For out of grace is given not only a good life to the justified, but also eternal life to the glorified. This we hold as ascertained by Paul's preaching, when he says: For the wages of sin is death. But the grace of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom. VI, 23). But why is death called wages, while eternal life is called grace, except that the one is repaid, the other is bestowed? Yet when God repays that death, He punishes the evil work of sinful man, which man would by no means have done had he not departed from God. But when God bestows eternal life, He brings to perfection His own work, which He began by justifying the ungodly, by glorifying the just. And both of these—that is, both the good life and eternal life—are in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Deplenitudinequippeejusnosomnesaccepimus, etgratiamprogratia (Joan. i, 16), scilicetgratiamglorificationisæternæprogratiajustificationisindebitæ, utgratiajustificationisomnemeritummalumdeleatindebitobeneficio : etmeritumbonumjugiconfirmetauxilio, cuigratiaglorificationisjustæreddaturinpræmio. Gratiaautemetiamipsaideononinjustedicitur, quianonsolumdonissuisDeusdonasuareddit: sedquiatantumetiamibigratiadivinaeretributionisexuberat, utincomparabiliteratqueineffabiliteromnemeritum, quamvisbonæetexDeodatæ, humanævoluntatisatqueoperationis, ex - cedat.
For of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace (John I, 16), namely the grace of eternal glorification for the grace of undeserved justification, so that the grace of justification may blot out all evil merit by an undeserved benefit, and may strengthen good merit with unceasing help—the merit to which the grace of just glorification is repaid as a reward. Yet even this grace is not unjustly called grace, because God not only repays His own gifts with His own gifts, but because there too the grace of divine recompense so overflows that it incomparably and ineffably surpasses all merit—however good and given by God—of human will and working.
For although the blessed Apostle Paul shows that God gives us not only the light of believing in Christ, but also the virtue of suffering for Him, saying: For to you it has been granted for Christ's sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for Him (Phil. I, 29)—both of which pertain to the grace of the present good life—yet he sets that grace of the future life before all the sufferings of the present time, saying: The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the future glory that shall be revealed in us (Rom. VIII, 18). And in another place: For that which is at present momentary and light in our tribulation works for us above measure exceedingly an eternal weight of glory (2 Cor. IV, 17). CHAPTER XI.
Grace begins by going before, and by following after it guards the good work. In predestination is contained all the grace of calling, of justification, and of glorification. He says that this grace abides not only in the justification of the present life, but also in the recompense of the age to come, and he asserts that it abounds upon us, that is, above all the good merits of any man whatsoever, in the goodness of God, saying: That He might show in the ages to come the exceeding riches of His grace, in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus (Eph. II, 7). Grace, therefore, is a merciful recompense, by which God in the present time repays good things for evils—namely to those ungodly whom He justifies, so that faith may be reckoned unto righteousness.
Of this recompense David says: What shall I render to the Lord for all the things that He has rendered to me (Ps. CXV, 12)? Grace is also that just recompense by which God, repaying better things for His own good things, will glorify the just. And this too will be a work of grace. For in order that they may merit this, grace itself, going before, mercifully begins it; grace itself, following after, guards it. This grace is also called mercy in the Scriptures. Of it David says: My God, His mercy shall go before me (Ps. LVIII, 11). And in another place: Thy mercy shall follow me all the days of my life (Ps. XXII, 6). It goes before the ungodly, that he may become just; it follows after the just, that he may not become ungodly. It goes before the blind man, to give him the light he has not found;
it follows after the seeing man, to preserve the light it has conferred. It goes before the fallen, that he may rise; it follows after the raised, that he may not fall. It goes before, granting to man a good will; it follows after the well-willing, working in him the capacity for good work. This, therefore, is what this mercy of God follows after in man: what it, going before, itself bestows. And so it not only recalls the erring to the way by justifying him, but also guards and helps the one who walks well, that it may lead him to the gift of eternal glorification. And all these—that is, both the beginnings of our calling, the increases of justification, and the rewards of glorification—God has always held in predestination:
because in the calling, in the justification, and in the glorification of the saints, He foreknew the future works of His grace. On this account the Apostle assigns the whole to God, saying: For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. And whom He predestined, these He also called; and whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified (Rom. VIII, 29). Nevertheless, when we hear the justified and the glorified named together, let us not attribute both the work of justification and of glorification to the present time. For the grace of justification is given in the present, but that of glorification is reserved for the future. The one belongs to faith, the other to hope.
