A. First Doubt

60. But here there are two doubts. The first is whether this predestination [of Christ] necessarily requires a preceding fall of human nature, which the many authorities seem to mean that say the Son of God would never have been incarnate if man had not fallen.

61. It can, without prejudice, be said that, since the predestination of anyone to glory naturally precedes, on the part of the object, foreknowledge of the sin or damnation of anyone (according to the final opinion stated in 1 d.41 nn.40-42 [i.e. Scotus’ own opinion]), much more is this true of the predestination of the soul that was predestined to the highest glory; for universally, he who wills in an ordered way seems to will what is closer to the end first, and so, just as God wills glory for someone before he wills grace, thus too, among the predestined (to whom he wills glory), he seems to will in an ordered way glory first for him whom he wills to be closest to the end, and so to will it first for this soul [of Christ].a

a.a [Interpolation] he first wills glory for this soul before he wills glory for any other soul, and he first wills grace and glory for any other soul before he foresees in it the opposites of these habits; therefore, from the beginning, he first wills glory for the soul of Christ before he foresees that Adam will fall.

62. All the authorities [n.60] can be expounded as follows, namely that Christ would not have come as redeemer if man had not fallen - nor perhaps have come as capable of suffering, because neither was there any necessity that that soul - glorious from the beginning, for which God pre-chose not only the highest glory but also a glory coeval with the soul - would have been united to a body capable of suffering; but neither would redemption have had to be made if man had not sinned.

63. But not for this redemption alone does God seem to have predestined this soul for so great glory, since the redemption or glory of a soul needing to be redeemed is not as great a good as the glory of the soul of Christ.

64. Nor is it likely that so supreme a good among beings was only occasioned because of a merely lesser good.

65. Nor is it likely that God preordained Adam to so great a good before he preordained Christ, which however would follow.

66. Indeed, what is more absurd, it would also follow further that God, when preordaining Adam to glory, would have foreseen that Adam would fall into sin before he would have predestined Christ to glory - supposing the predestination of Christ’s soul was only for the redemption of others.a

a.a [Interpolation] because redemption would not have happened if the fall and fault had not preceded.

67. One can therefore say that God, prior to foreseeing anything about sinner or sin or punishment, pre-chose for his heavenly court all those whom he wished to have there - angels and men - in definite and determinate degrees; and no one was predestined merely because another was foreseen as going to fall, so that thus no one would have to rejoice in the fall of someone else.