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

Note 1. It was the most wicked opinion of Calvin, lib. 3. Instit., c. 2, that whoever has once attained the grace of justification can never lose it through any subsequent sin; but if any lose it, they in truth never had true justice, nor true faith, but only the shadow or image of justification and of faith; which, since it is of no moment whatever, is utterly unworthy of the appellation of true faith: and he thereupon teaches that true believers can nowhere fall away from justice, and that whatever more grievous crimes they commit, they will nowhere incur the indignation and damnation of God; which most certainly fanatical opinion, worthy of every execration, very many Calvinists follow, as is clear from the Pseudo-Synod of Dordrecht on the fifth point of controversy, article ⟦illegible: article numbers garbled in OCR ("art. 1. :. et 6.")⟧, although some few, estranged from the truth together with all Catholics, execrate it. The horrendous consequences of this opinion and teaching Grotius weighed in this manner in his discussion of the Apology of Andreas Rivetus, where at page 217 he says thus: «The Christian ⟦illegible: opening words garbled in OCR ("ext pectoris"); likely "decet pectus" or similar⟧ ought to shudder at those dogmas which harm piety: such is that one not fabricated by Grotius, but published often, and defended by some: fight manfully, but believe still more manfully; and a hundred homicides and a thousand acts of impurity shall do you no harm. These are the genuine fruits of that dogma, that everyone must believe that Christ died for him by name; that the justice of Christ is imputed to him as if he himself had furnished it; that he shall certainly persevere; that salvation is certainly and absolutely destined for him; that the sins of the faithful, however great and grievous they may be, are not imputed to them, because of faith in Jesus Christ; that they can fall into rebellion, homicide, adultery, treason, and other disgraces of that kind; nevertheless yet they hold it certain and firm that never, neither totally nor finally, can they fall away from the paternal charity of God and his grace toward them, but on the contrary that God their Father out of his eternal love, mercy, and grace covers and remits in Christ all their past, present, and future sins. These are surely, in the judgment of D. Rivetus, the thoughts of a Christian heart». And a little later: «Beza, he says, held that David, though polluted with homicide and adultery, had retained the Holy Spirit, and wished himself to perish if he taught otherwise». Hence the same Grotius in his Annotations defending his own notes against Casaubon, on the article concerning the distinction between mortal and venial sin, says: «No dogma could be introduced into Christianity more pernicious than this: that a man who has believed, or who has been regenerated (for these mean the same to many), may slip into crimes and disgraces; but that it cannot happen that on this account he falls from divine favor or incurs damnation. This no one among the ancients taught; no one would have endured the one teaching it».

