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AND THEIR REFUTATION. 253
be good ; it is requisite that he who performs
it be in a state of
Grace, and, on the part of the Almighty, it is necessary that he
should have promised to reward us, for he, as man s supreme
Lord, might require all service from him, without any reward at
all. To make it a debt of justice, therefore, it is necessary that
a gratuitous Divine promise should have been already given, by
which God himself gratuitously makes himself a debtor for the
reward promised.
It is after this manner that St. Paul could say
that he expected, in justice, eternal life, as the reward of his
good
works :
"
I have fought the good fight ;
I have finished my
course ; I have kept the Faith. As to the next, there is laid up
for me a crown of justice, which the Lord, the just judge, will
render to me in that day" (II. Tim. iv, 7, 8). And here St.
Augustin (5) says :
"
Debitorem Dominus ipse se fecit, non
accipiendo, sed promittendo. Non ei dicimus : Redde quod
accepisti, sed redde quod promisisti."
15. Here, then, is what the Catholic Church teaches. No
man can merit actual justifying Grace de condigno, but only de
congruo, and Melancthon stated a falsehood in his Apology of the
Confession of Augsburg (p. 137), when he asserted that we be
lieve we can merit justification by our works. The Council of
Trent has declared, and this is our faith, and no other, that
sinners are justified gratuitously by God, and that no work of
theirs preceding their justification can deserve it. But the
Council has also said that man justified, although he cannot de
condigno, merit final perseverance (Sess. vi, c. 13), still can merit
de condigno, by the good works he does, assisted by Divine
Grace, and the merits of Christ, the augmentation of Grace and
eternal life. The Council fulminates its anathema against all
who deny this doctrine, in the Sixth Session (Can. 33) :
quis dixerit hominis justificati bona opera ita esse dona Dei, ut
non sint etiam bona ipsius justificati merita ;
aut ipsum justificatum
bonis operibus, qua? ab eo per Dei gratiam, et per Jesu
Christi meritum, cujus vivum membrum est, fiunt, non vere
mereri augmentum gratiae, vitam seternam, et ipsius vitae aeternaa
(si tamen in gratia decesserit) consecutionem, atque etiam glorias
: augmentum anathema sit." All, therefore, that we receive from
(5) St. Augus. in Psalm, 83.
"
Si