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<\/a>This is a reply to John Calvin\u2019s Acts of the Council of Trent with the Antidote<\/em><\/a> (Nov. 1547), specifically his comments on the Sixth Session<\/a> of the Council of Trent (Jan. 1547), regarding justification. The online treatise is taken from Selected Works of John Calvin: Tracts and Letters<\/em>, Vol. 3: Tracts, Part 3<\/em>; edited and translated by Henry Beveridge (Edinburgh: Calvin Translation Society, 1851). I have a hardcover copy of this volume in my own library: a reprint from Baker Book House (Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1983).<\/p>\n John Calvin\u2019s words will be in blue<\/span>; citations from Trent in green<\/span>. I use RSV for biblical citations.<\/p>\n See Part Two<\/a>.<\/p>\n *****<\/p>\n The doctrine of man\u2019s Justification would be easily explained, did not the false opinions by which the minds of men are preoccupied, spread darkness over the clear light.<\/span><\/p>\n I totally agree!; totally disagree, however, as to the theological system inside which, and because of which most of these errors are found<\/em>.<\/p>\n The principal cause of obscurity, however, is, that we are with the greatest difficulty induced to leave the glory of righteousness entire to God alone. For we always desire to be somewhat, and such is our folly, we even think we are. As this pride was innate in man from the first, so it opened a door for Satan to imbue them with many impious and vicious conceits with which we have this day to contend. And in all ages there have been sophists exercising their pen in extolling human righteousness, as they knew it would be popular.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n First of all, God massively shares His glory with us, as I have amply proven from Scripture<\/a>. Secondly, Calvin, exhibiting his typical unbiblical \u201ceither\/or\u201d error of thought, doesn\u2019t grasp that the good works that regenerated, initially justified believers do are simultaneously God\u2019s own<\/em>. Therefore, He gets ultimate credit for them, while at the same time they are truly our own<\/em>, too. That\u2019s the biblical, Hebraic \u201cboth\/and\u201d outlook on life and theology. Many Bible passages teach this:<\/p>\n Mark 16:20<\/strong> And they went forth and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by the signs that attended it. Amen.<\/p>\n Romans 15:17-19\u00a0<\/strong> In Christ Jesus, then, I have reason to be proud of my work for God. [18] For I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has wrought through me to win obedience from the Gentiles, by word and deed, [19] by the power of signs and wonders, by the power of the Holy Spirit, . . .<\/p>\n 1 Corinthians 3:9<\/b> For we are God\u2019s fellow workers . . .<\/p>\n 1 Corinthians 15:10<\/b> But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God which is with me. (cf. 15:58)<\/p>\n 2 Corinthians 6:1<\/strong> Working together with him, . . .<\/p>\n Ephesians 2:10<\/b>\u00a0For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.<\/p>\n Philippians 2:12-13<\/b> . . . work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; [13] for God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. (cf. Titus 3:5-8)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n This cooperation with God can also make us actually<\/em> righteous (infused justification), by His grace, provided we are willing to cooperate:<\/p>\n Romans 2:13<\/strong> For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.<\/p>\n Romans 3:22<\/strong> the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. . . .<\/p>\n 2 Corinthians 5:21<\/strong> . . . in him we might become the righteousness of God.<\/p>\n 2 Corinthians 9:10<\/strong> He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your resources and increase the harvest of your righteousness.<\/p>\n Ephesians 4:24 <\/strong>and put on the new nature, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.<\/p>\n Philippians 1:9-11<\/strong> And it is my prayer that your love may abound more and more, with knowledge and all discernment, [10] so that you may approve what is excellent, and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, [11] filled with the fruits of righteousness which come through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.<\/p>\n Philippians 3:8-9<\/strong> . . . For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as refuse, in order that I may gain Christ What I find so remarkable is that a man as theologically educated as Calvin can miss so much<\/em> Scripture! I just cited fourteen passages. Who\u2019s more biblical here? But Calvin chooses to simply ramble on, giving his opinions while ignoring what inspired revelation actually teaches<\/em> about the same topics. He does this \u2014 quite annoyingly \u2014 in much of his Antidote<\/em>. I prefer to concentrate, thank you, on what Sacred Scripture teaches, not men\u2019s minds (however \u201cbrilliant\u201d) without immediate recourse to same. We all have to be grounded in the Bible, not our own thoughts, which too often wander from that reliable, never-failing standard.