Note 2. That the Calvinists, in order to ward off the wrong done to themselves by the dogma of this opinion, seek and devise various evasions. First indeed there are not lacking those who boldly pronounce that this nefarious dogma is gratuitously and falsely fastened upon them by Catholics. So Beza, in the book De Perseverantia Sanctorum, where against Batta, one of the Remonstrant Calvinists, among other things he says: What he adds — that we concede that if those once reborn slip into most atrocious crimes, homicides, adulteries, and things graver than these, they nonetheless remain in grace before God, retaining the Holy Spirit, faith, hope, and charity — is mere calumny; he maliciously fastens blasphemy upon us. How alien this assertion is from the truth appears from the opinion of other Calvinists, who steadfastly affirm with Calvin and Beza that true believers can nowhere fall away from justice. So Windelinus in Compendio Calvinianae Theologiae, lib. 1. cap. ⟦illegible: chapter number garbled in OCR ("2t")⟧: Of the points of faith, he says, there are five principal ones… Second: Perseverance, whereby whoever has once received saving faith never loses it nor casts it away. Chamierus, lib. 6. cap. 12. num. 1. The Calvinists (whom they call by the fictitious name of Catholics) deny that anyone received into grace by God falls from grace by any sin, however gravest, much less lightest. Piscator, part 12. Disputan., finally, a chief point objected to our doctrine is that the reborn lose faith by no disgraces. But John teaches the same in the place cited above. Perkinsus, in the dialogue De Statu Hominis, part 4. p. ⟦illegible: page number garbled in OCR ("p. It.")⟧, supposing with his followers that all true believers are elect and predestined, and objecting to himself: truly I beseech you, what seems good to you? Does not God will that his elect be condemned if they sin? thus he answers: He does not will it: for the foundation of our salvation is founded in the eternal election of God, so that a thousand sins, nay rather all the sins of the whole world, yea even all the devils who are in hell, cannot make void the election of God. Indeed it can happen that our hearts are hardened toward sin, weaken faith, and sadden the spirit of God within us by grief: but they cannot take away faith, or utterly shake out the Holy Spirit. God condemns no one for sin who has been adopted into sonship in Christ Jesus. Dannhauerus in Concordia, pag. 108. Certainly no believers, he says, can by any sin fall from the grace of God, and therefore believers cannot wholly fall from faith. — But most constantly does this assertion of the Calvinists stand forth from the controversy raised between the Remonstrant and contra-Remonstrant Ministers of the Batavians: for the former, as is clear from their Synodal Writings, article ⟦illegible: article number lost in OCR⟧, affirmed that believers can fall from true faith, and can slip into such sins as cannot consist with true and justifying faith, and that not only can this happen, but it happens not rarely. True believers can fall by their own fault into disgraces and atrocious crimes, persevere in them and die in them, and therefore fall away finally and perish. But the contra-Remonstrants taught the contrary; for they say in the conference held at the Hague in the year 1611, pag. 341. We shall prove from sacred Scripture that those who have been ingrafted into Jesus Christ through true faith, and have consequently been made partakers of the vivifying Spirit, although they can sin gravely through the weakness of the flesh, are nevertheless so preserved by God that it is certain they will not totally, nor finally, lose this faith and this vivifying spirit. Moreover this Calvinistic assertion the pseudo-Synod of Dordrecht proves most evidently, pag. 105, where among other things it says: God, who is rich in mercy, according to his unchangeable purpose of election, does not take away the Holy Spirit entirely even in their sorrowful falls, nor permit them to slip so far as to fall from the state of the grace of adoption and justification; or to commit sin unto death, or against the Holy Spirit, and, utterly deserted by him, to precipitate themselves into eternal destruction. And surely the Gallic Calvinists proved this doctrine, together with the other assertions of the same pseudo-Synod, in their Convention held at Alès in the year 1619, where among other acts of the same Convention the Ministers protest that they receive the decisions of the Synod of Dordrecht, and will defend them unto death; by which it stands that the aforementioned assertion about the non-losability of grace even through whatsoever grave sins is the common dogma of the Calvinists.

Note 3. When the Ministers of the Calvinists of this time were pressed by Catholics with so many and such open testimonies that they truly teach that grace is unlosable through sin however grave; and perceived that this most wicked dogma was received ungratefully not only by Catholics but even by their own followers, they devised various shifts by which they might delude the simple, and remove from themselves the wrong done to the doctrine of this opinion. For first some of them teach that justice is deemed unlosable for this reason, that although justifying faith be diminished through grave sins, yet there always remains a certain spark of faith, which afterwards being stirred up by serious penitence revives. Of this evasion indeed Andreas Rivetus had given a prelude in his animadversions against the notes of Grotius, saying: God in those who have sinned still keeps and cherishes little sparks, to be stirred up afterwards by serious penitence. But how futile and vain this evasion is appears from this, that they most constantly affirm with Calvin, lib. 9. cap. 2. n. 12, that however small the faith in the elect may be, yet the spirit of God is a sure pledge and seal of his adoption. Hence Scarpius De iustif., controversy 1, teaches: Faith even weak apprehends Christ whole with all his benefits; but what is weak in us is in Christ absolute and perfect. Finally, if it have even the least spark of true faith, I am certain and secure, because the gifts of God are without repentance. He holds, then, that faith, even the smallest, truly justifies; and thereupon they confess that justice is utterly unlosable through any grave sin whatsoever, and that whoever has that least faith is equally just and holy as if he had most perfect faith, as Windelinus openly teaches, lib. 1. cap. 21, saying: Equality of justification is that whereby the justice of Christ apprehended through faith is imputed equally by God to all: although the faith of some is stronger, of others weaker. Finally there are not lacking those who affirm believers to be justified even while lying in grave sins. So Robertus Abbas in Tompsonem, cap. ⟦illegible: chapter number garbled in OCR ("2t")⟧, who when he affirmed that David remained in death, that is, in the guilt of death, truly as long as he remained in homicide, and did not have eternal life abiding in him, Robertus answers thus: Well indeed justified not according to this sin, and yet simply as regards the person justified: but about to relapse from this justification, unless justified also from this sin. But how little sensible this answer is, and how discordant with Catholic doctrine and the christian faith, no one fails to see; for hence it would follow that David was also justified before penitence as regards the person, although he was not justified as regards the sin: and thereupon, if he had died before penitence was performed, one or the other would have been necessary, either that he would have been saved with actual sins on account of personal justification, or that he would have been damned on account of the sins, even if he had elsewhere been just. All these things I have wished to note somewhat at greater length beforehand, so that it may appear how much and how wickedly they deviate who have once fallen away from the path of truth, which he shall open

