Theological Theses · §2417 · Louis Le Blanc de Beaulieu

Polanus: no supernatural grace is universal after the fall

Thesis XXVIII. By universal grace, then, he means the gifts, natural as well as supernatural, that were bestowed on our first parents before sin. They belonged to the whole human race, which then consisted of those two alone, and they were to be passed on to all their descendants had they persevered in obedience to God.

He also allows that after the corruption of the human race, the benefits and gifts of nature that remained after sin and are common to all people may be called universal grace. But after sin he admits no supernatural gift or benefit as universal, and so he says that after the fall all supernatural grace is particular.

Accordingly he divides what he calls particular grace into two. One kind is common to elect and reprobate and is given by God for the salvation of others, such as the charisms the scholastics call graces freely given. The other is proper to the elect and meant for the salvation of those who receive it: faith, regeneration, repentance, love, the hope of eternal life and the gift of perseverance, which the scholastics class under grace that makes pleasing.

Latin

XXVIII. Itaque per gratiam universalem significat dona tam naturalia, quam supernaturalia ante peccatum primis parentibus collata, quia scilicet pertinebant ad totum genus humanum, quod illis solis constabat, & in omnes eorum posteros propaganda erant, si perstitissent in Dei obsequio. Et praeterea post humani generis corruptionem, beneficia & dona naturae quae post peccatum remanserunt, & sunt omnibus hominibus communia, vult quoque posse nomine universalis gratiae designari. Sed post peccatum nullum donum sive beneficium supernaturale vult esse universale. Et idcirco post lapsum omnem gratiam supernaturalem dicit esse particularem. Ac propterea gratiam quam particularem vocat, distinguit in eam quae communis est electis & reprobis, & quae a Deo datur ad aliorum salutem, qualia sunt charismata quae dicuntur a Scholasticis gratiae gratis datae: & in eam quae est electorum propria, & destinata est ad salutem eorum quibus datur, ut sunt fides, regeneratio, resipiscentia, charitas, spes vitae aeternae, donum perseverantiae, quae Scholastici revocant ad gratiam gratum facientem.

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