De natura et gratia libri III, cum Apologia contra Catharinum

With these things premeditated, let us return to whence we set out. Moreover, that we may weigh the three different dispositions of justification, which we call material causes, in adults. The first is the order of those who, when they grow up to the participation of reason before they contract their own actual sins, are received into the grace of God.¹ Let us suppose, therefore, a man of lawful age with only original sin, whom God draws to himself. Let us not now be anxious whether, as soon as one comes to the use of reason, he is converted (as St. Thomas holds) or whether (as others more approve) he can for some time be defiled by the stain of origin alone.² In this sinner, first of all, faith is necessary: as has been sufficiently shown in the chapter just preceding. In the law of nature indeed it is confused: but now in the evangelical law it is more explicit concerning CHRIST. And this will be the first conclusion here. For which reason, according to the most salutary institution of the Church, catechumens, even if they have given their will to religion, are to be delayed from receiving baptism while they are being catechized.³ Yet no penance is necessary for this man of whom we speak.⁴ For so far is anyone from being obliged to repent of original fault, that he cannot. For over those things which happen from nature, sadness and grief and shame can indeed press us: but penance, since it is a removal of the mind from where it was fixed, cannot exist except for those things which we have done of our own will.

But yet, that we may subjoin the second conclusion, neither is the motion of faith alone sufficient for the same man, who is to be cleansed from original sin alone: nay, an act of hope and likewise of love is required of him: which, as we said in chapter 7, are not necessarily connected, but come about each by its own liberty.⁵ From this point the Lutherans begin to deviate from the truth.⁶ Namely when they teach that faith alone is that by which we apprehend the mercy of God, but hope and charity follow naturally of themselves. But we, on the contrary, acknowledge that the motion of faith is the first necessary, but since it is possible that he who believes may not love (as we were explaining there), we add that together with the act of faith there are also required acts of hope and charity.⁷ But that at least these three motions are necessary in him who is converted while in possession of reason is proved first by a manifest reason. God requires faith of us for this, that we may love him both for those things which he promises us, and especially for his own infinite goodness which he discloses to us: first because all knowledge of the honourable good is ordered to the love of it, and besides because the very nature of faith, insofar as it is the knowledge of things to be hoped for, carries this before it, that it is by its own nature for the sake of hope and the love of God. Therefore, unless hope and charity follow, faith does not suffice for salvation. And this reason is more explicitly confirmed, as we were hinting above.⁸ Aversion from God is chiefly by the affection of the will, through the fact that we are perverted in mind toward creatures: as he who turns his face away from the sun: therefore conversion, which names a contrary motion of our will toward God, with him drawing and us freely coming, ought to be a contrary motion of the will toward God: whether we are reconciled from original sin alone or from actual sins. For we also contract original sin through the aversion of Adam. But we cannot love without prior knowledge, and in order to love him whom we have previously offended we must be raised by some hope of his goodness; so it comes about that the motions of faith, then hope, and finally charity concur in our conversion. By these indeed God, with us cooperating, converts us to himself, so as to infuse grace. Therefore without any appearance of probability Luther has fabricated⁹ that grace and justice are apprehended by us by faith alone, and that hope and charity follow: not noticing that conversion designates the motion by which we move the mind away from earthly things and move it toward God. But by the fact that one believes God, unless he is borne toward him by hope and love, he does not convert his whole mind to him: which nevertheless, before it is converted, cannot be imbued with grace. The theologians wisely explain the disposition¹⁰ to grace by a very good example: as St. Thomas is the author, 1-2, q. 109, art. 6. For grace is like the light of the sun, which no one receives with his face unless he turns himself toward it. But because no one can do this by himself, God himself converts us, consenting indeed, to himself, so as to infuse grace. Which motion of conversion is the disposition and preparation for grace. Wherefore not only the act of faith, but also of hope and charity must precede grace at least by nature. For this cause in Scripture our justification is sometimes ascribed to faith, sometimes to hope, sometimes to charity. For we reckon (says Paul) that a man is justified by faith, and not by works.¹¹ And: By grace you are saved through faith, and not from yourselves. For it is the gift of God.¹² And very many other things of this kind, which we shall mention in the last chapter. But in Romans 8: By hope, he says, we are saved. And in John: Everyone who has this hope in him (namely, because we shall see God as he is) sanctifies himself, as he also is holy.¹³ But also concerning charity Paul says that love is the fullness of the law.¹⁴ And: The end of the commandment is charity.¹⁵ And expressly John: We have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. And: He who does not love remains in death.¹⁶ And CHRIST our Saviour himself: He who loves me shall be loved by my Father: and we will come to him, and make our dwelling with him.¹⁷ But these and similar testimonies are uttered concerning the acts of faith, hope and charity: in the way that they prepare us for grace, each in its own order and degree. For we are moved by faith to give assent to God concerning those things which he has both revealed as future to us and promised as to be hoped for: by hope, while thus believing we lift up our minds thither on high: by charity finally, while to him whom we believe to be good in himself and propitious and beneficent toward us we assign our will. For in these three our salvation is founded, kept whole, and covered. Whence faith is not the whole machine, but the beginning of piety and the foundation of the Christian building: as Augustine says in the book On the Predestination of the Saints.¹⁸ But charity (as Paul says) is the bond of perfection, and therefore the nearest disposition to grace: as it were the very knot and bond by which we are joined to God.¹⁹ So much so that Augustine wisely noted in the letter to Paulinus that although Paul called faith a gift of God, yet CHRIST called charity God himself. For God, he says, is charity, and he who remains in charity remains in God, and God in him.²⁰ For God is in us as the soul in the body, to which it gives being and life: but we are in him as the body in the soul, whence our salvation depends: and the bond of this union is charity.²¹ Who therefore, having thoughtfully considered these things, would say that we apprehend the grace of God by faith alone? And especially in that sense in which the adversaries assert it: namely, by the sole assent of the mind, by which we believe that the words of God's promises are true. But the passages of Scripture from which our adversaries are refuted we shall expound in chapter 18. For the present let it be enough to have shown that faith does not alone justify: that is, that faith alone is not required of us in order to be justified, but also hope and charity. For Paul was reminding the Galatians of this when he said that in CHRIST JESUS neither circumcision is of any avail, nor uncircumcision, but faith which works through charity.²² As if he had said: although faith without charity is indeed faith according to substance and property, yet it never justifies except when it works through charity.