And Paul says: For now we walk by faith, not by sight (2 Cor. V, 7). For what the saints now believe, they shall then see. Wherefore it is said to the Church: Hearken, O daughter, and see; because faith comes by hearing—whence the just man, living by faith, says with confidence: I believe I shall see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living (Ps. XXVI, 13). This, then, is the order of divine redemption and recompense in man: that being now justified he should believe what, being then glorified, he shall receive. Wherefore Paul says: Not that I have already attained, or am already perfect (Phil. III, 12). CHAPTER XII. God is said to have done what He predestined to be done. God's promises are certain from His omnipotence.
In this justification, therefore, the saints as they go, go forth and weep, casting their seed; but in that glorification, coming they shall come with exultation, bearing their sheaves. In this the laborers of the householder work in the vineyard; but in that they shall without doubt enjoy the reward of the denarius. This God now bestows, that one who is unworthy may freely receive the beginning of good merit; but that other He keeps reserved for the future, whereby he who received the beginning of good merit while unworthy may become worthy to receive the reward of good merit. Therefore, when Paul says: Because whom God justified, these He also glorified (Rom.
VIII, 30), he does not attribute both to the present life, but by that faith whereby he holds what is future as already done, he confirms it—the faith by which the prophet says of God: Who has made the things that are to come. For in that immovability of His counsel, according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Him, in the dispensation of the fullness of times, to gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth (Eph. I, 9-10)—in Him, from the eternity of His disposing, in predestination He has already done whatsoever, by the effect of His own work, He arranged to be done at the fitting time. For just as no work of the Creator could be, nor can be, made without a beginning:
so that everlasting will of His is never subject to mutability, because it has no beginning of existence. And that which always is, in such a way that it did not begin to be, is without doubt in such a way that what it is cannot fail to be. True immutability, therefore, is worthily called true eternity; and in that eternity of His unchangeable will the Creator is said already to have done what, in the mutable creature, according as He disposed it to be done opportunely, He duly brings about when it has been thus disposed. And therefore whatsoever He has promised, we say is already done, because we ought not to doubt concerning the things to be done.
For our father Abraham (as the Apostle says) did not waver at God's promise through distrust, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, being most fully assured that whatsoever He has promised, He is able also to perform (Rom. IV, 20-21). Therefore in God's promises there is no falsehood, because in the things to be done there is no difficulty for the Almighty. And for that reason the effect of His will is never lacking there, because that will itself is found to be nothing other than power. Whatever He wills, He can do—He who can do as much as He wills. Therefore of Him alone it is worthily said: Whatsoever He willed, He did (Ps. CXIII, 11). And again: For it is in Thy power, when Thou wilt, to be able (Wis. XII, 18).
Therefore we said that the power of His will is as great as is that very will of power. Because in Him for whom to be able is always at hand when He wills, to will is nothing other than to be able. CHAPTER XIII. God's just predestination to punishment for sins. God shows grace to the saints, justice to the ungodly. The future wrath of God is condemnation unto punishment. Since, therefore, God is compelled by no necessity to promise anything unwillingly, He is surely hindered by the obstacle of no adversity from doing what He has promised either less than He wills or more slowly. Accordingly He was able, just as He willed, to predestine some to glory, some to punishment. But those whom He predestined to glory, He predestined to righteousness.
But those whom He predestined to punishment, He did not predestine to guilt. For some sin could be from God's predestination, if any man could sin justly. But no man sins justly, although God justly permits him to sin. For he is justly forsaken by God who forsakes God. And because man, forsaking God, sins, God, forsaking the sinner, keeps justice. And what is more just than that he who already sins by the desire of sinning should, for the very reason that, desiring to sin, he makes himself hurtful to himself, be permitted to wound himself by his own sin? In the saints, therefore, God crowns the righteousness which He Himself freely bestowed on them, freely preserved, and freely perfected.
