Having laid down this principle, Thomas proceeds to manifest that
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there is a special grace of perseverance bestowed by God on some, and that on Avhomsoever it is bestowed, they certainly and infallibly perse- vere to the end, pp. quest. 109, a. 10, c. ; and Contra Gent. lib. iii., he proves this assertion from p. 6, 1 Pet. v. 10; Ps. xvi.
But, to spare the reader, I sliall give you this man's judgment, together ■with one of his followers, who hath had the happiness to clear his master's mind above any that liave undertaken the maintenance of his doctrine in that part now controverted in the church of Rome; and therein I shall manifest (what I formerly proposed) what beamings and irradiations of this truth do yet glide through that gross darkness which is spread upon the face of the Romish synagogue ; — referring what I have farther to add on this head to the account wliich, God assisting, I shall ere long give of the present Jansenian controversies, in my considerations on Mr Riddle's catechisms, a task by authority lately imposed on me. Tliis is Didacus Alvarez, whose 10th book De Auxiliis treats peculiarly of this subject of perseverance. In the entrance of his disputation, he lays down the same principles with the former concerning the necessity of the peculiar grace of perseverance, to the end that any one may persevere, disp. 103.
Then, disp. 108, he ftu-ther manifests that this gift or grace of persever- ance does not depend on any conditions in us, or any co-operation of our wills. His position he lays down in these words: " Donum perseveran- tia3, in ratione doni perseverantise, et efficacia illius, nullo mode dependet effective ex libera co-operatione nostri arbitrii, sed a solo Deo, atque ab effi- cacia, et absoluto decreto voluntatis ejus, qui pro sua misericordia tribuit illud donum cui vult." In tlie farther proof of this proposition, he mani- fests by clear testimonies that the contrary doctrine hereunto was that of the Pelagians and semi-Pelagians, which Austin opposed in sundry treatises. And in all the arguments whereby he farther confirms it, he still presses the absurdity of making the promise of God concerning perse^■erance con- ditional, and so suspending it on any thing in and by us to be performed. And, indeed, all the acts whereby we persevere flowing, according to him, from the grace of perseverance, it cannot but be absurd to make the effi- cient cause in its efficiency and operation to depend upon its own effect. This also is with him ridiculous, that the grace of perseverance should be given to any and lie not persevere, or be promised and yet not given; yet witbal he grants, in his following conclusions, tliat our wills, secondarily and in dependency, do co-operate in our perseverance.
The second principle this learned schoolman insists on is, that this gift of perseverance is peculiar to the elect, or predestinate: Disput. 10-i, 1, Con. "Donum perseverantia? est proprium ]iraxlestinatorum, ut nulli alter! conveniat." And what he intends by " jira^destinati," he informs you ac- cording to the judgment of Austin and Thomas: "Nomine pra>destina- tionis ad gloriam, solum cam pra^destinationem intelligunt (Augustinus et Thomas) qua elccti ordinantur efficaciter, et transmittuntur ad vitam a'ter- nam; cujus eft'ectus sunt vocatio, justificatio, et ]ierseverantia in gratia usque ad finem," Not that (or such a) conditional predestination as is pendent in the air, and expectant of men's good final deportment; but that which is the eternal, free fountain of all that grace whereof in time by Jesus Christ we are made partakers.
And in the pursuit of this jiroposition, he farther proves at large that the perseverance given to the saints in Christ is not a supjilemcnt of helps and advantages, whereby they may preserve it if thoy will, but such as causes them on whom it is bestowed certainly and actually so to do; and that, in its efficacy and operation, it cannot depend on any free co-opera-
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tion of our wills, all the good acts tending to our perseverance being fruits of that grace which is bestowed on us, according to the absolute unchange- able decree of the will of God.
This, indeed, is common with this author and the rest of his associates (the Dominicans and present Jansenians) in these controversies, together with the residue of the Romanists, that having their judgments wrested by the abominable figments of implicit faith, and the efficacy of the sacra- ments of the new testament, conveying, and really exhibiting, the grace signified or sealed by them, they are enforced to grant that many may be, and are, regenerated and made true believers wlio are not predes- tinated, and that these cannot persevere, nor shall eventually be leaved. Certain it is, that there is not any truth which that generation of men do receive and admit, but more or less it suffers in their hands, from that gross ignorance of the free grace of God in Jesus Christ, the power whereof they are practically under. What the poor vassals and slaves will do upon the late bull of their holy father, casting them in sundry main con- cernments of their quarrel with their adversaries, is uncertain. Otherwise, setting aside some such deviations as the above mentioned, whereunto they are enforced by their ignorance of the grace and justification which is in Jesus Christ, there is so much of ancient candid truth, in opposition to the Pelagians and semi-Pelagians, preserved and asserted in the writings of the Dominican friars, as will rise up, as I said before, in judgment against those of our days who, enjoying greater light and ad- vantages, do yet close in with those, and are long since cursed enemies of the grace of God.