Grace, Actual and Habitual: A Dogmatic TreatisePohle, Joseph
Religion
Grace, Actual and Habitual: A Dogmatic Treatise
Pohle, Joseph
Grace (Theology)
A man outwardly justified but inwardly a sinner would be a moral monster,
and Almighty God would be guilty of an intrinsic contradiction were He to
regard and treat such a one as just. This contradiction is not removed but
rather intensified by the Lutheran appeal to the extraneous justice of
Christ.(952)
The incongruity of the Lutheran doctrine of justification becomes fully
apparent from the consequences which it involves, to wit: (1) all
Christians without distinction would possess exactly the same degree of
sanctity and justice; (2) justification once obtained by fiduciary faith
could not be lost except by the sin of unbelief; and (3) children would
not be justified by Baptism because they are not sufficiently advanced in
the use of reason to enable them to “apprehend” the external righteousness
of Christ. The first of these inferences runs counter to common sense and
experience. The second, which Luther clothed in the shameful exhortation,
“_Pecca fortiter et crede fortius et nihil nocebunt centum homicidia et
mille stupra_,”(953) is repugnant to the teaching of Scripture and
destructive of morality.(954) The third consistently led to the rejection
of infant baptism by the Anabaptists, the Mennonites, and other Protestant
sects.
3. SANCTIFYING GRACE THE SOLE FORMAL CAUSE OF JUSTIFICATION.—In declaring
that “inherent grace” is the “sole formal cause of justification,” the
Council of Trent(955) defined it as an article of faith that sanctifying
grace of itself is able to produce all the formal effects of
justification, _e.g._ forgiveness of sins, the sanctification of the
sinner, his adoption by God, etc.,(956) and consequently requires no
supplementary or contributory causes. In other words, justification is
wholly and fully accomplished by the infusion of sanctifying grace.
a) It appears from the discussions preceding its sixth session that the
Tridentine Council not only meant to condemn the heretical contention of
Butzer that “inherent grace” must be supplemented by the “imputed justice
of Christ” as the really essential factor of justification,(957) but also
wished to reject the view of divers contemporary Catholic theologians(958)
that “intrinsic righteousness” is inadequate to effect justification
without a special _favor Dei externus_.(959) In this the Fathers of the
Council were on Scriptural ground. The principal effects of
justification,—forgiveness of sins and internal sanctification,—are both
produced by sanctifying grace. Sacred Scripture is perfectly clear on this
point. It represents sin as opposed to grace in the same way in which
darkness is opposed to light,(960) life to death,(961) the new man to the
old.(962) The one necessarily excludes the other. Sanctifying grace and
sin cannot co-exist in the same subject.
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