But the wicked He will condemn for the impiety or injustice which He Himself did not work in them. For in the former He glorifies His own works, but in the latter He condemns works not His own. This, therefore, God predestined: what He Himself was going to do, or what He was going to bestow. But that He by no means predestined which He Himself was not going to do, whether through grace or through justice. Accordingly it seems that it must be inquired most diligently what God works in those whom He freely justifies, and what also in those whom He justly condemns. For the excellent Teacher of the Gentiles says: But if our iniquity commend the justice of God, what shall we say? Is God unjust, who inflicts wrath? (I speak as a man.) God forbid! (Rom. III, 5).
Here he put wrath in place of condemnation, just as elsewhere John the Baptist says: He who is unbelieving to the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides upon him (John III, 36). This wrath he announces with rebuke to the Pharisees and Sadducees, saying: Brood of vipers, who has shown you to flee from the wrath to come? (Matt. III, 7; Luke III, 7). From this wrath the Lord Christ has rescued us, which Paul confirmed by truthful preaching, saying to the Thessalonians: How you turned to God from idols, to serve the living and true God, and to await His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, Jesus, who has rescued us from the wrath to come (1 Thess. I, 9-10).
This wrath, that is, the punishment which is prepared for the wicked, he calls destruction in another place, saying: For when they shall say peace and security, then sudden destruction shall come upon them, as travail upon her that is with child, and they shall not escape (1 Thess. V, 3). CHAPTER XIV. Whether the works of the damned are predestined like the works of the just. The beginning of good will is predestined by God. God causes us to do good. Let us therefore inquire whether God is to be believed to have predestined the works of the wicked, for which He condemns them, just as He is said to have predestined in the saints what He crowns. But when we inquire into the cause of the condemnation of the wicked and the glorification of the saints, we do not deny that they are predestined, either the former to punishment or the latter to glory.
But whether, just as the good works are believed to be divinely predestined, for which the just shall be glorified, so too the evil works are to be believed divinely predestined, for which the unjust shall be punished forever. For it is said in the book of Psalms: The unjust shall be punished, and the seed of the ungodly shall perish; but the salvation of the just is from the Lord (Ps. XXXVI, 28). Of both our Savior also says: Then those shall go into everlasting burning, but the just into life eternal (Matt. XXV, 46). In both, therefore, that is, in the just and the unjust, I judge that three things must be considered: the beginning of the will, the progress of the work, the end of recompense. So that whatever just and good things we see in these, we may attribute to the just and good God;
but those things we may know to be unworthy of God, in which we find neither goodness nor justice. And having considered the quality of the works, let us believe those to have been predestined by God which are found worthy of and fitting to the divine mercy or equity: For the Lord is merciful and compassionate and just (Ps. CXI, 4). And first of all we confess that the beginning of every good will has been both predestined and given by that everlasting Trinity, which is the one, only, and true God. For He has bestowed on man, prepared by free justification, that which He had prepared to be bestowed in the eternal predestination. This preparation of the will I have shown above by the testimony of Holy Scripture, where it was said: The will is prepared by the Lord.
By Him, therefore, the will is prepared, who mercifully works in us both to will and to accomplish. For the Apostle says: For it is God who works in us both to will and to accomplish, according to His good will (Phil. II, 13). God also, speaking through the prophet, affirms that He Himself does what He grants to the faithful to do, according to that oracle which we have already set down above, where He says: And I will cause you to walk in my justifications, and to observe my judgments and to do them (Ezek. XXXVI, 27). But what is 'I will cause you to do,' except 'every good that you shall have wrought shall be of my working'? He Himself, therefore, causes us to do, so that, with Him working in us, every good that we do comes to pass. Of which it is said to the Hebrews:
Fit you in every good thing, working in you what is pleasing in His sight (Heb. XIII, 21). And so, God's grace having been demonstrated in the good will and working of man, who would contend that the glory of the future recompense also, which shall be given to the saints, is not of the divine grace? Since whether we believe or work—though the faith be ours, and the works be ours, as the Lord Himself says: According to your faith be it unto you, and blessed John proclaims: This is the victory that overcomes the world, our faith (1 John V, 4), and Paul also thus writes: I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, because your faith is announced in all the world (Rom. I, 8)—our works too the Lord Himself attests, saying:
So let your light shine before men, that seeing your good works they may glorify your Father who is in heaven (Matt. V, 16). Yet because these things, when we have them, we do not have as born of ourselves, but as given by God—as the Apostle says: Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God, that we may know the things that are given to us by God (1 Cor. II, 12); and because whatsoever He grants us to do, just as we cannot have unless He bestows it on us, so we cannot do unless He Himself works in us what He has bestowed. CHAPTER XV. We ought not to ascribe to ourselves any good work as our own. In this life no one is perfect except in the hope of future glory. Paul both perfect and imperfect.
