De gratia Redemptoris

In the course of the preceding thesis it has already been said more than once that the acts preparing for justification must be performed with the help of grace. It is of this necessity of grace that the present thesis must treat.

“To elicit these acts”: the discourse, then, is about the acts of the sinner by which he is prepared for justification. These acts we call “salutary,” because they positively advance a man toward salvation, or conduce to it, whether mediately or immediately, according as they are a mediate or an immediate disposition. It must be noted, however, that besides these acts there are others also which are called salutary, namely the meritorious acts of the just man; the discourse on these occurs in the third part.

“Even to the very beginning of faith”: the thesis is altogether universal: it extends to all the disposing acts; but “even to the beginning of faith” is added expressly on account of the error of the Semi-Pelagians. The beginning of faith is really the same as the beginning of conversion; it comprises the first desire of salvation together with the antecedent knowledge, the first good will of man in order to salvation, the pious affection of credulity, the imploring of divine help. Therefore grace is necessary for these acts also, by which the motion toward salvation begins; no act is excepted.

“Grace” is necessary: by grace we understand a gratuitous gift, the help of God. That this help is truly gratuitous, that is, undue, is properly shown in thesis 8; yet for the most part it is already contained in the present thesis, inasmuch as without grace there is neither a disposition for grace nor a merit of grace. Since this help is given for eliciting those acts, it ought not of itself to be a permanent help. In the treatise On the virtues¹ it is shown as more probable that habits are not infused before the first justification; consequently it must be said that the help which is given before the first justification is not a habitual gift, but a transient and actual one. For this reason, in distinction from the habitual gifts, it is called actual grace. But the man who has sinned after the first justification can retain the habits of faith and hope², and of itself the wording of the thesis could be satisfied if with the help of those habits he elicited acts disposing him to the third justification. Whether and how far actual grace is necessary for the use of those habits is disputed among theologians, and the discourse returns to this matter later.

“Internal grace”: that is, grace which is in the soul itself, or rather in its higher faculties, the intellect and the will. It is called internal in opposition to external graces, such as are the incarnation of the Word itself, revelation, preaching, the Church, the sacraments, the examples of the saints, and so on.

“Absolutely necessary”: that is, in the present order there can be no salutary act at all, no act disposing to justification, without grace. The powers of man without grace do not suffice; it is through grace that those acts first become possible for man: grace is not required for being able more easily, but for being able simply. The question, moreover, concerns the fact alone; not whether this comes from the nature of the thing or from a positive divine ordinance.

Against this thesis stand, first of all, the Pelagians and the Semi-Pelagians.

The Pelagians (Pelagius, Caelestius, Julian)³ indeed affirmed in words some divine grace; for God gave man his nature and a free will, and so bestowed on him the ability to do good, to fulfil the commandments, to avoid sin; this ability, therefore, is not from us but from God; therefore it is grace. To will and to work thereafter, according to them, is from ourselves. Moreover God gave the law, the doctrine, and so showed men what they ought to do (therefore an external grace). By this external grace it is made easier for man to do what he ought to do. Whether the Pelagians later admitted an internal grace of the intellect is disputed; but certainly they did not admit it for being able simply, but for being able more easily. An internal grace of the will they always denied, since it could not be reconciled with free will. Caelestius: “If I do nothing without the help of God, and every single one of my works is his, then it is not I who labour, but the help of God will be crowned in me, and he gave in vain the power of choice, which I cannot fulfil unless he himself always assists me. For the will is destroyed which needs the aid of another. But God gave free choice, which is not free otherwise than if I do what I will”⁴. Julian: “The freedom of choice, by which man is emancipated from God, consists in the possibility of admitting sin and of abstaining from sin”⁵.

