Bellarmine · De Controversiis · On Grace and Free Choice · Book IV: Grace and Free Choice in Natural and Civil Works
Chapter 4: That general help is required, and suffices, for performing natural and civil actions
Our translation, from the Latin of the Opera Omnia (Paris: Vivès, 1870–74), vol. VI, De Gratia et Libero Arbitrio, Book IV. 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 second question was concerning natural actions — whether political or mechanical — abstracting from moral malice or goodness: whether they could be done by us by the powers of nature alone. Two contrary errors, indeed, have at some time existed concerning this matter. For some taught that men, like the other things also, can effect their works without any help of God, whether general or special. So Origen seems to have thought, book 3 On First Principles, as St. Thomas noted, book 3 against the Gentiles, chapter 89; so also thought the Pelagians, as St. Jerome witnesses in the epistle to Ctesiphon and in book 1 against the Pelagians; so, finally, thought, among the Scholastic theologians, Durandus, on 2 Sentences, distinction 1, question 5, and distinction 37, question 1, who teaches that God works all the things which we work because he gave, and conserves, the operative power which is in us — not because he concurs with us by his own action to effect our work.
But others, perhaps that they might depart as far as possible from this error, thought the contrary: that God so immediately and properly works all things that the second causes effect nothing at all, but at their presence God alone does all things. St. Thomas reports this opinion in question 3 On Power, article 7, and attributes it to the followers of Mahomet. But each error is repugnant to the Scriptures, to the testimonies of the Fathers, and to manifest reason — which we shall show briefly, since the fuller disputation pertains properly to the philosophers.
That the second causes, then, and especially men, truly and properly work something, Scripture everywhere teaches. For Genesis 1 says that the earth germinates, the stars shine upon the earth, the birds fly under the firmament of heaven, men rule and are set over the other animals; and other things of that kind are most frequently repeated in the divine writings. The holy Fathers also affirm the same, as Basil, oration 5 on the work of the six days; Ambrose, book 3 of the Hexaemeron, chapters 6 and 8; John Chrysostom, homily 5 on Genesis; Augustine, book 3 On the Trinity, chapters 3 and 4; John Damascene, book 2 On the Faith, chapter 10. Finally, reasons also are at hand. For first, if neither fire heated nor the sun illuminated, the sense would be deceived about its proper object, and there could be no place for experiments; for certainly the sense judges fire to be hot and the sun to be lucid, because it has felt itself changed by the one through heating, by the other through illumination. Then, to what end would God have given operative powers to natural things — nay, to what end would he have willed the natures of things to exist at all — if all were to be idle? Finally, whence would monsters be born, which are called, and are, sins of nature, if God alone effected all things — since error does not fall upon God?
Now, on the other hand, that the human will, like the other things also, can do nothing at all, nor move itself in any way, unless God work together with them; and that essence and operative power do not suffice for working, without the present help of the creator — is proved first from the divine writings. For in Acts 17 the Apostle says: In him we live, and move, and are. In which place, if God only gave us nature and powers for working, and conserved them, but did not also work together with us, it would have been enough to say, “in him we live and are”; to what end, therefore, was “we move” added, except that we may understand that we cannot be moved without the present help of God, even as we cannot be and live unless God will to conserve the life which he gave? And so we are in God, because he made us, and not we ourselves; we live in God, because he carries us by the word of his power; we move in God, because without him we can do nothing. For that preposition “in” is worth the same in this place as “through” — so that the sense is: through him we live, and move, and are — as in those places: In my God I shall go over a wall. In God we shall do mightily. This kind of demons is not cast out but in prayer and fasting. I can do all things in him who strengtheneth me. The same Apostle, in the first epistle to the Corinthians, chapter 10 [al. 12], says that God works all in all. Which Isaias had written long before, chapter 26, when he says: Thou hast wrought all our works in us, O Lord. Again, of other things the same Scripture testifies, as in Psalm 146; and Job 10: Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh. And Jeremias 1: Before I formed thee in the womb, I knew thee. And the Lord in the Gospel, Matthew 6: And if the grass of the field God doth so clothe. And John 5: My Father worketh until now; and I work.
