Bellarmine · De Controversiis · On Justification · Book I: On Justifying Faith
Chapter 23: The fifth 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 fifth argument they draw from those testimonies which preach the efficacy of the Word of God. For the Word is apprehended by faith alone. Psalm 106: He sent his word, and healed them. John 15: You are clean by reason of the word which I have spoken to you. Romans 1: The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth. 1 Corinthians 15: I make known unto you the Gospel which I preached to you, which also you have received, and wherein you stand, by which also you are saved. James 1: Receive the ingrafted word, which is able to save your souls.
I answer: the word of God heals and saves; but that it may do this, it is not enough that it be apprehended by faith, unless it be also fulfilled by charity. For the word of God not only offers promises, but also commands works to be done. Wherefore the Lord, Matthew 7, compares a man hearing his words and not doing them to a foolish man who builds his house upon the sand. Moreover, the word which is apprehended by faith is not salvation itself, but the seed of salvation, which ought not only to be received, but also to be warmed and cultivated, that it may bring forth fruit. Wherefore rightly St. James says not, “Receive the ingrafted word, which shall save,” but, “which is able to save your souls” — namely, if it be received in a good heart, and retained with patience in the time of temptations, as is said in the parable of the sower, Matthew 13.
But against this Luther meets us, in the book On Christian Liberty, where he proves that faith alone with the word of God suffices. For first (as he says) faith fulfils all the commandments. For, hearing in the Word the precepts and the promises, and prudently understanding that the precepts cannot be kept, it betakes itself to the promises, which teach that all things are placed in faith, and that he who believes in Christ has all things. For God hath concluded all in unbelief, that he may have mercy on all; and, He gave them power to be made the sons of God, to them that believe in his name, Romans 11 and John 1. Then, faith exhibits to God the highest homage, while by believing it confesses him to be truthful in all his promises. But God glorifies those who glorify him, as is said, 1 Kings 2. Whence also Abraham believed God, and it was reputed to him unto justice, because, namely, he gave glory to God, most fully knowing that whatsoever God has promised he is able also to perform. Finally, faith couples the soul to God, according to that of Osee 2, I will espouse thee to me in faith; and therefore all things that are Christ’s are made common with the faithful soul.
I answer: this argument of Luther, drawn from the three powers of faith, wounds the Lutherans more than the Catholics. For if God glorifies and justifies us because we exhibit to him the highest worship through faith, certainly it follows that we are justified by the merit of faith — that is, on account of the power and worth of faith itself. Which yet Philip and Chemnitz, and as many as are Lutherans today, contend to be absurd and false. But let us briefly sift the powers of faith which Luther preaches. That first power — namely, that faith fulfils all the commandments — Luther stealthily filched from charity, to attribute it to faith. But true faith does not live by rapine, and therefore cries out that it is true, what the Apostle says, Romans 13, He that loveth hath fulfilled the law; and, The fulness of the law is love; and what the Lord himself says, John 14, If any one love me, he will keep my word; and, He that loveth me not, keepeth not my words. Faith indeed turns itself to the promises, when it sees that the commandments of the law cannot be fulfilled by the sole powers of nature; and, believing that that promise is true, Ask, and you shall receive, it asks of God the spirit of charity, through whom it truly comes to pass that the justification of the law is fulfilled in us. But this is not the promise which Luther would have; for he seeks a promise by which he may be freed from the debt of fulfilling the law, and be held and reputed just, though he be covered with every kind of crimes. But this promise he will never find in the true Bibles — that is, in the book of God. For that which he alleges, God hath concluded all in unbelief, that he may have mercy on all, and, He gave them power to be made the sons of God, to them that believe in him, signifies far otherwise than what he dreams. For God is said to have concluded all in unbelief, because he permitted both Jews and Gentiles to become unbelievers, that in freeing both he might show his mercy. And he gave power to those who believe in him, that they may become the sons of God; accordingly they are not, by this very thing that they believe, sons of God, but can become so, if they be reborn of water and the Holy Ghost, and thus, charity being diffused in their hearts by the Holy Ghost who is given to them, they begin to say to God, Abba, Father.
