The Enchiridion

By St. Augustine

Title Page
The Enchiridion,
Introductory Notice
The Enchiridion.
Chapter 1.--The Author Desires the Gift of True Wisdom for Laurentius.
Chapter 2.--The Fear of God is Man's True Wisdom.
Chapter 3.--God is to Be Worshipped Through Faith, Hope, and Love.
Chapter 4.--The Questions Propounded by Laurentius.
Chapter 5.--Brief Answers to These Questions.
Chapter 6.--Controversy Out of Place in a Handbook Like the Present.
Chapter 7.--The Creed and the Lord's Prayer Demand the Exercise of Faith, Hope, and Love.
Chapter 8.--The Distinction Between Faith and Hope, and the Mutual Dependence of Faith, Hope, and Love.
Chapter 9.--What We are to Believe. In Regard to Nature It is Not Necessary for the Christian to Know More Than that the Goodness of the Creator is the Cause of All Things.
Chapter 10.--The Supremely Good Creator Made All Things Good.
Chapter 11.--What is Called Evil in the Universe is But the Absence of Good.
Chapter 12.--All Beings Were Made Good, But Not Being Made Perfectly Good, are Liable to Corruption.
Chapter 13.--There Can Be No Evil Where There is No Good; And an Evil Man is an Evil Good.
Chapter 14.--Good and Evil are an Exception to the Rule that Contrary Attributes Cannot Be Predicated of the Same Subject. Evil Springs Up in What is Good, and Cannot Exist Except in What is Good.
Chapter 15.--The Preceding Argument is in No Wise Inconsistent with the Saying of Our Lord: |A Good Tree Cannot Bring Forth Evil Fruit.|
Chapter 16.--It is Not Essential to Man's Happiness that He Should Know the Causes of Physical Convulsions; But It Is, that He Should Know the Causes of Good and Evil.
Chapter 17.--The Nature of Error. All Error is Not Hurtful, Though It is Man's Duty as Far as Possible to Avoid It.
Chapter 18.--It is Never Allowable to Tell a Lie; But Lies Differ Very Much in Guilt, According to the Intention and the Subject.
Chapter 19.--Men's Errors Vary Very Much in the Magnitude of the Evils They Produce; But Yet Every Error is in Itself an Evil.
Chapter 20.--Every Error is Not a Sin. An Examination of the Opinion of the Academic Philosophers, that to Avoid Error We Should in All Cases Suspend Belief.
Chapter 21.--Error, Though Not Always a Sin, is Always an Evil.
Chapter 22.--A Lie is Not Allowable, Even to Save Another from Injury.
Chapter 23.--Summary of the Results of the Preceding Discussion.
Chapter 24.--The Secondary Causes of Evil are Ignorance and Lust.
Chapter 25.--God's Judgments Upon Fallen Men and Angels. The Death of the Body is Man's Peculiar Punishment.
Chapter 26.--Through Adam's Sin His Whole Posterity Were Corrupted, and Were Born Under the Penalty of Death, Which He Had Incurred.
Chapter 27.--The State of Misery to Which Adam's Sin Reduced Mankind, and the Restoration Effected Through the Mercy of God.
Chapter 28.--When the Rebellious Angels Were Cast Out, the Rest Remained in the Enjoyment of Eternal Happiness with God.
Chapter 29.--The Restored Part of Humanity Shall, in Accordance with the Promises of God, Succeed to the Place Which the Rebellious Angels Lost.
Chapter 30.--Men are Not Saved by Good Works, Nor by the Free Determination of Their Own Will, But by the Grace of God Through Faith.
Chapter 31.--Faith Itself is the Gift of God; And Good Works Will Not Be Wanting in Those Who Believe.
Chapter 32.--The Freedom of the Will is Also the Gift of God, for God Worketh in Us Both to Will and to Do.
Chapter 33.--Men, Being by Nature the Children of Wrath, Needed a Mediator. In What Sense God is Said to Be Angry.
Chapter 34.--The Ineffable Mystery of the Birth of Christ the Mediator Through the Virgin Mary.
Chapter 35.--Jesus Christ, Being the Only Son of God, is at the Same Time Man.
Chapter 36.--The Grace of God is Clearly and Remarkably Displayed in Raising the Man Christ Jesus to the Dignity of the Son of God.
Chapter 37.--The Same Grace is Further Clearly Manifested in This, that the Birth of Christ According to the Flesh is of the Holy Ghost.
Chapter 38.--Jesus Christ, According to the Flesh, Was Not Born of the Holy Spirit in Such a Sense that the Holy Spirit is His Father.
Chapter 39.--Not Everything that is Born of Another is to Be Called a Son of that Other.