To these and like places Pelagius answered (as Augustine witnesses in the book On the Grace of Christ, chapter 4), and after him Durandus in the place noted, that God is said to work all things because he has assigned operative powers to things. But St. Augustine refutes this response in epistle 146, by this argument: that God is not only said to have wrought all things and to have made all things, but is said in the present to work, when we read: Who bringeth forth smoke on the mountains; and, the grass of the field God doth so clothe; and, My Father worketh until now. Then, if God were said to work all things because he gave operative powers to all things, it would follow that God works all sins, because he gave to man and to Angel the free choice by which all sins are done. And with Durandus that would have place above all, since he himself contends, on the second of the Sentences, distinction 44, that the power of sinning is formally from God.
Add that we ought to understand the Scriptures not at our own pleasure, but according to the common explication of the holy Fathers; and the holy Fathers, from the Scriptures alleged, refute that error with common consent.
Eusebius, book 6 On the Evangelical Preparation, chapter 5: “The cause,” says he, “of all things — both of those that belong to our liberty and of those that come to pass by nature — is God.”
St. Jerome, in book 1 against the Pelagians, refutes the Pelagians for saying that they could, without the help of God, write, sit, weep, bend a finger, fit a pen, etc. Nor can it be answered that St. Jerome speaks of the mediate help of God, as Durandus will have it. For, as we have drawn from Augustine — and it is clear also from Jerome in the same place — the Pelagians confessed that free choice is a gift of God, and that by its mediation our actions can be attributed to God; and yet Jerome names the Pelagians impious and sacrilegious: “Hear,” says he in the epistle to Ctesiphon, “the sacrilegious man: ‘If I should will to bend a finger, to move a hand, to sit, to stand, to walk — will the help of God always be necessary to me?’ Hear, ungrateful man — nay, sacrilegious — the Apostle preaching: Whether you eat or drink, or whatsoever else you do, do all in the name of the Lord.”
St. John Chrysostom, homily 5 on Genesis: “Wherefore,” says he, “let us follow the footsteps of the divine Scripture, and not bear with those who rashly babble the contrary. Even if men work the earth, and enjoy the help of beasts of burden, and the temperateness of the sky be great, and all other things concur — unless the nod of the Lord be added, all the rest would be done in vain and to no purpose, and all the labor and sweating would profit nothing, unless the hand of the Lord helped from above, and bestowed completion on the things that are done.”
St. Augustine, in epistle 146, question 2: “How,” says he, “shall we be able to deny that God even now works all things that are done, since the Lord says, My Father worketh until now?” See also book 8 On Genesis, chapter 20 and following.
St. Anselm, in the book On the Concord of Foreknowledge, Predestination, Grace, and Free Choice, chapter 1: “God does,” says he, “all things that are done by a just or an unjust will — that is, good works and evil. In the good indeed he does both that they are, and that they are good; in the evil he does that they are, but not that they are evil.”
Let reason also come, last of all. For all created things so depend on the divine conservation that they cannot be, even for a moment, by themselves and without God. But if anything were done without the help of God, at least in that first instant in which it was done it would be by itself and without God. As, therefore, the light of the sun in the air is made in the first instant by the sun, and through all the remaining time is conserved by the same, nor can it in any way be without the presence of the sun continuing the being which it gave to it at the beginning — so also every effect of any second cause whatsoever is made at the beginning by God, and is conserved by the same, nor can it by any means begin or endure without the action of God giving, or continuing, its being. And further, that all created things perpetually depend on the divine conservation, there is no one who denies, since the Apostle says, Hebrews 1: Upholding all things by the word of his power; and it is taught at large by St. Augustine, book 4 On Genesis, chapter 12, and book 8, chapter 12; by St. John Chrysostom, homily 10 on Genesis; by St. Gregory, book 16 of the Morals, chapter 18; and by St. Thomas, part 1, question 104, article 1.
