Part 12
CHAP. LXXI.] QUOTATIONS MISAPPLIED BY PELAGIUS. 295
Ciiap. 71. [lxi.]—Augustine replies against the quotations which Pelagius had advanced oat of the Catholic writers.
Accordingly, with, respect even to the passages which he has adduced,—not indeed from the canonical Scriptures, but out of certain treatises of Catholic writers,—I wish to meet the assertions of such as say that the said quotations make for him. The fact is, these passages are so entirely neutral, that they oppose neither our own opinion nor his. Amongst them he wanted to class something out of my own books, thus accounting me to be a person who seemed worthy of being ranked with [the distinguished writers in question.] For tins
I must not be ungrateful, and I should be sorry—so I say with unaffected friendliness—for him to be in error, since he has conferred this honour upon me. As for his first quotation, indeed, why need I examine it largely, since I nowhere have discovered the author's name, either because he has not given it, or because from some casual mistake the copy which you forwarded to me did not contain it ? Especially as in writings of such authors I feel myself free to use my own judgment
(owing unhesitating assent to nothing but the canonical Scrip-
Uires), whilst in fact there is not a passage which he has quoted from the works of this—so far as I can find—anonymous author
2 that disturbs me. " It was right," says he, " for the Master and Teacher of virtue to become entirely like man, that by conquering sin He might show that man is able to overcome sin." Xow, whatever be the literal expression of this passage, its author must see to it as to what explanation it is capable of bearing. We, indeed, on our part, could not possibly doubt that in Christ there was no sin to conquer,—born as He was in the likeness of sinful flesh, not in sinful flesh itself. Another passage is adduced by our author to this effect : " And again, that by subduing the desires of the flesh He might teach us that it is not of necessity that one sins, but of set purpose and
For my own part, I understand these desires of wilfulness."
the flesh (since it is not of its unlawful lusts that the writer
1 Timasius and Jacobus.
2 Lactantius is the writer from whom Pelagius takes his first quotations here. See his lnstit. Divin. iv. 14.
3 Lactantius, lnstit. Divin. iv. 5.
296 ON NATURE AND GRACE. [CHAP. LXXII.
here speaks) to be such as hunger, thirst, refreshment after fatigue, and the like. For it is through these, however faultless they be in themselves, that some men fall into sin,— result which never befell our blessed Saviour, even though, as
Ave see from the evidence of the gospel, these affections were natural to Him owing to His likeness to sinful flesh.
Chap. 72. [lxil]— The pure in heart blessed. The doing and perfecting of righteousness. He quotes the following words from the blessed Hilary
" It is only when we shall be perfect in spirit, and changed in our immortal state, which blessedness has been appointed
1 that we shall see that which is immortal in God."
only for the pure in heart,
2 Now I am really not aware what is here said contrary to our own statement, or in what respect this passage is of any use to our opponent, unless it be that it testifies to the possibility of a man's being " pure in heart." But who denies such possibility ? Only it must be through
Jesus Christ our Lord, and not merely by our freedom of the will. He goes on to quote also this passage : " This Job had so effectually read, that he kept himself from every wicked work, because he worshipped God purely with a mind unmixed with vices : now such worship of God is the proper work of righteousness." It is what Job had done which the writer here spoke of, not what he had brought to perfection in this world,—much less what he had done or perfected without the grace of that Saviour whom he had actually foretold.
For that man, indeed, abstains from every wicked work, who does not allow the sin which he has within him to have dominion over him ; and who, whenever an unworthy thought stole over him, suffered it not to come to a head in actual deed. It is, however, one thing not to have sin, and another to refuse obedience to its desires. It is one thing to fulfil
4 and another thing, by an endeavour at any rate after abstinence, to do that which the command, "Thou shalt not covet;" is also written, "Thou shalt not go after thy lusts/' 5 And yet one is quite aware that he can do nothing of all this without the Saviour's grace. To work righteousness, therefore,
1 See Matt. v. 8. 2 Hilary in loco. 3 Job xix. 25.
4 Ex. xx. 17. 5 Ecclus. xviii. 30.
CHAP. LXXIII.] HILAEY QUOTED IX EEPLY. 297
[is consistent with] having to fight in an internal struggle with the internal evil of concupiscence in the true worship of
God ; whilst to perfect it means to have no adversary at all. Now he who has to fight is still in danger, and is sometimes shaken, even if he is not overthrown ; whereas he who has no enemy at all rejoices in perfect peace. He, moreover, is most truly said to be without sin in whom no sin has an indwelling,—not he who, abstaining from evil deeds, uses such language as [the apostle's :] " Now it is no longer I that do it, but the sin that dwelleth in me."
Chap. 73. He meets Pelagius with another passagefrom Hilary on
Ps. cxix. 21. Now even Job himself is not silent respecting his own sins
2 of course, is justly of opinion that humility and your friend, must not by any means be put on the side of falsehood and affectation. Whatever confession [of sin,] therefore, Job makes, inasmuch as he is a true worshipper of God, he un-
3 Hilary, likewise, doubtedly makes it in sincerity and truth.
while expounding that passage of the psalm in which it is written, " Thou hast despised all those who turn aside from Thy commandments,"
4 says : "If God were to despise sinners, He would despise indeed all men, because no man is without sin ; but it is those who turn away from Him, whom they call apostates, that He despises." You observe his statement it is not to the effect that no man ivas without sin, as if he spoke of the past ; but no man is without sin ; and on this point, as I have already remarked, I have no contention with him. But if one refuses to submit to the Apostle John, who does not himself declare, " If we were to say we have had no sin," but "If we say we have no sin,"
5—how is he likely to show deference to Bishop Hilary ? It is in defence of the grace of Christ that I lift up my voice, without which grace no man is justified, although for nature free will is sufficient. Nay, [Christ] Himself tifts up His own voice in
1 Rom. vii. 20. 2 Vestro amico, in reference to Timasius and Jacobus.
3 Job xl. 4, and xlii. 6.
4 This is probably a version of Ps. cxix. 21, the Septuagint of which reads :
'ETir'ifJi.rl ffXi to7; vTipvtpavoi;, iTutarcipxToi ol IkxXivovtz; uto tuv Ivto'/.uv gov.
5 1 John i. 8.
298 ON NATURE AND GEACE. [CHAP. LXXV.
defence of the same. Let us submit to Him when He says
" Without me ye can do nothing."
Chap. 74. [lxiii.] He also quotes a passage from St. Ambrose ; but in very deed this holy man rather opposes those who say that man cannot exist without sin in the present life. For, in order to support his statement, he avails himself of the instance of Zacharias and Elisabeth, because they are mentioned as "having walked in all the commandments and ordinances" of the law " blameless."
