Mozley: A Treatise on the Augustinian Doctrine of

240 Scholastic Theory CHAP. IX.
and corruptible natures they had a failing operation, and
alternately attained and fell short of their effects: the
Universal Cause, however, being alike effective in either
of one
case, and good alike the result ; for the corruption
thing was the generation of another. 1 The second class
of causes was contingent or voluntary, operating in those
creatures which had in addition to nature the principle of
will. The effects, then, which took place in the world
took place necessarily, or contingently, according
to the
character of those mediate and secondary causes which
were respectively in operation ; but in either case these
causes were but mediate, and fell back upon the First
derived all their virtue as
Great Cause, from which they
secondary ones. The Supreme Being fitted like causes to
like effects, necessary to necessary, contingent to contin
gent; 2 but His will it was which gave to these causes their
respective natures, and made one necessary and the other
contingent. 3 He moved matter, and He moved will by
1 In his autem qui consequuntur
finem per principium quod est natura
inyenitur quidam gradus, eo
quod quarundam rerum natura
impediri non potest a consecutions
effectus sui, et iste est gradus altior
sicut est in corporibus caelestibus.
Unde in his nihil contingit non
intentum a Deo ex defectu ipsorum ;
et propter hoc Avicenna dicit quod
supra orbem lunse non est malum.
Alius autem gradus naturae est quae
impediri potest et deficere, sicut
natura generabilium et corruptibilium
; et quamvis ista natura sit
inferior in bonitate, tamen bona est.
in Lomb. 1. 1. Dist. 39.
Aquinas,
2
Quibusdam effectibus praeparavit
causas necessarias ut necessario
evenirent; quibusdam vero causas
contingentes, ut evenirent cont ngenter,
secundum conditionem proximarum
causarum. Sum.* Theol. P.
1. Q. 23. Art. 4.
Ita omnia movet secundum eorum
conditionem ; ita quod ex causis
necessariis per motionem divinam
sequuntur effectus ex necessitate ;
ex causis autem contingentibus se
quuntur effectus contingentes.
l m 2 dae Q. 49. Art. 4.
Effectus consequitur conditionem
causae suse proximse.
Lomb. 1. 1. Dist, 39.
Aquinas, in
3 Dicendum est quod hoc contingit
propter efficaciam Divinae voluntatis
. . . Vult enim quaedamDeus neces
sario, qusedam contingenter, ut sit
ordo in rebus ad complementum
universi. Et ideo quibusdam effec
tibus aptavit causas necessarias, ex
quibus effectus ex necessitate proveniant
; quibusdam autem causas
defectibiles, ex quibus effectus con
tingenter proveniant. Non igitur
propterea effectus voliti a Deo eveniunt
contingenter, quia causae
proximae sunt contingentes ; sed
propterea quia Deus voluit eos
contingenter evenire, contingentes
causas ad eos praeparavit. Sum.
Theol. l ma Q. 19. Art. 8.