CCLXII. Corollary LVIII

COROLLARY LVIII.

Among the propositions of Quesnel condemned by Clement XI, the twelfth reads thus: “When God wills to save a soul, at whatever time and in whatever place, an indubitable effect follows the will of God.” The thirteenth follows it and consists of these words: “When God wills to save a soul and touches it with the interior hand of his grace, no human will resists him.” Now the two propositions considered together show: a) that no salvific will of God is admitted except one which coheres with the very attainment of salvation; b) that the salvific will of God is held not only as the principal but also as the sole and adequate cause of salvation; c) that the amplitude of the salvific will is estimated from the number of those who are saved; and finally, d) that this is rejected: that God, as far as lies in himself, is inwardly and outwardly lacking to no one, but that men neither take thought for themselves, nor frequently consent to grace, nor cooperate with God who goes before them. But Christian tradition fights against all these things with opposing front¹. For by it—

—we are taught: 1) that the salvific will of God, and that sincere and fruitful, can and not rarely does stand apart from the very attainment of salvation; 2) that the salvific will of God is indeed the sole and adequate cause of the power of obtaining salvation, but that the attainment of salvation so depends upon it as upon a principal cause that it also depends upon the free cooperation of men as upon a subordinate cause; 3) that the measure of the salvific will must be taken not from salvation itself as obtained, but from the faculty of attaining it; and 4) that God, according to his merciful benignity, is at hand for all, offers medicine to all, and stretches forth his hand, but that not all use the aids, not all obey the physician, and not all embrace the hand stretched forth. Therefore, by condemning the propositions of Quesnel, Clement safeguarded Christian tradition and revealed doctrine with the greatest right.