Bellarmine · De Controversiis · On Grace and Free Choice · Book I: On Grace
Chapter 9: Objections are answered
Our translation, from the Latin of the Opera Omnia (Paris: Vivès, 1870–74), vol. V, De Gratia et Libero Arbitrio, Book I. The Latin source text is public domain; this English rendering is released with the site. Scripture quotations follow Bellarmine's Vulgate citations, rendered in Douay-Rheims wording where he quotes exactly. Click “Show the Latin” for the original (raw OCR of the scan; scanning errors remain — the scan itself is the authority).
The arguments of Lombard are sought partly from the Scriptures, partly from Augustine.
The first objection is this. God in the Scriptures is absolutely named charity, 1 John 4: God is charity: and he that abideth in charity, abideth in God, and God in him. He is therefore truly and properly charity; for, as St. Augustine admonishes, book 15 On the Trinity, chapter 17, it was not said, “God is my charity,” as in Psalm 141, thou art my hope, and Psalm 70, thou art my patience; but simply, God is charity. I answer: we do not deny that God can absolutely, truly, and properly be called charity — but the charity by which he loves us, not that by which we love him; just as God is also rightly called wisdom and justice — that by which he himself is wise and just, not that by which we are wise and just.
But against this stands the second objection. John not only said that God is charity, but added: and he that abideth in charity, abideth in God, and God in him — where he speaks as much of the charity by which we love as of that by which we are loved; for this is to abide in charity: to love God, and to be loved by God; and this very charity John says is God, when he says: he that abideth in charity, abideth in God, and God in him. I answer: St. John says most rightly that he who loves and is loved abides in God, and God in him — not because the charity by which we love is God, as is that by which we are loved; but because they are inseparable, and where the one is, there also is the other, for the one draws the other. For as St. Augustine says, book 12 of the Confessions, chapter 15, that the justice of God is a light illuminating, our justice a light illuminated, so also we can say that the charity of God is a fire kindling, and ours a fire kindled; and as, on account of the inseparability of the light produced by the sun and the sun producing it, we are wont to say that he who is in the light produced by the sun is in the sun, and the sun in him, so too, on account of the inseparability of created charity and the uncreated charity which is God, we rightly say that he who abides in charity abides in God, and God in him — since charity cannot be without God. And that this explication is true can be gathered from two things. First, because in the same place the same John says: Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God abideth in him, and he in God. Yet we should not dare to say that the confession of faith is God, but only that it cannot be without God, according to that of 1 Corinthians 12: no man can say the Lord Jesus, but by the Holy Ghost. Second, because as John wrote, God is charity, so also he wrote, charity is of God. For the charity which is in God is God; the charity which is in us is not God, but the gift of God.
The third objection. St. Augustine, book On the Morals of the Church, chapter 11, affirms that nothing is better than charity; but that than which nothing is better is God alone; therefore charity is God. I answer: when St. Augustine teaches that nothing is better than charity, he does not speak absolutely, but by comparison with the other gifts which in this life we receive from God, as he himself explains more clearly, book 15 On the Trinity, chapter 18. And yet it can also truly and absolutely be said that nothing is better than charity, since a certain charity — namely the uncreated — is God.
The fourth objection. St. Augustine, book 8 On the Trinity, chapter 7, reasons thus: “He who loves his neighbor — it follows that he loves above all love itself; but God is love; it follows therefore that above all he loves God.” And chapter 8: “Let no one say, I know not what to love. Let him love his brother, and he will love that same love; for he knows better the love with which he loves than the brother whom he loves. Behold, he can now have God more known to him than his brother.” And below: “This weaving together declares plainly enough that this same brotherly love is not only of God, but even is God.” In these places St. Augustine seems so perspicuously to teach that the charity by which we love God and neighbor is truly God, that nothing can be said against it; and this is Lombard's chief argument.
I answer: it is certain that these places of St. Augustine, though otherwise obscure enough, are not to be taken of our habitual charity, but of the actual; and therefore they make nothing at all against our opinion, or for Lombard: for no one ever brought himself to think that actual charity, which is the effect of our free choice, is God. And that Augustine speaks of actual charity we prove, because he says that he who loves his neighbor knows and loves the love itself more than the neighbor — which indeed is true of actual charity, not of habitual: for he who loves, loves the very act of loving, and knows by sure experience that he loves, as he knows that he thinks, sees, hears, and the like; and without doubt he knows better that he loves than the brother himself whom he loves. And so what St. Augustine writes is most true of actual love; of habitual it would by no means be true, since the habit of charity is so far from being known to us that many think, though falsely, that there is no such habit at all.
