The provincial letters of Blaise Pascal : $b A new translation, with historical introduction and notes, by the Rev. Thomas M'CriePascal, Blaise
Religion
The provincial letters of Blaise Pascal : $b A new translation, with historical introduction and notes, by the Rev. Thomas M'Crie
Pascal, Blaise
Jansenists -- France -- Early works to 1800; Jesuits -- Early works to 1800; Port-Royal des Champs (Abbey) -- Early works to 1800
“What I complain of,” returned my friend, “is, that you do not proclaim
it everywhere, that by sufficient grace you understand the grace which
is _not_ sufficient. You are bound in conscience, by thus altering the
sense of the ordinary terms of theology, to tell that, when you admit a
sufficient grace in all men, you understand that they have not
sufficient grace in effect. All classes of persons in the world
understand the word sufficient in one and the same sense; the New
Thomists alone understand it in another sense. All the women, who form
one-half of the world, all courtiers, all military men, all magistrates,
all lawyers, merchants, artisans, the whole populace—in short, all sorts
of men, except the Dominicans, understand the word _sufficient_ to
express all that is necessary. Scarcely any one is aware of this
singular exception. It is reported over the whole earth, simply that the
Dominicans hold that all men have the _sufficient graces_. What other
conclusion can be drawn from this, than that they hold that all men have
all the graces necessary for action; especially when they are seen
joined in interest and intrigue with the Jesuits, who understand the
thing in that sense? Is not the uniformity of your expressions, viewed
in connection with this union of party, a manifest indication and
confirmation of the uniformity of your sentiments?
“The multitude of the faithful inquire of theologians: What is the real
condition of human nature since its corruption? St. Augustine and his
disciples reply, that it has no sufficient grace until God is pleased to
bestow it. Next come the Jesuits, and they say that all have the
effectually sufficient graces. The Dominicans are consulted on this
contrariety of opinion; and what course do they pursue? They unite with
the Jesuits; by this coalition they make up a majority; they secede from
those who deny these sufficient graces; they declare that all men
possess them. Who, on hearing this, would imagine anything else than
that they gave their sanction to the opinion of the Jesuits? And then
they add that, nevertheless, these said sufficient graces are perfectly
useless without the efficacious, which are not given to all!
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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