Tractatus de Gratia Divina Actuali

I. The Scriptural expressions which the Calvinist, Jansenist, and Quesnellian heretics gather together are those by which we are taught either what man is able to do by himself in the order of salvation, or how and what grace works in us. To the first class belong those by which men are called dead in sins Ephes. II, 1., blind Luc. IV, 19., darkness Matth. VI, 23., an evil tree Matth. VII, 18., servants of sin Rom. VI, 17., being in the flesh, which cannot subject itself to the law of God Rom. VIII, 7., animal men 1. Cor. II, 14., able to do nothing from themselves, as from themselves 2. Cor. III, 5.. To the second class belong those expressions by which God is said to create a clean heart Psalm. L, 12., to make in us a new heart Ezech. XXXVI, 26., to raise from the dead and to give life Ephes. II, 5., to open and circumcise the heart Deuter. XXX, 6., to take away the heart of stone and give a heart of flesh and make us walk in his precepts Ezech. XXXVI, 26., to compel to enter Luc. XIV, 23., to draw Ioan. VI, 44.. To the third class are referred those expressions by which it is asserted that all must be ascribed to God, since he is the one who works all things in us Isaiae XXVI, 12. Ephes. I, 11. 1. Cor. XII, 6., who begins and who perfects Philip. I, 6..

II. But now, as to the first testimonies, we note 1) that most of these expressions are metaphorical; and if you take them more strictly and wish that whatever can be signified by those expressions be excluded from the thing signified, you must take away from the will not only the act of free determination, but also the spontaneous act, which is a vital act and cannot proceed from one who is dead. This, moreover, also goes against those who hurl these testimonies at us. And so 2) some norm must be laid down, to which the interpretation of metaphors of this kind is to be measured. But this norm, according to the heretics themselves, can be none other than the doctrine on the same matter set forth by Scripture in proper or clearer words. But it is established from the preceding Thesis that the clearest testimonies of Scripture assert freedom for man acting through grace; therefore the sense of those metaphorical expressions cannot be that which excludes the power of the will freely determining itself under grace. Wherefore 3) the obvious sense of those expressions is quite clear here: namely, men are regarded according to that which they made themselves to be by sinning, and indeed freely, whether by the sin of the first man or by their own actual sins; for on account of these they are dead, blind, in darkness, animal, servants of sin. Men are accordingly regarded according to that which they have from themselves, destitute of the grace of God. Moreover, of these it must truly be affirmed that they do not live the supernatural life, nor can they live it; that they cannot put forth any act of this life; that they can have no salutary knowledge. But what does this contribute to the question: whether man freely determines himself under grace? Furthermore, the sinful man is called an evil tree, but the evil tree is not the nature or a faculty of the will; rather, properly speaking, the act itself or the volition is so called, or the evil tree is the man willing evil, or evil things; and just as he is freely an evil tree, because the free volition is the beginning and origin of many sins, so man, by changing his will, can freely become a good tree, which indeed he cannot do without the grace of God; but excited and helped by grace, man makes himself a good tree, as Christ himself teaches Matth. XII, 33. (Cf. Enchirid. August. c. 15. with the notes of Faure). The wisdom of the flesh, to be sure, cannot subject itself to the law of God: but that is just the same as saying that he who wills to sin cannot be obedient to God; for the wisdom of the flesh consists in those practical and free judgments by which men rule themselves according to the desires of the flesh, and while these exist man is an enemy of God and cannot be a friend. Moreover, these are the ones who are said by the Apostle to be in the flesh, namely those who freely live according to the desires of the flesh, not those who merely bear habitual concupiscence and are stirred by its indeliberate movements. For the Apostle denies that the faithful are in the flesh, although they certainly were still subject to concupiscence and bore a corruptible body. Finally, what is said, that we can do nothing from ourselves, teaches the necessity of grace for salutary acts, not its efficacy determining to one; and it says in proper terms what the earlier formulae signified metaphorically.

