Grace and Justification
According to Saint John Fisher and Saint Alphonsus [Transcript]
It’s Tuesday my dudes, you know what that means, it’s time for another episode of the original win podcast. My name is John Fisher 2 point 0, and join me today as we discuss justification, sanctification, and the doctrine of predestination according to Saint Alphonsus and Saint John Fisher.
Before we begin the podcast, I want to define 4 words, grace, predestination, justification, and sanctification. It is important we begin here so we don’t get lost in jargon we don’t understand. The following definitions I take from the Catholic Church’s catechism.
1. Grace is favor, the free and undeserved help that God gives us to respond to his call to become children of God, adoptive sons, partakers of the divine nature and of eternal life.[1]
2. Justification is God’s act of (1) detaching us from sin (2) the acceptance of God’s righteousness — along with the virtues of faith, love, and hope — reconciling ourselves to God’s will, (3) establishes the cooperation between God’s grace and man’s freedom, and lastly, (4), grants us the merits of Jesus Christ given to us from his passion[2]
3. Sanctification is the renewal of the interior man[3]
4. Predestination is God’s act of calling those who love him to be justified and glorified.[4]
As Catholics, affirming these is essential to the faith, but the way we systematize these things differs, and by systematize, I mean “make these into a system”. Christian history gives us two heresies we must avoid when making any such system, both on two different sides of a spectrum. On the first side of the spectrum we have Pelagianism and semi-Pelagianism, on the other side we find predestinarianism. While Pelagius had himself a host of doctrines and intertwined beliefs, the ones which the church as historically condemned include the following propositions condemned by the Council of Carthage,
1. Death did not come to Adam from a physical necessity, but through sin.
2. New-born children must be baptized on account of original sin.
3. Justifying grace not only avails for the forgiveness of past sins, but also gives assistance for the avoidance of future sins.
4. The grace of Christ not only discloses the knowledge of God’s commandments, but also imparts strength to will and execute them.
5. Without God’s grace it is not merely more difficult, but absolutely impossible to perform good works.
6. Not out of humility, but in truth must we confess ourselves to be sinners.
7. The saints refer the petition of the Our Father, “Forgive us our trespasses”, not only to others, but also to themselves.
8. The saints pronounce the same supplication not from mere humility, but from truthfulness.[5]
There is a ninth canon which is disputed historically, which I won’t get into, but for now, let’s touch on semi-Pelagianism. After the decrees of the Council of Carthage, a group of semi-Pelagian monks in southern Gaul. The first 8 canons condemn the following beliefs,
1. That original sin only impairs the body, and not the body and soul.
2. That original sin either effects Adam, or at most, the bodies of Adam and his descendance.
3. That God gives you grace as a result of human prayer, but that it is not grace itself which makes us pray to God, but that prayer earns or merits us grace.
4. Confessing that God awaits the spiritual cleansing of our wills, without confessing that even our wills will be cleansed with the infusion and work of the Holy Spirit.
5. Holding that the power to come into one’s faith and be justified belongs to man, God’s grace only secures us in the faith afterwards.
6. Holding that the things necessary to entering a state of salvation, such as our prayers, proper will and virtue, etc., are natural to us and are not a gift of God’s grace.
7. Holding to the belief that we can form any right opinion or make any right choice as it relates to salvation without the inspiration of the Holy Ghost.