But perhaps someone will meet us here. Those preparatory acts of faith, hope, and charity, insofar as they are prior to grace, are indeed unformed and therefore have no nature of merit; but the faith that works through charity is that fruitful faith which by nature follows grace. Therefore the faith that justifies by disposing is not the faith that works through charity; or at least, as some persuade themselves, it justifies by nature before it works through charity. But²³ this is not an argument by which we ought to deny that the justifying faith is the same faith that works through charity. For since, according to Paul's judgment, apart from this fruitful faith the other acts are of no value, while the dispositive acts are of great moment and in their own order are causes (namely, dispositive causes) of justification, it follows that the justifying faith is the faith that works through charity. It must therefore be noted²⁴ that the acts of faith, hope, and charity have exactly the same order among themselves in the same instant of time, according as by nature they precede grace, as the order in which the habits themselves are infused and operate, following the same grace by nature. And therefore, just as faith formed by the habit of grace works meritoriously through charity, so also the act of faith elicited by God's gratuitous help by nature disposes to grace through the act of charity, as through the act of penance. Hence St. Thomas²⁵, 3 p., q. 68, art. 2, holds as confessed that he who is received into God's grace through the desire of baptism is justified by the faith that works through love. Indeed Paul and the Fathers distinguish nothing about this priority of nature. But because the same dispositive acts, insofar as they are immediately informed by grace, are meritorious of glory, faith itself, while it justifies, works through charity. Therefore the argument proceeded from this fallacy, by which someone deceived would think that there is some instant in which the act of faith, which is the proximate preparation for grace, is found without grace; which nevertheless must be denied. For priority of nature (to use the words of the Physics) is nothing else than if you say that, because a man is converted to God by acts of faith, hope, and charity, he receives grace, by which the same acts are informed, as is explained more fully in chapter 14 below. Hence Augustine²⁶, both elsewhere whenever he speaks of justifying faith, and expressly in On the Spirit and the Letter, chap. 32, to the same faith working through love—to which he ascribes all the praises that are found in Paul concerning faith—ascribes also the gift of justification. For this is the faith, he says, by which they are saved, to whom it is said, By grace you are saved through faith, and this not from yourselves. For we are his workmanship, created in CHRIST JESUS in good works. Finally, this is the faith that works through love. And in the Hypognosticon, book 3, where he recounts the catalogue of those whom Paul commemorates as saved by faith, he says, not by faith alone, but by grace: because neither is grace without faith, nor faith without grace: as the Apostle says to Timothy, But grace has superabounded with faith and love, which is in CHRIST JESUS. And expressly in On Faith and Works, chap. 14, he says that wherever Paul says we are justified by faith, he defines that saving and evangelical faith whose works proceed from love: and faith, he says, which works through love. Indeed Paul needs no expositor. For since the ancients were justified by faith applied through circumcision, he teaches that the same faith works in us, which works through charity. Whence he says, For if you are circumcised, CHRIST will profit you nothing. And a little below, For in CHRIST JESUS neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is of any avail, but faith which works through charity. Therefore he was speaking of that justifying faith when he said that it does not justify except while it works through charity. For which reason Augustine²⁷, chap. 13, says: Of this faith working through love, he says, we are all Christian sons, or born from it.

