On the acts required for the justification of the adult sinner

The Council of Trid., sess. VI, cap. 6, assigns six acts by which the adult sinner ought to be disposed for justification, namely the act of faith, of fear, of hope, of the love of God, of penance or contrition, finally the resolution of receiving the sacraments instituted for the remission of sins, of beginning a new life and keeping the divine commandments ; which resolution is included in contrition itself. The principal question concerns faith required for justification, against the heretics.

The Lutherans and Calvinists distinguish a twofold faith.

The first they call historical, by which we believe all things contained in the sacred writings ; we call it Christian and Catholic. The second they call of the promises, by which we believe that God has promised the remission of sins. This second they subdivide into general and particular. General they call that by which we believe God has promised remission of sins and salvation to all believers in common; special they call that by which each one believes or confidently trusts his sins to be forgiven him on account of the merits of Christ. For this faith they badly confound with confidence, which belongs to hope and to the will, not to the intellect; for confidence, according to St. Thomas, is strengthened hope.

This faith or particular confidence therefore they contend is required for justification and that it alone justifies.

I say 1° : The faith required for justification is not confidence by which we believe or trust that sins are forgiven us because of Christ, but that by which we believe all truths revealed by God, on account of his authority and truth. Thus it was defined by Trid., sess. VI, can. 12.

[The tenor of this canon is : « If anyone shall have said that justifying faith is nothing else than trust in the divine mercy remitting sins because of Christ, or that it is this trust alone by which we are justified; let him be anathema. »]

It is proved 1° from most open testimonies of Scripture. Marc. last chapter, 15 and 16 : Preach the Gospel to every creature. He who shall have believed, namely the Gospel and the truths contained in it, shall be saved. Rom. X, 8 and 9 : This is the word which we preach; because if thou confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thy heart that God hath raised him up from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Therefore Christ and his resurrection, not only the mercy of God remitting sins, are the object of saving faith. Joann., XI, 26 and 27, when the Lord had said to Martha : I am the resurrection and the life. He who believeth in me shall not die forever. She answers : Yea, Lord, I have believed that thou art Christ the Son of the living God, who art come into this world. Therefore the faith required for eternal life is to believe the divinity of the Word incarnate. John concludes thus at the last chapter of his Gospel, 31 : These things are written, that you may believe that Jesus is the Son of the living God, and that believing you may have life in his name. Therefore the same as before. I omit other very many testimonies of Scripture, lest I be too long.

It is proved 2° from tradition. The Church, as from the beginning so now, when she requires faith from those about to be baptized, requires no other than that by which we believe the articles of faith contained in the symbols, not truly that by which we believe or confidently trust our sins to be forgiven us. For who among the Apostles, or bishops, or other ministers ever taught one coming to him for justification thus : « Believe your sins to be forgiven you, and immediately they will be forgiven. » Such doctrine would indeed be absurd and offensive to pious ears.

It is proved 3°. Faith rests upon the authority alone of God revealing, who can neither deceive nor be deceived. But nowhere is it revealed to me or to another particularly that sins are forgiven. Therefore I cannot believe this with certain faith.

It is proved 4°. Justifying faith must precede justification; for it is its cause. But that faith of the heretics does not precede, but follows justification, otherwise it would be false; for false is that faith by which I believe my sins forgiven, if they are not yet truly forgiven. If you say that by this faith it is not believed that sins are forgiven, but are being forgiven here and now, there always remains that that faith is posterior to that remission, because that present remission is the object of this faith; but act neither makes nor specifies its object, but supposes it and is specified by it.

I say 2° : Neither that special faith of recent heretics, which is vain and none, nor true Christian faith alone suffices for justification.

[Thus it was defined by Trid., sess. VI, can. 9 : « If anyone shall have said that the impious is justified by faith alone, so as to understand that nothing else is required which cooperate toward obtaining the grace of justification, and that it is in no way necessary that he be prepared and disposed by the motion of his own will; let him be anathema. »]

This definition is against the Lutherans and Calvinists, whom Simon Magus had gone before, by the testimony of Irenaeus, lib. I de Haeres., c. 20, who relates that Peter, John, James and Jude wrote their epistles against this error.

It is proved from these holy Apostles who wrote expressly against this error. St. James, I, 14 : What shall it profit, my brethren, if anyone say he have faith, but have not works? Shall faith be able to save him?... And 17 : Faith, if it have not works, is dead in itself. Which after he had proved with many arguments, he concludes the chapter thus, 24 and 26 : You see that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only... For even as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead. These things are peremptory, nor do they need glossing.

St. Peter, II Epist., c. 1, 10, after exhorting to various good works, concludes : Wherefore, brethren, labor the more that by good works you make sure your calling and election. Faith therefore does not suffice, if works be wanting.

These things are so open against the present error that the heretics denied these epistles to be canonical, which nevertheless the Church acknowledges as canonical in several councils, lastly in Trident., sess. IV.

But also openly St. Paul, in whom the innovators badly confide, combats this error. I Cor., XII, 2 : If, he says, I should have all faith, so that I could move mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. Galat., V, 6 : In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith that worketh by charity. Rom., II, 3 : Not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.

