Summa de Ecclesia

With these things so declared, it is now easy for us to answer all the objections of the adversaries. We shall answer first the reasons made on behalf of those who say that only the elect or predestined are members of Christ and that Christ is head of them alone.

¹

To the first, in which objection is made from Eph. v.: Christ loved the Church, etc., it is answered by denying the consequence, since according to what has now been said Christ is called head, in the course of this life, not only of those whose saviour he is according to efficiency, of which sort are the predestined, but also of all those whose saviour he is according to sufficiency, provided they be united to him by formed faith. Universally indeed the Apostle says: As many of you as have been baptized, you have put on Christ, at Gal. iii. Likewise: They who are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God, Rom. viii. Further, the same Apostle speaks indifferently of all the faithful when he says: Being many, we are one body in Christ, at Rom. xii.; We are members of his body, at Eph. v.

²

To the second, which is objected from: The Lord knoweth who are his, it is answered that not only the predestined are God's, but also those who are united to him according to present justice through grace. Hence St. Thomas in the third part, q. xlviii., says that man is said to be God's in two ways. In one way inasmuch as he is subject to his power, and in this way man never ceases to be God's, according to Dan. iv.: The Most High shall rule in the kingdom of men, and to whomsoever he will he shall give it. In the other way through union of charity to him, according to what is said at Rom. viii.: If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his; and in this way one ceases to be God's through sin. To the Gloss indeed which is adduced it is answered in two ways. First, according to what the lord of Auxerre says in his Summa around viii., dist. iv. of the Sentences, that this is to be understood dividedly and not conjointly; and then the sense is: Those are the enclosed garden, the sealed fountain, etc., who are conformed to the image of his Son, whether they be foreknown or predestined or called or already glorified; plainly all these, provided they be actually conformed to the image of the Son of God, which happens through grace that makes pleasing, are those whose number is the enclosed garden, the sealed fountain, etc., as we declared above around ch. v. Second, it is answered that if that whole he predestined, he called, he justified, and he glorified is to be taken conjointly, then that Gloss speaks of the Church according to the state of the future life, to which only the elect will then belong in act, but now belong only in potency, if they exist in mortal sin, as we said above. It is found furthermore from this Gloss manifestly that the elect are not the enclosed garden, etc., unless first justified; and then it is well conceded that the number of such is the enclosed garden, etc., according to divine predestination and at the same time according to present justice; but with this it stands that also the foreknown, for the time of their justification, are the enclosed garden, etc.

³

To the third, which is objected from 1 John ii.: They went out from us, etc., it is answered that those who have departed from the Church through some impiety and have died in it are said not to have been of the body of the Church in the first sense, according to predestination, but not simply, if while they were in the Church they kept integral faith, firm hope, and sincere charity. Hence such, as long as they lived piously, were sons of God according to present justice. Hence Augustine in the book on correction and grace, and it is placed in De pe. dist. iv., 6, for when he says thus: When these live piously they are called sons of God, but because they will live impiously and will die in the same impiety, he does not call them sons, these are Augustine's words. And thus in like manner it is answered to the authority of John and to the saying of Augustine, and to all similar things which Augustine puts in the places named above. But it must be recalled what we said above, that from predestination alone, by which anyone is predestined as a son of God through the grace of adoption, no one is called a son of God simply or actually, but only in potency; but from present justice one is and is named a son of God in act or simply, although this justified one be not predestined to eternal life.

Hence blessed Augustine on John, homily xlv., treats at length how those who are still in error are to be called sheep of Christ, and finally says thus: According to God's foreknowledge and predestination, how many sheep are without, how many wolves within, and how many sheep within, and how many wolves without. What is it that I said: how many sheep without? How many that live luxuriously are to be chaste hereafter, how many that blaspheme Christ are to believe in Christ, how many that make themselves drunk are to be sober hereafter, how many that seize others' goods are to give their own, and these are sheep. But yet now they hear a strange voice, they follow strangers. Likewise how many within praise who will blaspheme, are chaste who will fornicate, are sober who will afterwards be buried in wine, stand who will fall, and are not sheep. For we speak of the predestined, we speak of those whom the Lord knows who are his. And yet these, as long as they have right understanding, hear the voice of Christ. Behold, these hear, those hear not; and only according to predestination are these not sheep and those sheep, these are Augustine's words. Behold, manifestly Augustine says that predestined sinners are sheep, yet not in act, when he says that they do not hear the voice of Christ the shepherd, but follow strangers. Although the Lord says at John x.: My sheep hear my voice and follow me, but in a potency to be reduced to act, when he says: how many that live luxuriously are to be chaste hereafter, etc.

