with a right to heaven. Original justice, in its essence, signifies sanctifying grace. But as bestowed upon Adam, it included concomitant preternatural gifts binding man to God by inclining his will toward God and by serving as a check on the body, keeping it in subjection to the soul, thus establishing perfect harmony in his dual nature. In that happy state of original innocence the senses experienced only movements authorized by reason and the moral law.
Moreover, this gift of original justice and integrity was bestowed upon Adam not only as a personal gift, but also for his offspring. God willed that every descendant of Adam should receive this wonderful gift of original justice as a natural inheritance. However, God attached a divine condition to the transmission of the gift. He made the transmission dependent upon Adam’s obedience to a command given him in paradise. Unfortunately, Adam disobeyed God, and by his sin lost the gift of original justice both for himself and for his offspring.
Scotus calls this twofold will in God His antecedent and His consequent will. 12 By His antecedent will God destined every descendant of Adam to receive original justice. By His consequent will God does not bestow original justice upon mankind because of the sinful disobedience of Adam, whom He had constituted the head of the human race. In consequence, there is found in all descendants of Adam at the moment of their coming into being a lack or absence of that original justice which should be present in accordance with God’s original design and antecedent eternal decree. 13 In the words of Scotus, we now come into the world ’’debtors” of original
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