BOOK FOUR / CHAPTER ONE. On the principles of human salvation, namely the grace of paternal mercy
BOOK FOUR. On the principles and means of human salvation.
CHAPTER ONE. On the principles of human salvation, and namely on the grace of paternal mercy.
Up to this point, in three books we have treated the nature and constitution of sacred theology; then the last and absolutely highest end of the human being — namely the supernatural blessedness of soul and body; and finally (1) the humans creation, by which God made him fit to attain this highest end, endowed with righteousness and innocence, so that after living a pleasant and quiet life in sincere and constant love and worship of the Creator without hardships he might be transferred, immortal and without sense of death, into heavenly, eternal, and absolutely blessed life; and (2) his defection, when by Satans persuasion and impulse and by his own imprudence he lost the blessedness to which he had been divinely ordered, and offended his Creator by wicked disobedience, so that he became heir not of eternal life but of eternal death, and as one guilty of divine majesty lese-majeste, stripped of those gifts received above his natures condition, cannot by himself see, find, and keep that way which leads to the blessedness destined for him at the beginning.
I. There follow now the principles on which eternal salvation depends; and they are nothing other than acts of divine grace, by which Gods mercy and justice are so tempered that the sinful human can escape Gods wrath and damnation and regain Gods friendship and eternal life.
Latin
LIBER QUARTUS, De principiis & mediis humanae salutis. CAPUT PRIMUM, De principiis humanae salutis, & quidem nominatim de gratia paternae miserationis. HActenus tribus libris persecuti sumus tum naturam & constitutionem S. Theologiae, tum ultimum absoluteque summum hominis finem, supernaturalem videlicet animae & corporis illius beatitudinem, tum denique 1. hominis creationem, qua Deus eum huic summo fini consequendo fecerat idoneum, iustitia nempe & innocentia praeditum, ut, posteaquam in sincero constantique amore & cultu creatoris vitam citra aerumnas iucundam & quietam egisset, immortalis sine sensu mortis in caelestem aeternamque & absolute beatam transmitteretur; 2. defectionem eius, quando videlicet suasu & impulsu Satanae suaque simul imprudentia amiserit beatitudinem, ad quam divinitus erat ordinatus, & creatorem suum inobedientia nefaria offenderit, ut iam non aeternae vitae, sed aeternae mortis heres factus fuerit, & tanquam reus laesae maiestatis divinae, omnibus iis donis, quae supra naturae suae conditionem acceperat, non possit per se viam illam videre, invenire ac tenere, qua ad beatitudinem ipsi in principio destinatam ferat. I. Sequuntur iam principia, a quibus salus aeterna dependet, & nihil aliud sunt, quam actus divinae gratiae, qua Dei misericordia & iustitia ita temperantur, ut homo peccator iram Dei & damnationem effugere, & amicitiam Dei vitamque aeternam postliminio consequi possit.