THE EARLY CHURCH FATHERS WRITINGS - VOLUME 56
Augustine on Grace, Marriage and the Sermon on the Mount
c. AD 393 – 428

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INTRODUCTION TO THIS VOLUME
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HOW THIS BOOK IS ARRANGED

This is the fifty-sixth volume of a series that gathers the writings of the early Church
in order of date, from the generation after the apostles down to the eighth century. This
volume holds Augustine on Grace, Marriage and the Sermon on the Mount, from the period
about AD 393 – 428.

Within each work the text is divided into chapters and numbered sections, so that any
passage can be found again and cited. The small bold figures in the text are the section
numbers.

THE TRANSLATIONS

The text is in English only. Wherever a modern English version has been prepared for
SermonIndex it is used here; otherwise the book prints an older public-domain translation.
In both cases the wording is the translator’s own: older translations have not been
altered beyond dividing them into sections. The sources for every work are listed at the
back of the book, together with the licence under which each text is released. All the
works in this volume are printed in older public-domain translations.

IN THIS VOLUME

Augustine was born at Thagaste in North Africa in AD 354. He taught rhetoric at Carthage,
Rome and Milan, and after years as a Manichaean he was baptised at Milan by Ambrose in AD
387. He returned to Africa, was ordained a presbyter at Hippo about AD 391, and was bishop
of Hippo from about AD 395 until his death in AD 430, while the Vandals were besieging the
city. He wrote the Confessions, The City of God and On the Trinity, and a great body of
sermons, letters and treatises against the Manichaeans, the Donatists and the Pelagians.

This volume begins with the later writings against the Pelagians, on grace, rebuke and
predestination, written in the last years of Augustine’s life. After them come his
treatises on marriage, virginity, widowhood and continence, and two studies of Scripture
from the early years of his ministry: the commentary on the Sermon on the Mount and the
exposition of passages from Romans.

DATES AND AUTHORSHIP

Dates are approximate and are debated by scholars. Each work begins with a short
introduction that states what is known about its author and its date, and what is
uncertain.


AGAINST TWO LETTERS OF THE PELAGIANS
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AGAINST TWO LETTERS OF THE PELAGIANS Augustine of Hippo

AD 354–430

Bishop of Hippo, the most influential Latin father.

INTRODUCTION

Augustin replies to a letter sent by Julian, as it was said, to Rome; and first of all
vindicates the catholic doctrine from his calumnies; then discovers and confutes the
heretical sense of the Pelagians hidden in that profession of faith which the author of
the letter opposed to the catholics.

CHAPTER I.-INTRODUCTION: ADDRESS TO BONIFACE.

I Had indeed known you by the praise of your renowned fame; and by very numerous and
veracious messengers I had learned how full you were of the grace of God, most blessed and
venerable Pope Boniface! But after my brother Alypius saw you even in bodily presence;
and, having been received by you with all kindness and sincerity, held, at the bidding of
affection, conversations with you; and living with you, and, although only for a short
time, united with you in earnest affection, poured out to your mind both himself and me;
and brought you back to me in his mind:-the more assured was your friendship, the greater
became in me the conviction of your holiness. For you, who mind not high things, however
loftily you are placed, did not disdain to be a friend of the lowly and to return the love
bestowed upon you. For what else is friendship which has its name from no other source
than love, and is nowhere faithful but in Christ, in whom alone it can be eternal and
happy? Whence, also, having received a greater assurance by means of that brother, through
whom I have learned to know you more familiarly, I have ventured to write something to
your blessedness concerning those things which at this juncture are claiming by a later
stimulus the episcopal care, as far as we are able, to vigilance on behalf of the Lord's
flock.

CHAPTER 2.-WHY HERETICAL WRITINGS MUST BE ANSWERED.

For the new heretics, enemies of the grace of God which is given by Jesus Christ our Lord
to small and great, although they are already shown more openly to need to be avoided by a
manifest disapprobation, still do not cease by their writings to try the hearts of the
less cautious and less learned. And these must certainly be answered, lest they should
confirm themselves or their friends in that wicked error; even if we were not afraid that
they might deceive some one of the catholics by their plausible discourse. But since they
do not cease to growl at the entrances to the Lord's fold, and from every side to tear
open approaches with a view to tear in pieces the sheep redeemed at such a price; and
since the pastoral watch-tower is common to all of us who discharge the office of the
episcopate (although you are prominent therein on a loftier height), I do what I can in
respect of my small portion of the charge, as the Lord condescends by the aid of your
prayers to grant me power, to oppose to their pestilent and crafty writings, healing and
defensive writings, so that the madness with which they are raging may either itself be
cured, or may be prevented from hurting others.

CHAPTER 3.-WHY HE ADDRESSES HIS BOOK TO BONIFACE.

But these words which I am answering to their two letters,-the one, to wit, which Julian
is said to have sent to Rome, that by its means, as I believe, he might find or make as
many allies as he could; and the other, which eightteen so-called bishops, sharers in his
error, dared to write to Thessalonica, not to any and every body, but to the bishop of
that place itself, with a view of tempting him by their craftiness and bringing him over,
if it could be done, to their views;-these words which, as I said, I err writing in answer
to those two letters of their in respect of that argument, I have determiner to address
especially to your sanctity, not so much for your learning as for your examination and, if
perchance anything should displease you for your correction. For my brother intimated to
me that you yourself condescended to give those letters to him, which could not come into
your hands except by the most watchful diligence of my brethren, your sons. And I thank
your most sincere kindness to me that you have beer unwilling that those letters of the
enemies of God's grace should be hidden from me, seeing that in them you have found my
name calumniously as well an openly expressed. But I hope from my Lord God that not
without the reward which is in heaven do those tear me with their scurrilous teeth to whom
I oppose myself on behalf of the little ones, that they may not be left for destruction to
the deceitful flatterer Pelagius, but may be presented for deliverance to the truthful
Saviour Christ.

CHAPTER 4 [II.]-THE CALUMNY OF JULIAN,-THAT THE CATHOLICS TEACH THAT FREE WILL IS TAKEN AWAY BY ADAM'S SIN.

Let us now, therefore, reply to Julian's letter. "Those Manicheans say," says he, "with
whom now we do not communicate,-that is, the whole of them with whom we differ,-that by
the sin of the first man, that is, of Adam, free will perished: and that no one has now
the power of living well, but that all are constrained into sin by the necessity of their
flesh." He calls the catholics Manicheans, after the manner of that Jovinian who a few
years ago, as a Dew heretic, destroyed the virginity of the blessed Mary, and placed the
marriage of the faithful on the same level with her sacred virginity. And he did not
object this to the catholics on any other ground than that he wished them to seem to be
either accusers or condemners of marriage.

CHAPTER 5.-FREE CHOICE DID NOT PERISH WISH ADAM 'S SIN. WHAT FREEDOM DID PERISH.

1 But in defending free will they hasten to confide rather in it for doing righteousness
than in God's aid, and to glory every one in himself, and not in the Lord. But who of us
will say that by the sin of the first man free will perished from the human race? Through
sin freedom indeed perished, but it was that freedom which was in Paradise, to have a full
righteousness with immortality; and it is on this account that human nature needs divine
grace, since the Lord says, "If the Son shall make you free, then shall ye be free indeed"
-free of course to live well and righteously. For free will in the sinner up to this
extent did not perish,-that by it all sin, especially they who sin with delight and with
love of sin; what they are pleased to do gives them pleasure. Whence also the apostle
says, "When ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness. Behold, they are
shown to have been by no means able to serve sin except by another freedom. They are not,
then, free from righteousness except by the choice of the will, but they do not become
free from sin save by the grace of the Saviour. For which reason the admirable Teacher
also distinguished these very words: "For when ye were the servants," says he, "of sin, ye
were free from righteousness. What fruit had ye, then, in those things whereof ye are now
ashamed? for the end of those things is death.

2 But now being freed from sin and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto
holiness, and the end eternal life. He called them "free" from righteousness, not "freed;
but from sin not "free," lest they should attribute this to themselves, but most
watchfully he preferred to say "freed," referring this to that declaration of the Lord,
"If the Son shall make you free, then shall ye be free indeed. Since, then, the sons of
men do not live well unless they are made the sons of God, why is it that this writer
wishes to give the power of good living to free will, when this power is not given save by
God's grace through Jesus Christ our Lord, as the gospel says: "And as many as received
Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God"?

CHAPTER 6 [III.] -GRACE IS NOT GIVEN ACCORDING TO MERITS.

1 But lest perchance they say that they are aided to this,-that they may "have power to
become the sons of God," but that they may deserve to receive this power they have first
"received Him" by free will with no assistance of grace (because this is the purpose of
their endeavour to destroy grace, that they may contend that it is given according to our
deservings); lest perchance, then, they so divide that evangelical statement as to refer
merit to that portion of it wherein it is said, "But as many as received Him," and then
say that in that which follows, "He gave them power to become the sons of God," grace is
not given freely, but is repaid to this merit; if it is asked of them what is the meaning
of "received Him," will they say anything else than "believed on Him"? And in order,
therefore, that they may know that this also pertains to grace, let them read what the
apostle says: "And that ye be in nothing terrified by your adversaries, which indeed is to
them a cause of perdition, but of your salvation, and that of God; for unto you it is
given in the behalf of Christ not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake.
Certainly he said that both were given. Let them read what he said also: "Peace be to the
brethren, and love, with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Let them
also read what the Lord Himself says:

2 "No man can come to me, except the Father who hath sent me shall draw him. Where, lest
any one should suppose that anything else is said in the words "come to me" than "believe
in me," a little after, when He was speaking of His body and blood, and many were offended
at His discourse, He says, "The words which I have spoken unto you are spirit and life;
but there are some of you which believe not. Then the Evangelist added, "For Jesus knew
from the beginning who they were that believed, and who should betray Him. And He said,
Therefore I said unto you that no man can come unto me except it were given him of my
Father. He repeated, to wit, the saying in which He had said, "No man can come unto me,
except the Father who hath sent me shall draw him. And He declared that He said this for
the sake of believers and unbelievers, explaining what He had said, "except the Father who
hath sent me shall draw him," by repeating the very same thing in other words in that
which He said, "except it were given him of my Father. Because he is drawn to Christ to
whom it is given to believe on Christ. Therefore the power is given that they who believe
on Him should become the sons of God, since this very thing is given, that they believe on
Him. And unless this power be given from God, out of free will there can be none;

3 because it will not be free for good if the deliverer have not made it free; but in evil
he has a free will in whom a deceiver, either secret or manifest, has grafted the love of
wickedness, or he himself has persuaded himself of it.

CHAPTER 7.-HE CONCLUDES THAT HE DOES NOT DEPRIVE THE WICKED OF FREE WILL.

It is not, therefore, true, as some affirm that we say, and as that correspondent of yours
ventures moreover to write, that "all are forced into sin," as if they were unwilling, "by
the necessity of their flesh;" but if they are already of the age to use the choice of
their own mind, they are both retained in sin by their own will, and by their own will are
hurried along from sin to sin. For even he who persuades and deceives does not act in
them, except that they may commit sin by their will, either by ignorance of the truth or
by delight in iniquity, or by both evils, -as well of blindness as of weakness. But this
will, which is free in evil things because it takes pleasure in evil, is not free in good
things, for the reason that it has not been made free. Nor can a man will any good thing
unless he is aided by Him who cannot will evil,-that is, by the grace of God through Jesus
Christ our Lord. For "everything which is not of faith is sin." And thus the good will
which withdraws itself from sin is faithful, because the just lives by faith. And it
pertains to faith to believe on Christ. And no man can believe on Christ- that is, come to
Him- unless it be given to him. No man, therefore, can have a righteous will, unless, with
no foregoing merits, he has received the true, that is, the gratuitous grace from above.

CHAPTER 8 [IV.]-THE PELAGIANS DEMOLISH FREE WILL.

These proud and haughty people will not have this; and yet they do not maintain free will
by purifying it, but demolish it by exaggerating it. For they are angry with us who say
these things, for no other reason than that they disdain to glory in the Lord. Yet
Pelagius feared the episcopal judgment of Palestine; and when it was objected to him that
he said that the grace of God is given according to our merits, he denied that he said so,
and condemned those who said this with an anathema. And yet nothing else is found to be
defended in the books which he afterwards wrote. thinking that he had made a fraud upon
the men who were his judges, by lying or by hiding his meaning, I know not how, in
ambiguous words.

CHAPTER 9 [V.]-ANOTHER CALUMNY OF JULIAN,- THAT "IT IS SAID THAT MARRIAGE IS NOT APPOINTED BY GOD."

1 But now let us see what follows. "They say also," he says, "that those marriages which
are now celebrated were not appointed by God, and this is to be read in Augustin's book,
against which I replied in four books. And the words of this Augustin our enemies have
taken up by way of hostility to the truth. To these most calumnious words I see that a
brief answer must be made, because he repeats them afterwards when he wishes to insinuate
what such men as they would say, as if against my words. On that point, with God's
assistance, I must contend with him as far as the matter shall seem to demand. Now,
therefore, I reply that marriage was ordained by God both then, when it was said,
"Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife,
and they shall be two in one flesh," and now, wherefore it is written, "A woman is joined
to a man by the Lord. For nothing else is even now done than that a man cleave to his
wife, and they become two in one flesh. Because concerning that very marriage which is now
contracted, the Lord was consulted by the Jews whether it was lawful for any cause to put
away a wife. And to the testimony of the law on the occasion mentioned, He added, "What,
therefore, God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.

2 The Apostle Paul also applied this witness of the law when he admonished husbands that
their wives should be loved by theme. Away, then, with the notion that in my book that man
should read anything opposed to these divine testimonies! But either by not understanding,
or rather by calumniating, he seeks to twist what he reads into another meaning. But I
wrote my book, against which he mentions that he replied in four books, after the
condemnation of Pelagius and Coelestius. And this, I have thought, must be said, because
that man avers that my words had been taken up by his enemies in hostility to the truth,
lest any one should think that these new heretics were condemned as enemies of the grace
of Christ on account of this book of mine. But in that book is found the defence rather
than the censure of marriage.

CHAPTER 10-THIRD CALUMNY,-THE ASSERTION THAT CONJUGAL INTERCOURSE IS CONDEMNED.

"They say also." says he, "that sexual impulse and the intercourse of married people were
devised by the devil, and that therefore those who are born innocent are guilty, and that
it is the work of the devil, not of God, that they are born of this diabolical
intercourse. And this, without any ambiguity, is Manicheism." Nay, as I say that marriage
was appointed by God for the sake of the ordinance of the begetting of children, so I say
that the propagation of children to be begotten could not have taken place without sexual
impulse, and without intercourse of husband and wife, even in Paradise, if children were
begotten there. But whether such impulse and intercourse would have existed, as is now the
case with shameful lust, if no one had sinned, here is the question concerning which I
shall argue hereafter, if God will.

CHAPTER 11 [VI.]-THE PURPOSE OF THE PELAGIANS IN PRAISING THE INNOCENCE OF CONJUGAL INTERCOURSE.

Yet what it is they wish, what they purpose, to what result they are striving to bring the
matter, the words that are added by that writer declare, when he asserts that I say, "that
therefore they who are born innocent are guilty, and that it is the work of the devil, not
of God, that they are born of this diabolical intercourse." Since, therefore, I neither
say that this intercourse of husband and wife is diabolical, especially in the case of
believers, which is effected for the sake of generating children who are afterwards to be
regenerated; nor that any men are made by the devil, but, in so far as they are men, by
God; and nevertheless that even of believing husband and wife are born guilty persons (as
if a wild olive were produced from an olive), on account of original sin, and on this
account they are under the devil unless they are born again in Christ, because the devil
is the author of the fault, not of the nature: what, on the other hand, are they labouring
to bring about who say that infants inherit no original sin, and therefore are not under
the devil, except that that grace of God in infants may be made of no effect, by which He
has plucked us out, as the apostle says, from the power of darkness, and has translated us
into the kingdom of the Son of His love? [VII.] When, indeed, they deny that infants are
in the power of darkness even before the help of the Lord the deliverer, they are in such
wise praising in them the Creator's work as to destroy the mercy of the Redeemer. And
because I confess this both in grown-up people and in infants, he says that this is
without any ambiguity Manicheism, although it is the most ancient catholic dogma by which
the new heretical dogma of these men is overturned.

CHAPTER 12.-THE FOURTH CALUMNY,-THAT THE SAINTS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT ARE SAID TO BE NOT FREE FROM SINS.

"They say," says he, "that the saints in the Old Testament were not without sins,-that is
that they were not free from crimes even by amendment, but they were seized by death in
their guilt." Nay, I say that either before the law, or in the time of the Old Testament,
they were freed from sins,-not by their own power, because "cursed is every one that hath
put his hope in man," and without any doubt those are under this curse whom also the
sacred Psalm notifies, "who trust in their own strength;" nor by the old covenant which
gendereth to bondage, although it was divinely given by the grace of a sure dispensation;
nor by that law itself, holy and just and good as it was, where it is written, "Thou shalt
not covet," since it wasnot given as being able to give life, but it was added for the
sake of transgression until the seed should come to whom the promise was made; but I say
that they were freed by the blood of the Redeemer Himself, who is the one Mediator of God
and man, the man Christ Jesus. But those enemies of the grace of God, which is given to
small and great through Jesus Christ our Lord, say that the men of God of old were of a
perfect righteousness, lest they should be supposed to have needed the incarnation, the
passion, and resurrection of Christ, by belief in whom they were saved.

CHAPTER 13 [VIII.]-THE FIFTH CALUMNY,-THAT IT IS SAID THAT PAUL AND THE REST OF THE APOSTLES WERE POLLUTED BY LUST.

1 He says, "They say that even the Apostle Paul, even all the apostles, were always
polluted by immoderate lust. What man, however profane he may be, would dare to say this?
But doubtless this man thus misrepresents because they contend that what the apostle said,
"I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing, for to will is present
with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not," and other such things, he said
not of himself, but that he introduced the person of somebody else, I know not who, who
was suffering these things. Wherefore that passage in his epistle must be carefully
considered and investigated, that their error may not lurk in any obscurity of his.
Although, therefore, the apostle is here arguing broadly, and with great and lasting
conflict maintaining grace against those who were boasting in the law, yet we do come upon
a few matters which pertain to the matter in hand. On which subject he says: "Because by
the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight. For by the law is the knowledge of
sin. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by
the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God by the faith of Jesus Christ unto
all them that believe. For there is no difference. For all have sinned and come short of
the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in
Christ Jesus.

2 And again: "Where is boasting? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No; but by the law
of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the works of the
law. And again: "For the promise that he should be the heir of the world was not to
Abraham or to his seed through the law, but by the righteousness of faith. For if they
which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect.
Because the law worketh wrath, for where no law is, there is no transgression. And in
another place: "Moreover, the law entered that the offence might abound. But where sin
abounded grace did much more abound. In still another place: "For sin shall not have
dominion over you, for ye are not under law, but under grace. And again in another place:
"Know ye not, brethren (for I speak to them that know the law), that the law hath dominion
over a man so long as he liveth? For the woman which is under a husband is joined to her
husband by the law so long as he liveth; but if her husband be dead, she is freed from the
law of her husband. And a little after: "Therefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead
to the law by the body of Christ, that ye should belong to another, who has risen from the
dead that we should bring forth fruit unto God.

3 For when we were in the flesh the passions of sins which are by the law did work in our
members to bring forth fruit unto death, but now we are delivered from the law of death in
which we were held, so that we may serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of
the letter. With these and such like testimonies that teacher of the Gentiles showed with
sufficient evidence that the law could not take away sin, but rather increased it, and
that grace takes it away; since the law knew how to command, to which command weakness
gives way, while grace knows to assist, whereby love is infused. And lest any one, on
account of these testimonies, should reproach the law, and contend that it is evil, the
apostle, seeing what might occur to those who ill understand it, himself proposed to
himself the same question. "What shall we say, then? said he. "Is the law sin? Far from
it. But I did not know sin except by the law. He had already said before, "For by the law
is the knowledge of sin. It is not, therefore, the taking away, but the knowledge of sin.

CHAPTER 14.-THAT THE APOSTLE IS SPEAKING IN HIS OWN PERSON AND THAT OF OTHERS WHO AREUNDER GRACE, NOT STILL UNDER LAW.

1 And from this point he now begins-and, it was on account of this that I undertook the
consideration of these things-to introduce his own person, and to speak as if about
himself; where the Pelagians Will not have it that the apostle himself is to be
understood, but say that he has transfigured another person into himself,-that is, a man
placed still under the law, not yet freed by grace. And here, indeed, they ought at least
to concede that "in the law no one is justified," as the same apostle says elsewhere; but
that the law avails for the knowledge of sin, and for the transgression of the law itself,
so that sin, being known and increased, grace may be sought for through faith. But they do
not fear that those things should be understood concerning the apostle which he might also
say concerning his past, but they fear those things which follow. For here he says: "I had
not known lust if the law had not said, Thou shall not covet. But the occasion being
taken, sin wrought in me by the commandment all manner of lust. For without the law sin
was dead. But I was alive without the law once, but when the commandment came, sin
revived, and I died, and the commandment which was for life was found for me to be death.
For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. Therefore the
law indeed is holy, and the commandment holy, just, and good.

2 Was, then, that which is good made death unto me? By no means.But sin, that it might
appear sin, worked death to me by that which is good, that the sinner or the sin might
become by the commandment excessive. All these things, as I have said, the apostle can
seem to have commemorated from his past life: so that from what he says, "For I was alive
without the law once," he may have wished his first age from infancy to be understood,
before the years of reason; but in that he added, "But when the commandment came, sin
revived, but I died," he would fain show himself able to receive the commandment, but not
to do it, and therefore a transgressor of the law.

CHAPTER 15 [IX.]-HE SINS IN WILL WHO IS ONLY DETERRED FROM SINNING BY FEAR.

1 Nor let us be disturbed by what he wrote to the Philippians: "Touching the righteousness
which is in the law, one who is without blame. For he could be within in evil affections a
transgressor of the law, and yet fulfil the open works of the law, either by the fear of
men or of God Himself; but by terror of punishment, not by love and delight in
righteousness. For it is one thing to do good with the will of doing good, and another
thing to be so inclined by the will to do evil, that one would actually do it if it could
be allowed without punishment. For thus assuredly he is sinning within in his will itself,
who abstains from sin not by will but by fear. And knowing himself to have been such in
these his internal affections, before the grace of God which is through Jesus Christ our
Lord, the apostle elsewhere confesses this very plainly. For writing to the Ephesians, he
says: "And you, though ye were dead in your trespasses and sins, wherein sometime ye
walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the
air, of that spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, in whom also we all
at one time had our conversation in the lusts of our flesh, doing the will of our flesh
and our affections, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others also:

2 but God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us even when we
were dead in sins, quickened us together with Christ, by whose grace we are saved. Again
to Titus he says: "For we ourselves also were sometime foolish and unbelieving, erring,
serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and holding one
another in hatred. Such was Saul when he says that he was, touching the righteousness
which is in the law, without reproach. For that he had not pressed on in the law, and
changed his character so as to be without reproach after this hateful life, he plainly
shows in what follows, when he says that he was not changed from these evils except by the
grace of the Saviour. For adding also this very thing, here as well as to the Ephesians,
he says: "But when the kindness and love of God our Saviour shone forth, not by works of
righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, by the washing
of regeneration, and of the renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom He shed on us most
abundantly, through Jesus Christ our Saviour, that being justified by His grace we should
be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life."

CHAPTER 16.-HOW SIN DIED, AND HOW IT REVIVED.

And what he says in that passage of the Epistle to the Romans, "Sin, that it might appear
sin, wrought death to me by that which is good," agrees with the former passages where he
said, "But I had not known sin but by the law, for I had not known lust unless the law had
said, Thou shalt not covet." And previously, "By the law is the knowledge of sin," for he
said this also here, "that it might appear sin;" that we might not understand what he had
said, "For without law sin was dead," except in the sense as if it were not, "it lies
hidden, it does not appear, it is completely ignored, as if it were buried in I know not
what darkness of ignorance" And in that he says, "And I was alive once without the law,"
what does he say except, I seemed to myself to live? And with respect to what he added,
"But when the commandment came, sin revived," what else is it but sin shone forth, became
apparent? Nor yet does he say lived, but revived. For it had lived formerly in Paradise,
where it sufficiently appeared, admitted in opposition to the command given; but when it
is inherited by children coming into the world, it lies concealed, as if it were dead,
until its evil, resisting righteousness, is felt by its prohibition, when one thing is
commanded and approved, another thing delights and rules: then, in some measure sin
revives in the knowledge of the man that is born, although it had lived already for some
time in the knowledge of the man as at first made.

CHAPTER 17 [X.]-"THE LAW IS SPIRITUAL, BUT I AM CARNAL," TO BE UNDERSTOOD OF PAUL.

1 But it is not so clear how what follows can be understood concerning Paul. "For we
know," says he, "that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal. He does not say, "I was,"
but, "I am. Was, then, the apostle, when he wrote this, carnal? or does he say this with
respect to his body? For he was still in the body of this death, not yet made what he
speaks of elsewhere: "It is sown a natural body, it shall be raised a spiritual body. For
then, of the whole of himself, that is, of both parts of which he consists, he shall be a
spiritual man, when even the body shall be spiritual. For it is not absurd that in that
life even the flesh should be spiritual, if in this life in those who still mind earthly
things even the spirit itself may be carnal. Thus, then, he said, "But I am carnal,"
because the apostle had not yet a spiritual body, as he might say, "But I am mortal,"
which assuredly he could not be understood to have said except in respect of his body,
which had not yet been clothed with immortality. Moreover, in reference to what he added,
"sold under sin," lest any one think that he was not yet redeemed by the blood of Christ,
this also may be understood in respect of that which he says:

2 "And we ourselves, having the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within
ourselves, waiting for I the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body. For if in this
respect he says that he was sold under sin, that as yet his body has not been redeemed
from corruption; or that he was sold once in the first transgression of the commandment so
as to have a corruptible body which drags down the soul; what hinders the apostle here
from being understood to say about himself that which he says in such wise that it may be
understood also of himself, even if in his person he wishes not himself alone, but all, to
be received who had known themselves as struggling, without consent, in spiritual delight
with the affection of the flesh?

CHAPTER 18.-HOW THE APOSTLE SAID THAT HE DID THE EVIL THAT HE WOULD NOT.

Or by chance do we fear what follows," For that which I do I know not, for whatI will I do
not, but what I hate that I do," lest perhaps from these words some one should suspect
that the apostle is consenting to the evil works of the concupiscence of the flesh? But we
must consider what he adds: "But if I do that which I will not, I consent to the law that
it is good." For he says that he rather consents to the law than to the concupiscence of
the flesh. For this he calls by the name of sin. Therefore he said that he acted and
laboured not with the desire of consenting and fulfilling, but from the impulse of lusting
itself. Hence, then, he says, "I consent to the law that it is good." I consent because I
do not will what it does not will. Afterwards he says, "Now, then, it is no more I that do
it, but sin which dwelleth in me." What does he mean by "now then," but, now at length,
under the grace which has delivered the delight of my will from the consent of lust? For,
"it is not I that do it," cannot be better understood than that he does not consent to set
forth his members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin. For if he lusts and consents
and acts, how can he be said not to do the thing himself, even although he may grieve that
he does it, and deeply groan at being overcome?

CHAPTER 19.-WHAT IT IS TO ACCOMPLISH WHAT IS GOOD.

And now does not what follows most plainly show whence he spoke? "For I know that in me,
that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing"? For if he had not explained what he said by
the addition of "that is, in my flesh," it might, perchance, be otherwise understood, when
he said, "in me." And therefore he repeats and urges the same thing in another form: "For
to will is present with me, but to perform that which is good is not." For this is to
perform that which is good, that a man should not even lust. For the good is incomplete
when one lusts, even although a man does not consent to the evil of lust. "For the good
that I would," says he, "I do not; but the evil that I would not, that I do. Now, if I do
that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me." This he
repeated impressively, and as it were to stir up the most slothful from slumber: "I find
then that the law," said he, "is for me wishing to do good, since evil is present with
me." The law, then,is for one who would do good, but evil is present from lust, though he
does not consent to this who says, "It is no longer I that do it."

CHAPTER 20.-IN ME, THAT IS, IN MY FLESH.

And he declares both more plainly in what follows: "For I delight in the law of God after
the inward man; but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind,
and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members." But in that he
said, "bringing me into captivity," he can feel emotion without consenting to it. Whence,
because of those three things, two, to wit, of which we have already argued, in that he
says, "But I am carnal," and "Sold under sin," and this third, "Bringing me into captivity
in the law of sin, which is in my members," the apostle seems to be describing a man who
is still living under the law, and is not yet under grace. But as I have expounded the
former two sayings in respect of the still corruptible flesh, so also this latter may be
understood as if he had said, "bringing me into captivity," in the flesh, not in the mind;
in emotion, not in consent; and therefore "bringing me into captivity," because even in
the flesh there is not an alien nature, but our own. As, therefore, he himself expounded
what he had said, "For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing,"
so also now out of the exposition of that we ought to learn the meaning of this passage,
as if he had said, "Bringing me into captivity," that is, "my flesh," "to the law of sin,
which is in my members."

CHAPTER 21 .-NO CONDEMNATION IN CHRIST JESUS.

Then he adds the reason why he said all these things: "O wretched man that I am! who shall
deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord!"
And thence he concludes: "Therefore I myself with the mind serve the law of God, but with
the flesh the law of sin." To wit, with the flesh, the law of sin, by lusting; but with
the mind, the law of God, by not consenting to that lust. "For there is now nocondemnation
to those who are in Christ Jesus." For he is not condemned who does not consent to the
evil of the lust of the flesh. "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made
thee free from the law of sin and death," so that, to wit, the lust of the flesh may not
appropriate to itself thy consent. And what follows more and more demonstrates the same
meaning. But moderation must be used.

CHAPTER 22.-WHY THE PASSAGE REFERRED TO MUST BE UNDERSTOOD OF A MAN ESTABLISHED UNDER GRACE.

And it had once appeared to me also that the apostle was in this argument of his
describing a man under the law. But afterwards I was constrained to give up the idea by
those words where he says, "Now, then, it is no more I that do it." For to this belongs
what he says subsequently also: "There is, therefore, now no condemnation to them that are
in Christ Jesus." And because I do not see how a man under the law should say, "I delight
in the law of God after the inward man;" since this very delight in good, by which,
moreover, he does not consent to evil, not from fear of penalty, but from love of
righteousness (for this is meant by "delighting"), can only be attributed to grace.

CHAPTER 23 [XI.]-WHAT IT IS TO BE DELIVERED FROM THE BODY OF THIS DEATH.

For when he says also, "Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" who can deny
that when the apostle said this he was still in the body of this death? And certainly the
wicked are not delivered from this, to whom the same bodies are returned for eternal
torment. Therefore, to be delivered from the body of this death is to be healed of all the
weakness of fleshly lust, and to receive the body, not for penalty, but for glory. With
this passage also those words are sufficiently in harmony: "Ourselves also, which have the
first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the
adoption, the redemption, of our body." For surely we groan with that groaning wherein we
say, "O wretched man that I am I who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" That
also where he says, "For what I do, I know not;" what else is it than: "I will not, I do
not approve, I do not consent, I do not do"? Otherwise it is contrary to what be said
above, "By the law is the knowledge of sin," and, "I had not known sin but by the law,"
and, "Sin, that it might appear sin, worked death in me by that which is good." For how
did he know sin, of which he was ignorant, by the law? How does sin which is not known
appear? Therefore it is said, "I know not," for "I do not," because I myself commit it
with no consent of mine; in the same way in which the Lord will say to the wicked, "I know
you not," although, beyond a doubt, nothing can be hid from Him; and as it is said, "Him
who had not known sin," which means who had not done sin, for He had not known what He
condemned.

CHAPTER 24.-HE CONCLUDES THAT THE APOSTLE SPOKE IN HIS OWN PERSON, AND THAT OF THOSE WHO ARE UNDER GRACE.

On the careful consideration of these things, and things of the same kind in the context
of that apostolical Scripture, the apostle is rightly understood to have signified not,
indeed, himself alone in his own person, but others also established under grace, and with
him not yet established in that perfect peace in which death shall be swallowed up in
victory. And concerning this he afterwards says, "But if Christ be in you, the body is
dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness. If, then, the Spirit
of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwelleth in you, He that raised up Jesus from
the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you."
Therefore, after our mortal bodies have been quickened, not only will there be no consent
to sinning, but even the lust of the flesh itself, to which there is no consent, will not
remain. And not to have this resistance to the spirit in the mortal flesh, was possible
only to that man who came not by the flesh to men. And that the apostles, because they
were men, and carried about in the mortality of this life a body which is corrupted and
weighs down the soul, were, therefore, "always polluted with excessive lust," as that man
injuriously affirms, be it far from me to say. But I do say that although they were free
from consent to depraved lusts, they nevertheless groaned concerning the concupiscence of
the flesh, which they bridled by restraint with such humility and piety, that they desired
rather not to have it than to subdue it.

CHAPTER 25 [XII.]-THE SIXTH CALUMNY,-THAT AUGUSTIN ASSERTS THAT EVEN CHRIST WAS NOT FREE FROM SINS.

In like manner as to what he added, that I say, "that Christ even was not free from sins,
but that, from the necessity of the flesh, He spoke falsely, and was stained with other
faults," he should see from whom he heard these things, or in whose letters he read them;
for that, indeed, he perchance did not understand them, and turned them by the
deceitfulness of malice into calumnious meanings.

CHAPTER 26 [XIII.] -THE SEVENTH CALUMNY,-THAT AUGUSTIN ASSERTS THAT IN BAPTISM ALL SINS ARE NOT REMITTED.

"They also say," says he, "that baptism does not give complete remission of sins, nor take
away crimes, but that it shaves them off, so that the roots of all sins are retained in
the evilflesh." Who but an unbeliever can affirm this against the Pelagians? I say,
therefore, that baptism gives remission of all sins, and takes away guilt, and does not
shave them off; and "that the roots of all sins are" not "retained in the evil flesh, as
if of shaved hair on the head, whence the sins may grow to be cut down again." For it was
I that found out that similitude, too, for them to use for the purposes of their calumny,
as if I thought and said this.

CHAPTER 27.-IN WHAT SENSE LUST IS CALLED SIN IN THE REGENERATE.

1 But concerning that concupiscence of the flesh of which they speak, I believe that they
are deceived, or that they deceive; for with this even he that is baptized must struggle
with a pious mind, however carefully he presses forward, and is led by the Spirit of God.
But although this is called sin, it is certainly so called not because it is sin, but
because it is made by sin, as a writing is said to be some one's "hand" because the hand
has written it. But they are sins which are unlawfully done, spoken, thought, according to
the lust of the flesh, or to ignorance-things which, once done, keep their doers guilty if
they are not forgiven. And this very concupiscence of the flesh is in such wise put away
in baptism, that although it is inherited by all that are born, it in no respect hurts
those that are born anew. And yet from these, if they carnally beget children, it is again
derived; and again it will be hurtful to those that are born, unless by the same form it
is remitted to them as born again, and remains in them in no way hindering the future
life, because its guilt, derived by generation, has been put away by regeneration; and
thus it is now no more sin, but is called so, whether because it became what it is by sin,
or because it is stirred by the delight of sinning, although by the conquest of the
delight of righteousness consent is not given to it.

2 Nor is it on account of this, the guilt of which has already been taken away in the
laver of regeneration, that the baptized say in their prayer, "Forgive us our debts, as we
also forgive our debtors; but on account of sins which are committed, whether in
consentings to it, when what is right is overcome by that which pleases, or when by
ignorance evil is accepted as if it were good. And they are committed, whether by acting,
or by speaking, or-and this is the easiest and the quickest-by thinking. From all which
things what believer ever will boast that he has his heart pure? or who will boast that he
is pure from sin? Certainly that which follows in the prayer is said on account of
concupiscence: "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. "For every one," as
it is written, "is tempted when he is drawn away of his own concupiscence, and enticed;
then, when concupiscence hath conceived, it bringeth forth Sin."

CHAPTER 28 [XIV.]-MANY WITHOUT CRIME, NONE WITHOUT SIN.

All these products of concupiscence, and the old guilt of concupiscence itself, are put
away by the washing of baptism. And whatever that concupiscence now brings forth, if they
are not those products which are called not only sins, but even crimes, are purified by
that method of daily prayer when we say, "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive," and by the
sincerity of alms-giving. For no one is so foolish as to say that that precept of our Lord
does not refer to baptized people: "Forgive and it shall be forgiven you, give and it
shall be given you." But none could rightly be ordained a minister in the Church if the
apostle had said, "If any is without sin," where he says, "If any is without crime;" or if
he had said, "Having no sin," where he says, "Having no crime." Because many baptized
believers are without crime, but I should say that no one in this life is without
sin,-however much the Pelagians are inflated, and burst asunder in madness against me
because I say this: not because there remains anything of sin which is not remitted in
baptism; but because by us who remain in the weakness of this life such sins do not cease
daily to be committed, as are daily remitted to those who pray in faith and work in mercy.
This is the soundness of the catholic faith, which the Holy Spirit everywhere sows,-not
the vanity and presumption of spirit of heretical pravity.

CHAPTER 29 [XV.]-JULIAN OPPOSES THE FAITH OF HIS FRIENDS TO THE OPINIONS OF CATHOLIC BELIEVERS. FIRST OF ALL, OF FREE WILL.

Now therefore let us see, for the rest, in what way - after thinking that he might
calumniously object against me what I believe, and feign what I do not believe-he himself
professes Iris own faith or that of the Pelagians. "In opposition to these things," he
says, "we daily argue, and we are unwilling to yield our consent to transgressors, because
we say that free will is in all by nature, and could not perish by the sin of Adam; which
assertion is confirmed by the authority of all Scriptures." If in any degree it is
necessary to say this, you should not say it against the grace of God,-you should not give
your consent to transgressors, but you should correct your opinion. But about this, as
much as I could, and as far as it seemed to be sufficient, I have argued above.

CHAPTER 30.-SECONDLY, OF MARRIAGE.

"We say," says he, "that that marriage which is now celebrated throughout the earth was
ordained by God, and that married people are not guilty, but that fornicators and
adulterers are to be condemned." This is true and catholic doctrine; but what you want to
gather from this, to wit, that from the intercourse of male and female those who are born
derive no sin to be put away by the laver of regeneration,-this is false and heretical.

CHAPTER 31.-THIRDLY, OF CONJUGAL INTERCOURSE.

"We say," says he, "that the sexual impulse-that is, that the virility itself, without
which there can be no intercourse-is ordained by God." To this I reply that the sexual
impulse, and, to make use of his word, virility, without which there can be no
intercourse, was so appointed by God that there was in it nothing to be ashamed of. For it
was not fit that His creature should blush at the work of his Creator; but by a just
punishment the disobedience of the members was the retribution to the disobedience of the
first man, for which disobedience they blushed when they covered with fig-leaves those
shameful parts which previously were not shameful.

CHAPTER 32 [XVI.]-THE APRONS WHICH ADAM AND EVE WORE.

1 For they did not use for themselves tunics to cover their whole bodies after their sin,
but aprons, which some of the less careful of our translators have translated as
"coverings. And this indeed is true; but "covering" is a general name, by which may be
understood every kind of clothing and veil. And ambiguity ought to be avoided, so that, as
the Greek called them perzwmata, by which only the shameful parts of the body are covered,
so also the Latin should either use the Greek word itself, because now custom has come to
use it instead of the Latin, or, as some do, use the word aprons, or, as others have
better named them, wrestling aprons. Because this name is taken from that ancient Roman
custom whereby the youth covered their shameful parts when they were exercised naked in
the field; whence even at this day they are called campestrati, since they cover those
members with the girdle. Although, if those members by which sin was committed were to be
covered after the sin, men ought not indeed to have been clothed in tunics, but to have
covered their hand and mouth, because they sinned by taking and eating. What, then, is the
meaning, when the prohibited food was taken, and the transgression of the precept had been
committed, of the look turned towards those members? What unknown novelty is felt there,
and compels itself to be noticed? And this is signified by the opening of the eyes.

2 For their eyes were not closed, either when Adam gave namesto the cattle and birds, or
when Eve saw the trees to be beautiful and good; but they were made open-that is,
attentive-to consider; as it is written of Agar, the handmaid of Sarah,that she opened her
eyes and saw a well? although she certainly had not had them closed before. As, therefore,
they were so suddenly ashamed of their nakedness, which they were daily in the habit of
looking upon and were not confused, that they could now no longer bearthose members naked,
but immediately took care to cover them; did not they-he in the open, she in the hidden
impulse-perceive those members to be disobedient to the choice of their will, which
certainly they ought to have ruled like the rest by their voluntary command? And this they
deservedly suffered, because they themselves also were not obedient to their Lord.
Therefore they blushed that they in such wise had not manifested service to their Creator,
that they should deserve to lose dominion over those members by which children were to be
procreated.

CHAPTER 33.-THE SHAME OF NAKEDNESS.

This kind of shame-this necessity of blushing-is certainly born with every man, and in
some measure is commanded by the very laws of nature; so that, in this matter, even
virtuous married people are ashamed. Nor can any one go to such an extreme of evil and
disgrace, as, because he knows God to be the author of nature and the ordainer of
marriage, to have intercourse even with his wife in any one's sight, or not to blush at
those impulses and seek secrecy, where he can shun the sight not only of strangers, but
even of all his own relatives. Therefore let human nature be permitted to acknowledge the
evil that happens to it by its own fault, lest it should be compelled either not to blush
at its own impulses, which is most shameless, or else to blush at the work of its Creator,
which is most ungrateful. Of this evil, nevertheless, virtuous marriage makes good use for
the sake of the benefit of the begetting of children. But to consent to lust for the sake
of carnal pleasure alone is sin, although it may be conceded to married people with
permission.

CHAPTER 34 [XVII.]-WHETHER THERE COULD BE SENSUAL APPETITE IN PARADISE BEFORE THE FALL.

But, while maintaining, ye Pelagians, the honourableness and fruitfulness of marriage,
determine, if nobody had sinned, what you would wish to consider the life of those people
in Paradise, and choose one of these four things. For beyond a doubt, either as often as
ever they pleased they would have had intercourse; or they would bridle lust when
intercourse was not necessary; or lust would arise at the summons of will, just at the
time when chaste prudence would have perceived beforehand that intercourse was necessary;
or, with no lust existing at all, as every other member served for its own work, so for
its own work the organs of generation also would obey the commands of those that willed,
without any difficulty. Of these four suppositions, choose which you please; but I think
you will reject the two former, in which lust is either obeyed or resisted. For the first
one would not be in accordance with so great a virtue, and the second not in harmony with
so great a happiness. For be the idea far from us, that the glory of so great a
blessedness as that should either be most basely enslaved by always following a preceding
lust, or, by resisting it, should not enjoy the most abounding peace. Away, I say, with
the thought that that mind should either be gratified by consenting to satisfy the
concupiscence of the flesh, arising not opportunely for the sake of procreation, but with
unregulated excitement, or that that quiet should find it necessary to restrain it by
refusing.

CHAPTER 35.-DESIRE IN PARADISE WAS EITHER NONE AT ALL, OR IT WAS OBEDIENT TO THE IMPULSE OF THE WILL.

1 But whichever you choose of the two other alternatives, there is no necessity for
striving against you with any disputation. For even if you should refuse to elect the
fourth, in which there is the highest tranquillity of all the obedient members without any
lust, since already the urgency of your arguments has made you hostile to it; that will
doubtless please you which I have put in the third place, that that carnal concupiscence,
whose impulse attains to the final pleasure which much delights you, should never arise in
Paradise except at the bidding of the will when it would be necessary for procreation. If
it is agreeable to you to arrange this in Paradise, and if, by means of such a
concupiscence of the flesh which should neither anticipate, nor impede, nor exceed the
bidding of the will, it appears to you that children could have been begotten, I have no
objection. For, as far asI am concerned in this matter, it is enough for me that such a
concupiscence of the flesh is not now among men, as you concede there might have been in
that place of happiness. For what it now is, the sense of all men certainly confesses,
although with modesty; because it both solicits with excessive and importunate uneasiness
the chaste, even when they are unwilling and are checking it by moderation, and frequently
withdraws itself from the willing and inflicts itself on the unwilling;

2 so that, by its disobedience, it testifies that it is nothing else than the punishment
of that first disobedience. Whence, reasonably, both then the first men when they covered
their nakedness, and now whoever considers himself to be a man, every no less modest than
immodest person is confounded at it-far be it from us to say by the work of God, but-by
the penalty of the first and ancient sin. You, however, not for the sake of religions
reasoning, but for excited contention,-not on behalf of human modesty, but for your own
madness, that even the concupiscence of the flesh itself should not be thought to be
currupted, and original sin to be derived from it,-are endeavouring by your argument to
recall it absolutely, such as it now is, into Paradise; and to contend that that
concupiscence could have been there which would either always be followed by a disgraceful
consent, or would sometimes be restrained by a pitiable refusal. I, however, do not
greatly care what it delights you to think of it. Still, whatever of men is born by its
means, if he is not born again, without doubt he is damned; and he must be under the
dominion of the devil, if he is not delivered thence by Christ.

CHAPTER 36 [XVIII.]-JULIAN'S FOURTH OBJECTION, THAT MAN IS GOD'S WORK, AND IS NOT CONSTRAINED TO EVIL OR GOOD BY HIS POWER.

"We maintain," says he, "that men are the work of God, and that no one is forced
unwillingly by His power either into evil or good, but that man does either good or ill of
his own will; but that in a good work he is always assisted by God's grace, while in evil
he is incited by the suggestions of the devil." To this I answer, that men, in so far as
they are men, are the work of God; but in so far as they are sinners, they are under the
devil, unless they are plucked from thence by Him who became the Mediator between God and
man, for no other reason than because He could not be a sinner from men. And that no one
is forced by God's power unwillingly either into evil or good, but that when God forsakes
a man, he deservedly goes to evil, and that when God assists, without deserving he is
converted to good. For a man is not good if he is unwilling, but by the grace of God he is
even assisted to the point of being willing; because it is not vainly written, "For it is
God that worketh in you, both to will and to do for His good pleasure," and, "The will is
prepared by God."

CHAPTER 37 [XIX.]-THE BEGINNING OF A GOOD WILL IS THE GIFT OF GRACE.

1 But you think that a man is so aided by the grace of God in a good work, that in
stirring up his will to that very good work you believe that grace does nothing; for this
your own words sufficiently declare. For why have you not said that a man is incited by
God's grace to a good work, as you have said that he is incited to evil. by the
suggestions of the devil, but have said that in a good work he is always aided by God's
grace?-as if by his own will, and without any grace of God, he undertook a good work, and
were then divinely assisted in the work itself, for the sake, that is to say, of the
merits of his good will; so that grace is rendered as due,-not given as not due,-and thus
grace is made no more grace. But this is what, in the Palestinian judgment, Pelagius with
a deceitful heart condemned,-that the grace of God, namely, is given according to our
merits. Tell me, I beseech you, what good, Paul, while he was as yet Saul, willed, and not
rather great evils, when breathing out slaughter he went, in horrible darkness of mind and
madness, to lay waste the Christians? For what merits of a good will did God convert him
by a marvellous and sudden calling from those evils to good thingsWhat shall I say, when
he himself cries, "Not by works of righteousness that we have done, but according to His
mercy He saved us"?

2 What is thatwhich I have already mentioned as having beensaid by the Lord, "No one can
come to me,"- which is understood as "believe on me,"-unless it were given him of my
Father"? Whether is this given to him who is already willing to believe, for the sake of
the merits of a good will? or rather is the will itself, as in the case of Saul, stirred
up from above, that he may believe, even although he is so averse from the faith as even
to persecute the believers? For how has the Lord commanded us to pray for those who
persecute us? Do we pray thus that the grace of God may be recompensed them for the sake
of their good will, and not rather that the evil will itself may be changed into a good
one? Just as we believe that at that time the saints whom he was persecuting did not pray
for Saul in vain, that his will might be converted to the faith which he was destroying.
And indeed that his conversion was effected from above, appeared even by a manifest
miracle. But how many enemies of Christ are at the present day suddenly drawn by God's
secret grace to Christ! And if I had not set down this word from the gospel, what things
would that man have said in this behalf concerning me, since even now he is stirring, not
against me, but against Him who cries, "No man can come to me, except the Father who hath
sent me draw him"!

3 For He does not say, "except He lead him," so that we can thus in any way understand
that his will precedes. For who is "drawn," if he was already willing? And yet no man
comes unless he is willing. Therefore he is drawn in wondrous ways to will, by Him who
knows how to work within the very hearts of men. Not that men who are unwilling should
believe, which cannot be, but that they should be made willing from being unwilling.

CHAPTER 38 [XX.]-THE POWER OF GOD'S GRACE IS PROVED.

1 That this is true we do not surmise by human conjecture, but we discern by the most
evident authority of the divine Scriptures. It is read in the books of the Chronicles:
"Also in Judah, the hand of God was made to give them one heart, to do the commandment of
the king and of the princes in the word of the Lord. Also by Ezekiel the prophet the Lord
says, "I will give them another heart, and a new spirit will I give them; and I will take
away their stony heart out of their flesh, and I will give them an heart of flesh, that
they may walk in my commandments and observe my judgments and do them. And what is that
which Esther the queen prays when she says, "Give me eloquent speech in my mouth, and
enlighten my words in the sight of the lion, and turn his heart to hatred of him that
fighteth against us"? How does she say such things as these in her prayer to God, if God
does not work His will in men's hearts? But perchance the woman was foolish in praying
thus. Let us see, then, whether the desire of the petitioner was vainly sent on in
advance, and whether the result did not follow as of one who heard. Lo, she goes in to the
king. We need not say much.

2 And because she did not approach him in her own order, under the compulsion of her great
necessity, "he looked upon her," as it is written, "like a bull in the impulse of his
indignation. And the queen feared, and her colour was changed through faintness, and she
bowed herself upon the head of her maid, who went before her. And God changed him, and
converted his indignation into mildness. Now what need is there to relate what follows,
where the divine Scripture testifies that God fulfilled what she had asked for by working
in the heart of the king nothing other than the will by which he commanded, and it was
done as the queen had asked of him? And now God had heard her that it should be done, who
changed the heart of the king by a most secret and efficacious power before he had heard
the address of the woman beseeching him, and moulded it from indignation to mildness,-that
is, from the will to hurt, to the will to favour,-according to that word of the apostle,
"God worketh in you to will also. Did the men of God who wrote these things-nay, did the
Spirit of God Himself, under whose guidance such things were written by them-assail the
free will of man? Away with the notion! But He has commended both the most righteous
judgment and the most merciful aid of the Omnipotent in all cases. For it is enough for
man to know that there is no unrighteousness with God.

3 But how He dispenses those benefits, making some deservedly vessels of wrath, others
graciously vessels of mercy,-who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been His
counsellor? If, then, we attain to the honour of grace, let us not be ungrateful by
attributing to ourselves what we have received. "For what have we which we have not
received?"

CHAPTER 39 [XXI.]-JULIAN'S FIFTH OBJECTION CONCERNING THE SAINTS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT.

"We say," says he, "that the saints of the Old Testament, their righteousness being
perfected here, passed to eternal life,-that is, that by the love of virtue they departed
from all sins; because those whom we read of as having committed any sin, we nevertheless
know to have amended themselves." Of whatever virtue you may declare that the ancient
righteous men were possessed, nothing saved them but the belief in the Mediator who shed
His blood for the remission of their sins. For their own word is," I believed, and
therefore I spoke." Whence the Apostle Paul also says, "And we having the same Spirit of
faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also
believe, and therefore speak." What is "the same Spirit," but that Spirit whom these
righteous men also had who said such things? The Apostle Peter also says, "Why do ye wish
to put a yoke upon the heathen, which neither we nor our fathers have been able to bear?
But, by the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, we believe that we shall be saved, even as
they." You who are enemies to this grace do not wish this, that the ancients should be
believed to have been saved by the same grace of Jesus Christ; but you distribute the
times according to Pelagius, in whose books this is read, and you say that before the law
men were saved by nature, then by the law, lastly by Christ, as if to men of the two
former times, that is to say, before the law and under the law, the blood of Christ had
not been necessary; making void what is said: "For there is one God and one Mediator
between God and men, the man Christ Jesus."

CHAPTER 40 [XXII.]-THE SIXTH OBJECTION, CONCERNING THE NECESSITY OF GRACE FOR ALL, AND CONCERNING THE BAPTISM OF INFANTS.

They say, "We confess that the grace of Christ is necessary to all, both to grown-up
people and to infants; and we anathematize thosewho say that a child born of two baptized
people ought not to be baptized." I know in what sense you say such things as these-not
according to the Apostle Paul, but according to the heretic Pelagius;-to wit, that baptism
is necessary for infants, not for the sake of the remission of sins, but only for the sake
of the kingdom of heaven; for you give them outside the kingdom of heaven a place of
salvation and life eternal, even if they have not been baptized. Nor do you regard what is
written, "Whosoever believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he who believeth not
shall be condemned." For which reason, in the Church of the Saviour, infants believe by
means of other people, even as they have derived those sins which are remitted them in
baptism from other people. Nor do you think thus, that they cannot have life who have been
without the body and blood of Christ, although He said Himself, "Unless ye eat my flesh
and drink thy blood, ye shall have no life in you." Or if you are forced bythe words of
the gospel to confess that infants departing from the body cannot have either life or
salvation unless they have been baptized, askwhy those who are not baptized are compelled
to undergo the judgment of the second death,by the judgment of Him who condemns nobody
undeservingly, and you will find what you do not want,-original sin!

CHAPTER 41 [XXIII.]-THE SEVENTH OBJECTION, OF THE EFFECT OF BAPTISM.

"We condemn," says he, "those who affirm that baptism does not do away all sins, because
we know that full cleansing is conferred by these mysteries." We also say this; but you do
not say that infants are also by those same mysteries freed from the bonds of their first
birth and of their hateful descent. On which account it behoves you, like other heretics
also, to be separated from the Church of Christ, which holds this of old time.

CHAPTER 42 [XXIV.]-HE REBUTS THE CONCLUSION OF JULIAN'S LETTER.

But now the manner in which he concludes the letter by saying, "Let no one therefore
seduce you, nor let the wicked deny that they think these things. But if they speak the
truth, either let a hearing be given, or let those very bishops who now disagree with me
condemn what I have above said that they hold with the Manicheans, as we condemn those
things which they declare concerning us, and a full agreement shall be made; but if they
will not, know ye that they are Manicheans, and abstain from their company;"-this is
rather to be despised than rebuked. For which of us hesitates to pronounce an anathema
against the Manicheans, who say that from the good God neither proceed men, nor was
ordained marriage, nor was given the law, which was ministered to the Hebrew people by
Moses! But against the Pelagians also, not without reason, we pronounce an anathema, for
that they are so hostile to God's grace, which comes through Jesus Christ our Lord, as to
say that it is given not freely, but according to our merits, and thus grace is no more
grace; and place so much in free will by which man is plunged into the abyss, as to say
that by making good use of it man deserves grace,-although no man can make good use of it
except by grace, which is not repaid according to debt, but is given freely by God's
mercy. And they so contend that infants are already saved, that they dare deny that they
are to be saved by the Saviour. And holding and disseminating these execrable dogmas, they
still over and above constantly demand a hearing, when, as condemned, they ought to
repent.

INTRODUCTION

He undertakes to examine the second letter of the Pelagians, filled, like the first, with
calumnies against the Catholics-a letter that was sent by them to Thessalonica in the name
of eighteen bishops; and, first of all, he shows, by the comparison of the heretical
writings with one another, that the Catholics are by no means falling into the errors of
the manicheans in detesting the dogmas of the Pelagians. He repels the calumny of
prevarication incurred by the Roman clergy in the latter condemnation of Pelagius and
Coelestius by Zosimus, showing that the Pelagian dogmas were never approved at rome,
although for some time, by the clemency of Zosimus, Coelestius was mercifully dealt with,
with a view to leading him to the correction of his errors. He shows that, under the name
of grace, Catholics neither assert a doctrine of fate, nor attribute respect of persons to
God; although they truly say that God's grace is not given according to human merits, and
that the first desire of good is inspired by God; so that a man does not at all make a
beginning of a change from bad to good, unless the unbought and gratuitous mercy of God
effects that beginning in him.

CHAPTER I.-INTRODUCTION; THE PELAGIANS IMPEACH CATHOLICS AS MANICHEANS.

1 Let me now consider a second letter, not of Julian's alone, but common to him with
several bishops, which they sent to Thessalonica; and let me answer it, with God's help,
as I best can. And lest this work of mine become longer than the necessity of the subject
itself requires, what need is there to refute those things which do not contain the
insidious poison of their doctrine, but seem only to plead for the acquiescence of the
Eastern bishops for their assistance, or, on behalf of the catholic faith, against the
profanity, as they say, of the Manicheans; with no other view except, a horrible heresy
being presented to them, whose adversaries they profess themselves to be, to lie hid as
the enemies of grace in praise of nature? For who at any time has stirred any question of
these matters against them? or what catholic is displeased because they condemn those whom
the apostle foretold as departing from the faith, having their conscience seared,
forbidding to marry, abstaining from meats that they think unclean, not thinking that all
things were created by God? Who at any time constrained them to deny that every creature
of God is good, and there is no substance which thesupreme God has not made, except God
Himself, who was not made by any? It is not such things as these, which it is plain are
catholic truths, that are rebuked and condemned in them;

2 because not alone the catholic faith holds in detestation the Manichean impiety as
exceedingly foolish and mischievous, but also all heretics who are not Manicheans. Whence
even these Pelagians do well to utter an anathema against the Manicheans, and to speak
against their errors. But they do two evil things, for which they themselves must also be
anathematized-one, that they impeach catholics under the name of Manicheans, the other,
that they themselves also are introducing the heresy of a new error. For they are not
therefore sound in the faith because they are not labouring under the disease of the
Manicheans. The kind of pestilence is not always one and the same-as in the bodies, so
also in the minds. As, therefore, the physician of the body would not have pronounced a
man free from peril of death whom he might have declared free from dropsy, if he had seen
him to be sick of some other mortal disease; so truth is not acknowledged in their case
because they are not Manicheans, if they are raving in some other kind of perversity.
Wherefore what we anathematize with them is one thing, what we anathematize in them is
another. For we hold in abhorrence with them what is rightly offensive to them also; just
as, nevertheless, we hold in abhorrence in them that for which they themselves are rightly
offensive.

CHAPTER 2 [II.]-THE HERESIES OF THE MANICHEANS AND PELAGIANS ARE MUTUALLY OPPOSED, AND ARE ALIKE REPROBATED BY THE CATHOLIC CHURCH.

1 The Manicheans say that the good God is not the Creator of all natures; the Pelagians
that God is not the Purifier, the Saviour, the Deliverer of all ages among men. The
catholic Church condemns both; as well maintaining God's creation against the Manicheans,
that no nature may be denied to be framed by Him, as maintaining against the Pelagians
that in all ages human nature must be sought after as ruined. The Manicheans rebuke the
concupiscence of the flesh, not as if it were an accidental vice, but as if it were a
nature bad from eternity; the Pelagians approve it as if it were no vice, but even a
natural good. The catholic faith condemns both, saying to the Manicheans, "It is not
nature, but it is vice; saying to the Pelagians, "It is not of the Father, but it is of
the world ; in order that both may allow it as an evil sickness to be cured-the former by
ceasing to believe it, as it were, incurable, the latter by ceasing to proclaim it as
laudable. The Manicheans deny that to a good man the beginning of evil came from free
will; the Pelagians say that even a bad man has free will sufficiently to perform the good
commandment. The catholic Church condemns both, saying to the former, "God made man
upright," and saying to the latter, "If the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free
indeed.

2 The Manicheans say that the soul, as a particle of God, has sin by the com-mixture of an
evil nature; the Pelagians say that the soul is upright, not indeed a particle, but a
creature of God, and has not even in this corruptible life any sin. The catholic Church
condemns both, saying to the Manicheans, "Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or
make the tree evil and its fruit evil," which would not be said to man who cannot make his
own nature, unless because sin is not nature, but vice; and saying to the Pelagians, "If
we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. In these
diseases, opposed as they are to one another, the Manicheans and the Pelagians are at
issue, with dissimilar will but with similar vanity, separated by different opinions, but
close together by a perverse mind.

CHAPTER 3.-HOW FAR THE MANICHEANS AND PELAGIANS ARE JOINED IN ERROR; HOW FAR THEY ARE SEPARATED.

Still, indeed, they alike oppose the grace of Christ, they alike make His baptism of no
account, they alike dishonour His flesh; but, moreover, they do these things in different
ways and for different reasons. For the Manicheans assert that divine assistance is given
to the merits of a good nature, but the Pelagians, to the merits of a good will. The
former say, God owes this to the labours of His members; the latter say, God owes this to
the virtues of His servants. In both cases, therefore, the reward is not imputed according
to grace, but according to debt. The Manicheans contend, with a profane heart, that the
washing of regeneration-that is, the water itself-is superfluous, and is of no advantage.
But the Pelagians assert that what is said in holy baptism for the putting away of sins is
of no avail to infants, as they have no sin; and thus in the baptism of infants, as far as
pertains to the remission of sins, the Manicheans destroy the visible element, but the
Pelagians destroy even the invisible sacrament. The Manicheans dishonour Christ's flesh by
blaspheming the birth from the Virgin; but the Pelagians by making the flesh of those to
be redeemed equal to the flesh of the Redeemer. Since Christ was born, not of course in
sinful flesh, but in the likeness of sinful flesh, while the flesh of the rest of mankind
is born sinful. The Manicheans, therefore, who absolutely abominate all flesh, take away
the manifest truth from the flesh of Christ; but the Pelagians, who maintain that no flesh
is born sinful, take away from Christ's flesh its special and proper dignity.

CHAPTER 4.-THE TWO CONTRARY ERRORS.

Let the Pelagians, then, cease to object to the catholics that which they are not, but let
them rather hasten to amend what they themselves are; and let them not wish to be
considered deserving of approval because they are opposed to the hateful error of the
Manicheans, but let them acknowledge themselves to be deservedly hateful because they do
not put away their own error. For two errors may be opposed to one another, although both
are to be reprobated because both are alike opposed to the truth. For if the Pelagians are
to be loved because they hate the Manicheans, the Manicheans should also be loved because
they hate the Pelagians. But be it far from our catholic mother to choose some to love on
the ground that they hate others, when by the warning and help of the Lord she ought to
avoid both, and should desire to heal both.

CHAPTER 5 [III.]-THE CALUMNY OF THE PELAGIANS AGAINST THE CLERGY OF THE ROMAN CHURCH.

1 Moreover, they accuse the Roman clergy, writing, "That, driven by the fear of a command,
they have not blushed to be guilty of the crime of prevarication; so that, contrary to
their previous judgment, wherein by their proceedings they had assented to the catholic
dogma, they subsequently pronounced that the nature of men is evil. Nay, but the Pelagians
had conceived, with a false hope, that the new and execrable dogma of Pelagius or
Coelestius could be made acceptable to the catholic intelligences of certain Romans, when
those crafty spirits-however perverted by a wicked error, yet not contemptible, since they
appeared rather to be deserving of considerate correction than of easy condemnation-were
treated with somewhat more of lenity than the stricter discipline of the Church required.
For while so many and such important ecclesiastical documents were passing and repassing
between the Apostolical See and the African bishops, -and,moreover, when the proceedings
in this matter in that see were completed, with Coelestius present and making answer,-what
sort of a letter, what decree, is found of Pope Zosimus, of venerable memory, wherein he
prescribed that it must be believed that man is born without any taint of original sin?
Absolutely he never said this-never wrote it at all.

2 But since Coelestius had written this in his pamphlet, among those matters, merely, on
which he confessed that he was still in doubt and desired to be instructed, the desire of
amendment in a man of so acute an intellect, who, if he could be put right, would
assuredly be of advantage to many, and not the falsehood of the doctrine, was approved.
And therefore his pamphlet was called catholic, because this also is the part of a
catholic disposition,-if by chance in any matters a man thinks differently from what the
truth demands, not with the greatest accuracy to define those matters, but, if detected
and demonstrated, to reject them. For it was not to heretics, but to catholics, that the
apostle was speaking when he said, "Let us, therefore, as many as are perfect, be thus
minded; and if in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you.
This was thought to have been the case in him when he replied that he consented to the
letters of Pope Innocent of blessed memory, in which all doubt about this matter was
removed. And in order that this might be made fuller and more manifest in him, matters
were delayed until letters should come from Africa, in which province his craftiness had
in some sort become more evidently known.

3 And afterwards these letters came to Rome containing this, that it was not sufficient
for men of more sluggish and anxious minds that he confessed his general consent to the
letters of Bishop Innocent, but that he ought openly to anathematize the mischievous
statements which he had made in his pamphlet; lest if he did not do so, many people of
better intelligence should rather believe that in his pamphlet those poisons of the faith
had been approved by the catholic see, because it had been affirmed by that see that that
pamphlet was catholic, than that they had been amended because of his answer that he
consented to the letters of Pope Innocent. Then, therefore, when his presence was
demanded, in order that by certain and clear answers either the craft of the man or his
correction might plainly appear and remain doubtful to no one, he withdrew himself and
refused the examination. Neither would the delay which had already been made for the
advantage of others have taken place, if it could not be of advantage to the pertinacity
and madness of those who were excessively perverse. But if, which be far from the case, it
had so been judged in the Roman Church concerning Coelestius or Pelagius, that those
dogmas of theirs, which in themselves and with themselves Pope Innocent had condemned,
should be pronounced worthy of approval and maintenance, the mark of prevarication would
rather have to be branded on the Roman clergy for this.

4 But now, when the first letters of the most blessed Pope Innocent, in reply to the
letters of the African bishops, would have equally condemned this error which these men
are endeavouring to commend to us; and his successor, the holy Pope Zosimus, would never
have said, never have written, that this dogma which these men think concerning infants is
to be held; nay, would even have bound Coelestius by a repeated sentence, when he
endeavoured to clear himself, to a consent to the above-mentioned letters of the Apostolic
See;-assuredly, whatever in the meanwhile was done more leniently concerning Coelestius,
provided the stability of the mostancient and robust faith were maintained, was the most
merciful persuasion of correction, not the most pernicious approval of wickedness; and
that afterwards, by the same priesthood, Coelestius and Pelagius were condemned by
repeated authority, was the proof of a severity, for a little while intermitted, at length
of necessity to be carried out, not a denial of a previously-known truth or a new
acknowledgment of truth.

CHAPTER 6 [IV.]-WHAT WAS DONE IN THE CASE OF COELESTIUS AND ZOSIMUS.

1 But what need is there for us to delay longer in speaking of this matter, when there are
extant here and there proceedings and writings drawn up, where all those things just as
they were transacted may be either learnt or recalled? For who does not see in what degree
Coelestius was bound by the interrogations of your holy predecessor and by the answers of
Coelestius, whereby he professed that he consented to the letters of Pope Innocent, and
fastened by a most wholesome chain, so as not to dare any further to maintain that the
original sin of infants is not put away in baptism? Because these are the words of the
venerable Bishop Innocent concerning this matter to the Carthaginian Council: "For once,"
he said, "he bore free will; but, using his advantage inconsiderately, and falling into
the depths of apostasy, he was overwhelmed, and found no way whereby he could rise from
thence; and, deceived for ever by his liberty, he would have lain under the oppression of
this ruin, if the advent of Christ had not subsequently for his grace delivered him, and,
by the purification of a new regeneration, purged all past sin by the washing of His
baptism. What could be more clear or more manifest than that judgment of the Apostolical
See? To this Coelestius professed that he assented, when it was said to him by your holy
predecessor, "Do you condemn all those things that are bandied about under your name?

2 and he himself replied, "I condemn them in accordance with the judgment of your
predecessor Innocent, of blessed memory. But among other things which had been uttered
under his name, the deacon Paulinus had objected to Coelestius that he said "that the sin
of Adam was prejudicial to himself alone, and not to the human race, and that infants
newly born were in the same condition in which Adam was before his sin. Accordingly, if he
would condemn the views objected to by Paulinus with a truthful heart and tongue,
according to the judgment of the blessed Pope innocent, what could remain to him
afterwards whence he could contend that there was no sin n infants resulting from the past
transgression of the first man, which would be purged in holy baptism by the purification
of the new regeneration? But he showed that he had answered deceitfully by the final
event, when he withdrew himself from the examination, lest he should be compelled,
according to the African rescripts, absolutely to mention and anathematize the very words
themselves concerning this question which he wrote in his tractate.

CHAPTER 7.-HE SUGGESTS A DILEMMA TO COELESTIUS.

What was that which the same pope replied o the bishops of Numidia concerning this very
cause, because he had received letters from both Councils, as well from the Council of
Carthage as from the Council of Mileve-does he not speak most plainly concerning infants?
For these are his words: "For what your Fraternity asserts that they preach, that infants
can be endowed with the rewards of eternal life even without the grace of baptism, is
excessively silly; for unless they shall eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His
blood, they shall not have life in themselves. And they who maintain this as being theirs
without regeneration, appear to me to wish to destroy baptism itself, since they proclaim
that these have that which we believe is not to be conferred on them without baptism."
What does the ungrateful man say to this, when the Apostolic See had already spared him on
his profession, as if he were corrected by its most benignant lenity? What does he say to
this? Will infants after the end of their life, even if while they live they are not
baptized in Christ, be in eternal life, or will they not? If he should say, "They will,"
how then did he answer that he had condemned what had been uttered under his name
"according to the judgment of Innocent, of blessed memory"? Lo, Pope Innocent, of blessed
memory, says that infants have not life without Christ's baptism, and without partaking of
Christ's body and blood. If he should say, "They will not," how then, if they do not
receive eternal life, are they certainly by consequence condemned in eternal death if they
derive no original sin?

CHAPTER 8.-THE CATHOLIC FAITH CONCERNING INFANTS.

What do they say to these things who dare also to write their mischievous impieties, and
dare to send them to the Eastern bishops? Coelestius is held to have given consent to the
letters of the venerable Innocent; the letters themselves of the prelate mentioned are
read, and he writes that infants who are not baptized cannot have life. And who will deny
that, as a consequence, they have death, if they have not life? Whence, then, in infants,
is so wretched a penalty as that, if there is no original fault? How, then, are the Roman
clergy charged with prevarication by those forsakers of the faith and opponents of grace
under Bishop Zosimus, as if they had had any other view in the subsequent condemnation of
Coelestius and Pelagius than that which they had in a former one under Innocent? Because,
certainly, since by the letters of the venerable Innocent concerning the abode of infants
in eternal death unless they were baptized in Christ, the antiquity of the catholic faith
shone forth, assuredly he would rather be a prevaricator from the Roman Church who should
deviate from that judgment; and since with God's blessing this did not happen, but that
judgment itself was constantly maintained in the repeated condemnation of Coelestius and
Pelagius, let them understand that they themselves are in the position wherein they accuse
others of being, and let them hereafter be healed of their prevarication from the faith.
Because the catholic faith does not say that the nature of man is bad in as far as he was
made man at first by the Creator; nor now is what God creates in that nature when He makes
men from men, his evil; but what he derives from that sin of the first man.

CHAPTER 9 [V.]-HE REPLIES TO THE CALUMNIES OF THE PELAGIANS.

And now we must look to those things which they objected to us in their letters, and
briefly mentioned. And to these this is my answer. We do not say that by the sin of Adam
free will perished out of the nature of men; but that it avails for sinning in men
subjected to the devil; while it is not of avail for good and pious living, unless the
will itself of man should be made free by God's grace, and assisted to every good movement
of action, of speech, of thought. We say that no one but the Lord God is the maker of
those who are born, and that marriage was ordained not by the devil, but by God Himself;
yet that all are born under sin on account of the fault of propagation, and that,
therefore, all are under the devil until they are born again in Christ. Nor are we
maintaining fate under the name of grace, because we say that the grace of God is preceded
by no merits of man. If, however, it is agreeable to any to call the will of the Almighty
God by the name of fate, while we indeed shun profane novelties of words, we have no use
for contending about words.


AGAINST TWO LETTERS OF THE PELAGIANS (CHAPTERS 10.-WHY THE PELAGIANS FALSELY ACCUSE CATHOLICS OF MAINTAINING FATE UNDER THE NAME OF GRACE.–20.-WHY THE RIGHTEOUSNESS WHICH IS OF THE LAW IS VALUED SLIGHTLY BY PAUL.)
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AGAINST TWO LETTERS OF THE PELAGIANS continued

CHAPTER 10.-WHY THE PELAGIANS FALSELY ACCUSE CATHOLICS OF MAINTAINING FATE UNDER THE NAME OF GRACE.

1 But, as I was somewhat more attentively considering for what reason they should think it
well to object this to us, that we assert fate under the name of grace, I first of all
looked into those words of theirs which follow. For thus they have thought that this was
to be objected to us: "Under the name," say they,"of grace, they so assert fate as to say
that unless God inspired unwilling and resisting man with the desire of good, and that
good imperfect, he would neither be able to decline from evil nor to lay hold of good.
Then a little after, where they mentionwhat they maintain, I gave heed to what was said by
them about this matter. "We confess," say they, that baptism is necessary for all ages,and
that grace, moreover, assists the good purpose of everybody; but yet that it does not
infuse the love of virtue into a reluctant one, because there is no acceptance of persons
with God. From these words of theirs, I perceived that for this reason they either think,
or wish it to be thought, that we assert fate under the name of grace, because we say that
God's grace is not given in respect of our merits, but according to His own most merciful
will, in that He said, "I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy
on whom I will show mercy.

2 Where, by way of consequence, it is added, "Therefore it is not of him that willeth, nor
of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. Here any one might be equally foolish
in thinking or saying that the apostle is an assertor of fate. But here these people
sufficiently lay themselves open; for when they malign us by saying that we maintain fate
under the name of grace, because we say that God's grace is not given on account of our
merits, beyond a doubt they confess that they themselves say that it is given on account
of ourmerits; thus their blindness could not concealand dissimulate that they believe and
think thus, although, when this view was objected to him, Pelagius, in the episcopal
judgment of Palestine, with crafty fear condemned it. For it was objected to him from the
words of his own disciple Coelestius, indeed, that he himself also was in the habit of
saying that God's grace is given on account of our merits. And he in abhorrence, or in
pretended abhorrence, of this, did not delay, with his lips at least, to anathematize it;
but, as his later writings indicate, and the assertion of those followers of his makes
evident, he kept it in his deceitful heart, until afterwards his boldness might put forth
in letters what the cunning of a denier had then hidden for fear.

3 And still the Pelagian bishops do not dread, and at least are not ashamed, to send their
letters to the catholic Eastern bishops, in which they charge us with being assertors of
fate because we do not say that even grace is given according to our merits; although
Pelagius, fearing the Eastern bishops, did not dare to say this, and so was compelled to
condemn it.

CHAPTER 11 [VI.]-THE ACCUSATION OF FATE IS THROWN BACK UPON THE ADVERSARIES.

1 But is it true, O children of pride, enemies of God's grace, new Pelagian heretics, that
whoever says that all man's good deservings are preceded by God's grace, and that God's
grace is not given to merits, lest it should not be grace if it is not given freely but be
repaid as due to those who deserve it, seems to you to assert fate? Do not you yourselves
also say, whatever be your purpose, that baptism is necessary for all ages? Have you not
written in this very letter of yours that opinion concerning baptism, and that concerning
grace, side by side? Why did not baptism, which is given to infants, by that very
juxtaposition admonish you what you ought to think concerning grace? For these are your
words: "We confess that baptism is necessary for all ages, and that grace, moreover,
assists the good purpose of everybody; but yet that it does not infuse the love of virtue
into a reluctant one, because there is no acceptance of persons with God. In all these
words of yours, I for the meanwhile say nothing of what you have said concerning grace.
But give a reason concerning baptism, why you should say that it is necessary for all
ages; say why it is necessary for infants. Assuredly because it confers some good upon
them; and that same something is neither small nor moderate, but of great account.

2 For although you deny that they contract the original sin which is remitted in baptism,
yet you do not deny that in that laver of regeneration they are adopted from the sons of
men unto the sons of God; nay, you even preach this. Tell us, then, how the infants,
whoever they are, that are baptized in Christ and have departed from the body, received so
lofty a gift as this, and with what preceding merits. If you should say that they have
deserved this by the piety of their parents, it will be replied to you, Why is this
benefit sometimes denied to the children of pious people and given to the children of the
wicked? For sometimes the offspring born from religious people, in tender age, and thus
fresh from the womb, is forestalled by death before it can be washed in the laver of
regeneration, and the infant born of Christ's foes is baptized inChrist by the mercy of
Christians,-the baptized mother bewails her own little one not baptized, and the chaste
virgin gathers in to be baptized a foreign offspring, exposed by an unchaste mother. Here,
certainly, the merits of parents are wanting, and even by your own confession the merits
of the infants themselves are wanting also. For we know that you do not believe this of
the human soul, that it has lived somewhere before it inhabited this earthly body, and has
done something either of good or of evil for which it might deserve such difference in the
flesh.

3 What cause, then, has procured baptism for this infant, and has denied it to that? Do
they have fate because they do not have merit? or is there in these things acceptance of
persons with God? For you have said both,-first fate, afterwards acceptance of
persons,-that, since both must be refuted, there may remain the merit which you wish to
introduce against grace. Answer, then, concerning the merits of infants, why some should
depart from their bodies baptized, others not baptized, and by the merits of their parents
neither possess nor fail of so excellent a gift that they should become sons of God from
sons of men, by no deserving of their parents, by no deservings of their own. You are
silent, forsooth, and you find yourselves rather in the same position which you object to
us. For if when there is no merit you say that consequently there is fate, and on this
account wish the merit of man to be understood in the grace of God, lest you should be
compelled to confess fate; see, you rather assert a fate in the baptism of infants, since
you avow that in them there is no merit.

4 But if, in the case of infants to be baptized, you deny that any merit at all precedes,
and yet do not concede that there is a fate, why do you cry out,-when we say that the
grace of God is therefore given freely, lest it should not be grace, and is not repaid as
if it were due to preceding merits,-that we are assertors of fate?-not perceiving that in
the justification of the wicked, as there are no merits because it is God's grace, so that
it is not fate because it is God's grace, and so that it is not acceptance of persons
because it is God's grace.

CHAPTER 12. - WHAT IS MEANT UNDER THE NAME OF FATE.

Because they who affirm fate contend that not only actions and events, but, moreover, our
very wills themselves depend on the position of the stars at the time in which one is
conceived or born; which positions they call "constellations." But the grace of God stands
above not only all stars and all heavens, but, moreover, all angels. In a word, the
assertors of fate attribute both men's good and evil doings and fortunes to fate; but God
in the ill fortunes of men follows up their merits with due retribution, while good
fortunes He bestows by undeserved grace with a merciful will; doing both the one and the
other not according to a temporal conjunction of stars, but according to the eternal and
high counsel of His severity and goodness. We see, then, that neither belongs to fate.
Here, if you answer that this very benevolence of God, by which He follows not merits, but
bestows undeserved benefits with gratuitous bounty, should rather be called "fate," when
the apostle calls this "grace," saying, "By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not
of yourselves, but it is the gift of God; not of works, lest perchance any one should be
lifted up," -do you not consider, do you not perceive that it is not by us that fate is
asserted under the name of grace, but it is rather by you that divine grace is called by
the name of fate?

CHAPTER 13 [VII.]-HE REPELS THE CALUMNY CONCERNING THE ACCEPTANCE OF PERSONS.

1 And, moreover, we rightly call it "acceptance of persons" where he who judges,
neglecting the merit of the cause concerning which he is judging, favours the one against
the other, because he finds something in his person which is worthy of honour or of pity.
But if any one have two debtors, and he choose to remit the debt to the one, to require it
of the other, he gives to whom he will and defrauds nobody; nor is this to be called
"acceptance of persons," since there is no injustice. The acceptance of persons may seem
otherwise to those who are of small understanding, where the lord of the vineyard gave to
those labourers who had done work therein for one hour as much as to those who had borne
the burden and heat of the day, making them equal in wages in the labour of whom there had
been such a difference. But what did he reply to those who murmured against the goodman of
the house concerning this, as it were, acceptance of persons? "Friend," said he, "I do
thee no wrong. Hast not thou agreed with me for a denarius? Take what thine is, and go;
but I choose to give to this last as to thee. Is it not lawful to me to do what I will? Is
thine eye evil because I am good? Here, forsooth, is the entire justice: "I choose this.
To thee," he says, "I have repaid; on him I have bestowed;

2 nor have I taken anything away from thee to bestow it on him; nor have I either
diminished or denied what I owed to you. "May I not do what I will? Is thine eye evil
because I am good? As, therefore, here there is no acceptance of persons, because one is
honoured freely in such wise as that another is not defrauded of what is due to him: so
also when, according to the purpose of God, one is called, another is not called, a
gratuitous benefit is bestowed on the one that is called, of which benefit the calling
itself is the beginning,-an evil is repaid to him that is not called, because all are
guilty, from the fact that by one man sin entered into the world. And in that parable of
the labourers, indeed, where they received one denarius who laboured for one hour, as well
as those who laboured twelve times as long,-though assuredly these latter, according to
human reasonings, however vain, ought in proportion to the amount of their labour to have
received twelve denarii,-both were put on an equality in respect of benefit, not some
delivered and others condemned; because even those who laboured more had it from the
goodman of the house himself, both that they were so called as to come, and that they were
so fed as to have no want.

3 But where it is said, "Therefore, on whom He will He has mercy, and whom He will He
hardeneth," who "maketh one vessel to honour and another to dishonour" it is given indeed
without deserving, and freely, because he is of the same mass to whom it is not given;but
evil is deservedly and of debt repaid, sincein the mass of perdition evil is not repaid to
theevil unjustly. And to him to whom it is repaidit is evil, because it is his punishment;
while to Him by whom it is repaid it is good, because itis His right to do it. Nor is
there any acceptance of persons in the case of two debtors equally guilty, if to the one
is remitted andfrom the other is claimed that which is equallyowed by both.

CHAPTER 14.-HE ILLUSTRATES HIS ARGUMENT BY AN EXAMPLE.

1 But that what I am saying may be made clear by the exhibition of an example, let us
suppose certain twins, born of a certain harlot, and exposed that they might be taken up
by others.One of them has expired without baptism; the other is baptized. What can we say
was in this case the "fate" or the "fortune,' which are here absolutely, nothing? What
"acceptance of persons," when with God there is none, even if there could be any such
thing in these cases,seeing that they certainly had nothing for which I the one could be
preferred to the other, and no merits of their own,-whether good, for which the one might
deserve to be baptized; or evil, for which the other might deserve to die without baptism?
Were there any merits in their parents, when the father was a fornicator, the mother a
harlot? But of whatever kind those merits were, there were certainly not any that were
different in those who died in such different conditions, but all were common to both. If,
then,neither fate, since no stars made them to differ; nor fortune, since no fortuitous
accidents produce these things; nor the diversity of persons nor of merits have done this;
what remains, so far as it refers to the baptized child, save the grace of God, which is
given freely to vesselsmade unto honour; but, as it refers to the unbaptized child, the
wrath of God, which is repaid to the vessels made for dishonour in respect of the
deservings of the lump itself?

2 But in that one which is baptized we constrain you to confess the grace of God, and
convince you that no merit of its own preceded; but as to that one which died without
baptism, why that sacrament should have been wanting to it, which even you confess to be
needful for all ages, and what in that manner may have been punished in him, it is for you
to see who will not have it that there is any original sin.

CHAPTER 15.-THE APOSTLE MEETS THE QUESTION BY LEAVING IT UNSOLVED.

1 Since in the case of those two twins we have without a doubt one and the same case, the
difficulty of the question why the one died in one way, and the other in another, is
solved by the apostle as it were by not solving it; for, when he had proposed something of
the same kind about two twins, seeing that it was said (not of works, since they had not
as yet done anything either of good or of evil, but of Him that calleth), "The older shall
serve the younger," and, "Jacob have I loved, and Esau have I hated; and he had prolonged
the horror of this deep thing even to the point of saying, "Therefore hath He mercy on
whom He will, and whom He will He hardeneth: he perceived at once what the trouble was,
and opposed to himself the words of a gainsayer which he was to check by apostolical
authority. For he says, "You say, then, unto me, "Why doth He yet find fault? For who has
resisted His will? And to him who says this he answered, "O man, who art thou that
repliest against God? Doth the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made
me thus?

2 Hath not the potter power of the clay of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour
and another unto dishonour " Then, following on, he opened up this great and hidden secret
as far as he judged it fit that it should be disclosed to men, saying, "But if God,
willing to show His wrath and to demonstrate His power, endured in much patience the
vessels of wrath fitted for destruction, even that He might make known the riches of His
glory on the vessels of mercy which He has prepared for glory. This is notonly the
assistance, but, moreover, the proof of God's grace-the assistance, namely, in thevessels
of mercy, but the proof in the vessels of wrath; for in these He shows His anger andmakes
known His power, because His goodnessis so mighty that He even uses the evil well; andin
those He makes known the riches of Hisglory on the vessels of mercy, because what
thejustice of a punisher requires from the vessels ofwrath, the grace of the Deliverer
remits to the i vessels of mercy. Nor would the kindnesswhich is bestowed on some freely
appear, unless I to other equally guilty and from the same massGod showed what was really
due to both, andcondemned them with a righteous judgment."For who maketh thee to differ?
says the same apostle to a man as it were boasting concerning himself and his own
benefits. "For who maketh thee to differ" from the vessels of wrath;

3 of course, from the mass of perdition which has sent all by one into damnation? "Who
maketh thee to differ? And as if he had answered, "My faith maketh me to differ,-my
purpose, my merit,"-he says, "For what hast thou which thou hast not received? But if thou
hast received it, why dost thou boast as if thou receivedst it not?"-that is, as if that
by which thou art made to differ were of thine own. Therefore He maketh thee to differ who
bestows that whence thou art made to differ, by removing the penalty that is due, by
conferring the grace which is not due. He maketh to differ, who, when the darkness was
upon the face of the abyss, said," Let there be light; and there was light, and
divided"-that is, made to differ-"between the light and the darkness. For when there was
only darkness, He did not find what He should make to differ; but by making the light, He
made to differ; so that it may be said to the justified wicked, "For ye were sometime
darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord. And thus he who glories must glory not in
himself, but in the Lord.

4 He makes to differ who-of those who are not yet born, and who have not yet done any good
or evil, that His purpose, according to the election, might stand not of works, but of
Himself that calleth-said, The older shall serve the younger, and commending that very
purpose afterwards by the mouth of the prophet, said, "Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I
hated. Because he said "the election," and in this God does not find made by another what
He may choose, but Himself makes what He may find; just as it is written of the remnant of
Israel: "There is made a remnant by the election of grace; but if by grace, then it is no
more of works, otherwise grace is no more grace. On which account you are certainly
foolish who, when the Truth declares, "Not of works, but of Him that calleth, it was
said," say that Jacob was loved on account of future works which God foreknew that he
would do, and thus contradict the apostle when he says, "Not of works; as if he could not
have said, "Not of present, but of future works. But he says, "Not of works," that He
night commend grace; "but if of grace, now is it no more of works, otherwise grace is no
more grace. For grace, not due, but free, precedes, that by it good works may be done; but
if good works should precede, grace should be repaid, as it were, to works, and thus grace
should be no more grace.

CHAPTER 16.-THE PELAGIANS ARE REFUTED BY THE CASE OF THE TWIN INFANTS DYING, THE ONE AFTER, AND THE OTHER WITHOUT, THE GRACE OF BAPTISM.

But that every lurking-place of your darkness may be taken away from you, I have proposed
to you the case of such twins as were not assisted by the merits of their parents, and
both died in the very beginning of infancy, the one baptized, the other without baptism;
lest you should say that God foreknew their future works, as you say of Jacob and Esau, in
opposition to the apostle. For how did He foreknow that those things should be, which, in
those infants who were to die in infancy, He rather foreknew as not to be, since His
foreknowledge cannot be deceived? Or what does it profit those who are taken away frown
this life that wickedness may not change their understanding, nor deceit beguile their
soul, if even the sin which has not been done, said, or thought, is thus punished as if it
had been committed? Because, if it is most absurd, silly, and senseless, that certain men
should have to be condemned for those sins, the guilt of which they could neither derive
from their parents, as you say, nor could incur themselves, either by committing them, or
even by conceiving of them, there comes back to you that unbaptized twin brother of the
baptized one, and silently asks you for what reason he was made to differ from his brother
in respect of happiness,-why he was punished with that infelicity, so that, while his
brother was adopted into a child of God, he himself should not receive that sacrament
which, as you confess, is necessary for every age, if, even as there is not a fortune or a
fate, or an acceptance of persons with God, so there is no gift of grace without merits,
and no original sin. To this dumb child you absolutely submit your tongue and voice; to
this witness who says nothing,-you have nothing at all to say!

CHAPTER 17 [VIII.]-EVEN THE DESIRE OF AN IMPERFECT GOOD IS A GIFT OF GRACE, OTHERWISE GRACE WOULD BE GIVEN ACCORDING TO MERITS.

Let us now see, as we can, the nature of this thing which they will have to precede in
man, in order that he may be regarded as worthy of the assistance of grace, and to the
merit of which in him grace is not given as if unearned, but is rendered as due; and thus
grace is no more grace. Let us see, however, what this is. "Under the name," say they, "of
grace, they so assert fate as to say that unless God should have inspired the desire for
good, and that, imperfect good, into unwilling and resisting man, he would neither be able
to decline from evil nor to grasp after good." I have already shown what empty things they
speak about fate and grace. Now the question which I ought to consider is this, whether
God inspires the desire of good into unwilling and resisting man, that he may be no longer
unwilling, no longer resisting, but consenting to the good and willing the good. For those
men will have it that the desire of good in man begins from man himself; that the merit of
this beginning is, moreover, attended with the grace of completion-if, at least, they will
allow so much as even this. For Pelagius says that what is good is "more easily" fulfilled
if grace assists. By which addition-that is, by adding "more easily"-he certainly
signifies that he is of the opinion that, even if the aid of grace should be wanting, yet
good might be accomplished, although with greater difficulty, by free will. But let me
prescribe to my present opponents what they should think in this matter, without speaking
of the author of this heresy himself. Let us allow them, with their free will, to be free
even from Pelagius himself, and rather give heed to their words which they have written in
this letter to which I am replying.

CHAPTER 18.-THE DESIRE OF GOOD IS GOD'S GIFT.

1 For they have thought that it was to be objected to us that we say "that God inspires
into unwilling and resisting man the desire," not of any very great good, but "even of
imperfect good. Possibly, then, they themselves are keeping open, in some sense at least,
a place for grace, as thinking that man may have the desire of good without grace, but
only of imperfect good; while of perfect, he could not easily have the desire with grace,
but except with it they could not have it at all. Truly, even in this way, too, they are
saying that God's grace is given according to our merits, which Pelagius, in the
ecclesiastical meeting in the East, condemned, in the fear of being condemned. For if
without God's grace the desire of good begins with ourselves, merit itself will have
begun-to which, as if of debt, comes the assistance of grace; and thus God's grace will
not be bestowed freely, but will be given according to our merit. But that he might
furnish a reply to the future Pelagius, the Lord does not say, "Without me it is with
difficulty that you can do anything," but He says, "Without me ye can do nothing. And,
that He might also furnish an answer to these future heretics, in that very same
evangelical saying He does not say, "Without me you can perfect nothing," but "do"
nothing.

2 For if He had said "perfect," they might say that God's aid is necessary not for
beginning good, which is of ourselves, but for perfecting it. But let them hear also the
apostle. For when the Lord says, "Without me ye can do nothing," in this one word He
comprehends both the beginning and the ending. The apostle, indeed, as if he were an
expounder of the Lord's saying, distinguished both very clearly when he says, "Because He
who hath begun a good work in you will perfect it even to the day of Christ Jesus. But in
the Holy Scriptures, in the writings of the same apostle, we find more about that of which
we are speaking. For we are now speaking of the desire of good, and if they will have this
to begin of ourselves and to be perfected by God, let them see what they can answer to the
apostle when he says, "Not that we are sufficient to think anything as of ourselves, but
our sufficiency is of God. "To think anything," he says,-he certainly means, "to think
anything good; but is it less to think than to desire. Because we think all that we
desire, but we do not desire all that we think; because sometimes also we think what we do
not desire.

3 Since, then, it is a smaller thing to think than to desire,-for a man may think good
which he does not yet desire, and by advancing may afterwards desire what before without
desire he thought of,-how are we not sufficient as of ourselves to that which is less,
that is, to the thinking of something good, but our sufficiency is of God; while to that
which is greater,-that is, to the desire of some good thing-without the divine help, we
are sufficient of free will? For what the apostle says here is not, "Not that we are
sufficient as of ourselves to think that which is perfect; but he says, "to think
anything," to which "nothing" is the contrary. And this is the meaning of what the Lord
says, "Without me ye can do nothing."

CHAPTER 19 [IX.]-HE INTERPRETS THE SCRIPTURES WHICH THE PELAGIANS MAKE ILL USE OF.

But assuredly, as to what is written, "The preparation of the heart is man's part, and the
answer of the tongue is from the Lord," they are misled by an imperfect understanding, so
as to think that to prepare the heart-that is, to begin good-pertains to man without the
aid of God's grace. Be it far from the children of promise thus to understand it! As if,
when they heard the Lord saving, "Without me ye can do nothing," they would convict Him by
saying, "Behold without Thee we can prepare the heart;" or when they heard from Paul the
apostle, "Not that we are sufficient to think anything as of ourselves, but our
sufficiency is of God," as if they would also convict him, saying, "Behold, we are
sufficient of ourselves to prepare our heart, and thus also to think some good thing; for
who can without good thought prepare his heart for good?" Be it far from any thus to
understand the passage, except the proud maintainers of free will and forsakers of the
catholic faith! Therefore, since it is written, "It is man'spart to prepare the heart, and
the answer of the tongue is from the Lord," it is that man prepares his heart, not,
however, without the aid of God, who so touches the heart that man prepares the heart. But
in the answer of the tongue--that is, in that which the divine tongue answers to the
prepared heart--man has no part; but the whole is from the Lord God.

CHAPTER 20.-GOD'S AGENCY IS NEEDFUL EVEN IN MAN'S DOINGS.

1 For as it is said, "It is man's part to prepare his heart, and the answer of the tongue
is from the Lord; so also is it said, "Open thy mouth, and I will fill it. For although,
save by His assistance without whom we can do nothing, we cannot open our mouth, yet we
open it by His aid and by our own agency, while the Lord fills it without our agency. For
what is to prepare the heart and to open the mouth, but to prepare the will? And yet in
the same scriptures is read, "The will is prepared by the Lord," and, "Thou shalt open my
lips, and my mouth shall show forth Thy praise. So God admonishes us to prepare our will
in what we read," It is man's part to prepare his heart; and yet, that man may do this,
God helps him, because the will is prepared by the Lord. And," Open thy mouth. This He so
says by way of command, as that nobody can do this unless it is done by His aid, to whom
it is said, "Thou shalt open my lips. Are any of these men so foolish as to contend that
the mouth is one thing, the lips another; and to say with marvellous triviality that man
opens his own mouth, and God opens man's lips? And yet God restrains them from even that
absurdity where He says to Moses His servant," I will open thy mouth, and I will instruct
thee what thou oughtest to speak.

2 In that clause, therefore, where He says, "Open thy mouth and I will fill it," it seems,
as it were, that one of them pertains to man, the other to God. But in this, where it is
said, "I will open thy mouth and will instruct thee," both belong to God. Why is this,
except that in one of these cases He co-operates with man as the agent, in the other He
does it alone?

CHAPTER 21.-MAN DOES NO GOOD THING WHICH GOD DOES NOT CAUSE HIM TO DO.

1 Wherefore God does many good things in man which man does not do; but man does none
which God does not cause man to do. Accordingly, there would be no desire of good in man
from the Lord if it were not a good; but if it is a good, we have it not save from Him who
is supremely and incommunicably good. For what is the desire for good but love, of which
John the apostle speaks without any ambiguity, and says," Love is of God"? Nor is its
beginning of ourselves, and its perfection of God; but if love is of God, we have the
whole of it from God. May God by all means turn away this folly of making ourselves first
in His gifts, Himself last,-because "His mercy shall prevent me. And it is He to whom is
faithfully and truthfully sung, "For Thou hast prevented him with the blessings of
sweetness. And what is here more fitly understood than that very desire of good of which
we are speaking? For good begins then to be longed for when it has begun to grow sweet.
But when good is done by the fear of penalty, not by the love of righteousness good is not
yet well done. Nor is that done in the heart which seems to be done in the act when a man
would rather not do it if he could evade it with impunity.

2 Therefore the "blessing of sweetness" is God's grace, by which is caused in us that what
He prescribes to us delights us, and we desire it,-that is, we love it; in which if God
does not precede us, not only is it not perfected, but it is not even begun, from us. For,
if without Him we are able to do nothing actually, we are able neither to begin nor to
perfect,-because to begin, it is said "His mercy shall prevent me; to finish, it is said,
"His mercy shall follow me."

CHAPTER 22 [X.]-ACCORDING TO WHOSE PURPOSE THE ELECT ARE CALLED.

1 Why, then, is it that, in what follows, where they mention what they themselves think,
they say they confess "That grace also assists the good purpose of every one, but that yet
it does not infuse the desire of virtue into a reluctant heart"? Because they so say this
as if man of himself, without God's assistance, has a good purpose and a desire of virtue;
and this precedent merit is worthy of being assisted by the subsequent graceof God. For
they think, perchance, that theapostle thus said, "For we know that He worketh all things
for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to the purpose," so as to
wish the purpose of man to be understood, which purpose, as a good merit, the mercy of the
God that calleth might follow; being ignorant that it is said, "Who are called according
to the purpose," so that there may be understood the purpose of God, not man, whereby
those whom He foreknew and predestinated as conformed to the image of His Son, He elected
before the foundation of the world. For not all the called are called according to
purpose, since "many are called, few are chosen. They, therefore, are called according to
the purpose, who were elected before the foundation of the world. Of this purpose of God,
that also was said which I have already mentioned concerning the twins Esau and Jacob,
"That according to the election the purpose of God might remain, not of works, but of Him
that calleth;

2 it was said, that the elder shall serve the younger. This purpose of God is also
mentioned in that place where, writing to Timothy, he says, "Labour with the gospel
according to the power of God, who saves us and calls us with this holy calling; not
according to our works, but according to His purpose and grace, which was given to us in
Christ Jesus before the eternal ages, but is now made manifest by the coming of our
Saviour Jesus Christ. This, then, is the purpose of God, whereofit is said, "He worketh
together all things for good for those who are called according to the purpose. But
subsequent grace indeed assists man's good purpose, but the purpose would not itself exist
if grace did not precede. The desire of man, also, which is called good, although in
beginning to exist it is aided by grace, yet does not begin without grace, but is inspired
by Him of whom the apostle says, "But thanks be to God, who has given the same desire for
you in the heart of Titus. If God gives desire that every one may have it for others, who
else will give it that a man may have it for himself?

CHAPTER 23.-NOTHING IS COMMANDED TO MAN WHICH IS NOT GIVEN BY GOD.

Since these things are so, I see that nothing is commanded to man by the Lord in the Holy
Scriptures, for the sake of trying his free will, which is not found either to begin by
His goodness, or to be asked in order to demonstrate the aid of grace; nor does man at all
begin to be changed by the beginning of faith from evil to good, unless the unbought and
gratuitous mercy of God effects this in him. Of which one recalling his thought, as we
read in the Psalms, says, "Shall God forget to be gracious? or will He restrain His
mercies in His anger? And I said, Now have I begun; this change is of the right hand of
the Most High." When, therefore, he had said," Now have I begun," he does not say, "This
change is of my will," but "of the right hand of the Most High." So, therefore, let God's
grace be thought of, that from the beginning of his good changing, even to the end of his
completion, he who glorieth may glory in the Lord; because, as no one can perfect good
without the Lord, so no one can begin it without the Lord. But let this be the end of this
book, that the attention of the reader may be refreshed and strengthened for what follows.

INTRODUCTION

Augustin goes on to refute other matters which are calumniously objected by the Pelagians
in the same letter sent to Thessalonica; and expounds, in opposition to their heresy, what
those who are truly Catholic say concerning the utility of the law; what they teach of the
effect and virtue of baptism; what of the discrepancy between the two testaments, the old
and the new; what concerning the righteousness and perfection of the prophets and
apostles; what of the appellation of sin in Christ, when he is said in the likeness of
sinful flesh concerning sin to have condemned sin, or to have become sin; and finally,
what they profess concerning the fulfilment of the commandments in the future life.

CHAPTER I [I.]-STATEMENT.

There still follow things which they calumniously object to us; they do not yet begin to
work out those things which they themselves think. But lest the prolixity of these
writings should be an offence, I have divided those matters which they object into two
Books,-the former of which being completed, which is the Second Book of this entire work,
I am here commencing the other, and joining it as the Third to the First and Second.

CHAPTER 2 [II.]-THE MISREPRESENTATION OF THE PELAGIANS CONCERNING THE USE OF THE OLD LAW.

1 They declare "that we say that the law of the Old Testament was given not for the end
that it might justify the obedient, but rather that it might become the cause of greater
sin. Certainly, they do not understand what we say concerning the law; because we say what
the apostle says, whom they do not understand. For who can say that they are not justified
who are obedient to the law, when, unless they were justified, they could not be obedient?
But we say, that by the law is effected that what God wills to be done is heard, but that
by grace is effected that the law is obeyed. "For not the hearers of the law," says the
apostle, "are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified. Therefore the
law makes hearers of righteousness, grace makes doers. "For what was impossible to the
law," says the same apostle, "in that it was weak through the flesh, God sent His Son in
the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin condemned sin in the flesh: that the
righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not according to the flesh, but
according to the Spirit. This is what we say;-let them pray that they may one day
understand it, and not dispute so as never to understand it.

2 For it is impossible that the law should be fulfilled by the flesh,that is, by carnal
presumption, in which the proud, who are ignorant of the righteousness of God,-that is,
which is of God to man, that he may be righteous,-and desirous of establishing their own
righteousness,-as if by their own will, unassisted from above, the law could be
fulfilled,-are not subjected to the righteousness of God. Therefore the righteousness of
the law is fulfilled in them who walk not according to the flesh-that is, according to
man, ignorant of the righteousness of God and desirous of establishing his own-but walk
according to the Spirit. But who walks according to the Spirit, except whosoever is led by
the Spirit of God? "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of
God. Therefore "the letter killeth, but the Spirit maketh alive. And the letter is not
evil because it killeth; but it convicts the wicked of transgression. "For the law is
holy, and the commandment holy and just and good. Was, then," says he, "that which is good
made death unto me? By no means; but sin, that it might appear sin, worked death in me by
that which is good, that it might become above measure a sinner or a sin by the
commandment. This is what is the meaning of "the letter killeth. "For the sting of death
is sin, but the strength of sin is the law;

3 because by the prohibition it increases the desires of sin, and thence slays a man
unless grace by coming to his assistance makes him alive.

CHAPTER 3.-SCRIPTURAL CONFIRMATION OF THE CATHOLIC DOCTRINE.

This is what we say; this is that about which they object to us that we say "that the law
was so given as to be a cause of greater sin." They do not hear the apostle saying, "For
the law worketh wrath; for where no law is, there is no transgression;" and, "The law was
added for the sake of transgression until the seed should come to whom the promise was
made;" and, "If there had been a law given which could have given life, righteousness
should altogether have been by the law; but the Scripture hath concluded all under sin,
that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe." Hence it
is that the Old Testament, from the Mount Sinai, where the law was given, gendereth to
bondage, which is Agar. "Now we," says he, "are not children of the bondmaid but of the
freewoman." Therefore they are not children of the freewoman who have accepted the law of
the letter, whereby they can be shown to be not only sinners, but moreover transgressors;
but they who have received the Spirit of grace, whereby the law itself, holy and just and
good, may be fulfilled. This is what we say: let them attend and not contend; let them
seek enlightenment and not bring false accusations.

CHAPTER 4 [III.]-MISREPRESENTATION CONCERNING, THE EFFECT OF BAPTISM.

1 "They assert," say they, "that baptism, moreover, does not make men new-that is, does
not give complete remission of sins; but they contend that they are partly made children
of God and partly remain children of the world, that is, of the devil. They deceive; they
lay traps; they shuffle; we do not say this. For we say that all men who are children of
the devil are also children of the world; but not that all children of the world are also
children of the devil. Far be it from us to say that the holy fathers Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob, and others of this kind, were children of the devil when they were begetting in
marriage, and those believers who until now and still hereafter continue to beget. And yet
we cannot contradict the Lord when He says, "The children of this world marry and give in
marriage. Some, therefore, are children of this world, and yet are not children of the
devil. For although the devil is the author and source of all sins, yet it is not every
sin that makes children of the devil; for the children of God also sin, since if they say
they have no sins they deceive themselves, and the truth is not in them. But they sin in
virtue of that condition by which they are still children of this world; but by that grace
wherewith they are the children of God they certainly sin not, because every one that is
born of God sinneth not.

2 But unbelief makes children of the devil; and unbelief is specially called sin, as if it
were the only one, if it is not expressed what is the nature of the sin. As when the
"apostle" is spoken of, if it be not expressed what apostle, none is understood but Paul;
because he is better known by his many epistles, and he laboured more than they all. For
which reason, in what the Lord said of the Holy Spirit," He shall convict the world of
sin," He meant unbelief to be understood; for He said this when He was explaining, "Of sin
because they believed not on me," and when He says, "If I had not come and spoken to them,
they should not have sin. For He meant not that before they had no sin, but He wished to
indicate that very want of faith by which they did not believe Him even when He was
present to them and speaking to them; since they belonged to him of whom the apostle says,
"According to the prince of the power of the air, who now worketh in the children of
unbelief. Therefore they in whom there is not faith are the children of the devil, because
they have not in the inner man any reason why there should be forgiven them whatever is
committed either by human infirmity, or by ignorance, or by any evil will whatever.

3 But those are the children of God who certainly, if they should "say that they have no
sin, deceive themselves,and the truth is not in them, but immediately" (as it continues)
"when they confess their sins" (which the children of the devil do not do, or do not do
according to the faith which is peculiar to the children of God), "He is faithful and just
to forgive them their sins, and to cleanse them from all unrighteousness. And in order
that what we say may be more fully understood, let Jesus Himself be heard, who certainly
was speaking to the children of God when He said: "And if ye, being evil, know how to give
good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good
things to them that ask Him. For if these were not the children of God, He would not say
to them, "Your Father which is in heaven. And yet He says that they are evil, and that
they know how to give good gifts to their children. Are they, then, evil in that they are
the children of God? Away with the thought! But they are thence evil because they are
still the children of this world, although now made children of God by the pledge of the
Holy Spirit.

CHAPTER 5.-BAPTISM PUTS AWAY ALL SINS, BUT IT DOES NOT AT ONCE HEAL ALL INFIRMITIES.

1 Baptism, therefore, washes away indeed all sins-absolutely all sins, whether of deeds or
words or thoughts, whether original or added whether such as are committed in ignorance or
allowed in knowledge; but it does not take away the weakness which the regenerate man
resists when he fights the good fight, but to which he consents when as man he is
overtaken in any fault; on account of the former, rejoicing with thanksgiving, but on
account of the latter, groaning in the utterance of prayers. On account of the former,
saying, "What shall I render to the Lord for all that He has given me? On account of the
latter, saying, "Forgive us our debts. On account of the former, saying, "I will love
Thee, O Lord, my strength. On account of the latter, saying, "Have mercy on me, O Lord;
for I am weak. On account of the former, saying, "Mine eyes are ever towards the Lord; for
He shall pluck my feet out of the net. On account of the latter, saying, "Mine eye is
troubled with wrath. And there are innumerable passages with which the divine writings are
filled, which alternately, either in exultation over God's benefits or in lamentation over
our own evils, are uttered by children of God by faith as long as they are still children
of this world in respect of the weakness of tiffs life;

2 whom, nevertheless, God distinguishes from the children of the devil, not only by the
laver of regeneration, but moreover by the righteousness of that faith which worketh by
love, because the just lives by faith. But this weakness with which we contend, with
alternating failure and progress, even to the death of the body, and which is of great
importance as to what it can overcome in us, shall be consumed by another regeneration, of
which the Lord says, "In the regeneration when the Son of man shall sit on the throne of
His glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones," etc. Certainly in this passage He
without doubt calls the last resurrection the regeneration, which Paul the Apostle also
calls both the adoption and the redemption, where he says, "But even we ourselves, which
have the first-fruits of the Spirit, ourselves also groan within ourselves, waiting for
the adoption, the redemption, of our body. Have we not been regenerated, adopted, and
redeemed by the holy washing? And yet there remains a regeneration, an adoption, a
redemption, which we ought now patiently to be waiting for as to come in the end, that we
may then be in no degree any longer children of this world. Whosoever, then, takes away
from baptism that which we only receive by its means, corrupts the faith; but whosoever
attributes to it now that which we shall receive by its means indeed, but yet hereafter,
cuts off hope.

3 For if any one should ask of me whether we have been saved by baptism, I shall not be
able to deny it, since the apostle says, "He saved us by the washing of regeneration and
renewing of the Holy Ghost. But if he should ask whether by the same washing He has
already absolutely In every way saved us, I shall answer: It is not so. Because the same
apostle also says, "For 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, we with
patience wait for it. Therefore the salvation of man is effected in baptism, because
whatever sin he has derived from his parents is remitted, or whatever, moreover, he
himself has sinned on his own account before baptism; but his salvation will hereafter be
such that he cannot sin at all.

CHAPTER 6 [IV.]-THE CALUMNY CONCERNING THE OLD TESTAMENT AND THE RIGHTEOUS MEN OF OLD.

Now if these things are so, out of these things are rebutted those which they subsequently
object to us. For what catholic would say that which they charge us with saying, "that the
Holy Spirit was not the assister of virtue in the old testament," unless when we so
understand "the old testament" in the manner in which the apostle spoke of it as
"gendering from Mount Sinai into bondage"? But because in it was prefigured the new
testament, the men of God who at that time understood this according to the ordering of
the times, were indeed the stewards and bearers of the old testament, but are shown to be
the heirs of the new. Shall we deny that he belongs to the new testament who says, "Create
in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me"? or he who says, "He hath
set my feet upon a rock, and directed my goings; and he bath put a new song in my mouth,
even a hymn to our God"? or that father of the faithful before the old testament which is
from Mount Sinai, of whom the apostle says, "Brethren, I speak after the manner of men;
yet even a man's testament, when it is confirmed, no man disannulleth or addeth thereto.
To Abraham and to his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many,
but as of one; and to thy seed, which is Christ. And this I say," said he, "that the
testament confirmed by God, the law which was made four hundred and thirty years after,
does not weaken, so as to make the promise of none effect. For if the inheritance be of
the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise."

CHAPTER 7.-THE NEW TESTAMENT IS MORE ANCIENT THAN THE OLD; BUT IT WAS SUBSEQUENTLY REVEALED.

1 Here, certainly, if we ask whether this testament, which, he says, being confirmed by
God was not weakened by the law, which was made four hundred and thirty years after, is to
be understood as the new or the old one, who can hesitate to answer "the new, but hidden
in the prophetic shadows until the time should come wherein it should be revealed in
Christ"? For if we should say the old, what will that be which genders from Mount Sinai to
bondage? For there was made the law four hundred and thirty years after, by which law he
asserts that this testament of the promise of Abraham could not beweakened; and he will
have this which was made by Abraham to pertain rather to us, whom he will have to be
children of the freewoman, not of the bondwoman, heirs by the promise, not by the law,
when he says, "For if the inheritance be by the law, it is no more of promise: but God
gave it to Abraham by promise. So that, because the law was made four hundred and thirty
years after, it might enter that the offence might abound; since by sin the pride of man
presuming on his own righteousness is convinced of transgression, and where sin abounded
grace much more abounded by the faith of the now humble man failing in the law and taking
refuge in God's mercy. Therefore, when he had said, "For if the inheritance be of the law,
it is no longer of promise:

2 but God gave it to Abraham by promise," as if it might be said to him, "Why then was the
law made afterwards? "he added and said, "What then is the law? To which interrogation he
immediately replied, "It was added because of transgression, until the seed should come to
which the promise was made. This he says again, thus: "For if they who are of the law be
heirs, faith is made void, and the promise is made of none effect: because the law worketh
wrath for where there is no law, there is no transgression. What he says in the former
testimony: "For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave
it to Abraham by promise," this he says in the latter: "For if they who are of the law be
heirs, faith is made void; and the promise is made of none effect; sufficiently showing
that to our faith (which certainly is of the new testament) belongs what God gave to
Abraham by promise. And what he says in the former testimony, "What then is the law? and
answered, "It was added for the sake of transgression," this he instantly added in the
latter testimony, "For the law worketh wrath: for where there is no law, there is no
transgression."

CHAPTER 8.-ALL RIGHTEOUS MEN BEFORE AND AFTER ABRAHAM ARE CHILDREN OF THE PROMISE AND OF GRACE.

Whether, then, Abraham, or righteous men before him or after him, even to Moses himself,
by whom was given the testament gendering to bondage from Mount Sinai, or the rest of the
prophets after him, and the holy men of God till John the Baptist, they are all children
of the promise and of grace according to Isaac the son of the freewoman,-not of the law,
but of the promise, heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ. Far be it from us to deny
that righteous Noah and the righteous men of the earlier times, and whoever from that time
till the time of Abraham could be righteous, either manifestly or hiddenly, belong to the
Jerusalem which is above, who is our mother, although they are found to be earlier in time
than Sarah, who bore the prophecy and figure of the free mother herself. How much more
evidently, then, after Abraham, to whom that promise was declared, that he should be
called the father of many nations, must all, whoever have pleased God, be esteemed the
children of the promise! For from Abraham, and the righteous men who followed him, the
generation is not found more true, but the prophecy more plain.

CHAPTER 9.-WHO ARE THE CHILDREN OF THE OLD COVENANT.

1 But those belong to the old testament, "which gendereth from Mount Sinai to bondage,"
which is Agar, who, when they have received a law which is holy and just and good, think
that the letter can suffice them for life; and do not seek the divine mercy, so as they
may become doers of the law, but, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and wishing
to establish their own righteousness, are not subject to the righteousness of God. Of this
kind was that multitude which murmured against God in the wilderness, and made an idol;
and that multitude which even in the very land of promise committed fornication after
strange gods. But this multitude, even in the old testament itself, was strongly rebuked.
They, moreover, whoever they were at that time who followed after those earthly promises
alone which God promises there, and who were ignorant of that which those promises signify
under the new testament, and who kept God's commandments with the desire of gaining and
with the fear of losing those promises,-certainly did not observe them, but only seemed to
themselves to observe. For there was no faith in them that worked by love, but earthly
cupidity and carnal fear. But he who thus fulfils the commandments beyond a doubt fulfils
them unwillingly, and then does not do them in his heart; for he would rather not do them
at all, if in respect of those things which he desires and fears he might be allowed to
neglect them with impunity.

2 And thus, in the will itself within him, he is guilty; and it is here that God, who
gives the command, looks. Such were the children of the earthly Jerusalem, concerning
which the apostle says, "For she is in bondage with her children," and belongs to the old
testament "which gendereth to bondage from Mount Sinai, which is Agar. Of that same kind
were they who crucified the Lord. and continued in the same unbelief. Thence there are
still their children in the great multitude of the Jews, although now the new testament as
it was prophesied is made plain and confirmed by the blood of Christ; and the gospel is
made known from the river where He was baptized and began His teachings, even to the ends
of the earth. And these Jews, according to the prophecies which they read, are dispersed
everywhere over all the earth, that even from their writings may not be wanting a
testimony to Christian truth.

CHAPTER 10.-THE OLD LAW ALSO GIVEN BY GOD.

1 And it is for this reason that God made the old testament, because it pleased God to
veil the heavenly promises in earthly promises, as if established in reward, until the
fulness of time; and to give to a people which longed for earthly blessings, and therefore
had a hard heart, a law,which, although spiritual, was yet written on tables of stone.
Because, with the exception of the sacraments of the old books, which were only enjoined
for the sake of their significance (although in them also, since they are to be
spiritually understood, the law is rightly called spiritual), the other matters certainly
which pertain to piety and to good living must not be referred by any interpretation to
some significancy, but are to be done absolutely as they are spoken. Assuredly no one will
doubt that that law of God was necessary not alone for that people at that time, but also
is now necessary for us for the right ordering of our life. For if Christ took away from
us that very heavy yoke of many observances, so that we are not circumcised according to
the flesh, we do not immolate victims of the cattle, we do not rest even from necessary
works on the Sabbath, retaining the seventh in the revolution of the days, and other
things of this kind; but keep them as spiritually understood, and, the symbolizing shadows
being removed, are watchful in the light of those things which are signified by them;

2 shall we therefore say, that when it is written that whoever finds another man's
property of any kind that has been lost, should return it to him who has lost it, it does
not pertain to us? and many other like things whereby people learn to live piously and
uprightly? and especially theDecalogue itself, which is contained in those two tables of
stone, apart from the carnal observance of the Sabbath, which signifies spiritual
sanctification and rest?For who can say that Christians ought not to be observant to serve
the one God with religious obedience, not to worship an idol, not to take the name of the
Lord in vain, to honour one's parents, not to commit adulteries, murders, thefts, false
witness, not to covet another man's wife, or anything at all that belongs to another man?
Who is so impious as to say that he does not keep those precepts of the law because he is
a Christian, and is established not under the law, but under grace?

CHAPTER 11.-DISTINCTION BETWEEN THE CHILDREN OF THE OLD AND OF THE NEW TESTAMENTS.

1 But there is plainly this great difference, that they who are established under the law,
whom the letter killeth, do these things either with the desire of gaining, or with the
fear of losing earthly happiness; and that thus they do not truly do them, since fleshly
desire, by which sin is rather bartered or increased, is not healed by desire of another
kind. These pertain to the old testament, which genders to bondage; because carnal fear
and desire make them servants, gospel faith and hope and love do not make them children.
But they who are placed under grace, whom the Spirit quickens, do these things of faith
which worketh by love in the hope of good things, not carnal but spiritual, not earthly
but heavenly, not temporal but eternal; especially believing on the Mediator, by whom they
do not doubt but that a Spirit of grace is ministered to them, so that they may do these
things well, and that they may be pardoned when they sin. These pertain to the new
testament, are the children of promise, and are regenerated by God the Father and a free
mother.

2 Of this kind were all the righteous men of old, and Moses himself, the minister of the
old testament, the heir of the new, -because of the faith whereby we live, of one and the
same they lived, believing the incarnation, passion, and resurrection of Christ as future,
which we believe as already accomplished,-even until John the Baptist himself as it were a
certain limit of the old dispensation, who, signifying that the Mediator Himself would
come, not with any shadow of the future or allegorical intimation, or with any prophetical
announcement, but pointing Him out with his finger, said: "Behold the Lamb of God; behold
Him who taketh away the sin of the world. As if saying, Whom many righteous men have
desired to see, on whom, as about to come, they have believed from the beginning of the
human race itself, concerning whom the promises were spoken to Abraham, of whom Moses
wrote, of whom the law and the prophets are witnesses: "Behold the Lamb of God, who taketh
away the sin of the world. From this John and afterwards, all those things concerning
Christ began to become past or present, which by all the righteous men of the previous
time were believed, hoped for, desired, as future. Therefore the faith is the same as well
in those who, although not yet in name, were in fact previously Christians, as in those
who not only are so but are also called so; and in both there is the same grace by the
Holy Spirit. Whence says the apostle:

3 "We having the same Spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, therefore
have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak."

CHAPTER 12.-THE OLD TESTAMENT IS PROPERLY ONE THING-THE OLD INSTRUMENT ANOTHER.

1 Therefore, by a custom of speech already prevailing, in one way the law and all the
prophets who prophesied until John are called the "Old Testament; although this is more
definitely called the "Old Instrument" rather than the "Old Testament; but this name is
used in another way by the apostolical authority, whether expressly or impliedly. For the
apostle is express when he says, "Until this day, as long as Moses is read, remaineth the
same veil in the reading of the old testament; because it is not revealed, because it is
made of no effect in Christ. For thus certainly the old testament referred to the ministry
of Moses. Moreover, he says, "That we should serve in the newness of the Spirit, and not
in the oldness of the letter," signifying that same testament under the name of the
letter. In another place also, "Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament;
not of the letter, but of the Spirit: for the letter killeth, but the Spirit maketh alive.
And here, by the mention of the new, he certainly meant the former to be understood as the
old. But much more evidently, although he did not say either old or new, he distinguished
the two testaments and the two sons of Abraham, the one of the bondwoman, the other of the
free, as I have above mentioned. For what can be more express than his saying, "Tell me,
ye that desire to be under the law, have ye not heard the law?

2 For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a
freewoman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the
freewoman was by promise. Which things are in allegory; for these are the two testaments;
the one in the Mount Sinai, gendering to bondage, which is Agar. For Sinai is a mountain
in Arabia, which is associated with Jerusalem which now is, for it is in bondage with her
children. But Jerusalem that is above is free, which is our mother? What is more clear,
what more certain, what more remote from all obscurity and ambiguity to the children of
the promise? And a little after, "Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of
promise. Also a little after, "But we, brethren, are not children of the bondwoman, but of
the free," with the liberty with which Christ has made us free. Let us, therefore, choose
whether to call the righteous men of old the children of the bondwoman or of the free. Be
it far from us to say, of the bondwoman; therefore if of the free, they pertain to the new
testament in the Holy Spirit, whom, as making alive, the apostle opposes to the killing
letter. For on what ground do they not belong to the grace of the new testament, from
whose words and looks we convict and rebut such most frantic and ungrateful enemies of the
same grace as these?

CHAPTER 13.-WHY ONE OF THE COVENANTS IS CALLED OLD, THE OTHER NEW.

1 But some one will say, "In what way is that called the old which was given by Moses four
hundred and thirty years after; and that called the new which was given so many years
before to Abraham? Let him who on this subject is disturbed, not litigiously but
earnestly, first understand that when from its earlier time one is called "old," and from
its posterior time the other "new," it is the revelation of them that is considered in
their names, not their institution. Because the old testament was revealed through Moses,
by whom the holy and just and good law was given, whereby should be brought about not the
doing away but the knowledge of sin,-by which the proud might be convicted who were
desirous of establishing their own righteousness, as if they had no need of divine help,
and being made guilty of the letter, might flee to the Spirit of grace, not to be
justified by their own righteousness, but by that of God-that is, by the righteousness
which was given to them of God. For as the same apostle says, "By the law is the knowledge
of sin. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by
the law and by the prophets. Because the law, by the very fact that in it no man is
justified, affords a witness to the righteousness of God. For that in the law no man is
justified before God is manifest, because "the just by faith lives.

2 Thus, therefore, although the law does not justify the wicked when he is convicted of
transgression, it sends to the God who justifieth, and thus affords a testimony to the
righteousness of God. Moreover, the prophets offer testimony to God's righteousness by
fore-announcing Christ, "who is made unto us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and
sanctification, and redemption: that, as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in
the Lord. But that law was kept hidden from the beginning, when nature itself convicted
wicked men, who did to others what they would not have done to themselves. But the
revelation of the new testament in Christ was made when He was manifested in the flesh,
wherein appeared the righteousness of God -that is, the righteousness which is to men from
God. For hence he says, "But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested.
This is the reason why the former is called the old testament, because it was revealed in
the earlier time; and the latter the new, because it was revealed in the later time. In a
word, it is because the old testament pertains to the old man, from which it is necessary
that a man should make a beginning; but the new to the new man, by which a than ought to
pass from his old state. Thus, in the former are earthly promises, in the latter heavenly
promises;

3 because this pertained to God's mercy, that no one should think that even earthly
felicity of any kind whatever could be conferred on anybody, save from the Lord, who is
the Creator of all things. But if God is worshipped for the sake of that earthly
happiness, the worship is that of a slave, belonging to the children of the bondmaid; but
if for the sake of God Himself, so that in the life eternal God may be all things in all,
it is a free service belonging to the children of the freewoman, who is our mother eternal
in the heavens-who first seemed, as it were, barren, when she had not any children
manifest; but now we see what was prophesied concerning her: "Rejoice, thou barren, that
bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for there are many children of
the desolate more than of her who has an husband," -that is, more than of that Jerusalem,
who in a certain manner is married in the bond of the law, and is in bondage with her
children. In the time, then, of the old testament, we say that the Holy Spirit, in those
who even then were the children of promise according to Isaac, was not only an assistant,
which these men think is sufficient for their opinion, but also a bestower of virtue;

4 and this they deny, attributing it rather to their free will, in contradiction to those
fathers who knew how to cry unto God with truthful piety, "I will love Thee, O Lord, my
strength."

CHAPTER 14 [V.]-CALUMNY CONCERNING THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF THE PROPHETS AND APOSTLES.

1 They say, moreover, "that all the apostles or prophets are not defined as entirely holy
by us, but that we say that they were less wicked in comparison with those that were
worse; and that this is the righteousness to which God affords His testimony, so that, as
the prophet says that Sodom was justified in comparison with the Jews, so also we say that
the saints exercised some goodness in comparison with criminal men. Be it far from us to
say such things; but either they are not able to understand, or they are unwilling to
observe, or, for the sake of misrepresentation, they pretend that they do not know what we
say. Let them hear, therefore, either themselves, or rather those whom, as inexperienced
and unlearned persons, they are striving to deceive. Our faith-that is, the catholic
faith-distinguishes the righteous from the unrighteous not by the law of works, but by
that of faith, because the just by faith lives. By which distinction it results that the
man who leads his life without murder, without theft, without false-witness, without
coveting other men's goods, giving due honour to his parents, chaste even to continence
from all carnal intercourse whatever, even conjugal, most liberal in alms-giving, most
patient of injuries; who not only does not deprive another of his goods, but does not even
ask again for what has been taken away from himself;

2 or who has even sold all his own property and appropriated it to the poor, and possesses
nothing which belongs to him as his own;-with such a character as this, laudable as it
seems to be, if he has not a true and catholic faith in God, must yet depart from this
life to condemnation. But another, who has good works from a right faith which worketh by
love, maintains his continency in the honesty of wedlock, although he does not, like the
other, well refrain altogether, but pays and repays the debt of carnal connection, and has
intercourse not only for the sake of offspring, but also for the sake of pleasure,
although only with his wife, which the apostle allows to those that are married as
pardonable;-does not receive injuries with so much patience, but is raised into anger with
the desire of vengeance, although, in order that he may say, "As we also forgive our
debtors," forgives when he is asked;-possesses personal property, giving thence indeed
some alms, but not as the former so liberally;-does not take away what belongs to another,
but, although by ecclesiastical, not by civil judgment, yet contends for his own:

3 certainly this man, who seems so inferior in morals to the former, on account of the
right faith which he has in God, by which he lives, and according to which in all his
wrong-doings he accuses himself, and in all his good works praises God, giving to himself
the shame, to God the glory, and receiving from Him both forgiveness of sins and love of
right deeds,-shall be delivered for this life, and depart to be received into the company
of those who shall reign with Christ. Wherefore, if not on account of faith? Which,
although without works it saves no man (for it is not a reprobate faith, since it worketh
by love), yet by it even sins are loosed, because the just by faith liveth; but without
it, even those things which seem good works are turned into sins: "For everything which is
not of faith is sin. And it is brought about, on account of this great difference, that
although with no possibility of doubt a persevering integrity of virginity is preferable
to conjugal chastity, yet a woman even twice married,if she be a catholic, is preferred to
a professed virgin that is a heretic; nor is she in such wise preferred because this one
is better in God's kingdom, but because the other is not there at all. Now the former,
indeed, whom we have described as being of better morals, if a true faith be his,
surpasses the second one, although both will be in heaven;

4 yet if the faith be wanting to him, he is so surpassed by him that he himself is not
there at all.

CHAPTER 15.-THE PERFECTION OF APOSTLES AND PROPHETS.

1 Since, then, all righteous men, both the more ancient and the apostles, lived from a
right faith which is in Christ Jesus our Lord; and had with their faith morals so holy,
that although they might not be of such perfect virtue in this life as that which should
be after this life, yet whatever of sin might creep in from human infirmity might be
constantly done away by the piety of their faith itself: it results from this that, in
comparison with the wicked whom God will condemn, it must be said that these were"
righteous," since by their pious faith they were so far removed into the opposite of those
wicked men that the apostle cries out, "What part hath he that believeth with an infidel?
But it is plain that the Pelagians, these modern heretics, seem to themselves to be
religious lovers and praisers of the saints, since they do not dare to say that they were
of an imperfect virtue; although that elected vessel confesses this, who, considering in
what state he still was, and that the body which is corrupted drags down the soul, says,
"Not that I have already attained or am yet perfect; brethren, I count not myself to have
apprehended.

2 And yet a little after, he who had denied himself to be perfect says, "Let us therefore,
as many as be perfect, be thus minded," in order that he might show that, according to the
measure of this life, there is a certain perfection, and that to that perfection this also
is to be attributed, even although any one may know that he is not yet perfect. For what
is more perfect, or what was more excellent, than the holy priests among the ancient
people?And yet God prescribed to them to offer sacrifice first of all for their own sins.
And what is more holy among the new people than the apostles?And yet the Lord prescribed
to them to say in their prayer, "Forgive us our debts. For all the pious, therefore, who
lie under this burden of a corruptible flesh, and groan in the infirmity of this life of
theirs, there is one hope: "We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the
righteous: and He is the propitiation for our sins."

CHAPTER 16 [VI.]-MISREPRESENTATION CONCERNING SIN IN CHRIST.

1 They have not a righteous advocate, who are (even if that were the only difference)
distinguished absolutely and widely from the righteous. Be it far from us to say, as they
themselves slanderously affirm, that this just Advocate "spoke falsely by the necessity of
the flesh; but we say that He, in the likeness of sinful flesh, in respect of sin,
condemned sin. And they, perchance not understanding this, and being blinded by the desire
of misrepresentation, and ignorant of the number of ways in which the name of sin is
accustomed to be used in the Holy Scriptures, declare that we affirm sin of Christ.
Therefore we assert that Christ both had no sin,-neither in soul nor in the body; and
that, by taking upon Him flesh in the likeness of sinful flesh, in respect of sin He
condemned sin. And this assertion, somewhat obscurely made by the apostle, is explained in
two ways,-either that the likenesses of things are accustomed to be called by the names of
those things to which they are like, so that the apostle may be understood to have
intended to call this likeness of sinful flesh by the name of "sin;

2 or else that the sacrifices for sins were under the law called "sins," all which things
were figures of the flesh of Christ, which is the true and only sacrifice for sins,-not
only for those which are all washed away in baptism, but also for those which afterwards
creep in from the weakness of this life, on account of which the universal Church daily
cries in prayer to God, "Forgive us our debts," and they are forgiven us by means of that
singular sacrifice for sins which the apostle, speaking according to the law, did not
hesitate to call "sin. Whence, moreover, is that much plainer passage of his, which is not
uncertain by any twofold ambiguity, "We beseech you in Christ's stead to be reconciled to
God. He made Him to be sin for us, who had not known sin; that we might be the
righteousness of God in Him. For the passage which I have above mentioned, "In respect of
sin, He condemned sin," because it was not said, "In respect of his sin," may be
understood by any one, as if He said that He condemned sin in respect of the sin of the
Jews; because in respect of their sin who crucified Him, it happened that He shed His
blood for the remission of sins.

3 But this passage, where God is said to have made Christ Himself "sin," who had not known
sin, does not seem to me to be more fittingly understood than that Christ was made a
sacrifice for sins, and on this account was called "sin."

CHAPTER 17 [VII.]-THEIR CALUMNY ABOUT THE FULFILMENT OF PRECEPTS IN THE LIFE TO COME.

1 But who can bear their objecting to us, "that we say that after the resurrection such is
to be our progress, that there men can begin to fulfil the commands of God, which they
would not here; since we say that there there will be no sin at all, no struggle with any
desire of sin; as if they themselves would dare to deny this? That wisdom also and the
knowledge of God, is then perfected in us, and that in the Lord there is such rejoicing
that it is a full and a true security, who will deny, unless he is so averse from the
truth that on this very account he cannot attain unto it?But these things will not be in
precepts, but in reward of those precepts which should here be observed; the neglect of
which precepts, indeed, does not lead thither to the reward. But here the grace of God
gives the desire of keeping His commandments; and if anything in these commandments is
less perfectly observed, He forgives it on account of what we say in prayer, as well "Thy
will be done," as "Forgive us our debts. Here, then, it is prescribed that we sin not;
there, the reward is that we cannot sin. Here, the precept is that we obey not the desires
of sin; there, the reward that we have no desires of sin. Here, the precept is,"
Understand, ye senseless among the people; and ye fools, be at some time wise; there, the
reward is full wisdom and perfect knowledge.

2 "For we see now through a glass in an enigma," says the apostle, "but then face to face:
now I know in part; but then I shall know even as also I am known. Here, the precept is,
"Exult unto the Lord, our helper," and, "Rejoice, ye righteous, in the Lord; there, the
reward is to rejoice with a perfect and unspeakable joy. Lastly, in the precept it is
written, "Blessed are they which hunger and thirst after righteousness; but in the reward,
"Because they shall be filled. Whence, I ask, shall they be filled, except with what they
hunger and thirst after?Who, then, is so abhorrent, not only from the divine perception,
but also from the human perception, as to say that in man there can be such righteousness
while he is hungering and thirsting for it, as there will be when he shall be filled with
it?But when we are hungering and thirsting after righteousness, if the faith of Christ is
watchful in us, what is it to be believed that we are hungering and thirsting for, save
Christ?"For He is made unto us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and sanctification, and
redemption; that, as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. And
because we only believe on Him not seeing Him, therefore we thirst and hunger after
righteousness. For as long as we are in the body, we wander from the Lord; for we walk by
faith, not by appearance.

3 But when we shall see Him, and attain certainly to the appearance, we shall rejoice with
joy unspeakable; and then we shall be filled with righteousness, since now we say to Him
with pious longing, "I shall be satisfied when Thy glory shall be manifested."

CHAPTER 18.-PERFECTION OF RIGHTEOUSNESS AND FULL SECURITY WAS NOT EVEN IN PAUL IN THIS LIFE.

1 But how impudent I do not say, but how insane, is the pride which, not yet being equal
to the angels of God, thinks itself already able to have a righteousness equal to the
angels of God; and does not consider so great and holy a man, who assuredly hungered and
thirsted after that very perfection of righteousness, when he was unwilling to be lifted
up by the greatness of his revelations; and yet that he might not be lifted up, he was not
left to his own choice and will, but received "the thorn in the flesh, a messenger of
Satan, to buffet him; on which account he besought the Lord thrice that it might depart
from him, and the Lord said unto him, My grace is sufficient for thee, for strength is
made perfect in weakness. What strength, save that to which it belongs not to be lifted
up? And who doubts that this belongs to righteousness? The angels of God, then, are
endowed with this perfection of righteousness, since they always behold the face of the
Father, and thus of the entire Trinity, because they see through the Son, in the Holy
Spirit. But nothing is more sublime than that revelation, nor yet does any of the angels
in that contemplation of rejoicing ones find a messenger of Satan needful that he may be
buffeted by him, lest so great a magnitude of revelation should lift him up.

2 The apostle Paul certainly had not yet that perfection of virtue, nor yet was he equal
to the angels of God; but there was in Him the weakness of lifting himself up, which also
had to be checked by the angel of Satan, lest he should be lifted up by (he magnitude of
his revelations. Although, then, the first lifting up cast down Satan, yet that greatest
Physician, who well knew how to make use of even evil things, applied from the angel of
Satan, against the mischief of elation, a wholesome, although a painful, medicament, just
as an antidote used to be made even of serpents against the poisons of serpents. What,
then, is the meaning of "My grace is sufficient for thee," except that you may not by
giving way succumb to the buffet of the messenger of Satan? And what is "Strength is made
perfect in weakness," except that in that place of weakness hitherto, there may be the
perfection of virtue, so that in the very presence of infirmity, lifting-up may be
repressed? Which infirmity assuredly shall be healed by future immortality. For how is
thatsoundness to be called perfect where medicine is still needful, even from the buffet
of an angel of Satan?

CHAPTER 19.-IN WHAT SENSE THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF MAN IN THIS LIFE IS SAID TO BE PERFECT.

1 From this it results that the virtue which is now in the righteous man is named perfect
up to this point, that to its perfection belong both the true knowledge and humble
confession of even imperfection itself. For, in respect to this infirmity, that little
righteousness of man's is perfect according to its measure, when it understands even what
it lacks. And therefore the apostle calls himself both perfect and imperfect, -imperfect,
to wit, in the thought of how much is wanting to him for the righteousness for the fulness
of which he is still hungering and thirsting; but perfect in that he does not blush to
confess his own imperfection, and goes forward in good that he may attain. As we can say
that the wayfarer is perfect whose approach is well forwarded, although his intention is
not carried out unless his arrival be actually effected. Therefore, when he had said,"
According to the righteousness which is in the law, I am one who has been without blame,"
he immediately added, "What things were gain to me, those I counted but loss for Christ's
sake. Yea, doubtless, and I count all things to be loss for the sake of the eminent
knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord:

2 for whose sake I have believed all things not only to be losses, but I have thought them
to be even as dung, that I might gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own
righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is by the faith of Christ, the
righteousness which is of God in faith. See! the apostle does not, of course, say falsely,
that "according to the righteousness which is of the law he was without blame; and yet
those things which were gain to him, he casts away for Christ's sake, and thinks them
losses, injuries, dung. And not only these things, but all other things which he mentioned
previously; not on account of any kind of knowledge, but, as he himself says, "the eminent
knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord," which, beyond a doubt, he had as yet in faith, but
not yet in sight. For then the knowledge of Christ will be eminent, when He shall be so
revealed that what is believed is seen. Whence, in another place, he thus says, "For ye
have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, your life, shall
appear, then shall ye also appear with Him in glory. Hence, also, the Lord Himself says,
"He who loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest
myself to him. Hence John the Evangelist says, "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and
it has not yet appeared what we shall be:

3 but we know, that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He
is. Then shall the knowledge of Christ be eminent. For now it is, as it were, hidden away
in faith; but it does not yet appear eminent in sight.

CHAPTER 20.-WHY THE RIGHTEOUSNESS WHICH IS OF THE LAW IS VALUED SLIGHTLY BY PAUL.

1 Therefore the blessed Paul casts away those past attainments of his righteousness, as
"losses" and "dung," that "he may win Christ and be found in Him, not having his own
righteousness, which is of the law. Wherefore his own, if it is of the law? For that law
is the law of God. Who has denied this, save Marcion and Manicheus, and such like pests?
Since, then, that is the law of God, he says it is" his own" righteousness "which is of
the law; and this righteousness of his own he would not have, but cast it forth as "dung.
Why so, except because it is this which I have above demonstrated, that those are under
the law who, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and going about to establish
their own, are not subject to the righteousness of God? For they think that, by the
strength of their own will, they will fulfil the commands of the law; and wrapped up in
their pride, they are not converted to assisting grace. Thus the letter killeth them
either openly, as being guilty to themselves, by not doing what the law commands; or by
thinking that they do it, although they do it not with spiritual love, which is of God.
Thus they remain either plainly wicked or deceitfully righteous,-manifestly cut off in
open unrighteousness, or foolishly elated in fallacious righteousness.

2 And by this means-marvellous indeed, but yet true-the righteousness of the law is not
fulfilled by the righteousness which is in the law, or by the law, but by that which is in
the Spirit of grace. Because the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in those, as it is
written, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. But, according
to the righteousness which is in the law, the apostle says that he was blameless in the
flesh, not in the Spirit; and he says that the righteousness which is of the law was his,
not God's. It must be understood, therefore, that the righteousness of the law is not
fulfilled according to the righteousness which is in the law or of the law, that is,
according to the righteousness of man, but according to the righteousness which is in the
Spirit of grace, therefore according to the righteousness of God, that is, which man has
from God. Which may be thus more clearly and briefly stated: That the righteousness of the
law is not fulfilled when the law commands, and man as it were of his own strength obeys;
but when the Spirit aids, and man's free will, but freed by the grace of God, performs.
Therefore the righteousness of the law is to command what is pleasing to God, to forbid
what is displeasing; but the righteousness in the law is to obey the letter, and beyond it
to seek for no assistance of God for holy living.

3 For when he had said, "Not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that
which is by the faith of Christ," he added, "Which is from God. That, therefore, is itself
the righteousness of God, being ignorant of which the proud go about to establish their
own; for it is not called the righteousness of God because by it God is righteous, but
because man has it from God.


AGAINST TWO LETTERS OF THE PELAGIANS (CHAPTERS 21.-THAT RIGHTEOUSNESS IS NEVER PERFECTED IN THIS LIFE.–27 [X.] - CYPRIAN'S TESTIMONIES CONCERNING THE IMPERFECTION OF OUR OWN RIGHTEOUSNESS.)
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AGAINST TWO LETTERS OF THE PELAGIANS continued

CHAPTER 21.-THAT RIGHTEOUSNESS IS NEVER PERFECTED IN THIS LIFE.

1 Now, according to this righteousness of God, that is, which we have from God, faith now
worketh by love. But it worketh that, in what way man can attain to Him on whom now, not
seeing, he believes; and when he shall see Him, then that which was in faith through a
glass enigmatically, shall at length be in sight face to face; and then shall be perfected
even love itself. Because it is said with excessive folly, that God is loved as much
before He is seen, as He will be loved when He is seen. Further, if in this life, as no
religious person doubts, the more we love God, so much the more righteous we certainly
are, who can doubt that pious and true righteousness will then be perfected when the love
of God shall be perfect? Then the law, therefore, shall be fulfilled; so that nothing at
all is wanting to it, of which law, according to the apostle, the fulfilling is Love. And
thus, when he had said," Not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that
which is by the faith of Jesus Christ, which is the righteousness from God in faith," he
then added, "That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of
His sufferings. All these things were not yet full and perfect in the apostle; but, as if
he were placed on the way, he was running towards their fulness and perfection.

2 For how had he already perfectly known Christ, who says in another place, "Now I know in
part; but then I shall know even as I am known"? And how had he already perfectly known
the power of His resurrection, to whom it remained to know it yet more fully by experience
at the time of the resurrection of the flesh? And how had he perfectly known already the
fellowship of His suffering, if he had not yet experienced for him the suffering of death?
Finally, he adds and says, "If in any manner I may attain unto the resurrection of the
dead. And then he says, "Not that I have already received or am already perfected. What,
then, does he confess that he has not yet received, and in what is he not yet perfected,
except that righteousness which is of God, which he desired, not willing to have his own
righteousness, which is of the law? For hence he was speaking, and such was the reason for
his saying these things in resistance to the enemies of the grace of God, for the bestowal
of which Christ was crucified; and of the race of whom are also these.

CHAPTER 22.-NATURE OF HUMAN RIGHTEOUSNESS AND PERFECTION.

1 For from the place in which he undertook to say these things, he thus began, "Beware of
dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision. For we are the circumcision, who
serve God in the Spirit,"-or, as some codices have it, "who serve God the Spirit," or "the
Spirit of God,"-"and glory in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. Here it
is manifest that he is speaking against the Jews, who, observing the law carnally, and
going about to establish their own righteousness, were slain by the letter, and not made
alive by the Spirit, and gloried in themselves while the apostles and all the children of
the promise were glorying in Christ. Then he added, "Although I may have confidence in the
flesh. If any one else thinks that he has confidence in the flesh, I more. And enumerating
all things which have glory according to the flesh, he ended at that point where he says,
"According to the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. And when he had said that
he regarded all these things as altogether loss and disadvantage and dung that he might
gain Christ, he added the passage which I am treating, "And be found in Him, not having my
own righteousness, but that which is by the faith of Christ, which is from God.

2 He confessed that he had not yet received the perfection of this righteousness, which
will not be except in that excellent knowledge of Christ, on account of which he said that
all things were loss to him; and he confessed, therefore, that he was not yet perfect.
"But I follow on," said he, "if I may apprehend that in which I also am apprehended of
Christ Jesus. "I may apprehend that in which I also am apprehended," is much the same as,
"I may know, even as I also am known. "Brethren," says he, "I count not myself to have
apprehended: but one thing, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forward
to those which are before, I follow on according to the purpose for the reward of the
supreme calling of God in Christ Jesus. The order of the words is, "But one thing I
follow. Of which one thing the Lord also is well understood to have admonished Martha,
where he says, "Martha, Martha,thou art careful and troubled about many things: but one
thing is needful. The apostle, wishing to apprehend this as if set in the way, said that
he followed on to the reward of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

3 For who can delay when he would apprehend that which he declares that he is following,
that he shall then have a righteousness equal to the righteousness of the holy angels,
none of whom, of course, does any messenger of Satan buffet lest he should be lifted up
with the greatness of his revelations? Then, admonishing those who might think themselves
already perfect with the fulness of that righteousness, he says, "Let as many of us,
therefore, as are perfect, be thus minded. As if he should say, If, according to the
capacity of mortal man for the little measure of this life, we are perfect, let us
understand that it also belongs to that perfection that we perceive that we are not yet
perfected in that angelical righteousness which we shall have in the manifestation of
Christ. "And if in anything," he said, "ye be otherwise minded, God shall also reveal even
this unto you. How, save to those that are walking and advancing in the way of the faith,
until that wandering be finished and they come to the actual vision? Whence following on,
he added, "Nevertheless, whereunto we have already attained, let us walk therein. Then he
concludes that they should be bewared of, concerning whom this passage treated at its
beginning. "Brethren, be imitators of me, and mark them which so walk as ye have our
example. For many walk, of whom I have spokenoften, and now tell you even weeping, whose
end is destruction," and the rest.

4 These are the very ones of whom, in the beginning, he had said, "Beware of dogs, beware
of evil workers," and what follows. Therefore all are enemies of the cross of Christ who,
going about to establish their own righteousness, which is of the law,-that is, where only
the letter commands, and the Spirit does not fulfil,-are not subject to the law of God.
For if they who are of the law be heirs, faith is made an empty thing. "If righteousness
is by the law, then Christ has died in vain: then is the offence of the cross done away.
And thus those are enemies of the cross of Christ who say that righteousness is by the
law, to which it belongs to command, not to assist. But the grace of God through Jesus
Christ the Lord in the Holy Spirit helpeth our infirmity.

CHAPTER 23.-THERE IS NO TRUE RIGHTEOUSNESS WITHOUT THE FAITH OF THE GRACE OF CHRIST.

1 Wherefore he who lives according to the righteousness which is in the law, without the
faith of the grace of Christ, as the apostle declares that he lived blameless, must be
accounted to have no true righteousness; not because the law is not true and holy, but
because to wish to obey the letter which commands, without the Spirit of God which
quickens, as if of the strength of free will, is not true righteousness. But the
righteousness according to which the righteous man lives by faith, since man has it from
God by the Spirit of grace, is true righteousness. And although this is not undeservedly
said to be perfect in some righteous men, according to the capacity of this life, yet it
is but little to that great righteousness which the equality of the angels receives. And
he who had not yet possessed this, on the one hand, in respect of that which was already
in him, said that he was perfect; and in respect of that which was still wanting to him,
said that he was imperfect. But manifestly that lower degree of righteousness makes merit,
that higher kind becomes reward. Whence he who does not strive after the former does not
attain unto the latter. Wherefore, after the resurrection of man, to deny that there will
be a fulness of righteousness, and to think that the righteousness in the body of that
life will be such as it can be in the body of this death, is singular folly.

2 But it is most true that men do not there begin to fulfil those commands of God which
here they have been unwilling to obey. For there will be the fulness of the most perfect
righteousness, yet not of men striving after what is commanded, and making gradual
endeavours after that fulness; but in the twinkling of an eye, even as shall be that
resurrection of the dead itself, because that greatness of perfect righteousness will be
given as a reward to those who here have obeyed the commandments, and will not itself be
commanded to them as a thing to be accomplished. But I should in such wise say they have
done the commandments, that we might remember that to these very commandments belongs the
prayer in which the holy children of promise daily say with truth, "Thy will be done," and
"Forgive us our debts."

CHAPTER 24 [VIII.]-THERE ARE THREE PRINCIPAL HEADS IN THE PELAGIAN HERESY.

1 When, then, the Pelagians are pressed with these and such like testimonies and words of
truth, not to deny original sin; not to say that the grace of God whereby we are justified
is not given freely, but according to our merits; nor to say that in mortal man, however
holy and well doing, there is so great righteousness that even after the washing of
regeneration, until he finishes this life of his, forgiveness of sins is not necessary to
him,-therefore when they are pressed not to make these three assertions, and by their
means alienate men who believe them from the grace of the Saviour, and persuade the
lifted-up unto pride to go headlong unto the judgment of the devil: they introduce the
clouds of other questions in which their impiety-in the sight of men more simpleminded,
whether that they are more slow or less instructed in the sacred writings-may be
concealed. These are the misty questions of the praise of the creature, of the praise of
marriage, of the praise of the law, of the praise of free will, of the praise of the
saints; as if any one of our people were in the habit of disparaging those things, and not
rather of announcing all things with due praises to the honour of the Creator and Saviour.
But even the creature does not desire in such wise to be praised as to be unwilling to be
healed.

2 And the more marriage is to be praised, the less is to be attributed to it the shameful
concupiscence of the flesh, which is not of the Father, but of the world; and which
assuredly marriage found and did not make in men; because, moreover, it is actually in
very many without marriage, and if nobody had sinned marriage itself might be without it.
And the law, holy and just and good, is neither grace itself, nor is anything rightly done
by it without grace; because the law is not given that it may give life, but it was added
because of transgression, that it might conclude all persons convicted under sin, and that
the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. And the free
will taken captive does not avail, except for sin; but for righteousness, unless divinely
set free and aided, it does not avail. And thus, also, all the saints, whether from that
ancient Abel to John the Baptist, or from the apostles themselves up to this time, and
henceforth even to the end of the world, are to be praised in the Lord, not in themselves.
Because the voice, even of those earlier ones, is, "In the Lord shall my soul be praised.
And the voice of the later ones is, "By the grace of God I am what I am. And to all
belongs, "That he that glorieth may glory in the Lord.

3 And it is the common confession of all, "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive
ourselves, and the truth is not in us."

CHAPTER 25 [IX.]-HE SHOWS THAT THE OPINION OF THE CATHOLICS IS THE MEAN BETWEEN THAT OF THE MANICHEANS AND PELAGIANS, AND REFUTES BOTH.

1 But since, in these five particulars which I have set forth, in which they seek lurking-
places, and from which they weave misrepresentations, they are forsaken and convicted by
the divine writings, they have thought to deter those whom they could by the hateful name
of Manicheans, lest in opposition to their most perverse teachings their ears should be
conformed to the truth; because doubtless the Manicheans blasphemously condemn the three
former of those five dogmas, saying that neither the human creature, nor marriage, nor the
law was ordained by the supreme and true God. But they do not receive what the truth says,
that sin took its origin from free will, and that all evil, whether of angel or man, comes
from it; because they prefer to believe, in their turning aside from God, that the nature
of evil was always evil, and co-eternal with God. They, moreover, attack the holy
patriarchs and prophets with as many execrations as they can. This is the way in which the
modern heretics think, that by objecting the name of Manicheans, they evade the force of
truth. But they do not evade it; because it follows them up, and overturns at once
Manicheans and Pelagians. For in that when a man is born there is something good, so far
as he is a man, he condemns the Manichean, and praises the Creator; but in so far as he
derives original sin, he condemns the Pelagian, and holds a Saviour necessary.

2 For even because that nature is said to be healable, it repels both teachings; because
it would not, on the one hand, have need of medicine if it were sound, which is opposed to
the Pelagian, nor could it be healed at all if the evil in it were eternal and immutable,
which is opposed to the Manichean. Moreover, in that to marriage, which we praise as
ordained of God, we do not say that the concupiscence of the flesh is to be attributed,
this is both contrary to the Pelagians,who make this concupiscence itself a matter of
praise, and contrary to the Manicheans, who attribute it to a foreign and evil nature,
when it really is an evil accidental to our nature, not to be separated by the disjunction
from God, but to be healed by the mercy of God. Moreover, in that we say that the law,
holy and just and good, was given not for the justification of the wicked, but for the
conviction of the proud, for the sake of transgressions,-this is, on the one hand, opposed
to the Manicheans, in that according to the apostle the law is praised; and on the other
opposed to the Pelagians, in that, in accordance with the apostle, no one is justified by
the law; and therefore, for the sake of making alive those whom the letter has killed,that
is, whom the law, enjoining good, makes guilty by transgressions, the Spirit of grace
freelybrings aid.

3 Also in that we say that the will is free in evil, but for doing good it must be made
free by God's grace, this is opposed to the Pelagians; but in that we say it originated
from that which previously was not evil, this is opposed to the Manicheans. Again, that we
honour the holy patriarchs and prophets with praises due to them in God, is in opposition
to the Manicheans; but that we say that even to them, however righteous and pleasing to
God they might have been, the propitiation of the Lord was necessary, this is in
opposition to the Pelagians. The catholic faith, therefore, finds them both, as it does
also Other heretics, in opposition to it, and convicts both by the authority of the divine
testimonies and by the light of truth.

CHAPTER 26 [X.]-THE PELAGIANS STILL STRIVE AFTER A HIDING-PLACE, BY INTRODUCING THE NEEDLESS QUESTION OF THE ORIGIN OF THE SOUL.

The Pelagians, indeed, add to the clouds which envelop their lurking-places the
unnecessary question concerning the origin of the soul, for the purpose of erecting a
hiding-place by disturbing manifest things by the obscurity of other matters. For they say
"that we guard the continuous propagation of souls with the continuous propagation of
sin." And where and when they have read this, either in the addressesor in the writings of
those who maintain the catholic faith against this, I do not know; because, although I
find something written by catholics on the subject, yet the defence of the truth had not
yet been undertaken against those men, neither was there any anxiety to answer them. But
this I say, that according to the Holy Scriptures original sin is so manifest, and that
this is put away in infants by the laver of regeneration is confirmed by such antiquity
and authority of the catholic faith, notorious by such a clear concurrent testimony of the
Church, that what is argued by the inquiry or affirmation of anybody concerning the origin
of the soul, if it is contrary to this, cannot be true. Wherefore, whoever builds up,
either concerning the soul orany other obscure matter, any edifice whence he may destroy
this, which is true, best founded, I and best known, whether he is a son or an enemy of
the Church, must either be corrected or avoid ed. But let this be the end of this Book,
that the things which follow may have another beginning.

INTRODUCTION

1 After having set aside in the former books the Calumnies hurled against the Catholics,
Augustin here proceeds to open up the snares which lie hidden in the remaining part of the
second epistle of the Pelagians, in the five heads of their doctrine-In the praise, to
wit, of the creature, the praise of marriage, the praise of the law, the praise of free
will, and the praise of the saints; in connection with which heads the Pelagians
malignantly boast that they are at issue not more with the Manicheans than with the
Catholics. Hence these five points may bring us back to this, that they put forward their
threefold error-Namely, the two first, the denial of original sin; the two following, the
assertion that grace is given according to merits; the fifth, their statement that the
saints had not sinned in this life. Augustin shows that both heresies, that of the
Manicheans and that of the Pelagians, are opposed and equally odious to the Catholic
faith, whereby we profess, first, that the nature created by a good God was good, but
that, nevertheless, it is in need of a saviour because of original sin, which passed into
all men from the transgression of the first man: then secondly, that marriage is good,
truly instituted by God, but that that concupiscence is evil which was associated with
marriage by sin: also thirdly that the law of God is good, but in such wise as only to
manifest sin, not to take it away:

2 that fourthly free will is assuredly inherent in the nature of man, but that now,
however, it is so enslaved that it does not avail to the doing of righteousness, unless
when it shall have been made free by grace: but that fifthly the saints, whether of the
old or new testament, were indeed endued with a righteousness, which was true but not
perfect, nor so full that they should be free from all sin. In conclusion, he brings
forward the testimonies of Cyprian and Ambrose on behalf of the Catholic faith, some
concerning original sin, others about the assistance of grace, and the last concerning the
imperfection of present righteousness.

CHAPTER 1 [I.]-THE SUBTERFUGES OF THE PELAGIANS ARE FIVE.

After the matters which I have considered, and to which I have answered, they repeat the
same things as those contained in the letter which I have refuted, but in a different
manner. For before, they put them forward as objecting to us things which we think as it
were falsely; but afterwards, as explaining what they themselves think, they have
presented the same things from the opposite side, adding two certain points which they had
not mentioned-that is, "that they say that baptism is necessary for all ages," and "that
by Adam death passed upon us, not sins," which things must also themselves be considered
in their own place. Hence, because in the former Book which I have just finished I said
that they alleged hindrances of five matters in which lurk their dogmas hostile to God's
grace and to the catholic faith,-the praise, to wit, of the creature, the praise of
marriage, the praise of the law, the praise of free will, the praise of the saints,-I
think it is more convenient to make a general discrimination of all that they maintain,
the contrary of which they object to us, and to show which of those things pertain to any
of those five, that so my answer may be by that very distinction clearer and briefer.

CHAPTER 2 [II.] - THE PRAISE OF THE CREATURE.

1 They accomplish the praise of the creature, inasmuch as it pertains to the human race of
which the question now is, in these statements: "That God is the Maker of all those that
are born, and that the sons of men are God's work; and that all sin descends not from
nature, but from the will." With this praise of the creature they connect, "that they say
that baptism is necessary for every age, so that," namely, "the creature itself may be
adopted among the children of God; not because it derives anything from its parents which
must be purified in the laver of regeneration." To this praise they add also, "that they
say that Christ the Lord was sprinkled with no stain of sin as far as pertains to His
infancy;" because they assert that His flesh was most pure from all contagion of sin, not
by His own excellence and singular grace, but by His fellowship with the nature which is
shared by all infants. It also belongs to this that they introduce the question "of the
origin of the soul," thus endeavouring to make all the souls of infants equal to the soul
of Christ, maintaining that they likewise are sprinkled with no stain of sin. On this
account, also, they say, "that nothing of evil passed from Adam upon the rest of humanity
except death, which," they say, "is not always an evil, since to the martyrs, for
instance, it is for the sake of rewards; and it is not the dissolution of the bodies,
which in every kind of then shall be raised up, that can make death to be called either
good or evil, but the diversity of merits which arises from human liberty." These things
they write in this letter concerning the praise of the creature.

2 They praise marriage truly according to the Scriptures, "because the Lord saith in the
gospel, He who made men from the beginning made them male and female, and said, Increase
and multiply, and replenish the earth." Althoughthis is not written in that passage of the
gospel,yet it is written in the law. They add, moreover," What therefore God hath joined
together, let not man put asunder." And these we acknowledge to be gospel words. In the
praise of the law they say, "that the old law was, according to the apostle, holy and just
and good; that on those who keep its commandments, and live righteously by faith, such as
the prophets and patriarchs, and all the saints, life eternal could be conferred." In the
praise of free will they say, "that free will has not perished, since the Lord says by the
prophets, `If ye be willing and will hear me, ye shall eat the good things of the land: if
ye are unwilling, and will not hear, the sword shall devour you.' And thus, also, it is
that grace assists the good purpose of any person, but yet does not infuse a desire of
virtue into the reluctant heart, because there is no acceptance of persons with God."

3 In the praise of the saints they conceal themselves, saying "that baptism perfectly
renews men, inasmuch as the apostle is a witness whotestifies that, by the washing of
water, the Church is made out of the heathen holy and spotless; that the Holy Spirit also
assisted pious souls in ancient times, even as the prophet says to God, 'Thy good Spirit
shall lead me into the right way;' that all the prophets, moreover, and apostles or
saints, as well of the New as of the Old Testament, to whom God gives witness, were
righteous, not in comparison with the wicked, but by the rule of virtue; and that in
future time there is a reward as well of good works as of evil. But that no one can then
perform the commandment which here he may have contemned, because the apostle said, `We
must be manifested before the judgment-seat of Christ, that every one may receive the
things belonging to the body, according to what he has done, whether good or evil.'"

4 In all these points, whatever they say of the praise of the creature and of marriage,
they endeavour to bring us hack to this,-that there is no original sin; whatever of the
praise of law and of free will, to this, that grace does not assist without merit, and
that thus grace is no more grace; whatever of the praise of the saints, to this, that
mortal life in the saints appears not to have sin, and that it is not necessary for them
to pray God for the remitting of their debts.

CHAPTER 3 [III.] - THE CATHOLICS PRAISE NATURE, MARRIAGE, LAW, FREE WILL, AND THE SAINTS, IN SUCH WISE AS TO CONDEMN AS WELL PELAGIANS AS MANICHEANS.

1 Let every one who, with a catholic mind, shudders at these impious and damnable
doctrines, in this tripartite division, shun the lurkingplaces and snares of this fivefold
error, and be so careful between one and another as in such wise to decline from the
Manicheans as not to incline to the Pelagians; and again, so to separate himself from the
Pelagians as not to associate himself with the Manicheans; or, if he should already be
taken hold of in one or the other bondage, that he should not so pluck himself out of the
hands of either as to rush into those of the other. Because they seem to be contrary to
one another; since the Manicheans manifest themselves by vituperating these five points,
and the Pelagians conceal themselves by praising them. Wherefore he condemns and shuns
both, whoever he may be, who according to the rule of the catholic faith so glorifies the
Creator in men, that are born of the good creature of flesh and soul (for this the
Manichean will not have), as that he yet confesses that on account of the corruption which
has passed over into them by the sin of the first man, even infants need a Saviour (for
this the Pelagian will not have). He who so distinguishes the evil of shameful
concupiscence from the blessing of marriage, as neither, like the Manicheans, to reproach
the source of our birth, nor, like the Pelagians, to praise the source of our disorder.

2 He who so maintains the law to have been given holy and just and good through Moses by a
holy and just and good God (which Manicheus, in opposition to the apostle, denies), as to
say that it both shows forth sin and yet does not take it away, and commands righteousness
which yet it does not give (which, again, in opposition to the apostle, Pelagius denies).
He who so asserts free will as to say that the evil of both angel and man began, not from
I know not what nature always evil, which is no nature, but from the will itself, which
overturns Manichean heresy, and nevertheless that even thus the captive will cannot
breathe into a wholesome liberty save by God's grace, which overturns the Pelagian heresy.
He who so praises in God the holy men of God, not only after Christ manifested in the
flesh and subsequently, but even those of the former times, whom the Manicheans dare to
blaspheme, as yet to believe their own confessions concerning themselves, more than the
lies of the Pelagians. For the word of the saints is, "If we should say that we have no
sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us."

CHAPTER 4 [IV.] - PELAGIANS AND MANICHEANS ON THE PRAISE OF THE CREATURE.

1 These things being so, what advantage is it to new heretics, enemies of the cross of
Christ and opposers of divine grace, that they seem sound from the error of the
Manicheans, if they are dying by another pestilence of their own? What advantage is it to
them, that in the praise of the creature they say "that the good God is the maker of those
that are born, by whom all things were made, and that the children of men are His work,"
whom the Manicheans say are the work of the prince of darkness; when between them both, or
among them both, God's creation, which is in infants, is perishing? For both of them
refuse to have it delivered by Christ's flesh and blood,-the one, because they destroy
that very flesh and blood, as if He did not take upon Him these at all in man or of man;
and the other, because they assert that there is no evil in infants from which they should
be delivered by the sacrament of this flesh and blood. Between them lies the human
creature in infants, with a good origination, with a corrupted propagation, confessing for
its goods a most excellent Creator, seeking for its evils a most merciful Redeemer, having
the Manicheans as disparagers of its benefits, having the Pelagians as deniers of its
evils, and both as persecutors.

2 And although in infancy there is no power to speak, yet with its silent look and its
hidden weakness it addresses the impious vanity of both, saying to the one, "Believe that
I am created by Him who creates good things; and saying to the other, "Suffer me to be
healed by Him who created me. The Manicheans say, "There is nothing of this infant save
the good soul to be delivered; the rest," which belongs not to the good God, but to tile
prince of darkness, "is to be rejected."' The Pelagians say, "Certainly there is nothing
of this infant to be delivered, because we have shown the whole to be safe. Both lie; but
now the accuser of the flesh alone is more bearable than the praiser, who is convicted of
cruelty against the whole. But neither does tile Manichean help the human soul by
blaspheming God, the Author of the entire man; nor does the Pelagian permit the divine
grace to come to the help of human infancy by denying original sin. Therefore it is by the
catholic faith that God has mercy, seeing that by condemning both mischievous doctrines it
comes to the help of the infant for salvation. It says to the Manicheans, "Hear the
apostle crying, 'Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost in you?' anti
believe that the good God is the Creator of bodies, because the temple of the Holy Ghost
cannot be the work of the prince of darkness.

3 It says to the Pelagians, "The infant that you look upon 'was conceived in iniquity, and
in sin its mother nourished it in the womb.' Why, as if in defending it as free from all
mischief, do you not permit it to be delivered by mercy? No one is pure from uncleanness,
not even the infant whose life is of one day upon the earth. Allow the wretched creatures
to receive remission of sins, through Him who alone neither as small nor great could have
any sin."

CHAPTER 5. - WHAT IS THE SPECIAL ADVANTAGE IN THE PELAGIAN OPINIONS?

What advantage, then, is it to them that they say "that all sin descends not from nature,
but from the will," and resist by the truth of this judgment the Manicheans, who say that
evil nature is the cause of sin; when by being unwilling to admit original sin although
itself also descends from the will of the first man, they make infants to depart in guilt
from the body? What advantage is it to them "that they confess that baptism is necessary
for all ages," while the Manicheans say that it is superfluous for every age, while they
say that in infants it is false so far as it pertains to the forgiveness of sins? What
advantage is it to them that they maintain "the flesh of Christ" (which the Manicheans
contend was either no flesh at all, or a feigned flesh) to have been not only the true
flesh, but also "that the soul itself was stained by no spot of sin," when other infants
are by them so put on the same level with His infancy, with not unequal purity, as that
both that flesh does not appear to keep its own holiness in comparison with these, and
these obtain no salvation from that?

CHAPTER 6. - NOT DEATH ALONE, BUT SIN ALSO HAS PASSED INTO US BY MEANS OF ADAM.

1 In that particular, indeed, wherein they say "that death passed to us by Adam, not
sins," they have not the Manicheans as their adversaries: since they, too, deny that
original sin from the first man, at first of pure and upright body and spirit, and
afterwards depraved by free will, subsequently passed and passes as sin into all with
death; but they say that the flesh was evil from the beginning, and was created by an evil
spirit and along with an evil spirit; but that a good soul-a portion, to wit, of God-for
the deserts of its defilement by food and drink, in which it was before bound up, came
into man, and thus by means of copulation was bound in the chain of the flesh. And thus
the Manicheans agree with the Pelagians that it was not the guilt of the first man that
passed into the human race-neither by the flesh, which they say was never good; nor by the
soul, which they assert comes into the flesh of man with the merits of its own defilements
with which it was polluted before the flesh. But how do the Pelagians say "that only death
passed upon us by Adam's means"? For if we die because he died, but he died because be
sinned, they say that the punishment passed without the guilt, and that innocent infants
are punished with an unjust penalty by deriving death without the deserts of death.

2 This, the catholic faith has known of the one and only mediator between God and man, the
man Christ Jesus, who condescended to undergo death-that is, the penalty of sin-without
sin, for us. As He alone became the Son of man, in order that we might become through Him
sons of God, so He alone, on our behalf, undertook punishment without ill deservings, that
we through Him might obtain grace without good deservings. Because as to us nothing good
was due so to Him nothing bad was clue. Therefore, commending His love to them to whom He
was about to give undeserved life, He was willing to suffer for them an undeserved death.
This special prerogative of the Mediator the Pelagians endeavour to make void, so that
this should no longer be special in the Lord, if Adam in such wise suffered a death due to
him on account of his guilt, as that infants, drawing from him no guilt, should suffer
undeserved death. For although very much good is conferred on the good by means of death,
whence some have filly argued even "of the benefit of death; yet from this what can be
declared except the mercy of God, since the punishment of sin is converted into beneficent
uses?

CHAPTER 7. - WHAT IS THE MEANING OF "IN WHOM ALL HAVE SINNED"?

1 But these speak thus who wish to wrest men from the apostle's words into their own
thought. For where the apostle says, "By one man sin entered into the world, and death by
sin, and so passed upon all men," they will have it there understood not that "sin" passed
over, but "death. What, then, is the meaning of what follows, "Whereto all have sinned"?
For either the apostle says that in that "one man" all have sinned of whom he had said,
"By one man sin entered into the world," or else in that "sin," or certainly in "death.
For it need not disturb us that he said not "in which" [using the feminine form of the
pronoun],but "in whom" [using the masculine] all have sinned; since "death" in the Greek
language is of the masculine gender. Let them, then, choose which they will,-for either in
that "man" all have sinned, and it is so said because when he sinned all were in him; or
in that "sin" all have sinned, because that was the doing of all in general which all
those who were born would have to derive; or it remains for them to say that in that
"death" all sinned. But in what way this can be understood, I do not clearly see. For all
die in the sin; they do not sin in the death; for when sin precedes, death follows -not
when death precedes, sin follows.

2 Because sin is the sting of death-that is, the sting by whose stroke death occurs, not
the sting with which death strikes. Just as poison, if it is drunk, is called the cup of
death, because by that cup death is caused, not because the cup is caused by the death, or
is given by death. But if "sin" cannot be understood by those words of the apostle as
being that "wherein all have sinned," because in Greek, from which the Epistle is
translated, "sin" is expressed in the feminine gender, it remains that all men are
understood to have sinned in that first "man," because all men were in him when he sinned;
and from him sin is derived by birth, and is not remitted save by being born again. For
thus also the sainted Hilary understood what is written, "wherein all have sinned; for he
says, "wherein," that is, in Adam, "all have sinned. Then he adds, "It is manifest that
all have sinned in Adam, as it were in the mass; for he himself was corrupted by sin, and
all whom he begot were born under sin. When he wrote this, Hilary, without any ambiguity,
indicated how we should understand the words, "wherein all have sinned."

CHAPTER 8. -DEATH PASSED UPON ALL BY SIN.

1 But on account of what does the same apostle say, that we are reconciled to God by
Christ, except on account of what we had become enemies? And what is this but sin? Whence
also the prophet says, "Your sins separate between you and God. On account of this
separation, therefore, tile Mediator was sent, that He might take away tile sin of the
world, by which we were separated as enemies, and that we, being reconciled, might be made
from energies children. About this, certainly, tile apostle was speaking; hence it
happened that he interposed what he says, "That sin entered by one man. For these are his
former words. He says, "But God commendeth His love towards us in that, while we were yet
sinners, Christ died for us. Much more, then, being now justified in His blood, we shall
be saved from wrath through Him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God
by tile death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved in His life. And
not only so, but glorying also in God through Jesus Christ our Lord, by whom also we have
now received reconciliation. Then he subjoins, "Therefore, as by one man sin entered into
this world, and death by sin, and so passed upon all men, for in him all have sinned. Why
do the Pelagians evade this matter?

2 If reconciliation through Christ is necessary to all men, on all men has passed sin by
which we have become enemies, in order that we should have need of reconciliation. This
reconciliation is in the laver of regeneration and in the flesh and blood of Christ,
without which not even infants can have life in themselves. For as there was one man for
death on account of sin, so there is one man for life on account of righteousness; because
"as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive; and "as by the sin of one
upon all men to condemnation, so also by the righteousness of one upon all men unto
justification of life. Who is there that has turned a deaf ear to these apostolical words
with such hardiness of wicked impiety, as, having heard them, to contend that death passed
upon us through Adam without sin, unless, indeed, they are opposers of the grace of God
and enemies of the cross of Christ?-whose end is destruction if they continue in this
obstinacy. But let it suffice to have said thus much for the sake of that serpentine
subtlety of theirs, by which they wish to corrupt simple minds, and to turn them away from
the simplicity of the faith, as if by the praise of the creature.

CHAPTER 9 [V.] - OF THE PRAISE OF MARRIAGE.

But further, concerning the praise of marriage, what advantage is it to them that, in
opposition to the Manicheans, who assign marriage not to the true and good God, but to the
prince of darkness, these men resist the words of true piety, and say, "That the Lord
speaks in the gospel, saying, Who from the beginning made them male and female, and said,
Increase anti multiply and replenish the earth. What therefore God hath joined together,
let not man put asunder"? What does this profit them, by means of the truth to seduce to a
falsehood? For they say this in order that infants may be thought to be born free from all
fault, and thus that there is no need of their being reconciled to God through Christ,
since they have no original sin, on account of which reconciliation is necessary to all by
means of one who came into the world without sin, just as tile enmities of all were caused
by means of one through whom sin entered into the world. And this is believed by catholics
for the sake of the salvation of tile nature of men, without detracting from the praise of
marriage; because the praise of marriage is a righteous intercourse of the sexes, not a
wicked defence of vices. And thus, when, by their praise of marriage, these persons wish
to draw over men from the Manicheans to themselves, they desire merely to change their
disease, not to heal it.

CHAPTER 10.-OF THE PRAISE OF THE LAW.

1 Once more, in the praise of the law, what advantage is it to them that, in opposition to
the Manicheans, they say the truth when they wish to bring men from that view to this
which they hold falsely against the catholics? For they say, "We confess that even the old
law, according to the apostle, is holy and just and good, and that this could confer
eternal life on those that kept its commandments, and lived righteously by faith, like the
prophets and patriarchs, and all the saints. By which words, very craftily expressed, they
praise the law in opposition to grace; for certainly that law, although just and holy and
good, could not confer eternal life on all those men of God, but the faith which is in
Christ. For this faith worketh by love, not according to the letter which killeth, but
according to the Spirit which maketh alive, to which grace of God the law, as it were a
schoolmaster, leads by deterring from transgression, that so that might be conferred upon
man which it could not itself confer. For to those words of theirs in which they say "that
the law was able to confer eternal life on the prophets and patriarchs, and all saints who
kept its commandments," the apostle replies, "If righteousness be by the law, then has
Christ died in vain. "If the inheritance be by the law, then is it no more of promise.

2 "If they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise is made of
none effect. "But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, is evident:
for, The just by faith liveth. "But the law is not of faith: but The man that doeth them
shall live in them. Which testimony, quoted by the apostle from the law, is understood in
respect of temporal life, in respect of the fear of losing which, men were in the habit of
doing the works of the law, not of faith; because the transgressors of the law were
commanded by the same law to be put to death by the people. Or, if it must be understood
more highly, that "He who doeth these things shall live in them" was written in reference
to eternal life; the power of the law is so expressed that the weakness of man in himself,
itself failing to do what the law commands, might seek help from the grace of God rather
of faith, seeing that by His mercy even faith itself is bestowed. Because faith is thus
possessed, according as God has given to every one the measure of faith.

3 For if men have it not of themselves, but men receive the Spirit of power and of love
and of continence, whence that very same teacher of the Gentiles says, "For we have not
received the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of continence," -assuredly
also the Spirit of faith is received, of which he says, "Having also the same Spirit of
faith. Truly, then, says the law, "He who doeth these things shall live in them. But in
order to do these things, and live in them, there is necessary not law which ordains this,
but faith which obtains this. Which faith, however, that it may deserve to receive these
things, is itself given freely.

CHAPTER 11. - THE PELAGIANS UNDERSTAND THAT THE LAW ITSELF IS GOD'S GRACE.

1 But those enemies of grace never endeavour to lay more secret snares for more vehement
opposition to that same grace than when they praise the law, which, without doubt, is
worthy to be praised. Because, by their different modes of speaking, and by variety of
words in all their arguments, they wish the law to be understood as "grace"-that, to wit,
we may have from the Lord God the help of knowledge, whereby we may know those things
which have to be done,-not the inspiration of love, that, when known, we may do them with
a holy love, which is properly grace. For the knowledge of the law without love puffeth
up, does not edify, according to the same apostle, who most openly says, "Knowledge
puffeth up, but love edifieth. Which saying is like to that in which it is said, "The
letter killeth, the spirit maketh alive. For "Knowledge puffeth up," corresponds to "The
letter kiIleth: and, "Love edifieth," to "The spirit maketh alive; because "the love of
God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given unto us. Therefore the
knowledge of the law makes a proud transgressor; but, by the gift of charity, he delights
to be a doer of the law. We do not then make void the law through faith, but we establish
the law, which by terrifying leads to faith.

2 Thus certainly the law worketh wrath, that the mercy of God may bestow grace on
thesinner, frightened and turned to the fulfilment of the righteousness of the law through
Jesus Christ our Lord, who is that wisdom of God of which it is written, "She carries law
and mercy on her tongue," -law whereby she frightens, mercy by which she may help, -law by
His servant, mercy by Himself,-the law, as it were, in the staff which Elisha sent to
raise up the son of the widow, and it failed to raise him up, "For if a law had been given
which could have given life, righteousness would altogether have been by the law," but
mercy, as it were, in Elisha himself, who, wearing the figure of Christ, by giving life to
the dead was joined in the signification of the great sacrament, as it were, of the New
Testament.

CHAPTER 12 [VI.] - OF THE PRAISE OF FREE WILL.

Moreover, that, in opposition to the Manicheans, they praise free will, making use of the
prophetic testimony, "If ye shall be willing and will hear me, ye shall eat what is good
in the land; but if ye shall be unwilling and will not hear me, the sword shall consume
you:" what advantage is this to them, when, indeed, it is not so much against the
Manicheans that they are maintaining, as against the catholics that they are extolling,
free will? For they wish what is said, "If ye be willing and will hear me," to be so
understood, as if in the preceding will itself were the merit of the grace that follows;
and thus grace were no more grace, seeing that it is not free when it is rendered as a
debt. But if they should so understand what is written, "If ye be willing," as to confess
that He prepares even that good will itself of whom it is written, "The will is prepared
by the Lord," they would use this testimony as catholics, and not only would overcome the
ancient heresy of the Manicheans, but would not found the new one of the Pelagians.

CHAPTER 13. - GOD'S PURPOSES ARE EFFECTS OF GRACE.

What does it profit them, that in the praise of that same free will "they say that grace
assists the good purpose of every one"? This would be received without scruple as being
said in a catholic spirit, if they did not attribute merit to the good purpose, to which
merit now a wage is paid of debt, not according to grace, but would understand and confess
that even that very good purpose, which the grace which follows assists could not have
been in the man if grace had not preceded it. For how is there a good purpose in a man
without the mercy of God first, since it is that very good will which is prepared by the
Lord? But when they had said this, "that grace also assists every one's good purpose," and
presently added, "yet does not infuse the love of virtue into a resisting heart," it might
be fitly understood, if it were not said by those whose meaning is known. For, for the
resisting heart a hearing for the divine call is first procured by the grace of God
itself, and then in that heart, now no more resisting, the desire of virtue is kindled.
Nevertheless, in all things which any one does according to God, His mercy precedes him.
And this they will not have, because they choose to be not catholics, but Pelagians. For
it much delights a proud impiety, that even that which a man is forced to confess to be
given by the Lord should seem to be not bestowed on himself, but repaid; so that, to wit,
the children of perdition, not of the promise, may be thought themselves to have made
themselves good, and God to have repaid to those who are now good, having been made so by
themselves, the reward due for that their work.

CHAPTER 14. - THE TESTIMONIES OF SCRIPTURE IN FAVOUR OF GRACE.

1 For that very pride has so stopped the ears of their heart that they do not hear, "For
what hast thou that thou hast not received? They do not hear, "Without me ye can do
nothing; they do not hear, "Love is of God; they do not hear, "God hath dealt the measure
of faith; they do not hear, "The Spirit breatheth where it will," and, "They who are led
by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God; they do not hear, "No one can come unto
me, unless it were given him of my Father; they do not hear what Esdras writes, "Blessed
is the Lord of our fathers, who hath put into the heart of the king to glorify His house
which is in Jerusalem; they do not hear what the Lord says by Jeremiah, "And I will put my
fear into their heart, that they depart not from me; and I will visit them to make them
good; and specially that word by Ezekiel the prophet, where God fully shows that He is
induced by no good deservings of men to make them good, that is, obedient to His commands,
but rather that He repays to them good for evil, by doing this for His own sake, and not
for theirs. For He says, "These things saith the Lord God: I do not this for your sakes, O
house of Israel, but for mine own holy name's sake, which has been profaned among the
nations, whither ye have gone in there;

2 and I will sanctify my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which
ye have profaned in the midst of them; and the nations shall know that I am the Lord,
saith Adonai the Lord, when I shall be sanctified among you before their eyes. And I will
take you from among the nations, and gather you together out of all lands, and will bring
you into your own land. And I will sprinkle upon you clean water, and ye shall be cleansed
from all your filthiness, and I will cleanse you. And I will give unto you a new heart,
and a new spirit will I put within you: and the stony heart shall be taken away out of
your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and
will cause you to walk in my righteousness, and to observe my judgments, and do them. And
after a few words, by the same prophet He says, "Not for your sakes do I do this, saith
the Lord God; it shall be known unto you: be ye confounded and blush for your ways, O
house of Israel. These things saith the Lord God: In the day in which I shall cleanse you
from all your iniquities, and shall ordain cities, and the wilderness shall be built, and
the desolated land shall be tilled, whereas it was desolated before the eyes of every
passer by.

3 And they shall say, This land that was desolated has become as a garden of pleasure; and
the wasted and desolated and ruined cities have settled down fortified. And whatever
nations have been left round about you shall know that I the Lord have built the ruined
places, I have planted the desolated places: I the Lord have spoken, and have done it.
Thus saith the Lord: I will yet for this inquire of the house of Israel, that I may do it
for them; I will multiply them men like sheep, as holy sheep, as the sheep of Jerusalem in
the days of her feast; so shall be those desolated cities full of men as sheep: and they
shall know that I am the Lord."

CHAPTER 15.-FROM SUCH SCRIPTURES GRACE IS PROVED TO BE GRATUITOUS AND EFFECTUAL

1 What remained to the carrion skin whence it might be puffed up, and could disdain when
it glories to glory in the Lord? What remained to it, when whatsoever it shall have said
that it has done in such a way that after that preceding merit of man had originated from
man, God should subsequently do that of which the man is deserving,-it shall be answered,
it shall be exclaimed against, it shall be contradicted, "I do it; but for my own holy
name's sake; not for your sakes, do I do it, saith the Lord God"? Nothing so overturns the
Pelagians when they say that the grace of God is given in respect of our merits. Which,
indeed, Pelagius himself condemned, and if not by correcting it, yet by being afraid of
the Eastern judges. Nothing so overturns tile presumption of men who say, "We do it, that
we may deserve those things with which God may do it. It is not Pelagius that answers you,
but the Lord Himself, "I do it and not for your sakes, but for my own holy name's sake.
For what good can ye do out of a heart which is not good? But that you may have a good
heart, He says, "I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new Spirit within you. Can
you say, We will first walk in His righteousness, and will observe His judgment, and will
do so that we may be worthy, such as He should give His grace to?

2 But what good would ye evil men do, and how should you do those good things, unless you
were yourselves good? But who causes that men should be good save Him who said, "And I
will visit them to make them good"? and who said "I will put my Spirit within you, and
will cause you to walk in my righteousness, and to observe my judgments, and do them"? Are
ye thus not yet, awake? Do ye not yet hear, "I will cause you to walk, I will make you to
observe," lastly, "I, win make you to do"? What l are you still l puffing yourselves up?
We indeed walk, it is true; we observe; we do; but He makes us to walk, to observe, to do.
This is the grace of God making us good; this is His mercy preventing us. What do waste
and desolated and dug-up places deserve, which yet shall be built and tilled and
fortified? Are these things for the merits of their wasteness, their desolation, their
uprooting? Far from it. For such things as these are evil deservings, while those gifts
are good. Therefore good things are given for evil ones-gratuitous, therefore; not of
debt, and therefore grace. "I," saith the Lord: "I, the Lord. Does not such a word as that
restrain you, O human pride, when you say, I do such things as to deserve from the Lord to
be built and planted? Do you not hear, "I do it not on your account;

3 I the Lord have built up the destroyed cities, and I have planted the desolated lands; I
the Lord have spoken, and I have done it, yet not for your sakes, but for my own holy
name's sake"? Who multiplies men sheep, as holy sheep, as the sheep of Jerusalem? Who
causes those desolated cities to be full of men as sheep, save He who goes on, and says,
"And they shall know that I am the Lord"? But with what men as sheep does He fill the
cities as He promised? those which He finds, or those which He makes? Let us interrogate
the Psalm; lo, it answers; let us hear: "O come, let us worship and fall down before Him:
and let us weep before the Lord who made us; because He is our God, and we are the people
of His pasture, and the sheep of His hand. He therefore makes the sheep, with which He may
fill the desolated cities. What wonder, when, indeed, to that single sheep, that is, the
Church whose members are all the human sheep, it is said, "Because I am the Lord who make
thee"? What do you pretend to me of free will, which will not be free to do righteousness,
unless you should be a sheep? He then who makes men His sheep, He frees the wills of men
for the obedience of piety.

CHAPTER 16.-WHY GOD MAKES OF SOME SHEEP, OTHERS NOT.

1 But wherefore does God make these men sheep, and those not, since with Him there is no
acceptance of persons? This is the very question which the blessed apostle thus answers to
those who propose it with more curiosity than propriety, "O man, who art thou that
repliest against God? Does the thing formed say to him that formed it, Wherefore hast thou
made me thus? This is the very question which belongs to that depth desiring to look into
which the same apostle was in a certain measure terrified, and exclaimed, "Oh the depth of
the riches of the wisdom and the knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His judgments, and
His ways past finding out! For who has known the mind of the Lord? or who has been His
counsellor? Or who has first given to Him, that it should be recompensed to Him again?
Because of Him, and through Him, and in Him, are all things: to Him be glory for ages of
ages. Let them not, then, dare to pry into that unsearchable question who defend merit
before grace, and therefore even against grace, and wish first to give unto God, that it
may be given to them again,-first, of course, to give something of free will, that grace
may be given them again as a reward; and let them wisely understand or faithfully believe
that even what they think that they have first given, they have received from Him, from
whom are all things, by whom are all things, in whom are all things.

2 But why this man should receive, and that should not receive, when neither of them
deserves to receive, and whichever of them receives, receives undeserv-ingly,-let them
measure their own strength, and not search into things too strong for them. Let it suffice
them to know that there is no un-righteousness with God. For when the apostle could find
no merits for which Jacob should take precedence of his twin-brother with God, he said,
"What, then, shall we say? Is there unrighteousness with God? Away with the thought! For
He says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will show compassion
on whom I will show compassion. Therefore it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that
runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. Let, therefore, His free compassion be grateful to
us, even although this profound question be still unsolved; which, nevertheless, is so far
solved as the same apostle solves it, saying, "But if God, willing to show His wrath, and
to demonstrate His power, endured in much patience the vessels of wrath which are fitted
to destruction; and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of
mercy, which He has prepared for glory. Certainly wrath is not repaid unless it is due,
lest there be unrighteousness with God; but mercy, even when it is bestowed, and not due,
is not unrighteousness with God.

3 And hence, let the vessels of mercy understand how freely mercy is afforded to them,
because to the vessels of wrath with whom they have common cause and measure of perdition,
is repaid wrath, righteous and due. This is now enough in opposition to those who, by
freedom of will, desire to destroy the liberality of grace.

CHAPTER 17 [VII.]-OF THE PRAISE OF THE SAINTS.

In that, indeed, in the praise of the saints, they will not drive us with the zeal of that
publican to hunger and thirst after righteousness, but with the vanity of the Pharisees,
as it were, to overflow with sufficiency and fulness; what does it profit them that-in
opposition to the Manicheans, who do away with baptism-they say "that men are perfectly
renewed by baptism," and apply the apostle's testimony for this,-"who testifies that, by
the washing of water, the Church is made holy and spotless from the Gentiles," -when, with
a proud and perverse meaning, they put forth their arguments in opposition to the prayers
of the Church itself. For they say this in order that the Church may be believed after
holy baptism-in which is accomplished the forgiveness of all sins-to have no further sin;
when, in opposition to them, from the rising of the sun even to its setting, in all its
members it cries to God, "Forgive us our debts." But if they are interrogated regarding
themselves in this matter, they find not what to answer. For if they should say that they
have no sin, John answers them, that they deceive themselves, and the truth is not in
them. But if they confess their sins, since they wish themselves to be members of Christ's
body, how will that body, that is, the Church, be even in this time perfectly, as they
think, without spot or wrinkle, if its members without falsehood confess themselves to
have sins? Wherefore in baptism all sins are forgiven, and, by that very washing of water
in the word, the Church is set forth in Christ without spot or wrinkle; and unless it were
baptized, it would fruitlessly say, "Forgive us our debts," until it be brought to glory,
when there is in it absolutely no spot or wrinkle.

CHAPTER 18.-THE OPINION OF THE SAINTS THEMSELVES ABOUT THEMSELVES.

It is to be confessed that "the Holy Spirit, even in the old times," not only "aided good
dispositions," which even they allow, but that it even made them good, which they will not
have. "That all, also, of the prophets and apostles or saints, both evangelical and
ancient, to whom God gives His witness, were righteous, not in comparison with the wicked,
but by the rule of virtue," is not doubtful. And this is opposed to the Manicheans, who
blaspheme the patriarchs and prophets; but what is opposed to the Pelagians is, that all
of these, when interrogated concerning themselves while they lived in the body, with one
most accordant voice would answer, "If we should say that we have no sin, we deceive
ourselves, and the truth is not in us." "But in the future time," it is not to be denied
"that there will be a reward as well of good works as of evil, and that no one will be
commanded to do the commandments there which here he has contemned," but that a
sufficiency of perfect righteousness where sin cannot be, a righteousness which is here
hungered and thirsted after by the saints, is here hoped for in precept, is there received
as a reward, on the entreaty of alms and prayers; so that what here may have been wanting
in fulfilment of the commandments may become unpunished for the forgiveness of sin.

CHAPTER 19.-THE CRAFTOF THE PELAGIANS.

And if these things be so, let the Pelagians cease by their most insidious praises of
these five things-that is, the praise of the creature, the praise of marriage, the praise
of the law, the praise of free will, the praise of the saints-from feigning that they
desire to pluck men, as it were, from the little snares of the Manicheans, in order that
they may entangle them in their own nets-that is, that they may deny original sin; may
begrudge to infants the aid of Christ the physician; may say that the grace of God is
given according to our merits, and thus that grace is no more grace; and may say that the
saints in this life had not sin, and thus make the prayer of none effect which He gave to
the saints who had no sin, and by which all sin is pardoned to the saints that pray unto
Him. To these three evil doctrines, they by their deceitful praise of these five good
things seduce careless and unlearned men. Concerning all which things, I think I have
sufficiently censured their most cruel and wicked and proud vanity.

CHAPTER 20 [VIII.]-THE TESTIMONIES OF THE ANCIENTS AGAINST THE PELAGIANS.

But since they say "that their enemies have taken up our words for hatred of the truth,"
and complained that "throughout nearly the whole of the West a dogma not less foolish than
impious is taken up, and from simple bishops sitting in their places without a Synodal
congregation a subscription is extorted to confirm this dogma,"-although the Church of
Christ, both Western and Eastern shuddered at the profane novelties of their words-I think
it belongs to my care not only to avail myself of the sacred canonical Scriptures as
witnesses against them, which I have already sufficiently done, but, moreover, to bring
forward some proofs from the writings of the holy men who before us have treated upon
those Scriptures with the most widespread reputation and great glory. Not that I would put
the authority of any controversialist on a level with the canonical books, as if there
were nothing which is better or more truly thought by one catholic than by another who
likewise is a catholic; but that those may be admonished who think that these men say
anything as it used to be said,before their empty talk on these subjects, by catholic
teachers following the divine oracles, and may know that the true and anciently
established catholic faith is by us defended against the receding presumption and mischief
of the Pelagian heretics.

CHAPTER 21.-PELAGIUS, IN IMITATION OF CYPRIAN, WROTE A BOOK OF TESTIMONIES.

1 Even that heresiarch of these men, Pelagius himself, mentions with the honour that is
certainly due to him, the most blessed Cyprian, most glorious with even the crown of
martyrdom, not only in the African and the Western, but also in the Eastern Churches, well
known by the report of fame, and by the diffusion far and wide of his writings,-when,
writing a book of testimonies, he asserts that he is imitating him, saying that "he was
doing to Romanus what Cypria had done to Quirinus. Let us, then, see what Cyprian thought
concerning original sin, which entered by one man into the world. In the epistle on "Works
and Alms" he thus speaks "When the Lord at His advent had cured these wounds which Adam
had introduced, and had healed the old poisons of the serpent, He gave a law to the sound
man, and bade him sin no more, lest a worse thing should happen to him if he sinned. We
had been limited and shut up into a narrow space by the commandment of innocence; nor
would the infirmity and weakness of human frailty have any resource unless the divine
mercy coming once more in aid should open some way of securing salvation by pointing out
works of justice and mercy, so that by alms-giving we may wash away whatever foulness we
subsequently contract. By this testimony this witness refutes two falsehoods of
theirs,-the one, wherein they say that the human race draws no sin from Adam which needs
cure and healing through Christ;

2 the other, in which they say that the saints have no sin after baptism. Again, in the
same epistle he says, "Let each one place before his eyes the devil with his
servants,-that is, with the people of perdition and death,-as springing forth into the
midst and provoking the people of Christ,-Himself being present and judging,-with the
trial of comparison in these words: `I, on behalf of those whom thou seest with me,
neither received buffets, nor bore scourgings, nor endured the cross, nor shed my blood,
nor redeemed my family at the price of my suffering and blood; but neither do I promise
them a celestial kingdom, nor do I recall them to Paradise, having again restored to them
immortality.'" Let the Pelagians answer and say when we could have been in the immortality
of Paradise, and how we could have been expelled thence so as to be recalled thither by
the grace of Christ. And, although they may be unable to find what they can answer in this
case on behalf of their own perversity, let them observe in what manner Cyprian understood
what the apostle says, "In whom all have sinned. And let not the Pelagian heretics, freed
from theold Manichean heretics, dare to suggest any calumny against a catholic, lest they
should be convicted of doing so wicked a wrong even to the ancient martyr Cyprian.

CHAPTER 22.-FURTHER REFERENCES TO CYPRIAN.

1 For he says also this in the epistle whose title is inscribed, "On the Mortality: "The
kingdom of God, beloved brethren, is beginning to be at hand; the reward of life, and the
rejoicing of eternal salvation and perpetual gladness, and the possession formerly lost of
Paradise, are now coming with the passing away of the world. This again, in the same
epistle, he says: "Let us greet the day which assigns each of us to his own home, which
snatches us hence and sets us free from the snares of the world, and restores us to
Paradise and the kingdom. Moreover, he says in the epistle concerning Patience: "Let the
judgment of God be pondered, which, even in the beginning of the world and of the human
race, Adam, forgetful of the commandment and a transgressor of the law that had been
given, received. Then we shall know how patient in this life we ought to be, who are born
in such a state that we labour here with afflictions and contests. Because, says He, `thou
hast hearkened to the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree of which alone I had
charged thee that thou shouldest not eat, cursed shall be the ground in all thy works: in
sorrow and in groaning shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Thorns and thistles
shall it give forth to thee, and thou shall eat the food of the field.

2 In the sweat of thy face thou shalt eat thy bread, till thou return unto the ground from
which thou wast taken: for earth thou art, and unto earth shalt thou go.' We are all tied
and bound with the chain of this sentence until, death being destroyed, we depart from
this world. And, moreover, in the same epistle he says: "For, since in that first
transgression of the commandment strength of body departed with immortality, and weakness
came on with death, and strength cannot be received unless when immortality also has been
received, it behoves us in this bodily frailty and weakness always to struggle and fight;
and this struggle and encounter cannot be sustained but by the strength of patience."

CHAPTER 23.-FURTHER REFERENCES TO CYPRIAN.

1 And in the epistle which he wrote with sixty-six of his joint-bishops to Bishop Fidus,
when he was consulted by him in respect of the law of circumcision, whether an infant
might be baptized before the eighth day, this matter is treated in such a way as if by a
divine forethought the catholic Church would already confute the Pelagian heretics who
would appear so long afterwards. For he who had consulted had no doubt on the subject
whether children on birth inherited original sin, which they might wash away by being born
again. For be it far from the Christian faith to have at any time doubted on this matter.
But he was in doubt whether the washing of regeneration, by which he made no question but
that original sin was put away, ought to be given before the eighth day. To which
consultation the most blessed Cyprian in reply said: "But as regards the case of infants,
which you say ought not to be baptized within the second or third day after their birth,
and that the law of the ancient circumcision should be regarded, so that you think that
one who is born should not be baptized and sanctified within the eighth day, we all
thought very differently in our council. For to the course which you thought was to be
taken no one agreed, but we all rather judged that the grace of a merciful God was not to
be denied to any one born of men;

2 for, as the Lord says in His gospel, `the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives,
but to save them.' As far as we can, we must strive that, if possible, no soul be lost.
And a little afterwards he says: "Nor ought any of us to shudder at what God hath
condescended to make. For although the infant is still fresh from its birth, yet it is not
such that any one should shudder at kissing it in giving grace and in making peace, since
in the kiss of an infant every one of us ought for his very religion's sake to consider
the still recent hands of God themselves, which in some sort we are kissing in the man
just formed and newly born, when we are embracing that which God has made. A little after,
also, he says: "But if anything could hinder men from obtaining grace, their more heinous
sins might rather hinder those who are mature and grown up and older. But again, if even
to the greatest sinners, and to those who have before sinned much against God, when they
have subsequently believed, remission of sins is granted, and nobody is hindered from
baptism and from grace; how much rather ought we to shrink from hindering an infant, who,
being lately born, has not sinned, except that, being born after the flesh according to
Adam, he has contracted the contagion of the ancient death at his earliest birth;

3 who approaches more easily on this very account to the reception of the forgiveness of
sins, in that to him are remitted not his own sins, but the sins of another!"

