Rational arguments.
Rational arguments.
§ 93. Finally, Bellarmine provides two rational arguments. “(I) The sinner’s prayer appeases God and obtains pardon. All the more, then, will conversion, the cause of the prayer, not be in vain; rather, it will accomplish something to obtain remission. (II) The act of repentance has its source in the Holy Spirit and prepares for justification. Therefore it will, in its own way, be a cause of justification. For neither does the Holy Spirit, who prepares us through an act of this sort, do nothing at all, nor is what He does in the order [leading] to justification of no value or merit at all.”
We respond. (1) But who of us says that conversion or prayer is useless? On the contrary, in fact, salutary conversion and prayer which proceed from faith are required for our reconciliation with God and the forgiveness of sins.
(2) Nonetheless every part of conversion must have its own property attributed to it. Contrition is the forerunner of faith through which the Holy Spirit prepares a person’s heart, that it may be fit for divine grace. Faith is the receiving instrument by which the contrite and humble heart embraces the Gospel promise of the remission of sins. Good works and obedience are fruits of faith and thus of all conversion.
(3) Prayer does not obtain pardon for sins in the manner of merit but because it proceeds from faith, which relies on divine mercy and Christ’s merit. Therefore “God is appeased by the prayer of the devout” must be rightly understood: not because the very dignity of this action or, as they say, the “work worked” [opus operatum] mitigates God’s wrath, for if it were the merit of this work, why would speaking much in prayer be rejected [Matt. 6:7–8]? And why would prayer sometimes become sin? Nor should it be understood as if Christ infuses His own merit into our prayer, so that our own prayer is the appeasement of heavenly wrath and the atonement for sins. Rather, because faith exerts itself through prayers, because it looks upon God’s promises which strengthen and confirm it, because it apprehends Christ on whose account alone God is kindly disposed to us when we pray, and because God finds Christ in us through faith—therefore He pours out every kind of benefit upon us as we call upon Him, not because of the merit of our prayer but because of Christ’s merit. (See the Apol. Conf. Wirteb., ch. De contritione, p. 517.)
(4) All the good works of the reborn are from the Holy Spirit because they are the fruits of the Spirit; yet, according to the apostle, we are justified by faith without works [Rom. 3:28]. More will be said about this matter in the article On Justification [Commonplace XIX, § 152].