2 Well, but does he for all that deny that it was by God's grace that they did this through our Lord Jesus Christ ? It was undoubtedly by such faith in Him that holy men lived of old, even before His death. It is He who sends the Holy Ghost that is given to us, through whom that love is shed abroad in our hearts whereby alone the righteous are justified. This same Holy Ghost is expressly mentioned by our good bishop, who reminds us that He is to be obtained by prayer (so that the will is not sufficient unless it be aided by Him) ; thus in his hymn he says
"Votisque pnestat sedulis,
Sanctum mereri Spiritum,"
"To prayer He gives, when diligent, His Holy Spirit to possess."
Chap. 75. Augustine adduces in reply some other passages of Ambrose.
I will quote, on my side too, a passage out of this very work of St. Ambrose, from which our opponent has taken the statement which he deemed favourable for citation : " So it seemed good to me," he says ; " but what he declares seemed good to him cannot have seemed good to him alone. For it is not simply to his human will that it seemed good, but also as it pleased Him, even Christ, who, says he, speaketh in me. He it is who causes that which is good in itself to seem good to ourselves also. For him on whom He has mercy He also calls. He, therefore, who follows Christ, when asked why he wished to be a Christian, can answer : Because it seemed good to me. In saying this he does not deny that it also pleased
1 John xv. 5. 2 Luke i. 6. See Ambrose in loco.
• AMBROSE VINDICATED. 299
CHAP. LXXV.]
God ; for from God proceeds the preparation of man's .will, inasmuch, as it is by God's grace that God is honoured by His saint." See now what your author must learn, if he takes pleasure in the words of Ambrose, how that man's will is prepared by God, and that it is of no importance, or, at any rate, does not much matter, by what means or at what time the preparation is accomplished, provided no doubt is raised as to whether the thing itself be capable of accomplishment without the grace of Christ. Then, again, how important it was that lie should observe one point derived from the words of Ambrose which he quoted ! For after that holy man had said, " Inasmuch as the Church has been gathered out of the world, that is, out of sinful men, how can it be spotless when composed of such polluted material, except that, in the first place, it is washed of its sinful state by the grace of Christ, and then, in the next place, abstains from actual sins through the character it has acquired of avoiding sin ? " he added the following sentence, which your author has refused to quote for a self-evident reason ; for [Ambrose] says : " It was not spotless from the very first, for that state was impossible for human nature. It is through the grace of God and that character of its own by which it no longer sins, that it comes to pass that it has the appearance of being without spot." Now who does not understand the reason why your author declined adding these words ? It is, of course, so contrived in the discipline of the present life, that the holy Church shall arrive at last at that condition of unspotted purity which all holy men desire ; and that it may in the world to come, and in a state unmixed with all soil of evil men, and undisturbed by any law of sin resisting the law of the mind, lead the purest life in a divine eternity. Still he should well observe what Bishop Ambrose says,—and his statement exactly tallies with the Scriptures : " It was not spotless from the very first, for that condition was impossible for human nature." By his phrase, " from the very first," he means indeed from the time of our being born of Adam. Adam no doubt was himself created in an immaculate condition ; in the case, however, of those who are by nature children of wrath, deriving from him that which in him became corrupt, [Ambrose] distinctly
300 ON NATURE AND GRACE. [CHAP. LXXVII.
averred that it was an impossibility in human nature that they should be unspotted from the very first.
Chap. 76. [lxiv.] He quotes also John, bishop of Constantinople, as saying
"that sin is not a substance, but a malignant act." Who denies this ? " And because it is contrary to nature, therefore the law was given to oppose it, inasmuch also as it proceeds from the downward course of the liberty of our will." Who, too, denies this ? However, the present question concerns our human nature in its corrupted state ; it is a further question also concerning that grace of God whereby our nature is healed by the great Physician, Christ, whose remedy it would not need if it were only whole. And yet your author defends it as capable of not sinning, as if it were sound, or as if its freedom of will were self-sufficient.
Chap. 77. What Christian, again, is unaware of the fact that he quotes the blessed Sixtus, bishop of Eome and martyr of Christ, as having said, " God has conferred upon men liberty of will, in order that by purity and sinlessness of life they may become like unto God ? "
1 But the man who appeals to such a free will ought to listen to it and believe, and ask Him in whom he believes to give him His assistance not to sin. For when he speaks of "becoming like unto God," it is indeed through God's love that men are to be like unto God,—even the love which is " shed abroad in our hearts," not by any ability of nature or the free will within us, but "by the Holy
2 Then, in respect of what
Ghost which is given unto us."
the same martyr further says, " A pure mind is a holy temple for God, and a clean heart without sin is His best altar," who knows not that the clean heart must be brought up to this perfect state, whilst " the inward man is renewed day by
3 but yet not without the grace of God through Jesus day,"
Christ our Lord ? Again, when he even says, " A man of chastity and without sin has received power from God to be
1 This passage, which Pelagius had quoted as from Sixtus the Roman bishop and martyr, Augustine subsequently ascertained to have had for its author
Sixtus or Xystus, a Pythagorean philosopher.
2 Rom. v. 5. 3 2 Cor. iv. 16.
CHAP. LXXYIII.] PURITY UNATTAINABLE WITHOUT GEACE. 301 a son of God/' he of course meant it as an admonition that on a man's hecoming so chaste and sinless (without raising any question as to when and where this perfection was to be obtained by him,—although in fact it is quite an interesting question among godly men, who are notwithstanding agreed as to the possibility of such perfection on the one hand, and on the other hand its impossibility except through " the one
Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus; " without raising the prior question, as I said before, Sixtus designed his words to be an admonition that, on any man's attaining such a high character), and thereby being rightly reckoned to be among the sons of God, the attainment must not be thought to have been the work of any power of his own, which indeed he, through grace, received from God ; forasmuch as he possessed no such power in his nature, which had become vitiated and depraved,—even as we read in the
Gospel, " But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God,"
2 which they were not by nature, nor could at all become, unless by receiving Him they also received such power through His grace. This is the power which is claimed for itself by the fortitude of that love which is only communicated to us by the Holy Ghost bestowed upon us.
Chap. 78. [lxv.] We have next a quotation of some words of the venerable presbyter Jerome, from his exposition of the passage where it is written : " Blessed are the pure in heart ; for they shall see
3 Among other remarks, he says : " It is they whom
God."
no consciousness of sin reproves ; " and he adds : " The pure man is seen by his purity of heart ; the temple of God cannot be denied." This perfection is, to be sure, wrought in us by endeavour, by labour, by prayer, by effectual importunity therein that we may be brought up to the perfection in which we may be able to see God with a pure heart, by His grace through our Lord Jesus Christ. As to his allegation, that the forementioned presbyter said, " God created us with freedom of will ; we are drawn by necessity neither to virtue nor to vice ; if it were otherwise, where there is necessity there
1 1 Tim. ii. 5. 2 John i. 12. 3 Matt. v. 8.
