Глава V

God, crowning our merits, crowns His gifts 19. So, what merit can a person have before grace, so that through this merit he receives grace, if any of our good merit is produced in us only by grace; so that when God crowns our merits, he crowns none other than His gifts? For just as at the beginning of faith we received mercy, not because we were believers, but so that we could become believers, so in the end, when eternal life comes, God will crown us, as it is written, with mercy and mercy 66 . Therefore, it is not in vain that they sing to God: His Mercy will precede me 67, and: May His Mercy accompany me 68. Therefore, the eternal life itself, which we will have in the end without end, although it is rewarded for previous merits, however, since the very merits for which it is rewarded are not prepared by us according to our ability, but created in us by grace, then this eternal life itself is called grace, for the sole reason that it is given freely, and therefore freely, because it is given not for merits, but [is given] due to the fact that those themselves are given the merits for which it is given. And if we look for evidence where eternal life is called grace, we will find it in the same great defender of grace, the Apostle Paul. The reward for sin, he says, is death, but the grace of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord 69. Death is the wages of sin, eternal life is grace 20. Look, I ask you, how prudently he arranged the words in this so short saying. If you look at them carefully, the darkness of this issue will gradually begin to clear up. After all, when he said: The wages of sin is death, who here would not consider that it would be very appropriate and consistent if he added: “And the wages of righteousness is eternal life”? This is truly so, for just as the reward of sin is death, so the reward of righteousness is eternal life. Or, if he did not want to say: “reward for righteousness,” he could have said “for faith,” since the righteous will live by faith 70. Therefore, in many places in Holy Scripture this reward is also called a reward, and on the contrary, faith or righteousness itself is nowhere called a reward, since the reward is given for righteousness or faith. And what is the reward for the active, the same is the reward for the servant. Eternal life is both the reward of righteousness and grace 21. But the blessed apostle, [speaking] against exaltation, which so strongly tries to creep into great [people], that, as he says, because of this, an angel of Satan was given to him, depressing him, so that he would not be exalted by the extraordinaryness of revelations 71; so, struggling zealously against this plague of exaltation, he says: The wages of sin is death 72 . It is rightly called retribution, because it is something due, because it is given as something due, because it is rewarded deservedly. Further, so that righteousness is not exalted by human good merit, although there is no doubt that human evil merit is sin, he does not say in contrast: “And the reward of righteousness is eternal life,” but says this: The grace of God is eternal life. And lest they seek it in any other way than the Mediator, he adds: in Christ Jesus our Lord 73 . He seems to say: “Having heard that the reward for sin is death, why do you intend to indulge in exaltation, O human - I will not say, righteousness, but pride hiding under the name of righteousness? Why do you intend to become arrogant and demand eternal life, the opposite of death, as your due reward? Eternal life is due to true righteousness, and if righteousness is true, then it is not from you, but comes down from above from the Father of lights 74 . If you still have it, then, of course, you have received [the gift] to have it, for what good do you have that you did not receive? 75 Therefore, O man, if you are to receive eternal life, then although this is the reward of righteousness, for you it is grace, and righteousness itself also belongs to this grace. After all, [eternal life] would be repaid to you according to your debt, if the righteousness for which it is repaid came from you. Now, from His fullness, we have received not only grace, thanks to which we now live in labor righteously until the end, but also grace on this grace 76 so that we can then live in peace forever. There is nothing more saving that faith can believe in, since reason does not acquire anything more true, and we must listen to the prophet who says: If you do not believe, you will not understand 77 . J.-P. Migne. Paris, 1845. T. 33. Col. 874–891. Places with discrepancies were verified with the publication: Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum. Vindobonae, 1911. Vo1. 57. R. 176–214. Ps 102:4. In Synod.trans.: mercy and bounty. Ps 58 (according to LXX). In Synod.trans.: God, who has mercy on me, will go before me. Ps 22 (according to LXX) In Synod.trans.: May goodness and mercy follow me. Rom 6:23. In Synod.trans.: For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Compare: Rom 1:17; Gal 3:11; Hebrews 10:38; Hab 2:4. Isa 7 (according to LXX). In Synod.trans.: If you do not believe, it is because you are not certified. You might be interested in: