Alberti Magni Opera Omnia, Vol. XXXVII

in three ways: in believing the messenger, in consenting to the message, and in humbling herself before God. She is illuminated internally and externally in three ways: in the primary, middle, and final faculties. In the primary, that is, in the sensual realm through speech and response; in the middle, through imagination and cognition; in the final, through internal inspiration. And thus the annunciation was useful for the commendation of the Virgin.

It was also necessary for our own utility, which also happens in three ways: for the confirmation of faith, for the kindling of devotion, and for the instruction of our actions. Our faith is confirmed in that the origin and beginning of the process of our redemption is described sequentially and orderly, and is strengthened by the testimony of the holy Gospel. Devotion is kindled when perfect peace and reconciliation are announced to the entire human race through the most blessed Virgin, and human nature, which had been cast off by God and hostile to the Angels, is greeted by God first through an Angel. In this annunciation, our actions are instructed by what the most blessed Virgin did when the Angel came to her, by what she replied to the Angel, and by what she did after receiving the fullness of grace. We are most elegantly instructed on how we ought to preserve what we have heard, how we ought to prepare ourselves to recover grace, how to increase the grace that has been recovered, and how to preserve the grace that has been increased.

And thus it is clear to what ends and for what purpose this annunciation was necessary.

§ III.

Resolution of objections.

Now, therefore, we must respond to the objections.

Ad 1.

First, regarding what is said in objection, that a mission is between distant things, it must be said that "distance," in the sense that it is spoken of by opposition to indwelling through grace, can coincide with the indweller regarding different graces, such that God dwells by one grace, yet remains distant regarding another. Hence, although God dwelt in the Virgin by grace, He was yet distant regarding bodily presence.

Ad 2 and others.

To the other objection, that a mission is through a medium, it must be said that there are two ways to understand a medium in an operation. In one way, according to how the medium receives from the first and influences the last, and has the nature of a motive regarding the last, as is said in the fifth book of the Physics: a medium is that into which the first mover changes; and such a medium is nobler than the last, as are the intelligences for the philosophers, or the Angels for the theologians. In another way, a medium is that through which an operation is conducted as if by an instrument. And this medium is sometimes that of the agent to act, and sometimes that of the recipient to receive, and this medium is not more dignified than the last, such as an axe or a messenger. In the first way, the Angel was a medium regarding sensitive illumination, according to which the Angel was superior to the most blessed Virgin, and regarding the announced Christ as man, just as the intellective is superior to the sensitive. In the second way, the Angel was a medium regarding intellective illumination in that he moved and irradiated the most blessed Virgin with sensitive illumination, but God infuses the intellective illumination itself by Himself, through the intelligence referring to the intellective faculty or angelic intelligence.

Ad 8.

From these, the solution is clear up to the final argument, where it is objected that the prophecy of predestination is fulfilled without our free will. This is true regarding our free will acting as an efficient cause, but not without our free will consenting.

What is objected regarding need has been resolved in the distinction.