Scotus Academicus, Tomus octavus: De Divino Gratiae Beneficio, et initium De Virtutibus Theologicis

Note 1. Among the innumerable errors of the heretics of this time, this one holds no last place, whereby they affirm that men are not justified formally by anything intrinsic, but only through the justice of Christ, by faith as it were grasped with the hand and applied to us: I say by that faith, which they call justifying, and wish to be distinct from historical faith, and from the faith of miracles; so that through that justifying faith man persuades himself with certainty that the justice of Christ pertains to him, and that on account of it his sins are not imputed to him by God. Thus above all teaches Calvin, book 3. Instit., chapter 11. n. 2. where he says: He shall be justified by faith, because the justice of works being excluded, he apprehends by faith the justice of Christ, clothed wherewith in the sight of the Lord he appears not as a sinner, but as it were as a just man. Hence in the Antidote to the Council of Trent, on Session 6. chapter 8. he boldly says: *I contend that it is false that any part of justice resides in a quality or habit residing in us. To this subscribe not only the Calvinists of France, article 20. of their confession of faith, but also those of Germany, as is evident from the Palatine Catechism approved in the Pseudo Synod of Dordrecht.

But how wretched and erroneous this opinion is, and how plainly it wars against Sacred Scripture itself, and likewise against the holy Fathers teaching us to be justified through inherent and intrinsic justice, will appear below.

Note 2. That we here institute discourse concerning the justification of the sinner, which according to the Council of Trent, Session 6. chapter 1. can rightly be described: Translation from the state of sin into the state of grace, and adoption of the Sons of God, through Jesus Christ our Savior: which translation indeed is not wrought by way of simple generation, or by way of simple motion from privation or negation of justice unto justice itself, such as was the justification of the Angels, and of the first parents in the instant of their creation, which therefore can be called motion, or change from lack of sanctifying grace unto sanctifying grace itself, but is wrought by motion from as it were a contrary into a contrary, or by a certain transmutation from the state of injustice unto the state of holiness and supernatural justice, according to which in the interior disposition of man the inferior powers of the soul are subjected to the superior, namely reason, while reason truly obeys God in all things perfectly and serves Him.

Note 3. The justice whereby we are named just can be called participatory justice of God, and of Christ: either by reason of origin, or by reason of imita- tion and similitude. Indeed by reason of origin it is called the justice of God, because God is He who justifieth, says the Apostle Romans 8. Similarly also the justice of Christ; not only because by His merit we are made just, but also because no one becomes just except through justice received from Him, for of His fullness we all have received: wherefore the Apostle to the Philip- pians 3 said: And be found in Christ not having my justice, but the justice which is of the faith of Jesus Christ. By reason truly of similitude it is called the justice of God, because namely through it we are assimilated to God. Hence Christ the Lord admonished us, Matthew 5: Be you therefore also perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. By equal reason it is called the justice of Christ, because through sanctifying grace He who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, Himself shone in our hearts, unto the illumination of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus, says the Apostle 2. to the Corinthians 4. Hence most excellently he admonished the Ephesians chapter 4: Put on the new man, who ac- cording to God is created in justice, and holiness of truth. There remains therefore only this difficulty to be solved, whether also our justice is the very formal justice of Christ, which through merely external imputation is attributed to us; which difficulty, that it may be solved, let there be

One Conclusion. — THE JUSTIFICATION OF THE IMPIOUS CONSISTS FOR- MALLY IN INTRINSIC AND INHERENT JUSTICE.

This is determined by faith in the Council of Trent, Session 6. Can. 10.: If anyone shall say that me- n without the justice of Christ, whereby He merited for us justification, or through it He Himself formally just, let him be anathema. And Canon 11.: If anyone shall say that men are justified, either by the sole imputative justice of Christ, or by the sole remission of sins, excluding grace and charity, which is poured forth in their hearts through the Holy Spirit, and inheres in them: or also that the grace whereby we are justified is only the favor of God, let him be anathema.