CHAPTER 24.-THE DILEMMA PROPOSED TO THE PELAGIANS.

1 What will be said to such things as these, by those who are not only the forsakers, but
also the persecutors of God's grace? What will they say to such things as these? On what
ground is the "possession of Paradise" restored to us? How are we restored to Paradise if
we have never been there? Or how have we been there, except because we were there in Adam?
And how do we belong to that "judgment" which was spoken against the transgressor, if we
do not inherit injury from the transgressor? Finally, he thinks that infants are to be
baptized, even before the eighth day; lest "by the contagion of the ancient death,
contracted in the first birth," the souls of the infants should perish. How do they perish
if they who are born even of believing men are not held by the devil until they are born
again in Christ, and plucked out from the power of darkness, and transferred into His
kingdom? And who says that the souls of those who are born will perish unless they are
born again? No other than he who so praises the Creator and the creature, the workman and
the work, as to restrain and correct the horror of human feeling with which men refuse to
kiss infants fresh from the womb, by interposing the veneration of the Creator Himself,
saying that in the kiss of infants of that age the recent hands of God were to be
considered! Did he, then, in confessing original sin, condemn either nature or marriage?

2 Did he, because he applied to the infant born guilty from Adam, the cleansing of
regeneration, therefore deny God as the Creator of those that were born? Because, in his
dread that souls of any age whatever should perish, he, with his council of colleagues,
decided that even before the eighth clay they were to be delivered by the sacrament of
baptism, did he therefore accuse marriage, when, indeed, in the case of an infant,-whether
born of marriage or of adultery, yet because it was born a man,-he declared that the
recent hands of God were worthy even of the kiss of peace? If, then, the holy bishop and
most glorious martyr Cyprian could think that original sin in infants must be healed by
the medicine of Christ, without denying the praise of the creature, without denying the
praise of marriage, why does a novel pestilence, although it does not dare to call such an
one as him a Manichean, think that another person's fault is to be objected against
catholics who maintain these things, in order to conceal its own? So the most lauded
commentator on the divine declarations, before even the slightest taint of the Manichean
plague had touched our lands, without any reproach of the divine work and of marriage,
confesses original sin,-not saying that Christ was stained with any spot of sin, nor yet
comparing with Him the flesh of sin in others that were born, to whom by means of the
likeness of sinful flesh He might afford the aid of cleansing;

3 neither is he deterred by the obscure question of the origin of souls, from confessing
that those who are made free by the grace of Christ return into Paradise, Does he say that
the condition of death passed upon men from Adam without the contagion of sin? For it is
not on account of avoiding the death of the body, but on account of the sin which entered
by one man into the world, that he says that help is to be afforded by baptism to infants,
however fresh they may be from the womb.

CHAPTER 25 [IX.]-CYPRIAN'S TESTIMONIES CONCERNING GOD'S GRACE.

1 But now it plainly appears in what way Cyprian proclaims the grace of God against such
as these, when he is arguing about the Lord's Prayer. For he says: "We say, `May Thy name
be made holy,' not that we wish for Godthat He may be made holy by our prayers, but that
we beseech of Him that His name may be made holy in us. But by whom is God made holy,
since He Himself makes holy? But, because He says, 'Be ye holy, because I also am holy,'
we ask and entreat this, that we who were made holy in baptism may continue in that which
we have begun to be. And in another place in the same epistle he says: "We add also, and
say, `Thy will be done in heaven, and in earth,' not in order that God may do what He
wills, but that we may be able to do what God wills. For who resists God that He may not
dowhat He wills? But, since we are hindered by the devil from obeying God with our thought
and deed in all things, we pray and ask that God's will may be done in us. And that it may
be done in us, we have need of God's will, that is, of His help and protection; since no
one is strong in his own strength, but he is safe by the indulgence and mercy of God. In
another place also:

2 "Moreover, we ask that the will of God may be done both in heaven and in earth, each of
which things pertains to the fulfilment of our safety and salvation. For since we possess
the body from the earth, and the spirit from heaven, we are ourselves earth and heaven;
and in both, that is, both in body and in spirit, we pray that God's will be done. For
between the flesh and the spirit there is a struggle, and there is a daily strife as they
disagree one with the other; so that we cannot do the very things that we would, in that
the spirit seeks heavenly and divine things, while the flesh lusts after earthly and
temporal things. And, therefore, we ask that, by the help and assistance of God, agreement
may be made between these two natures; so that while the will of God is done both in the
spirit and in the flesh, the soul which is newborn by Him may be preserved. And this the
Apostle Paul openly and manifestly declares by his words. `The flesh,' says he, `lusteth
against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh; for these are contrary the one to
the other, so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.'" And a little after he says:

3 "And it may be thus understood, most beloved brethren, that since the Lord commands and
teaches us even to love our enemies, and to pray even for those who persecute us, we
should ask even for those who are still earth, and have not yet begun to be heavenly, that
even in respect of these God's will may be done, which Christ accomplished in preserving
and renewing humanity. And again, in another place he says: "But we ask that this bread
should be given to us daily, that we who are in Christ, and daily receive the Eucharist
for the food of salvation, may not, by the interposition of some more heinous sin,-by
being prevented, as those abstaining and not communicating, from partaking of the heavenly
bread,-be separated from Christ's body. And a little afterwards, in the same treatise he
says: "But when we ask that we may not come into temptation, we are reminded of our
infirmity and weakness, while we so ask as that no one should insolently vaunt himself;
that none should proudly and arrogantly assume anything to himself; that none should take
to himself the glory either of confession or of suffering as his own, when the Lord
Himself teaching humility said, `Watch and pray, that ye come not into temptation: the
spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak;' so that while a humble and submissive
confession comes first, and all is attributed to God, whatever is sought for suppliantly,
with fear and honour of God, may be granted by His own loving-kindness.

4 Moreover, in his treatise addressed to Quirinus, in respect to which work Pelagius
wishes himself to appear as his imitator, he says in the Third Book "that we must boast in
nothing, since nothing is our own. And subjoining the divine testimonies to this
proposition, he added among others that apostolic word with which especially the mouths of
such as these must be closed: "For what hast thou, which thou hast not received? But if
thou hast received it, why boastest thou as if thou hadst not received it? Also in the
epistle concerning Patience he says: "For we have this virtue in common with God. From Him
patience begins; from Him its glory and its dignity take their rise. The origin and
greatness of patience proceed from God as its Author."

CHAPTER 26.-FURTHER APPEALS TO CYPRIAN'S TEACHING.

1 Does that holy and so memorable instructor of the Churches in the word of truth, deny
that there is free will in men, because he attributes to God the whole of your righteous
living? Does he reproach God's law, because he intimates that man is not justified by it,
seeing that he declares that what that law commands must be obtained from the Lord God by
prayers? Does he assert fate under the name of grace, by saying that we must boast in
nothing, since nothing is our own? Does he, like these, believe that the Holy Spirit is in
such wise the aider of virtue, as if that very virtue which it assists springs from
ourselves, when, asserting that nothing is our own, he mentions in this respect that the
apostle said, "For what hast thou that thou hast not received? and says that the most
excellent virtue, that is, patience, does not begin from us, and afterwards receive aid by
the Spirit of God, but from Him Himself takes its source, from Him takes its origin?
Finally, he confesses that neither good purpose, nor desire of virtue, nor good
dispositions, begin to be in men without God's grace, when he says that "we must boast in
nothing, since nothing is our own. What is so established in free will as what the law
says, that we must not worship an idol, must not commit adultery, must do no murder?

2 Nay, these crimes, and such like, are of such a kind that, if any one should commit
them, he is removed from the communion of the body of Christ. And yet, if the blessed
Cyprian thought that our own will was sufficient for not committing these crimes, he would
not in such wise understand what we say in the Lord's Prayer, "Give us this day our daily
bread," as that he should assert that we ask "that we may not by the interposition of some
heinous sin-by being prevented as abstaining, and not communicating, from partaking of the
heavenly bread-be separated from Christ's body. Let these new heretics answer of a surety
what good merit precedes, in men who are enemies of the name of Christ? For not only have
they no good merit, but they have, moreover, the very worst merit. And yet, Cyprian even
thus understands what we say in the prayer, "Thy will be done in heaven, and in earth:
that we pray also for those very persons who in this respect are called earth. We pray,
therefore, not only for the unwilling, but also for the objecting and resisting. What,
then, do we ask, but that from unwilling they may be made willing; from objecting,
consenting; from resisting, loving? And by whom, but by Him of whom it is written, "The
will is prepared by God"?

3 Let them, then, who disdain, if they do not do any evil and if they do any good, to
glory, not in themselves, but in the Lord, learn to be catholics.

CHAPTER 27 [X.] - CYPRIAN'S TESTIMONIES CONCERNING THE IMPERFECTION OF OUR OWN RIGHTEOUSNESS.

1 Let us, then, see that third point, which in these men is not less shocking to every
member of Christ and to His whole body,-that they contend that there are in this life, or
that there have been, righteous men having absolutely no sin. In which presumption they
most manifestly contradict the Lord's Prayer, wherein, with truthful heart and with daily
words, all the members of Christ cry aloud, "Forgive us our debts. Let us see, then, what
Cyprian, most glorious in the Lord, thought of this,-what he not only said for the
instruction of the Churches, not, of course, of the Manicheans, but of the catholics, but
also committed to letters and to memory. In the epistle on "Works and Alms," he says: "Let
us then acknowledge, beloved brethren, the wholesome gift of the divine mercy, and let us
who cannot be without some wound of conscience heal our wounds by the spiritual remedies
for the cleansing and purging of our sins. Nor let any one so flatter himself with the
notion of a pure and immaculate heart, as, in dependence on his own innocence, to think
that the medicine needs not to be applied to his wounds;

2 since it is written, `Who shall boast that he hath a clean heart, or who shall boast
that he is pure from sins?' And again, in his epistle, John lays it down and says, 'If we
say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.' But if no one
can be without sin, and whoever should say that he is without fault is either proud or
foolish, how needful, how kind is the divine mercy, which, knowing that there are still
found some wounds in those that have been healed, I has given even after their healing
wholesome remedies for the curing and healing of their wounds anew! Again, in the same
treatise he says: "And since there cannot fail daily to be sins committed in the sight of
God, there failed not daily sacrifices wherewith the sins might be cleansed away. Also, in
the treatise on the Mortality, he says: "Our warfare is with avarice, with immodesty, with
anger, with ambition; our trying and toilsome wrestling with carnal vices, with the
enticements of the world. The mind of man besieged, and on every hand invested with the
onsets of the devil, scarcely meets the repeated attacks, scarcely resists them.If avarice
is prostrated, lust springs up. If lust is overcome, ambition takes its place. If ambition
is despised, anger exasperates, pride puffs up, wine-bibbing entices; envy breaks concord:
jealousy cuts friendship; you are constrained to curse, which the divine law forbids; you
are compelled to swear, which is not lawful.

3 So many persecutions the soul suffers daily, with so many risks is the heart wearied;
and yet it delights to abide here long among the devil's weapons, although it should
rather be our craving and wish to hasten to Christ by the aid of a quicker death. Again,
in the same treatise he says: "The blessed Apostle Paul in his epistle lays it down,
saying, `To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain;' counting it the greatest gain no
longer to be held by the snares of this world, no longer to be liable to the sins and
vices of the flesh. Moreover, on the Lord's Prayer, explaining what it is we ask when we
say, "Hallowed be thy name," he says, among other matters: "For we have need of daily
sanctification, that we, who daily fall away, may wash out our sins by continual
sanctification. Again, in the same treatise, when he would explain our saying, "Forgive us
our debts," he says: "And how necessarily, how providently and salutarily, are we
admonished that we are sinners, since we are compelled to entreat for our sins; and while
pardon is asked for from God, the soul recalls its own consciousness of guilt. Lest any
one should flatter himself as being innocent, and by exalting himself should more deeply
perish, he is instructed and taught that he sins daily, in that he is bidden to entreat
daily for his sins.

4 Thus, moreover, John also in his epistle warns us, and says: `If we say that we have no
sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins, He is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins.'" Rightly, also, he proposed in his letter to
Quirinus his own most absolute judgment on this subject, to which he subjoined the divine
testimonies, "That no one is without filth and without sin. There also he set down those
testimonies by which original sin is confirmed, which these men endeavour to twist into I
know not what new and evil meanings, whether what the holy Job says, "No one is pure from
filth not one even if his life be of one day upon the earth," or what is read in the
Psalm, "Behold, I was conceived in iniquity; and in sins hath my mother nourished me in
the womb. To which testimonies, on account of those also who are already holy in mature
age, since even they are not without filth and sin, he added also that word of the most
blessed John, which he often mentions in many other places besides, "If we say that we
have no sin, we deceive ourselves; and other passages of the same sentiment, which are
asserted by all catholics, by way of opposing those "who deceive themselves, and the truth
is not in them."


AGAINST TWO LETTERS OF THE PELAGIANS
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AGAINST TWO LETTERS OF THE PELAGIANS continued

CHAPTER 28.-CYPRIAN'S ORTHODOXY UNDOUBTED.

1 Let the Pelagians say, if they dare, that this man of God was perverted by the error of
the Manicheans, in so praising the saints as yet to confess that no one in this life had
attained to such a perfection of righteousness as to have no sin at all, confirming his
judgment by the clear truth and divine authority of the canonical testimonies. For does he
deny that in baptism all sins are forgiven, because he confesses that there remain frailty
and infirmity, whence he says that we sin after baptism and even to the end of this life,
having unceasing conflict with the vices of the flesh? Or did he not remember what the
apostle said about the Church without spot, that he prescribed that no one ought so to
flatter himself in respect of a pure and spotless heart as to trust in his own innocence,
and think that no medicine needed to be applied to his wounds? I think that these new
heretics may concede to this catholic man that he knew "that the Holy Spirit even in the
old times aided good dispositions; nay, even, what they themselves will not allow, that
they could not have possessed good dispositions except through the Holy Spirit. I think
that Cyprian knew that all the prophets and apostles or saints of any kind soever who
pleased the Lord at any time were righteous-"not in comparison with the wicked," as they
falsely assert that we say, "but by the rule of virtue," as they boast that they say;

2 although Cyprian says, nevertheless, no one can be without sin, and whoever should
assert that he is blameless is either proud or a fool. Nor is it with reference to
anything else that he understands the Scripture, "Who shall boast that he has a pure
heart? or who shall boast that he is pure from sins? I think that Cyprian would not have
needed to be taught by such as these, what he very well knew, "that, in the time to come,
there would be a reward of good works and a punishment of evil works, but that no one
could then perform the commands which here he might have despised; and yet he does not
understand and assert the Apostle Paul, who was assuredly not a contemner of the divine
commands, to have said, "To me to live is Christ, and to die is gain," on any other
account, except that he reckoned it the greatest gain after this life no longer to be held
in worldly entanglements, no longer to be obnoxious to the sins and vices of the flesh.
Therefore the most blessed Cyprian felt, and in the truth of the divine Scriptures saw,
that even the life of the apostles themselves, however good, holy, and righteous, suffered
some involvements of worldly entanglements, was obnoxious to some sins and vices of the
flesh;

3 and that they desired death thatthey might be free from those evils, and that they might
attain to that perfect righteousness which would not suffer such things, and which would
no more have to be achieved in the way of command merely, but to be received in the way of
reward. For not even when that shall have come for which we pray when we say, "Thy kingdom
come," will there be in that kingdom of God no righteousness; since the apostle says, "The
kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy
Ghost. Certainly these three things are commanded among other divine precepts. Here
righteousness is prescribed to us when it is said, "Do righteousness; peace is prescribed
when it is said, "Have peace among yourselves; joy is prescribed when it is said, "Rejoice
in the Lord always. Let, then, the Pelagians deny that these things shall be in the
kingdom of God, where we shall live without end; or let them be so mad, if it appears
good, as to contend that righteousness, peace, and joy, will be such there as they are
here to the righteous. But if they both shall be, and yet shall not be the same, assuredly
here, in respect of the commandment of them, the doing is to be cared for,-there the
perfection is to be hoped for in the way of reward;

4 when, not being withheld by any earthly entanglements, and being liable to no sins and
vices of the flesh (on account of which the apostle, as Cyprian received this testimony,
said that to die would be to him gain), we may perfectly love God, the contemplation of
whom will be face to face; we may also perfectly love our neighbour, since, when the
thoughts of the heart are made manifest, no suspicion of any evil can disturb any one
concerning any one.

CHAPTER 29 [XI.]-THE TESTIMONIES OF AMBROSEAGAINST THE PELAGIANS AND FIRST OF CONCERNING ORIGINAL SIN.

1 But now also to the most glorious martyr! Cyprian, let me add, for the sake of more
amply confuting these men, the most blessed Ambrose; because even Pelagius praised him so
much as to say that in his writings could be found nothing to be blamed even by his
enemies. Since, then, the Pelagians say that there is no original sin with which infants
are born, and object to the catholics the guilt of the Manichean heresy, who withstand
them on behalf of the most ancient faith of the Church, let this catholic man of God,
Ambrose, praised even by Pelagius himself in the truth of the faith, answer them
concerning this matter. When he was expounding the prophet Isaiah, he says: "Christ was,
therefore, without spot, because He was not stained even in the usual condition itself of
birth. And in another place in the same work, speaking of the Apostle Peter, he says: "He
offered himself, which he thought before to be sin, asking for himself that not only his
feet but his head also should be washed, because he had directly understood that by the
washing of the feet, for those who fell in the first man, the filth of the obnoxious
succession was abolished. Also in the same work he says: "It was preserved, therefore,
that of a man and woman, that is, by that mingling of bodies, no one could be seen to be
free from sin; but He who is free from sin is free also from this kind of conception.

2 Also writing against the Novatians he says: "All of us men are born under sin. And our
very origin is in corruption, as you have it read in the words of David, `For lo, I was
conceived in iniquities; and in sins hath my mother brought the forth.'" Also in the
apology of the prophet David, he says: "Before we are born we are spotted with contagion,
and before the use of light we receive the mischief of that origin. We are conceived in
iniquity. Also speaking of the Lord, he says: "It was certainly fitting that He who was
not to have the sin of a bodily fall, should feel no natural contagion of generation.
Rightly, therefore,David with weeping deplored in himself these defilements of nature, and
the fact that the stain had begun in man before his life. Again, in the Ark of Noah he
says: "Therefore by one Lord Jesus the coming salvation is declared to the nations; for He
only could be righteous, although every generation should go astray, nor for any other
reason than that, being born of a virgin, He was not at all bound by the ordinance of a
guilty generation. `Behold,' he says, `I was conceived in iniquities; and in sins has my
mother brought me forth;' he who was esteemed righteous beyond others so speaks. Whom,
then, should I now call righteous unless Him who is free from those chains, whom the bonds
of our common nature do not hold fast?

3 Behold, this holy man, most approved, even by the witness of Pelagius, in the catholic
faith, condemned the Pelagians who deny original sin with such evidence as this; and yet
he does not with the Manicheans deny either God to be the Creator of those who are born,
or condemn marriage, which God ordained and blessed.

CHAPTER 30.-THE TESTIMONIES OF AMBROSE CONCERNING GOD'S GRACE.

1 The Pelagians say that merit begins from man by free will, to which God repays the
subsequent aid of grace. Let the venerable Ambrose here also refute them, when he says, in
his exposition of the prophet Isaiah, "that human care without divine help is powerless
for healing, and needs a divine helper. Also, in the treatise which is inscribed, "On the
Avoidance of the World," he says: "Our discourse is frequent on the avoidance of this
world; and I wish that our disposition were as cautious and careful as our discourse is
easy. But what is worse, the enticement of earthly lusts frequently creeps in, and the
flowing forth of vanities takes hold of the mind, so that the very thing that you desire
to avoid you think upon, and turn over in your mind; and this it is difficult for a man to
beware of, but to get rid of it is impossible.

2 Finally, that that is rather a matter to be wished than to be accomplished the prophet
testifies when he says, `Incline my heart unto thy testimonies, and not to avarice.' For
our heart and our thoughts are not in our power, seeing that they are suddenly forced
forth and confuse the mind and the soul and draw them in other directions from those which
you have proposed for them;-they recall to things of time, they suggest worldly things,
they obtrude voluptuous thoughts, they inweave seducing thoughts, and, in the very season
in which we are proposing to lift up our mind, vain thoughts are intruded upon us, and we
are cast down for the most part to things of earth; and who is so happy as always to rise
upwards in his heart? And how can this be done without the divine help? Absolutely in no
manner. Finally, of old Scripture says the same thing, `Blessed is the man whose help is
of Thee, O Lord; in his heart is going up.'" What can be said more openly and more
sufficiently? But lest the Pelagians perchance should answer that, in that very point in
which divine help is asked for, man's merit precedes, saying that that very thing is
merit, that by his prayer he is desiring that divine grace should come to his assistance,
let them give heed to what the same holy man says in his exposition of Isaiah He says:
"And to pray God is a spiritual grace;

3 for no man says that Jesus is the Lord, except in the Holy Spirit. Whence also,
expounding the Gospel according to Luke, he says: "You see certainly that everywhere the
power of the Lord cooperates with human desires, so that no man can build without the
Lord, no man can undertake anything without the Lord. Because such a man as Ambrose says
this, and commends God's grace, as it is fitting for a son of promise to do, with grateful
piety, does he therefore destroy free will? Or does he mean grace to be understood as the
Pelagians in their different discourses will have to appear nothing but law-so that, for
instance, God may be believed to help us not to do what we may know, but to know what we
may do? If they think that such a man of God as this is of this mind, let them hear what
he has said about the law itself. In the book "On the Avoidance of the World," he says:
"The law could stop the mouth of all men; it could not convert their mind. In another
place also, in the same treatise, he says: "The law condemns the deed; it does not take
away its wickedness. Let them see that this faith fill and catholic man agrees with the
apostle who says, "Now we know that what things soever the law says, it says to those who
are under the law: that every month may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty
before God.

4 Because by the law no flesh shall be justified in His sight. For from that apostolic
opinion Ambrose took and wrote these things.

CHAPTER 31. - THE TESTIMONIES OF AMBROSE ON THE IMPERFECTION OF PRESENT RIGHTEOUSNESS.

1 But now, since the Pelagians say that there either are or have been righteous men in
tills life who have lived without any sin, to such an extent that the future life which is
to be hoped for as a reward cannot be more advanced ormore perfect, let Ambrose here also
answer them and refute them. For, expounding Isaiah the Prophet in reference to what is
written, "I have begotten and brought up children, and they have despised me," he
undertook to dispute concerning the generations which are of God, and in that argument he
quoted the testimony of John when he says, "He that is bornof God sinneth not. And,
treating the samevery difficult question, he says: "Since in this world there is none who
is free from sin; since John himself says, `If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him
a liar.' But if `they that are born of God sin not,' and if these words refer to those of
them who are in the world, it is necessary that we should regard them as those numberless
people who have obtained God's grace by the regeneration of the laver. But yet, when the
prophet says, `All things are waiting upon Thee, that Thou mayest give them meat in
season. That Thou givest them they gather for themselves; when Thou openest Thine hand,
all things shall be filled with goodness. But when Thou turnest away Thy face, they shall
be troubled:

2 Thou shall take away their breath, and they shall fail, and shall be turned into their
dust. Thou shall send forth Thy Spirit, and they shall be created: and Thou shalt renew
the face of the earth,' such things as these cannot seem to have been said of any time
whatever but of that future time, in which there shall be a new earth and a new heaven.
Therefore they shall be disturbed that they may take their beginning. `And when Thou
openest Thy hand all things shall be filled with goodness,' which is not easily
characteristic of this age. For concerning this age what does Scripture say? `There is
none that doeth good, no, not one.' If, therefore, there are different generations,-and
here the very entrance into this life is the receiver of sins to such an extent that even
he who begot should be despised; while another generation does not receive sins;-let us
consider whether by any means there may not be a regeneration for us after the course of
this life,-of which regeneration it is said, `In the regeneration when the Son of man
shall sit in the throne of His glory.' For as that is called the regeneration of washing
whereby we are renewed from the filth of sins washed away, so that seems to be called a
regeneration by which we are purified from every stain of bodily materiality, and are
regenerated in the pure sense of the soul to life eternal;

3 so that every quality of regeneration may be purer than ofthat washing, so that no
suspicion of sins can fall either on a man's doings, or even on his very thoughts
themselves. Moreover, in another place in the same work he says: "We see it to be
impossible that any person created in a body can be absolutely spotless, since even Paul
says I that he is imperfect. For thus he has it: `Not that I have already received, or am
already perfect;' and yet after a little he says, 'As many of us, therefore, as are
perfect.' Unless, perchance, there is one perfection in this world, another after this is
completed, of which he says to the Corinthians, `When that which is perfect is come;' and
elsewhere, `Till we all come into the unity of the faith, and the knowledge of the Son of
God, into the perfect man to the measure of the age of the fulness of Christ.' As, then,
the apostle says that many are placed in this world who are perfect along with him, but
who, if you have regard to true perfection, could not be perfect, since he says, `We see
now through a mirror, enigmatically; but then face to face: now I know in part;

4 but then I shall know even as also I am known:' so also there both are those who are
'spotless' in this world, and will be those who are 'spotless' in the kingdom of God,
although certainly, if you consider it accurately, no person can be spotless, because no
person is without sin. Also in the same he says: "We see that, while we live in this life,
we ought to purify ourselves and to seek God; and to begin from the purification of our
soul, and as it were to establish the foundations of virtue, so that we may deserve to
attain the perfection of our purgation after this life. And again, in the same he says:
"But laden and groaning, who does not say, `O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me
from the body of this death?' So with the same teacher we give all varieties of
interpretation. For if he is unhappy who recognises himself as involved in the evils of
the body, certainly everybody is unhappy; for I should not call that man happy who, being
confused with any darkness of his mind, does not know his own condition. That, moreover,
has not absurdly come to be understood; for if a man who knows himself is unhappy,
assuredly all are wretched, because every one either recognises his weakness by wisdom, or
by folly is ignorant of it. Moreover, in the treatise "On the Benefit of Death," he says:

5 "Let death work in us, in order that that may work life also, a good life after
death,-that is, a good life after victory, a good life after the contest is finished; so
that now no longer the law of the flesh may know how to resist the law of the mind, that
no longer we may have any contention with the body of death. Again, in the same treatise
he says: "Therefore, because the righteous have this reward, that they see the face of
God, and that light which lightens every man, let us henceforth put on the desire of this
kind of reward, that our soul may draw near to God, our prayer may draw near to Him, our
desire may cleave, to Him, that we be not separated from Him. And placed here as we are,
let us by meditating, by reading, by seeking, be united with God. Let us know Him as we
can. For we know Him in part here; because here all things are imperfect, there all are
perfect; here we are infants, there we shall be strong men. `We see,' says he, `now
through a mirror in an enigma, but then face to face.' Then, His face being revealed, we
shall be allowed to look upon the glory of God, which now our souls, involved in the
compacted dregs of this body, and shadowed by some stains and filth of this flesh, cannot
clearly see. `For who,' He says, `shall see my face and live?' and rightly.

6 For if our eyes cannot bear the rays of the sun,-and if any one should gaze too long on
the region of the sun he is said to be blinded,-if a creature cannot look upon a creature
without deceit and offence, how can he without his own peril look upon the glittering face
of the eternal Creator, covered as he is with the clothing of this body? For who is
justified in God's sight, when even the infant of one day cannot be pure from sin, and no
one can boast of his integrity and pureness of heart?"

CHAPTER 32 [XII.] - THE PELAGIAN'S HERESY AROSE LONG AFTER AMBROSE.

It would be too long if I were to seek to mention everything which the holy Ambrose said
and wrote against this heresy of the Pelagians, which was to arise so long afterwards; not
indeed with a view to answer them, but with a view to declare the catholic faith, and to
build up men in it. Moreover, I neither could nor ought to mention all those things which
Cyprian, most glorious in the Lord, wrote in his letters, whereby it is shown how this
which we hold is the true and truly Christian and catholic faith, as it was delivered of
old by the Holy Scriptures, and so retained and kept by our fathers and even to this time,
in which these heretics have attempted to destroy it, and as it will hereafter by God's
good will be retained and kept. For that these things and things of this kind were thus
delivered to Cyprian, and by Cyprian, is testified by the testimonies produced from his
letters; and that thus they were maintained up to our times is shown by these things which
Ambrose wrote about these matters before these heretics had begun to rage, and catholic
ears had shuddered at their profane novelties which are everywhere; and that thus,
moreover, they shall be maintained hereafter, was declared with sufficient vigour partly
by the condemnation of such opinions as these, partly by their correction. For whatever
they may dare to mutter against the sound faith of Cyprian and Ambrose, I do not think
that they will break out into such a madness as to dare to call those noted and memorable
men of God, Manicheans.

CHAPTER 33. - OPPOSITION OF THE MANICHEAN AND CATHOLIC DOGMAS.

What is it, then, which in their raging blindness of mind they are now spreading about,
"that almost throughout the entire West a dogma not less foolish than impious is taken
up;" when by the mercy of God and by His merciful governance of His Church, the catholic
faith has been so watchful that the dogma, "not less foolish than wicked," as of the
Manicheans, so also of these heretics, should not be taken up? So holy and learned
catholic men, such as are attested to be so by the report of the whole Church, praise both
God's creation, and marriage as ordained by Him, and the law given by Him by means of the
holy Moses, and the free will implanted into man's nature, and the holy patriarchs and
prophets, with due and fitting proclamation; all which five things the Manicheans condemn,
partly by denying, and partly also by abominating. Whence it appears that these catholic
doctors were far removed from the notions of the Manicheans, and yet they assert original
sin; they assert God's grace above free will, as antecedent to all merit, so as truly to
afford a gratuitous divine assistance; they assert that the saints lived righteously in
this flesh, in such wise that the help of prayer was necessary to them, by which their
daily sins might be forgiven; and that a perfected righteousness which could not have sin
would be in another life the reward of those who should live righteously here.

CHAPTER 34. - THE CALLING TOGETHER OF A SYNOD NOT ALWAYS NECESSARY TO THE CONDEMNATION OF HERESIES.

1 What is it, then, that they say, that "subscription was extorted from simple bishops
sitting in their places without any Synodal congregation"? Was subscription extorted
against such heretics as these from the most blessed and excellent men in the faith,
Cyprian and Ambrose, before such heretics as these were in existence?-seeing that they
overthrow their impious dogmas with such clearness that we can scarcely find anything more
manifest to say against them. Or, indeed, was there any need of the congregation of a
Synod to condemn this open pest, as if no heresy could at any time be condemned except by
a Synodal congregation?-when, on the contrary, very few heresies can be found for the sake
of condemning which any such necessity has arisen; and those have been many and
incomparably more which have deserved to be accused and condemned in the place where they
arose, and thence could be known and avoided over the rest of the lands. But the pride of
such as these, which lifts itself up so much against God as not to be willing to glory in
Him but rather in free will, is understood as grasping also at this glory, that a Synod of
the East and West should be gathered together on their account. In fact, they endeavour,
forsooth, to disturb the catholic world, because, the Lord being against them, they are
unable to pervert it;

2 when rather they ought to have been trodden out wherever those wolves might have
appeared, by watchfulness and pastoral diligence, after a competent and sufficient
judgment made concerning them; whether with a view of their being healed and changed, or
with a view of their being shunned by the safety and soundness of others, by the help of
the Shepherd of the sheep, who seeks the lost sheep also among the little ones, who makes
the sheep holy and righteous freely; who both providently instructs them, although
sanctified and justified, yet in their frailty and infirmity to pray for a daily remission
for their daily sins, without which no one lives in this world, even although he may live
well; and mercifully listens to their prayers.

BOOK II. CHAP. 66,

On the Following Treatise, — "De Gratia Et Libero Arbitrio."

There are some persons who suppose that the freedom of the will is denied whenever God's
grace is maintained, and who on their side defend their liberty of will so peremptorily as
to deny the grace of God. This grace, as they assert, is bestowed according to our own
merits. It is in consequence of their opinions that I wrote the book entitled On Grace and
Free Will. This work I addressed to the monks of Adrumetum, in whose monastry tint arose
the controversy on that subject, and that in such a manner that some of them were obliged
to consult me thereon. The work begins with these words: "With reference to those persons
who so preach the liberty of the human will."

LETTER I.

[The 214th of Augustin's Epistles.] To my very dear Lord and most honoured brother among
the members of Christ, Valentinus, and to the brethren that are with you, Augustin sends
greeting in the Lord. 1. Two young men, Cresconius and Felix, have found their way to us,
and, introducing themselves as belonging to your brotherhood, have told us that your
monastery was disturbed with no small commotion, because certain amongst you preach grace
in such a manner as to deny that the will of man is free; and maintain-a more serious
matter-that in the day of judgment God will not render to every man according to his
works. At the same time, they have pointed out to us, that many of you do not entertain
this opinion, but allow that free will is assisted by the grace of God, so as that we may
think and do aright; so that, when the Lord shall come to render unto every man according
to his works, He shall find those works of ours good which God has prepared in order that
we may walk in them. They who think this think rightly.

2. "I beseech you therefore, brethren," even as the apostle besought the Corinthians, "by
the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no
divisions among you." For, in the first place, the Lord Jesus, as it is written in the
Gospel of the Apostle John, "came not to condemn the world, but that the world by Himself
might be saved." Then, afterwards, as the Apostle Paul writes, "God shall judge the world
when He shall come," as the whole Church confesses in the Creed, "to judge the quick and
the dead." Now, I would ask, if there is no grace of God, how does He save the world? and
if there is no free will, how does He judge the world? That book of mine, therefore, or
epistle, which the above-mentioned brethren have brought with them to you, I wish you to
understand in accordance with this faith, so that you may neither deny God's grace, nor
uphold free will in such wise as to separate the latter from the grace of God, as if
without this we could by any means either think or do anything according to God,-which is
quite beyond our power. On this account, indeed, it is, that the Lord when speaking of the
fruits of righteousness said, "Without me ye can do nothing."

3. From this you may understand why I wrote the letter which has been referred to, to
Sixtus, presbyter of the Church at Rome, against the new Pelagian heretics, who say that
the grace of God is bestowed according to our own merits, so that he who glories has to
glory not in the Lord, but in himself,-that is to say, in man, not in the Lord. This,
however, the apostle forbids in these words: "Let no man glory in man;" while in another
passage he says, "He that glorieth let him glory in the Lord." But these heretics, under
the idea that they are justified by their own selves, just as if God did not bestow on
them this gift, but they themselves obtained it by themselves, glory of course in
themselves, and not in the Lord. Now, the apostle says to such, "Who maketh thee to differ
from another?" and this he does on the ground that out of the mass of perdition which
arose from Adam, none but God distinguishes a man to make him a vessel to honour, and not
to dishonour. Lest, however, the carnal man in his foolish pride should, on hearing the
question, "Who maketh thee to differ from another?" either in thought or in word answer
and say: My faith, or my prayer, or my righteousness makes me to differ from other men,
the apostle at once adds these words to the question, and so meets all such notions,
saying, "What hast thou that thou didst not receive? now, if thou didst receive it, why
dost thou glory, as if thou didst not receive it?" Now, they boast as if they did not
receive their gifts by grace, who think that they are justified of their own selves, and
who, on this account, glory in themselves, and not in the Lord.

4. Therefore I have in this letter, which has reached you, shown by passages of Holy
Scripture, which you can examine for yourselves, that our good works and pious prayers and
right faith could not possibly have been in us unless we had received them all from Him,
concerning whom the Apostle James says, "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from
above, and cometh down from the Father of lights." And so no man can say that it Is by the
merit of his own works, or by the merit of his own prayers, or by the merit of his own
faith, that God's grace has been conferred upon him; nor suppose that the doctrine is true
which those heretics hold, that the grace of God is given us in proportion to our own
merit. This is altogether a most erroneous opinion; not, indeed, because there is no
desert, good in pious persons, or evil in impious ones (for how else shall God judge the
world?), but because a man is converted by that mercy and grace of God, of which the
Psalmist says, "As for my God, His mercy shall prevent me;" so that the unrighteous man is
justified, that is, becomes just instead of impious, and begins to possess that good
desert which God will crown when the world shall be judged.

5. There were many things which I wanted to send you, by the perusal whereof you would
have been able to gain a more exact and full knowledge of all that has been done by the
bishops in their councils against these Pelagian heretics. But the brethren were in haste
who came to us from your company. By them we have sent you this letter; which is, however,
not an answer to any communication, because, in truth, they brought us no epistle from
your beloved selves. Yet we had no hesitation in receiving them; for their simple manners
proved to us clearly enough that there could have been nothing unreal or deceptive in
their visit to us. They were, however, in much haste, as wishing to spend Easter at home
with you; and my earnest prayer is, that so sacred a day may, by the Lord's help, bring
peace to you, and not dissension.

6. You will, indeed, take the better course (as I earnestly request you), if you will not
refuse to send to me the very person by whom they say they have been disturbed. For either
he does not understand my book, or else, perhaps, he is himself misunderstood, when he
endeavours to solve and explain a question which is a very difficult one, and intelligible
to few. For it is none other than the question of God's grace which has caused persons of
no understanding to think that the Apostle Paul prescribes it to us as a rule, "Let us do
evil that good may come." It is in reference to these that the Apostle Peter writes in his
second Epistle; "Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent,
that ye may be found of Him in peace, without spot and blameless and account that the
long-suffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also, according
to the wisdom given unto him, hath written unto you; as also in all his epistles, speaking
in them of these things: in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that
are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other Scriptures, unto their own
destruction."

7. Take good heed, then, to these fearful words of the great apostle; and when you feel
that you do not understand, put your faith in the meanwhile in the inspired word of God,
and believe both that man's will is free, and that there is also God's grace, without
whose help man's free will can neither be turned towards God, nor make any progress in
God. And what you piously believe, that pray that you may have a wise understanding of.
And, indeed, it is for this very purpose,-that is, that we may have a wise understanding,
that there is a free will. For unless we understood and were wise with a free will, it
would not be enjoined to us in the words of Scripture, "Understand now, ye simple among
the people; and ye fools, at length be wise," The very precept and injunction which calls
on us to be intelligent and wise, requires also our obedience; and we could exercise no
obedience without free will. But if it were in our power to obey this precept to be
understanding and wise by free will, without the help of God's grace, it would be
unnecessary to say to God, "Give me understanding, that I may learn Thy commandments; nor
would it have been written in the gospel, "Then opened He their understanding, that they
might understand the Scriptures;

nor should the Apostle James address us in such words as, "If any of you lack wisdom, let
him ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given
him. But the Lord is able to grant, both to you and to us, that we may rejoice over very
speedy tidings of your peace and pious unanimity. I send you greeting, not in my own name
only, but of the brethren also who are with me; and I ask you to pray for us with one
accord and with all earnestness. The Lord be with you.

LETTER II.

[The 215th of Augustin's Epistles.] To my very dear Lord and most honoured brother among
the members of Christ, Valentinus, and to the brethren that are with you, Augustin sends
greeting in the lord. 1. That Cresconius and Felix, and another Felix, the servants of
God, who came to us from your brotherhood, have spent Easter with us is known to your
Love. We have detained them somewhile longer in order that they might return to you better
instructed against the new Pelagian heretics, into whose error every one falls who
supposes that it is according to any human merits that the grace of God is given to us,
which alone delivers a man through Jesus Christ our Lord. But he, too, is no less in error
who thinks that, when the Lord shall come to judgment, a man is not judged according to
his works who has been able to use throughout his life free choice of will. For only
infants, who have not yet done any works of their own, either good or bad, will be
condemned on account of original sin alone, when they have riot been delivered by the
Saviour's grace in the laver of regeneration. As for all others who, in the use of their
free will, have added to original sin, sins of their own commission, but who have not been
delivered by God's grace from the power of darkness and removed into the kingdom of
Christ, they will receive judgment according to the deserts not of their original sin
only, but also of the acts of their own will. The good, indeed, shall receive their reward
according to the merits of their own good-will, but then they received this very good-will
through the grace of God; and thus is accomplished that sentence of Scripture,
"Indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil,
of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile: but glory, honour, and peace to every man that
worketh good; to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile."

2. Touching the very difficult question of will and grace, I have felt no need of treating
it further in this letter, having given them another letter also when they were about to
return in greater haste. I have written a book likewise for you, and if you, by the Lord's
help, read it, and have a lively understanding of it, I think that no further dissension
on this subject will arise among you. They take with them other documents besides, which,
as we supposed, ought to be sent to you, in order that from these you may ascertain what
means the catholic Church has adopted for repelling, in God's mercy, the poison of the
Pelagian heresy. For the letters to Pope Innocent, Bishop of Rome, from the Council of the
province of Carthage, and from the Council of Numidia, and one written with exceeding care
by five bishops, and what he wrote back to these three; our letter also to Pope Zosimus
about the African Council, and his answer addressed to all bishops throughout the world;
and a brief constitution, which we drew up against the error itself at a later plenary
Council of all Africa; and the above-mentioned book of mine, which I have just written for
you,-all these we have both read over with them, while they were with us, and have now
despatched by their hands to you.

3. Furthermore, we have read to them the work of the most blessed martyr Cyprian on the
Lord's Prayer, and have pointed out to them how He taught that all things pertaining to
our morals, which constitute right living, must be sought from our Father which is in
heaven, test, by presuming on free will, we fall from divine grace. From the same treatise
we have also shown them how the same glorious martyr has taught us that it behoves us to
pray even for our enemies who have not yet believed in Christ, that they may believe;
which would of course be all in vain unless the Church believed that even the evil and
unbelieving wills of men might, by the grace of God, be converted to good. This book of
St. Cyprian, however, we have not sent you, because they told us that you possessed it
among yourselves already. My letter, also, which had been sent to Sixtus, presbyter of the
Church at Rome and which they brought with them to us, we read over with them, and pointed
out how that it had been written in opposition to those who say that God's grace is
bestowed according to our merits,-that is to say, in opposition to the same Pelagians.

4. As far, then, as lay in our power, we have used our influence with them, as both your
brethren and our own, with a view to their persevering in the soundness of the catholic
faith, Which neither denies free will whether for an evil or a good life, nor attributes
to it so much power that it can avail anything without God's grace, whether that it may be
changed from evil to good, or that it may persevere in the pursuit of good, or that it may
attain to eternal good when there is no further fear of failure. To yourselves, too, my
most dearly beloved, I also, in this letter, give the same exhortation which the apostle
addresses to us all, "not to think of yourselves more highly than you ought to think; but
to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith."

5. Mark well the counsel which the Holy Ghost gives us by Solomon: "Make straight paths
for thy feet, and order thy ways aright. Turn not aside to the right hand nor to the left,
but turn away thy foot from the evil way; for the Lord knoweth the ways on the right hand,
but those on the left are perverse. He will make thy ways straight, and will direct thy
steps in peace." Now consider, my brethren, that in these words of Holy Scripture, if
there were no free will, it would not be said, "Make straight paths for thy feet, and
order thy ways; turn not aside to the right hand, nor to the left." Nor yet, were this
possible for us to achieve without the grace of God, would it be afterwards added, "He
will make thy ways straight, and will direct thy steps in peace." 6. Decline, therefore,
neither to the right hand nor to the left, although the paths on the right hand are
praised, and those on the left hand are blamed. This is why he added, "Turn away thy foot
from the evil way,"-that is, from the left-hand path. This he makes manifest in the
following words, saying, "For the Lord knoweth the ways on the right hand; but those on
the left are perverse." In those ways we ought surely to walk which the Lord knows; and it
is of these that we read in the Psalm, "The Lord knoweth the way of the righteous, but the
way of the ungodly shall perish;" for this way, which is on the left hand, the Lord does
not know. As He will also say at last to such as are placed on His left hand at the day of
judgment: "I know you not." Now what is that which He knows not, who knows all things,
both good and evil, in man? But what is the meaning of the words, "I know you not," unless
it be that you are now such as I never made you? Precisely as that passage runs, which is
spoken of the Lord Jesus Christ, that "He knew no sin." How knew it not, except that He
had never made it? And, therefore, how is to be understood the passage, "The ways which
are on the right hand the Lord knoweth," except in the sense that He made those ways
Himself,-even "the paths of the righteous," which no doubt are "those good works that
God," as the apostle tells us, "hath before ordained that we should walk in them"? Whereas
the left-hand ways-those perverse paths of the unrighteous-He truly knows nothing of,
because He never made them for man, but man made them for himself. Wherefore tie says,
"The perverse ways of the wicked I utterly abhor; they are on the left hand."

7. But the reply is made: Why did He say, "Turn not aside to the right hand, nor to the
left," when he clearly ought rather to have said, Keep to the right hand, and turn not off
to the left, if the right-hand paths are good? Why, do we think, except this, that the
paths on the right hand are so good that it is not good to turn off from them, even to the
right? For that man, indeed, is to be understood as declining to the right who chooses to
attribute to himself, and not to God, even those good works which appertain to right-hand
ways. Hence it was that after saying, "For the Lord knoweth the ways on the right hand,
but those on the left hand are perverse," as if the objection were raised to Him,
Wherefore, then, do you not wish us to turn aside to the right? He immediately added as
follows: "He will Himself make thy paths straight, and will direct thy ways in peace."
Understand, therefore, the precept, "Make straight paths for thy feet, and order thy ways
aright," in such a sense as to know that whenever you do all this, it is the Lord God who
enables you to do it. Then you will not turn off to the right, although you are walking in
right-hand paths, not trusting in your own strength; and He will Himself be your strength,
who will make straight paths for your feet, and will direct your ways in peace.

8. Wherefore, most dearly beloved, whosoever says, My will suffices for me to perform good
works, declines to the right. But, on the other hand, they who think that a good way of
life should be forsaken, when they hear God's grace so preached as to lead to the
supposition and belief that it of itself makes men's wills from evil to good, and it even
of itself keeps them what it has made them; and who, as the result of this opinion, go on
to say, "Let us do evil that good may come," -these persons decline to the left. This is
the reason why he said to you, "Turn not aside to the right hand, nor to the left; in
other words, do not uphold free will in such wise as to attribute good works to it without
the grace of God, nor so defend and maintain grace as if, by reason of it, you may love
evil works in security and safety,-which may God's grace itself avert from you! Now it was
the words of such as these which the apostle had in view when he said, "What shall we say,
then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? And to this cavil of erring men, who
know nothing about the grace of God, he returned such an answer as he ought in these
words: "God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? Nothing
could have been said more succinctly, and yet to the point.

For what more useful gift does the grace of God confer upon us, in this present evil
world, than our dying unto sin? Hence he shows himself ungrateful to grace itself who
chooses to live in sin by reason of that whereby we die unto sin. May God, however, who is
rich in mercy, grant you both to think soundly and wisely, and to continue perseveringly
and progressively to the end in every good determination and purpose. For yourselves, for
us, for all who love you, and for those who hate you, pray that this gift may be
attained,-pray earnestly and vigilantly in brotherly peace. Live unto God. If I deserve
any favour at your hands, let brother Florus come to me.


ON GRACE AND FREE WILL
======================

ON GRACE AND FREE WILL Augustine of Hippo

AD 354–430

Bishop of Hippo, the most influential Latin father.

INTRODUCTION

Addressed to Valentinus and the Monks of Adrumetum, and Completed in One Book. Written in
a.d. 426 or a.d. 427.

1 In this treatise Augustin teaches us to beware of maintaining grace by denying free
will, or free will by denying grace; for that it is evident from the testimony of
scripture that there is in man a free choice of will; and there are also in the same
scriptures inspired proofs given of that very grace of God without which we can do nothing
good. Afterwards, in opposition to the pelagians, he proves that grace is not bestowed
according to our merits. He explains how eternal life, which is rendered to good works, is
really of grace. He then goes on to show that the grace which is given to us through our
Lord Jesus Christ is neither the knowledge of the law, nor nature, nor simply remission of
sins; but that it is grace that makes us fulfil the law, and causes nature to be liberated
from the dominion of sin. He demolishes that vain subterfuge of the Pelagians, to the
effect that "grace, although it is not bestowed according to the merits of good works, is
yet given according to the merits of the antecedent good-will of the man who believes and
prays. he incidentally touches the question, why God commands what he means Himself to
give, and whether He imposes on us any commands which we are unable to perform. He clearly
shows that the love which is indispensable for fulfilling the commandments is only within
us from God Himself.

2 He points out that God works in men's hearts to incline their wills whithersoever He
willeth, either to good works according to His mercy, or to evil ones in return for their
deserving; His judgment, indeed, being sometimes manifest, sometimes hidden, but always
righteous. Lastly, he teaches us that a clear example of the gratuitousness of grace, not
given in return for our deserts, is supplied to us in the case of those infants which are
saved, while others perish though their case is identical with that of the rest.

CHAPTER I [I.]-THE OCCASION AND ARGUMENT OF THIS WORK.

1 With reference to those persons who so preach and defend man's free will, as boldly to
deny, and endeavour to do away with, the grace of God which Calls us to Him, and delivers
us from our evil deserts, and by which we obtain the good deserts which lead to
everlasting life: we have already said a good deal in discussion, and committed it to
writing, so far as the Lord has vouchsafed to enable us. But since there are some persons
who so defend God's grace as to deny man's free will, or who suppose that free will is
denied when grace is defended, I have determined to write somewhat on this point to your
Love, my brother Valentinus, and the rest of you, who are serving God together under the
impulse of a mutual love. For it has been told me concerning you, brethren, by some
members of your brotherhood who have visited us, and are the bearers of this communication
of ours to you, that there are dissensions among you on this subject. This, then, being
the case, dearly beloved, that you be not disturbed by the obscurity of this question, I
counsel you first to thank God for such things as you understand; but as for all which is
beyond the reach of your mind, pray for understanding from the Lord, observing, at the
same time peace and love among yourselves; and until He Himself lead you to perceive what
at present is beyond your comprehension, walk firmly on the ground of which you are sure.

2 This is the advice of the Apostle Paul, who, after saying that he was not yet perfect, a
little later adds, "Let us, therefore, as many as are perfect, be thus minded," -meaning
perfect to a certain extent, but not having attained to a perfection sufficient for us;
and then immediately adds, "And if, in any thing, ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal
even this unto you. Nevertheless, whereunto we have already attained, let us walk by the
same rule. For by walking in what we have attained, we shall be able to advance to what we
have not yet attained,-God revealing it to us if in anything we are otherwise
minded,-provided we do not give up what He has already revealed.

CHAPTER 2 [II]-PROVES THE EXISTENCE OF FREE WILL IN MAN FROM THE PRECEPTS ADDRESSED TO HIM BY GOD.

1 Now He has revealed to us, through His Holy Scriptures, that there is in a man a free
choice of will. But how He has revealed this I do not recount in human language, but in
divine. There is, to begin with, the fact that God's precepts themselves would be of no
use to a man unless he had free choice of will, so that by performing them he might obtain
the promised rewards. For they are given that no one might be able to plead the excuse of
ignorance, as the Lord says concerning the Jews in the gospel: "If I had not come and
spoken unto them, they would not have sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin. Of
what sin does He speak but of that great one which He foreknew, while speaking thus, that
they would make their own-that is, the death they were going to inflict upon Him? For they
did not have "no sin" before Christ came to them in the flesh. The apostle also says: "The
wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men
who hold back the truth in unrighteousness; because that which may be known of God is
manifest in them; for God hath showed it unto them. For the invisible things of Him are
from the creation of the world clearly seen-being understood by the things that are made-
even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are inexcusable.

2 In what sense does he pronounce them to be "inexcusable," except with reference to such
excuse as human pride is apt to allege in such words as, "If I had only known, I would
have done it; did I not fail to do it because I was ignorant of it? or," I would do it if
I knew how; but I do not know, therefore I do not do it"? All such excuse is removed from
them when the precept is given them, or the knowledge is made manifest to them how to
avoid sin.

CHAPTER 3.-SINNERS ARE CONVICTED WHEN ATTEMPTING TO EXCUSE THEMSELVES BY BLAMING GOD, BECAUSE THEY HAVE FREE WILL.

There are, however, persons who attempt to find excuse for themselves even from God. The
Apostle James says to such:"Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God; for
God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth He any man. But every man is tempted
when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then, when lust hath conceived, it
bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death." Solomon, too, in
his book of Proverbs, has this answer for such as wish to find an excuse for themselves
from God Himself: "The folly of a man spoils his ways;but he blames God in his heart." And
in the book of Ecclesiasticus we read: "Say not thou, It is through the Lord that I fell
away; for thou oughtest not to do the things that He hateth: nor do thou say, He hath
caused me to err; for He hath no need of the sinful man. The Lord hateth all abomination,
and they that fear God love it not. He Himself made man from the beginning, and left him
in the hand of His counsel. If thou be willing, thou shalt keep His commandments, and
perform true fidelity. He hath set fire and water before thee: stretch forth thine hand
unto whether thou wilt. Before man is life and death, and whichsoever pleaseth him shall
be given to him." Observe how very plainly is set before our view the free choice of the
human will.

CHAPTER 4.-THE DIVINE COMMANDS WHICH ARE MOST SUITED TO THE WILL ITSELF ILLUSTRATE ITS FREEDOM.

1 What is the import of the fact that in so many passages God requires all His
commandments tobe kept and fulfilled? How does He make this requisition, if there is no
free will? What means "the happy man," of whom the Psalmist says that "his will has been
the law of the Lord "? Does he not clearly enough show that a man by his own will takes
his stand in the law of God? Then again, there are so many commandments which in some way
are expressly adapted to the human will; for instance, there is, "Be not overcome of
evil," and others of similar import, such as, "Be not like a horse or a mule, which have
no understanding; and, "Reject not the counsels of thy mother; and, "Be not wise in thine
own conceit; and, "Despise not the chastening of the Lord; and, "Forget not my law; and,
"Forbear not to do good to the poor; and, "Devise not evil against thy friend; and, "Give
no heed to a worthless woman; and, "He is not inclined to understand how to do good; and,
"They refused to attend to my counsel; with numberless other passages of the inspired
Scriptures of the Old Testament. And what do they all show us but the free choice of the
human will? So, again, in the evangelical and apostolic books of the New Testament what
other lesson is taught us? As when it is said, "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon
earth; " and, "Fear not them which kill the body;

2 and, "If any man will come after me, let him deny himself; and again, "Peace on earth to
men of good will. So also that the Apostle Paul says: "Let him do what he willeth; he
sinneth not if he marry. Nevertheless, he that standeth stedfast in his heart, having no
necessity, but hath power over his own will, and hath so decreed in his heart that he will
keep his virgin, doeth well. And so again," If I do this willingly, I have a reward; while
in another passage he says, "Be ye sober and righteous, and sin not; and again, "As ye
have a readiness to will, so also let there be a prompt performance; then he remarks to
Timothy about the younger widows, "When they have begun to wax wanton against Christ, they
choose to marry. So in another passage, "All that will to live godly in Christ Jesus shall
suffer persecution; while to Timothy himself he says, "Neglect not the gift that is in
thee. Then to Philemon he addresses this explanation: "That thy benefit should not be as
it were of necessity, but of thine own will. Servants also he advises to obey their
masters "with a good will. In strict accordance with this, James says: "Do not err, my
beloved brethren . . . and have not the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ with respect to
persons; and," Do not speak evil one of another.

3 So also John in his Epistle writes," Do not love the world," and other things of the
same import. Now wherever it is said, "Do not do this," and "Do not do that," and wherever
there is any requirement in the divine admonitions for the work of the will to do
anything, or to refrain from doing anything, there is at once a sufficient proof of free
will. No man, therefore, when he sins, can in his heart blame God for it, but every man
must impute the fault to himself. Nor does it detract at all from a man's own will when he
performs any act in accordance with God. Indeed, a work is then to be pronounced a good
one when a person does it willingly; then, too, may the reward of a good work be hoped for
from Him concerning whom it is written, "He shall reward every man according to his
works."

CHAPTER 5.-HE SHOWS THAT IGNORANCE AFFORDS NO SUCH EXCUSE AS SHALL FREE THE OFFENDER FROM PUNISHMENT; BUT THAT TO SIN WITH KNOWLEDGE IS A GRAVER THING THAN TO SIN IN IGNORANCE.

1 The excuse such as men are in the habit of alleging from ignorance is taken away from
those persons who know God's commandments. But neither will those be without punishment
who know not the law of God. "For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish
without law; and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law. Now the
apostle does not appear to me to have said this as if he meant that they would have to
suffer something worse who in their sins are ignorant of the law than they who know it.
[III. It is seemingly worse, no doubt, "to perish" than "to be judged; but inasmuch as he
was speaking of the Gentiles and of the Jews when he used these words, because the former
were without the law, but the latter had received the law, who can venture to say that the
Jews who sin in the law will not perish, since they refused to believe in Christ, when it
was of them that the apostle said, "They shall be judged by the law"? For without faith in
Christ no man can be delivered; and therefore they will be so judged that they perish. If,
indeed, the condition of those who are ignorant of the law of God is worse than the
condition of those who know it, how can that be true which the Lord says in the gospel:

2 "The servant who knows not his lord's will, and commits things worthy of stripes, shall
be beaten with few stripes; whereas the servant who knows his lord's will, and commits
things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with many stripes "? Observe how clearly He here
shows that it is a graver matter for a man to sin with knowledge than in ignorance. And
yet we must not on this account betake ourselves for refuge to the shades of ignorance,
with the view of finding our excuse therein. It is one thing to be ignorant, and another
thing to be unwilling to know. For the will is at fault in the case of the man of whom it
is said, "He is not inclined to understand, so as to do good. But even the ignorance,
which is not theirs who refuse to know, but theirs who are, as it were, simply ignorant,
does not so far excuse any one as to exempt him from the punishment of eternal fire,
though his failure to believe has been the result of his not having at all heard what he
should believe; but probably only so far as to mitigate his punishment. For it was not
said without reason: "Pour out Thy wrath upon the heathen that have not known Thee; nor
again according to what the apostle says: "When He shall come from heaven in a flame of
fire to take vengeance on them that know not God.

3 But yet in order that we may have that knowledge that will prevent our saying, each one
of us, "I did not know," "I did not hear," "I did not understand; the human will is
summoned, in such words as these: "Wish not to be as the horse or as the mule, which have
no understanding; although it may show itself even worse, of which it is written, "A
stubborn servant will not be reproved by words; for even if he understand, yet he will not
obey. But when a man says, "I cannot do what I am commanded, because I am mastered by my
concupiscence," he has no longer any excuse to plead from ignorance, nor reason to blame
God in his heart, but he recognises and laments his own evil in himself; and still to such
an one the apostle says: "Be not overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good; and of
course the very fact that the injunction, "Consent not to be overcome," is addressed to
him, undoubtedly summons the determination of his will. For to consent and to refuse are
functions proper to will.

CHAPTER 6 [IV.]-GOD'S GRACE TO BE MAINTAINED AGAINST THE PELAGIANS; THE PELAGIAN HERESY NOT AN OLD ONE.

1 It is, however, to be feared lest all these and similar testimonies of Holy Scripture
(and undoubtedly there are a great many of them), in the maintenance of free will, be
understood in such a way as to leave no room for God's assistance and grace in leading a
godly life and a good conversation, to which the eternal reward is due; and lest poor
wretched man, when he leads a good life and performs good works (or rather thinks that he
leads a good life and performs good works), should dare to glory in himself and not in the
Lord, and to put his hope of righteous living in himself alone; so as to be followed by
the prophet Jeremiah's malediction when he says, "Cursed is the man who has hope in man,
and maketh strong the flesh of his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord.
Understand, my brethren, I pray you, this passage of the prophet. Because the prophet did
not say, "Cursed is the man who has hope in his own self," it might seem to some that the
passage, "Cursed is the man who has hope in man," was spoken to prevent man having hope in
any other man but himself. In order, therefore, to show that his admonition to man was not
to have hope in himself, after saying, "Cursed is the man who has hope in man," he
immediately added, "And maketh strong the flesh of his arm. He used the word "arm" to
designate power in operation.

2 By the term "flesh," however, must be understood human frailty. And therefore he makes
strong the flesh of his arm who supposes that a power which is frail and weak (that is,
human) is sufficient for him to perform good works, and therefore puts not his hope in God
for help. This is the reason why he subjoined the further clause, "And whose heart
departeth from the Lord. Of this character is the Pelagian heresy, which is not an ancient
one, but has only lately come into existence. Against this system of error there was first
a good deal of discussion; then, as the ultimate resource, it was referred to sundry
episcopal councils, the proceedings of which, not, indeed, in every instance, but in some,
I have despatched to you for your perusal. In order, then, to our performance of good
works, let us not have hope in man, making strong the flesh of our arm; nor let our heart
ever depart from the Lord, but let it say to him," Be Thou my helper; forsake me not, nor
despise me, O God of my salvation."

CHAPTER 7.-GRACE IS NECESSARY ALONG WITH FREE WILL TO LEAD A GOOD LIFE.

Therefore, my dearly beloved, as we have now proved by our former testimonies from Holy
Scripture that there is in man a free determination of will for living rightly and acting
rightly; so now let us see what are the divine testimonies concerning the grace of God,
without which we are not able to do any good thing. And first of all, I will say something
about the very profession which you make in your brotherhood. Now your society, in which
you are leading lives of continence, could not hold together unless you despised conjugal
pleasure. Well, the Lord was one day conversing on this very topic, when His disciples
remarked to Him, "If such be the case of a man with his wife, it is not good to marry." He
then answered them, "All men cannot receive this saying, save they to whom it is given."
And was it not to Timothy's free will that the apostle appealed, when he exhorted him in
these words: "Keep thyself continent"? He also explained the power of the will in this
matter when He said, "Having no necessity, but possessing power over his own will, to keep
his virgin." And yet. "all men do not receive this saying, except those to whom the power
is given." Now they to whom this is not given either are unwilling or do not fulfil what
they will; whereas they to whom it is given so will as to accomplish what they will. In
order, therefore, that this saying, which is not received by all men, may yet be received
by some, there are both the gift of God and free will.

CHAPTER 8.-CONJUGAL CHASTITY IS ITSELF THE GIFT OF GOD.

1 It is concerning conjugal chastity itself that the apostle treats, when he says, "Let
him do what he will, he sinneth not if he marry; and yet this too is God's gift, for the
Scripture says, "It is by the Lord that the woman is joined to her husband. Accordingly
the teacher of the Gentiles, in one of his discourses, commends both conjugal chastity,
whereby adulteries are prevented, and the still more perfect continence which foregoes all
cohabitation, and shows how both one and the other are severally the gift of God. Writing
to the Corinthians, he admonished married persons not to defraud each other; and then,
after his admonition to these, he added: "But I could wish that all men were even as I am
myself," -meaning, of course, that he abstained from all cohabitation; and then proceeded
to say: "But every man hath his own gift of God, one after this manner, and another after
that. Now, do the many precepts which are written in the law of God, forbidding all
fornication and adultery, indicate anything else than free will? Surely such precepts
would not be given unless a man had a will of his own, wherewith to obey the divine
commandments. And yet it is God's gift which is indispensable for the observance of the
precepts of chastity. Accordingly, it is said in the Book of Wisdom: "When I knew that no
one could be continent, except God gives it, then this became a point of wisdom to know
whose gift it was.

2 "Every man," however, "is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed"
not to observe and keep these holy precepts of chastity. If he should say in respect of
these commandments, "I wish to keep them, but am mastered by my concupiscence," then the
Scripture responds to his free will, as I have already said: "Be not overcome of evil, but
overcome evil with good. In order, however, that this victory may be gained, grace renders
its help; and were not this help given, then the law would be nothing but the strength of
sin. For concupiscence is increased and receives greater energies from the prohibition of
the law, unless the spirit of grace helps. This explains the statement of the great
Teacher of the Gentiles, when he says, "The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin
is the law. See, then, I pray you, whence originates this confession of weakness, when a
man says, "I desire to keep what the law commands, but am overcome by the strength of my
concupiscence. And when his will is addressed, and it is said, "Be not overcome of evil,"
of what avail is anything but the succour of God's grace to the accomplishment of the
precept? This the apostle himself afterwards stated; for after saying "The strength of sin
is the law" he immediately subjoined, "But thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory,
through our Lord Jesus Christ.

3 It follows, then, that the victory in which sin is vanquished is nothing else than the
gift of God, who in this contest helps free will.

CHAPTER 9.-ENTERING INTO TEMPTATION. PRAYER IS A PROOF OF GRACE.

Wherefore, our Heavenly Master also says: "Watch and pray, that ye enter pot into
temptation." Let every man, therefore, when fighting against his own concupiscence, pray
that he enter not into temptation; that is, that he be not drawn aside and enticed by it.
But he does not enter into temptation if he conquers his evil concupiscence by good will.
And yet the determination of the human will is insufficient, unless the Lord grant it
victory in answer to prayer that it enter not into temptation. What, indeed, affords
clearer evidence of the grace of God than the acceptance of prayer in any petition? If our
Saviour had only said, "Watch that ye enter not into temptation," He would appear to have
done nothing further than admonish man's will; but since He added the words, "and pray,"
He showed that God helps us not to enter into temptation. It is to the free will of man
that the words are addressed: "My son, remove not thyself from the chastening of the
Lord." And the Lord said: "I have prayed for thee, Peter, that thy faith fail not." So
that a man is assisted by grace, in order that his will may not be uselessly commanded.

CHAPTER 10 [V.]-FREE WILL AND GOD'S GRACE ARE SIMULTANEOUSLY COMMENDED.

1 When God says, "Turn ye unto me, and I will turn unto you," one of these clauses-that
which invites our return to God-evidently belongs to our will; while the other, which
promises His return to us, belongs to His grace. Here, possibly, the Pelagians think they
have a justification for their opinion which they so prominently advance, that God's grace
is given according to our merits. In the East, indeed, that is to say, in the province of
Palestine, in which is the city of Jerusalem, Pelagius, when examined in person by the
bishop, did not venture to affirm this. For it happened that among the objections which
were brought up against him, this in particular was objected, that he maintained that the
grace of God was given according to our merits,-an opinion which was so diverse from
catholic doctrine, and so hostile to the grace of Christ, that unless he had anathematized
it, as laid to his charge, he himself must have been anathematized on its account. He
pronounced, indeed, the required anathema upon the dogma, but how insincerely his later
books plainly show; for in them he maintains absolutely no other opinion than that the
grace of God is given according to our merits. Such passages do they collect out of the
Scriptures,-like the one which I just now quoted, "Turn ye unto me, and I will turn unto
you,"-as if it were owing to the merit of our turning to God that His grace were given us,
wherein He Himself even turns unto us.

2 Now the persons who hold this opinion fail to observe that, unless our turning to God
were itself God's gift, it would not be said to Him in prayer, "Turn us again, O God of
hosts; and, "Thou, O God, wilt turn and quicken us; and again, "Turn us, O God of our
salvation," -with other passages of similar import, too numerous to mention here. For,
with respect to our coming unto Christ, what else does it mean than our being turned to
Him by believing? And yet He says: "No man can come unto me, except it were given unto him
of my Father."

CHAPTER 11.-OTHER PASSAGES OF SCRIPTURE WHICH THE PELAGIANS ABUSE.

Then, again, there is the Scripture containedin the second book of the Chronicles:
"TheLord is with you when ye are with Him: and if ye shall seek Him ye shall find Him; but
if ye forsake Him, He also will forsake you." his passage, no doubt, clearly manifests the
choice of the will. But they who maintain that God's grace is given according to our
merits, receive these testimonies of Scripture in such a manner as to believe that our
merit lies in the circumstance of our "being with God," while His grace is given according
to this merit, so that He too may be with us. In like manner, that our merit lies in the
fact of "our seeking God," and then His grace is given according to this merit, in order
that we may find Him." Again, there is a passage in the first book of the same Chronicles
which declares the choice of the will: "And thou, Solomon, my son, know thou the God of
thy father, and serve Him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind, for the Lord
searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts; if thou seek
Him, He will be found of thee; but if thou forsake Him, He will cast thee off for ever."
But these people find some room for human merit in the clause, "If thou seek Him," and
then the grace is thought to be given according to this merit in what is said in the
ensuing words, "He will be found of thee." And so they labour with all their might to show
that God's grace is given according to our merits,-in other words, that grace is not
grace. For, as the apostle most expressly says, to them Who receive reward according to
merit "the recompense is not reckoned of grace but of debt."

CHAPTER 12.-HE PROVES OUT OF ST. PAUL THAT GRACE IS NOT GIVEN ACCORDING TO MEN'S MERITS.

1 Now there was, no doubt, a decided merit in the Apostle Paul, but it was an evil one,
while he persecuted the Church, and he says of it: "I am not meet to be called an apostle,
because I persecuted the Church of God. And it was while he had this evil merit that a
good one was rendered to him instead of the evil; and, therefore, he went on at once to
say, "But by the grace of God I am what I am. Then, in order to exhibit also his free
will, he added in the next clasue, "And His grace within me was not in vain, but I have
laboured more abundantly than they all. This free will of man he appeals to in the case of
others also, as when he says to them, "We beseech you that ye receive not the grace of God
in vain. Now, how could he so enjoin them, if they received God's grace in such a manner
as to lose their own will? Nevertheless, lest the will itself should be deemed capable of
doing any good thing without the grace of God, after saying, "His grace within me was not
in vain, but I have laboured more abundantly than they all," he immediately added the
qualifying clause, "Yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. In other words, Not
I alone, but the grace of God with me.

2 And thus, neither was it the grace of God alone, nor was it he himself alone, but it was
the grace Of God with him. For his call, however, from heaven and his conversion by that
great and most effectual call, God's grace was alone, because his merits, though great,
were yet evil. Then, to quote one passage more, he says to Timothy: "But be thou a co-
labourer with the gospel, according to the power of God, who saveth us and calleth us with
His holy calling,-not according to our works but according to His own purpose and grace,
which was given us in Christ Jesus. Then, elsewhere, he enumerates his merits, and gives
us this description of their evil character: "For we ourselves also were formerly foolish,
unbelieving, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy,
hateful, and hating one another. Nothing, to be sure, but punishment was due to such a
course of evil desert! God, however, who returns good for evil by His grace, which is not
given according to our merits, enabled the apostle to conclude his statement and say: "But
when the kindness and love of our Saviour God shone upon us,-not of works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, by the laver of regeneration
and renewal of the Holy Ghost, whom He shed upon us abundantly through Jesus Christ our
Saviour; that, being justified by His grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope
of eternal life."

CHAPTER 13 [VI.]-THE GRACE OF GOD IS NOT GIVEN ACCORDING TO MERIT, BUT ITSELF MAKES ALL GOOD DESERT.

1 From these and similar passages of Scripture, we gather the proof that God's grace is
not given according to our merits. The truth is, we see that it is given not only where
there are no good, but even where there are many evil merits preceding: and we see it so
given daily. But it is plain that when it has been given, also our good merits begin to
be,-yet only by means of it; for, were that only to withdraw itself, man falls, not raised
up, but precipitated by free will. Wherefore no man ought, even when he begins to possess
good merits, to attribute them to himself, but to God, who is thus addressed by the
Psalmist: "Be Thou my helper, forsake me not. By saying, "Forsake me not," he shows that
if he were to be forsaken, he is unable of himself to do any good thing. Wherefore also he
says: "I said in my abundance, I shall never be moved," for he thought that he had such an
abundance of good to call his own that he would not be moved. But in order that he might
be taught whose that was, of which he had begun to boast as if it were his own, he was
admonished by the gradual desertion of God's grace, and says: "O Lord, in Thy good
pleasure Thou didst add strength to my beauty. Thou didst, however, turn away Thy face,
and then I was troubled and distressed.

2 Thus, it is necessary for a man that he should be not only justified when unrighteous by
the grace of God,-that is, be changed from unholiness to righteousness,-when he is
requited with good for his evil; but that, even after he has become justified by faith,
grace should accompany him on his way, and he should lean upon it, lest he fall. On this
account it is written concerning the Church herself in the book of Canticles: "Who is this
that cometh up in white raiment, leaning upon her kinsman? Made white is she who by
herself alone could not be white. And by whom has she been made white except by Him who
says by the prophet, "Though your sins be as purple, I will make them white as snow"? At
the time, then, that she was made white, she deserved nothing good; but now that she is
made white, she walketh well;-but it is only by her continuing ever to lean upon Him by
whom she was made white. Wherefore, Jesus Himself, on whom she leans that was made white,
said to His disciples, "Without me ye can do nothing."

CHAPTER 14.-PAUL FIRST RECEIVED GRACE THAT HE MIGHT WIN THE CROWN.

Let us return now to the Apostle Paul, who, as we have found, obtained God's grace, who
recompenses good for evil, without any good merits of his own, but rather with many evil
merits. Let us see what he says when his final sufferings were approaching, writing to
Timothy: "I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have
fought a good fight; I have finished my course; I have kept the faith." He enumerates
these as, of course, now his good merits; so that, as after his evil merits he obtained
grace, so now, after his good merits, he might receive the crown. Observe, therefore, what
follows: "There is henceforth laid up for me," he says, "a crown of righteousness, which
the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day." Now, to whom should the
righteous Judge award the crown, except to him on whom the merciful Father had bestowed
grace? And how could the crown be one "of righteousness," unless the grace had preceded
which "justifieth the ungodly"? How, moreover, could these things now be awarded as of
debt, unless the other had been before given as a free gift?

CHAPTER 15.-THE PELAGIANS PROFESS THAT THE ONLY GRACE WHICH IS NOT GIVEN ACCORDING TO OUR MERITS IS THAT OF THE FORGIVENESS OF SINS.

When, however, the Pelagians say that the only grace which is not given according to our
merits is that whereby his sins are forgiven to man, but that at which is given in the
end, that is, eternal life, is rendered to our preceding merits: they must not be allowed
to go without an answer. If, indeed, they so understand our merits as to acknowledge them,
too, to be the gifts of God, then their opinion would not deserve reprobation. But
inasmuch as they so preach human merits as to declare that a man has them of his own self,
then most rightly the apostle replies: "Who maketh thee to differ from another? And what
hast thou, that thou didst not receive? Now, if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory
as if thou hadst not received it?" To a man who holds such views, it is perfect truth to
say: It is His own gifts that God crowns, not your merits,-if, at least, your merits are
of your own self, not of Him. If, indeed, they are such, they are evil; and God does not
crown them; but if they are good, they are God's gifts, because, as the Apostle James
says, "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the
Father of lights." In accordance with which John also, the Lord's forerunner, declares: "A
man can receive nothing except it be given him from heaven" -from heaven, of course,
because from thence came also the Holy Ghost, when Jesus ascended up on high, led
captivity captive, and gave gifts to men. If, then, your good merits are God's gifts, God
does not crown your merits as your merits, but as His own gifts.

CHAPTER 16 [VII.]-PAUL FOUGHT, BUT GOD GAVE THE VICTORY: HE RAN, BUT GOD SHOWED MERCY.

1 Let us, therefore, consider those very merits of the Apostle Paul which he said the
Righteous Judge would recompense with the crown of righteousness; and let us see whether
these merits of his were really his own-I mean, whether they were obtained by him of
himself, or were the gifts of God. "I have fought," says he, "the good fight; I have
finished my course; I have kept the faith. Now, in the first place, these good works were
nothing, unless they had been preceded by good thoughts. Observe, therefore, what he says
concerning these very thoughts. His words, when writing to the Corinthians, are: "Not that
we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is
of God. Then let us look at each several merit. "I have fought the good fight. Well, now,
I want to know by what power he fought. Was it by a power which he possessed of himself,
or by strength given to him from above? It is impossible to suppose that so great a
teacher as the apostle was ignorant of the law of God, which proclaims the following in
Deuteronomy: "Say not in thine heart, My own strength and energy of hand hath wrought for
me this great power; but thou shall remember the Lord thy God, how it is He that giveth
thee strength to acquire such power. And what avails "the good fight," unless followed by
victory?

2 And who gives the victory but He of whom the apostle says himself, "Thanks be to God,
who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ"? Then, in another passage, having
quoted from the Psalm these words: "Because for Thy sake we are killed all the day long;
we are accounted as sheep for slaughter," he went on to declare: "Nay, in all these things
we are more than conquerors, through Him that loved us. Not by ourselves, therefore, is
the victory accomplished, but by Him who hath loved us. In the second clause he says, "I
have finished my course. Now, who is it that says this, but he who declares in another
passage, "So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that
showeth mercy. And this sentence can by no means be transposed, so that it could be said:
It is not of God, who showeth mercy, but of the man who willeth and runneth. If any person
be bold enough to express the matter thus, he shows himself most plainly to be at issue
with the apostle.

CHAPTER 17·-THE FAITH THAT HE KEPT WAS THE FREE GIFT OF GOD,

His last clause runs thus: "I have kept the faith." But he who says this is the same who
declares in another passage, "I have obtained mercy that I might be faithful." He does not
say, "I obtained mercy because I was faithful," but "in order that I might be faithful,"
thus showing that even faith itself cannot be had without God's mercy, and that it is the
gift of God. This he very expressly teaches us when he says, "For by grace are ye saved
through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God." They might possibly
say, "We received grace because we believed;" as if they would attribute the faith to
themselves, and the grace to God. Therefore, the apostle having said, "Ye are saved
through faith," added," And that not of yourselves, but it is the gift of God." And again,
lest they should say they deserved so great a gift by their works, he immediately added,
"Not of works, lest any man should boast." Not that he denied good works, or emptied them
of their value, when he says that God renders to every man according to his works; but
because works proceed from faith, and not faith from works. Therefore it is from Him that
we have works of righteousness, from whom comes also faith itself, concerning which it is
written, "The just shall live by faith."

CHAPTER 18.-FAITH WITHOUT GOOD WORKS IS NOT SUFFICIENT FOR SALVATION.

Unintelligent persons, however, with regard to the apostle's statement: "We conclude that
a man is justified by faith without the works of the law," have thought him to mean that
faith suffices to a man, even if he lead a bad life, and has no good works. Impossible is
it that such a character should be deemed "a vessel of election" by the apostle, who,
after declaring that "in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor
uncircumcision," adds at once, "but faith which worketh by love." It is such faith which
severs God's faithful from unclean demons,-for even these "believe and tremble," as the
Apostle James says; but they do not do well. Therefore they possess not the faith by which
the just man lives,-the faith which works by love in such wise, that God recompenses it
according to its works with eternal life. But inasmuch as we have even our good works from
God, from whom likewise comes our faith and our love, therefore the selfsame great teacher
of the Gentiles has designated "eternal life" itself as His gracious "gift."

CHAPTER 19 [VIII.]-HOW IS ETERNAL LIFE BOTH A REWARD FOR SERVICE AND A FREE GIFT OF GRACE?

And hence there arises no small question, which must be solved by the Lord's gift. If
eternal life is rendered to good works, as the Scripture most openly declares: "Then He
shall reward every man according to his works:" how can eternal life be a matter of grace,
seeing that grace is not rendered to works, but is given gratuitously, as the apostle
himself tells us: "To him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt;"
and again: "There is a remnant saved according to the election of grace;" with these words
immediately subjoined: "And if of grace, then is it no more of works; otherwise grace is
no more grace"? How, then, is eternal life by grace, when it is received from works? Does
the apostle perchance not say that eternal life is a grace? Nay, he has so called it, with
a clearness which none can possibly gainsay. It requires no acute intellect, but only an
attentive reader, to discover this. For after saying, "The wages of sin is death," he at
once added, "The grace of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."

CHAPTER 20.-THE QUESTION ANSWERED. JUSTIFICATION IS GRACE SIMPLY AND ENTIRELY, ETERNAL LIFE IS REWARD AND GRACE.

1 This question, then, seems to me to be by no means capable of solution, unless we
understand that even those good works of ours, which are recompensed with eternal life,
belong to the grace of God, because of what is said by the Lord Jesus: "Without me ye can
do nothing. And the apostle himself, after saying, "By grace are ye saved through faith;
and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should
boast; saw, of course, the possibility that men would think from this statement that good
works are not necessary to those who believe, but that faith alone suffices for them; and
again, the possibility of men's boasting of their good works, as if they were of
themselves capable of performing them. To meet, therefore, these opinions on both sides,
he immediately added, "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good
works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. What is the purport of
his saying, "Not of works, lest any man should boast," while commending the grace of God?
And then why does he afterwards, when giving a reason for using such words, say, "For we
are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works"? Why, therefore, does it
run, "Not of works, lest any man should boast"? Now, hear and understand. "Not of works"
is spoken of the works which you suppose have their origin in yourself alone;

2 but you have to think of works for which God has moulded (that is, has formed and
created) you. For of these he says, "We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto
good works. Now he does not here speak of that creation which made us human beings, but of
that in reference to which one said who was already in full manhood, "Create in me a clean
heart, O God; concerning which also the apostle says, "Therefore, if any man be in Christ,
he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And
all things are of God. We are framed, therefore, that is, formed and created, "in the good
works which" we have not ourselves prepared, but "God hath before ordained that we should
walk in them. It follows, then, dearly beloved, beyond all doubt,that as your good life is
nothing else than God'sgrace, so also the eternal life which is the recompense of a good
life is the grace of God; moreover it is given gratuitously, even as that is
givengratuitously to which it is given. But that towhich it is given is solely and simply
grace; this therefore is also that which is given to it, because it is its reward;-grace
is for grace, as if remuneration for righteousness; in order that it may be true, because
it is true, that God "shall reward every man according to his works."

CHAPTER 21 [IX.]-ETERNAL LIFE IS "GRACE FOR GRACE."

1 Perhaps you ask whether we ever read in the Sacred Scriptures of "grace for grace. Well
you possess the Gospel according to John, which is perfectly clear in its very great
light. Here John the Baptist says of Christ: "Of His fulness have we all received, even
grace for grace. So that out of His fulness we have received, according to our humble
measure, our particles of ability as it were for leading good lives-"according as God hath
dealt to every man his measure of faith; because "every man hath his proper gift of God;
one after this manner, and another after that. And this is grace. But, over and above
this, we shall also receive "grace for grace," when we shall have awarded to us eternal
life, of which the apostle said: "The grace of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ
our Lord," having just said that "the wages of sin is death. Deservedly did he call it
"wages," because everlasting death is awarded as its proper due to diabolical service.
Now, when it was in his power to say, and rightly to say: "But the wages of righteousness
is eternal life," he yet preferred to say: "The grace of God is eternal life; in order
that we may hence understand that God does not, for any merits of our own, but from His
own divine compassion, prolong our existence to everlasting life. Even as the Psalmist
says to his soul, "Who crowneth thee with mercy and compassion.

2 Well, now, is not a crown given as the reward of good deeds? It is, however, only
because He works good works in good men, of whom it is said, "It is God which worketh in
you both to will and to do of His good pleasure," that the Psalm has it, as just now
quoted: "He crowneth thee with mercy and compassion," since it is through His mercy that
we perform the good deeds to which the crown is awarded. It is not, however, to be for a
moment supposed, because he said, "It is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of
his own good pleasure," that free will is taken away. If this, indeed, had been his
meaning, he would not have said just before, "Work out your own salvation with fear and
trembling. For when the command is given "to work," their free will is addressed; and when
it is added, "with fear and trembling," they are warned against boasting of their good
deeds as if they were their own, by attributing to themselves the performance of anything
good. It is pretty much as if the apostle had this question put to him: "Why did you use
the phrase, `with fear and trembling'? And as if he answered the inquiry of his examiners
by telling them, "For it is God which worketh in you. Because if you fear and tremble, you
do not boast of your good works-as if they were your own, since it is God who works within
you.

CHAPTER 22 [X.] -WHO IS THE TRANSGRESSOR OF THE LAW? THE OLDNESS OF ITS LETTER. THE NEWNESS OF ITS SPIRIT.

1 Therefore, brethren, you ought by free will not do evil but do good; this, indeed, is
the lesson taught us in the law of God, in the Holy Scriptures-both Old and New. Let us,
however, read, and by the Lord's help understand, what the apostle tells us: "Because by
the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight; for by the law is the
knowledge of sin. Observe, he says "the knowledge," not "the destruction," of sin. But
when a man knows sin, and grace does not help him to avoid what he knows, undoubtedly the
law works wrath. And this the apostle explicitly says in another passage. His words are:
"The law worketh wrath. The reason of this statement lies in the fact that God's wrath is
greater in the case of the transgressor who by the law knows sin, and yet commits it; such
a man is thus a transgressor of the law, even as the apostle says in another sentence,"
For where no law is, there is no transgression. It is in accordance with this principle
that he elsewhere says, "That we may serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of
the letter; wishing the law to be here understood :,by "the oldness of the letter," and
what else by "newness of spirit" than grace? Then, that it might not be thought that he
had brought any accusation, or suggested any blame, against the law, he immediately takes
himself to task with this inquiry: "What shall we say, then?

2 Is the law sin? God forbid. He then adds the statement: "Nay, I had not known sin but by
the law; which is of the same import as the passage above quoted: "By the law is the
knowledge of sin. Then: "For I had not known lust," he says, "except the law had said,
`Thou shalt not covet.'" But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all
manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead. For I was alive without the law
once; but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. And the commandment, which
was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. For sin, taking occasion by the
commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. Wherefore the law is holy; and the
commandment holy, just, and good. Was, then, that which is good made death unto me? God
forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, worked death in me by that which is good,-in
order that the sinner, or the sin, might by the commandment become beyond measure. And to
the Galatians he writes: "Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law,
except through faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might
be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law; for by the works of
the law shall no flesh be justified."

CHAPTER 23 [XI.]-THE PELAGIANS MAINTAIN THAT THE LAW IS THE GRACE OF GOD WHICH HELPS US NOT TO SIN.

1 Why, therefore, do those very vain and perverse Pelagians say that the law is the grace
of God by which we are helped not to sin? Do they not, by making such an allegation,
unhappily and beyond all doubt contradict the great apostle? He, indeed, says, that by the
law sin received strength against man; and that man, by the commandment, although it be
holy, and just, and good, nevertheless dies, and that death works in him through that
which is good, from which death there is no deliverance unless the Spirit quickens him,
whom the letter had killed,-as he says in another passage, "The letter killeth, but the
Spirit giveth life. And yet these obstinate persons, blind to God's light, and deaf to His
voice, maintain that the letter which kills gives life, and thus gainsay the quickening
Spirit. "Therefore, brethren" (that I may warn you with better effect in the words of the
apostle himself), "we are debtors not to the flesh, to live after the flesh; for if ye
live after the flesh ye shall die; but if ye through: the Spirit do mortify the deeds of
the body, ye shall live. I have said this to deter your free will from evil, and to exhort
it to good by apostolic words; but yet you must not therefore glory in man,-that is to
say, in your own selves,-and not in the Lord, when you live not after the flesh, but
through the Spirit mortify the deeds of the flesh.

2 For in order that they to whom the apostle addressed this language might not exalt
themselves, thinking that they were themselves able of their own spirit to do such good
works as these, and not by the Spirit of God, after saying to them, "If ye through the
Spirit do mortify the deeds of the flesh, ye shall live," he at once added, "For as many
as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. When, therefore, you by the
Spirit mortify the deeds of the flesh, that you may have life, glorify Him, praise Him,
give thanks to Him by whose Spirit you are so led as to be able to do such things as show
you to be the children of God; "for as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the
sons of God."

CHAPTER 24 [XII.] - WHO MAY BE SAID TO WISH TO ESTABLISH THEIR OWN RIGHTEOUSNESS."GOD'S RIGHTEOUSNESS," SO CALLED, WHICH MAN HAS FROM GOD.

1 As many, therefore, as are led by their own spirit, trusting in their own virtue, with
the addition merely of the law's assistance, without the help of grace, are not the sons
of God. Such are they of whom the same apostle speaks as "being ignorant of God's
righteousness, and wishing toestablish their own righteousness, who have not submitted
themselves to the righteousness of God. He said this of the Jews, who in their self-
assumption rejected grace, and therefore did not believe in Christ. Their own
righteousness, indeed, he says, they wish to establish; and this righteousness is of the
law,-not that the law was established by themselves, but that they had constituted their
righteousness in the law which is of God, when they supposed themselves able to fulfil
that law by their own strength, ignorant of God's righteousness,-not indeed that by which
God is Himself righteous, but that which man has from God. And that you may know that he
designated as theirs the righteousness which is of the law, and as God's that which man
receives from God, hear what he says in another passage, when speaking of Christ: "For
whose sake I counted all things not only as loss, but I deemed them to be dung, that I
might win Christ, and be found in Him-not having my own righteousness, which is of the
law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, which is of God.

2 Now what does he mean by "not having my own righteousness, which is of the law," when
the law is really not his at all, but God's,-except this, that he called it his own
righteousness, although it was of the law, because he thought he could fulfil the law by
his own will, without the aid of grace which is through faith in Christ? Wherefore, after
saying, "Not having my own righteousness, which is of the law," he immediately subjoined,
"But that which is through the faith of Christ, which is of God. This is what they were
ignorant of, of whom he says, "Being ignorant of God's righteousness,"-that is, the
righteousness which is of God (for it is given not by the letter, which kills, but by the
life-giving Spirit), "and wishing to establish their own righteousness," which he
expressly described as the righteousness of the law, when he said, "Not having my own
righteousness, which is of the law; they were not subject to the righteousness of God,-in
other words, they submitted not themselves to the grace of God. For they were under the
law, not under grace, and therefore sin had dominion over them, from which a man is not
freed by the law, but by grace. On which account he elsewhere says, "For sin shall not
have dominion over you; because ye are not under the law, but under grace. Not that the
law is evil; but because they are under its power, whom it makes guilty by imposing
commandments, not by aiding.

3 It is by grace that any one is a doer of the law; and without this grace, he who is
placed under the law will be only a hearer of the law. To such persons he addresses these
words: "Ye who are justified by the law are fallen from grace."

CHAPTER 25 [XIII.]- AS THELAWISNOT,SO NEITHER IS OUR NATURE ITSELF THAT GRACE BY WHICH WE ARE CHRISTIANS.

1 Now who can be so insensible to the words of the apostle, who so foolishly, nay, so
insanely ignorant of the purport of his statement, as to venture to affirm that the law is
grace, when he who knew very well what he was saying emphatically declares, "Ye who are
justified by the law are fallen from grace"? Well, but if the law is not grace, seeing
that in order that the law itself may be kept, it is not the law, but only grace which can
give help, will not nature at any rate be grace? For this, too, the Pelagians have been
bold enough to aver, that grace is the nature in which we were created, so as to possess a
rational mind, by which we are enabled to understand,-formed as we are in the image of
God, so as to have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and
over every living thing that creepeth upon the earth. This, however, is not the grace
which the apostle commends to us through the faith of Jesus Christ. For it is certain that
we possess this nature in common with ungodly men and unbelievers; whereas the grace which
comes through the faith of Jesus Christ belongs only to them to whom the faith itself
appertains. "For all men have not faith.

2 Now, as the apostle, with perfect truth, says to those who by wishing to be justified by
the law have fallen from grace, "If righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in
vain; so likewise, to those who think that the grace which he commends and faith in Christ
receives, is nature, the same language is with the same degree of truth applicable: if
righteousness come from nature, then Christ is dead in vain. But the law was in existence
up to that time, and it did not justify; and nature existed too, but it did not justify.
It was not, then, in vain that Christ died, in order that the law might be fulfilled
through Him who said, "I am come not to destroy the law, but tofulfil it; and that our
nature, which was lost through Adam, might through Him be recovered, who said that "He was
come to seek and to save that which was lost; in whose coming the old fathers likewise who
loved God believed.

CHAPTER 26. - THE PELAGIANS CONTEND THAT THE GRACE, WHICH IS NEITHER THE LAW NOR NATURE, AVAILS ONLY TO THE REMISSION OF PAST SINS, BUT NOT TO THE AVOIDANCE OF FUTURE ONES.

They also maintain that God's grace, which is given through the faith of Jesus Christ, and
which is neither the law nor nature, avails only for the remission of sins that have been
committed, and not for the shunning of future ones, or the subjugation of those which are
now assailing us. Now if all this were true, surely after offering the petition of the
Lord's Prayer, "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors," we could hardly go on
and say, "And lead us not into temptation." The former petition we present that our sins
may be forgiven; the latter, that they may be avoided or subdued,-a favour which we should
by no means beg of our Father who is in heaven if we were able to accomplish it by the
virtue of our human will. Now I strongly advise and earnestly require your Love to read
attentively the book of the blessed Cyprian which he wrote On the Lord's Prayer. As far as
the Lord shall assist you, understand it, and commit it to memory. In this work you will
see how he so appeals to the free will of those whom he edifies in his treatise, as to
show them, that whatever they have to fulfil in the law, they must ask for in the prayer.
But this, of course, would be utterly empty if the human will were sufficient for the
performance without the help of God.

CHAPTER 27 [XIV.]-GRACE EFFECTS THE FULFILMENT OF THE LAW, THE DELIVERANCE OF NATURE, AND THE SUPPRESSION OF SIN'S DOMINION.

It has, however, been shown to demonstration that instead of really maintaining free will,
they have only inflated a theory of it, which, having no stability, has fallen to the
ground. Neither the knowledge of God's law, nor nature, nor the mere remission of sins is
that grace which is given to us through our Lord Jesus Christ; but it is this very grace
which accomplishes the fulfilment of the law, and the liberation of nature, and the
removal of the dominion of sin. Being, therefore, convicted on these points, they resort
to another expedient, and endeavour to show in some way or other that the grace of God is
given us according to our merits. For they say: "Granted that it is not given to us
according to the merits of good works, inasmuch as it is through it that we do any good
thing, still it is given to us according to the merits of a good will; for," say they,
"the good will of him who prays precedes his prayer, even as the will of the believer
preceded his faith, so that according to these merits the grace of God who hears,
follows."

CHAPTER 28.-FAITH IS THE GIFT OF GOD.

1 I have already discussed the point concerning faith, that is, concerning the will of him
who believes, even so far as to show that it appertains to grace,-so that the apostle did
not tell us, "I have obtained mercy because I was faithful; but he said, "I have obtained
mercy in order to be faithful. And there are many other passages of similar import,-among
them that in which he bids us "think soberly, according as God hath dealt out to every man
the proportion of faith; and that which I have already quoted: "By grace are ye saved
through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God; and again another in the
same Epistle to the Ephesians: "Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith, from God
the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ; and to the same effect that passage in which he
says, "For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ not only to believe on Him, but
also to suffer for His sake. Both alike are therefore due to the grace of God,-the faith
of those who believe, and the patience of those who suffer, because the apostle spoke of
both as given. Then, again, there is the passage, especially noticeable, in which he,
says, "We, having the same spirit of faith," forhis phrase is not "the knowledge of
faith," but "the spirit of faith;

2 and he expressed himself thus in order that we might understand how that faith is given
to us, even when it is not sought, so that other blessings may be granted to it at its
request. For "how," says he, "shall they call upon Him in whom they have not believed? The
spirit of grace, therefore, causes us to have faith, in order that through faith we may,
on praying for it, obtain the ability to do what we are commanded. On this account the
apostle himself constantly puts faith before the law; since we are not able to do what the
law commands unless we obtain the strength to do it by the prayer of faith.

CHAPTER 29. - GOD IS ABLE TO CONVERT OPPOSING WILLS, AND TO TAKE AWAY FROM THE HEART ITS HARDNESS.

1 Now if faith is simply of free will, and is not given by God, why do we pray for those
who will not believe, that they may believe? This it would be absolutely useless to do,
unless we believe, with perfect propriety, that Almighty God is able to turn to belief
wills that are perverse and opposed to faith. Man's free will is addressed when it is
said, "Today, if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts. But if God were not able
to remove from the human heart even its obstinacy and hardness, He would not say, through
the prophet, "I will take from them their heart of stone, and will give them a heart of
flesh. That all this was foretold in reference to the New Testament is shown clearly
enough by the apostle when he says, "Ye are our epistle, . . . written not with ink, but
with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshly tables of the
heart. We must not, of course, suppose that such a phrase as this is used as if those
might live in a fleshly way who ought to live spiritually; but inasmuch as a stone has no
feeling, with which man's hard heart is compared, what was there left Him to compare man's
intelligent heart with but the flesh, which possesses feeling? For this is what is said by
the prophet Ezekiel: "I will give them another heart, and I will put a new spirit within
you;

2 and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh;
that they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them: and they shall
be my people, and I will be their God, saith the Lord. Now can we possibly, without
extreme absurdity, maintain that there previously existed in any man the good merit of a
good will, to entitle him to the removal of his stony heart, when all the while this very
heart of stone signifies nothing else than a will of the hardest kind and such as is
absolutely inflexible against God? For where a good will precedes, there is, of course, no
longer a heart of stone.

CHAPTER 30.-THE GRACE BY WHICH THE STONY HEART IS REMOVED IS NOT PRECEDED BY GOOD DESERTS, BUT BY EVIL ONES.

1 In another passage, also, by the same prophet, God, in the clearest language, shows us
that it is not owing to any good merits on the part of men, but for His own name's sake,
that He does these things. This is His language: "This I do, O house of Israel, but for
mine holy name's sake, which ye have profaned among the heathen, whither ye went. And I
will sanctify my great name, which was profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned
in the midst of them; and the heathen shall know that I am the Lord, saith the Lord God,
when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes. For I will take you from among the
heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land. Then
will I sprinkle you with clean water, and ye shall be clean: from all your own filthiness,
and from all your idols will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new
spirit will I put within you; and the stony heart shall be taken away out of your flesh,
and I will give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and will cause
you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.

2 Now who is so blind as not to see, and who so stone-like as not to feel, that this grace
is not given according to the merits of a good will, when the Lord declares and testifies
"It is I, O house of Israel, who do this, but for my holy name's sake "? Now why did He
say "It is I that do it, but for my holy name's sake," were it not that they should not
think that it was owing to their own good merits that these things were happening, as the
Pelagians hesitate not unblushingly to say? But there were not only no good merits of
theirs, but the Lord shows that evil ones actually preceded; for He says, "But for my holy
name's sake, which ye have profaned among the heathen. Who can fail to observe how
dreadful is the evil of profaning the Lord's own holy name? And yet, for the sake of this
very name of mine, says He, which ye have profaned, I, even I, will make you good but not
for your own sakes; and, as He adds "I will sanctify my great name, which was profaned
among the heathen, which ye have profaned in the midst of them. He says that He sanctifies
His name, which He had already declared to be holy. Therefore, this is just what we pray
for in the Lord's Prayer-"Hollowed be Thy name. We ask for the hallowing among men of that
which is in itself undoubtedly always holy.

3 Then it follows, "And the heathen shall know that I am the Lord, saith the Lord God,
when I shall be sanctified in you. Although, then, He is Himself always holy, He is,
nevertheless, sanctified in those on whom He bestows His grace, by taking from them that
stony heart by which they profaned the name of the Lord.

CHAPTER 31 [XV.] - FREE WILL HAS ITS FUNCTION IN THE HEART'S CONVERSION; BUT GRACE TOO HAS ITS.

