Dist. 40, Art. 4, Q. 1
by St. Bonaventure
Source text: Public Domain Mark 1.0. English translation/apparatus/encoding: CC BY-NC 4.0, Wroot Press.
https://bonaventure.wrootpress.com/browse/1/d/40/q/bon-sent-I-d40-a4-q1
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### Article IV.
#### *On reprobation, and especially on obduration.*

Next comes the question on the third article, namely on reprobation. And since the things which have been said about eternal predestination must be said, or can be applied, to reprobation, the inquiry is made specifically about obduration, which is its connoted attribute, and concerning which two things are asked.

The first is, whether it is punishment or fault.

The second, whether obduration is from God.

### Question I.
#### *Whether obduration is punishment or fault.*

That obduration is punishment is shown thus:

1. Upon that passage in Romans nine: *He has mercy on whom he wills* etc., the Gloss of Augustine: «*Obduration is to be unwilling to have mercy*»: but to be unwilling to have mercy is not fault, but punishment: therefore etc.

2. Likewise, in the same place: «*He shows mercy according to grace, which is given gratuitously; but he hardens according to judgment, which is rendered to merits*»; but it is established that it is not rendered to good merits, therefore to bad ones; but that which is rendered to bad merits is punishment: therefore obduration is punishment.

3. Likewise, this same thing is seen by reason, because in this fault and punishment differ, that fault is a voluntary affection, but punishment is an involuntary affection; but obduration of the heart is involuntary, because no one wills to be disabled or hardened: therefore etc.

4. Likewise, as blinding stands to the intellect, so obduration to the affection; but blinding signifies punishment, not fault: therefore obduration also.

**On the contrary:**

1. Upon that passage in Romans two: *According to your hardness* etc., the Gloss: «*Induration is the obstinacy of a hardened mind in malice, by which a man becomes impenitent*»; but this signifies fault: therefore etc.

2. Likewise, Augustine *On the Predestination of the Saints*: «*Obduration is nothing else than God's standing in the way of the commandments*»; but to stand in the way of the commandments signifies disobedience: but «*sin*, as Ambrose says, *is nothing else than the transgression of the divine law and disobedience to the heavenly commandments*»: therefore obduration signifies sin.

3. Likewise, by reason it appears, because no temporal punishment, insofar as such, is opposed to gratifying grace; but obduration is opposed to gratifying grace, and most of all to final grace: therefore obduration is not punishment, but fault.

4. Likewise, in this is the difference between punishment and fault, that, as Augustine says, «*punishment is the evil which we suffer, but fault is the evil which we do*»; but each one brings obduration upon himself, as Augustine says in the book *On Grace and Free Will*: «*The Lord hardened Pharaoh by a just judgment, but he himself by his own free will*». And that obduration is from us, is plain: because in the *Psalm* it is dissuaded: *Do not*, he says, *harden your hearts*: therefore etc.

### Conclusion.

> *Obduration, insofar as it signifies a heart unfit to receive the impress of grace, is the punishment of sin; insofar as it signifies a heart established in sin, it is the disposition of preceding sin; but insofar as it signifies a rebellious heart, it is sin against the Holy Spirit.*

**I respond:** It must be said that obduration in spirits is spoken of by transference from obduration in bodies. In bodies, however, hardness is followed by a threefold property, although it is in the body through the same nature, which is not the case in spirit. For *the hard* is unfit for receiving, is stable for remaining, and again is strong for rebelling or resisting. According to this threefold mode the heart is said to be hardened in three ways. In the first way the heart is called hardened from this, that it is unfit for receiving the impress of grace; and in this way it sounds as a passion and is punishment following fault. In the second way the heart is called hardened, when it is established in sin, namely when it is much compacted in love of sin; and in this way obduration is sin together with disposition, or the disposition of preceding sin. In the third way the heart is called hardened as a rebellious heart which wills to assail God and his commandments and grace; and in this way it is a special kind of sin, namely sin against the Holy Spirit.

**To the arguments:**

*To 1, 2.* And according to this threefold mode the various authorities proceed concerning obduration, and they seem *well* to oppose one another: but they proceed by different ways according to the members of the aforesaid distinction. It must therefore be conceded that obduration in one mode is punishment; it must nevertheless be conceded that in other modes it is fault, or the disposition of fault.

*To 3, 4.* To that, then, which is objected, that punishment is not repugnant to grace and also sounds as a passion; it must be said that punishment is threefold. For there is a certain *inflicted punishment*, a certain *contracted*, a certain *acted*. *Inflicted punishment*, simply, is passion and not repugnant to grace, such as hunger, thirst, and sickness. *Contracted punishment* is the tinder [of sin] and concupiscence, and this indeed is passion, and therefore punishment, but it nonetheless inclines to evil action; and therefore it is repugnant to grace, not as to substance, but as to inclination. *Acted punishment* is like obduration and the expulsion of grace, and this indeed is punishment, because it is passion; but because it is from evil action or from sin, and that accompanies it inseparably, therefore it is opposed to grace. And so it is plain that it is nonetheless punishment and passion; for although it comes about through one's own action, it is nonetheless punishment, as is plain in the man with scabies, who delights in scratching himself, but afterwards feels a burning in the flesh.

### Scholion.

**1.** Alex. Hal. (*S.* p. I. q. 29. m. 3. 4. 5.) enumerates and well explains the three effects of reprobation, which are *withdrawal of grace*, *blinding*, *obduration*. In the solution to 3 the first member of this division is touched on by the Holy Doctor, and the threefold *punishment* is well distinguished; mention of *blinding* is made in the first fundament. Concerning punishment and its order to fault, cf. II. *Sent.* d. 36. throughout. — The Doctors agree in this teaching, and Petr. a Tar. follows our Doctor almost word for word.

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