302 ON NATURE AND GRACE. [CHAP. LXXX.
; "—who would not allow this ? Who would not cordially accept it ? Who would deny that human nature was so created ? The reason, however, why in would be no crown of reward doing a right action there is no bondage of necessity, is that liberty is the essence of charity.
Chap. 79. [lxvi.]—A certain necessity of sinning. But let us revert to the apostle's assertion : " The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which
1 By whom given if not by Him who
is given unto us."
" ascended up on high, led captivity captive, and" gave gifts unto men ? 2 Forasmuch, however, as there is, owing to the flaws which have vitiated our nature, though not owing to the constitution of our nature, a certain necessary tendency to sin, a man should listen, and in order that the said necessity may cease to exist, learn to say to God in his prayers, " Bring Thou me out of my necessities; 3 because in the very offering up of such a prayer there is a struggle against the tempter, who fights against us concerning this very necessity and thus, by the assistance of grace through our Lord Jesus
Christ, both the evil necessity will be removed and full liberty be bestowed.
Chap. 80. [lxvii.]—Two methods wlierehy sins, like diseases, are guarded against.
Let us now turn to our own case. " Bishop Augustine also," says your author, " in his books on free will has these words : ' Whatever is that cause of the will, if it is impossible to resist it, submission to it is not sinful ; if, however, it may be resisted, should it not be submitted to, there will be no sin. Does it, perchance, deceive the unwary man ? Let him then beware that he be not deceived. Is the deception, however, so potent that it is not possible to guard against it ? If such be the case, then there are no sins in the case. For who sins in a case where precaution is quite impossible ? Sin, however, is committed ; precaution therefore is possible.' " 4 I acknowledge it, these are my words ; but he, too, should condescend to acknowledge what I said previously. The question indeed is about the grace of God, which helps us as a medicine
" Rom. v. 5. 2 Eph. iv. 8. 3 Ps. xxv. 17.
4 Augustine, De Libero Arbitrio, iii. 18.
CHAP. LXXXI.] AUGUSTINE EXPLAINS HIMSELF. 303 through, the Mediator ; the discussion has no concern with the impossibility of righteousness. "Whatever, then, may be the cause, it may be resisted. Most certainly it may. ISTow it is because of this fact that we pray for help, saying, " Lead
1 This help we should not ask for if we supposed that resistance were quite impossible. It is posus not into temptation."
sible to guard against sin, but by the help of Him who cannot
2 For this very circumstance has much to do with be deceived.
guarding against sin that we can unfeignedly say, " Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors." Now there are two ways whereby, even in bodily maladies, the evil is guarded against,—to prevent its occurrence, and, if it happen, to secure a speedy cure. To prevent its occurrence, we may find precaution in the prayer, " Lead us not into temptation ;" to secure the prompt remedy, we have the resource in the prayer, " Forgive us our debts." "Whether then the danger only threaten, or be inherent, it may be guarded against.
Chap. 81.
In order, however, that my meaning on this subject may be clear not merely to him, but also to such persons as have not read those treatises of mine on the freedom of the will, which your author has read, and who have not only not read them, but probably do read him; I must go on to quote out of my books what he has omitted, but which, if he had perceived and quoted in his letter, no controversy would be left between us on this subject. For immediately after those words of mine which your friend has quoted, I expressly added, and
(as fully as I could) worked out, the train of thought which might occur to any one's mind, to the following effect : " And yet some actions are disapproved of, even when they are done in ignorance, and are judged deserving of chastisement, as we read in the inspired authorities." After taking some examples out of these, I went on to speak also of infirmity as follows
" Some actions also encounter disapprobation, even when they are done from necessity ; as when a man wishes to act rightly
1 Matt. vi. 13.
2 Augustine gives a similar reply to the objection in his Eetraclaiiones, i. 9.
3 Matt. vi. 12.
304 ON NATURE AND GRACE. [CHAP. LXXXI.
and cannot. For whence arise those utterances : ' For the good that I would, I do not ; but the evil which I would not,
"-1 Then, after quoting some other passages of the Holy Scriptures to the same effect, I say : " But all these are that I do' ?
the sayings of persons who come from that condemnation of death; for if this is not man's punishment, but his nature, then those are no sins." Then, again, a little afterwards I add : " It remains, therefore, that this is the just punishment of persons who come of man's condemnation. Nor ought it to be wondered at, that either by ignorance man has not liberty of will to choose what he will rightly do, or that by the resistance of that carnal habit (which by force of mortal transmission has, in a certain sense, become engrafted into his nature), though seeing what ought rightly to be done, and wishing to do it, he yet is unable to accomplish it. For this is the justest penalty of sin, that a man should lose what he has refused to make a good use of, when he might with ease have done so if he would ; which, however, amounts to this, that the man who knowingly refuses to do what is right loses the ability to do it when he wishes. For, in truth, to every soul that sins there accrue these two penal consequences —ignorance and difficulty. Out of the ignorance springs the error which disgraces ; outof the difficulty arises the pain which afflicts. But to approve of falsehoods as if they were true, so as to err involuntarily, and to be unable, owing to the resistance and pain of carnal bondage, to refrain from deeds of lust, is not the nature of man as he was created, but the punishment of man as under condemnation. When, however, we speak of a free will to do what is right, we of course mean that liberty in which man was created." Some men at once deduce what seems to them a just objection from the transfer and transmission of sins of ignorance and difficulty from the first man to his posterity ; my answer to such objectors is this : " I tell them, by way of a brief reply, to be silent, and to cease from murmuring against God. Perhaps their complaint might have been a proper one, if from among men there had not stood forth a vanquisher of error and of lust ; but there is everywhere present One who calls off from himself, through the
1 Rom. vii. 19.
CHAP. LXXXIL] CORRUPTION OF MAN'S NATURE. 305 creature by so many means, the man who serves the Lord, teaches him when believing, consoles him when hoping, encourages him when loving, helps him when endeavouring, hears him when praying. It is not reckoned to you as a fault that you are involuntarily ignorant, but that you neglect to search out what you are ignorant of; nor is it imputed to you in censure that you do not bind up the limbs that are wounded, but that you despise him who wishes to heal them." * In such terms did I exhort them, as well as I could, to live righteously; nor did I frustrate the grace of
God, without which the now obscured and tarnished nature of man can neither be enlightened nor purified. Our whole discussion with them on this subject turns upon this, that we frustrate not the grace of God which is in Jesus Christ our Lord by a perverted assertion of natural powers. In a passage occurring shortly after the last quoted one, I said in reference to these natural powers : " Of our actual nature we speak in one sense, when we properly and specially describe it as that human nature in which man was created faultless after his kind ; and in another sense of that nature in which we are born ignorant and carnally minded, owing to the penal condition of man under condemnation, after the manner mentioned by the apostle, ' We ourselves likewise were by nature children of wrath, even as others.' " 2
Chap. 82. [lxviii.]