1 Lest, however, it should be thought that men themselves in this matter do nothing by
free will, it is said in the Psalm, "Harden not your hearts; and in Ezekiel himself, "Cast
away from you all your transgressions, which ye have impiously committed against me; and
make you a new heart and a new spirit; and keep all my commandments. For why will ye die,
O house of Israel, saith the Lord? for I have no pleasure in the death of him that dieth,
saith the Lord God: and turn ye, and live. We should remember that it is He who says,
"Turn ye and live," to whom it is said in prayer, "Turn us again, O God. We should
remember that He says, "Cast away from you all your transgressions," when it is even He
who justifies the ungodly. We should remember that He says, "Make you a new heart and a
new spirit," who also promises, "I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit will I put
within you. How is it, then, that He who says, "Make you," also says, "I will give you "?
Why does He command, if He is to give? Why does He give if man is to make, except it be
that He gives what He commands when He helps him to obey whom He commands? There is,
however, always within us a free will,-but it is not always good;

2 for it is either free from righteousness when it serves sin,-and then it is evil,-or
else it is free from sin when it serves righteousness,-and then it is good. But the grace
of God is always I good; and by it it comes to pass that a man is of a good will, though
he was before of an evil one. By it also it comes to pass that the very good will, which
has now begun to be, is enlarged, and made so great that it is able to fulfil the divine
commandments which it shall wish, when it shall once firmly and perfectly wish. This is
the purport of what the Scripture says: "If thou wilt, thou shalt keep the commandments;
so that the man who wills but is not able knows that he does not yet fully will, and prays
that he may have so great a will that it may suffice for keeping the commandments. And
thus, indeed, he receives assistance to perform what he is commanded. Then is the will of
use when we have ability; just as ability is also then of use when we have the will. For
what does it profit us if we will what we are unable to do, or else do not will what we
are able to do?

CHAPTER 32 [XVI.] - IN WHAT SENSE IT IS RIGHTLY SAID THAT, IF WE LIKE, WE MAY KEEP GOD'S COMMANDMENTS.

1 The Pelagians think that they know something great when they assert that "God would not
command what He knew could not be done by man. Who can be ignorant of this? But God
commands some things which we cannot do, in order that we may know what we ought to ask of
Him. For this is faith itself, which obtains by prayer what the law commands. He, indeed,
who said, "If thou wilt, thou shalt keep the commandments," did in the same book of
Ecclesiasticus afterwards say, "Who shall give a watch before my mouth, and a seal of
wisdom upon my lips, that I fall not suddenly thereby, and that my tongue destroy me not.
Now he had certainly heard and received these commandments: "Keep thy tongue from evil,
and thy lips from speaking guile. Forasmuch, then, as what he said is true: "If thou wilt,
thou shalt keep the commandments," why does he want a watch to be given before his mouth,
like him who says in the Psalm, "Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth "? Why is he not
satisfied with God's commandment and his own will; since, if he has the will, he shall
keep the commandments How many of God's commandments are directed against pride! He is
quite aware of them; if he will, he may keep them. Why, therefore, does he shortly
afterwards say, "O God, Father and God of my life, give me not a proud look"? The law had
long ago said to him, "Thou shalt not covet;

2 let him then only will, and do what he is bidden, because, if he has the will, he shall
keep the commandments. Why, therefore, does he afterwards say, "Turn away from me
concupiscence"? Against luxury, too, how many commandments has God enjoined! Let a man
observe them; because, if he will, he may keep the commandments. But what means that cry
to God, "Let not the greediness of the belly nor lust of the flesh take hold on me!"?
Now,if we were to put this question to him personally, he would very rightly answer us and
say, From that prayer of mine, in which I offer this particular petition to God, you may
understand in what sense I said, "If thou wilt, thou mayest keep the commandments. For it
is certain that we keep the commandments if we will; but because the will is prepared by
the Lord, we must ask of Him for such a force of will as suffices to make us act by the
willing. It is certain that it is we that will when we will, but it is He who makes us
will what is good, of whom it is said (as he has just now expressed it), "The will is
prepared by the Lord. Of the same Lord it is said, "The steps of a man are ordered by the
Lord, and his way doth He will. Of the same Lord again it is said, "It is God who worketh
inyou, even to will!

3 It is certain that it is we that act when we act; but it is He who makes us act, by
applying efficacious powers to our will, who has said, "I will make you to walk in my
statutes, and to observe my judgments, and to do them. When he says, "I will make you . .
. to do them," what else does He say in fact than, "I will take away from you your heart
of stone," from which used to arise your inability to act, "and I will give you a heart of
flesh," in order that you may act? And what does this promise amount to but this: I will
remove your hard heart, out of which you did not act, and I will give you an obedient
heart, out of which you shall act? It is He who causes us to act, to whom the human
suppliant says, "Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth. That is to say: Make or enable me,
O Lord, to set a watch before my mouth,-a benefit which he had already obtained from God
who thus described its influence: "I set a watch upon my mouth."

CHAPTER 33 [XVII.]-A GOOD WILL MAY BE SMALL AND WEAK; AN AMPLE WILL, GREAT LOVE. OPERATING AND COOPERATING GRACE.

1 He, therefore, who wishes to do God's commandment, but is unable, already possesses a
good will, but as yet a small and weak one; he will, however, become able when he shall
have acquired a great and robust will. When the martyrs did the great commandments which
they obeyed, they acted by a great will,-that is, with great love. Of this love the Lord
Himself thus speaks: "Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for
his friends. In accordance with this, the apostle also says, "He that loveth his neighbour
hath fulfilled the law. For this: Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill,
Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is
briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law. This
love the Apostle Peter did not yet possess, when he for fear thrice denied the Lord.
"There is no fear in love," says the Evangelist John in his first Epistle, "but perfect
love casteth out fear. But yet, however small and imperfect his love was, it was not
wholly wanting when he said to the Lord, "I will lay down my life for Thy sake; for he
supposed himself able to effect what he felt himself willing to do.

2 And who was it that had begun to give him his love, however small, but He who prepares
the will, and perfects by His co-operation what He initiates by His operation? Forasmuch
as in beginning He works in us that we may have the will, and in perfecting works with us
when we have the will. On which account the apostle says, "I am confident of this very
thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus
Christ. He operates, therefore, without us, in order that we may will; but when we will,
and so will that we may act, He co-operates with us. We can, however, ourselves do nothing
to effect good works of piety without Him either working that we may will, or co-working
when we will. Now, concerning His working that we may will, it is said: "It is God which
worketh in you, even to will. While of His co-working with us, when we will and act by
willing, the apostle says, "We know that in all things there is co-working for good to
them that love God. What does this phrase, "all things," mean, but the terrible and cruel
sufferings which affect our condition? That burden, indeed, of Christ, which is heavy for
our infirmity, becomes light to love. For to such did the Lord say that His burden was
light, as Peter was when he suffered for Christ, not as he was when he denied Him.

CHAPTER 34. - THE APOSTLE'S EULOGY OF LOVE. CORRECTION TO BE ADMINISTERED WITH LOVE.

1 This charity, that is, this will glowing with intensest love, the apostle eulogizes with
these words: "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or
distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or the sword? (As it is
written, For Thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the
slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors, through Him that loved
us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor
things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall
be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. And in
another passage he says, "And yet I show unto you a more excellent way. Though I speak
with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I am become as sounding brass,
or a tinkling cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all
mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove
mountains, and have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the
poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not love, it profiteth me nothing.
Love suffereth long, and is kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth not itself, is not
puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked,
thinketh no evil;

2 rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; beareth all things, believeth all
things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. Love never faileth. And a little
afterwards he says, "And now abideth faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of
these is love. Follow after love. He also says to the Galatians, "For, brethren, ye have
been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love
serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this, Thou shalt love
thy neighbour as thyself. This is the same in effect as what he writes to the Romans: "He
that loveth another hath fulfilled the law. In like manner he says to the Colossians, "And
above all these things, put on love, which is the bond of perfectness. And to Timothy he
writes, "Now the end of the commandment is love; and he goes on to describe the quality of
this grace, saying, "Out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith
unfeigned. Moreover, when he says to the Corinthians, "Let all your things be done with
love," he shows plainly enough that even those chastisements which are deemed sharp and
bitter by those who are corrected thereby, are to be administered with love. Accordingly,
in another passage, after saying, "Warn them that are unruly, comfort the feeble-minded,
support the weak, be patient toward all men," he immediately added, "See that none render
evil for evil unto any man.

3 Therefore, even when the unruly are corrected, it is not rendering evil for evil, but
contrariwise, good. However, what but love worketh all these things?

CHAPTER 35.-COMMENDATIONS OF LOVE.

The Apostle Peter, likewise, says, "And, above all things, have fervent love among
yourselves: for love shall cover the multitude of sins." The Apostle James also says, "If
ye fulfil the royal law, according to the Scripture, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as
thyself, ye do well." So also the Apostle John says, "He that loveth his brother abideth
in the right;" again, in another passage, "Whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of
God, neither he that loveth not his brother; for this is the message which we have heard
from the beginning, that we should love one another." Then he says again, "This is His
commandment, that we should believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one
another." Once more: "And this commandment have we from Him that he who loveth God love
his brother also." Then shortly afterwards he adds, "By this we know that we love the
children of God, when we love God, and keep His commandments; for this is the love of God,
that we keep His commandments: and His commandments are not grievous." While, in his
second Epistle, it is written, "Not as though I wrote a new commandment unto thee, but
that which we had from the beginning, that we love one another."

CHAPTER 36.-LOVE COMMENDED BY OUR LORD HIMSELF.

Moreover, the Lord Jesus Himself teaches us that the whole law and the prophets hang upon
the two precepts of love to God and love to our neighbour. Concerning these two
commandments the following is written in the Gospel according to St. Mark: "And one of the
scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that He had
answered them well, asked Him: Which is the first commandment of all? And Jesus answered
him: The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel! the Lord our God is one Lord;
and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with
all thy mind, and with all thy strength. This is the first commandment. And the second is
like unto it: Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is none other commandment
greater than these." Also, in the Gospel according to St. John, He says, "A new
commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also
love one another. By this shall all men know that, ye are my disciples, if ye have love to
oneanother."

CHAPTER 37 [XVIII.]-THE LOVE WHICH FULFILS THE COMMANDMENTS IS NOT OF OURSELVES, BUT OF GOD.

1 All these commandments, however, respecting love or charity (which are so great, and
such that whatever action a man may think he does well is by no means well done if done
without love) would be given to men in vain if they had not free choice of will. But
forasmuch as these precepts are given in the law, both old and new (although in the new
came the grace which was promised in the old, but the law without grace is the letter
which killeth, but in grace the Spirit which giveth life), from what source is there in
men the love of God and of one's neighbour but from God Himself? For indeed, if it be not
of God but of men, the Pelagians have gained the victory; but if it come from God, then we
have vanquished the Pelagians. Let, then, the Apostle John sit in judgment between us; and
let him say to us, "Beloved, let us love one another. Now, when they begin to extol
themselves on these words of John, and to ask why this precept is addressed to us at all
if we have not of our own selves to love one another, the same apostle proceeds at once,
to their confusion, to add, "For love is of God."! It is not of ourselves, therefore, but
it is of God. Wherefore, then, is it said, "Let us love one another, for love is of God,"
unless it be as a precept to our free will, admonishing it to seek the gift of God?

2 Now, this would be indeed a thoroughly fruitless admonition if the will did not
previously receive some donation of love, which might seek to be enlarged so as to fulfil
whatever command was laid upon it. When it is said, "Let us love one another," it is law;
when it is said, "For love is of God," it is grace. For God's "wisdom carries law and
mercy upon her tongue. Accordingly, it is written in the Psalm, "For He who gave the law
will give blessings."

CHAPTER 38.-WE WOULD NOT LOVE GOD UNLESS HE FIRST LOVED US. THE APOSTLES CHOSE CHRIST BECAUSE THEY WERE CHOSEN; THEY WERE NOT CHOSEN BECAUSE THEY CHOSE CHRIST.

1 Let no one, then, deceive you, my brethren, for we should not love God unless He first
loved us. John again gives us the plainest proof of this when he says, "We love Him
because He first loved us. Grace makes us lovers of the law; but the law itself, without
grace, makes us nothing but breakers of the law. And nothing else than this is shown us by
the words of our Lord when He says to His disciples, Ye have not chosen me, but I have
chosen you. For if we first loved Him, in order that by this merit He might love us, then
we first chose Him that we might deserve to be chosen by Him. He, however, who is the
Truth says otherwise, and flatly contradicts this vain conceit of men. "You have not
chosen me," He says. If, therefore, you have not chosen me, undoubtedly you have not loved
me (for how could they choose one whom they did not love?). "But I," says He, "have chosen
you. And then could they possibly help choosing Him afterwards, and preferring Him to all
the blessings of this world? But it was because they had been chosen, that they chose Him;
not because they chose Him that they were chosen. There could be no merit in men's choice
of Christ, if it were not that God's grace was prevenient in His choosing them. Whence the
Apostle Paul pronounces in the Thessalonians this benediction:

2 "The Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward another, and toward all
men. This benediction to love one another He gave us, who had also given us a law that we
should love each other. Then, in another passage addressed to the same church, seeing that
there now existed in some of its members the disposition which he had wished them to
cultivate, he says, "We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet,
because that your faith groweth exceedingly, and the charity of every one of you all
toward each other aboundeth. This he said lest they should make a boast of the great good
which they were enjoying from God, as if they had it of their own mere selves. Because,
then, your faith has so great a growth (this is the purport of his words), and the love of
every one of you all toward each other so greatly abounds, we ought to thank God
concerning you, but not to praise you, as if you possessed these gifts of yourselves.

CHAPTER 39.-THE SPIRIT OF FEAR A GREAT GIFT OF GOD.

1 The apostle also says to Timothy, "For God hath not given to us the spirit of fear, but
of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. Now in respect of this passage of the apostle,
we must be on our guard against supposing that we have not received the spirit of the fear
of God, which is undoubtedly a great gift of God, and concerning which the prophet Isaiah
says, "The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon thee, the spirit of wisdom and
understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and piety, the
spirit of the fear of the Lord. It is not the fear with which Peter denied Christ that we
have received the spirit of, but that fear concerning which Christ Himself says, "Fear Him
who hath power to destroy both soul and body in hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear Him. This,
indeed, He said, lest we should deny Him from the same fear which shook Peter; for such
cowardice he plainly wished to be removed from us when He, in the preceding passage, said,
"Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do.
It is not of this fear that we have received the spirit, but of power, and of love, and of
a sound mind. And of this spirit the same Apostle Paul discourses to the Romans: "We glory
in tribulations, knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; and
experience, hope; and hope maketh not ashamed;

2 because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given
unto us. Not by ourselves, therefore, but by the Holy Ghost which is given to us, does it
come to pass that, through that very love, which he shows us to be the gift of God,
tribulation does not do away with patience, but rather produces it. Again, he says to the
Ephesians, "Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith. Great blessings these! Let him
tell us, however, whence they come. "From God the Father," says he immediately afterwards,
"and the Lord Jesus Christ. These great blessings, therefore, are nothing else than God's
gifts to us.

CHAPTER 40 [XIX.]-THE IGNORANCE OF THE PELAGIANS IN MAINTAINING THAT THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE LAW COMES FROM GOD, BUT THAT LOVE COMES FROM OURSELVES.

1 It is no wonder that light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not.
In John's Epistle the Light declares," Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed
upon us, that we should be called the sons of God. And in the Pelagian writings the
darkness says, "Love comes to us of our own selves. Now, if they only possessed the true,
that is, Christian love, they would also know whence they obtained possession of it; even
as the apostle knew when he said, "But we have received not the spirit of the world, but
the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of
God. John says, "God is love. And thus the Pelagians affirm that they actually have God
Himself, not from God, but from their own selves! and although they allow that we have the
knowledge of the law from God, they will yet have it that love is from our very selves.
Nor do they listen to the apostle when he says, "Knowledge puffeth up, but love edifieth.
Now what can be more absurd, nay, what more insane and more alien from the very sacredness
of love itself, than to maintain that from God proceeds the knowledge which, apart from
love, puffs us up, while the love which prevents the possibility of this inflation of
knowledge springs from ourselves?

2 And again, when the apostle speaks of "the love of Christ as surpassing knowledge," what
can be more insane than to suppose that the knowledge which must be subordinated to love
comes from God, while the love which surpasses knowledge comes from man? The true faith,
however, and sound doctrine declare that both graces are from God; the Scripture says,
"From His face cometh knowledge and understanding; and another Scripture says, "Love is of
God. We read of "the Spirit of wisdom and understanding. Also of "the Spirit of power, and
of love, and of a sound mind? But love is a greater gift than knowledge; for whenever a
man has the gift of knowledge, love is necessary by the side of it, that he be not puffed
up. For "love envieth not, vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up."


ON GRACE AND FREE WILL
======================

ON GRACE AND FREE WILL continued

CHAPTER 41 [XX.]-THE WILLS OF MEN ARE SO MUCH IN THE POWER OF GOD, THAT HE CAN TURN THEM WHITHERSOEVER IT PLEASES HIM.

1 I think I have now discussed the point fully enough in opposition to those who
vehemently oppose the grace of God, by which, however, thehuman will is not taken away,
but changed from bad to good, and assisted when it is good. I think, too, that I have so
discussed the subject, that it is not so much I myself as the inspired Scripture which has
spoken to you, in the clearest testimonies of truth; and if this divine record be looked
into carefully, it shows us that not only men's good wills, which God Himself converts
from bad ones, and, when converted by Him, directs to good actions and to eternal life,
but also those which follow the world are so entirely at the disposal of God, that He
turns them whithersoever He wills, and whensoever He wills,-to bestow kindness on some,
and to heap punishment on others, as He Himself judges right by a counsel most secret to
Himself, indeed, but beyond all doubt most righteous. For we find that some sins are even
the punishment of other sins, as are those "vessels of wrath" which the apostle describes
as "fitted to destruction; as is also that hardening of Pharaoh, the purpose of which is
said to be to set forth in him the power of God;

2 as, again, is the flight of the Israelites from the face of the enemy before the city of
Ai, for fear arose in their heart so that they fled, and this was done that their sin
might be punished in the way it was right that it should be; by reason of which the Lord
said to Joshua the son of Nun, "The children of Israel shall not be able to stand before
the face of their enemies. What is the meaning of, "They shall not be able to stand"? Now,
whydid they not stand by free will, but, with a will perplexed by fear, took to flight,
were it not that God has the lordship even over men's wills, and when He is angry turns to
fear whomsoever He pleases? Was it not of their own will that the enemies of the children
of Israel fought against the people of God, as led by Joshua, the son of Nun? And yet the
Scripture says, "It was of the Lord to harden their hearts, that they should come against
Israel in battle, that they might be exterminated," And was it not likewise of his own
will that the wicked son of Gera cursed King David? And yet what says David, full of true,
and deep, and pious wisdom? What did he say to him who wanted to smite the reviler?
"What," said he, "have I to do with you, ye sons of Zeruiah? Let him alone and let him
curse, because the Lord hath said unto him, Curse David.

3 Who, then, shall say, Wherefore hast thou done so? And then the inspired Scripture, as
if it would confirm the king's profound utterance by repeating it once more, tells us:
"And David said to Abishai, and to all his servants, Behold, my son, which came forth from
my bowels, seeketh my life: how much more may this Benjamite do it! Let him alone, and let
him curse; for the Lord hath hidden him. It may be that, the Lord will look on my
humiliation, and will: requite me good for his cursing this day. Now what prudent reader
will fail to understand in what way the Lord bade this profane man to curse David? It was
not by a command that He bade him, inwhich case his obedience would be praiseworthy; but
He inclined the man's will, which had become debased by his own perverseness, to commit
this sin, by His own just and secret judgment. :Therefore it is said, "The Lord said unto
him. Now if this person had obeyed a command of God, he would have deserved to be praised
rather than punished, as we know he was afterwards punished for this sin. Nor is the
reason an obscure one why the Lord told him after this manner to curse David. "It may be,"
said the humbled king, "that the Lord will look on my humiliation, and will requite me
good for his cursing this day.

4 See, then, what proof we have here that God uses the hearts of even wicked men for the
praise and assistance of the good. Thus did He make use of Judas when betraying Christ;
thus did He make use of the Jews when they crucified Christ. And how vast the blessings
which from these instances He has bestowed upon the nations that should believe in Him! He
also uses our worst enemy, the devil himself, but in the best way, to exercise and try the
faith and piety of good men,-not for Himself indeed, who knows all things before they come
to pass, but for our sakes, for whom it was necessary that such a discipline should be
gone through with us. Did not Absalom choose by his own will the counsel which was
detrimental to him? And yet the reason of his doing so was that the Lord had heard his
father's prayer that it might be so. Wherefore the Scripture says that "the Lord appointed
to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel, to the intent that the Lord might bring all
evils upon Absalom. It called Ahithophel's counsel "good," because it was for the moment
of advantage to his purpose. It was in favour of the son against his father, against whom
he had rebelled; and it might have crashed him, had not the Lord defeated the counsel
which Ahithophel had given, by acting on the heart of Absalom so that he rejected this
counsel, and chose another which was not expedient for him.

CHAPTER 45 [XXI]-GOD DOES WHATSOEVER HE WILLS IN THE HEARTS OF EVEN WICKED MEN.

1 Who can help trembling at those judgments of God by which He does in the hearts of even
wicked men whatsoever He wills, at the same time rendering to them according to their
deeds? Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, rejected the salutary counsel of the old men, not to
deal harshly with the people, and preferred listening to the words of the. young men of
his own age, by returning a rough answer to those to whom he should have spoken gently.
Now whence arose such conduct, except from his own will? Upon this, however, the ten
tribes of Israel revolted from him, and chose for themselves another king, even Jeroboam,
that the will of God in His anger might be accomplished which He had predicted would come
to pass. For what says the Scripture? "The king hearkened not unto the people; for the
turning was from the Lord, that He might perform His saying, which the Lord spake to
Ahijah the Shilonite concerning Jeroboam the son of Nebat. All this, indeed, was done by
the will of man, although the turning was from the Lord. Read the books of the Chronicles,
and you will find the following passage in the second book: "Moreover, the Lord stirred up
against Jehoram the spirit of the Philistines, and of the Arabians, that were neighbours
to the Ethiopians; and they came up to the land of Judah, and ravaged it, and carried away
all the substance which was found in the king's house.

2 Here it is shown that God stirs up enemies to devastate the countries which He adjudges
deserving of such chastisement. Still, did these Philistines and Arabians invade the land
of Judah to waste it with no will of their own? Or were their movements so directed by
their own will that the Scripture lies which tells us that "the Lord stirred up their
spirit" to do all this? Both statements to be sure are true, because they both came by
their own will, and yet the Lord stirred up their spirit; and this may also with equal
truth be stated the other way: The Lord both stirred up their spirit, and yet they came of
their own will. For the Almighty sets in motion even in the innermost hearts of men the
movement of their will, so that He does through their agency whatsoever He wishes to
perform through them,-even He who knows not how to will anything in unrighteousness. What,
again, is the purport of that which the man of God said to King Amaziah: "Let not the army
of Israel go with thee; for the Lord is not with Israel, even with all the children of
Ephraim: for if thou shalt think to obtain with these, the Lord shall put thee to flight
before thine enemies: for God hath power either to strengthen or to put to flight "?

3 Now, how does the power of God help some in war by giving them confidence, and put
others to flight by injecting fear into them, except it be that He who has made all things
according to His own will, in heaven and on earth, also works in the hearts of men? We
read also what Joash, king of Israel, said when he sent a message to Amaziah, king of
Judah, who wanted to fight with him. After certain other words, he added, "Now tarry at
home; why dost thou challenge me to thine hurt, that thou shouldest fall, even thou, and
Judah with thee? Then the Scripture has added this sequel: "But Amaziah would not hear;
for it came of God, that he might be delivered into their hands, because they sought after
the gods of Edom. Behold, now, how God, wishing to punish the sin of idolatry, wrought
this in this man's heart, with whom He was indeed justly angry, not to listen to sound
advice, but to despise it, and go to the battle, in which he with his army was routed. God
says by the prophet Ezekiel, "If the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I
the Lord have deceived that prophet: I will stretch out my hand upon him, and will destroy
him from the midst of my people Israel. Then there is the book of Esther, who was a woman
of the people of Israel, and in the land of their captivity became the wife of the foreign
King Ahasuerus.

4 In this book it is written, that, being driven by necessity to interpose in behalf of
her people, whom the king had ordered to be slain in every part of his dominions, she
prayed to the Lord. So strongly was she urged by the necessity of the case, that she even
ventured into the royal presence without the king's command, and contrary to her own
custom. Now observe what the Scripture says: "He looked at her like a bull in the
vehemence of his indignation; and the queen was afraid, and her colour changed as she
fainted; and she bowed herself upon the head of her delicate maiden which went before her.
But God turned the king, and transformed his indignation into gentleness. The Scripture
says in the Proverbs of Solomon, "Even as the rush of water, so is the heart of a king in
God's hand; He will turn it in whatever way He shall choose. Again, in the 104th Psalm, in
reference to the Egyptians, one reads what God did to them: "And He turned their heart to
hate His people, to deal subtilly with His servants. Observe, likewise, what is written in
the letters of the apostles. In the Epistle of Paul, the Apostle, to the Romans occur
these words: "Wherefore God gave them up to uncleanness, through the lusts of their own
hearts; and a little afterwards: "For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections;
again, in the next passage:

5 "And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a
reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient. So also in his second Epistle
to the Thessalonians, the apostle says of sundry persons, "Inasmuch as they received not
the love of the truth, that they might be saved; therefore also God shall send them strong
delusion, that they should believe a lie; that they all might be judged who believed not
the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness."

CHAPTER 43.-GOD OPERATES ON MEN'S HEARTS: TO INCLINE THEIR WILLS WHITHERSOEVER HE PLEASES.

From these statements of the inspired word, and from similar passages which it would take
too long to quote in full, it is, I think, sufficiently clear that God works in the hearts
of men to incline their wills whithersoever He wills, whether to good deeds according to
His mercy, or to evil after their own deserts; His own judgment being sometimes manifest,
sometimes secret, but always righteous. This ought to be the fixed and immoveable
conviction of your heart, that there is no unrighteousness with God. Therefore, whenever
you read in the Scriptures of Truth, that men are led aside, or that their hearts are
blunted and hardened by God, never doubt that some ill deserts of their own have first
occurred, so that they justly suffer these things. Thus you will not run counter to that
proverb of Solomon: "The foolishness of a man perverteth his ways, yet he blameth God in
his heart." Grace, however, is not bestowed according to men's deserts; otherwise grace
would be no longer grace. For grace is so designated because it is given gratuitously. Now
if God is able, either through the agency of angels (whether good ones or evil), or in any
other way whatever, to operate in the hearts even of the wicked, in return for their
deserts,-whose wickedness was not made by Him, but was either derived originally from
Adam, or increased by their own will,-what is there to wonder at if, through the Holy
Spirit, He works good in the hearts of the elect, who has wrought it that their hearts
become good instead of evil?

CHAPTER 44 [XXII.] - GRATUITOUS GRACE EXEMPLIFIED IN INFANTS.

1 Men, however, may suppose that there are certain good deserts which they think are
precedent to justification through God's grace; all the while failing to see, when they
express such an opinion, that they do nothing else than deny grace. But, as I have already
remarked, let them suppose what they like respecting the case of adults, in the case of
infants, at any rate, the Pelagians find no means of answering the difficulty. For these
in receiving grace have no will; from the influence of which they can pretend to any
precedent merit. We see, moreover, how they cry and struggle when they are baptized, and
feel the divine sacraments. Such conduct would, of course, be charged against them as a
great impiety, if they already had free will in use; and notwithstanding this, grace
cleaves to them even in their resisting struggles. But most certainly there is no
prevenient merit, otherwise the grace would be no longer grace. Sometimes, too, this grace
is bestowed upon the children of unbelievers, when they happen by some means or other to
fall, by reason of God's secret providence, into the hands of pious persons; but, on the
other hand, the children of believers fail to obtain grace, some hindrance occurring to
prevent the approach of help to rescue them in their danger. These things, no doubt,
happen through the secret providence of God, whose judgments are unsearchable, and His
ways past finding out. These are the words of the apostle;

2 and you should observe what he had previously said, to lead him to add such a remark. He
was discoursing about the Jews and Gentiles, when he wrote to the Romans-themselves
Gentiles-to this effect: "For as ye, in times past, have not believed God, yet have now
obtained mercy through their unbelief; even so have these also now not believed, that
through your mercy they also may obtain mercy; for God hath concluded them all in
unbelief, that He might have mercy upon all. Now, after he had thought upon what he said,
full of wonder at the certain truth of his own assertion, indeed, but astonished at its
great depth, how God concluded all in unbelief that He might have mercy upon all,-as if
doing evil that good might come,-he at once exclaimed, and said, "O the depth of the
riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His judgments, and
His ways past finding out! Perverse men, who do not reflect upon these unsearchable
judgments and untraceable ways, indeed, but are ever prone to censure, being unable to
understand, have supposed the apostle to say, and censoriously gloried over him for
saying, "Let us do evil, that good may come! God forbid that the apostle should say so!
But men, without understanding, have thought that this was in fact said, when they heard
these words of the apostle: "Moreover, the law entered, that the offence might abound; but
where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.

3 But grace, indeed, effects this purpose-that good works should now be wrought by those
who previously did evil; not that they should persevere in evil courses and suppose that
they are recompensed with good. Their language, therefore, ought not to be: "Let us do
evil, that good may come; but: "We have done evil, and good has come; let us henceforth do
good, that in the future world we may receive good for good, who in the present life are
receiving good for evil. Wherefore it is written in the Psalm, "I will sing of mercy and
judgment unto Thee, O Lord. When the Son of man, therefore, first came into the world, it
was not to judge the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. And this
dispensation was for mercy; by and by, however, He will come for judgment-to judge the
quick and the dead. And yet even in this present time salvation itself does not eventuate
without judgment-although it be a hidden one; therefore He says, "For judgment I am come
into this world, that they which see not may see, and that they which see may be made
blind."

CHAPTER 45 [XXIII]-THEREASON WAY ONE PERSON IS ASSISTED BY GRACE, AND ANOTHER IS NOT HELPED, MUST BE REFERRED TO THE SECRET JUDGMENTS OF GOD.

1 You must refer the matter, then, to the hidden determinations of God, when you see, in
one and the same condition, such as all infants unquestionably have,-who derive their
hereditary evil from Adam,-that one is assisted so as to be baptized, and another is not
assisted, so that he dies in his very bondage; and again, that one baptized person is left
and forsaken in his present life, who God foreknew would be ungodly, while another
baptized person is taken away from this life," lest that wickedness should alter his
understanding; and be sure that you do not in such cases ascribe unrighteousness or
unwisdom to God, in whom is the very fountain of righteousness and wisdom, but, as I have
exhorted you from the commencement of this treatise, "whereto you have already attained,
walk therein," and "even this shall God reveal unto you," -if not in this life, yet
certainly in the next, "for there is nothing covered that shall not be revealed. When,
therefore, you hear the Lord say, "I the Lord have deceived that prophet," and likewise
what the apostle says: "He hath mercy on whom He will have mercy, and whom He will He
hardeneth," believe that, in the case of him whom He permits to be deceived and hardened,
his evil deeds have deserved the judgment; whilst in the case of him to whom He shows
mercy, you should loyally and unhesitatingly recognise the grace of the God who "rendereth
not evil for evil; but contrariwise blessing.

2 Nor should you take away from Pharaoh free will, because in several passages God says,
"I have hardened Pharaoh ; or," I have hardened or I will harden Pharaoh's heart; for it
does not by any means follow that Pharaoh did not, on this account, harden his own heart.
For this, too, is said of him, after the removal of the fly-plague from the Egyptians, in
these words of the Scripture: "And Pharaoh hardened his heart at this time also; neither
would he let the people go. Thus it was that both God hardened him by His just judgment,
and Pharaoh by his own free will. Be ye then well assured that your labour will never be
in vain, if, setting before you a good purpose, you persevere in it to the last. For God,
who fails to render, according to their deeds, only to those whom He liberates, will then
"recompense every man according to his works. God will, therefore, certainly recompense
both evil for evil, because He is just; and good for evil, because He is good; and good
for good, because He is good and just; only, evil for good He will never recompense,
because He is not unjust. He will, therefore, recompense evil for evil-punishment for un-
righteousness; and He will recompense good for evil-grace for unrighteousness; and He will
recompense good for good-grace for grace.

CHAPTER 46 [XXIV.] -UNDERSTANDING AND WISDOM MUST BE SOUGHT FROM GOD.

Peruse attentively this treatise, and if you understand it, give God the praise; but where
you fail to understand it, pray for understanding, for God will give you understanding.
Remember what the Scriptures say: "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who
giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given to him." Wisdom
itself cometh down floral above, as the Apostle James himself tells us. There is, however,
another wisdom, which you must repel from you, and pray against its remaining in you; this
the same apostle expressed his detestation of when he said, "But if ye have bitter envying
and strife in your hearts, . . . this is not the wisdom which descendeth from above, but
is earthly, sensual, devilish. For wherever there is envying and strife, there is also
confusion, and every evil work. But the wisdom which is from above is first pure, then
peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good works, without
partiality, and without hypocrisy." What blessing, then, will that man not have who has
prayed for this wisdom and obtained it of the Lord? And from this you may understand what
grace is; because if this wisdom were of ourselves, it would not be from above; nor would
it be an object to be asked for of the God who created us. Brethren, pray ye for us also,
that we may live "soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world; looking for that
blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ," to whom
belong the honour, and the glory, and the kingdom, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, for
ever and ever. Amen.

BOOK II. CHAP. 67,

On the Following Treatise, — "De Correptione Et Gratia."

I Wrote again to the same persons another treatise, which I entitled On Rebuke and Grace,
because I had been told that some one there had said that no man ought to be rebuked for
not doing God's commandments, but that prayer only should be made on his behalf, that he
may do them. This book begins on this wise, "I have read your letters, dearly beloved
brother Valentine."


ON REBUKE AND GRACE
===================

ON REBUKE AND GRACE Augustine of Hippo

AD 354–430

Bishop of Hippo, the most influential Latin father.

INTRODUCTION

In One Book, — Addressed to Valentine, and with Him to the Monks of Adrumetum. a.d. 426 or
427.

1 In the beginning the writer sets forth what is the Catholic faith concerning law,
concerning free will, and concerning grace. He teaches that the grace of God by Jesus
Christ is that by which alone men are delivered from evil, and without which they do
absolutely no good; and this not only by the fact that it points out what is to be done,
but that it also supplies the means of doing it with loved since God bestows on men the
inspiration of a good will and deed. He teaches that the rebuke of evil men who have not
received this grace is neither unjust-Since they are evil by their own will-Nor useless,
although it must be confessed that it is only by God's agency that it can avail. That
perseverance in good is truly a great gift of God, but that still the rebuke of one who
has not persevered must not on that account be neglected; and that if a man who has not
received this gift should relapse of his own will into sin, he is not only deserving of
rebuke, but if he should continue in evil until his death, he is moreover worthy of
eternal damnation. That it is inscrutable why one should receive this gift and another
should not receive it. That of those who are predestinated none can perish. And that the
perseverance, which all do not receive who are here called children of God, is constantly
given to all those who are truly children by God's foreknowledge and predestination.

2 He answers the question which suggests itself concerning Adam-In what way he sinned by
not persevering, since he did not receive perseverance. He shows that such assistance was
at the first given to him, as that without it he could not continue if he would, not as
that with it it must result that he would. But that now through Christ is given us not
only such help as that without it we cannot continue even if we will, but moreover such
and so great as that by it we will. He proves that the number of the predestinated, to
whom a gift of this kind is appropriated, is certain, and can neither be increased nor
diminished. And since it is unknown who belongs to that number, and who does not, that
medicinal rebuke must be applied to all who sin, lest they should either themselves
perish, or be the ruin of others. Finally, he concludes that neither is rebuke prohibited
by grace, nor is grace denied by rebuke.

CHAPTER 1 [I.]-INTRODUCTORY.

I Have read your letter-Valentine, my dearly beloved brother, and you who are associated
with him in the service of God-which your Love sent by brother Florus and those who came
to us with him; and I gave God thanks that I have known your peace in the Lord and
agreement in the truth and ardour in love, by your discourse delivered to us. But that an
enemy has striven among you to the subversion of some, has, by the mercy of God and His
marvellous goodness in turning his arts to the advantage of His servants, rather availed
to this result, that while none of you were cast down for the worse, some were built up
for the better. There is therefore no need to reconsider again and again all that I have
already transmitted to you, sufficiently argued out in a lengthy treatise; for your
replies indicate how you have received this. Nevertheless, do not in any wise suppose
that, when once read, it can have become sufficiently well known to you. Therefore if you
desire to have it exceedingly productive, do not count it a grievance by re-perusal to
make it thoroughly familiar; so that you may most accurately know what and what kind of
questions they are, for the solution and satisfaction of which there arises an authority
not human but divine, from which we ought not to depart if we desire to attain to the
point whither we are tending.

CHAPTER 2.-THE CATHOLIC FAITH CONCERNING LAW, GRACE, AND FREE WILL.

1 Now the Lord Himself not only shows us what evil we should shun, and what good we should
do, which is all that the letter of the law is able to effect; but He moreover helps us
that we may shun evil and do good, which none can do without the Spirit of grace; and if
this be wanting, the law comes in merely to make us guilty and to slay us. It is on this
account that the apostle says, "The letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life. He, then,
who lawfully uses the law learns therein evil and good, and, not trusting in his own
strength, flees to grace, by the help of which he may shun evil and do good. But who is
there who flees to grace except when "the steps of a man are ordered by the Lord, and He
shall determine his way"? And thus also to desire the help of grace is the beginning of
grace; of which, says he, "And I said, Now I have begun; this is the change of the right
hand of the Most High. It is to be confessed, therefore, that we have free choice to do
both evil and good; but in doing evil every one is free from righteousness and a servant
of sin, while in doing good no one can be free, unless he have been made free by Him who
said, "If the Son shall make you free, then you shall be free indeed.

2 Neither is it thus, that when any one has been made free from the dominion of sin, he no
longer needs the help of his Deliverer; but rather thus, that hearing from Him, "Without
me ye can do nothing," he himself also says to Him, "Be thou my helper! Forsake me not. I
rejoice that I have found in our brother Florus also this faith, which without doubt is
the true and prophetical and apostolical and catholic faith; whence those are the rather
to be corrected-whom indeed I now think to have been corrected by the favour of God-who
did not understand him.

CHAPTER 3 [II.]-WHAT THE GRACE OF GOD THROUGH JESUS CHRIST IS.

For the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord must be apprehended,-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 action; not only in order that they may
know, by the manifestation of that grace, what should be done, but moreover in order that,
by its enabling, they may do with love what they know. Certainly the apostle asked for
this inspiration of good will and work on behalf of those to whom he said, "Now we pray to
God that ye do no evil, not that we should appear approved, but that ye should do that
which is good." Who can hear this and not awake and confess that we have it from the Lord
God that we turn aside from evil and do good?-since the apostle indeed says not, We
admonish, we teach, we exhort, we rebuke; but he says, "We pray to God that ye do no evil,
but that ye should do that which is good." And yet he was also in the habit of speaking to
them, and doing all those things which I have mentioned,-he admonished, he taught, he
exhorted, he rebuked. But he knew that all these things which he Was doing in the way of
planting and watering openly were of no avail unless He who giveth the increase in secret
should give heed to his prayer on their behalf. Because, as the same teacher of the
Gentiles says, "Neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth, but God
that giveth the increase."

CHAPTER 4-THE CHILDREN OF GOD ARE LED BY THE SPIRIT OF GOD.

Let those, therefore, not deceive themselves who ask, "Wherefore is it preached and
prescribed to us that we should turn away from evil and do good, if it is not we that do
this, but `God who worketh in us to will and to do it'?" But let them rather understand
that if they are the children of God, they are led by the Spirit of God to do that which
should be done; and when they have done it, let them give thanks to Him by whom they act.
For they are acted upon that they may act, not that they may themselves do nothing; and in
addition to this, it is shown them what they ought to do, so that when they have done it
as it ought to be done-that is, with the love and the delight of righteousness-they may
rejoice in having received "the sweetness which the Lord has given, that their land should
yield her increase." But when they do not act, whether by not doing at all or by not doing
from love, let them pray that what as yet they have not, they may receive. For what shall
they have which they shall not receive? or what have they which they have not received?

CHAPTER 5 [III.]-REBUKE MUST NOT BE NEGLECTED.

"Then," say they, "let those who are over us only prescribe to us what we ought to do, and
pray for us that we may do it; but let them not rebuke and censure us if we should not do
it." Certainly let all be done, since the teachers of the churches, the apostles, were in
the habit of doing all,-as well prescribing what things should be done, as rebuking if
they were not done, and praying that they might be done. The apostle prescribes, saying,
"Let all your things be done with love." He rebukes, saying, "Now therefore there is
utterly a fault among you, because ye have judgments among yourselves. For why do ye not
rather suffer wrong? Why are ye not rather defrauded? Nay, ye do wrong and defraud; and
that, your brethren. Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not possess the kingdom of
God?" Let us hear him also praying: "And the Lord," says he, "multiply you, and make you
to abound in love one towards another and towards all men." He prescribes, that love
should be maintained; he rebukes, because love is not maintained; he prays, that love may
abound. O man! learn by his precept what you ought to have; learn by his rebuke that it is
by your own fault that you have it not; learn by his prayer whence you may receive what
you desire to have.

CHAPTER 6 [IV.] -OBJECTIONS TO THE USE OF REBUKE.

"How," says he," "is it my fault that I have not what I have not received from Him, when
unless it is given by Him, there is no other at all whence such and so great a gift can be
had?" Suffer me a little, my brethren, not as against you whose heart is right with God,
but as against those who mind earthly things, or as against those human modes of thinking
themselves, to contend for the truth, of the heavenly and divine grace. For they who say
this are such as in their wicked works are unwilling to be rebuked by those who proclaim
this grace. "Prescribe to me what I shall do, and if I should do it, give thanks to God
for me who has given me to do it; but if I do it not, I must not be rebuked, but He must
be besought to give what He has not given; that is, that very believing love of God and of
my neighbour by which His precepts are observed. Pray, then, for me that I may receive
this, and may by its means do freely and with good will that which He commands. But I
should be justly rebuked if by my own fault I had it not; that is, if I myself could give
it to myself, or could receive it, and did not do so, or if He should give it and I should
be unwilling to receive it. But since even the will itself is prepared by the Lord, why
dust thou rebuke me because thou seeest me unwilling to do His precepts, and dust not
rather ask Him Himself to work in me the will also?"

CHAPTER 7 [V.]-THE NECESSITY AND ADVANTAGE OF REBUKE.

1 To this we answer: Whoever you are that do not the commandments of God that are already
known to you, and do not wish to be rebuked, you must be rebuked even for that very reason
that you do not wish to be rebuked. For you do not wish that your faults should be pointed
out to you; you do not wish that they should be touched, and that such a useful pain
should be caused you that you may seek the Physician; you do not desire to be shown to
yourself, that, when you see yourself to be deformed, you may wish for the Reformer, and
may supplicate Him that you may not continue in that repulsiveness. For it is your fault
that you are evil; and it is a greater fault to be unwilling to be rebuked because you are
evil, as if faults should either be praised, or regarded with indifference so as neither
to be praised nor blamed, or as if, indeed, the dread, or the shame or the mortification
of the rebuked man were of no avail, or were of any other avail in healthfully
stimulating, except to cause that He who is good may be besought, and so out of evil men
who are rebuked may make good men who may be praised. For what he who will not be rebuked
desires to be done for him, when he says, "Pray for me rather,"-he must be rebuked for
that very reason that he may himself also do for himself;

2 because that mortification with which he is dissatisfied with himself when he feels the
sting of rebuke, stirs him up to a desire for more earnest prayer, that, by God's mercy,
he may be aided by the increase of love, and cease to do things which are shameful and
mortifying, and do things praiseworthy and gladdening. This is the benefit of rebuke that
is wholesomely applied, sometimes with greater, sometimes with less severity, in
accordance with the diversity of sins; and it is then wholesome when the supreme Physician
looks. For it is of no profit unless when it makes a man repent of his sin. And who gives
this but He who looked upon the Apostle Peter when he denied, and made him weep? Whence
also the Apostle Paul, after he said that they were to be rebuked with moderation who
thought otherwise, immediately added, "Lest perchance God give them repentance, to the
acknowledging of the truth, and they recover themselves out of the snares of the devil."

CHAPTER 8.-FURTHER REPLIES TO THOSE WHO OBJECT TO REBUKE.TO

1 But wherefore do they, who are unwilling be rebuked, say, "Only prescribe to me, and
pray for me that I may do what you prescribe? Why do they not rather, in accordance with
their own evil inclination, reject these things also, and say, "I wish you neither to
prescribe to me, nor to pray for me"? For what man is shown to have prayed for Peter, that
God should give him the repentance wherewith he bewailed the denial of his Lord? What man
instructed Paul in the divine precepts which pertain to the Christian faith? When,
therefore, he was heard preaching the gospel, and saying, "For I certify you, brethren,
that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it from
man, nor did I learn it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ," -would it be replied to
him: "Why are you troubling us to receive and to learn from you that which you have not
received nor learnt from man? He who gave to you is able also to give to us in like manner
as to you. Moreover, if they dare not say this, but suffer the gospel to be preached to
them by man, although it cannot be given to man by man, let them concede also that they
ought to be rebuked by those who are set over them, by whom Christian grace is preached;

2 although it is not denied that God is able, even when no man rebukes, to correct whom He
will, and to lead him on to the wholesome mortification of repentance by the most hidden
and mighty power of His medicine. And as we are not to cease from prayer on behalf of
those whom we desire to be corrected,-even although without any man's prayer on behalf of
Peter, the Lord looked upon him and caused him to bewail his sin,-so we must not neglect
rebuke, although God can make those whom He will to be corrected, even when not rebuked.
But a man then profits by rebuke when He pities and aids who makes those whom He will to
profit even without rebuke. But wherefore these are called to be reformed in one way,
those in another way, and others in still another way, after different and innumerable
manners, be it far from us to assert that it is the business of the clay to judge, but of
the potter.

CHAPTER 9 [VI]-WHY THEY MAY JUSTLY BE REBUKED WHO DO NOT OBEY GOD, ALTHOUGH THEY HAVE NOT YET RECEIVED THE GRACE OF OBEDIENCE.

1 "The apostle says," say they, "`For who maketh thee to differ? And what hast thou that
thou hast not received? Now also if thou hast received it, why dost thou glory as if thou
hadst not received it?' Why, then, are we rebuked, censured, reproved, accused? What do we
do, we who have not received? They who say this wish to appear without blame in respect of
their not obeying God, because assuredly obedience itself is His gift; and that gift must
of necessity be in him in whom dwells love, which without doubt is of God, and the Father
gives it to His children. "This," say they, "we have not received. Why, then, are we
rebuked, as if we were able to give it to ourselves, and of our own choice would not give
it? And they do not observe that, if they are not yet regenerated, the first reason why,
when they are reproached because they are disobedient to God, they ought to be
dissatisfied with themselves is, that God made man upright from the beginning of the human
creation, and there is no unrighteousness with God. And thus the first depravity, whereby
God is not obeyed, is of man, because, falling by his own evil will from the rectitude in
which God at first made him, he became depraved. Is, then, that depravity not to be
rebuked in a man because it is not peculiar to him who is rebuked, but is common to all?

2 Nay, let that also be rebuked in individuals, which is common to all. For the
circumstance that none is altogether free from it is no reason why it should not attach to
each man. Those original sins, indeed, are said to be the sins of others, because
individuals derived them from their parents; but they are not unreasonably said to be our
own also, because in that one, as the apostle says, all have sinned. Let, then, the
damnable source be rebuked, that from the mortification of rebuke may spring the will of
regeneration,-if, indeed, he who is rebuked is a child of promise,-in order that, by the
noise of the rebuke sounding and lashing from without, God may by His hidden inspiration
work in him from within to will also. If, however, being already regenerate and justified,
he relapses of his own will into an evil life, assuredly he cannot say, "I have not
received," because of his own free choice to evil he has lost the grace of God, that he
had received. And if, stung with compunction by rebuke, he wholesomely bewails, and
returns to similar good works, or even better, certainly here most manifestly appears the
advantage of rebuke. But yet for rebuke by the agency of man to avail, whether it be of
love or not, depends only upon God.

CHAPTER 10-ALL PERSEVERANCE IS GOD'S GIFT.

1 Is such an one as is unwilling to be rebuked still able to say, "What have I done,-I who
have not received? when it appears plainly that he has received, and by his own fault has
lost that which he has received? "I am able," says he, "I am altogether able,-when you
reprove me for having of my own will relapsed from a good life into a bad one,-still to
say, What have I done,-I who have not received? For I have received faith, which worketh
by love, but I have not received perseverance therein to the end. Will any one dare to say
that this perseverance is not the gift of God, and that so great a possession as this is
ours in such wise that if any one have it the apostle could not say to him, `For what hast
thou which thou hast not received?' since he has this in such a manner as that he has not
received it? To this, indeed, we are not able to deny, that perseverance in good,
progressing even to the end, is also a great gift of God; and that it exists not save it
comefrom Him of whom it is written, "Every best gift and every perfect gift is from above,
coming down from the Father of lights. But the rebuke of him who has not persevered must
not on that account be neglected, "lest God perchance give unto him repentance, and he
recover from the snares of the devil;

2 since to the usefulness of rebuke the apostle has subjoined this decision, saying, as I
have above mentioned, "Rebuking with moderation those that think differently, lest at any
time God give them repentance. For if we should say that such a perseverance, so laudable
and so blessed, is man's in such wise as that he has it not from God, we first of all make
void that which the Lord says to Peter: "I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not.
For what did He ask for him, but perseverance to the end? And assuredly, if a man could
have this from man, it should not have been asked from God. Then when the apostle says,
"Now we pray to God that ye do no evil," beyond a doubt he prays to God on their behalf
for perseverance. For certainly he does not "do no evil" who forsakes good, and, not
persevering in good, turns to the evil, from which he ought to turn aside. In that place,
moreover, where he says, "I thank my God in every remembrance of you, always in every
prayer of mine for you all making quest with joy for your fellowship in the gospel from
the first day until now, being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good
work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ," -what else does he promise to
them from the mercy of God than perseverance in good to the end?

3 And again where he says, "Epaphras saluteth you, who is one of you, a servant ofChrist
Jesus, always striving for you in prayer, that you may stand perfect and fulfilled in all
the will of God," -what is "that you may stand" but "that you may persevere"? Whence it
was said of the devil, "He stood not in the truth; because he was there, but he did not
continue. For assuredly those were already standing in the faith. And when we pray that he
who stands may stand, we do not pray for anything else than that he may persevere. Jude
the apostle, again, when he says, "Now unto Him that is able to keep you without offence,
and to establish you before the presence of His glory, immaculate in joy," does he not
most manifestly show that perseverance in good unto the end is God's gift? For what but a
good perseverance does He give who preserves without offence that He may place before the
presence of His glory immaculate in joy? What is it, moreover, that we read in the Acts of
the Apostles: "And when the Gentiles heard, they rejoiced and received the word of the
Lord; and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed"? Who could be ordained to
eternal life save by the gift of perseverance? And when we read, "He that shall persevere
unto the end shall be saved; with what salvation but eternal?

4 And when, in the Lord's Prayer, we say to God the Father, "Hallowed be Thy name," what
do we ask but that His name may be hallowed in us? And as this is already accomplished by
means of the laver of regeneration, why is it daily asked by believers, except that we may
persevere in that which is already done in us? For the blessed Cyprian also understands
this in this manner, inasmuch as, in his exposition of the same prayer, he says: "We say,
'Hallowed be Thy name,' not that we wish for God that He may be hallowed by our prayers,
but that we ask of God that His name may be hallowed in us. But by whom is God hallowed;
since He Himself hallows? Well, because He said, 'Be ye holy, since I also am holy;' we
ask and entreat that we who have been hallowed in baptism may persevere in that which we
have begun to be. Behold the most glorious martyr is of this opinion, that what in these
words Christ's faithful people are daily asking is, that they may persevere in that which
they have begun to be. And no one need doubt, but that whosoever prays from the Lord that
he may persevere in good, confesses thereby that such perseverance is His gift.

CHAPTER 11 [VII.]-THEY WHO HAVE NOT RECEIVED THE GIFT OF PERSEVERANCE, AND HAVE RELAPSED INTO MORTAL SIN AND HAVE DIED THEREIN, MUST RIGHTEOUSLY BE CONDEMNED.

If, then, these things be so, we still rebuke those, and reasonably rebuke them, who,
although they were living well, have not persevered therein; because they have of their
own will been changed from a good to an evil life, and on that account are worthy of
rebuke; and if rebuke should be of no avail to them, and they should persevere in their
ruined life until death, they are also worthy of divine condemnation for ever. Neither
shall they excuse themselves, saying,-as now they say, "Wherefore are we rebuked?"-so
then, "Wherefore are we condemned, since indeed, that we might return from good to evil,
we did not receive that perseverance by which we should abide in good?" They shall by no
means deliver themselves by this excuse from righteous condemnation. For if, according to
the word of truth, no one is delivered from the condemnation which was incurred through
Adam except through the faith of Jesus Christ, and yet from this condemnation they shall
not deliver themselves who shall be able to say that they have not heard the gospel of
Christ, on the ground that "faith cometh by hearing," how much less shall they deliver
themselves who shall say, "We have not received perseverance!" For the excuse of those who
say, "We have not received hearing," seems more equitable than that of those who say, "We
have not received perseverance;" since it may be said, O man, in that which thou hadst
heard and kept, in that thou mightest persevere if thou wouldest; but in no wise can it be
said, That which thou hadst not heard thou mightest believe if thou wouldest.

CHAPTER 12.-THEY WHO HAVE NOT RECEIVED PERSEVERANCE ARE NOT DISTINGUISHED FROM THE MASS OF THOSE THAT ARE LOST.

And, consequently, both those who have not heard the gospel, and those who, having heard
it and been changed by it for the better, have not received perseverance, and those who,
having heard the gospel, have refused to come to Christ, that is, to believe on Him, since
He Himself says, "No man cometh unto me, except it were given him of my Father," and those
who by their tender age were unable to believe, but might be absolved from original sin by
the sole laver of regeneration, and yet have not received this laver, and have perished in
death: are not made to differ from that lump which it is plain is condemned, as all go
from one into condemnation. Some are made to differ, however, not by their own merits, but
by the grace of the Mediator; that is to say, they are justified freely in the blood of
the second Adam. Therefore, when we hear, "For who maketh thee to differ? and what hast
thou that thou hast not received? Now, if thou hast received it, why dost thou glory as if
thou hadst not received it?" we ought to understand that from that mass of perdition which
originated through the first Adam, no one can be made to differ except he who has this
gift, which whosoever has, has received by the grace of the Saviour. And this apostolical
testimony is so great, that the blessed Cyprian writing to Quirinus put it in the place of
a title, when he says, "That we must boast in nothing, since nothing is our own."

CHAPTER 13.-ELECTION IS OF GRACE, NOT OF MERIT.

Whosoever, then, are made to differ from that original condemnation by such bounty of
divine grace, there is no doubt but that for such it is provided that they should hear the
gospel, and when they hear they believe, and in the faith which worketh by love they
persevere unto the end; and if, perchance, they deviate from the way, when they are
rebuked they are amended and some of them, although they may not be rebuked by men, return
into the path which they had left; and some who have received grace in any age whatever
are withdrawn from the perils of this life by swiftness of death. For He work-eth all
these things in them who made them vessels of mercy, who also elected them in His Son
before the foundation of the world by the election of grace: "And if by grace, then is it
no more of works, otherwise grace is no more grace." For they were not so called as not to
be elected, in respect of which it is said, "For many are called but few are elected;" but
because they were called according to the purpose, they are of a certainty also elected by
the election, as it is said, of grace, not of any precedent merits of theirs, because to
them grace is all merit.

CHAPTER 14.-NONE OF THE ELECT AND PREDESTINATED CAN PERISH.

1 Of such says the apostle, "We know that to those that love God He worketh together all
things for good, to them who are called according to His purpose; because those whom He
before foreknew, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He
might be the first-born among many brethren. Moreover, whom He did predestinate, them He
also called; and whom He called, them He also justified; and whom He justified, them He
also glorified. Of these no one perishes, because all are elected. And they are elected
because they were called according to the purpose-the purpose, however, not their own, but
God's; of which He elsewhere says, "That the purpose of God according to election might
stand, not of works, but of Him that calleth, it was said unto her that the elder shall
serve the younger. And in another place he says, "Not according to our works, but
according to His own purpose and grace. When, therefore, we hear," Moreover, whom He did
predestinate, them He also called," we ought to acknowledge that they were called
according to His purpose; since He thence began, saying, "He worketh together all things
for good to those who are calledaccording to His purpose," and then added, "Because those
whom He before foreknew, He also did predestinate, to be conformed to theimage of His Son,
that He might be the first-born among many brethren And to these promises He added,
"Moreover, whom, He did predestinate, them He also called.

2 He wishes these, therefore, to be understood whom He called according to His purpose,
lest any among them should be thought to be called and not elected, on account of that
sentence of the Lord's: "Many the called but few are elected. For whoever are elected are
without doubt also called; but not whosoever are called are as a consequence elected.
Those, then, are elected, as has often been said, who are called according to the purpose,
who also are predestinated and foreknown. If any one of these perishes, God is mistaken;
but none of them perishes, because God is not mistaken. If any one of these perish, God is
overcome by human sin; but none of them perishes, because God is overcome by nothing.
Moreover, they are elected to reign with Christ, not as Judas was elected, to a work for
which he was fitted. Because he was chosen by Him who well knew how to make use even of
wicked men, so that even by his damnable deed that venerable work, for the sake of which
He Himself had come, might be accomplished. When, therefore, we hear, "Have not I chosen
you twelve, and one of you is a devil? we ought to understand that the rest were elected
by mercy, but he by judgment; those to obtain His kingdom, he to shed His blood!

CHAPTER 15.-PERSEVERANCE IS GIVEN TO THE END.

Rightly follows the word to the kingdom of the elect: "If God be for us, who can be
against us? He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how has He
not also with Him given us all things? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's
elect? God who justifieth? Who condemneth? Christ who died? yea, rather who rose again
also, who is at the right hand of God, who also soliciteth on our behalf?" And of how
stedfast a perseverance even to the end they have received the gift, let them follow on to
say: "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or
persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, Because for
thy sake we are killed all the day long, we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. But
in all these things we are more than conquerors, through Him that hath loved us. For I am
certain, that neither death, nor life, nor angel, nor principality, nor things present,
nor things to come, nor power, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be
able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

CHAPTER 16.-WHOSOEVER DO NOT PERSEVERE ARE NOT DISTINGUISHED FROM THE MASS OF PERDITION BY PREDESTINATION.

Such as these were they who were signified to Timothy, where, when it had been said that
Hymenaeus and Philetus had subverted the faith of some, it is presently added,
"Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord has known
them that are His." The faith of these, which worketh by love, either actually does not
fail at all, or, if there are any whose faith fails, it is restored before their life is
ended, and the iniquity which had intervened is done away, and perseverance even to the
end is allotted to them. But they who are not to persevere, and who shall so fall away
from Christian faith and conduct that the end of this life shall find them in that case,
beyond all doubt are not to be reckoned in the number of these, even in that season
wherein they are living well and piously. For they are not made to differ from that mass
of perdition by the foreknowledge and predestination of God, and therefore are not called
according to God's purpose, and thus are not elected; but are called among those of whom
it was said, "Many are called," not among those of whom it was said, "But few are
elected." And yet who can deny that they are elect, since they believe and are baptized,
and live according to God? Manifestly, they are called elect by those who are ignorant of
what they shall be, but not by Him who knew that they would not have the perseverance
which leads the elect forward into the blessed life, and knows that they so stand, as that
He has foreknown that they will fall.

CHAPTER 17 [VIII.]-WHY PERSEVERANCE SHOULD BE GIVEN TO ONE AND NOT ANOTHER IS INSCRUTABLE.

1 Here, if I am asked why God should not have given them perseverance to whom He gave that
love by which they might live Christianly, I answer that I do not know. For I do not speak
arrogantly, but with acknowledgment of my small measure, when I hear the apostle saying,
"O man, who art thou that repliest against God? and, "O the depth of the riches of the
wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways untraceable!
So far, therefore, as He condescends to manifest His judgments to us, let us give thanks;
but so far as He thinks fit to conceal them, let us not murmur against His counsel, but
believe that this also is the most wholesome for us. But whoever you are that are hostile
to His grace, and thus ask, what do you yourself say? it is well that you do not deny
yourself to be a Christian and boast of being a catholic. If, therefore, you confess that
to persevere to the end in good is God's gift, I think that equally with me you are
ignorant why one man should receive this gift and another should not receive it; and in
this case we are both unable to penetrate the unsearchable judgments of God.

2 Or if you say that it pertains to man's free will-which you defend, not in accordance
with God's grace, but in opposition to it-that any one should persevere in good, or should
not persevere, and it is not by the gift of God if he persevere, but by the performance of
human will, why will you strive against the words of Him who says, "I have prayed for
thee, Peter, that thy faith fail not"? Will you dare to say that even when Christ prayed
that Peter's faith might not fail, it would still have failed if Peter had willed it to
fail; that is, if he had been unwilling that it should continue even to the end? As if
Peter could in any measure will otherwise than Christ had asked for him that he might
will. For who does not know that Peter's faith would then have perished if that will by
which he was faithful should fail, and that it would have continued if that same will
should abide? But because "the will is prepared by the Lord," therefore Christ's petition
on his behalf could not be a vain petition. When, then, He prayed that his faith should
not fail, what was it that he asked for, but that in his faith he should have a most free,
strong, invincible, persevering will! Behold to what an extent the freedom of the will is
defended in accordance with the grace of God, not in opposition to it;

3 because the human will does not attain grace by freedom, but rather attains freedom by
grace, and a delightful constancy, and an insuperable fortitude that it may persevere.

CHAPTER 18.-SOME INSTANCES OF GOD'S AMAZING JUDGMENTS.

It is, indeed, to be wondered at, and greatly to be wondered at, that to some of His own
children-whom He has regenerated in Christ-to whom He has given faith, hope, and love, God
does not give perseverance also, when to children of another He forgives such wickedness,
and, by the bestowal of His grace, makes them His own children. Who would not wonder at
this? Who would not be exceedingly astonished at this? But, moreover, it is not less
marvellous, and still true, and so manifest that not even the enemies of God's grace can
find any means of denying it, that some children of His friends, that is, of regenerated
and good believers, departing this life as infants without baptism,although He certainly
might provide the grace of this laver if He willed, since in His power are all things,-He
alienates from His kingdom into which He introduces their parents; and some children of
His enemies He causes to come into the hands of Christians, and by means of this laver
introduces into the kingdom, from which their parents are aliens; although, as well to the
former infants there is no evil deserving, as to the latter there is no good, of their own
proper will. Certainly, in this case the judgments of God, because they are righteous and
deep, may neither be blamed nor penetrated. Among these also is that concerning
perseverance, of which we are now discoursing. Of both, therefore, we may exclaim, "O the
depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His
judgments!"

CHAPTER 19.-GOD'S WAYS PAST FINDING OUT.

1 Nor let us wonder that we cannot trace His unsearchable ways. For, to say nothing of
innumerable other things which are given by the Lord God to some men, and to others are
not given, since with Him is no respect of persons; such things as are not conferred on
the merits of will, as bodily swiftness, strength, good health, and beauty of body,
marvellous intellects and mental natures capable of many arts, or such as fall to man's
lot from without, such as are wealth, nobility, honours, and other things of this kind,
which it is in the power of God alone that a man should have; not to dwell even on the
baptism of infants (which none of those objectors can say does not pertain, as might be
said of those other matters, to the kingdom of God), why it is given to this infant and
not given to that, since both of them are equally in God's power, and without that
sacrament none can enter into the kingdom of God;-to be silent, then, on these matters, or
to leave them on oneside, let men consider those very special cases of which we are
treating. For we are discoursing of such as have not perseverance in goodness,but die in
the decline of their good will from good to evil.

2 Let the objectors answer, if they can, why, when these were living faithfully and
piously, God did not then snatch them from the perils of this life, "lest wickedness
should change their understanding, and lest deceit should beguile their souls"? Had He not
this in His power, or was He ignorant of their future sinfulness? Assuredly, nothing of
this kind is said, except most perversely and insanely. Why, then, did He not do this? Let
them reply who mock at us when in such matters we exclaim, "How inscrutable are His
judgments, and His ways past finding out! For either God giveth this to whom He will, or
certainly that Scripture is wrong which says concerning the immature death of the
righteous man, "He was taken away test wickedness should change his understanding, or lest
deceit should beguile his soul. Why, then, does God give this so great benefit to some,
and not give it to others, seeing that in Him is no unrighteousness nor acceptance of
persons, and that it is in His power how long every one may remain in this life, which is
called a trial upon earth?

3 As, then, they are constrained to confess that it is God's gift for a man to end this
life of his before it can be changed from good to evil, but they do not know why it is
given to some and not given to others, so let them confess with us that perseverance in
good is God's gift, according to the Scriptures, from which I have already set down many
testimonies; and let them condescend with us to be ignorant, without a murmur against God,
why it is given to some and not given to others.

CHAPTER 20 [IX.]-SOME ARE CHILDREN OF GOD ACCORDING TO GRACE TEMPORALLY RECEIVED, SOME ACCORDING TO GOD'S ETERNAL FOREKNOWLEDGE.

1 Nor let it disturb us that to some of His children God does not give this perseverance.
Be this far from being so, however, if these were of those who are predestinated and
called according to His purpose,-who are truly the children of the promise. For the
former, while they live piously, are called children of God; but because they will live
wickedly, and die in that impiety, the foreknowledge of God does not call them God's
children. For they are children of God whom as yet we have not, and God has already, of
whom the Evangelist John says, "that Jesus should die for that nation, and not for that
nation only, but that also He should gather together in one the children of God which were
scattered abroad; and this certainly they were to become by believing, through the
preaching of the gospel. And yet before this had happened they had already been enrolled
as sons of God with unchangeable stedfastness in the memorial of their Father. And, again,
there are some who are called by us children of God on account of grace received even in
temporal things, yet are not so called by God; of whom the same John says, "They went out
from us, but they were not of us, because if they had been of us they would, no doubt,
have continued with us. He does not say, "They went out from us, but because they did not
abide with us they are no longer now of us;

2 but he says, "They went out from us, but they were not of us,"-that is to say, even when
they appeared among us, they were not of us. And as if it were said to him, Whence do you
prove this? he says, "Because if they had been of us, they would assuredly have continued
with us. It is the word of God's children; John is the speaker, who was ordained to a
chief place among the children of God. When, therefore, God's children say of those who
had not perseverance, "They went out from us, but they were not of us," and add, "Because
if they had been of us, they would assuredly have continued with us," what else do they
say than that they were not children, even when they were in the profession and name of
children? Not because they simulated righteousness, but because they did not continue in
it. For he does not say, "For if they had been of us, they would assuredly have maintained
a real and not a feigned righteousness with us; but he says, "If they had been of us, they
would assuredly have continued with us. Beyond a doubt, he wished them to continue in
goodness. Therefore they were in goodness; but because they did not abide in it,-that is,
they did not persevere unto the end,-he says, They were not of us, even when they were
with us,-that is, they were not of the number of children, even when they were in the
faith of children;

3 because they who are truly children are foreknown and predestinated as conformed to the
image of His Son, and are called according to His purpose, so as to be elected. For the
son of promise does not perish. but the son of perdition.

CHAPTER 21.-WHO MAY BE UNDERSTOOD AS GIVEN TO CHRIST.

Those, then, were of the multitude of the called, but they were not of the fewness of the
elected. It is not, therefore, to His predestinat-ed children that God has not given
perseverance for they would have it if they were in that number of children; and what
would they have which they had not received, according to the apostolical and true
judgment? And thus such children would be given to Christ the Son just as He Himself says
to the Father, "That all that Thou hast given me may not perish, but have eternal life."
Those, therefore, are understood to be given to Christ who are ordained to eternal life.
These are they who are predestinated and called according to the purpose, of whom not one
perishes. And therefore none of them ends this life when he has changed from good to evil,
because he is so ordained, and for that purpose given to Christ, that he may not perish,
but may have eternal life. And again, those whom we call His enemies, or the infant
children of His enemies, whomever of them He will so regenerate that they may end this
life in that faith which worketh by love, are already, and before this is done, in that
predestination His children, and are given to Christ His Son, that they may not perish,
but have everlasting life.

CHAPTER 22.-TRUE CHILDREN OF GOD ARE TRUE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST.

1 Finally, the Saviour Himself says, "If ye continue in my word, ye are indeed my
disciples." ] Is Judas, then, to be reckoned among them, since he did not continue in His
word? Are they to be reckoned among them of whom the gospel speaks in such wise, where,
when the Lord had commanded His flesh to be eaten and His blood to be drunk, the
Evangelist says, "These things said He in the synagogue as He taught in Capernaum. Many,
therefore, of His disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is a hard saying; who
can hear it? But Jesus, knowing in Himself that His disciples were murmuring at it, said
to them, Doth this offend you? What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascending where He
was before? It is the Spirit that quickeneth, but the flesh profiteth nothing. The words
that I have spoken unto you are spirit and life. But there are some of you who believe
not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who were the believing ones, and who should betray
Him; and He said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man cometh unto me except it were
given of my Father. From this time many of His disciples went away back from Him, and no
longer walked with Him. Are not these even in the words of the gospel called disciples?
And yet they were not truly disciples, because they did not continue in His word,
according to what He says:

2 "If ye continue in my word, then are ye indeed my disciples. Because, therefore, they
possessed not perseverance, as not being truly disciples of Christ, so they were not truly
children of God even when they appeared to be so, and were so called. We, then, call men
elected, and Christ's disciples, and God's children, because they are to be so called
whom, being regenerated, we see to live piously; but they are then truly what they are
called if they shall abide in that on account of which they are so called. But if they
have not perseverance,-that is, if they continue not in that which they have begun to
be,-they are not truly called what they are called and are not; for they are not this in
the sight of Him to whom it is known what they are going to be,-that is to say, from good
men, bad men.

CHAPTER 23.-THOSE WHO ARE CALLED ACCORDING TO THE PURPOSE ALONE ARE PREDESTINATED.

1 For this reason the apostle, when he had said, "We know that to those who love God He
worketh all things together for good,"-knowing that some love God, and do not continue in
that good way unto the end,-immediately added, "to them who are the called according to
His purpose. For these in their love for God continue even to the end; and they who for a
season wander from the way return, that they may continue unto the end what they had begun
to be in good. Showing, however, what it is to be called according to His purpose, he
presently added what I have already quoted above, "Because whom He did before foreknow, He
also predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-
born among many brethren. Moreover, whom He did predestinate, them He also called," to
wit, according to His purpose; "and whom He called, them He also justified; and whom He
justified, them He also glorified. All those things are already done: He foreknew, He
predestinated, He called, He justified; because both all are already foreknown and
predestinated, and many are already called and justified; but that which he placed at the
end, "them He also glorified" (if, indeed, that glory is here to be understood of which
the same apostle says, "When Christ your life shall appear, then shall ye also appear with
Him in glory" ), this is not yet accomplished.

2 Although, also, those two things-that is, He called, and He justified-have not been
effected in all of whom they are said,-for still, even until the end of the world, there
remain many to be called and justified,-nevertheless, He used verbs of the past tense,
even concerning things future, as if God had already arranged from eternity that they
should come to pass. For this reason, also, the prophet Isaiah says concerning Him, "Who
has made the things that shall be. Whosoever, therefore, in God's most providential
ordering, are foreknown, predestinated, called, justified, glorified,-I say not, even
although not yet born again, but even although not yet born at all, are already children
of God, and absolutely cannot perish. These truly come to Christ, because they come in
such wise as He Himself says, "All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him
that cometh to me I will not cast out; and a little after He says, "This is the will of
the Father who hath sent me, that of all that He hath given me I shall lose nothing. From
Him, therefore, is given also perseverance in good even to the end; for it is not given
save to those who shall not perish, since they who do not persevere shall perish.

CHAPTER 24.-EVEN THE SINS OF THE ELECT ARE TURNED BY GOD TO THEIR ADVANTAGE.

1 To such as love Him, God co-worketh with all things for good; so absolutely all things,
that even if any of them go astray, and break out of the way, even this itself He makes to
avail them for good, so that they return more lowly and more instructed. For they learn
that in the right way itself they ought to rejoice with trembling; not with arrogation to
themselves of confidence of abiding as if by their own strength; not with saying, in their
abundance, "We shall not be moved for ever. For which reason it is said to them, "Serve
the Lord in fear, and rejoice unto Him with trembling, lest at any time the Lord should be
angry, and ye perish from the right way. For He does not say, "And ye come not into the
right way; but He says, "Lest ye perish from the right way. And what does this show, but
that those who are already walking in the right way are reminded to serve God in fear;
that is, "not to be high-minded,but to fear"? which signifies, that they should not be
haughty, but humble. Whence also He says in another place, "not minding high things, but
consenting with the lowly; let them rejoice in God, but with trembling; glorying innone,
since nothing is ours, so that he who glori-eth may glory in the Lord, lest they perish
from the right way in which they have already begun to walk, while they are ascribing to
themselves their very presence in it.

2 These words also the apostle made use of when he says, "Work out your own salvation with
fear and trembling. And setting forth why with fear and trembling, he says, "For it is God
that worketh in you, both to will and to do for His good pleasure. For he had not this
fear and trembling who said in his abundance, "I shall not be moved for ever. But because
he was a child of the promise, not of perdition, he experienced in God's desertion for a
little while what he himself was: "Lord," said he, "in Thy favour Thou gavest strength to
my honour; Thou turnedst away Thy face from me, and I became troubled. Behold how much
better instructed, and for this reason also more humble, he held on his way, at length
seeing and confessing that by His will God had endowed his honour with strength; and this
he had attributed to himself and presumed to be from himself, in such abundance as God had
afforded it, and not from Him who had given it, and so had said, "I shall not be moved for
ever! Therefore he became troubled so that he found himself, and being lowly minded learnt
not only of eternal life, but, moreover, of a pious conversation and perseverance in this
life, as that in which hope should be maintained. This might moreover be the word of the
Apostle Peter, because he also had said in his abundance, "I will lay down my life for Thy
sake;

3 attributing to himself, in his eagerness, what was afterwards to be bestowed on him by
his Lord. But the Lord turned away His face from him, and be became troubled, so that in
his fear of dying for Him he thrice denied Him. But the Lord again turned His face to him,
and washed away his sin with his tears. For what else is, "He turned and looked upon him,"
but, He restored to him the face which, for a little while, He had turned away from him?
Therefore he had become troubled; but because he learned not to be confident concerning
himself, even this was of excellent profit to him, by His agency who co-works for good
with all things to those who love Him; because he had been called according to the
purpose, so that no one could pluck him out of the hand of Christ, to whom he had been
given.

CHAPTER 25.-THEREFORE REBUKE IS TO BE USED.

Let no one therefore say that a man must not be rebuked when he deviates from the right
way, but that his return and perseverance must only be asked for from the Lord for him.
Let no considerate and believing man say this. For if such an one is called according to
the purpose, beyond all doubt God is co-working for good to him even in the fact of his
being rebuked. But since he who rebukes is ignorant whether he is so called, let him do
with love what he knows ought to be done; for he knows that such an one ought to be
rebuked. God will show either mercy or judgment; mercy, indeed, if be who is rebuked is
"made to differ" by the bestowal of grace from the mass of perdition, and is not found
among the vessels of wrath which are completed for destruction, but among the vessels of
mercy which God has prepared for glory; but judgment, if among the former he is condemned,
and is not predestinated among the latter.

CHAPTER 26 [X.]-WHETHER ADAM RECEIVED THE GIFT OF PERSEVERANCE.

1 Here arises another question, not reasonably to be slighted, but to be approached and
solved in the help of the Lord in whose hand are both we and our discourses. For I am
asked, in respect of this gift of God which is to perseverein good to the end, what I
think of the firstman himself, who assuredly was made uprightwithout any fault. And I do
not say: If hehad not perseverance, how was he without fault,seeing that he was in want of
so needful a gift of God? For to this interrogatory the answer is easy, that he had not
perseverance, because he did not persevere in that goodness in which he was without sin;
for he began to have sin from the point at which he fell; and if he began, certainly he
was without sin before he had begun. For it is one thing not to have sin, and it is
another not to abide in that goodness in which there is no sin. Because in that very fact,
that he is not said never to have been without sin, but he is said not to have
continuedwithout sin, beyond all doubt it is demonstrated that he was without sin, seeing
that he is blamed for not having continued in that goodness. But it should rather be asked
and discussed with greater pains in what way we can answer those who say, "If in that
uprightness in which he was made without sin he had perseverance, beyond all doubt he
persevered in it;

2 and if he persevered, he certainly did not sin, and did not forsake that his
uprightness. But that he didsin, and was a forsaker of goodness, the Truth declares.
Therefore he had not perseverance in that goodness; and if he had it not, he certainly
received it not. For how should he have both received perseverance, and not have
persevered? Further, if he had it not because he did not receive it, what sin did he
commit by not persevering, if he did not receive perseverance? For it cannot be said that
he did not receive it, for the reason that he was not separated by the bestowal of grace
from the mass of perdition. Because that mass of perdition did not as yet exist in the
human race before he had sinned from whom the corrupted source was derived."

CHAPTER 27.-THE ANSWER.

1 Wherefore we most wholesomely confess what we most correctly believe, that the God and
Lord of all things, who in His strength created all things good, and foreknew that evil
things would arise out of good, and knew that it pertained to His most omnipotent goodness
even to do good out of evil things rather than not to allow evil things to be at all, so
ordained the life of angels and men that in it He might first of all show what their free
will was capable of, and then what the kindness of His grace and the judgment of His
righteousness was capableof. Finally, certain angels, of whom the chief is he who is
called the devil, became by free will outcasts from the Lord God. Yet although they fled
from His goodness, wherein they had been blessed, they could not flee from His judgment,
by which they were made most wretched. Others, however, by the same free will stood fast
in the truth, and merited the knowledge of that most certain truth that they should never
fall. For if from the Holy Scriptures we have been able to attain the knowledge that none
of the holy angels shall fall evermore, how much more have they themselves attained this
knowledge by the truth more sublimely revealed to them! Because to us is promised a
blessed life without end, and equality with the angels, from which promise we are
certified that when after judgment we shall have come to that life, we shall not fall from
it;

2 but if the angels are ignorant of this truth concerning themselves, we shall not be
their equals, but more blessed than they. But the Truth has promised us equality with
them. It is certain, then, that they have known this by sight, which we have known by
faith, to wit, that there shall be now no more any fall of any holy angel. But the devil
and his angels, although they were blessed before they fell, and did not know that they
should fall unto misery,-there was still something which might be added to their
blessedness, if by free will they had stood in the truth, until they should receive that
fulness of the highest blessing as the reward of that continuance; that is, that by the
great abundance of the love of God, given by the Holy Spirit, they should absolutely not
be able to fall any more, and that they should know this with complete certainty
concerning themselves. They had not this plenitude of blessedness; but since they were
ignorant of their future misery, they enjoyed a blessedness which was less, indeed, but
still without any defect. For if they had known their future fall and eternal punishment,
they certainly could not have been blessed; since the fear of so great an evil as this
would compel them even then to be miserable.

CHAPTER 28.-THE FIRST MAN HIMSELF ALSO MIGHT HAVE STOOD BY HIS FREE WILL.

Thus also He made man with free will; and although ignorant of his future fall, yet
therefore happy, because he thought it was in his own power both not to die and not to
become miserable. And if he had willed by his own free will to continue in this state of
uprightness and freedom from sin, assuredly without any experience of death and of
unhappiness he would have received by the merit of that continuance the fulness of
blessing with which the holy angels also are blessed; that is, the impossibility of
falling any more, and the knowledge of this with absolute certainty. For even he himself
could not be blessed although in Paradise, nay, he would not be there, where it would not
become him to be miserable, if the foreknowledge of his fall had made him wretched with
the dread of such a disaster. But because he forsook God of his free will, he experienced
the just judgment of God, that with his whole race, which being as yet all placed in him
had sinned with him, he should be condemned. For as mary of this race as are delivered by
God's grace are certainly delivered from the condemnation in which they are already held
bound. Whence, even if none should be delivered, no one could justly blame the judgment of
God. That, therefore, in comparison of those that perish few, but in their absolute number
many, are delivered, is effected by grace, is effected freely: thanks must be given,
because it is effected, so that no one may be lifted up as of his own deservings, but that
every mouth may be stopped, and he that glorieth may glory in the Lord.

CHAPTER 29 [XI.]-DISTINCTION BETWEEN THE GRACE GIVEN BEFORE AND AFTER THE FALL.

What then? Did not Adam have the grace of God? Yes, truly, he had it largely, but of a
different kind. He was placed in the midst of benefits which he had received from the
goodness of his Creator; for he had not procured those benefits by his own deservings; in
which benefits he suffered absolutely no evil. But saints in this life, to whom pertains
this grace of deliverance, are in the midst of evils out of which they cry to God,
"Deliver us from evil." He in those benefits needed not the death of Christ: these, the
blood of that Lamb absolves from guilt, as well inherited as their own. He had no need of
that assistance which they implore when they say, "I see another law in my members warring
against the law of my mind, and makingme captive in the law of sin which is in my members.
O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of
God through Jesus Christ our Lord." Because in them the flesh lusteth against the spirit,
and the spirit against the flesh, and as they labour and are imperilled in such a contest,
they ask that by the grace of Christ the strength to fight and to conquer may be given
them. He, however, tempted and disturbed in no such conflict concerning himself against
himself, in that position of blessedness enjoyed his peace with himself.

CHAPTER 30.-THE INCARNATION OF THE WORD.

1 Hence, although these do not now require a grace more joyous for the present, they
nevertheless need a more powerful grace; and what grace is more powerful than the only-
begotten Son of God, equal to the Father and co-eternal, made man for them, and, without
any sin of His own, either original or actual, crucified by men who were shiners? And
although He rose again on the third day, never to die any more, He yet bore death for men
and gave life to the dead, so that redeemed by His blood, having received so great and
such a pledge, they could say, "If God be for us, who is against us? He who spared not His
own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how has He not with Him also given to us all
things? God therefore took upon Him our nature-that is, the rational soul and flesh of the
man Christ-by an undertaking singularly marvellous, or marvellously singular; so that with
no preceding merits of His own righteousness He might in such wise be the Son of God from
the beginning, in which He had begun to be man, that He, and the Word which is without
beginning, might be one person.

2 For there is no one blinded by such ignorance of this matter and the Faith as to dare to
say that, although born of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary the Son of man, yet of His
own free will by righteous living and by doing good works, without sin, He deserved to be
the Son of God; in opposition to the gospel, which says, "The Word was made flesh. For
where was this made flesh except in the Virginal womb, whence was the beginning of the man
Christ? And, moreover, when the Virgin asked how that should come to pass which was told
her by the angel, the angel answered "The Holy Ghost shall come over on to thee and the
power of the Highest shall overshadow thee, therefore that holy thing that shall be born
of thee shall be called the Son of God. "Therefore," he said; not because of works of
which certainly of a yet unborn infant there are none; but "therefore," because "the Holy
Ghost shall come over on to thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee, that
holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. That nativity,
absolutely gratuitous, conjoined, in the unity of the person, man to God, flesh to the
Word! Good works followed that nativity; good works did not merit it.

3 For it was in no wise to be feared that the human nature taken up by God the Word in
that ineffable manner into a unity of person, wouldsin by free choice of will, since that
taking up itself was such that the nature of man so takenup by God would admit into itself
no movement of an evil will. Through this Mediator Godmakes known that He makes those whom
He redeemed by His blood from evil, everlastingly good; and Him He in such wise assumed
that He never would be evil, and, not being made out of evil, would always be good.

CHAPTER 31.-THE FIRST MAN HAD RECEIVED THE GRACE NECESSARY FOR HIS PERSEVERANCE, BUT ITS EXERCISE WAS LEFT IN HIS FREE CHOICE.

1 The first man had not that grace by which he should never will to be evil; but assuredly
he had that in which if he willed to abide he would never be evil, and without which,
moreover, he could not by free will be good, but which, nevertheless, by free will he
could forsake. God, therefore, did not will even him to be without His grace, which He
left in his free will; because free will is sufficient for evil, but is too little for
good, unless it is aided by Omnipotent Good. And if that man had not forsaken that
assistance of his free will, he would always have been good; but he forsook it, and he was
forsaken. Because such was the nature of the aid, that he could forsake it when he would,
and that he could continue in it if he would; but not such that it could be brought about
that he would. This first is the grace which was given to the first Adam; but more
powerful than this is that in the second Adam. For the first is that whereby it is
affected that a man may have righteousness if he will; the second, therefore, can do more
than this, since by it is even effected that he will, and will so much, and love with such
ardour, that by the will of the Spirit he overcomes the will of the flesh, that lusteth in
opposition to it. Nor was that, indeed.

2 a small grace by which was demonstrated even the power of free will, because man was so
assisted that without this assistance he could not continue in good, but could forsake
this assistance if he would. But this latter grace is by so much the greater, that it is
too little for a man by its means to regain his lost freedom; it is too little, finally,
not to be able without it either to apprehend the good or to continue in good if he will,
unless he is also made to will.

CHAPTER 32.-THE GIFTS OF GRACE CONFERRED ON ADAM IN CREATION.

1 At that time, therefore, God had given to man a good will, because in that will He had
made him, since He had made him upright. He had given help without which he could not
continue therein if he would; but that he should will, He left in his free will. He could
therefore continue if he would, because the help was not wanting whereby he could, and
without which he could not, perseveringly hold fast the good which he would. But that he
willed not to continue is absolutely the fault of him whose merit it would have been if he
had willed to continue; as the holy angels did, who, while others fell by free will,
themselves by the same free will stood, and deserved to receive the due reward of this
continuance-to wit, such a fulness of blessing that by it they might have the fullest
certainty of always abiding in it. If, however, this help had been wanting, either to
angel or to man when they were first made, since their nature was not made such that
without the divine help it could abide if it would, they certainly would not have fallen
by their own fault, because the help would have been wanting without which they could not
continue. At the present time, however, to those to whom such assistance is wanting, it is
the penalty of sin; but to those to whom it is given, it is given of grace, not of debt;

2 and by so much the more is given through Jesus Christ our Lord to those to whom it has
pleased God to give it, that not only we have that help without which we cannot continue
even if we will, but, moreover, we have so great and such a help as to will. Because by
this grace of God there is caused in us, in the reception of good and in the persevering
hold of it, not only to be able to do what we will, but even to will to do what we are
able. But this was not the case in the first man; for the one of these things was in him,
but the other was not. For he did not need grace to receive good, because he had not yet
lost it; but he needed the aid of grace to continue in it, and without this aid he could
not do this at all; and he had received the ability if he would, but he had not the will
for what he could; for if he had possessed it, he would have persevered. For he could
persevere if he would; but that he would not was the result of free will, which at that
time was in such wise free that he was capable of willing well and ill. For what shall be
more free than free will, when it shall not be able to serve sin? and this should be to
man also as it was made to the holy angels, the reward of deserving.

3 But now that good deserving has been lost by sin, in those who are delivered that has
become the gift of grace which would have been the reward of deserving.

CHAPTER 33 [XII.]-WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE ABILITY NOT TO SIN, TO DIE, AND FORSAKE GOOD, AND THE INABILITY TO SIN, TO DIE, AND TO FORSAKE GOOD?

On which account we must consider with diligence and attention in what respect those pairs
differ from one another,-to be able not to sin, and not to be able to sin; to be able not
to die, and not to be able to die; to be able not to forsake good, and not to be able to
forsake good. For the first man was able not to sin, was able not to die, was able not to
forsake good. Are we to say that he who had such a free will could not sin? Or that he to
whom it was said, "If thou shalt sin thou shalt die by death," could not die? Or that he
could not forsake good, when he would forsake this by sinning, and so die? Therefore the
first liberty of the will was to be able not to sin, the last will be much greater, not to
be able to sin; the first immortality was to be able not to die, the last will be much
greater, not to be able to die; the first was the power of perseverance, to be able not to
forsake good-the last will be the felicity of perseverance, not to be able to forsake
good. But because the last blessings will be preferable and better, were those first ones,
therefore, either no blessings at all, or trifling ones?

CHAPTER 34.-THE AID WITHOUT WHICH A THING DOES NOT COME TO PASS, AND THE AID WITH WHICH A THING COMES TO PASS.

1 Moreover, the aids themselves are to be distinguished. The aid without which a thing
does not come to pass is one thing, and the aid by which a thing comes to pass is another.
For without food we cannot live; and yet although food should be at hand, it would not
cause a man to live who should will to die. Therefore the aid of food is that without
which it does not come to pass that we live, not that by which it comes to pass that we
live. But, indeed, when the blessedness which a man has not is given him, he becomes at
once blessed. For the aid is not only that without which that does not happen, but also
with which that does happen for the sake of which it is given. Wherefore this is an
assistance both by which it comes to pass, and without which it does not come to pass;
because, on the one hand, if blessedness should be given to a man, he becomes at once
blessed; and, on the other, if it should never be given he will never be so. But food does
not of necessity cause a man to live, and yet without it he cannot live.

2 Therefore to the first man, who, in that good in which he had been made upright, had
received the ability not to sin, the ability not to die, the ability not to forsake that
good itself, was given the aid of perseverance,-not that by which it should be brought
about that he should persevere, but that without which he could not of free will
persevere. But now to the saints predestinated to the kingdom of God by God's grace, the
aid of perseverance that is given is not such as the former, but such that to them
perseverance itself is bestowed; not only so that without that gift they cannot persevere,
but, moreover, so that by means of this gift they cannot help persevering. For not only
did He say, "Without me ye can do nothing," but He also said, "Ye have not chosen me, but
I have chosen you, and ordained you that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your
fruit should remain. By which words He showed that He had given them not only
righteousness, but perseverance therein. For when Christ thus ordained them that they
should go and bring forth fruit, and that their fruit should remain, who would dare to
say, It shall not remain? Who would dare to say, Perchance it will not remain? "For the
gifts and calling of God are without repentance; but the calling is of those who are
called according to the purpose.

3 When Christ intercedes, therefore, on behalf of these, that their faith should not fail,
doubtless it will not fail unto the end. And thus it shall persevere even unto the end;
nor shall the end of this life find it anything but continuing.

CHAPTER 35.-THERE IS A GREATER FREEDOM NOW IN THE SAINTS THAN THERE WAS BEFORE IN ADAM.

1 Certainly a greater liberty is necessary in the face of so many and so great
temptations, which had no existence in Paradise,-a liberty fortified and confirmed by the
gift of perseverance, so that this world, with all its loves, its fears, its errors, may
be overcome: the martyrdoms of the saints have taught this. In fine, he [Adam], not only
with nobody to make him afraid, but, moreover, in spite of the authority of God's fear,
using free will, did not stand in such a state of happiness, in such a facility of [not]
sinning. But these [the saints], I say, not trader the fear of the world, but in spite of
the rage of the world lest they should stand, stood firm in the faith; while he could see
the good things present which he was going to forsake, they could not see the good things
future which they were going to receive. Whence is this, save by the gift of Him from whom
they obtained mercy to be faithful; from whom they received the spirit, not of fear,
whereby they would yield to the persecutors, but of power, and of love, and of continence,
in which they could overcome allthreatenings, all seductions, all torments? To him,
therefore, without any sin, was given the free will with which he was created; and he made
it to serve sin.

2 But although the will of these had been the servant of sin, it was delivered by Him who
said, "If the Son shall make you free, then shall ye be free indeed. And by that grace
they receive so great a freedom, that although as long as they live here they are fighting
against sinful lusts, and some sins creep upon them unawares, on account of which they
daily say, "Forgive us our debts," yet they do not any more obey the sin which is unto
death, of which the Apostle John says, "There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he
shall pray for it. Concerning which sin (since it is not expressed) many and different
notions may be entertained. I, however, say, that sin is to forsake even unto death the
faith which worketh by love. This sin they no longer serve who are not in the first
condition, as Adam, free; but are freed by the grace of God through the second Adam, and
by that deliverance have that free will which enables them to serve God, not that by which
they may be made captive by the devil.

3 From being made free from sin they have become the servants of righteousness, in which
they will stand till the end, by the gift to them of perseverance from Him who foreknew
them, and predestinated them, and called them according to His purpose, and justified
them, and glorified them, since He has even already formed those things that are to come
which He promised concerning them. And when He promised, "Abraham believed Him, and it was
counted unto him for righteousness. For "he gave glory to God, most fully believing," as
it is written, "that what He has promised He is able also to perform."

CHAPTER 36.-GOD NOT ONLY FOREKNOWS THAT MEN WILL BE GOOD, BUT HIMSELF MAKES THEM SO.

It is He Himself, therefore, that makes those men good, to do good works. For He did not
promise them to Abraham because He foreknew that of themselves they would be good. For if
this were the case, what He promised was not His, but theirs. But it was not thus that
Abraham believed, but "he was not weak in faith, giving glory to God;" and "most fully
believing that what He has promised He is able also to perform." He does not say, "What He
foreknew, He is able to promise;" nor "What He fore told, He is able to manifest;" nor
"What He promised, He is able to foreknow:" but "What He promised, He is able also to do."
It is He, therefore, who makes them to persevere in good, who makes them good. But they
who fall and perish have never been in the number of the predestinated. Although, then,
the apostle might be speaking of all persons regenerated and living piously when he said,
"Who art thou that judgest another man's servant? To his own master he standeth or
falleth;" yet he at once had regard to the predestinated, and said, "But he shall stand;"
and that they might not arrogate this to themselves, he says, "For God is able to make him
stand." It is He Himself, therefore, that gives perseverance, who is able to establish
those who stand, so that they may stand fast with the greatest perseverance; or to restore
those who have fallen, for "the Lord setteth up those who are broken down."

CHAPTER 37.-TO A SOUND WILL IS COMMITTED THE POWER OF PERSEVERING OR OF NOT PERSEVERING.

1 As, therefore, the first man did not receive this gift of God,-that is, perseverance in
good,but it was left in his choice to persevere or not to persevere, his will had such
strength,-inasmuch as it had been created without any sin, and there was nothing in the
way of concupis-cence of himself that withstood it,-that the choice of persevering could
worthily be entrusted to such goodness and to such facility in living well. But God at the
same time foreknew what he would do in unrighteousness; foreknew, however, but did not
compel him to this; but at the same time He knew what He Himself would do in righteousness
concerning him. But now, since that great freedom has been lost by the desert of sin, our
weakness has remained to be aided by still greater gifts. For it pleased God, in order
most effectually to quench the pride of human presumption, "that no flesh should glory in
His presence"-that is, "no man. But whence should flesh not glory in His presence, save
concerning its merits? Which, indeed, it might have had, but lost; and lost by that very
means whereby it might have had them, that is, by its free will; on account of which there
remains nothing to those who are to be delivered, save the grace of the Deliverer. Thus,
therefore, no flesh glories in His presence. For the unrighteous do not glory, since they
have no ground of glory;

2 nor the righteous, because they have a ground from Him, and have no glory of theirs, but
Himself, to whom they say, "My glory, and the lifter up of my head. And thus it is that
what is written pertains to every man,"that no flesh should glory in His presence. To the
righteous, however, pertains that Scripture: "He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.
For this the apostle most manifestly showed, when, after saying "that no flesh should
glory in His presence," lest the saints should suppose that they had been left without any
glory, he presently added, "But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us
wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: that, according as it is
written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. Hence it is that in this abode of
miseries, where trial is the life of man upon the earth, "strength is made perfect in
weakness. What strength, save "that he that glorieth should glory in the Lord"?

CHAPTER 38.-WHAT IS THE NATURE OF THE GIFT OF PERSEVERANCE THAT IS NOW GIVEN TO THE SAINTS.

1 And thus God willed that His saints should not-even concerning perseverance in goodness
itself-glory in their own strength, but in Himself, who not only gives them aid such as He
gave to the first man, without which they cannot persevere if they will, but causes in
them also the will; that since they will not persevere unless they both can and will, both
the capability anti the will to persevere should be bestowed on them by the liberality of
divine grace. Because by the Holy Spirit their will is so much enkindled that they
therefore can, because they so will; and they therefore so will because God works in them
to will. For if in so much weakness of this life (in which weakness, however, for the sake
of checking pride, strength behoved to be perfected) their own will should be left to
themselves, that they might, if they willed, continue in the help of God, without which
they could not persevere, and God should not work in them to will, in the midst of so many
and so great weaknesses their will itself would give way, and they would not be able to
persevere, for the reason that failing from infirmity they would not will, or in the
weakness of will they would not so will that they would be able. Therefore aid is brought
to the infirmity of human will, so that it might be unchangeably and invincibly influenced
by divine grace; and thus, although weak, it still might not fail, nor be overcome by any
adversity.

2 Thus it happens that man's will, weak and incapable, in good as yet small, may persevere
by God's strength; while the will of the first man, strong and healthful, having the power
of free choice, did not persevere in a greater good; because although God's help was not
wanting, without which it could not persevere if it would, yet it was not such a help as
that by which God would work in man to will. Certainly to the strongest He yielded and
permitted to do what He willed; to those that were weak He has reserved that by His own
gift they should most invincibly will what is good, and most invincibly refuse to forsake
this. Therefore when Christ says, "I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not," we may
understand that it was said to him who is built upon the rock. And thus the man of God,
not only because he has obtained mercy to be faithful, but also because faith itself does
not fail, if he glories, must glory in the Lord.

CHAPTER 39 [XIII.]-THE NUMBER OF THE PREDESTINATED IS CERTAIN AND DEFINED.

I speak thus of those who are predestinated to the kingdom of God, whose number is so
certain that one can neither be added to them nor taken from them; not of those who, when
He had announced and spoken, were multiplied beyond number. For they may be said to be
called but not chosen, because they are not called according to the purpose. But that the
number of the elect is certain, and neither to be increased nor diminished,-although it is
signified by John the Baptist when he says, "Bring forth, therefore, fruits meet for
repentance: and think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for God
is able of these stones to raise up children to Abraham," to show that they were in such
wise to be cut off if they did not produce fruit, that the number which was promised to
Abraham would not be wanting,is yet more plainly declared in the Apocalypse: "Hold fast
that which thou hast, lest another take thy crown." For if another would not receive
unless one should have lost, the number is fixed.

CHAPTER 40.-NO ONE IS CERTAIN AND SECURE OF HIS OWN PREDESTINATION AND SALVATION.

1 But, moreover, that such things as these are so spoken to saints who will persevere, as
if it were reckoned uncertain whether they will persevere, is a reason that they ought not
otherwise to hear these things, since it is well for them "not to be high-minded, but to
fear. For who of the multitude of believers can presume, so long as he is living in this
mortal state, that he is in the number of the predestinated? Because it is necessary that
in this condition that should be kept hidden; since here we have to beware so much of
pride, that even so great an apostle was buffetted by a messenger of Satan, lest he should
be lifted up. Hence it was said to the apostles, "If ye abide in me; and this He said who
knew for a certainty that they would abide; and through the prophet, "If ye shall be
willing, and will hear me," although He knew in whom He would work to will also. And many
similar things are said.

