Bellarmine · De Controversiis · On Justification · Book II: On Inhering Justice
Chapter 15: That the justice by which we are formally justified is habitual, not actual
Our translation, from the Latin of the Opera Omnia (Paris: Vivès, 1870–74), vol. VI, De Justificatione, Book II. 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 controversy on inhering justice being dispatched, there follows another shorter question: whether the inhering justice through which we are formally just is habitual justice, or actual, or both. For Catholic Doctors dispute of this matter, though all agree in this, that there is in us a true inhering justice, and not the imputed justice of Christ. We judge their opinion to be more conformable to the Scriptures, the Council of Trent, the testimonies of the Fathers, and reason, which teaches that it is habitual justice alone through which we are formally named and are just; but that actual justice — that is, works truly just — does indeed justify, as St. James speaks when he says, chapter 2, that a man is justified by works, but meritoriously, not formally.
As regards the Scriptures, those testimonies seem able to suffice us in this place which teach that we are justified through the Sacraments. John 3: Unless a man be born again of water and the Holy Ghost, etc. Ephesians 5: Cleansing it by the laver of water in the word of life. Titus 3: He saved us by the laver of regeneration and renovation of the Holy Ghost, whom he hath poured forth upon us abundantly. But certainly the Sacraments do not justify save by concurring, by way of an instrument, to the infusion of habitual justice. For if they ought to justify by exciting actual faith and love, Baptism would be applied in vain to infants, and in vain would those be baptized or reconciled who by the force of some disease had lost the use of reason and of the senses; whom yet St. Augustine teaches to be rightly baptized or reconciled, book 1 On Adulterous Marriages, last chapter. See the other testimonies in book 1 On Grace and Free Choice, chapter 4, where from the Scriptures and the Fathers we proved that sanctifying grace is a quality.
As regards the Council of Trent, the matter seems to us clear. For that the Council acknowledges habitual justice is evident from session 6, chapter 7, where it says that the formal cause of justification is the justice, or charity, which God infuses proper to each according to the measure of the dispositions, and which inheres in the hearts of the justified. Which certainly do not properly agree save with habitual justice. For it is habitual justice which requires dispositions; which is properly infused by another, not exhibited by us; which truly and permanently inheres, since it is not a transient act, but a permanent quality. But that the same Council denies that we are formally justified by actual justice can be understood from the same chapter, where the Council teaches that the formal cause of justification is single. For if the formal cause of justification is single, then we are not formally justified by habitual and actual justice, since these are two, not one. Add that the same Council, in the same session 6, canon 3, distinguishes the grace of justification from the acts of faith, hope, and love. Add also the testimony of the Roman Catechism, composed by the authority of the same Council. For thus it speaks in the treatise on Baptism: “Grace is, as the Council of Trent, under pain of anathema, decreed to be believed by all, not only that by which the remission of sins is made, but a divine quality inhering in the soul, and as it were a certain splendor and light, which blots out all the stains of our souls, and renders the souls themselves more beautiful and more splendid.” And a little after the author of the same book adds that by that quality we are rendered fit for all the offices of Christian piety. And again a little below he adjoins that from it pious and honest actions proceed. Which place we cited in book 1 On Grace and Free Choice, but it has pleased me to repeat it, since it luminously explains the sentence of the Council, and by no reasoning suffers what the Council delivers about the formal cause to be wrested to actual justice.
Now, as regards the testimonies of the Fathers, we shall be content with the testimony of Augustine alone, since enough places of the Fathers have been adduced by us in the place noted. St. Augustine, then, in very many places teaches that just works are the effects of justification, and thereby not the formal cause of the same. Book On Faith and Works, chapter 14: “Works follow one justified, they do not precede one to be justified.” Book 1 against Two Epistles of the Pelagians, chapter 2: “Men do not live well unless they be first made sons of God.” On Psalm 110: “A man does not work justice unless justified.” Book On the Spirit and the Letter, chapter 26: “So is it to be understood, the doers of the law shall be justified, that we may know that they are not otherwise doers of the law unless they be justified, so that justification does not accede to the doers, but justification precedes the doers of the law.” And chapter 30: “Through the law, the knowledge of sin; through faith, the obtaining of grace against sin; through grace, the healing of the soul from the vice of sin; through the health of the soul, freedom of choice; through free choice, the love of justice; through the love of justice, the working of the law.” Finally, on Psalm 118, discourse 26, explaining that, “I have done judgment and justice”: “By the name of justice in this place is signified not the virtue itself, but its work. For who wrought justice in man, but he who justifies the impious? — that is, by his grace makes just of the impious. He, then, does justice — that is, the work of justice — who has in himself justice, that is, the work of grace.” Where by the work of grace he understands without doubt the very infused virtue. For he had therefore said that by the justice which a man does is understood not the virtue, but its work, since a man does not work virtue in a man, but God. And at the beginning he had said that justice is a great virtue, and especially praiseworthy.
