"fear not"? "For when he shall die, he shall not re-
he is seeking, but not in the proper region thereof he is seeking it. There is no peace in this life; in Heaven hath been promised that which on earth we are seeking: in the world to come hath been promised that which in this world we are seeking.
"Fear not, though a man be made rich, and though 6. the glory of his house be multiplied." Wherefore "fear not"? "For when he shall die, he shall not receive anything" (ver. 17). Thou seest him living, consider him dying. Thou markest what he hath here, mark what he taketh with him. What doth he take with him? He hath store of gold, he hath store of silver, numerous estates, slaves: he dieth, these remain, he knoweth not for whom. For though he leaveth them for whom he will, he keepeth them not for whom he will.
VIII. DIMENSIONS OF GRACE
It is as the Doctor of Grace that St. Augustine is best known in the history of Christian theology; no anthology would be complete without some examples of his teaching in this important area. Yet the Augustinian view of divine grace has occasioned centuries of controversy and no definitive interpretation can be attempted in this brief forenote.
Augustine took grace to mean a help which God gives to men, over and above their natural endowments, to enable them to will and to accomplish actions that may merit eternal salvation. If we were dealing with a theologian of the sixteenth century, it would be possible to say that divine grace lifts man to the level of "supernatural" life and action. But the distinction between the natural and the supernatural orders is not formally treated by St. Augustine (see T.A Deman, in Augustinus Magister, Ill, 258; and Henri De
Lubac, Surnaturel: Etudes Historiques [Paris: Aubier, 1946]), and this precision is not available for our use. This is not to say that Augustine is antagonistic to the idea of the supernatural; he simply does not discuss the matter in these terms.
During the latter part of Augustine's lifetime, the Pelagians were teaching that the free choice of man's will is by itself powerful enough to enable a person to perform actions that will merit Heaven. Pelagius did not deny that God may help. man through grace—but he claimed that such gratuitous help is not really necessary, that grace is more like an ornament than a necessity in the spiritual life. Augustine (and the whole central tradition in Christian theology) insisted that divine grace is essential to the performance of meritorious action, that such grace cannot be merited by any preceding act of man, and so, that grace is a free gift to men by God. These points are anticipated in our second selection, in which Augustine is reviewing his treatise On Free Choice and the attempt of the Pelagians to claim the patronage of this youthful dialogue. It is clear that St. Augustine never thought as a Pelagian.
Important for the understanding of this whole problem of the relation between human action and God's activity is the Augustinian distinction between free choice (liberum arbitrium) and a higher freedom (libertas). The point is touched on in the selection from the Enchiridion: "How Freedom
Is Restored by Grace." The former is a part of man's created nature: the soul as will is endowed at birth with the ability to turn toward or away from its supreme good; this ability is liberum arbitrium. It implies a freedom of alternatives: to do what is good or what is evil. On the other hand, God may so dispose the human will that it inclines only toward its true good. This divine disposition would free the will from its tendency toward evil; such eminent freedom is libertas. Obviously, libertas is a resultant of the action of God's grace. (Consult: Gilson, Christian Philosophy of St. Augustine, Part II, chap. 3.)
In his highly regarded introduction to St. Augustine, Eugéne Portalié offered a final summary of the teaching on grace, in terms of the following three propositions: (1) 'The absolute sovereignty of God over the will is opposed to the Pelagian principle of the emancipation of liberty." (2) "Freedom of choice, even under the influence of efficacious grace, was always safeguarded by St. Augustine." (3) "The Augustinian theory on the divine influence reconciles both grace and freedom of the will." (Guide, pp. 192-198.)
WHAT THE GRACE OF GOD IS*
The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord must 2.3. be understood as that by which alone men are delivered from evil, and without which they do absolutely no good thing, whether in thought, or will and affection, or in deed; not only in order that they may know by the manifestation of the same what should be done, but moreover in order that by its enabling they may do with love what they know. Indeed, the apostle requested this inspiration to good willing and working for those to whom he said: "But we pray God that you may do no evil at all, not wishing ourselves to appear approved, but that you may do what is good." [2 Cor. 13:7]
* On Admonition and Grace, 2.3; trans. Nicene.
AUGUSTINE WAS NEVER A PELAGIAN*
Because of the nature of the problem faced here, 9.2. there is no discussion in these books [On Free Choice] concerning the grace of God, by which He has predestined His chosen ones in such a manner that He Himself has even made ready the volitions of those whom He has already endowed with free choice. Wherever the occasion arose when this grace might be mentioned, it was noted in passing but not defended by elaborate arguments, as if it were the main topic. Indeed, it is one question to inquire into the source of evil and quite a different one to ask how we may return to our original goodness, or achieve a greater good....