If, therefore, we wish " to rouse and kindle cold and sluggish
3 we must first of all exhort them to that faith whereby they may become Christians, and be subjects of His name and authority, souls by Christian exhortations to lead righteous lives," without whom they cannot be saved. If, however, they are already Christians, but neglect to lead holy lives, they must be chastised with alarms, and be aroused by the praises of reward,—in such a manner, indeed, that we must not forget to urge them to godly prayers as well as to virtuous actions, and furthermore to instruct them in such wholesome doctrine,
1 De Libero Arlitrio, iii. 19. 2 Eph. ii. 3.
3 This passage, and others in this and the following chapters, are marked as quotations, apparently cited by Pelagius from Augustine.
306 ON NATUEE AND GEACE. [CHAP. LXXXIII.
that they be induced thereby to thank [God] for being able to accomplish any step in that holy life which they have entered upon, without distraction or difficulty/ and whenever they do experience such " difficulty," that they then wrestle with God in most faithful and persistent prayer and ready works of mercy to obtain from Him a removal of the difficulty. But provided they thus progress, I am not over-anxious as to the where and the when of their perfection in the absolute fulness of holy living ; only I solemnly assert, that wheresoever and whensoever the great climax is reached, it cannot be but by the grace of God through our Lord Jesus Christ. When, indeed, they have attained to the clear knowledge that they have no sin, let them not say "they have no sin, lest the
2 even as the truth is not in those truth be not in them;" persons who, though they have sin, yet say that they have it not.
Chap. 83. [lxix.]—God enjoins no impossibility, because all things are possible and easy to love. The commandment of love never grievous.
But "the precepts of the law are very good," if we use them lawfully.
3 Indeed, by the very fact (of which we have the firmest conviction) " that God, being just and good, could not possibly have enjoined on us any impossibilities," we are admonished both what to do in easy paths and what to ask for when they are difficult. Now all things are easy for love to effect, to which (and which alone) " Christ's burden is
4—or rather, it is itself alone the burden which is light," light. Accordingly it is said, "And His commandments are;" 5 so that whoever finds them grievous must not grievous regard the inspired statement about their "not being grievous " as having been capable of only this meaning, that there may be a state of heart to which they are not burdensome, and he must pray for that disposition which he at present wants, so as to be able to fulfil all that is commanded him. And this is the purport of what is said to Israel in Deuteronomy, if understood in a godly, sacred, and spiritual sense.
[This is clear from the fact] that the apostle, after quoting
1 For the " difficulty," which is one of the penal consequences of sin, see last chapter, about its middle.
2 1 John i. 8. 3 See 1 Tim. i. 8. 4 Matt. xi. 30. 6 1 John v. 3.
CHAP. LXXXIV.] LOVE QUICKENS OBEDIENCE. 307 the passage, " The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart "
as the verse also has it, in thine hands, for in man's heart are his spiritual hands), adds in explanation, "This is the word of faith which we preach."
3 ~No man, therefore, who " returns to the Lord his God/' as he is there commanded, " with all his heart and with all his soul,"
4 will find God's commandment " grievous." How, indeed, can it be grievous, when it is the precept of love ? Either, therefore, a man has not love, and then it is grievous ; or he has love, and then it is not grievous. But he possesses love if he does what is there enjoined on Israel, by returning to the Lord his
God with all his heart and with all his soul. "A new commandment," says [Christ,] "do I give unto you, that ye love;" 5 while [His apostle writes,] " He that loveth one another;" 6 and again, " Love is his neighbour hath fulfilled the law
7 In accordance with these sayings
the fulfilling of the law."
is that passage, " Had they trodden good paths, they would
8 How have found, indeed, the ways of righteousness easy."
then is it written, " Because of the words of Thy lips, I have
9 except it be that both statements kept the paths of difficulty," are true : These paths are paths of difficulty to fear ; but to love they are easy ?
Chap. 84. [lxx.]—The stages of love are also stages of holiness.
Inchoate love, therefore, is inchoate holiness ; advanced love is advanced holiness; great love is great holiness; "perfect love is perfect holiness,"—but this " love is out of a pure heart, and
10 " which in this of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned," life is then the greatest, when life itself is contemned in comparison with it." u I wonder, however, whether it has not a soil in which to grow after it has quitted this mortal life ! But in what place and at what time soever it shall reach that state of absolute perfection, which shall admit of no increase, it is certainly not " shed abroad in our hearts " by
1 Deut. xxx. 14, quoted Rom. x. 8.
2 According to the Septuagint, which adds after tv tj? xapVia, gov the words kcu iv ra.7; %tp<ri ffou. This was probably Pelagius' reading.
3 Rom. x. 8. 4 Deut. xxx. 2. 5 John xiii. 34.
6 Rom. xiii. 8. 7 Rom. xiii. 10. 8 Prov. ii. 20 (Septuagint).
9 Ps. xvii. 4. io 1 Tim. i. 5.
11 See note at beginning of ch. 82 for the meaning of this mark of quotation.
308 ON NATURE AND GRACE. [CHAP. LXXXIV.
any energies either of the nature or the volition that are within us, but "by the Holy Ghost which is given unto
1 and which both helps our infirmity and co-operates us," with our strength. For it is itself indeed the grace of God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, appertaineth eternity, and all goodness, for ever and ever. Amen.
1 Rom. v. 5.
PREFACE TO THE TREATISE
OX THE
PERFECTION OE MAN'S RIGHTEOUSNESS.
AUGUSTINE has made no mention of this treatise in his book of Retractations ; for the reason, no doubt, that it formed a portion of the Epistles, for which he designed a separate statement of Eetractations. In all the mss. this work begins with his usual epistolary salutation : " Sanctis fratribus et coepiscopis Eutropio et Paulo, Augustinus" [Augustine, to his holy brethren and fellow-bishops Eutropius and Paulus]. And yet, by general consent, this epistle has been received as a treatise,—and is so classed, not only in those volumes of his works which contain the copy of the work, but also in the writings of those ancient authors who quote it. Amongst the more renowned of these, and who are at the same time better acquainted with Augustine's writings, Possidius (In incliculo, 4) and Eulgentius (Ad Monimum, i. 3) expressly call this work
" A Treatise on the Perfection of Mans PigJiteousness." So far nearly all the mss. agree, but a few (including the Coclcl.
Audoenensis and Pratellensis) add these words to the general title : " Adversus eos qui asserunt hominem posse fieri justum solis suis viribus" [In opposition to those who assert that it is possible for a man to become righteous by his own sole strength]. In a MS. belonging to the Church of Eheims there occurs this inscription : " Liber de definitionibus quoe dicuntur
Cozlestii" [The book of what are called the definitions or breviates of Ccelestius]. Prosper, in his work against Collator, ch. 43, advises his reader to peruse, besides some other of Augustine's
" looks',' that which he wrote " to the bishops Paulus and
310 ON man's perfection in righteousness.
Eutropius in opposition to the questions of Pelagius and
Coelestius."
