Theological Theses · §2387 · Louis Le Blanc de Beaulieu

Wholly from grace and wholly from free choice: subordinate causes

Thesis LXVIII. Yet although, speaking absolutely and strictly, they assert that the whole good work comes from God's grace, they also teach that the same good work comes wholly from free choice as well.

Nothing prevents a thing from coming wholly from two causes when one is subordinate to the other, that is, when the lower cause receives all its power to act and all its motion from the higher.

This, they teach, always holds between the first cause and a second cause, whatever kind of second cause it may be and whether it acts freely or by nature, because whatever a second cause does must be traced back to the first.

Between these causes no division of the work can be admitted in any way, as if some part of it were thought to be done by the second cause that is not also done wholly, in every part, by the first cause, which applies the second cause to all its working.

Latin

LXVIII. Sed quamvis absolute & proprie loquendo, asserant totum bonum opus esse a gratia Dei, nihilominus docent idem bonum opus totum esse a libero etiam arbitrio. Quia nihil prohibet aliquid totum esse a duabus causis, quarum una sit alteri subordinata: sic nimirum ut inferior causa omnem suam operandi virtutem, omnemq; motum accipiat a superiore. Atque hoc docent perpetuum esse in causa prima, & causa secunda; qualiscunque demum sit causa secunda, sive libere agat, sive naturaliter, quia, scilicet, necessarium est, ut quicquid fit a causa secunda referatur ad primam: Nec ullo modo potest in his admitti partitio operum: ut aliquid ulla sui parte existimetur fieri a causa secunda, quod non etiam totum, & omni parte fiat a causa prima applicante causam secundam ad omnem suam operationem.

Report a mistake in this passage