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

Three things especially are proposed here for resolution: First indeed, whether justification is truly a miraculous work, and the greatest among divine works. Second, whether it can take place in an instant. Third finally, whether it is equal in all the just. That these may be more easily resolved,

NOTE 1. For a miracle two things are chiefly required: first indeed, that it be an unusual and extraordinary work, either in its effect or in its mode: second, however, that it cannot be done through natural causes acting by their proper powers. But it is certain that the first of those conditions is ordinarily lacking in justification; since the justification of men takes place daily through the administration of the sacraments, as through means ordained by God for its conferral, and received among us by common and frequent use. I said ordinarily: for it happens sometimes that certain notable sinners are called and justified in an unusual and extraordinary manner, such as were the conversion of Magdalene, of the penitent Thief, and of Paul, of whom there is no question here; for we are treating only of ordinary justification, which takes place through the common means instituted by God and customary among us; which justification certainly can be compared with creation, glorification, incarnation, and transubstantiation, which seem to be the greatest works of the Divinity: and accordingly it must be determined whether justification is more excellent than, or interior to, those most illustrious works of God. Now the greatness of some work can be considered either from the manner of the agent and of the production, or from the dignity and excellence of the thing produced. It must therefore be seen whether in both ways justification excels the other works of God.

NOTE 2. Justification can be regarded either insofar as it is a passage from the state of sin to the state of grace, comprising the ultimate disposition to the infusion of sanctifying grace: or insofar as it comprises all the other remote dispositions which the Council of Trent refers to, Session 6, chapter 6. The difficulty, however, is whether justification, regarded in both ways, can take place in an instant.

NOTE 3. That this was a flagitious error of Jovinian, who, as St. Jerome relates, book 2 against him, and Augustine, Epistle 20, thought with the Stoics that all virtues are equal, and all vices and sins are equal; and accordingly that one sinner cannot be worse than another, nor one just man more just than another. Which most wicked error, long since buried, Luther again raised from the dead; doing so first in a sermon which he preached on the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin, in which he dared to bring forth this impiety: All Christians are equally great as the Mother of God, and equally holy as she. To which afterward all the erring subscribed, especially the Calvinists. Hence Windelin in his Calvinistic Theology, book 1, chapter 24, says: The equality of justification is whereby the justice of Christ apprehended through faith is imputed equally to all by God; although the faith of some is stronger, that of others weaker: for, as Scarpius adds in De iustificatione, Controversy ⟦t.⟧ even weak faith apprehends Christ whole with His benefits; how erroneous this assertion is, and how adverse to Sacred Scripture, will appear within.

First Conclusion. — The justification of a sinner is truly a miraculous work, and therefore greater than creation, but not than incarnation or glorification.

This Conclusion consists of three parts, of which

The first is proven: That work is deemed miraculous which can be done solely by divine power beyond the order of nature and the exigency of natural causes: but such is justification: for it is wrought by God alone: for God it is who justifies, bestowing habitual grace and remitting sins. It is also beyond the exigency of natural causes, and exceeds their powers; because God, according to the prescribed laws of divine Providence, is bound by no reason to grant pardon to a sinner: for He would be bound thereto either by justice, or by fidelity, or by the administration of Providence; but such an obligation cannot be drawn from either head. First indeed, God does not owe this by justice: because divine justice is bound to inflict nothing else upon the sinner than punishment and vengeance: for every sin must be punished, either from man doing penance, or from God prevailing. Nor is He bound thereto by fidelity; because fidelity supposes a promise in what it executes: but nowhere did God promise the sinner the grace of justification, but only to man doing penance. Finally not from the administration of natural Providence: for justification is not ordered to a natural end, but supernatural; and accordingly is not comprehended within the line of natural divine Providence, by which He concurs with second causes and supplies to them the necessaries whereby they can attain their natural end: therefore justification is a work wholly beyond the due order and powers of nature, and accordingly is a miraculous work.

The second part is also proven, namely that justification is a greater work than creation itself: partly because the justification of the impious takes place not only out of nothing, as does creation itself, but moreover usually takes place with the human will previously resisting: for as men are created, no will of theirs is needed therefor; but that they may be justified, they must work willingly together with God: whence that oft-repeated saying of St. Augustine, Sermon 14 On the words of the Apostle: He who created you without you, will not justify you without you: partly because creation is terminated only at a natural good, but justification at a supernatural good: finally because Christ the Lord attested it in these words: He that believes in me, the works that I do, he also shall do; and greater than these shall he do: for, says St. Augustine there, it is greater to justify the impious than to create heaven and earth; whence whoever concurs toward his own or another's justification does greater things than these.

