Augustine in His Own Words
(i) Grace and the Will
Simplicianus's first question concerned Rom 7:7–25. In answer, Augustine summarizes insights he had honed in prior works and, momentously, coins a term that would loom large in the later debate: original sin. From To Simplicianus, Book 1, Question 1:
(1.11) "To will," Paul says, "is close to me, but to do the good is not" (Rom 7:18). For those who do not correctly understand these words, Paul seems to be eliminating free choice. But how does he eliminate it since he says, "To will is close to me"? For certainly willing itself is in our power, but what is not in our power is doing what is good. This [inability] is among the results of original sin. This comes not from our original human nature, but rather is the penalty for our guilt through which mortality itself has become a sort of second nature. It is from this that the grace of our Creator liberates those of us who submit ourselves to Him by faith. But these words [of Paul] are the voice of a person who is under the law and not yet under grace. He who is not yet under grace does not do the good he wills but does the evil he does not will, being overwhelmed by a concupiscence whose oak-hard strength not only binds us in a chain of mortality, but also weighs us down with a millstone of habit. But if he does what he does not will, it is no longer he who does it, but the sin that dwells in him. . . .
(1.14) Humankind—conquered, condemned, held captive—must, therefore, speak humbly, and, after having received the Law, not as a victor but rather a law-breaker, must humbly cry out: "O, what a wretched man I am! Who will liberate me from the body of this death? The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Rom 7:24–25). What is left in this mortal life to our free choice is this: Not that a person can fulfill righteousness when he wants to, but that with a humble piety he may turn to the One by whose gift he can have the power to fulfill it.34
(ii) Grace Precedes, Good Works Follow
Simplicianus's second question, on Rom 9:10-29, pressed Augustine to new and dramatic assertions about grace which laid the groundwork for his later positions during the Pelagian controversy. Early in the essay, he insists that we need to read Romans 9 in terms of Paul's broader theology of grace. From On Simplicianus, Book 1, Question 2:
34. Simpl. 1.q.1.11–14 (CCL 44:15–18); my trans. Burns, Development, 30–51, traces how Simpl. overturns certain earlier reflections; Burns also highlights how it differs in subtle, yet vital ways from Augustine's later views, especially those after 418 (see pp. 7–8, 121–24). See also James Wetzel, "Pelagius Anticipated: Grace and Election in Augustine's Ad Simplicianum," in Augustine: From Rhetor to Theologian, ed. Joanne McWilliam (Waterloo, Ontario: Wilfrid Laurier University, 1992), 121–32.