Page:Duns Scotus, defender of the Immaculate Conception (1955).djvu/35

 this way a debtor to original justice like Mary, because He is not a natural son of Adam. Though in Mary there is found sufficient cause for original sin, God nevertheless could hinder this effect from taking place, even as He can prevent fire from consuming combustible fuel. Therefore, to be a natural child of Adam does not necessarily imply that original sin is found in a person; otherwise a person would have original sin even after Baptism, since he remains a natural child of Adam after Baptism. After Baptism, then, these two things are simultaneously found in the same person: he is a natural child of Adam, and yet does not have original sin. Now, inasmuch as there is no greater repugnance in the first instant than in any other, it follows that a person may be cleansed in the first instant as well as in any other, from sin which would be found in him if nature had been left to itself.” $41$

Scotus continues: "Mary, then, needed redemption more than anyone else. She needed redemption so much the more, the greater the good conferred upon her. Since perfect innocence is a greater good than remission of sin after a fall, a greater good was conferred upon her by preserving her from original sin than if she had been purified afterward. Nor was it necessary that Christ should have first suffered, because Abraham was purified from original sin which was in his person, by virtue of the foreseen passion of Christ. Thus could original sin have been prevented in Mary, which would otherwise have been in her.” $42$

Turning to the arguments of the opponents referring peculiarly to Mary, Scotus refutes these in turn. As to the argument concerning the opening of the gate of 19