The Semi-Pelagians, or Massilians (Cassian, Vincent of Lérins, Faustus)⁶ altogether defended against the Pelagians the necessity of grace for salutary acts; they denied, however, the necessity of grace specifically for the acts which constitute the “beginning of faith.” The process of justification can be compared with the healing of a sick man. The healing itself is from the physician alone, and from the means which the physician supplies. But before the healing, in order that the physician may begin to heal him, the sick man must acknowledge his misery, trust in the physician and implore his help. These acts do not belong to the healing itself, but precede it. Similarly, at least speaking generally, in the process of justification the sinner must first, by his own powers, know and acknowledge his misery, desire salvation, believe in Christ and trust in him, and implore divine help. And if he has done this, God will begin the “healing,” conferring the graces necessary for salutary acts. If, however, a man does not do these things, he must ascribe it to himself that he does not receive grace; for God offers his grace indifferently to all. These antecedent acts are called the “beginning of faith”; for them, according to the Semi-Pelagians, grace is not required, and on them, in the common view, depends whether a man receives salutary grace⁷.

Against this, then, it must be said: even those first acts are truly salutary acts, remotely disposing to justification, and for them too internal grace is absolutely required; in other words: there are no acts positively ordaining to salvation without grace; therefore for the first grace, which God confers on man, there is no disposition. The work of salvation in each man begins with God.

In the time of the first scholastics affirmations are found which, if taken at face value, have perhaps a Pelagian sense, but from the mind of the authors themselves they do not seem to be so understood⁸. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries similar things are found, and some theologians seem in fact not to have defended sufficiently the necessity of grace for all the acts preparing for justification⁹.

THE DOCUMENTS OF THE CHURCH

Council of Carthage (418), canon 4: “Likewise, whoever says that the same grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord helps us to avoid sin for this reason alone, that through it the understanding of the commandments is revealed and opened to us, so that we may know what we ought to desire and what to avoid, but that through it it is not granted us that we may love and be able to do what we have learned must be done: let him be anathema”¹⁰. — Canon 5: “Likewise it has pleased [the council] that whoever says that the grace of justification is given to us for this reason, that what we are commanded to do by free will we may be able to fulfil more easily through grace, as if, even if grace were not given, we could fulfil the divine commandments, not indeed easily, but still without it: let him be anathema. For the Lord was speaking of the fruits of the commandments when he did not say: Without me you can do it with more difficulty, but said: Without me you can do nothing”¹¹. Cf. the tractatory epistle of Zosimus¹²; in the Council of Ephesus the Pelagians are condemned¹³.

INDICULUS¹⁴: After the authorities have been cited, it continues: “By these ecclesiastical rules, therefore, and by documents taken from divine authority, we have been so confirmed, with the Lord's help, that we profess God to be the author of all good affections and works, and of all efforts and all virtues by which from the beginning of faith one tends toward God, and we do not doubt that all the merits of man are preceded by his grace, through whom it comes about that we begin to will and to do some good”¹⁵.

COUNCIL OF ORANGE: Canon 3: It is from grace that God is invoked by us; canon 4: it is from grace that we will to be cleansed from sin. Canon 5: “If anyone says that the beginning of faith, as also the increase of faith, and the very affection of credulity, by which we believe in him who justifies the ungodly and come to the regeneration of holy baptism, is not through the gift of grace, that is, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit correcting our will from unbelief to piety, but is naturally in us, he is proved an adversary of the apostolic dogmas, blessed Paul saying: We are confident that he who has begun a good work in you will perfect it unto the day of Christ Jesus¹⁶; and that: To you it is given for Christ not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him¹⁷; and: By grace you are saved through faith, and this not from yourselves: for it is the gift of God¹⁸. For those who say that the faith by which we believe in God is natural, define all those who are alien to the Church of Christ as in some way faithful.” — Canon 6: “If anyone says that mercy is conferred from on high on us who believe, will, desire, strive, labour, pray, watch, study, ask, seek, knock without the grace of God, and does not confess that it is wrought in us by the infusion and inspiration of the Holy Spirit that we may believe, will, or be able to do all these things as we ought, and subjects the help of grace to human humility or obedience, and does not consent that it is a gift of that same grace that we are obedient and humble, he resists the apostle saying: What have you that you have not received?¹⁹ and: By the grace of God I am what I am”²⁰. — Canon 7: “If anyone affirms that by the vigour of nature, without the illumination and inspiration of the Holy Spirit, who gives to all sweetness in consenting and believing the truth, a man can think, as is expedient, or choose some good pertaining to the salvation of eternal life, or consent to the saving, that is, the evangelical preaching, he is deceived by a heretical spirit, not understanding the voice of God in the Gospel saying: Without me you can do nothing²¹; and that of the Apostle: Not that we are fit to think anything of ourselves as from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God”²². — Canon 9: “It is a divine gift that we think rightly and keep our feet from falsehood and injustice; for as often as we do good, God works in us and with us that we may work.” Cf. canons 14; 15; 16; 20; 22. — “And so, according to the sentences of the sacred Scriptures written above, or the definitions of the ancient Fathers, this we must both preach and believe, God being favourable: that by the sin of the first man free will was so inclined and weakened that no one thereafter can either love God as he ought, or believe in God, or do good for God's sake, unless the grace of divine mercy has preceded him.” — “This also we salutarily profess and believe, that in every good work we do not begin first and afterwards are helped by God's mercy, but he himself, with no merits preceding, first inspires in us both faith and love of himself, so that we may faithfully seek the sacraments of baptism and after baptism be able, with his help, to fulfil the things that are pleasing to him”²³.

