To ascertain the matter with certainty, I repaired to my neighbor,M. N-, doctor of Navarre, who, as you are aware, is one of the keenest opponents of the Jansenists, and, my curiosity having made me almost as keen as himself, I asked him if they would not formally decide at once that "grace is given to all men," and thus set the question at rest. But he gave me a sore rebuff and told me that that was not the point; that there were some of his party who held that grace was not given to all; that the examiners themselves had declared, in a full assembly of the Sorbonne, that that opinion was problematical; and that he himself held the same sentiment, which he confirmed by quoting to me what he called that celebrated passage of St. Augustine: "We know that grace is not given to all men." I apologized for having misapprehended his sentiment and requested him to say if they would not at least condemn that other opinion of the Jansenists which is making so much noise: "That grace isefficacious of itself, and invincibly determines our will to what is good." But in this second query I was equally unfortunate. "You know nothing about the matter," he said; "that is not a heresy- it is an orthodox opinion; all the Thomists maintain it; and I myself have defended it in my Sorbonic thesis."
More letters (here)
More letters (here)
Jansenism (here)
Pascal's bio (here)
If grace is not given to all men, it remains possible that grace is not given to any men. And it seems a thing is efficacious more "of itself," if it is not dependent on being given. And it seems men's "will" may be determined entirely to a final end, without their understanding the end of all their striving, and without their ever finally attaining the final end.
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