Theological Theses · §2343 · Louis Le Blanc de Beaulieu

Bellarmine's middle way: one habit, distinct only in reason

Thesis XXIV. A great many others take a kind of middle way. They say that grace and charity are not wholly indistinct, yet are distinguished not in reality but only in concept.

Their view is that one and the same habit is called grace insofar as it looks to its subject, adorns the man in whom it dwells and makes him pleasing and lovable to God. Insofar as it looks to the work and makes the will ready to love God above all things, it is properly called charity. This is Bellarmine's view (De gratia et libero arbitrio, book 1, chapter 6).

Latin

XXIV. Sed alii magno numero mediam quodammodo viam insistunt. Dicunt enim gratiam & charitatem neque omnino esse indistinctas, neque tamen reipsa, sed solum ratione distingui. Nimirum haec est eorum sententia, unum atque eundem habitum, qua parte subjectum respicit, atque hominem ipsum in quo inest exornat, Deoque gratum & amabilem reddit, gratiam nominari: qua parte vero respicit opus, & voluntatem promptam efficit ad Deum super omnia diligendum, illum proprie dici charitatem. Quae sententia est Bellarmini lib. 1. de Gratia & Lib. Arbitrio cap. 6.

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