Augustine and the council, we have always the power
of withholding our consent if we choose; and according to St. Prosper,
God bestows even upon his elect the will to persevere, in such a way
as not to deprive them of the power to will the contrary." And, in one
word, judge if he does not agree with the Thomists, from the following
declaration in chapter 4th: "That all that the Thomists have written
with the view of reconciling the efficaciousness of grace with the
power of resisting it, so entirely coincides with his judgement that
to ascertain his sentiments on this subject we have only to consult
their writings."
Such being the language he holds on these heads my opinion is that
he believes in the power of resisting grace; that he differs from
Calvin and agrees with the Thomists, because he has said so; and
that he is, therefore, according to your own showing, a Catholic. If
you have any means of knowing the sense of an author otherwise than by
his expressions; and if, without quoting any of his passages, you
are disposed to maintain, in direct opposition to his own words,
that he denies this power of resistance, and that he is for Calvin and
against the Thomists, do not be afraid, father, that I will accuse you
of heresy for that. I shall only say that you do not seem properly
to understand Jansenius; but we shall not be the less on that
account children of the same Church.
How comes it, then, father, that you manage this dispute in such a
passionate spirit, and that you treat as your most cruel enemies,
and as the most pestilent of heretics, a class of persons whom you
cannot accuse of any error, nor of anything whatever, except that they
do not understand Jansenius as you do? For what else in the world do
you dispute about, except the sense of that author? You would have
them to condemn it.
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