III. To the second class of testimonies there must first be applied the same response which was given under numbers 1º and 2º to the first testimonies. Indeed, our justification is so attributed to God in the Scriptures that it is also asserted of us in almost the same formulae. For the inclination of the heart is attributed both to God 1. Reg. VIII, 58. and to man Psal. CAVIII, 112.; the change of heart is asserted of God 1. Sam. X, 9. and of man Eccle. II, 3.; the circumcision of the heart is also attributed to man Deuter. X, 16.; likewise the opening of the heart Apoc. III, 20. to God, the conversion of the heart Psal. LXXXIV, 5. but is also claimed for man Ioel. II, 12. Act. IIl, 19. God is said to make in us a new heart, but men too are said to do the same Ezech. XVIII, 31. God writes the law in hearts, but men too are said to write it in their own hearts Prov. III, 3. VII, 3. God washes our souls, but men too wash themselves Ierem. IV, 14. God is he who establishes and confirms man, but man too is he who stands and confirms himself 1. Cor. XVI. 13. Iacobi V, 8. God sanctifies man, and man too is said to sanctify himself 1. Ioan. III, 3. Moreover, nothing is more evident than these for showing that God does not so act that he alone acts, that he alone determines.

'Then, moreover, we answer that justification is therefore likened to creation, vivification, and resurrection because in this business man of himself alone can do nothing; God is the one who confers new life from no preceding merit, indeed from a pre-existing positive demerit, and he confers it inasmuch as he gives the power that men may be made sons of God, preparing the wills and helping them once prepared, and he bestows the adoptive filiation itself by the infusion of sanctifying grace. He therefore vivifies and regenerates and raises up efficiently through prevenient grace, working in us without us, but in such a way that we work the good meritorious acts together with him, freely assenting to the grace to which we could, if we wished, resist. God, however, takes away the heart of stone, that is, the undisciplined heart, and gives a heart of flesh, that is, a docile heart, and makes us act, not by compelling or determining the will, or by immediately inspiring the deliberate act itself, nor by himself alone effecting the whole, but by preparing the will and helping it once prepared, so that God is the author, and indeed the principal author, not only of the power but also of our act. Moreover, by this expression and similar ones there is signified the certainty or infallibility of the effect: but the infallibility of the effect must be distinguished from its necessity.

As for the testimony of Luke, compel to enter αὐτέγκατον ἀναγκάζειν, it is evident that the discourse is not about physical necessity, by which the indifference of the will is destroyed; for the one who compels, or who must compel, is not God, but a servant, h. e. an apostolic man, who can indeed persuade and allure men to faith and to God, but cannot determine their will to one. The discourse is about a certain moral force placed in persuasions and even in threats and punishments, when they can be justly employed.

Therefore what the Church begs of God in a certain prayer (Sabb. ante Dominic. Passionis) is not similar to this: compel our wills, rebellious toward you. But by these words there is signified that strength and sweetness of divine providence and grace by which the effect is most certainly obtained, not that force which would impose necessity.

Augustine thus explains the words of John in Ioan. Tract. XXVI. n. 7. «See how the Father draws: by teaching he delights, not by imposing necessity.» Therefore, by the adduced and similar expressions there is not signified the efficacy of grace determining to one, but there is expressed the efficacy of grace conferring the power of acting salutarily and working with us.

IV. As to the third, we have already seen in what way in the work of salvation all must be ascribed to God (Ioh. XVII, VII.). For all is not to be given to God as if he were the sole cause of the act, or the sole free cause of the act, but because he is also the sole cause elevating the will efficiently and conferring supernatural powers upon it, and because on that account in the exercise of the faculty he is the principal cause of the salutary act; and thus of any good act, even of its beginning, God is the author through his grace. The will, however, is at the same time a cause of the same salutary act, and indeed a principal cause, not merely an instrumental one; because it is that which determines the act, which nevertheless it elicits by the help of the power it has received.