DISSERTATION V

ON THE JUSTIFICATION OF THE SINNER

St. Thomas, q. 113.

There are two effects of grace, namely the justification of the sinner and the merit of the just. Of the first we shall speak in this dissertation, of the second in the following.

I say: In the justification of a sinner his sins are not only covered, or not imputed, but are truly remitted, blotted out and taken away. This is against the Lutherans and Calvinists.

It is proved 1° in the most formal terms of Scripture. Psal. L, 3: Blot out my iniquity. And 11: Blot out all my iniquities. Isa., XLIII, 25: I am he that blots out thy iniquities for my sake. Osee, XIV, 3: Take away all iniquity. Michaeae, VII, 18: What God is like to thee, who takes away iniquity? Joann., I, 29: Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sin of the world.

It is proved 2° by other terms of Scripture. Man is inwardly stained and defiled by sin, as we said of sins, and all agree. But, according to Scripture, man in his justification is cleansed, washed, purged and sanctified from his sins. Psal. L, 9: Thou shalt wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Ezech., XXXVI, 25: I will pour upon you clean water, and you shall be cleansed from all your filthiness. I Joann., I, 7: The blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. But if sins be only covered, it is said falsely that man is cleansed, washed, purged from them, etc.

For who would say that a man stained with filth is clean and washed, because he covers the filth with a cloak?

[It is proved 3° from the council of Trent, session V, canon 5, where it is said: « If anyone denies that by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ which is conferred in baptism the guilt of original sin is remitted; or even asserts that the whole of that which has the true and proper nature of sin is not taken away, but says that it is only erased or not imputed; let him be anathema. » And in session VI, chapter 7, it is taught that « justification is not only the remission of sins, but also the sanctification and renewal of the interior man through the voluntary reception of grace and gifts: whence man becomes just from unjust, and friend from enemy. » Moreover this renewal of the interior man cannot consist in the fact that sin is only erased and not imputed, because then sin would truly remain in the soul, which would not be renewed from within, and man would not be truly just, but would be held as just only extrinsically, nor could he become the friend of God.]

It is proved 4° from Augustine. The holy Doctor, lib. I ad Bonif. contra duas epist. Pelag., c. 13, n. 26, answering the Pelagians who said that Catholics teach baptism does not take away crimes but erases them, and their roots remain, replies: « We say that baptism gives the pardon of all sins and takes away crimes, not erases them. » And Enarrat. II in Psal. XXXI, n. 9, expounding those words: Blessed are they whose iniquities are remitted, and whose sins are covered, on which the heretics chiefly rely, says: « Do not so understand what he said: « sins are covered, » as if they were there and alive. » Ibid. n. 12: « Let God cover the wounds; do not you. For if you wish to cover it out of shame, the physician will not cure it. Let the physician cover and cure; for the plaster covers. Under the physician's covering the wound is healed; under the covering of the wounded man the wound is concealed. » Therefore thus, according to Augustine, God covers wounds, that by covering he may heal them, like a physician who covers a wound with a plaster and heals it. Which is plainly decisive against the heretics. See other Fathers, if you please, in Bellarmine, lib. II de Justif., c. 8.

It is proved 5° from absurdities. If in the justification of the impious sins remain and are only covered, and not blotted out and destroyed, it follows 1° that man will be at once just and unjust: just, because he is justified; unjust, because he remains in sin, which is essentially injustice. 2° It follows that God loves sinners as his friends, and in order to eternal beatitude, against that word of Sap., XIV, 9: To God the wicked and his wickedness are hateful.

I say : The remission of sins, which is the justification of the sinner, does not take place by extrinsic imputation of the justice by which God is just, or of the justice of Christ, but by true and intrinsic justice, or the infusion of habitual grace¹. It is matter of faith again decided against the Lutherans and Calvinists in concil. Trid., session VI, canon 11.

[There it is read: « If anyone shall say that men are justified either by the sole imputation of the justice of Christ, or by the sole remission of sins, to the exclusion of grace and charity which is poured forth in their hearts through the Holy Spirit and inheres in them, or even that the grace by which we are justified is only the favor of God ; let him be anathema. »]

It is proved 1° from the Scriptures of the preceding art., prob. 2ª, cited above, in which the sinner is said to be washed, cleansed, renewed, sanctified; for no one can be washed, cleansed, renewed, sanctified, except by something intrinsic whereby he be denominated and be such.

