second causes. God’s antecedent conditional will that all should be saved, that is, on the condition of their receiving grace through the sacraments dis- tributed under the government of second causes, is supplanted by a consequent absolute will of salvation, therefore, only in the case of those who, he foresees, will, under the government of second causes, actually receive the sacraments and the grace which is con- veyed by them. Thus, it is supposed, God is relieved from all responsibility with regard to the inequality of the distribution of saving grace. By his antecedent conditional will he wills the salvation of all. That all are not saved is due to the failure of some to receive the requisite grace through the sacraments. And their failure to receive the sacraments and the grace conveyed in them is due solely to the action of the second causes to which the distribution of the sacra- ments has been committed, that is, to the working of a general cause, quite independent of God’s antecedent will of salvation. This seems to satisfy the minds of the sacerdotal reasoners. To the outsider it seems to mean only that God, having made certain general provisions for salvation, commits the salvation of men to the working of the general system of second causes; that is to say, he declines to be con- cerned personally about the salvation of men and leaves men to “nature” for the chances of their sal- vation.
The whole matter is very precisely expounded by an acute Jesuit writer, William Humphrey S. J.,”
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with particular reference to the special case of infants dying unbaptized, (and, therefore, inevitably lost) which is looked upon apparently as a peculiarly hard case, requiring very careful treatment. It will repay us to follow his exposition.
“Тһе order of thought,” he tells us, “is as follows. Consequent on prevision of original sin, and the in- fection of the whole human race therewith, through the free transgression of Adam, its progenitor and head, God in his mercy wills the restoration of the whole human race. To this end he destines from eternity, and promises, and sends in the fulness of time, his Incarnate Son, with nature assumed from the same human race. He wills that this Incarnate Son, who is the Christ, should exhibit full satisfaction for all sins. This satisfaction, as foreseen, he accepts. At the appointed time, the Christ actually offers it for all human sins. ‘God sent his Son that the world should be saved by him.’ ‘He is the propitiation for the sins of the whole world.’ In the restored human race all are comprehended, even those who die in in- fancy, before use of reason. In the will of redemption all these infants, therefore, are comprehended. In the divine will that accepts the satisfaction, and in the human will of Christ which offers satisfaction, for all human sins, there is also an acceptance and offering of satisfaction for the original sin wherewith all these infants are infected. Hence, in view and in virtue of the merits and blood-shedding of Christ, God insti- tutes for all these infants a sacrament, by means of
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which there might be applied to every one of them the merits and satisfaction of Christ. All these provisions have, by their nature, been ordained by God for the salvation of infants.
“A will of salvation which is such as this is, is no mere complacence in the goodness of the object re- garded by itself; and, in this case, complacence in the goodness of salvation. It is on the part of God, an active and operative will of the salvation of infants. To all and every one of them this will of redemption is related.
“God wills to effect application of the sacrament of baptism, not by himself immediately, but by means of second causes; and through these second causes not to all infants by absolute will, but to all infants in so far as second causes, disposed in accordance with his universal and ordinary providence, do act under it.
“Among these second causes are, in the first place, the free wills of human beings, on which application of the sacrament, in the case at least of very many infants, is dependent. These human wills God an- ticipates, excites and inclines by his precepts, counsels, and aids, both of the natural order and of the super- natural order. He thus provides that through the diligence and solicitude of those concerned; through their obedience and coóperation with grace received; through congruous merits and good works; through the alms-deeds and the prayers especially of the parents, and of those to whose guardianship the little ones have been confided, and through the apostolic
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THE PLAN OF SALVATION