Cap. 6 Arg. 8 Schoolmen: Alvarez—efficacious grace’s start not from nature’s use of sufficient help
Alvarez, On the Helps of Divine Grace, Disp. 58, p. 263: Suppose we assert a law God has set, that he will infallibly give efficacious help to those who use well—or who choose to use—sufficient help from their innate liberty alone. Then the start of efficacious grace would already come from nature and from the creature’s innate liberty of willing to use sufficient help well. That is the very law, the very decree of God, that Arminius, Corvinus, and the rest of that school defend with such zeal. They say sufficient grace is given to all because of Christ the Mediator’s merit; but efficacious grace—grace that in the act itself converts and regenerates—is to be given only if people use that exciting or sufficient grace well, that is, if the will, once stirred by grace and made able, puts forth the power of willing planted in it. That makes the beginning of efficacious grace belong to Nature. The same Alvarez, same place: this causal is false—“because the person stirred by God wills to consent, therefore he is helped.” This causal is true—“because the person stirred by sufficient grace is helped by efficacious help, therefore he cooperates.” He proves it at length in Disp. 59, and there also holds this proposition most true: because God wills that the person will, therefore the person wills.
Latin
Alvares, De auxiliis Divinae gratiae, Disp. 58. pag. 263. Si asseramus legem a Deo statutam dandi infallibiliter auxilium efficax bene utentibus, aut uti volentibus ex sola sua innata libertate auxilio sufficienti, jam initium gratiae efficacis esset ex natura et ex innata hominis libertate, volentis bene uti auxilio sufficienti. Haec est ipsissima lex sive ipsissimum illud decretum Dei, quod ab Arminio, Corvino, reliquisque ejusdem Scholae Theologis tanto studio propugnatur. Dicunt enim, gratiam sufficientem propter meritum Christi Mediatoris dari omnibus; efficacem vero, id est, eam, quae ipso facto convertat regeneretque, ea lege dandam, si bene utantur illa excitante sive sufficiente, hoc est, si voluntas per gratiam excitata et potens reddita, insitam sibi facultatem volendi exserat. Quod initium gratiae efficacis Naturae adscribit. Idem, Alvares, Ibidem, Haec causalis est falsa: Quia homo excitatus a Deo vult consentire, ideo adjuvatur: Haec causalis est vera: Quia homo excitatus gratia sufficiente adjuvatur auxilio efficaci, ideo cooperatur: Quod disputatione 59. probat copiose: ubi hanc propositionem etiam asserit esse verissimam, Quia Deus vult ut homo velit, ideo homo vult.