Now, as regards the second power of faith: faith indeed exhibits worship and homage to God, when it gives him glory, believing him to be faithful in all his words; but neither does faith alone exhibit worship to God, since it is written, Matthew 5, Let them see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven. And John 21 we read of St. Peter that by his death he glorified God. Nor does the homage of faith please God, unless faith itself work through love. For the devils too, will they nill they, give glory to God, while they believe him to be truthful; but that forced homage profits them nothing. And we ourselves, if we should have all faith, but have not charity, are nothing. And so God glorifies those by whom he himself is glorified from charity, without which all homages that are offered by the unwilling profit nothing. And of this kind was the homage of Abraham, who loved God so far that, to obey God, he was willing to immolate even his only-begotten son. And therefore rightly St. James, in his epistle, chapter 2, says that the faith of Abraham was made perfect by works. Wherefore it is no wonder if such a faith — namely, perfect, and formed by charity, and working through love — was reputed unto justice, that is (as it truly was), esteemed a work, and judged justice.
Further, the third power of faith perhaps lacks foundation. For what we read, Osee 2, I will espouse thee to me in faith, seems not to be taken of the faith by which we believe God, but of the faithfulness by which God performs his promises. For a little before God had said, in the same Prophet, I will espouse thee to me in justice and judgment, and in mercy and in commiserations; and soon he added, and I will espouse thee to me in faith. Of all which words this seems to be the sense: I will espouse thee to me justly, mercifully, and faithfully. But if faith be taken for the faith by which we believe God, certainly, as we are espoused to God through faith, so we are joined in perfect and consummated matrimony through charity. For not faith, but charity is the bond of perfection, Colossians 3; and, He that abideth in charity, abideth in God, and God in him, 1 John 4. Finally, whether through faith, or through charity, or (which is truer) through both we be espoused to Christ, those things which are Christ’s will indeed be ours, and ours Christ’s, as Luther says — but not in the manner in which he says. For the justice of Christ will not be ours because it is reputed ours, but it will be ours because it will be the cause of the justice inhering in us, and truly and formally perfecting us — just as our mortality, and the other penalties into which by the fall of the first parent we fell, were not in Christ by sole reputation, but by a true and real assumption. For Luther makes our Spouse but little liberal, whom he would have take to himself in fact those things which are ours, but communicate with us by sole reputation those things which are his. But of these things thus far.
Show the Latin (Vives edition, OCR)
CAPUT XXIII. Solvitur quintum argumentum ex Scripturis pro sola fide. Quintum argumentum ducunt ab illis testi¬ moniis; quae praedicant efficaciam Verbi Dei. Verbum enim sola fide apprehenditur. Psal. cvi. Misit verbum suum, et sanavit eos. Joan. iv. Vos munde estis propter sermonem, quem locutus sum vobis. Rom. i. E vangelium virtus Dei est in salutem omni credenti. I ad Co- rinth. xv. Notum vobis facio E vangelium, quod praedicavi vobis, quod accepistis, in quo statis, per quod et salvamini. Jacob. l: Sus¬ cipite insitum verbum, quod potest salvare, animas vestras (3). (1) Joan. III, 16; Act. X, 43; Act. XIII, 39; Rom.I, 16; Rom; X, 11 ; I Joan. V, 1. —(2) Eccl. II, H ; I Joan. IV, 7 ; Luc. XVIII, 1 1 ; Luc. XI, 10 ; Rom. X, 13 ; Heb. V, 9.