3. To this succeeds the constant " gratia cooperans." " Gratia," he says, " dupliciter potest intelligi. Uno modo divinum auxiliun quo nos movet ad bene volendum et agendum. Alio modo hab<- uale donum." Again, " Gratia dividitur in operantem et coop^r- antem, secundum diversos effectus, ita etiam in prasvenienten et subsequentem, qualitercunque gratia accipiatur. Sunt aitem quinque effectus gratia; in nobis, quorum primus est, ut animasane- tur : secundus, ut bonum velit ; tertius est, ut bonum quop vult, efBcaciter operetur : quartus est, ut in bono perseveret : juintus est, ut ad gloriam perveniat." ^
Duns Scotus, in his philosophy and theology, was indeeddevoted to the Church, but antagonistic to the views of her mcst distin- guished teachers. This antagonism was most pronouncd against Thomas Aquinas, whose opinions he took every opportuiity of op- posing. Scotus endeavoured, as far as possible, to ob'terate the distinction between the supernatural and the natural. Admitting the o])erations of divine grace, and their necessity, he iudeavoured to reduce them to the category of the natural or establshed agency of God in cooperation with second causes. He held the doctrine of " absolute power," according to which everythig, the moral law, the method of salvation, everything but abso]ite contradic- tions, are subject to the arbitrary will of God. Godcan, as Scotus taught, make right wrong and wong right, love a cime and malice a virtue. Nothing has any value or merit in itsef. It depends simply on the good pleasure of God, what it avail? There is no
1 Summa, ii. 1. qu. cxiv. G, edit. Cologne, 1640, p. 219 a, ©second set.
2 Ibid. qu. cxi. 2, 3, pp. 210 b, 211 a.
§ 7.] fflSTORY OF THE DOCTRINE. 717
mei'il, much less infinite merit in the work of Christ. God might liave made anytliing else, even the most insignificant, the ground of our salvation. The requisition of fliith and repentance in order to salvation is alike arbitrary. It depends solely on the absolute will of God that holiness, the supernatural work of the Spirit, has higher value than morality, which is the product of the unassisted free-will of man. Sin is wholly voluntary. Hereditary depravity is not truly sin; it is simply the want of the supernatural right- eousness which Adam lost for himself and for all his posterity. The will remains free. Man can sin or avoid all sin. Neverthe- less, God determines to accept only the fruits of grace, with which the will cooperates. It was principally the doctrine of Duns Sco- tus concerning original sin, and its universality, and especially in reference to the Virgin Mary, which was the subject of constant conflict between the Dominicans and Franciscans in the Latin Church.i
The Tridentine Doctrine.
The Council of Trent had a very difficult task to perform in framing a statement of the doctrines of sin and grace which, while it condemned the Protestant doctrine, should not obviously infringe a^^ainst either the acknowledged doctrines of the Latin Church, or the cherished views of one or other of the conflicting parties within its pale. This, indeed, was not merely a difficult, but an impossible task. It was impossible to condemn the Protestant doctrine on these subjects without condemning the doctrine of Au- gustine, which the Church had already sanctioned. The Council availed itself of generalities as far as possible, and strove so to frame its" canons as to secure the assent of the greatest number. On the subject of grace it, (1.) Expressly condemned the Pelagian doctrine of free-will or plenary ability. " Si quis dixerit hom- inem suis operibus, quae vel per humanas naturag vires, vel per legis doctrinam fiant, absque divina per Jesum Christum gratia posse justificari (become holy) coi'am Deo ; anathema sit." " Si quis dixerit, ad hoc solum gratiam per Jesum Christum dari, ut fa- cilius homo justi vivere, ac vitam aeternam promereri possit ; quasi per liberum arbitriuin sine gratia utrumque, sed segre tamen, et difficiliter possit ; anathema sit." (2.) It condemned with equal distinctness the Semi-Pelagian doctrine that man begins the work of conversion: "Si quis dixerit, sine praevenienti Spiritus Sancti inspiratione, atque ejus adjutorio, hominem credere, sperare, dili-
^ On the philosophical and theological position of Duns Scotus, see Ritter's Geschichtt ier Chrisilichen Philosophie, Hamburg, 1845, vol. iv. pp. 35-4-472.
718 PART III. Ch. XIV. — vocation.
gere aut poenitere posse, sicut oportet, ut ei justificationis (recreri' eration) gratia conferatur ; anathema sit." (3.) Against the Re- formers and Augustine the Council decided, " Si quis dixerit, hb- erum hominis arbitriuin a Deo motum, et excitatum nihil cooperari assentiendo Deo excitanti, atque vocanti, quo ad obtinendam justifi- cationis gratiam se disponat, ac ])r3Bparet ; neque posse dissentire si velit ; sed velut inanime quoddam nihil omnino agere, mereque passive se habere ; anathema sit." " Si quis liberum hominis arbitrium [by which is meant, potestas ad utramque partc7n\ post Adas peccatum amissum, et extinctum esse dixerit ; aut rem esse de solo titulo, immo titulum sine re, figmentum denique a Satana invectuin in ecclesiam : anathema sit." ^
There is of course confusion and misapprehension in all these statements. The Protestants did not deny that men cooperate in their own conversion, taking that word in the sense in whicli the Romanists used the term (and the still broader term justification ^ as including the whole work of turning unto God. No one denies that the man in the synagogue cooperated in stretching out his withered arm or that the impotent one at the pool was active in obeving the command of Christ, " Arise, take up thy bed, and go unto thine house." But the question is. Did they cooperate in the communication of vital power to their impotent limbs ? So Protestants do not deny that the soul is active in conversion, that the " arbitrium a Deo motum " fi'eely assents ; but they do deny that the sinner is active and cooperating in the production of the new life in the exercise of which the sinner turns to God. Moeh- ler, the ablest and most plausible of the modern defenders of Ro- manism, uses the word " new-birth " as including the life-long process of sanctification, in which the soul is abundantly coopera- tive. He recognizes, how^ever, the radical difference between the Tridentine doctrine and that of the Protestants. He insists that in the whole work, in regeneration in its limited sense, as well as in conversion, the soul cooperates with the Spirit, and that it depends on this oooperation, whether the sinner receives the new life or not. The power of the Spirit in all its inward operations may be resisted or assented to as the free-will of the subjects of his influ- ence may decide. " According to Catholic principles," as before quoted, he says, "there are two agencies combined in the work of the new birth, the human and the divine, so that it is a divine- human work. The divine influence goes first, exciting, awaken- ing and vivifying, without any agency of the man in meriting,
1 Sess. VI. can. i.-v. ; Streitwolf, Libri Sijmbolici, pp. 33, 34.