These extreme errors, then, being refuted, let that middle opinion stand, common in the schools of the Theologians: that many works can be done by man without the special help of God — as to plough, to sow, to prune vines, to plant trees, to walk, to sit, to speak, and other things of that kind — yet that nothing can be done without the general help of God. For so teaches, and proves with excellent reasons, St. Thomas in book 3 against the Gentiles, chapter 89; likewise St. Bonaventure and the rest of the Theologians (Durandus excepted) on 2 Sentences, distinction 37.
Show the Latin (Vives edition, OCR)
CAPUT IV. Requiri , et sufficere auxilium generale ad actiones naturales et civiles efficiendas. Altera quaestio erat de actionibus natura¬ libus, sive politicis, aut mechanicis abstra¬ hendo a malitia, vel bonitate morali, an ea) possent a nobis fieri solis natura) viribus. Duo siquidem de hac rp contrarii errores ali¬ quando extiterunt. Quidam enim docuerunt, posse homines, ut etiam res caeteras, opera sua efficere sine ullo Dei auxilio, sive gene¬ rali, sive speciali. Ita videtur sensisse Orige- ‘ genes lib. m. de principiis, ut annotavit S. Thomas lib. m. contra Gentiles, cap. 89. ita etiam senserunt Pelagiani, teste S. Hiero¬ nymo in epistola ad Gtesiphontom, ct lib. i. adversus Pelagianos. Ita denique sensit ex Theologis scholasticis, Durandus in 2. sent. dist. I. qua)st. 5. et dist. 37. quaest. I. qui docet, Deum omnia operare, quae nos ope¬ ramur, quia dedit, et conservat vim opera¬ tricem, quae in nobis est, non quia nobiscum ad opus nostrum efficiendum sua actione concurrat. (1) Joan. 1, 5; ibid. I, 10. / 12 LIBER It. Alii vero, fortasse ut ab hoc errore longis¬ sime recederent, contra senserunt, ita Deum immediate et proprie omnia operari, ut cau- ste secundai nihil omnino efficiant, sed ad eorum pra}sentiam solus omnia faciat Deus. Refert hanc sententiam S. Thomas in qusest. 3. de potentia art. 7. eamque Mahometis sectatoribus tribuit. Caeterum uterque error Scripturis, Patrum testimoniis, et manifesta! rationi repugnat. Quod breviter ostendemus, quoniam copiosior disputatio ad philosophos proprie pertinet. Igitur secundas causas, et praesertim homi¬ nes aliquid vere, ac proprie operari, Scri¬ ptura passim docet. Nam Genes, i. dicit, ter¬ ram germinare, stellas lucere super terram, aves volare sub firmamento coeli, homines dominari, ac praeesse animantibus caeteris. Et alia id genus frequentissime in divinis litteris repetuntur. Sancti quoque Patres id ipsum affirmant, ut Basilius oratione 5. de opere sex dierum. Ambrosius lib. iii. Hexameron cap. 6. et 8. Joannes Chrysostomus homil. 5. in Genes. Augustinus lib. iii. de Trinitate cap. 3. et 4. Joannes Damascenus lib. n. de fide cap. 10. Denique rationes etiam in promptu sunt. Nam in primis, si neque ignis calefaceret, neque sol illuminaret, falleretur sensus circa proprium objectum, nullusque esse posset experimentis locus. Certe enim sensus ignem calidum, et solem lucidum esse judicat, quo¬ niam ab illo per calefactionem, ab isto per illuminationem immutari se sensit. Deinde, quorsum Deus rebus naturalibus virtutes operatrices dedisset. Imo quorsum rerum naturas omnino esse voluisset, si omnia otiosa erant futura ? Denique, unde