Chapter 40.--Christ's Birth Through the Holy Spirit Manifests to Us the Grace of God.
Chapter 41.--Christ, Who Was Himself Free from Sin, Was Made Sin for Us, that We Might Be Reconciled to God.
Chapter 42.--The Sacrament of Baptism Indicates Our Death with Christ to Sin, and Our Resurrection with Him to Newness of Life.
Chapter 43.--Baptism and the Grace Which It Typifies are Open to All, Both Infants and Adults.
Chapter 44.--In Speaking of Sin, the Singular Number is Often Put for the Plural, and the Plural for the Singular.
Chapter 45.--In Adam's First Sin, Many Kinds of Sin Were Involved.
Chapter 46.--It is Probable that Children are Involved in the Guilt Not Only of the First Pair, But of Their Own Immediate Parents.
Chapter 47.--It is Difficult to Decide Whether the Sins of a Man's Other Progenitors are Imputed to Him.
Chapter 48.--The Guilt of the First Sin is So Great that It Can Be Washed Away Only in the Blood of the Mediator, Jesus Christ.
Chapter 49.--Christ Was Not Regenerated in the Baptism of John, But Submitted to It to Give Us an Example of Humility, Just as He Submitted to Death, Not as the Punishment of Sin, But to Take Away the Sin of the World.
Chapter 50.--Christ Took Away Not Only the One Original Sin, But All the Other Sins that Have Been Added to It.
Chapter 51.--All Men Born of Adam are Under Condemnation, and Only If New Born in Christ are Freed from Condemnation.
Chapter 52.--In Baptism, Which is the Similitude of the Death and Resurrection of Christ, All, Both Infants and Adults, Die to Sin that They May Walk in Newness of Life.
Chapter 53.--Christ's Cross and Burial, Resurrection, Ascension, and Sitting Down at the Right Hand of God, are Images of the Christian Life.
Chapter 54.--Christ's Second Coming Does Not Belong to the Past, But Will Take Place at the End of the World.
Chapter 55.--The Expression, |Christ Shall Judge the Quick and the Dead,| May Be Understood in Either of Two Senses.
Chapter 56.--The Holy Spirit and the Church. The Church is the Temple of God.
Chapter 57.--The Condition of the Church in Heaven.
Chapter 58.--We Have No Certain Knowledge of the Organization of the Angelic Society.
Chapter 59.--The Bodies Assumed by Angels Raise a Very Difficult, and Not Very Useful, Subject of Discussion.
Chapter 60.--It is More Necessary to Be Able to Detect the Wiles of Satan When He Transforms Himself into an Angel of Light.
Chapter 61.--The Church on Earth Has Been Redeemed from Sin by the Blood of a Mediator.
Chapter 62.--By the Sacrifice of Christ All Things are Restored, and Peace is Made Between Earth and Heaven.
Chapter 63.--The Peace of God, Which Reigneth in Heaven, Passeth All Understanding.
Chapter 64.--Pardon of Sin Extends Over the Whole Mortal Life of the Saints, Which, Though Free from Crime, is Not Free from Sin.
Chapter 65.--God Pardons Sins, But on Condition of Penitence, Certain Times for Which Have Been Fixed by the Law of the Church.
Chapter 66.--The Pardon of Sin Has Reference Chiefly to the Future Judgment.
Chapter 67.--Faith Without Works is Dead, and Cannot Save a Man.
Chapter 68.--The True Sense of the Passage (I Cor. III. 11-15) About Those Who are Saved, Yet So as by Fire.
Chapter 69.--It is Not Impossible that Some Believers May Pass Through a Purgatorial Fire in the Future Life.
Chapter 70.--Almsgiving Will Not Atone for Sin Unless the Life Be Changed.
Chapter 71.--The Daily Prayer of the Believer Makes Satisfaction for the Trivial Sins that Daily Stain His Life.
Chapter 72.--There are Many Kinds of Alms, the Giving of Which Assists to Procure Pardon for Our Sins.
Chapter 73.--The Greatest of All Alms is to Forgive Our Debtors and to Love Our Enemies.
Chapter 74.--God Does Not Pardon the Sins of Those Who Do Not from the Heart Forgive Others.
Chapter 75.--The Wicked and the Unbelieving are Not Made Clean by the Giving of Alms, Except They Be Born Again.
Chapter 76.--To Give Alms Aright, We Should Begin with Ourselves, and Have Pity Upon Our Own Souls.
Chapter 77.--If We Would Give Alms to Ourselves, We Must Flee Iniquity; For He Who Loveth Iniquity Hateth His Soul.
Chapter 78.--What Sins are Trivial and What Heinous is a Matter for God's Judgment.