8. Holds that, by free will, some can come to baptism despite its corruption by original sin.[6]
In summation, Pelagians hold that Adam only provided his descendants with a bad example, and that we could be saved without need of God’s grace. Semi-Pelagians hold that God’s grace is only necessary to keep us in the faith after we have been baptized, and that original sin only effects the body with sickness and death but does not affect the soul. This is one side of the spectrum. On the other side of the spectrum we have predestinarianism, the belief that God willfully damns some and willfully saves others. This view is also rejected by the council of Orange, which says,
We not only do not believe that any are foreordained to evil by the power of God, but even state with utter abhorrence that if there are those who want to believe so evil a thing, they are anathema[7]
So, we as Catholics must avoid these two sides of the spectrum in order to retain our Orthodoxy. Now that the problem has been spelled out, what do we do in order to avoid the extremes of both this spectrum? Well, we turn to the teachings of the Saints, the two I have in mind are Saints John Fisher and Saint Alphonsus. According to Saint John Fisher’s commentary on Liber Ecclesiasticorum Dogmatum, as translated by Richard Rex, we find the following process of salvation,
First comes the beginning of our salvation, by which we understand the primary grace which incites us to do good. Then comes the assent of our will, by which we follow that stimulus. He says that this lies within our power. Third is saving grace, by which we are made pleasing to God. This is a gift of God alone. Fourth is perseverance in grace, which is a matter not only for our concern, but also for the divine assistance. Fifth is the fall from grace, which is purely a matter of our will, done by ourselves alone.[8]
Note here, from beginning to end, we avoid all forms of Pelagianism and semi-Pelagianism since we are only incited to do good because of the primary grace given to us by God. However, we can still fall away from the faith because we retain the freedom to sin. Fisher also draws a distinction between saving grace, and the primary grace needed to do good given our fallen nature.
Now, where is the distinction given between a primary grace that enables one to come toward salvation, and saving grace? Saint Paul writes the following to the Philippians,
For it is God who worketh in you, both to will and to accomplish, according to his good will — Philippians 2:13
God works in us to “will and accomplish according to his will”, here, our wills only accomplish his good will based on the fact he is working in us. This isn’t also reserved for those of us who will be saved, for Paul isn’t under the illusion everyone in the church receiving his message will be saved. Furthermore, in 2 Corinthians 6:1, Paul even warns of receiving “not the grace of God in vain”. Unless one can walk away from the faith or turn down the primary grace which incites us to repentance, such a verse makes no sense. Lastly, in 2 Corinthians 3:5, Paul speaks of the Corinthians in an epistle, that is an example of the Gospel, but speaks of being in that state not as a result of our own works, but God’s. He says, “not that we are sufficient to think any thing of ourselves, as of ourselves: but our sufficiency is from God”.
This brings us to the next question, if grace is sufficient, why is there any need for our response to God’s grace? Simple, grace is sufficient because God can enable anyone to be saved through it, but our response is needed to demonstrate our outward dependence on God alone, which God answers as prayer by providing us an intrinsic and efficient grace to save us. While Saint John Fisher speaks of a distinction between primary grace and saving grace, in Catholicism, many schools attempt to distinguish the two without falling into the traps of predestinarianism and pelagian or semi-pelagianism. If free will is taken out of the equation, we fall into predestinarianism, if our works are added in, then we fall into a sort of semi-Pelagianism. The trick is to avoid both.
According to the system offered to us by the Great doctor of the Church, Saint Alphonsus Liguori, all are given sufficient grace to do simple acts of faith, such as prayer, and this is common to all, and is the only grace required. This grace is not only limited to our lives before coming into the faith, but while in the faith, we must utilize this common grace as a means of remaining in the faith, as well as coming to faith. This act of prayer strengthens our love of God and moves us towards him. This grace is given, not out of our own power, but out of God’s since we are fallen. This grace is not in and of itself intrinsically efficacious, meaning it doesn’t bring us to salvation because it has a weak influence over our fallen nature[9]. In order to strengthen our grace which is sufficient to bring us to efficient grace, we require God to answer our prayers and grant us the stronger efficient grace, which causes our justification and our sanctification.[10]
One objection would be to ask why does God not give us the stronger grace in the first place if such a grace is compatible with our free will?[11] If it’s to get us to participate in our salvation, it would seem to fall into semi-Pelagianism. While God could hypothetically do this, he chose to make prayer an integral part of our salvation because it is fitting since it serves as an outward showing of our dependence of God.[12] This is the answer Saint Alphonsus received from Petavius Duval. Furthermore, since prayer requires God to answer it, and to establish the practice, prayer is his act since he first initiated the practice through establishing it, and he answers the prayer once it is offered. Saint Alphonsus also reminds us that prayer is not a work since it is the requisite for works.[13]
Saint Alphonsus claims that the most persuasive reason is that by requiring prayer, God has made it so that we are required to exercise the virtue of Hope. Alphonsus cites Psalm 147:11 which reads, “but the Lord takes pleasure in those who fear him, in those who hope in his steadfast love.” as a means of understanding God’s motive in making prayer an integral part of our salvation.[14] St. Alphonsus cites 1 Peter 1:13 which reads “set your hope fully upon the grace that is coming to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ”.[15] Peter speaks of this grace as salvation, specifically the salvation the prophets of the old testament foretold.
