condigno_. And yet they bid us doubt whether there be a habit
present. How, therefore, do they know whether they acquire merit _de
congruo_ or _de condigno_ [in full, or half]? But this whole matter
was fabricated by idle men [But, good God! these are mere inane ideas
and dreams of idle, wretched, inexperienced men who do not much
reduce the Bible to practise], who did not know how the remission of
sins occurs, and how, in the judgment of God and terrors of
conscience, trust in works is driven out of us. Secure hypocrites
always judge that they acquire _merit de condigno_, whether the habit
be present or be not present, because men naturally trust in their
own righteousness, but terrified consciences waver and hesitate, and
then seek and accumulate other works in order to find rest. Such
consciences never think that they acquire merit _de condigno_, and
they rush into despair unless they hear, in addition to the doctrine
of the Law, the Gospel concerning the gratuitous remission of sins
and the righteousness of faith. [Thus some stories are told that
when the Barefooted monks had in vain praised their order and good
works to some good consciences in the hour of death, they at last had
to be silent concerning their order and St. Franciscus, and to say:
"Dear man, Christ has died for you." This revived and refreshed in
trouble, and alone gave peace and comfort.]

Thus the adversaries teach nothing but the righteousness of reason,
or certainly of the Law, upon which they look just as the Jews upon
the veiled face of Moses, and, in secure hypocrites who think that
they satisfy the Law, they excite presumption and empty confidence in
works [they place men on a sand foundation, their own works] and
contempt of the grace of Christ. On the contrary, they drive timid
consciences to despair, which, laboring with doubt, never can
experience what faith is, and how efficacious it is; thus, at last