y be in
him; secondly, _as regards power_; for instance, if anyone be said to
have life fully, inasmuch as he has it in all the effects or works of
life; and thus man has life fully, but senseless animals or plants
have not. Now in both these ways Christ has the fulness of grace.
First, since He has grace in its highest degree, in the most perfect
way it can be had. And this appears, first, from the nearness of
Christ's soul to the cause of grace. For it was said above (A. 1)
that the nearer a recipient is to the inflowing cause, the more it
receives. And hence the soul of Christ, which is more closely united
to God than all other rational creatures, receives the greatest
outpouring of His grace. Secondly, in His relation to the effect. For
the soul of Christ so received grace, that, in a manner, it is poured
out from it upon others. And hence it behooved Him to have the
greatest grace; as fire which is the cause of heat in other hot
things, is of all things the hottest.

Likewise, as regards the _virtue_ of grace, He had grace fully, since
He had it for all the operations and effects of grace; and this,
because grace was bestowed on Him, as upon a universal principle in
the genus of such as have grace. Now the virtue of the first
principle of a genus universally extends itself to all the effects of
that genus; thus the force of the sun, which is the universal cause
of generation, as Dionysius says (Div. Nom. i), extends to all things
that come under generation. Hence the second fulness of grace is seen
in Christ inasmuch as His grace extends to all the effects of grace,
which are the virtues, gifts, and the like.

Reply Obj. 1: Faith and hope signify effects of grace with certain
defects on the part of the recipient of grace, inasmuch as faith is
of the unseen, and hope of what is not yet possessed. Hence it was
not necessary that in Christ, Who is the author of grace, there
should be any defects such as faith and hope imply; but whatever
perfection is in faith and hope was in Christ most perfectly; as in
fire there are not all the modes of heat which are defective by the
subject's defect, but whatever belongs to the perfection of heat.

Reply Obj. 2: It pertains essentially to operating grace to justify;
but that it makes the ungodly to be just is accidental to it on the
part of the subject, in which sin is found. Therefore the soul of
Christ was justified by operating grace, inasmuch as it was rendered
just and h