Catholic Theology Plain Pure Peaceable, Conclusion · Section 3
§. III. Of the three other wayes, and I. Of the Jeſuits way.
Queſt. AS you have paſt your judgement on Alvarez and his Dominican way, tell us how much you think well or ill of in the other three wayes mentioned by Alvarez, and recited by you ſect. 8?
Anſw. I. I have ſaid enough before to anſwer this: Briefly, as to the Jeſuits way de ſcientia media, 1. It is certain, that God knoweth all that Vaſquez in 1. Tho. q. 22. d. 99. c. 6, 7. after the rejection of many opinions holds this the only way of Concord, 1. Gods preventing operating grace is Vocatio Congrua with good cogitations, and the primus motus voluntatis ante actum liberum. 2. Gods co-operating Grace ad conſenſum liberum is neither before nor after our act, but concomitant & ſimul. And ſo cauſeth no antecedent neceſſity, but concomitant (exiſtentiae.) 3. This ſuppoſeth Gods Scientia futuri conditionalis. Againſt this Dr. Twiſſe hath ſaid much in a peculiar Digreſſion. And ſurely God ever operateth as God, which is ut Cauſa prima. But how far he determineth is the doubt.i a capable object of knowledge: And therefore he knoweth what conditional propoſitions of future contingents are true.
2. Whether this ſhould be called ſcientia media or not, is a vain queſtion.
3. Gods acts ex parte ſui being but his Eſſence, and all one, can no otherwiſe be diſtinguiſhed, nor ordered as to the denominations of priority or poſteriority, than as the objects are diſtinct, and by their order of priority and poſteriority allow us by Conn…tation ſo to denominate the acts.
4. The Intelligibility and the Amability of things are in themſelves ſimultaneous, though from the order of humane operations, we ſay that things are firſt Intelligible, before they are Amiable. And ſo we may ſay of God after the manner of men; but not otherwiſe.
5. God doth not will the form, or the act of ſin as circumſtantiated, and as the form neceſſarily reſulteth from it: neither for it ſelf, nor propter aliud; the eſſence or exiſtence.
6. Therefore God doth not foreknow ſin as willed and decreed by him: nor therefore foreknow it becauſe he willeth it.
7. God fore-knoweth (or knoweth) the formale peccati as well as the materiale: yet almoſt all confeſs, that he willeth not the formale: Therefore he knoweth that which he willeth not: Therefore his Volition of it is not neceſſary to his knowledge of it.
8. There is no effect in God: for all that is in God is God; who is not effected: Therefore there is no Cauſe in God of any thing in God: Therefore Gods will or decree of Good is not the cauſe that he foreknoweth it, no… his foreknowledge the cauſe that he willeth it: But he both knoweth and willeth all that is Good, at once.
9. Gods inward operations on the ſoul are real efficiencies, and yet moral, and to us unſearchable: They cauſe the will to determine it ſelf to Good, when it doth ſo; but how we know not. But we know that he ordinarily worketh by means, and according to their aptitude.
10. God uſeth ſuch means with the free wills of his elect as he foreknoweth will prevail with them; and ſetteth them in ſuch circumſtances as he foreknoweth they will freely act aright in: But his inward grace is the principal or chief cauſe: And he doth not will or decree to give them ſuch means and circumſtances, becauſe he foreknoweth they will prevail. That is, Gods will and decree as in him hath no cauſe.
11. But the word [becauſe] is in Scripture applyed ſometimes to Gods Love or hatred, and ſometimes to his outward acts: (as John 16. 27. The Father loveth you, becauſe ye have loved me and believed—) And in the firſt caſe that which is meant, is, that the qualification of the object is the material conſtitutive cauſe of the act of God, (not as it is Himſelf, but) as relatively denominated ab extra from the object in ſpecie vel individuo. And in the ſecond caſe, It meaneth, that the effects of God ad extra called his tranſient acts as in paſſo, have their proper uſes, and we our commanded ends in uſing them: And ſo God is ſaid to ſend Miniſters, e. g. becauſe he would ſave the hearers; that is, the Miniſtry is a cauſe of mens …lvation.
12. From all this it appeareth, that they err who think that their ſcientia media is equally uſeful in the points of Election and of Reprobation, and that they run pari paſſa. For all Good is both willed and known, and ſo Election ſuppoſeth not the foreſight of our faith or obedience as cauſal or antecedent, (if we ſpeak of that Act of Election which is to faith and obedience.) But Evil is foreknown and not willed at all: And therefore there is no ſuch Reprobation which is a will or decree that men ſhall ſin: And the non-impedition of ſin being no act, needeth no poſitive act of will or decree *Yet none of the ſtreſs of their differences lyeth on this; And the Jeſuits with the reſt aſſert a Poſitive Volition de peccato permittendo, without proof: which I leave to …uens various opinions.. But Reprobation which is the decree of damning, ever ſuppoſeth the object to be a foreſeen-ſinner finally rejecting grace.
The reſt about this is ſpoken to ſufficiently before.