Bellarmine · De Controversiis · On Justification · Book I: On Justifying Faith
Chapter 22: The fourth 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 fourth argument they draw from those testimonies which teach that all who believe are justified and saved. Which indeed would not be infallibly true, if faith alone did not suffice. John 3: That whosoever believeth in him may not perish, but may have life everlasting. Acts 10: To him all the prophets give testimony, that all who believe in him receive remission of sins. Acts 13: In him every one that believeth is justified. Romans 1: The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth. Romans 10: Whosoever believeth in him shall not be confounded. 1 John 5: Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God.
I answer: the particle “Every one” can, first, be rightly expounded negatively, so that the sense is, every one who believes is justified — that is, no one is justified without faith. Which St. Augustine illustrates by a most apt similitude, explaining that, God will have all men to be saved, in the book On the Predestination of the Saints, chapter 8. For if in some one city there were only one Doctor of Grammar, and it were said, “all in this city learn grammar from him,” it would not be signified that all in that city learn grammar, but that no one learns without him. So, then, every one who believes is justified, because no one is justified unless he believe. For without faith it is impossible to please God. And this the Apostle seems to signify, Romans 1, when he says that the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; for in that whole disputation he strives to prove that the faith of Christ is necessary to all, and that without it neither the Jews through the law of Moses, nor the Gentiles through the light of reason, can be justified before God. The same also seems to be the sense of that place, John 3, That whosoever believeth in him may not perish; for it signifies that the Son of God was sent by the Father into the world, since without his advent and faith no one could have been saved.
Second, the same particle “Every one” can be referred to all kinds of men, so that it signify that the faith of Christ is a way to salvation open to the whole world — Jews, Greeks, Barbarians — and not to one nation only, as was the law of Moses. For so blessed Paul explains that of Isaias, Whosoever believeth in him shall not be confounded, Romans 10; for he at once subjoins: For there is no distinction of the Jew and the Greek; for the same is Lord over all, rich unto all that call upon him. And for this cause the Apostle often presses that particle “Every one,” to admonish the Jews that the grace of Christ is not their own peculiar possession, but common to all nations.
Third, the particle “Every one” is sometimes referred to individual believers, and indeed affirmatively; yet it is not signified by those sentences that faith alone suffices, but that faith justifies and saves, if the other things be not lacking — that is, that faith on its own part always justifies and saves, provided the others which are at the same time required be added. And that this is so is clear from this, that in the Scriptures it is said also of hope, Every one that hopeth in him shall not be confounded, Ecclesiasticus 2; and of love, Every one that loveth is born of God, 1 John 4; of humility, Every one that humbleth himself shall be exalted, Luke 18; of prayer, Every one that asketh receiveth, Luke 11; and, Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved, Romans 10; and of obedience, He became to all that obey him the cause of eternal salvation, Hebrews 5. And yet no one would say that hope alone, or prayer, or humility, or the others suffice without faith. And so the sentence of Scripture is that each of these virtues, on its own part, brings men to salvation, unless from elsewhere there arise an impediment or defect. And this very thing the holy Fathers everywhere teach, when they admonish that faith alone does not suffice. “Many,” says Augustine, tractate 10 on the epistle of John, “say, I believe; but faith without works does not save.” And St. Prosper, book 1 On the Contemplative Life, chapter 19: “Neither works without faith, nor faith without works, justify.” See the other testimonies below, in the disputation on the necessity of works.
Show the Latin (Vives edition, OCR)
CAPUT XXII:
So Icitur argumentum quartum, ex Scripturis
depromptum pro sola fide.
Quartum argumentum depromunt ex illis
testimoniis, qua? docent, omnes qui credunt
justificari et salvari. Quod quidem non esset
infallibili ter verum, si non sufficeret sola
fides. Joan. hi. Ut omnis qui credit in eum non
(I) 1 Tim. IV, 8 ; 1 Joan. I, 9.
Tom. VI.
ii
LIBER I.
202
pereat , sed habeat bitam aeternam. Actor, x.