Finally Christ everywhere in the Gospel commends good works as necessary for justification and salvation. Matth., V, 16 : So let your light shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven. And below, 20 : Unless your justice abound more than that of scribes and pharisees, you shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. And cap. VII, 19 : *Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit shall be cut down and cast into the fire. Cap. XIX, 16 and 17, to him asking : What good shall I do, that I may have life everlasting? He says not : « Only believe ; » but : If thou wilt enter into life, keep the commandments. And finally cap. XXVIII, 19 and 20, he not only admonishes the Apostles to preach faith and baptize, but also wills that they teach to keep all things whatsoever he commanded.

Now certain heretics answer, oppressed by these testimonies, that the faith which they say suffices for justification is not faith alone, but faith joined with good works, not indeed that these good works cooperate toward justification, but because they accompany justifying faith like its signs, or as properties and fruits following from it. Whence they say that by the foregoing testimonies of Scripture those are condemned who formerly said that dead faith alone, void of good works, suffices for salvation; but not those who attribute this indeed to faith alone, but to living faith, active and attended by good works.

On the contrary 1°. This response, varnished and devised for softening the horror of this monstrous error, openly fights with the principles of the heretics. For they teach : 1° that man, while justified through faith, is not truly made just, but only reputed, nor any of his works good, but all mortal sins, although they are not imputed to him because of Christ. With what face then do they say that not faith alone, but faith joined with good works justifies, since according to them there exist no good works? 2° They teach that man once justified through faith cannot fall from justice by any crime. So Calvin, lib. III Institut., cap. 2, § 11, and Luther in Sermon upon these words : So God loved, etc., excepting only incredulity. And thus once justified through faith, although he become thief, homicide, adulterer, sodomite, he remains just. Therefore faith justifies without good works, nay with evil and most evil ones; which is the ancient heresy condemned in the Scriptures. Whence Luther, on cap. 11 ad Galat., expressly says : « Faith without and before charity justifies. » And tom. I disput. : whether works justify ? proposit. 3, he says : « Faith, unless it be without even the lesser works, does not justify, nay it is not faith. » And therefore the stricter Lutherans ingenuously confess that good works are in no way required for justifying faith.

Against 2°. Scripture attributes no less to good works the office of justifying and saving than to faith, as appears from the places cited and many others. Therefore, if faith cooperates toward justification, so also works.

The heretics argue especially from the Apostle, who, as it seems to them, is wholly intent upon asserting that faith suffices for justification without works. Rom., II, 28, he says : We conclude a man to be justified by faith, without the works of the law. Ibid., IV, 2 : If Abraham were justified by works, he hath glory, but not before God. Galat., II, 16 : Knowing that man is not justified by the works of the law. Philipp., III, 9 : That I may be found in him, not having my justice, which is of the law, but that which is of faith.

I answer 1°. Suppose the Apostle taught that faith without any works suffices for justification, this would by no means profit the heretics ; because the Apostle understands Christian and Catholic faith, by which we believe the divinity of the Word incarnate, his resurrection and other mysteries contained in the Scriptures, not truly that ridiculous faith or confidence by which heretics believe their sins forgiven them.

I answer 2°. The Apostle excludes only works which either precede faith or, after faith is had, are done without the grace of faith, that is, works which proceed from the powers alone of nature and free will, such as were certain honest works of natural justice. So Augustine (?) de Libero arb., c. 7, n. 18 : « Men, he says, not understanding what the Apostle himself says : We conclude a man to be justified by faith, without the works of the law, thought him to say that faith suffices for man, even though he live badly and have no good works. Far be it that the vessel of election so thought ! »

You press on. Abraham and the Galatians were already reborn and worked from faith, at that time of which the Apostle speaks. Nevertheless he excludes their works. Therefore.

I answer. Given the major, I deny the minor. That he excludes their works which were done from the grace of faith, I deny; that they were done before faith, or which after faith was had were not done from the grace of faith, I concede. For nothing hinders that he who has faith sometimes fail to work from faith, as while he sins or performs a morally good work without relation to God.

To the other arguments which heretics object, take the following general solutions. The first is : justification is attributed to faith as its beginning and root, yet not excluding other works disposing toward it. So Trid., sess. VI, cap. 8¹. The second : there must be understood living faith, which worketh through charity, as the Apostle speaks ad Galat., V, 6. Third : by faith are sometimes understood those things which are contained in the Gospel or evangelical doctrine, doing those things which according to this doctrine are to be done. Fourth : when works are excluded, must be understood works done before faith or without the grace of faith, not truly works which are done from the grace of faith itself, as I explained above ; or works of the Mosaic law, or external works, when that power of executing them is wanting. ¹ We said at the beginning of the preceding article, from the council of Trid., sess. VI, « But whereas the Apostle says that man is justified by faith and freely, those words are to be understood in that sense which the perpetual consent of the Catholic Church held and expressed : namely that we are therefore said to be justified by faith, because faith is the beginning of human salvation, the foundation and root of all justification, without which it is impossible to please God and to come to the fellowship of his children; but we are said to be justified freely, because nothing of those things which precede justification, whether faith or works, merits the grace itself of justification; for if it be grace, now it is not of works : otherwise, as the same Apostle says, grace is no more grace. »