BONIFACE II in the confirmation of the Council of Orange²⁴: “And therefore, since on this matter many Fathers and, before the rest, Augustine of blessed memory, bishop, and also Our predecessors, the bishops of the Apostolic See, are proved to have discoursed with such abundant reasoning that it ought no longer to be doubtful to anyone that faith itself also comes to us from grace, We have thought it superfluous to give a lengthy reply; especially since, according to the sentences which you have sent from the Apostle, in which he says: I obtained mercy to be faithful²⁵, and elsewhere: To you it is given for Christ not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him²⁶, it appears evidently that the faith by which we believe in Christ, as also all good things, comes to individual men from the gift of grace from on high, not from the power of human nature. Which we rejoice that Your Fraternity also, in a conference held with certain bishops of the Gauls, has thought in accordance with the catholic faith: namely in those matters in which, as you have indicated, they defined with one consent that the faith by which we believe in Christ is conferred by the prevenient grace of the Godhead; adding also that there is absolutely nothing good according to God which anyone can either will or begin or complete without the grace of God, our Saviour himself saying: Without me you can do nothing²⁷. For it is certain and catholic that in all good things, of which faith is the head, the divine mercy precedes us even against our will, that we may persevere in faith, as the prophet David says: My God, his mercy shall prevent me²⁸; and again: My mercy is with him²⁹ and elsewhere: His mercy shall follow me³⁰. Similarly blessed Paul says: Or who has first given to him, and it shall be recompensed to him? For of him, and through him, and in him are all things³¹. Whence we wonder exceedingly at those who think otherwise, that they are still weighed down to such a degree by the remnants of the old error as to believe that one comes to Christ not by the benefit of God but by nature; and to say that the good of nature itself, which is known to have been depraved by the sin of Adam, is rather the author of our faith than Christ; nor do they understand that they are crying out against the sentence of the Lord saying: No one comes to me unless it has been given him by my Father³²; but also that they oppose blessed Paul crying out to the Hebrews: Let us run to the contest set before us, looking to the author and finisher of faith, Jesus Christ³³. Since these things are so, we cannot find what in believing in Christ without the grace of God they would assign to the human will; since Christ is the author and finisher of faith. Wherefore, greeting you with fitting affection, we approve your confession written above, as consonant with the catholic rules of the Fathers”³⁴.

COUNCIL OF TRENT, sess. 6 cap. 5: “It declares, moreover, that the beginning of justification itself in adults must be taken from the prevenient grace of God through Jesus Christ, that is, from his calling, by which they are called while no merits of theirs exist, so that those who had been turned away from God by their sins, by his exciting and helping grace to convert themselves to their own justification, freely assenting to and cooperating with that same grace, may be disposed...”³⁵. And the corresponding canon 3: “If anyone says that without the prevenient inspiration of the Holy Spirit and his help a man can believe, hope, love or repent as he ought, so that the grace of justification may be conferred on him: let him be anathema”³⁶. Similarly cap. 6: “Aroused by divine grace and helped”³⁷.

