Cap. 6 Arg. 8 Primo close: Fulgentius and Aquinas—original demerit justly withholds Gospel grace
Fulgentius, On the Truth of Predestination book 1: to people who use reason God either supplies or withholds the persons fitted for their salvation—holding justice toward some, showing mercy to others. Meaning: he sends Gospel preachers, or does not, by his good pleasure—sends when he means to display mercy, withholds when he means to exercise justice. From the same Fulgentius I add: the common guilt all contracted in Adam is enough for Gospel grace to be justly denied to anyone. So he says there: the grace by which we are saved is never given for a prior good desert, yet it is denied only for a prior evil desert; for the first man passed the deserts of his sin to all. So for Fulgentius original demerit is already a just reason to withhold Christ's grace from anyone. Aquinas owns the same (2a 2ae q. 2 a. 5 ad 1): helps of grace are given to some in mercy, and in justice not given to others, as punishment for prior sin—at least original sin. All this confirms what we set out first: there is no decreed law, tied to Christ's death, that the means of Gospel grace must be administered to the whole human race. God, even with Christ's death in view, can by right deny—and has in fact denied to some—the very calling of grace.
Latin
Fulgentius, lib. 1. De verit. Praedest. Deus hominibus ratione utentibus congruas ad salutem personas aut procurat, aut denegat, in aliis justitiam tenens, in aliis misericordiam tribuens. Sensus est, Deum mittere vel non mittere praedicatores Evangelicos pro beneplacito suo: mittit quando vult ostendere misericordiam suam, non mittit quando vult exserere justitiam. Quinetiam et illud addo ex eodem Fulgentio, Communem illum reatum quem omnes homines contraxerunt in Adamo, sufficere ad hoc ut gratia Evangelica cuivis homini juste denegetur. Sic Fulgentius ibid.: Haec Dei gratia qua salvamur, non alicui praecedenti bono merito datur, nec tamen nisi praecedente malo merito denegatur. Primus enim homo peccati sui merita transmisit in omnes, &c. Unde patet, ex mente Fulgentii demeritum originale satis justam causam esse cur gratia Christi cuivis homini denegetur. Quod ipse Aquinas agnoscit, 2a 2ae qu. 2. art. 5. resp. ad 1., ubi ait auxilia gratiae quibusdam dari misericorditer, quibusdam ex justitia non dari, in poenam praecedentis peccati, saltem originalis. Ex hisce omnibus habemus quod primo in loco confirmandum proposuimus; nempe, Nullam esse legem decretam aut statutam, in ordine ad mortem Christi, de administrandis gratiae Evangelicae mediis toti humano generi; sed Deum, non obstante ullo ad mortem Christi respectu, negare posse de jure, et de facto negasse aliquibus ipsam vocationem gratiae.