Third, [that] being terrified is a natural affection.
Third, [that] being terrified is a natural affection.
§ 47. (III) Bellarmine’s third argument is as follows: “Being terrified is not an act of virtue but a natural affection which we see even in children and animals. But now, only those changes which proceed from the virtue of repentance can be parts of it.”
We respond. (1) Contrition is not simply called terror, but terror which arises from the acknowledgment of sins and from the consideration of divine wrath, the kind of terror which obviously does not occur in animals and children.
(2) Such terror is not the effect of an acquired or infused habit rising from man’s free choice but is an effectual movement kindled by the Holy Spirit, for it is He who reproves sin and beats upon our stony hearts with a hammer, so to speak. “Convert me, O Lord, and I shall be converted to You” (Jer. 31:18). “I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh” (Ezek. 36:26).
(3) On account of the fall, our nature has become so corrupt that it takes pleasure in sin and deludes itself in sins. By nature our heart is rock-hard and does not know how to repent. How, then, will the terror and torment springing from the knowledge of sin be a natural affection? It is God who “sets our secret sins in the light of His face” (Ps. 90:8); it is He who “convicts us” on account of our sins and “sets before our eyes” whatever we have done (Ps. 50:21); it is He who beats upon the stone of our heart with the hammer of the Law and kindles our icy hearts with the “fire” of the Word (Jer. 23:29).