2 For on account of the usefulness of this secrecy, lest, perchance, any one should be
lifted up, but that all, even although they are running well, should fear, in that it is
not known who may attain,-on account of the usefulness of this secrecy, it must be
believed that some of the children of perdition, who have not received the gift of
perseverance to the end, begin to live in the faith which worketh by love, and live for
some time faithfully and righteously, and afterwards fall away, and are not taken away
from this life before this happens to them. If this had happened to none of these, men
would have that very wholesome fear, by which the sin of presumption is kept down, only so
long as until they should attain to the grace of Christ by which to live piously, and
afterwards would for time to come be secure that they would never fall away from Him. And
such presumption in this condition of trials is not fitting, where there is so great
weakness, that security may engender pride. Finally, this also shall be the case; but it
shall be at that time, in men also as it already is in the angels, when there cannot be
any pride.

3 Therefore the number of the saints, by God's grace predestinated to God's kingdom, with
the gift of perseverance to the end bestowed on them, shall be guided thither in its
completeness, and there shall be at length without end preserved in its fullest
completeness, most blessed, the mercy of their Saviour still cleaving to them, whether in
their conversion, in their conflict, or in their crown!


ON REBUKE AND GRACE (CHAPTERS 41.-EVEN IN JUDGMENT GOD'S MERCY WILL BE NECESSARY TO US.–49.-CONCLUSION.)
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ON REBUKE AND GRACE continued

CHAPTER 41.-EVEN IN JUDGMENT GOD'S MERCY WILL BE NECESSARY TO US.

1 For the Holy Scripture testifies that God's mercy is then also necessary for them, when
the Saint says to his soul concerning the Lord its God, "Who crowneth thee in mercy and
compassion. The Apostle James also says: "He shall have judgment without mercy who hath
showed no mercy; where he sets forth thateven in that judgment in which the righteous are
crowned and the unrighteous are condemned, some will be judged with mercy, others without
mercy. On which account also the mother of the Maccabees says to her son, "That in that
mercy I may receive thee with thy brethren. "For when a righteous king," as it is written,
"shall sit on the throne, no evil thing shall oppose itself to him. Who will boast that he
has a pure heart? or who will boast that he is pure from sin? And thus God's mercy is even
then necessary, by which he is made "blessed to whom the Lord has not imputed sin. But at
that time even mercy itself shall be allotted in righteous judgment in accordance with the
merits of good works. For when it is said, "Judgment without mercy to him that hath showed
no mercy," it is plainly shown that in those in whom are found the good works of mercy,
judgment shall be executed with mercy; and thus even that mercy itself shall be returned
to the merits of good works. It is not so now;

2 when not only no good works, but many bad works precede, His mercy anticipates a man so
that he is delivered from evils,-as well from evils which he has done, as from those which
he would have done if he were not controlled by the grace of God; and from those, too,
which he would have suffered for ever if he were not plucked from the power of darkness,
and transferred into the kingdom of the Son of God's love. Nevertheless, since even that
life eternal itself, which, it is certain, is given as due to good works, is called by so
great an apostle the grace of God, although grace is not rendered to works, but is given
freely, it must be confessed without any doubt, that eternal life is called grace for the
reason that it is rendered to those merits which grace has conferred upon man. Because
that saying is rightly understood which in the gospel is read, "grace for grace," -that
is, for those merits which grace has conferred.

CHAPTER 42.-THE REPROBATE ARE TO BE PUNISHED FOR MERITS OF A DIFFERENT KIND.

But those who do not belong to this number of the predestinated, whom-whether that they
have not yet any free choice of their will, or with a choice of will truly free, because
freed by grace itself-the grace of God brings to His kingdom,-those, then, who do not
belong to that most certain and blessed number, are most righteously judged according to
their deservings. For either they lie under the sin which they have inherited by original
generation, and depart hence with that inherited debt which is not put away by
regeneration, or by their free will have added other sins besides; their will, I say,
free, but not freed,- free from righteousness, but enslaved to sin, by which they are
tossed about by divers mischievous lusts, some more evil, some less, but all evil; and
they must be adjudged to diverse punishments, according to that very diversity. Or they
receive the grace of God, but they are only for a season, and do not persevere; they
forsake and are forsaken. For by their free will, as they have not received the gift of
perseverance, they are sent away by the righteous and hidden judgment of God.

CHAPTER 43 [XIV.]-REBUKE AND GRACE DO NOT SET ASIDE ONE ANOTHER.

Let men then suffer themselves to be rebuked when they sin, and not conclude against grace
from the rebuke itself, nor from grace against rebuke; because both the righteous penalty
of sin is due, and righteous rebuke belongs to it, if it is medicinally applied, even
although the salvation of the ailing man is uncertain; so that if he who is rebuked
belongs to the number of the predestinated, rebuke may be to him a wholesome medicine; and
if he does not belong to that number, rebuke may be to him a penal infliction. Under that
very uncertainty, therefore, it must of love be applied, although its result is unknown;
and prayer must be made on his behalf to whom it is applied, that he may be healed. But
when men either come or return into the way of righteousness by means of rebuke, who is it
that worketh salvation in their hearts but that God who giveth the increase, whoever
plants and waters, and whoever labours on the fields or shrubs,-that God whom no man's
will resists when He wills to give salvation? For so to will or not to will is in the
power of Him who willeth or willeth not, as not to hinder the divine will nor overcome the
divine power. For even concerning those who do what He wills not, He Himself does what He
will.

CHAPTER 44.-IN WHAT WAY GOD WILLS ALL MEN TO BE SAVED.

And what is written, that "He wills all men' to be saved," while yet all men are not
saved, may be understood in many ways, some of which I have mentioned in other writings of
mine; but here I will say one thing: "He wills all men to be saved," is so said that all
the predestinated may be understood by it, because every kind of men is among them. Just
as it was said to the Pharisees, "Ye tithe every herb;" where the expression is only to be
understood of every herb that they had, for they did not tithe every herb which was found
throughout the whole earth. According to the same manner of speaking, it was said, "Even
as I also please all men in all things." For did he who said this please also the
multitude of his persecutors? But he pleased every kind of men that assembled in the
Church of Christ, whether they were already established therein, or were to be introduced
into it.

CHAPTER 45.-SCRIPTURAL INSTANCES WHEREIN IT IS PROVED THAT GOD HAS MEN'S WILLS MORE IN HIS POWER THAN THEY THEMSELVES HAVE.

1 It is not, then, to be doubted that men's wills cannot, so as to prevent His doing what
he wills, withstand the will of God, "who hath done all things whatsoever He pleased in
heaven and in earth," and who also "has done those things that are to come; since He does
even concerning the wills themselves of men what He will, when He will. Unless, perchance
(to mention some things among many), when God willed to give the kingdom to Saul, it was
so in the power of the Israelites, as it certainly was placed in their will, either to
subject themselves or not to the man in question, that they could even prevail to
withstand God. God, however, did not do this, save by the will of the men themselves,
because he beyond doubt had the most omnipotent power of inclining men's hearts whither it
pleased Him. For thus it is written: "And Samuel sent the people away, and every one went
away unto his own place. And Saul went away to his house in Gibeah: and there went away
with Saul mighty men, whose hearts the Lord touched. And pestilent children said, Who
shall save us? This man? And they despised him, and brought him no presents. Will any one
say that any of those whose hearts the Lord touched to go with Saul would not have gone
with him, or that any of those pestilent fellows, whose hearts He did not touch to do
this, would have gone?

2 Of David also, whom the Lord ordained to the kingdom in a more prosperous succession, we
read thus: "And David continued to increase, and was magnified, and the Lord was with him.
This having been premised, it is said a little afterwards, "And the Spirit clothed Amasai,
chief of the thirty, and he said, We are thine, 0 David, and we will be with thee, 0 son
of Jesse: Peace, peace be unto thee, and peace be to thy helpers; because the Lord has
helped thee. Could he withstand the will of God, and not rather do the will of Him who
wrought in his heart by His Spirit, with which he was clothed, to will, speak, and do
thus? Moreover, a little afterwards the same Scripture says, "All these warlike men,
setting the battle in array, came with a peaceful heart to Hebron to establish David over
all Israel. By their own will, certainly, they appointed David king. Who cannot see this?
Who can deny it? For they did not do it under constraint or without good-will, since they
did it; with a peaceful heart. And yet He wrought this in them who worketh what He will in
the hearts of men. For which reason the Scripture premised, "And David continued to
increase, and was magnified, and the Lord Omnipotent was with him. And thus the Lord
Omnipotent, who was with him, induced these men to appoint him king. And how did He induce
them? Did He constrain thereto by any bodily fetters? He wrought within;

3 He held their hearts; He stirred their hearts, and drew them by their own wills, which
He Himself wrought in them. If, then, when God wills to set up kings in the earth, He has
the wills of men more in His power than they themselves have, who else causes rebuke to be
wholesome and correction to result in the heart of him that is rebuked, that he may be
established in the kingdom of heaven?

CHAPTER 46 [XV.]-REBUKE MUST BE VARIED ACCORDING TO THE VARIETY OF FAULTS. THERE IS NO PUNISHMENT IN THE CHURCH GREATER THAN EXCOMMUNICATION.

1 Therefore, let brethren who are subject be rebuked by those who are set over them, with
rebukes that spring from love, varied according to the diversity of faults, whether
smaller or greater. Because that very penalty that is called condemnation, which episcopal
judgment inflicts, than which there is no greater punishment in the Church, may, if God
will, result and be of advantage for most wholesome rebuke. For we know not what may
happen on the coming day; nor must any one be despaired of before the end of this life;
nor can God be contradicted, that He may not look down and give repentance, and receive
the sacrifice of a troubled spirit and a contrite heart, and absolve from the guilt of
condemnation, however just, and so Himself not condemn the condemned person. Yet the
necessity of the pastoral office requires, in order that the terrible contagion may not
creep through the many, that the diseased sheep should be separated from the sound ones;
perchance, by that very separation, to be healed by Him to whom nothing is impossible. For
as we know not who belongs to the number of the predestinated, we ought in such wise to be
influenced by the affection of love as to will all men to be saved.

2 For this is the case when we endeavour to lead every individual to that point where they
may meet with those agencies by which we may prevail, to the accomplishment of the result,
that being justified by faith they may have peace with God, - which peace, moreover, the
apostle announced when he said, "Therefore, we discharge an embassage for Christ, as
though God were exhorting by us, we pray you in Christ's stead to be reconciled to God.
For what is "to be reconciled" to Him but to have peace with Him? For the sake of which
peace, moreover, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself said to His disciples, "Into whatsoever
house ye enter first, say, Peace be to this house; and if the son of peace be there, your
peace shall rest upon it; but if not, it shall return to you again. When they preach the
gospel of this peace of whom it is predicted, "How beautiful are the feet of those that
publish peace, that announce good things! to us, indeed, every one then begins to be a son
of peace who obeys and believes this gospel, and who, being justified by faith, has begun
to have peace towards God; but, according to God's predestination, he was already a son of
peace. For it was not said, Upon whomsoever your peace shall rest, he shall become a son
of peace; but Christ says, "If the son of peace be there, your peace shall rest upon that
house.

3 Already, therefore, and before the announcement of that peace to him, the son of peace
was there, as he had been known and foreknown, by-not the evangelist, but-God. For we need
not fear lest we should lose it, if in our ignorance he to whom we preach is not a son of
peace, for it will return to us again-that is, that preaching will profit us, and not him;
but if the peace proclaimed shall rest upon him, it will profit both us and him.

CHAPTER 47.-ANOTHER INTERPRETATION OF THE APOSTOLIC PASSAGE, "WHO WILL HAVE ALL MEN TO BE SAVED."

That, therefore, in our ignorance of who shall be saved, God commands us to will that all
to whom we preach this peace may be saved, and Himself works this in us by diffusing that
love in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given to us,-may also thus be understood,
that God wills all men to be saved, because He makes us to will this; just as "He sent the
Spirit of His Son, crying, Abba, Father;" that is, making us to cry, Abba, Father.
Because, concerning that same Spirit, He says in another place, "We have received the
Spirit of adoption, in whom we cry, Abba, Father! " We therefore cry, but He is said to
cry who makes us to cry. If, then, Scripture tightly said that the Spirit was crying by
whom we are made to cry, it rightly also says that God wills, when by Him we are made to
will. And thus, because by rebuke we ought to do nothing save to avoid departure from that
peace which is towards God, or to induce return to it of him who had departed, let us do
in hope what we do. If he whom we rebuke is a son of peace, our peace shall rest upon him;
but if not, it shall return to us again.

CHAPTER 48.-THE PURPOSE OF REBUKE.

Although, therefore, even while the faith of some is subverted, the foundation of God
standeth sure, since the Lord knoweth them that are His, still, we ought not on that
account to be indolent and negligent in rebuking those who should be rebuked. For not for
nothing was it said, "Evil communications corrupt good manners;" and, "The weak brother
shall perish in thy knowledge, on account of whom Christ died." Let us not, in opposition
to these precepts, and to a wholesome fear, pretend to argue, saying, "Well, let evil
communications corrupt good manners, and let the weak brother perish. What is that to us?
The foundation of God standeth sure, and no one perishes but the son of perdition." [XVI.]
Be it far from us to babble in this wise, and think that we ought to be secure in this
negligence. For it is true that no one perishes except the son of perdition, but God says
by the mouth of the prophet Ezekiel: "He shall surely die in his sin, but his blood will I
require at the hand of the watchman."

CHAPTER 49.-CONCLUSION.

1 Hence, as far as concerns us, who are not able to distinguish those who are
predestinated from those who are not, we ought on this very account to will all men to be
saved. Severe rebuke should be medicinally applied to all by us that they perish not
themselves, or that they may not be the means of destroying others. It belongs to God,
however, to make that rebuke useful to them whom He Himself has foreknown and
predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son. For, if at any time we abstain from
rebuking, for fear lest by rebuke a man should perish, why do we not also rebuke, for fear
lest a man should rather perish by our withholding it? For we have no greater bowels of
love than the blessed apostle who says, "Rebuke those that are unruly; comfort the feeble-
minded; support the weak; be patient towards all men. See that none render to any man evil
for evil" Where it is to be understood that evil is then rather rendered for evil when one
who ought to be rebuked is not rebuked, but by a wicked dissimulation is neglected. He
says, moreover, "Them that sin rebuke before all, that others also may fear; which must be
received concerning those sins which are not concealed, lest he be thought to have spoken
in opposition to the word of the Lord. For He says, "If thy brother shall sin against
thee, rebuke him between thee and him.

2 Notwithstanding, He Himself carries out the severity of rebuke to the extent of saying,
"If he will not hear the Church, let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a publican. And
who has more loved the weak than He who became weak for us all, and of that very weakness
was crucified for us all? And since these things are so, grace neither restrains rebuke,
nor does rebuke restrain grace; and on this account righteousness is so to be prescribed
that we may ask in faithful prayer, that, by God's grace, what is prescribed may be done;
and both of these things are in such wise to be done that righteous rebuke may not be
neglected. But let all these things be done with love, since love both does not sin, and
does cover the multitude of sins.


ON THE PREDESTINATION OF THE SAINTS
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ON THE PREDESTINATION OF THE SAINTS Augustine of Hippo

AD 354–430

Bishop of Hippo, the most influential Latin father.

INTRODUCTION

Addressed to Prosper and Hilary. a.d. 428 or 429.

1 Wherein the truth of predestination and grace is defended against the semi-
Pelagians,-those people to wit, who by no means withdraw altogether from the Pelagian
heresy, in that they contend that the beginning of salvation and of faith is of ourselves;
so that in virtue, as it were, of this precedent merit, the other good gifts of God are
attained. Augustin shows that not only the increase, but the very beginning also of faith
is in God's gift. On this matter he does not disavow that he once thought differently, and
that in some small works, written before his episcopate, he was in error, as in that
exposition, which they object to him, of propositions from the epistle to the Romans. But
he points out that he was subsequently convinced chiefly by this testimony, "but what hast
thou that thou hast not received? which he proves is to be taken as a testimony concerning
faith itself also. He says that faith is to be counted among other works, which the
apostle denies to anticipate God's grace when He says, "not of works" He declares that the
hardness of the heart is taken away by grace, and that all come to Christ who are taught
to come by the Father; but that those whom He teaches, He teaches in mercy, while those
whom He teaches not, in judgment He teaches not.

2 That the passage from his hundred and second epistle, question 2, "concerning the time
of the Christian religion" which is alleged by the semi-Pelagians, may rightly be
explained without detriment to the doctrine of grace and predestination. He teaches what
is the difference between grace and predestination. Further, he says that God in his
predestination foreknew what he had purposed to do. He marvels greatly that the
adversaries of predestination, who are said to be unwilling to be dependent on the
uncertainty of God's will, prefer rather to trust themselves to their own weakness than to
the strength of God's promise. He clearly points out that they abuse this authority, if
thou believest, thou shalt be saved."that the truth of grace and perseverance shines forth
in the case of infants that are saved, who are distinguished by no merits of their own
from others who perish.for that there is no difference between them arising from the
foreknowledge of merits which they would have had if they had lived longer. That testimony
is wrongfully rejected by the adversaries as being uncanonical, which he adduced for the
purpose of this discussion, "he was taken away lest wickedness,"etc. That the most
illustrious instance of predestination and grace is the saviour himself, in whom a man
obtained the privilege of being the saviour and the only-begotten son of God, through
being assumed into oneness of person by the word co-eternal with the Father, on account of
no precedent merits, either of works or of faith.

3 That the predestinated are called by some certain calling peculiar to the elect, and
that they have been elected before the foundation of the world; not because they were
foreknown as men who would believe and would be holy, but in order that by means of that
very election of grace they might be such, etc.

CHAPTER 1 [I.]-INTRODUCTION.

We know that in the Epistle to the Philippians the apostle said, "To write the same things
to you to me indeed is not grievous but for you it is safe;" yet the same apostle writing
to the Galatians when he saw that he had done enough among them of what he regarded as
being needful for them, by the ministry of his preaching, said, "For the rest let no man
cause me labour" or as it is read in many codices "Let no one be troublesome to me." But
although I confess that it causes me trouble that the divine word in which the grace of
God is preached (which is absolutely no grace if it is given according to our merits),
great and manifest as it is, is not yielded to, nevertheless my dearest sons, Prosper and
Hilary your zeal and brotherly affection-which makes you so reluctant to see any of the
brethren in error, as to wish that, after so many books and letters of mine on this
subject, Ishould write again from here-I love more than I can tell, although I do not dare
to saythat I love it as much as I ought. Wherefore, behold, I write to you again. And
although not with you, yet through you I am still doing what I thought I had done
sufficiently.

CHAPTER 2.-TO WHAT EXTENT THE MASSILIANS WITHDRAW FROM THE PELAGIANS.

1 For on consideration of your letters, I seem to see that those brethren on whose behalf
you exhibit a pious care that they may not hold the poetical opinion in which it is
affirmed, "Every one is a hope for himself," and so fall under that condemnation which is,
not poetically, but prophetically, declared, "Cursed is every man that hath hope in man,"
must be treated in that way wherein the apostle dealt with those to whom he said, "And if
in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. For as yet they
are in darkness on the question concerning the predestination of the saints, but they have
that whence, "if in anything they are otherwise minded, God will reveal even this unto
them," if they are walking in that to which they have attained. For which reason the
apostle, when he had said, "If ye are in anything otherwise minded, God shall reveal even
this unto you," says," Nevertheless whereunto we have attained, let us walk in the same.
And those brethren of ours, on whose behalf your pious love is solicitous, have attained
with Christ's Church to the belief that the human race is born obnoxious to the sin of the
first man, and that none can be delivered from that evil save by the righteousness of the
Second Man. Moreover,they have attained to the confession that men's wills are anticipated
by God's grace;

2 and to the agreement that no one can suffice to himself either for beginning or for
completing any good work. These things, therefore, unto which they have attained, being
held fast, abundantly distinguish them from the error of the Pelagians. Further, if they
walk in them, and beseech Him who giveth understanding, if in anything concerning
predestination they are otherwise minded, He will reveal even this unto them. Yet let us
also spend upon them the influence of our love, and the misery of our discourse, according
to His gift, whom we have asked that in these letters we might say what should be suitable
and profitable to them. For whence do we know whether by this our service, wherein we are
serving them in the free love of Christ, our God may not perchance will to effect that
purpose?

CHAPTER 3 [II.]-EVEN THE BEGINNING OF FAITH IS OF GOD'S GIFT.

Therefore I ought flint to show that the faith by which we are Christians is the gift of
God if I can do that more thoroughly than I have already done in so many and so large
volumes. But I see that I must now reply to those who say that the divine testimonies
which I have adduced concerning this matter are of avail for this purpose, to assure us
that we have faith itself of ourselves, but that its increase is of God; as if faith were
not given to us by Him, but were only increased in us by Him, on the ground of the merit
of its having begun from us. Thus there is here no departure from that opinion which
Pelagius himself was constrained to condemn in the judgment of the bishops of Palestine,
as is testified in the same Proceedings, "That the grace of God is given according to our
merits," if it is not of God's grace that we begin to believe, but rather that on account
of thin beginning an addition is made to us of a more full and perfect belief; and so we
first give the beginning of our faith to God, that His supplement may also be given to us
again, and whatever else we faithfully ask.

CHAPTER 4.-CONTINUATION OF THE PRECEDING.

1 But why do we not in opposition to this, rather hear the words, "Who hath first given to
Him and it shall be recompensed to him again? since of Him, and through Him, and in Him,
are all things " And from whom, then, is that very beginning of our faith if not from Him?
For this is not excepted when other things are spoken of as of Him; but "of Him, and
through Him, and in Him, are all things. But who can say that he who has already begun to
believe deserves nothing from Him in whom he has believed? Whence it results that, to him
who already deserves, other things are said to be added by a divine retribution, and thus
that God's grace is given according to our merits. And this assertion when put before him,
Pelagius himself condemned, that he might not be condemned. Whoever, then, wishes on every
side to avoid this condemnable opinion, let him understand that what the apostle says is
said with entire truthfulness, "Unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ not only to
believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake. He shows that both are the gifts of God,
because he said that both were given. And he does not say, "to believe on Him more fully
and perfectly," but, "to believe on Him.

2 Neither does he say that he himself had obtained mercy to be more faithful, but "to be
faithful" because he knew that he had not first given the beginning of his faith to God,
and had its increase given back to him again by Him; but that he had been made faithful by
God, who also had made him an apostle. For the beginnings of his faith are recorded, and
they are very well known by being read in the church on an occasion calculated to
distinguish them: how, being turned away from the faith which he was destroying, and being
vehemently opposed to it, he was suddenly by a more powerful grace converted to it, by the
conversion of Him, to whom as One who would do this very thing it was said by the prophet,
"Thou wilt turn and quicken us; so that not only from one who refused to believe he was
made a willing believer, but, moreover, from being a persecutor, he suffered persecution
in defence of that faith which he persecuted. Because it was given him by Christ "not only
to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake."

CHAPTER 5.-TO BELIEVE IS TO THINK WITH ASSENT.

1 And, therefore, commending that grace which is not given according to any merits, but is
the cause of all good merits, he says, "Not that we are sufficient to think anything as of
ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God. Let them give attention to the, and well weigh
these words, who think that the beginning of faith is of ourselves, and the supplement of
faith is of God. For who cannot see that thinking is prior to believing? For no one
believes anything unless he has first thought that it is to be believed. For however
suddenly, however rapidly, some thoughts fly before the will to believe, and this
presently follows in such wise as to attend them, as it were, in closest conjunction, it
is yet necessary that everything which is believed should be believed after thought has
preceded; although even belief itself is nothing else titan to think with assent. For it
is not every one who thinks that believes, since many think in order that they may not
believe; but everybody who believes, thinks,-both thinks in believing and believes in
thinking. Therefore in what pertains to religion and piety (of which the apostle was
speaking), if we are not capable of thinking anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency
is of God, we are certainly not capable of believing anything as of ourselves, since we
cannot do this without thinking; but our sufficiency, by which we begin to believe, is of
God.

2 Wherefore, as no one is sufficient for himself, for the beginning or the completion of
any good work whatever,-and this those brethren of yours, as what you have written
intimates, already agree to be true, whence, as well in the beginning as in the carrying
out of every good work, our sufficiency is of God,-so no one is sufficient for himself,
either to begin or to perfect faith; but our sufficiency is of God. Because if faith is
not a matter of thought, it is of no account; and we are not sufficient to think anything
as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God.

CHAPTER 6.-PRESUMPTION AND ARROGANCE TO BE AVOIDED.

1 Care must be taken, brethren, beloved of God, that a man do not lift himself up in
opposition to God, when he says that he does what God has promised. Was not the faith of
the nations promised to Abraham, "and he, giving glory to God, most fully believed that
what He promised He is able also to perform "? He therefore makes the faith of the
nations, who is able to do what He has promised. Further, if God works our faith, acting
in a wonderful manner in our hearts so that we believe, is there any reason to fear that
He cannot do the whole; and does man on that account arrogate to himself its first
elements, that he may merit to receive its last from God? Consider if in such a way any
other result be gained than that the grace of God is given in some way or other, according
to our merit, and so grace is no more grace. For on this principle it is rendered as debt,
it is not given gratuitously; for it is due to the believer that his faith itself should
be increased by the Lord, and that the increased faith should be the wages of the faith
begun; nor is it observed when this is said, that this wage is assigned to believers, not
of grace, but of debt.

2 And I do not at all see why the whole should not be attributed to man,-as he who could
originatefor himself what he had not previously, can himself increase what he had
originated,-except that it is impossible to withstand the most manifest divine testimony
by which faith, whence piety takes its beginning, is shown also to be the gift of God:
such as is that testimony that" God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith; " and
that one, "Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith, from God the Father, and the
Lord Jesus Christ," and other similar passages. Man, therefore, unwilling to resist such
clear testimonies as these, and yet desiring himself to have the merit of believing,
compounds as it were with God to claim a portion of faith for himself, and to leave a
portion for Him; and, what is still more arrogant, he takes the first portion for himself
and gives the subsequent to Him; and so in that which he says belongs to both, he makes
himself the first, and God the second!

CHAPTER 7 [III.]-AUGUSTIN CONFESSES THAT HE HAD FORMERLY BEEN IN ERROR CONCERNING THE GRACE OF GOD.

1 It was not thus that pious and humble teacher thought-I speak of the most blessed
Cyprian-when he said "that we must boast in nothing, since nothing is our own. And in
order to show the, he appealed to the apostle as a witness, where he said, "For what hast
thou that thou hast not received? And if thou hast received it, why boastest thou as if
thou hadst not received it? And it was chiefly by this testimony that I myself also was
convinced when I was in a similar error, thinking that faith whereby we believe on God is
not God's gift, but that it is in us from ourselves, and that by it we obtain the gifts of
God, whereby we may live temperately and righteously and piously in this world. For I did
not think that faith was preceded by God's grace, so that by its means would be given to
us what we might profitably ask, except that we could not believe if the proclamation of
the truth did not precede; but that we should consent when the gospel was preached to us I
thought was our own doing, and came to us from ourselves. And this my error is
sufficiently indicated in some small works of mine written before my episcopate. Among
these is that which you have mentioned in your letters wherein is an exposition of certain
propositions from the Epistle to the Romans.

2 Eventually, when I was retracting all my small works, and was committing that
retractation to writing,of which task I had already completed two books before I had taken
up your more lengthy letters,-when in the first volume I had reached the retractation of
this book, I then spoke thus:-"Also discussing, I say, `what God could have chosen in him
who was as yet unborn, whom He said that the elder should serve; and what in the same
elder, equally as yet unborn, He could have rejected; concerning whom, on this account,
the prophetic testimony is recorded, although declared long subsequently, "Jacob have I
loved, and Esau have I hated,"' I carried out my reasoning to the point of saying: `God
did not therefore choose the works of any one in foreknowledge of what He Himself would
give them, but he chose the faith, in the foreknowledge that He would choose that very
person whom He foreknew would believe on Him,-to whom He would give the Holy Spirit, so
that by doing good works he might obtain eternal life also.' I had not yet very carefully
sought, nor had I as yet found, what is the nature of the election of grace, of which the
apostle says, `A remnant are saved according to the election of grace.' Which assuredly is
not grace if any merits precede it; lest what is now given, not according to grace, but
according to debt, be rather paid to merits than freely given.

3 And what I next subjoined: `For the same apostle says, "The same God which worketh all
in all; but it was never said, God believeth all in all;' and then added, `Therefore what
we believe is our own, but what good thing we do is of Him who giveth the Holy Spirit to
them that believe:' I certainly could not have said, had I already known that faith itself
also is found among those gifts of God which are given by the same Spirit. Both,
therefore, are ours on account of the choice of the will, and yet both are given by the
spirit of faith and love, For faith is not alone but as it is written, `Love with faith,
from God the Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ.' And what I said a little after, `For it
is ours to believe and to will, but it is His to give to those who believe and will, the
power of doing good works through the Holy Spirit, by whom love is shed abroad in our
hearts,'-is true indeed; but by the same rule both are also God's, because God prepares
the will; and both are ours too, because they are only brought about with our good wills.
And thus what I subsequently said also: `Because we are not able to will unless we are
called;

4 and when, after our calling, we would will, our willing is not sufficiently nor our
running, unless God gives strength to us that run, and leads us whither He calls us;' and
thereupon added:' It is plain, therefore, that it is not of him that willeth, nor of him
that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy, that we do good works'-this is absolutely
most true. But I discovered little concerning the calling itself, which is according to
God's purpose; for not such is the calling of all that are called, but only of the elect.
Therefore what I said a little afterwards: `For as in those whom God elects it is not
works but faith that begins the merit so as to do good works by the gift of God, so in
those whom He condemns, unbelief and impiety begin the merit of punishment, so that even
by way of punishment itself they do evil works'-I spoke most truly. But that even the
merit itself of faith was God's gift, I neither thought of inquiring into, nor did I say.
And in another place I say: `For whom He has mercy upon, He makes to do good works, and
whom He hardeneth He leaves to do evil works; but that mercy is bestowed upon the
preceding merit of faith, and that hardening is applied to preceding iniquity.' And this
indeed is true;

5 but it should further have been asked, whether even the merit of faith does not come
from God's mercy,-that is, whether that mercy is manifested in man only because he is a
believer, or whether it is also manifested that he may be a believer? For we read in the
apostles words: `I obtained mercy to be a believer.' He does not say, `Because I was a
believer.' Therefore although it is given to the believer, yet it has been given also that
he may be a believer. Therefore also, in another place in the same book I most truly said:
`Because, if it is of God's mercy, and not of works, that we are even called that we may
believe and it is granted to us who believe to do good works, that mercy must not be
grudged to the heathen;'-although I there discoursed less carefully about that calling
which is given according to God's purpose."

CHAPTER 8 [IV.]-WHAT AUGUSTIN WROTE TO SIMPLICIANUS, THE SUCCESSOR OF AMBROSE, BISHOP OF MILAN.

1 You see plainly what was at that time my opinion concerning faith and works, although I
was labouring in commending God's grace; and in this opinion I see that those brethren of
ours now are, because they have not been as careful to make progress with me in my
writings as they were in reading them. For if they had been so careful, they would have
found that question solved in accordance with the truth of the divine Scriptures in the
first book of the two which I wrote in the very beginning of my episcopate to
Simplicianus, of blessed memory, Bishop of the Church of Milan, and successor to St.
Ambrose.Unless, perchance, they may not have known these books; in which case, take care
that they do know them. Of this first of those two books, I first spoke in the second book
of the Retractations; and what I said is as follows: "Of the books, I say, on which, as a
bishop, I have laboured, the first two are addressed to Simplicianus, president of the
Church of Milan, who succeeded the most blessed Ambrose,concerning divers questions, two
of which I gathered into the first book from the Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the
Romans. The former of them is about what is written: `What shall we say, then? Is the law
sin? By no means;' as far as the passage where he says, `Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death?

2 The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.' And therein I have expounded those
words of the apostle: `The law is spiritual; but I am carnal,' and others in which the
flesh is declared to be in conflict against the Spirit in such a way as if a man were
there described as still under law, and not yet established under grace. For, long
afterwards, I perceived that those words might even be (and probably were) the utterance
of a spiritual man. The latter question in this book is gathered from that passage where
the apostle says, `And not only this, but when Rebecca also had conceived by one act of
intercourse, even by our father Isaac,' as far as that place where he says, `Except the
Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we should be as Sodoma, and should have been like unto
Gomorrah.' In the solution of this question I laboured indeed on behalf of the free choice
of the human will, but God's grace overcame, and I could only reach that point where the
apostle is perceived to have said with the most evident truth, `For who maketh thee to
differ? and what hast thou that thou hast not received?

3 Now, if thou hast received it, why dost thou glory as if thou receivedst it not?' And
this the martyr Cyprian was also desirous of setting forth when he compressed the whole of
it in that title: `That we must boast in nothing, since nothing is our own.' " This is why
I previously said that it was chiefly by this apostolic testimony that I myself had been
convinced, when I thought otherwise concerning this matter; and this God revealed to me as
I sought to solve this question when I was writing, as I said, to the Bishop Simplicianus.
This testimony, therefore, of the apostle, when for the sake of repressing man's conceit
he said, "For what hast thou which thou hast not received? does not allow any believer to
say, I have faith which I received not. All the arrogance of this answer is absolutely
repressed by these apostolic words. Moreover, it cannot even be said, "Although I have not
a perfected faith, yet I have its beginning, whereby I first of all believed in Christ"
Because here also answered: "But what hast thou that thou hast not received? Now, if thou
hast received it, why dost thou glory as if thou receivedst it, not?"

CHAPTER 9 [V.]-THE PURPOSE OF THE APOSTLE IN THESE WORDS.

1 The notion, however, which they entertain, "that these words, `What hast thou that thou
hast not received?' cannot be said of this faith, because it has remained in the same
nature, although corrupted, which at first was endowed with health and perfection," is
perceived to have no force for the purpose that they desire if it be considered why the
apostle said these words. For he was concerned that no one should glory in man, because
dissensions had sprung up among the Corinthian Christians, so that every one was saying,
"I, indeed, am of Paul, and another, I am of Apollos, and another, I am of Cephas; and
thence he went on to say: "God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the
wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the strong things; and
God hath chosen the ignoble things of the world, and contemptible things, and those things
which are not, to make of no account things which are; that no flesh should glory before
God. Here the intention of the apostle is of a certainty sufficiently plain against the
pride of man, that no one should glory in man; and thus, no one should glory in himself.
Finally, when he had said "that no flesh should glory before God," in order to show in
what man ought to glory, he immediately added, "But it is of Him that ye are in Christ
Jesus, who is made unto us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and sanctification, and
redemption:

2 that according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. Thence
that intention of his progressed, till afterwards rebuking them he says, "For ye are yet
carnal; for whereas there are among you envying and contention, are ye not carnal, and
walk according to man? For while one saith I am of Paul, and another, I am of Apollos, are
ye not men? What, then, is Apollos, and what Paul? Ministers by whom you believed; and to
every one as the Lord has given. I have planted, and Apollos watered; but God gave the
increase. Therefore, neither is he that planteth anything, nor he that watereth, but God
that giveth the increase. Do you not see that the sole purpose of the apostle is that man
may be humbled, and God alone exalted? Since in all those things, indeed, which are
planted and watered, he says that not even are the planter and the waterer anything, but
God who giveth the increase: and the very fact, also, that one plants and another waters
he attributes not to themselves, but to God, when he says, "To every one as the Lord hath
given; I have planted, Apollos watered. Hence, therefore, persisting in the same intention
he comes to the point of saying, "Therefore let no man glory in man," for he had already
said, "He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. After these and some other matters
which are associated therewith, that same intention of his is carried on in the words:

3 "And these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and to Apollos for
your sakes, that ye might learn in us that no one of you should be puffed up for one
against another above that which is written. For who maketh thee to differ? And what hast
thou which thou hast not received? Now, if thou hast received it, why dost thou glory as
if thou receivedst it not?"

CHAPTER 10.-IT IS GOD'S GRACE WHICH SPECIALLY DISTINGUISHES ONE MAN FROM ANOTHER.

1 In this the apostle's most evident intention, in which he speaks against human pride, so
that none should glory in man but in God, it is too absurd, as I think, to suppose God's
natural gifts, whether man's entire and perfected nature itself as it was bestowed on him
in his flint state, or the remains, whatever they may be, of his degraded nature. For is
it by such gifts as these, which are common to all men, that men are distinguished from
men? But here he flint said, "For who maketh thee to differ? and then added, "And what
hast thou that thou hast not received? Because a man, puffed up against another, might
say, "My faith makes me to differ," or "My righteousness," or anything else of the kind.
In reply to such notions, the good teacher says, "But what hast thou that thou hast not
received? And from whom but from Him who maketh thee to differ from another, on whom He
bestowed not what He bestowed on thee? "Now if," says he, "thou hast received it, why dost
thou glory as if thou receivedst it not? Is he concerned, I ask, about anything else save
that he who glorieth should glory in the Lord?

2 But nothing is so opposed to this feeling as for any one to glory concerning his own
merits in such a way as if he himself had made them for himself, and not the grace of
God,-a grace, however, which makes the good to differ from the wicked, and is not common
to the good and the wicked. Let the grace, therefore, whereby we are living and reasonable
creatures, and are distinguished from cattle, be attributed to nature; let that grace also
by which, among men themselves, the handsome are made to differ from the ill-formed, or
the intelligent from the stupid, or anything of that kind, be ascribed to nature. But he
whom the apostle was rebuking did not puff himself up as contrasted with cattle, nor as
contrasted with any other man, in respect of any natural endowment which might be found
even in the worst of men. But he ascribed to himself, and not to God, some good gift which
pertained to a holy life, and was puffed up therewith when he deserved to hear the rebuke,
"Who hath made thee to differ? and what hast thou that thou receivedst not? For though the
capacity to have faith is of nature, is it also of nature to have it? "For all men have
not faith," although all men have the capacity to have faith. But the apostle does not
say, "And what hast thou capacity to have, the capacity to have which thou receivedst not?
but he says, "And what hast thou which thou receivedst not?

3 Accordingly, the capacity to have faith, as the capacity to have love, belongs to men's
nature; but to have faith, even as to have love, belongs to the grace of believers. That
nature, therefore, in which is given to us the capacity of having faith, does not
distinguish man from man, but faith itself makes the believer to differ from the
unbeliever. And thus, when it is said, "For who maketh thee to differ? and what hast thou
that thou receivedst not? if any one dare to say, "I have faith of mystic I did not,
therefore, receive it," he directly contradicts this most manifest truth,-not because it
is not in the choice of man's will to believe or not to believe, but because in the elect
the will is prepared by the Lord. Thus, moreover, the passage, "For who maketh thee to
differ? and what hast thou that thou receivedst not? refers to that very faith which is in
the will of man.

CHAPTER 11 [VI.]-THAT SOME MEN ARE ELECTED IS OF GOD'S MERCY.

1 " Many hear the word of truth; but some believe, while others contradict. Therefore, the
former will to believe; the latter do not will. Who does not know this? Who can deny this?
But since in some the win is prepared by the Lord, in others it is not prepared, we must
assuredly be able to distinguish what comes from God's mercy, and what from His judgment.
"What Israel sought for," says the apostle, "he hath not obtained, but the election hath
obtained it; and the rest were blinded, as it is written, God gave to them the spirit of
compunction,-eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear, even to
this day. And David said, Let their table be made a snare, a retribution, and a
stumblingblock to them; let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see; and bow down
their back always. Here is mercy and judgment,-mercy towards the election which has
obtained the righteousness of God, but judgment to the rest which have been blinded. And
yet the former, because they willed, believed; the latter, because they did not will
believed not. Therefore mercy and judgment were manifested in the very wills themselves.
Certainly such an election is of grace, not at all of merits. For he had before said, "So,
therefore, even at this present time, the remnant has been saved by the election of grace.
And if by grace, now it is no more of works; otherwise grace is no more grace.

2 Therefore the election obtained what it obtained gratuitously; there preceded none of
those things which they might first give, and it should be given to them again. He saved
them for nothing. But to the rest who were blinded, as is there plainly declared, it was
done in recompense. "All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth. But His ways are
unsearchable. Therefore the mercy by which He freely delivers, and the truth by which He
righteously judges, are equally unsearchable.

CHAPTER 12 [VII.]-WHY THE APOSTLE SAID THAT WE ARE JUSTIFIED BY FAITH AND NOT BY WORKS

1 But perhaps it may be said: "The apostle distinguishes faith from works; he says,
indeed, that grace is not of works, but he does not say that it is not of faith. This,
indeed, is true. But Jesus says that faith itself also is the work of God, and commands us
to work it. For the Jews said to Him, "What shall we do that we may work the work of God?
Jesus answered, and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom
He hath sent. The apostle, therefore, distinguishes faith from works, just as Judah is
distinguished from Israel in the two kingdoms of the Hebrews, although Judah is Israel
itself. And he says that a man is justified by faith and not by works, because faith
itself is first given, from which may be obtained other things which are specially
characterized as works, in which a man may live righteously. For he himself also says, "By
grace ye are saved through faith; and this not of yourselves; but it is the gift of God,"
-that is to say, "And in saying 'through faith,' even faith itself is not of yourselves,
but is God's gift. "Not of works," he says, "lest any man should be lifted up. For it is
often said, "He deserved to believe, because he was a good man even before he believed.
Which may be said of Cornelius since his alms were accepted and his prayers head before he
had believed on Christ;

2 and yet without some faith he neither gave alms nor prayed. For how did he call on him
on whom he had not believed? But if he could have been saved without the faith of Christ
the Apostle Peter would not have been sent as an architect to build him up; although,
"Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain who build it. And we are told, Faith
is of ourselves; other things which pertain to works of righteousness are of the Lord; as
if faith did not belong to the building,-as if, I say, the foundation did not belong to
the building. But if this primarily and especially belongs to it, he labours in vain who
seeks to build up the faith by preaching, unless the Lord in His mercy builds it up from
within. Whatever, therefore, of good works Cornelius performed, as well before he believed
in Christ as when he believed and after he had believed, are all to be ascribed to God,
lest, perchance any man be lifted up.

CHAPTER 13 [VIII.] -THE EFFECT OF DIVINE GRACE.

1 Accordingly, our only Master and Lord Himself, when He had said what I have above
mentioned,-"This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent,"-says a
little afterwards in that same discourse of His, "I said unto you that ye also have seen
me and have not believed. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me. What is the
meaning of "shall come to me," but, "shall believe in me "? But it is the Father's gift
that this may be the case. Moreover, a little after He says, "Murmur not among yourselves.
No one can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him; and I will raise him
up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all teachable of God.
Every man that hath heard of the Father, and hath learned, cometh unto me. What is the
meaning of, "Every man that hath heard from the Father, and hath learned, cometh unto me,"
except that there is none who hears from the Father, and learns, who cometh not to me? For
if every one who has heard from the Father, and has learned, comes, certainly every one
who does not come has not heard from the Father; for if he had heard and learned, he would
come. For no one has heard and learned, and has not come; but every one, as the Truth
declares, who has heard from the Father, and has learned, comes.

2 Far removed from the senses of the flesh is this teaching in which the Father is heard,
and teaches to come to the Son. Engaged herein is also the Son Himself, because He is His
Word by which He thus teaches; and He does not do this through the ear of the flesh, but
of the heart. Herein engaged, also, at the same time, is the Spirit of the Father and of
the Son; and He, too, teaches, and does not teach separately, since we have learned that
the workings of the Trinity are inseparable. And that is certainly the same Holy Spirit of
whom the apostle says, "We, however, having the same Spirit of faith. But this is
especially attributed to the Father, for the reason that of Him is begotten the Only
Begotten, and from Him proceeds the Holy Spirit, of which it would be tedious to argue
more elaborately; and I think that my work in fifteen books on the Trinity which God is,
has already reached you. Very far removed, I say, from the senses of the flesh is this
instruction wherein God is heard and teaches. We see that many come to the Son because we
see that many believe on Christ, but when and how they have heard this from the Father,
and have learned, we see not. It is true that that grace is exceedingly secret, but who
doubts that it is grace?

3 This grace, therefore, which is hiddenly bestowed in human hearts by the Divine gift, is
rejected by no hard heart, because it is given for the sake of first taking away the
hardness of the heart. When, therefore, the Father is heard within, and teaches, so that a
man comes to the Son, He takes away the heart of stone and gives a heart of flesh, as in
the declaration of the prophet He has promised. Because He thus makes them children and
vessels of mercy which He has prepared for glory.

CHAPTER 14.-WHY THE FATHER DOES NOT TEACH ALL THAT THEY MAY COME TO CHRIST.

1 Why, then, does He not teach all that they may come to Christ, except because all whom
He teaches, He teaches in mercy, while those whom He teaches not, in judgment He teaches
not? Since, "On whom He will He has mercy, and whom He will He hardeneth. But He has mercy
when He gives good things. He hardens when He recompenses what is deserved. Or if, as some
would prefer to distinguish them, those words also are his to whom the apostle says, "Thou
sayest then unto me," so that he may be regarded as having said, "Therefore hath He mercy
on whom He will, and whom He will He hardeneth," as well as those which follow,-to wit,
"What is it that is still complained of? for who resists His will? does the apostle
answer, "O man, what thou hast said is false? No; but he says, "O man, who art thou that
repliest against God? Doth the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made
me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay of the same lump? " and what follows,
which you very well know. And yet in a certain sense the Father teaches all men to come to
His Son. For it was not in vain that it was written in the prophets, "And they shall all
be teachable of God. And when He too had premised this testimony, He added, "Every man,
therefore, who has heard of the Father, and has learned, cometh to me.

2 As, therefore, we speak justly when we say concerning any teacher of literature who is
alone in a city, He teaches literature here to everybody,-not that all men learn, but that
there is none who learns literature there who does not learn from him,-so we justly say,
God teaches all men to come to Christ, not because all come, but because none comes in any
other way. And why He does not teach all men the apostle explained, as far as he judged
that it was to be explained, because, "willing to show His wrath, and to exhibit His
power, He endured with much patience the vessels of wrath which were perfected for
destruction; and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy
which He has prepared for glory. Hence it is that the "word of the cross is foolishness to
them that perish; but unto them that are saved it is the power of God. God teaches all
such to come to Christ, for He wills alI such to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of
the truth. And if He had willed to teach even those to whom the word of the cross is
foolishness to come to Christ beyond all doubt these also would have come. For He neither
deceives nor is deceived when He says, "Everyone that hath heard of the Father, and hath
learned, cometh to me. Away, then, with the thought that any one cometh not, who has heard
of the Father and has learned.

CHAPTER 15.-IT IS BELIEVERS THAT ARE TAUGHT OF GOD.

1 "Why," say they, "does He not teach all men? If we should say that they whom He does not
teach are unwilling to learn, we shall be met with the answer: And what becomes of what id
said to Him, "O God, Thou writ turn us again, and quicken us"? Or if God does not make men
willing who were not willing, on what principle does the Church pray, according to the
Lord's commandment, for her persecutors? For thus also the blessed Cyprian would have it
to be understood that we say, "Thy will be done, as in heaven so in earth,"-that is, as in
those who have already believed, and who are, as it were, heaven, so also in those who do
not believe, and on this account are still the earth. What, then, do we pray for on behalf
of those who are unwilling to believe, except that God would work in them to will also?
Certainly the apostle says, "Brethren, my heart's good will, indeed, and my prayer to God
for them, is for their salvation. He prays for those who do not believe,- for what, except
that they may believe? For in no other way do they obtain salvation. If, then, the faith
of the petitioners precede the grace of God, does the faith of them on whose behalf prayer
is made that they may believe precede the grace of God?-since this is the very thing that
is besought for them, that on them that believe not-that is, who have not faith-faith
itself may be bestowed?

2 When, therefore, the gospel is preached, some believe, some believe not; but they who
believe at the voice of the preacher from without, hear of the Father from within, and
learn; while they who do not believe, hear outwardly, but inwardly do not hear nor
learn;-that is to say, to the former it is given to believe; to the latter it is not
given. Because "no man," says He, "cometh to me, except the Father which sent me draw him.
And this is more plainly said afterwards. For after a little time, when He was speaking of
eating his flesh and drinking His blood, and some even of His disciples said, "This is a
hard saying, who can hear it? Jesus, knowing in Himself that His disciples murmured at
this, said unto them, Doth this offend you? And a little after He said, "The words that I
have spoken unto you are spirit and life; but there are some among you which believe not.
And immediately the evangelist says, "For Jesus knew from the beginning who were the
believers, and who should betray Him; and He said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man
can come unto me except it were given him of my Father. Therefore, to be drawn to Christ
by the Father, and to hear and learn of the Father in order to come to Christ, is nothing
else than to receive from the Father the gift by which to believe in Christ.

3 For it was not the hearers of the gospel that were distinguished from those who did not
hear, but the believers from those who did not believe, by Him who said, "No man cometh to
me except it were given him of my Father."

CHAPTER 16.-WHY THE GIFT OF FAITH IS NOT GIVEN TO ALL.

Faith, then, as well in its beginning as in its completion, is God's gift; and let no one
have any doubt whatever, unless he desires to resist the plainest sacred writings, that
this gift is given to some, while to some it is not given. But why it is not given to all
ought not to disturb the believer, who believes that from one all have gone into a
condemnation, which undoubtedly is most righteous; so that even if none were delivered
therefrom, there would be no just cause for finding fault with God. Whence it is plain
that it is a great grace for many to be delivered, and to acknowledge in those that are
not delivered what would be due to themselves; so that he that glorieth may glory not in
his own merits, which he sees to be equalled in those that are condemned, but in the Lord.
But why He delivers one rather than another,-" His judgments are unsearchable, and His
ways past finding out." For it is better in this case for us to hear or to say, "O man,
who art thou that repliest against God?" than to dare to speak as if we could know what He
has chosen to be kept secret. Since, moreover, He could not will anything unrighteous.

CHAPTER 17 [IX.]-HIS ARGUMENT IN HIS LETTER AGAINST PORPHYRY, AS TO WHY THE GOSPEL CAME SO LATE INTO THE WORLD.

1 But that which you remember my saying in a certain small treatise of mine against
Porphyry, under the title of The Time of the Christian Religion, I so said for the sake of
escaping this more careful and elaborate argument about grace; although its meaning, which
could be unfolded elsewhere or by others, was not wholly omitted, although I had been
unwilling in that place to explain it. For, among other matters, I spoke thus in answer to
the question proposed, why it was after so long a time that Christ came: "Accordingly, I
say, since they do not object to Christ that all do not follow His teaching (for even they
themselves feel that this could not be objected at all with any justice, either to the
wisdom of the philosophers or even to the deity of their own gods), what will they reply,
if-leaving out of the question that depth of God's wisdom and knowledge where perchance
some other divine plan is far more secretly hidden, without prejudging also other causes,
which cannot be traced out by the wise-we say to them only this, for the sake of brevity
in the arguing of this question, that Christ willed to appear to men, and that His
doctrine should be preached among them, at that time when He knew, and at that place where
He knew, that there were some who would believe on Him.

2 For at those times, and in those places, at which His gospel was not preached, He
foreknew that all would be in His preaching such as, not indeed all, but many were in His
bodily presence, who would not believe on Him, even when the dead were raised by Him; such
as we see many now, who, although the declarations of the prophets concerning Him are
fulfilled by such manifestations, are still unwilling to believe, and prefer to resist by
human astuteness, rather than yield to divine authority so dear and perspicuous, and so
lofty, and sublimely made known, so long as the human understanding is small and weak in
its approach to divine truth. What wonder is it, then, if Christ knew the world in former
ages to be so full of unbelievers, that He should reasonably refuse to appear, or to be
preached to them, who, as He foreknew, would believe neither His words nor His miracles?
For it is not incredible that all at that time were such as from His coming even to the
present time we marvel that so many have been and are. And yet from the beginning of the
human race, sometimes more hiddenly, sometimes more evidently, even as to Divine
Providence the times seemed to be fitting, there has neither been a failure of prophecy,
nor were there wanting those who believed on Him; as well from Adam to Moses, as in the
people of Israel itself which by a certain special mystery was a prophetic people;

3 and in other nations before He had come in the flesh. For as some are mentioned in the
sacred Hebrew books, as early as the time of Abraham,-neither of his fleshly race nor of
the people of Israel nor of the foreign society among the people of Israel,-who were,
nevertheless, sharers in their sacrament, why may we not believe that there were others
elsewhere among other people, here and there, although we do not read any mention of them
in the same authorities? Thus the salvation of this religion, by which only true one true
salvation is truly promised, never failed him who was worthy of it; and whoever it failed
was not worthy of it. And from the very beginning of the propagation of man, even to the
end, the gospel is preached, to some for a reward, to some for judgment; and thus also
those to whom the faith was not announced at all were foreknown as those who would not
believe; and those to whom it was announced, although they were not such as would believe,
are set forth as an example for the former; while those to whom it is announced who should
believe, are prepared for the kingdom of heaven, and the company of the holy angels."

CHAPTER 18.-THE PRECEDING ARGUMENT APPLIED TO THE PRESENT TIME.

Do you not see that my desire was, without any prejudgment of the hidden counsel of God,
and of other reasons, to say what might seem sufficient about Christ's foreknowledge, to
convince the unbelief of the pagans who had brought forward this question? For what is
more true than that Christ foreknew who should believe on Him, and at what times and
places they should believe? But whether by the preaching of Christ to themselves by
themselves they were to have faith, or whether they would receive it by God's gift,-that
is, whether God only foreknew them, or also predestinated them, I did not at that time
think it necessary to inquire or to discuss. I Therefore what I said, "that Christ willed
to appear to men at that time, and that His doctrine should be preached among them when He
knew, and where He knew, that there were those who would believe on Him," may also thus be
said, "That Christ willed to appear to men at that time, and that His gospel should be
preached among those, whom He knew, and where He knew, that there were those who had been
elected in Himself before the foundation of the word." But since, if it were so said, it
would make the reader desirous of asking about those things which now by the warning of
Pelagian errors must of necessity be discussed with greater copiousness and care, it
seemed to me that what at that time was sufficient should be briefly said, leaving to one
side, as I said, the depth of the wisdom and knowledge of God, and without prejudging
other reasons, concerning which I thought that we might more fittingly argue, not then,
but at some other time.

CHAPTER 19 [X]-IN WHAT RESPECTS PREDESTINATION AND GRACE DIFFER.

1 Moreover, that which I said, "That the salvation of this religion has never been lacking
to him who was worthy of it, and that he to whom it was lacking was not worthy,"-if it be
discussed and it be asked whence any man can be worthy there are not wanting those who
say-by human will. But we say, by divine grace or predestination. Further, between grace
and predestination there is only this difference, that predestination is the preparation
for grace, while grace is the donation itself. When, therefore the apostle says, "Not of
works, lest any man should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus in
good works," it is grace; but what follows-"which God hath prepared thatwe should walk in
them "-is predestination, which cannot exist without foreknowledge, although foreknowledge
may exist without predestination; because God foreknew by predestination those things
which He was about to do, whence it was said, "He made those things that shah be.
Moreover, He is able to foreknow even those things which He does not Himself do,-as all
sins whatever. Because, although there are some which are in such wise sins as that they
are also the penalties of sins, whence it is said, "God gave them over to a reprobate
mind, to do those things which are not convenient," it is not in such a case the sin that
is God's, but the judgment. Therefore God's predestination of good is, as I have said, the
preparation of grace; which grace is the effect of that predestination.

2 Therefore when God promised to Abraham in his seed the faith of the nations, saying, "I
have established thee a father of many nations," whence the apostle says, "Therefore it is
of faith, that the promise, according to grace, might be established to all the seed," He
promised not from the power of our will but from His own predestination. For He promised
what He Himself would do, not what men would do. Because, although men do those good
things which pertain to God's worship, He Himself makes them to do what He has commanded;
it is not they that cause Him to do what He has promised. Otherwise the fulfilment of
God's promises would not be in the power of God, but in that of men; and thus what was
promised by God to Abraham would be given to Abraham by men themselves. Abraham, however,
did not believe thus, but "he believed, giving glory to God, that what He promised He is
able also to do. He does not say, "to foretell"-he does not say, "to foreknow; for He can
foretell and foreknow the doings of strangers also; but he says, "He is able also to do;
and thus he is speaking not of the doings of others, but of His own.

CHAPTER 20.-DID GOD PROMISE THE GOOD WORKS OF THE NATIONS AND NOT THEIR FAITH, TO ABRAHAM?

Did God, perchance, promise to Abraham in his seed the good works of the nations, so as to
promise that which He Himself does, but did not promise the faith of the Gentiles, which
men do for themselves; but so as to promise what He Himself does, did He foreknow that men
would effect that faith? The apostle, indeed, does not speak thus, because God promised
children to Abraham, who should follow the footsteps of his faith, as he very plainly
says. But if He promised the works, and not the faith of the Gentiles certainly since they
are not good works unless they are of faith (for "the righteous lives of faith," and,
"Whatsoever is not of faith is sin," and, "Without faith it is impossible to please" ), it
is nevertheless in man's power that God should fulfil what He has promised. For unless man
should do what without the gift of God pertains to man, he will not cause God to
give,-that is, unless man have faith of himself. God does not fulfil what He has promised,
that works of righteousness should be given by God. And thus that God should be able to
fulfil His promises is not in God's power, butman's. And if truth and piety do not forbid
our believing this, let us believe with Abraham, that what He has promised He is able also
to perform. But He promised children to Abraham; and this men cannot be unless they have
faith, therefore He gives faith also.

CHAPTER 21.-IT IS TO BE WONDERED AT THAT MEN SHOULD RATHER TRUST TO THEIR OWN WEAKNESS THAN TO GOD'S STRENGTH.

Certainly, when the apostle says, "Therefore it is of faith that the promise may be sure
according to grace," I marvel that men would rather entrust themselves to their own
weakness, than to the strength of God's promise. But sayest thou, God's will concerning
myself is to me uncertain? What then? Is thine own will concerning thyself certain to
thee? and dost thou not fear,-"Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall"?
Since, then, both are uncertain, why does not man commit his faith, hope, and love to the
stronger will rather than to the weaker?

CHAPTER 22.-GOD'S PROMISE IS SURE.

1 "But," say they, "when it is said, ' If thou believest, thou shalt be saved,' one of
these things is required; the other is offered. What is required is in man's power; what
is offered is in God's. Why are not both in God's, as well what He commands as what He
offers? For He is asked to give what He commands. Believers ask that their faith may be
increased;they ask on behalf of those who do not believe, that faith may be given tothem;
therefore both in its increase and in its beginnings, faith is the gift of God. But it is
said thus: "If thou believest, thou shalt be saved," in the same way that it is said, "If
by the Spirit ye shall mortify the deeds of the flesh, ye shall live. For in this case
also, of these two things one is required, the other is offered. It is said, "If by the
Spirit ye shall mortify the deeds of the flesh, ye shall live. Therefore, that we mortify
the deeds of the flesh is required, but that we may live is offered. Is it, then, fitting
for us to say, that to mortify the deeds of the flesh is not a gift of God, and not to
confess it to be a gift of God, because we hear it required of us, with the offer of life
as a reward if we shall do it? Away with this being approved by the partakers and
champions of grace!

2 This is the condemnable error of the Pelagians, whose mouths the apostle immediately
stopped when he added," For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of
God; lest we should believe that we mortify the deeds of the flesh, not by God's Spirit,
but by our own. And of this Spirit of God, moreover, he was speaking in that place where
he says, "But all these worketh that one and the self-same Spirit, dividing unto every man
what is his own, as He will; and among all these things, as you know, he also named faith.
As, therefore, although it is the gift of God to mortify the deeds of the flesh, yet it is
required of us, and life is set before us as a reward; so also faith is the gift of God,
although when it is said, "If thou believest, thou shalt be saved," faith is required of
us, and salvation is proposed to us as a reward. For these things are both commanded us,
and are shown to be God's gifts, in order that we may understand both that we do them, and
that God makes us to do them, as He most plainly says by the prophet Ezekiel. For what is
plainer than when He says," I will cause you to do"? Give heed to that passage of
Scripture, and you will see that God promises that He will make them to do those things
which He commands to be done.

3 He truly is not silent as to the merits but as to the evil deeds, of those to whom He
shows that He is returning good for evil, by the very fact that He causeth them
thenceforth to have good works, in causing them to do the divine commands.

CHAPTER 23 [XII.] -REMARKABLE ILLUSTRATIONS OF GRACE AND PREDESTINATION IN INFANTS, AND IN CHRIST.

But all this reasoning, whereby we maintain that the grace of God through Jesus Christ our
Lord is truly grace, that is, is not given according to our merits, although it is most
manifestly asserted by the witness of the divine declarations, yet, among those who think
that they are withheld from all zeal for piety unless they can attribute to themselves
something, which they first give that it may be recompensed to them again, involves
somewhat of a difficulty in respect of the condition of grown-up people, who are already
exercising the choice of will. But when we come to the case of infants, and to the
Mediator between God and man Himself, the man Christ Jesus, there is wanting all assertion
of human merits that precede the grace of God, because the former are not distinguished
from others by any preceding good merits that they should belong to the Deliverer of men;
any more than He Himself being Himself a man, was made the Deliverer of men by virtue of
any precedent human merits.

CHAPTER 24.-THAT NO ONE IS JUDGED ACCORDING TO WHAT HE WOULD HAVE DONE IF HE HAD LIVED LONGER.

1 For who can hear that infants, baptized in the condition of mere infancy, are said to
depart from this life by reason of their future merits, and that others not baptized are
said to die in the same age because their future merits are foreknown,-but as evil; so
that God rewards or condemns in them not their good or evil life, but no life at all? The
apostle, indeed, fixed a limit which man's incautious suspicion, to speak gently, ought
not to transgress, for he says, "We shall all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ;
that every one may receive according to the things which he has done by means of the body,
whether it be good or evil. "Has done," he said; and he did not add, "or would have done.
But I know not whence this thought should have entered the minds of such men, that
infants' future merits (which shall not be) should be punished or honoured. But why is it
said that a man is to be judged according to those things which he has done by means of
the body, when many things are done by the mind alone, and not by the body, nor by any
member of the body; and for the most part things of such importance, that a most righteous
punishment would be due to such thought, such as,-to say nothing of others,-that "The fool
hath said in his heart there is no God"?

2 What, then, is the meaning of, "According to those things that he hath done by means of
the body," except according to those things which he has done during that time in which he
was in the body, so that we may understand "by means of the body" as meaning "throughout
the season of bodily life "? But after the body, no one will be in the body except at the
last resurrection,-not for the purpose of establishing any claims of merit, but for the
sake of receiving recompenses for good merits, and enduring punishments for evil merits.
But in this intermediate period between the putting off and the taking again of the body,
the souls are either tormented or they are in repose, according to those things which they
have done during the period of the bodily life. And to this period of the bodily life
moreover pertains, what the Pelagians deny, but Christ's Church confesses, original sin;
and according to whether this is by God's grace loosed, or by God's judgment not loosed,
when infants die, they pass, on the one hand, by the merit of regeneration from evil to
good, or on the other, by the merit of their origin from evil to evil. The catholic faith
acknowledges this, and even some heretics, without any contradiction, agree to this.

3 But in the height of wonder and astonishment I am unable to discover whence men, whose
intelligence your letters show to be by no means contemptible, could entertain the opinion
that any one should be judged not according to the merits that he had as long as he was in
the body, but according to the merits which he would have had if he had lived longer in
the body; and I should not dare to believe that there were such men, if I could venture to
disbelieve you. But I hope that God will interpose, so that when they are admonished they
may at once perceive, that if those sins which, as is said, would have been, can rightly
be punished by God's judgment in those who are not baptized, they may alo be rightly
remitted by God's grace in those who are baptized. For whoever says that future sins can
only be punished by God's judgment, but cannot be pardoned by God's mercy, ought to
consider how great a wrong he is doing to God and His grace; as if future sin could be
foreknown, and could not be foregone. And if this is absurd, it is the greater reason that
help should be afforded to those who would be sinners if they lived longer, when they die
in early life, by means of that laver wherein sins are washed away.

CHAPTER 25 [XIII.]-POSSIBLY THE BAPTIZED INFANTS WOULD HAVE REPENTED IF THEY HAD LIVED, AND THE UNBAPTIZED NOT.

1 But if, perchance, they say that sins are re-remitted to penitents, and that those who
die in infancy are not baptized because they are foreknown as not such as would repent if
they should live, while God has foreknown that those who are baptized and die in infancy
would have repented if they had lived, let them observe and see that if it be so it is not
in this case original sins which are punished in infants that die without baptism, but
what would have been the sins of each one had he lived; and also in baptized infants, that
it is not original sins that are washed away, but their own future sins if they should
live, since they could not sin except in more mature age; but that some were foreseen as
such as would repent, and others as such as would not repent, therefore some were
baptized, and others departed from this life without baptism. If the Pelagians should dare
to say this, by their denial of original sin they would thus be relieved of the necessity
of seeking, on behalf of infants outside of the kingdom of God, for some place of I know
not what happiness of their own; especially since they are convinced that they cannot have
eternal life because they have not eaten the flesh nor drank the blood of Christ; and
because in them who have no sin at all, baptism, which is given for the remission of sins,
is falsified.

2 For they would go on to say that there is no original sin, but that those who as infants
are released are either baptized or not baptized according to their future merits if they
should live, and that according to their future merits they either receive or do not
receive the body and blood of Christ, without which they absolutely cannot have life; and
are baptized for the true remission of sins although they derived no sins from Adam,
because the sins are remitted unto them concerning which God foreknew that they would
repent. Thus with the greatest ease they would plead and would win their cause, in which
they deny that there is any original sin, and contend that the grace of God is only given
according to our merits. But that the future merits of men, which merits will never come
into existence are beyond all doubt no merits at all, it is certainly most easy to see:
for this reason even the Pelagians were not able to say this; and much rather these ought
not to say it. For it cannot be said with what pain I find that they who with us on
catholic authority condemn the error of those heretics, have not seen this, which the
Pelagians themselves have seen to be most false and absurd.

CHAPTER 26 [XIV]-REFERENCE TO CYPRIAN'S TREATISE "ON THE MORTALITY."

1 Cyprian wrote a work On the Mortality, known with approval to many and almost all who
love ecclesiastical literature, wherein he says that death is not only not disadvantageous
to believers, but that it is even found to be advantageous, because it withdraws men from
the risks of sinning, and establishes them in a security of not sinning. But wherein is
the advantage of this, if even future sins which have not been committed are punished? Yet
he argues most copiously and well that the risks of sinning are not wanting in this life,
and that they do not continue after this life is done; where also he adduces that
testimony from the book of Wisdom: "He was taken away, lest wickedness should alter his
understanding. And this was also adduced by me, though you said that those brethren of
yours had rejected it on the ground of its not having been brought forward from a
canonical book; as if, even setting aside the attestation of this book, the thing itself
were not clear which I wished to be taught therefrom. For what Christian would dare to
deny that the righteous man, if he should be prematurely laid hold of by death, will be in
repose? Let who will, say this, and what man of sound faith will think that he can
withstand it?

2 Moreover, if he should say that the righteous man, if he should depart from his
righteousness in which he has long lived, and should die in that impiety after having
lived in it, I say not a year, but one day, will go hence into the punishment due to the
wicked, his righteousness having no power in the future to avail him,-will any believer
contradict this evident truth? Further, if we are asked whether, if he had died then at
the time that he was righteous, he would have incurred punishment or repose, shall we
hesitate to answer, repose? This is the whole reason why it is said,-whoever says it,-" He
was taken away lest wickedness should alter his understanding. For it was said in
reference to the risks of this life, not with reference to the foreknowledge of God, who
foreknew that which was to be, not that which was not to be-that is, that He would below
on him an untimely death in order that he might be withdrawn from the uncertainty of
temptations; not that he would sin, since he was not to remain in temptation. Because,
concerning this life, we read in the book of Job, "Is not the life of man upon earth a
temptation? But why it should be granted to some to be taken away from the perils of this
life while they are righteous, while others who are righteous until they fall from
righteousness are kept in the same risks in a more lengthened life,-who has known the mind
of the Lord?

3 And yet it is permitted to be understood from this, that even those righteous people who
maintain good and pious characters, even to the maturity of old age and to the last day of
this life, must not glory in their own merits, but in the Lord. since He who took away the
righteous man from the shortness of life, lest wickedness should alter his understanding,
Himself guards the righteous man in any length of life, that wickedness may not alter his
understanding. But why He should have kept the righteous man here to fall, when He might
have withdrawn him before,-His judgments, although absolutely righteous, are yet
unsearchable.

CHAPTER 27.-THE BOOK OF WISDOM OBTAINS IN THE CHURCH THE AUTHORITY OF CANONICAL SCRIPTURE.

1 And since these things are so, the judgment of the book of Wisdom ought not to be
repudiated, since for so long a course of years that book has deserved to be read in the
Church of Christ from the station of the readers of the Church of Christ, and to be heard
by all Christians, from bishops downwards, even to the lowest lay believers, penitents,
and catechumens, with the veneration paid to divine authority. For assuredly, if, from
those who have been before me in commenting on the divine Scriptures, I should bring
forward a defence of this judgment, which we are now called upon to defend more carefully
and copiously than usual against the new error of the Pelagians,-that is, that God's grace
is not given according to our merits, and that it is given freely to whom it is given,
because it is neither of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that
showeth mercy; but that by righteous judgment it is not given to whom it is not given,
because there is no unrighteousness with God;-if, therefore, I should put forth a defence
of this opinion from catholic commentators on the divine oracles who have preceded us,
assuredly these brethren for whose sake I am now discoursing would acquiesce, for this you
have intimated in your letters.

2 What need is there, then, for us to look into the writings of those who, before this
heresy sprang up, had no necessity to be conversant in a question so difficult of solution
as this, which beyond a doubt they would have done if they had been compelled to answer
such things? Whence it arose that they touched upon what they thought of God's grace
briefly in some passages of their writings, and cursorily; but on those matters which they
argued against the enemies of the Church, and in exhortations to every virtue by which to
serve the firing and true God for the purpose of attaining eternal life and true
happiness, they dwelt at length. But the grace of God, what it could do, shows itself
artlessly by its frequent mention in prayers; for what God commands to be done would not
be asked for from God, unless it could be given by Him that it should be done.

CHAPTER 28.-CYPRIAN'S TREATISE "ON THE MORTALITY."

1 But if any wish to be instructed in the opinions of those who have handled the subject,
it behoves them to prefer to all commentators the book of Wisdom, where it is read," He
was taken away, that wickedness should not alter his understanding; because illustrious
commentators, even in the times nearest to the apostles, preferred it to themselves,
seeing that when they made use of it for a testimony they believed that they were making
use of nothing but a divine testimony; and certainly it appears that the most blessed
Cyprian, in order to commend the advantage of an earlier death, contended that those who
end this life, wherein sin is possible, are taken away from the risks of sins. In the same
treatise, among other things, he says, "Why, when you are about to be with Christ, and are
secure of the divine promise, do you not embrace being called to Christ, and rejoice that
you are free from the devil? And in another he says, "Why do we not hasten and run, that
we may see our country, that we may hail our relatives? A great number of those who are
dear to us are expecting us there,-a dense and abundant crowd of parents, brethren, sons,
are longing for us; already secure of their own safety, but still anxious about our
salvation.

2 By these and such like sentiments, that teacher sufficiently and plainly testifies, in
the clearest light of the catholic faith, that perils of sin and trials are to be feared
even until the putting off of this body, but that afterwards no one shall suffer any such
things. And even if he did not testify thus, when could any manner of Christian be in
doubt on this matter? How, then, should it not have been of advantage to a man who has
lapsed, and who finishes his life wretchedly in that same state of lapse, and passes into
the punishment due to such as he,-how, I say, should it not have been of the greatest and
highest advantage to such an one to be snatched by death from this sphere of temptations
before his fall?

CHAPTER 29.-GOD'S DEALING DOES NOT DEPEND UPON ANY CONTINGENT MERITS OF MEN.

1 And thus, unless we indulge in reckless disputation, the entire question is concluded
concerning him who is taken away lest wickedness should alter his understanding. And the
book of Wisdom, which for such a series of years has deserved to be read in Christ's
Church, and in which this is read, ought not to suffer injustice because it withstands
those who are mistaken on behalf of men's merit, so as to come in opposition to the most
manifest grace of God: and this grace chiefly appears in infants, and while some of these
baptized, and some not baptized, come to the end of this life, they sufficiently point to
God's mercy and His judgment,-His mercy, indeed, gratuitous, His judgment, of debt. For if
men should be judged accordingto the merits of their life, which merits they have been
prevented by death from actually having, but would have had if they had lived, it would be
of no advantage to him who is taken away lest wickedness should alter his understanding;
it would be of no advantage to those who die in a state of lapse if they should die
before. And this no Christian will venture to say.

2 Wherefore our brethren, who with us on behalf of the catholic faith assail the pest of
the Pelagian error, ought not to such an extent to favour the Pelagian opinion, wherein
they conceive that God's grace is given according to our merits, as to endeavour (which
they cannot dare) to invalidate a true sentiment, plainly and from ancient times
Christian,-"He was token away, lest wickedness should alter his understanding; and to
build up that which we should think, I do not say, no one would believe, but no one would
dream,-to wit, that any deceased person would be judged according to those things which he
would have done if he had lived for a more lengthened period. Surely thus what we say
manifests itself clearly to be incontestable,-that the grace of God is not given according
to our merits; so that ingenious men who contradict this truth are constrained to say
things which must be rejected from the ears and from the thoughts of all men.

CHAPTER 30 [XV.]-THE MOST ILLUSTRIOUS INSTANCE OF PREDESTINATION IS CHRIST JESUS.

1 Moreover, the most illustrious Light of predestination and grace is the Saviour
Himself,-the Mediator Himself between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. And, pray, by
what preceding merits of its own, whether of works or of faith, did the human nature which
is in Him procure for itself that it should be this? Let this have an answer, I beg. That
man, whence did He deserve this-to be assumed by the Word co-eternal with the Father into
unity of person, and be the only-begotten Son of God? Was it because any kind of goodness
in Him preceded? What did He do before? What did He believe? What did He ask, that He
should attain to this unspeakable excellence? Was it not by the act and the assumption of
the Word that that man, from the time He began to be, began to be the only Son of God? Did
not that woman, full of grace, conceive the only Son of God? Was He not born the only Son
of God, of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary,-not of the lust of the flesh, but by God's
peculiar gift? Was it to be feared that as age maturedthis man, He would sin of free will?
Or was the will in Him not free on that account? and was it not so much the more free in
proportion to the greater impossibility of His becoming the servant of sin?

2 Certainly, in Him human nature-that is to say, our nature-specially received all those
specially admirable gifts, and any others that may most truly be said to be peculiar to
Him, by virtue of no preceding merits of its own. Let a man here answer to God if he dare,
and say, Why was it not I also? And if he should heal "O than, who art thou that repliest
against God? let him not at this point restrain himself, but increase his impudence and
say, "How is it that I heal Who art thou, O man? since I am what I hear,-that is, a than,
and He of whom I speak is but the same? Why should not I also be what He is? For it is by
grace that He is such and so great; why is grace different when nature is common?
Assuredly, there is no respect of persons with God. I say, not what Christian man, but
what madman will say this?

CHAPTER 31.-CHRIST PREDESTINATED TO BE THE SON OF GOD.

1 Therefore in Him who is our Head let there appear to be the very fountain of grace,
whence, according to the measure of every man, He diffuses Himself through all His
members. It is by that grace that every man from the beginning of his faith becomes a
Christian, by which grace that one man from His beginning became Christ. Of the same
Spirit also the former is born again of which the latter was born. By the same Spirit is
effected in us the remission of sins, by which Spirit it was effected that He should have
no sin. God certainly foreknew that He would do these things. This, therefore, is that
same predestination of the saints which most especially shone forth in the Saint of
saints; and who is there of those who rightly understand the declarations of the truth
that can deny this predestination? For we have learned that the Lord of glory Himself was
predestinated in so far as the man was made the Son of God. The teacher of the Gentiles
exclaims, in the beginning of his epistles, "Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be
an apostle, separated unto the gospel of God (which He had promised afore by His prophets
in the Holy Scriptures) concerning His Son, which was made of the seed of David according
to the flesh, who was predestinated the Son of God in power, according to the Spirit of
sanctification by the resurrection of the dead.

2 Therefore Jesus was predestinated, so that He who was to be the Son of David according
to the flesh should yet be in power the Son of God, according to the Spirit of
sanctification, because He was born of the Holy Spirit and of the Virgin Mary. This is
that ineffably accomplished sole taking up of man by God the Word, so that He might truly
and properly be called at the same time the Son of God and the Son of man,-Son of man on
account of the man taken up, and the Son of God on account of the God only-begotten who
took Him up, so that a Trinity and not a Quaternity might be believed in. Such a
transporting of human nature was predestinated, so great, so lofty, and so sublime that
there was no exalting it more highly,-just as on our behalf that divinity had no
possibility of more humbly putting itself off, than by the assumption of man's nature with
the weakness of the flesh, even to the death of the cross. As, therefore, that one man was
predestinated to be our Head, so we being many are predestinated to be His members. Here
let human merits which have perished through Adam keep silence, and let that grace of God
reign which reigns through Jesus Christ our Lord, the only Son of God, the one Lord. Let
whoever can find in our Head the merits which preceded that peculiar generation,seek in us
His members for those merits whichpreceded our manifold regeneration.

3 For thatgeneration was not recompensed to Christ, butgiven; that He should be born,
namely, of theSpirit and the Virgin, separate from all entanglement of sin. Thus also our
being born again of water and the Spirit is not recompensed to us for any merit, but
freely given; and if faith has brought us to the laver of regeneration, we ought not
therefore to suppose that we have first given anything, so that the regeneration of
salvation should be recompensed to us again; because He made us to believe in Christ, who
made for us a Christ on whom we believe. He makes in men the beginning and the completion
of the faith in Jesus who made the man Jesus the beginner and finisher of faith; for thus,
as you know, He is called in the epistle which is addressed to the Hebrews.

CHAPTER 32 [XVI.]-THE TWOFOLD CALLING.

God indeed calls many predestinated children of His, to make them members of His only
predestinated Son,-not with that calling with which they were called who would not come to
the marriage, since with that calling were called also the Jews, to whom Christ crucified
is an offence, and the Gentiles, to whom Christ crucified is foolishness; but with that
calling He calls the predestinated which the apostle distinguished when he said that he
preached Christ, the wisdom of God and the power of God, to them that were called, Jews as
well as Greeks. For thus he says "But unto them which arc called," in order to show that
there were some who were not called; knowing that there is a certain sure calling of those
who are called according to God's purpose, whom He has foreknown and predestinated before
to be conformed to the image of His Son. And it was this calling he meant when he said,
"Not of works, but of Him that calleth; it was said unto her, That the elder shall serve
the younger." Did he say, "Not of works, but of him that believeth"? Rather, he actually
took this away from man, that he might give the whole to God. Therefore he said, "But of
Him that calleth,"-not with any sort of calling whatever, but with that calling wherewith
a man is made a believer.

CHAPTER 33.-IT IS IN THE POWER OF EVIL MEN TO SIN; BUT TO DO THIS OR THAT BY MEANS

1 Moreover, it was this that he had in view when he said, "The gifts and calling of God
are without repentance. And in that saying also consider for a little what was its
purport. For when he had said, "For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of
this mystery, that ye may not be wise in yourselves, that blindness in part is happened to
Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in, and so all Israel should be saved;
as it is written, There shall come out of Sion one who shall deliver, and turn away
impiety from Jacob: and this is the covenant to them from me, when I shall take away their
sins; he immediately added, what is to be very carefully understood, "As concerning the
gospel, indeed, they are enemies for your sakes: but as concerning the election, they are
beloved for their fathers' sake. What is the meaning of, "as concerning the gospel,
indeed, they are enemies for your sake," but that their enmity wherewith they put Christ
to death was, without doubt, as we see, an advantage to the gospel? And he shows that this
came about by God's ordering, who knew how to make a good use even of evil things; not
that the vessels of wrath might be of advantage to Him, but that by His own good use of
them they might be of advantage to the vessels of mercy.

2 For what could be said more plainly than what is actually said, "As concerning the
gospel, indeed, they are enemies for your sakes"? It is, therefore, in the power of the
wicked to sin; but that in sinning they should do this or that by that wickedness is not
in their power, but in God's, who divides the darkness and regulates it; so that hence
even what they do contrary to God's will is not fulfilled except it be God's will. We read
in the Acts of the Apostles that when the apostles had been sent away by the Jews, and had
come to their own friends, and shown them what great things the priests and elders said to
them, they all with one consent lifted up their voices to the Lord and said, "Lord, thou
art God, which hast made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein;
who, by the mouth of our father David, thy holy servant, hast said, Why did the heathen
rage, and the peoples imagine vain things? The kings of the earth stood up, and the
princes were gathered together against the Lord, and against His Christ. For in truth,
there have assembled together in this city against Thy holy child Jesus, whom Thou hast
anointed, Herod and Pilate, and the people of Israel, to do whatever Thy hand and counsel
predestinated to be done. See what is said: "As concerning the gospel, indeed, they are
enemies for your sakes.

3 Because God's hand and counsel predestinated such things to be done by the hostile Jews
as were necessary for the gospel, for our sakes. But what is it that follows? "But as
concerning the election, they are beloved for their fathers' sakes. For are those enemies
who perished in their enmity and those of the same people who still perish in their
opposition to Christ,-are those chosen and beloved? Away with the thought! Who is so
utterly foolish as to say this? But both expressions, although contrary to one another-
that is, "enemies" and "beloved"-are appropriate, though not to the same men, yet to the
same Jewish people, and to the same carnal seed of lsrael, of whom some belonged to the
falling away, and some to the blessing of Israel himself. For the apostle previously
explained this meaning more dearly when he said, "That which lsrael wrought for, he hath
not obtained; but the election hath obtained in and the rest were blinded? Yet in both
cases it was the very same Israel. Where, therefore, we hear, "lsrael hath not obtained,"
or, "The rest were blinded," there are to be understood the enemies for our sakes; but
where we hear, "that the election hath obtained it," there are to be understood the
beloved for their father's sakes, to which fathers those things were assuredly promised;
because "the promises were made to Abraham and his seed," whence also in that olive-tree
is grafted the wild olive-tree of the Gentiles.

4 Now subsequently we certainly ought to fall in with the election, of which he says that
it is according to grace, not according to debt, because "there was made a remnant by the
election of grace" This election obtained it, the rest bring blinded. As concerning this
election, the Israelites were beloved for the sake of their fathers. For they were not
called with that calling of which it is said, "Many are called," but with that whereby the
chosen are called. Whence also after he had said, "But as concerning the election, they
are beloved for the fathers' sakes," he went on to add those words whence this discussion
arose: "For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance,"-that is, they are firmly
established without change. Those who belong to this calling are alI teachable by God; nor
can any of them say, "I believed in order to bring thus called," because the mercy of God
anticipated him, because he was so called in order that he might believe. For all who are
teachable of God come to the Son because they have heard and learned from the Father
through the Son, who most clearly says, "Every one who has heard of the Father, and has
learned, cometh unto me. But of such as these none perishes, because "of all that the
Father hath given Him, He will lose honed. Whoever, therefore, is of these does not perish
at all; nor was any who perishes ever of these.

5 For which reason it is said, "They went out from among us, but they were not of us; for
if they had been of us, they would certainly have continued with us."


ON THE PREDESTINATION OF THE SAINTS (CHAPTERS 34 [XVII.]-THE SPECIAL CALLING OF THE ELECT IS NOT BECAUSE THEY HAVE BELIEVED, BUT IN ORDER THAT THEY MAY BELIEVE.–32 [XIII.]-THE INSCRUTABILITY OF GOD'S FREE PURPOSES.)
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ON THE PREDESTINATION OF THE SAINTS continued

CHAPTER 34 [XVII.]-THE SPECIAL CALLING OF THE ELECT IS NOT BECAUSE THEY HAVE BELIEVED, BUT IN ORDER THAT THEY MAY BELIEVE.

1 Let us, then, understand the calling whereby they become elected,-not those who are
elected because they have believed, but who are elected that they may believe. For the
Lord Himself also sufficiently explains this calling when He says, "Ye have not chosen me,
but I have chosen you. For if they had been elected because they had believed, they
themselves would certainly have first chosen Him by believing in Him, so that they should
deserve to be elected. But He takes away this supposition altogether when He says "Ye have
not chosen me, but I have chosen you. And yet they themselves, beyond a doubt, chose Him
when they believed on Him. Whence it is not for any other reason that He says, "Ye have
not chosen me, but I have chosen you," than because they did not choose Him that He should
choose them, but He chose them that they might choose Him; because His mercy preceded them
according to grace, not according to debt. Therefore He chose them out of the word while
He was wearing flesh, but as those who were already chosen in Himself before the
foundation of the world. This is the changeless truth concerning predestination and grace.
For what is it that the apostle says, "As He hath chosen us in Himself before the
foundation of the world"?

2 And assuredly, if this were said because God foreknew that they would believe, not
because He Himself would make them believers, the Son is speaking against such a
foreknowledge as that when He says, "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you; when
God should rather have foreknown this very thing, that they themselves would have chosen
Him, so that they might deserve to be chosen by Him. Therefore they were elected before
the foundation of the world with that predestination in which God foreknew what He Himself
would do; but they were elected out of the world with that calling whereby God fulfilled
that which He predestinated. For whom He predestinated, them He also called, with that
calling, to wit, which is according to the purpose. Not others, therefore, but those whom
He predestinated, them He also called; nor other, but those whom He so called, them He
also justified; nor others, but those whom He predestinated, called, and justified, them
He also glorified; assuredly to that end which has no end. Therefore God elected
believers; but He chose them that they might be so, not because they were already so. The
Apostle James says: "Has not God chosen the poor in this world, rich in faith, and heirs
of the kingdom which God hath promised to them that love Him? By choosing them, makes them
heirs of the kingdom; because He is rightly said to choose that in them, in order to make
which in them He chose them.

3 I ask, who can hear the Lord saying, "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you," and
can dare to say that men believe in order to be elected, when they are rather elected to
believe; lest against the judgment of truth they be found to have first chosen Christ to
whom Christ says, "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen 'you"?

CHAPTER 35 [XVIII.]-ELECTION IS FOR THE PURPOSE OF HOLINESS.

Who can hear the apostle saying, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who hath blessed us in all spiritual blessing in the heavens in Christ; as He has chosen
us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without spot in
His sight; in love predestinating us to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
Himself according to the good pleasure of His will, wherein He hath shown us favour in His
beloved Son; in whom we have redemption through His blood, the remission of sins according
to the riches of His grace, which hath abounded to us in all wisdom and prudence; that He
might show to us the mystery of His will according to His good pleasure, which He hath
purposed in Himself, in the dispensation of the fulness of times, to restore all things in
Christ, which are in heaven, and in the earth, in Him: in whom also we have obtained a
share, being predestinated according to the purpose; who worketh all things according to
the counsel of His will, that we should be to the praise of his glory;" -who, I say, can
hear these words with attention and intelligence, and can venture to have any doubt
concerning a truth so dear as this which we are defending? God chose Christ's members in
Him before the foundation of the world; and how should He choose those who as yet did not
exist, except by predestinating them? Therefore He chose us by predestinating us. Would he
choose the unholy and the unclean? Now if the question be proposed, whether He would
choose such, or rather the holy and unstained, who can ask which of these he may answer,
and not give his opinion at once in favour of the holy and pure?

CHAPTER 36.-GOD CHOSE THE RIGHTEOUS; NOT THOSE WHOM HE FORESAW AS BEING OF THEMSELVES, BUT THOSE WHOM HE PREDESTINATED FOR THE PURPOSE OF MAKING SO.

1 "Therefore," says the Pelagian, "He foreknew who would be holy and immaculate by the
choice of free will, and on that account elected them before the foundation of the world
in that same foreknowledge of His in which He foreknew that they would be such. Therefore
He elected them," says he, "before they existed, predestinating them to be children whom
He foreknew to be holy and immaculate. Certainly He did not make them so; nor did He
foresee that He would make them so, but that they would be so. Let us, then, look into the
words of the apostle and see whether He chose us before the foundation of the world
because we were going to be holy and immaculate, or in order that we might be so.
"Blessed," says he, "be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us
in all spiritual blessing in the heavens in Christ; even as He hath chosen us in Himself
before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and unspotted. Not, then,
because we were to be so, but that we might be so. Assuredly it is certain,-assuredly it
is manifest. Certainly we were to be such for the reason that He has chosen us,
predestinating us to be such by His grace.

2 Therefore "He blessed us with spiritual blessing in the heavens in Christ Jesus, even as
He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and
immaculate in His sight, order that we might not in so great a benefit of grace glory
concerning the good pleasure of our will. "In which," says he, "He hath shown us favour in
His beloved Son,"-in which, certainly, His own will, He hath shown us favour. Thus, it is
said, He hath shown us grace by grace, even as it is said, He has made us righteous by
righteous . "In whom," he says, "we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of
sins, according to the riches is His grace, which has abounded to us in all was according
to His own pleasure, should aid it to become so. But when he had said, "According to His
good pleasure," he added, "whichHe purposed in Him," that is, in His belovedSon, "in the
dispensation of the fulness of times to restore all things in Christ, which arein heaven,
and which are in earth, in Him inwhom also we too have obtained a lot, beingpredestinated
according to His purpose who worketh all things according to the counsel of His will; that
we should be to the praise of His glory."

CHAPTER 37.-WE WERE ELECTED AND PREDESTINATED, NOT BECAUSE WE WERE GOING TO BE HOLY, BUT IN ORDER THAT WE MIGHT BE SO.

It would be too tedious to argue about the several points. But you see without doubt, you
see with what evidence of apostolic declaration this grace is defended, in opposition to
which human merits are set up, as if man should first give something for it to be
recompensed to him again. Therefore God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the
world, predestinating us to the adoption of children, not because we were going to be of
ourselves holy and immaculate, but He chose and predestinated us that we might be so.
Moreover, He did this according to the good pleasure of His will, so that nobody might
glory concerning his own will, but about God's will towards himself. He did this according
to the riches of His grace, according to His good-will, which He purposed in His beloved
Son; in whom we have obtained a share, being predestinated according to the purpose, not
ours, but His, who worketh all things to such an extent as that He worketh in us to will
also. Moreover, He worketh according to the counsel of His will, that we may be to the
praise of His glory. For this reason it is that we cry that no one should glory in man,
and, thus, not in himself; but whoever glorieth let him glory in the Lord, that he may be
for the praise of His glory. Because He Himself worketh according to His purpose that we
may be to the praise of His glory, and, of course, holy and immaculate, for which purpose
He called us, predestinating us before the foundation of the world. Out ofthis, His
purpose, is that special calling of the ellect for whom He co-worketh with all things for
good, because they are called according to His purpose, and "the gifts and calling of God
are without repentance."

CHAPTER 38 [XIX]-WHAT IS THE VIEW OF THE PELAGIANS, AND WHAT OF THE SEMI-PELAGIANS, CONCERNING PREDESTINATION.

1 But these brethren of ours, about whom and on whose behalf we are now discoursing, say,
perhaps, that the Pelagians are refuted by this apostolical testimony in which it is said
that we are chosen in Christ and predestinated before the foundation of the world, in
order that we should be holy and immaculate in His sight in love. For they think that
"having received God's commands we are of ourselves by the choice of our free will made
holy and immaculate in His sight in love; and since God foresaw that this would be the
case," they say, "He therefore chose and predestinated us in Christ before the foundation
of the world. Although the apostle says that it was not because He foreknew that we should
be such, but in order that we might be such by the same election of His grace, by which He
showed us favour in His beloved Son. When, therefore, He predestinated us, He foreknew His
own work by which He makes us holy and immaculate. Whence the Pelagian error is rightly
refuted by this testimony. "But we say," say they, "that God did not foreknow anything as
ours except that faith by which we begin to believe, and that He chose and predestinated
us before the foundation of the world, in order that we might be holy and immaculate by
His grace and by His work.

2 But let them also hear in this testimony the words where he says, "We have obtained a
lot, being predestinated according to His purpose who worketh all things. He, therefore,
worketh the beginning of our belief who worketh all things; because faith itself does not
precede that calling of which it is said: "For the gifts and calling of God are without
repentance; and of which it is said: "Not of works, but of Him that calleth" (although He
might have said, "of Him that believeth"); and the election which the Lord signified when
He said: "Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you. For He chose us, not because we
believed, but that we might believe, lest we should be said first to have chosen Him, and
so His word be false (which be it far from us to think possible), "Ye have not chosen me,
but I have chosen you. Neither are we called because we believed, but that we may believe;
and by that calling which is without repentance it is effected and carried through that we
should believe. But all the many things which we have said concerning this matter need not
to be repeated.

CHAPTER 39-THE BEGINNING OF FAITH IS GOD'S GIFT.

1 Finally, also, in what follows this testimony, the apostle gives thanks to God on behalf
of those who have believed;-not, certainly, because the gospel has been declared to them,
but because they have believed. For he says, "In whom also after ye had heard the word of
truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, after that ye believed, ye were sealed
with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is the pledge of our inheritance, to the redemption
of the purchased possession unto the praise of His glory. Wherefore I also, after I had
heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and with reference to all the saints, cease not to
give thanks to you. Their faith was new and recent on the preaching of the gospel to them,
which faith when he hears of, the apostle gives thanks to God on their behalf. If he were
to give thanks to man for that which he might either think or know that man had not given,
it would be called a flattery or a mockery, rather than a giving of thanks. "Do not err,
for God is not mocked; for His gift is also the beginning of faith, unless the apostolic
giving of thanks be rightly judged to be either mistaken or fallacious. What then?

2 Does that not appear as the beginning of the faith of the Thessalonians, for which,
nevertheless, the same apostle gives thanks to God when he says, "For this cause also we
thank God without ceasing, because when ye had received from us the word of the heating of
God, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth the word of God, which
effectually worketh in you and which ye believed"? What is that for which he here gives
thanks to God? Assuredly it is a vain and idle thing if He to whom he gives thanks did not
Himself do the thing. But, since this is not a vain and idle thing, certainly God, to whom
he gave thanks concerning this work, Himself did it; that when they had received the word
of the heating of God, they received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth the
word of God. God, therefore, worketh in the hearts of men with that calling according to
His purpose, of which we have spoken a great deal, that they should not hear the gospel in
vain, but when they heard it, should be converted and believe, receiving it not as the
word of men, but as it is in truth the word of God.

CHAPTER 40 [XX.]-APOSTOLIC TESTIMONY TO THE BEGINNING OF FAITH BEING GOD'S GIFT.

Moreover, we are admonished that the beginning of men's faith is God's gift, since the
apostle signifies this when, in the Epistle to the Colossians, he says, "Continue in
prayer, and watch in the same in giving of thanks. Withal praying also for us that God
would open unto us the door of His word, to speak the mystery of Christ, for which alsoI
am bonds, that I may so to make it manifest asought to speak." How is the door of His word
opened, except when the sense of the hearer is opened so that he may believe, and, having
made a beginning of faith, may admit those things which are declared and reasoned, for the
purpose of building up wholesome doctrine, lest, by a heart closed through unbelief, he
reject and repel those things which are spoken? Whence, also, he says to the Corinthians:
"But I will tarry at Ephesus until Pentecost. For a great and evident door is opened unto
me, and there are many adversaries." What else can be understood here, save that, when the
gospel had been first of all preached there by him, many had believed, and there had
appeared many adversaries of the same faith, in accordance with that saying of the Lord,
"No one cometh unto me, unless it were given him of my Father;" and, "To you it is given
to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given"? Therefore,
there is an open door in those to whom it is given, but there are many adversaries among
those to whom it is not given.

CHAPTER 41.-FURTHER APOSTOLIC TESTIMONIES.

1 And again, the same apostle says to the same people, in his second Epistle: "When I had
come to Troas for the gospel of Christ, and a door had been opened unto me in the Lord, I
had no rest in my spirit, because I found not Titus, my brother: but, making my farewell
to them, I went away into Macedonia," To whom did he bid farewell but to those who had
believed,-to wit, in whose hearts the door was opened for his preaching of the gospel? But
attend to what he adds, saying, "Now thanks be unto God, who always causes us to triumph
in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of His knowledge by us in every place: because
we are unto God a sweet savour of Christ in them who are saved, and in them who perish: to
some, indeed, we are the savour of death unto death, but to some the savour of life unto
life. See concerning what this most zealous soldier and invincible defender of grace gives
thanks. See concerning what he gives thanks,-that the apostles are a sweet savour of
Christ unto God, both in those who are saved by His grace, and in those who perish by His
judgment. But in order that those who little understand these things may be less enraged,
he himself gives a warning when he adds the words: "And who is sufficient for these
things? But let us return to the opening of the door by which the apostle signified the
beginning of faith in his hearers.

2 For what is the meaning of, "Withal praying also for us that God would open unto us a
door of the word," unless it is a most manifest demonstration that even the very beginning
of faith is the gift of God? For it would not be sought for from Him in prayer, unless it
were believed to be given by Him. This gift of heavenly grace had descended to that seller
of purple for whom, as Scripture says in the Acts of the Apostles, "The Lord opened her
heart, and she gave heed unto the things which were said by Paul; for she was so called
that she might believe. Because God does what He will in the hearts of men, either by
assistance or by judgment; so that, even through their means, may be fulfilled what His
hand and counsel have predestinated to be done.

CHAPTER 42.-OLD TESTAMENT TESTIMONIES,

1 Therefore also it is in vain that objectors have alleged, that what we have proved by
Scripture testimony from the books of Kings and Chronicles is not pertinent to the subject
of which we are discoursing: such, for instance, as that when God wills that to be done
which ought only to be done by the wiling men, their hearts are inclined to will
this,-inclined, that is to say, by His power, who, in a marvellous and ineffable manner,
worketh in us also to will. What else is this than to say nothing, and yet to contradict?
Unless perchance, they have given some reason to you for the view that they have taken,
which reason you have preferred to say nothing about in your letters. But what that reason
can be I do not know. Whether, possibly, since we have shown that God has so acted on the
hearts of men, and has induced the wills of those whom He pleased to this point, that Saul
or David should be established as king,-do they not think that these instances are
appropriate to this subject, because to reign in this world temporally is not the same
thing as to reign eternally with God? And so do they suppose that God inclines the wills
of those whom He pleases to the attainment of earthly kingdoms, but does not incline them
to the attainment of a heavenly kingdom?

