Bellarmine · De Controversiis · On Justification · Book I: On Justifying Faith
Chapter 20: The second argument from the Scriptures for faith alone is solved
Our translation, from the Latin of the Opera Omnia (Paris: Vivès, 1870–74), vol. VI, De Justificatione, 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 second argument they take from those places where faith alone is named, all the other works or dispositions being passed over. Matthew 9 and Luke 7: Thy faith hath made thee safe. Luke 8: Only believe, and she shall be safe. John 1: He gave them power to be made the sons of God, to them that believe in his name. John 3: He that believeth in the Son hath everlasting life. Romans 5: Being justified by faith, let us have peace with God.
I answer: that place, Only believe, and she shall be safe, where certain of the sectaries glory that they have at last found the particle “Alone,” which Luther had added of his own, when he could find it in no Bible, makes nothing to the purpose. For the Lord in that place speaks of a miracle to be done in the raising of a dead girl, not of the justification of the impious and the remission of sins. But we confess that faith alone is sometimes enough to obtain miracles — namely, when they are referred to the confirming of faith itself, not to the illustrating of the life of him who obtains the miracle. For in this manner certain wicked men are said to have done many miracles, who in the day of judgment shall hear: Amen I say to you, I never knew you; depart from me, all you workers of iniquity, Matthew 7.
As to the other places, we deny that it follows that faith alone justifies, even though it be sometimes named alone. For sometimes also the other virtues, or the Sacraments, are named alone; as Luke 7, Many sins are forgiven her, because she hath loved much; Tobias 12, Alms delivereth from death; Romans 8, By hope we are saved; Ecclesiasticus 1, The fear of the Lord driveth out sin; Titus 3, He saved us by the laver of regeneration; Ephesians 2, Cleansing it by the laver of water in the word of life. And yet no one gathers that love, or alms, or fear, or baptism justifies without faith. And so Scripture, when many causes concur to one effect, now to one cause, now to another, attributes that effect, nor is it thereby understood to signify that one cause without the others can suffice. But the cause why the Apostle more frequently attributes justification to faith than to love, or to other things, is that which the Council of Trent renders, session 6, chapter 8: because faith is the beginning of gratuitous justification. For thence God begins the spiritual building in the soul of man; thence he begins to cure the disease of sin; thence he begins to till the field of the heart; thence he begins to open the way to the harbor of salvation.
But John Calvin, in the Antidote of the Council, meets us, and calls this explanation not only puerile, but also condemns it of manifest error. And he himself proves, by three testimonies of the divine Scripture, that faith is not only the beginning and foundation of justification, but also its increase and perfection. The first is Romans 1: The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; for the justice of God is revealed therein from faith unto faith. “Who does not see,” says Calvin, “that the beginning and the end are here alike designated? Otherwise it should have been said, from faith unto works, if works perfected what faith begins.” The second is Habacuc 2: The just liveth by faith. “This,” says Calvin, “the Prophet would have said very improperly, unless faith continued life.” The third is Genesis 15: Abraham believed God, and it was reputed to him unto justice. “Abraham was not then a novice,” says Calvin, “but an example of holiness and of all the virtues; therefore faith did not open to him the entrance to justice, that afterward from elsewhere the justification might be completed.”
I answer: impudently does Calvin, while he thinks he insults the Council of Trent, insult St. Augustine and all antiquity. For what the Council said — that a man is therefore justified from faith, according to the Apostle’s sentence, because faith is the beginning and root of justification — St. Augustine wrote before, in the book On the Predestination of the Saints, chapter 7, in these words: “Therefore he says that a man is justified from faith, not from works, because faith itself is first given, from which the rest are obtained which are properly called works.” And in epistle 105 to Sixtus: “Faith, whence all justice takes its beginning.” And in the book On the Good of Perseverance, chapter 2: “What beginning is more true for a Christian man than to believe in Christ?” And in the preface on Psalm 31: “I praise the superstructure, but I see the foundation of faith; I praise the fruit, but in faith I recognize the root.” And sermon 16 on the words of the Apostle: “Man begins from faith.” And sermon 22, which we have often cited: “The house of God is founded by believing, raised by hoping, perfected by loving.” Which same all the other Fathers held and taught, as we showed above, chapters 13 and 17. Let Calvin now say, if he dare, that Augustine — whom of all antiquity he is wont to choose as his one patron — played childishly in Scripture, because he called faith the beginning, foundation, and root of justice, and therefore wrote that a man is justified from faith, because faith is first given, that through it the rest may be obtained. Truly, then, faith is the beginning and origin of justice; but not such a beginning that, when justice comes, it yields and withdraws — in the way fear is put forth by charity, which by a certain ministry of its own it introduced — but it is a beginning which remains and is perfected; in the way the roots of trees do not wither, but grow and are strengthened as the tree grows; and the foundation of a building is not withdrawn when the fabric of the house is added, but is perfected and stabilized, and sustains the walls and the roof. So indeed faith too first begins justification, then, hope and charity being taken up, perfects it. Therefore when it begins, it is alone; when it perfects, it is not alone; or (what is the same) it alone begins, not alone perfects. And accordingly rightly does the Council, after Augustine, write that a man is justified from faith, because faith is the beginning and origin of justice — so as, namely, to attribute to faith properly what properly belongs to it alone. Wherefore, if Calvin and the other sectaries, when they say “faith alone justifies,” wished to signify that faith alone begins justice, there would be no need to litigate longer with them about faith alone.