2° Scripture frequently says we have in us grace, charity and justice whereby we are just. Joann., I, 16 : Of his fulness we all have received, and grace for grace. Rom., I, 5 : By whom we have received grace. Ephes., IV, 7 : To every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the giving of Christ. Rom., V, 5 : The charity of God is poured forth in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who is given to us.

3° The justification of the sinner is an effect of the love of God². But love is not only affective but effective, making the beloved object intrinsically pleasing and just, as we proved above dissert. IV, a. 1.

4° The formal cause is distinguished from the efficient. But the justice of Christ is the efficient cause of our justice. Therefore it is not its formal cause.

It is confirmed. Our justice now grows, now diminishes. But the justice of God and Christ is always equal. Therefore.

They object here Scripture passages attributing to us the justice of Christ. Rom., V, 19 : By the obedience of one many are constituted just. And again, 18 : By the justice of one, unto all men unto justification of life. I Cor., I, 30, Christ is said to be made our justice and sanctification.

I answer. these things and similar ones are not to be understood in the formal sense, but causal, inasmuch as Christ is the efficient and meritorious cause of our justification; in which sense he is called our wisdom in the same place; Joann., XI, 25, the resurrection and the life. And Deuter., XXX, 20, he is called the life of men and the length of days.

[You will ask whether, by the absolute power of God, sin and grace can be together in the same subject.

I answer. Sin, both actual and habitual, and grace cannot be together in the same subject, even by the absolute power of God.

It is proved. Sanctifying grace, from its essence and reason, is justice, holiness and rectitude, whose primary and formal effect is to make him to whom it is given just, holy and right. Sin on the contrary, from its essential reason, is iniquity, uncleanness, recession from rectitude and from subjection toward divine law. But there cannot stand, even by the absolute power of God, justice with injustice, holiness with iniquity and uncleanness, rectitude with recession from rectitude. Therefore grace and sin cannot be together in the same subject.

It is confirmed. Contrary formal effects cannot be together in the same subject, because they are incompossible. But the effects of sanctifying grace and the effect of sin are contrary, and therefore incompossible. Therefore.

Note for the solution of objections. Sin does not expel grace physically, in this sense that by a positive form it destroys grace by acting physically upon it. But it expels it physically, that is, from its nature, by withdrawing from it the subject and introducing a form or disposition incompossible with grace. For iniquity, the casting off of the friendship of God, recession from God, death of the soul, etc., physically, that is from their nature, expel justice, holiness, friendship of God, life of the soul.]

The Council of Trid., sess. VI, cap. 6, assigns six acts by which the adult sinner ought to be disposed for justification, namely the act of faith, of fear, of hope, of the love of God, of penance or contrition, finally the resolution of receiving the sacraments instituted for the remission of sins, of beginning a new life and keeping the divine commandments ; which resolution is included in contrition itself. The principal question concerns faith required for justification, against the heretics.

The Lutherans and Calvinists distinguish a twofold faith.

The first they call historical, by which we believe all things contained in the sacred writings ; we call it Christian and Catholic. The second they call of the promises, by which we believe that God has promised the remission of sins. This second they subdivide into general and particular. General they call that by which we believe God has promised remission of sins and salvation to all believers in common; special they call that by which each one believes or confidently trusts his sins to be forgiven him on account of the merits of Christ. For this faith they badly confound with confidence, which belongs to hope and to the will, not to the intellect; for confidence, according to St. Thomas, is strengthened hope.

This faith or particular confidence therefore they contend is required for justification and that it alone justifies.

I say 1° : The faith required for justification is not confidence by which we believe or trust that sins are forgiven us because of Christ, but that by which we believe all truths revealed by God, on account of his authority and truth. Thus it was defined by Trid., sess. VI, can. 12.