From this passage of Prosper, however, in which he mentions, but with no regard to accurate order, some of the short treatises of Augustine against the Pelagians, nobody could rightly show that this work On the Perfection of Man's Righteousness was later in time than his work On Marriage and
Concupiscence, or than the six books against Julianus, which are mentioned previously in the same passage by Prosper. Now, at the conclusion of the present treatise, Augustine hesitates as yet to censure those persons who affirmed that men are living or have lived in this life righteously without any sin at all : their opinion Augustine, in the passage referred to
(just as in his treatises On Nature and Grace, and On the
Spirit and the Letter), does not yet think it necessary stoutly to resist. Nothing had as yet, therefore, been determined on this point ; nor were there yet enacted, in opposition to this opinion, the three well-known canons (6—8) of the Council of
Carthage, which was held in the year 418. Afterwards, however, on the authority of these canons, he cautions people against the opinion as a pernicious error, as one may see from many passages in his books Against the two Epistles of the
Pelagians, especially Book IV. ch. x. (2 7), where he says
" Let us now consider that third point of theirs, which each individual member of Christ as well as His entire [mystical] body regards with horror, where they contend that there are in this life, or have been, righteous persons without any sin whatever." In the year 414, in an epistle (157) to Hilary, when answering the questions which were then being agitated in
Sicily, he certainly expresses himself in the same tone, and almost in the same language, on this subject of sinlessness, as that which he employs at the end of this present treatise. " But those persons," says he (in ch. ii. of that epistle), " however much one may tolerate them when they affirm that there either are, or have been, men besides the one Prince of saints who have been wholly free from sin ; yet when they allege that man's own free-will is sufficient for fulfilling the
Lord's commandments, even when unassisted by God's grace and the gift of the Holy Spirit for the performance of good
PREFACE. 311 works, the idea is altogether worthy of anathema and of perfect detestation." How, on comparing these words with the conclusion of this treatise before us, nothing will appear more probable than that the work which supplies the refutation of Ccelestius' questions, which were also brought over from Sicily, was written not long after the above-mentioned epistle. This work Possidius, in his index, places immediately after the treatise On Nature and Grace, and before the book On the Proceedings of Pelagius. Augustine, however, does not mention this work in his epistle (169) which he addressed to Evodius about the end of the year 415 ; but he intimates in it that he had published an answer to the Commonitorium of
Orosius, wherein that author stated that " the bishops Eutropius and Paulus had already given information to Augustine
1 heresies." Some suppose that this about certain formidable statement refers to the letter winch they despatched to Augustine along with Ccelestius' propositions. However that be, it is not unreasonable to believe that they, not long after Orosius' arrival in Africa (that is, before the midsummer of the year
415), had sent these propositions to him, and that Augustine soon afterwards wrote back to Eutropius and Paulus a refutation of them, his answer to Orosius having been previously oiven.
Furthermore, Ccelestius, whose name is inscribed in the propositions, " wrote to his parents from his monastery," as Gennadius informs us in his work on Church writers (De
Scriptoribus Ecclcsiasticis), " before he fell in with the teaching of Pelagius, three letters in the shape of short treatises,
' Afterwards he openly
necessary for all seekers after God."
professed the Pelagian heresy, and published a short treatise, in which, besides other topics, he acknowledged in the Church of Carthage that even infants had redemption by being baptized into Christ,—an episcopal decision on the question having been obtained in that city about the commencement of the year 412, as we learn from an epistle to Pope Innocent
(amongst the Epistles of Augustine [175, n. 1 and 6]\ as wt'll as from the epistle [157, n. 22] which we have referred to above; and from his work On the Merits of Sins, i. 62, and
1 Alujuantis.
312 ON man's peefection in eighteousness.
ii. 59; also from his treatise On Original Sin, 21; and his work Against Julianus, iii. 9. Another work by an anonymous writer, but which was commonly attributed to Ccelestius, divided into chapters, is mentioned in the treatise which follows the present one, On the Proceedings of Pelagius ; see chapters 29, 30, and 62. There were extant, moreover, in the year 417, several small books or tracts of Ccelestius, which
Augustine, in his work On the Grace of Christ, 31, 32, and
36, says were produced by Ccelestius himself in some ecclesiastical proceedings at Eome under Zosimus. Augustine, at the commencement of the present work On the Perfection of Mans Righteousness, mentions an undoubted work of Ccelestius as having been seen by him, from which he discovered that the definitions or breviates therein examined by Augustine were not unsuited to the tone and temper of Ccelestius.
This was very probably the book which Jerome quotes in his
Epistle to Ctesiphon, written in the year 413 or 314. These are Jerome's words : " One of his followers [that is, Pelagius'], who was already in fact become the master and the leader
1 in opposition to of all that army, and ' a vessel of wrath,' the apostle, runs on through thickets, not of syllogisms, as his admirers are apt to boast, but of solecisms, and philosophizes and disputes to the following effect : ' If I do nothing without God's help, and if everything which I shall achieve is owing to His operations solely, then it follows that it is not
I who work, but only God's work is to be crowned in me. In vain, therefore, has He conferred on me the power of will, if I am unable to exercise it fully without His incessant help. That volition, indeed, is destroyed which requires the assistance of another. But it is a free will which God has given to me ; and free it can only remain, if I do whatever I wish. The state of the case then is this : I either use once for all the power which has been bestowed on me, so as to retain my will in freedom ; or else, if I require the assistance of another, all liberty of volition in me perishes.'
1 Eom. ix. 22.
A TREATISE
CONCERNING
MAN'S PERFECTION IN RIGHTEOUSNESS.
BY AURELIUS AUGUSTINE,
BISHOP OF HIPPO,
a.d. 415.
a paper containing sundry propositions, 1 said to have been drawn up by ccelestius, was put into the hands of augustine. in this document, ccelestius, or some person "who shared in his errors, had recklessly asserted that a man had it in his power to live here without sin. augustine first refutes the several propositions in brief answers, showing that the perfect and plenary state of righteousness, in which a man exists absolutely without sin, is unattainable without grace by the mere resources of our corrupt nature, and is incompatible with this present state of existence, he next proceeds to consider the authorities which the paper contained as gathered out of the scriptures ; some of them teaching man to be "unspotted " and " perfect ;" others mentioning the commandments of god as "not grievous ;" while others again are quoted as opposed to the authoritative passages which the catholics were accustomed to advance against the pelagians.