Concerning these testimonies of Augustine, some things are to be briefly observed. First, that the heretics sometimes impudently abuse them, to prove that works are not mingled with justification, and that faith alone has place in it. For the heretics are deceived for two causes. First, since Augustine speaks not of the works which dispose to acquiring justice — such as are the acts of faith, hope, love, penance, and other like — but only of works absolutely just and meritorious. But although works absolutely just, as Augustine rightly says, follow one justified, and do not precede one to be justified, yet the works of penance disposing to the grace of justification altogether precede, as in its place from the same Augustine we taught. Second, they are deceived since St. Augustine speaks only of the first justification, by which the impious is justified, not of the second, by which the just man is justified still — that is, grows in justice. But although we confess with Augustine that in the first justification works perfectly just are not mingled, yet in the second justification we teach with the same Augustine that just works are most of all mingled, as in the disputation on actual justice, in its place, God favoring, we shall show. In the second place it is to be observed that the testimonies adduced by us cannot be eluded, if perhaps one say that Augustine by justification understands the beginning of justification — that is, faith — and means that just works cannot be done without faith. For on Psalm 110, where Augustine said that the works of justice cannot be done save by a man already justified, in the same place he objects to himself the prayer and confession of the publican, which preceded justification, and yet was done from faith. “Whence, then,” he says, “that confession? It is not yet a work of justice, but a disapproval of the offence.” Here certainly we see Augustine speaking of works of justice which precede perfect justification. The same Augustine too, when he so often repeats that justification is obtained by faith, as in the book On the Spirit and the Letter, chapter 29, and elsewhere, openly distinguishes justification from faith. And when he says that men do not live well unless they be first made sons of God, does he not most openly speak of perfect justification, which includes not only the beginning of faith, but also the very regeneration and adoption? In the third place it is to be noted that these testimonies cannot be eluded, if one say that Augustine by the grace of justification, which precedes the working of justice, understands not some permanent habit, but a continual motion of God, or the very rectitude of the will toward God, as Augustine himself defines in book 19 On the City of God, chapter 27, who also elsewhere says that charity is a motion of the soul. The testimonies adduced cannot, I say, be eluded in this manner. For that motion of God places nothing real and inhering except our acts. But our acts, according to Augustine, pre-require justification, they do not themselves formally justify; and accordingly justification would not be something real in us and inhering, according to the sentence of St. Augustine — which no Catholic will admit. Then, Augustine openly says that we are justified through the infusion of justice, which is a great virtue, and especially praiseworthy, discourse 26 on Psalm 118, and distinguishes it from the work of justice. Finally, the same Augustine, in book 1 On the Merits and Remission of Sins, chapter 9, writes that we are justified through the communication of spiritual grace, which God latently infuses even into infants. But certainly infants have not that continual motion of God.
But that rectitude of the will and of the other powers, if it be taken precisely, is not something real, infused, and inhering, but a certain order and relation of reason. But the Catholic faith teaches that we are justified through something real, infused, and inhering. Justice, therefore, by which we are formally justified, is a habit infused and inhering, from which that rectitude of the powers follows. But St. Augustine, in book 19 On the City of God, and when he says that charity is a motion of the soul, defines actual justice, or at least declares from the effect what that is by which we are formally just. And this concerning the sentence of Augustine. Further, that this opinion — which teaches that we are formally justified through a habit, not through an act — is consonant with reason, can easily be proved. For first, the justice by which we are formally justified is not only in adults, but also in baptized infants. But in infants there can be no actual justice. Second, the just are just not only when they work, but also when they cease from work; for justice does not desert the just when they sleep. Third, the Holy Spirit in a peculiar manner indwells the justified, not only adults, but also infants, as St. Augustine writes, epistle 57 to Dardanus, and 105 to Sixtus; nor does he ever cease to indwell, so long as they are just, as all grant. But it cannot be understood how the Holy Spirit always indwells the just, and does not indwell sinners, unless he effect something, and that permanent, in the just, which he does not effect in sinners. But this is the grace of justification. Fourth, a man is not called a sinner because he works ill, but because, the evil work passing, there remains in him a perversity and stain by way of a habit. Therefore, from the contrary sense, he is not called formally just who works justice, but who has in himself justice and rectitude, permanent by way of a habit. Fifth, the Philosophers themselves too teach this: that he cannot rightly be called just who does one or another just work, but he who by a habit is so disposed that he can, when he will, easily, perfectly, and with delight work justice.