2 But I think that it was in reference to the kingdom of heaven, and not to an earthly
kingdom, that it was said, "Incline my heart unto Thy testimonies; or, "The steps of a man
are ordered by the Lord, and He will will His way;" )or, "The will is prepared by the
Lord; or, "Let our Lord be with us as with our fathers; let Him not forsake us, nor turn
Himself away from us; let Him incline our hearts unto Him, that we may walk in all His
ways; or, "I will give them a heart to know me, and earn that hear; or, "I will give them
another heart, and a new spirit will I give them. Let them also hear this, "I will give my
Spirit within you, and I will cause you to walk in my righteousness; and ye shall observe
my judgments, and do them. Let them heal "Man's goings are directed by the Lord, and how
can a man understand His ways? Let them hear, "Every man seemeth right to himself, but the
Lord directeth the hearts. Let them hear, "As many as were ordained to eternal life
believed " Let them hear these passages, and whatever others of the kind I have not
mentioned in which God is declared to prepare and to convert men's wills, even for the
kingdom of heaven and for eternal life.

3 And consider what sort of a thing it is to believe that God worketh men's wills for the
foundation of earthly kingdoms, but that men work their own wills for the attainment of
the kingdom of heaven.

CHAPTER 43 [XXI.]-CONCLUSION.

I have said a great deal, and, perchance, I could long ago have persuaded you what I
wished, and am still speaking this to such intelligent minds as if they were obtuse, to
whom even what is too much is not enough. But let them pardon me, for a new question has
compelled me to this. Because, although in my former little treatises I had proved by
sufficiently appropriate proofs that faith also was the gift of God, there was found this
ground of contradiction, viz., that those testimonies were good for this purpose, to show
that the increase of faith was God's gift, but that the beginning of faith, whereby a man
first of all believes in Christ, is of the man himself, and is not the gift of God,-but
that God requires this, so that when it has of God; and that none of them is given freely,
although in them God's grace is declared, which is not grace except as being gratuitous.
And you see how absurd all this is. Wherefore I determined, as far as I could, to set
forth that this very beginning also is God's gift. And if I have done this at a greater
length than perhaps those on whose account I did it might wish, I am prepared to be
reproached for it by them, so long as they nevertheless confess that, although at greater
length than they wished, although with the disgust and weariness of those that understand,
I have done what I have done: that is, I have taught that even the beginning of faith, as
continence, patience, righteousness, piety, and the rest, concerning which there is no
dispute with them, is God's gift. Let this, therefore, be the end of this treatise, lest
too great length in this one may give offence.

INTRODUCTION

Of the Treatise — "On the Predestination of the Saints." Addressed to Prosper and Hilary.
a.d. 428 or 429.

1 In the first part of the book he proves that the perseverance by which a man perseveres
in Christ to the end is God's gift; for that it is a mockery to ask of God that which is
not believed to be given by God. Moreover, that in the Lord's prayer scarcely anything is
asked for but perseverance, according to the exposition of the martyr cyprian, by which
exposition the enemies to this grace were convicted before they were born. He teaches that
the grace of perseverance is not given according to the merits of the receivers, but to
some it is given by God's mercy; to others it is not given, by His righteous judgment.
That it is inscrutable why, of adults, one rather than another should be called; just as,
moreover, of two infants it is inscrutable why the one should be taken, the other left.
But that it is still more inscrutable why, of two pious persons, to one it should be given
to persevere, to the other it should not be given; but that this is most certain, that the
former is of the predestinated, the latter is not. He observes that the mystery of
predestination is set forth in our Lord's words concerning the people of tyre and sidon,
who would have repented if the same miracles had been done among them which had been done
in chorazin. He shows that the case of infants is of force to confirm the truth of
predestination and grace in older people;

2 and he answers the passage of his third book on free will, unsoundly alleged on this
point by his adversaries. Subsequently, in the second part of this work, he rebuts what
they say,-To wit, that the definition of predestination is opposed to the usefulness of
exhortation and rebuke. He asserts, on the other hand, that it is advantageous to preach
predestination, so that man may not glory in himself, but in the Lord. As to the
objections, however, which they make against predestination, he shows that the same
objections may be twisted in no unlike manner either against God's foreknowledge or
against that grace which they all agree to be necessary for other good things (with the
exception of the beginning of faith and the completion of perseverance). For that the
predestination of the saints is nothing else than God's foreknowledge and preparation for
His benefits, by which whoever are delivered are most certainly delivered. But he bids
that predestination should be preached in a harmonious manner, and not in such a way as to
seem to an unskilful multitude as if it were disproved by its very preaching. Lastly, he
commends to us Jesus Christ, as placed before our eyes, as the most eminent instance of
predestination.

CHAPTER I [I.]-OF THE NATURE OF THE PERSEVERANCE HERE DISCOURSED OF.

1 I Have now to consider the subject of perseverance with greater care; for in the former
book also I said some things on this subject when I was discussing the beginning of faith.
I assert, therefore, that the perseverance by which we persevere in Christ even to the end
is the gift of God; and I call that the end by which is finished that life wherein alone
there is peril of falling. Therefore it is uncertain whether any one has received this
gift so long as he is still alive. For if he fall before he dies, he is, of course, said
not to have persevered; and most truly is it said. How, then, should he be said to have
received or to have had perseverance who has not persevered? For if any one have
continence, and fall away from that virtue and become incontinent,-or, in like manner, if
he have righteousness, if patience, if even faith, and fall away, he is rightly said to
have had these virtues and to have them no longer; for he was continent, or he was
righteous, or he was patient, or he was believing, as long as he was so; but when he
ceased to be so, he no longer is what he was. But how should he who Has not persevered
have ever been persevering, since it is only by persevering that any one shows himself
persevering,-and this he has not done?

2 But lest any one should object to this, and say, If from the time at which any one
became a believer he has lived-for the sake of argument-ten years, and in the midst of
them has fallen from the faith, has he not persevered for five years? I am not contending
about words. If it be thought that this also should be called perseverance, as it were for
so long as it lasts, assuredly he is not to be said to have had in any degree that
perseverance of which we are now discoursing, by which one perseveres in Christ even to
the end. And the believer of one year, or of a period as much shorter as may be conceived
of, if he has lived faithfully until he died, has rather had this perseverance than the
believer of many years' standing, if a little time before his death he has fallen away
from the stedfastness of his faith.

CHAPTER 2 [II.]-FAITH IS THE BEGINNING OF A CHRISTIAN MAN. MARTYRDOM FOR CHRIST'S SAKE IS HIS BEST ENDING.

1 This matter being settled, let us see whether this perseverance, of which it was said,
"He that persevereth unto the end, the same shall be saved," is a gift of God. And if it
be not, how is that saying of the apostle true: "Unto you it is given in the behalf of
Christ, not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake"? Of these things,
certainly, one has respect to the beginning, the other to the end. Yet each is the gift of
God, because both are said to be given; as, also, I have already said above. For what is
more truly the beginning for a Christian than to believe in Christ? What end is better
than to suffer for Christ? But so far as pertains to believing in Christ, whatever kind of
contradiction has been discovered, that not the beginning but the increase of faith should
be called God's gift,-to this opinion, by God's gift, I have answered enough, and more
than enough. But what reason can be given why perseverance to the end should not be given
in Christ to him to whom it is given to suffer for Christ, or, to speak more distinctly,
to whom it is given to die for Christ? For the Apostle Peter, showing that this is the
gift of God, says, "It is better, if the will of God be so, to suffer for well-doing than
for evil-doing.

2 When he says, "If the will of God be so," he shows that this is divinely given, and yet
not to all saints, to suffer for Christ's sake. For certainly those whom the will of God
does not will to attain to the experience and the glory of suffering, do not fail to
attain to the kingdom of God if they persevere in Christ to the end. But who can say that
this perseverance is not given to those who die in Christ from any weakness of booty, or
by any kind of accident, although a far more difficult perseverance is given to those by
whom even death itself is undergone for Christ's sake? Because perseverance is much more
difficult when the persecutor is engaged in preventing a man's perseverance; and therefore
he is sustained in his perseverance unto death. Hence it is more difficult to have the
former perseverance,-easier to have the latter; but to Him to whom nothing is difficult it
is easy to give both. For God has promised this, saying, "I will put my fear in their
hearts, that they may not depart from me. And what else is this than, "Such and so great
shall be my fear that I will put into their hearts that they will perseveringly cleave to
me"?

CHAPTER 3.-GOD IS BESOUGHT FOR IT, BECAUSE IT IS HIS GIFT.

But why is that perseverance asked for from God if it is not given by God? Is that, too, a
mocking petition, when that is asked from Him which it is known that He does not give,
but, though He gives it not, is in man's power; just as that giving of thanks is a
mockery, if thanks are given to God for that which He did not give nor do? But what I have
said there, I say also here again: "Be not deceived," says the apostle, "God is not
mocked." O man, God is a witness not only of your words, but also of your thoughts. If you
ask anything in truth and faith of one who is so rich, believe that you receive from Him
from whom you ask, what you ask. Abstain from honouring Him with your lips and extolling
yourself over Him in your heart, by believing that you have from yourself what you are
pretending to beseech from Him. Is not this perseverance, perchance, asked for from Him?
He who says this is not to be rebuked by any arguments, but must be overwhelmed with the
prayers of the saints. Is there any of these who does not ask for himself from God that he
may persevere in Him, when in that very prayer which is called the Lord's-because the Lord
taught it-when it is prayed by the saints, scarcely anything else is understood to be
prayed for but perseverance?

CHAPTER 4.-THREE LEADING POINTS OF THE PELAGIAN DOCTRINE.

1 Read with a little more attention its exposition in the treatise of the blessed martyr
Cyprian, which he wrote concerning this matter, the title of which is, On the Lord's
Prayer; and see how many years ago, and what sort of an antidote was prepared against
those poisons which the Pelagians were one day to use. For there are three points, as you
know, which the catholic Church chiefly maintains against them. One of these is, that the
grace of God is not given according to our merits; because even every one of the merits of
the righteous is God's gift, and is conferred by God's grace. The second is, that no one
lives in this corruptible body, however righteous he may be, without sins of some kind.
The third is, that man is born obnoxious to the first man's sin, and bound by the chain of
condemnation, unless the guilt which is contracted by generation be loosed by
regeneration. Of these three points, that which I have placed last is the only one that is
not treated of in the above-named book of the glorious martyr; but of the two others the
discourse there is of such perspicuity, that the above-named heretics, modern enemies of
the grace of Christ, are found to have been convicted long before they were born. Among
these merits of the saints, then, which are no merits unless they are the gifts of God, he
says that perseverance also is God's gift, in these words:

2 "We say, `Hallowed be Thy name;' not that we ask for God that He may be hallowed by our
prayers, but that we beseech of Him that His name may be hallowed in us. But by whom is
God sanctified, since He Himself sanctifies? Well, because He says, Be ye holy because I
also am holy, we ask and entreat that we, who were sanctified in baptism, may persevere in
that which we have begun to be. And a little after, still arguing about that self-same
matter, and teaching that we entreat perseverance from the Lord, which we could in no wise
rightly and truly do unless it were His gift, he says: "We pray that this sanctification
may abide in us; and because our Lord and Judge warns the man that was healed and
quickened by Him to sin no more, lest a worse thing happen unto him, we make this
supplication in our constant prayers; we ask this, day and night, that the sanctification
and quickening which is received from the grace of God may be preserved by His protection.
That teacher, therefore, understands that we are asking from Him for perseverance in
sanctification, that is, that we should persevere in sanctification, when we who are
sanctified say," Hallowed be Thy name. For what else is it to ask for what we have already
received, than that it be given to us also not to cease from its possession?

3 As, therefore, the saint, when he asks God that he may be holy, is certainly asking that
he may continue to be holy, so certainly the chaste person also, when he asks that he may
be chaste, the continent that he may be continent, the righteous that he may be righteous,
the pious that he may be pious, and the like,-which things, against the Pelagians, we
maintain to be God's gifts,-are asking, without doubt, that they may persevere in those
good things which they have acknowledged that they have received. And if they receive
this, assuredly they also receive perseverance itself, the great gift of God, whereby His
other gifts are preserved.

CHAPTER 5.-THE SECOND PETITION IN THE LORD'S PRAYER.

What, when we say, "Thy kingdom come," do we ask else, but that that should also come to
us which we do not doubt will come to all saints? And therefore here also, what do they
who are already holy pray for, save that they may persevere in that holiness which has
been given them? For no otherwise will the kingdom of God come to them; which it is
certain will come not to others, but to those who persevere to the end.

CHAPTER 6 [III.]-THE THIRD PETITION. HOW HEAVEN AND EARTH ARE UNDERSTOOD IN THE LORD'S PRAYER.

1 The third petition is, "Thy will be done in heaven and in earth; or, as it is read in
many codices, and is more frequently made use of by petitioners, "As in heaven, so also in
earth," which many people understand, "As the holy angels, so also may we do thy will.
That teacher and martyr will have heaven and earth, however, to be understood as spirit
and flesh, and says that we pray that we may do the will of God with the full concord of
both. He saw in these words also another meaning, congruous to the soundest faith, of
which meaning I have already spoken above,-to wit, that for unbelievers, who are as yet
earth, bearing in their first birth only the earthly man, believers are understood to
pray, who, being clothed with the heavenly man, are not unreasonably called by the name of
heaven; where he plainly shows that the beginning of faith also is God's gift, since the
holy Church prays not only for believers, that faith may be increased or may continue in
them, but, moreover, for unbelievers, that they may begin to have what they have not had
at all, and against which, besides, they were indulging hostile feelings. Now, however, I
am arguing not concerning the beginning of faith, of which. I have already spoken much in
the former book, but of that perseverance which must be had even to the end,-which
assuredly even the saints, who do the will of God, seek when they say in prayer, "Thy will
be done.

2 For, since it is already done in them, why do they still ask that it may be done, except
that they may persevere in that which they have begun to be? Nevertheless, it may here be
said that the saints do not ask that the will of God may be done in heaven, but that it
may be done in earth as in heaven,-that is to say, that earth may imitate heaven, that is,
that man may imitate the angel, or that an unbeliever may imitate a believer; and thus
that the saints are asking that that may be which is not yet, not that that which is may
continue. For, by whatever holiness men may be distinguished, they are not yet equal to
the angels of God; not yet, therefore, is the will of God done in them as it is in heaven.
And if this be so, in that portion indeed in which we ask that men from unbelievers may
become believers, it is not perseverance, but beginning, that seems to be asked for; but
in that in which we ask that men may be made equal to the angels of God in doing God's
will,-where the saints pray for this, they are found to be praying for perseverance; since
no one attains to that highest blessedness which is in the kingdom, unless he shall
persevere unto the end in that holiness which he has received on earth.

CHAPTER 7 [IV.]-THE FOURTH PETITION.

The fourth petition is, "Give us this day our daily bread," where the blessed Cyprian
shows how here also perseverance is understood to be asked for. Because he says, among
other things, "And we ask that this bread should be given to us daily, that we who are in
Christ, and daily receive the Eucharist for the food of salvation, may not by the
interposition of some heinous sin be separated from Christ's body by being withheld from
communicating and prevented from partaking of the heavenly bread." These words of the holy
man of God indicate that the saints ask for perseverance directly from God, when with this
intention they say, "Give us this day our daily bread," that they may not be separated
from Christ's body, but may continue in that holiness in which they allow no crime by
which they may deserve to be separated from it.

CHAPTER 8 [V.]-THE FIFTH PETITION. IT IS AN ERROR OF THE PELAGIANS THAT THE RIGHTEOUS ARE FREE FROM SIN.

1 In the fifth sentence of the prayer we say, "Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive
our debtors," in which petition alone perseverance is not found to be asked for. For the
sins which we ask to be forgiven us are past, but perseverance, which saves us for
eternity, is indeed necessary for the time of this life; but not for the time which is
past, but for that which remains even to its end. Yet it is worth the labour to consider
for a little, how even already in this petition the heretics who were to arise long after
were transfixed by the tongue of Cyprian, as if by the most invincible dart of truth. For
the Pelagians dare to say even this: that the righteous man in this life has no sin at
all, and that in such men there is even at the present time a Church not having spot or
wrinkle or any such thing, which is the one and only bride of Christ; as if she were not
His bride who throughout the whole earth says what she has learnt from Him, "Forgive us
our debts. But observe how the most glorious Cyprian destroys these. For when he was
expounding that very clause of the Lord's Prayer, he says among other things: "And how
necessarily, how providently, and salutarily are we admonished that we are sinners, since
we are compelled to entreat for our sins; and while pardon is asked for from God, the soul
recalls its own consciousness.

2 Lest any one should flatter himself that he is innocent, and by exalting himself should
more deeply perish, he is instructed and taught that he sins daily, in that he is bidden
daily to entreat for his sins. Thus, moreover, John also in his Epistle warns us, and
says, 'If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.'"
And the rest, which it would be long to insert in this place.

CHAPTER 9.-WHEN PERSEVERANCE IS GRANTED TO A PERSON, HE CANNOT BUT PERSEVERE.

Now, moreover, when the saints say, "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from
evil," what do they pray for but that they may persevere in holiness? For, assuredly, when
that gift of God is granted to them,-which is sufficiently plainly shown to be God's gift,
since it is asked of Him,-that gift of God, then, being granted to them that they may not
be led into temptation, none of the saints fails to keep his perseverance in holiness even
to the end. For there is not any one who ceases to persevere in the Christian purpose
unless he is first of all led into temptation. If, therefore, it be granted to him
according to his prayer that he may not be led, certainly by the gift of God he persists
in that sanctification which by the gift of God he has received.

CHAPTER 10 [VI.]-THE GIFT OF PERSEVERANCE CAN BE OBTAINED BY PRAYER.

But you write that "these brethren will not have this perseverance so preached as that it
cannot be obtained by prayer or lost by obstinacy." In this they are little careful in
considering what they say. For we are speaking of that perseverance whereby one perseveres
unto the end, and if this is given, one does persevere unto the end; but if one does not
persevere unto the end, it is not given, which I have already sufficiently discussed
above. Let not men say, then, that perseverance is given to any one to the end, except
when the end itself has come, and he to whom it has been given has been found to have
persevered unto the end. Certainly, we say that one whom we have known to be chaste is
chaste, whether he should continue or not in the same chastity; and if he should have any
other divine endowment which may be kept and lost, we say that he has it as long as he has
it; and if he should lose it, we say that he had it. But since no one has perseverance to
the end except he who does persevere to the end, many people may have it, but none can
lose it. For it is not to be feared that perchance when a man has persevered unto the end,
some evil will may arise in him, so that he does not persevere unto the end. This gift of
God, therefore, may be obtained by prayer, but when it has been given, it cannot be lost
by contumacy. For when any one has persevered unto the end, he neither can lose this gift,
nor others which he could lose before the end. How, then, can that be lost, whereby it is
brought about that even that which could be lost is not lost?

CHAPTER 11.-EFFECT OF PRAYER FOR PERSEVERANCE.

But, lest perchance it be said that perseverance even to the end is not indeed lost when
it has once been given,-that is, when a man has persevered unto the end,-but that it is
lost, in some sense, when a man by contumacy so acts that he is not able to attain to it;
just as we say that a man who has not persevered unto the end has lost eternal life or the
kingdom of God, not because he had already received and actually had it, but because he
would have received and had it if he had persevered;-let us lay aside controversies of
words, and say that some things even which are not possessed, but are hoped to be
possessed, may be lost. Let any one who dares, tell me whether God cannot give what He has
commanded to be asked from Him. Certainly he who affirms this, I say not is a fool, but he
is mad. But God commanded that His saints should say to Him in prayer, "Lead us not into
temptation." Whoever, therefore, is heard when he asks this, is not led into the
temptation of contumacy, whereby he could or would be worthy to lose perseverance in
holiness.

CHAPTER 12.-OF HIS OWN WILL A MAN FORSAKES GOD, SO THAT HE IS DESERVEDLY FORSAKEN OF HIM.

1 But, on the other hand, "of his own will a man forsakes God, so as to be deservedly
forsaken by God. Who would deny this? But it is for that reason we ask not to be led into
temptation, so that this may not happen. And if we are heard, certainly it does not
happen, because God does not allow it to happen. For nothing comes to pass except what
either He Himself does, or Himself allows to be done. Therefore He is powerful both to
turn wills from evil to good, and to convert those that are inclined to fall, or to direct
them into a way pleasing to Himself. For to Him it is not said in vain, "O God, Thou shalt
turn again and quicken us; it is not vainly said, "Give not my foot to be moved; it is not
vainly said, "Give me not over, O Lord, from my desire to the sinner; finally, not to
mention many passages, since probably more may occur to you, it is not vainly said, "Lead
us not into temptation. For whoever is not led into temptation, certainly is not led into
the temptation of his own evil will; and he who is not led into the temptation of his own
evil will, is absolutely led into no temptation. For "every one is tempted," as it is
written, "when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed; "but God tempteth no man,"
-that is to say, with a hurtful temptation.

2 For temptation is moreover beneficial by which we are not deceived or overwhelmed, but
proved, according to that which is said, "Prove me, O Lord, and try me. Therefore, with
that hurtful temptation which the apostle signifies when he says, "Lost by some means the
tempter have tempted you, and our labour be in vain," "God tempteth no man," as I have
said,-that is, He brings or leads no one into temptation. For to be tempted and not to be
led into temptation is not evil,-nay, it is even good; for this it is to be proved. When,
therefore, we say to God, "Lead us not into temptation," what do we say but, "Permit us
not to be led"? Whence some pray in this manner, and it is read in many codices, and the
most blessed Cyprian thus uses it: "Do not suffer us to be led into temptation. In the
Greek gospel, however, I have never found it otherwise than, "Load us not into temptation.
We live, therefore, more securely if we give up the whole to God, and do not entrust
ourselves partly to Him and partly to ourselves, as that venerable martyr saw.

3 For when he would expound the same clause of the prayer, he says among other things,
"But when we ask that we may not come into temptation, we are reminded of our infirmity
and weakness while we thus ask, lest any should insolently vaunt himself,-lest any should
proudly and arrogantly assume anything to himself,-lest any should take to himself the
glory either of confession or suffering as his own; since the Lord Himself, teaching
humility, said, 'Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation; the Spirit indeed is
willing, but the flesh is weak.' So that when a humble and submissive confession comes
first and all is attributed to God, whatever is sought for suppliantly, with the fear of
God, may be granted by His own loving-kindness."

CHAPTER 13 [VII.]-TEMPTATION THE CONDITION OF MAN.

If, then, there were no other proofs, this Lord's Prayer alone would be sufficient for us
on behalf of the grace which I am defending; because it leaves us nothing wherein we may,
as it were, glory as in our own, since it shows that our not departing from God is not
given except by God, when it shows that it must be asked for from God. For he who is not
led into temptation does not depart from God. This is absolutely not in the strength of
free will, such as it now is; but it had been in man before he fell. And yet how much this
freedom of will availed in the excellence of that primal state appeared in the angels;
who, when the devil and his angels fell, stood in the truth, and deserved to attain to
that perpetual security of not falling, in which we are most certain that they are now
established. But, after the fall of man, God willed it to pertain only to His grace that
man should approach to Him; nor did He will it to pertain to aught but His grace that man
should not depart from Him.

CHAPTER 14.-IT IS GOD'S GRACE BOTH THAT MAN COMES TO HIM, AND THAT MAN DOES NOT DEPART FROM HIM.

This grace He placed "in Him in whom we have obtained a lot, being predestinated according
to the purpose of Him who worketh all things." And thus as He worketh that we come to Him,
so He worketh that we do not depart. Wherefore it was said to Him by the mouth of the
prophet, "Let Thy hand be upon the man of Thy right hand, and upon the Son of man whom
Thou madest strong for Thyself, and we will not depart from Thee." This certainly is not
the first Adam, in whom we departed from Him, but the second Adam, upon whom His hand is
placed, so that we do not depart from Him. For Christ altogether with His members is-for
the Church's sake, which is His body-the fulness of Him. When, therefore, God's hand is
upon Him, that we depart not from God, assuredly God's work reaches to us (for this is
God's hand); by which work of God we are caused to be abiding in Christ with God-not, as
in Adam, departing from God. For "in Christ we have obtained a lot, being predestinated
according to His purpose who worketh all things." This, therefore, is God's hand, not
ours, that we depart not from God. That, I say, is His hand who said, "I will put my fear
in their hearts, that they depart not from me."

CHAPTER 15.-WHY GOD WILLED THAT HE SHOULD BE ASKED FOR THAT WHICH HE MIGHT GIVE WITHOUT PRAYER.

Wherefore, also He willed that He should be asked that we may not be led into temptation,
because if we are not led, we by no means depart from Him. And this might have been given
to us even without our praying for it, but by our prayer He willed us to be admonished
from whom we receive these benefits. For from whom do we receive but from Him from whom it
is right for us to ask? Truly in this matter let not the Church look for laborious
disputations, but consider its own daily prayers. It prays that the unbelieving may
believe; therefore God converts to the faith. It prays that believers may persevere;
therefore God gives perseverance to the end. God foreknew that He would do this. This is
the very predestination of the saints, "whom He has chosen in Christ before the foundation
of the world, that they should be holy and unspotted before Him in love; predestinating
them unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good
pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, in which He hath shown them
favour in His beloved Son, in whom they have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness
of sins according to the riches of His grace, which has abounded towards them in all
wisdom and prudence; that He might show them the mystery of His will according to His good
pleasure which He hath purposed in Him, in the dispensation of the fulness of times to
restore all things in Christ which are in heaven and which are in earth; in Him, in whom
also we have obtained a lot, being predestinated according to His purpose who worketh all
things." Against a trumpet of truth so clear as this, what man of sober and watchful faith
can receive any human arguments?

CHAPTER 16 [VIII.]-WHY IS NOT GRACE GIVEN ACCORDING TO MERIT?

But "why," says one, "is not the grace of God given according to men's merits?" I answer,
Because God is merciful. "Why, then," it is asked, "is it not given to all?" And here I
reply, Because God is a Judge. And thus grace is given by Him freely; and by His righteous
judgment it is shown in some what grace confers on those to whom it is given. Let us not
then be ungrateful, that according to the good pleasure of His will a merciful God
delivers so many to the praise of the glory of His grace from such deserved perdition; as,
if He should deliver no one therefrom, He would not be unrighteous. Let him, therefore,
who is delivered love Hisgrace. Let him who is not delivered acknowledge his due. If, in
remitting a debt, goodness is perceived, in requiring it, justice-unrighteousness is never
found to be with God.

CHAPTER 17.-THE DIFFICULTY OF THE DISTINCTION MADE IN THE CHOICE OF ONE AND THE REJECTION OF ANOTHER.

"But why," it is said, "in one and the same case, not only of infants, but even of twin
children, is the judgment so diverse?" Is it not a similar question, "Why in a different
case is the judgment the same?" Let us recall, then, those labourers in the vineyard who
worked the whole day, and those who toiled one hour. Certainly the case was different as
to the labour expended, and yet there was the same judgment in paying the wages. Did the
murmurers in this case hear anything from the householder except, Such is my will?
Certainly such was his liberality towards some, that there could be no injustice towards
others. And both these classes, indeed, are among the good. Nevertheless, so far as it
concerns justice and grace, it may be truly said to the guilty who is condemned, also
concerning the guilty who is delivered, "Take what thine is, and go thy way;" "I will give
unto this one that which is not due;" "Is it not lawful for me to do what I will? is thine
eye evil because I am good?" And how if he should say, "Why not to me also?" He will hear,
and with reason, "Who art thou, O man, that repliest against God?" And although assuredly
in the one case you see a most benignant benefactor, and in your own case a most righteous
exactor, in neither case do you behold an unjust God. For although He would be righteous
even if He were to punish both, he who is delivered has good ground for thankfulness, he
who is condemned has no ground for finding fault.

CHAPTER 18.-BUT WHY SHOULD ONE BE PUNISHED MORE THAN ANOTHER?

"But if," it is said, "it was necessary that, although all were not condemned, He should
still show what was due to all, and so He should commend His grace more freely to the
vessels of mercy; why in the same case will He punish me more than another, or deliver him
more than me?" I say not this. If you ask wherefore; because I confess that I can find no
answer to make. And if you further ask why is this, it is because in this matter, even as
His anger is righteous and as His mercy is great, so His judgments are unsearchable.

CHAPTER 19.-WHY DOES GOD MINGLE THOSE WHO WILL PERSEVERE WITH THOSE WHO WILL NOT?

Let the inquirer still go on, and say, "Why is it that to some who have in good faith
worshipped Him He has not given to persevere to the end?" Why except because he does not
speak falsely who says, "They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had
been of us, doubtless they would have continued with us." Are there, then, two natures of
men? By no means. If there were two natures there would not be any grace, for there would
be given a gratuitous deliverance to none if it were paid as a debt to nature. But it
seems to men that all who appear good believers ought to receive perseverance to the end.
But God has judged it to be better to mingle some who would not persevere with a certain
number of His saints, so that those for whom security from temptation in this life is not
desirable may not be secure. For that which the apostle says, checks many from mischievous
elation: "Wherefore let him who seems to stand take heed lest he fall." But he who falls,
falls by his own will, and he who stands, stands by God's will. "For God is able to make
him stand;" therefore he is not able to make himself stand, but God. Nevertheless, it is
good not to be high-minded, but to fear. Moreover, it is in his own thought that every one
either fills or stands. Now, as the apostle says, and as I have mentioned in my former
treatise, "We are not sufficient to think anything of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of
God." Following whom also the blessed Ambrose ventures to say, "For our heart is not in
our own power, nor are our thoughts." And this everybody who is humbly and truly pious
feels to be most true.

CHAPTER 20.-AMBROSE ON GOD'S CONTROL OVER MEN'S THOUGHTS.

1 And when Ambrose said this, he was speaking in that treatise which he wrote concerning
Flight from the World, wherein he taught that this world was to be fled not by the body,
but by the heart, which he argued could not be done except by God's help. For he says: "We
hear frequent discourse concerning fleeing from this world, and I would that the mind was
as careful and solicitous as the discourse is easy; but what is worse, the enticement of
earthly lusts constantly creeps in, and the pouring out of vanities takes possession of
the mind; so that what you desire to avoid, this you think of and consider in your mind.
And this is difficult for a man to beware of, but impossible to get rid of. Finally, the
prophet bears witness that it is a matter of wish rather than of accomplishment, when he
says, 'Incline my heart to Thy testimonies, and not to covetousness.' For our heart and
our thoughts are not in our own power, and these, poured forth unexpectedly, confuse our
mind and soul, and draw them in a different direction from that which you have proposed to
yourself; they recall you to worldly things, they interpose things of time, they suggest
voluptuous things, they inweave enticing things, and in the very moment when we are
seeking to elevate our mind, we are for the most part filled with vain thoughts and cast
down to earthly things.

2 Therefore it is not in the power of men, but in that of God, that men have power to
become sons of God. Because they receive it from Him who gives pious thoughts to the human
heart, by which it has faith, which worketh by love; for the receiving and keeping of
which benefit, and for carrying it on perseveringly unto the end, we are not sufficient to
think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God, in whose power is our heart
and our thoughts.

CHAPTER 21 [IX.]-INSTANCES OF THE UNSEARCHABLE JUDGMENTS OF GOD.

1 Therefore, of two infants, equally bound by original sin, why the one is taken and the
other left; and of two wicked men of already mature years, why this one should be so
called as to follow Him that calleth, while that one is either not called at all, or is
not called in such a manner,-the judgments of God are unsearchable. But of two pious men,
why to the one should be given perseverance unto the end, and to the other it should not
be given, God's judgments are even more unsearchable. Yet to believers it ought to be a
most certain fact that the former is of the predestinated, the latter is not. "For if they
had been of us," says one of the predestinated, who had drunk this secret from the breast
of the Lord, "certainly they would have continued with us. What, I ask, is the meaning of,
"They were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would certainly have continued with
us"? Were not both created by God-both born of Adam-both made from the earth, and given
from Him who said, "I have created all breath," souls of one and the same nature? Lastly,
had not both been called, and followed Him that called them? and had not both become, from
wicked men, justified men, and both been renewed by the laver of regeneration? But if he
were to hear this who beyond all doubt knew what he was saying, he might answer and say:
These things are true.

2 In respect of all these things, they were of us. Nevertheless, in respect of a certain
other distinction, they were not of us, for if they had been of us, they certainly would
have continued with us. What then is this distinction? God's books lie open, let us not
turn away our view; the divine Scripture cries aloud, let us give it a hearing. They were
not of them, because they had not been "called according to the purpose; they had not been
chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world; they had not gained a lot in Him;
they had not been predestinated according to His purpose who worketh all things. For if
they had been this, they would have been of them, and without doubt they would have
continued with them.

CHAPTER 22.-IT IS AN ABSURDITY TO SAY THAT THE DEAD WILL BE JUDGED FOR SINS WHICH THEY WOULD HAVE COMMITTED IF THEY HAD LIVED.

For not to say how possible it may be for God to convert the wills of men averse and
opposed to His faith, and to operate on their hearts so that they yield to no adversities,
and are overcome by no temptation so as to depart from: Him,-since He also can do what the
apostle says, namely, not allow them to be tempted above that which they are able;-not,
then, to say this, God foreknowing that they would fall, was certainly able to take them
away from this life before that fall should occur. Are we to return to that point of still
arguing how absurdly it is said that dead men are judged even for those sins which God
foreknew that they would have committed if they had lived? which is so abhorrent to the
feelings of Christians, or even of human beings, that one is even ashamed to rebut it. Why
should it not be said that even the gospel: itself has been preached, with so much labour
still preached in vain, if men could be even without hearing the gospel, according to the
contumacy or obedience which God foreknew that they would have had if they had heard it?
Tyre and Sidon would not have been condemned, although more slightly than those cities in
which, although they did not believe, wonderful works were done by Christ the Lord;
because if they had been done in them, they would have repented in dust and ashes, as the
utterances of the Truth declare, in which words of His the Lord Jesus shows to us the
loftier mystery of predestination.

CHAPTER 23.-WHY FOR THE PEOPLE OF TYRE AND SIDON, WHO WOULD HAVE BELIEVED, THE MIRACLES WERE NOT DONE WHICH WERE DONE IN OTHER PLACES WHICH DID NOT BELIEVE.

1 For if we are asked why such miracles were done among those who, when they saw them,
would not believe them, and were not done among those who would have believed them if they
had seen them, what shall we answer? Shall we say what I have said in that book wherein I
answered some six questions of the Pagans, yet without prejudice of other matters which
the wise can inquire into? This indeed I said, as you know, when it was asked why Christ
came after so long a time: "that at those times and in those places in which His gospel
was not preached, He foreknew that all men would, in regard of His preaching, be such as
many were in His bodily presence,-people, namely, who would not believe on Him, even
though the dead were raised by Him. Moreover, a little after in the same book, and on the
same question, I say, "What wonder, if Christ knew in former ages that the world was so
filled with unbelievers, that He was, with reason, unwilling for His gospel to be preached
to them whom He foreknew to be such as would not believe either His words or His
miracles"? Certainly we cannot say this of Tyre and Sidon; and in their case we recognise
that those divine judgments had reference to those causes of predestination, without
prejudice to which hidden causes I said that I was then answering such questions as those.

2 Certainly it is easy to accuse the unbelief of the Jews, arising as it did from their
free will, since they refused to believe in such great wonders done among themselves. And
this the Lord, reproaching them, declares when He says, "Woe unto thee, Chorazin and
Bethsaida, because if the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon which have been
done in you, they would long ago have repented in dust and ashes. But can we say that even
the Tyrians and Sidonians would have refused to believe such mighty works done among them,
or would not have believed them if they had been done, when the Lord Himself bears witness
to them that they would have repented with great humility if those signs of divine power
had been done among them? And yet in the day of judgment they will be punished; although
with a less punishment than those cities which would not believe the mighty works done in
them. For the Lord goes on to say, "Nevertheless, I say unto you, it shall be more
tolerablefor Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you. Therefore the former
shall be punished with greater severity, the latter with less; but yet they shall be
punished. Again, if the dead are judged even in respect of deeds which they would have
done if they had lived, assuredly since these would have been believers if the gospel had
been preached to them with so great miracles, they certainly ought not to be punished;

3 but they will be punished. It is therefore false that the dead are judged in respect
also of those things which they would have done if the gospel had reached them when they
were alive. And if this is false, there is no ground for saying, concerning infants who
perish because they die without baptism, that this happens in their case deservedly,
because God foreknew that if they should live and the gospel should be preached to them,
they would hear it with unbelief. It remains, therefore, that they are kept bound by
original sin alone, and for this alone they go into condemnation; and we see that in
others in the same case this is not remitted, except by the gratuitous grace of God in
regeneration; and that, by His secret yet righteous judgment-because there is no
unrighteousness with God-that some, who even after baptism will perish by evil living, are
yet kept in this life until they perish, who would not have perished if bodily death had
forestalled their lapse into sin, and so come to their help. Because no dead man is judged
by the good or evil things which he would have done if he had not died, otherwise the
Tyrians and Sidonians would not have suffered the penalties according to what they did;
but rather according to those things that they would have done, if those evangelical
mighty works had been done in them, they wouldhave obtained salvation by great repentance,
andby the faith of Christ.

CHAPTER 24 [X.]-IT MAY BE OBJECTED THAT THEPEOPLE OF TYRE AND SIDON MIGHT, IF THEY HAD HEARD, HAVE BELIEVED, AND HAVE SUBSEQUENTLY LAPSED FROM THEIR FAITH.

1 A certain catholic disputant of no mean reputation so expounded this passage of the
gospel as to say, that the Lord foreknew that the Tyrians and Sidonians would have
afterwards departed from the faith, although they had believed the miracles done among
them; and that in mercy He did not work those miracles there, because they would have been
liable to severer punishment if they had forsaken the faith which they had once held, than
if they had at no time held it. In which opinion of a learned and exceedingly acute man,
why am I now concerned to say what is still reasonably to be asked, when even thisopinion
serves me for the purpose at which I aim? For if the Lord in His mercy did not do mighty
works among them, since by these works they might possibly become believers, so that they
might not be more severely punished when they should subsequently become unbelievers, as
He foreknew that they would,-it is sufficiently and plainly shown that no dead person is
judged for those sins which He foreknew that he would have done, if in some manner he were
not helped not to do them; just as Christ is said to have come to the aid of the Tyrians
and Sidonians, if that opinion be true, who He would rather should not come to the faith
at all, than that by a much greater wickedness they should depart from the faith, as, if
they had come to it, He foresaw they would have done.

2 Although if it be said, "Why was it not provided that they should rather believe, and
this gift should be bestowed on them, that before they forsook the faith they should
depart from this life"? I am ignorant what reply can be made. For he who says that to
those who would forsake their faith it would have been granted, as a kindness, that they
should not begin to have what, by a more serious impiety, they would subsequently forsake,
sufficiently indicates that a man is not judged by that which it is foreknown he would
have done ill, if by any act of kindness he may be prevented from doing it. Therefore it
is an advantage also to him who is taken away, lest wickedness should alter his
understanding. But why this advantage should not have been given to the Tyrians and
Sidonians, that they might believe and be taken away, lest wickedness should alter their
understanding, he perhaps might answer who was pleased in such a way to solve the above
question; but, as far as concerns what I am discussing, I see it to be enough that, even
according to that very opinion, men are shown not to be judged in respect of those things
which they have not done, even although they may have been foreseen as certain to have
done them.

3 However, as I have said, let us think shame even to refute this opinion, whereby sins
are supposed to be punished in people who die or have died because they have been
foreknown as certain to do them if they had lived; lest we also may seem to have thought
it to be of some importance, although we would rather repress it by argument than pass it
over in silence.

CHAPTER 25 [XI.]-GOD'S WAYS, BOTH IN MERCY AND JUDGMENT, PAST FINDING OUT.

1 Accordingly, as says the apostle, "It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that
runneth, but of God that showeth mercy," who both comes to the help of such infants as He
will, although they neither will nor run, since He chose them in Christ before the
foundation of the world as those to whom He intended to give His grace freely,-that is,
with no merits of theirs, either of faith or of works, preceding; and does not come to the
help of those who are more mature, although He foresaw that they would believe His
miracles if they should be done among them, because He wills not to come to their help,
since in His predestination He, secretly indeed, but yet righteous]y, has otherwise
determined concerning them. For "there is no unrighteousness with God; but "His judgments
are un-searchable, and His ways are past finding out; all the ways of the Lord are mercy
and truth. Therefore the mercy is past finding out by which He has mercy on whom He will,
no merits of his own preceding; and the truth is unsearchable by which He hardeneth whom
He will, even although his merits may have preceded, but merits for the most part common
to him with the man on whom He has mercy.

2 As of two twins, of which one is taken and the other left, the end is unequal, while the
deserts are common, yet in these the one is in such wise delivered by God's great
goodness, that the other is condemned by no injustice of God's. For is there
unrighteousness with God? Away with the thought! but His ways are past finding out.
Therefore let us believe in His mercy in the case of those who are delivered, and in His
truth in the case of those who are punished, without any hesitation; and let us not
endeavour to look into that which is inscrutable, nor to trace that which cannot be found
out. Because out of the mouth of babes and sucklings He perfects His praise, so that what
we see in those whose deliverance is preceded by no good deservings of theirs, and in
those whose condemnation is only preceded by original sin, common alike to both,-this we
by no means shrink from as occurring in the case of grown-up people, that is, because we
do not think either that grace is given to any one according to his own merits, or that
any one is punished except for his own merits, whether they are alike who are delivered
and who are punished, or have unequal degrees of evil; so that he who thinketh he standeth
may take heed lest he fall, and he who glorieth may glory not in himself, but in the Lord.

CHAPTER 26.-THE MANICHEANS DO NOT RECEIVE ALL THE BOOKS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT, AND OF THE NEW ONLY THOSE THAT THEY CHOOSE.

But wherefore is "the case of infants not allowed," as you write, "to be alleged as an
example for their elders," by men who do not hesitate to affirm against the Pelagians that
there is original sin, which entered by one man into the world, and that from one all have
gone into condemnation? This, the Manicheans, too, do not receive, who not only reject all
the Scriptures of the Old Testament as of authority, but even receive those which belong
to the New Testament in such a manner as that each man, by his own prerogative as it were,
or rather by his own sacrilege, takes what he likes, and rejects what he does not like,-in
opposition to whom I treated in my writings on Free Will, whence they think that they have
a ground of objection against me. I have been unwilling to deal plainly with the very
laborious questions that occurred, lest my work should become too long, in a case which,
as opposed to such perverse men, I could not have the assistance of the authority of the
sacred Scriptures. And I was able,-as I actually did, whether anything of the divine
testimonies might be true or not, seeing that I did not definitely introduce them into the
argument,-nevertheless, by certain reasoning, to conclude that God in all things is to be
praised, without any necessity of believing, as they would have us, that there are two co-
eternal, confounded substances of good and evil.

CHAPTER 27.-REFERENCE TO THE "RETRACTATIONS."

1 Finally, in the first book of the Retractations, which work of mine you have not yet
read, when I had come to the reconsidering of those same books, that is, on the subject of
Free Will, I thus spoke: "In these books," I say, "many things were so discussed that on
the occurring of some questions which either I was not able to elucidate, or which
required a long discussion at once, they were so deferred as that from either side, or
from all sides, of those questions in which what was most in harmony with the truth did
not appear, yet my reasoning might be conclusive for this, namely, that whichever of them
might be true, God might be believed, or even be shown, to be worthy of praise. Because
that discussion was undertaken for the sake of those who deny that the origin of evil is
derived from the free choice of the will, and contend that God,-if He be so,-as the
Creator of all natures, is worthy of blame; desiring in that manner, according to the
error of their impiety (for they are Manicheans), to introduce a certain immutable nature
of evil co-eternal with God. Also, after a little time, in another place I say: "Then it
was said, From this misery, most righteously inflicted on sinners, God's grace delivers,
because man of his own accord, that is, by free will, could fall, but could not also rise.

2 To this misery of just condemnation belong the ignorance and the difficulty which every
man suffers from the beginning of his birth, and no one is delivered from that evil except
by the grace of God. And this misery the Pelagians will not have to descend from a just
condemnation, because they deny original sin; although even if the ignorance and
difficulty were the natural beginnings of man, God would not even thus deserve to be
reproached, but to be praised, as I have argued in the same third book. Which argument
must be regarded as against the Manicheans, who do not receive the holy Scriptures of the
Old Testament, in which original sin is narrated; and whatever thence is read in the
apostolic epistles, they contend was introduced with a detestable impudence by the
corrupters of the Scriptures, assuming that it was not said by the apostles. But against
the Pelagians that must be maintained which both Scriptures commend, as they profess to
receive them. These things I said in my first book of Retractations, when I was
reconsidering the books on Free Will. Nor, indeed, were these things all that were said by
me there about these books, but there were many others also, which I thought it would be
tedious to insert in this work for you, and not necessary; and this I think you also will
judge when you have read all.

3 Although, therefore, in the third book on Free Will I have in such wise argued
concerning infants, that even if what the Pelagians say were true,-that ignorance and
difficulty, without which no man is born, are elements, not punishments, of our
nature,-still the Manicheans would be overcome, who will have it that the two natures, to
wit, of good and evil; are co-eternal. Is, therefore, the faith to be called in question
or forsaken, which the catholic Church maintains against those very Pelagians, asserting
as she does that it is original sin, the guilt of which, contracted by generation, must be
remitted by regeneration? And if they confess this with us, so that we may at once, in
this matter of the Pelagians, destroy error, why do they think that it must be doubted
that God can deliver even infants, to whom He gives His grace by the sacrament of baptism,
from the power of darkness, and translate them into the kingdom of the Son of His love? In
the fact, therefore, that He gives that grace to some, and does not give it to others. why
will they not stag to the Lord His mercy and judgment? Why, however, is it given to these,
rather than to those,-who has known the mind of the Lord? who is able to look into
unsearchable things? who to trace out that which is past finding out?

CHAPTER 28 [XII.]-GOD'S GOODNESS AND RIGHTEOUSNESS SHOWN IN ALL.

It is therefore settled that God's grace is not given according to the deserts of the
recipients, but according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise and glory of His
own grace; so that he who glorieth may by no means glory in himself, but in the Lord, who
gives to those men to whom He will, because He is merciful, what if, however, He does not
give, He is righteous: and He does not give to whom He will not, that He may make known
the riches of His glory to the vessels of mercy. For by giving to some what they do not
deserve, He has certainly willed that His grace should be gratuitous, and thus genuine
grace; by not giving to all, He has shown what all deserve. Good in His goodness to some,
righteous in the punishment of others; both good in respect of all, because it is good
when that which is due is rendered, and righteous in respect of all, since that which is
not due is given without wrong to any one.

CHAPTER 29.-GOD'S TRUE GRACE COULD BE DEFENDED EVEN IF THERE WERE NO ORIGINAL SIN, AS PELAGIUS MAINTAINS.

1 But God's grace, that is, true grace without merits, is maintained, even if infants,
when baptized, according to the view of the Pelagians, are not plucked out of the power of
darkness, because they are held guilty of no sin, as the Pelagians think, but are only
transferred into the Lord's kingdom: for even thus, without any good merits, the kingdom
is given to those to whom it is given; and without any evil merits it is not given to them
to whom it is not given. And this we are in the habit of saying in opposition to the same
Pelagians, when they object to us that we attribute God's grace to fate, when we say that
it is given not in respect to our merits. For they themselves rather attribute God's grace
to fate in the case of infants, if they say that when there is no merit it is fate.
Certainly, even according to the Pelagians themselves, no merits can be found in infants
to cause that some of them should be admitted into the kingdom, and others should be
alienated from the kingdom.

2 But now, just as in order to show that God's grace is not given according to our merits,
I preferred to maintain this truth in accordance with both opinions,-both in accordance
with our own, to wit, who say that infants are bound by original sin, and according to
that of the Pelagians, who deny that there is original sin, and yet I cannot on that
account doubt that infants have what He can pardon them who saves His people from their
sins: so in the third book on Free Will, according to both views, I have withstood the
Manicheans, whether ignorance and difficulty be punishments or elements of nature without
which no man is born; and yet I hold one of these views. There, moreover, it is
sufficiently evidently declared by me, that is not the nature of man as he was ordained,
but his punishment as condemned.

CHAPTER 30.-AUGUSTIN CLAIMS THE RIGHT TO GROW IN KNOWLEDGE.

1 Therefore it is in vain that it is prescribed to me from that old book of mine, that I
may not argue the case as I ought to argue it in respect of infants; and that thence I may
not persuade my opponents by the light of a manifest truth, that God's grace is not given
according to men's merits. For if, when I began my books concerning Free Will as a layman,
and finished them as a presbyter, I still doubted of the condemnation of infants not born
again, and of the deliverance of infants that were born again, no one, as I think, would
be so unfair and envious as to hinder my progress, and judge that I must continue in that
uncertainty. But it can more correctly be understood that it ought to be believed that I
did not doubt in that matter, for the reason that they against whom my purpose was
directed seemed to me in such wise to be rebutted, as that whether there was a punishment
of original sin in infants, according to the truth, or whether there was not, as some
mistaken people think, yet in no degree should such a confusion of the two natures be
believed in, to wit, of good and evil, as the error of the Manicheans introduces. Be it
therefore far from usso to forsake the case of infants as to say toourselves that it is
uncertain whether, being regenerated in Christ, if they die in infancy theypass into
eternal salvation;

2 but that, not being regenerated, they pass into the second death.Because that which is
written, "By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed
upon all men," cannot be rightly understood in any other manner; nor from that eternal
death which is most righteously repaid to sin does any deliver any one, small or great,
save He who, for the sake of remitting our sins, both original and personal, died without
any sin of His own, either original or personal. But why some rather than others? Again
and again we say, and do not shrink from it "O man, who art thou that repliest against
God? "His judgments are unsearchable, and His ways past finding out. And let us add this,
"Seek not out the things that are too high for thee, and search not the things that are
above thy strength."

CHAPTER 31.- INFANTS ARE NOT JUDGED ACCORDING TO THAT WHICH THEY ARE FOREKNOWN AS LIKELY TO DO IF THEY SHOULD LIVE.

1 For you see, beloved, how absurd it is, and how foreign from soundness of faith and
sincerity of truth, for us to say that infants, when they die, should be judged according
to those things which they are foreknown to be going to do if they should live. For to
this opinion, from which certainly every human feeling, on however little reason it may be
founded, and especially every Christian feeling, revolts, they are compelled to advance
who have chosen in such wise to be withdrawn from the error of the Pelagians as still to
think that they must believe, and, moreover, must profess in argument, that the grace of
God, through Jesus Christ our Lord,by which alone after the fall of the first man, in whom
we all fell, help is afforded to us, is given according to our merits. And this be lief
Pelagius himself, before the Eastern bishops as judges, condemned in fear of his own
condemnation. And if this be not said of the good or bad works of those who have died,
which they would have done if they bad lived,-and thus of no works, and works that would
never exist, even in the foreknowledge of God,-if this, therefore, be not said, and you
see under how great a mistake it is said, what will remain but that we confess, when the
darkness of contention is removed, that the grace of God is not given according to our
merits, which position the catholic Church defends against the Pelagian heresy;

2 and that we see this in more evident truth especially in infants? For God is not
compelled by fate to come to the help of these infants, and not to come to the help of
those,-since the case is alike to both. Or shall we think that human affairs in the case
of infants are not managed by Divine Providence, but by fortuitous chances, when rational
souls are either to be condemned or delivered, although, indeed, not a sparrow falls to
the ground without the will of our Father which is in heaven? Or must we so attribute it
to the negligence of parents that infants die without baptism, as that heavenly judgments
have nothing to do with it; as if they themselves who in this way die badly had of their
own will chosen the negligent parents for themselves of whom they were born? What shall I
say when an infant expires some time before he can possibly be advantaged by the ministry
of baptism? For often when the parents are eager and the ministers prepared for giving
baptism to the infants, it still is not given, because God does not choose; since He has
not kept it in this life for a little while in order that baptism might be given it. What,
moreover, when sometimes aid could be afforded by baptism to the children of unbelievers,
that they should not go into perdition, and could not be afforded to the children of
believers?

3 In which case it is certainly shown that there is no acceptance of persons with God;
otherwise He would rather deliver the children of His worshippers than the children of His
enemies.

CHAPTER 32 [XIII.]-THE INSCRUTABILITY OF GOD'S FREE PURPOSES.

But now, since we are now treating of the gift of perseverance, why is it that aid is
afforded to the person about to die who is not baptized, while to the baptized person
about to fall, aid is not afforded, so as to die before? Unless, perchance, we shall still
listen to that absurdity by which it is said that it is of no advantage to any one to die
before his fall, because he will be judged according to those actions which God foreknew
that he would have done if he had lived. Who can hear with patience this perversity, so
violently opposed to the soundness of the faith? Who can bear it? And yet they are driven
to say this who do not confess that God's grace is not bestowed in respect of our
deservings. They, however, who will not say that any one who has died is judged according
to those things which God foreknew that he would have done if he had lived, considering
with how manifest a falsehood and how great an absurdity this would be said, have no
further reason to say, what the Church condemned in the Pelagians, and caused to be
condemned by Pelagius himself,-that the grace of God, namely, is given according to our
merits,-when they see some infants not regenerated taken from this life to eternal death,
and others regenerated, to eternal life; and those themselves that are regenerated, some
going hence, persevering even to the end, and others kept in this life even until they
fall, who certainly would not have fallen if they had departed hence before their lapse;
and again some falling, but not departing from this life until they return, who certainly
would have perished if they had departed before their return.


ON THE PREDESTINATION OF THE SAINTS (CHAPTERS 33.-GOD GIVES BOTH INITIATORY AND PERSEVERING GRACE ACCORDING TO HIS OWN WILL.–68.-CONCLUSION.)
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ON THE PREDESTINATION OF THE SAINTS continued

CHAPTER 33.-GOD GIVES BOTH INITIATORY AND PERSEVERING GRACE ACCORDING TO HIS OWN WILL.

1 From all which it is shown with sufficient clearness that the grace of God, which both
begins a man's faith and which enables it to persevere unto the end, is not given
according to our merits, but is given according to His own most secret and at the same
time most righteous, wise, and beneficent will; since those whom He predestinated, them He
also called, with that calling of which it is said, "The gifts and calling of God are
without repentance. To which calling there is no man that can be said by men with any
certainty of affirmation to belong, until he has departed from this world; but in this
life of man, which is a state of trial upon the earth, he who seems to stand must take
heed lest he fall. Since (as I have already said before) those who will not persevere are,
by the most foreseeing will of God, mingled with those who will persevere, for the reason
that we may learn not to mind high things, but to consent to the lowly, and may "work out
our own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God that worketh in us both to will
and to do for His good pleasure. We therefore will, but God worketh in us to will also. We
therefore work, but God worketh in us to work also for His good pleasure.

2 This is profitable for us both to believe and to say,-this is pious, this is true, that
our confession be lowly and submissive, and that all should be given to God. Thinking, we
believe; thinking, we speak; thinking, we do whatever we do; but, in respect of what
concerns the way of piety and the true worship of God, we are not sufficient to think
anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is of God. For "our heart and our thoughts
are not in our own power; whence the same Ambrose who says this says also: "But who is so
blessed as in his heart always to rise upwards? And how can this be done without divine
help? Assuredly, by no means. Finally," he says, "the same Scripture affirms above,
`Blessed is the man whose help is of Thee; O Lord, ascent is in his heart.'" Assuredly,
Ambrose was not only enabled to say this by reading in the holy writings, but as of such a
man is to be without doubt believed, he felt it also in his own heart. Therefore, as is
said in the sacraments of believers, that we should lift up our hearts to the Lord, is
God's gift; for which gift they to whom this is said are admonished by the priest after
this word to give thanks to our Lord God Himself; and they answer that it is "meet and
right so to do.

3 For, since our heart is not in our own power, but is lifted up by the divine help, so
that it ascends and takes cognizance of those things which are above, where Christ is
sitting at the right hand of God, and, not those things that are upon the earth, to whom
are thanks to be given for so great a gift as this unless to our Lord God who doeth
this,-who in so great kindness has chosen us by delivering us from the abyss of this
world, and has predestinated us before the foundation of the world?

CHAPTER 34 [XIV.]-THE DOCTRINE OF PREDESTINATION NOT OPPOSED TO THE ADVANTAGE OF PREACHING.

But they say that the "definition of predestination is opposed to the advantage of
preaching," -as if, indeed, it were opposed to the preaching of the apostle! Did not that
teacher of the heathen so often, in faith and truth, both commend predestination, and not
cease to preach the word of God? Because he said, "It is God that worketh in you both to
will and to do for His good pleasure," did he not also exhort that we should both will and
do what is pleasing to God? or because he said, "He who hath begun a good work in you
shall carry it on even unto the day of Christ Jesus," did he on that account cease to
persuade men to begin and to persevere unto the end? Doubtless, our Lord Himself commanded
men to believe, and said, "Believe in God, believe also in me:" and yet His opinion is not
therefore false, nor is His definition idle when He says, "No man cometh unto me "-that
is, no man believeth in me-"except it has been given him of my Father." Nor, again,
because this definition is true, is the former precept vain. Why, therefore, do we think
the definition of predestination useless to preaching, to precept, to exhortation, to
rebuke,-all which things the divine Scripture repeats frequently,-seeing that the same
Scripture commends this doctrine?

CHAPTER 35.-WHAT PREDESTINATION IS.

1 Will any man date to say that God did not foreknow those to whom He would give to
believe, or whom He would give to His Son, that of them He should lose none? And
certainly, if He foreknew these things, He as certainly foreknew His own kindnesses,
wherewith He condescends to deliver us. This is the predestination of the saints,-nothing
else; to wit, the foreknowledge and the preparation of God's kindnesses, whereby they are
most certainly delivered, whoever they are that are delivered. But where are the rest left
by the righteous divine judgment except in the mass of ruin, where the Tyrians and the
Sidonians were left? who, moreover, might have believed if they had seen Christ's
wonderful miracles. But since it was not given to them to believe, the means of believing
also were denied them. From which fact it appears that some have in their understanding
itself a naturally divine gift of intelligence, by which they may be moved to the faith,
if they either hear the words or behold the signs congruous to their minds; and yet if, in
the higher judgment of God, they are not by the predestination of grace separated from the
mass of perdition, neither those very divine words nor deeds are applied to them by which
they might believe if they only heard or saw such things. Moreover, in the same mass of
ruin the Jews were left, because they could not believe such great and eminent mighty
works as were done in their sight.

2 For the gospel has not been silent about the reason why they could not believe, since it
says: "But though He had done such great miracles before them, yet they believed not on
Him; that the saying of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled which he spake, Lord, who
hath believed our report, and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed? And,
therefore, they could not believe, because that Isaiah said again, He hath blinded their
eyes and hardened their heart, that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand
with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them. There fore the eyes of the
Tyrians and Sidonians were not so blinded nor was their heart so hardened, since they
would have believed if they had seen such mighty works, as the Jews saw. But it did not
profit them that they were able to believe, because they were not predestinated by Him
whose judgments are inscrutable and His ways past finding out. Neither would inability to
believe have been a hindrance to them, if they had been so predestinated as that God
should illuminate those blind eyes, and should will to take away the stony heart from
those hardened ones. But what the Lord said of the Tyrians and Sidonians may perchance be
understood in another way:

3 that no one nevertheless comes to Christ unless it were given him, and that it is given
to those who are chosen in Him before the foundation of the world, he confesses beyond a
doubt who hears the divine utterance, not with the deaf ears of the flesh, but with the
ears of the heart; and yet this predestination, which is plainly enough unfolded even by
the words of the gospels, did not prevent the Lord's saying as well in respect of the
commencement, what I have a little before mentioned, "Believe in God; believe also in me,"
as in respect of perseverance, "A man ought always to pray, and not to faint. For they
hear these things and do them to whom it is given; but they do them not, whether they hear
or do not hear, to whom it is not given. Because, "To you," said He, "it is given to know
the mystery of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. Of these, the one
refers to the mercy, the other to the judgment of Him to whom our soul cries, "I will sing
of mercy and judgment unto Thee, O Lord."

CHAPTER 36.-THEPREACHING OF THE GOSPEL AND THE PREACHING OF PREDESTINATION THE TWO PARTS OF ONE MESSAGE.

1 Therefore, by the preaching of predestination, the preaching of a persevering and
progressive faith is not to be hindered; and thus they may hear what is necessary to whom
it is given that they should obey. For how shall they hear without a preacher? Neither,
again, is the preaching of a progressive faith which continues even to the end to hinder
the preaching of predestination, so that he who is living faithfully and obediently may
not be lifted up by that very obedience, as if by a benefit of his own, not received; but
that he that glorieth may glory in the Lord. For "we must boast in nothing, since nothing
is our own. And this, Cyprian most faithfully saw and most fearlessly explained, and thus
he pronounced predestination to be most assured. For if we must boast in nothing, seeing
that nothing is our own, certainly we must not boast of the most persevering obedience.
Nor is it so to be called our own, as if it were not given to us from above. And,
therefore, it is God's gift, which, by the confession of all Christians, God foreknew that
He would give to His people, who were called by that calling whereof it was said, "The
gifts and calling of God are without repentance. This, then, is the predestination which
we faithfully and humbly preach.

2 Nor yet did the same teacher and doer, who both believed on Christ and most
perseveringly lived in holy obedience, even to suffering for Christ, cease on that account
to preach the gospel, to exhort to faith and to pious manners, and to that very
perseverance to the end, because he said, "We must boast in nothing, since nothing is our
own; and here he declared without ambiguity the true grace of God, that is, that which is
not given in respect of our merits;and since God foreknew that He would give it,
predestination was announced beyond a doubt by these words of Cyprian; and if this did not
prevent Cyprian from preaching obedience, it certainly ought not to prevent us.

CHAPTER 37.-EARS TO HEAR ARE A WILLINGNESS TO OBEY.

1 Although, therefore, we say that obedience is the gift of God, we still exhort men to
it. But to those who obediently hear the exhortation of truth is given the gift of God
itself-that is, to hear obediently; while to those who do not thus hear it is not given.
For it was not some one only, but Christ who said, "No man cometh unto me, except it were
given him of my Father; and, "To you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of
heaven, but to them it is not given. And concerning continence He says, "Not all receive
this saying, but they to whom it is given. And when the apostle would exhort married
people to conjugal chastity, he says, "I would that all men were even as I myself; but
every man hath his proper gift of God, one after this manner, another after that; where he
plainly shows not only that continence is a gift of God, but even the chastity of those
who are married. And although these things are true, we still exhort to them as much as is
given to any one of us to be able to exhort, because this also is His gift in whose hand
are both ourselves and our discourses. Whence also says the apostle, "According to this
grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise architect, I have laid the foundation. And
in another place he says, "Even as the Lord hath given to every man:

2 I have planted, Apollos has watered, but God has given the increase. Therefore neither
is he that planteth anything, nor he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase. And
thus as only he preaches and exhorts rightly who has received this gift, so assuredly he
who obediently hears him who rightly exhorts and preaches is he who has received this
gift. Hence is what the Lord said, when, speaking to those who had their fleshly ears
open, He nevertheless told them, "He that hath ears to hear let him hear; which beyond a
doubt he knew that not all had. And from whom they have, whosoever they be that have them,
the Lord Himself shows when He says, "I will give them a heart to know me, and ears to
hear. Therefore, having ears is itself the gift of obeying, so that they who had that came
to Him, to whom "no one comes unless it were given to him of His Father. Therefore we
exhort and preach, but they who have ears to hear obediently hear us, while in them who
have them not, it comes to pass what is written, that hearing they do not hear,-hearing,
to wit, with the bodily sense, they do not hear with the assent of the heart.

3 But why these should have ears to hear, and those have them not,-that is, why to these
it should be given by the Father to come to the Son, while to those it should not be
given,-who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been His counsellor? Or who art
thou, O man, that repliest against God? Must that which is manifest be denied, because
that which is hidden cannot be comprehended? Shall we, I say, declare that what we see to
be so is not so, because we cannot find out why it is so?

CHAPTER 38 [XV.]-AGAINST THE PREACHING OF PREDESTINATION THE SAME OBJECTIONS MAY BE ALLEGED AS AGAINST PREDESTINATION.

1 But they say, as you write: "That no one can be aroused by the incentives of rebuke if
it be said in the assembly of the Church to the multitude of hearers: The definite meaning
of God's will concerning predestination stands in such wise, that some of you will receive
the will to obey and will come out of unbelief unto faith, or will receive perseverance
and abide in the faith; but others who are lingering in the delight of sins have not yet
arisen, for the reason that the aid of pitying grace has not yet indeed raised you up. But
yet, if there are any whom by His grace He has predestinated to be chosen, who are not yet
called, ye shall receive that grace by which you may will and be chosen; and if any obey,
if ye are predestinated to be rejected, the strength to obey shall be withdrawn from you,
so that you may cease to obey. Although these things may be said, they ought not so to
deter us from confessing the true grace of God,- that is, the grace which is not given to
us in respect of our merits,-and from confessing the predestination of the saints in
accordance therewith, even as we are not deterred from confessing God's foreknowledge,
although one should thus speak to the people concerning it, and say:

2 "Whether you are now living righteously or unrighteously, you shall be such by and by as
the Lord has foreknown that you will be,- either good, if He has foreknown you as good, or
bad, if He has foreknown you as bad. For if on the hearing of this some should be turned
to torpor and slothfulness, and from striving should go headlong to lust after their own
desires, is it therefore to be counted that what has been said about the foreknowledge of
God is false? If God has foreknown that they will be good, will they not be good, whatever
be the depth of evil in which they are now engaged? And if He has foreknown them evil,
will they not be evil, whatever goodness may now be discerned in them? There was a man in
our monastery, who, when the brethren rebuked him for doing some things that ought not to
be done, and for not doing some things that ought to be done, replied, "Whatever I may now
be, I shall be such as God has foreknown that I shall be. And this man certainly both said
what was true, and was not profiled by this truth for good, but so far made way in evil as
to desert the society of the monastery, and become a dog returned to his vomit; and,
nevertheless, it is uncertain what he is yet to become.

3 For the sake of souls of this kind, then, is the truth which is spoken about God's
foreknowledge either to be denied or to be kept back,-at such times, for instance, when,
if it is not spoken, other errors are incurred?

CHAPTER 39 [XVI]-PRAYER AND EXHORTATION.

There are some, moreover, who either do not pray at all, or pray coldly, because, from the
Lord's words, they have learnt that God knows what is necessary for us before we ask it of
Him. Must the truth of this declaration be given up, or shall we think that it should be
erased from the gospel because of such people? Nay, since it is manifest that God has
prepared some things to be given even to those who do not pray for them, such as the
beginning of faith, and other things not to be given except to those who pray for them,
such as perseverance even unto the end, certainly he who thinks that he has this latter
from himself does not pray to have it. Therefore we must take care lest, while we are
afraid of exhortation growing lukewarm, prayer should be stifled and arrogance stimulated.

CHAPTER 40.-WHEN THE TRUTH MUST BE SPOKEN, WHEN KEPT BACK.

1 Therefore let the truth be spoken, especially when any question impels us to declare it;
and let them receive it who are able, lest, perchance, while we are silent on account of
those who cannot receive it, they be not only defrauded of the truth but be taken captive
by falsehood, who are able to receive the truth whereby falsehood may be avoided. For it
is easy, nay, and it is useful, that some truth should be kept back because of those who
are incapable of apprehending it. For whence is that word of our Lord: "I have yet many
things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now "? And that of the apostle: "I could
not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal: as if unto babes in Christ I
have given you to drink milk, and not meat, for hitherto ye were not able, neither yet
indeed now are ye able"? Although, in a certain manner of speaking, it might happen that
what is said should be both milk to infants and meat for grown-up persons. As "in the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God," what Christian
can keep it back? Who can receive it? Or what in sound doctrine can be found more
comprehensive? And yet this is not kept back either from infants or from grown-up people,
nor is it hidden from infants by those who are mature.

2 But the reason of keeping back the truth is one, the necessity of speaking the truth is
another. It would be a tedious business to inquire into or to put down all the reasons for
keeping back the truth; of which, nevertheless, there is this one,-lest we should make
those who do not understand worse, while wishing to make those who do understand more
learned; although these latter do not become more learned when we withhold any such thing
on the one hand, but also do not become worse. When, however, a truth is of such a nature
that he who cannot receive it is made worse by our speaking it, and he who can receive it
is made worse by our silence concerning it, what do we think is tobe done? Must we not
speak the truth, that he who can receive it may receive it, rather than keep silence, so
that not only neither may receive it, but that even he who is more intelligent should
himself be made worse? For if he should hear and receive it, by his means also many might
learn. For in proportion as he is more capable of learning, he is the more fitted for
teaching others. The enemy of grace presses on and urges in all ways to make us believe
that grace is given according to our deservings, and thus grace is no more grace; and are
we unwilling to say what we can say by the testimony of Scripture?

3 Do we fear, forsooth, to offend by our speaking him who is not able to receive the
truth? and are we not afraid lest by our silence he who can receive the truth may be
involved in falsehood?

CHAPTER 41.-PREDESTINATION DEFINED AS ONLY GOD'S DISPOSING OF EVENTS IN HIS FOREKNOWLEDGE.

1 For either predestination must be preached, in the way and degree in which the Holy
Scripture plainly declares it, so that in the predestinated the gifts and calling of God
may be without repentance; or it must be avowed that God's grace is given according to our
merits,-which is the opinion of the Pelagians; although that opinion of theirs, as I have
often said already, may be read in the Proceedings of the Eastern bishops to have been
condemned by the lips of Pelagius himself. Further, those on whose account I am
discoursing are only removed from the heretical perversity of the Pelagians, inasmuch as,
although they will not confess that they who by God's grace are made obedient and so
abide, are predestinated, they still confess, nevertheless, that this grace precedes their
will to whom it is given; in such a way certainly as that grace may not be thought to be
given freely, as the truth declares, but rather according to the merits of a preceding
will, as the Pelagian error says, in contradiction to the truth. Therefore, also, grace
precedes faith; otherwise, if faith precedes grace, beyond a doubt will also precedes it,
because there cannot be faith without will. But if grace precedes faith because it
precedes will, certainly it precedes all obedience; it also precedes love, by which alone
God is truly and pleasantly obeyed. And all these things grace works in him to whom it is
given, and in whom it precedes all these things. [XVII.

2 Among these benefits there remains perseverance unto the end, which is daily asked for
in vain from the Lord, if the Lord by His grace does not effect it in him whose prayers He
hears. See now how foreign it is from the truth to deny that perseverance even to the end
of this life is the gift of God; since He Himself puts an end to this life when He wills,
and if He puts an end before a fall that is threatening, He makes the man to persevere
even unto the end. But more marvellous and more manifest to believers is the largess of
God's goodness, that this grace is given even to infants, although there is no obedience
at that age to which it may be given. To whomsoever, therefore, God gives His gifts,
beyond a doubt He has foreknown that He willbestow them on them, and in His foreknowledge
He has prepared them for them. Therefore, those whom He predestinated, them He also called
with that calling which I am not reluctant often to make mention of, of which it is said,
"The gifts and calling of God are without repentance. For the ordering of His future works
in His foreknowledge, which cannot be deceived and changed, is absolute, and is nothing
but, predestination.

3 But, as he whom God has foreknown to be chaste, although he may regard it as uncertain,
so acts as to be chaste, so he whom He has predestinated to be chaste, although he may
regard that as uncertain, does not, therefore, fail to act so as to be chaste because he
hears that he is to be what he will be by the gift of God. Nay, rather, his love rejoices,
and he is not puffed up as if he had not received it. Not only, therefore, is he not
hindered from this work by the preaching of predestination, but he is even assisted to it,
so that although he glories he may glory in the Lord.

CHAPTER 42.-THE ADVERSARIES CANNOT DENY PREDESTINATION TO THOSE GIFTS OF GRACE WHICH THEY THEMSELVES ACKNOWLEDGE, AND THEIR EXHORTATIONS ARE NOT HINDERED BY THIS PREDESTINATION NEVERTHELESS.

1 And what I said of chastity, can be said also of faith, of piety, of love, of
perseverance, and, not to enumerate single virtues, it may be said with the utmost
truthfulness of all the obedience with which God is obeyed. But those who place only the
beginning of faith and perseverance to the end in such wise in our power as not to regard
them as God's gifts, nor to think that God works on our thoughts and wills so as that we
may have and retain them, grant, nevertheless, that He gives other things,-since they are
obtained from Him by the faith of the believer. Why are they not afraid that exhortation
to these other things, and the preaching of these other things, should be hindered by the
definition of predestination? Or, perchance, do they say that such things are not
predestinated? Then they are not given by God, or He has not known that He would give
them. Because, if they are both given, and He foreknew that He would give them, certainly
He predestinated them. As, therefore, they themselves also exhort to chastity, charity,
piety, and other things which they confess to be God's gifts, and cannot deny that they
are also foreknown by Him, and therefore predestinated; nor do they say that their
exhortations are hindered by the preaching of God's predestination, that is, by the
preaching of God's foreknowledge of those future gifts of His:

2 so they may see that neither are their exhortations to faith or to perseverance
hindered, even although those very things may be said, as is the truth, to be gifts of
God, and that those things are foreknown, that is, predestinated to be given; but let them
rather see that by this preaching of predestination only that most pernicious error is
hindered and overthrown, whereby it is said that the grace of God is given according to
our deservings, so that he who glories may glory not in the Lord, but in himself.

CHAPTER 43.-FURTHER DEVELOPMENT OF THE FOREGOING ARGUMENT.

1 And in order that I may more openly unfold this for the sake of those who are somewhat
slow of apprehension, let those who are endowed with an intelligence that flies in advance
bear with my delay. The Apostle James says, "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of
God, who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him. It is
writtenalso in the Proverbs of Solomon, "Because theLord giveth wisdom. And of continency
it is read in the book of Wisdom, whose authority has been used by great and learned men
who have commented upon the divine utterances long before us; there, therefore, it is
read, "When I knew that no one can be continent unless God gives it, and that this was of
wisdom, to know whose gift this was. Therefore these are God's gifts,-that is, to say
nothing of others, wisdom and continency. Let those also acquiesce: for they are not
Pelagians, to contend against such a manifest truth as this with hard and heretical
perversity. "But," say they, "that these things are given to us of God is obtained by
faith, which has its beginning from us; and both to begin to have this faith, and to abide
in it even to the end, they contend is our own doing, as if we received it not from the
Lord. This, beyond a doubt, is in contradiction to the apostle when he says, "For what
hast thou that thou hast not received?

2 It is in contradiction also to the saying of the martyr Cyprian, "That we must boast in
nothing, since nothing is our own. When we have said this, and many other things which it
is wearisome to repeat, and have shown that both the commencement of faith and
perseverance to the end are gifts of God; and that it is impossible that God should not
foreknow any of His future gifts, as well what should be given as to whom they should be
given; and that thus those whom He delivers and crowns are predestinated by Him; they
think it well to reply, "that the assertion of predestination is opposed to the advantage
of preaching, for the reason that when this is heard no one can be stirred up by the
incentives of rebuke. When they say this, "they are unwilling that it should be declared
to men, that coming to the faith and abiding in the faith are God's gifts, lest despair
rather than encouragement should appear to be suggested, inasmuch as they who hear think
that it is uncertain to human ignorance on whom God bestows, or on whom He does not
bestow, these gifts. Why, then, do they themselves also preach with us that wisdom and
continency are God's gifts? But if, when these things are declared to be God's gifts,
there is no hindrance of the exhortation with which we exhort men to be wise and
continent;

3 what is after all the reason for their thinking that the exhortation is hindered
wherewith we exhort men to come to the faith, and to abide in it to the end, if these also
are said to be God's gifts, as is proved by the Scriptures, which are His witnesses?

CHAPTER 44.-EXHORTATION TO WISDOM, THOUGH WISDOM IS GOD'S GIFT.

1 Now, to say nothing more of continency, and to argue in this place of wisdom alone,
certainly the Apostle James above mentioned says, "But the wisdom that is from above is
first pure, then peaceable, modest, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits,
inestimable, without simulation. Do you not see, I beseech you, how this wisdom descends
from the Father of Lights, laden with many and great benefits? Because, as the same
apostle says, "Every excellent gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down
from the Father of Lights. Why, then-to set aside other matters-do we rebuke the impure
and contentious, to whom we nevertheless preach that the gift of God is wisdom, pure and
peaceable; and are not afraid that they should be influenced, by the uncertainty of the
divine will, to find in this preaching more of despair than of exhortation; and that they
should not be stirred up by the incentives of rebuke rather against us than against
themselves, because we rebuke them for not having those things which we ourselves say are
not produced by human will, but are given by the divine liberality? Finally, why did the
preaching of this grace not deter the Apostle James from rebuking restless souls, and
saying, "If ye have bitter envying, and contentions are in your hearts, glory not, and be
not liars against the truth. This is not the wisdom that cometh down from above, but is
earthly, animal, devilish;

2 for where envying and contention are, there are inconstancy and every evil work"? As,
therefore, the restless are to be rebuked, both by the testimony of the divine
declarations, and by those very impulses of ours which they have in common with ourselves;
and is it no argument against this rebuke that we declare the peaceful wisdom, whereby the
contentions are corrected and healed, to be the gift of God; unbelievers are in such wise
to be rebuked, as those who do not abide in the faith, without any hindrance to that
rebuke from the preaching of God's grace, although that preaching commends that very grace
and the continuance in it as the gifts of God. Because, although wisdom is obtained from
faith, even as James himself, when he had said," If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of
God, who giveth to all liberally and upbraideth not, and it shall be given," immediately
added, "But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering: "it is not, nevertheless, because
faith is given before it is asked for by him to whom it is given, that it must therefore
be said not to be the gift of God, but to be of ourselves, because it is given to us
without our asking for it! For the apostle very plainly says, "Peace be to the brethren,
and love with faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. From whom, therefore,
are peace and love, from Him also is faith;

3 wherefore, from Him we ask not only that it may be increased to those that possess it,
but also that it may be given to those that possess it not.

CHAPTER 45.-EXHORTATION TO OTHER GIFTS OF GOD IN LIKE MANNER.

Nor do those on whose account I am saying these things, who cry out that exhortation is
checked by the preaching of predestination and grace, exhort to those gifts alone which
they contend are not given by God, but are from ourselves, such as are the beginning of
faith, and perseverance in it even to the end. This certainly they ought to do, in such a
way as only to exhort unbelievers to believe, and believers to continue to believe. But
those things which with us they do not deny to be God's gifts, so as that with us they
demolish the error of the Pelagians, such as modesty, continence, patience, and other
virtues that pertain to a holy life, and are obtained by faith from the Lord, they ought
to show as needing to be prayed for, and to pray for only, either for themselves or
others; but they ought not to exhort any one to strive after them and retain them. But
when they exhort to these things, according to their ability, and confess that men ought
to be exhorted,-certainly they show plainly enough that exhortations are not hindered by
that preaching, whether they are exhortations to faith or to perseverance to the end,
because we also preach that such things are God's gifts, and are not given by any man to
himself, but are given by God.

CHAPTER 46.-A MAN WHO DOES NOT PERSEVERE FAILS BY HIS OWN FAULT.

But it is said, "It is by his own fault that any one deserts the faith, when he yields and
consents to the temptation which is the cause of his desertion of the faith." Who denies
it? But because of this, perseverance in the faith is not to be said not to be a gift of
God. For it is this that a man daily asks for when he says, "Lead us not into temptation;
" and if he is heard, it is this that he receives. And thus as he daily asks for
perseverance, he assuredly places the hope of his perseverance not in himself, but in God.
I, however, am loth to exaggerate the case with my words, but I rather leave it to them to
consider, and see what it is of which they have persuaded themselves-to wit, "that by the
preaching of predestination, more of despair than of exhortation is impressed upon the
hearers." For this is to say that a man then despairs of his salvation when he has learned
to place his hope not in himself, but in God, although the prophet cries, "Cursed is he
who has his hope in man."

CHAPTER 47.-PREDESTINATION IS SOMETIMES SIGNIFIED UNDER THE NAME OF FOREKNOWLEDGE.

1 These gifts, therefore, of God, which are given to the elect who are called according to
God's purpose, among which gifts is both the beginning of belief and perseverance in the
faith to the termination of this life, as I have proved by such a concurrent testimony of
reasons and authorities,-these gifts of God, I say, if there is no such predestination as
I am maintaining, are not foreknown by God. But they are foreknown. This, therefore, is
the predestination which I maintain. [XVIII. Consequently sometimes the same
predestination is signified also under the name of foreknowledge; as says the apostle,
"God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew. Here, when he says, "He foreknew," the
sense is not rightly understood except as "He predestinated," as is shown by the context
of the passage itself. For he was speaking of the remnant of the Jews which were saved,
while the rest perished. For above he had said that the prophet had declared to Israel,
"All day long I have stretched forth my hands to an unbelieving and a gainsaying people.
And as if it were answered, What, then, has become of the promises of God to Israel? he
added in continuation, "I say, then, has God cast away His people? God forbid! for I also
am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. Then he added the words
which I am now treating: "God hath not cast away His people whom He foreknew.

2 And in order to show that the remnant had been left by God's grace, not by any merits of
their works, he went on to add, "Know ye not what the Scripture saith in Elias, in what
way he maketh intercession with God against Israel? " and the rest. "But what," says he,
"saith the answer of God unto him? I` have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have
not bowed the knee before Baal.'" For He says not, "There are left to me," or "They have
reserved themselves to me," but, "I have reserved to myself. "Even so, then, at this
present time also there is made a remnant by the election of grace. And if of grace, then
it is no more by works; otherwise grace is no more grace. And connecting this with what I
have above quoted, "What then? and in answer to this inquiry, he says, "Israel hath not
obtained that which he was seeking for, but the election hath obtained it, and the rest
were blinded. Therefore, in the election, and in this remnant which were madeso by the
election of grace, he wished to be understood the people which God did not reject, because
He foreknew them. This is that election by which He elected those, whom He willed, in
Christ before the foundation of the world, that they should be holy and without spot in
His sight, in love, predestinating them unto the adoption of sons.

3 No one, therefore, who understands these things is permitted to doubt that, when the
apostle says, "God hath not cast away His people whom He foreknew," He intended to signify
predestination. For He foreknew the remnant which He should make so according to the
election of grace. That is, therefore, He predestinated them; for without doubt He
foreknew if He predestinated; but to have predestinated is to have foreknown that which He
should do.

CHAPTER 48 [XIX.] - PRACTICE OF CYPRIAN AND AMBROSE.

1 What, then, hinders us, when we read of God's foreknowledge in some commentators on
God's word, and they are treating of the calling; of the elect, from understanding the
same predestination? For they would perchance have rather used in this matter this word
which, moreover, is better understood, and which is not inconsistent with, nay, is in
accordance with, the truth which is declared concerning the predestination of grace. This
I know, that no one has been able to dispute, except erroneously, against that
predestination which I am maintaining in accordance with the Holy Scriptures. Yet I think
that they who ask for the opinions of commentators on this matter ought to be satisfied
with men so holy and so laudably celebrated everywhere in the faith and Christian doctrine
as Cyprian and Ambrose, of whom I have given such clear testimonies; and that for both
doctrines-that is, that they should both believe absolutely and preach everywhere that the
grace of God is gratuitous, as we must believe and declare it to be; and that they should
not think that preaching opposed to the preaching whereby we exhort the indolent or rebuke
the evil; because these celebrated men also, although they were preaching God's grace in
such a manner as that one of them said, "That we must boast in nothing, because nothing is
our own; " and the other, "Our heart and our thoughts are not in our own power; yet ceased
not to exhort and rebuke, in order that the divine commands might be obeyed.

2 Neither were they afraid of its being said to them, "Why do you exhort us, and why do
you rebuke us, if no good thing that we have is from us, and if our hearts are not in our
own power? These holy men could by no means fear that such things should be said to them,
since they were of the mind to understand that it is given to very few to receive the
teaching of salvation through God Himself, or through the angels of heaven, without any
human preaching to them; but that it is given to many to believe in God through human
agency. Yet, in whatever manner the word of God is spoken to man, beyond a doubt for man
to hear it in such a way as to obey it, is God's gift.

CHAPTER 49.-FURTHER REFERENCES TO CYPRIAN AND AMBROSE.

1 Wherefore, the above-mentioned most excellent commentators on the divine declarations
both preached the true grace of God as it ought to be preached,-that is, as a grace
preceded by no human deservings,-and urgently exhorted to the doing of the divine
commandments, that they who might have the gift of obedience should hear what commands
they ought to obey. For if any merits of ours precede grace, certainly it is the merit of
some deed, or word, or thought, wherein also is understood a good will itself. But he very
briefly summed up the kinds of all deservings who said, "We must glory in nothing, because
nothing is our own. And he who says, "Our heart and our thoughts are not in our own
power," did not pass over acts and words also, for there is no act or word of man which
does not proceed from the heart and the thought. But what more could that most glorious
martyr and most luminous doctor Cyprian say concerning this matter, than when he impressed
upon us that it behoves us to pray, in the Lord's Prayer, even for the adversaries of the
Christian faith, showing what he thought of the beginning of the faith, that it also is
God's gift, and pointing out that the Church of Christ prays daily for perseverance unto
the end, because none but God gives that perseverance to those who have persevered?

2 Moreover, the blessed Ambrose, when he was expounding the passage where the Evangelist
Luke says, "It seemed good to me also," says, "What he declares to have seemed good to
himself cannot have seemed good to him alone. For not alone by human will did it seem
good, but as it pleased Him who speaks in me, Christ, who effects that that which is good
may also seem good to us: for whom He has mercy on He also calls. And therefore he who
follows: Christ may answer, when he is asked why he wished to become a Christian, `It
seemed good to me also.' And when he says this, he doesnot deny that it seemed good to
God; for thewill of men is prepared by God. For it is God's grace that God should be
honoured by the saint. Moreover, in the same work,-that is, in the exposition of the same
Gospel, when he had come to that place where the Samaritans would not receive the Lord
when His face was as going to Jerusalem,-he says, "Learn at the same time that He would
not be received by those who were not converted in simpleness of mind. For if He had been
willing, He would have made them devout who were undevout. And why they would not receive
Him, the evangelist himself mentioned, saying, `Because His face was as of one going
towards Jerusalem.' But the disciples earnestly desired to be received into Samaria. But
God calls those whom He makes worthy, and makes religious whom He will.

3 What more evident, what more manifest do we ask from commentators on God's word, if we
are pleased to hear from them what is clear in the Scriptures? But to these two, who ought
to be enough, let us add also a third, the holy Gregory, who testifies that it is the gift
of God both to believe in God and to confess what we believe, saying, "I beg of you
confess the Trinity of one godhead; but if ye wish otherwise, say that it is of one
nature, and Godwill be besought that a voice shall be given to you by the Holy Spirit ;
that is, God will be besought to allow a voice to be given to you by which you may confess
what you believe. "For He will give, I am certain, He who gave what is first, will give
also what is second. He who gave belief, will also give confession.

CHAPTER 50.-OBEDIENCE NOT DISCOURAGED BY PREACHING GOD'S GIFTS.

Such doctors, and so great as these, when they say that there is nothing of which we may
boast as if of our own which God has not given us, and that our very heart and our
thoughts are not in our own power; and when they give the whole to God, and confess that
from Him we receive that we are converted to Him in such wise as to continue,-that that
which is good appears also to us to be good, and we wish for it,-that we honour God and
receive Christ,-that from undevout people we are made devout and religious,-that we
believe in the Trinity itself, and also confess with our voice what we believe:-certainly
attribute all these things to God's grace, acknowledge them as God's gifts, and testify
that they come to us from Him, and are not from ourselves. But will any one say that they
in such wise confessed that grace of God as to venture to deny His foreknowledge,which not
only learned but unlearned men also confess? Again, if they had so known that God gives
these things that they were not ignorant that He foreknew that He would give them, and
could not have been ignorant to whom He would give them: beyond a doubt they had known the
predestination which, as preached by the apostles, we laboriously and diligently maintain
against the modern heretics. Nor would it be with any manner of justice said,
nevertheless, to them because they preach obedience, and fervently exhort, to the extent
of the ability of each one, to its practice, "If you do not wish that the obedience to
which you are stirring us up should grow cold in our heart, forbear to preach to us that
grace of God by which you confess that God gives what you are exhorting us to do."

CHAPTER 51 [XX.]-PREDESTINATION MUST BE PREACHED.

Wherefore, if both the apostles and the teachers of the Church who succeeded them and
imitated them did both these things,-that is, both truly preached the grace of God which
is not given according to our merits, and inculcated by wholesome precepts a pious
obedience,-what is it which these people of our time think themselves rightly bound by the
invincible force of truth to say, "Even if what is said of the predestination of God's
benefits be true, yet it must not be preached to the people"? It must absolutely be
preached, so that he who has ears to hear, may hear. And who has them if he has not
received them from Him who says, "I will give them a heart to know me, and ears to hear?"
Assuredly, he who has not received may reject; while, yet, he who receives may take and
drink, may drink and live. For as piety must be preached, that, by him who has ears to
hear, God may be rightly worshipped; modesty must be preached, that, by him who has ears
to hear, no illicit act may be perpetrated by his fleshly nature; charity must be
preached, that, by him who has ears to hear, God and his neighbours may be loved;-so also
must be preached such a predestination of God's benefits that he who has ears to hear may
glory, not in himself, but in the Lord.

CHAPTER 52.-PREVIOUS WRITINGS ANTICIPATIVELY REFUTED THE PELAGIAN HERESY.

But in respect of their saying "that it was not necessary that the hearts of so many
people of little intelligence should be disquieted by the uncertainty of this kind of
disputation, since the catholic faith has been defended for so many, years, with no less
advantage, without this definition of predestination, as well against others as especially
against the Pelagians, in so many books that have gone before, as well of catholics and
others as our own;" -I much wonder that they should say this, and not observe-to say
nothing of other writings in this place-that those very treatises of mine were both
composed and published before the Pelagians had begun to appear; and that they do not see
in how many passages of those treatises I was unawares cutting down a future Pelagian
heresy, by preaching the grace by which God delivers us from evil errors and from our
habits, without any preceding merits of ours,-doing this according to His gratuitous
mercy. And this I began more fully to apprehend in that disputation which I wrote to
Simplicianus, the bishop of the Church of Milan, of blessed memory, in the beginning of my
episcopate, when, moreover, I both perceived and asserted that the beginning of faith is
God's gift.

CHAPTER 53.-AUGUSTIN'S "CONFESSIONS."

1 And which of my smaller works has been able to be more generally and more agreeably
known than the books of my Confessions? And although I published them before the Pelagian
heresy had come into existence, certainly in them I said to my God, and said it
frequently, "Give what Thou commandest, and command what Thou willest. Which words of
mine, Pelagius at Rome, when they were mentioned in his presence by a certain brother and
fellow bishop of mine, could not bear; and contradicting somewhat too excitedly, nearly
came to a quarrel with him who had mentioned them. But what, indeed, does God primarily
and chiefly command, but that we believe on Him? And this, therefore, He Himself gives, if
it is well said to Him, "Give what Thou commandest. And, moreover, in those same books, in
respect of what I have related concerning my conversion, when God converted me to that
faith which, with a most miserable and raging talkativeness, I was destroying, do you not
remember that it was so narrated how I showed that I was granted to the faithful and daily
tears of my mother, that I should not perish? Where certainly I declared that God by His
grace converted to the true faith the wills of men, which were not only averse to it, but
even adverse to it. Further, in what manner I besought God concerning my growth in
perseverance, you know, and you are able to review if you wish it.

2 Therefore, that all the gifts of God which in that work I either asked for or praised,
were foreknown by God that He would give, and that He could never be ignorant of the
persons to whom He would give them, who can dare, I will not say to deny, but even to
doubt? This is the manifest and assured predestination of the saints, which subsequently
necessity compelled me more carefully and laboriously to defend when I was already
disputing against the Pelagians. For I learnt that each special heresy introduced its own
peculiar questions into the Church-against which the sacred Scripture might be more
carefully defended than if no such necessity compelled their defence. And what compelled
those passages of Scripture in which predestination is commended to be defended more
abundantly and clearly by that labour of mine, than the fact that the Pelagians say that
God's grace is given according to our merits; for what else is this than an absolute denim
of grace?

CHAPTER 54 [XXI.]-BEGINNING AND END OF FAITH IS OF GOD.

Therefore that this opinion, which is unpleasing to God, and hostile to those gratuitous
benefits of God whereby we are delivered, may be destroyed, I maintain that both the
beginning of faith and the perseverance therein, even to the end, are, according to the
Scriptures-of which I have already quoted many-God's gifts. Because if we say that the
beginning of faith is of ourselves, so that by it we deserve to receive other gifts of
God, the Pelagians conclude that God's grace is given according to our merits. And this
the catholic faith held in such dread, that Pelagius himself, in fear of condemnation,
condemned it. And, moreover, if we say that our perseverance is of ourselves, not of God,
they answer that we have the beginning of our faith of ourselves in such wise as the end,
thus arguing that we have that beginning of ourselves much more, if of ourselves we have
the continuance unto the end, since to perfect is much greater than to begin; and thus
repeatedly they conclude that the grace of God is given according to our merits. But if
both are God's gifts, and God foreknew that He would give these His gifts (and who can
deny this?), predestination must be preached,-that God's true grace, that is, the grace
which is not given according to our merits, may be maintained with insuperable defence.

CHAPTER 55.-TESTIMONY OF HIS PREVIOUS WRITINGS AND LETTERS.

1 And, indeed, in that treatise of which the title is, Of Rebuke and Grace, which could
not suffice for all my lovers, I think that I have so established that it is the gift of
God also to persevere to the end, as I have either never before or almost never so
expressly and evidently maintained this in writing, unless my memory deceives me. But I
have now said this in a way in which no one before me has said it. Certainly the blessed
Cyprian, in the Lord's Prayer, as I have already shown, so explained our petitions as to
say that in its very first petition we were asking for perseverance, asserting that we
pray for itwhen we say, "Hallowed be Thy name," although we have been already hallowed in
baptism,-so that we may persevere in that which we have begun to be. Let those, however,
to whom, in their love for me, I ought not to be ungrateful, who profess that they
embrace, over and above that which comes into the argument, all my views, as you
write,-let those, I say, see whether, in the latter portions of the first book of those
two which I wrote in the beginning of my episcopate, before the appearance of the Pelagian
heresy, to Simplicianus, the bishop of Milan, there remained anything whereby it might be
called in question that God's grace is not given according to our merits; and whether I
have not there sufficiently argued that even the beginning of faith is God's gift;

2 and whether from what is there said it does not by consequence result, although it is
not expressed, that even perseverance to the end is not given, except by Him who has
predestinated us to His kingdom and glory. Then, did not I many years ago publish that
letter which I had already written to the holy Paulinus, bishop of Nola, against the
Pelagians, which they have lately begun to contradict? Let them also look into that letter
which I sent to Sixtus, the presbyter of the Roman Church when we contended in a very
sharp conflict against the Pelagians, and they will find it such as is that one to
Paulinus. Whence they may gather that the same sort of things were already said and
written several years ago against the Pelagian heresy, and that it is to be wondered at
that these should now displease them; although I should wish that no one would so embrace
all my views as to follow me, except in those things in which he should see me not to have
erred. For I am now writing treatises in which I have undertaken to retract my smaller
works, for the purpose of demonstrating that even I myself have not in all things followed
myself; but I think that, with God's mercy, I have written progressively, and not begun
from perfection; Since, indeed, I speak more arrogantly than truly, if even now I say that
I have at length in this age of mine arrived at perfection, without any error in what I
write.

3 But the difference is in the extent and the subject of an error, and in the facility
with which any one corrects it, or the pertinacity with which one endeavours to defend his
error. Certainly there is good hope of that man whom the last day of this life shall find
so progressing that whatever was wanting to his progress may be added to him, and that he
should be adjudged rather to need perfecting than punishment.

CHAPTER 56.-GOD GIVES MEANS AS WELL AS END.

Wherefore if I am unwilling to appear ungrateful to men who have loved me, because some
advantage of my labour has attained to them before they loved me, how much rather am I
unwilling to be ungrateful to God, whom we should not love unless He had first loved us
and made us to love Him! since love is of Him, as they have said whom He made not only His
great lovers, but also His great preachers. And what is more ungrateful than to deny the
grace of God itself, by saying that it is given to us according to our merits? And this
the catholic faith shuddered at in the Pelagians, and this it objected to Pelagius himself
as a capital crime; and this Pelagius himself condemned, not indeed from love of God's
truth, but yet for fear of his own condemnation. But whoever as a faithful catholic is
horrified to say that the grace of God is given according to our merits, let him not
withdraw faith itself from God's grace, whereby he obtained mercy that he should be
faithful; and thus let him attribute also perseverance to the end to God's grace, whereby
he obtains the mercy which he daily asks for, not to be led into temptation. But between
the beginning of faith and the perfection of perseverance there are those means whereby we
live righteously, which they themselves are agreed in regarding as given by God to us at
the prayer of faith. And all these things-the beginning of faith, to wit, and His other
gifts even to the end-God foreknew that He would bestow on His called. It is a matter
therefore, of too excessive contentiousness to contradict predestination, or to doubt
concerning predestination.

CHAPTER 57 [XXII.]-HOW PREDESTINATION MUST BE PREACHED SO AS NOT TO GIVE OFFENCE.

And yet this doctrine must not be preached to congregations in such a way as to seem to an
unskilled multitude, or a people of slower understanding, to be in some measure confuted
by that very preaching of it. Just as even the foreknowledge of God, which certainly men
cannot deny, seems to be refuted if it be said to them, "Whether you run or sleep, you
shall be that which He who cannot be deceived has foreknown you to be." And it is the part
of a deceitful or an unskilled physician so to compound even a useful medicament, that it
either does no good or does harm. But it must be said, "So run that you may lay hold ; and
thus by your very running you may know yourselves to be foreknown as those who should run
lawfully:" and in whatever other manner the foreknowledge of God may be so preached, that
the slothfulness of man may be repulsed.

CHAPTER 58.-THE DOCTRINE TO BE APPLIED WITH DISCRIMINATION.

Now, therefore, the definite determination of God's will concerning predestination is of
such a kind that some from unbelief receive the will to obey, and are converted to the
faith or persevere in the faith, while others who abide in the delight of damnable sins,
even if they have been predestinated, have not yet arisen, because the aid of pitying
grace has not yet lifted them up. For if any are not yet called whom by His grace He has
predestinated to be elected, they will receive that grace whereby they may will to be
elected, and may be so; and if any obey, but have not been predestinated to His kingdom
and glory, they are for a season, and will not abide in the same obedience to the end.
Although, then, these things are true, yet they must not be so said to the multitude of
hearers as that the address may be applied to themselves also, and those words of those
people may be said to them which you have set down in your letter, and which I have above
introduced: "The definite determination of God's will concerning predestination is of such
a kind that some of you from unbelief shall receive the will to obey, and come to the
faith." What need is there for saying, "Some of you "? For if we speak to God's Church, if
we speak to believers, why do we say that "some of them" had come to the faith, and seem
to do a wrong to the rest, when we may more fittingly say the definite determination of
the will of God concerning predestination is of such a kind that from unbelief you shall
receive the will to obey, and come to the faith, and shall receive perseverance, and abide
to the end?

CHAPTER 59.-OFFENCE TO BE AVOIDED.

