Law & Grace
I’m doing some work on a debate between Guido de Bres and Francois Richardot, bishop of Arras. I’m tracking down all the references that de Bres made to various church fathers. One of them is to Prosper of Aquitaine, a disciple of Augustine. De Bres quotes from Prosper’s Sentences, a compilation of sayings derived from Augustine. Though de Bres doesn’t quote this exact line, I noticed it and thought it was worth sharing:
“The law was given so that grace would be sought; grace was given so that the law would be kept.”
Lex data est ut gratia quaereretur, gratia data est ut lex impleretur.
There you have it: two uses of the law and an (incipient?) understanding of the law/gospel distinction.
That is succinct! Thanks for posting this, Wes.