Distinction IV

GRATIAN. PART I. Since it has been shown above by the authorities of many that penance is truly celebrated and sins are truly remitted to one who will at some time fall back into crime, it is asked whether remitted sins return. The opinions of different persons on this question vary, some asserting and others, on the contrary, denying that remitted sins are afterward brought back for punishment.

§ 1. That sins once remitted return is proved by the authorities of many. The first of these is that saying of the prophet, “Let the iniquity of his fathers return into memory, etc.”; the second is that saying of the Gospel, “Wicked servant, I forgave you the entire debt, etc.” Then Augustine says in the Book of Psalms, [on Psalm 108]:

“If Judas had retained that to which he was called, neither his own past iniquity nor that of his parents would in any way have pertained to him. Therefore, because he did not retain adoption in God’s family but instead chose the iniquity of his old stock, the iniquity of his fathers returned into the Lord’s sight, so that it too might be punished in him.”

Likewise Rabanus: § 1. “‘He handed him over to the torturers, etc.’ It must be considered that he says ‘the entire debt,’ because not only the sins that a human being committed after baptism will be imputed to one for punishment, but also the original sins that were remitted to one in baptism.”

“It is established from the Gospel sayings that, if we do not forgive from the heart what is committed against us, that is again exacted which we were rejoicing had already been remitted to us through penance.”

“The Lord says, ‘Forgive, and it will be forgiven you.’ But I forgave first; do you forgive even afterward. For if you do not forgive, I shall recall you, and whatever I had forgiven I shall bring back upon you.”

“One who, forgetful of the divine benefit, wishes to avenge one’s own injuries will not only fail to merit pardon for future sins, but even the past sins that one believed had already been remitted will be brought back upon that person for vengeance.”

“‘I shall return to my house.’ This verse is to be feared, not expounded, lest the fault that we believed extinguished in us overwhelm us while we are unoccupied through negligence.”

“For whatever heretical depravity or worldly cupidity seizes a person after baptism will soon cast that person down into the depths of all vices.”

“The sin that is drawn from Adam is repaid temporally, because all die on account of it; but it is not repaid eternally in those who have been regenerated through grace, if they remain in it until the end.”

PART II. GRATIAN. But among those who follow this opinion, some say that sins that will return are remitted according to justice, but not according to foreknowledge. Thus the names of the disciples who went backward were written in the book of life on account of the justice which they served, but not according to the foreknowledge that did not hold them among the number of those to be saved. Thus a thousand are said to be about to fall at God’s side and ten thousand at his right hand, although divine foreknowledge had never numbered them among his own. Hence the Lord also says to Moses, “If anyone sins before me, I shall erase that person from the book of life,” so that according to the justice of the judge, one who according to foreknowledge had never been inscribed is said to be erased by sinning.

§ 1. Hence Augustine on the Letter to the Corinthians says: “But God was not well pleased with many of them,” even if he was with some. All the sacraments were common, but grace was not common; so also now baptism is common, but the power of baptism is not.

PART III. § 2. But this is understood of those who approach deceitfully or of those who are baptized outside the church, who indeed receive the integrity of the sacrament but by no means attain its power. Sins are altogether remitted, however, to little children or adults approaching with full faith, even if they are at some time to depart from good and finish life in evil. Hence Augustine in the Book on Correction and Grace, [cc. 8 and 9]:

“If those who fall away from good into evil die with a good will, let them answer, if they can, why God, when those persons were living faithfully and piously, did not then snatch them from the dangers of this life, lest malice change their understanding and lest deception beguile their souls. Did he not have this within his power, or did he not know their future evils? Certainly, neither of these things is said except most perversely and most insanely. Why, then, did he not do it? Let those answer who ridicule us when, in matters of this kind, we exclaim: ‘How inscrutable are his judgments, and how unsearchable his ways!’ For God does not fail to give this to those to whom he wills, nor indeed does that Scripture lie which says concerning the seemingly untimely death of a just person, ‘He was snatched away lest malice change his understanding and lest deception beguile his soul.’ Why, therefore, does God give this so great a benefit to some and not give it to others—God with whom there is no iniquity or acceptance of persons, and in whose power it lies how long each person remains in this life, which is called a trial upon earth? Therefore, just as they are compelled to confess that it is a gift of God for a human being to end this life before being changed from good into evil, while they do not know why it is given to some and not given to others, so let them confess with us, according to the Scriptures—many testimonies from which I have already set forth—that perseverance in good is a gift of God; and let them deign to be ignorant with us, without murmuring against God, why it is given to some and not given to others.

