Cap. 6 preliminaries: No fixed law that good use of nature buys supernatural light
A few preliminaries, then I turn to confirming the thesis. First, notice that those on the opposite side think God is bound by a fixed decree and statute to give the talent of grace to those who use the talent of nature well. Second, they presume that any pagan, even one sitting in the shadow of death, can by free choice use that natural talent well or badly. Third, from that difference between those who use natural gifts rightly and those who do not, they try to explain why God deigns to light some with the gospel and the knowledge of Christ and does not deign to light others. Use the gifts rightly, they say, and the person is gradually to be led into saving knowledge of Christ; abuse them wickedly, and he is justly stripped of that knowledge.
Augustine seems to stand on the opposite side in De Natura et Gratia, chapters 8 and 9. There he grants that for certain infants the means of salvation could not be applied; and he also owns that adults who died in a region where they could not hear Christ’s name could in no way become just by nature and free choice. We likewise affirm that no decree, law, or promise of God exists by which anyone could safely conclude: this person used natural light rightly, or less badly; therefore God will illuminate him with supernatural grace.
Arminius does say God pledged this by Christ’s word, “To the one who has, it will be given” (Matthew 13:12). But the Reverend of Salisbury speaks more truly and more learnedly: Arminius hints a fallacy here, and commits it—leaping from the one who has in the state of nature to a gift in the state of grace, and making the light of faith the wage of unbelievers’ diligence. For what is promised, and in what kind the use falls, is increase in that same kind. Alvarez, a Roman Catholic writer, votes with us here: no law was ever enacted that helps of grace must be given to those who do all that is in them from nature’s faculty; nor did the Lord Christ by his death merit, or will to merit, such a law. The Apostle Paul teaches that the dispensation of supernatural grace runs not according to the use and works of the human will, but according to the purpose and counsel of the divine will: “He works all things according to the purpose and counsel of his will” (Ephesians 1:11).
Latin
Paucula praemittam, dein ad thesin confirmandam accedam. Primo igitur observandum est, in contraria sententia constitutos putare, Deum quasi fixo decreto ac statuta lege obligatum, ut bene utentibus talento naturae impertiat talentum gratiae. Secundo, praesumunt quemlibet hominem Paganum, etiam in umbra mortis sedentem, posse pro libertate voluntatis suae bene aut male uti hoc talento naturali. Tertio, ab hoc discrimine recte aut secus utentium donis naturalibus, causam reddere conantur, cur Deus quosdam dignetur Evangelio & cognitione Christi illustrare, alios non dignetur. Si quis recte donis illis utatur, hunc paulatim ducendum statuunt in salutiferam Christi cognitionem: Si vero improbe illis abutatur, tum dicunt illum merito privari cognitione Christi. Augustinus videtur in contraria sententia fuisse constitutus, libro de Nat. & Gratia, cap. 8. & 9. Ubi quibusdam infantibus media salutis applicari non potuisse concedit; ubi etiam agnoscit adultos in ea regione defunctos ubi non potuerunt Christi nomen audire, per naturam & liberum arbitrium justos fieri nullo modo potuisse. Nos etiam affirmamus, nullum decretum, nullam Dei legem aut promissionem exstare, juxta quam certo quis posset concludere, Hic homo recte aut minus male usus est lumine naturali, ergo Deus illuminabit eum gratia supernaturali. Dicit quidem Arminius, Deum hoc spopondisse isto Christi dicto, HABENTI DABITUR. Sed multo verius & doctius Reverendus Sarisburiensis, Fallaciam innuit, hic committit Arminius, qui habenti in statu naturae per saltum promittit donum in statu gratiae, & incredulorum diligentiae lucem fidei mercedem facit. Nam quod in re, & quo in genere usus, in eodem quoque incrementum promittitur. Alvarez homo Pontificius nobis hac in re suffragatur, Nulla lex fuit unquam statuta de dandis auxiliis gratiae, facientibus totum quod in se est ex facultate naturae; neque Christus Dominus morte sua meruit, aut mereri voluit talem legem. Apostolus Paulus dispensationem gratiae supernaturalis procedere docet, non secundum usum & opera voluntatis humanae, sed secundum propositum & consilium voluntatis Divinae: Operator omnia secundum propositum & consilium voluntatis suae, Ephes. i. 11.