Theological Theses · §1699 · Louis Le Blanc de Beaulieu

So Rome's common view: natural as agreeable to nature and as present from origin, but not as opposed to supernatural

The common view of the Roman Church's teachers, then, is that the righteousness and holiness with which the first man was adorned before the fall can indeed be called natural in two senses. It is natural as opposed to what is against nature, meaning what suits nature and does not destroy it but adorns and perfects it. It is natural too as opposed to what is acquired, meaning what is there from the origin, or from birth.

For they grant that our first parent was created in righteousness, and so they call the righteousness he had in his unfallen state original righteousness. But they deny that it was natural as natural is opposed to supernatural, because in their view it did not flow from nature's principles but was God's free gift, which raised man above his natural condition.

Latin

VI. Itaque Doctorum Ecclesiae Romanae communis sententia est, justitiam & sanctitatem, qua primus homo ante lapsum ornatus erat, naturalem quidem dici posse, quatenus naturale opponitur ei quod est contra naturam, & significat id quod est naturae consentaneum, & quod naturam non destruit, sed ornat & perficit: aut etiam quatenus naturale opponitur ei quod est adventitium, & significat id quod inest ab origine, seu a nativitate. Admittunt enim primum nostrum parentem in justitia fuisse creatum: & idcirco justitiam illam, qua in integritatis statu praeditus erat, vocant Originalem. Sed negant istam justitiam fuisse naturalem, quatenus naturale opponitur supernaturali; quia scilicet, ex eorum mente, ex principiis naturae non fluxit, sed fuit donum Dei gratuitum, quod hominem supra naturalem conditionem evexit.

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