Bellarmine · De Controversiis · On the Sacraments in General · Book II: On the Effect, Number, and Ceremonies of the Sacraments
Chapter 16: The same proved by reasons founded on Scripture
Our translation, from the Latin of the Opera Omnia (Paris: Vivès, 1870–74), vol. III, De Sacramentis in Genere, Book II: On the Effect, Number, and Ceremonies of the Sacraments. 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 first reason. A Sacrament, that it may be able to justify, must have an annexed absolute promise of grace. There was no such thing in the old law; therefore none of them justified. The major proposition is most certain among the adversaries. For this Luther asserts in the assertion of the first article, Philip in the Commonplaces of the year '58 under the title On the Sacraments, Calvin book 4 of the Institutes chapter 14 section 3; finally Kemnitz in the second part of the Examen page 42 puts in the very definition of a Sacrament that it have a promise of grace, and of grace not any whatsoever, but of the remission of sins. Finally they are compelled to admit this, since they will have the Sacraments justify by exciting faith; for faith among them does not justify except by apprehending the promise of pardon. The minor proposition is proved, first, from the Apostle Hebrews 8: He hath obtained a better ministry, by how much he is a mediator of a better testament, which is established on better promises. And below, explaining what these better promises of the New Testament are, he brings forward that of Jeremias 31: I will be merciful to their iniquities, and their sins I will remember no more. Second, from Augustine, tract on Psalm 72, where he says that the promises of the Old and New Testament are diverse, as the Sacraments themselves are also diverse; for then earthly things were promised, but now heavenly. Third, it is proved from Luther himself. For in the book On the Babylonian captivity, chapter On the Eucharist, he thus speaks: “The Old Testament given through Moses was a promise, not of the remission of sins or of eternal things, but of temporal things, namely of the land of Canaan, by which no one was renewed in spirit; whence also an irrational beast, in figure of Christ, had to be slain, in whose blood the same Testament was confirmed; so that, as the blood, such the Testament; as the victim, such the promise.” So he; where he affords us against himself an argument plainly insoluble. Nor can it be answered that he speaks of the Sacraments which have not an annexed promise, for he expressly mentions a promise. And besides, a little later he sets down examples in the rainbow, the fleece of Gedeon, the dial of Achaz, and the like, and says that these signs had only earthly promises; and yet in the following chapter, which is On Baptism, he will have these very signs to be properly Sacraments, and equal to ours.
But Calvin denies this minor proposition. For book 4 of the Institutes chapter 16 section 4 he says that the promise of the old and new Sacraments is one and the same. This minor, then, is proved, fourth, from the individual things which among them are called Sacraments. For Luther calls Sacraments the sacrifice of Abel, the rainbow, the fleece of Gedeon, the dial of Achaz; but none of them has a promise of the remission of sins. For of the sacrifice of Abel we read nothing but that it pleased God after it was made. The rainbow had a promise of temporal safety alone; whence Genesis 9 it is said to be given for a covenant not only to men, but also to the beasts of the earth and every creeping thing. In like manner in the fleece of Gedeon and in the dial of Achaz signs were made to confirm the promise of victory against temporal enemies. Of the other Sacraments, as of Circumcision, of the sacrifices for sin, of the manna, the Red Sea, and the rest, I shall show the same in the solution of the arguments.
The second reason. The old law itself is wholly distinguished from the new in this, that the one does not justify, the other justifies; therefore it cannot be that the old Sacraments, which were a certain part of that law, justified. The antecedent is proved. For, first, it is said John 1: The law was given by Moses; grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. How is this true, if the Mosaic Sacraments conferred grace? Second, 2 Corinthians 3, the one is called the letter that killeth, the new the spirit that quickeneth. But why was not the one too the quickening spirit, if its Sacraments justified? Third, Galatians 4, it is said that the one begat unto bondage, ours brought freedom; but why this, if the one too conferred grace, which frees from the bondage of sin? Fourth, finally, that is called the Old Testament because it pertains to the old man, and knows not how to renew; ours is called the New because it renews, as Augustine teaches book 3 against the two epistles of the Pelagians chapter 4; whence also the Apostle to Titus 3 calls Baptism the laver of renovation. Nor yet does it hence follow that there was not justification from sins in the holy men of the Old Testament; for there was, but not through the Old Testament or through its Sacraments, but through the New Testament, to which they pertained, and to the participation of which they attained by faith and desire.
The third reason. The promise in the Sacraments which are instituted to justify cannot be fulfilled unless it be received by faith, as the adversaries say. But the promises annexed to the old Sacraments were fulfilled even though men did not believe; therefore those Sacraments were not instituted to justify. The minor is proved. For the promise of God annexed to the heavenly bow, which to Luther is a true Sacrament, was that the earth should never again be destroyed by the waters of a flood. Which promise is fulfilled, and will be fulfilled, even though men do not believe. So also the promise annexed to Circumcision was that Abraham should become the father of many nations, and should give to his posterity the land of promise, as is plain Genesis 17 and Romans 4; which without doubt was to be fulfilled even though the Hebrews did not believe. So too all the sacrifices had an annexed promise of the death of Christ to come for the expiation of sins; for this all those slayings signified; which promise was to be fulfilled whether men believed or believed not. Whence the Apostle Romans 3: Shall, he says, their unbelief make the faith of God without effect? God forbid. But God is true, and every man a liar.
The fourth reason. Our Sacraments are said in the Scriptures to save, regenerate, justify, as we proved above. Nothing such is anywhere read of the old Sacraments, as will be plain from the solution of the arguments; therefore they are rashly asserted to be equal as to efficacy.
Show the Latin (Vives edition, OCR)
CAPCJT XYI. Idem probatur rationibus in Scriptura fundatis. Prima ratio. Sacramentum, ut justificare possit, debet habere annexam promissionem absolutam gratiae. Nullum tale erat in lege veteri ; igitur nullum eorum justificabat. Ma¬ jor propositio est certissima apud adversa¬ rios. Nam id asserit Lutherus in assert. 1. art. Philippus in locis anni 58. tit. de Sacra¬ mentis, Calvinus lib. IV Instit. cap. 14. §. 3. denique Kemnitius in 2. par. Examinis pag. 42. ponit in ipsa definitione Sacramenti, quod habeat promissionem gratia;, et gra¬ tia; non cujuscumque, sed remissionis pec¬ catorum. Denique coguntur hoc admittere, cum velint Sacramenta justificare excitan¬ do fidem : fides enim apud eos non justifi¬ cat, nisi apprehendendo promissionem in¬ dulgentiae. Minor propositio probatur primo, ex Apos¬ tolo Hebr. VIII : Melius , inquit, sortitus est , ministerium quanto et melioris Testamenti me¬ diator est , quod in melioribus repromissionibus sancitum est. Et infra, explicans qua; sintistae promissiones meliores novi Testamenti, pro¬ fert illud Ilierem. XXXI : Propitius ero ini¬ quitatibus eorum, et peccatorum eorum non re¬ cordabor amplius. » (1) Secundo, ex Augustino tract. in Psalm. LXX1I, ubi dicit, promissiones Testamenti veteris, et novi esse diversas , ut ipsa etiam Sacramenta sunt diversa : tunc enim pro¬ mittebantur res terrenae, nunc autem coeles¬ tes; Tertio, probatur ex ipso Luthero. Nam in lib. de capt. Babyl. cap. de Eucharistia, ita loquitur : « Vetus Testamentum per Moy¬ sem datum promissio erat , non remissionis peccatorum, seu rerum a;ternarum, sed tem¬ poralium, nempe terra; Chanaan, per quam nemo renovabatur spiritu, unde et irratio¬ nabilem pecudem in figura Christi, oporte¬ bat occidi, in cujus sanguine idem Testa¬ mentum confirmabatur, ut qualis sanguis, tale Testamentum; qualis hostia, talis pro¬ missio. » Haec ille : ubi prajbet nobis contra se argumentum plane insolubile. Nec potest responderi, loqui eum de Sacramentis, quae non habent annexam promissionem nam ex¬ presse meminit promissionis. Et praeterea paulo post ponit exempla in iride, vellere Gedeonis, horologio Achaz, et similibus, ac dicit, ista signa habuisse tantum promis¬ siones terrenas, et tamen in sequenti ca¬ pite, quod est de Baptismo , ha;c ipsa signa vult esse proprie Sacramenta , et nostris ae¬ qualia. (1) Hebr. VIII. 6; Jerem. XXXI, 34. Pono Calvinus negat hanc minorem pro¬ positionem. Nam lib. IV Instit. c. IG. §. 4. dicit, unam esse, et eamdem promissionem Sacramentorum veterum et novorum. Pro¬ batur igitur haec minor. Quarto ex singulis, quae apud illos dicuntur Sacramenta. Luthe- rus enim Sacramenta vocat , sacrificium Abel, iridem, vellus Gedeonis, horologium Achaz : At nullum eorum habet promissio¬ nem remissionis peccatorum. Nam de sacri¬ ficio Abel nihil legimus , nisi placuisse Deo, postquam factum fuerat. Iris habuit promis¬ sionem solius temporalis salutis : unde Ge¬ nes. IX dicitur, data in foedus non tantum hominibus, sed etiam bestiis terrae, et omni reptili. Similiter in vellere Gedeonis, et in horologio Achaz, facta sunt signa ad confir¬ mandam promissionem victoriae contra hos¬ tes temporales. De aliis Sacramentis, ut de Circumcisione, de sacrificiis pro peccato, de manna, mari rubro , et caeteris idem osten¬ dam in solutione argumentorum. Secunda ratio. Lex ipsa vetus tota in hoc distinguitur a nova, quod illa non justificat, haec justificat : ergo fieri non potest, ut Sa¬ cramenta vetera, quae erant pars quaedam illius legis, justificarent. Probatur antece¬ dens. Nam primo dicitur, Joan. I : Lex per Moysem data est, gratia, et veritas per Jesum Christum, facta est (1). Quomodo hoc est ve¬ rum, si Sacramenta Mosaica gratiam confe¬ rebant? Secundo, II. Cor. III. illa vocatur littera occidens, nova, spiritus vivificans. At cur non erat, etiam illa spiritus vivificans, si ejus Sacramenta justificabant? Tertio, Gal. IV. dicitur illa in servitutum generasse, nostra libertatem attulisse ; At cur hoc, si etiam illa gratiam conferebat, qua; liberat a servitute peccati? Quarto, denique illud di¬ citur vetus Testamentum , quia ad veterem hominem pertinet, nec renovare novit ; nos¬ trum dicitur novum, quia renovat, ut docet August. lib. III. contra duas epistolas Pela¬ giam cap. 4. unde et Apostolus ad Titum III vocat Baptismum lavacrum renovationis. Neque tamen hinc sequitur, non fuisse justi¬ ficationem a peccatis in sanctis hominibus Testamenti veteris : erat enim, sed non per Testamentum vetus, aut per ejus Sacramen¬ ta, sed per Testamentum novum, ad quod illi pertinebant, et ad cujus participationem fide, ac desiderio pertingebant. Tertia ratio. Promissio in Sacramentis, quae sunt instituta ad justificandum, non potest impleri nisi fide recipiatur, ut adver¬ sarii dicunt. At promissiones annexae Sacra¬ mentis veteribus implebantur, etiamsi homi¬ nes non crederent ; non igitur Sacramenta illa erant instituta ad justificandum. Proba¬ tur minor. Nam promissio Dei annexa arcui coelesti, qui Luthero est verum Sacramen¬ tum, fuit de non dissipanda unquam amplius terra aquis diluvii. Quae promissio impletur, et implebitur etiamsi homines non credant. Sic etiam promissio annexa Circumcisioni fuit, ut fieret Abraham pater multarum Gentium, et daret posteris ejus terram pro¬ missionis, ut patet Genes. XVII. et Itom. IV, quse sine dubio implenda erat, etiamsi Ile— brasi non crederent. Ita quoque omnia sa¬ crificia habebant annexam promissionem de Christi morte futura pro expiatione pecca¬ torum : id enim significabant omnes illae mactationes ; qua; promissio implenda fuit, sive crederent homines, sive non crederent. Unde Apostolus Rom. III : Numquid, inquit, incredulitas illorum fidem Dei evacuabit ? Ab¬ sit. Est autem Deus verax , omnis autem homo mendax (2). Quarta ratio. Nostra Sacramenta dicun¬ tur in Scripturis salvare, regenerare, justi¬ ficare, ut supra probavimus. Nihil tale us¬ quam legitur de Sacramentis veteribus, ut patebit ex solutione argumentorum : igitur temere asseruntur paria, quoad efficaciam.