Neither is what follows by any means to be said,-that is, "But others of you who abide in
the delight of sins have not yet arisen, because the aid of pitying grace has not yet
lifted you up;" when it may be and ought to be well and conveniently said, "But if any of
you are still delaying in the delightfulness of damnable sins, lay hold of the most
wholesome discipline; and yet when you have done this be not lifted up, as if by your own
works, nor boast as if you had not received this. For it is God who worketh in you both to
will and to do for His good will, and your steps are directed by the Lord, so that you
choose His way. But of your own good and righteous course, learn carefully that it is
attributable to the predestination of divine grace."

CHAPTER 60.-THE APPLICATION TO THE CHURCH IN GENERAL.

Moreover, what follows where it is said, "But yet if any of you are not yet called, whom
by his grace He has predestinated to be called, you shall receive that grace whereby you
shall will to be, and be, elected," is said more hardly than it could be said if we
consider that we are speaking not to men in general, but to the Church of Christ. For why
is it not rather said thus: "And if any of you are not yet called, let us pray for them
that they may be called. For perchance they are so predestinated as to be granted to our
prayers, and to receive that grace whereby they may will, and be made elected "? For God,
who fulfilled all that He predestinated, has willed us also to pray for the enemies of the
faith, that we might hence understand that He Himself also gives to the unbelievers the
gift of faith, and makes willing men out of those that were unwilling.

CHAPTER 61.-USE OF THE THIRD PERSON RATHER THAN THE SECOND.

1 But now I marvel if any weak brother among the Christian congregation can hear in any
way with patience what is connected with these words, when it is said to them, "And if any
of you obey, if you are predestinated to be rejected, the power of obeying will be
withdrawn from you, that you may cease to obey. For what does saying this seem, except to
curse, or in a certain way to predict evils? But if, however, it is desirable or necessary
to say anything concerning those who do not persevere, why is it not rather at least said
in such a way as was a little while ago said by me,-first of all, so that this should be
said, not of them who hear in the congregation, but about others to them; that is, that it
should not be said, "If any of you obey, if you are predestinated to be rejected," but,
"If any obey," and the rest, using the third person of the verb, not the second? For it is
not to be said to be desirable, but abominable, and it is excessively harsh and hateful to
fly as it were into the face of an audience with abuse, when he who speaks to them says,
"And if there are any of you who obey, and are predestinated to be rejected, the power of
obedience shall be withdrawn from you, that you may cease to obey. For what is wanting to
the doctrine if it is thus expressed:

2 "But if any obey, and are notpredestinated to His kingdom and glory, they are only for a
season, and shall not continue in that obedience unto the end"? Is not the same thing said
both more truly and more fittingly, so that we may seem not as it were to be desiring so
much for them, as to relate of others the evil which they hate, and think does not belong
to them, by hoping and praying for better things? But in that manner in which they think
that it must be said, the same judgment may be pronounced almost in the same words also of
God's foreknowledge, which certainly they cannot deny, so as to say, "And if any of you
obey, if you are foreknown to be rejected you shall cease to obey. Doubtless this is very
true, assuredly it is; but it is very monstrous, very inconsiderate, and very unsuitable,
not by its false declaration, but by its declaration not wholesomely applied to the health
of human infirmity.

CHAPTER 62.-PRAYER TO BE INCULCATED, NEVERTHELESS.

1 But I do not think that manner which I have said should be adopted in the preaching of
predestination ought to be sufficient for him who speaks to the congregation, except he
adds this, or something of this kind, saying, "You, therefore, ought also to hope for that
perseverance in obedience from the Father of Lights, from whom cometh down every excellent
gift and every perfect gift, and to ask for it in your daily prayers; and in doing this
ought to trust that you are not aliens from the predestination of His people, because it
is He Himself who bestows even the power of doing this. And far be it from you to despair
of yourselves, because you are bidden to have your hope in Him, not in yourselves. For
cursed is every one who has hope in man; and it is good rather to trust in the Lord than
to trust in man, because blessed are all they that put their trust in Him. Holding this
hope, serve the Lord in fear, and rejoice unto Him with trembling. Because no one can be
certain of the life eternal which God who does not lie has promised to the children of
promise before the times of eternity,-no one, unless that life of his, which is a state of
trial upon the earth, is completed.

2 But He will make us to persevere in Himself unto the end of that life, since we daily
say to Him, 'Lead us not into temptation.'" When these things and things of this kind are
said, whether to few Christians or to the multitude of the Church, why do we fear to
preach the predestination of the saints and the true grace of God,-that is, the grace
which is not given according to our merits,-as the Holy Scripture declares it? Or, indeed,
must it be feared that a man should then despair of himself when his hope is shown to be
placed in God, and should not rather despair of himself if he should, in his excess of
pride and unhappiness, place it in himself?

CHAPTER 63 [XXIII.]-THE TESTIMONY OF THE WHOLE CHURCH IN HER PRAYERS.

1 And I wish that those who are slow and weak of heart, who cannot, or cannot as yet,
understand the Scriptures or the explanations of them, would so hear or not hear our
arguments in this question as to consider more carefully their prayers, which the Church
has always used and will use, even from its beginnings until this age shall be completed.
For of this matter, which I am now compelled not only to mention, but even to protect and
defend against these new heretics, the Church has never been silent in its prayers,
although in its discourses it has not thought that it need be put forth, as there was no
adversary compelling it. For when was not prayer made in the Church for unbelievers and
its opponents that they should believe? When has any believer had a friend, a neighbour, a
wife, who did not believe, and has not asked on their behalf from the Lord for a mind
obedient to the Christian faith? And who has there ever been who has not prayed for
himself that he might abide in the Lord? And who has dared, not only with his voice, but
even in thought, to blame the priest who invokes the Lord on behalf of believers, if at
any time he has said, "Give to them, O Lord, perseverance in Thee to the end! and has not
rather responded, over such a benediction of his, as well with confessing lips as
believing heart, "Amen"?

2 Since in the Lord's Prayer itself the believers do not pray for anything else,
especially when they say that petition, "Lead us not into temptation," save that they may
persevere in holy obedience. As, therefore, the Church has both been born and grows and
has grown in these prayers, so it has been born and grows and has grown in this faith, by
which faith it is believed that God's grace is not given according to the merits of the
receivers. For, certainly, the Church would not pray that faith should be given to
unbelievers, unless it believed that God converts to Himself both the averse and adverse
wills of men. Nor would the Church pray that it might persevere in the faith of Christ,
not deceived nor overcome by the temptations of the world, unless it believed that the
Lord has our heart in His power, in such wise as that the good which we do not hold save
by our own will, we nevertheless do not hold except He worketh in us to will also. For if
the Church indeed asks these things from Him, but thinks that the same things are given to
itself by itself, it makes use of prayers which are not true, but perfunctory,-which be
far from us! For who truly groans, desiring to receive what he prays for from the Lord, if
he thinks that he receives it from himself, and not from the Lord?

CHAPTER 64.-IN WHAT SENSE THE HOLY SPIRIT SOLICITS FOR US, CRYING, ABBA, FATHER.

1 And this especially since "we know not what to pray for as we ought," says the apostle,
"but the Spirit Himself maketh intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered;
and He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because He maketh
intercession for the saints according to God. What is "the Spirit Himself maketh
intercession," but, "causes to make intercession," "with groanings that cannot be
uttered," but "truthful," since the Spirit is truth? For He it is of whom the apostle says
in another place, "God hath sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, "crying, Abba,
Father! And here what is the meaning of "crying," but "making to cry," by that figure of
speech whereby we call a day that makes people glad, a glad day? And this he makes plain
elsewhere when he says, "For you have not received the Spirit of bondage again in fear,
but you have received the Spirit of the adoption of sons, in whom we cry, Abba, Father. He
there said, "crying," but here, "in whom we cry; opening up, that is to say, the meaning
with which he said "crying,"-that is, as I have already explained, "causing to cry," when
we understand that this is also itself the gift of God, that with a true heart and
spiritually we cry to God. Let them, therefore, observe how they are mistaken who think
that our seeking, asking, knocking is of ourselves, and is not given to us;

2 and say that this is the case because grace is preceded by our merits; that it follows
them when we ask and receive, and seek and find, and it is opened to us when we knock. And
they will not understand that this is also of the divine gift, that we pray; that is, that
we ask, seek, and knock. For we have received the spirit of adoption of sons, in which we
cry, Abba, Father. And this the blessed Ambrose also said. For he says, "To pray to God
also is the work of spiritual grace, as it is written, No one says, Jesus is the Lord, but
in the Holy Spirit."

CHAPTER 65.-THE CHURCH'S PRAYERS IMPLY THE CHURCH'S FAITH.

These things, therefore, which the Church asks from the Lord, and always has asked from
the time she began to exist, God so foreknew that He would give to His called, that He has
already given them in predestination itself; as the apostle declares without any
ambiguity. For, writing to Timothy, he says, "Labour along with the gospel according to
the power of God, who saves us, and calls us with His holy calling, not according to our
works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus
before the times of eternity, but is now made manifest by the coming of our Saviour Jesus
Christ." Let him, therefore, say that the Church at any time has not had in its belief the
truth of this predestination and grace, which is now maintained with a more careful heed
against the late heretics; let him say this who dares to say that at any time it has not
prayed, or not truthfully prayed, as well that unbelievers might believe, as that
believers might persevere. And if the Church has always prayed for these benefits, it has
always believed them to be certainly God's gifts; nor was it ever right for it to deny
that they were foreknown by Him. And thus Christ's Church has never failed to hold the
faith of this predestination, which is now being defended with new solicitude against
these modern heretics.

CHAPTER 66 [XXIV.]-RECAPITULATION AND EXHORTATION.

But what more shall I say? I think that I have taught sufficiently, or rather more than
sufficiently, that both the beginning of faith in the Lord, and continuance in the Lord
unto the end, are God's gifts. And other good things which pertain to a good life, whereby
God is rightly worshipped, even they themselves on whose behalf I am writing this treatise
concede to be God's gifts. Further, they cannot deny that God has foreknown all His gifts,
and the people on whom He was going to bestow them. As, therefore, other things must be
preached so that he who preaches them may be heard with obedience, so predestination must
be preached so that he who hears these things with obedience may glory not in man, and
therefore not in himself, but in the Lord; for this also is God's precept, and to hear
this precept with obedience-to wit, that he who glories should glory in the Lord -in like
manner as the rest, is God's gift. And he who has not this gift,-I shrink not from saying
it,-whatever others he has, has them in vain. That the Pelagians may have this we pray,
and that our own brethren may have it more abundantly. Let us not, therefore, be prompt in
arguments and indolent in prayers. Let us pray, dearly beloved, let us pray that the God
of grace may give even to our enemies, and especially to our brethren and lovers, to
understand and confess that after that great and unspeakable ruin wherein we have all
fallen in one, no one is delivered save by God's grace, and that grace is not repaid
according to the merits of the receivers as if it were due, but is given freely as true
grace, with no merits preceding.

CHAPTER 67.-THE MOST EMINENT INSTANCE OF PREDESTINATION IS CHRIST JESUS.

1 But there is no more illustrious instance of predestination than Jesus Himself,
concerning which also I have already argued in the former treatise; and in the end of this
I have chosen to insist upon it. There is no more eminent instance, I say, of
predestination than the Mediator Himself. If any believer wishes thoroughly to understand
this doctrine, let him consider Him, and in Him he will find himself also. The believer, I
say; who in Him believes and confesses the true human nature that is our own however
singularly elevated by assumption by God the Word into the only Son of God, so that He who
assumed, and what He assumed, should be one person in Trinity. For it was not a Quaternity
that resulted from the assumption of man, but it remained a Trinity, inasmuch as that
assumption ineffably made the truth of one person in God and man. Because we say that
Christ was not only God, as the Manichean heretics contend; nor only man, as the Photinian
heretics assert; nor in such wise man as to have less of anything which of a certainty
pertains to human nature,-whether a soul, or in the soul itself a rational mind, or flesh
not taken of the woman, but made from the Word converted and changed into flesh,-all which
three false and empty notions have made the three various and diverse parties of the
Apollinarian heretics; but we say that Christ was true God, born of God the Father without
any beginning of time;

2 and that He was also true or very man, born of human mother in the certain fulness of
time; and that His humanity, whereby He is less than the Father, does not diminish aught
from His divinity, whereby He is equal to the Father. For both of them are One Christ-who,
moreover, most truly said in respect of the God, "I and the Father are one; and most truly
said in respect of the man, "My Father is greater than I. He, therefore, who made of the
seed of David this righteous man, who never should be unrighteous, without any merit of
His preceding will, is the same who also makes righteous men of unrighteous, without any
merit of their will preceding; that He might be the head, and they His members. He,
therefore, who made that man with no precedent merits of His, neither to deduce from His
origin nor to commit by His will any sin which should be remitted to Him, the same makes
believers on Him with no preceding merits of theirs, to whom He forgives all sin. He who
made Him such that He never had or should have an evil will, the same makes in His members
a good will out of an evil one. Therefore He predestinated both Him and us, because both
in Him that He might be our head, and in us that we should be His body, He foreknew that
our merits would not precede, but that His doings should.

CHAPTER 68.-CONCLUSION.

Let those who read this, if they understand, give God thanks, and let those who do not
understand, pray that they may have the inward Teacher, from whose presence comes
knowledge and understanding. But let those who think that I am in error, consider again
and again carefully what is here said, lest perchance they themselves may be mistaken. And
when, by means of those who read my writings, I become not only wiser, but even more
perfect, I acknowledge God's favour to me; and this I especially look for at the hands of
the teachers of the Church, if what I write comes into their hands, and they condescend to
acknowledge it.parparpar


ON THE GOOD OF MARRIAGE
=======================

ON THE GOOD OF MARRIAGE Augustine of Hippo

AD 354–430

Bishop of Hippo, the most influential Latin father.

ON THE GOOD OF MARRIAGE

[De Bono Conjugali.]

Translated by Rev. C. L. Cornish, M.a., of Exeter College, Oxford. This treatise, and the
following, were written against somewhat that still remained of the heresy of Jovinian. S.
Aug. mentions this error in b. ii. c. 23, de Nuptiis et Conc. "Jovinianus," he says, "who
a few years since tried to found a new heresy, said that the Catholics favored the
Manichaeans, because in opposition to him they preferred holy Virginity to Marriage. And
in his book on Heresies, c. 82. "That heresy took its rise from one Jovinianus, a Monk, in
our own time, when we were yet young." And he adds that it was soon overborne and
extinguished, say about A.D. 390, having been condemned first at Rome, then at Milan.
There are letters of Pope Siricius on the subject to the Church of Milan, and the answer
sent him by the Synod of Milan, at which St. Ambrose presided. Jerome had refuted
Jovinian, but was said to have attempted the defense of the excellency of the virgin
state, at the expense of condemning marriage. That Augustin might not be subject to any
such complaint or calumny, before speaking of the superiority of Virginity, he thought it
well to write on the Good of Marriage.

This work we learn to have been finished about the year 401, not only from the order of
his Retractations, but also from his books on Genesis after the Letter, begun about that
year. For in b. ix. on Genesis, c. 7, where he commends the Good of Marriage, he says:
"Now this is threefold, faithfulness, offspring, and the Sacrament. For faithfulness, it
is observed, that there be no lying with other man or woman, out of the bond of wedlock:
for the offspring, that it be lovingly welcomed, kindly nourished, religiously brought up:
for the Sacrament, that marriage be not severed, and that man or woman divorced be not
joined to another even for the sake of offspring. This is as it were the rule of Marriages
by which rule either fruitfulness is made seemly, or the perverseness of incontinence is
brought to order. Upon which since we have sufficiently discoursed in that book, which we
lately published, on the Good of Marriage, where we have also distinguished the Widow's
continence and the Virgin's excellency, according to the worthiness of their degrees, our
pen is not to be now longer occupied." This very work is referred to in Book I. on the
Deserts and Remission of Sins, c. 29.-Bened. Ed.

1. Forasmuch as each man is a part of the human race, and human nature is something
social, and hath for a great and natural good, the power also of friendship; on this
account God willed to create all men out of one, in order that they might be held in their
society not only by likeness of kind, but also by bond of kindred. Therefore the first
natural bond of human society is man and wife. Nor did God create these each by himself,
and join them together as alien by birth: but He created the one out of the other, setting
a sign also of the power of the union in the side, whence she was drawn, was formed. For
they are joined one to another side by side, who walk together, and look together whither
they walk. Then follows the connexion of fellowship in children, which is the one alone
worthy fruit, not of the union of male and female, but of the sexual intercourse. For it
were possible that there should exist in either sex, even without such intercourse, a
certain friendly and true union of the one ruling, and the other obeying.

2. Nor is it now necessary that we enquire, and put forth a definite opinion on that
question, whence could exist the progeny of the first men, whom God had blessed, saying,
"Increase, and be ye multiplied, and fill the earth; if they had not sinned, whereas their
bodies by sinning deserved the condition of death, and there can be no sexual intercourse
save of mortal bodies. For there have existed several and different opinions on this
matter; and if we must examine, which of them be rather agreeable to the truth of Divine
Scriptures, there is matter for a lengthened discussion. Whether, therefore, without
intercourse, in some other way, had they not sinned, they would have had sons, from the
gift of the Almighty Creator, Who was able to create themselves also without parents, Who
was able to form the Flesh of Christ in a virgin womb, and (to speak even to unbelievers
themselves) Who was able to bestow on bees a progeny without sexual intercourse; or
whether many things there were spoken by way of mystery and figure, and we are to
understand in another sense what is written, "Fill the earth, and rule over it; that is,
that it should come to pass by fullness and perfection of life and power, so that the very
increase and multiplication, whereby it is said, "Increase, and be ye multiplied," be
understood to be by advance of mind, and abundance of virtue, as it is set in the Psalm,
"Thou shall multiply me in my soul by virtue;

and that succession of progeny was not given unto man, save after that, by reason of sin,
there was to be hereafter departure in death: or whether the body was not made spiritual
in the case of these men, but at the first animal, in order that by merit of obedience it
might after become spiritual, to lay hold of immortality, not after death, which by the
malice of the devil entered into the world, and was made the punishment of sin; but after
that change, which the Apostle signifies, when he says, "Then we living, who remain,
together with them, shall be caught up in the clouds, to meet Christ, into the air," that
we may understand both that those bodies of the first pair were mortal, in the first
forming, and yet that they would not have died, had they not sinned, as God had
threatened: even as if He should threaten a wound, in that the body was capable of wounds;
which yet would not have happened, unless what He had forbidden were done. Thus,
therefore, even through sexual intercourse there might take place generations of such
bodies, as up to a certain point should have increase, and yet should not pass into old
age; or even into old age, and yet not into death; until the earth were filled with that
multiplication of the blessing.

For if to the garments of the Israelites God granted their proper state without any
wearing away during forty years, how much more would He grant unto the bodies of such as
obeyed His command a certain most happy temperament of sure state, until they should be
changed for the better, not by death of the man, whereby the body is abandoned by the
soul, but by a blessed change from mortality to immortality, from an animal to a spiritual
quality. Of these opinions which be true, or whether some other or others yet may be
formed out of these words, were a long matter to enquire and discuss. 3. This we now say,
that, according to this condition of being born and dying, which we know, and in which we
have been created, the marriage of male and female is some good; the compact; whereof
divide Scripture so commends, as that neither is it allowed one put away by her husband to
marry, so long as her husband lives: nor is it allowed one put away by his wife to marry
another, unless she who have separated from him be dead. Therefore, concerning the good of
marriage, which the Lord also confirmed in the Gospel, not only in that He forbade to put
away a wife, save because of fornication, but also in that He came by invitation to a
marriage, there is good ground to inquire for what reason it be a good. And this seems
notto me to be merely on account of the begetting of children, but also on account of the
natural society itself in a difference of sex. Otherwise it would not any longer be called
marriage in the case of old persons, especially if either they had lost sons, or had given
birth to none. But now in good, although aged, marriage, albeit there hath withered away
the glow of full age between male and female, yet there lives in full vigor the order of
charity between husband and wife: because, the better they are, the earlier they have
begun by mutual consent to contain from sexual intercourse with each other:

not that it should be matter of necessity afterwards not to have power to do what they
would, but that it should be matter of praise to have been unwilling at the first, to do
what they had power to do. If therefore there be kept good faith of honor, and of services
mutually due from either sex, although the members of either be languishing and almost
corpse-like, yet of souls duly joined together, the chastity continues, the purer by how
much it is the more proved, the safer, by how much it is the calmer. Marriages have this
good also, that carnal or youthful incontinence, although it be faulty, is brought unto an
honest use in the begetting of children, in order that out of the evil of lust the
marriage union may bring to pass some good. Next, in that the lust of the flesh is
repressed, and rages in a way more modestly, being tempered by parental affection. For
there is interposed a certain gravity of glowing pleasure, when in that wherein husband
and wife cleave to one another, they have in mind that they be father and mother.

4. There is this further, that in that very debt which married persons pay one to another,
even if they demand it with somewhat too great intemperance and incontinence, yet they owe
faith alike one to another. Unto which faith the Apostle allows so great right, as to call
it "power," saying, "The woman hath not power of her own body, but the man; again in like
manner also the man hath not power of his own body, but the woman. But the violation of
this faith is called adultery, when either by instigation of one's own lust, or by consent
of lust of another, there is sexual intercourse on either side with another against the
marriage compact: and thus faith is broken, which, even in things that are of the body,
and mean, is a great good of the soul: and therefore it is certain that it ought to be
preferred even to the health of tile body, wherein even this life of ours is contained.
For, although a little chaff in comparison of much gold is almost nothing; yet faith, when
it is kept pure in a matter of chaff, as in gold, is not therefore less because it is kept
in a lesser matter. But when faith is employed to commit sin, it were strange that we
should have to call it faith; however of what kind soever it be, if also the deed be done
against it, it is the worse done;

save when it is on this account abandoned, that there may be a return unto true and lawful
faith, that is, that sin may be amended, by correction of perverseness of the will. As if
any, being unable alone to rob a man, should find a partner in his iniquity, and make an
agreement with him to do it together, and to divide the spoil; and, after the crime hath
been committed, should take off the whole to himself alone. That other grieves and
complains that faith hath not been kept with him, but in his very complaint he ought to
consider, that he himself rather ought to have kept faith with human society in a good
life, not to make unjust spoil of a man, if he feels with how great injustice it hath
failed to be kept with himself in a fellowship of sin. Forsooth the former, being
faithless in both instances, must assuredly be judged the more wicked. But, if he had been
displeased at what they had done ill, and had been on this account unwilling to divide the
spoil with his partner in crime, in order that it might be restored to the man, from whom
it had been taken, not even a faithless man would call him faithless. Thus a woman, if,
having broken her marriage faith, she keep faith with her adulterer, is certainly evil:
but, if not even with her adulterer, worse.

Further, if she repent her of her sin, and returning to marriage chastity, renounce all
adulterous compacts and resolutions, I count it strange if even the adulterer himself will
think her one who breaks faith. 5. Also the question is wont to be asked, when a male and
female, neither the one the husband, nor the other the wife, of any other, come together,
not for the begetting of children, but, by reason of incontinence, for the mere sexual
intercourse, there being between them this faith, that neither he do it with any other
woman, nor she with any other man, whether it is to be called marriage. And perhaps this
may, not without reason, be called marriage, if it shall be the resolution of both parties
until the death of one, and if the begetting of children, although they came not together
for that cause, yet they shun not, so as either to be unwilling to have children born to
them, or even by some evil work to use means that they be not born. But, if either both,
or one, of these be wanting, I find not how we can call it marriage. For, if a man should
take unto him any one for a time, until he find another worthy either of his honors or of
his means, to marry as his compeer; in his soul itself he is an adulterer, and that not
with her whom he is desirous of finding, but with her, with whom he so lies, as not to
have with her the partnership of a husband. Whence she also herself, knowing and willing
this, certainly acts unchastely in having intercourse with him, with whom she has not the
compact of a wife.

However, if she keep to him faith of bed, and after he shall have married, have no thought
of marriage herself, and prepare to contain herself altogether from any such work, perhaps
I should not dare lightly to call her an adulteress; but who shall say that she sins not,
when he is aware that she has intercourse with a man, not being his wife? But further, if
from that intercourse, so far as pertains to herself, she has no wish but for sons, and
suffers unwilling whatever she suffers beyond the cause of begetting; there are many
matrons to whom she is to be preferred; who, although they are not adulteresses, yet force
their husbands, for the most part also wishing to exercise continence, to pay the due of
the flesh, not through desire of children, but through glow of lust making an intemperate
use of their very right; in whose marriages, however, this very thing, that they are
married, is a good. For for this purpose are they married, that the lust being brought
under a lawful bond, should not float at large without form and loose; having of itself
weakness of flesh that cannot be curbed, but of marriage fellowship of faith that cannot
be dissolved; of itself encroachment of immoderate intercourse, of marriage a way of
chastely begetting.

For, although it be shameful to wish to use a husband for purposes of lust, yet it is
honorable to be unwilling to have intercourse save with an husband, and not to give birth
to children save from a husband. There are also men incontinent to that degree, that they
spare not their wives even when pregnant. Therefore whatever that is immodest, shameless,
base, married persons do one with another, is the sin of the persons, not the fault of
marriage. 6. Further, in the very case of the more immoderate requirement of the due of
the flesh, which the Apostle enjoins not on them by way of command, but allows to them by
way of leave, that they have intercourse also beside the cause of begetting children;
although evil habits impel them to such intercourse, yet marriage guards them from
adultery or fornication. For neither is that committed because of marriage, but is
pardoned because of marriage. Therefore married persons owe one another not only the faith
of their sexual intercourse itself, for the begetting of children, which is the first
fellowship of the human kind in this mortal state; but also, in a way, a mutual service of
sustaining one another's weakness, in order to shun unlawful intercourse: so that,
although perpetual continence be pleasing to one of them, he may not, save with consent of
the other. For thus far also, "The wife hath not power of her own body, but the man: in
like manner also the man hath not power of his own body, but the woman. That that also,
which, not for the begetting of children, but for weakness and incontinence, either he
seeks of marriage, or she of her husband, they deny not the one or the other; lest by this
they fall into damnable seductions, through temptation of Satan, by reason of incontinence
either of both, or of whichever of them. For intercourse of marriage for the sake of
begetting hath not fault;

but for the satisfying of lust, but yet with husband or wife, by reason of the faith of
the bed, it hath venial fault: but adultery or fornication hath deadly fault, and, through
this, continence from all intercourse is indeed better even than the intercourse of
marriage itself, which takes place for the sake of begetting. But because that Continence
is of larger desert, but to pay the due of marriage is no crime, but to demand it beyond
the necessity of begetting is a venial fault, but to commit fornication or adultery is a
crime to be punished; charity of the married ought to beware, lest whilst it seek for
itself occasion of larger honor, it do that for its partner which cause condemnation. "For
whosoever putteth away his wife, except for the cause of fornication, maketh her to commit
adultery. To such a degree is that marriage compact entered upon a matter of a certain
sacrament, that it is not made void even by separation itself, since, so long as her
husband lives, even by whom she hath been left, she commits adultery, in case she be
married to another: and he who hath left her, is the cause of this evil.

7. But I marvel, if, as it is allowed to put away a wife who is an adulteress, so it be
allowed, having put her away, to marry another. For holy Scripture causes a hard knot in
this matter, in that the Apostle says, that, by commandment of the Lord, the wife ought
not to depart from her husband, but, in case she shall have departed, to remain unmarried,
or to be reconciled to her husband; whereas surely she ought not to depart and remain
unmarried, save from an husband that is an adulterer, lest by withdrawing from him, who is
not an adulterer, she cause him to commit adultery. But perhaps she may justly be
reconciled to her husband, either he being to be borne with, if she cannot contain
herself, or being now corrected. But I see not how the man can have permission to marry
another, in case he have left an adulteress, when a woman has not to be married to
another, in case she have left an adulterer. And, this being the case, so strong is that
bond of fellowship in married persons, that, although it be tied for the sake f begetting
children, not even for the sake of begetting children is it loosed. For it is in a man's
power to put away a wife that is barren, and marry one of whom to have children. And yet
it is not allowed;

and now indeed in our times, and after the usage of Rome, neither to marry in addition, so
as to have more than one wife living: and, surely, in case of an adulteress or adulterer
being left, it would be possible that more men should be born, if either the woman were
married to another, or the man should marry another. And yet, if this be not lawful, as
the Divine Rule seems to prescribe, who is there but it must make him attentive to learn,
what is the meaning of this so great strength of the marriage bond? Which I by no means
think could have been of so great avail, were it not that there were taken a certain
sacrament of some greater matter from out this weak mortal state of men, so that, men
deserting it, and seeking to dissolve it, it should remain unshaken for their punishment.
Seeing that the compact of marriage is not done away by divorce intervening; so that they
continue wedded persons one to another, even after separation; and commit adultery with
those, with whom they shall be joined, even after their own divorce, either the woman with
a man, or the man with a woman. And yet, save in the City of our God, in His Holy Mount,
the case is not such with the wife. But, that the laws of the Gentiles are otherwise, who
is there that knows not;

where, by the interposition of divorce, without any offense of which man takes cognizance,
both the woman is married to whom she will, and the man marries whom he will. And
something like this custom, on account of the hardness of the Israelites, Moses seems to
have allowed, concerning a bill of divorcement. In which matter there appears rather a
rebuke, than an approval, of divorce. 8. "Honorable," therefore, "is marriage in all, and
the bed undefiled. And this we do not so call a good, as that it is a good in comparison
of fornication: otherwise there will be two evils, of which the second is worse: or
fornication will also be a good, because adultery is worse: for it is worse to violate the
marriage of another, than to cleave unto an harlot: and adultery will be a good, because
incest is worse; for it is worse to lie with a mother than with the wife of another: and,
until we arrive at those things, which, as the Apostle saith, "it is a shame even to speak
of," all will be good in comparison of what are worse. But who can doubt that this is
false? Therefore marriage and fornication are not two evils, whereof the second is worse:
but marriage and continence are two goods, whereof the second is better, even as this
temporal health and sickness are not two evils, whereof the second is worse; but that
health and immortality are two goods, whereof the second is better. Also knowledge and
vanity are not two evils, whereof vanity is the worse: but knowledge and charity are two
goods, whereof charity is the better. For "knowledge shall be destroyed," saith the
Apostle: and yet it is necessary for this time: but "charity shall never fail. Thus also
this mortal begetting, on account of which marriage takes place, shall be destroyed:

but freedom from all sexual intercourse is both angelic exercise here, and continueth for
ever. But as the repasts of the Just are better than the fasts of the sacrilegious, so the
marriage of the faithful is to be set before the virginity of the impious. However neither
in that case is repast preferred to fasting, but righteousness to sacrilege; nor in this,
marriage to virginity, but faith to impiety. For for this end the righteous, when need is,
take their repast, that, as good masters, they may give to their slaves, i.e., their
bodies, what is just and fair: but for this end the sacrilegious fast, that they may serve
devils. Thus for this end the faithful are married, that they may be chastely joined unto
husbands, but for this end the impious are virgins, that they may commit fornication away
from the true God. As, therefore, that was good, which Martha was doing, being engaged in
the ministering unto the Saints, but that better, which Mary, her sister, sitting at the
feet of the Lord, and hearing His word; thus we praise the good of Susanna in married
chastity, but yet we set before her the good of the widow Anna, and, much more, of the
Virgin Mary. It was good that they were doing, who of their substance were ministering
necessaries unto Christ and His disciples: but better, who left all their substance, that
they might be freer to follow the same Lord.

But in both these cases of good, whether what these, or whether what Martha and Mary were
doing, the better could not be done, unless the other had been passed over or left. Whence
we are to understand, that we are not, on this account, to think marriage an evil,
because, unless there be abstinence from it, widowed chastity, or virgin purity, cannot be
had. For neither on this account was what Martha was doing evil, because, unless her
sister abstained from it, she could not do what was better: nor on this account is it evil
to receive a just man or a prophet into one's house, because he, who wills to follow
Christ unto perfection, ought not even to have a house, in order to do what is better. 9.
Truly we must consider, that God gives us some goods, which are to be sought for their own
sake, such as wisdom, health, friendship: but others, which are necessary for the sake of
somewhat, such as learning, meat, drink, sleep, marriage, sexual intercourse. For of these
certain are necessary for the sake of wisdom, as learning: certain for the sake of health,
as meat and drink and sleep: certain for the sake of friendship, as marriage or sexual
intercourse: for hence subsists the propagation of the human kind, wherein friendly
fellowship is a great good. These goods, therefore, which are necessary for the sake of
something else, whoso useth not for this purpose, wherefore they were instituted, sins; in
some cases venially, in other cases damnably. But whoso useth them for this purpose,
wherefore they were given doeth well. Therefore, to whomsoever they are not necessary, if
he use them not, he doeth better. Wherefore, these goods, when we have need, we do well to
wish; but we do better not to wish than to wish: because ourselves are in a better state,
when we account them not necessary. And on this account it is good to marry, because it is
good to beget children, to be a mother of a family: but it is better not to marry, because
it is better not to stand in need of this work, in order to human fellowship itself.

For such is the state of the human race now, that (others, who contain not, not only being
taken up with marriage, but many also waxing wanton through unlawful concubinages, the
Good Creator working what is good out of their evils) there fails not numerous progeny,
and abundant succession, out of which to procure holy friendships. Whence we gather, that,
in the first times of the human race, chiefly for the propagation of the People of God,
through whom the Prince and Saviour of all people should both be prophesied of, and be
born, it was the duty of the Saints to use this good of marriage, not as to be sought for
its own sake, but necessary for the sake of something else: but now, whereas, in order to
enter upon holy and pure fellowship, there is on all sides from out all nations an
overflowing fullness of spiritual kindred, even they who wish to contract marriage only
for the sake of children, are to be admonished, that they use rather the larger good of
continence.

10. But I am aware of some that murmur: What, say they, if all men should abstain from all
sexual intercourse, whence will the human race exist? Would that all would this, only in
"charity out of a pure heart, and good conscience, and faith unfeigned;" much more
speedily would the City of God be filled, and the end of the world hastened. For what else
doth the Apostle, as is manifest, exhort to, when he saith, speaking on this head, "I
would that all were as myself;" or in that passage, "But this I say, brethren, the time is
short: it remains that both they who have wives, be as though not having: and they who
weep, as though not weeping: and they who rejoice, as though not rejoicing: and they who
buy, as though not buying: and they who use this world as though they use it not. For the
form of this world passeth by. I would have you without care." Then he adds, "Whoso is
without a wife thinks of the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord: but whoso is
joined in marriage, thinks of the things of the world, how to please his wife: and a woman
that is unmarried and a virgin is different: she that is unmarried is anxious about the
things of the Lord, to be holy both in body and spirit: but she that is married, is
anxious about the things of the world, how to please her husband." Whence it seems to me,
that at this time, those only, who contain not, ought to marry, according to that sentence
of the same Apostle, "But if they contain not, let them be married: for it is better to be
married than to burn."

11. And yet not to these themselves is marriage a sin; which, if it were chosen in
comparison of fornication, would be a less sin than fornication, and yet would be a sin.
But now what shall we say against the most plain speech of the Apostle, saying, "Let her
do what she will; she sinneth not, if she be married; and, "If thou shalt have taken a
wife, thou hast not sinned: and, if a virgin shall have been married, she sinneth not.
Hence surely it is not lawful now to doubt that marriage is no sin. Therefore the Apostle
alloweth not marriage as matter "of pardon: for who can doubt that it is extremely absurd
to say, that they have not sinned, unto whom "pardon" is granted. But he allows, as matter
of "pardon," that sexual intercourse, which takes place through incontinence, not alone
for the begetting of children, and, at times, not at all for the begetting of children;
and it is not that marriage forces this to take place, but that it procures pardon for it;
provided however it be not so in excess as to hinder what ought to be set aside as seasons
of prayer, nor be changed into that use which is against nature, on which the Apostle
could not be silent, when speaking of the excessive corruptions of unclean and impious
men. For necessary sexual intercourse for begetting is free from blame, and itself is
alone worthy of marriage. But that which goes beyond this necessity, no longer follows
reason, but lust.

And yet it pertains to the character of marriage, not to exact this, but to yield it to
the partner, lest by fornication the other sin damnably. But, if both are set under such
lust, they do what is plainly not matter of marriage. However, if in their intercourse
they love what is honest more than what is dishonest, that is, what is matter of marriage
more than what is not matter of marriage, this is allowed to them on the authority of the
Apostle as matter of pardon: and for thisfault, they have in their marriage, not what sets
them on to commit it, but what entreats pardon for it, if they turn not away from them the
mercy of God, either by not abstaining on certain days, that they may be free to pray, and
through this abstinence, as through fasting, may commend their prayers; or by changing the
natural use into that which is against nature, which is more damnable when it is done in
the case of husband or wife.

12. For, whereas that natural use, when it pass beyond the compact of marriage, that is,
beyond the necessity of begetting, is pardonable in the case of a wife, damnable in the
case of an harlot; that which is against nature is execrable when done in the case of an
harlot, but more execrable in the case of a wife. Of so great power is the ordinance of
the Creator, and the order of Creation, that, in matters allowed us to use, even when the
due measure is exceeded, it is far more tolerable, than, in what are not allowed, either a
single, or rare excess. And, therefore, in a matter allowed, want of moderation, in a
husband or wife, is to be borne with, in order that lust break not forth into a matter
that is not allowed. Hence is it also that he sins far less, who is ever so unceasing in
approaches to his wife, than he who approaches ever so seldom to commit fornication. But,
when the man shall wish to use the member of the wife not allowed for this purpose, the
wife is more shameful, if she suffer it to take place in her own case, than if in the case
of another woman. Therefore the ornament of marriage is chastity of begetting, and faith
of yielding the due of the flesh: this is the work of marriage, this the Apostle defends
from every charge, in saying, "Both if thou shall have taken a wife, thou hast not sinned:
and if a virgin shall have been married, she sinneth not:" and, "Let her do what she will:
she sinneth not if she be married." But an advance beyond moderation in demanding the due
of either sex, for the reasons which I have stated above, is allowed to married persons as
matter of pardon.

13. What therefore he says, "She, that is unmarried, thinketh of the things of the Lord,
that she may be holy both in body and spirit;" we are not to take in such sense, as to
think that a chaste Christian wife is not holy in body. Forsooth unto all the faithful it
was said, "Know ye not that your bodies are a temple of the Holy Ghost within you, Whom ye
have from God?" Therefore the bodies also of the married are holy, so long as they keep
faith to one another and to God. And that this sanctity of either of them, even an
unbelieving partner does not stand in the way of, but rather that the sanctity of the wife
profits the unbelieving husband, and the sanctity of the husband profits the unbelieving
wife, the same Apostle is witness, saying, "For the unbelieving husband is sanctified in
the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified in a brother." Wherefore that was said
according to the greater sanctity of the unmarried than of the married, unto which there
is also due a greater reward, according as, the one being a good, the other is a greater
good: inasmuch as also she has this thought only, how to please the Lord. For it is not
that a female who believes, keeping married chastity, thinks not how to please the Lord;
but assuredly less so, in that she thinks of the things of the world, how to please her
husband. For this is what he would say of them, that they may, in a certain way, find
themselves obliged by marriage to think of the things of the world, how to please their
husbands.

14. And not without just cause a doubt is raised, whether he said this of all married
women, or of such as so many are, as that nearly all may be thought so to be. For neither
doth that, which he saith of unmarried women, "She, that is unmarried, thinkest of the
things of the Lord, to be holy both in body and spirit: pertain unto all unmarried women:
whereas there are certain widows who are dead, who live in delights. However, so far as
regards a certain distinction and, as it were, character of their own, of the unmarried
and married; as she deserves theexcess of hatred, who containing from marriage, that is,
from a thing allowed, does not contain from offenses, either of luxury, or pride, or
curiosity and prating; so the married woman is seldom met with, who, in the very obedience
of married life, hath no thought save how to please God, by adorning herself, not with
plaited hair, or gold and pearls and costly attire, but as becometh women making
profession of piety, through a good conversation. Such marriages, forsooth, the Apostle
Peter also describes by giving commandment. "In like manner," saith he, "wives obeying
their own husbands; in order that, even if any obey not the word, they may be gained
without discourse through the conversation of the wives, seeing your fear and chaste
conversation: that they be not they that are adorned without with crispings of hair, or
clothed with gold or with fair raiment;

but that hidden man of your heart, in that unbroken continuance of a quiet and modest
spirit, which before the Lord also is rich. For thus certain holy women, who hoped in the
Lord, used to adorn themselves, obeying their own husbands: as Sarah obeyed Abraham,
calling him Lord: whose daughters ye are become, when ye do well, and fear not with any
vain fear. Husbands in like manner living at peace and in chastity with your wives, both
give ye honor as to the weaker and subject vessel, as with co-heirs of grace, and see that
your prayers be not hindered. Is it indeed that such marriages have no thought of the
things of the Lord, how to please the Lord? But they are very rare: who denies this? And,
being, as they are, rare, nearly all the persons who are such, were not joined together in
order to be such, but being already joined together became such.

15. For what Christian men of our time being free from the marriage bond, having power to
contain from all sexual intercourse, seeing it to be now "a time," as it is written, "not
of embracing, but of abstaining from embrace," would not choose rather to keep virginal or
widowed continence, than (now that there is no obligation from duty to human society) to
endure tribulation of the flesh, without which marriages cannot be (to pass over in
silence other things from which the Apostle spares. But when through desire reigning they
shall have been joined together, if they shall after overcome it, because it is not lawful
to loose, in such wise as it was lawful not to tie, the marriage bond, they become such as
the form of marriage makes profession of, so as that either by mutual consent they ascend
unto a higher degree of holiness, or, if both are not such, the due who is such will not
be one to exact but to yield the due, observing in all things a chaste and religious
concord. But in those times, wherein as yet the mystery of our salvation was veiled in
prophetic sacraments, even they who were such before marriage, yet contracted marriage
through the duty of begetting children, not overcome by lust, but led by piety, unto whom
if there were given such choice as in the revelation of the New Testament there hath been
given, the Lord saying "Whoso can receive, let him receive;

no one doubts that they would have been ready to receive it even with joy, who reads with
careful attention what use they made of their wives, at a time when also it was allowed
one man to have several, whom he had with more chastity, than any now has his one wife, of
these, unto whom we see what the Apostle allows by way of leave. For they had them in the
work of begetting children, not "in the disease of desire, as the nations which know not
God. And this is so great a thing, that many at this day more easily abstain from all
sexual intercourse their whole life through, than, if they are joined in marriage, observe
the measure of not coming together except for the sake of children. Forsooth we have many
brethren and partners in the heavenly inheritance of both sexes that are continent,
whether they be such as have made trial of marriage, or such as are entirely free from all
such intercourse: forsooth they are without number: yet, in our familiar discourses with
them, whom have we heard, whether of those who are, or of those who have been, married,
declaring to us that he has never had sexual intercourse with his wife, save with the hope
of conception? What, therefore, the Apostles command the married, this is proper to
marriage, but what they allow by way of pardon, or what hinders prayers, this marriage
compels not, but bears with.

16. Therefore if haply, (which whether it can take place, I know not; and rather think it
cannot take place; but yet, if haply), having taken unto himself a concubine for a time, a
man shall have sought sons only from this same intercourse; neither thus is that union to
be preferred to the marriage even of those women, who do this, that is matter of pardon.
For we must consider what belongs to marriage, not what belongs to such women as marry and
use marriage with less moderation than they ought. For neither if each one so use lands
entered upon unjustly and wrongly, as out of their fruits to give large alms, cloth he
therefore justify rapine: nor if another brood over, through avarice, an estate to which
he has succeeded, or which he hath justly gained, are we on this account to blame the rule
of civil law, whereby he is made a lawful owner. Nor will the wrongfulness of a tyrannical
rebellion deserve praise, if the tyrant treat his subjects with royal clemency: nor will
the order of royal power deserve blame, if a king rage with tyrannical cruelty. For it is
one thing to wish to use well unjust power, and it is another thing to use unjustly just
power. Thus neither do concubines taken for a time, if they be such in order to sons, make
their concubinage lawful; nor do married women, if they live wantonly with their husbands,
attach any charge to the order of marriage.

17. That marriage can take place of persons first ill joined, an honest decree following
after, is manifest. But a marriage once for all entered upon in the City of our God,
where, even from the first union of the two,theman and the woman, marriage bears a certain
sacramental character, can no way be dissolved but by the death of one of them. For the
bond of marriage remains, although a family, for the sake of which it was entered upon, do
not follow through manifest barrenness; so that, when now married persons know that they
shall not have children, yet it is not lawful for them to separate even for the very sake
of children, and to join themselves unto others. And if they shall so do, they commit
adultery with those unto whom they join themselves, but themselves remain husbands and
wives. Clearly with the good will of the wife to take another woman, that from her may be
born sons common to both, by the sexual intercourse and seed of the one, but by the right
and power of the other, was lawful among the ancient fathers: whether it be lawful now
also, I would not hastily pronounce. For there is not now necessity of begetting children,
as there then was, when, even when wives bare children, it was allowed, in order to a more
numerous posterity, to marry other wives in addition, which now is certainly not lawful.

For the difference that separates times causes the due season to have so great force unto
the justice and doing or not doing any thing, that now a man does better, if he marry not
even one wife, unless he be unable to contain. But then they married even several without
any blame, even those who could much more easily contain, were it not that piety at that
time had another demand upon them. For, as the wise and just man, who now desires to be
dissolved and to be with Christ, and takes more pleasure in this, the best, now not from
desire of living here, but from duty of being useful , takes food that he may remain in
the flesh, which is necessary for the sake of others; so to have intercourse with females
in right of marriage, was to holy men at that time a matter of duty not of lust.

18. For what food is unto the conservation of the man, this sexual intercourse is unto the
conservation of the race: and both are not without carnal delight: which yet being
modified, and by restraint of temperance reduced unto the use after nature, cannot be
lust. But what unlawful food is in the supporting of life, this sexual intercourse of
fornication or adultery is in the seeking of a family. And what unlawful food is in luxury
of belly and throat, this unlawful intercourse is in lust that seeks not a family. And
what the excessive appetite of some is in lawful food, this that intercourse that is
matter of pardon is in husband and wife. As therefore it is better to die of hunger than
to eat things offered unto idols: so it is better to die without children, than to seek a
family from unlawful intercourse. But from whatever source men be born, if they follow not
the vices of their parents, and worship God aright, they shall be honest and safe. For the
seed of man, from out what kind of man soever, is the creation of God, and it shall fare
ill with those who use it ill, yet shall not, itself at any time be evil. But as the good
sons of adulterers are no defense of adulteries, so the evil sons of married persons are
no charge against marriage.

Wherefore as the Fathers of the time of the New Testament taking food from the duty of
conservation, although they took it with natural delight of the flesh, were yet in no way
compared with the delight of those who fed on what had been offered in sacrifice, or of
those who, although the food was lawful, yet took it to excess: so the Fathers of the time
of the Old Testament from the duty of conservation used sexual intercourse; and yet that
their natural delight, by no means relaxed unto unreasonable and unlawful lust, is not to
be compared either with the vileness of fornications, or with the intemperance of married
persons. Forsooth through the same vein of charity, now after the spirit, then after the
flesh, it was a duty to beget sons for the sake of that mother Jerusalem: but it was
nought save the difference of times which made the works of the fathers different. But
thus it was necessary that even Prophets, not living after the flesh, should come together
after the flesh; even as it was necessary that Apostles also, not living after the flesh,
should eat food after the flesh.

19. Therefore as many women as there are now, unto whom it is said, "if they contain not,
let them be married, " are not to be compared to the holy women then, even when they
married. Marriage itself indeed in all nations is for the same cause of begetting sons,
and of what character soever these may be afterward, yet was marriage for this purpose
instituted, that they may be born in due and honest order. But men, who contain not, as it
were ascend unto marriage by a step of honesty: but they, who without doubt would contain,
if the purpose of that time had allowed this, in a certain measure descended unto marriage
by a step of piety. And, on this account, although the marriages of both, so far as they
are marriages, in that they are for the sake of begetting, are equally good, yet these men
when married are not to be compared with those men as married. For these have, what is
allowed them by the way of leave, on account of the honesty of marriage, although it
pertain not to marriage; that is, the advance which goes beyond the necessity of
begetting, which they had not. But neither can these, if haply there be now any found, who
neither seek, nor desire, in marriage any thing, save that wherefore marriage was
instituted, be made equal to those men. For in these the very desire of sons is carnal,
but in those it was spiritual, in that it was suited to the sacrament of that time.
Forsooth now no one who is made perfect in piety seeks to have sons, save after a
spiritual sense; but then it was the work of piety itself to beget sons even after a
carnal sense: in that the begetting of that people was fraught with tidings of things to
come, and pertained unto the prophetic dispensation.

20. And on this account, not, so as it was allowed one man to have even several wives, was
it allowed one female to have several husbands, not even for the sake of a family, in case
it should happen that the woman could bear, the man could not beget. For by a secret law
of nature things that stand chief love to be singular; but what are subject are set under,
not only one under one, but, if the system of nature or society allow, even several under
one, not without becoming beauty. For neither hath one slave so several masters, in the
way that several slaves have one master. Thus we read not that any of the holy women
served two or more living husbands: but we read that many females served one husband, when
the social state of that nation allowed it, and the purpose of the time persuaded to it:
for neither is it contrary to the nature of marriage. For several females can conceive
from one man: but one female cannot from several, (such is the power of things principal:)
as many souls are rightly made subject unto one God. And on this account there is no True
God of souls, save One: but one soul by means of many false gods may commit fornication,
but not be made fruitful.

21. But since out of many souls there shall be hereafter one City of such as have one soul
and one heart towards God; which perfection of our unity shall be hereafter, after this
sojourn in a strange land, wherein the thoughts of all shall neither be hidden one from
another, nor shall be in any matter opposed one to another; on this account the Sacrament
of marriage of our time hath been so reduced to one man and one wife, as that it is not
lawful to ordain any as a steward of the Church, save the husband of one wife. And this
they have understood more acutely who have been of opinion, that neither is he to be
ordained, who as a catechumen or as a heathen had a second wife. For it is a matter of
sacrament, not of sin. For in baptism all sins are put away. But he who said, "If thou
shall have taken a wife, thou hast not sinned; and if a virgin shall have been married,
she sinneth not: and, "Let her do what she will, she sinneth not, if she be married," hath
made it plain enough that marriage is no sin. But on account of the sanctity of the
Sacrament, as a female, although it be as a catechumen that she hath suffered violence,
cannot after Baptism be consecrated among the virgins of God:

so there was no absurdity in supposing of him who had exceeded the number of one wife, not
that he had committed any sin, but that he had lost a certain prescript rule of a
sacrament necessary not unto desert of good life, but unto the seal of ecclesiastic
ordination; and thus, as the many wives of the old Fathers signified our future Churches
out of all nations made subject unto one husband, Christ: so our chief-priest, the husband
of one wife, signifies unity out of all nations, made subject unto one husband, Christ:
which shall then be perfected, when He shall have unveiled the hidden things of darkness,
and shall have I made manifest the thoughts of the heart, that then each may have praise
from God. But now there are manifest, there are hidden, dissensions, even where charity is
safe between those, who shall be hereafter one, and in one; which shall then certainly
have no existence. As therefore the Sacrament of marriage with several of that time
signified the multitude that should be hereafter made subject unto God in all nations of
the earth, so the Sacrament of marriage with one of our times signifies the unity of us
all made subject to God, which shall be hereafter in one Heavenly City. Therefore as to
serve two or more, so to pass over from a living husband into marriage with another, was
neither lawful then, nor is it lawful now, nor will it ever be lawful.

Forsooth to apostatise from the One God, and to go into adulterous superstition of
another, is ever an evil. Therefore not even for the sake of a more numerous family did
our Saints do, what the Roman Cato is said to have done, to give up his wife, during his
own life, to fill even another's house with sons. Forsooth in the marriage of one woman
the sanctity of the Sacrament is of more avail than the fruitfulness of the womb. 22. If,
therefore, even they who are united in marriage only for the purpose of begetting, for
which purpose marriage was instituted, are not compared with the Fathers, seeking their
very sons in a way far other than do these; forasmuch as Abraham, being bidden to slay his
son, fearless and devoted, spared not his only son, whom from out of great despair he had
received save that he laid down his hand, when He forbade him, at Whose command he had
lifted it up; it remains that we consider, whether at least continent persons among us are
to be compared to those Fathers who were married; unless haply now these are to be
preferred to them, to whom we have not yet found persons to compare. For there was a
greater good in their marriage, than is the proper good of marriage: to which without
doubt the good of Continence is to be preferred: because they sought not sons from
marriage by such duty as these are led by, from a certain sense of mortal nature requiring
succession against decease. And, whoso denies this to be good he knows not God, the
Creator of all things good, from things heavenly even unto things earthly, from things
immortal even unto things mortal. But neither are beasts altogether without this sense of
begetting, and chiefly birds, whose care of building nests meets us at once, and a certain
likeness to marriages, in order to beget and nurture together.

But thosemen, with mind far holier, surpassed this affection of mortal nature, the
chastity whereof in its own kind, there being added thereto the worship of God, as some
have understood, is set forth as bearing first thirty-fold; who sought sons of their
marriage for the sake of Christ; in order to distinguish His race after the flesh from all
nations: even as God was pleased to order, that this above the rest should avail to
prophesy of Him, in that it was foretold of what race also, and of what nation, He should
hereafter come in the flesh. Therefore it was a far greater good than the chaste marriages
of believers among us, which father Abraham knew in his own thigh, under which he bade his
servant to put his hand, that he might take an oath concerning the wife, whom his son was
to marry. For putting his hand under the thigh of a man, and swearing by the God of
Heaven, what else did he signify, than that in that Flesh, which derived its origin from
that thigh, the God of Heaven would come? Therefore marriage is a good, wherein married
persons are so much the better, in proportion as they fear God with greater chastity and
faithfulness, specially if the sons, whom they desire after the flesh, they also bring up
after the spirit.

23. Nor, in that the Law orders a man to be purified even after intercourse with a wife,
doth it show it to be sin: unless it be that which is allowed by way of pardon, which
also, being in excess, hinders prayers. But, as the Law sets many things in sacraments and
shadows of things to come; a certain as it were material formless state of the seed, which
having received form will hereafter produce the body of man, is set to signify a life
formless, and untaught: from which formless state, forasmuch as it behoves that man be
cleansed by form and teaching of learning; as a sign of this, that purification was
ordered after the emission of seed. For neither in sleep also doth it take place through
sin. And yet there also a purification was commanded. Or, if any think this also to be
sin, thinking that it comes not to pass save from some lust of this kind, which without
doubt is false; what? are the ordinary menses also of women sins? And yet from these the
same old Law commanded that they should be cleansed by expiation; for no other cause, save
the material formless state itself, in that which, when conception hath taken place, is
added as it were to build up the body, and for this reason, when it flows without form,
the Law would have signified by it a soul without form of discipline, flowing and loose in
an unseemly manner. And that this ought to receive form, it signifies, when it commands
such flow of the body to be purified. Lastly, what? to die, is that also a sin? or, to
bury a dead person, is it not also a good work of humanity? and yet a purification was
commanded even on occasion of this also; because also a dead body, life abandoning it, is
not sin, but signifies the sin of a soul abandoned by righteousness.

24. Marriage, I say, is a good, and may be, by sound reason, defended against all
calumnies. But with the marriage of the holy fathers, I inquire not what marriage, but
what continence, is on a level: or rather not marriage with marriage; for it is an equal
gift in all cases given to the mortal nature of men; but men who use marriage, forasmuch
as I find not, to compare with other men who used marriage in a far other spirit, we must
require what continent persons admit of being compared with those married persons. Unless,
haply, Abraham could not contain from marriage, for the sake of the kingdom of heaven, he
who, for the sake of the kingdom of heaven, could fearless sacrifice his only pledge of
offspring, for whose sake marriage was dear! 25. Forsooth continence is a virtue, not of
the body, but of the soul. But the virtues of the soul are sometimes shown in work,
sometimes lie hid in habit, as the virtue of martyrdom shone forth and appeared by
enduring sufferings; but how many are there of the same virtue of mind, unto whom trial is
wanting, whereby what is within, in the sight of God, may go forth also into the sight of
men, and not to men begin to exist, but only become known? For there was already in Job
patience, which God knew, and to which He bore witness: but it became known unto men by
test of trial: and what lay hid within was not produced, but shown, by the things that
were brought on him from without. Timothy also certainly had the virtue of abstaining from
wine, which Paul took not from him, by advising him to use a moderate portion of wine,
"for the sake of his stomach and his often infirmities," otherwise he taught him a deadly
lesson, that for the sake of the health of the body there should be a loss of virtue in
the soul: but because what he advised could take place with safety to that virtue, the
profit of drinking was so left free to the body, as that the habit of continence continued
in the soul. For it is the habit itself, whereby any thing is done, when there is need;
but when it is not done, it can be done, only there is no need.

This habit, in the matter of that continence which is from sexual intercourse, they have
not, unto whom it is said, "If they contain not, let them be married. But this they have,
unto whom it is said, "Whoso can receive, let him receive. Thus have perfect souls used
earthly goods, that are necessary for something else, through this habit of continence, so
as, by it, not to be bound by them, and so as by it, to have power also not to use them,
in case there were no need. Nor doth any use them well, save who hath power also not to
use them. Many indeed with more ease practise abstinence, so as not to use, than practise
temperance, so as to use well. But no one can wisely use them, save who can also
continently not use them. From this habit Paul also said, "I know both to abound, and to
suffer want. Forsooth to suffer want is the part of any men soever; but to know to suffer
want is the part of great men. So, also, to abound, who cannot? but to know also to
abound, is not, save of those, whom abundance corrupts not.

26. But, in order that it may be more clearly understood, how there may be virtue in
habit, although it be not in work, I speak of an example, about which no Catholic
Christian can doubt. For that our Lord Jesus Christ in truth of flesh hungered and
thirsted, ate and drank, no one doubts of such as out of the Gospel are believers. What,
then, was there not in Him the virtue of continence from meat and drink, as great as in
John Baptist? "For John came neither eating nor drinking; and they said, He hath a devil;
the Son of Man came both eating and drinking; and they said, "Lo, a glutton and wine-
bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners. What, are not such things said also against
them of His household, our fathers, from another kind of using of things earthy, so far as
pertains to sexual intercourse; "Lo, men lustful and unclean, lovers of women and
lewdness? And yet as in Him that was not true, although it were true that He abstained
not, even as John, from eating and drinking, for Himself saith most plainly and truly,
"John came, not eating, nor drinking; the Son of Man came eating and drinking: so neither
is this true in these Fathers; although there hath come now the Apostle of Christ, not
wedded, nor begetting, so that the heathen say of him, He was a magician;

but there came then the Prophet of Christ, marrying and begetting sons, so that the
Manichees say of him, He was a man fond of women: "And wisdom," saith He, "hath been
justified of her children. What the Lord there added, after He had thus spoken of John and
of Himself; "But wisdom," saith He, "hath been justified of her children. Who see that the
virtue of continence ought to exist even in the habit of the soul, but to be shown forth
in deed, according to opportunity of things and times; even as the virtue of patience of
holy martyrs appeared in deed; but of the rest equally holy was in habit. Wherefore, even
as there is not unequal desert of patience in Peter, who suffered, and in John, who
suffered not; so there is not unequal desert of continence in John who made no trial of
marriage, and in Abraham, who begat sons. For both the celibate of the one, and the
marriage estate of the other, did service as soldiers to Christ, as times were allotted;
but John had continence in work also, but Abraham in habit alone.

27. Therefore at that time, when the Law also, following upon the days of the Patriarchs,
pronounced accursed, whoso raised not up seed in Israel, even he, who could, put it not
forth, but yet possessed it. But from the period that the fullness of time hath come, that
it should be said, "Whoso can receive, let him receive," from that period even unto this
present, and from henceforth even unto the end, whoso hath, worketh: whoso shall be
unwilling to work, let him not falsely say, that he hath. And through this means, they,
who corrupt good manners by evil communications, with empty and vain craft, say to a
Christian man exercising continence, and refusing marriage, What then, are you better than
Abraham? But let him not, upon hearing this, be troubled; neither let him dare to say,
"Better," nor let him fall away from his purpose: for the one he saith not truly, the
other he doth not rightly. But let him say, I indeed am not better than Abraham, but the
chastity of the unmarried is better than the chastity of marriage; whereof Abraham had one
in use, both in habit. For he lived chastely in the marriage state: but it was in his
power to be chaste without marriage, but at chat time it behoved not. But I with more ease
use not marriage, which Abraham used, than so use marriage as Abraham used it: and
therefore I am better than those, who through incontinence of mind cannot do what I do;

not than those, who, on account of difference of time, did not do what I do. For what I
now do, they would have done better, if it had been to be done at that time; but what they
did, I should not so do, although it were now to be done. Or, if he feels and knows
himself to be such, as that, (the virtue of continence being preserved and continued in
the habit of his mind, in case he had descended unto the use of marriage from some duty of
religion,) he should be such an husband, and such a father, as Abraham was; let him dare
to make plain answer to that captious questioner, and to say, I am not indeed better than
Abraham, only in this kind of continence, of which he was not void, although it appeared
not: but I am such, not having other than he, but doing other. Let him say this plainly:
forasmuch as, even if he shall wish to glory, he will not be a fool, for he saith the
truth. But if he spare, lest any think of him above what he sees him, or hears any thing
of him; let him remove from his own person the knot of the question, and let him answer,
not concerning the man, but concerning the thing itself, and let him say, Whoso hath so
great power is such as Abraham. But it may happen that the virtue of continence is less in
his mind, who uses not marriage, which Abraham used:

but yet it is greater than in his mind, who on this account held chastity of marriage, in
that he could not a greater. Thus also let the unmarried woman, whose thoughts are of the
things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and spirit, when she shall have
heard that shameless questioner saying, What, then, are you better than Sara? answer, I am
better, but than those, who are void of the virtue of continence, which I believe not of
Sara: she therefore together with this virtue did what was suited to that time, from which
I am free, that in my body also may appear, what she kept in her mind. 28. Therefore, if
we compare the things themselves, we may no way doubt that the chastity of continence is
better than marriage chastity, whilst yet both are good: but when we compare the persons,
he is better, who hath a greater good than another. Further, he who hath a greater of the
same kind, hath also that which is less; but he, who only hath what is less, assuredly
hath not that which is greater. For in sixty, thirty also are contained, not sixty also in
thirty. But not to work from out that which he hath, stands in the allotment of duties,
not in the want of virtues: forasmuch as neither is he without the good of mercy, who
finds not wretched persons such as he may mercifully assist.

29. And there is this further, that men are not rightly compared with men in regard of
some one good. For it may come to pass, that one hath not what another hath, but hath
another thing, which must be esteemed of more value. The good of obedience is better than
of continence. For marriage is in no place condemned by authority of our Scriptures, but
disobedience is in no place acquitted. If therefore there be set before us a virgin about
to continue so, but yet disobedient, and a married woman who could not continue a virgin,
but yet obedient, which shall we call better? shall it be (the one) less praiseworthy,
than if she were a virgin, or (the other) worthy of blame, even as she is a virgin? So, if
you compare a drunken virgin with a sober married woman, who can doubt to pass the same
sentence? Forsooth marriage and virginity are two goods, whereof the one is greater; but
sobriety and drunkenness, even as obedience and stubbornness, are, the one good, and the
other evil. But it is better to have all goods even in a less degree, than great good with
great evil: forasmuch as in the goods of the body also it is better to have the stature of
Zacchaeus with sound health, than that of Goliah with fever.

30. The right question plainly is, not whether a virgin every way disobedient is to be
compared to an obedient married woman, but a less obedient to a more obedient: forasmuch
as that also of marriage is chastity, and therefore a good, but less than virginal.
Therefore if the one, by so much less in the good of obedience, as she is greater in the
good of chastity, be compared with the other, which of them is to be preferred that person
judges, who in the first place comparing chastity itself and obedience, sees that
obedience is in a certain way the mother of all virtues. And therefore, for this reason,
there may be obedience without virginity, because virginity is of counsel, not of precept.
But I call that obedience, whereby precepts are complied with. And, therefore, there may
be obedience to precepts without virginity,but not without chastity. For it pertainsunto
chastity, not to commit fornication, notto commit adultery, to be defiled by no unlawful
intercourse: and whoso observe not these, do contrary to the precepts of God, and on this
account are banished from the virtue of obedience. But there may be virginity without
obedience, on this account, because it is possible for a woman, having received the
counsel of virginity, and having guarded virginity, to slight precepts: even as we have
known many sacred virgins, talkative, curious, drunken, litigious, covetous, proud: all
which are contrary to precepts, and slay one, even as Eve herself, by the crime of
disobedience. Wherefore not only is the obedient to be preferred to the disobedient, but a
more obedient married woman to a less obedient virgin.

31. From this obedience that Father, who was not without a wife, was prepared to be
without an only son, and that slain by himself. For I shall not without due cause call him
an only son, concerning whom he heard the Lord say, "In Isaac shall there be called for
thee a seed. " Therefore how much sooner would he hear it, that he should be even without
a wife, if this he were bidden? Wherefore it is not without reason that we often consider,
that some of both sexes, containing from all sexual intercourse, are negligent in obeying
precepts, after having with so great warmth caught at the not making use of things that
are allowed. Whence who doubts that we do not rightly compare unto the excellence of those
holy fathers and mothers begetting sons, the men and women of our time, although free from
all intercourse, yet in virtue of obedience inferior: even if there had been wanting to
those men in habit of mind also, what is plain in the deed of the latter. Therefore let
these follow the Lamb, boys singing the new song, as it is written in the Apocalypse, "who
have not defiled themselves with women:" for no other reason than that they have continued
virgins. Nor let them on this account think themselves better than the first holy fathers,
who used marriage, so to speak, after the fashion of marriage. Forsooth the use of it is
such, as that, if in it there hath taken place through carnal intercourse aught which
exceeds necessity of begetting, although in a way that deserves pardon, there is
pollution. For what doth pardon expiate, if that advance cause no pollution whatever? From
which pollution it were strange if boys following the Lamb were free, unless they
continued virgins.

32. Therefore the good of marriage throughout all nations and all men stands in the
occasion of begetting, and faith of chastity: but, so far as pertains unto the People of
God, also in the sanctity of the Sacrament, by reason of which it is unlawful for one who
leaves her husband, even when she has been put away, to be married to another, so long as
her husband lives, no not even for the sake of bearing children: and, whereas this is the
alone cause, wherefore marriage takes place, not even where that very thing, wherefore it
takes place, follows not, is the marriage bond loosed, save by the death of the husband or
wife. In like manner as if there take place an ordination of clergy in order to form a
congregation of people, although the congregation of people follow not, yet there remains
in the ordained persons the Sacrament of Ordination; and if, for any fault, any be removed
from his office, he will not be without the Sacrament of the Lord once for all set upon
him, albeit continuing unto condemnation. Therefore that marriage takes place for the sake
of begetting children, the Apostle is a witness thus, "I will," says he, "that the younger
women be married. And, as though it were said to him, For what purpose? straightway he
added, "to have children, to be mothers of families. But unto the faith of chastity
pertains that saying, "The wife hath not power of her own body, but the husband:

likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife. But unto the
sanctity of the Sacrament that saying, "The wife not to depart from her husband, but, in
case she shall have departed, to remain unmarried, or to be reconciled to her husband: and
let not the husband put away his wife. All these are goods, on account of which marriage
is a good; offspring, faith, sacrament. But now, at this time, not to seek offspring after
the flesh, and by this means to maintain a certain perpetual freedom from every such work,
and to be made subject after a spiritual manner unto one Husband Christ, is assuredly
better and holier; provided, that is, men so use that freedom, as it is written, so as to
have their thoughts of the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord; that is, that
Continence at all times do take thought, that obedience fall not short in any matter: and
this virtue, as the root-virtue, and (as it is wont to be called) the womb, and dearly
universal, the holy fathers of old exercised in deed; but that Continence they possessed
in habit of mind. Who assuredly, through that obedience, whereby they were just and holy,
and ever prepared unto every good work, even if they were bidden to abstain from all
sexual intercourse, would perform it.

For how much more easily could they, at the bidding or exhortation of God, not use sexual
intercourse, who, as an act of obedience, could slay the child, for the begetting of which
alone they used the ministry of sexual intercourse?33. And, the case being thus, enough
and more than enough answer has been made to the heretics, whether they be Manichees, or
whosoever other that bring false charges against the Fathers of the Old Testament, on the
subject of their having several wives, thinking this a proof whereby to convict them of
incontinence: provided, that is, that they perceive, that that is no sin, which is
committed neither against nature, in that they used those women not for wantonness, but
for the begetting of children: nor against custom, forasmuch as such things were usually
done at those times: nor against command, forasmuch as they were forbidden by no law. But
such as used women unlawfully, either the divine sentence in those Scriptures convicts
them, or the reading sets them forth for us to condemn and shun, not to approve or
imitate.

34. But those of ours who have wives we advise, with all our power, that they dare not to
judge of those holy fathers after their own weakness, comparing, as the Apostle says,
themselves with themselves; and therefore, not understanding how great strength the soul
hath, doing service unto righteousness against lusts, that it acquiesce not in carnal
motions of this sort, or suffer them to glide on or advance unto sexual intercourse beyond
the necessity of begetting children, so far as the order of nature, so far as the use of
custom, so far as the decrees of laws prescribe. Forsooth it is on this account that men
have this suspicion concerning those fathers, in that they themselves have either chosen
marriage through incontinence, or use their wives with intemperance. But however let such
as are continent, either men, who, on the death of their wives, or, women, who, on the
death of their husbands, or both, who, with mutual consent, have vowed continence unto
God, know that to them indeed there is due a greater recompense than marriage chastity
demands; but, (as regards) the marriages of the holyFathers, who were joined after the
manner of prophecy, who neither in sexual inter course sought aught save children, nor
inchildren themselves aught save what should set forward Christ coming hereafter in the
flesh, not only let them not despise them in comparison of their own purpose, but let them
without any doubting prefer them even to their own purpose.

35. Boys also and virgins dedicating unto God actual chastity we do before all things
admonish, that they be aware that they must guard their life meanwhile upon earth with so
great humility, by how much the more what they have vowed is heavenly. Forsooth it is
written, "How great soever thou art, by so much humble thyself in all things." Therefore
it is our part to say something of their greatness, it is their part to have thought of
great humility. Therefore, except certain, those holy fathers and mothers who were
married, than whom these although they be not married are not better, for this reason,
that, if they were married, they would not be equal, let them not doubt that they surpass
all the rest of this time, either married, or after trial made of marriage, exercising
continence; not so far as Anna surpasses Susanna; but so far as Mary surpasses both. I am
speaking of what pertains unto the holy chastity itself of the flesh; for who knows not,
what other deserts Mary hath? Therefore let them add to this so high purpose conduct
suitable, that they may have an assured security of the surpassing reward; knowing of a
truth, that, unto themselves and unto all the faithful, beloved and chosen members of
Christ, coming many from the East, and from the West, although shining with light of glory
that differeth one from another, according to their deserts, there is this great gift
bestowed in common, to sit down in the kingdom of God with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob,
who not for the sake of this world, but for the sake of Christ, were husbands, for the
sake of Christ were fathers.


ON HOLY VIRGINITY
=================

ON HOLY VIRGINITY Augustine of Hippo

AD 354–430

Bishop of Hippo, the most influential Latin father.

OF HOLY VIRGINITY

[De Virginitate.]

Translated by Rev. C. I. Cornish, M.a., of Exeter College, Oxford Retr. ii. 23. "After I
had written 'on the Good of Marriage,' it was expected that I should write on Holy
Virginity; and I did not delay to do so: and that it is God's gift, and how great a gift,
and with what humility to be guarded, so far as I was able I set forth in one volume. This
book begins," &c. 1. WE lately put forth a book "of the Good of Marriage," in which also
we admonished and admonish the virgins of Christ, not, on account of that greater gift
which they have received, to despise, in comparison of themselves, the fathers and mothers
of the People of God; and not to think those men, (whom the Apostle sets forth as the
olive, that the engrafted wild olive be not proud,) who did service to Christ about to
come hereafter, even by the begetting of sons, on this account of less desert, because by
divine right continence is preferred to wedded life, and pious virginity to marriage.
Forsooth in them were being prepared and brought forth future things, which now we see
fulfilled in a marvellous and effectual manner, whose married life also was prophetic:
whence, not after the wonted custom of human wishes and joys, but by the very deep counsel
of God, in certain of them fruitfulness obtained to be honored, in certain also barrenness
to be made fruitful. But at this time, towards them unto whom it is said, "if they contain
not, let them be married," we must use not consolation, but exhortation. But them, unto
whom it is said, "Whoso can receive, let him receive," we must exhort,that they be not
alarmed; and alarm that they be not lifted up. Wherefore virginity is not only to be set
forth, that it may be loved, but also to be admonished, that it be not puffed up.

2. This we have undertaken in our present discourse: may Christ help us, the Son of a
virgin, and the Spouse of virgins, born after the flesh of a virgin womb, and wedded after
the Spirit in virgin marriage. Whereas, therefore, the whole Church itself is a virgin
espoused unto one Husband Christ, as the Apostle saith, of how great honor are its members
worthy, who guard this even in the flesh itself, which the whole Church guards in the
faith? which imitates the mother of her husband, and her Lord. For the Church also is both
a mother and a virgin. For whose virgin purity consult we for, if she is not a virgin? or
whose children address we, if she is not a mother? Mary bare the Head of This Body after
the flesh, the Church bears the members of that Body after the Spirit. In both virginity
hinders not fruitfulness: in both fruitfulness takes not away virginity. Wherefore,
whereas the whole Church is holy both in body and spirit, and yet the whole is not virgin
in body but in spirit; how much more holy is it in these members, wherein it is virgin
both in body and spirit?

3. It is written in the Gospel, of the mother and brethren of Christ, that is, His kindred
after the flesh, that, when word had been brought to Him, and they were standing without,
because they could not come to Him by reason of the crowd, He made answer, "Who is My
mother? or who are My brethren? and stretching forth His Hand over His disciples, He
saith, These are My brethren: and whosoever shall have done the will of My Father, that
man is to Me brother, and mother, and sister." What else teaching us, than to prefer to
kindred after the flesh, our descent after the Spirit: and that men are not blessed for
this reason, that they are united by nearness of flesh unto just and holy men, but that,
by obeying and following, they cleave unto their doctrine and conduct. Therefore Mary is
more blessed in receiving the faith of Christ,than in conceiving the flesh of Christ. For
to a certain one who said, "Blessed is the womb, which bare Thee," He Himself made answer,
"Yea, rather, blessed are they who hear the Word of God, and keep it." Lastly, to His
brethren, that is, His kindred after the flesh, who believed not in Him, what profit was
there in that being of kin? Thus also her nearness as a Mother would have been of no
profit to Mary, had she not borne Christ in her heart after a more blessed manner than in
her flesh.

4. Her virginity also itself was on this account more pleasing and accepted, in that it
was not that Christ being conceived in her, rescued it beforehand from a husband who would
violate it, Himself to preserve it; but, before He was conceived, chose it, already
dedicated to God, as that from which to be born. This is shown by the words which Mary
spake in answer to the Angel announcing to her her conception; "How," saith she, "shall
this be, seeing I know not a man? Which assuredly she would not say, unless she had before
vowed herself unto God as a virgin. But, because the habits of the Israelites as yet
refused this, she was espoused to a just man, who would not take from her by violence, but
rather guard against violent persons, what she had already vowed. Although, even if she
had said this only, "How shall this take place? and had not added, "seeing I know not a
man," certainly she would not have asked, how, being a female, she should give birth to
her promised Son, if she had married with purpose of sexual intercourse.

She might have been bidden also to continue a virgin, that in her by fitting miracle the
Son of God should receive the form of a servant, but, being to be a pattern to holy
virgins, lest it should be thought that she alone needed to be a virgin, who had obtained
to conceive a child even without sexual intercourse, she dedicated her virginity to God,
when as yet she knew not what she should conceive, in order that the imitation of a
heavenly life in an earthly and mortal body should take place of vow, not of command;
through love of choosing, not through necessity of doing service. Thus Christ by being
born of a virgin, who, before she knew Who was to be born of her, had determined to
continue a virgin, chose rather to approve, than to command, holy virginity. And thus,
even in the female herself, in whom He took the form of a servant, He willed that
virginity should be free.

5. There is, therefore, no reason why the virgins of God be sad, because themselves also
cannot, keeping their virginity, be mothers of the flesh. For Him alone could virginity
give birth to with fitting propriety, Who in His Birth could have no peer. However, That
Birth of the Holy Virgin is the ornament of all holy virgins; and themselves together with
Mary are mothers of Christ, if they do the will of His Father. For Mary also is on this
account the Mother of Christ in a way more full of praise and blessing, according to His
sentence mentioned above. "Whosoever doeth the will of my Father Who is in heaven, that
one is to Me brother, and sister, and mother." All these degrees of nearness of kin to
Himself, He shows forth in a spiritual manner, in the People whom He hath redeemed: as
brothers and sisters He hath holy men and holy women, forasmuch as they all are co-heirs
in the heavenly inheritance. His mother is the whole Church, because she herself assuredly
gives birth to His members, that is, His faithful ones. Also His mother is every pious
soul, doing the will of His Father with most fruitful charity, in them of whom it
travaileth, until Himself be formed in them. Mary, therefore, doing the will of God, after
the flesh, is only the mother of Christ, but after the Spirit she is both His sister and
mother.

6. And on this account, that one female, not only in the Spirit, but also in the flesh, is
both a mother and a virgin. And a mother indeed in the Spirit, not of our Head, Which is
the Saviour Himself, of Whom rather she was born after the Spirit: forasmuch as all, who
have believed in Him, among whom is herself also, are rightly called "children of the
Bridegroom:" but clearly the mother of His members, which are we: in that she wrought
together by charity, that faithful ones should be born in the Church, who are members of
That Head: but in the flesh, the mother of the Head Himself. For it behoved that our Head,
on account of a notable miracle, should be born after the flesh of a virgin, that He might
thereby signify that His members would be born after the Spirit, of the Church a virgin:
therefore Mary alone both in Spirit and in flesh is a mother and a virgin: both the mother
of Christ, and a virgin of Christ; but the Church, in the Saints who shall possess the
kingdom of God, in the Spirit indeed is altogether the mother of Christ, altogether a
virgin of Christ: but in the flesh not altogether, but in certain a virgin of Christ, in
certain a mother, but not of Christ. Forsooth both faithful women who are married, and
virgins dedicated to God, by holy manners, and charity out of a pure heart, and good
conscience, and faith unfeigned, because they do the will of the Father, are after a
spiritual sense mothers of Christ. But they who in married life give birth to (children)
after the flesh, give birth not to Christ, but to Adam, and therefore run, that their
offspring having been dyed in His Sacraments, may become members of Christ, forasmuch as
they know what they have given birth to.

7. I have said this, lest haply married fruitfulness dare to vie with virgin chastity, and
to set forth Mary herself, and to say unto the virgins of God, She had in her flesh two
things worthy of honor, virginity and fruitfulness; inasmuch as she both continued a
virgin, and bore: this happiness, since we could not bothhave the whole, we have divided,
that ye be virgins, we be mothers: for what is wanting to you in children, let your
virginity, that hath been preserved, be a consolation: for us, let the gain of children
make up for our lost virginity. This speech of faithful women married, unto holy virgins,
would any how be to be endured, if they gave birth to Christians in the flesh; that in
this alone, save virginity, the fruitfulness of Mary in the flesh should be more
excellent, that she gave birth to the Head Himself of these members, but they to the
members of That Head: but now, although by this speech there vie such as on this one
account wed and have intercourse with husbands, that they may have sons, and have no other
thought of their sons, than to gain them for Christ, and do this so soon as they can: yet
are not Christians born of their flesh, but made so afterwards: the Church giving them
birth, through this, that in a spiritual manner she is the mother of the members of
Christ, of Whom also after a spiritual manner she is the virgin. And unto this holy birth
mothers also who have not borne in the flesh Christians, are workers together, that they
may become what they know that they couldnot give birth to in the flesh: yet are they
workers together through this, wherein themselves also are virgins and mothers of Christ,
that is to say, in "faith which worketh through love."

8. Therefore no fruitfulness of the flesh can be compared to holy virginity even of the
flesh. For neither is itself also honored because it is virginity, but because it hath
been dedicated to God, and, although it be kept in the flesh, yet is it kept by
religionand devotion of the Spirit. And by this means even virginity of body is spiritual,
which continence of piety vows and keeps. For, even as no one makes an immodest use of the
body, unless the sin have been before conceived in the spirit, so no one keeps modesty in
the body, unless chastity have been before implanted in the spirit. But, further, if
modesty of married life, although it be guarded in the flesh, is yet attributed to the
soul, not to the flesh, under the rule and guidance of which, the flesh itself hath no
intercourse with any beside its own proper estate of marriage; how much more, and with how
much greater honor, are we to reckon among the goods of the soul that continence, whereby
the virgin purity of the flesh is vowed, consecrated, and kept, for the Creator Himself of
the soul and flesh.

9. Wherefore neither are we to believe that their fruitfulness of the flesh, who at this
time seek in marriage nothing else save children, to make over unto Christ, can be set
against the loss of virginity. Forsooth, in former times, unto Christ about to come after
the flesh, the race itself of the flesh was needful, in a certain large and prophetic
nation: but now, when from out every race of men, and from out all nations, members of
Christ may be gathered unto the People of God, and City of the kingdom of heaven, whoso
can receive sacred virginity, let him receive it; and let her only, who contains not, be
married. For what, if any rich woman were to expend much money on this good work, and to
buy, from out different nations, slaves to make Christians, will she not provide for the
giving birth to members of Christ in a manner more rich, and more numerous, than by any,
how great soever, fruitfulness of the womb? And yet she will not therefore dare to compare
her money to the offering of holy virginity. But if for the sake of making such as shall
be born Christians, fruitfulness of the flesh shall with just reason be set against the
loss of chastity, this matter will be more fruitful, if virginity be lost at a great price
of money, whereby many more children may be purchased to be made Christians, than could be
born from the womb, however fruitful, of a single person. But, if it be extreme folly to
say this, let the faithful women that are married possess their own good, of which we have
treated, so far as seemed fit, in another volume; and let them more highly honor, even as
they are most rightly used to do, in the sacred virgins, their better good, of which we
are treating in our present discourse.

10. For not even herein ought such as are married to compare themselves with the deserts
of the continent, in that of them virgins are born: for this is not a good of marriage,
but of nature: which was so ordered of God, as that of every sexual intercourse whatever
of the two sexes of human kind, whether in due order and honest, or base and unlawful,
there is born no female save a virgin, yet is none born a sacred virgin: so it is brought
to pass that a virgin is born even of fornication, but a sacred virgin not even of
marriage. 11. Nor do we ourselves set forth this in virgins, that they are virgins; but
that they are virgins dedicated unto God by pious continence. For it is not at a venture
that I may say, a married woman seems to me happier than a virgin about to be married: for
the one hath what the other as yet desires, especially if she be not yet even the
betrothed of any one. The one studies to please one, unto whom she hath been given; the
other many, in doubt unto whom she is to be given: by this one thing she guards modesty of
thought from the crowd, that she is seeking, not an adulterer, but a husband, in the
crowd. Therefore that virgin is with good reason set before a married woman, who neither
sets herself forth for the multitude to love, whereas she seeks from out the multitude the
love of one; nor, having now found him, orders herself for one, taking thought of the
things of the world, "how to please her husband;" but hath so loved "Him of fair
beautyabove the sons of men," as that, because she could not, even as Mary, conceive Him
in her flesh, she hath kept her flesh also virgin for Him conceived in her heart. This
kind of virgins no fruitfulness of the body hath given birth to: this is no progeny of
flesh and blood. If of these the mother be sought for, it is the Church. None bears sacred
virgins save a sacred virgin, she who hath been espoused to be presented chaste unto one
Husband, Christ. Of her, not altogether in body, but altogether in spirit virgin, are born
holy virgins both in body and in spirit.

12. Let marriages possess their own good, not that they beget sons, but that honestly,
that lawfully, that modestly, that in a spirit of fellowship they beget them, and educate
them, after they have been begotten, with cooperation, with wholesome teaching, and
earnest purpose: in that they keep the faith of the couch one with another; in that they
violate not the sacrament of wedlock. All these, however, are offices of human duty: but
virginal chastity and freedom through pious continence from all sexual intercourse is the
portion of Angels, and a practice, in corruptible flesh, of perpetual incorruption. To
this let all fruitfulness of the flesh yield, all chastity of married life; the one is not
in (man's) power, the other is not in eternity; free choice hath not fruitfulness of the
flesh, heaven hath not chastity of married life. Assuredly they will have something great
beyond others in that common immortality, who have something already not of the flesh in
the flesh.

13. Whence they are marvellously void of wisdom, who think that the good of this
continence is not necessary for the sake of the kingdom of heaven, but for the sake of the
present world: in that, forsooth, married persons are strained different ways by earthly
cares more and more straitened, from which trouble virgins and continent persons are free:
as though on this account only it were better not to be married, that the straits of this
present time may be escaped, not that it is of any profit unto a future life. And, that
they may not seem to have put forth this vain opinion from out the vanity of their own
heart, they take the Apostle to witness, where he saith, "But concerning virgins I have
not command of the Lord, but I give counsel, as having obtained mercy from God to be
faithful. Therefore I think that this is good on account of the present necessity, because
it is good for a man so to be." Lo, say they, where the Apostle shows "that this is good
on account of the present necessity," not on account of the future eternity. As though the
Apostle would have regard for the present necessity, otherwise than as providing and
consulting for the future; whereas all his dealing calls not save unto life eternal.

14. It is, therefore, the present necessity that we are to avoid, but yet such as is a
hindrance to somewhat of the good things to come; by which necessity the married life is
forced to have thought of the things of the world, how to please, the husband the wife or
the wife the husband. Not that these separate from the kingdom of God, as there are sins,
which are restrained by command, not by counsel, on this account, because it is matter of
condemnation not to obey the Lord when He commands: but that, which, within the kingdom of
God itself, might be more largely possessed, if there were larger thoughts how they were
to please God, will assuredly be less, when as this very thing is less thought of by
necessity of marriage. Therefore he says, "Concerning virgins I have not command of the
Lord. For whosoever obeys not a command, is guilty and liable for punishment. Wherefore,
because it is not sin to marry a wife or to be married, (but if it were a sin, it would be
forbidden by a "Commands") on this account there is no "Command" of the Lord concerning
virgins. But since, after we have shunned or had forgiveness of sins, we must approach
eternal life, wherein is a certain or more excellent glory, to be assigned not unto all
who shall live for ever, but unto certain there;

in order to obtain which it is not enough to have been set free from sins, unless there be
vowed unto Him, Who setteth us free, something, which it is no matter of fault not to have
vowed, but matter of praise to have vowed and performed; he saith, "I give counsel, as
having obtained mercy from God that I should be faithful. For neither ought I to grudge
faithful counsel, who not by my own merits, but by the mercy of God, am faithful. "I think
therefore that this is good, by reason of the present necessity. This, saith he, on which
I have not command of the Lord, but give counsel, that is concerning virgins, I think to
be good by reason of the present necessity. For I know what the necessity of the present
time, unto which marriages serve, compels, that the things of God be less thought of than
is enough for the obtaining that glory, which shall not be of all, although they abide in
eternal life and salvation: "For star differeth from star in brightness; so also the
Resurrection of the dead. It is," therefore, "good for a man so to be."

15. After that the same Apostle adds, and says, "Thou art bound to a wife, seek not
loosening: thou art loosed from a wife, seek not a wife. Of these two, that, which be set
first, pertains unto command, against which it is not lawful to do. For it is not lawful
to put away a wife, save because of fornication, as the Lord Himself saith in the Gospel.
But that, which he added, "Thou art loosed from a wife, seek not a wife," is a sentence of
counsel, not of command; therefore it is lawful to do, but it is better not to do. Lastly,
he added straightway, "Both if thou shalt have taken a wife, thou hast not sinned; and, if
a virgin shall have been married, she sinneth not. But, after that former saying of his,
"Thou art bound to a wife, seek not loosening," he added not, did he, "And if thou shalt
have loosed, thou hast not sinned? For he had already said above, "But to these, who are
in marriage, I command, not I, but the Lord, that the wife depart not from her husband:
but, if she shall have departed, that she remain unmarried, or be reconciled unto her own
husband; for it may come to pass that she depart, not through any fault of her own, but of
her husband. Then he saith, "And let not the man put away his wife," which, nevertheless,
he set down of command of the Lord:

nor did he then add, And, if he shall have put her away, he sinneth not. For this is a
command, not to obey which is sin: not a counsel, which if you shall be unwilling to use,
you will obtain less good, not do any ill. On this account, after he had said, "Thou art
loosed from a wife, seek not a wife; because he was not giving command, in order that
there be not evil done, but was giving counsel, in order that there be done what is
better: straightway he added, "Both, if thou shall have taken a wife, thou hast not
sinned; and, if a virgin shall have been married, she sinneth not." 16. Yet he added, "But
such shall have tribulation of the flesh, but I spare you:" in this manner exhorting unto
virginity, and continual continence, so as some little to alarm also from marriage, with
all modesty, not as from a matter evil and unlawful, but as from one burdensome and
troublesome. For it is one thing to incur dishonor of the flesh, and another to have
tribulation of the flesh: the one is matter of crime to do, the other of labor to suffer,
which for the most part men refuse not even for the most honorable duties. But for the
having of marriage, now at this time, wherein there is no service done unto Christ about
to come through descent of flesh by the begetting of the family itself, to take upon one
to bear that tribulation of the flesh, which the Apostle foretells to such as shall be
married, would be extremely foolish, did not incontinent persons fear, lest, through the
temptation of Satan, they should fall into damnable sins. But whereas he says that he
spares them, who he saith will have tribulation of the flesh, there suggests itself to me
in the mean while no sounder interpretation, than that he was unwilling to open, and
unfold in words, this self-same tribulation of the flesh which he fore-announced to those
who choose marriage, in suspicions Of jealousy of married life, in the begetting and
nurture of children, in fears and sorrows of childlessness. For how very few, after they
have bound themselves with the bonds of marriage, are not drawn and driven to and fro by
these feelings? And this we ought not to exaggerate,lest we spare not the very persons,
who the Apostle thought were to be spared.

17. Only by this, which I have briefly set down, the reader ought to be set on his guard
against those, who, in this that is written, "but such shall have tribulation of the flesh
but I spare you," falsely charge marriage, as indirectly condemned by this sentence; as
though he were unwilling to utter the condemnation itself, when he saith, "But I spare
you;" so that, forsooth, when he spares them, he spared not his own soul, as saying
falsely, "And, if thou shalt have taken a wife, thou hast not sinned; and if a virgin
shall have been married, she sinneth not." And this, whoso believe or would have believed
concerning holy Scripture, they, as it were prepare for themselves a way for liberty of
lying, or for defense of their own perverse opinion, in whatever case they hold other
sentiments than what sound doctrine demands. For if there shall be alleged any plain
statement from the divine books, whereby to refute their errors, this they have at hand as
a shield, whereby defending themselves as it were against the truth, they lay themselves
bare to be wounded by the devil: to say that the author of the book did not speak the
truth in this instance, at one time in order to spare the weak, at another in order to
alarm despisers: just as a case shall come to hand, wherein to defend their own perverse
opinion: and thus, whilst they had rather defend than amend their own opinions, they essay
to break the authority of holy Scripture, whereby alone all proud and hard necks are
broken.

18. Wherefore I admonish both men and women who follow after perpetual continence and holy
virginity, that they so set their own good before marriage, as that they judge not
marriage an evil: and that they understand that it was in no way of deceit, but of plain
truth that it was said by the Apostle, "Whoso gives in marriage does well; and whoso gives
not in marriage, does better; and, if thou shalt have taken a wife, thou hast not sinned;
and, if a virgin shall have been married, she sinneth not; and a little after, "But she
wilt be more blessed, if she shall have continued so, according to my judgment. And, that
the judgment should not be thought human, he adds, "But I think I also have the Spirit of
God. This is the doctrine of the Lord, this of the Apostles, this true, this sound, so to
choose greater gifts, as that the lesser be not condemned. The truth of God, in the
Scripture of God, is better than virginity of man in the mind or flesh of any. Let what is
chaste be so loved, as that what is true be not denied. For what evil thought may they not
have even concerning their own flesh, who believe that the tongue of the Apostle, in that
very place, wherein he was commending virginity of body, was not virgin from corruption of
lying.

In the first place, therefore, and chiefly, let such as choose the good of virginity, hold
most firmly that the holy Scriptures have in nothing spoken lies; and, thus, that that
also is true which is said, "And if thou shall have taken a wife, thou hast not sinned;
and, if a virgin shall have been married, she sinneth not. And let them not think that the
so great good of virgin chastity is made less, if marriage shall not be an evil. Yea
rather, let her hence feel confident, rather, that there is prepared for her a palm of
greater glory, who feared not to be condemned, in case she were married, but desired to
receive a more honorable crown, in that she was not married. Whoso therefore shall be
willing to abide without marriage, let them not flee from marriage as a pitfall of sin;
but let them surmount it as a hill of the lesser good, in order that they may rest in the
mountain of the greater, continence. It is on this condition, forsooth, that this hill is
dwelt on; that one leave it not when he will. For, "a woman is bound, so long as her
husband liveth. However unto widowed continence one ascends from it as from a step: but
for the sake of virgin continence, one must either turn aside from it by not consenting to
suitors, or overleap it by anticipating suitors.

19. But lest any should think that of two works, the good and the better, the rewards will
be equal, on this account it was necessary to treat against those, who have so interpreted
that saying of the Apostle, "But I think that this is good by reason of the present
necessity," as to say that virginity is of use not in order to the kingdom of heaven, but
in order to this present time: as though in that eternal life, they, who had chosen this
better part, would have nothing more than the rest of men. And in this discussion when we
came to that saying of the same Apostle, "But such shall have tribulation of the flesh,
but I spare you;" we fell in with other disputants, who so far from making marriage equal
to perpetual virginity, altogether condemned it. For whereas both are errors, either to
equal marriage to holy virginity, or to condemn it: by fleeing from one another to excess,
these two errors come into open collision, in that they have been unwilling to hold the
mean of truth: whereby, both by sure reason and authority of holy Scriptures, we both
discover that marriage is not a sin, and yet equal it not to the good either of virginal
or even of widowed chastity. Some forsooth by aiming at virginity, have thought marriage
hateful even as adultery: but others, by defending marriage, would have the excellence of
perpetual continence to deserve nothing more than married chastity; as though either the
good of Susanna be the lowering of Mary: or the greater good of Mary ought to be the
condemnation of Susanna.

20. Far be it, therefore, that the Apostle so said, unto such as are married or are about
to marry, "But I spare you," as if he were unwilling to say what punishment is due to the
married in another life. Far be it that she, whom Daniel set free from temporal judgment,
be cast by Paul into hell! Far be it that her husband's bed be unto her punishment before
the judgment seat of Christ, keeping faith to which she chose, under false charge of
adultery, to meet either danger, or death! To what effect that speech, "It is better for
me to fall into your hands, than to sin in the sight of God: if God had been about, not to
set her free because she kept married chastity, but to condemn her because she had
married? And now so often as married chastity is by truth of holy Scripture justified
against such as bring calumnies andcharges against marriage, so often is Susanna by the
Holy Spirit defended against false witnesses, so often is she set free from a falsecharge,
and with much greater ado. For then against one married woman, now against all; then of
hidden and untrue adultery, now of true and open marriage, an accusation is laid. Then one
woman, upon what the unjust elders said, now all husbands and wives, upon what the Apostle
would notsay, are accused. It was, forsooth, your condemnation, say they, that he was
silent on, when he said, "But I spare you. Who (saith) this?

Surely he, who had said above; "And, if thou shalt have taken a wife, thou hast not
sinned; and, if a virgin shall have been married, she sinneth not. Why, therefore, wherein
he hath been silent through modesty, suspect yea charge against marriage; and wherein he
hath spoken openly, recognize ye not a defense of marriage? What, doth he condemn by his
silence them whom he acquitted by his words? Is it not now a milder charge, to charge
Susanna, not with marriage, but with adultery itself, than to charge the doctrine of the
Apostle with falsehood? What in so great peril could we do, were it not as sure and plain
that chaste marriage ought not to be condemned, as it is sure and plain that holy
Scripture cannot lie? 21. Here some one will say, What has this to do with holy virginity,
or perpetual continence, the setting forth of which was undertaken in this discourse? To
whom I make answer in the first place, what I mentioned above, that the glory of that
greater good is greater from the fact that, in order to obtain it, the good of married
life is surmounted, not the sin of marriage shunned. Otherwise it would be enough for
perpetual continence, not to be specially praised, but only not to be blamed: if it were
maintained on this account, because it was a crime to wed. In the next place, because it
is not by human judgment, but by authority of Divine Scripture, that men must be exhorted
unto so excellent a gift, we must plead not in a common-place manner, or merely by the
way, that divine Scripture itself seem not to any one in any matter to have lied. For they
discourage rather than exhort holy, virgins, who compel them to continue so by passing
sentence on marriage. For whence can they feel sure that that is true, which is written,
"And he, who gives her not in marriage, does better: if they think that false, which yet
is written close above, "Both he, who gives his virgin, does well?

But, if they shall without all doubt have believed Scripture speaking of the good of
marriage, confirmed by the same most true authority of the divine oracle, they will hasten
beyond unto their own better part with glowing and confident eagerness. Wherefore we have
already spoken enough for the business which we have taken in hand, and, so far as we
could, have shown, that neither that saying of the Apostle, "But I think that this is good
by reason of the present necessity," is so to be understood, as though in this life holy
virgins are better than faithful women married, but are equal in the kingdom of heaven,
and in a future life: nor that other, where he saith of such as wed, "But such shall have
tribulation of the flesh, but I spare you; is to be so understood, as though he chose
rather to be silent on, than to speak of, the sin and condemnation of marriage. Forsooth
two errors, contrary the one to the other, have, through not understanding them, taken
hold of each one of these two sentences. For that concerning the present necessity they
interpret in their own favor, who contend to equal such as wed to such as wed not: but
this, where it is said, "But I spare you," they who presume to condemn such as wed. But
we, according to the faith and sound doctrine of holy Scriptures, both say that marriage
is no sin, and yet set its good not only below virginal, but also below widowed
continence;

and say that the present necessity of married persons is an hindrance to their desert, not
indeed unto life eternal, but unto an excellent glory and honor, which is reserved for
perpetual continence: and that at this time marriage is not expedient save for such as
contain not; and that on the tribulation of the flesh, which cometh from the affection of
the flesh, without which marriages of incontinent persons cannot be, the Apostle neither
wished to be silent, as forewarning what was true, nor to unfold more fully, as sparing
man's weakness. 22. And now by plainest witnesses of divine Scriptures, such as according
to the small measure of our memory we shall be able to remember, let it more clearly
appear, that, not on account of the present life of this world, but on account of that
future life which is promised in the kingdom of heaven, we are to choose perpetual
continence. But who but must observe this in that which the same Apostle says a little
after, "Whoso is without a wife has thought of the things of the Lord, how to please the
Lord: but whoso is joined in marriage has thought of the things of the world, how to
please his wife. And a woman unmarried and a virgin is divided; she that is unmarried is
careful about the things of the Lord, to be holy both in body and spirit: but she that is
married is careful about the things of the world, how to please her husband. Certainly he
saith not, hath thought of the things of a state without care in this world, to pass her
time without weightier troubles; nor doth he say that a woman unmarried and a virgin is
divided, that is, distinguished, and separated from her who is married, for this end, that
the unmarried woman be without care in this life, in order to avoid temporal troubles,
which the married woman is not free from: but, "She hath thought," saith he, "of the
things of the Lord, how to please the Lord;

and is careful about the things of the Lord, to be holy both in body and spirit. Unless to
such a degree, perchance, each be foolishly contentious, as to essay to assert, that it is
not on account of the kingdom of heaven, but on account of this present world, that we
wish to "please the Lord," or that it is on account of this present life, not on account
of life eternal, that they are "holy both in body and spirit. To believe this, what else
is it, than to be more miserable than all men? For so the Apostle saith, "If in this life
only we are hoping in Christ, we are more miserable than all men. What? is he who breaks
his bread to the hungry, if he do it only on account of this life, a fool; and shall he be
prudent, who chastens his own body even unto continence, whereby he hath no intercourse
even in marriage, if it shall profit him nought in the kingdom of heaven?

