Dist. 17, Part 1, Art. 1, Q. 1
by St. Bonaventure
Source text: Public Domain Mark 1.0. English translation/apparatus/encoding: CC BY-NC 4.0, Wroot Press.
https://bonaventure.wrootpress.com/browse/4/d/17/q/bon-sent-IV-d17-p1-a1-q1
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### Article I. *On the things which are necessary for the justification of the wicked absolutely.*
### Question I. *Whether for the justification of the wicked an infusion of grace is necessary.*

Concerning the first, that an infusion of grace is necessary, it seems [so].

1. To the Romans, the third chapter: *Justified through his grace* etc.

2. Likewise, it seems so by reason: because sin is a privation; but a privation is not removed except through the conferring of a habit: therefore in the deletion of sin some habit is conferred. But sin was displeasing to God and made [one] displeasing: therefore from opposites, that habit is pleasing to God and makes [one] pleasing; but this we call grace making [one] pleasing: therefore etc.

3. Likewise, through sin man is separated from God, therefore from opposites, in justification he is united to God; but union in God is not without a disposition uniting [him], because then the sinner, an enemy to God, would have God before grace: therefore etc.

4. Likewise, it is not fitting that there be, after this state, [any] but two places, namely of glory and of penalty: therefore it is not fitting that man be [anywhere] except in a state in which he can be in one of these: therefore mortal man must necessarily be either in guilt or in grace; but through justification he withdraws from the state of guilt: therefore it is necessary that the habit of grace be conferred upon him.

**On the contrary:** 1. Isaiah, the forty-third chapter: *I am he who blots out your iniquities for my own sake*: therefore the deletion of guilt will be before the habit of grace.

2. Likewise, it is no less wicked to justify than to create; but God creates without a medium: therefore he also justifies.

3. Likewise, the fall was properly from innocence into guilt: therefore since the reformation should correspond to the deformation, man ought to be restored into pure innocence; but this is intermediate between guilt and grace: therefore etc.

4. Likewise, if grace expels guilt, [it does so] either when it [grace] is, or when it is not. If when it is; but the being of an accident is to be-in: therefore it expels guilt when it is in the subject; I ask: from what subject? Not from another's nor from its own, because the expelling of guilt is prior to the man's being made pleasing by grace. If when it is not; but nothing acts when it is not: therefore it does not expel.

5. Likewise, justification is a certain grace: therefore if [it is] from grace, likewise that [grace is] from another, and so on to infinity.

> **Conclusion.** God decreed to delete guilt through grace, which not only restores innocence, but also fits the weakened nature for good.

**I respond:** It must be said: since in every work of the Lord there is mercy and truth, this most of all ought to be in a noble work, namely in the work of justification. Since therefore man sinned and merited nothing before the infusion of grace in God's sight, God by a just

judgment does not wholly take away the effect of guilt, but rather leaves the penalty; and therefore he does not at once restore man to his former state. And since he is merciful, therefore he also renders a greater good, because [man] is in greater need; therefore he not only restores *innocence*, but also gives *grace*. Therefore, although God could delete guilt without a medium, he nevertheless decreed to delete [it] through grace, which would not only make [one] *innocent*, but also would *fit* the weakened nature *for good*. Hence the reasons for this are to be granted.

1. To that which is objected to the contrary, that God alone deletes; it must be said that it is true *effectively*, but grace itself deletes *formally*; God, however, is the perfective form of nothing.

2. To that which is objected, that he alone creates; it must be said that it is not the same: because *to create* names a work which does not regard a recipient matter; but *to justify* regards a subject matter, and therefore regards not only the *efficient* cause, but also the *formal*.

3. To that which is objected, that guilt takes away innocence; it must be said that God did not decree to restore innocence without giving grace, by the reason previously given.

4. To that which is asked: whether grace expels [guilt] when it is etc.; it must be said that when it is, it also is together [with the subject]. — To that which objects, that the being of an accident is to be-in; it must be said that grace is an accident and has its origin really from another than from its proper subject, namely from God. Hence it has a threefold relation: to the *principle* from which it proceeds; to the contrary *sin*, which it expels; to the *subject*, which it perfects; and all these relations are simultaneous in *time*, yet *by nature* grace is first related to the *principle* from which it proceeds, secondly to the *sin* which it expels, thirdly to the *subject* which it perfects. Hence properly speaking, grace is prior from the *efficient* [cause] than that it expel guilt, by *nature*. — And thus the reply to that [objection] is clear. For it objects concerning the being of grace, insofar as it *informs the subject*; but it is prior that grace be *created* by nature, than that the *subject be informed by grace*. Hence just as in the action and production of other forms we understand that the form is first had in the account of an *active power* rather than of an *informing quality*; so let it be understood in the matter proposed, yet the priority is not of *time*, but of *nature*.

5. To that which is objected lastly, it must be said that grace is sometimes called a *habit*, sometimes an *act*, sometimes a *state* in a habit. But justification is called rather an *act* of grace or a *state*, than that it be called the *habit* itself. But why it is rather so named, will be seen below.