Augustine in His Own Words
Against the Pelagians 387 ings are, as it were, one mass of sin owing a debt of punishment to that divine and highest justice. No matter whether the debt is exacted or waived, there is no injustice. . . . God Himself forces no one to sin, but simply does not lavish the mercy of justification on certain sinners, and for this reason is said "to harden" certain sinners, not because He compels them to sin, but because He does not have mercy on them. For those He is not merciful to, He judges that mercy should not be shown according to a deeply hidden standard of justice far removed from human sensibilities. For "inscrutable are His judgments, and unsearchable His ways" (Rom 11:33). . . .
(2.20) There is a certain passage from Scripture that I take as absolutely necessary to what is being interpreted here, which marvelously confirms what has been explained. It comes from the book that some call "Jesus Sirach" and others call "Ecclesiasticus." In it is written: "All human beings are from the ground, and from earth was Adam created. In an abundance of discipline, the Lord separated them and altered their pathways. Some He blessed and exalted, and these He sanctified and brought to Himself. Some He cursed and humbled, and turned them to dissension among themselves. As clay in a potter's hand, to be molded and arranged in every way according to his good pleasure, so is the human being in the hand of the One who made him according to His judgment. Opposed to evil, there is good; set against death, there is life; so too is the sinner opposed to the just. And so look upon the work of the Most High, two by two, one against the other" (Sir 33:10–15). First, God's discipline is commended here. "In the abundance of discipline," he says, "the Lord separated them"—from what if not from the blessings of paradise? "And he altered their ways"—so that they would now live as mortal beings. Then one mass was made of all of them, coming from inherited sin and its penalty of mortality, though in terms of God's forming them and creating them, they are good. . . . Human nature as a whole is fine-tuned in a marvelous way, the spirit of life vivifying earthly limbs, the soul as ruler, the body as subject. But the concupiscence of the flesh, now reigning as a result of the penalty for sin, has thrown everything into confusion, with the whole human race, because of original guilt, made as though one permanent lump. And yet [Sirach] goes on: "Some He blessed and exalted, and these He sanctified and brought to Himself. Some He cursed and humbled, and turned them to dissension among themselves" (Sir 33:12)—as though saying as the Apostle does: "Or does not the potter have power over the clay, to make out of the same lump one vessel for honor and another for ignominy?" (Rom 9:21)38
38. Simpl. 1.q.2.16–20 (CCL 44:41–52); my trans.
(vi) The Mystery of Election
Augustine, at the midpoint of the essay, wrestles with Jesus' statement, "Many are called but few are chosen" (Mt 20:16), and argues that the elect receive a "suitable calling" (vocans congruens) in which each of the saved is drawn to God in some unique, decisive way. At the end of the essay, Augustine acknowledges the limits of the free choice of the will and the radical mystery of God's election, noting that such a "suitable calling" comes by providential arrangement, a mysterious intertwining of inner delight and an exterior environment of choice. In closing, he turns from Paul's words to Paul's life story and sees it as a paradigm of the mystery of election that defies all human standards of fair play. From To Simplicianus, Book 1, Question 2:
(2.21) The Apostle's main idea . . . is nothing other than this: that the one who glories should glory in the Lord. Who, after all, will question the work of the Lord, who from the same lump damns one and justifies another? Free choice of the will has great value. It certainly exists, but what value is it for those who have been put up for sale due to [the debt of] sin? "The flesh," Paul says, "lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh so that you do not do what you will" (Gal 5:17). It is commanded that we live uprightly, and this reward has been set out: that in eternity we shall merit to live in happiness. But who can live uprightly and do good works unless he has been justified by faith (Rom 5:1)? It is commanded that we believe that, in receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit, we can, through love, do good works. But who is able to believe unless touched by some calling, that is, by a certain testimonial to things? Who has it in his power that some vision touch his mind in a way that his will may be moved to faith? Who embraces, in his core self, something that does not first stir him to delight? But then who has it in his power such that either something happens that is able to delight him or something that delights him happens? Thus when these things by which we make progress delight us, that is because it is inspired and set up by God's grace. It is not acquired by our nodding and our hard labor or the merits of our works because, whether it be the nodding assent of our will, or it be the diligence of hard labor, or it be the works of fervent charity, He bestows it, He lavishes it on us. . . .
(2.22) That if some choice is to be made here, as we understand by what Paul says, that "a remnant was formed through the choice of grace" (Rom 11:5), it is not that the justified are choosing life eternal, but that those who will be justified are chosen. Clearly that choice is so hidden that it does not appear obvious to those of us in that same lump. Or if it appears obvious to others, I for my part confess my own weakness in this matter. . . . Do we not see certain people of both sexes living in marital chastity without com-