In verse 10 he writes, “The prophets who prophesied of the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired about this salvation”. This is the efficient grace, the grace which brings us to salvation, which keeps us in salvation. This is different from the sufficient grace which moves us to prayer and hope. This is the grace we are to hope comes upon us.
Even Paul says, Alphonsus reminds us,[16] “For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees” in Romans 8:24.
Sufficient grace is sufficient because it has the power to bring about efficient grace if one prays, if they do not, then it follows such grace was wasted. Sufficient grace is given to all, and in a full sense God calls all people to salvation. Saint Augustine is cited by Saint Alphonsus (alongside men like Saints Basil, John Chrysostom, and Bernard) who says “the Pelagians think themselves very knowing when they say, God would not command that which he knows man could not do. Who is ignorant of this? But God does command some things that we cannot do, in order that we might know that for which we ought to ask him”.[17] While for man, it is impossible to be saved, for God, all things become possible. Even Saint Augustine says, “God does not command impossibilities”.[18]
Not content merely to cite Church Fathers, he also cites sacred scripture. He cites 1 Corinthians 10:13, “No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your strength, but with the temptation will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it”.[19] Here, Saint Paul shows that free will is beyond God not putting a gun to your head, but requires a means of enduring temptation.
In Deuteronomy 30:11 we read, ““For this commandment which I command you this day is not too hard for you, neither is it far off”.[20] Now, while it is true that no fallen human being has ever kept the law going back to the Old testament, we read in Ecclesiastes 7:20 “Surely there is no righteous man on earth who does good and never sins”, Moses reminds us that we only need to call upon God to keep his commandment since the grace of God’s word is in us, “But the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it.” (Deuteronomy 30:14). Saint Paul quotes this in Romans 10:8–9,
But what does it say? The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart (that is, the word of faith which we preach); because, if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
We merely need to use the word in our heart, the word of faith, in confession for the law to go from impossible to possible.
Scripture in multiple places says God calls, in a certain sense, all to salvation. One place cited by Alphonsus is Matthew 11:28 — Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.[21] Jesus does not specify a subset of people who labor and dwell, but all people. Elsewhere he cites 2 Peter 3:9[22] — The Lord is not slow about his promise as some count slowness, but is forbearing toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
The last grace we need to discuss is the grace of final perseverance, which is the grace to persevere in the faith without committing any mortal sin and thus forfeiting the faith.[23] This is not given at the same time as efficacious grace? Saint Alphonsus gives three reasons.
(1) God does so to better prove we should have confidence in him.[24]
(2) To create a great desire for our perseverance.[25]
(3) So, we might not forget him in our religious lives, going back to God always more and more in our weakness, rather than despair about whether God has chosen us.[26]
This is a grace we are not to presume we have, but hope in. Again Romans 8:24 reminds us, when speaking about our future resurrection of the dead, “For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees”. If God has already revealed we are saved, then there is no point or reason to hope, but we must trust in God. The council of Trent affirms “So also as regards the gift of perseverance, of which it is written, He that shall persevere to the end, he shall be saved…let no one herein promise himself any thing as certain with an absolute certainty”.[27]
We must look to the graces requested of God in prayer for our salvation, and that our prayers to God have been answered. By taking hope in them, and having faith in God to answer them, we can take comfort knowing God will provide the graces needed to be saved.