§ 1. “Nor should it disturb us that God does not give this perseverance to some of his children. For far be it that it should be so if they were among those predestined and called according to purpose who are truly children of the promise. For these, when they live piously, are called children of God; but because they will live impiously and die in that same impiety, the foreknowledge of God does not call them children.

“For there are children of God who are not yet such for us but already are for God. Concerning them John the Evangelist says, ‘Because Jesus was about to die for the nation, and not only for the nation, but also that he might gather into one the scattered children of God.’ They were certainly to become such by believing through the preaching of the Gospel; and nevertheless, before that happened, they were already children of God, inscribed with unshaken stability in the memorial of their Father. And again there are certain persons who, because of grace received even temporally, are called children of God by us, but nevertheless are not God’s children. Concerning these the same John says, ‘They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would certainly have remained with us.’ He does not say, ‘They went out from us, but because they did not remain with us, they are now no longer of us’; rather, he says, ‘They went out from us, but they were not of us.’ That is: even when they appeared to be among us, they were not of us. And as though it were said to him, ‘How do you show this?’ he says, ‘For if they had been of us, they would certainly have remained with us.’ This is the voice of God’s children: John speaks, established in a preeminent place among God’s children.

“Therefore, when the children of God say concerning those who did not possess perseverance, ‘They went out from us, but they were not of us,’ and add, ‘For if they had been of us, they would certainly have remained with us,’ what else do they say except that they were not children of God even when they were in the profession and name of children—not because they feigned justice, but because they did not remain in it? For he does not say, ‘For if they had been of us, they would certainly have maintained true, not feigned, justice with us’; rather, he says, ‘If they had been of us, they would certainly have remained with us.’ Without doubt, he wished them to remain in good; they were, therefore, in good. But because they did not remain in it, that is, did not persevere to the end, he says that they were not of us even when they were with us. That is: they were not of the number of the children even when they were in the faith of the children, because those who are truly children are foreknown and predestined to be conformed to the image of God’s Son and are called according to purpose so that they might be elect. For a son of the promise does not perish, but a son of perdition does. These persons, therefore, were among the multitude of those called, but they were not among the fewness of the elect.

“God, therefore, did not fail to give perseverance to his predestined children. For they would have it if they were in that number of the children; and what would they have that they had not received, according to the true apostolic sentence? And thereby such children would be those given to Christ the Son, as he himself says to the Father: ‘That everything you have given me may not perish but may have eternal life.’ Those, therefore, are understood to be given to Christ who have been ordained to eternal life. They are those predestined and called according to purpose, none of whom perishes; and thereby none of them, changed from good into evil, ends this life, because one has been both ordained and therefore given to Christ in such a way that one does not perish but has eternal life. And again, those whom we call his enemies, or the little children of his enemies, whichever of them he is to regenerate in such a way that they end this life in that faith which works through love, are, even before this occurs, his children in that predestination and have been given to Christ his Son, so that they may not perish but may have eternal life.

§ 2. “Finally, the Savior himself says, ‘If you remain in my word, you are truly my disciples.’ Are those to be counted among them concerning whom the Gospel speaks as follows? When the Lord had commended the eating of his flesh and the drinking of his blood, the Evangelist says: ‘He said these things while teaching in the synagogue at Capernaum. Therefore, many of his disciples, on hearing, said: This saying is hard; who can hear it? But Jesus, knowing within himself that his disciples were murmuring about this, said to them: Does this scandalize you? What, then, if you shall see the Son of Man ascending where he was before? It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are certain persons among you who do not believe. For Jesus knew from the beginning who were believers and who would betray him, and he said: For this reason I told you that no one comes to me unless it has been given to that person by my Father. From this time many of his disciples went backward and no longer walked with him.’ Were not these persons also called disciples, as the Gospel speaks? And nevertheless, they were not truly disciples, because they did not remain in his word, according to what he says: ‘If you remain in my word, you will truly be my disciples.’ Therefore, because they did not possess perseverance, just as they were not truly disciples of Christ, so they were not truly children of God, even when they seemed to be and were so called.