Single Conclusion. — JUSTICE AND SANCTIFYING GRACE ONCE RECEIVED CAN BE LOST, AND IS TRULY FORFEITED THROUGH SUBSEQUENT MORTAL SIN. This is determined as of faith in the Council of Trent, Session 6, Canon 23, in these words: If anyone shall say that a man once justified can sin no more, nor lose grace; and hence that he who falls and sins was never truly justified: let him be anathema. And chapter 15 says: It must be lamented that not only through infidelity, whereby faith itself is lost, but even through any other mortal sin whatever, although faith be not lost, the grace of justification once received is lost.

Our assertion is proved from holy Scripture: first indeed by those parables, by the example of the prodigal son afterwards received again into grace and restored to his first robe, the lost drachma found and recovered, the hundredth wandering sheep sought and brought back to the fold, wherein it is signified that the just man falls utterly from grace, and is restored to the state of justification by penance. — It is proved secondly by the examples of those who having once had justice suffered its loss. Such were the evil Angels, the first Parents, David, Peter the Apostle, and the Galatians, to whom Paul reproaches in the first chapter: I wonder that you are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ, unto another gospel: and chapter 3: Are you so foolish, that whereas you began in the spirit, you would now end in the flesh: and chapter 5: *You are made void of Christ, who justify yourselves in the law: you are fallen from grace.» It is proved thirdly by all those texts of Scripture wherein it is signified that men fall from vivifying grace through mortal sin, and are restored to it only through penance. Thus Ezekiel 13: When the just turneth himself away from his justice, and committeth iniquity, shall he live? All his justices which he hath done shall not be remembered; in the prevarication by which he hath prevaricated, and in his sin which he hath sinned, in them he shall die. 1 Cor. 9: But I chastise my body, and bring it into subjection: lest perhaps when I have preached to others, I myself should become a castaway. 1 Cor. 6: Know you not that the unjust shall not possess the kingdom of God? Do not err: neither fornicators, nor servers of idols, nor adulterers… shall possess the kingdom of God. And these things indeed you were: but you are washed, but you are sanctified, but you are justified. By which words the Apostle signifies that true believers can fall from grace; for he speaks of true believers, as is clear from the following words: but it would be false that they could fall from the kingdom of God if their grace were unlosable.

Similar things Ephesians 5 hands down, where having said: But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not so much as be named among you; he brings forward this reason for his saying: For know this and understand, that no fornicator, or unclean, or covetous person, which is a serving of idols, hath inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God: now it is manifest that he there speaks to believers, since he says: For you were heretofore darkness, but now light in the Lord: yet he commands them to abstain from the vices which he enumerates there; otherwise they will not have inheritance in the kingdom of Christ: therefore the Apostle holds that believers can commit vices, and on their account be excluded from participation of inheritance with Christ. — Finally it is proved by those oracles in which Scripture admonishes the justified diligently to guard themselves from sins, lest they fall from grace and eternal inheritance: thus Romans 11: But thou by faith standest: be not highminded, but fear. And there again: See then the goodness of God towards thee, if thou continue in goodness: otherwise thou shalt also be cut off. And Philippians 2: With fear and trembling work out your salvation. And Apocalypse 3: To the Bishop ⟦of Sardis?⟧ it is said: Hold fast that which thou hast, that no man take thy crown. But all these things would be vain and inept if the just could anywhere fall from grace: therefore they can truly do so.

To these add that St Augustine, book De haeresibus, Heresy 82, and Jerome, book 2 adversus Jovinianum, reckon among the errors of that heretic that he asserted sanctifying grace unlosable in the just. Wherefore St Augustine, book De dono perseverantiae, cap. 13, says plainly: Some who are regenerated and persevering we see held here even unto the end: who assuredly would not have fallen away, if they had departed from here before they fell. And again: Some also who have fallen return before they depart out of this life, who would assuredly perish if they departed before they returned. Therefore he holds that the just can fall from sanctifying grace.