Now that we covered grace, we can move onto the topic of predestination. Predestination is the idea that God calls on those he loves to be justified. How does he do this? Well, Saint Alphonsus quotes scripture, and cites Romans 8:30 “And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified”. Predestination begins as a call; we are all called to the church. Then we are justified, and it is in the final move we are glorified.[28] However, not all of us who are call heed that call, and he allows us to fall away. Predestination is first a hypothetical universal call to salvation, and it is made for all. However, those who choose to remain obstinate God removes even his sufficient grace and allows them to fall away, rather than choosing from eternity to will them to fall into hellfire. Even Alphonsus reminds us Jesus instructed the faithful to pray “lead us not into tempration”.[29]
But what about verses of scripture like Romans 9:22–23, which read “What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience the vessels of wrath made for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for the vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory”. An example of this is given of pharaoh, whose heart was hardened by God. According to Saint Alphonsus God does abandon some sinners who reject his call to their vocation since out of their obstinance. This is done when a sinner loves his sin to such a degree that they require supernatural intervention, like in the case of Saint Paul. But since God cannot be said to be at fault for not healing the blind, he is in no more fault for not healing them.[30]
Looking at the example of Pharaoh in Exodus, while it is true God hardens Pharaoh’s heart, if we read a full chapter earlier, we know this is done by not providing Pharaoh a grace efficient enough to overcome his evil. In Exodus 3:19 we read, “I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless compelled by a mighty hand”. While it was not from the necessity of compulsion Pharaoh was drawn to sin, but from the fact that God knew infallibly his heart would harden and he would grant him no means of overcoming it.[31]
Remember, God’s knowledge, while it cannot be wrong, is not always necessary. To give a distinction, although I know infallibly, I exist, there is no necessity to my existence since God could have chosen not to create me. Now there is more to be said about God’s foreknowledge and free will, and for that I’ll link a blog post in the description.[32] However, as it stands, God had not removed the possibility of overcoming sin from Pharaoh, but knew with full certainty that as things stood, he would cave to his sinfulness.
So, why doesn’t God grant such sinners the grace needed to overcome their overt love of sin? Well for that we only need to read the words of Saint Paul in Romans 9:22 “Has the potter no right over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for beauty and another for menial use?”.[33] So, once God has chosen to leave sinners in their love of obstinance, he has let them fall into their sins and they are left in reprobation without anything pushing them to see their dependence of God.
Now, let’s move onto justification. Catholics and Protestants have a disagreement. It’s typically phrased in this way. Catholics believe we are saved by faith and works, while protestants believe in just justification by faith alone. But it’s not that simple. Catholics condemn this. Trent teaches the following
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.[34]
Or, more simply, if you believe you don’t need the Holy Spirit to inspire a person to believe, hope, love or repent of their sins so that they can be justified before God, you’re out of the church. Grace at this stage is called initial justification.
Here the believer, after the prompting of the Holy Spirit who provides us the sufficient grace needed to be saved, needs only to pray to God and confess that he is powerless to come to salvation without the help of almighty God. He must admit that he is a sinner, requesting the grace of God in dependence on his mercy by prayer. God then takes mercy upon him. Man must then co-operate with God’s efficacious grace through prayer, putting into practice the initial justification given to him. This exercise of initial justification assists man in growing more and more into the faith, and God establishes works by which we grow and sustain ourselves in faith. Fisher cites James 2:14–26.[35]
What does it profit, my brethren, if a man says he has faith but has not works? Can his faith save him? If a brother or sister is ill-clad and in lack of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what does it profit? So faith by itself, if it has no works, is dead. But some one will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith apart from your works, and I by my works will show you my faith. You believe that God is one; you do well. Even the demons believe — and shudder. Do you want to be shown, you foolish fellow, that faith apart from works is barren? Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he offered his son Isaac upon the altar? You see that faith was active along with his works, and faith was completed by works, and the scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness”; and he was called the friend of God. You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone. And in the same way was not also Rahab the harlot justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way? For as the body apart from the spirit is dead, so faith apart from works is dead.