Show the Latin (Vives edition, OCR)
CAPUT XY. Justitiam , qua formaliter justificamur, habitualem esse, non actualem. Expedita controversia de justitia inhae¬ rente, sequitur Altera quaestio brevior, U- trum justitia inhaerens, per quam formaliter justi sumus, sit justitia habitualis, an actu¬ alis, an utraque. Disputant enim de hac re Catholici Docto res, cum in eo conveniant omnes, ut sit in nobis vera justitia inhaerens, non autem Christi justitia imputata. Nos eorum sententiam magis conformem esse judicamus Scripturis, Concilio Triden¬ ti) Psal. CXLII, 2. - (2) Deut. XXXII, 4; Psal. CX, 2.; ** 242 UBER II. tino, testimoniis Patrum, et rationi, quae do¬ cet, solam esse habitualem justitiam, per quam formaliter justi nominamur et sumus : justitiam vero actualem, id est, opera vere justa, justificare quidem, ut S. Jacobus lo¬ quitur, cum ait cap. 2. ex operibus hominem justificari, sed meritorie, non formaliter. Quod igitur ad Scripturas attinet, ea te¬ stimonia nobishoc loco sufficere posse viden¬ tur, quae docent, nos per Sacramenta justi¬ ficari, Joan. in. Nisi quis renatus fuerit ex aqua et Spiritu sancto etc. Ad Ephes v. Mun¬ dans eam lavacro aquse in verbo vitee. Ad Tit. iii. Salvos nos fecit per lavacrum regenerati¬ onis r, et renovationis Spiritus sancti , quem effu¬ dit innosabunde (1). At certe Sacramenta non justificant, nisi concurrendo per modum in¬ strumenti ad infusionem justitiae habitualis. Nam si justificare deberent excitando actua¬ lem fidem et dilectionem, frustra adhibere¬ tur Baptismus infantibus, et frustra baptiza¬ rentur, vel reconciliarentur ii, qui vi morbi alicujus, usum rationis et sensuum amisissent. Quos tamen recte baptizari vel reconciliari docet S. Augustinus lib. i. de adulterinis con¬ jugiis cap. ult. Yide alia testimonia in lib. 1 de gratia et libero arbitrio cap. 4. ubi ex Scripturis et Patribus probavimus, gratiam gratum facientem esse qualitatem. Quod vero attinet ad Concilium Tridenti- num, perspicua res nobis esse videtur. Nam quod agnoscat Concilium habitualem justi¬ tiam, patet exsess. 6. c. 7. ubi dicit, causam formalem justificationis esse justitiam, sive chariatem , quam Deus unicuique propriam in¬ fundit, secundum mensuram dispositionum, et quae in cordibus justificatorum inhaeret. Quae certe nonconveniunt proprie, nisi in ju¬ stitiam habitualem. Illa enim est, quae requi¬ rit dispositiones : illa quae proprie infunditur ab alio, non a nobis exhibetur ; illa quae vere et permanenter inhaeret, cum non sit actus transiens, sed qualitas permanens. Quod autem idem Concilium neget, per actualem justitiam nos formaliter justificari, intelligi potest ex eodem capite, ubi Conci¬ lium docet, unicam esse formalem causam justificationis. Nam si unica est foimalis cau¬ sa justificationis ; non igitur justificamur for¬ maliter per habitualem et actualem justitiam, cum istse duae sint, non una. Adde quod idem Concilium in eadem sess. 6 . can. 3. distin¬ guit gratiam justificationis ab actibus fidei, spei et dilectionis. Adde etiam testimonium Catechismi Romani, ejusdem Concilii auctori¬ tate confecti. Sic enimloquitur in tractatu de Baptismo : « Est autem gratia, quemadmo¬ dum Tridentina Synodus ab omnibus cre¬ dendum poena anathematis proposita decre¬ vit, non solum per quaiu peccatorum fit re¬ missio, sed divina qualitas in anima inhae- rens, ac veluti splendor quidam, et lux, qua; animarum nostrarum maculas omnes delet, ipsasque an i mas pulchriores et splendidiores reddit ». Et paulo post addit auctor ejusdem libri, per eam qualitatem ad omnia Chriti- anae pietatis officia nos habiles reddi. Et rur¬ sus paulo infra adjungit, ex eadem pias, ho¬ nestasque actiones proficisci. Quem locum citavimus in i. lib. de gratia et libero arbi¬ trio, sed