Chapter 12 [XI.]—In Our Discussions About Grace, We Do Not Speak of that Which Relates to the Constitution of Our Nature, But to Its Restoration.

I confess to your love, that when I read those words I was filled with a sudden joy, because he did not deny the grace of God by which alone a man can be justified; for it is this which I mainly detest and dread in discussions of this kind. But when I went on to read the rest, I began to have my suspicions, first of all, from the similes he employs. For he says: “If I were to say, man is able to dispute; a bird is able to fly; a hare is able to run; without mentioning at the same time the instruments by which these acts can be accomplished—that is, the tongue, the wings, and the legs; should I then have denied the conditions of the various offices, when I acknowledged the very offices themselves?” It is at once apparent that he has here instanced such things as are by nature efficient; for the members of the bodily structure which are here mentioned are created with natures of such a kind—the tongue, the wings, the legs. He has not here posited any such thing as we wish to have understood by grace, without which no man is justified; for this is a topic which is concerned about the cure, not the constitution, of natural functions. Entertaining, then, some apprehensions, I proceeded to read all the rest, and I soon found that my suspicions had not been unfounded.

CAPUT XI.

12. De gratia cum disputatur, non de ea loquimur quae ad naturae pertinet institutionem, sed reparationem. Fateor Dilectioni vestrae, cum ista legerem, laetitia repente perfusus sum, quod Dei gratiam non negaret, per quam solam homo justificari potest: hoc enim in disputationibus talium maxime detestor, et horreo. Sed pergens legere caetera, primo ex datis similitudinibus coepi habere suspectum. Ait enim: «Nam si dixero, Homo disputare potest, avis volare, lepus currere; et non etiam per quae haec 0253 effici possunt commemoravero, id est, linguam, alas, pedes; num ego officiorum qualitates negavi, qui officia ipsa confessus sum?» Videtur certe, haec eum commemorasse, quae natura valent: creata sunt enim haec membra hujusmodi naturis, lingua, alae, pedes: non tale aliquid posuit, quale de gratia intelligi volumus, sine qua homo non justificatur; ubi de sanandis, non de instituendis naturis agitur. Hinc jam ergo sollicitus coepi legere caetera, et me non falso comperi suspicatum.