Add hereunto the following sentences of the doctors of these later ages: "We cannot suffer or bring in any thing worthy of the reward that shall be:" saith Oecumenius. So Petrus Blesensis, archdeacon of Bath: "Nof trouble can be endured in this vital death, which is able equally to answer the joys of heaven;" and Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury, more fully before him: "If a man should serve God a thousand years, and that most fervently; he should not deserve of condignity to be half a day in the kingdom of heaven." Radulphus Ardens, expounding those those words of the parable, "Didst not thou agree with me for a penny? Leti no man out of these words," saith he, "think that God is, as it were, tied by agreement to pay that which he hath promised. For as God is free to promise, so is he free to pay, especially seeing as well merits as rewards are his grace. For God doth crown nothing else in us but his own grace: who if he would deal strictly with us, no man living should be justified in his sight. Whereupon the apostle, who laboured more than all, saith: I reckon that the sufferings of this time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. Therefore this agreement is nothing else, but God's voluntary promise." And "dok not wonder," saith he, in another • Οὐκ ἰσχύομεν ἀξιόντι τῆς ἐκεῖ ἀντιδόσεως παθεῖν ἢ συνεισενέγκαι. Oecumen. in Roman. cap. 8. pag. 312. Nihil moleste potest sustineri in hac morte vitali, quod cœlestibus gaudiis ex æquo respondere sufficiat. Petr. Blesens. in Job, cap. ult. Si homo mille annis serviret Deo, etiam ferventissime; non meretur ex condigno, dimidiam diem esse in regno cœlorum. Anselm. in lib. de mensuratione crucis. h Matth. chap. 20. ver. 13. Nemo, fratres, ex his verbis putet Deum quasi ex conventione astrictum esse ad reddendum promissum. Sicut enim Deus est libet ad promittendum, ita est liber ad reddendum: præsertim cum tam merita quam præmia sint gratia sua. Nihil enim aliud quam gratiam suam coronat in nobis Deus: qui si vellet in nobis agere districte, non justificaretur in conspectu ejus omnis vivens. Unde apostolus qui plus omnibus laboravit, dicit: Existimo quod non sunt condigna passiones hujus temporis ad futuram gloriamquæ revelabitur in nobis. Ergo hæc conventio nihil aliud est, quam voluntaria Dei promissio. Rad. Ardens, Dominic. in septuagesima, homil. 2. k Ne miremini, fratres, si merita justorum gratias voco: teste enim apostolo, sermon, "if I call the merits of the just graces. For as the apostle witnesseth, we have nothing which we have not received from God, and that freely. But because by one grace we come unto another: they are called merits, but improperly. For as Augustine witnesseth: God crowneth only his own grace in us." So Rupertus Tuitiensis: "The greatness or the eternity of the heavenly glory, is not a matter of merit, but of grace." The same doth Bernardus Morlanensis' express in these rhythmical verses of his : Urbs Sion inclyta, patriam condita littore tuto; Spe tamen ambulo, præmia postulo speque fideque, But Bernard of Clarævalle above others delivereth this doctrine most sweetly: "It" is necessary," saith he, "that first of all thou shouldst believe, that thou canst not have remission of sins, but by the mercy of God: then, that thou canst not at all have any whit of a good work, unless he likewise give it thee: lastly, that by no works thou canst merit eternal life, unless that also be freely given unto thee. Otherwise, if we will properly name those which nihil habemus quod non a Deo et gratis accepimus. Sed quoniam per unam gratiam pervenimus ad aliam, merita dicuntur et improprie. Teste enim Augustino, solam gratiam suam coronat in nobis Deus. Rad. Ardens, Dominic. 18. post Trinitat. homil. 1. 1 Res est non meriti, sed gratiæ magnitudo vel æternitas cœlestis gloriæ. Rupert. Tuit. in Johan. lib. 1. cap. 1. m Bernard. Cluniacens. de contemptu mundi, lib. 1. n Al. turris et edita. Necesse est primo omnium credere, quod remissionem peccatorum habere non possis, nisi per indulgentiam Dei: deinde quod nihil prorsus habere queas operis boni, nisi et hoc dederit ipse postremo quod æternam vitam nullis potes operibus promereri, nisi gratis detur et illa. Bernard. serm. 1. in annuntiat. B. Mariæ. P Alioquin si proprie appellentur ea quæ dicimus nostra merita: spei quædam we call our merits: they be certain seminaries of hope, incitements of love, signs of secret predestination, foretokens of future happiness, the way to the kingdom, not the cause of reigning. Dangerous is the dwelling of them that trust in their merits dangerous, because ruinous. For this is the whole merit of man,if he put all his trust in him who saveth the whole man. Therefore my merit is the mercy of the Lord. I am not poor in merit, so long as he is not poor in mercy: and if the mercies of the Lord be many, my merits also are many." With which that passage of the Manual, falsely fathered upon St. Augustine, doth accord so justly, that the one appeareth to be plainly borrowed from the other. "Alls my hope is in the death of my Lord. His death is my merit, my refuge, my salvation, life and resurrection. My merit is the mercy of the Lord. I am not poor in merit, so long as the Lord of mercies shall not fail: and as long as his mercies are much, much am I in merits." Neither are the testimonies of the schoolmen wanting in this cause. For where Godt is affirmed to give the sunt seminaria, charitatis incentiva, occultæ prædestinationis indicia, futuræ felicitatis præsagia, via regni, non causa regnandi. Bernard. in fine libri de grat. et lib. arbitr. P Periculosa habitatio eorum qui in meritis suis sperant; periculosa, quia ruiId. in Psal. Qui habitat. serm. 1. nosa. ¶ Hoc enim totum hominis meritum, si totam spem suam ponat in eo qui totum hominem salvum