Bellarmine · De Controversiis · On Justification · Book IV: On the Justice of Works
Chapter 12: That the law of God is not impossible is proved from the Fathers
Our translation, from the Latin of the Opera Omnia (Paris: Vivès, 1870–74), vol. VI, De Justificatione, 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).
Let there be added the Ecclesiastical tradition. We have, first, the Second Council of Orange, last canon, where we thus read: “This also we believe, according to the Catholic faith, that grace being received through Baptism, all the baptized, Christ helping and cooperating, can and ought to fulfil the things that pertain to salvation, if they will faithfully labor.” Origen, homily 9 on Josue, near the end, judges that they are to be compared to women who say that they cannot keep the commandments of God. St. Basil, in the oration on that, “Attend to thyself,” not far from the beginning: “It is impious to say that the precepts of the Spirit are impossible.” St. John Chrysostom, homily 8 On Penance, about the middle: “By no means accuse the Lord; he commands not impossible things. Many even surpass the very precepts.” Like things he has, homily 19 on the epistle to the Hebrews, homily 39 on Matthew, and homily 2 on the epistle to the Philippians. St. Cyril, book 3 against Julian, about the middle, says that even that precept, “Thou shalt not covet,” which is judged the most difficult of all, can be fulfilled through grace. Of the Latins, St. Hilary on Psalm 118, treating that, “Thy commandment is exceeding broad”: “Broad is the commandment of God, and is diffused into all the kinds of our hope, so that it is not difficult, if the will be present, to obey the precept of the Lord.” St. Jerome, book 3 against the Pelagians, near the beginning: “God commanded possible things; this is doubtful to no one.” The same, in the commentary on chapter 5 of Matthew, near the end: “Many, measuring the precepts of God by their own weakness, think that impossible which is commanded.” And: “It is to be known, then, that Christ commands not impossible things, but perfect, which David did,” etc. St. Augustine, book On Nature and Grace, chapter 43: “God, then, commands not impossible things, but by commanding admonishes both to do what thou canst, and to ask what thou canst not.” Where he teaches that all the commandments are possible, but some immediately, some mediately — that is, by the mediation of prayer.
This testimony the Council of Trent cited, or rather made its own, session 6, chapter 11. Therefore Chemnitz answers that Augustine was vexed by the Pelagians with this question, whether the precepts of God be possible, and to avoid envy abstained from the word of impossibility, and sometimes even granted that they are possible, but without prejudice to the truth. For in the book On the Perfection of Justice, response 16, Augustine says that the question is not whether a man can avoid all sins, but when, and by whom. For he can avoid them, but in the other life, not in this, and by grace, not by nature — which is the same as if he had said that the law is possible, but in heaven, not on earth; after death, not in life. Likewise in book 3 against Two Epistles of the Pelagians, chapter 7, he says that the grace of God gave a man the zeal of keeping the precepts, and that the same grace pardons, if anything be done less. By which words St. Augustine seems to have wished to say that the commandments are not impossible, not because they can be fulfilled, but because what is not fulfilled is pardoned. But Chemnitz confounds, after his manner, two questions: whether the precepts can be kept, and whether a man can live without sin. For these questions are so diverse that to the former Augustine always answered affirming, to the latter always answered denying. For venial sins are not against, but beside, the commandments; and even if they were against the commandments, yet it is not necessary that in every work a venial sin be mingled. And so St. Augustine constantly teaches that a man cannot in this life avoid all venial sins — book On Nature and Grace, chapter 34; On the Spirit and the Letter, last chapter; book 1 to Boniface against Two Epistles of the Pelagians, chapter 14; in epistles 89 and 95; and in the whole book On the Perfection of Justice. And in this manner is understood what Chemnitz objects from the book On the Perfection of Justice. For Augustine says not that the commandments can be kept in heaven, not on earth, but that in heaven, not on earth, we shall have that perfection that we live altogether without sin, even venial. Nay, in the other place objected to us — that is, in book 3 to Boniface, chapter 7 — when the Pelagians gathered from the sentence of Augustine that which Chemnitz now gathers — namely, that the law can be fulfilled in heaven, not on earth — Augustine answered that they greatly erred; for the precepts pertain to this life, not to another: “Here,” he says, “it is commanded us to love; but there to love will be not obedience, but felicity.” But that which he there subjoins, that the grace of God affords the zeal of fulfilling the commandments, and indulgence if anything be fulfilled less, argues not that the precepts are impossible, but that a man is not without sin. For the sense of those words is that from the grace of God a man has to will and to be zealous to fulfil the commandments; but if perhaps he sometimes slip, and fulfil them not, from grace likewise indulgence is to be hoped. But that St. Augustine to the former question always answers affirming, these places testify. Book On Nature and Grace, chapter 69: “By this very thing that it is most firmly believed that God, just and good, could not command impossible things, hence we are admonished both what to do in easy things, and what to ask in difficult; for all things are made easy to charity, to which alone the burden of Christ is light.” Book 2 On the Merits and Remission of Sins, chapter 3: “God would not command anything that was impossible to the human will.” And in the same book, chapter 6: “I cannot doubt that neither has God commanded anything impossible to man, nor is anything impossible to God for helping and aiding, that what he bids may be done.” Book On Grace and Free Choice, chapter 16: “The Pelagians think they know some great thing when they say, God would not command what he knew could not be done by man. Who knows not this?” On Psalm 56: “God would not command this to be done by us, if he judged it impossible.”