- (3) Psal. CVI, 20 ; Joan. XV, 3 ; Rom. 1, 16 ; T Corin. XV, 1 : Jacob. I, 21 . CAPUt XXIII. 203 Respondeo : verbum Dei sanat et salvat, sed ut hoc faciat/ non satis est ut fide appre¬ hendatur, nisi etiam charitate impleatur. Verbum enim Dei non solum offert promis¬ siones, sed etiam imperat opera facienda. Quare Dominus Matth. vii, comparat homi¬ nem audientem verba sua, et non facientem viro stulto, qui aedificat domum super are¬ nam. Praeterea verbum, quod fide apprehen¬ ditur, non est ipsa salus, sed semen salutis, quod non solum excipi, sed etiam calefieri, et excoli debet, ut fructum faciat. Quocirca recte S. Jacobus non ait, Suscipite insitum verbum, quod salvabit, sed quod potest sal¬ vare animas vestras, si videlicet excipiatur in corde bono, et retineatur cum patientia tempore tentationum, ut dicitur in parabola seminantis, Matth. xm. Sed contra occurrit Lutherus in libro de libertate Christiana, ubi probat, fidem solam cum verbo Dei sufficere. Primum enim (ut ipse dicit) fides implet omnia mandata. Nam audiens in Verdo praecepta et promissa, et prudenter intelligens praecepta non posse servari, confert se ad promissa, quae docent, omnia esse posita in fide, et credentem in Christum omnia habere. Nam conclusit Deus omnia sub incredulitate, ut omnium mise¬ reatur. Et dedit eis potestatem filios Dei fieri his, qui credunt in nomine ejus. Roman. xi. et Joan. i. Deinde, fides exhibet Deo sum¬ mum obsequium, dum credendo confitetur, illum esse veracem in omnibus suis pro¬ missis. Deus autem glorificantes se glorificat, ut dicitur, I Reg. ii. Unde et Abraham cre¬ didit Deo, et reputatum est ei ad justitiam, quia videlicet dedit gloriam Deo plenissime sciens, quia quaecumque promisit Deus, po¬ tens est et facere. Denique, fides copulat animam Deo, juxta illud Oseae ii. Sponsabo te mihi in fide (1) : et ideo omnia quae Christi sunt efficiuntur communia cum anima fideli. Respondeo : hoc argumentum Lutheri ex tribus virtutibus fidei ductum, magis Luthe- ranos, quam Catholicos laedit. Nam si Deus glorificat no* et justificat, quia summum cul¬ tum illi exhibemus per fidem, certe sequitur ut merito fidei, id est, propter virtutem et dignitatem ipsius fidei justificemur. Quod tamen Philippus et Kemnitius, et quotquot sunt hodie Lutherani absurdum, et falsum esse contendunt. Sed excutiamus breviter fidei virtutes, quas Lutherus praedicat. Primam illam vir¬ tutem, quod videlicet fides impleat omnia mandata, furtim subripuit Lutherus chari- tati, ut tribueret fidei. Sed vera fides non vivit ex raptu, et ideo clamat verum esse, quod Apostolus dicit, Rom. xm. Qui diligit , legem implevit. Et : Plenitudo legis est dilectio. Et quod ipse Dominus ait Joan. xiv. Si quis diligit me, sermonem meum servabit. Et : Qui non diligit me, sermones meos non servat (2). Convertit se quidem fides ad promissa, cum videt, legis mandata solis naturae viribus im¬ pleri non posse : et credens, veram esse illam promissionem, petite, et accipietis, a Deo petit spiritum charitatis, per quem fit vere, ut justificatio legis impleatur in nobis. Sed non est haec promissio, quam vellet Lu¬ therus, ipse enim promissionem quaerit, per quam liberetur a debito legis implendae, et habeatur, ac reputetur justus, quamvis sit omni flagitiorum genere coopertus. Sed hanc promissionem in veris Bibliis, id est, in libro Dei numquam inveniet. Quod enim ipse allegat, conclusit