Theological Theses · §2573 · Louis Le Blanc de Beaulieu

Infallibility reconciled with freedom

Thesis CXXXVI. Nor do they find it hard to reconcile this infallibility of outcome, whether the aid called efficacious is given or withheld, with the freedom of human choice. It never happens, they say, that the will refuses consent to the motions that make up efficacious grace, that is, to motions which, according to God's foreknowledge, so suit the will and are so attuned to it that they will bend it.

Even so, the will, forestalled and stirred by those motions, is not predetermined by them. It determines itself to act in such a way that, while they are present, it could refrain from acting and withhold consent, or even settle on refusal, if the nature of such motions is considered in itself.

Latin

CXXXVI. Neque tamen difficile putant istam eventus infallibilitatem, ad positionem, vel remotionem auxilii ejus quod efficax dicitur, cum humani arbitrii libertate conciliare. Quamvis enim nunquam eveniat, ut voluntas consensum suum deneget motionibus in quibus consistit gratia efficax, id est, quae secundum Dei praescientiam, ita voluntati congruunt, & sunt attemperatae, ut voluntatem flexurae sint; nihilominus voluntas motionibus illis praeventa & excitata, ab illis non praedeterminatur; sed seipsam ita ad agendum determinat, ut illis praesentibus possit non agere, & suspendere consensum, vel etiam ad dissensum se determinare, si natura ejusmodi motionum in se spectetur.

Report a mistake in this passage