Show the Latin (Vives edition, OCR)
CAPUT XII. Legem Dei non esse impossibilem, probatur ex Patribus. Accedat traditio Ecclesiastica. Habemus in primis Concilium II. Arausicanum Canon, ult. ubi sic legimus : « Hoc etiam secundum fidem Catholicam credimus, quod acccepta per Baptismum gratia, omnes baptizati, Christo auxiliante et cooperante, quse ad ' salutem pertinent, possint et debeant, si fi¬ deliter laborare voluerint, adimplere » . Origenes homil. 9. in Josue prope finem, mulieribus comparandos censet eos, qui di¬ cunt, se Dei mandata servare non posse. (1) Psal. CXVIIl, 10; III Reg. XIV, 8; Act. XIII, 22; III Reg. XV, 5; IV Reg. XXIII, 25. II Paral. XV, 15. Jos. XV, 15. — (2) Lue. I, 0.— (3) Joan. XV!1,6; Luc, XII, 4; Joan. XV, 15. -(4) Rora. VII, 16. 322 LIBER IV. S. Basilius orat, in illud: (c Attende tibi », non procul ab initio: « Impium, inquit, est dicere, impossibilia esse spiritus praecepta ». S. Joannes Ghrysostomus homil. 8. de poenitent. circ. med. « Nequaquam, inquit, Dominum accuses, haud mandat impossibi¬ lia. Multi et ipsa superant praecepta ». Simi¬ lia habet homil. 19. in epist. ad Hebr. ho¬ mil. 39. in Matth. et homil. 2. in epist. ad Philip. S. Cyrillus lib. m. contra Julianum circa medium, ipsum etiam praeceptum : Non concupisces, quod omnium difficillimum ju¬ dicatur, dicit, impleri posse per gratiam. Ex Latinis S. Hilarius in Psal. 118. tra¬ ctans illud : Latum mandatum tuum nimis ; <( latum, inquit, mandatum Dei est, et in omnia spei nostrae genera diffunditur, ut non difficile sit, si voluntas adsit, praecepto Do¬ mini obtemperare » . S. Hieronymus lib. 3. adversus Pelagianos prope initium : « Deus, inquit, possibilia mandavit, hoc nulli dubium est » . Idem in comment. ad cap. S. Matt. prope finem : « Multi praecepta Dei sua imbecillitate me- tientes, putant esse impossibilia, quae prae¬ cepta sunt ». Et : « Sciendum est ergo, Chri¬ stum non impossibilia praecipere, sed perfe¬ cta, quae fecit David, etc. ». S. Augustinus lib. de natura et gratia, cap. 43 : « Non igitur, inquit, Deus impos¬ sibilia jubet, sed jubendo admonet, et facere quod possis, et petere quod non possis». Ubi docet, mandata omnia esse possibilia, sed alia immediate, alia mediate, id est, mediante oratione. Hoc testimonium Concilium Tridentinum citavit, vel potius suum fecit sess. 6. cap. 11. Ideo respondet Kemnitius, Augustinum fuisse vexatum a Pelagianis ista quaestione, essent ne Dei praecepta possibilia, et ad cavendam invidiam abstinuisse a voce impossibilitatis, interdum etiam concessisse esse possibilia, sed sine praejudicio veritatis. Nara in libro de perfectione justitiae resp. 16. dicit Augu¬ stinus, non esse quaestionem, an possit homo vitare omnia peccata, sed quando, et per qu6m. Potest enim vitare, sed in alia vita, non in ista et per gratiam, non per naturam, quod est idem, ac si dixisset, legem esse possibilem, sed in coelo, non in terris, post mortem non in vita. Item in lib. 3. contra duas epist. Pelagianorum, cap. 7. dicit, gra¬ tiam Dei dedisse homini studium