That, then, of the Apostle, The justice of God is revealed from faith unto faith, can be expounded in many ways; nor are we compelled to admit that faith alone is the beginning and end of justice. For St. Augustine, in the book On the Spirit and the Letter, chapter 11, expounds it, from the faith of those announcing the Gospel unto the faith of those obeying the Gospel. Others expound, from the faith of the Prophets unto the faith of the Apostles; others, from faith obscure and latent in the Old Testament unto faith manifested and revealed in the New Testament; others, from the faith of things past unto the faith of things to come; others, from imperfect faith unto perfect faith, and formed by charity. Which last exposition is confirmed by like phrases which signify progress and increase of the same thing, as: They shall go from virtue to virtue, Psalm 83; And his truth unto generation and generation, Psalm 99; We are transformed from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord, 2 Corinthians 3; And his mercy from generation to generations, to them that fear him, Luke 1. And so the Apostle’s sentence is that in the Gospel is revealed the justice of God, which begins from inchoate faith, and is brought to faith perfected and formed by charity.
But that of Habacuc 2, The just liveth by faith, is understood of living faith (for how can anyone live by dead faith?); and living faith, by the testimony of St. James, chapter 2, is not faith alone, but faith with works, or (as Paul speaks, Galatians 5) faith working by charity. And this testimony rightly coheres with the former. For blessed Paul proves that the justice of God is from faith unto faith, because it is written, The just liveth by faith — namely, the justice of God is begun from imperfect faith, and terminated in perfect, that is, living faith. Since the just man ought to live by faith, nor could he live by faith, if his justice consisted of faith not living. Wherefore the Prophet teaches indeed that life is continued through faith, but not through faith alone, but through faith conjoined with charity, and working through charity; from which it follows that the just man lives not only from faith, but also from charity. Nor is that therefore false which the Council says, that justice is begun by faith, since it is true, what the Prophet says, that justice is continued by faith. For faith does both, but the first it does alone, the second not alone.
Finally, that which Calvin adduces from Genesis 15, Abraham believed God, and it was reputed to him unto justice, signifies that Abraham, being just, was by a certain new act of faith made juster. But faith did not therefore not open to him the entrance to justice, when first he was justified, because afterward too it increased justice in him. For (as we have already said) we do not so make faith the beginning of justice as to deny that it grows and is perfected, and ever brings a man to greater things. This alone we deny: that through it alone a man can wholly and perfectly acquire the form of justice.
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CAPUT XX. Solvitur alterum argumentum ex Scripturis petitum pro sola fide. Alterum argumentum sumunt ab iis locis, ubi sola fules nominatur, caderis omnibus operibus, vel dispositionibus praetermissis. Matth. ix. Lucie vii. Fides tua te salvam fe¬ cit. Lucie viii. Crede tantum , et salva erit. \ i 00 LIBER I. Joan. i. Dedit eis potestatem filios Dei feri, his qui credant innomine ejus. Joan. m. Qui credit in filium, habet vitam aeternam. Ro- raan. v. Justificati ex fide,pa(em habeamus ad Deum (1). Respondeo: locus ille « crede tantum, et salva erit» ubi gloriantur aliqui ex sectariis, se tanclem reperisse particulam Sola, quam Lutherus de suo addiderat, cum in nullis Bibliis eam invenire potuisset, non facit ad rem. Loquitur enim eo loco Dominus de mi¬ raculo faciendo in excitatione defunctte, non de justificatione impii, et remissione pecca¬ torum. Fatemur autem, ' fidem solam inter¬ dum satis esse ad miracula impetranda, vi¬ delicet