Furthermore, St. Augustine said that actual love is God, not because it is God by essence, but because it is a certain image and participation of the divine goodness; and he who knows and loves it, knows and loves God — not in himself, but in his image. Otherwise, if he were speaking of God in himself, he would never say that we see God, and that God is more known to us than a brother; for it cannot be doubted that God in this life is not seen as he is in himself by all those who love their brethren. Not unlike is the place in book 12 of the Confessions, chapter 25, where St. Augustine says that we see the very eternal and unchangeable truth, which is God, when we know something true: “If we both,” says he, “see that what I say is true, where, I pray, do we see it? Neither I in thee, nor thou in me, but both in that Unchangeable Truth itself which is above our minds. Since therefore we do not contend about the very light of the Lord our God, why do we contend about our neighbor's thought, which we cannot so see as the unchangeable truth is seen?” In which place St. Augustine does not mean to say that the subsistent Truth itself, which is God, is seen by us save in a certain image, as it were, of it; for all truth represents God, who is the uncreated, unchangeable, and subsistent Truth. The same, then, is to be judged of charity; for God is not more charity than he is truth. If anyone desires more on this matter, let him see St. Thomas in the disputed questions, question 1 on charity.
Show the Latin (Vives edition, OCR)
/ Argumenta Lombardi partim ex Scriptu¬ lis, partim ex Augustino petuntur. Prima objectio est. Deus in Scripturis ab¬ solute charitas nominatur, 1 Joan. iv : Deus charitas est, et qui manet in charitate , in Deo 'manet, et Deus in eo (4). Est igitur vere et proprie charitas, nam ut S. Augustinus mo¬ net lib. xv. de Trinitate cap. 17. non dictum est, Deus charitas mea, sicut Psal. cxli : Tu es, Domine, spes mea, et Psalm. lxx : Tu es patientia mea (3), sed simpliciter, Deus chari¬ tas est (1). ltespondeo : non negamus, Deum absolute, vere ct proprie dici posse charitatem, sed qua nos ipse diligit, non qua nos eum dili¬ gimus, quemadmodum etiam Deus sapientia et justitia recte dicitur, qua ipse sapiens et justus est, non qua nos sapientes et justi sumus. At contra, est objectio secunda. Non solum Jouuncs Deum charitatem esse dixit, sed ad¬ didit : Et qui manet in charitate , in Deo ma¬ net, et Deus in eo, ubi loquitur tam de cha- ritate, qua diligimus, quam de illa, qua dili¬ gimur, id enim est manere in charitate, dili¬ gere Deum, et diligi a Deo, et hanc ipsam charitatem dicit Joannes esse Deum, cum ait : Qui manet in charitate, in Deo manet, et Deus in co. Respondeo : S. Joannes rectissime dicit, eum qui diligit et diligitur, in Deo manere et Deum in eo, non quod charitas qua dili¬ gimus, sit Deus, sicut illa, qua diligimur ; sed quia inseparabiles sunt, ct ubi est una, ibi est etiam altera, una enim alteram tra¬ hit ; nam quemadmodum S. Augustinus dicit lib. xii. Confessionum, cap. 15. justitiam Dei esse lumen illuminans, justitiam nostram (i, Jacob. I, 12. - (2) Psal, LXXXI, t). - (3) 11 Pet. I, 4. - (4) I Joan. IV, 8. - (5>Psal. CXLI, G; Psal. LXX. 5. CAPUT IX. :>2 1 lumen illuminatum, sic. etiam dicere possu¬ mus, charitatem Dei esse ignem accenden¬ tem, nostram vero ignem accensum, et sicut per inseparabilitatem luminis producti a sole, et solis producentis, dicere solemus, eum qui est in lumine a Sole producto, esse in sole, et solem in eo, ita quoque propter insepara¬ bilitatem charitatis creatae, et claritatis in- creatae, qme est Deus, recte dicimus, eum qui manet in charitate, in Deo manere, et Deum in eo, cum charitas sine Deo esse non possit. Esse autem veram hanc explicationem, col¬ ligi potest ex duobus. Primo, quia in eodem loco idem Joannes ait : Qui confessus fuerit quoniam Jesus est filius Dei, in Deo manet , et Deus in eo. Nec tamen dicere auderemus con¬ fessionem fidei esse Deum, sed solum, sine Deo esse non posse, juxta illud I ad Corin¬ thios xii : Nemo potest dicere Dominus Jesus, nisi in