praecepta servandi, et eamdem gratiam ignoscere, si quid minus fit. Quibus verbis videtur S. Au¬ gustinus dicere voluisse, mandata non esse impossibilia, non quod impleri possint, sed quia quod non impletur, indulgetur. At Kemnitius confundit more suo duas quaestiones, utrum praecepta servari possint, et an possit homo vivere absque peccato. Istae enim quaestiones adeo diversae sunt, ut ad priorem semper Augustinus responderit affirmando, ad posteriorem responderit sem¬ per negando. Peccata enim venialia non sunt contra, sed praeter mandata, et etiamsi es¬ sent contra mandata, non tamen necesse est, ut in quolibet opere peccatum veniale ad¬ misceatur. Itaque sanctus Augustinus con¬ stanter docet, non posse hominem in hac vita cavere omnia peccata venialia, lib. de natura et gratia, cap. 34. de spiritu et litte¬ ra, cap. ult. lib. i. ad Bonifacium contra duas epist. Pelagianorum, cap. 14. in epist. 89. et 95. et in toto libro de perfectione ju¬ stitia;. Atque hoc modo intelligitur, quod objicit Kemnitius ex libro de perfectione justitiae, non enim Augustinus dicit, mandata servari posse in coelo, non in terra, sed in coelo non in terra habituros nos eam perfectionem, ut vivamus omnino absque peccato, etiam ve¬ niali. Immo in altero loco nobis objecto, id est, in lib. 3. ad Bonifacium, cap. 7. cum Pelagiani colligerent ex sententia Augustini id, quod nunc Kemnitius colligit, legem vi¬ delicet in coelo impleri posse, non in terra, respondit Augustinus, valde illos errare , praecepta enim ad hanc vitam, non ad aliam pertinere : « Hic, inquit, praecipitur nobis, ut diligamus, ibi autem diligere non obe- dientia, sed foelicitas ei*it » . Quod autem ibidem subjungit, gratiam Dei praebere studium ad implenda mandata, et indulgentiam, si quid minus impletur, non arguit praecepta esse impossibilia, sed hominem non esse impeccabilem. Sensus enim eorum verborum est, ex gratia Dei hominem habere, ut velit, et studeat imple¬ re mandata. Quod si forte aliquando labatur et non impleat, ex gratia item indulgentiam esse sperandam. Jam vero quod S. Augustinus ad priorem quaestionem semper respondeat affirmando, haec loca testantur. Lib. de natura et gra¬ tia cap. 69 : « Eo ipso quo firmissime credi¬ tur Deum justum et bonum impossibilia non potuisse praecipere, hinc admonemur et in facilibus quid agamus, et in difficilibus quid CAPUT XIII. 323 petamus. Omnia quippe facilia fiunt charita- ti, cui uni Christi sarcina levis est». Lib. n. de peccat, merit. et remiss. cap. 3 : « Non praeciperet Deus aliquid, quod esset huma¬ nae impossibile voluntati ». Et in eodem lib. cap, 6 : « Dubitare non possum nec Deum aliquid impossibile homini praecepisse, nec Deo ad opitulandum et adjuvandum, quo fiat quod jubet, impossibile aliquid esse ». Lib. de gratia et libero arbitrio cap. 16 : « Magnum aliquid Pelagiani se scire putant, quando dicunt, non juberet Deus, quod sci¬ ret, non posse ab homine fieri, quis hoc ne¬ scit » ? In Psal. lvi : « Non imperaret hoc Deus, ut faceremus, si impossibile judi¬ caret » .