Theological Theses · §2159 · Louis Le Blanc de Beaulieu

Molina: consent to prevenient grace is wholly supernatural, yet free (Concordia, disp. 40)

This is the teaching of Luis de Molina himself. He holds that the consent our will gives to God calling it through prevenient grace comes from God not only as one who attracts, invites and rouses, but also as one who cooperates through the help of grace. So there is nothing in that consent that is not in fact supernatural, and in what is needed for justification the adult has nothing to boast of that he has not received from God through grace.

He reasons this way from earlier premises: 'Hence in the consent of free choice to God, who rouses and calls through prevenient grace, there is in fact nothing that is not supernatural and does not also come from God, not only as attracting, rousing and inviting our choice to it, but also as cooperating through the help of grace.

So the adult has nothing at all, among the things needed for justification and by which he is set apart from the unjustified, that he can boast of as though he had not received it from God; even though in many of the things needed for justification he freely cooperates and contributes, so that it is in his power not to cooperate or contribute, and so to prevent them from coming into existence.' Disputation 40, on article 3 of question 14.

Latin

XII. Quae doctrina est ipsius Ludovici Molinae. Docet enim consensum quem voluntas nostra praebet Deo per gratiam praevenientem vocanti, a Deo esse non tantum tanquam ab alliciente, invitante, & excitante, sed etiam tanquam a cooperante per auxilium gratiae; adeoque in eo consensu nihil reipsa esse quod supernaturale non sit; ac proinde adultum nihil habere, in iis quae ad justificationem necessaria sunt, de quo gloriari possit, & quod a Deo per gratiam non acceperit. Sic enim ex antepositis quibusdam ratiocinatur. Quo fit ut consensus liberi arbitrii Deo excitanti ac vocanti per gratiam praevenientem, nihil in re sit quod non sit supernaturale, & quod non simul a Deo emanet, non solum tanquam ab alliciente, excitante, & invitante ad id arbitrium nostrum, sed etiam tanquam a cooperante per auxilium gratiae, atque adeo fit ut nihil omnino habeat adultus ex iis, quae ad justificationem sunt necessaria, & quibus a non justificato discernatur, de quo gloriari possit, ac si id a Deo non acceperit; tametsi ad multa ex iis, quae ad justificationem sunt necessaria, libere cooperetur ac influat; ita ut in ipsius potestate sit non cooperari, & non influere, atque adeo impedire ne in rerum natura existant. Disputatione 40. ad art. 3. quaest. 14.

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