sq.: “... and I will take away the stony heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my commandments, and keep my judgments.”[1122] Here Yahweh promises to give the just men of the New Covenant a “heart of flesh” as opposed to the “stony heart” of the Jews. The meaning evidently is that a disposition to do good will be a characteristic of the New Testament Christians in contradistinction to the hardhearted [pg 368] Old Testament Jews. He who has a “heart of flesh” will walk in God's commandments and keep His judgments. Hence “heart” signifies the sum-total of all those habits which impel and enable a man to lead a good life. Since it is God Himself who gives the “heart of flesh,” i.e. the moral virtues, it follows that they are supernaturally infused.[1123]
b) Some of the Fathers ascribe the moral virtues directly to divine infusion.
Thus St. Augustine observes that the cardinal virtues “are given to us through the grace of God.”[1124] And St. Gregory the Great says that the Holy Ghost does “not desert the hearts of those who are perfect in faith, hope, and charity, and in those other goods without which no man can attain to the heavenly fatherland.”[1125] St. Thomas shows the theological reason for this by pointing to the parallel that exists between nature and the supernatural. “Effects,” he says, “must always be proportionate to their causes and principles. Now all virtues, intellectual and moral, which we acquire by our acts, proceed from certain natural principles preëxisting in us.... In lieu of these natural principles God confers on us the theological virtues, by which we are directed to a supernatural end.... Hence there must correspond to these theological virtues, proportionally, other habits caused in us by God, and which bear the same relation to [pg 369] the theological virtues that the moral and intellectual virtues bear to the natural principles of virtue.”[1126]
Thesis III: The seven gifts of the Holy Ghost are also infused with sanctifying grace.
This proposition may be qualified as “probabilis.”
Proof. The Church's teaching with regard to the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost is based on Isaias XI, 2 sq.: “And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him: the spirit of wisdom, and of understanding, the spirit of counsel, and of fortitude, the spirit of knowledge, and of godliness. And he shall be filled with the spirit of the fear of the Lord.” Four of these supernatural gifts (wisdom, understanding, counsel, and knowledge) perfect the intellect in matters pertaining to salvation, while the remaining three (fortitude, godliness, and the fear of the Lord) direct the will to its supernatural end. Are these seven gifts, (or some of them), really distinct from the infused moral virtues? Are they habits or habitual dispositions, or merely transient impulses or inspirations? What are their mutual relations and how can they be divided off from one another? These and similar questions are in dispute among theologians. The prevailing opinion is that the gifts of the Holy Ghost are infused habitual dispositions, [pg 370] realiter distinct from the theological and moral virtues, by which the soul is endowed with a supernatural capacity for receiving the inspirations of the Holy Ghost and a supernatural readiness to obey His impulses in all important matters pertaining to salvation.[1127]
That the gifts of the Holy Ghost are infused into the soul simultaneously with sanctifying grace, can be demonstrated as follows: Christ, as the mystical head, is the pattern of justification for the members of His spiritual body, who are united to Him by sanctifying grace.[1128] Now the Holy Ghost dwelled in Christ with all His gifts as permanent habits.[1129] Consequently, these gifts are imparted by infusion to those who receive the grace of justification. This is manifestly the belief of the Church, for she prays in the “Veni Sancte Spiritus”:
“Shed upon thy faithful fold,