THE VATICAN COUNCIL: For faith grace is necessary. Sess. 3 cap. 3; can. 5³⁸.

SACRED SCRIPTURE

The principal texts of Sacred Scripture, which teach the necessity of grace for every salutary act, are employed from the beginning of the controversy with the Pelagians and Semi-Pelagians both in the documents of the Church and in the holy Fathers.

1. On every salutary act in general: Io 15, 5: “I am the vine, you are the branches: he who abides in me and I in him, he bears much fruit: because without me you can do nothing.” The text is universal: without me nothing; it treats of internal grace: from the parable itself. The text speaks immediately of “bearing fruit,” which is proximately understood of meritorious acts. For the discourse is directly about those who are united with the Lord, not about sinners. But v. 5 is altogether universal, and the branch separated from the vine not only cannot bear fruit, but can do nothing at all, especially nothing toward being again vitally united with the vine. Thus a man separated from Christ the vine, a sinner, is spiritually dead: Eph 2, 1: “dead in your offences and sins”; v. 3: “children of wrath”; v. 5: “when we were dead in sins, he quickened us together in Christ, by whose grace you are saved...” In this universal sense Io 15, 5 was used by the Fathers and councils in the Pelagian and Semi-Pelagian controversy. St Augustine: “Lest anyone should think that the branch can of itself bear even some small fruit, when he had said: he bears much fruit, he did not say: without me you can do a little, but: you can do nothing. Whether therefore little or much, it cannot be done without him, without whom nothing can be done”³⁹.

2. Salutary thought: 2 Cor 3, 5: “Not that we are sufficient to think anything of ourselves as from ourselves, but our sufficiency (fitness) is from God.” The Apostle, accused of arrogance and pride, shows that the source of his confidence is not himself but God, to whom he attributes all things: through Christ the mediator he has that confidence toward God, the source of confidence: we are not of ourselves fit, but from God. “To think” not a few, on account of the context, understand of devising the ways and reasons by which the apostolic preaching can be made effective; others, however, in a more universal sense, of thinking every good thing that pertains to salvation. Thus in the controversy with the Pelagians and Semi-Pelagians: Council of Orange can. 7; St Augustine: “And therefore, commending this grace, which is not given according to any merits, but produces all good merits: not that we are fit, he says, to think anything as from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God. Let those attend here and weigh these words who think that the beginning of faith is from us and the supplement of faith from God. For who does not see that to think is prior to believing? No one surely believes anything unless he has first thought that it is to be believed. For although certain thoughts fly before the will to believe, however swiftly, however rapidly, and it follows so immediately as to accompany it as it were most closely joined, yet it is necessary that all things which are believed be believed by a preceding thought. Although even to believe itself is nothing other than to think with assent”⁴⁰. This more universal explanation is founded also in the text itself, for the Apostle continues: “who also (καί) has made us fit ministers of the new testament,” passing by the particle “also” from the universal statement to the special: our whole fitness is from God, and we owe this also to him, that we are fit ministers of the New Testament. But if it were not so understood, there would be a tautology: as regards the apostolic ministry our fitness is from God, who also made us fit ministers.

3. On salutary willing and working: Phil 2, 12. 13: “With fear and trembling work out your salvation. For it is God who works in you both to will and to accomplish, for his good will.” The Apostle exhorts the Philippians to strive to attain salvation by working strenuously, with fear and trembling, that is, with religious solicitude to satisfy their duty and their conscience⁴¹; for in this work they depend wholly on God and his benevolent will: for it is God who effects in you both the will and the execution, according to his good will, to manifest his benevolence toward you, out of benevolence. St Augustine: “For God not only gave and assists our ability, but also works in us to will and to work, not because we do not will or do not act, but because without his help we neither will anything good nor do it”⁴².

The texts brought forward are altogether universal, and therefore hold also of the very beginning of faith. But the words of the Lord in Io 6, 44 are specifically about faith: “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.” Therefore, external grace being supposed, the preaching of Christ, no one can come to Christ, that is, believe (v. 65. 66), unless the Father draws him; therefore no one can believe in Christ without internal grace; therefore internal grace is absolutely necessary for believing itself.

