Pareus: supernatural above integral nature or above corrupt nature; original righteousness natural like sight; Bellarmine misstates the question
Pareus, commenting on chapter 1 of Bellarmine's book On the Grace of the First Man, says that the supernatural is whatever is in man, for his perfection, above the principles of nature or his native endowments. He divides nature into unfallen nature, as it was at creation before the fall, and corrupt nature, as it is in the state of sin. So, he notes, "supernatural" is used in two ways: for what is above unfallen nature, or for what is above corrupt nature. He grants that original righteousness was supernatural in the second way, since it surpassed corrupt nature, but denies that it was supernatural in the first way, since it did not go beyond the native endowments and perfections of unfallen nature.
On chapter 5 he says it can be defended that original righteousness was natural to the first man as a good of his nature, no less than the power of seeing or sensing. For bright knowledge of God and divine things came from his enlightened mind, and righteous and holy acts welled up from his righteous and holy will and heart as from a perfectly clear spring, no less naturally, though through free choice, than sight comes from the eye.
But he adds that there is no need to press this point. What was natural to Adam was not only whatever made up his nature or flowed of itself from the principles of that nature, but also whatever of itself accompanied the principles of nature for its perfection, and without which nature was not first made in its principles. That, he says, is the sense of "natural" our theologians chiefly have in mind when they maintain that original righteousness was natural to the first man.
From this he concludes that Bellarmine twists the point at issue when he says the question here is not whether original righteousness was natural to the first man in the sense of what is there from birth, which both sides grant, but whether it was natural as natural is distinguished from supernatural, meaning either what makes up nature or what is fitted to flow from nature's principles.
Latin
XXXI. Pareus autem in librum Bellarmini de Gratia primi hominis cap. 1. dicit supernaturale esse quod homini supra naturae principia, vel dotes nativas inest ad ejus perfectionem. Naturam autem distinguit in integram, qualis erat in statu creationis ante lapsum, & in corruptam, qualis est in statu peccati. Unde observat supernaturale duobus modis dici. Vel enim significat id quod est supra naturam integram, vel id quod est supra naturam corruptam. Jam vero concedit justitiam originalem supernaturalem fuisse posteriori modo, quia superabat naturam corruptam. Sed negat priori modo fuisse supernaturalem, quoniam videlicet, non fuit supra dotes & perfectiones nativas naturae integrae. Capite vero quinto dicit defendi posse justitiam Originis primo homini tanquam naturae bonum fuisse naturalem, non minus quam facultatem videndi, sentiendi, &c. Quoniam ex mente illuminata notitiae illustres de Deo & rebus divinis: ex voluntate & corde justo Sancto, ut ex limpidissimo fonte operationes justae Sanctae scaturiebant, non minus naturaliter, licet mediante libero arbitrio, quam visio ex oculo, &c. Sed addit non esse necesse hoc urgere, propterea quod Adamo naturale fuit, non tantum quicquid ejus naturam constituebat, vel ex principiis naturae constitutae per se fluebat: sed etiam quicquid principiis naturae ad ejus perfectionem per se adjacebat, & sine quo natura in suis principiis non erat primitus condita. Ad quem vocis naturalis sensum potissimum spectare Theologos nostros affirmat, quum justitiam Originis primo homini fuisse naturalem contendunt. Unde colligit Bellarminum pervertere statum quaestionis, dum docet hic non quaeri, An justitia Originalis primo homini naturalis fuerit, prout naturale significat id quod inest a nativitate, quod utrinque conceditur, sed an fuerit naturalis, prout naturale distinguitur a supernaturali, & significat vel id quod naturam constituit, vel aptum est fluere ex principiis naturae.