<\/p>\n When by the singular kindness of God, the impiety of Pelagius was repudiated with the common consent of the ancient Church, they no longer dared to talk so pertly of human merit.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Human merit, necessarily brought about by God\u2019s grace (God crowning His own gifts,\u201d as St. Augustine described it) is no<\/em>t Pelagian works-salvation. This is the obnoxious fallacy always spouted by Calvin, and his Calvinist followers, and many other Protestants. If such works are simultaneously God\u2019s and our own (1 Cor 15:10 above), totally enabled by Him from the outset, that\u2019s not mere human works. The Bible teaches that meritorious works are good and required. I found 38 Bible passages<\/a> that teach this. If Calvin wants to disbelieve that much Scripture, then he needs to refute all of it and prove that they don\u2019t mean what they sure appear to mean, and find other ones that teach otherwise. But I\u2019m sure he won\u2019t do that. I\u2019ve replied to him so many times<\/a> I know how he operates by now.<\/p>\n Trent in its Chapter XVI on Justification, stated that \u201cJesus Christ Himself continually infuses his virtue into the said justified,-as the head into the members, and the vine into the branches,-and this virtue always precedes and accompanies and follows their good works, which without it could not in any wise be pleasing and meritorious before God . . .God forbid that a Christian should either trust or glory in himself, and not in the Lord, whose bounty towards all men is so great, that He will have the things which are His own gifts be their merits.\u201d <\/span>Canon XXXII reiterates that \u201cthe good works\u201d<\/span> of the justified person are those \u201cwhich he performs through the grace of God and the merit of Jesus Christ.\u201d Both\/and.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n They, however, devised a middle way, by which they might not give God the whole in justification, and yet give something.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n We didn\u2019t \u201cdevise\u201d<\/span> anything. We follow what St. Paul taught in the above six passages. What\u2019s \u201cdevised\u201d<\/span> is Calvin\u2019s rejection of clear biblical teaching.<\/p>\n Nay, their definition at length contains nothing else than the trite dogma of the schools: that men are justified partly by the grace of God and partly by their own works; thus only showing themselves somewhat more modest than Pelagius was.<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s not either\/or in this sense, because our works are at the same time, God\u2019s (working with us, through grace [1 Cor 15:10], and power [Phil 2:13]). Calvin vainly tries to pretend that we teach that they are wholly and only our own works and divorced from the necessary connection to God\u2019s 100% causal grace. We simply cooperate with Him. That can\u2019t possibly be Pelagianism. Nor is it Semi-Pelagianism. But Protestants \u2014 stuck in the \u201ceither\/or\u201d hyper-rationalistic rut, have been falsely accusing us of those heresies for over 500 years, and, sadly, it won\u2019t ever stop. Wikipedia<\/a>, citing the Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church<\/em>, states:<\/p>\n A distinction is made between the beginning of faith and the increase of faith. Semi-Pelagian thought teaches that the latter half \u2013 growing in faith \u2013 is the work of God, while the beginning of faith is an act of free will, with grace supervening only later.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n That\u2019s emphatically not<\/em><\/strong> Catholic teaching, and this was made clear in Canons I-III of the Sixth Session:<\/p>\n CANON I.-If any one saith, that man may be justified before God by his own works, whether done through the teaching of human nature, or that of the law, without the grace of God through Jesus Christ; let him be anathema.<\/span><\/p>\n CANON II.-If any one saith, that the grace of God, through Jesus Christ, is given only for this, that man may be able more easily to live justly, and to merit eternal life, as if, by free will without grace, he were able to do both, though hardly indeed and with difficulty; let him be anathema.<\/span><\/p>\n CANON III.-If any one saith, that without the prevenient inspiration of the Holy Ghost, and without his help, man can believe, hope, love, or be penitent as he ought, so as that the grace of Justification may be bestowed upon him; let him be anathema.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Later on in his reply, Calvin offers a rare note of agreement, in stating, \u201cTo Canons 1, 2, and 3:, I say, Amen.