[The tenor of this canon is : « If anyone shall have said that justifying faith is nothing else than trust in the divine mercy remitting sins because of Christ, or that it is this trust alone by which we are justified; let him be anathema. »]

It is proved 1° from most open testimonies of Scripture. Marc. last chapter, 15 and 16 : Preach the Gospel to every creature. He who shall have believed, namely the Gospel and the truths contained in it, shall be saved. Rom. X, 8 and 9 : This is the word which we preach; because if thou confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thy heart that God hath raised him up from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Therefore Christ and his resurrection, not only the mercy of God remitting sins, are the object of saving faith. Joann., XI, 26 and 27, when the Lord had said to Martha : I am the resurrection and the life. He who believeth in me shall not die forever. She answers : Yea, Lord, I have believed that thou art Christ the Son of the living God, who art come into this world. Therefore the faith required for eternal life is to believe the divinity of the Word incarnate. John concludes thus at the last chapter of his Gospel, 31 : These things are written, that you may believe that Jesus is the Son of the living God, and that believing you may have life in his name. Therefore the same as before. I omit other very many testimonies of Scripture, lest I be too long.

It is proved 2° from tradition. The Church, as from the beginning so now, when she requires faith from those about to be baptized, requires no other than that by which we believe the articles of faith contained in the symbols, not truly that by which we believe or confidently trust our sins to be forgiven us. For who among the Apostles, or bishops, or other ministers ever taught one coming to him for justification thus : « Believe your sins to be forgiven you, and immediately they will be forgiven. » Such doctrine would indeed be absurd and offensive to pious ears.

It is proved 3°. Faith rests upon the authority alone of God revealing, who can neither deceive nor be deceived. But nowhere is it revealed to me or to another particularly that sins are forgiven. Therefore I cannot believe this with certain faith.

It is proved 4°. Justifying faith must precede justification; for it is its cause. But that faith of the heretics does not precede, but follows justification, otherwise it would be false; for false is that faith by which I believe my sins forgiven, if they are not yet truly forgiven. If you say that by this faith it is not believed that sins are forgiven, but are being forgiven here and now, there always remains that that faith is posterior to that remission, because that present remission is the object of this faith; but act neither makes nor specifies its object, but supposes it and is specified by it.

I say 2° : Neither that special faith of recent heretics, which is vain and none, nor true Christian faith alone suffices for justification.

[Thus it was defined by Trid., sess. VI, can. 9 : « If anyone shall have said that the impious is justified by faith alone, so as to understand that nothing else is required which cooperate toward obtaining the grace of justification, and that it is in no way necessary that he be prepared and disposed by the motion of his own will; let him be anathema. »]

This definition is against the Lutherans and Calvinists, whom Simon Magus had gone before, by the testimony of Irenaeus, lib. I de Haeres., c. 20, who relates that Peter, John, James and Jude wrote their epistles against this error.

It is proved from these holy Apostles who wrote expressly against this error. St. James, I, 14 : What shall it profit, my brethren, if anyone say he have faith, but have not works? Shall faith be able to save him?... And 17 : Faith, if it have not works, is dead in itself. Which after he had proved with many arguments, he concludes the chapter thus, 24 and 26 : You see that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only... For even as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead. These things are peremptory, nor do they need glossing.

St. Peter, II Epist., c. 1, 10, after exhorting to various good works, concludes : Wherefore, brethren, labor the more that by good works you make sure your calling and election. Faith therefore does not suffice, if works be wanting.

These things are so open against the present error that the heretics denied these epistles to be canonical, which nevertheless the Church acknowledges as canonical in several councils, lastly in Trident., sess. IV.

But also openly St. Paul, in whom the innovators badly confide, combats this error. I Cor., XII, 2 : If, he says, I should have all faith, so that I could move mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. Galat., V, 6 : In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith that worketh by charity. Rom., II, 3 : Not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.

Finally Christ everywhere in the Gospel commends good works as necessary for justification and salvation. Matth., V, 16 : So let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven. And below, 20 : Unless your justice abound more than that of scribes and pharisees, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. And cap. VII, 19 : *Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit shall be cut down and cast into the fire. Cap. XIX, 16 and 17, to him asking : What good shall I do, that I may have life everlasting? He says not : « Only believe ; » but : If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. And finally cap. XXVIII, 19 and 20, he not only admonishes the Apostles to preach faith and baptize, but also wills that they teach to keep all things whatsoever he commanded.

Now certain heretics answer, oppressed by these testimonies, that the faith which they say suffices for justification is not faith alone, but faith joined with good works, not indeed that these good works cooperate toward justification, but because they accompany justifying faith like its signs, or as properties and fruits following from it. Whence they say that by the foregoing testimonies of Scripture those are condemned who formerly said that dead faith alone, void of good works, suffices for salvation; but not those who attribute this indeed to faith alone, but to living faith, active and attended by good works.