Chap. i. THAT charity of yours, which in both of you is so conspicuous and so constraining as even to afford delight to one in obeying its commands, has laid me under an obligation to reply to some propositions which are said to be the work of Ccelestius ; for so runs the prefatory note on the paper wliich you have given me, " Dcfinitiones, ut dicitur, Ccdcstii"
1 These breves dejinitiones, which Augustine also calls raliocinationes, are short argumentative statements, which we propose to designate breviates.
314 ON man's perfection in righteousness, [chap. II.
[" The definitions, so it is said, of Coelestius"]. As for this prefatory note, I take it that it does not refer so much to him as to those persons who have brought this report from Sicily, where Coelestius is expressly said not to be ; although many
1 make boastful pretension of holding views like his, who, there to use the apostle's word, " are themselves deceived, and lead
2 That these views are, however, in accordothers also astray."
3 of his, we can well imagine. For the above-mentioned brief definiance with his teaching, or that of sundry associates tions, or rather argumentative propositions, are by no means at variance with his opinion, such as I have seen it expressed in another work, of which he is the undoubted author. There was therefore good reason, I think, for the report which those brethren, who brought these tidings to us, heard in Sicily, that
Coelestius taught such opinions and committed them to writing. I should like, so far as I could, so to meet the obligation imposed on me by your brotherly kindness, as to contrive that my own answers should be as brief [as this man's breviates]. But, at the same time, I must set forth the propositions also which elicit my answers ; otherwise, who will be able to form a judgment of the value of my confutation ?
Still I will try to the best of my ability, assisted, too, as God shall mercifully permit, by your own prayers, so to conduct the discussion as to keep it from running to an unnecessary length.
Chap. ii.—(1.) The first breviate of Coelestius.
" First of all," says he, " we must ask any one who denies man's ability to live without sin of what sort every sin is,
1 In his epistle (157) to Hilary, written a little while before this work, he mentions Coelestius and the condemnation of his errors in a Council held at
Carthage ; he expresses also some apprehension of Coelestius attempting to spread his opinions in Sicily : "Whether he be himself there," says Augustine, "or only others who are partners in his errors, there are too many of them ; and, unless they be checked, they lead astray others to join their sect ; and so great is their increase, that I cannot tell whither they will force their way," etc.
2 2 Tim. iii. 13.
3 Sociorum ejus. It has been proposed to read sectatorum ejus,—not unsuitably (although not justified by MS. evidence), because Ccelestius "had," to use
Jerome's words, " by this time turned out a master with a following,—the leader of a perfect army." Jerome's Epistle to Ctesiphon, written in the year 413 or
414.
CHAP. II.] MAX'S ABILITY THROUGH GRACE. 315 is it such as can be avoided ? or is it unavoidable ? If it is unavoidable, then it is not sin ; if it can be avoided, then a man can live without the sin, which can be avoided. Xo right nor rule permits us to designate as sin that which cannot in any way be avoided." Our answer to this is, that sin can be avoided, if our corrupt nature be healed by God's grace, through our Lord Jesus Christ. For, as far as it is in an unsound state, so far does it either through blindness fail to see, or through infirmity fail to accomplish, that which it ought to do ; " for the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit
1 so that a man cannot do the things which he would.
against the flesh,"
(2.) The second breviate. "We must next ask, whether sin comes from choice, or from necessity ? If from necessity, it is not sin ; if from choice, it can be avoided." We answer as before ; and in order that we may be healed, we pray to Him to whom that suffrage is addressed in the psalm : " Lead Thou me out of my necessities."
(3.) The third breviate.
" Again we must ask, what sin is,—is it natural ? or is it accidental ? If natural, it is not sin ; if accidental, it can get out of the way ; and if it can get out of one's way, it can be avoided ; and man can very well dispense with that which can be avoided." The answer to this is, that sin is not natural ; on the contrary, nature (especially in that corrupt state from which we have become by nature " children of wrath
3 ) has too little power of will to avoid sin, unless assisted and healed by God's grace through our Lord Jesus
Christ.
(4. ) The fourth breviate.
" We must then ask, What is sin,— a real thing, or only an act ? If a reality, it must of course have an author ; and if it be admitted to have an author, then another besides God will manifestly be introduced as the author of a real thing. Now since it is impious to make such an admission as this, we are driven to the conclusion that every sin is an act, not a reality. If therefore it is an act, on this very ground it is
1 Gal. v. 17. - Ts. xxv. 17. 3 Epli. ii. 3.
316 ON man's perfection in righteousness, [chap. III.
capable of being avoided." Our reply is, that sin no doubt is called an action, and is such, not a real thing. But then in the body lameness by the same rule is an act, not a thing, since it is the foot itself, or the body, or the human being who walks lame because of an injured foot, that is the thing ; but still the man cannot avoid the lameness, unless his foot be cured. The same change may take place in the inward man, but it is by God's grace, through our Lord Jesus Christ. The very defect which causes the lameness of the man is neither the foot, nor the body, nor indeed the lameness itself; for there is of course no lameness in the case, when there is no walking, although undoubtedly there is the inherent defect which causes the lameness whenever there is an attempt to walk. He should therefore ask, what name must be given to this defect,—would he have it called a thing, or an act, or rather a disordered quality in the thing, which causes the existence of the deformed act ? So in the inward man the soul is the really existing thing, the theft is the act, and dishonest desire is the vitiated condition, or quality by which the soul becomes evilly affected, even when it does nothing in immediate gratification of its avaricious principle,—even when it hears the prohibition, * Thou shalt not covet," * and censures its own covetousness, and yet retains its evil affection still. By faith, however, it receives renovation ; in other words, it
2—yet receives a healing remedy, and applies it day by day, only by God's grace through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Chap. hi.—(5.) The fifth breviate.
" We must next inquire whether a man ought to be without sin ? No doubt he ought. If he ought, he is able ; if he is not able, for that reason he ought not. Now if a man ought not to be without sin, it follows that he ought to be with sin,—and then it ceases to be sin at all, if it be so
Since, however, it is absurd even to put such a plainly due.
statement into words, we are obliged to confess that man ought to be without sin ; and it is clear that his obligation is not more than his ability." We frame our answer with the same illustration as we employed in our previous reply.
1 Ex. xx. 17. 2 2 Cor. iv. 16.
CHAP. III.] HUMAN INABILITY NEEDS GEACE. 317
When we see a lame man who has the opportunity of being cnred of his lameness, we of course have a right to say : That man ought not to be lame ; and since this is the case, he can avoid the lameness. And yet this ability of his does not immediately ensue whenever he wishes ; but only after the application of the remedy and the completion of the cure, when the remedial resource has assisted his will. The same thing takes place in the inward man in relation to sin, which is its lameness, by the grace of Him who " came not to call
" * since " the whole need not the
the righteous, but sinners
physician,, but only they that be sick/'
(6.) The sixth breviate.