“We therefore call persons elect, disciples of Christ, and children of God because those whom we see regenerated and living piously must be so called. But they are then truly what they are called if they remain in that on account of which they are so called. But if they do not possess perseverance—that is, if they do not remain in that which they began to be—they are not truly called what they are called on account of, and they are not such. For before him they are not this, since what they will be is known to him—that is, evil persons from good ones.”

PART IV. GRATIAN. The end of this authority agrees with the opinion of those who say that sins are remitted according to justice and not according to foreknowledge. Others, however, although they admit that sins return, nevertheless assert that sins are altogether remitted, whether through baptism or through penance; that one approaching the washing with full faith is reborn not only by water but also by the Holy Spirit; and that one who subsequently is going to sin, and thereafter repents, although at some time going to fall back, is nevertheless so perfectly expiated at the time of one’s penance that, if one died then, one would find eternal salvation.

The beginning of the same authority agrees with their opinion. For when it proposes the question why God, while those foreknown for death were living faithfully and piously, did not then snatch them from the dangers of this life, lest malice change their understanding and deception beguile their souls—although Scripture says concerning the untimely death of a predestined person, “He was snatched away lest malice change his understanding and lest deception beguile his soul”—it evidently shows that they were such persons as would certainly have attained eternal life if they had been withdrawn from the dangers of this life by a fatal necessity. Therefore, so that the end may agree with the beginning and the authority may not seem to contradict itself, it must be defined what it is to be written in the book of life, or to be erased from it, according to justice, and what according to foreknowledge. To be written according to foreknowledge is to be foreordained to life, which was done from eternity. Hence the Apostle says in the Letter to the Ephesians, [c. 1]:

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ Jesus with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places, just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we might be holy and immaculate in his sight in charity; who predestined us unto adoption as children through Jesus Christ.”

GRATIAN. Similarly, to be erased according to foreknowledge is to be foreknown for death, not for life, which also was done from eternity. Hence the Lord says in the Gospel, “One who believes in me has eternal life; but one who does not believe has already been judged.” Hence Augustine also says:

“‘The Lord knows those who are his.’ None of these is seduced. The judgment has not yet appeared, but it has already been made.”

GRATIAN. Moreover, to be written according to justice is, with God as author, to perform those things by whose merit one is worthy of eternal salvation. God indicated this twofold manner of being written in the Gospel, saying to the disciples: “In my Father’s house are many dwellings; if it were otherwise, I would have told you, because I go to prepare a place for you; and if I go and prepare a place for you, I come again and shall receive you to myself, so that where I am you also may be.” By saying, “In my Father’s house are many dwellings; if it were otherwise, I would have told you, because I go to prepare a place for you,” he shows that those to whom he spoke were written in the book of life by predestination. By adding, “If I go and prepare a place for you, etc.,” he shows that they were still to be written by operation. Hence Augustine also says in his explanation of the same passage:

“‘In my Father’s house are many dwellings.’ The house of God, the temple of God, and the kingdom of heaven are just human beings, among whom there are many differences, and these are the dwellings of that house. These have already been prepared in predestination, as the Apostle says, ‘Who chose us before the foundation of the world’—by predestining, but preparing in operation. Hence: ‘Those whom he predestined, these he also called.’ According to this it is said, ‘God made the things that are to be,’ that is, those that he is going to make.” And below:

§ 1. “‘If it were otherwise’ confirms that they exist, because, if they did not exist, he would have said, ‘I shall go and prepare,’ that is, predestine. But because they are there, it is not necessary to prepare any. But because they do not yet exist in operation, he adds, ‘And if I go and prepare.’ By going but not abandoning, he prepares, because he withdraws himself and lies hidden, so that there may be faith, which is not concerned with a thing seen, and from this comes the merit of faith.

