Catholic Theology Plain Pure Peaceable, Section 15
SECT. XV. Of initial executive Pardon or Justification.
217. But the moſt notable juſtification by way of ſentence is, 1. By Gods initial Executions here. 2. By the publick Sentence and Executi… at the Day of Judgment.
218. God ſpeaking not by Voice, that is called his Sentence which d… ciſively declareth his Judgment. But the Execution moſt notably declareth that: Therefore though they be two things with men, and ſometimes with God, yet Sentence being oft paſſed principally by Execution, they are then both one.
219. In this ſenſe to ſanctifie a man, is to juſtifie him executively, and ſo ſententially. For executive Justification and Pardon is the actual Imp…ity, removing of deſerved Puniſhment, and actual giving poſſeſſion of Life and Salvation, which conſtitutive Juſtification gave us Right to. And as our privation of the Spirit and Holineſs, and to be left in ſin, is a great puniſhment; ſo to have the Spirit and Holineſs given us, is executive See my Epiſt. before Mr. Hotch… Book Of Forgiveneſs, and his Book.Pardon and Juſtification; And ſo will Glorification much more.
220. Executive Pardon and Juſtification therefore, though the laſt of three ſorts is the noblest, as ſuppoſing both the other, and being their end and the perfecting of the whole work.
221. Non-punire is not always Pardon, becauſe it may reſpect an inno…ent and uncapable Object. But the Rulers non-punire ſontem is pardon, … what degree ſoever. But a non-punire as the execution of an Act of …blivion, or Gift of Right to Impunity, is the fulleſt executive …rdon.
222. The ſame muſt be ſaid of nolle punire; which is no pardon as … the Innocent, nor to a fore-ſeen Guilt not yet exiſtent; no more than … a ſtone: But when the perſon becometh guilty and obliged to ſuffer, …en Gods nolle punire becometh de novo a pardon denominatione extrin…ca, without any change in God.
223. For God perfectly to forgive ſin, while any ſin remaineth in the More of that imperfection of Pardon againſt Ockam and others.…oul (epecially habitual) is a contradiction: For ſin it ſelf, though not … ſin, nor as effected, yet as permitted and not healed, is the greateſt …uniſhment as was ſaid. And there is no perfect pardon of the puniſh…ent, while ſuch puniſhment is continued. And Ockam's great ſub…lty failed, when Quodlib. 4. q. 1. he determined that per potentiam ab…lutam Deus poteſt ſalvare hominem ſine charitate creata, unleſs he meant that he can charitatem dare aliter quam creando: For to ſave a man with…ut Grace or Love is a contradiction.
His firſt Argument is, [God can do that immediately which he can do by …y ſecond Cauſe efficient or final: *Can they tell us intelligibly how the ſin of Unbelief and not-loving God, and other privations can be really put away, without the contrary quality or act? Scotus, with Rada & other Scotiſts go the ſame way upon the ſame falſe ſuppoſitions. And to confute one of them, is to confute all. And ſo the Papiſts that ſay Original Sin is forgiven in Baptiſm, as to the whole calpability and penalty (as Petavins in Elench. Theriac. Vincent-Lenis (i. e. Fromondi) p. 111. c. 2….) do groſly err: For 1. It cannot be that the pravity of mans will ſhould not be culpable? 2. And the remaining of that pravity is it ſelf a great puniſhment of the ſin which procured it. The truth is (which ſhould ſatisfie them) that to the truly baptized▪ or …eartconſenters to Gods Covenant, Original Sin and all ſin is pardoned at to the great eternal pernicious puniſhment; But not abſolutely and perfectly pardoned yet, as to all degrees of puniſhment: Nor is all the … pability ceaſed.But Love or Grace given is an effici…t or final ſecond Cauſe: Therefore God can ſave a man without it.]
Anſ. The minor is your miſtake: Love here is Salvation it ſelf, begun … this life and perfected in the next: And to give it, and not to give it …re contradictions. All the reſt of his arguments go upon the ſame …iſtake, as if Love were but a meritorious cauſe of Salvation, and not …e thing it ſelf.
And as erroneouſly, Q. 4. he determineth that per potentiam abſolu…m, God can remittere peccanti culpam & poenam ſine infuſione gratiae …eatae, unleſs he had put the queſtion only de modo conferendi gratiam, …n alio modo ſine infuſione Deus illam poteſt efficere? But who knoweth …hat infuſion is diſtinct from other Divine efficience. Or unleſs he had …poken only of Gods giving the jus ad rem, & non rem ipſam, viz. Ipſam …mpunitatem. For undoubtedly the poena damni (properly poena) is …he privation of the Souls rectitude, health and happineſs, which all …onſiſt in the love of God: And to pardon a mans forfeiture of Happineſs executively, without giving him the happineſs which he forfeited, …r to give man happineſs without giving him love to God, are both groſs contradictions; unleſs equivocally you meant, making a man ſome other thing, and giving him the happineſs of that other thing.
His firſt argument here is, [Whomſoever God can by his abſolute power …ccept as worthy of life eternal without infuſed Grace, to him he can forgive …all ſin without infuſed Grace: But, &c. For proof he referreth us to that which I now confuted, adding, That God could accept a man in his pure naturals to life eternal. I anſwer, It is a fiction that ever man had ſuch naturals made by God, as were not indued with the principle and diſpoſition of holy love, the ſame thing which infuſed Grace firſt reſtoreth; much more that Adam lived without the acting of this love. But if it were ſo, yet to accept man to life eternal, is to accept him to the love of God; ſo that if he did prove that a graceleſs man might be predeſtinated to Glory, he did but prove that he is predeſtinated to perfect holineſs and the love of God; And though without this he may be predeſtinated, or might have had a promiſe, and right by promiſe, yet without it he could never have the thing promiſed, for that were to have God and not to have him; nor yet his neceſſary diſpoſition for fruition; for without holineſs he is not a capable diſpoſed recipient of Salvation. The reſt of his arguments run all upon this error, as i… love and holineſs were only the means, and not the end and Salvation given.