And no one will call this into doubt who hears St. Thomas, part 3, q. 113, art. 9, ad 2, saying: The good of one grace is greater than the good of the nature of the whole Universe. Hence the Church preaches that the divine omnipotence shines forth more excellently in the conversion of a sinner than in the creation of the world; for it says in the Collect of the 8th Sunday after Pentecost: O God, who manifests your omnipotence chiefly by pardoning and showing mercy, etc. The reason of this lies ready to hand; for man in justification receives something divine, and is adopted and consecrated as a son of God. Which is indeed so wonderful and stupendous that deservedly St. Chrysologus, Sermons 66 and 68, exclaims: The Angels stand amazed, heaven marvels, earth trembles, flesh cannot bear it, hearing cannot grasp it, mind does not reach it, the creature cannot sustain the whole, estimation suffices not, believing fears. Nor indeed without cause; for the justification of a sinner is as it were the synopsis and encyclopedia of all the marvelous works of God; since it emulates and adumbrates them all. Doubtless God once wrought great marvels, which the Royal Prophet enumerates Ps. 135, saying: Who alone does great wonders, who made the heavens in understanding: who established the earth upon the waters: who made the great lights, the sun for power over the day, the moon and stars for power over the night; who smote Egypt with their firstborn: who brought out Israel from among them with a mighty hand and a stretched-out arm: who divided the Red Sea into divisions, who struck the rock, and the waters flowed, etc. All these He renews daily in the justification of the impious: there He makes the heavens in understanding, who once makes earthly and irrational sinners heavenly and rational: there He establishes the earth upon the waters, who works firmness in good from the flowing streams of tears of the heart: here He creates the great lights, who draws forth the light of grace from the darkness of sins: here He smote Egypt, and brought out the sons of Israel from the captivity of Pharaoh, who delivers sinners from the miserable servitude of the devil: here He divides the Red Sea, and plunges Pharaoh and his whole army into the waters, who restrains the insurgent furies of disorderly affections, and casts all our iniquities into the depth of the sea of His infinite mercy: here He converts the rock into pools of water, who draws forth from a most hard heart fountains of tears. Finally to the justification of the impious that saying of the Porta can deservedly be adapted: Non alibi miranda magis: for it is a work impassable to human intelligence, a mystery hidden in God, a secret of horror, a sacrament of the dread of the Saints, and a most sacred and most obscure enigma, which no subtlety of human genius can open, as Gonetus observes best.

The third part is proved, namely that justification is less than glorification and incarnation. It is indeed inferior to glorification on the side of the thing produced, because justification is only unto grace begun; glorification, however, unto grace consummated. Next, justification is frail and can perish; but glorification is constant and cannot be lost. Finally, justification can always advance, as we shall say presently; and therefore it has not in this mortal life the state and crown of perfection; but it is otherwise with glorification: For, says St. Paul, when that which is perfect shall come, that which is in part shall be done away with. — It is also inferior to the Incarnation; because justification is only an accidental union between God and man: the Incarnation is a substantial and personal union. Next, the Incarnation also includes habitual grace, and adds the hypostatic union in the divine person, which is the fount of all grace, of whose fullness we have all received. Finally, the Incarnation itself includes whatever there is of perfection in beatitude; and therefore, since glorification is more excellent than justification, even from this side the Incarnation excels. The same holds for transubstantiation, because transubstantiation of itself is terminated to the body and blood of Christ, and consequently includes all things that pertain to the terminus of the Incarnation: therefore for this reason it is greater than justification. Next, transubstantiation effects the presence of Christ the Lord in the adorable sacrament of the Eucharist, in which He is the fount of all grace and divine charisms, which He pours forth lavishly upon all those who receive this Sacrament worthily: now the fount of grace is reckoned to be far something more excellent than the simple infusion of grace, which takes place through justification.

Second Conclusion. — JUSTIFICATION ITSELF, INASMUCH AS IT CONNOTES THE TRANSIT FROM THE STATE OF SIN TO THE STATE OF SANCTIFYING GRACE, CAN TAKE PLACE IN AN INSTANT; BUT NOT INASMUCH AS IT ALSO COMPREHENDS ALL THE DISPOSITIONS OF THE MAN TO BE JUSTIFIED. Both parts of this Conclusion are easily established.

The first indeed, because the difficulty is not greater, that God bestow sanctifying grace upon a sinner in the same instant in which he detests his sin, whether through contrition, or through attrition joined to the sacrament of Penance, than that He grant it to a just man: but to a just man an increase of grace can be conferred in an instant: therefore also He can bestow it upon a sinner. The minor is evident: for just as God, in creating the Angels together with founding their nature, added grace also, so that the Angels were given grace in the first instant of their creation, as all Theologians commonly teach; so also He bestows an increase of grace in the same instant in which some just man has merited it by his good works. The major is proved: for if anything hindered God from being able to grant sanctifying grace together with the remission of sins in an instant, chiefly because sin would seem to stand together with grace in the same intrinsic instant: yet that does not follow, since the first being of grace is the last being of sin; nor can sin and grace be judged to exist simultaneously for any other reason than two substantial forms, of which one ceases, the other begins to be in the subject; but two substantial forms are not for this reason said to stand together, because the first being of one is the last being of the other: therefore neither are sin and grace on that account simultaneous.

The second part is also clear: for experience establishes that the dispositions can be brought to bear by sinful man only over some space of time, which the Council of Trent teaches are required, Session 6, chapter 6, namely faith, hope, fear, detestation of sins, the purpose of beginning a new life, and of keeping the commandments of God, all which acts cannot be done in an instant.

Third Conclusion. — NOT ALL THE JUST HAVE AN EQUAL JUSTICE, BUT ONE IS HOLIER AND MORE JUST THAN ANOTHER.

It is proved first from the Scriptures, Matth. 11: Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist. 2. Corinth. 9: He will supply the increase of the fruits of your justice. 2. Peter 3: But grow in grace. Apocalypse, last chapter: He that is just, let him be justified still.

Secondly from the Council of Trent, Session 6, chapter 10, and Canon 24, as well as from the condemnation of the Jovinians, with SS. Jerome and Augustine themselves as witnesses above.

Thirdly from St. Augustine, Epistle to Dardanus, question 1: Among the saints, he says, some are more blessed than others, possessing more abundantly the habitation of God.

Fourthly finally, because an inequality of glory will be given in heaven: therefore an inequality of grace is given on earth, because glory succeeds to grace, and grace is the seed of glory. The antecedent is that of Christ the Lord, John 14: In my Father's house there are many mansions. Whoever desires more, may have recourse to the preceding Disputation, where there was discourse concerning the increase of habitual grace.