facit. Ibid. ser. 15. Meum proinde meritum, miseratio Domini. Non plane sum meriti inops, quandiu ille miserationum non fuerit. multis nihilo minus ego in meritis sum. Quod si misericordiæ Domini multæ, s Tota spes mea est in morte Domini mei. Mors ejus meritum meum, refugium meum, salus, vita et resurrectio mea. Meritum meum miseratio Domini. Non sum meriti inops, quamdiu ille miserationum Dominus non defuerit: et misericordiæ Domini multæ, multus ego sum in meritis. Manual. cap. 22. tom. app. 6. operum Augustini. Nota quod cum dicitur, Deus pro bonis meritis dabit vitam æternam; pro, primo notat signum, vel viam, vel occasionem aliquam: sed si dicatur, propter bona merita dabit vitam æternam ; propter, notat causam efficientem. Ideo non recipitur a quibusdam: sed hanc recipiunt, pro bonis meritis, et consimiles earum; assignantes differentiam inter pro, et propter. Georg. Cassand. epist. 19. ad Jo. Molinæum oper. pag. 1109. ex libro MS. vetusti cujusdam scholi astici. kingdom of heaven for good merits" or good works: some made here a difference betwixt pro bonis meritis and propter bona merita. The former, they said, did note a sign, or a way, or some occasion: and in that sense they admitted the proposition. But according to the latter expression, they would not receive it; because propter did note an efficient cause. And yet for the salving of that also, the cardinal of Cambray, Petrus de Alliaco delivereth us this distinction: "This" word propter is sometimes taken by way of consequence; and then it noteth the order of the following of one thing upon another: as when it is said, The reward is given for the merit. For nothing else is signified thereby, but that the reward is given after the merit, and not but after the merit. Sometimes again it is taken causally." And "forasmuch as a cause also is accounted that, upon the being whereof another thing doth follow a thing may be said to be a cause two manner of ways. One way properly; when upon the presence of the being of the one, by the virtue thereof and out of the nature of the thing there followeth the being of the other: and thus is fire the cause of heat. Another way improperly; when upon the presence of the being of the one there followeth the being of the other, yet not by the virtue thereof nor out of the nature of the thing, but only out of the will of another and so a meritorious act is said to be a cause in respect of the reward; as causa sine qua : W Hæc dictio propter quandoque capitur consecutive; et tunc denotat ordinem consecutionis unius rei ad aliam: ut cum dicitur: Præmium datur propter meritum. Nihil enim aliud significatur, nisi quod post meritum datur præmium, et non nisi post meritum: sicut alias patebit in materia de merito. Quandoque vero capitur causaliter. Pet. Cameracens. in 1. sent. dist. 1. quæst. 2. DD. "Quia enim causa est illud ad cujus esse sequitur aliud; dupliciter potest aliquid dici causa. Uno modo proprie; quando ad præsentiam esse unius, virtute ejus et ex natura rei sequitur esse alterius: et sic ignis est causa caloris. Alio modo improprie; quando ad præsentiam esse unius sequitur esse alterius, non tamen virtute ejus nec ex natura rei, sed ex sola voluntate alterius: et sic actus meritorius dicitur causa respectu præmii. Sic etiam causa sine qua non dicitur causa. Ex quo sequitur, quod causa sine qua non, non debet absolute et simpliciter dici causa; quia proprie non est causa. Id. in 4. sentent. quæst. 1. artic. 1. D. non also is said to be a cause, though it be none properly." Among those famous clerks that lived in the family of Richard Angervill bishop of Durham in the days of Edward the third; Thomas Bradwardin who was afterwards archbishop of Canterbury, Richard Fitzraufe afterward archbishop of Armagh, and Robert Holcot the Dominican, were of special note. The first of these, in his defence of the cause of God against the Pelagians of his time, disputeth this point at large: shewing, that merit is not the cause of everlasting reward; and that when the scriptures and doctors do affirm, that God will reward the good for their good merits (or works) propter did not signify the cause properly, but improperly, either the cause of knowing it, or the order, or the disposition of the subject thereunto. Richard of Armagh (whom my countrymen commonly do call St. Richard of Dundalk, because he was there born and buried) intimateth this to be his mind; that the reward is here rendered, "not" for the condignity of the work, but for the promise and so for the justice of the rewarder:" as heretofore we have heard out of Bernard. Holcot, though in words he maintain the merit of condignity; yet he confesseth with the master of the sentences, that God is hereby made our debtor, ex natura sui promissi, non ex natura nostri commissi, out of the nature of his own promise, not out of the nature of our doing: and that our works have this value in them, not naturally, as if there were so great goodness in the nature or substance of the merit that everlasting life should be due unto it, but legally, in regard of God's ordinance and appointment, even "as" a little piece of cop x Is in laudatissima illa summa contra Pelagianos copiose et erudite disputat, meritum non esse causam æterni præmii: cumque scriptura et doctores confirment, Deum præmiaturum bonos propter merita sua bona; propter, non significare causam proprie, sed improprie, vel causam cognoscendi, vel ordinem, vel denique dispositionem subjecti. Georg. Cassand. epist. 19. ut supra. Vid. ipsum Bradwardini opus, edit. Lond. ann. 1618. a pag. 350. ad 353. y Non propter condignitatem operis, sed propter promissionem et sic propter justitiam præmiantis. Armachan. in quæst. Armenorum, lib. 12. cap. 21. z Sicut parva pecunia cupri, ex natura sua sive naturali vigore, non valet tan |
