Theological Theses · §1976 · Louis Le Blanc de Beaulieu

As our seeing does not change what we see, God's foresight changes nothing in future things

Once God's foresight is supposed, then, everything he foresees as future must indeed happen. In the same way, once our own seeing is supposed, everything we see happening must be happening.

Our seeing does not alter the nature of things. It does not make something necessary in itself that is free or contingent by its own nature, even though, given that we see it happening, it cannot fail to be. In just the same way God's foresight alters nothing in future things and does not take away their freedom or contingency. This holds even though what God foresees as future, being supposed future, cannot fail to be future.

If we suppose that a thing actually exists, it cannot fail to exist actually. In exactly the same way, if we suppose that a thing is future, it cannot fail to be future.

Latin

XXV. Itaque necesse est quidem omnia illa fieri, quae Deus futura praevidet, supposita semel ista praevisione: quemadmodum necesse est fieri omnia illa, quae nos ipsi fieri videmus, supposita nostra visione. Sed sicut visio nostra non mutat naturam rerum, nec facit ut in se necessarium sit, quod ex sua natura liberum, sive contingens est: quamvis ex hypothesi quod aliquid fieri videmus, non possit illud non esse: sic praevisio Dei nihil immutat in rebus futuris, nec earum libertatem, aut contingentiam tollit: quamvis illud quod futurum a Deo praevidetur, & sic supponitur futurum, non possit non esse futurum. Nam sicut ex hypothesi quod res actu sit, impossibile est eam non esse actu, eodem plane modo ex hypothesi quod res futura sit, fieri non potest ut non sit futura.

Report a mistake in this passage