" Again, we have to inquire whether man is commanded to be without sin ; for either he is not able [so to live,] and then there is no such commandment ; or else if there is such a commandment, he has the ability. For why should that be commanded to be done, which there is no ability at all to do ? " The answer is obvious. Man is most wisely commanded to walk with right steps, on purpose that, when he has discovered his own inability to do even this, he may seek the remedy which is provided for the inward man to cure the lameness of sin, even the grace of God, through our Lord
Jesus Christ.
(7.) The seventh breviate.
" The next question we shall have to propose is, whether God wills that man be without sin. No doubt God wills it and no doubt there is the ability on man's part. For who is so foolhardy as to hesitate to believe that to be possible, which he has no doubt about God's willingr to be done ?
This is the answer. If God willed not that man should be without sin, He would not have sent His Son without sin, to heal men of their sins. This takes place in believers, who are being renewed day by day,
3 until their righteousness becomes perfect, like fully restored health.
(8.) Tlie eighth breviate.
" Again, this question must be asked : in what manner God would have a man live—with sin, or without sin ? Beyond a
1 Matt. ix. 13. 2 Matt. ix. 12. 3 2 Cor. iv. 16.
318 ON man's perfection in righteousness, [chap. IV.
doubt, it is not with sin that He would have him live. We must reflect how great would be the impious blasphemy for it to be said that man had it in his power to exist with sin, which God does not wish ; and for it to be denied that he had it in his power to live without sin, which God wishes : just as if God had created any man for such a result as this,—that he should be capable of being what He would not have him be ; and incapable of being what He would have him be ; and that he should rather lead an existence contrary to His will, than one which should be in accordance therewith." This has been in fact already answered ; but I see that it is necessary for me to make here an additional remark, that " we are saved by hope ; but hope that is seen is not hope ; for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for ? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it."
Plenary righteousness, therefore, will only then be reached, when fulness of [moral soundness, or] health is attained ; and this fulness of health shall be when there is fulness of love,2; 3 and then shall come for " love is the fulfilling of the law fulness of love, when "we shall see Him even as He is." 4
Nor will any addition to love be possible more, when faith shall have reached the fruition of sight.
Chap. iv.— (9.) The ninth breviate. (The hard necessity ofpossessing sin has ahvays pursued sinners.
" The next question we shall require to be solved is this
By what means is it brought about that man exists with sin ?
Is it through the necessity of his nature, or through the choice of his will ? If it is through the necessity of his nature, he is blameless ; if through his own will, then the question arises, from whom he has received this freedom of will ? No doubt, from God. "Well, but that which God bestows is certainly good. This cannot be gainsaid. On what principle, then, is a thing proved to be good, if it is more prone to evil than to good ? For there is a greater proneness to evil than to good in an arrangement which renders it im-
1 Rom. viii. 24, 25.
2 Of course we here miss the pleasant terseness of the original : "Tunc plena sanitas, quando plena caritas."
3 Rom. xiii. 10. * 1 John iii. 2.
CHAP. IV.] LIBERTY THROUGH CHRIST. 319 possible for a man to live without sin." The answer is this :
It came to pass by the exercise of free will that man associated himself with sin ; but a penal viciousness closely followed thereon, and out of the liberty produced necessity. Hence the cry of faith to God, " Lead Thou me out of my neces-
1 With these necessities upon us, we are either unable sities/' to understand what we want, or else (while having the wish) we are not strong enough to accomplish what we have come to understand. Now real liberty is promised to believers by the Deliverer. " If the Son," says He, " shall make you free,
2 For, vanquished by the sin into which it fell by the bent of its will, nature has lost its liberty. Hence another Scripture says, " For of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage."
ye shall be free indeed."
3 Since therefore " the whole need not the physician, but only they that be
4 so likewise it is not the free that need the Deliverer, sick;" but only the enslaved. Hence the cry of joy to Him for deliverance, " Thou hast saved my soul from the straits of
5 For true liberty is also real sanity—[the connecessity."
dition of " the whole."] And this state would never have been lost, if the will of man had remained good. But because the will turned to sinning, the hard necessity of possessing sin pursued the sinner; [and will pursue him,] until his infirmity be wholly remedied, and such freedom be regained, that there must needs be, on the one hand, a permanent will to live happily, and, on the other hand, a voluntary and happy necessity of living virtuously also, and of always avoiding sin.
(10.) The tenth breviate.
Since God made man good, and, in addition to this, further commanded him to do good, how impious it is for us to hold that man is evil, when he was neither made so, nor taught to act so ; and to deny him the capability of being good, although he was both made so, and commanded to act so !" Our answer here is : Since then it was not man himself, but God, who made man good ; so also is it God, and not man himself, who remakes him to be good, while liberating him
1 Ps. xxv. 17. 2 John viii. 38. 3 2 Pet. ii. 19.
* Matt. ix. 12. 6 Ps. xxxi. 7 (Septuagint),
320 ON man's perfection in righteousness, [chap. v.
from the evil which he himself did upon his willing, believing, and invoking such a deliverance. But all this is effected by the renewal day by day of the inward man/ by the grace of
God through our Lord Jesus Christ, with a view to the outward man's resurrection at the last day to an eternity not of punishment, but of life.
Chap. v.—(1 1. ) The eleventh breviate. ( The general prohibition in Scripture is,
11 Thou shalt not covet" and the general precept, " Thou shalt love;" the office of the law. )
" The next question which must be put is, in how many ways all sin becomes apparent ? In two, if I mistake not when either those things are done which are forbidden, or those things are left undone which are bidden. Now, it is just as certain that all things which are forbidden are able to be avoided, as it is that all things which are commanded are able to be effected. For it is vain either to forbid or to enjoin that which cannot either be guarded against or accomplished. And how shall we deny the possibility of man's living without sin, when we are compelled to admit that he can as well avoid all those things which are forbidden, as do all those which are commanded ?" My answer is, that in the Holy Scriptures there are many divine precepts, to mention the whole of which would be too laborious ; but the
Lord, who on earth consummated His word and also abridged it,2 expressly declared that the law and the prophets hung on
3 that we might understand that whattwo commandments, ever else has been enjoined on us by God ends in these two commandments, and must be referred to them : " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy
4 and "Thou shalt love thy
soul, and with all thy mind;"
5 " On these two commandments," says
neighbour as thyself."
Christ, "hang all the law and the prophets."
6 Whatever, therefore, we are by God's law forbidden, and whatever we are bidden to do, we are forbidden and bidden with the direct object of fulfilling these two commandments. And probably
7 and the the general prohibition is, "Thou shalt not covet;"
1 2 Cor. iv. 16. 2 An application of Rom. ix. 28.