monstra nascerentur, quae dicuntur, et sunt peccata naturae, si solus Deus omnia efficeret, cum in Deum error non cadat. Jam vero humanam voluntatem, ut etiam res caeteras nihil omnino agere posse, nec se ulla ratione movere, nisi Deus cum illis simul operetur, nec sufficere essentiam, et virtu¬ tem operatricem ad operandum, si dedit au¬ xilium conditoris. Probatur primum ex divi¬ nis litteris. Nam Actor, xvn. Apostolus ait : In ipso vivimus, movemur, et sumus (1). Quolo- cosi Deus solum donaret nobis natui'am, et vi¬ res ad operandum, easque conservaret, non etiam simul operaretur nobiscum, satis fuis¬ set dicere ; in ipso vivimus et sumus : quor¬ sum igitur additum est, « movemur » , nisi ut intelligamus, non posse nos moveri sine praesenti auxilio Dei, quemadmodum non possumus esse et vivere, ni Deus vitam quam dedit, conservare voluerit. Itaque in Deo sumus, quia ipse fecit nos, et non ipsi nos; in Deo vivimus, quia ipso nos portat verbo virtutis suae ; in Deo move¬ mur, quia sine ipso nihil possumus facere. Siquidem illa prajpositio « in », idem valet hoc loco, quod (per) ut sensus sit, per ipsum vivimus, movemur, et sumus : quemadmo¬ dum in illis locis. In Deo meo transgrediar murum. In Deo faciemus virtutem. Hoc genus dxmoniorum non ejicitur , nisi in oratione et jejunio. Omnia possum in eo, qui me eon- fortat. Idem Apostolus in epist. priore ad Corinth. cap. x. dicit, Deum operari omnia in omnibus. Quod multo antea scripserat Isaias cap. xxvr. cum ait : Omnia opera no¬ stra operatus es Domine. Rursus de aliis rebus idem scriptura testatur, ut cum in Psalm. cxlvi. EtJob. x. Pelle, et carnibus vestisti me. Et Hierem. i. Antequam te formarem in utero, novi te. Et Dominus in Evangelio Matth. vi. Quod si f aenum agri Deus sic vestit. Et Joan. v. Pater meus usque modo operatur , cl ego ope¬ ror (2). Ad haec, et similia respondebat Pelagius (teste Augustino in libro de' gratia Christi cap. 4.) et post cum Durandus loco notato, dici Deum omnia operari, quia virtutes ope¬ ratrices rebus attribuit. Sed refellit hanc re¬ sponsionem S. Augustin. in, epist. 146. eo argumento, quod Deus non solum dicatur omnia operatus, et omnia fecisse, sed in praesenti dicatur operari , cum legimus : « Qui producit in montibus fumum, etfbenum agri Deus sic vestit, et, Pater meus usque modo operatur. » Deinde, si proptereaDeus diceretur operari omnia, quia dedit omnibus rebus operatrices virtutes, sequeretur , Deum operari omnia peccata, quia dedit homini, et Angelo libe¬ rum arbitrium, quo peccata omnia fiunt. Et apud Durandum id maxime locum haberet, cum ipse contendat in secundo sententiarum distinet. 44. potentiam peccandi formaliter esse a Deo. Adde quod Scripturas intelligere debemus non pro arbitratu nostro, sed juxta commu- (1) Act. XVII, 28. - (2) Isai. XXVI, 12 ; Psal, CXLVI; Job. X, 1!; Hier. I, 5; Matth. VI, 30; Joan. V, 17. CAPIT V. nem sanctorum Patrum explicationem ; san¬ cti autem Patres ex allegatis Scripturis erro¬ rem istum communi consensu refellunt. Eusebius lib. .vi. de praeparatione evange- lica cap. 5. « Causa, inquit, omnium, et quae libertatis nostrae sunt, et quae natura fiunt, Deus est. » S. Hieronymus in lib. I. adversus Pela- gianos, refellit Pelagianos, quod dicerent, posse