§ 2. “From this faith the just person lives, and one’s heart is cleansed while one sojourns, and in it that which is not yet possessed is desired. This is the preparation of the dwelling, because he so prepares us for himself and himself for us that he may remain in us and we in him, according as each person will participate in him more or less in accordance with the diversity of merits. And this is the multitude of dwellings.”

GRATIAN. One is erased according to justice because, grace having been withdrawn, one is permitted to perform those things by which one merits eternal condemnation. Hence the prophet, speaking in the person of Christ, says, “Let them be erased from the book of the living”—that is, let grace be withdrawn from them, upon whose withdrawal they are cast headlong into the depth of vices and thereafter into eternal condemnation—“and let them not be written with the just”—that is, let grace not be added to them by which they may become worthy of eternal salvation.

Thus sins are remitted according to foreknowledge when grace is prepared from eternity by which the one called is justified and the one justified is at last eternally glorified. But sins are remitted according to justice when either baptism is received with full faith or penance is celebrated with the whole heart; and this remission itself also is not unfittingly said to occur according to foreknowledge.

§ 1. For, as is given to be understood from the foregoing authority of the Apostle, there are two foreordinations: one by which each person is foreordained here to receive justice and remission of sins; the other by which someone is predestined to obtain eternal life in the future. Their effects are present justification and future glorification, all of which are fittingly distinguished in the foregoing authority. For the first predestination, by which persons are foreordained to present justice, is designated when it is said, “Just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, etc.” Its effect is added below: “In which he graced us in his beloved Son, etc.” The second foreordination is shown there: “Who predestined us unto the adoption of children, etc.” Its effect is placed first, when it is said, “Who blessed us with every blessing, etc.”

§ 2. These two foreordinations and their effects are so related that the first and its effect precede by nature and are inferred according to the rule of consequence. For if someone is foreordained to life, it is consequently inferred that one is predestined to justice; and if one attains eternal life, one has therefore attained justice. But the converse does not follow. Hence many are participants in the first foreordination and its effect to whom the second or its effect is proved in no way to pertain.

§ 3. According to this distinction that authority of John is to be understood: “They went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would certainly have remained with us.” “They went out from us,” he says; that is, they withdrew from our fellowship, in which they were participants with us in the first foreordination and its effect. “But they were not of us”; that is, they had not entered with us into fellowship in the second foreordination and its effect. This can be seen from the fact that, if they had been of us—that is, if they had been participants with us in that foreordination—they would certainly have remained with us; that is, they would not have withdrawn from fellowship in the effect of that foreordination which they had contracted with us. For if each phrase were referred to the second foreordination, “they would have remained” would not fittingly be inferred; rather, they would certainly have begun to be with us. But if they were referred to the first, the proposition “if they had been of us, etc.” would be false. For many become participants in present justice and holiness who nevertheless do not persevere in it. Hence the Lord says in the Gospel, “Not the one who has begun, but the one who has persevered to the end, this one will be saved.”

If someone says that this fellowship is contracted by those to be condemned in name and profession alone, but not in the truth of the thing, one is refuted by the testimony of the same authority. For concerning those who are participants in the first, but not the second, foreordination, it says: “Nor should it disturb us that God does not give this perseverance to some of his children. For far be it that it should be so if they were among the predestined,” and the other things contained above in the same authority.

For the sheep concerning whom the Lord says in the Gospel, “And I have other sheep that are not of this fold,” and the children concerning whom John says, “that he might gather into one the children of God who were scattered,” were sheep and children according to foreknowledge in such a way that, according to the quality of their present state, not merely in appearance but even before God’s eyes, they were children of wrath and eternal perdition. Hence the Apostle does not say, “We seemed to be,” but, “We too were by nature children of wrath.” Nor does he say, “You will be accounted by human beings,” but, “You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.” Writing about himself to Timothy, he also does not say, “I seemed to be,” but, “I was a blasphemer, a persecutor, and insulting; but now I have obtained mercy.” All those who are reborn in Christ and are redeemed from the devil by his blood are first born sinners from Adam and liable to diabolical servitude. Therefore, just as these, although they are going to be children of God, are nevertheless first children of the devil, so those of whom the discussion is being held, although by departing from justice they are going to be children of eternal perdition, nevertheless, while they live piously and faithfully, truly are children of God, just, and worthy of eternal beatitude. Hence the authority does not say, “when they seemed to live piously and faithfully,” but “when they lived piously and faithfully.” For those who were never truly good would not truly be changed from good into evil. Nor does the Lord say through Ezekiel, “If the just person turns away from the justice that one seemed to possess,” but “from one’s own justice,” namely, that which one truly possesses.

