The Essential Augustine
BELIEVING IS ONE THING, UNDERSTANDING
ANOTHER*
E. I grant now that God gave it. But does it not 4. seem to you, I ask, that if it has been given for doing right, we should not be able to pervert it to a sinful use? Like justice, which too is given to man for right living— for could anyone live evilly by his own justice? So no one would be able to sin by his will, if that will had been given him to do right. A. God will grant, I hope, that I shall be able to answer you; or rather that you yourself will find the answer from that greatest teacher of all, the truth within your own heart. But I would have you tell me briefly if you have sure knowledge of what I asked you, that God gave us free will; whether or not we conclude that God should not have given that which we acknowledge that He gave. For if it is not certain that He did give it, we may rightly ask whether it was well given, so that when we find that it was well given, we 'will also find that it was given by Him who gave all goods to men: if on the other hand we find it not well given, we shall know that it was not given by Him whom to blame were impious. But if it is certain that He himself gave it, however it was given we must acknowledge that it neither should not have been given, nor given otherwise than as it was given. For He gave it whose act can nowise be rightly censured.
E. Though I hold these things with unshaken faith, 5. yet since I do not hold them by knowledge, let us inquire into them as if all were uncertain. For I see that as it is uncertain whether free will was given us for doing right, since we can also sin by it, that other question becomes also uncertain, whether.it should have been given. But if it is uncertain that it was given for doing right, and also uncertain whether it should have been given, it is not certain that it was given by Him whom it were impious to believe had given anything He should not have given. A. At least you are certain that God exists?
On Free Choice, Il, 2, 4-6; trans. Carroll Mason Sparrow, St. Augustine on Free Will (Charlottesville: University of Virginia Studies, 1947), pp. 35-37. Used with permission.