On the contrary 1°. This response, varnished and devised for softening the horror of this monstrous error, openly fights with the principles of the heretics. For they teach : 1° that man, while justified through faith, is not truly made just, but only reputed, nor any of his works good, but all mortal sins, although they are not imputed to him because of Christ. With what face then do they say that not faith alone, but faith joined with good works justifies, since according to them there exist no good works? 2° They teach that man once justified through faith cannot fall from justice by any crime. So Calvin, lib. III Institut., cap. 2, § 11, and Luther in Sermon upon these words : So God loved, etc., excepting only incredulity. And thus once justified through faith, although he become thief, homicide, adulterer, sodomite, he remains just. Therefore faith justifies without good works, nay with evil and most evil ones; which is the ancient heresy condemned in the Scriptures. Whence Luther, on cap. 11 ad Galat., expressly says : « Faith without and before charity justifies. » And tom. I disput. : whether works justify ? proposit. 3, he says : « Faith, unless it be without even the lesser works, does not justify, nay it is not faith. » And therefore the stricter Lutherans ingenuously confess that good works are in no way required for justifying faith.

Against 2°. Scripture attributes no less to good works the office of justifying and saving than to faith, as appears from the places cited and many others. Therefore, if faith cooperates toward justification, so also works.

The heretics argue especially from the Apostle, who, as it seems to them, is wholly intent upon asserting that faith suffices for justification without works. Rom., II, 28, he says : We conclude a man to be justified by faith, without the works of the law. Ibid., IV, 2 : If Abraham were justified by works, he hath glory, but not before God. Galat., II, 16 : Knowing that man is not justified by the works of the law. Philipp., III, 9 : That I may be found in him, not having my justice, which is of the law, but that which is of faith.

I answer 1°. Suppose the Apostle taught that faith without any works suffices for justification, this would by no means profit the heretics ; because the Apostle understands Christian and Catholic faith, by which we believe the divinity of the Word incarnate, his resurrection and other mysteries contained in the Scriptures, not truly that ridiculous faith or confidence by which heretics believe their sins forgiven them.

I answer 2°. The Apostle excludes only works which either precede faith or, after faith is had, are done without the grace of faith, that is, works which proceed from the powers alone of nature and free will, such as were certain honest works of natural justice. So Augustine (?) de Libero arb., c. 7, n. 18 : « Men, he says, not understanding what the Apostle himself says : We conclude a man to be justified by faith, without the works of the law, thought him to say that faith suffices for man, even though he live badly and have no good works. Far be it that the vessel of election so thought ! »

You press on. Abraham and the Galatians were already reborn and worked from faith, at that time of which the Apostle speaks. Nevertheless he excludes their works. Therefore.

I answer. Given the major, I deny the minor. That he excludes their works which were done from the grace of faith, I deny; that they were done before faith, or which after faith was had were not done from the grace of faith, I concede. For nothing hinders that he who has faith sometimes fail to work from faith, as while he sins or performs a morally good work without relation to God.

To the other arguments which heretics object, take the following general solutions. The first is : justification is attributed to faith as its beginning and root, yet not excluding other works disposing toward it. So Trid., sess. VI, cap. 8¹. The second : there must be understood living faith, which worketh through charity, as the Apostle speaks ad Galat., V, 6. Third : by faith are sometimes understood those things which are contained in the Gospel or evangelical doctrine, doing those things which according to this doctrine are to be done. Fourth : when works are excluded, must be understood works done before faith or without the grace of faith, not truly works which are done from the grace of faith itself, as I explained above ; or works of the Mosaic law, or external works, when that power of executing them is wanting.

On the other acts required for the justification of adults. Chapter 6 teaches that, besides faith, five other acts are required on the part of the sinner for his justification, namely, the act of fear, of hope, of the love of God, of contrition, and the resolve to receive the sacraments instituted for the remission of sins and to keep the divine commandments. Now these acts are deduced thus. Faith, enlightening the mind of the sinner, sets before him, on the one hand, the divine justice reserving punishments for him, on the other, the divine mercy offering him pardon. Thence there arises in his will the fear of divine justice, then hope or confidence of obtaining pardon. Hope is followed by the incipient love of God as of the fountain of all justice; for from this very fact that God, merciful, offers pardon to the sinner who fears punishment, not only is hope stirred up, but also love of so great a goodness, at least incipient, concerning whose necessity for justification, together with the sacrament of penance, there was a celebrated controversy to be settled in its place.