§ 1. What follows in the same authority—“They were not in the number of the children when they were in the profession of children”—is to be understood thus: persons are called children of God in two ways. They are called children of God by participation in the eternal inheritance, as John says in the Gospel, “As many as believed in him, to them he gave the power to become children of God.” And the Apostle says in the Letter to the Romans, “The expectation of creation awaits the revelation of the children of God.” And below: “Creation itself will be freed from the servitude of corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.” And below: “We ourselves groan within ourselves, awaiting the adoption of the children of God.” Hence Augustine also, expounding these same words of the Apostle, says: “For the present, only a creature, since the form of the children is not yet perfect.” In this manner, therefore, none are children except participants in eternal beatitude.

§ 2. In the present life, persons are also called children in three ways: either by predestination alone, like those concerning whom John says, “that he might gather the children of God who were scattered, etc.”; or by predestination and hope of eternal beatitude, like those to whom the Lord says, “Little children, I am with you yet a little while”; or by the merit of faith and present justice, but not by predestination to eternal glory, like those concerning whom the Lord says, “If his children abandon my law and do not walk in my judgments, etc.” Therefore, those concerning whom the present discussion is held are children by the merit of faith and present justice, but they are not children of eternal adoption.

Those who admit that remitted sins return must therefore confess that they are remitted according to justice but not also according to foreknowledge, just as sins are imputed to those who will be saved according to justice unto eternal condemnation, but not according to foreknowledge; because to the former, who fall away from good into evil, every sin will be brought back for punishment, while to the latter, who persevere in good to the end, none will be imputed for punishment.

PART V. GRATIAN. But those who say that remitted sins do not return endeavor to affirm their opinion by the authority of Gregory and Prosper. For Gregory says in book XV of the Moralia, [c. 22]:

“What is meant by what is said, ‘Who repays iniquity to children and grandchildren’? We certainly draw original sin from our fathers, and unless we are saved through the grace of baptism, we also bear the fault of our parents, because we are one with them. He will repay the iniquity of the fathers in the children when the soul of the offspring is polluted by original sin because of the parent’s fault. And again, he does not repay the iniquity of the fathers in the children, because, when we are freed from original fault through baptism, we no longer possess the faults of our parents but those that we ourselves commit.”

Likewise in Prosper’s Responses, [to the second Objection of the Gauls]:

“One who withdraws from Christ and ends this life estranged from grace—where does that person go except into perdition? But one does not fall back into that which was remitted, nor will one be condemned in original sin; nevertheless, that person is afflicted by the death that was owed on account of the things remitted.”

GRATIAN. The end of this authority seems to contradict its beginning. For to have remitted sins return, or to be condemned in original sin, is nothing other than to undergo, after the remission of the sin, the penalty owed to it. The defenders of this opinion resolve the authorities that are contrary to one another in this way: remitted sins are said to return because whoever, after receiving remission, returns to vomit will be punished all the more severely insofar as, having more greatly abused God’s kindness, one proved ungrateful for the remission received for each sin.

PART VI. § 1. But the former opinion seems more favorable, because it is strengthened by more authorities and confirmed by more evident reason. For, as the Lord says through Ezekiel, [c. 18]:

“If the just person turns away from one’s justice and commits iniquity according to all the abominations that an impious person is accustomed to commit, shall that person live? All the person’s just deeds that one had done will not be remembered; one will die in one’s sin, and the just deeds that one performed will not be in memory.”

“This must especially be considered by us: when we commit evil things, we recall our past good things without cause, because in the perpetration of evils there ought to be no confidence in preceding good things.”