3 Matt. xxii. 40. 4 Matt. xxii. 37. 5 Matt. xxii. 39.
6 Matt. xxii. 40. 7 Ex. xx. 27.
CHAP. VI.] THE LAW LEADS TO CHEIST. 321 general precept, " Thou slialt love." * Accordingly the
Apostle Paul, in a certain place, briefly embraced the two, expressing the prohibition in these words, " Be not conformed to this world,"
2 and the command in these, " But be
3 The former ye transformed by the renewing of your mind."
falls under the negative precept, not to covet ; the latter under the positive one, to love. The one has reference to continence, the other to righteousness. The one enjoins avoidance of evil ; the other, pursuit of good. By eschewing covetousness we put off the old man, and by showing love we put on the new. But no man can be continent unless God endow him with the gift; 4 nor is God's love shed abroad in our hearts by our own selves, but by the Holy Ghost that is given to us.°
This, however, takes place day after day in those who advance by willing, believing, and praying, and who, " forgetting those things which are behind, reach forth unto those things which
6 For the reason why the law inculcates all these are before."
precepts is, that when a man has failed in fulfilling them, he may not be swollen with pride, and so exalt himself, but may in very weariness betake himself to grace. Thus the law fulfils its office as " schoolmaster," so terrifying the man as " to lead him to Christ," to give Him his love.
Chap. vi.— The twelfth breviate. (The lust of the flesh nothing else than the desire of sin.)
" Again the question arises, how it is that man is unable to live without sin,—by his will, or by nature? If by nature, it is not sin; if by his will, then will can very easily be changed by will" We answer by reminding him how he ought to reflect on the extreme presumption of saying—not simply that it is possible (for this no doubt is undeniable, when God's grace comes in aid), but—that it is " very easy " for will to be changed by will. Whereas the apostle says,
" The flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh : and these are contrary the one to the other ; so that ye do not the things that ye would."
8 He does not say, "These are contrary the one to the other, so that ye will not do the things that ye can," but, " so that ye do not the things that
1 Deut. vi. 5. 2 Eom. xii. 2. 3 Eom. xii. 2. 4 Wisd. viii. 21.
5 Eom. v. 5. « Phil. iii. 13. ' Gal. iii. 21. 8 Gal. v. 17.
322 ON man's perfection in righteousness, [chap. VI.
1 How happens it, then, that the lust of the flesh (which of course is culpable and vicious, and is nothing else than a desire for sin, as to which the same apostle instructs ye would."
; 2 by which exus not to let it " reign in our mortal body pression he shows us plainly enough that that must have an existence in our mortal body which must not be permitted to hold a dominion in it ;—how happens it, I say, that such lust of the flesh) has not been changed by that will, which the apostle clearly implied the existence of in his words, " So that ye do not the things that ye would [or 10111]" if so be that the will can so easily be changed by will ? Not that we, indeed, by this argument throw the blame upon the nature either of the soul or of the body, which God created, and which is wholly good ; but we say that it has been vitiated by man's own will, and cannot be made whole without the grace of God.
(13.) The thirteenth breviate.
" The next question we have to ask is this : If man cannot exist without sin, whose fault is it,—man's own, or some one's else ? If man's own, in what way is he to blame for not being that which he is unable to be ? " We reply, that man is to blame for not being without sin entirely on this account, because it has by man's sole will come to pass that he has come into such a necessity as cannot be overcome by man's sole will.
(14.) Thefourteenth breviate. {Why the law is called "the strength of sin")
" Again the question must be asked, If man's nature is good, as nobody but Marcion or Manichaeus will venture to deny, in what way is it good if it is impossible for it to be free from evil ? For that all sin is evil who can gainsay ?" We answer, that man's nature is both good, and is also able to be free from evil. Therefore do we earnestly pray, " Deliver
3 This deliverance, indeed, is not fully wrought, us from evil."
so long as the soul is oppressed by the body, which is hasten-
4 This process, however, is being effected by grace through faith, so that it may be said by and by, ing to corruption.
1 "iva fzn a. uv 6'iXnn, ravru vrown. a Rom. Vl. 12.
3 Matt. vi. 13. * Wisd. ix. 15.
CHAP. VII.] THE VITIATION AND DELIVERANCE OF NATURE. 323
" death, where is thy struggle ? Where is thy sting, death ? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law ; " l because the law by prohibiting sin only increases the desire for it, unless the Holy Ghost spreads abroad that love, which shall then be full and perfect, when we shall see face to face.
(15.) The fifteenth breviate.
" And this, moreover, has to be said : God is certainly righteous ; this cannot be denied. But God imputes every sin to man. This too, I suppose, must be allowed, that whatever shall not be imputed as sin is not sin. Now if there is any sin which is unavoidable, how is God said to be righteous, when He is supposed to impute to any man [as sin] that which cannot be avoided ? " We reply, that long ago was it declared in opposition to the proud, " Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not sin."
2 JSow He does not impute it to those who say to Him in faith, " Forgive us our
3 And justly does He
debts, as we forgive our debtors."
withhold this imputation, because that is just which He says
"With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you
4 That, however, is sin in which there is either not again."
the love which ought to be, or where the love is less than it
5—whether it be avoidable by the human will or ought to be, inevitable ; because when avoidable, the man's present will does it, [or] his past will did it ; and yet it can be avoided, not, however, when the proud will is lauded, but when the humble one is assisted.
Chap. vii.—(16.) The sixteenth breviate.
After all these disputations, their author introduces himself in person as arguing with another person, and represents himself as under examination, and as being addressed by his examiner : " Show me the man who is without sin." He answers : " I show you one who might be without sin." His examiner then says to him: "And who is he?" He answers promptly enough : " You are the man." " But if," he adds, " you were
1 1 Cor. xv. 35, 36. 2 Ps. xxxii. 2. 3 Matt. vi. 12. 4 Matt. vii. 2. 5 See above, in his work De Spiritu et Litterd, 64 ; and De Naturd et Gratia, 45.
324 ON MAN'S PERFECTION IN RIGHTEOUSNESS. [CHAP. VII.
to say, 'I, at any rate, cannot live without sin/ then you must answer me, ' Whose fault is that ?
' If you then were to say, ' My own fault,' you must be further asked, ' And how is it your fault, if, [as you say,] you cannot live without sin?'" He again represents himself as under examination, and thus accosted : " Are you really yourself without sin, who allege that a man can live without sin V And he answers [by retorting a question :] " Whose fault is it that I am not without sin ? But if," continues he, " he had said in reply, ' The fault is your own;' then the answer would be, 'How my
' " Now our answer to all this running argument is, that no controversy fault, when I am unable to live without sin ?
ought to have been raised between them about such words as these ; because he nowhere ventures to affirm that a man
(either any one else, or himself) IS without sin, but he merely said in reply that he could be,—a position which we do not ourselves deny. Only the question arises, when this possibility accrues, and through whom ? If it occurs at the present time, then by no faithful soul which is enclosed within the body of this death must this prayer be offered, or such words as these be spoken, " Forgive as our debts, as we forgive our