From faith, hope and incipient love of God is born the detestation of sin; because this very fact that the sinner knows that punishments are reserved for his sins, and from this fact that he begins to love God as prepared to forgive them to him, he is moved to hatred of sin, as harmful to himself and offensive to the divine goodness. This hatred is called contrition, perfect indeed, if sin displeases principally as offensive to God; imperfect, if sin displeases principally as harmful to the sinner.

This contrition has necessarily attached to it the resolve of beginning a new life and keeping the divine commandments; for there is not in anyone sincere sorrow for sins unless he sincerely wills henceforth to avoid them.

You will ask from what effective principle proceed the acts of contrition and charity which ultimately dispose to habitual grace.

I answer. Theologians differ among themselves in this part. Some say that these further dispositions toward habitual grace are effectively from the actual transient help communicated.

So, among the Thomists, John of St. Thomas, Sylvius, Contenson, with many outsiders. Some assert that they are effectively from habitual grace itself. So Gonet, Serra and others. The third opinion, which strives to reconcile both, holds that these acts ultimately disposing to justification are effectively from the infused virtue of charity and penance, communicated not permanently by way of habit, but transiently by way of actual help and motion. Whence grace by way of help precedes those acts, which grace by way of habit follows, although all these things take place in the same real instant. So Fr. Goudin. Whoever wishes to weigh the merits of these opinions should seek them in our Billuart, in his more ample Summa. Besides, it seems to matter little which appears preferable to each one.]

You will ask 1° whether the justification of the impious takes place in an instant.

I answer. 1°. The justification of the impious, taken for the infusion of grace and the remission of sins, takes place in an instant¹ ; because that a form be produced successively arises from this, that either the subject is not in ultimate disposition, or because the agent, since it is of finite power, needs time to overcome the resistance of the subject and introduce the form. But here we suppose the ultimate disposition, since we speak of the justification of the impious as it means simply the infusion of grace; and besides, since God requires no disposition except what he himself makes, he can effect it in the instant in which he produces grace itself, as he did in Paul; and since he is of infinite power, he does not need time to overcome the resistance of the subject. Therefore.

It is confirmed. When between the extremes of a change or motion there is no medium through which one passes from one extreme to the other, the passage from one to the other takes place in an instant. But between the extremes of justification, which are grace and the privation of grace, no medium is given. Therefore.

I answer. 2°. If indeed justification is taken not only for the infusion of grace, but also for the dispositions by which the sinner is prepared, although it can take place in an instant, as in Paul and Magdalene, ordinarily however it takes place successively; because these dispositions which Trident., session VI, chapters 5 and 6 require, ordinarily precede in time the infusion of grace itself.

You will ask 2° whether justification is the greatest work of God.

I answer. 1°.² If justification is considered on the part of the mode of acting, creation is a greater work than justification; because the most excellent mode of acting is to make something out of nothing. If indeed justification is considered on the part of the thing produced, it is a greater work than creation; because the good to which creation terminates is the good of mutable nature, while justification terminates in the eternal and fixed good of divine participation, which now is had only in hope; glorification however terminates in the same eternal good possessed in reality. Finally, if justification is considered according to the quantity of proportion in the impious man who is justified, it is a greater work than glorification; because the gift of grace more exceeds the dignity of the impious man who was worthy of punishment, than the gift of glory the dignity of the just man, who from this very fact that he is justified is worthy of glory.

You will ask 3° whether the justification of the impious is a miraculous work.

I answer. 2°.³ The justification of the impious, as it commonly takes place, can be called marvelous; because things which can be done by divine power alone have a hidden cause, and for this reason are marvelous. Yet justification should not properly be called miraculous, because for a miracle properly so called it does not suffice that the work can be done by God alone, but it must be beyond the common course of divine providence, as the resurrection of a dead man, the illumination of one born blind. Justification however, as it commonly takes place, is according to the common course of divine providence. For it is the common and accustomed course of justification that, God moving the soul inwardly, man be converted to God, first indeed by an imperfect conversion, so that afterwards he may arrive at a perfect one. But when God, beyond this common course, suddenly moves to a perfect one