A26911:184
The defence of the nonconformists plea for peace, or, An account of the matter…
The defence of the nonconformists plea for peace, or, An account of the matter of their nonconformity against Mr. J. Cheney's answer called The conforming nonconformist, and The nonconforming conformist : to which is added the second part in answer to Mr. Cheney's Five undertakings / by Richard Baxter.
London: printed for Benjamin Alsop, 1680
A DEFENCE OF THE NON-CONFORMIST'S Plea for Peace, AGAINST Mr. J. CH… › Chapter 18
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Scotus and Ockam confute this at large; and Pet. de Aliaco Card. Cameracensis (a most judicious School-man) briefly after them in 4. q. 1. B. C. contending that Sacraments are properly no Causes of grace, but improperly; because Deus in sacramentis ordinavit sic agere, non quod ipsa sacramenta agant: Et de tali ordinatione & libera promissione ipse certificavit Ecclesiam: Vel ex sola voluntate alterius ut Causa sine qua non, quae non invenitur in naturalibus; sed (sicut meritum) in Moralibus; & proprie non est causa: Et quod sacramentum sive per virtutem propriam, sive per virtutem ei collatam, non est proprie Causa Efficiens alicujus dispositionis in anima ad gratiam praeviae (aut ipsius gratiae.)
So that their judgment is, that it is only Conditio sine qua non, dispositiva, moralis (improperly called dispositiva,) and not of the effecting, but the reception of grace. A man that doth use God's Ordinance, being in the way where God doth give his grace, and performeth the receptive Condition: Yet none of them deny a Moral Objective Causality on the Considering Adult.
And Brianson in 4. q. 1. fol. 6. 1. doc. concludeth Sacramenta non sunt Causa effectiva gratiae, sed selum per modum meriti; per ea datur gratia citing Ricardus, Scotus, Aureolus, Fr. Perusius, &c. against Thomas and Alexand. herein.