De causa Dei: Book II, Chapter 7
Thomas Bradwardine, De causa Dei contra Pelagium (1344). English translation: Wroot Press, CC BY-NC 4.0; machine-learning use permitted with attribution (https://bradwardine.wrootpress.com/rights/).
Source: Henry Savile's edition, London 1618, 490C–491C; Latin from EEBO-TCP A16626 (public domain).
Canonical: https://bradwardine.wrootpress.com/2/7/
Status: draft translation, not yet reviewed.

[490C–490E]
Chapter 7. That no one untempted can avoid any sin by the powers of Free Choice alone, whether without grace or with grace however great and created, and without some other help of God.

To complete the treatise on the avoidance of sin, it remains only to show, from what has been established, that no one who is untempted either can avoid any sin by the powers of free choice alone, without grace, or in grace however great, without some other help of God. For it is easier for one who is tempted to avoid sin than for one who is untempted to avoid temptation. We are tempted all day long against our will, but we never, properly speaking, sin against our will. But no one who is tempted can avoid the sin he is tempted to, by the powers of free choice alone without grace, or with grace however great, without some other help of God, as the three preceding chapters taught. Therefore no one who is untempted can avoid, by the powers of free choice alone without grace, or in grace however great, without some other help of God, being tempted to sin; and if he has been tempted to sin and God's help is not present, he is necessarily overcome, according to the chapters just mentioned.

Again, whoever is not tempted is necessarily so from God, that he is not tempted, as the eleventh part of the thirteenth of the first proves.[n1] And by the twenty-second of the first, God necessarily has some act of will concerning such a one's not being tempted, and not a nilling,[n2] because then, by the tenth of the first, he would be tempted.[n3] Therefore God has a willing, which by the same tenth does not allow him to be tempted. Hence Augustine, in his sermon on the birthday of Saint Mary Magdalene, last chapter, says:[n4] "This your God says to you: I was ruling you for myself, I was keeping you for myself, so that you should not commit adultery. The persuader was lacking, and that the persuader should be lacking, I did it. Place and time were lacking, and that these should be lacking, I did it."

[491A–491B]
Again, if someone untempted could do this and do it in this way , let it be posited as actual. Then by the twenty-second of the first, God has some act of will concerning this avoidance, and not a nilling, because then, by the tenth of the first, it would not come about. Therefore he has a willing; therefore, by the same tenth, that willing supplies him with an insuperable help.

Again, that avoidance comes about either by acting or by not acting. If by acting, God is there the first acting cause, as the third and fourth chapters of the first prove. If by not acting, God is still the first cause of that non-action, as the eleventh part of the thirteenth of the first teaches.

Again, according to the authorities adduced in the third chapter of this second book, grace is necessary for guarding against sins, and, as it seems, this holds even for the untempted. Some of the authorities there speak generally of anyone whatever, without distinction, making no mention of the tempted. And that grace is either the Holy Spirit or some created gift of his, which does nothing except with the Holy Spirit himself directing, as is clear from the same third chapter and the fourth that follows.

Again, according to what was shown in the same fourth chapter, every man would commit any sin whatever, if he were not specially preserved by God.

[491B–491C]
COROLLARY.

Corollary: that the divine will, as it preserves the tempted from falling, so also preserves the untempted both from temptation and from sin.

Hence it is manifest that the divine will, as it preserves the tempted from falling, so also preserves the untempted both from temptation and from sin. This corollary can be demonstrated in the same way from what has been established, just as the fifth chapter demonstrated a similar conclusion. O how wondrous, then, is the condescension of divine mercy toward us, wretched and ungrateful as we are! It keeps the untempted untouched by so many and such great whirlwinds of temptations; it keeps the tempted unconquered in so many and such great onslaughts of temptations; and it heaps up so many and such great rewards for those who conquer through it, not through themselves. {491C} Therefore, with it as our guide, let us return from ingratitude. Let us humbly ask that, by its gift, we may deserve to receive not the spirit of this world but the Spirit who is of God, so that we may at least know the things that have been given to us by God;[n5] and in him, crying "Abba, Father," let us render most humble thanks in all things.

NOTES

1. Throughout this chapter Bradwardine cites Book I by bare ordinals: "the eleventh part of the thirteenth of the first," "the tenth of the first," "the twenty-second of the first." Only "the third and fourth chapters of the first" are explicitly chapters. I keep his references as written (Conventions §5.4) and do not expand them.
2. Nolutio ("nilling," the act of willing-not) is formed by Bradwardine on the pattern of volutio. "Nilling" keeps the symmetry.
3. Savile's text, here and in the keyed text, reads non tentaretur ("he would not be tempted"). The argument requires the opposite: if God nilled his not being tempted, then by the tenth of the first he would be tempted. Compare the parallel at 491A: "because then, by the tenth of the first, it would not come about." I translate the evident sense and flag the problem; the Latin is not emended.
4. Not, so far as I can determine, a genuine work of Augustine; the sermon belongs to the pseudo-Augustinian corpus. I have not traced the quotation to a source, and I give the attribution as Bradwardine and Savile's margin give it.
5. 1 Cor 2:12 ("we have received not the spirit of this world, but the Spirit that is of God, that we may know the things that are given us by God"), followed by Rom 8:15 ("in whom we cry, Abba, Father"). Neither is flagged by Savile.