Therefore we are by no means permitted—indeed we are wholesomely forbidden—to claim anything for ourselves as our own, either in our faith or in our work. For the Vessel of election says: What have you that you did not receive? And if you received it, why do you boast, as if you had not received it (1 Cor. IV, 7)? And in the holy Gospel the voice of the Lord's forerunner is: A man can receive nothing, unless it be given him from heaven (John III, 27). The apostle James also testifies: That every best gift, and every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights (James I, 17). And what is a more perfect gift than the future glorification of the saints?
For now (so to speak) the perfection of the divine gifts is not yet a perfect perfection, seeing that here everyone who is perfect is still in need of perfection. For that same one who said: As many as, therefore, are perfect, let us be thus minded (Phil. III, 15), the same one says: Not that I have already attained, or am already perfect (Ibid. 12). He was, therefore, perfect in the hope of future glorification; but he was imperfect under the burden of corruption and mortality. For the body which is corrupted weighs down the soul, and the earthly habitation presses down the mind that muses on many things (Wis. IX, 15). He was perfect in the expectation of the reward; he was imperfect in the weariness of the struggle. He was perfect, in that with his mind he served the law of God;
he was imperfect, in that with his flesh he served the law of sin. He was perfect, having a desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ (Phil. I, 23); but he was imperfect, because as long as he was in the body, he was absent from the Lord. He was perfect, being most fully assured that God, whatsoever He has promised, is able also to perform (Rom. IV, 21); but he was imperfect, because God has not yet done in His saints certain things out of all that He promised. Wherefore also all the ancient just (as the same Apostle says), being approved by the testimony of faith, did not receive the promise, God providing something better for us, that they should not be made perfect without us (Heb. XI, 39-40).
Just as, therefore, the preceding saints, approved by the testimony of faith, are not made perfect without the perfection of those who follow, so those who follow cannot be perfected without those who precede. And so the perfect gift shall then be given to all when eternal glorification shall be bestowed on the saints. Then, as Truth says: The just shall shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father (Matt. XIII, 43). This perfect gift, therefore, is also His, from whom is the beginning of every gift. And it would certainly not be called a gift, if this too were not bestowed out of grace. CHAPTER XVI. God freely works our salvation. True glory is from God alone. Now there is one God, who freely both calls the predestined, and justifies the called, and glorifies the justified.
And just as to justify is nothing other than to make just, so to glorify is nothing other than to make glorious. Accordingly, since God both justifies and glorifies His own, just as it is a work of His grace when He makes them just, so it will be a work of His grace when He makes them glorious. For just as no one can have true righteousness unless he has been justified, so no one can have true glory unless he has been glorified. And whence true glory comes, our Savior showed when He rebuked the Jews, saying: How can you believe, who receive glory from one another, and the glory which is from God alone you do not seek (John V, 44)? Having this same understanding and truthfully saying:
But we have the mind of Christ (1 Cor. II, 16); just as he knew that true glory is from God, so he confirms that true righteousness is from God, saying: That I may be found in Him not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is of the faith of Christ, which is of God, the righteousness in faith (Phil. III, 9). And although abundant proofs abound by which it may be clear that not only the grace of good will and good working, but also the very glorification of the saints, is both begun and perfected wholly by God, yet I judge that even these things which have been set down by us suffice, such as they are. CHAPTER XVII. The beginning of all sin is pride. The fall and punishment of Lucifer. The fall of the first man.
And so now, that the course of the little book may be duly ordered, we ought also to consider the will, the working, and the recompense of the wicked. So that we may recognize whether the just God predestined the wicked to do that which He is going to punish as done in them; or whether He justly predestined the unjust to punishment, because, although He foreknew their evil works as future, He did not Himself predestine them to be future, since He Himself did not cause them to come to pass. And so, if the beginning of sin is sought, nothing else but pride is found. For Scripture says: The beginning of all sin is pride (Ecclus. X, 15).
