Section LIX

Concerning this intimate conjunction, so many and such distinguished testimonies are read among absolutely all the Fathers that it ought to be held among the theorems which are established by the concordant testimony of tradition. Above the rest, Ripalda¹, Le Moyne², Tricassinus³, and even⁴ Nicolius himself collected them, although most devoted to the Jansenist faction and second to none among the Jansenists. For in the treatment which he entitled On General Grace, after bringing forward the clear and explicit opinions of Justin, Lactantius, Eusebius of Caesarea, Athanasius, Basil, Hilary, Ambrose, Jerome, and Bernard, he concludes that, in the present order of repaired and elevated human nature, the interior aids of grace are never separated from the outward aids of gifts.

Augustine speaks to the matter⁵:

Since he is present everywhere who in many ways calls back the man turned away through the creature serving him as Lord; who teaches the one believing, consoles the one hoping, exhorts the one loving, assists the one striving, and hears the one praying; it is not imputed to thee as a fault that thou art unwillingly ignorant, but that thou neglectest to seek what thou dost not know; nor that thou dost not gather together thy wounded members, but that thou contemnest him who wills to heal.

For he is long-suffering and plenteous in mercy,

and therefore⁶ calls from every side to amendment, calls from every side to penance, calls by the benefits of the creature, calls by imparting time for living, calls through a reader, calls through an expounder, calls through an intimate thought, calls through the scourge of correction, calls through the mercy of consolation.

For all heavenly and earthly things⁷

tell me that I should love thee, and they do not cease telling all men, so that they may be inexcusable.

But if⁸ no one comes to thee unless he is drawn, and men, in whatever manner they come, are drawn:

The contemplation of the elements draws to thee, as does the most ordered beauty of all things which are in them; for the invisible things of God from the creation of the world are beheld, being understood through the things that are made. Knowledge of deeds draws, and the engravings of divine works inflame the mind of the hearer, narrating the praises of the Lord and his power.

Therefore outward and inward gifts are joined together, nor does God mock men; but into those to whom he gives precepts⁹ outwardly he inwardly infuses grace by which they may seek the aid of him who commands; and those whom he addresses by the voices of creatures he also illuminates and kindles:

For the voices of those who teach and the letters of pages, which serve God either for the instruction of those who hear or of those who read, are not without the power of him whom they serve; and when that which is commanded is accomplished by the one obeying, then the effect of the divine work is declared.

Hence the manner of speaking received in the Scriptures: whether that by which¹⁰ it is said, “The law of the Lord is unspotted, converting souls”; “You are clean because of the word”; and again, “Being born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of the living God who remaineth forever”; or that by which¹¹ it is affirmed concerning the ministers of the word that by their work many are justified and saved, and consequently that they themselves are saviors. For to what purpose are these things? Is the power of the word and of the ministers of the word so great that it can justify, convert, cleanse, and save? Nothing could be less true if they are considered from themselves and ὄντως, in reality; but nothing is more certain if they are referred to the order divinely chosen by providence.

For, considered in relation to this order, the outward aids of salvation are not empty but full of the Spirit who instituted them and commanded that they be employed. They are, as it were, sacramental symbols

which inwardly contain that which they outwardly bear forth and signify.

But Quesnel either did not perceive or dissembled this power of theirs. Having either failed to know it or dissembled it, he contends that the grace whose universal amplitude the author of the work On the Calling undertook with so great zeal to assert and illustrate is not internal but external. Yet there was reason for him to deduce the contrary: that with the universal amplitude of external grace a similar amplitude of special grace is coupled, and that consequently he who asserts the former must also be believed a vindicator of the latter.