The disagreement between us and Luther.— Therefore this confession ought to be so holy to catholics, that our justice is FAITH WHICH WORKS THROUGH CHARITY, that concerning these words there should be no disagreement between us and the Lutherans, but concerning the reality itself and the sense. And this is the theme which we proposed to narrate in this book, and this is the present place where the point of disagreement is explained. For they say that by faith alone, as it is assent and persuasion of the mind that the word of CHRIST's promise is true, believers receive mercy and grace, which grace working charity follows. Wherefore although in word they say that a man is justified by faith which works through charity, in reality nevertheless they say that by faith, prior by nature to the access of the acts of hope and charity, justice is had. But we, confessing and venerating the opinion of Paul, profess that by the acts of faith, hope and charity we are freely drawn by God, and converted to him, from whom we receive the grace of justification.

But indeed, to return to our man, who, infected with the stain of origin alone, desires to be reconciled, since there are several acts of charity, this one is properly necessary for him: that he dedicate himself to God by worshipping him alone: and that he propose to observe his commandments, all the things of the world being set after. Which disposition was indeed sufficient in the law of nature, by which God would receive into his grace a man cleansed from original sin. Yet in the evangelical law now, the desire for baptism is furthermore necessary: nay, baptism itself, where there is the opportunity. For, as we said above in narrating the causes of justification, the sacraments are instrumental causes, through which CHRIST most providently instituted that the price of his blood be applied to us for the various uses of the spiritual life. Surely so that the memory of him should never slip from us, and that all justice should be derived from him to us. Whence, instituting the most holy mystery of the Eucharist, he says: Do this in commemoration of me.²⁸ But among the effects of the spiritual life the first is regeneration, by which we are made members of CHRIST, and the profession of the Christian faith: both of which are from the sacrament of baptism. For unless one, he says, is born again of water and the Holy Spirit, he shall not enter the kingdom of heaven.²⁹ And: He who believes and is baptized (namely in profession of the same faith) shall be saved.³⁰ Wherefore, as we said in the cited place, it is a pestilent error of Luther to say that we are justified not by the sacrament, but by the faith which we have in the words of CHRIST.

But whether baptism in desire sufficed was formerly doubted in the Church.³¹ Which question the Master of the Sentences, disputing in 4 Sentences, d. 4, holds the affirmative part beyond doubt. There are nevertheless some whom we have now heard murmuring thus about this matter in the council. In the Gospel nothing is written about desire: but about the reality of baptism: Unless one is born again: therefore it is not a certain thing that there is any purpose and will which without baptism suffices for salvation. But these should have been sufficiently persuaded of the matter even from the usage of the Church. For if the desire without the reality of baptism did not suffice, the Church ought not, nay rather could not, keep catechumens from the sacrament: but as soon as anyone asked, it would have to be conferred by divine law without delay: because the Church cannot delay the effect of divine mercy. But since she most salutarily defers it for the one asking, it is most certain that before God the will is reputed for the deed. For he does not see only the things that appear, as man does, but beholds the heart most deeply, and therefore receives it. And: When the wicked man turns away from his wickedness which he has wrought, and does judgment and justice, he shall quicken his own soul. And the sense is, in whatever moment. Nay, according to what Augustine often cites: In whatever hour the sinner groans, I will not remember his iniquities. And David: I said, I will confess against myself my injustice to the Lord, and you forgave the impiety of my sin. Nay, even if Scripture did not attest it, natural light itself would disclose to us concerning God that where there is no possibility of things, he would not wish his grace to depend on anything in the world besides himself and ourselves. Whence Paul: If the will, he says, is prompt, it is accepted according to what it has, not according to what it does not have. And to our matter closely: He is not, he says, a Jew who is so outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outwardly in the flesh, but he is a Jew who is so inwardly, and circumcision of the heart in the spirit, not in the letter: whose praise is not from men, but from God. Therefore although nothing is expressed in the Gospel about the desire for baptism, it is manifest of itself that when the reality itself is not possible, or is lawfully deferred, the will has effect in respect of justifying grace. Wherefore Ambrose says of Valentinian: I have lost him whom I was about to regenerate. Yet he did not lose the grace which he asked for. And Augustine on Leviticus 84: Invisible sanctification, he says, was present and profitable to some without visible sacraments. And he subjoins the example of Cornelius. Of whom he says that he and those who were with him, when they already appeared sanctified by the Holy Spirit invisibly infused, were nevertheless baptized. And in the begun exposition on the letter to the Romans he expressly affirms the same, that Cornelius received the Holy Spirit before he was baptized: as is gathered also from the text of Acts 10. Moreover both Paul, and the eunuch of Queen Candace, and many of those who are baptized as adults, it is likely came to baptism in such a way that they had already received grace. Although often baptism itself confers the first grace. And the holy Synod³² determined the same, session 6, chapter 4, where it says that the desire for baptism suffices: and chapter 6, where it says that the purpose of receiving baptism suffices. But to that which is had in the Ecclesiastical Dogma, chapter 74, namely that no catechumen, even if he dies in good works, has eternal life: except by martyrdom, where the whole sacraments of baptism are accomplished, the theologians answer³³ (as can be seen in St. Thomas, 3rd part, q. 68, art. 2) that it is understood of those who have heaped actual sins upon original sin. Nor is it simply denied that they obtain eternal life, but that they fly thither immediately, as the martyrs, or those who have received baptism in reality. Since the sacrament, unless received in reality, does not remit all punishment: but those, because they are justified by faith working through charity, will indeed be saved: but through the fire of purgatory. Unless their mortal sins were not so grave, or their contrition so great, that they would pay all punishments as well. But concerning little children the reason is different, because they cannot receive baptism in desire: as we were discussing in the preceding chapter. And this is the opinion of the Master in the cited place.