Deus omnia sub incredulitate, ut omnium mise¬ reatur. Et dedit eis potestatem filios Dei fieri his, qui credunt in eum, longe aliud signi¬ ficat, quam illud sit, quod ipse somniat. Di¬ citur enim Deus conclusisse omnia sub in¬ credulitate, quia permisit et Judaeos et Gen¬ tiles incredulos fieri, ut in utrisque liberandis misericordiam suam ostenderet. Dedit autem potestatem iis, qui credunt in eum, ut filii Dei fiant ; proinde non sunt hoc ipso, quod credunt, filii Dei, sed fieri possunt, si rena¬ scantur ex aqua et Spiritu sancto, et sic diffusa charitate in cordibus eorum per Spi¬ ritum sanctum, qui datus est eis, incipiant dicere Deo, Abba Pater. Jam vero quod attinet ad alteram virtutem fidei exhibet quidemfides cultum et obsequi¬ um Deo, cum dat illi gloriam, credens eum fidelem esse in omnibus verbis suis sed neque . sola fides exhibet cultum Deo, cum scriptum . sit Matth. v. Videant opera vestra bona , et glo¬ rificent Patrem , qui in coelis est (3). Et Joan. xxx. de sancto Petro legamus, eum morte sua clarificasse Deum. Neque fidei obsequium placet Deo, nisi fides ipsa per dilectionem operetur. Nam et daemones, velint nolint, dant gloriam Deo, dum credunt, illum esse veracem, sed nihil eis prodest obsequium illud coactum. Et nos ipsi, si habeamus orn- (1) Osese, II, 20. - (2) Rom. XIII, 8, 10; Joan. XIV, 23, 2i. — (3) Matth. V, 16. LIBEK i. 204 nem fidem. charitatem autem nuii habeamus, nihil sumus. Itaque Deus glorificat eos, a quibus ipse glorificatur ex charitate, sine qua nihil pro¬ sunt omnia, qua; ab invitis deferuntur obse¬ quia. Ejusmodi autem fuit obsequium A- brahai, qui usque adeo Deum dilexit, ut etiam filium unigenitum, ut Deo pareret immolare voluerit. Etldeo recte dicit S. Ja- cobus in epist. cap. 2. fidem Abrahce ex operibus consummatam fuisse. Quare non est mirum si talis fides, videlicet perfecta, et charitate formata, ac per dilectionem operans reputata fuerit ad justitiam, id est (ut erat vere) opus existimata, ac judicatu justitia). Porro tertia virtus fidei fortasse caret fundamento. Nam quod legimus Osea) ii. Sponsabo te mihi in fide , non videtur acci¬ piendum de fide, qua credimus Deo, sed de fide, qua Deus pr instat promissa. Nam paulo ante dixerat Deus in eodem Propheta : Spon¬ sabo te mihi in justitia et judicio , et in miseri¬ cordia, et miserationibus ; et mox addidit : et sponsabo te mihi in fide (1). Quorum omnium verborum illa videtur esse sententia, spon¬ sabo te mihi juste, misericorditer, atque fideliter. Sed si accipiatur fides pro fide, qua nos credimus Deo, certe sicut sponsamur Deo per fidem, ita conjungimur in matri¬ monium perfectum et consummatum per charitatem. Non enim fides, sed charitas est vinculum perfectionis Goloss. ui. et, qui ma¬ net in charitate , m Deo manet , et Deus in eo , 1 Joan. iv (2). Denique sive per fidem, sive per charitatem, sive (quod est verius) per utramque sponse¬ mur Christo, erunt quidem nostra, quae Chri¬ sti sunt, et Christi quae nostra sunt, ut Lu- therus dicit, sed non eo modo, quo ipse di¬ cit. Non enimnostra erit Christi justitia, quia reputabitur nostra, sed nostra erit, quia causa erit justitiae in nobi inhaerentis, nos- que vere, et formaliter perficientis, que. madmodum nostra mortalitas, et caetenc poenae, in quas per lapsum primi parentis incidimus, non fuerunt in Christo per so¬ lam reputationem, sed per veram, <;l realem assumptionem. Lutherus enim parum liberalem sponsum nostrum facit, quem vult ea, qua) nostra suut, re ipsa sibi assumere, ea vero, qua) sua sunt, nobiscum sola repu¬ tatione communicare. Sed de his hactenus.