Nor should anyone wonder if Scripture speaks simply of such as of sheep simply, or sons, or even members of Christ, since this is not done because in act they are sheep of Christ or sons of God or members actually receiving the influx of Christ from Christ the head, but such is the use of Scripture on account of the ineffable certitude of divine providence. For by this reason the Lord sometimes speaks simply of those things which are only in potency, indeed sometimes he speaks by a word of the past tense of that which is expected in a very long time, of which there are many examples in Holy Scripture, as is most clear in the prophets concerning the incarnation of Christ, the coming to judgment, and many other things. So it is likewise in the present matter. Hence Augustine in the book on correction and grace, treating the Apostle's words at Rom. viii.: Whom he called, them he also justified; whom he predestined, them he also called, etc., says: Moreover, up to the end of the world many are to be called and justified; and yet he put words of the present tense even concerning future things, as though the Lord had already done what from eternity he disposed to be done; therefore the prophet says of him, who doth things that are to come, these are Augustine's words.

⁴

To the fourth, which is objected from Augustine on Ps. ciii., it is answered that Augustine does not deny that the foreknown, who will finally be damned, have for the time of their justification communicated in charity, for justification, since it is the remission of sins, is not fulfilled without charity. Furthermore, even the demons themselves, utterly damned, are said to have been created in charity. Hence Augustine in Book xii. of the City of God says: Who, he says, made the good will in the angels, but he who created them with his own will, that is with the chaste love by which they adhere to him, at once fashioning nature in them and bestowing grace. But that word of Augustine must be expounded as the Master of the Sentences expounds it in iii., di. xxxi.: Thus charity is the fountain in which strangers, that is the damned, do not communicate, finally, for otherwise they would not be damned.

⁵

To the fifth, which is objected from Augustine in the book on Christian doctrine, saying: It is not truly, etc., it is answered. For the answer to this and for the concord of many passages of Holy Scripture and sayings of the holy doctors which in the bark seem adverse to one another, it must be noted that truth is taken in many ways. For there is truth of essence, which is considered according to the character of the species, of which may be taken Augustine's saying in the book of Soliloquies: True is that which is. In the second way is called truth of permanence of continuation or perseverance; in this way that is not called true which quickly ceases to be, or that which will not endure, according to John viii.: If you abide in my word, you shall be my disciples indeed. In the third way is called truth of perfection or consummation, of which may be taken Luke xxi.: Truly this man was just; for Christ was indeed called just, because he was of consummate justice and consequently of perfection. Matt. iii.: So it becometh us to fulfil all justice.

This threefold division of truth the old chancellor of Paris puts in his Summa on Augustine's word to Julian the count: Charity which could be forsaken was never true. Moreover this is originally touched on the same word by the Master of the Sentences in iii., di. xxxi., where he asks: Whether that is true charity which is lost? Who, answering the aforesaid authority, says that Augustine's saying is not referred to the essence of charity, but to its efficiency, because charity which deserts a man does not truly make him blessed; for it does not lead him to the true good. Likewise to that saying of the same Augustine: Charity is the fountain in which strangers, that is the damned, do not communicate, he answers: They do not communicate finally, because they do not persevere. And consequently he says: But these things said of charity can be understood of perfect charity, which the elect alone have, which once had is not lost, these are the words of the Master of the Sentences. From whose words the division of threefold truth put above is clearly manifest, when he says that charity which ceases to be was true with the truth of essence, but not of permanence or perfection. And since, as has been most often repeated and is found in the Gloss at Rom. viii., the society and unity by which we are compacted and made one body of the only Son of God is effected and constituted by charity itself, the same division of truth seems to run concerning the members of Christ as is made concerning the truth of charity.

Furthermore it must be considered that among these modes of taking truth there is such an order, since the second necessarily presupposes the first and adds over it, and the third over the second. For the truth of perseverance presupposes the truth of essence, and the truth of perfection presupposes both and adds consummation. From which we openly know that everything true with the truth of permanence or perfection is true with the truth of essence, and not conversely. Second, that not to be true with the truth of permanence or perfection does not say not to be true simply; indeed so to argue would commit⁶ the fallacy of the consequent by arguing negatively from the lower to its higher, as: this is not a man, pointing to an ass: therefore it is not an animal. From the consideration of all these things it is manifest that propositions of this kind are true. The foreknown who are justified are true members of Christ, with the truth of essence; this is clear because such are actually joined to Christ by true charity according to the same mode of truth; furthermore such are truly sons of God. John i.: He gave them power to be made the sons of God. Augustine on Ps. cxxii.: If thou believest, this power has been given to thee, that thou be among the sons of God.

