The word grace evidently implies that there is no antecedent merit. And in this way the apostle to the Romans appears to argue, when he says, 'And if… - Thomas Bradwardine
" "The word grace evidently implies that there is no antecedent merit. And in this way the apostle to the Romans appears to argue, when he says, 'And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt.' All this is perfectly intelligible, even in the conduct of liberal and magnificent human characters. They frequently bestow their gifts from a pure spirit of liberality, without the smallest previous claim on the score of merit. And shall not God, whose perfections are infinite, do more than this?
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About Thomas Bradwardine
Thomas Bradwardine (c. 1290 – 26 August 1349) was an English cleric and doctor of theology, scholastic philosopher, mathematician, physicist, courtier, and was elected Archbishop of Canterbury twice. The first election was annulled by King Edward III (to whom Bradwardine was chaplain and confessor) saying he "could ill spare so worthy a man". Within the year, his second election in 1349 was consecrated by Pope Clement VI at Avignon, but upon his return home Thomas died of the prevailing Great Mortality, the Black Death, forty days after his consecration and before he was to be enthroned. As one of the Oxford Calculators at Merton College, Oxford, he contributed to the mathematization of scholastic philosophy and kinematics. He earned the highest reputation following the immediate popularity of his great work De causa Dei contra Pelagium (cause of God against the Pelagians) among learned men of England and the Continent, and thereafter was commonly entitled Doctor Profundus ("the profound doctor").
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Also Known As:
The profound doctor
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Thomas Bradwardin
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Additional quotes by Thomas Bradwardine
St. Augustine confesses that he himself had been formerly in a similar mistake. 'I was once,' says he, 'a Pelagian in my principles; I thought that faith towards God was not the gift of God, but that we procured it by our own powers, and that then, through the use of it, we obtain the gifts of God; I never supposed that the preventing grace of God was the proper cause of our faith, till my mind was struck in a particular manner by the apostle's argument and testimony: What hast thou that thou hast not received, and if thou hast received it, why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it?' In this whole business I follow the steps of Augustine.
When I heard those parts of the Scriptures read in the Church which extol the grace of God, and lower the free-will of man, for example, 'It is not of him that willeth, or of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy,' and many similar passages,—this doctrine of grace was very disagreeable to my ungrateful mind. But afterwards I began to perceive some few distant rays of light respecting this matter. I seemed to see, but by no means clearly, that the grace of God is prior, both in nature and in time, to any good actions that men can possibly perform; and I return thanks to God, from whom proceeds every good thing, for thus freely enlightening my understanding.
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