Theological Theses · §1695 · Louis Le Blanc de Beaulieu

What that righteousness included: true knowledge and pure love of God, and a body and appetite obeying the spirit without struggle

In the view of the Roman Church's teachers, that righteousness and holiness did not consist only in man's mind being filled with a true knowledge of God, enough for gaining eternal blessedness, and in his will embracing God with pure and chaste love.

It also consisted in this: the flesh obeyed the spirit and the body the soul without difficulty or resistance, and the sensual appetite followed reason's lead so fully that it never rebelled against it or pulled the man in different directions.

So Adam in that unfallen state felt within himself no struggle of flesh against spirit, and no rebellion of his members against the law of his mind, such as we often feel. He moved toward good and turned away from evil without conflict or difficulty, and he did not have in him the concupiscence spoken of above, with which we are now born and which stays with us until death.

Latin

II. Porro justitia & sanctitas illa, ex mente Doctorum Ecclesiae Romanae, non in eo solum consistebat, quod mens hominis imbuta erat vera Dei cognitione, & quae ad aeternae beatitudinis adeptionem sufficeret; ejus vero voluntas puro & casto amore Deum complectebatur: sed praeterea in eo quod caro spiritui, & corpus animae sine difficultate & repugnantia parebat, & appetitus sensitivus ita rationis ductum sequebatur, ut adversus eam nunquam rebellaret, & in diversa hominem traheret: ac proinde Adam in illo integritatis statu nullam in se luctam carnis & spiritus, nullamque membrorum adversus legem mentis rebellionem, qualem frequenter in nobis sentimus, experiretur: sed ad bonum ferretur, & a malo sese averteret sine pugna & difficultate, neque haberet in se praedictam illam concupiscentiam, cum qua jam nascimur, & quae usque ad mortem in nobis perseverat.

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