sc absque Dei auxilio scribere, sedere, flere, curvare digitum, aptare calamum etc. Nequerespondcri potest loqui S. Hieronymum de auxilio Dei mediato, ut vult Durandus. Nam ut duximus ex Augustino, et patet etiam ex Hieronymo ibidem, fatebantur Pelagiani, liberum arbitrium esse donum Dei, et illo mediante posse nostras actiones Deo tribui, et tamen Hieronymus Pelagianos impios, et sacrilegos nominat : « Audite, inquit in epi¬ stola ad Gtesiphontcm, sacrilegum, si voluero curvare digitum, movere manum, sedere, stare, ambularo, semper mihi auxilium Dei necessarium erit? Audi, ingrate, immo sacri¬ lege, Apostolum praedicantem : Sive mandu¬ catis, sive bibitis, sive quid aliud facitis, omnia in nomine Domini facite. » S. Joannes Chrysostomus hom. S. in Ge¬ nesim : « Quocirca, inquit, divinae Scri¬ ptura* vestigiasequamur, neque feramus eos, qui adversa temere blaterant. Etiamsi ho¬ mines terram operentur, et jumentorum au¬ xilio fruantur, et magna sit coeli temperies, et omnia alia concurrant, nisi nutus Domini accedat, omnia alia frustra, et in vanum fie¬ rent, et nihil proficeret omnis labor, et desu- datio, nisi manus Domini superne adjuvaret, et perfectionem his, qua; fiunt, tribueret. » S. Augustinus in epist. 146. quaest. 2. « Quomodo, inquid, negare poterimus, Deum etiam nunc operari cuncta quae fiunt, cum Dominus dicat, Pater meus usque modo ope¬ ratur. »Vide etiam lib. vni. de Gen. cap. 20. et sequent. S. Anselmuslib. de concordia praescientiae, praedestinationis, gratiae et liberi arbitrii cap. i. « Facit, inquit, Deus omnia, quae justa, vel injusta voluntate fiunt, id est, opera bona et mala. In bonis quidem facit quod sunt, et quod bona sunt : in malis facit quod sunt, sed non quod mala sunt. » Accedat postremo etiam ratio, nam omnes res creatae in pendent a divina conservatione, ut nc ad momentum quidem per sc, ac sine M Deo esse possint. At si aliquid fieret sine Dei auxilio, saltem in primo illo instanti, quo fle¬ ret, per se, ac sine Deo esset. Quemadmodum igitur lumen solis in aere in primo instanti fit a sole, et toto reliquo tempore ab eodem conservatur, nec ullo modo esse potest sine praesentia solis continuantis esse, quod initio illi dedit : sic etiam omnis effectus cujus- cumque causae secundae, initio fit a Deo, et ab eodem conservatur, nec potest ulla ra¬ tione incipere, vel durare sine actione Dei dantis, vel continuantis esse. Porro ros omnes creatas perpetuo a divina conservatione pen¬ dere, nemo est qui neget, cum Apostolus dicat Ileb. i. Portans omnia verbo virtutis sum (1). Et fuse doceatur a S. Augustino lib. iv. de Gen. cap. xii. et lib. vm. cap. xii. a S. Joannes Chrysost. hom. 10. in Gen. a S. Gregorio lib. xvi. Mora.1. cap. 18. et a S. Thoma. 1. par. quaest. 104. art. 1. Ilis igitur extremis refutatis erroribus, ma¬ neat sententia illa media et communis in scholis Theologorum, posse ab homine fieri multa opera sine auxilio Dei speciali, ut arare, serere, putare vites, plantare arbores, ambulare, sedere, loqui, et alia id genus, nihil tamen fieri posse sine auxilio Dei gene¬ rali. Ita enim docet, et probat egregiis ratio¬ nibus S. Thomas in lib. m. contra Gentiles cap. 89. Item S. Bonaventura et caeteri Theo¬ logi (Durando excepto) in 2. sent. distinet. 37.