\u201d<\/span> So he reads those and agrees<\/em>. But they clearly teach that we reject both Pelagianism and Semi-Pelagianism. Yet nevertheless, here he is accusing us of these heresies, anyway, either contradicting<\/em> himself or showing that he has gotten the definitions<\/em> of those heresies wrong<\/em>. It\u2019s one or the other. That said, justification by works (alongside faith and grace) is biblical teaching, too:<\/p>\n Genesis 18:19<\/strong> I have chosen him [Abraham], that he may charge his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing righteousness and justice;\u00a0so that\u00a0the LORD may bring to Abraham what he has promised him.<\/p>\n Romans 2:7<\/strong> to those who by patience in\u00a0well-doing\u00a0seek for glory and honor and immortality,\u00a0he will give eternal life<\/p>\n Romans 2:13<\/strong> For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.<\/p>\n James 2:24<\/strong> You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n they certainly understand that the human will has still some power left to choose good. . . . let them say whether he who makes us to be willing simply assists the will.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The regenerate, grace-enabled will can choose good, but not the unregenerate will, per Canons I-III above. Calvin confuses the two categories. That\u2019s where he goes astray and starts misrepresenting Catholic theology. Alas, his prodigious powers of rationality fail him. Moreover, Trent\u2019s Chapter V on Justification is quite plain when it declares that unregenerate man is \u201cnot able, by his own free will, without the grace of God, to move himself unto justice in His sight.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n For if the will were wholly depraved, its health would not only be impaired but lost until it were renewed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Total depravity is not required here; only an inability to save ourselves without God\u2019s grace. It doesn\u2019t thereby follow that we were maximally wicked through and through, in every conceivable way, as a result of the Fall and original sin. See my articles:<\/p>\n Calvinist Total Depravity vs. Catholic Concupiscence<\/a>\u00a0[1996]<\/p>\n Total Depravity: Reply to James White: Calvinism and Romans 3:10-11 (\u201cNone is Righteous . . . No One Seeks For God\u201d)\u00a0<\/a>[4-15-07]<\/p>\n Calvinist Total Depravity: Does Romans 1 Apply to All Men?<\/a>\u00a0[4-10-08]<\/p>\n 2nd Council of Orange:\u00a0Sola Gratia<\/em>\u00a0vs. Total Depravity<\/a>\u00a0[1-5-09]<\/p>\n Bible vs. the Reformed Doctrine of Total Depravity<\/a>\u00a0[2010]<\/p>\n St. Augustine, Calvin, & Calvinists Regarding Total Depravity\u00a0<\/a>[1-7-14]<\/p>\n Paul claims the whole work for God; they ascribe nothing to him but a little help.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n This distorts the Catholic view, as shown. It\u2019s an outrageous caricature.<\/p>\n Is this the doctrine delivered by Augustine, when he says, \u201cMen labor to find in our will some good thing of our own not given us of God; what they can find I know not?\u201d (Aug. Lib. de Precator. Merit. et Remiss. 2.)<\/span><\/p>\n Exactly. Chapter XVI on Justification teaches the same: \u201cJesus Christ Himself continually infuses his virtue into the said justified,-as the head into the members, and the vine into the branches,-and this virtue always precedes and accompanies and follows their good works, which without it could not in any wise be pleasing and meritorious before God\u201d. <\/span>Canon IV teaches that our \u201cfree will\u201d <\/span>is \u201cmoved and excited by God.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Moreover, God promises not to act so that we may be able to will well, but to make us will well.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Yep; that is stated in Philippians 2:13, that I cited above. Two sentences later, Calvin sites it. I am answering as I read, which is my custom in these dialogues.<\/p>\n The hallucination of these Fathers is in dreaming that we are offered a movement which leaves us an intermediate choice, while they never think of that effectual working by wh<\/span>ich the heart of man is renewed from pravity to rectitude.<\/span><\/p>\n Catholics believe in the predestination of the elect<\/a>, just as Calvinists and other Protestants do. What we deny over against Calvinists (in this instance, in agreement with most Protestants) is predestination to hell.<\/p>\n \u201cPlease Hit \u2018Subscribe\u2019\u201d!<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0If you have received benefit from this or any of my other 4,800+ articles, please follow my blog by signing up (with your email address) on the sidebar to the right (you may have to scroll down a bit), above where there is an icon bar, \u201cSign Me Up!\u201d: to receive notice when I post a new blog article. This is the equivalent of subscribing to a\u00a0YouTube<\/em>\u00a0channel.