Here James is speaking about continuing in justification. Here faith has been established by God already to the hypothetical believer, it’s just that James warns without works such faith is dead. The works are those things needed for the body. Now, in my experience protestants will tell us that James is speaking about how works are important in demonstrating faith, not in justifying oneself before God.
There are some problems with this understanding, firstly, Abraham was alone in the wilderness, there was no one to whom he had to demonstrate his faith. Secondly, it doesn’t fit with James’ metaphor. A man with faith and lacking works is like a man without food or clothing being told to “Go in peace, be warmed and filled” without the necessary things to keep him warm. The issue Saint James points to is that such a man will die unless he has the means of working, not that he will be unable to demonstrate his warmth and satisfied appetite, nor that he didn’t truly take to heart the command.
Even preserving in faith through persecution merits inward renewal “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed every day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison”, 2 Corinthians 4:16–17. It’s through these acts, and Catholics would add the sacraments, which God continues to justify and sanctifies us. For Catholics, sanctification is just a part of continual justification. However, it is not our own merit God awards, but the merit of Jesus on the Cross which he gives us for our salvation as we exercise it. Colossians 1:10–12 — “to lead a life worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God. May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light”.
Protestants will usually use Galatians 2: 16 in defense of their idea that we are saved by faith alone. “yet who know that a man is not justified by works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, in order to be justified by faith in Christ, and not by works of the law, because by works of the law shall no one be justified”. Notice Paul says we are justified through faith in Christ, and I’ll agree the word “alone” can be well read in since it is contrasted from works. However, such a law is the Jewish Law of Moses, not works in general. Paul is speaking against Jews who wished to make observing the Law of Moses and circumcision the means of entering the new covenant and being justified, rather than faith in Jesus. Notice Paul says, “in order to be justified by faith”, this implies a future entry into the new covenant, not someone who is already therein. I want to quote Catholic apologist Al Kresta, whose passage can be found written at length over at David Armstrong’s blog. I will quote it here at length.
Paul’s arguments against works of the law are not fundamentally arguments against human participation in or human cooperation with the saving purposes of God but arguments against Judaistic pride that sought to define membership in the covenant community by reference to Jewish marks of identity, such as circumcision, Sabbath-keeping, etc. and not fundamentally faith in Jesus as Messiah.
Contrary to the pronouncements of popular preachers, first century Judaism did not believe in salvation by works. They believed that they were God’s elect people by grace; lawkeeping was their response to God’s grace. Salvation was understood to be granted by God’s electing grace, not according to a righteousness based on merit-earning works. But most Protestant scholars since Luther have read Paul as saying that Judaism misunderstood the gracious nature of God’s covenant with Moses and perverted it into a system of attaining righteousness by works.
Wrong! Luther’s experience was not Paul’s. New Testament scholars, for the most part, now understand works of law not as synonymous with human effort but as the activities by which the Jews maintained their distinct status from the Gentiles . . .
For Paul, these boundary-defining features distinguished Israel in the flesh (Romans 2:28) and encouraged Jews to boast in their national identity (Romans 3:27–29; Galatians 2:16; 6:13). They were obstructing the extension of God’s grace to the nations through Christ. In so doing, they were undermining their very purpose of existence: all the nations were supposed to be blessed by the offspring of Abraham (Genesis 12:3; Deuteronomy 4:6; Isaiah 66:20). So when Paul says of the Jews that “they sought to establish their own righteousness” (Romans 10:3) he doesn’t mean that they were trying to earn their salvation through human exertion but that they arrogated to themselves the authority to set the conditions by which believing Gentiles could be regarded as full members in the new covenant community. They rejected the authoritative apostolic teaching that the Gentiles and Jews constituted one body (Acts 15:1,24; Galatians 1:7; 2:12; 5:10; Ephesians 2–3:13) and they sought to thwart God’s inclusion of the Gentiles by insisting that Gentiles first become Jews through circumcision, etc., rather than through faith in Jesus, who is the ‘aim’ or ‘end’ of the law (Philippians 3:2; Galatians 5:6; 6:15; 1 Corinthians 7:19; Romans 10:4). They were retrogressive . . . (From unpublished lecture notes entitled Some Further Thoughts on Justification by Faith Through Grace (1993); used by express permission of the author; later cited in my book, A Biblical Defense of Catholicism)[36]
So, this brings us to the question, how are we saved? In order to get the perfect parable for this model of justification, Saint John Fisher uses Luke 18:10–14 in order to illustrate the means God justifies us.[37]
“Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, ‘God, I thank thee that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other; for every one who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.”