They object, the Heretics 1. that passage 1 John 3: Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: and whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, nor known him; and whosoever is born of God committeth not sin: for his seed abideth in him, and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. — I answer 1. That this must be understood in the composite sense, namely that he does not sin according as he is born of God, and his seed abides in him, and he knows God: for grace cannot be the principle of sinning. For, says St Augustine, book De Gratia Christi, cap. 21: Charity, according to which he is born of God, doth not act amiss, nor think evil: therefore when man sins, he sins not according to charity, but according to concupiscence, according to which he is not born of God. — I answer 2. That the aforesaid texts can be understood of the predestined, who do not sin unto the end of life, nor forever. Thus St Bernard interprets, book De Libero Arbitrio: It was said, he says, of the Predestined unto life, not that they do not sin altogether, but that sin is not imputed to them, because it is either punished with condign penitence, or hidden in charity. — It can also be answered that it can be understood of birth consummated and perfect,

such as will be in glory. Thus St Augustine explains it, book De peccatorum meritis et remissione, cap. 8: Now therefore we have the firstfruits of the spirit, he says, whence already we are made sons of God in very deed, because not yet saved, therefore not yet perfectly regenerated, not yet true sons of God, but sons of the age. We advance therefore toward renewal and the life of the just, whereby we are sons of God, and hereby we can altogether not sin, until everything in this be transformed, even that whereby we are still sons of the age; for by this we can still sin: thus it comes to pass that he who is born of God sinneth not. And if we shall have said that we have no sin, we seduce ourselves, and truth is not in us. Let what we are as sons of flesh and of the age be consummated, and what we are as sons of God be perfected, and renewed in spirit. And in book De Perfectione iustitiae, cap. 18, expounding the same text, he says: According to that whereby we are born of God, and abide in him who appeared that he might loose sins, that is, in Christ, we abide and sin not: but this is, that the inward man is renewed day by day: but according to that whereby we are born of that man through whom sin entered into the world, and through sin death, and so passed into all men: we are not without sin, because we are not without that infirmity, until by that renovation which takes place day by day, since according to him we are born of God, the infirmity is wholly healed.

They object 2. that passage 1 John 2: They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would certainly have continued with us. Therefore those who have true faith and justice cannot fall away from it. — I deny the consequence; since rather the contrary follows from the aforesaid text; for it signifies that believers, and true members of the Church, can sometimes defect from it; but these words, They were not of us, etc., do not signify that they were not truly believers, and true members of the Church like the rest, but that they were unlike the rest, namely not firm and stable and noble Christians: nay rather light and inconstant: after which manner of speaking it is said 1 Machabees 7: But they shall not be of the seed of those men, by whom salvation is wrought in Israel: that is, they were not strong and constant in war, like the Machabees.

They object 3. that passage 1 Cor. 13: Charity never falleth away. Whence Canticles 8: Many waters cannot quench charity, neither shall floods drown it. And Romans 8: Who shall separate us from the charity of Christ? I am sure that neither death, nor life, etc. Hence St Augustine, Epistle ad Julianum: Charity which can be destroyed was never true. Therefore charity, which is inseparable from faith, is true justice, which when once had is nowhere forfeited. — I deny the consequence; for the Apostle intends nothing else than that charity, as far as lies on the side of time, knows no setting, and that it will persevere in the just upon the advent of eternal felicity, when tongues, prophecy, and the other gifts cease; but thou hast left thy first love: be mindful therefore from whence thou art fallen: and do penance, and do the first works: or else I come to thee, and will move thy candlestick out of its place, except thou do penance. In confirmation I say that by those texts likewise is not signified that charity cannot be extinguished through sins, but that so great is its force and efficacy against tribulations and persecutions that neither overflowing waters of calamities, nor urgent straits of tribulations can ever separate a man from charity toward Christ. As for that text of St Augustine adduced in the Epistle ad Julianum, charity which can be destroyed was never true, it is found indeed in book De salutaribus documentis, cap. 7. But that book is spurious, the offspring not of Augustine: and its author, whoever he may be, intends nothing else than to signify that friendship which depends upon place, or habit, or time, and the presence of a friend is not true and perfect charity, because it has not the true motive of charity, which ought to be abstracted from all these; after which manner of speaking St Jerome uses, Epistle 1. ad Rutinum: Friendship which can cease was never true.