\u00a0My blog was rated #1<\/a>\u00a0for Christian sites by leading AI tool, ChatGPT: endorsed by influential Protestant blogger Adrian Warnock. Please also consider following me on Twitter \/ X and purchasing\u00a0one or more of my 55 books<\/a>.\u00a0All of this helps me get more exposure, and (however little!) more income for my full-time apologetics work. Thanks so much and happy reading!<\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n<\/div>\n What then, you will ask, does Augustine mean when he speaks of the freedom of the will? Just what he so often repeats, that men are not forced by the grace of God against their will, but ruled voluntarily, so as to obey and follow of their own accord, and this because their will from being bad is turned to good. Hence he says, \u201cWe therefore will, but God works in us also to will. We work, but God causes us also to work.\u201d Again, \u201cThe good which we possess not without our own will we should never possess unless he worked in us also to will.\u201d Again, \u201cIt is certain that we will when we are willing, but he makes us to be willing. It is certain that we do when we do, but he makes us to do by affording most effectual strength to the will.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n This is exactly Catholic teaching, as shown in the citations from Trent above, and in the Scriptures I produced, that we fully believe in.<\/p>\n The whole may be thus summed up \u2014 Their error consists in sharing the work between God and ourselves, so as to transfer to ourselves the obedience of a pious will in assenting to divine grace, whereas this is the proper work of God himself.<\/span><\/p>\n Again, Calvin badly distorts our teaching. Canons I-III obviously agree with this and Calvin agreed with them, so he is again fighting with other statements he has made, which were accurate<\/em> as to our view.<\/p>\n \u201cHe made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might be the righteousness of God in him.\u201d (2 Corinthians 5:19.)<\/span><\/p>\n Can anything be clearer than that we are regarded as righteous in the sight of God, because our sins have been expiated by Christ, and no longer hold us under liability?<\/span><\/p>\n Calvin wants to make out that this is merely imputed, declared, forensic righteousness, but that is not at all certain in the text itself. Two chapters later, Paul writes quite like a Catholic who believes in infused justification and sanctification as part and parcel of it:<\/p>\n 2 Corinthians 7:1<\/strong>\u00a0Since we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from every defilement of body and spirit, and make holiness perfect in the fear of God. (cf. Jas 4:8)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n This is not merely declaring that we are cleansed, but actual cleansing. Immediately before this passage (and the original NT had no chapters and verses) we find the following:<\/p>\n 2 Corinthians 6:14-17<\/strong> Do not be mismated with unbelievers. For what partnership have righteousness and iniquity? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? [15] What accord has Christ with Be\u2019lial? Or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? [16] What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, \u201cI will live in them and move among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. [17] Therefore come out from them, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch nothing unclean; . . .<\/p><\/blockquote>\n St. Peter adds:<\/p>\n 1 Peter 1:14-16, 22 <\/b>As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, [15] but as he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct; [16] since it is written, \u201cYou shall be holy, for I am holy.\u201d . . . [22] Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere love of the brethren, love one another earnestly from the heart.<\/p>\n 2 Peter 3:11<\/strong> . . . <\/b>what sort of persons ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness,<\/p><\/blockquote>\n It is not to be denied, however, that the two things, Justification and Sanctification, are constantly conjoined and cohere; but from this it is erroneously inferred that they are one and the same. For example: \u2014 The light of the sun, though never unaccompanied with heat, is not to be considered heat. Where is the man so undiscerning as not to distinguish the one from the other? We acknowledge, then, that as soon as any one is justified, renewal also necessarily follows: and there is no dispute as to whether or not Christ sanctifies all whom he justifies. It were to rend the gospel, and divide Christ himself, to attempt to separate the righteousness which we obtain by faith from repentance.<\/span><\/p>\n This section is good!<\/p>\n
\n[9] and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, based on law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n