Huic omnes Prophetae testimonium perhibent ,
remissionem peccatorum accipere omnes , qni
credunt in eum. Actor, xm. In hoc omnis,
qui credit justificatur. Roman. i. Euangelium
virtus Dei est { in salutem omni credenti. Rom.
x. Omnis qui credit in eum non confundetur.
I Joan. v. Omnis qui credit , quoniam Jesus est
Christus, ex Deo natus est (i).
Respondeo : particula Omnis, potest In
primis recte exponi negative, ut sensus sit,
omnis qui credit, justificatur, id est nemo
sui fide justificatur. Quod illustrat aptissima
similitudine S. Augustinus, explicant illud,
Deus vult omnes salvos fieri, lib. de praedesti¬
natione Sanctorum , cap. 8. nam si in una
aliqua urbe unus tantum Grammaticae Do-
ctor esset et diceretur omnes in hoc urbe
gammaticam discunt ab isto : non significare
tur, omnes in ea urbe Grammaticam discere,
sed neminem discere sine illo. Sic igitur om¬
nis qui credit, justificatur, quia nemo justi¬
ficatur, nisi credat. Sine fide enim impossibile
est placere Deo. Et hoc videtur Apostolus si¬
gnificare ad Roman. i. cum dicit, Evange-
lium esse virtutem Dei in salutem omni cre¬
denti; nam in tota illa disputatione probare
nititur, fidem Christi necessariam esse om¬
nibus, et sine illa neque Judaeos per legem
Mosis, neque gentiles per lumen rationis
posse coram Deo justificari. Idem etiam vi¬
detur esse sensus illius loci Joan. m. Ut omnis
qui credit in eum non pereat; significat enim
missum esse filium Dei a Patre in mundum,
quoniam sine ejus adventu et fide, nemo
salvari potuisset.
Secundo, potest eadem particula Omnis,
referri ad omnia hominum genera, ut signi¬
ficet, fidem Christi esse viam ad salutem
apertam toti mundo, 'Judaeis, Graecis, Bar¬
baris, non autem uni tantum genti, ut erat
lex Mosis. Sic enim explicat B. Paulus illud
Isaiae : Omnis qui credit in eum, non confun¬
detur, ad Rom. xx. nam continuo subjuneit :
Non enim est distinctio Judaei , et Graeci. Nam
idem Dominus omnium, dives in omnes, qui
invocant illum. Et ea de causa saepe Apo¬
stolus ufget illam particulam, Omnis, ut ad¬
moneat Judaeos, gratiam Christi non esse
ipsorum propriam, sed communem omnibus
gentibus.
Tertio refertur interdum particula, Omnis,
ad singulos credentes, et quidem affirmative,
sed tamen non significatur illis sententiis,
solam fidem sufficere, sed fidem justificare
et salvare, si non desint caetera, id est, fidem
ex parte sua semper justificare et salvare,
modo addantur alia, quae simul requiruntur.
Id autem ita esse, perspicuum est ex eo,
quod in Scripturis etiam de spe dicitur : Om¬
nis qui sperat in eum, non confundetur. Ec-
clesiast. ir. et de dilectione : Omnis qui di¬
ligit, ex Deo natus est. I Joan. iv. de humili¬
tate : Omnis, qui se humiliat exaltabitur. Luc.
xvni. de oratione : Omnis qui petit accipit.
Lucae xi. et : Quicumque invocaverit nomen
Domini salvus erit. Rom. x. et de obedientia :
Factus est omnibus obedientibus sibi causa sa¬
lutis aeternae (2). Hebr. v. et tamen nemo di¬
ceret solam spem, aut orationem, aut humi¬
litatem, aut alia sufficere sine fide.
Itaque sententia Scripturae est, singulas
istas virtutes ex parte sua perducere homines
ad salutem, nisi aliunde oriatur impedimen¬
tum, aut defectus. Atque hoc ipsum sanet*
Patres passim docent, cum admonent, non
sufficere solam fidem : « Multi, inquit Au¬
gustinus tract. 10. in epist. Joan. dicunt,
credo, sed fides sine operibus non salvat » .
Et S. Prosper lib. i. de vita contemplativa,
cap. 19, «Nec opera sine fide, nec fides sine
operibus justificat ». Yide alia testimonia
infra in disputatione de necessitate operum.