“For from a perforated bag, what is put in from one place goes out through another, because undiscerning minds do not observe how the reward acquired from a good work is lost through an evil work.”

“If those who escape the defilements of the world through knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ are again entangled in them and overcome, the later things have become worse for them than the former. For it would have been better for them not to know the way of justice than, after knowing it, to turn backward from the holy commandment handed down to them.” Paul also, writing to the Hebrews, says, [c. 6]:

“Leaving behind the discourse concerning the beginning of Christ, let us be borne onward to his perfection, not again laying the foundation of penance from dead works.”

GRATIAN. By saying “dead works,” he signifies the former good things that had been made dead through the subsequent sin, because by sinning these persons rendered their former good things void. Just as these are made void by sinning, so through penance they revive, and each begins to avail toward the merit of eternal beatitude—even those found mingled with sins. Hence Augustine says, “It is pious to believe, etc.,” and Jerome, “God is not unjust, etc.” The Apostle also, writing to the Hebrews, after briefly recalling their faith, love, and good works, shows that after penance they would receive from the Lord the reward for all these things which they had lost by sinning.

Moreover, the one who said through the prophet, “If the just person turns away from one’s justice, etc.,” himself promised through the same prophet, saying, “If the impious person performs penance for all the sins that one has committed, keeps all my precepts, and performs judgment and justice, that person shall live by life and shall not die. I shall not remember any of the iniquities that one committed; that person shall live in the justice that one performed.” To the children of Israel who were to be taken captive by the Assyrians, the Lord also reproaches through Hosea the sin of their old idolatry, and shows that the sin which had been remitted to their fathers when Moses supplicated had revived in the children, saying:

“Woe to them, because they have withdrawn from me; they will be laid waste because they have transgressed against me. Yet I redeemed them, and they spoke lies against me; they did not cry out to me in their heart, but howled in their beds. They ruminated upon wheat and wine and withdrew from me. I instructed them and strengthened their arms, and they devised malice against me. They turned back so that they might be without a yoke; they became like a deceitful bow. Their princes will fall by the sword because of the fury of their tongue.”

PART VII. GRATIAN. The divine discourse reproaches the children with the ancient sins of their parents and for that reason predicts that their princes will fall by the sword. But through the same prophet the Lord shows that he acts against himself, saying:

“Lest perhaps they say in their hearts that I have remembered all their malice: now their inventions have surrounded them; they were made before my face.”

“When they are punished in this way, let them not think that I punish them for the old sins of their fathers, because now—that is, in the present—they are surrounded with punishment for their own malicious deeds which they have devised; and their evils, as they suppose, cannot lie hidden from me. Rather, the very inventions lie open before my face, which sees all things clearly.”

“Heretics cannot plead old sins against God when they add a new impiety to ancient works and are bound by their own sins; and although they think that they conceal themselves from God, they cannot avoid his eyes, because the Lord’s countenance is upon those who do evil things.”

“Divine clemency does not permit remitted sins afterward to return for vengeance.”

GRATIAN. But by these authorities children, expiated from original sin, are taught that they are not punished because their fathers sinned; rather, their fathers’ sins return upon them because they follow their fault. So also good things that die through sin will avail toward reward, not because they were done, but because they revive through penance. Of this kind is also that saying of Augustine in the Book of Psalms, “If Judas had retained adoption, etc.” Thus also that saying of Gregory in the Moralia is understood: “What is meant by what is said, ‘You repay the iniquity of the fathers, etc.’?” For the parents’ iniquity is repaid to those who are punished because they drew the bitterness of sin in its root. But it is said not to be repaid to those in whom the parent’s sins do not revive through the desert of their own iniquity. Therefore, just as good things that die through sin revive through penance unto reward, so evil things that are destroyed through penance revive unto punishment. Hence the prophet, in the person of a penitent, laments, saying, “My scars have putrefied and become corrupted”—that is, the wounds healed through baptism. Hence also the same prophet, although he knew himself cleansed from original sin by faith and the sacrament of circumcision, nevertheless, understanding that it had revived through the adultery and homicide he had committed, not without cause confesses it among the other things and says, “Behold, for I was conceived in iniquities, etc.”