d to the higher, and the higher nature was made so as not
to be impeded by the lower. Wherefore the first man was not impeded by
exterior things from a clear and steady contemplation of the
intelligible effects which he perceived by the radiation of the first
truth, whether by a natural or by a gratuitous knowledge. Hence
Augustine says (Gen. ad lit. xi, 33) that, "perhaps God used to speak
to the first man as He speaks to the angels; by shedding on his mind a
ray of the unchangeable truth, yet without bestowing on him the
experience of which the angels are capable in the participation of the
Divine Essence." Therefore, through these intelligible effects of God,
man knew God then more clearly than we know Him now.

Reply Obj. 1: Man was happy in paradise, but not with that perfect
happiness to which he was destined, which consists in the vision of
the Divine Essence. He was, however, endowed with "a life of
happiness in a certain measure," as Augustine says (Gen. ad lit. xi,
18), so far as he was gifted with natural integrity and perfection.

Reply Obj. 2: A good will is a well-ordered will; but the will of the
first man would have been ill-ordered had he wished to have, while in
the state of merit, what had been promised to him as a reward.

Reply Obj. 3: A medium (of knowledge) is twofold; one through which,
and, at the same time, in which, something is seen, as, for example,
a man is seen through a mirror, and is seen with the mirror: another
kind of medium is that whereby we attain to the knowledge of
something unknown; such as the medium in a demonstration. God was
seen without this second kind of medium, but not without the first
kind. For there was no need for the first man to attain to the
knowledge of God by demonstration drawn from an effect, such as we
need; since he knew God simultaneously in His effects, especially in
the intelligible effects, according to His capacity. Again, we must
remark that the obscurity which is implied in the word enigma may be
of two kinds: first, so far as every creature is something obscure
when compared with the immensity of the Divine light; and thus Adam
saw God in an enigma, because he saw Him in a created effect:
secondly, we may take obscurity as an effect of sin, so far as man is
impeded in the consideration of intelligible things by being
preoccupied with sensible things; in which sense Adam did not see God
in an enigma.
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SECOND ARTICLE [I, Q.