This truth is proved by all those texts of Scripture, in which first it is said that God abides in us. Thus John 14: If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him, and will make our abode with him. 1. Corinthians 3: Know you not, that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?

Secondly, from those in which it is said that man is regenerated and renewed, when he is sanctified. Ephesians 4: Be ye renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man, who according to God is created in justice and holiness. 1. Peter 1: Hath regenerated us unto a living hope: but the term of regene- ration ought to be something real, as also of generation.

Thirdly, from those in which grace is said to be the seed of God remaining in us.

1. John 3: Whosoever is born of God committeth not sin, for his seed abideth in him. Likewise, pledge of inheritance, as Ephesians 1. For all these things signify something created, and really inherent in man justified.

Fourthly, from those in which it is signified that the just have in themselves something, whereby they may be grateful and acceptable to God. Thus John 3: Behold what manner of charity the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be named, and be, the sons of God; knowingly moreover he adds, and be, that he might evidently express that we are named sons of God not by mere external appellation, but truly are so.

— Proof similarly by those same oracles, in which it is clearly taught that grace, and the justice whereby we are just, are something derived into us from the justice of Christ: thus John 1. Of his fulness we all have received grace for grace. Eph. 4. To every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the donation of Christ: and by this grace we are said, in Titus, chapter 3, to be renewed in the spirit of our mind: John 1, to be born again as sons of God: in Gal., 2, to be made alive in Christ. Rom. 5, to receive in ourselves the Holy Spirit, in whom we cry Abba, Father:

1. Cor. 6, by whom we are washed and justified. All of which things openly declare that man is justified before God through inherent grace; for to be renewed, born again, and made alive by something is for that thing to exist inwardly; for no one is renewed, born, and lives formally by that life whereby he may be in eternity, nor is anyone formally washed clean by the cleanness of another.

The same assertion is proved by those authorities of the holy Fathers praised in conclusion 1 of the first question of the preceding disputation. Which authorities being now omitted, I will bring forward a single one, Saint Augustine, whom the heretics falsely pretend to favor them: for that holy Doctor declares openly in very many places that we are justified by a justice not which is in God, or in Christ, but which inheres in us: so he speaks especially in book De Spiritu et littera, chapter 9, where, expounding this text of the Apostle, Romans 3, The justice of God was manifested, he says: He does not say the justice of man, or the justice of his own will, but the Justice of God, not that whereby God is just, but that wherewith he clothes man, when he justifies the ungodly. Which he plainly repeats in chapters 11, 18, and 32, where, expounding that passage of Romans 5, The charity of God is poured forth in our hearts, he says: Not that whereby he himself loves us, but that whereby he makes us lovers of himself: as the justice of God, whereby by his gift we are made just; and the salvation of the Lord, whereby he makes us saved; and the faith of Jesus Christ, whereby he makes us faithful. This is the justice of God, which he not only teaches by the precept of the law, but also gives by the gift of the Spirit.

Finally it is proved by theological reason: by that same reason are we said to be justified through Christ by which we are defiled through Adam: yet we are not defiled only by the imputation of Adam's sin, but because we truly sinned all in him as in our head, whence it comes about that original sin inheres in each of Adam's posterity and affects them after the manner of a stain: therefore neither are we justified by the imputation of the justice of Christ. The major is evident from that celebrated antithesis which the Apostle instituted in Rom. 5 between the old man and the new, namely Adam and Christ. For as, he says, by the offense of one, unto all men to condemnation, so by the justice of one, unto all men to justification of life.

The major likewise appears true from what we have said concerning original sin in the fifth volume, wherein we proved that original sin truly inheres in each of Adam's posterity for no other reason than because all sinned in him, as in the head and stock of the whole human nature.

Secondly, no form denominates intrinsically and formally a subject in which it does not inhere. For whiteness, for example, cannot denominate a wall white in which it does not inhere: but that whereby we are said to be just is a form through which we are made formally just, for we are not said to be such only by extrinsic denomination; therefore we receive that appellation from some form inhering in us, and consequently we are not denominated such by that justice which resides in God, or in Christ.

