Stapleton on the sense of fulfilling the law
Thesis XLVII. Finally, in chapter 15, he explains in what sense, according to the Roman Church, the regenerate fulfil and satisfy the law: 'Whenever the Catholic Church teaches that the law is fulfilled by the regenerate, or that the regenerate fully satisfy the divine law, by "fulfilling" or "fully satisfying" it means the kind of fulfilling that is the opposite of transgressing the law. Transgression is a turning away from the whole breadth of the law, by commission or by omission; so what it means is the true observance and carrying out of the commandments.
It does not mean by "fulfilling" or "fully satisfying" a full measure, as it were, and the fullest manner by which the whole law might be fulfilled, so that the entire law in all its breadth is kept always and most perfectly. That belongs to the full health and perfect righteousness of the next life; the other belongs to the lawful contest and right course of this present life.'
Following this, in the same chapter he explains how the righteousness of believers in this life is perfect in one respect and not perfect in another: 'We must remember that our righteousness in this life is indeed imperfect in some sense, and that the newness in us is only begun. It is imperfect because it is not perfect in every way and in every part; it is begun because it is not full, as it will be in the next life, where it will be so great that nothing can be added to it.
Even so, measured by the capacity of this life and by the nature of present righteousness, which lies in conflict, not in the victory in which death and the law of sin are swallowed up, in the race and the running, not in the prize and the reward, in short on the road and not in the homeland, it is a righteousness worthy of the name.'
Latin
XLVII. Denique cap. 15. sic explicat quo sensu Renati legem impleant, & legi satisfaciant, ex sententia Ecclesiae Romanae. Nempe, inquit, quoties impleri legem a Renatis, vel Renatos plene satisfacere legi divinae docet Catholica Ecclesia, per verbum implendi, aut plene satisfaciendi intelligit illum implendi modum qui opponitur transgressioni legis: quae est aversio a tota latitudine legis, vel commissione, vel omissione facta, id est, veram mandatorum observationem & executionem intelligit. Non autem per verbum implendi, aut plene satisfaciendi intelligit plenam quasi mensuram modumque plenissimum, quo tota lex impleri possit, ut, videlicet, universa lex in tota sua latitudine semper & perfectissime observetur. Hoc enim ad plenam sanitatem & perfectam alterius vitae justitiam pertinet. Illud ad praesentis vitae certamen legitimum, cursumque rectum spectat. Quibus consequenter in eodem capite explicat quomodo justitia fidelium in hac vita certo respectu perfecta sit & non perfecta. Recolere, inquit, necesse est esse quidem nostram in hac vita justitiam aliquo sensu imperfectam: & inchoatam quandam esse in nobis novitatem: sed ideo imperfectam, quia non omni modo, & ex omni parte perfecta est: item ideo inchoatam, quia non est plena, qualis in altera vita erit: ubi tanta erit ut ei nihil addi queat: esse nihilominus pro capacitate hujus vitae, pro ratione justitiae praesentis, quae in conflictu, non in victoria, qua mors & lex peccati absorbentur, in stadio & cursu, non in bravio & praemio, denique in via, non in patria consistit, veri nominis justitiam.