Cap. VIII Arg. 9 Resp.: reprobation is denial of unowed benefit, not adjudication to punishment
I answer: by reprobation we mean that part of divine providence by which God wills to deny certain ones special grace and permit them to fall short of beatitude's end — as by predestination we mean that other part by which he willed to prepare and give certain ones that special grace and lead them infallibly to glory and beatitude. Based on that premise, we deny that this reprobation is a deputation or adjudication to punishment. It is free denial of an not owededed benefit from God's will alone; it is not compulsory infliction of an unearned penalty from God's will alone. Yes, in all the reprobate there follows ordination to punishment and imposition of punishment — and both rightly regard that person's final remaining in sin. But in the formal act of reprobation itself, ordination of the reprobate person to eternal death is not yet contained. Such arguments try to deceive us by presuming that what belongs to the same subject must spring from the same causes — as if, because every reprobate is also ordained to punishment, reprobation and that ordination to punishment must depend on the same causes. We hold: however much the same men who are reprobated are always also deputed to punishment, this reprobation flowed from the sole liberty of the divine will, while ordination to punishment drew its origin from their foresighted sin.
Latin
Respondeo, nos per reprobationem intelligere illam Divinae providentiae partem secundum quam Deus vult quibusdam negare specialem gratiam, ac permittere ut deficiant a fine beatitudinis; sicut per praedestinationem intelligimus illam alteram partem Divinae providentiae secundum quam voluit quibusdam praeparare ac donare hanc gratiam specialem, eosdemque ad gloriam ac beatitudinem infallibiliter perducere. Hoc posito, negamus reprobationem hanc esse deputationem vel adjudicationem ad poenam. Est quidem beneficii indebiti ex sola Dei voluntate libera denegatio: sed non est supplicii indebiti ex sola Dei voluntate imperiosa inflictio. Sequitur quidem in omnibus reprobis ordinatio ad poenam, et poenae impositio; atque haec utraque recte dicuntur respicere personae sic ordinatae et puniendae finalem permansionem in peccato: sed in ipso formali actu reprobationis ordinatio personae reprobatae ad mortem aeternam nondum continetur. Fallere igitur nos conantur hujusmodi argumentationibus, dum quae eidem subjecto competunt, ex iisdem causis falso nasci praesumunt; quasi necesse esset, quia omnis reprobatus est etiam ad poenam ordinatus, ideo hanc reprobationem atque hanc ad poenam ordinationem ex iisdem causis dependere. Nos autem defendimus, utcunque iidem homines, qui sunt reprobati, semper etiam sint ad poenam deputati, tamen hanc reprobationem ex sola libertate voluntatis Divinae manasse, ordinationem autem ad poenam ex praeviso eorundem peccato originem traxisse.