Augustine: Earlier Writings (continued)
To Simplician — on Various Questions. Book I
St. Augustine's Review of'De Quaestionibus Ad Simplicianum.''
Retractations, II, i
I . Of the books which I wrote after I became a bishop the first two are Answers to divers Questions addressed to Simplician who succeeded the Blessed Ambrose as Bishop of Milan. In the first book
I have set forth my answer to two questions concerning passages from the Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Romans. The first concerns Romans 7:7-25. Whereas the apostle says, "The law is spiritual but I am carnal etc.," showing that the flesh wars against the spirit, I have expounded his words as if he were describing the man who is still under the law and not yet under grace. Long afterwards I learned that these words could also describe the spiritual man and indeed in all probability do so. The second question concerns Romans 9:10-29. In answering this question I have tried hard to maintain the free choice of the human will, but the grace of God prevailed. Not otherwise could I reach the understanding that the apostle spoke with absolute truth when he said, "Who made thee to differ? What hast thou that thou didst not receive? But if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory as if thou didst not receive it?" This truth Cyprian the martyr too wanted to make clear, and he expressed it completely in a phrase "In nothing must we glory since nothing is ours."
2. In the second book other questions are treated and solved according to our poor capacity. They all come from the socalled Books of Kings. The first concerns the words, "The spirit of the Lord came upon Saul" whereas in another place it is written, "An evil spirit from the Lord came upon Saul." In expounding this I said, "Though to will is in the power of any man, ability to perform is not in his power." The reason for saying this is precisely that we do not say a thing is in our power
TO SIMPLICIAN— ON VARIOUS QUESTIONS
unless what we will is done. Then willing is the first and chief consideration. The will is there immediately when we will; but we receive from above the power to live aright, when the will is prepared by the Lord. The second question is what is the meaning of the words, "I repent that I have made Saul King"? The third is whether the unclean spirit that was in the priestess of Delphi could have brought it to pass that Samuel appeared to Saul and spoke with him. The fourth explains "King David entered and sat before the Lord." The fifth deals with the words of Elijah: "O Lord, thou hast brought evil upon this widow with whom I sojourn, in slaying her son."
To Simplician — on Various Questions. Book I
INTRODUCTION
THE Eighth Book of the Confessions Augustine tells us how in his growing spiritual distress he went to consult Simplician, an aged presbyter of Milan and a trusted friend and counsellor of Ambrose. To him he unfolded the tale of his wanderings in the maze of error; and from him he received encouragement to persevere in the study of the Platonists because in their works ''God and his ^Vord are ever^-^vhere implied." Simplician also told him about \'ic:orinus, the translator of Plotinus, in whose conversion he had had a part. Victorinus, an African by birth, had acquired ^^•ide-spread fame as an orator in Rome, and had so gained the friendship of many Senators. One day he announced to Simplician that in his reading of the Bible and the Christian writers he had become convinced of the truth of Christianity, but he hesitated long before at last he openly confessed his faith by accepting Baptism publicly in the church in Rome. Subsequently he suffered for his faith under the law of Julian which excluded Christians from the teaching profession. The stor\' naturally set Augustine on fire to imitate him. Simplician's spiritual help at this juncture put Augustine deeply in his debt, and betsveen the two men there was forged a bond of regard and affection.
In 397 Simplician succeeded Ambrose as Bishop of Milan, some eighteen months after Augustine had become coadjutor Bishop of Hippo. The latter's first literars* work as bishop was to reply in two books to certain questions of Biblical interpretation sent to him by Simplician. He says they were ^mtten "at the vtvy beginning of my episcopate," and there is nothing to suggest that the elevation of Simplician had already taken place. Of these tvvo books, the first contains the answers to Simplician's first two questions, a detailed exegesis of two difficult passages from the Epistle to the Romans; and it is here translated not only as a good example of Augustine's exegetical work, but also because it is generally held to mark an important stage in his understanding of St. Paul. Augustine himself recognized this, and pointed it out in two of his latest works {De Praedestinatione Sanctorum, iv, 8 and De Dono Perseverantiae, xx, 52).
Even before his conversion, and doubtless owing to the influence of Ambrose, Augustine had been reading the Episdes of St. Paul, and had found in them something that spoke to his condition, perhaps even more directly than did the Platonist books {Confessions, VII, xxi). His copy was lying on his table when Pontician called {ibid., VIII, vi), whose story of St. Antony moved him profoundly and introduced the final scene in the drama of his conversion. When the voice heard in the garden bade him "Take up and read," it was to this book he turned. Opening it at random and chancing to light on Romans 13:13, he saw there a divine call to abandon the world and his conversion was complete. He took the book with him to Cassiciacum and there read it through carefully from beginning to end {Contra Acad., II, ii, 5), clear evidence that his whole activity during that period is not reflected in the Dialogues. Most likely a Pauline influence modifies and colours his Platonism from the beginning, and in time it becomes very marked, notably in De Vera Religione. It is not surprising, therefore, that during his presbyterate he should have devoted much of his attention to the Pauline Epistles. He wrote a commentary on Galatians, and planned another on Romans, but on such a gigantic scale that he abandoned it when he had dealt only with the first five verses of the address. Somewhat earlier a group of clergy in Carthage, which included Augustine, were studying the Epistle to the Romans, and he made some comments which at the request of the brethren he committed to writing under the title of "Exposition of certain Propositions from the Epistle to the Romans." Simplician's Questions concerned two of the passages which had there been briefly dealt with.