cum referuntur ad ipsam fidem con¬ firmandam, non ad vitam ejus illustrandam, qui miraculum' impetrat. Iloc enim modo virtutes multas fecisse dicuntur improbi qui¬ dam, qui in dic judicii audituri sunt : Anien dico vobis, numquam novi vos, discedite a me omnes operarii iniquitatis , Matth. vn. (2). Quod attinet ad alia loca, negamus id se¬ qui, ut fides sola justificet, etiamsi interdum sola nominetur. Nam interdum quoque solee nominantur aliee virtutes, aut Sacramenta, ut Lucte vn. Remittuntur ei peccata multa, quoniam dilexit multum. Tobite xii. Eleemo¬ syna a morte liberat. Ad Roman. vm. Spe salvi facti sumus. Eccles. i. Timor Domini ex¬ pellit peccatum. Ad Titum m. Salvos nos fe¬ cit per lavacrum regenerationis. Ephes. ii. Myndans eam lavacro aqux in verbo vitx (3). Nec tamen ullus colligit , dilectionem, aut eleemosynam, aut timorem, aut baptismum sine fide justificare. Itaque Scriptura, cum ad unum effectum multa) causae concurrunt, modo uni causa1 2, modo alteri effectum illum tribuit, nec pro- pterea significare intelligitur, unam causam sine aliis posse sufficere. Cur autem Aposto¬ lus frequentius justificationem tribuat fidei, quam dilectioni, aut aliis rebus, causa est, quam reddit Concilium Tridentinum sess. G. cap. 8. quoniam fides est initium gratuita) justificationis. Inde enim incipit Deus' aedi¬ ficium spirituale in anima hominis, inde in¬ cipit curare morbum peccati, inde incipit colere agrum cordis, inde incipit viam ape¬ rire ad portum salutis. Sed occurrit Joannes Calvinus in Antidoto Concilii, atque hanc explicationem non solum puerilem vocat, sed etiam manifesti erroris damnat. Probat autem ipse, fidem non esse tantum initium, et fundamentum justifica¬ tionis, sed etiam incrementum, et perfe¬ ctionem, tribus testimoniis divinae scripturae. Primum est ad Rom. I. Euangelium virtus Dei est in salutem omni credenti , quia revela¬ tur in eo Dei justitia ex fide in fidem (4). «Quis non videt, inquit Calvinus, principium et fi¬ nem pariter hic designari, alioqui dicendmti erat ex fide in opera, siquidem opera perfi¬ cerent, quod fides inchoat ». Alterum est Habacuc ii. Justus ex fide vivit (o). « Hoc, in¬ quit Calvinus, Propheta valde improprie di¬ xisset, nisi fides continuaret vitam ». Ter¬ tium est Genes, xv. Credidit Abraham Deo, et reputatum est ei ad justitiam (6). « Non erat, inquit Calvinus, tunc Abraham novi- -tius, sed sanctitatis omniumque virtutum exemplar, ergo non ei aditum ad justitiam patefecit fides, ut aliunde postea justificatio compleretur. Respondeo: impudenter Calvinus, dum se Concilio Tridentino insultare credit, S. Au¬ gustino, et toti antiquitati insultat. Quod enim Concilium dixit, ideo ex fide hominem justificari, ex Apostoli sententia, quod fides initium sit, et radix justificationis : scripsit antea S. Augustinus in libro de prmdestina- tione Sanctol-um, cap. 7. his verbis : « Ex fide ideo dicit justificari hominem, non ex operibus, quia ipsa prima datur, ex qua im¬ petrentur cartera, qua) proprie opera nuncu¬ pantur » . Et in epist. 105. ad Sixtum : « Fides, inquit, unde omnis justitia sumit initium ». Et libro de bono perseverantiae, cap. 2 : « Quod initium verius homini Christiano , quam credere in Christum »? Et praefatione in Psalm. xxxi. « Laudo, inquit, superaedifi¬ cationem, sed video fundamentum tidei : lau¬ do fructum, sed in fide agnosco radicem » . Et serm. 16. de verbis Apostoli : « A fide, inquit, incipit homo ». Et serm. 22. quem saepe' citavimus : « Domus, inquit, Dei cre¬ dendo fundatur, sperando erigitur, diligen¬ do perficitur ». Quod idem omnes alios Pa¬ tres sensisse, ac docuisse ostendimus, supra cap. 13. et 17. Dicat nunc Calvinus, si audet, Augusti¬ num, quem unum ex tota antiquitate sibi (1) Mattii. IX, 2? ; Luc.VII, 50; ibid. VIII, 50; Joan 1, 12; Joan. HI, 36; Rom. V, 1. — (2) Matth. VII, £3. - (3) Luc. VII, 47; Tob. XII, i); Rom. VIII. 24 ; Eccl. I, 27; Tit. IIT, 5; Eph. II, 26. - (4) Rom. I, 17 , - (5) Hab. II, 4. - (6) Gon. XV, 6. CAPUT XXI. 197 patronum eligere solet, pueriliter in Scri¬ ptura lusisse, quia fidem