Catholic Theology Plain Pure Peaceable, Section 10
SECT. X. Whether the ſaid Operation be Phyſical or Moral?
§. 1. THis paltry queſtion is worthy but a few words, though … make too much ſtir. Of the ſenſe of the words Phyſical and Moral having ſpoken before, I will not repeat it here. 1. If the queſtion be de operatione ut eſt actus agentis, before the effect, it were but to ask, Whether Gods Eſſence be Phyſical or Moral? which is unworthy an anſwer.
§. 2. 2. If the queſtion be of the Action of ſecond Cauſes, as the Preacher, &c. if truly Acts, they are both Phyſical as they are really actus naturalis, and moral as they are the acts of free intellectual agent… ▪ But the Acts of Laws and other objects meerly as objects (on man) are called Moral Acts, becauſe they are but nominal; but indeed are no Acts, and therefore neither Phyſical nor Moral. For they are but ſigna; and ſignificare is not agere; but is only an objective aptitude, by which an Intellectual agent can …difie it ſelf. All the Books in my Library teach me without any Action, by being ſigna objectively to my active Intellect.
§. 3. 3. If the queſtion be of the Divine Impreſs on the ſoul, it is quid reale, and therefore phyſicum: And it is moral as it is the principium actus moralis. The ſame is to be ſaid of our own Acts and Habits; They are phyſical and moral accidents. And they cannot be moral, unleſs they be phyſical.
§. 4. But it muſt be known that to be quid naturale and quid morale, formally differ; as Actus qua talis, and ordo qua ordo, do differ ab ordine ſe… Relatione ad Legem & ad finem morum: and Moralitas eſt actus Phyſici, vel privationis Relatio, viz. ad Regulam & finem morum.
§. 5. But if the queſtion be not of the Morality of the Act, but the Morality of the Cauſe, viz. Whether Grace or divine action do cauſe Phyſically or Morally? I anſwer plainly, that There is no true Cauſe which is not Phyſical: A moral Cauſe, not phyſical, is but Cauſa reputata vel …minalis. Objects are uſually ſaid to Cauſe morally: But if they be meerly objects, they cauſe not efficiently at all; but by termination only materially conſtitute the Act in ſpecie. But ſome things vulgarly called objects (as Light, Heat, &c.) are Active and ſo effect. And he that doth proponere objectum, doth indeed effect, by ſpeaking or doing: But he doth not effect any thing by the object on the mind, as it is a meer object. But the Vox loquentis doth more than preſent an object: It doth by agency ſuſcitate the Spirits and operate on the organs of ſenſation. And many mercies, afflictions, and other means forementioned, have their ſeveral wayes of active operation. But it is readily confeſſed, that nothing corporeal can by any direct efficiency operate on a ſoul; but only Active Spirits like it ſelf. Remember therefore that I take the word Phyſical here as the Schools do, largely, as comprehending Spiritual or hyperphyſical: And I plainly ſay de nomine, that Gods operations of Grace are to be called Hyperphyſical in reſpect to God the Agent, and Phyſical as they are Phyſical effects on man, and Moral as the ſame are in inſtanti ſecundo alſo moral effects. And that they are called Moral in two uſual ſenſes: 1. In that it is Morality or Virtue that is produced by them: 2. And in that objects being much of the Means, the operation or efficiency of objects as objects, is properly none at all; They do but materially (as it were) conſtitute the Act, and terminate it, and occaſion it, as ſine quibus non, which many call a Moral Reputative, Metaphorical Cauſation. And yet diverſification is much by objects.
§. 6. If this ſtumble any who look not at the greater inconveniences on the other ſide, and occaſion them to think that it is little efficient operation which we own in the collation of faith and converſion: I deſire them to conſider well,
1. That it is no new ſubſtance at all that is to be produced; but a pre▪ exiſtent ſubſtance and faculty to be actuated.
2. That it is not an Act as ſuch in genere, that is to be cauſed by Grace▪ but the due ordering of acts as to right objects, &c.
3. That the ſoul as ſuch is an Active Spirit, not indifferent between Action and ceſſation; but as naturally prone to Act, as the earth to reſt, and as a ſtone in the air to deſcend, and as the Sun to move and ſhine: ſo that it is never one minute out of Action, even in this earthen tabernacle from its firſt being to the laſt breath, day or night: Though in different manner.
4. That God as the God of Nature doth uphold the ſoul in this Active Nature, affording it that Concurſe or Influx neceſſary thereto, which in Nature he made due to it: As he doth to the Sun in its action, and to the ſouls of Brutes. So that Activity as ſuch, diſtinct from the due order of it, is given by God in Nature.
5. And God hath placed the ſoul in the Univerſe, as a wheel in a Watch, where it muſt needs have ſome effects of the co-operation of Concauſes, or ſuperiour agents.
6. And Angels and Devils who have very much to do with our ſouls, do work as Voluntary Agents, in Political Order, though not without the regulation of Gods Law or Will.
7. And God can do what he will on ſouls without any ſecond cauſe, though whether he do ſo, or what, we know not.
8. All this being ſuppoſed for Efficiency, objects duly qualified may do much for the Order of Acts, though properly they do nothing: ſo that though they be but ut Materia ad formam, occaſions ſine quibus non; yet the reaſons of the great alterations in the World, being admirably fetcht from the various Paſſive or Receptive diſpoſitions of matter, no wonder Cum Thomiſtae dicunt, Deum ſuo auxilio efficaci phyſice praedeterminare Voluntatem ad actum bonum, non excludunt Motionem Moralem, ſed eam praeſu… Alvarez de A…xil. diſp. 23. p. 108. …if it be ſo with mans ſoul alſo.
A ſpark of fire which long was unſeen, if you put Straw, Gunpowder or other fuel to it, may burn a City or Kingdom, when yet the fuel is not an efficient cauſe (ſave the fire that is in it) but an objective Matter.
What work doth a Student find all his life among Books? What abundance of knowledge doth he learn by them, which he had none of in his Infancy? And ſo do Travellers by viewing the actions of the World. And all theſe are but fuel to the fire. The ſoul only is the Agent, and all theſe are ſigns and objects that do nothing really on the ſoul at all.
You may lead a Beaſt up and down, and govern them by objects; which yet act nothing on them.
So Satan doth by the Drunkard, Glutton, Fornicator, Gameſter, Covetous, &c. What Reputed work do objects make on them by doing nothing?
Thus Ver…m & Bonum are ſaid to work. And the caſe is this, The Active Spirit, is not only Naturally Active, but Eſſentially Inclined to ſome certain objects (Truth and Goodneſs): And this Inclination being their very Nature, when the object is duly preſented to it, and it ſelf delivered from all falſe objects, and erroneous Action on them, and ill habits thence contracted, it will Naturally work accordingly. And therefore duly (externally and internally) to bring God and Holy objects to the proſpect of the ſoul, is the way of working them to God.
And ſure the World would never make ſuch a ſtir about Preaching, to get fit men, and to perſwade them to diligence, and to keep ſound doctrine, &c. if theſe objective cauſes, as fuel to the fire, did not do much, by occaſioning the Active ſoul to do its proper work.
9. Yet ſtill remember (again) that Jeſus Chriſt is the Political Head of Influx (if not more;) who ſendeth forth the Spirit, as he pleaſe, but ordinarily upon his ſetled Goſpel terms, to work on ſouls, by his threefold fore-mentioned influx, with and by theſe means, according to them, but in an unſearchable manner; As God doth in Nature by the Sun and other Natural Cauſes.