Thirdly, finally, that justice whereby we are formally said to be just is capable of intension and remission, according to that saying of the second of Peter 3, Grow in grace: and of the Apocalypse at the end: He that is just, let him be justified still; which truth indeed we demonstrated openly in the preceding Disputation: but neither the justice of God nor the justice of Christ can admit of more and less: therefore it is necessary that we be justified by a justice inherent in us, which is capable of remission and intension.

They object 1. The heretics bring various texts of Scripture, which they falsely suppose to openly patronize their error. First indeed they produce that passage of Romans 4: But to him that believeth in him, who justifieth the ungodly, his faith is reputed to justice according to the purpose of the grace of God, that is, his faith is accepted by God, whereby he believes the justice of Christ to pertain to himself, and to be imputed to him through divine mercy: which interpretation seems genuine and most conformable to the mind of the Apostle, who in that chapter eleven times calls justice imputation.

— I deny this to be the mind of the holy Apostle; nay, the contrary appears from the same chapter; for there he proves Abraham to have been justified not from works, but from a living and perfect faith in God, which was reputed, that is, deputed to him unto justice; because against hope he believed in hope, that he might be made the father of many nations: but no one would say that the faith of Abraham, whereby he was justified, was something external; and consequently the Apostle there excludes justification which would come about by the imputation of something external.

I answer 2. I distinguish the antecedent: that faith is reputed to the believer in God unto justice dispositively, I concede: formally, and actually, I deny. I confess indeed that, by means of actual faith, of which the Apostle there speaks, as by a certain disposition, a man can prepare himself unto justice: so that faith itself be deputed to him as a means of obtaining it; and the justice of Christ itself is imputed to him after the manner of a moral and meritorious cause of his justification; but it does not follow thence that anyone is justified by the mere imputation of the justice of Christ apprehended through faith.

They object 2. That passage of Rom. 5: As by the disobedience of one man many were constituted sinners, so by the obedience of one man many are constituted just; therefore also just by the justice of Christ imputed to them. — I answer, the Apostle intends by those words nothing else than that as Adam by his actual disobedience was the meritorious cause that all who should be born of him would contract original sin, so Christ by his obedience was the meritorious cause that all who are brought to him as members to the head, and are born again of him, and adopted as sons of God, become just on account of his merits communicated to them. Wherefore with antecedent words the Apostle said: as by the offense of one, unto all men to condemnation, so by the justice of one, unto all men to justification of life. In which words the Apostle teaches that by the obedience of one man many are constituted just in the manner in which many are constituted sinners by the disobedience of one man: but when the Apostle says that by the disobedience of one man many are constituted sinners, the sense is not that they are sinners only extrinsically and imputatively, but intrinsically and inherently, especially in the opinion of the Calvinists, who constitute original sin in the rebellion of the flesh and concupiscence: therefore by parity, when many are said to be constituted just by the obedience of one man, the sense is not that they are just only by an imputative justice, but by an internal and inherent one.

They object 3. That passage of 1. Corinth. 1, Christ was made unto us wisdom of God, and justice, and sanctification, and redemption, that, as it is written: he that glorieth, may glory in the Lord: therefore there is no other justification and sanctification for us than the very justice of Christ, otherwise it would be lawful to glory from another source than in the Lord. — I distinguish the antecedent: Christ has been made unto us justice and sanctification effectively and meritoriously, because of his fulness we have received, I concede: formally, I deny. For often in Scripture a cause is accustomed to be called by the name of its effect, in which manner of speaking Psal. 26 says: The Lord is my illumination and my salvation; because he is the cause of salvation and of illumination: therefore Christ is said to be our justice and redemption, for the reason that he is the cause of our justice and redemption. Which indeed is evident from the same text, because Christ is said to have been made justice for us just as he is said to have been made wisdom for us: but he is not our wisdom in that sense that we are wise through his formal wisdom imputed to us: therefore neither is he our justice in that sense that his justice is imputed to us.