The First Question concerns the crucial passage which has been and still is much disputed by theologians, Romans 7:7-25. Augustine's new treatment of it is long and more elaborate but the interpretation remains as in the earlier Exposition. His main concern is to defend the Old Testament Law as a good thing against its detractors. It brings sin to consciousness and makes it more sinful through imparting to it the character of deliberate and conscious transgression of the divine commandment. It cannot give the power to perform that which is right. Nevertheless it points out the way of righteousness, and produces anxiety with regard to guilt so that the soul may be prepared to receive grace. To be under the law is a higher state than to have no law. Augustine still accepts the view that in this passage the apostle is speaking in the character of a man set under the law and not yet under grace. Controversy with the Pelagians forced him later to abandon this view {Contra Duas Epistolas Pelagianorum, I, viii). He came to see that baptized Christians and even apostles could not in this life attain a state of perfect peace and righteousness. Even under grace the impulses of concupiscence have always to be resisted. Here he discovers the principle, so important to Luther and the Reformers, Simul Justus et Peccator.
The Second Question has to do with the interpretation of Romans 9:10-29. Here the much harder problem of the relation of grace and free-will is faced. (2) The clue to its solution is to be sought in the purpose of the Epistle as a whole, which is to show that no man may glory in his own good works. (3) This is strikingly illustrated in the extreme case of Jacob's being chosen and Esau's being rejected before either was born or had done aught of good or evil. There could have been no question of selection, or election, on the strength of good works performed, or even of faith, in either case. (5) The suggestion must be ruled out that the selection was made on the ground of the presence or absence of faith or good works which God foresaw would be forthcoming. (7) Faith is due to the calling of God and must be numbered among the gifts of grace. It is therefore not meritorious. (8) If we say that God graciously calls a man, bestows faith upon him and the power to do good works, no difficulty arises; but (10) why does he not do so in all cases? Is it because some are willing to hear and believe, and others are unwilling? For we cannot believe unwillingly. (12) Formally we have the power to will, but the good will is the gift of God, so that even willing is not wholly ours. (13) What, then, of those who reject God's call? Can they frustrate his gracious purpose? Rather we must say that some are effectually called, others not so. To some the call is made in such a way that they will hear and obey. Others are hardened. (16) Two truths are sure {a) There is no unrighteousness with God. {b) He treats men differently "as he wills." There is a higher hidden justice which is, however, reflected in human affairs. A creditor may exact or remit a debt, and in neither case is he chargeable with injustice. Certainly the TO SIMPLIGIAN— ON VARIOUS (QUESTIONS 375 debtors have no cause for complaint. Man may not question the ways of God. (17) Like the potter with the clay, God makes vessels, some to honour, some to dishonour. (19) All men are made of one lump, a massa peccati, and some are to be saved, others are to be lost. (21) To those whom he wills to save God provides a motive adequate to win them to faith and obedience.
(22) Election, therefore, precedes justification. God elects of his mere good pleasure those who are to be justified so that they may attain eternal life. Without election there can be neither faith nor obedience. But God's judgments are inscrutable and his ways past finding out. For all that he does he is to be praised.
Augustine here has taken a step beyond his earlier Exposition, due, as he tells us repeatedly, to a better understanding of certain Pauline expressions, notably "The election of grace." There he was endeavouring to hold a balance between grace and free-will. "It is ours to believe and to will; it is God's to give to those who believe and are willing the power to do good works, through the Holy Spirit by whom love is spread abroad in our hearts." Now he teaches that God must himself graciously prepare the heart for faith, so that faith too is to be numbered among the gifts of grace, no less than the power to do good; and man's salvation is, therefore, wholly the work of God. The moral difficulty involved in the assertion that God arbitrarily selects some and not others for his gracious aid is met with an appeal to his omnipotence and inscrutable justice. Man may not question his Maker's judgments. "Give what thou commandest, and command what thou wilt." The position is now reached in all its essential features which provoked the protest of Pelagius, and which had to be defended against the Pelagians from 411 onwards to the end of Augustine's life.
To Simplician — on Various Questions. Book I
THE TEXT
Preface
Very pleasing and agreeable is the honour you have done me, Father Simplician, in sending me your questions. If I did not try to answer them I should be not only contumacious but also ungrateful. The problems which you have propounded for me to solve from the apostle Paul I had already discussed in writing. But not content with my former inquiry and exposition, in case
I might have overlooked anything through negligence, I have investigated with greater care and attention these same apostolic words and the tenor of his sentences. For you would not have judged that they should be treated again, if the understanding of them were easy and ready to hand.
First Question. Romans 7:7-25
I. Your first question asks me to interpret the passage beginning: "What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid," down to, 'T consent unto the law that it is good," and so on down to, "O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Thanks be unto God through Jesus
Christ our Lord" (Rom. 7:7-25). In this passage the apostle seems to me to represent himself as a man set under the law, and to speak in that character. And because just before he had said: "We have been discharged from the law of death wherein we were holden; so that we serve in newness of the spirit and not in the oldness of the letter," and might by these words seem to have found fault with the law he added forthwith: "What shall we say, then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Howbeit I had not known sin but by the law. For I had not known concupiscence except the law had said Thou shalt not covet."