Notice here that the tax collector shows a sign of humility over and above the Pharisee, humbling himself as a sinner, in need of God’s justification in prayer. This act of humility is not a work of our own power since the tax collector admits he is too much of a sinner, unlike the Pharisee who earns salvation by exhibiting the hubris of keeping the law of his power, rather than admitting he is a sinner in constant dependence of God’s grace to sustain him. The Jews fell not out of the impossibility to keep the law, for through God’s power all things are possible, but for forgetting only through God all things are possible.
So, remember, humble yourselves, pray, repent of your sins, and continue to grow in the faith. This is how you are saved. By God’s grace enabling you, and by prayer bringing you to repentance given by God’s mercy. This is how you are justified, first by your faith and secondly, by “faith working through love” Galatians 5:6, continually. This is how we are also sanctified since those works bring us further grace. Lastly, all men predestined by God calling them, but only those of us who don’t remain obstinate receive his grace are predestined to persevere.
Saint John Fisher pray for us.
Saint Alphonsus Liguori pray for us.
Dear listeners pray of us as we conclude another podcast, God bless.
Citations
[1] Part 3, Article 2, 1996 https://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p3s1c3a2.htm
[2] Part 3, Article 2, 1990–1992 https://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p3s1c3a2.htm
[3] Part 3, Article 2, 1998 https://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p3s1c3a2.htm
[4] Part 3, Article 2, 2012 https://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p3s1c3a2.htm
[5] https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11604a.htm
[6] http://www.crivoice.org/creedorange.html
[7] http://www.crivoice.org/creedorange.html
[8] Richard Rex, The Theology of John Fisher, 127
[9] St. Alphonsus de Liguori, The Great Means of Salvation and of Perfection, 202–203
[10] Ibid, 204
[11] Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J., History and Theology of Grace Chapter VIII Analysis of Efficacious Grace, http://www.therealpresence.org/archives/Grace/Grace_015.htm
[12] St. Alphonsus de Liguori, The Great Means of Salvation and of Perfection, 227, https://archive.org/details/thecompleteascet03liguuoft
[13] Ibid, 198
[14] Ibid, 228
[15] Ibid, 229
[16] Ibid, 104
[17] Ibid, 221
[18] Ibid, 199
[19] Ibid, 173
[20] Ibid
[21] Ibid, 214
[22] Ibid, 118
[23] Ibid, 99
[24] Ibid
[25] Ibid, 100
[26] ibid
[27] Cuncil of Trent, Session 6, 1st decree, Chapter 12, http://www.thecounciloftrent.com/ch6.htm
[28] St. Alphonsus de Liguori, The Great Means of Salvation and of Perfection, 382 https://archive.org/details/thecompleteascet03liguuoft
[29] Ibid, 157
[30] Ibid, 159–160.
[31] ibid
[32] https://medium.com/@StJohnFisher/how-to-understand-foreknowledge-and-free-will-ed6752f2ab71
[33] St. Alphonsus de Liguori, The Great Means of Salvation and of Perfection, 159 https://archive.org/details/thecompleteascet03liguuoft
[34] Council of Trent, Session 6, Canon 3, http://www.thecounciloftrent.com/ch6.htm
[35] Richard Rex, The Theology of John Fisher, 118
[36] David Armstrong, Galatians and the Gospel: Dialogue with a Calvinist, https://www.patheos.com/blogs/davearmstrong/2018/10/galatians-and-the-gospel-dialogue-with-a-calvinist.html
[37] Richard Rex, The Theology of John Fisher, 118