vocavit initium, fun¬ damentum, radicemque justitiae, et ideo ju¬ stificari ex fide hominem sciupsit, quia fides prima datur, ut per eam ccctera impetrentur. Vere igitur fides initium est, et origo justi- lise ; sed non tale initium, ut veniente justitia cedat, ac recedat, quo modo timor foras mit¬ titur a charitatc, quam suo quodam mini¬ sterio introduxit, sed est initium, quod manet et perficitur ; quo modo arborum radices non arescunt, sed crescunt, et roborantur crescente arbore ; et fundamentum aedificii non subtrahitur accedente fabrica domus, sed perficitur, et stabilitur, et parietes, te¬ ctumque sustentat. Ita nimirum et fides pri¬ mum inchoat justificationem, deinde assum¬ pta spe et charitatc perficit. Ideo cum in¬ choat, sola est ; cum perficit, non est sola ; sive (quod idem est) sola inchoat, non sola peificit. Proinde recte Concilium post Augustinum scribit, hominem justificari ex fide, quia fi¬ des est initium et origo justitiae : ut videlicet id fidei proprie tribueret, quod ei soli pro¬ prie convenit. Quare si Calvinus et c adori sectarii, cum dicunt, fides sola justificat, si¬ gnificare vellent, fidem solam inchoare justi¬ tiam, non esset cum eis de sola fide diutius litigandum. Illud igitur Apostoli : Revelatur justitia Dei ex fide sola in fidem , multis modis exponi po¬ test ; neque cogimur admittere fidem solam esse principium, finemque justitiae. Exponit enim S. Augustinus in libro de spiritu et li- tera, cap. 11. ex fide annunciantium Evan- gelium, in fidem obcdicutium Evangelio. Exponunt alii, ex fide Prophetarum in fidem Apostolorum : alii, ex fide obscura et latente in Testamento veteri, in fidem manifestatam et revelatam in Testamento novo : alii, ex fide rerum praeteritarum in fidem fu tuia- rum; alii ex fide imperfecta, in fidem per¬ fectam, el charitate formatam. Qua} postrema expositio confirmatur ex si¬ milibus phrasibus, quas significant progres¬ sum, et incrementum, ejusdem rei, ut : Ibunt de virtute in virtutem , Psalm. lxxxiii. E tus¬ que in venerationem et generationem veritas ejus , Psalm. xcix. Transformamur aelaritate in claritatem tamquam a Domini spiritu. II. Co- rinth. m. Et misericordia ejus a progenie in progenies timentibus eum. Luc. i (1). Itaque sen¬ tentia Apostoli est, in Evangelio revelari ju stitiam Dei, qua) incipit a fide inchoata, et perducitur ad fidem charitatc perfectam, at¬ que formatam. Illud vero Habaeuc n. Justus ex fule vivit. intclligitur de fide viva (quomodo enim po¬ test aliquis vivere ex fide mortua?) fides au¬ tem viva ex testimonio sancti Jacobi cap. ii. non est fides sola, sed fides cum operibus, sive (ut loquitur Paulus ad Galat. v.) fides per charitatem operans. Et recte cohaeret hoc testimonium cum superiore. Probat enim beatus Paulus, justitiam Dei esse ex fide in fidem, quia scriptum est, Justus ex fide vivit, nimirum justitia Dei ex fide imperfecta in¬ choatur, et in fidem perfectam, hoc est, vi¬ vam terminatur. Quonian justus ex fide vive¬ re debet, nec posset ex fide vi vere, si j usti- tia ejus constaret ex fide non viva. Quare docet quidem Propheta, per fidem continuari vitam, sed non per fidem solam, sed per fidem cum charitate conjunctam, et percharitatem operantem; ex quo sequitur, ut justus non solum ex fide, sed etiam ex charitate vivat. Neque ideo falsum est, quod Concilium dicit, fide inchoari justitiam, quo¬ niam verum est, quod Propheta dicit, fide continuari justitiam. Utrumque enim fides facit, sed primum facit sola, secundum non sola. Illud denique, quod Calvinus adducit ex cap. xv. Genes. Credidit Abr aliam Deo , et reputatum est ei ad justitiam (2) ; significat, Abrahamum justum, ex novo quodam actu fidei factum esse justiorem. Sed non ideo non aperuit illi aditum ad justitiam fides , cum primum ille justificatus est, quia postea quoque justitiam in illo auxit. Nam (ut jam diximus) non ita facimus fidem initium justi¬ tia), ut negemus illam crescere et perfici, et semper hominem ad majora perducere. Hoc solum negamus, per eam solam posse homi¬ nem integre, perfecteque justitiae formam acquirere.