For this reason, the new heretics, the Pelagians— 9.3. who make such claims for the free choice of the will that they leave no place for God's grace, because they say that grace is given according to our merits— should not boast that I formerly supported their claims, simply because I said a great deal in favor of free choice, as the nature of my discussion required....
In these and similar texts of mine, since God's grace 9.4. is not mentioned because at that time it was not a subject of dispute, the Pelagians thought, or tried to think, that we held their view. But they were quite wrong. The will is, indeed, that whereby we sin and that whereby we live justly; this is the point that we treated in those texts. So, unless the will itself be freed by the grace of God from the servitude whereby it has become the slave of sin, and unless it be helped so that it may overcome defects, it is impossible for mortal men to live righteously and piously. And if this divine assistance, whereby the will is freed, were granted for its merits, it would not be a "grace"—a gratuitous gift—for it would not have preceded the willing. We have treated this sufficiently in our other short works where we refute the enemies of this grace, the new heretics. Nevertheless, in these books On Free Choice (which were in no way directed against them, for they were not yet active, but were written against the Manichees), we have not been completely silent concerning this grace of God, which they are attempting to suppress by their harmful impiety.
* Retractations, I, 9.2-4; trans. V.J.B. 177
WHAT TRUE GRACE IS*
Now even Pelagius should frankly confess that this 26.27. grace is plainly set forth in the inspired Scriptures; nor should he with shameless effrontery hide the fact that he has too long opposed it, but admit it with salutary regret, so that the holy Church may cease to be harassed by his stubborn persistence, and rather rejoice in his sincere conversion. Let him distinguish between knowledge and love, as they ought to be distinguished; because "knowledge puffeth up, but love edifieth" [I Cor. 8:1]. And then knowledge no longer puffeth up when love builds up. And inasmuch as each is the gift of God (although one is less, and the other greater), he must not extol our righteousness above the praise which is due to Him who justifies us, in such a way as to assign to the lesser of these two gifts the help of divine grace, and to claim the greater one for the human will. And should he consent that we receive love from the grace of God, he must not suppose that any merits of our own preceded our reception of the gift. For what merits could we possibly have had at the time when we loved not God? In order, indeed, that we might receive that love whereby we might love, we were loved while as yet we had no love ourselves.... Hence also that grace of God, whereby "His love is shed abroad in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, which is given unto us," [Rom. 5:5] must be so confessed by the man who would make a true confession, as to show his undoubting belief that nothing whatever in the way of goodness pertaining to godliness and real holiness can be accomplished without it.
THE WORK OF GRACETt
Nevertheless, in the "heavy yoke that is laid upon I5. the sons of Adam, from the day that they go out of their mother's womb to the day that they return to
On the Grace of Christ, 26.27; trans. Dods. } City of God, XXI, 15-16; trans. Dods.
DIMENSIONS OF GRACE 179 the mother of all things," there is found an admirable though painful monitor teaching us to be sober-minded, and convincing us that this life has become penal in consequence of that outrageous wickedness which was perpetrated in Paradise, and that all to which the New Testament invites belongs to that future inheritance which awaits us in the world to come, and is offered for our acceptance, as the earnest that we may, in its own due time, obtain that of which it is the pledge. Now, therefore, let us walk in hope, and let us by the spirit mortify the deeds of the flesh, and so make progress from day to day. For "the Lord knoweth them that are His"; [2 Tim. 2:19] and "as many as are led by the
Spirit of God, they are sons of God," [Rom. 8:14] but by grace, not by nature, For there is but one Son of God by nature, who in His compassion became Son of man for our sakes, that we, by nature sons of men, might by grace become through Him sons of God. For He, abiding unchangeable, took upon Him our nature, that thereby He might take us to Himself; and, holding fast His own divinity, He became partaker of our infirmity, that we, being changed into some better thing, might, by participating in His righteousness and immortality, lose our own properties of sin and mortality, and preserve whatever good quality He had implanted in our nature, perfected now by sharing in the goodness of His nature. For as by the sin of one man we have fallen into a misery so deplorable, so by the righteousness of one Man, who also is God, shall we come to a blessedness inconceivably exalted. Nor ought any one to trust that he has passed from the one man to the other until he shall have reached that place where there is no temptation, and have entered into the peace which he seeks in the many and various conflicts of this war, in which "the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh."
[Gal. 5:17] Now, such a war as this would have had no existence, if human nature had, in the exercise of free will, continued steadfast in the uprightness in which it was created. But now in its misery it makes war upon itself, because in its blessedness it would not continue at peace with God; and this, though it be a miserable calamity, is better than the earlier stages of this life, which do not recognize that a war is to be maintained. For better is it to contend with vices than without conflict to be subdued by them. Better, I say, is war with the hope of peace everlasting than captivity without any thought of deliverance. We long, indeed, for the cessation of this war, and, kindled by the