Besides these texts, several others were in use in the controversy with the Pelagians, which perhaps, if considered bare in themselves, are not necessarily to be explained in that sense. Thus especially 1 Cor 4, 7: “For who distinguishes you? What have you that you have not received? But if you have received it, why do you glory as if you had not received it?” Of which text St Augustine says: “By which testimony I myself also was chiefly convinced, when I was in like manner in error, thinking that the faith by which we believe in God was not a gift of God but was from ourselves in us, and that through it we obtain the gifts of God, by which we live temperately and justly and piously in this world”⁴³. And afterwards: “To be able to have faith, as to be able to have charity, is of the nature of men; but to have faith as to have charity is of the grace of the faithful. That nature, therefore, in which the possibility of having faith was given us, does not distinguish man from man; but faith itself distinguishes the faithful from the unbeliever. And hereby, when it is said: For who distinguishes you? What have you that you have not received? whoever dares to say: I have faith of myself, therefore I have not received it, surely contradicts this most manifest truth, not because to believe or not to believe is not in the choice of the human will, but because in the elect the will is prepared by the Lord”⁴⁴. Similarly the Council of Orange can. 6⁴⁵.

Cornely says of this text: “For the rest, this verse, according to the common explanation of almost all interpreters, treats of natural gifts, with which the leaders of factions were puffed up, not of supernatural graces”⁴⁶. But it is rightly applied also to the gifts of grace; for if man of himself does not even have the natural gifts by which he is distinguished from others and in which he can glory, this holds a fortiori of the gifts of grace. Other texts which were used are Ps 58, 11; 88, 25; Prov 8, 35 (LXX, The will is prepared by the Lord); Rom 10, 20; 11, 35 ss.; 1 Cor 7, 25; 12, 3; 15, 10; Phil 1, 6. 25; Hebr 2, 1.

THE FATHERS

Before the Pelagian heresy arose this question was not treated by the Fathers ex professo⁴⁷, nor is it surprising that the Fathers, since at that time they were defending human liberty, did not always speak also of the necessity of grace⁴⁸.

ST CYRIL OF JERUSALEM: “It is God's part to confer grace; yours, to receive and keep it. Do not therefore despise grace because it is given gratis; but rather, having received it, keep it religiously”⁴⁹. — ST GREGORY OF NAZIANZUS: “For since some there are who are so lifted up in mind by their right actions as to ascribe the whole to themselves, and to give no thanks to the Creator and Author of their wisdom and the supplier of all good things, the discourse teaches them⁵⁰, that even to will rightly itself needs divine help; indeed the very choice of the things that are right is a certain divine gift flowing from the goodness of God. For that we are saved must be both from ourselves and from God. Therefore he says: Not of him who wills, that is, not of him only who wills, nor of him only who runs, but also of God who shows mercy. Thus, since willing itself also is from God, with the best right he assigned the whole to God”⁵¹. — ST JOHN CHRYSOSTOM: “God awaits occasions from us, that he may display great liberality. Therefore let us not, through sloth, deprive ourselves of his gifts, but let us hasten and press on to grasp the beginning and the way that leads to virtue, so that, aided by help from on high, we may be able to reach the end also. For it is not possible for us to do any good rightly without the aid of grace from above”⁵². — “Vocation indeed and purification are from grace; but that the called man remain and keep these things, clothed in pure garments, proceeds from the zeal of the called. But we are called not from merit, but from grace”⁵³. — ST AMBROSE: “Fear the Lord and presume of the Lord; for the Lord will send his angels round about those who fear him and will deliver them⁵⁴. You see surely that everywhere the power of the Lord cooperates with human endeavors, so that no one can build without the Lord, no one begin anything without the Lord”⁵⁵.