Chapter 79.--Sins Which Appear Very Trifling, are Sometimes in Reality Very Serious.
Chapter 80.--Sins, However Great and Detestable, Seem Trivial When We are Accustomed to Them.
Chapter 81.--There are Two Causes of Sin, Ignorance and Weakness; And We Need Divine Help to Overcome Both.
Chapter 82.--The Mercy of God is Necessary to True Repentance.
Chapter 83.--The Man Who Despises the Mercy of God is Guilty of the Sin Against the Holy Ghost.
Chapter 84.--The Resurrection of the Body Gives Rise to Numerous Questions.
Chapter 85.--The Case of Abortive Conceptions.
Chapter 86.--If They Have Ever Lived, They Must of Course Have Died, and Therefore Shall Have a Share in the Resurrection of the Dead.
Chapter 87.--The Case of Monstrous Births.
Chapter 88.--The Material of the Body Never Perishes.
Chapter 89.--But This Material May Be Differently Arranged in the Resurrection Body.
Chapter 90.--If There Be Differences and Inequalities Among the Bodies of Those Who Rise Again, There Shall Be Nothing Offensive or Disproportionate in Any.
Chapter 91.--The Bodies of the Saints Shall at The Resurrection Be Spiritual Bodies.
Chapter 92.--The Resurrection of the Lost.
Chapter 93.--Both the First and the Second Deaths are the Consequence of Sin. Punishment is Proportioned to Guilt.
Chapter 94.--The Saints Shall Know More Fully in the Next World the Benefits They Have Received by Grace.
Chapter 95.--God's Judgments Shall Then Be Explained.
Chapter 96.--The Omnipotent God Does Well Even in the Permission of Evil.
Chapter 97.--In What Sense Does the Apostle Say that |God Will Have All Men to Be Saved,| When, as a Matter of Fact, All are Not Saved?
Chapter 98.--Predestination to Eternal Life is Wholly of God's Free Grace.
Chapter 99.--As God's Mercy is Free, So His Judgments are Just, and Cannot Be Gainsaid.
Chapter 100.--The Will of God is Never Defeated, Though Much is Done that is Contrary to His Will.
Chapter 101.--The Will of God, Which is Always Good, is Sometimes Fulfilled Through the Evil Will of Man.
Chapter 102.--The Will of the Omnipotent God is Never Defeated, and is Never Evil.
Chapter 103.--Interpretation of the Expression in I Tim. II. 4: |Who Will Have All Men to Be Saved.|
Chapter 104.--God, Foreknowing the Sin of the First Man, Ordered His Own Purposes Accordingly.
Chapter 105.--Man Was So Created as to Be Able to Choose Either Good or Evil: in the Future Life, the Choice of Evil Will Be Impossible.
Chapter 106.--The Grace of God Was Necessary to Man's Salvation Before the Fall as Well as After It.
Chapter 107.--Eternal Life, Though the Reward of Good Works, is Itself the Gift of God.
Chapter 108.--A Mediator Was Necessary to Reconcile Us to God; And Unless This Mediator Had Been God, He Could Not Have Been Our Redeemer.
Chapter 109.--The State of the Soul During the Interval Between Death and the Resurrection.
Chapter 110.--The Benefit to the Souls of the Dead from the Sacraments and Alms of Their Living Friends.
Chapter 111.--After the Resurrection There Shall Be Two Distinct Kingdoms, One of Eternal Happiness, the Other of Eternal Misery.
Chapter 112.--There is No Ground in Scripture for the Opinion of Those Who Deny the Eternity of Future Punishments.
Chapter 113.--The Death of the Wicked Shall Be Eternal in the Same Sense as the Life of the Saints.
Chapter 114.--Having Dealt with Faith, We Now Come to Speak of Hope. Everything that Pertains to Hope is Embraced in the Lord's Prayer.
Chapter 115.--The Seven Petitions of the Lord's Prayer, According to Matthew.
Chapter 116.--Luke Expresses the Substance of These Seven Petitions More Briefly in Five.
Chapter 117.--Love, Which is Greater Than Faith and Hope, is Shed Abroad in Our Hearts by the Holy Ghost.
Chapter 118.--The Four Stages of the Christian's Life, and the Four Corresponding Stages of the Church's History.
Chapter 119.--The Grace of Regeneration Washes Away All Past Sin and All Original Guilt.
Chapter 120.--Death Cannot Injure Those Who Have Received the Grace of Regeneration.
Chapter 121.--Love is the End of All the Commandments, and God Himself is Love.
Chapter 122.--Conclusion.

The Enchiridion

By St. Augustine

Table of Contents