Chapter 2 (124): 1. That The Seven Gifts Are In The Angels And That They Are Vir-
Distinction XXXIV | 137 Chapter 2 (124)
1. THAT THE SEVEN GIFTS ARE IN THE ANGELS AND THAT THEY ARE VIR-
TUES.—AMBROSE, IN BOOK 1, ON THE HOLY SPIRIT. Ambrose shows that these gifts are virtues and will not cease in the future; he says that these seven are virtues and that they exist most abundantly in the angels: "The city of God, that heavenly Jerusalem, is not watered by the flow of any earthly river; the Holy Spirit, proceeding from the fount of life, a small swallow of which satiates us, seems to flow more abundantly among those celestial spirits, carried briskly by a full flow of the seven spiritual virtues. For if a river overflows when it rises above its banks, how much more does the Spirit—rising above every creature, when he grazes the hidden depths, as it were, of our minds—make glad that heavenly nature of the angels with the more abundant fertility of his sanctifications!"!
2. AMBROSE. Afterwards, expounding these sanctifications, he adds:
"By these sanctifications is signified the fullness of the seven spiritual virtues, which Isaias enumerates by saying: The spirit of wisdom and understanding, of counsel and fortitude, of knowledge and piety and fear of God. One, then, is the river, but many the channels of the spiritual gifts."
"Therefore, although the spirits are called many, as in spirit of wisdom and understanding, etc., yet God's Spirit is but one," the arbiter of his own liberty, by the authority of his own will sharing out everything to each one.°—Here it is expressly taught that the seven gifts are virtues and sanctifications of the minds of the faithful, and that they shall not cease in the future, since they exist also in the angels.
Chapter 3 (125) 1. THAT THOSE SEVEN GIFTS WERE IN CHRIST. That these same gifts were also in Christ is shown by Isaias who says: There shall come forth a rod out of the root of Jesse, and a flower shall rise up out of his root. And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him: the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and fortitude, the spirit of knowledge and piety, and the spirit of the fear of the Lord shall fill him.'
2. SOMETHING THAT SEEMS TO CONTRADICT THE ABOVE.—BEDE. But
this seems to be contradicted by what Bede says about fear of the Lord in On the Parables, namely that all fear shall cease in the future. For he says
'Ambrose, De Spiritu sancto, bk 1 c16 n158.
"Is. 11, 2-3.
3Ambrose, De Spiritu sancto, bk 1 c16 n159.
'Ibid., bk 1 c4 n60. ch Oy Ra 1 Gia) ed DO Tssh1 1-3: