Summa summae S. Thomae sive compendium theologiae

Whether reprobation exists, and what it is?

I say 1°: There is in God a reprobation of certain persons¹. For it pertains to the providence of the universal provider that, among the defectible things subject to it, it should permit some to fail, for the good of the whole universe. But by divine providence intellectual creatures, defectible by their own nature, are ordained to glory. Therefore it pertains to this providence to permit some to fail from that end, and this is called to reprobate. Likewise, God executes nothing in time that He has not decreed from eternity. But in time He reprobates some, as is clear from that text, Matth., XXV, 41: Depart from me, you cursed. Therefore.

I say 2°: Reprobation does not consist in the mere negation of predestination, but in a positive act by which God wills to permit some, by their own fault, to fail from glory, and on account of the fault to inflict the punishment of damnation.

The reason is that reprobation is an objective part of providence²; but providence implies a positive act both of the intellect and of the will. And otherwise possible angels and men could be called reprobate, because they are not predestined.

Hence you will infer 1° that reprobation, no differently than providence, of which it is an objective part, consists in an act of the intellect presupposing an act of the will.

You will infer 2° that reprobation is rightly defined by the Author³ as the providence concerning those who fail from the end, with the will of permitting the fault, and on account of the fault of inflicting the punishment of damnation; or, what is the same thing, the decree by which God wills to permit that some, by their own fault, fall from glory, and for the fault to inflict the punishment of damnation.

You will infer 3° that, although reprobation is one, it can nevertheless be divided into negative and positive, as into two inadequate functions. For when it is defined as the will of permitting that some, by their own fault, fail from glory, and on account of the fault of inflicting the punishment of damnation: insofar as it implies the will of permitting that some, by their own fault, fail from the end, it is called negative; not that it is not a positive act, as has been said, but because it effects nothing, but only permits, and to permit is, as it were, to be disposed negatively; but insofar as it implies the ordination of the fault to eternal punishment, it is called positive, because now it decrees something to be done, namely, the punishment to be inflicted. Whence negative reprobation includes only the term from which, namely, the glory from which the reprobate are permitted to fail; but positive reprobation includes, in addition, the term to which, namely, the pain of loss and of sense which God decrees for them.