Paul Ferry of Metz: God foresaw by conditional knowledge that man, created fallible and tempted, would fall
Paul Ferry, the celebrated minister of God's Word at Metz, also admits in God this conditional knowledge of future things, which comes before the free decree. 'By what they call his conditional knowledge,' he says, 'God foreknew that man would do this or that, in whatever way he made him. So he foreknew that man would fall if God created him able to fall, allowed him to be tempted, and left him to himself, given his innate freedom to go either way and the weakness of a creature.
If man fell, God foreknew that all would perish, if he so willed; or he could rescue some from it, so as to display his justice in the one group and his grace in the other,' and so on.
Later, setting out the reasoning of God's providence regarding the fall, he says: 'First, God foresaw that man would fall if he were created able to fall and were tempted. Next, because he saw that it was fitting, it pleased him that this should happen. He did not force man, but created him that way and left him to temptation and to himself.'
A little further on he adds that God determined nothing about man's fall without first foreseeing that, given freedom and temptation, man would infallibly fall. Vindiciae pro Scholastico Orthodoxo, pages 203, 209 and 210.
Latin
XXXI. Atque hanc scientiam futurorum conditionatam, & quae liberum decretum praecedat, in Deo admittit quoque Paulus Ferrius Verbi divini apud Metenses Minister Celeberrimus, Praescivit, inquit, Deus sua quam conditionatam vocant scientia, hominem quocunque illum modo faceret, hoc vel illud effecturum; ac proinde lapsurum si labilem crearet & tentari sineret, & ipsum sibi ipsi committeret, pro innata sua ipsius libertate ad utrumque, & creaturae infirmitate: si autem laberetur, futurum ut omnes perirent, si vellet, vel aliquos inde posset eruere, ut ita in illis justitiam, in istis gratiam suam declararet, &c. Et postea rationem divinae Providentiae circa lapsum hominis exponens, Primo, inquit, Deus praevidit fore ut homo caderet, si crearetur labilis & tentaretur. Deinde (quia vidit expedire ita esse) placuit ipsi ut hoc fieret, non inferendo vim homini, sed hominem ita creando, tentationique & sibi permittendo. Quibus subjungit, paucis interjectis, Deum circa lapsum Hominis nihil statuisse, quin prius praevideret, praesupposita libertate & tentatione, fore ut infallibiliter laberetur. In vindiciis pro Scholastico Orthodoxo, pag. 203, 209, & 210.