Second, the foreknown who are justified are not true members of Christ with the truth of perseverance or continuation; this is clear because they are not united to Christ by charity that will endure to the end, or by charity true with the truth of permanence. As Augustine says, charity is the proper and singular fountain of the good in which strangers, that is the damned, do not in the end communicate, as has been said from the sayings of the Master. Of this kind of truth must also be taken what is said at John viii.: If you abide in my word, you shall be my disciples indeed; and the Gloss which on 1 John ii.: They went out from us, but they were not of us, says thus: If they went out from us, they were not of us truly. In this way also Augustine says in the book on correction and grace, and it is placed in De pe. distin. iv., 5, cum ergo, treating John's They went out from us, etc., which was brought in from the opposite side: What else do they say but that they were not sons of God even when they were in the profession and name of sons, not because they feigned justice, but because they did not persevere in it, these are Augustine's words.

Behold how Augustine says that such were true sons of God with the truth of essence, in that he says that they had true and not feigned justice. But through justice, as Jerome says, many adhere to Christ; yet he says that they are not true sons of God or members of Christ with the truth of perseverance, whence he says that they did not persevere in it. And through this the answer is given to that principal saying of Augustine: That is not truly the body of Christ which will not be with him for eternity; which must be taken of the truth of continuation of perseverance or perfection, but not of the truth of essence or of the thing, because they truly are the body of Christ. Hence Augustine on Ps. cxxxix. says thus: The head of that head is the holy Church, in whose members we are, and we love our head, these are Augustine's words. Or it must be answered according as the lord Richard in iii. of the Sentences says that same authority of Augustine must be expounded thus, that is, those do not belong to the body of Christ who have not whence they can remain with Christ for eternity, which all the just are known to have, these are Richard's words. And thus the authority so understood does not serve the argument proposed, but rather favors the authority which we have put.

⁷

To the sixth, which is taken from Augustine against the Donatists: There are some in that number, etc., that they are God's according to predestination, that they are such not simply but in potency, and not according to the union of grace that makes pleasing, according to which one is said to be God's simply, as has often been said.

⁸

To the seventh, which is objected from the same Augustine and from the same book against the Donatists, that many, etc., it is answered in the same way, for although on account of the infallibility of divine foreknowledge such are said to be simply better, yet they must be understood in potency, not in act, since in act they have not charity. Hence one is called good before God, as Augustine says, yet in potency they are better, which is certainly to be reduced to act; and that this must be so said is also manifestly apparent from the sayings of the same Augustine adduced above.

⁹

To the eighth, which is objected, that God from eternity has loved, etc., it is answered by denying the consequence, since although God from eternity has loved the elect and from eternity has predestined them to be his members in a certain future time through union with Christ here through grace and in the future through glory, yet it does not follow that they are actually his members and that they are actually united or incorporated to him through grace or through glory. Otherwise, if the same judgment were to be taken of being loved by God and of being his son or member, as the elect are from eternity, so they would have to be called members of Christ, which is false. Hence what they say is false, that there is no greater reason concerning love and its preordination that the elect be his members, etc. But the reason of the diversity is that for anyone to be known or loved by God puts nothing in act in the things known and loved, but only in the knower and lover; but to be actually a member of some body necessarily denotes that what is said to be a member is actually united by some bonds to the body whose member it is, and actually receives some influx of sense and motion from him who holds the place of head in the body, all of which are temporal, whence the argument does not proceed.

¹⁰

To the ninth, which is taken from Augustine in the book on correction and grace, and is placed in De pe. dist. iv., ch. Hanc societatem, it is answered as to the aforesaid: all indeed are solved through the division made concerning those who are sons only of predestination and not according to present justice, and concerning others who are according to present justice and not according to predestination, attributing each to each; the clearest answer to that whole process of Augustine, above, is manifest. Wherefore, since there is no need to say more on this matter, we refrain from the rest.

¹¹

To the tenth, which is objected, that the true body of Christ is the figure, etc., it is answered according as the lord William of Auxerre answers in his Summa, that the likeness of the natural body of Christ to the mystical body regards only the present, namely that as the natural body of Christ consists at present of most pure members, so the mystical body of Christ, as to its true members, consists of the faithful clean and pure from the stain of sin. And the reason is, as St. Thomas says in the third part: A member is not judged according to what can become of it, but according to what it is. Hence a hand before it is cut off is a member of the body, although it is to be cut off hereafter; and likewise he who is in grace is a member of Christ, although afterwards he be cut off, these are the words of St. Thomas.