They object 4. That passage of 2. ad Corinth. 1, God who had not known sin, made sin for us, that we might be made the justice of God in him: whence they argue thus: we are made the justice of God in the same manner in which Christ was made sin; yet Christ was made sin only by the imputation of our sin: therefore we are made the justice of God by the imputation only of the justice of Christ. — I distinguish the major of this argument: we are made the justice of God in the same manner in which Christ was made sin, as to something, I concede: as to all things, I deny. For the comparison does not hold in all respects; but the similitude holds only in this, that Christ was made sin, that is, a victim for our sins, for sin sometimes in Scripture signifies the victim for sin, according to that saying of Osee 1, where of the Priests it is said: They shall eat the sins of my people, that is, the oblations offered for sins: but we are made just through his justice meritoriously and effectively: the dissimilitude indeed lies in this, that Christ was made sin only extrinsically, since truly he could not be a sinner: but we are made just intrinsically, who otherwise could not be.

They object 5. That passage of Ephes. 4, Put on the new man, who according to God is created in justice and holiness of truth: but to put on Christ is nothing else than to apply his very justice and merits to ourselves so as to cover our nakedness, that thence we may be reputed just, as Jacob put on the garments of Esau, that he might be reputed the firstborn. — I deny this to be the sense of the Apostle; for to put on Christ is nothing else than to become like unto Christ, and to participate in his grace and virtues, so that we be intrinsically just and holy, as he himself is intrinsically just and holy: for as no one is said to put on the garment of another unless that cloth be applied to his body in a manner suited to it, so do we not truly put on the justice of Christ unless it be applied truly and really to our soul. The truth of which interpretation is proved 1. from the same Apostle: for he says we put on the new man in the same manner in which we put off and strip ourselves of the old man, as he teaches ad Col. 3 in these words: Stripping yourselves of the old man with his acts, and putting on the new, etc. Yet to put off the old man is to lay aside the inward vices and sins with which we were stained and infected: therefore contrariwise, to put on the new is to put on the manners and virtues of Christ opposed to those vices and sins, as the holy Fathers expound, especially Chrysostom in Epist. ad Rom. ad cap. 13. n. 14, Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, where he says thus: To put on Christ is to have all virtue together in universality. And elsewhere he says that it is the same thing as for Christ to be conspicuous in us on every side by holiness and custom: for a clothed man seems to be that which he has put on: let Christ therefore appear in us. And Jerome in cap. 1. ad Ephes., n. 23, on those words: Put ye on the new man, has thus: Whoever therefore can imitate his conversation, and express in himself all his virtues, so as to be meek, as he was meek, and humble of heart: and to lay down his soul for his friends, as he laid it down for his sheep: when struck, let him not answer back; when cursed, let him not curse, but overcome pride by humility: such a one has put on the new man, and can say with the Apostle: I live, now not I: but Christ liveth in me. And similarly other Fathers and Interpreters say that to put on Christ is nothing else than to be adorned with the virtues of Christ, and to be such, both inwardly and also in outward life and profession, that all may acknowledge from it, as from the garment of Christ, that they are his servants: as the servants of magnates are distinguished by a certain kind of garments, or by colors proper and peculiar to them.

They object 6. Those words of the Apostle ad Philip. 3, I have counted all things loss, and do judge them to be dung, that I may gain Christ, and may be found in him, not having my justice, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Jesus Christ. Whence Calvin concludes that one's own justice must be held as guilt by him who wishes to obtain the justice of Christ. — I answer, by these words the justice of mine, which is of the law, is understood to mean the justice of the works of the law, which the Apostle therefore calls his own, because he was destined unto it through circumcision, as were the other Israelites. Thence there is opposed to it the justice which is of faith, which is ours not efficiently, that is, from ourselves, as if from ourselves, but from the gift of God, although it is certain that it is ours subjectively.

They object 1. Saint Ambrose, lib. 1. De Iacob et vita beata, where he explains our justification by the example of Jacob hiding himself in the habit and clothing of his brother: As there, he says, an alien person received the blessing for his own advantage; so we lie hid under the precious purity of Christ our firstborn brother, that we repeat the testimony of justice before the sight of God.

