Theological Theses · §2282 · Louis Le Blanc de Beaulieu

No Protestant room for works naturally good but not saving

Thesis XXII. From what has been said it is easy to gather that, on the Protestant view, no work is truly good in the moral order unless it is also ordered to eternal salvation and forms part of worship and godliness toward God. For they count nothing worthy of the name of a good work unless it aims at God's glory and springs from love of him.

So the distinction among good works that holds in the Roman School has no place with them: that some works are merely naturally and morally good, yet still truly good even in God's sight, though they do nothing toward eternal salvation, while others help toward salvation and have a supernatural goodness. On their view all truly good works originate in a supernatural principle, namely the grace of Christ, and also contribute something toward eternal life.

If they sometimes ascribe a moral goodness to the works of those outside the grace of Christ, they mean by it a goodness that is only outward and civil. It does not make the work acceptable and pleasing to God, and it does not stop it from really being a sin and deserving the name.

Latin

XXII. Caeterum ex dictis facile colligitur, secundum Protestantes, nullum opus esse vere bonum in genere morum, quod non etiam ad salutem aeternam ordinetur, & partem faciat cultus & pietatis erga Deum, quandoquidem nihil boni operis nomine dignantur quod non in gloriam Dei collineet, & ex dilectione illius oriatur. Proinde apud eos locum non habet illa distinctio bonorum operum quae in Schola Romana obtinet, ut sint quaedam duntaxat naturaliter & moraliter bona, sed vere bona tamen, etiam in Dei oculis, quanquam ad salutem aeternam non prosint: alia vero quae prosint ad salutem, & supernaturalem bonitatem habeant. Etenim, juxta ipsos, omnia opera quae vere bona sunt, a supernaturali principio ortum habent, a gratia Christi, videlicet, & etiam ad vitam aeternam aliquid conferunt. Quod si quandoque operibus eorum qui sunt extra Christi gratiam moralem, aliquam bonitatem tribuunt, eo nomine designant bonitatem quandam solum externam & civilem, & quae non reddit opus Deo gratum & placens, nec obstat quominus reipsa peccatum sit, & dici mereatur.

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