ST AUGUSTINE is the one who chiefly attacked the opposing error; since several of his texts have already been brought forward, let it suffice here to add one more: “Such and so great doctors⁵⁶ saying that there is nothing of which we may glory as of our own, which God has not given us, and that not even our heart and our thoughts are in our own power, and giving the whole to God, and confessing that we receive from him, that we who are to persevere may be converted to him, that what is good may seem good to us also, and that we may will it, that we may honour God and receive Christ, that from being undevout we may become devout and religious, that we may believe in the Trinity itself, and confess with our voice also what we believe: these things surely they attribute to the grace of God, acknowledge as God's gifts, and testify that they are from him, not from us”⁵⁷.

ST PROSPER OF AQUITAINE: “But how do you not notice that you fall into that loss, in that, whether you will or not, you are convicted of saying that the grace of God is given according to our merits; when you affirm that something of good work on the part of men themselves precedes, on account of which they obtain grace? For the faith of one who asks, the piety of one who seeks, the insistence of one who knocks, cannot be held to be of no merit; especially since all such are said to receive, to find, and to enter. In which it is superfluous, indeed impious, so to wish to make room for merits existing before grace, that what the Lord says should not be wholly true: No one comes to me unless the Father who sent me draws him⁵⁸, which would by no means be said, if the conversion of anyone were to be believed without the illumination of God, or if in any way the will of man could extend itself to God without God”⁵⁹.

ST LEO THE GREAT: “Without God there is no (virtue), nor does it obtain the property of deity unless it is quickened by the Spirit of its author. For when the Lord says to his disciples: Without me you can do nothing⁶⁰, there is no doubt that a man doing good has from God both the effect of the work and the beginning of the will”⁶¹. — ST FULGENTIUS: “Hold most firmly and doubt in no way that a man, whom neither ignorance of letters nor any weakness or adversity prevents, can indeed read the words of the holy law and of the Gospel, or hear them from the mouth of any preacher; but that no one can obey the divine commandments unless God has preceded him with his grace, so that he may perceive with the heart also what he hears with the body, and, having received from on high a good will and strength, may both will and be able to do the commandments of God”⁶².

THE THEOLOGIANS

That the theologians now agree on this matter is plain; on the earlier scholastics see what has been said above; St Thomas treats our question in S. Th. 1, 2 q. 109 a. 6; 2, 2 q. 6 a. 1. 2.

Objections

1. The Semi-Pelagians appealed to various texts of Sacred Scripture: Prov 16, 1: “It is man's part to prepare the soul.” 16, 9: “The heart of man disposes his way.” — Zach 1, 3: “Turn to me, says the Lord of hosts, and I will turn to you.” — Matth 7, 7: “Ask and it shall be given you; seek and you shall find; knock and it shall be opened to you.” — Act Ap 16, 31: “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you shall be saved, you and your household.” — Rom 7, 18: “To will is present with me, but to accomplish that which is good I find not.”

I answer. Council of Trent, sess. 6 cap. 5: “Whence in the sacred letters, when it is said: Turn to me and I will turn to you, we are reminded of our liberty; when we answer: Convert us, O Lord, to you, and we shall be converted⁶³, we confess that we are preceded by the grace of God.” Hence I distinguish: In the preparation a free cooperation of man is required: I grant; that this is or can be without the help of grace: I deny.

To the examples, however, which they bring forward about Zacchaeus, about the good thief, and so on⁶⁴, it must be said with the Council of Orange: “Whence it is most manifestly to be believed that the faith, so admirable, of that thief whom the Lord recalled to the fatherland of paradise, and of Cornelius the centurion to whom the angel of the Lord was sent, and of Zacchaeus who deserved to receive the Lord himself, was not of nature, but the gift of divine largess.”

2. Of the Fathers who wrote before the Pelagian heresy arose, it has already been said above. That they were not Pelagians or Semi-Pelagians Petavius shows, De Deo, lib. 9, cap. 4 ss. Rightly also in this matter applies what St Augustine said of St Chrysostom in the question of original sin: “But, you will say, why did he not himself add ‘their own’ (namely sins)? Why, we think, except because, disputing in the catholic Church, he did not think he would be understood otherwise, and, assailed by no such question from anyone, he spoke the more securely while you were not yet disputing”⁶⁵.