This indeed took its beginning when the angel, lifted up against God, and by that very lifting-up cast down, through concupiscence (which is the root of all evils) willing to usurp what had not been given him by God, departed from God and fell; in which if he had stood, he would not have fallen. But through evil concupiscence, because he coveted more outside himself, he was made less within himself. This concupiscence, although he could not fulfill it in deed, he yet retained in will. Thus he himself became already a punishment to himself, so that his evil will was ever a torment to the evil one, just as his very blindness is to the blind man.
And the concupiscence of sinning became a torment to the sinner; and the rebel and deserter, who had fled that undisturbed rest, thenceforth served disturbance, and was justly abandoned by his good Lord, whom he himself unjustly abandoned. Thus it came to pass that, persevering as disordered of himself, he was ordered in himself; and in him who lost order within himself, the reason of the divine order did not perish. This also befell man, whom the devil himself cast down by his serpentine cunning. For dissenting from the good Lord, and consenting to the evil servant, he could not attain the full effect of an evil will: because that very malice of the will was not from God. For he would not have had it, if he had not departed from God. CHAPTER XVIII.
The rational creature cannot be blessed unless it loves the Creator more than itself. The rational will, if it subjects itself to God, is exalted; if it lifts itself up, it is cast down. God makes the humble; He does not find them. God, therefore, being good, is the founder of good natures. For God saw (as it is written) all the things that He had made, and behold they were very good (Gen. I, 31). Among all the things which He made, He made the rational creature better than the rest. Yet He willed the greater good to be present in the higher creature in such a way that no evil was substantially present even in the lowest creature.
And through this, the created good superior to the lowest good would be better, over which the highest good (which is not created, and by which every mutable created good is created) would justly rule; and by whose participation it would also be blessed, if with humble love it served the highest good. For to the rational creature there neither could, nor can, nor shall be any beatitude other than this: that, acknowledging Him by whom it was not only made, but also by whom it was made rational, it should render greater love to its good Creator than to itself.
For reason could in no way be present in it, unless the love of its Creator could be present in it; for there is no other thing that would be the true wisdom or understanding of a rational creature except the love of the Creator, in which its self-love is the greater or the less in proportion as it shows the greater or the less love to its Creator. Moreover, the will of a rational creature cannot exist without some kind of love; nor can it love in such a way that it does not wish to bind its love to something. Placed as it is in a kind of middle position between the highest good, by which it was created, and the lowest good, over which it was set, it must of necessity either lie wretchedly in the lowest good, or rest truly and blessedly in the highest good.
For it is carried along by a certain love: either when by obedience it is lifted up, and rightly subjects itself to the good Creator; or when by pride it is cast down, so that it wickedly seeks to lord it over the good creature. For just as it becomes lowly through self-exaltation, so it becomes exalted through humility. For our Lord and Master says: Everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled, and he who humbles himself shall be exalted (Luke XIV, 11). On account of which it is likewise written: God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble (James IV, 6; 1 Peter V, 5). Nor indeed does God find the humble already humble, to whom He gives grace, before it is given; but by giving grace He makes them humble. For this very thing God bestows through grace: that whoever receives it becomes humble.
On account of which the Only-begotten Himself, the teacher and bestower of holy humility, says: Learn of me, for I am meek and humble of heart, and you shall find rest for your souls (Matthew XI, 29). This rest they have lost who, having cast off humility, swelled up against their own life and fell back into death through pride. For of such it is said: You cast them down while they were lifting themselves up (Psalm LXXII, 18). And to such God therefore resists, because He Himself did not make the pride in them, through which they unjustly choose to fall into sin, and through which they justly deserve to remain in sin. CHAPTER XIX. Ruin is not from God, but from pride. God is the avenger of sin, not its author.
Accordingly, since the beginning of an evil will is pride, which is not from God, it is plainly clear that the ruin of evil action does not come to men from God, but that the ruin of retribution is repaid to the wicked by the just Judge. For an evil will does not pertain to the best Creator; but the just condemnation of an unjust angel or man pertains to the most equitable Judge. To an evil will, therefore, God did not predestine man, because He Himself was not going to give it to man. For how could God predestine to an evil will the man whom He made to His own image—a will which He Himself did not make? And so man began to sin in that very act by which he departed from God. For it is written: The beginning of pride is to apostatize from God (Ecclesiasticus X, 14).