Spiritu sancto (i). Secundo, quia sicut Joannes scripsit : Deus charitas est, sic etiam scripsit : Charitas ex Deo est. Charitas enim qua} est in Deo, Deus est; charitas quae est in nobis, non Deus, sed Dei donum est. Tertia objectio. S. Augustinus lib. de mo¬ ribus Ecclesiae caput 11. affirmat, nihil esse melius charitate ; id autem, quo nihil est me¬ lius, solus Deus est; charitas igitur Deus est. Respondeo : cum S. Augustinus docet, nihil esse melius charitate, non loquitur absolute, sed per comparationem ad alia dona, quae in hac vita percipimus a Deo, ut ipse idem cla¬ rius explicat lib. xt. de Trini t. cap. 18. Et tamen vere et absolute etiam dici potest, nihil esse melius charitate, cum charitas quae¬ dam, videlicet increata, Deus sit. Quarta objectio. S. Augustinus lib. vm. de Trinitate cap. 7. ita ratiocinatur: « Qui pro¬ ximum diligit, consequens est, ut ipsam prae¬ cipue dilectionem diligat; Deus autem dile¬ ctio est, consequens est ergo ut praecipue Deum diligat. » Et cap. 8 : « Nemo dicat, non novi quid diligam. Diligat fratrem, et diliget eamdem dilectionem, magis enim no¬ vit dilectionem qua diligit, quam fratrem quem diligit, ecce jam potest notiorem ha¬ bere Deum, quam fratrem. » Et infra : « Ista contextio satis aperteque declarat eamdem ipsam fraternam dilectionem non solum ex Deo, sed et Deum esse. » In his locis videtur S. Augustinus ita perspicue docere charita¬ tem, qua nos diligimus Deum et proximum, vere esse Deum, ut nihil contra dici queat, atque hoc est potissimum argumentum Lom- bardi. Respondeo : certum est ha3C loca sancti Augustini, quamvis alioqui satis obscura, non esse accipienda de charitate nostra ha¬ bituali, sed de actuali, et ideo ninil omnino contra sententiam nostram, vel pro Lom- bardo facere ; nemo enim unquam sibi in animum induxit, charitatem actualem, quee est liberi nostri arbitrii effectus, esse Dehm. Loqui autem Augustinum de charitate actuali, probamus, quia dicit, eum qui pro¬ ximum diligit, magis nosse et diligere ipsam dilectionem, quam proximum, quod quidem verum est de charitate actuali, non de habi¬ tuali ; nam qui diligit, amat ipsum diligere, et cognoscit per experientiam certam se dili¬ gere, sicut cognoscit se cogitare, videre, au¬ dire, et similia. Et sine dubio magis novit se diligere, quam fratrem ipsum, quem diligit. Itaque de actuali dilectione verissima sunt, quas S. Augustinus scribit ; de habituali au¬ tem nequaquam essent vera, siquidem habi¬ tus charitatis adeo non est nobis notus, ut multi putent, quamvis falso, nullum esse ejusmodi habitum. Porro dilectionem actualem S. Augustinus Deum esse dixit, non quod sil Deus per es¬ sentiam, sed quod sit imago quajdam, et participatio divina} bonitatis, quam qui cog¬ noscit et diligit, cognoscit et diligit Deum, non in se, sed in sua imagine. Alioqui si do Deo in se loqueretur, nunquam diceret, nos videre Deum, et notiorem nobis esse Deum, quam fratrem; neque enim dubitari potest, quin Deus in hac vita non videatur, ut est in se, ab iis omnibus, qui diligunt fratres. Non absimilis est locus in lib. xii. Confes¬ sionum, cap. 25. ubi S. Augustinus dicit, nos videre ipsam affernam et incommutabilem veritatem, qua} Deus est, cum aliquod verum cognoscimus : « Si ambo, inquit, videmus verum esse quod dico, ubi, quieso, id vide¬ mus? neque ego utique in te, neque tu in me, sed ambo in ipsa, qua} supra mentes nostras est, Incommutabili veritate : cum ergo de ipsa Domini Dei nostri luce non conten¬ damus, cur de proximi cogitatione conten¬ dimus. quam sic videre non possumus, ut videtur incommutabilis veritas. » Quo loco non vult S. Augustinus dicere, videri a no¬ bis ipsam subsistentem veritatem, qua} Deus (1)1 Corinth. XII, 3. Tox V. ni LIBER I. 522 est, nisi quadam quasi imagine ejus, omnis enim veritas Deum repraesentat, qui est veri¬ tas increata, incommutabilis, et subsistens ; idem igitur et de charitatc sentiendum est, non enim Deus magis est charitas, quam veritas. Si quis plura de hac re desiderat, videat S. Thomam in quaestionibus dispu¬ tatis, quaest. 1. de charitate. CAPUT X. Solvuntur dubitationes quaedam circa parti¬