Finally, indeed, there remains the doubt concerning him who, now in this evangelical age, in the farthest islands where the evangelical law is unknown, using the law of nature extremely well, would be converted to God: whether he would be saved without any desire for baptism?³⁴

But this question depends on that: whether in such most hidden corners of the world there can now be invincible ignorance of the faith of CHRIST and of the evangelical law.³⁵ Let us suppose therefore from the chapter immediately preceding that no one without supernatural faith, at least confused, is now restored to grace with God, just as neither could anyone before the coming of CHRIST, but we speak of explicit faith in CHRIST. But the probability of the affirmative part, namely that such ignorance is held invincible, is that perhaps the evangelical preaching has not yet penetrated to those parts which have now been discovered by the Spaniards, and to the antipodes. And Paul says: How shall they believe without a preacher? And our Redeemer: If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin.³⁶ And this especially according to Augustine, who judged that that [word] of the Psalm, Their sound went forth into all the earth,³⁷ is not altogether to be fulfilled until the end of the world: according to that, This Gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world, for a testimony to all nations, and then shall the consummation be.³⁸ And although we follow the opinion of Chrysostom, who holds that the prophecy has already been fulfilled, there is nevertheless an argument: because those nations which for three hundred or five hundred years have heard nothing of this holy preaching, although in the beginning ignorance did not excuse them, now nevertheless it seems to excuse them, just as if no preaching had ever reached them. Likewise, he who in those places now lawfully kept the law of nature would immediately through the help of God, who does not delay to stretch out his arm to one who assents, be received into his grace: and yet it is not easy to believe that he would be so suddenly enlightened as to recognize the faith of Christians under this explicit title and name, without any teacher: as we read concerning Cornelius, to whom Peter was sent. On account of arguments of this kind there are those who think that as soon as one most remote from Christians does through the help of God what is in him, he obtains the grace of reconciliation, as in the law of nature: yet he would not be allowed by God to depart from this light before he had been imbued, either by a man or by an angel, with the evangelical faith of CHRIST: because, There is no other name under heaven in which we must be saved.³⁹ But that anyone should receive grace without such explicit faith, without which nevertheless he cannot receive glory, is not easy to persuade: for what has just been cited from the Acts of the Apostles does not seem to be understood only of the attainment of glory, but of the obtaining of grace, which is truly our salvation. For the sense is that no one can enter into grace with God except in the sole name of CHRIST: and besides, either this ignorance is vincible and a fault: and then not only glory but not even grace can anyone obtain without this explicit faith: or it is invincible and excusing, and then not only grace but also glory can be obtained without it. It must be answered therefore by him who holds that the ignorance is invincible, that the word of Peter in the Acts is either understood thus, that without some confused faith in CHRIST, which was always necessary from the foundation of the world, no one can be saved: in which sense St. Thomas reads this authority, 3rd part, q. 68, art. 1. Or if it is understood of explicit faith, it must be glossed as concerning those who have heard it, or have refused to hear it through their own fault. Or certainly the other part must be embraced, which may seem more consonant to Paul in Romans 10. Namely that there is now no invincible ignorance of this explicit faith. For if the islanders have heard nothing of it, it was their own fault, not indeed closely related to the preaching: because they saw no preacher whom they refused to hear, but a fault against the law of nature: which if they had lawfully kept, God would have irradiated them with the light of faith. But then it must be said that they would have been previously enlightened with such light, and would receive grace: since to lack this faith would be a sin. But this we were disputing more closely in the cited place of Romans 10: concerning which matter I would rather hear the opinion of others than precipitate my own.