placuit eum repetere, quoniam lu¬ culenter explicat Concilii sententiam, et nul¬ la ratione, quae Concilium de causa formali tradit, ad actualem justitiam detorqueri pa¬ titur. Jam vero quod attinet ad testimonia Pa¬ trum, unius Augustini testimonio contenti erimus, quod satis multa loca Patrum, loco notato sint a nobis allata. S. igitur Augusti¬ nus plurimis in locis docet, opera justa esse effectus justifiationis, ac per hoc non causam formalem ejusdem. Lib. de fide et operibus, cap, xi\. «Sequuntur opera justificatum, non praecedunt justificandum». Lib. i. contra duas epistolas Pelagianorumcap. 2. « Non vivunt homines bene, nisi priuseffecti sint filii Dei » . In Psalm. cx. «justitiam homo non operatur, nisi justifica tus» . Lib. de spiritu et litteracap. 26. « Sic intelligendum est, factores legis ju¬ stificabuntur, ut sciamus, eos non aliter esse factores legis nisi justificentur, ut non justi¬ ficatio factoribus accedat, sed factores legis justificatio praecedat ». Et cap. xxx. « Per legem cognitio peccati, per fidem impetratio gratiae contra peccatum, per gratiam sanatio animae a vitio peccati, per animae sanitatem libertas arbitrii, per liberum arbitrium ju¬ stitiae dilectio, per justitiae dilectionem legis operatio ». Denique in Psal. cxvni, concione 26. explicans illud : « Feci judicium et justi¬ tiam ; Justitiae, inquit, nomine hoc loco non ipsa virtus, sed opus ejus significatum est : Quis enim fecit in homine justitiam, nisi qui justificat impium ? hoc est : per gratiam ex impio facit justum. Facit ergo justitiam, id est, opus justitiae, qui habet in se justitiam, ( 1 ) Joan. III ; 3 ; Eph . V, 26 ; Tit. III, 5. CAPUT XV. 243 id est, opus gratiae. Ubi per opus gratiae in- telligit sine dubio ipsam virtutem infusam. Nam ideo dixerat, per justitiam, quam facit homo, non intelligi virtutem, sed opus ejus, quoniam virtutem in homine non facit homo, sed Deus. Et initio dixerat, justitiam esse vir¬ tutem magnam, praecipueque laudabilem. Circa ha3C Augustini testimonia, sunt ali¬ qua breviter observanda ; Primum, est im¬ pudenter iis abuti nonnumquam haereticos, ut probent opera non misceri justificationi, et solam fidem in ea locum habere. Falluntur enim haeretici duabus de causis ; Primo, quo¬ niam non loquitur Augustinus de operibus, quae disponunt ad justitiam acquirendam, quales sunt actus fidei, spei, dilectionis, poe¬ nitentiae et alii similes, sed solum de operi¬ bus absolute justis et meritoriis. Quamvis au¬ tem opera, absolute justa, ut Augustinus recte dicit, sequantur justificatum, non prae¬ cedant justificandum; tamen opera poeniten¬ tiae disponentia ad gratiam justificationis om¬ nino praecedunt, ut suo loco ex eodem Au¬ gustino docuimus. Secundo falluntur, quo¬ niam S. Augustinus loquitur de prima tan¬ tum justificatione, qua justificatur impius, non de secunda, qua justus justificatur ad¬ huc, idest, injustitia crescit. Quamvis autem fateamur cum Augustino, in prima justifica¬ tione non admisceri opera perfecte juxta, ta¬ men in secunda justificatione docemus cum eodem Augustino, opera juxta maxime admi¬ sceri, ut disputione dcactualijustitiasuoloco, Deo favente monstrabimus. Secundo loco observandum est, non pos¬ se eludi testimonia, a nobis allata, si quis for¬ te dicat, Augustinum per justificationem in- ielligere initium justificationis, idest-, fidem, ac velle dicere, opera justa non posse fieri si¬ ne fide. Nam in Psahn. cx. ubi Augustinus dixit, non posse fieri opera justitiis, nisi ab homine jam justificato, ibidem objicit sibi, orationem et confessionem publicani, quee praecessit justificationem, et tamen fiebat ex fide. « Unde ergo, inquit, illa confessio? nondum quidem opus est justitiae, sed deli¬ cti improbatio ». Ilie certe videmus Augusti¬ num loqui de operibus justitiae, quae praeve- quirunt perfectam justificationem. Idem etiam Augustinus, cum tam saepe repetit, fide impetrari justificationem, ut in libro dc spi¬ ritu, et littera cap. 29. et alibi, aperte distin¬ guit justificationem a fide. Et cum dicit, ho¬ mines non bene vivere, nisi prius effecti sint filii Dei ; nonne apertissime loquitur de per¬ fecta justificatione, quae non solum initium fidei, sed etiam ipsam regenerationem et adoptionem includit? Tertio natandum est, non posse etiam elu¬ di haec testimonia, si quis dicat, Augustinum per justificationis gratiam, quae praecedit operationem justitiae, non intolligere ha¬ bitum aliquem permanentem, sed conti¬ nuam, motionem Dei, vel ipsam rectitu¬ dinem voluntatis erga Deum, ut ipse Au¬ gustinus definit in lib. xix. de Civ. Dei cap. 27. qui etiam alibi dicit, charitatem esse mo¬ tum animi. Non possunt, inquam, hoc modo eludi testimonia allata. Nam motio illa Dei nihil ponit in reale et,inhaerens, nisi actus nostros. Actus autem nostri ex Augustino praerequirunt justificationem, non ipsiiorma- liter justificant : proinde justificatio non esset alliquid reale in nobis, et inhaerens ex sen¬ tentia S. Augustini, quod nemo Catholicus admittet. Deinde, Augustinus aperte dicit? nos justificari per infusionem justitiae, quae est virtus magna, praecipuequelaudabilis con¬ cione 26. in Psal. cxvm et eam distinguit ab opere justitiae. Denique, idem Augustinus in lib. i. de peccat, meritis et remiss. cap. 9. scribit nos justificari per communicationem gratiae spitualis, quam Deus latenter infundit et parvulis. At certe parvuli non habent con¬ tinuam illan Dei motionem. Rectitudo autem illa voluntatis et aliarum potentiarum, si praecise sumatur, non est ali¬ quid reale infusum et inhaerens, sed ordo quidam et relatio rationis. Fides autem Ca¬ tholica justificari nos docet per aliquid reale, infusum et inhaerens. Justitia igitur, quafor- maliter justificamur, est habitus infusus et , inhaepens, ex quo rectitudo illa potentiarum consequitur. S. autem Augustinus in lib. 19. de Civitate Dei, et cum dicit, charitatem es¬ se motum animi, definit justitiam actualem, vel certe ab effectu declarat, quid sit illud, quo formaliter justi sumus. Atque haec de sententia Augustini. Porro rationi consentaneam esse hanc sen¬ tentiam, quae docet, nos formaliter justificari per habitum, non per actum, facile probari potest. Primum enim justitia, qua formaliter justificamur, non est solum in adultis, sed etiam in parvulis baptizatis. At in parvulis nulla esse potest justitia actualis. Secundo, justi non tantum, cum operantur, sed etiam cum cessant ab opere, justi sunt; neque enim dormientes justos deserit ju- , stili a. 244 LIRER II. Tertio, Spiritus sanctus peculiari modo in¬ habitat justificatos, non adultos tantum, sed etiam parvulos ut S. Augustinus scribit in epist. 57. ad Dardanum, et 105. ad Sixtum : nec disinit unquam inhabitare, donec justi sunt, ut omnes concedunt. At non potest in- telligi, quomodo Spiritus sanctus semper in habitat justos, et noninhabitetpeccatores, ni¬ si aliquid, atque id permanens, efficiat in ju¬ stis, quod non efficit in peccatoribus. Id autem est gratia justificationis. Quarto, non dicitur homo peccator, quia male operatur, sed quia transeunte opere malo, remanet in illo perversio, et macula per modum habitus. Igitur a contrario sensu non dicitur justus formaliter, qui operatur justitiam, sed qui habet in se justitiam et rectitudinem, per modum habitus permanen¬ tem. > Quinto,' ipsi etiam Philosophi hoc docent, non posse recte dici justum, qui unum aut aliud opus efficit justum, sed qui per habitum ita dispositus est, ut possit, quando velit, fa¬ cile, perfecte, et cum delectatione operari justitiam.