NATURE OF SIN 



Besides, God often employs sin as a means of pun- 

 ishing the sinner and thus indirectly causes good 

 to spring from evil. 



28 



Against the teaching just propounded the following 

 objection has been raised: "Some actions are evil and 

 sinful in their species (secundum suam speciem). Now, 

 that which is the cause of a thing, is also the cause of 

 whatever belongs to that thing in respect of its species. 

 If, therefore, God caused the act which is sinful, He would 

 be the cause of sin." This fallacy is tersely refuted by 

 St. Thomas as follows: "Acts and habits do not take 

 their species from the privation itself, wherein the nature 

 of evil consists, but from some object to which that pri- 

 vation is united ; and so this defect, which we say is 

 not from God, belongs to the species of the act as 

 a consequence, and not as a specific difference." 29 In 

 other words, God causes the act and its species, without 

 causing the defect that renders it evil. 



Some theologians hold that God merely permits evil 



cere, sed mala opera, ita ut bona, 29 Summa TheoL, ia 2ae, qu. 79, 

 Deum operari, non permissive so- art. 2, ad 3: "Videtur quod . . . 

 lum, sed etiam proprie et per se, aliqui actus secundum suam speciem 

 adeo ut sit proprium eius opus non sunt mali et peccata. . . . Sed quid- 

 minus proditio ludae quam vocatio quid est causa alicuius, est causa 

 Pauli, anathema sit." eius, quod convenit ei secundum suam 

 28 Cfr. Gen. XLV, 7 sq. ; L, 20; speciem. Si ergo Deus esset causa 

 Wisd. XI, 17; Matth. XIII, 29 sqq. actus peccati, sequeretur, quod esset 

 — St. Augustine, Enarr. in Ps., 54, causa peccati. . . . Actus et habitus 

 n. 4: "Ne putetis gratis esse malos non recipiunt speciem ex ipsa priva- 

 in hoc mundo et nihil boni de Mis tione, in qua consistit ratio mali, 

 agere Deum. Omnis mains aut ideo sed ex aliquo defectu, cut coniungi- 

 vivit, ut corrigatur, aut ideo vivit, tur talis privatio. Et sic ipse de- 

 nt per ilium bonus exerceatur." fectus, qui dicitur non esse a Deo, 

 (Migne, P. L., XXXVI, 630). — pertinet ad speciem actus consequen- 

 Idem, Enchiridion, c. 27: "Melius ter, et non quasi differentia sped- 

 [Deus} iudicavit de malis bene fa- fica." — Cfr. J. Mausbach, Die Ethik 

 cere, quam mala nulla esse permit- des hi. Augustinus, Vol. II, pp. 74 

 tere." {P. L., XL, 245). sqq. 