— I answer 1. The aforesaid sentence is not found in that book, and consequently it was lied about and fabricated by the heretics themselves, who cite no chapter even of that book from which that sentence might be taken. I answer 2. That even if Saint Ambrose, or another of the holy Fathers, had uttered these words, nevertheless nothing against our assertion can be evinced from them: for a twofold justice can be distinguished in us: one whereby we are justified formally, and from sinners become just: another whereby we satisfy God for fault and the punishments due on account of it. Now when the holy Fathers say that the justice of Christ imputed to us is represented by Jacob lying hidden under the garments of his brother Esau, that he might receive the blessing of his Father, they speak of a justice not formal, but satisfactory; insofar namely as Christ the Lord, by satisfying for us to his Father, was our surety; so that his justice is applied to us by right of satisfaction, and is accounted in a certain manner ours, while we are reconciled to God formally through grace inhering in us; nor indeed do we satisfy God by our own works, however good, except inasmuch as they rest upon the satisfaction of Christ.

They object 2. Saint Bernard, Sermon 61. on the Canticles, speaking thus: Shall I sing my justices? Lord, I will remember thy justice alone: for it is also mine, namely thou hast been made unto me justice from God. Shall I then fear lest it should not suffice for both of us? It is not a short mantle which according to the Prophet cannot cover two.

— I answer, Saint Bernard calls the justice of Christ his own meritoriously, and not as though he were just by the formal justice of Christ imputed to himself. The solution is evident from the antecedents and consequents: for there S. Bernard teaches that our merit rests upon the merits of Christ the Lord: My merit therefore, he says, is the mercy of the Lord: plainly I am not destitute of merit so long as he be not wanting in mercies: but if the mercies of the Lord are many, therefore I am rich in many merits. And shortly after he subjoins the words set forth in the objection. Hence as according to S. Bernard there the merit of Christ the Lord is not ours formally, but something wholly distinct, yet it is called ours by reason of its effect and advantage, insofar as it redounds to our good, seeing that our merit rests upon it; so also, that all things with him may correspond in S. Bernard, the justice of Christ the Lord is ours, not indeed formally, but in effect; insofar as our formal justice rests upon it, and is some new meritorious effect. And certainly Bernard acknowledged inherent justice in most clear words, when in Sermon 5. on that text: Credidi, etc., he distinguishes a threefold justice: one of God, upright, pure, and firm; a second of the Angels, pure, upright, but not firm, because God found even in his Angels perversity: lastly a third of men after the fall, not pure on account of venial sins committed, not firm, because man can depart from it, but upright.

They object 3. That justice whereby we ought to be pleasing to God must be most perfect, and complete in all its numbers, but above all free from the admixture of any vice whatsoever: but a justice which would be from ourselves, whatever it might be, would always be mixed with vices and would labor under most many defects: for, says Isaias, chapter 64, We are all become as one unclean, and all our justices as the rag of a menstruous woman. Therefore that we may be acceptable to God through justice, we must be covered with the justice of Christ as with a most precious mantle.

— I answer 1. By denying the minor, for from very many contexts of sacred Scripture it is plain that just men, by their own works wrought with the help of grace, are pleasing and acceptable to God, and have found grace in the sight of the Lord; and consequently it is false that men are unpleasing and odious to God by their own justice. I answer 2. That a twofold perfection can be distinguished in justice itself: one essential, the other accidental. The former consists in the very essence of justification, namely in the adherence and information of sanctifying grace, which affects and illumines our soul: the latter consists in its intension, as regards more perfect accidental degrees; but he who has justice according to the former perfection, although he lack great intension of it and other accidental perfections, does not on that account cease to have it formally; as he who has heat in a lesser degree is truly hot, and has nothing of cold. As to the Prophet, ⟦illegible: …⟧ he must be understood either of legal justice, which among the Jews at that time was utterly undermined, or of justice lost through iniquities and the public and manifest crimes of the Jews, whose loss of justice indeed the Prophet mourns: but his sense is not that justices whereby men are truly just contain anything of iniquity.