23. Lastly, let us hear the Lord Himself delivering most plain judgment on this matter.
For, upon His speaking after a divine and fearful manner concerning husband and wife not
separating, save on account of fornication, His disciples said to Him, "If the case be
such with a wife, it is not good to marry." To whom He saith, "Not all receive this
saying. For there are eunuchs who were so born: but there are others who were made by men:
and there are eunuchs, who made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven:
whoso can receive, let him receive." What could be said more true, what more clear? Christ
saith, the Truth saith, the Power and Wisdom of God saith, that they, who of pious purpose
have contained from marrying a wife, make themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdomof
heaven: and against this, human vanity with impious rashness contends, that they, who do
so, shun only the present necessity of the troubles of married life, but in the kingdom of
heaven have no more than others.

24. But concerning what eunuchs speaketh God by the prophet Isaiah, unto whom He saith
that He will give in His house and in His wall a place by name, much better than of sons
and daughters, save concerning these, who make themselves eunuchs for the sake of the
kingdom of heaven? For for these, whose bodily organ is without strength, so that they
cannot beget, (such as are the eunuchs of rich men and of kings,) it is surely enough,
when they become Christians, and keep the commands of God, yet have this purpose, that, if
they could, they would have wives, to be made equal to the rest of the faithful in the
house of God, who are married, who bring up in the fear of God a family which they have
lawfully and chastely gotten, teaching their sons to set their hope on God; but not to
receive a better place than of sons and daughters. For it is not of virtue of the soul,
but of necessity of the flesh, that they marry not wives. Let who will contend that the
Prophet foretold this of those eunuchs who have suffered mutilation of body; that even
also helps the cause which we have undertaken. For God hath not preferred these eunuchs to
such as have no place in His house, but assuredly to those who keep the desert of married
life in begetting sons. For, when He saith, "I will give unto them a place much better;

He shows that one is also given unto the married, but much inferior. Therefore, to allow
that in the house of God there will be the eunuchs after the flesh spoken of above, who
were not in the People of Israel: because we see that these also themselves, whereas they
become not Jews, yet become Christians: and that the Prophet spake not of them, who
through purpose of continence seeking not marriage, make themselves eunuchs for the sake
of the kingdom of heaven: is any one so madly opposed to the truth as to believe that
eunuchs made so in the flesh have a better place than married persons in the house of God,
and to contend that persons being of pious purpose continent, chastening the body even
unto contempt of marriage, making themselves eunuchs, not in the body, but in the very
root of concupiscence, practising an heavenly and angelic life in an earthly mortal state,
are on a level with the deserts of the married; and, being a Christian, to gainsay Christ
when He praises those who have made themselves eunuchs, not for the sake of this world,
but for the sake of the kingdom of heaven, affirming that this is of use for the present
life, not for a future? What else remains for these, save to assert that the kingdom of
heaven itself pertains unto this temporal life, wherein we now are? For why should not
blind presumption advance even to this madness? And what more full of phrensy than this
assertion?

For, although at times the Church, even that which is at this time, is called the kingdom
of heaven; certainly it is so called for this end, because it is being gathered together
for a future and eternal life. Although, therefore, it have the promise of the present,
and of a future life, yet in all its good works it looks not to "the things that are seen,
but to what are not seen. For what are seen are temporal; but what are not seen, are
eternal." 25. Nor indeed hath the Holy Spirit failed to speak what should be of open and
unshaken avail against these men, most shamelessly and madly obstinate, and should repel
their assault, as of wild beasts, from His sheep-fold, by defences that may not be
stormed. For, after He had said concerning eunuchs, "I will give unto them in My house and
in My wall a named place, much better than of sons and daughters; lest any too carnal
should think that there was any thing temporal to be hoped for in these words, straightway
He added, "An eternal name I will give unto them, nor shall it ever fail: as though He
should say, Why dost thou draw back, impious blindness? Why dost thou draw back? Why dost
thou pour the clouds of thy perverseness over the clear (sky) of truth? Why in so great
light of Scriptures dost thou seek after darkness from out which to lay snares? Why dost
thou promise temporal advantage only to holy persons exercising continence? "An eternal
name I will give unto them: why, where persons keep from all sexual intercourse, and also
in the very fact that they abstain from these, have thought of the things of the Lord, how
to please the Lord, do you essay to refer them unto earthly advantage? "An eternal name I
will give unto them. Why contend you that the kingdom of heaven, for the sake of which
holy eunuchs have made themselves eunuchs, is to be understood in this life only?

"An eternal name I will give unto them. And if haply in this place you endeavor to take
the word itself eternal in the sense of lasting for a long time, I add, I heap up, I tread
in, "nor shall it ever fail. What more seek you? What more say you? This eternal name,
whatever it be, unto the eunuchs of God, which assuredly signifies a certain peculiar and
excellent glory, shall not be in common with many, although set in the same kingdom, and
in the same house. For on this account also, perhaps, it is called a name, that it
distinguishes those, to whom it is given, from the rest. 26. What then, say they, is the
meaning of that penny, which is given in payment to all alike when the work of the
vineyard is ended? whether it be to those who have labored from the first hour, or to
those who have labored one hour? What assuredly doth it signify, but something, which all
shall have in common, such as is life eternal itself, the kingdom of heaven itself, where
shall be all, whom God hath predestinated, called, justified, glorified? "For it behoveth
that this corruptible put on incorruption, and this mortal put on immortality." This is
that penny, wages for all. Yet "star differeth from star in glory; so also the
resurrection of the dead." These are the different merits of the Saints. For, if by that
penny the heaven were signified, have not all the stars in common to be in the heaven? And
yet, "There is one glory of the sun, another glory of the moon, another of the stars." If
that penny were taken for health of body, have not all the members, when we are well,
health in common; and, should this health continue even unto death, is it not in all alike
and equally? And yet, "God hath set the members, each one of them, in the body, as He
would;" that neither the whole be an eye, nor the whole hearing, nor the whole smelling:
and, whatever else there is, it hath its own property, although it have health equally
with all. Thus because life eternal itself shall be alike to all, an equal penny was
assigned to all; but, because in that life eternal itself the lights of merits shall shine
with a distinction, there are "many mansions" in the house of the Father: and, by this
means, in the penny not unlike, one lives not longer than another; but in the many
mansions, one is honored with greater brightness than another.

27. Therefore go on, Saints of God, boys and girls, males and females, unmarried men, and
women; go on and persevere unto the end. Praise more sweetly the Lord, Whom ye think on
more richly: hope more happily in Him, Whom ye serve more instantly: love more ardently
Him, whom ye please more attentively. With loins girded, and lamps burning, wait for the
Lord, when He cometh from the marriage. Ye shall bring unto the marriage of the Lamb a new
song, which ye shall sing on your harps. Not surely such as the whole earth singeth, unto
which it is said, "Sing unto the Lord a new song; sing unto the Lord, the whole earth" :
but such as no one shall be able to utter but you. For thus there saw you in the
Apocalypse a certain one beloved above others by the Lamb, who had been wont to lie on His
breast, and who used to drink in, and burst forth, the Word of God above wonders of
heaven. He saw you twelve times twelve thousand of holy harpers, of undefiled virginity in
body, of inviolate truth in heart; and he wrote of you, that ye follow the Lamb
whithersoever He shall go. Where think we that This Lamb goeth, where no one either dares
or is able to follow save you? Where think we that He goeth? Into what glades and meadows?
Where, I think, the grass are joys; not vain joys of this world, lying madnesses;

nor joys such as shall be in the kingdom of God itself, for the rest that are not virgins;
but distinct from the portion of joys of all the rest. Joy of the virgins of Christ, of
Christ, in Christ, with Christ, after Christ, through Christ, for Christ. The joys
peculiar to the virgins of Christ, are not the same as of such as are not virgins,
although of Christ. For there are to different persons different joys, but to none such.
Go (enter) into these, follow the Lamb, because the Flesh of the Lamb also is assuredly
virgin. For this He retained in Himself when grown up, which He took not away from His
Mother by His conception and birth. Follow Him, as ye deserve, in virginity of heart and
flesh, wheresoever He shall have gone. For what is it to follow, but to imitate? Because
"Christ hath suffered for us," leaving us an example, as saith the Apostle Peter, "that we
should follow His steps. Him each one follows in that, wherein he imitates Him: not so far
forth as He is the only Son of God, by Whom all things were made; but so far forth as, the
Son of Man, He set forth in Himself, what behoved for us to imitate. And many things in
Him are set forth for all to imitate: but virginity of the flesh not for all;

for they have not what to do in order to be virgins, in whom it hath been already brought
to pass that they be not virgins. 28. Therefore let the rest of the faithful, who have
lost virginity, follow the Lamb, not whithersoever He shall have gone, but so far as ever
they shall have been able. But they are able every where, save when He walks in the grace
of virginity. "Blessed are the poor in spirit;" imitate Him, Who, "whereas "He was rich,
was made poor for your sakes." "Blessed are the meek;" imitate Him, Who said, "Learn of
Me, for I am meek and lowly of heart." "Blessed are they that mourn;" imitate Him, Who
"wept over" Jerusalem. "Blessed are they, who hunger and thirst after righteousness:"
imitate Him, Who said, "My meat is to do the will of Him Who sent Me." "Blessed are the
merciful;" imitate Him, Who came to the help of him who was wounded by robbers, and who
lay in the way half-dead and despaired of. "Blessed are the pure in heart;" imitate Him,
"Who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth." "Blessed are the peace. makers;"
imitate Him, Who said on behalf of His persecutors, "Father, forgive them, for they know
not what they do." "Blessed are they, who suffer persecution for righteousness sake;"
imitate Him, Who "suffered for you, leaving you an example, that ye follow His steps."
These things, whoso imitate, in these they follow the Lamb. But surely even married
persons may go in those steps, although not setting their foot perfectly in the same
print, yet walking in the same paths.

29. But, 10, That Lamb goeth by a Virgin road, how shall they go after Him, who have lost
what there is no way for them to recover? Do ye, therefore, do ye go after Him, His
virgins; do ye thither also go after Him, in that on this one account whithersoever He
shall have gone, ye follow Him: for unto any other gift whatsoever of holiness, whereby to
follow Him, we can exhort married persons, save this which they have lost beyond power of
recovery. Do ye, therefore, follow Him, by holding with perseverance what ye have vowed
with ardor. Go when ye can, that the good of virginity perish not from you, unto which ye
can do nothing, in order that it may return. The rest of the multitude of the faithful
will see you, which cannot unto this follow the Lamb; it will see you, it will not envy
you: and by rejoicing together with you, what it hath not in itself, it will have in you.
For that new song also, which is your own, it will not be able to utter; but it will not
be unable to hear, and to be delighted with your so excellent good: but ye, who shall both
utter and hear, in that what ye shall say, this ye shall hear of yourselves, will exult
with greater happiness, and reign with greater joy. But they will have no sorrow on
account of your greater joy, to whom this shall be wanting.

Forsooth That Lamb, Whom ye shall follow whithersoever He shall have gone, will not desert
those who cannot follow Him, where you can. Almighty is the Lamb, of Whom we speak. He
both will go before you, and will not depart from them, when God shall be all in all. And
they, who shall have less, shall not turn away in dislike from you: for, where there is no
envying, difference exists with concord. Take to you, then, have trust, be strong,
continue, ye who vow and pay unto the Lord your God vows of perpetual continence, not for
the sake of this present world, but for the sake of the kingdom of Heaven. 30. Ye also who
have not yet made this vow, who are able to receive it, receive it. Run with perseverance,
that ye may obtain. Take ye each his sacrifices, and enter ye into the courts of the Lord,
not of necessity, having power over your own will. For not as, "Thou shall not commit
adultery, Thou shall not kill," can it so be said, Thou shalt not wed. The former are
demanded, the latter are offered. If the latter are done, they are praised: unless the
former are done, they are condemned. In the former the Lord commands us what is due; but
in the latter, if ye shall have spent any thing more, on His return He will repay you.
Think of (whatever that be) within His wall "a place named, much better than of sons and
of daughters." Think of "an eternal name" there. Who unfolds of what kind that name shall
be? Yet, whatever it shall be, it shall be eternal. By believing and hoping and loving
this, ye have been able, not to shun marriage, as forbidden, but to fly past it, as
allowed.

31. Whence the greatness of this service, unto the undertaking of which we have according
to our strength exhorted, the more excellent and divine it is, the more doth it warn our
anxiety, to say something not only concerning most glorious chastity, but also concerning
safest humility. When then such as make profession of perpetual chastity, comparing
themselves with married persons, shall have discovered, that, according to the Scriptures,
the others are below both in work and wages, both in vow and reward, let what is written
straightway come into their mind, "By how much thou art great, by so much humble thyself
in all things: and thou shalt find favor before God. The measure of humility for each hath
been given from the measure of his greatness itself: unto which pride is full of danger,
which layeth the greater wait against persons the greater they be. On this followeth
envying, as a daughter in her train; forsooth pride straightway giveth birth to her, nor
is she ever without such a daughter and companion. By which two evils, that is, pride and
envying, is the devil (a devil). Therefore it is against pride, the mother of envying,
that the whole Christian discipline chiefly wars. For this teaches humility, whereby both
to gain and to keep charity; of which after that it had been said, "Charity envieth not;
as though we were asking the reason, how it comes to pass that it envieth not, he
straightway added, "is not puffed up;

as though he should say, on this account it hath not envying, in that neither hath it
pride. Therefore the Teacher of humility, Christ, first "emptied Himself, taking the form
of a servant, made in the likeness of men, and found in fashion as a man, He humbled
Himself, made obedient even unto death, even the death of the Cross. But His teaching
itself, how carefully it suggests humility, and how earnest and instant it is in
commanding this, who can easily unfold, and bring together all witnesses for proof of this
matter? This let him essay to do, or do, whosoever shall wish to write a separate treatise
on humility; but of this present work the end proposed is different, and it hath been
undertaken on a matter so great, as that it hath chiefly to guard against pride. 32.
Wherefore a few witnesses, which the Lord deigns to suggest to my mind, I proceed to
mention, from out the teaching of Christ concerning humility, such as perhaps may be
enough for my purpose. His discourse, the first which He delivered to His disciples at
greater length, began from this. "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the
Kingdom of Heaven. And these without all controversy we take to be humble. The faith of
that Centurion He on this account chiefly praised, and said that He had not found in
Israel so great faith, because he believed with so great humility as to say, "I am not
worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof. Whence also Matthew for no other reason
said that he "came" unto Jesus, (whereas Luke most plainly signifies that he came not unto
Him himself, but sent his friends,) save that by his most faithful humility he himself
came unto Him more than they whom he sent. Whence also is that of the Prophet, "The Lord
is very high, and hath respect unto things that are lowly: but what are very high He
noteth afar off; assuredly as not coming unto Him. Whence also He saith to that woman of
Canaan, "O woman, great is thy faith; be it done unto thee as thou wilt; whom above He had
called a dog, and had made answer that the bread of the sons was not to be cast to her.
And this she taking with humility had said, "Even so, Lord;

for the dogs also eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table. And thus what by
continual crying she obtained not, by humble confession she earned. Hence also those two
are set forth praying in the Temple, the one a Pharisee, and the other a Publican, for the
sake of those who seem to themselves just and despise the rest of men, and the confession
of sins is set before the reckoning up of merits. And assuredly the Pharisee was rendering
thanks unto God by reason of those things wherein he was greatly self-satisfied. "I render
thanks to Thee," saith he, "that I am not even as the rest of men, unjust, extortioners,
adulterers, even as also this publican. I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all
things whatsoever I possess. But the Publican was standing afar off, not daring to lift up
his eyes to Heaven, but beating his breast, saying, God be merciful unto me a sinner. But
there follows the divine judgment, "Verily I say unto you, the Publican went down from the
Temple justified more than that Pharisee. Then the cause is shown, why this is just;
"Forasmuch as he who exalteth himself shall be humbled, and whoso humbleth himself shall
be exalted.

Therefore it may come to pass, that each one both shun real evils, and reflect on real
goods in himself, and render thanks for these unto "the Father of lights, from Whom cometh
down every best gift, and every perfect gift," and yet be rejected by reason of the sin of
haughtiness, if through pride, even in his thought alone, which is before God, he insult
other sinners, and specially when confessing their sins in prayer, unto whom is due not
upbraiding with arrogance, but pity without despair. What is it that, when His disciples
were questioning among themselves, who of them should be greater, He set a little child
before their eyes, saying, "Unless ye shall be as this child, ye shall not enter into the
Kingdom of Heaven? Did He not chiefly commend humility, and set in it the desert of
greatness? Or when unto the sons of Zebedee desiring to be at His side in lofty seats He
so made answer, as that they should rather think of having to drink the Cup of His
Passion, wherein He humbled Himself even unto death, even the death of the Cross, than
with proud desire demand to be preferred to the rest; what did He show, save, that He
would be a bestower of exaltation upon them, who should first follow Him as a teacher of
humility?

And now, in that, when about to go forth unto His Passion, He washed the feet of His
disciples, and most openly taught them to do for their fellow-disciples and fellow-
servants this, which He their Lord and Master had done for them; how greatly did He
commend humility? And in order to commend this He chose also that time, wherein they were
looking on Him, as immediately about to die, with great longing; assuredly about to retain
in their memory this especially, which their Master, Whom they were to imitate, had
pointed out to them as the last thing. But He did this at that time, which surely He could
have done on other days also before, wherein He had been conversant with them; at which
time if it were done, this same would indeed be delivered, but certainly would not be so
received. 33. Whereas, then, all Christians have to guard humility, forasmuch as it is
from Christ that they are called Christians, Whose Gospel no one considers with care, but
that he discovers Him to be a Teacher of humility; specially is it becoming that they be
followers and keepers of this virtue, who excel the rest of men in any great good, in
order that they may have a great care of that, which I set down in the beginning, "By how
much thou art great, by so much humble thyself in all things, and thou shall find grace
before God." Wherefore, because perpetual Continence and specially virginity, is a great
good in the Saints of God, they must with all watchfulness beware, that it be not
corrupted with pride.

34. Paul the Apostle censures evil unmarried women, curious and prating, and says that
this fault comes of idleness. "But at the same time," saith he, "being idle they learn to
go about to houses: but not only idle, but curious also and prating, speaking what they
ought not. Of these he had said above, "But younger widows avoid; for when they have past
their time in delights, they wish to wed in Christ; having condemnation, in that they have
made void their first faith: that is, have not continued in that, which they had vowed at
the first. And yet he saith not, they marry, but "they wish to marry. For many of them are
recalled from marrying, not by love of a noble purpose, but by fear of open shame, which
also itself comes of pride, whereby persons fear to displease men more than God. These,
therefore, who wish to marry, and do not marry on this account, because they cannot with
impunity, who would do better to marry than to be burned, that is, than to be laid waste
in their very conscience by the hidden flame of lust, who repent of their profession, and
who feel their confession irksome; unless they correct and set right their heart, and by
the fear of God again overcome their lust, must be accounted among the dead; whether they
pass their time in delights, whence the Apostle says, "But she who passes her time in
delights, living, is dead;

or whether in labors and fastings, which are useless where there is no correction of the
heart, and serve rather for display than amendment. I do not, for my part, impose on such
a great regard for humility, in whom pride itself is confounded, and bloodstained by wound
of conscience. Nor on such as are drunken, or covetous, or who are lying in any other kind
whatever of damnable disease, at the same time that they have profession of bodily
continence, and through perverse manners are at variance with their own name, do I impose
this great anxiety about pious humility: unless haply in these evils they shall dare even
to make a display of themselves, unto whom it is not enough, that the punishments of these
are deferred. Nor am I treating of these, in whom there is a certain aim of pleasing,
either by more elegant dress than the necessity of so great profession demands, or by
remarkable manner of binding the head, whether by bosses of hair swelling forth, or by
coverings so yielding, that the fine network below appears: unto these we must give
precepts, not as yet concerning humility, but concerning chastity itself, or virgin
modesty. Give me one who makes profession of perpetual continence, and who is free from
these, and all such faults and spots of conduct; for this one I fear pride, for this so
great good I am in alarm from the swelling of arrogance.

The more there is in any one on account of which to be self-pleased, the more I fear,
lest, by pleasing self, he please not Him, Who "resisteth the proud, but unto the humble
giveth grace." 35. Certainly we are to contemplate in Christ Himself, the chief
instruction and pattern of virginal purity. What further precept then concerning humility
shall I give to the continent, than what He saith to all, "Learn of Me, in that I am meek
and lowly of heart? when He had made mention above of His greatness, and, wishing to show
this very thing, how great He was, and how little He had been made for our sakes, saith,
"I confess to Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, in that Thou hast hidden these
things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto little children. Even so, O
Father, in that so it hath been pleasing before Thee. All things have been delivered unto
Me of My Father: and no one knoweth the Son, save the Father; and no one knoweth the
Father, save the Son, and he to whom the Son shall have willed to reveal Him. Come unto
Me, all ye who labor and are burdened, and I will refresh you. Take My yoke upon you, and
learn of Me, in that I am meek and lowly of heart. He, He, unto Whom the Father hath
delivered all things, and Whom no one knoweth but the Father, and Who alone, (and he, unto
whom He shall have willed to reveal Him), knoweth the Father, saith not, "Learn of Me" to
make the world, or to raise the dead, but, "in that I am meek and lowly of heart. O saving
teaching?

O Teacher and Lord of mortals, unto whom death was pledged and passed on in the cup of
pride, He would not teach what Himself was not, He would not bid what Himself did not. I
see Thee, O good Jesu, with the eyes of faith, which Thou hast opened for me, as in an
assembly of the human race, crying out and saying, "Come unto Me, and learn of Me. What, I
beseech Thee, through Whom all things were made, O Son of God, and the Same Who was made
among all things, O Son of Man: to learn what of Thee, come we to Thee? "For that I am
meek," saith He, "and lowly of heart. Is it to this that all the treasures of wisdom and
knowledge hidden in Thee are brought, that we learn this of Thee as a great thing, that
Thou art "meek and lowly of heart? Is it so great a thing to be little, that it could not
at all be learned unless it were brought to pass by Thee, Who art so great? So indeed it
is. For by no other way is there found out rest for the soul, save when the unquiet
swelling hath been dispersed, whereby it was great unto itself, when it was not sound unto
Thee.

36. Let them hear Thee, and let them come to Thee, and let them learn of Thee to be meek
and lowly, who seek Thy Mercy and Truth, by living unto Thee, unto Thee, not unto
themselves. Let him hear this, laboring and laden, who is weighed down by his burthen, so
as not to dare to lift up his eyes to heaven, that sinner beating his breast, and drawing
near from afar. Let him hear, the centurion, not worthy that Thou shouldest enter under
his roof. Let him hear, Zaccheus, chief of publicans, restoring fourfold the gains of
damnable sins. Let her hear, the woman in the city a sinner, by so much the more full of
tears at Thy feet, the more alien she had been from Thy steps. Let them hear, the harlots
and publicans, who enter into the kingdom of heaven before the Scribes and Pharisees. Let
them hear, every kind of such ones, feastings with whom were cast in Thy teeth as a
charge, forsooth, as though by whole persons who sought not a physician, whereas Thou
camest not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. All these, when they are
converted unto Thee, easily grow meek, and are humbled before Thee, mindful of their own
most unrighteous life, and of Thy most indulgent mercy, in that, "where sin hath abounded,
grace hath abounded more."

37. But regard the troops of virgins, holy boys and girls: this kind hath been trained up
in Thy Church: there for Thee it hath been budding from its mother's breasts; for Thy Name
it hath loosed its tongue to speak, Thy Name, as through the milk of its infancy, it hath
had poured in and hath sucked, no one of this number can say, "I, who before was a
blasphemer, and persecutor, and in jurious, but I obtained mercy, in that I did in being
ignorant, in unbelief." Yea more, that, which Thou commandedst not, but only didst set
forth, for such as would, to seize, saying, "Whoso can receive, let him receive;" they
have seized, they have vowed, and, for the sake of the kingdom of heaven, not for that
Thou threatenedst, but for that Thou exhortedst, they have made themselves eunuchs. To
these cry out, let these hear Thee, in that Thou art "meek and lowly Of heart." Let these,
by how much they are great, by so much humble themselves in all things, that they may find
grace before Thee. They are just: but they are not, are they, such as Thou, justifying the
ungodly? They are chaste: but them in sins their mothers nurtured in their wombs. They are
holy, but Thou art also Holy of Holies. They are virgins, but they are not also born of
virgins. They are wholly chaste both in spirit and in flesh: but they are not the Word
made flesh. And yet let them learn, not from those unto whom Thou forgivest sins, but from
Thee Thyself, The Lamb of God Who takest away the sins of the world, in that Thou art
"meek and lowly of heart."

38. I send thee not, soul that art religiously chaste, that hast not given the reins to
fleshly appetite even so far as to allowed marriage, that hast not indulged thy body about
to depart even to the begetting one to succeed thee, that hast sustained aloft thy earthly
members, afloat to accustom them to heaven; I send thee not, in order that thou mayest
learn humility, unto publicans and sinners, who yet enter into the kingdom of heaven
before the proud: I send thee not to these: for they, who have been set free from the gulf
of uncleanness, are unworthy that undefiled virginity be sent to them to take pattern
from. I send thee unto the King of Heaven, unto Him, by Whom men were created, and Who was
created among men for the sake of men; unto Him, Who is fair of beauty above the sons of
men, and despised by the sons of men on behalf of the sons of men: unto Him, Who, ruling
the immortal angels, disdained not to do service unto mortals. Him, at any rate, not
unrighteousness, but charity, made humble; "Charity, which rivalleth not, is not puffed
up, seeketh not her own; forasmuch as "Christ also pleased not Himself, but, as it is
written of Him, The reproaches of such as reproached Thee have fallen upon Me. Go then,
come unto Him, and learn, in that He is "meek and lowly of heart.

Thou shall not go unto him, who dared not by reason of the burden of unrighteousness to
lift up his eyes to heaven, but unto Him, Who by the weight of charity came down from
heaven. Thou shalt not go unto her, who watered with tears the feet of her Lord, seeking
forgiveness of heavy sins; but thou shalt go unto Him, Who, granting forgiveness of all
sins, washed the feet of His own disciples. I know the dignity of thy virginity; I propose
not to thee to imitate the Publican humbly accusing his own faults; but I fear for the
Pharisee proudly boasting of his own merits. I say not, Be thou such as she, of whom it
was said, "There are forgiven unto her many sins, in that she hath loved much; but I fear
lest, as thinking that thou hast little forgiven to thee, thou love little.

39. I fear, I say, greatly for thee, lest, when thou boastest that thou wilt follow the
Lamb wheresoever He shall have gone, thou be unable by reason of swelling pride to follow
Him through strait ways. It is good for thee, O virgin soul, that thus, as thou art a
virgin, thus altogether keeping in thy heart that thou hast been born again, keeping in
thy flesh that thou hast been born, thou yet conceive of the fear of the Lord, and give
birth to the spirit of salvation. "Fear," indeed, "there is not in charity, but perfect
charity," as it is written, "casteth out fear: but fear of men, not of God: fear of
temporal evils, not of the Divine Judgment at the last. "Be not thou high-minded, but
fear." , Love thou the goodness of God; fear thou His severity: neither suffers thee to
beproud. For by loving you fear, lest you grievously offend One Who is loved and loves.
For what more grievous offense, than that by pride thou displease Him, Who for thy sake
hath been displeasing to the proud? And where ought there to be more that "chaste fear
abiding for ever and ever, than in thee, who hast no thought of the things of this world,
how to please a wedded partner; but of the things of the Lord, how to please the Lord?
That other fear is not in charity, but this chaste fear quitteth not charity. If you love
not, fear lest you perish; if you love, fear lest you displease.

That fear charity casteth out, with this it runneth within. The Apostle Paul also says,
"For we have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but we have received the
spirit of adoption of sons, wherein we cry, Abba, Father. I believe that he speaks of that
fear, which had been given in the Old Testament, test the temporal goods should be lost,
which God had promised unto those not yet sons under grace, but as yet slaves under the
law. There is also the fear of eternal fire, to serve God in order to avoid which is
assuredly not yet of perfect charity. For the desire of the reward is one thing, the fear
of punishment another. They are different sayings, "Whither shall I go away from Thy
Spirit, and from Thy face whither shall I flee? and, "One thing I have sought of the Lord,
this I will seek after; that I may dwell in the house of the Lord through all the days of
my life, that I may consider the delight of the Lord, that I be protected in His temple:
and, "Turn not away Thy face from me: and, "My soul longeth and fainteth unto the courts
of the Lord. Those sayings let him have had, who dared not to lift up his eyes to heaven;
and she who was watering with tears His feet, in order to obtain pardon for her grievous
sins;

but these do thou have, who art careful about the things of the Lord, to be holy both in
body and spirit. With those sayings there companies fear which hath torment, which perfect
charity casteth forth; but with these sayings there companies chaste fear of the Lord,
that abideth for ever and ever. And to both kinds it must be said, "Be not thou high-
minded, but fear; that man neither of defense of his sins, nor of presumption of
righteousness set himself up. For Paul also himself, who saith, "For ye have not received
the spirit of bondage again to fear; yet, fear being a companion of charity, saith, "With
fear and much trembling was I towards you: and that saying, which I have mentioned, that
the engrafted wild olive tree be not proud against the broken branches of the olive tree,
himself made use of, saying, "Be not thou high-minded, but fear; himself admonishing all
the members of Christ in general, saith, "With fear and trembling work out your own
salvation; for it is God Who worketh in you both to will and to do, according to His good
pleasure; that it seem not to pertain unto the Old Testament what is written, "Serve the
Lord in fear, and rejoice unto Him with trembling."

40. And what members of the holy body, which is the Church, ought more to take care, that
upon them the holy Spirit may rest, than such as profess virginal holiness? But how doth
He rest, where He findeth not His own place? what else than an humbled heart, to fill, not
to leap back from; to raise up, not to weigh down? whereas it hath been most plainly said,
"On whom shall rest My Spirit? On him that is humble and quiet, and trembles at My words."
Already thou livest righteously, already thou livest piously, thou livest chastely,
holily, with virginal purity; as yet, however, thou livest here, and art thou not humbled
at hearing, "What, is not human life upon earth a trial? Doth it not drive thee back from
over-confident arrogance, "Woe unto the world because of offenses?" Dost thou not tremble,
lest thou be accounted among the many, whose "love waxeth cold, because that iniquity
abounds?" Dost thou not smite thy breast, when thou hearest, "Wherefore, whoso thinketh
that he standeth, let him see to it lest he fall? Amid these divine warnings and human
dangers, do we yet find it so hard to persuade holy virgins to humility?

41. Or are we indeed to believe that it is for any other reason, that God suffers to be
mixed up with the number of your profession, many, both men and women, about to fall, than
that by the fall of these your fear may be increased, whereby to repress pride; which God
so hates, as that against this one thing The Highest humbled Himself? Unless haply, in
truth, thou shalt therefore fear less, and be more puffed up, so as to love little Him,
Who hath loved thee so much, as to give up Himself for thee, because He bath forgiven thee
little, living, forsooth from childhood, religiously, piously, with pious chastity, with
inviolate virginity. As though in truth you ought not to love with much greater glow of
affection Him, Who, whatsoever things He hath forgiven unto sinners upon their being
turned to Him, suffered you not to fall into them. Or indeed that Pharisee, who therefore
loved little, becausethought that little was forgiven him, was it for any other reason
that he was blinded by this error, than because being ignorant of the righteousness of
God, and seeking to establish his own, he had not been made subject unto the righteousness
of God? But you, an elect race, and among the elect more elect, virgin choirs that follow
the Lamb, even you "by grace have been saved through faith; and this not of yourselves,
but it is the gift of God: not of works, lest haply any be elated.

For we are His workmanship, created in Jesus Christ in good works, which Godhath prepared,
that in them we may walk. What therefore, by how much the more ye are adorned by His
gifts, shall ye by so much the less love Him? May He Himself turn away so dreadful
madness! Wherefore forasmuch as the Truth has spoken the truth, that he, unto whom little
is forgiven, loveth little; do ye, in order that ye may love with full glow of affection
Him, Whom ye are free to love, being loosened from ties of marriage, account as altogether
forgiven unto you, whatever of evil, by His governance, ye have not committed. For "your
eyes ever unto the Lord, forasmuch as He shall pluck out of the net your feet," and,
"Except the Lord shall have kept the city, in vain hath he watched who keepeth it. And
speaking of Continence itself the Apostle says, "But I would that all men were as I
myself; but each one hath his own proper gift from God; one in this way, and another in
that way. Who therefore bestoweth these gifts? Who distributeth his own proper gifts unto
each as He will? Forsooth God, with Whom there is not unrighteousness, and by this means
with what equity He makes some in this way, and others in that way, for man to know is
either impossible or altogether hard: but that with equity He maketh, it is not lawful to
doubt. "What," therefore, "hast thou, which thou hast not received?

And by what perversity dost thou less love Him, of Whom thou hast received more? 42.
Wherefore let this be the first thought for the putting on of humility, that God's virgin
think not that it is of herself that she is such, and not rather that this best "gift
cometh down from above from the Father of Lights, with Whom is no change nor shadow of
motion. For thus she will not think that little hath been forgiven her, so as for herto
love little, and, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and wishing to establish her
own, not to be made subject to the righteousness of God. In which fault was that Simon who
was surpassed by the woman, unto whom many sins were forgiven, because she loved much. But
she will have more cautious and true thoughts, that we are so to account all sins as
though forgiven, from which God keeps us that we commit them not. Witnesses are those
expressions of pious prayers in holy Scriptures, whereby it is shown, that those very
things, which are commanded by God, are not done save by His Gift and help, Who commands.
For there is a falsehood in the asking for them, if we could do them without the help of
His grace. What is there so generally and chiefly charged, as obedience whereby the
Commandments of God are kept? And yet we find this wished for. "Thou," saith he, "hast
charged, that Thy commandments be greatly kept. Then it follows, "O that my ways were
directed to keep Thy righteousnesses:

then shall I not be confounded, whilst I look unto all Thy commandments. That which he had
set down above that God had commanded, that he wished might of himself be fulfilled. This
is done assuredly, that there be not sin; but, if there hath been sin, the command is that
one repent; lest by defense and excuse of sin he perish through pride, who hath done it,
whilst he is unwilling that what he hath done perish through repentance. This also is
asked of God, so that it may be understood that it is not done, save by His grant from
Whom it is asked. "Set," saith he, "O Lord, a watch to my mouth, and a door of continence
around my lips: let not my heart turn away unto evil words, to make excuses in sins, with
men that work unrighteousness. if, therefore, both obedience, whereby we keep His
commandments, and repentance whereby we excuse not our sins, are wished for and asked, l
it is plain that, when it is done, it is by His gift that it is possessed, by His help
that it is fulfilled, yet more openly is it said by reason of obedience, "By the Lord the
steps of a man are directed, and He shall will His way: and of repentance the Apostle
says, "if haply God may grant unto them repentance."

43. Concerning continence also itself hath it not been most openly said, "And when I knew
that no one can be continent unless God give it, this also itself was a part of wisdom, to
know whose gift it was?" But perhaps continence is the gift of God, but wisdom man bestows
upon himself, whereby to understand, that that gift is, not his own, but of God. Yea, "The
Lord maketh wise the blind:" and, "The testimony of the Lord is faithful, it giveth wisdom
unto little ones:" and, "If any one want wisdom, let him ask of God, Who giveth unto all
liberally, and upbraideth not, and it shall be given to him." But it becometh virgins to
be wise, that their lamps be not extinguished. How "wise," save "not having high thoughts,
but consenting unto the lowly." For Wisdom Itself hath said unto man, "Lo, piety is
wisdom!" If therefore thou hast nothing, which thou hast not received, "Be not high-
minded, but fear." And love not thou little, as though Him by Whom little hath been
forgiven to thee; but, rather, love Him much, by Whom much hath been given to thee. For if
he loves, unto whom it hath been given not to repay: how much more ought he to love, i
unto whom it hath been given to possess. For both, whosoever continues chaste from the
beginning, is ruled by Him; and whosoever is made chaste instead of unchaste, is corrected
by Him; and whosoever is unchaste even unto the end, is abandoned by Him. But this He can
do by secret counsel, by unrighteous He cannot: and perhaps it is for this end that it
lies hid, that there may be more fear, and less pride.

44. Next let not man, now that he knoweth that by the grace of God he is what he is, fall
into another snare of pride, so as by lifting up himself for the very grace of God to
despise the rest. By which fault that other Pharisee both gave thanks unto God for the
goods which he had, and yet vaunted himself above the Publican confessing his sins. What
therefore should a virgin do, what should she think, that she vaunt not herself above
those, men or women, who have not this so great gift? For she ought not to feign humility,
but to set it forth: for the feigning of humility is greater pride. Wherefore Scripture
wishing to show that humility ought to be true, after having said, "By how much thou art
great, by so much humble thyself in all things," added soon after, "And thou shalt find
grace before God:" assuredly where one could not humble one's self deceitfully.

45. Wherefore what shall we say? is there any thought which a virgin of God may truly
have, by reason of which she dare not to set herself before a faithful woman, not only a
widow, but even married? I say not a reprobate virgin; for who knows not that an obedient
woman is to be set before a disobedient virgin? But where both are obedient unto the
commands of God, shall she so tremble to prefer holy virginity even to chaste marriage,
and continence to wedded life, the fruit an hundred-fold to go before the thirty-fold?
Nay, let her not doubt to prefer this thing to that thing; yet let not this or that
virgin, obeying and fearing God, dare to set herselfbefore this or that woman, obeying and
fearing God; otherwise she will not be humble, and "God resisteth the proud!" What,
therefore, shall she have in her thoughts? Forsooth the hidden gifts of God, which nought
save the questioning of trial makes known to each, even in himself. For, to pass over the
rest, whence doth a virgin know, although careful of the things of the Lord, how to please
the Lord but that haply, by reason of some weakness of mind unknown to herself, she be not
as yet ripe for martyrdom, whereas that woman, whom she rejoiced to set herself before,
may already be able to drink the Cup of the Lord's humiliation, which He set before His
disciples, to drink first, when enamored of high place? Whence, I say, doth she know but
that she herself be not as yet Thecla, that other be already Crispina. Certainly unless
there be present trial, there takes place no proof of this gift.

46. But this is so great, that certain understand it to be the fruit an hundred-fold. For
the authority of the Church bears a veryconspicuous witness, in which it is known the
faithful in what place the Martyrs, in what place the holy nuns deceased, are rehearsed at
the Sacraments of the Altar. But what the meaning is of that difference of fruitfulness,
let them see to it, who understand these things better than we; whether the virginal life
be in fruit an hundred-fold, in sixty-fold the widowed, in thirty-fold the married; or
whether the hundred-fold fruitfulness be ascribed unto martyrdom, the sixty-fold unto
continence, the thirty-fold unto marriage; or whether virginity, by the addition of
martyrdom, fill up the hundred-fold, but when alone be in sixty-fold, but married persons
bearing thirty-fold arrive at sixty-fold, in case they shall be martyrs: or whether, what
seems to me more probable, forasmuch as the gifts of Divine grace are many, and one is
greater and better than another, whence the Apostle says, "But emulate ye the better
gifts; we are to understand that they are more in number than to allow of being
distributed under those different kinds. In the first place, that we set not widowed
continence either as bearing no fruit, or set it but level with the desert of married
charity, or equal it unto virgin glory;

or think that the Crown of Martyrdom, either established in habit of mind, although proof
of trial be wanting, or in actual making trial of suffering, be added unto either one of
those these chastities, without any increase of fruitfulness. Next, when we set it down
that many men and women so keep virginal chastity, as that yet they do not the things
which the Lord saith, "If thou wiliest to be perfect, go, sell all that thou hast, and
give unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in Heaven: and come, follow me; and dare
not unite themselves to those dwelling together, among whom no one saith that any thing is
his own, but all things are unto them common; do we think that there is no addition of
fruitfulness unto the virgins of God, when they do this? or that the virgins of God are
without any fruit, although they do not this? Therefore there are many gifts, and some
brighter and higher than others, each than each. And at times one is fruitful in fewer
gifts, but better; another in lower gifts, but more. And in what manner they be either
made equal one to another, or distinguished one from another, in receiving eternal honors,
who of men would dare to pronounce? whereas yet it is plain both that those differences
are many, and that the better are profitable not for the present time, but for eternity.

But I judge that the Lord willed to make mention of three differences of fruitfulness, the
rest He left to such as understand. For also another Evangelist hath made mention only of
the hundred-fold: we are not, therefore, are we, to think that he either rejected, or knew
not of, the other two, but rather that he left them to be understood? 47. But, as I had
begun to say, whether the fruit an hundred-fold be virginity dedicated to God, or whether
we are to understand that interval of fruitfulness in some other way, either such as we
have made mention of, or such as we have not made mention of; yet no one, as I suppose,
will have dared to prefer virginity to martyrdom, and no one will have doubted that this
latter gift is hidden, if trial to test it be wanting. A virgin, therefore, hath a subject
for thought, such asmay be of profit to her for the keeping of humility, that she violate
not that charity, which is above all gifts, without which assuredly whatever other gifts
she shall have had, whether few or many, whether great or small, she is nothing. She hath,
I say, a subject for thought, that she be not puffed up, that she rival not; forsooth that
she so make profession that the virginal good is much greater and better than the married
good, as that yet she know not whether this or that married woman be not already able to
suffer for Christ, but herself as yet unable, and she herein spared, that her weakness is
not put to the question by trial. "For God," saith the Apostle, "is faithful, Who will not
suffer you to be tried above what ye are able but will make with the trial a way out, that
ye may be able to bear it.

Perhaps, therefore, those men or women keeping a way of married life praiseworthy in its
kind, are already able, against an enemy forcing to unrighteousness, to contend even by
tearing in pieces of bowels, and shedding of blood; but these men or women, continent from
childhood, and making themselves eunuchs for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven, still are
not as yet able to endure such, either for righteousness, or for chastity itself. For it
is one thing, for truth and an holy purpose, not to consent unto one who would persuade
and flatter, but another thing not to yield even to one who tortures and strikes. These
lie hid in the powers and strength of souls, by trial they are unfolded, by actual essay
they come forth. In order, therefore, that each be not puffed up by reason of that, which
he sees clearly that he can do, let him humbly consider that he knows not that there is
perchance something more excellent which he cannot do, but that some, who neither have nor
profess that of which he is lawfully self-conscious, are able to do this, which he himself
cannot do. Thus will be kept, not by feigned but by true humility, "In honor preventing
one another," and, "esteeming each the other higher than himself."

48. What now shall I say concerning the very carefulness and watchfulness against sin?
"Who shall boast that he hath a chaste heart? or who shall boast that he is clean from
sin?" Holy virginity is indeed inviolate from the mother's womb; but "no one," saith he,
"is clean in Thy sight, not even the infant whose life is of one day upon the earth."
There is kept also in faith inviolate a certain virginal chastity, whereby the Church is
joined as a chaste virgin unto One Husband: but That One Husband hath taught, not only the
faithful who are virgin in mind and body, but all Christians altogether, from spiritual
even unto carnal, fromApostles even unto the last penitents, as though from the height of
heaven even unto the bounds of it, to pray, and in the prayer itself hath admonished them
to say, "And forgive us our debts, even as we also forgive our debtors:" where, by this
which we seek, He shews what also we should remember that we are. For neither on behalf of
those debts, which for our whole past life we trust have been forgiven unto us in Baptism
through His peace, hath He charged us to pray, saying, "And forgive us our debts, even as
we also forgive our debtors:" otherwise this were a prayer which Catechumens rather ought
to pray up to the time of Baptism; but whereas it is what baptized persons pray, rulers
and people, pastors and flocks; it is sufficiently shown that in this life, the whole of
which is a trial, no one ought to boast himself as though free from all sins.

49. Wherefore also the virgins of God without blame indeed, "follow the Lamb whithersoever
He shall have gone," both the cleansing of sins being perfected, and virginity being kept,
which, were it lost, could not return: but, because that same Apocalypse itself, wherein
such unto one such were revealed, in this also praises them, that "in their mouth there
was not found a lie:" let them remember in this also to be true, that they dare not say
that they have not sin. Forsooth the same John, who saw that, hath said this, "If we shall
have said that we have not sin, we deceive our own selves, and the truth is not in us; but
if we shall have confessed our faults, He is faithful and just, so as to forgive us our
sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. But if we shall have said that we have
not sinned, we shall make Him a liar, and His word shall not be in us." This surely is not
said unto these or those, but unto all Christians, wherein virgins also ought to recognize
themselves. For thus they shall be without a lie, such as in the Apocalypse they appeared.
And by this means so long as there is not as yet perfection in heavenly height, confession
in lowliness maketh them Without blame.

50. But, again, lest by occasion of this sentence, any one should sin with deadly
security, and should allow himself to be carried away, as though his sins were soon by
easy confession to be blotted out, he straightway added, "My little children, these things
have I written unto you, that ye sin not; and, if one shall have sinned, we have an
Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and Himself is a propitiation of our
sins." Let no one therefore depart from sin as though about to return to it, nor bind
himself as it were by compact of alliance of this kind with unrighteousness, so as to take
delight rather to confess it than to shun it. But, forasmuch as even upon such as are busy
and on the watch not to sin, there creep by stealth, in a certain way, from human
weakness, sins, however small, however few, yet not none; these same themselves become
great and grievous, in case pride shall have added to them increase and weight: but by the
Priest, Whom we have in the heavens, if by pious humility they be destroyed, they are with
all ease cleansed.

51. But I contend not with those, who assert that a man can in this life live without any
sin: I contend not, I gainsay not. For perhaps we take measure of the great from out our
own misery, and, comparing ourselves with ourselves, understand not. One thing I know,
that those great ones, such as we are not, such as we have not as yet made proof of, by
how much they are great, by so much humble themselves in all things, that they may find
grace before God. For, let them be how great soever they will, "there is no servant
greater than his Lord, nor disciple greater than his master. And assuredly He is the Lord,
Who saith, "All things have been delivered unto Me of My Father; and He is the Master, Who
saith, "Come unto Me, all ye who labor, and learn of Me; andyet what learn we? "In that I
am meek," saith He, "and lowly of heart."52. Here some one will say, This is now not to
write of virginity, but of humility. As though truly it were any kind of virginity, and
not that which is after God, which we had undertaken to set forth. And this good, by how
much I see it to be great, by so muchI fear for it, lest it be lost, the thief pride.
Therefore there is none that guardeth the virginal good, save God Himself Who gave it: and
God is Charity. The Guardian therefore of virginity is Charity:

but the place of this Guardian is humility. There forsooth He dwelleth, Who said, that on
the lowly and quiet, and that trembleth at His words, His Spirit resteth. What, therefore,
have I done foreign from my purpose, if wishing the good, which I have praised, to be more
securely guarded, I have taken care also to prepare a place for the Guardian? For I speak
with confidence, nor have I any fear lest they be angry with me, whom I admonish with care
to fear for themselves together with me. More easily do follow the Lamb, although not
whithersoever He shall have gone, yet so far as they shall have had power, married persons
who are humble, than virgins who are proud. For how doth one follow Him, unto Whom one
wills not to approach or how doth one approach Him, unto Whom one comes not to learn, "in
that I am meek and lowly of heart? Wherefore those the Lamb leadeth following
whithersoever He shall have gone, in whom first Himself shall have found where to lay His
Head. For also a certain proud and crafty person had said to Him, "Lord, I will follow
Thee whithersoever Thou shaft have gone; to whom He made answer, "Foxes have dens, and
fowls of heaven nests: but the Son of Man hath not where to lay His Head. By the term of
foxes He reproved wily craftiness, and by the name of birds puffed-up arrogance, wherein
He found not pious humility to rest in.

And by this no where at all did he follow the Lord, who had promised that he would follow
Him, not unto a certain point of progress, but altogether whithersoever He should have
gone. 53. Wherefore this do ye, virgins of God, this do ye: follow ye the Lamb,
whithersoever He shall have gone. But first come unto Him, Whom ye are to follow, and
learn, in that He is meek and lowly of heart. Come ye in lowly wise unto the Lowly, if ye
love: and depart not from Him, lest ye fall. For whoso fears to depart from Him asks and
says, "Let there not come to me foot of pride. Go on in the why of loftiness with the foot
of lowliness; Himself lifteth up such as follow in lowly wise, Who thought it not a
trouble to come down unto such as lay low. Commit ye His gifts unto Him to keep, "guard ye
your strength unto Him. Whatever of evil through His guardianship ye commit not, account
as forgiven unto you by Him: lest, thinking that you have little forgiven unto you, ye
love little, and with ruinous boasting despise the publicans beating their breasts.
Concealing that strength of yours which hath been tried beware, that ye be not puffed up,
because ye have been able to bear something: but concerning that which hath been untried
pray, that ye be not tempted above that ye are able to bear. Think that some are superior
to you in secret, than whom ye are openly better. When the good things of others, haply
unknown to you, are kindly believed by you, your own that are known to you are not
lessened by comparison, but strengthened by love:

and what haply as yet are wanting, are by so much the more easily given, by how much they
are the more humbly desired. Let such among your number as persevere, afford to you an
example: but let such as fall increase your fear. Love the one that ye may imitate it;
mourn over the other, that ye be not puffed up. Do not ye establish your own
righteousness; submit yourselves unto God Who justifies you. Pardon the sins of others,
pray for your own: future sins shun by watching, past sins blot out by confessing. 54. Lo,
already ye are such, as that in the rest of your conduct also ye correspond with the
virginity which ye have professed and kept. Lo, already not only do ye abstain from
murders, devilish sacrifices and abominations, thefts, rapines, frauds, perjuries,
drunkennesses, and all luxury and avarice, hatreds, emulations, impieties, cruelties; but
even those things, which either are, or are thought, lighter, are not found nor arise
among you: not bold face, not wandering eyes, not unbridled tongue, not petulant laugh,
not scurrilous jest, not unbecoming mien, not swelling or loose gait; already ye render
not evil for evil, nor curse for curse; already, lastly, ye fulfill that measure of love,
that ye lay down your lives for your brethren. Lo, already ye are such, because also such
ye ought to be. These, being added to virginity, set forth an angelic life unto men, and
the ways of heaven unto the earth. But, by how much ye are great, whosoever of you are so
great, "by so much humble yourselves in all things, that ye may find grace before God,"
that He resist younot as proud, that He humble you not as lifting up yourselves, that He
lead you not through straits as being puffed up: although anxiety be unnecessary, that,
where Charity glows, humility be not wanting.

55. If, therefore, ye despise marriages of sons of men, from which to beget sons of men,
love ye with your whole heart Him, Who is fair of form above the sons of men; ye have
leisure; your heart is free from marriage bonds. Gaze on the Beauty of your Lover: think
of Him equal to the Father, made subject also to His Mother: ruling even in the heavens,
and serving upon the earth: creating all things, created among all things. That very
thing, which in Him the proud mock at, gaze on, how fair it is: with inward eyes gaze on
the wounds of Him hanging, the scars of Him rising again, the blood of Him dying, the
price of him that believes, the gain of Him that redeems. Consider of how great value
these are, weigh them in the scales of Charity; and whatever of love ye had to expend upon
your marriages, pay back to Him.

56. It is well that He seeks your beauty within, where He hath given unto you power to
become daughters of God: He seeks not of you a fair flesh, but fair conduct, whereby to
bridle also the flesh. He is not one unto Whom any one can lie concerning you, and make
him rage through jealousy. See with how great security ye love Him, Whom ye fear not to
offend by false suspicions. Husband and wife love each other, in that they see each other:
and what they see not, that they fear between themselves: nor have they sure delight in
what is visible, while in what is concealed they usually suspect what is not. Ye in Him,
Whom ye see not with the eyes, and behold by faith, neither have what is real to blame,
nor fear lest haply ye offend Him by what is false. If therefore ye should owe great love
to husbands, Him, for Whose sake ye would not have husbands, how greatly ought ye to love?
Let Him be fixed in your whole heart, Who for you was fixed on the Cross: let Him possess
in your soul all that, whatever it be, that ye would not have occupied by marriage. It is
not lawful for you to love little Him, for Whose sake ye have not loved even what were
lawful. So loving Him Who is meek and lowly of heart, I have no fear for you of pride.

57. Thus, after our small measure, we have spoken enough both of sanctity, whereby ye are
properly called "sanctimoniales," and of humility, whereby whatever great name ye bear is
kept. But more worthily let those Three Children, unto whom He, Whom they loved with full
glow of heart, afforded refreshing in the fire, admonish you concerning this our little
work, much more shortly indeed in number of words, but much more greatly in weight of
authority, in the Hymn wherein God is honored by them. For joining humility unto holiness
in such as praise God, they havemost plainly taught, that each, by how much he make any
more holy profession, by so muchdo beware that he be not deceived by pride. Wherefore do
ye also praise Him, Who grants unto you, that in the midst of the flames of this world,
although ye be not joined in marriage, yet ye be not burned: and praying also for us,
"Bless ye the Lord, ye holy and humble men of heart; utter an hymn, and exalt Him above
all forever."


ON THE GOOD OF WIDOWHOOD
========================

ON THE GOOD OF WIDOWHOOD Augustine of Hippo

AD 354–430

Bishop of Hippo, the most influential Latin father.

ON THE GOOD OF WIDOWHOOD

[De Bono Viduitatis.]

Translated by Rev. C. L. Cornish, M.a., of Exeter College, Oxford. This work is not
mentioned in the Retractatians, probably because it is a letter, and as such it is
reckoned by Possidius, cap. 7. It is also marked as St. Augustin's by its references to
his other works, De Bono Conjugali, etc. cap. 15. Ep. to Proba, cap. 23. The date is
marked by the recent consecration of Demetrias, which was in 413. The admonition for which
he is thanked by Juliana, Ep. 188, may be that against Pelagianism. An objection has been
raised from its disagreement with the fourth Council of Carthage, an. 398. can. 104, which
excommunicates widows who marry again after consecration, and pronounces them guilty of
adultery, whereas in cap. 10 and 11, the opinion that such marriages are no marriages, and
that they ought to return to continence, is refuted. The two, however, are not wholly
irreconcileable, as there may be a guilt similar to that of adultery incurred, and it may
be visited with a censure in the form of excommunication, and yet the marriage may remain
valid. The 16th Canon of Chalcedon imposes such a penalty, with power to the Bishop to
relax it.-Abridged fromthe Benedictine Edition.

Augustin the Bishop, servant of Christ, and of the servants of Christ, unto the religious
handmaiden of God, Juliana, in the: Lord of lords health. Not any longer to be in debt of
my promise to your request and love in Christ, I have seized the occasion as I could, amid
other my very pressing engagements, to write to you somewhat concerning the profession of
holy widowhood, forasmuch as, when I was present, you laded me with entreaty, and, when I
had not been able to deny you this, you often by letters demanded my promise. And in this
work of ours, when you shall find in reading that some things pertain not at all I unto
your own person, or unto the person of you, who are living together in Christ, nor are
strictly necessary to give counsel unto your life, it will be your duty not on this
account to judge them superfluous. Forsooth this letter, although it be addressed to you,
was not to be written for you alone; but certainly it was a matter for us not to neglect,
that it should profit others also through your means. Whatsoever, therefore, you shall
find here, such as either hath been at no time necessary for you, or is not so now, and
which yet you shall perceive to be necessary for others, grieve not either to possess or
to lend to read; that your charity also may be the profit of others.

2. Whereas, therefore, in every question, which relates to life and conduct, not only
teaching, but exhortation also is necessary; in order that by teaching wemay know what is
to be done, and by exhortation may be incited not to think it irksome to do what we
already know is to be done; what more can I teach you, than what we read in the Apostle?
For holy Scripture setteth a rule to ourteaching, that we dare not "be wise more than it
behoveth to be wise;" but be wise, as himself saith, "unto soberness, according as unto
each God hath allotted the measure of faith." Be it not therefore for me to teach you any
other thing, save to expound to you the words of the Teacher, and to treat of them as the
Lord shall have given to me. 3. Therefore (thus) saith the Apostle, the teacher of the
Gentiles, the vessel of election, "But I say unto the unmarried and the widows, that it is
good for them, if they shall have so continued, even as I also." These words are to be so
understood, as that we think not that widows ought not to be called unmarried, in that
they seem to have made trial of marriage: for by the name of unmarried women he means
those, who are not now Bound by marriage, whether they have been, or whether they have not
been so. And this in another place he opens, where he says, "Divided is a woman unmarried
and a virgin." Assuredly when he adds a virgin also, what would he have understood by an
unmarried woman, but a widow? Whence also, in what follows, under the one term "unmarried"
he embraces both professions, saying, "She who is unmarried is careful of the things of
the Lord, how to please the Lord: but she who is married is careful of the things of the
world, how to please her husband." Certainly by the unmarried he would have understood,
not only her who hath never married, but her also, who, being by widowhood set free from
the bond of marriage, hath ceased to be married; for on this account also he calleth not
married, save her, who hath an husband; not her also, who hath had, and hath not.
Wherefore every widow is unmarried; but, because not every unmarried woman is a widow, for
there are virgins also; therefore he hath here set both, where he says, "But I say unto
the unmarried and the widows;" as if he Should say, What I say unto the unmarried, I say
not unto them alone, who are virgins, but unto them also who are widows; "that it is good
for them, if they shall have so continued, even as also I."

4. Lo, there is your good compared to that good, which the Apostle calls his own, if faith
be present: yea, rather, because faith is present. Short is this teaching, yet not on this
account to be despised, because it is short; but on this account to be retained the more
easily and the more dearly, in that in shortness it is not cheap. For it is not every kind
of good soever, which the Apostle would here set forth, which he hath unambiguously placed
above the faith of married women. But how great good the faith of married women, that is,
of Christian and religious women joined in marriage, hath, may be understood from this,
that, when he was giving charge for the avoiding of fornication, wherein assuredly he was
addressing married persons also, he saith, "Know ye not that your bodies are the members
of Christ?" So great then is the good of faithful marriage, that even the very members are
(members) of Christ. But, forasmuch as the good of widowed continence is better than this
good, the purpose of this profession is, not that a catholic widow be any thing more than
a member of Christ, but that she have a better place, than a married woman, among the
members of Christ. Forsooth the same Apostle says, "For, as in one body we have many
members, but all members have not the same course of action; so being many we are one body
in Christ, and each members one of another: having gifts diverse according unto the grace,
which hath been given unto us."

5. Wherefore also when he was advising married persons not to defraud one another of tile
due of carnal intercourse; lest, by this means, the one of them, (the due of marriage
being denied to him,) being through his own Incontinence tempted of Satan, should fall
away into fornication, he saith, "But this I say of leave, not of command; but I would
that all men were as I myself; but each one hath his own proper gift from God; but one in
this way, and another in that. You see that wedded chastity also, and the marriage faith
of the Christian bed, is a "gift," and this of God; so that, when as carnal lust exceeds
somewhat the measure of sensual intercourse, beyond what is necessary for the begetting of
children, this evil is not of marriage, but venial by reason of the good of marriage. For
not concerning marriage, which is contracted for the begetting of children, and the faith
of wedded chastity, and the sacrament (indissoluble, so long as both live) of matrimony,
all which are good; but concerning that immoderate use of the flesh, which is recognized
in the weakness of married persons, and is pardoned by the intervention of the good of
marriage, the Apostle saith, "I speak of leave, not of command. Also, when he says, "The
woman is bound, so long as her husband lives: but, in case her husband shall have died,
she is set free: let her be married to whom she will, only in the Lord:

but she shall be more blessed, if she: shall have so continued, according to my counsel;
he shows sufficiently that a faithful woman is blessed in the Lord, even when she marries
a second time after the (death of her husband, but that a widow is more blessed in the
same Lord; that is, to speak not only in the words, but by instances also, of the
Scriptures, that Ruth is blessed, but that Anna is more blessed. 6. Wherefore this in the
first place you ought to know, that by the good, which you have chosen, second marriages
are not condemned, but are set in lower honor. For, even as the good of holy virginity,
which thy daughter hath chosen, doth not condemn thy one marriage; so neither doth thy
widowhood the second marriage of any. For hence, specially, the heresies of the
Cataphryges and of the Novatians swelled, which Tertullian also, inflated with cheeks full
of sound not of wisdom, whilst with railing tooth he attacks second marriages, as though
unlawful, which the Apostle with sober mind allows to be altogether lawful. From this
soundness of doctrine let no man's reasoning, be he unlearned, or be he learned, move
thee; nor do thou so extol thy own good, as to charge as evil that of another's which is
not evil; but do thou rejoice so much the more of thy own good, the more thou seest, that,
by it, not only are evils shunned, but some goods too surpassed. For adultery and
fornication are evils. But from these unlawful things she is very far removed, who hath
bound herself by liberty of vow, and, not by command of law, but by counsel of charity,
hath brought to pass that even things lawful should not be lawful to her. And marriage
chastity is a good, but widowed continence is a better good. Therefore this better good is
honored by the submission of that other, not that other condemned by the praise of this
that is better.

7. But whereas the Apostle, when commending the fruit of unmarried men and women, in that
they have thought of the things of the Lord, how to please God, added and saith, "But this
I say for your profit, not to cast a snare on you" that is, not to force you; "but in
order to that which is honorable; we ought not, because he saith that the good of the
unmarried is honorable, therefore to think that the bond of marriage is base; otherwise we
shall condemn first marriages also, which neither Cataphryges, nor Novatians, nor their
most learned upholder Tertullian dared to call base. But as, when he says, "But I say unto
the unmarried and widows, that it is good for them if they shall have so continued;
assuredly he set down "good" for "better," since every thing, which, when compared with a
good, is called better, this also without doubt is a good; for what else is it that it is
so called better, save that it is more good? and yet we do not on this account suppose him
by consequence to have thought that it was an evil, in case they married, in that he said,
"it is good for them, if they shall have so continued; so also, when he says, "but in
order to that which is honest," he hath not shown that marriage is base, but that which
was honester than (another thing also) honest, he hath commended by the name of honest in
general.

Because what is honester, save what is more honest? But what is more honest is certainly
honest. Forsooth he plainly showed that this is better than that other that is good, where
he says, "Whoso giveth to marry, doeth well; but whoso giveth not to marry, doeth better.
And this more blessed than that other that is blessed, where he saith, "But she shall be
more blessed, if she shall have so continued. As, therefore, there is than good a better,
and than blessed a more blessed, so is there than honest an honester, which he chose to
call honest. For far be it that that be base, of which the Apostle Peter speaking saith,
"Husbands, unto your wives, as unto the weaker and subject vessel, give honor, as unto co-
heirs of grace; and addressing the wives, he exhorts them, by the pattern of Sarah, to be
subject unto their husbands; "For so," saith he, "certain holy women, who hoped in God,
adorned themselves, obeying their own husbands; even as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him
lord, whose daughters ye are made, well-doing, and not fearing any disturbance."

8. Whence, also, what the Apostle Paul said of the unmarried woman, "that she may be holy
both in body and spirit; we are not so to understand, as though a faithful l woman being
married and chaste, and according to the Scriptures subject unto her bus band, be not holy
in body, but only in spirit. For it cannot come to pass, that when the spirit is
sanctified, the body also be not holy, of which the sanctified spirit maketh use: but,
that we seem not to any to argue rather than to prove this by divine saying; since the
Apostle Peter, making mention of Sarah, saith only "holy women," and saith not, "and in
body; let us consider that saying of the same Paul, where forbidding fornication he saith,
"Know ye not, that your bodies are members of Christ? Taking, therefore, members of
Christ, shall I make them members of an harlot? Far be it. Therefore let any one dare to
say that the members of Christ are not holy; or let him not dare to separate from the
members of Christ the bodies of the faithful that are married. Whence, also, a little
after he saith, "Your body is the temple within you of the Holy Spirit, Whom ye have from
God; and ye are not your own; for ye have been bought with a great price. He saith that
the body of the faithful is both members of Christ, and the temple of the Holy Spirit,
wherein assuredly the faithful of both sexes are understood.

There therefore are married women, there unmarried women also; but distinct in their
deserts, and as members preferred to members, whilst yet neither are separated from the
body. Whereas, therefore, he saith, speaking of an unmarried woman, "that she may be holy
both in body and spirit," he would have understood a fuller sanctification both in body
and in spirit, and hath not deprived the body of married women of all sanctification. 9.
Learn, therefore, that thy good, yea, rather, remember what thou hast learned, that thy
good is more praised, because there is another good than which this is better, than if
this could not on any other condition be a good, unless that were an evil, or altogether
were not. The eyes have great honor in the body, but they would have less, if they were
alone, and there were not other members of less honor. In heaven itself the sun by its
light surpasses, not chides, the moon; and star from star differs in glory, not is
atvariance through pride. Therefore, "God made all things, and, lo, very good;" not only
"good," but also "very;" for no other reason, than because "all." For of each several work
throughout it was also said, "God saw that it is good." But, when "all" were named, "very"
was added; and it was said, "God saw all things which He made, and, lo, very good." For
certain several things were better than other several, but all together better than any
several. Therefore, may the sound doctrine of Christ make thee in His Body sound through
His Grace, that, what thou hast better than others in body and spirit, the self-same thy
spirit, which ruleth the body, may neither extol with insolence, nor distinguish with lack
of knowledge.

10. Nor, because I called Ruth blessed, Anna more blessed, in that the former married
twice, the latter, being soon widowed of her one husband, so lived long, do you
straightway also think that you are better than Ruth. Forsooth different in the times of
the Prophets was the dispensation of holy females, whom obedience, not lust, forced to
marry, for the propagation of the people of God, that in them Prophets of Christ might be
sent beforehand; whereas the People itself also, by those things which in figure happened
among them, whether in the case of those who knew, or in the case of those who knew not
those things, was nothing else than a Prophet of Christ, of whom should be born the Flesh
also of Christ. In order therefore for the propagation of that people, he was accounted
accursed by sentence of the Law, whoso raised not up seed in Israel. Whence also holy
women were kindled, not by lust of sensual intercourse, but by piety of bearing; so that
we most rightly believe of them that they would not have sought sensual intercourse, in
case a family could have come by any other means. And to the husbands was allowed the use
of several wives living; and that the cause of this was not lust of the flesh, but
forethought of begetting, is shown by the fact, that, as it was lawful for holy men to
have several wives living, it was riot likewise lawful for holy women to have intercourse
with several husbands living;

in that they would be by so much the baser, by how much the more they sought what would
not add to their fruitfulness. Wherefore holy Ruth, not having seed such as at that time
was necessary in Israel, on the death of her husband sought another of whom to have it.
Therefore than this one twice married, Anna once married a widow was on this account more
blessed, in that she attained also to be a prophetess of Christ; concerning whom we are to
believe, that, although she had no sons, (which indeed Scripture by keeping silence hath
left uncertain,) yet, had she by that Spirit foreseen that Christ would immediately come
of a virgin, by Which she was enabled to recognize Him even as a child: whence, with good
reason, even without sons, (that is, assuming she had none,) she refused a second
marriage: in that she knew that now was the time wherein Christ were better served, not by
duty of bearing, but by zeal of containing: not by fruitfulness of married womb, but by
chastity of widowed conduct. But if Ruth also was aware that by her flesh was propagated a
seed, whereof Christ should hereafter have flesh, and by marrying set forth her
ministering to this knowledge, I dare not any longer say that the widowhood of Anna was
more blessed than her fruitfulness.

11. But thou who both hast sons, and livest in that end of the world, wherein now is the
time not of casting stones, but of gathering; not of embracing, but of abstaining from
embracing; when the Apostle cries out, "But this I say, brethren, the time is short; it
remains, that both they who have wives be as not having; assuredly if thou hadst sought a
second marriage, it would have been no obedience of prophecy or law, no carnal desire even
of family, but a mark of incontinence alone. For you would have done what the Apostle
says, after he had said, "It is good for them, if they shall have so continued, even as I;
forsooth he straightway added, "But if they contain not themselves, let them marry; for I
had rather that they marry than be burned. For this he said, in order that the evil of
unbridled desire might not be carried headlong into criminal baseness, being taken up by
the honest estate of marriage. But thanks be to the Lord, in that thou hast given birth to
what thou wouldest not be, and the virginity of thy child hath compensated for the loss of
thy virginity. For Christian doctrine, having diligent question made of it, makes answer,
that a first marriage also now at this time is to be despised, unless incontinence stand
in the way.

For he, who said, "If they contain not themselves, let them marry," could have said, "If
they have not sons, let them marry," if, when now after theResurrection and Preaching of
Christ, thereis unto all nations so great and abundant supply of sons to be spiritually
begotten, it were any such duty to beget sons after the flesh as it was in the first
times. And, whereas in another place he saith, "But I will that the younger marry, bear
children, be mothers of families," he commends with apostolic sobriety and authority the
good of marriage, but doth not impose the duty of bearing, as though in order to obey the
law, even on those who "receive" the good of continence. Lastly, why he had said this, he
unfolds, when he adds and says, "To give no occasion of speaking evil to the adversary;
for already certain have turned back after Satan: that by these words of his we may
understand, that those, whom he would have marry, could have done better to contain than
marry; but better to marry than to go back after Satan, that is, to fall away from that
excellent purpose of virginal or widowed chastity, by looking back to things that are
behind, and perish. Wherefore, such as contain not themselves, let them marry before they
make profession of continence, before they vow unto God, what, if they pay not, they are
justly condemned. Forsooth in another place he saith of such, "For when they have lived in
delights in Christ, they wish to marry:

having condemnation, in that they have made of none effect their first faith; that is,
they have turned aside their will from the purpose of continence unto marriage. Forsooth
they have made of none effect the faith, whereby they formerly vowed what they were
unwilling by perseverance to fulfill. Therefore the good of marriage is indeed ever a
good: but in the people of God it was at one time an act of obedience unto the law; now it
is a remedy for weakness, but in certain a solace of human nature. Forsooth to be engaged
in thegetting of children, not after the fashion of dogs by promiscuous use of females,
but by honest order of marriage, is not an affection such as we are to blame in a man; yet
this affection itself the Christian mind, having thoughts of heavenly things, in a more
praiseworthy manner surpasses and overcomes.

12. But since, as the Lord saith, "Not all receive this word; therefore let her who can
receive it, receive it; and let her, who containeth not, marry; let her, who hath not
begun, deliberate; let her, who hath undertaken it, persevere; let there be no occasion
given unto the adversary, let there be no oblation withdrawn from Christ. Forsooth in the
marriage bond if chastity be preserved, condemnation is not feared; but in widowed and
virginal continence, the excellence of a greater gift is sought for: and, when this has
been sought, and chosen, and by debt of vow offered, from this time not only to enter upon
marriage, but, although one be not married, to wish to marry is matter of condemnation.
For, in order to show this, the Apostle saith not, "When they shall have lived in
delights, in Christ" they marry; but "they wish to marry; having," saith he,
"condemnation, in that they have made of none effect their first faith," although not by
marrying, yet by wishing; not that the marriages even of such are judged matter of
condemnation; but there is condemned a wrong done to purpose, there is condemned a broken
faith of vow, there is condemned not a relief by lower good, but a fall from higher good:
lastly, such are condemned, not because they have entered upon marriage faith afterwards,
but because they have made of none effect the first faith of continence.

And in order to suggest this in few words, the Apostle would not say, that they have
condemnation, who after purpose of greater sanctity marry, (not because they are not
condemned, but lest in them marriage itself should be thought to be condemned: but, after
he had said, "they wish to marry," he straightway added, "having condemnation. And he
stated the reason, "in that they have made of none effect their former faith," in order
that it may appear that it is the will which fell away from its purpose, which is
condemned, whether marriage follow, or fail to follow. 13. Wherefore they who say that the
marriages of such are not marriages, but rather adulteries, seem not to me to consider
with sufficient acuteness and care what they say; forsooth they, are misled by a semblance
of truth. For, whereas they, who of Christian sanctity marry not, are said to choose the
marriage of Christ, hence certain argue saying, If she, who during the life of her husband
is married to another, be an adulteress, even as the Lord Himself hath laid down in the
Gospel; therefore, during the life of Christ, over Whom death hath no more dominion, if
she who had chosen His marriage, be married to a man, she is an adulteress. They, who say
this, are moved indeed with acuteness, but fail to observe, how great absurdity in fact
follows on this reasoning. For whereas it is praiseworthy that, even during the life of
her husband, by his consent, a female vow continence unto Christ, now, according to the
reasoning of these persons, no one ought to do this, lest she make Christ Himself, what is
impious to imagine, an adulterer, by being married to Him during the life of her husband.
Next, whereas first marriages are of better desert than second, far be it that this be the
thought of holy widows, that Christ seem unto them as a second husband. For Himself they
used heretofore also to have, (when they were subject and did faithful service to their
own husbands,) not after the flesh, but after the Spirit a Husband;

unto Whom the Church herself, of which they are members, is the wife; who by soundness of
faith, of hope, of charity, not in the virgins alone, but in widows also, and faithful
married women, is altogether a virgin. Forsooth unto the universal Church, of which they
all are members, the Apostle saith, "I joined you unto one husband a chaste virgin to
present unto Christ. But He knoweth how to make fruitful, without marring of chastity, a
wife a virgin, Whom even in the flesh itself His Mother could without violation of
chastity conceive. But there is brought to pass by means of this ill-considered notion,
(whereby they think that the marriages of women who have fallen away from this holy
purpose, in case they shall have married, are no marriages,) no small evil, that wives be
separated from their husbands, as though they were adulteresses, not wives; and wishing to
restore to continence the women thus separated, they make their husbands real adulterers,
in that during the life of their wives they have married others.

14. Wherefore I cannot indeed say, of females who have fallen away from a better purpose,
in case they shall have married, that they are adulteries, not marriages; but I plainly
would not hesitate to say, that departures and fallings away from a holier chastity, which
is vowed unto the Lord, are worse than adulteries. For if, what may no way be doubted, it
pertains unto an offense against Christ, when a member of Him keepeth not faith to her
husband; how much graver offense is it against Him, when unto Himself faith is not kept,
in a matter which He requires when offered, Who had not required that it should be
offered. For when each fails to render that which, not by force of command, but by advice
of counsel, he vowed, by so much the more cloth he increase the unrighteousness of the
wrong done to his vow, by how much the less necessity he had to vow. These matters I for
this reason treat of, that you may not think either that second marriages are criminal, or
that any marriages whatsoever, being marriages, are an evil. Therefore let this be your
mind, not that you condemn them, but that you despise them. Therefore the good of widowed
chastity is becoming after a brighter fashion, in that in order to make vow and profession
of it, females may despise what is both pleasing and lawful. But after profession of vow
made they must continue to rein in, and overcome, what is pleasing, because it is no
longer lawful.

15. Men are wont to move a question concerning a third or fourth marriage, and even more
numerous marriages than this. On which to make answer strictly, I dare neither to condemn
any marriage, nor to take from these the shame of their great number. But, lest the
brevity of this my answer may chance to displease any, I am prepared to listen to my
reprover treating more fully. For perhaps he alleges some reason, why second marriages be
not condemned, but third be condemned. For I, as in the beginning of this discourse I gave
warning, dare not to be more wise than it behoveth to be wise. For who am I, that I should
think that that must be defined which I see that the Apostle hath not defined? For he
saith, "A woman is bound, so long as her husband liveth. He said not, her first; or,
second; or, third; or, fourth; but, "A woman," saith he, "is bound, so long as her husband
liveth; but if her husband shall be dead, she is set free; let her be married to whom she
will, only in the Lord: but she shall be more blessed, if she shall have so continued. I
know not what can be added to, or taken from, this sentence, so far as relates to this
matter.

Next I hear Himself also, the Master and Lord of the Apostles and of us, answering the
Sadducees, when they had proposed to Him a woman not once-married, or twice-married, but,
if it can be said, seven-married, whose wife she should be in the resurrection? For
rebuking them, He saith, "Ye do err, not knowing. the Scriptures, nor the power of God.
For in the resurrection they shall neither be married,nor marry wives; for they shall not
begin todie, but shall be equal to the Angels of God. Therefore He made mention of their
resurrection, who shall rise again unto life, not who shall rise again unto punishment.
Therefore He might have said, Ye do err, knowing not the Scriptures, nor the power of God:
for in that resurrection it will not be possible that there be those that were wives of
many; and then added, that neither doth any there marry. But neither, as we see, did He in
this sentence show any sign of condemning her who was the wife of so many husbands.
Wherefore neither dare I, contrary to the feeling of natural shame, say, that, when her
husbands. are dead, a woman marry as often as she will; nor dare I, out of my own heart,
beside the authority of holy Scripture, condemn any number of marriages whatever. But,
what I say to a widow, who hath had one husband, this I say to every widow; you will be
more blessed, if you shall have so continued.

16. For that also is no foolish question which is wont to be proposed, that whoso can may
say, which widow is to be preferred in desert; whether one who hath had one husband, who,
after having lived a considerable time with her husband, being left a widow with sons born
to her and alive, hath made profession of continence; or She who as a young woman having
lost two husbands within two years, having no children left alive to console her, hath
vowed to God continence, and in it hath grown old with most enduring sanctity. Herein let
them exercise themselves, if they can, by discussing, and by showing some proof to us, who
weigh the merits of widows by number of husbands, not by the strength itself of
continence. For, if they shall have said, that she who hath had one husband is to be
preferred to her who hath had two; unless they shall have alleged some special reason or
authority, they will assuredly be found to set before excellence of soul, not greater
excellence of soul, but good fortune of the flesh. Forsooth it pertained unto good fortune
of the flesh, both to live a long time with her husband, and to conceive sons. But, if
they prefer her not on this account, that she had sons; at any rate the very fact that she
lived a long time with her husband, what else was it than good fortune of the flesh?

Further, the desert of Anna herself is herein chiefly commended, in that, after she had so
soon buried her husband, through her protracted life she long contended with the flesh,
and overcame. For so it is written, "And there was Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of
Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser; she was far advanced in many days; and had lived with her
husband seven years from her virginity; and she was a widow even unto eighty-four years,
who used not to depart from the Temple, by fastings and prayers serving day and night. You
see how the holy widow is not only commended in this, that she had had one husband, but
also, that she had lived few years with a husband from her virginity, and had with so
great service of piety continued her office of widowed chastity even unto so great age.
17. Let us therefore set before our eyes three widows, each having one of the things, the
whole of which were in her: let us suppose one who had had one husband, in whose case is
wanting both so great length of widowhood, in that she hath lived long with her husband,
and so great zeal of piety, in that she doth not so serve with fasts and prayers: a
second, who after the very short life of her former husband, had quickly lost a second
also, and is now long time a widow, but yet herself also doth not so set herself to the
most religious service of fasts and prayers: a third, who not only hath had two husbands,
but also hath lived long with each of them singly, or with one of them, and being left a
widow at a later period of life, wherein indeed, in case she had wished to marry, she
might also conceive sons, hath taken upon her widowed continence; but is more intent on
God, more careful to do always the things that please Him, day and night, like Anna,
serving by prayers and fasts. If a question be raised, which of these is to be preferred
in deserts, who but must see that in this contest the palm must be given to the greater
and, more glowing piety? So also if three others be set, in each of whom are two of those
three, but one of the three in each wanting, who can doubt that they will be the better,
who shall have in a more excellent manner in their two goods pious humility, in order that
there may be lofty piety?

18. No one indeed of these six widows could come up to your standard. For you, in case
that you shall have maintained this vow even unto old age, mayest have all the three
things wherein the desert of Anna excelled. For both thou hast had one husband, and he
lived not long with thee in the flesh; and, by this means, in case that thou shall show
forth obedience to the words of the Apostle, saying, "But she who is a widow indeed and
desolate, hath hoped in the Lord, and persevereth in prayers night and day," and with
sober watchfulness shall shun what follows, "But she who passes her time in delights,
living is dead," all those three goods, which were Anna's, shall be thine also. But you
have sons also, which haply she had not. And yet you are not on this account to be
praised, that you have them, but that you are zealous to nurture and educate them piously.
For that they were born to thee, was of fruitfulness; that they are alive, is of good
fortune; that they be so brought up, is of your will and disposal. In the former let men
congratulate you, in this let them imitate you. Anna, through prophetic knowledge,
recognized Christ with His virgin Mother; thee the grace of the Gospel hath made the
mother of a virgin of Christ. Therefore that l holy virgin, whom herself willing and
seeking it ye have offered unto Christ, hath added something of virginal desert also unto
the widowed deserts of her grandmother and mother. For ye who have her, fail not to have
something thence; and in her ye are, what in yourselves ye are not. For that holy
virginity should be taken from you at your marriage, was on this account brought to pass,
in order that she should be born of you.

19. These discussions, therefore, concerning the different deserts of married women, and
of different widows, I would not in this work enter upon, if, what I am writing unto you,
I were writing only for you. But, since there are in this kind of discourse certain very
difficult questions, it was my wish to say something more than what properly relates to
you, by reason of certain, who seem not to themselves learned, unless they essay, not by
passing judgment to discuss, but by rending to cut in pieces the labors of others: in the
next place, that you yourself also may not only keep what you have vowed, and make advance
in that good; but also know more carefully and more surely, that this same good of yours
is not distinguished from the evil of marriage, but is set before the good of marriage.
For let not such, as condemn the marriage of widowed females, although they exercise their
continence in abstaining from many things, which you make use of, on this account lead you
astray, to think what they think, although you cannot do what they do. For no one would be
a madman, although he see that the strength of a madman is greater than of men in their
sound senses. Chiefly, therefore, let sound doctrine both adorn and guard goodness of
purpose.

Forsooth it is from this cause that catholic females, even after that they have been
married more than once, are by just judgment preferred, not only to the widows who have
had one husband, but also to the virgins of heretics. There are indeed on these three
matters, of marriage, widowhood, and virginity, many winding recesses of questions, many
perplexities; and in order by discussion to enter deeply into and solve these, there is
required both greater care, and a fuller discourse; that either we may have a right mind
in all those things, or, if in any matter we be otherwise minded, this also God may reveal
unto us. However, what there also the Apostle saith next after, "Whereunto we have
arrived, in that let us walk. But we have arrived, in what relates to this matter on which
we are speaking, so far as to set continence before marriage, but holy virginity even
before widowed continence; and not to condemn any marriages, which yet are not adulteries
but marriages, by praise of any purpose whatever of our own or of our friends. Many other
things on these matters we have said in a Book concerning the Good of Marriage, and in
another Book concerning Holy Virginity, and in a Book which we composed with as great
pains as we could against Faustus the Manichee; since, by most biting reproaches in his
writings of the chaste marriages of Patriarchs and Prophets, he had turned aside the minds
of certain unlearned persons from soundness of faith.

20. Wherefore, forasmuch as in the beginning of this little work I had proposed certain
two necessary matters, and had undertaken to follow them out; one which related to
doctrine, the other to exhortation; and I have not failed in the former part, to the best
of my power, according to the business which I had undertaken; let us come to exhortation,
in order that the good which is known wisely, may be pursued ardently. And in this matter
I give you this advice first, that, how great soever love of pious continence you feel to
De in you, you ascribe it to the favor of God, and give Him thanks, Who of His Holy Spirit
hath freely given unto you so much, as that, His love being shed abroad in your heart, the
love of a better good should take, away from you the permission of a lawful matter. For it
was His gift to you that you should not wish to marry, when it was lawful, in order that
now it should not be lawful, even if you wished; and that by this means the wish not to do
it might be the more settled, lest what were now unlawful be done, which was not done even
when lawful; and that, a widow of Christ, you should so far attain as to see your daughter
also a virgin of Christ; for whilst you are praying as Anna, she hath become what Mary
was.

These by how much the more you know them to be gifts of God, by so much the more are you
by the same gifts blessed; yea, rather, you are not so otherwise than as you know from
Whom you have what you have. For listen to what the Apostle said on this matter, "But we
have received not the spirit of this world, but the Spirit Which is of God, that we may
know what things have been given to us by God. Forsooth many have many gifts of God, and
by not knowing from Whom they have them, come to boast themselves with impious vanity. But
there is no one blessed with the gifts of God, who is ungrateful to the Giver. Forasmuch
as, also, whereas in the course of the sacred Mysteries we are bidden to "lift up our
hearts," it is by His help that we are able, by Whose bidding we are admonished; and
therefore it follows, that, of this so great good of the heart lifted up, we give not the
glory to ourselves as of our own strength, but render thanks unto our Lord God. For of
this we are straightway admonished, that "this is meet," "this is right. You remember
whence these words are taken, you recognize by what sanction, and by how great holiness
they are commended within. Therefore hold and have what you have received, and return
thanks to the Giver. For, although it be yours to receive and have, yet you have that,
which you have received;

forasmuch as to one waxing proud, and impiously glorying of that which he had, as though
he had it of himself, the Truth saith by the Apostle, "But what hast thou, which thou hast
not received? But, if thou hast received, why boastest thou, as if thou hadst not
received?" 21. These things I am compelled to admonish by reason of certain little
discourses of some men, that are to be shunned and avoided, which have begun to steal
through the ears unto the minds of many, being (as must be said with tears) hostile to the
grace of Christ, which go to persuade that we count not as necessary for us prayer unto
the Lord, that we enter not into temptation. For they so essay to defend the free will of
man, as that by it alone, even without help of the grace of God, we are able to fulfill
what is commanded us of God. And thus it follows, that the Lord in vain said, "Watch and
pray, lest ye enter into temptation; and in vain daily in the Lord's Prayer itself we say,
"Lead us not into temptation. For if it is of our own power alone that we be not overcome
by temptation, why do we pray that we enter not, nor be led into it? Rather let us do what
is of our own free will, and most absolute power; and let us mock at the Apostle, saying,
"God is faithful, Who will not suffer you to be tempted above what ye are able; and let us
oppose him, and say, Why seek I of the Lord, what He hath set in my own power? But far be
it, that he be so minded, who is sound minded. Wherefore let us seek that He may give,
what He bids us that we have.

For to this end He bids us have this, which as yet we have not, to admonish as what to
seek; and that when we shall have found the power to do what He hath bidden, we may
understand, of this also, whence we have received it; lest, being puffed and lifted up by
the spirit of this world, we know not what things have been given unto us of God.
Wherefore the free choice of the human will we by no means destroy, when the Grace of God,
by which the free choice itself is helped, we deny not with ungrateful pride, but rather
set forth with grateful piety. For it is ours to will: but the will itself is both
admonished that it may arise, and healed, that it may have power; and enlarged, that it
may receive; and filled, that it may have. For were not we to will, certainly neither
should we receive the things that are given, nor should we have. For who would have
continence, (among the rest of the gifts of God to speak of this rather, of which I am
speaking to you,) who, I say, would have continence, unless willing? forasmuch as also no
one would receive unless willing. But if you ask, Whose gift it is, that it can be by our
will received and had? listen to Scripture;

yea, rather, because thou knowest, recollect what thou hast read, "Whereas I knew," saith
he, "that no one can be continent, unless God give it, and this itself was of wisdom, to
know whose gift it was. Great are these two gifts, wisdom and continence; wisdom,
forsooth, whereby we are formed in the knowledge of God; but continence, whereby we are
not conformed unto this world. But God bids us that we be both wise and continent, without
which goods we cannot be just and perfect. But let us praythat He give what He bids, by
helping and inspiring, Who hath admonished us what to will by commanding and calling.
Whatsoever 'of this He hath given, let us pray that He preserve; but what He hath not
given as yet, let us pray that He supply; yet let us pray and give thanks for what we have
received; and for what we have not yet received, from the very fact that we are not
ungrateful for what we have received, let us trust that we shall receive it. For He, Who
hath given power unto the faithful who are married to contain from adulteries and
fornications, Himself hath given unto holy virgins and widows to contain from all sexual
intercourse; in the case of which virtue now the term inviolate chastity or continence is
properly used. Or is it haply that from Him indeed we have received continence, but from
ourselves have wisdom?

"What then is it that the Apostle James saith, "But if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask
of God, Who giveth unto all liberally, and upbraideth not, and it shall be given unto him.
But on this question, already in other little works of ours, so far as the Lord hath
helped us, we have said many things; and at other times, so far as through Him we shall be
able, when opportunity is given, we will speak. 22. Now it has been my wish on this
account to say something on this subject, by reason of certain of our brethren most
friendly and dear to us, and without willful guilt indeed entangled in this error, but yet
entangled; who think, that, when they exhort any to righteousness and piety, their
exhortation will not have force, unless the whole of that, wherein they would work upon
man that man should work, they set in the power of man, not helped by the grace of God,
but put forth by the alone choice of the free will; as though there can be free will to
perform a good work, unless set free by the gift of God! And they mark not that this very
thing themselves also have by the gift of God, that with such power they exhort, as to
excite the dull wills of men to enter upon a good life, to enkindle the cold, to correct
such as are in error, to convert such as are turned aside, to pacify such as are opposed.
For thus they are able to succeed in persuading what they would persuade to, or if they
work not these things in the wills of men, what is their work? wherefore speak they? Let
them leave them ratherto their own choice. But if in them they work these things, what? I
pray, doth man, in the will of man, work so great things by speaking, and doth God work
nothing there by helping?

Yea rather, with how great soever power of discourse man may prevail, as that by skill of
discussion, and sweetness of speech, he in the will of man implant truth, nourish charity,
by teaching remove error, by exhortation remove sloth, "Neither he who planteth is any
thing, nor he who watereth, but God Who giveth the increase. For in vain would the workman
use all means without, unless the Creator should work secretly within. I hope therefore
that this letter of mine by the worthy deed of your Excellence will soon come into the
hands of such also; on this account I thought that I ought to say something on this
subject. Next that both you yourself, and whatsoever other widows shall read this, or hear
it read, may know that you make more advance unto the love and profession of the good of
continence by your own prayers than by our exhortations; forasmuch as if it be any help to
you that our addresses also are supplied to you, the whole must be assigned to His grace,
"in Whose Hand," as it is written, "are both we and our discourses."

23. If, therefore, you had not as yet vowed unto God widowed continence, we would
assuredly exhort you to vow it; but, in that you have already vowed it, we exhort you to
persevere. And yet I see that I must so speak as to lead those also who had as yetthought
of marriage to love it and to seize on it. Therefore let us give ear unto the Apostle,
"She who is unmarried," saith he, "is careful about the things of the Lord, to be holy
both in body and spirit; but she who is married is careful about the things of the world,
how to please her husband. He saith not, is careful about the things of the world, so as
not to be holy; but certainly that that marriage holiness is less, in regard of that
portion of cares, which hath thought of the pleasure of the world. Whatever, therefore, I
of earnest purpose of mind would be expended also on these things whereby she would have
to please a husband, the unmarried Christian woman ought in a certain way to gather and
bring together unto that earnest purpose whereby she is to please the Lord. And consider,
Whom she pleases, who pleases the Lord; and assuredly she is by so much the more blessed
by how much the more she pleases Him; but by how much the more her thoughts are of the
things of the world, by so much the less does she please Him.

Therefore do ye with all earnest purpose please Him, Who is "'fair of forth above the sons
of men. For that ye please Him, it is by His grace which is "shed abroad on His lips.
Please ye Him in that portion of thought also, which would be occupied by the world, in
order to please a husband. Please ye Him, Who displeased the world, in order that such as
please Him might be set free from the world. For This One, fair of form above the sons of
men, men saw on the Cross of the Passion; "and He had not form or beauty, but His face
cast down, and His posture unseemly. Yet from this unseemliness of your Redeemer flowed
the price of your beauty, but of a beauty within, for "all the beauty of the King's
daughter is within. By this beauty please ye Him, this beautyorder ye with studious care
and anxious thought. He loves not dyes of deceits; theTruth delighteth in things that are
true, and He, if you recognize what you have read, is called the Truth. "I am," saith He,
"the Way, and the Truth, and the Life. Run ye to Him through Him, please ye Him of Him;
live ye with Him, in Him, of Him. With true affections and holiest chastity love ye to be
loved by such a Husband.

24. Let the inner ear of the virgin also, thy holy child, hear these things. I shall see
how far she goes before you in the Kingdom of That King: it is another question. Yet ye
have found, mother and daughter, Him, Whom by beauty of chastity ye ought to please
together, having despised, she all, you second, marriage. Certainly if there were husbands
whom ye had to please, by this time, perhaps, you would feel ashamed to adorn yourself
together with your daughter; now let it not shame you, to set yourselves to do what may
adorn you both together; because it is not matter of blame, but of glory, that ye be loved
both together by That One. But white and red, feigned and laid on with paints, ye would
not use, even if ye had husbands; not thinking that they were fit persons for you to
deceive, or yourselves such as ought to deceive; now therefore That King, Who had longed
for the beauty of His OnlySpouse, of Whom ye are members, do ye with all truth together
please, together cleave unto; she with virginal chastity, you with widowed continence,
both with spiritual beauty. In which beauty also her grandmother, and your mother-in-law,
who by this time surely hath grown old, is beautiful together with you. Forsooth whilst
charity carries the vigor of this beauty into things that are before, length of years
causeth not in it a wrinkle.

You have with you a holy aged woman, both in your house and in Christ, whom to consult
concerning perseverance; how you are to fight with this or that temptation, what you are
to do, that it may be the more easily overcome; what safeguard you are to take, that it
may not easily again lay wait; and if there be any thing of this sort, she teaches you,
who is now by time fixed, by love a well-wisher, by natural affection full of cares, by
age secure. Do you specially, do you in such things consult her, who hath made trial of
what you have made trial of For your child sings that song, which in the Apocalypse none
save virgins can sing. But for both of you she prays more carefully than for herself, but
she is more full of care for her granddaughter, for whom there remains a longer space of
years to overcome temptations; but you she sees nearer to her own age, and mother of a
daughter of such an age, as that, had you seen her married, (which now is not lawful, and
far be it from her,) I think you would have blushed to bear children together with her.
How much then is it that now remains to you of a dangerous age, who are on this account
not called a grandmother,in order that together with your daughter you may be fruitful in
offspring of holy thoughts and works?

Therefore not without reason is the grandmother more full of care for her, for whom you
also the mother; because both what she hath vowed is greater, and the whole of what she
hath just now begun remains to her. May the Lord hear her prayers, that ye may holily
follow her good deserts, Who in youth gave birth to the flesh of your husband, in old age
travaileth with the heart of your daughter. Therefore do ye all, alike and with one
accord, by conduct please, by prayers press upon, That One Husband of One Wife, in Whose
Body by One Spirit ye are living. 25. The past day returns not hereafter, and after
yesterday proceeds to-day, and after to-day will proceed to-morrow; and, lo, all times and
the things of time pass away, that there may come the promise that shall abide; and "whoso
shall have persevered even unto the end, this one shall be saved. If the world is now
perishing, the married woman, for whom beareth she? Or in heart about to bear, and in
flesh not about to bear, why doth she marry? But if the world is still about to last, why
is not He more loved, by Whom the world was made? If already enticements of this life are
failing, there is not any thing for a Christian soul with desire to seek after; but if
they shall yet remain, there is what with holiness he may despise. For the one of these
two there is no hope of lust, in the other greater glory of charity. How many or how long
are the very years, in which the flower of carnal age seems to flourish? Some females
having thoughts of marriage, and with ardor wishing it, whilst they are being despised or
put off, on a sudden have grown old, so as that now they would feel shame, rather than
desire, to marry.

But many having married, their husbands having set out into distant countries very soon
after their union, have grown aged expecting their return, and, as though soon left
widows, at times have not even attained so as at least as old women to receive their old
men on their return. If therefore, when betrothed bridegrooms despised or delayed, or when
husbands were abroad, carnal desire could be restrained from commission of fornication or
adultery, why cannot it be restrained from commission of sacrilege? If it hath been
repressed, when being deferred it was glowing, wily is it not put down, when having been
cut off it had grown cold? For they in greater measure endure glowing of desire, who
despair not of the pleasure of tim same desire. But whoso of unmarried persons vow
chastity to God, withdraw that very hope, which is the fuel of love. Hence with more ease
is desire bridled, which is kindled by no expectation; and yet, unless against this prayer
be made, in order l to overcome it, itself as unlawful is the more ardently wished for.

26. Therefore let spiritual delights succeed to the place of carnal delights in holy
chastity; reading, prayer, psalm, good thought, frequency in good works, hope of the world
to come, and a heart upward; and for all these giving of thanks unto the Father of lights,
from Whom, without any doubt, every good gift, and every perfect gift, as Scripture bears
witness, cometh down. For when, in stead of tile delights of married women, which they
have in the flesh of their husbands, the use of other carnal delights is taken, as it were
to solace them, why should I speak of the evils which follow, when the Apostle hath said
in short, that the widow, who lives in delights, living is dead. But far be it from you,
that ye be taken with lust of riches instead of lust of marriage, or that in your hearts
money succeed to the place of love of a husband. For looking into men's conversation, we
have often found by experience, that in certain persons, when wantonness hath been
restrained, avarice hath increased. For, as, in the senses themselves of the body, they
who see not hear more keenly, and discern many things by touch, nor have such as have the
use of their eyes so great life in their touch;

and in this instance it is understood that, when the exertion of the power of attention
hath been restrained in one approach, that is, of the eyes, it puts itself forth into
other senses, more ready with keenness to distinguish, as though it essayed to supply from
the one what was denied in the other; thus also often carnal lust, being restrained from
pleasure of sensual intercourse, with greater strength reaches itself forth to desire
money, and when turned away from the one, turns itself with more glow of passion to the
other. But in you let the love of riches grow cold together with the love of marriage, and
let a pious use of what property you possess be directed to spiritual delights, that your
liberality wax warm rather in helping such as are in want than in enriching covetous
persons. Forsooth into the heavenly treasury are sent not gifts to the covetous, but alms
to the needy, which above measure help the prayers of widows. Fastings, also, and
watchings, so far as they disturb not health, if they be spent in praying, singing psalms,
reading, and meditating in the Law of God, even the very things which seem laborious are
turned into spiritual delights. For no way burdensome are the labors of such as love, but
even of themselves delight, as of such as hunt, fowl, fish, gather grapes, traffic,
delight themselves with some game. It matters therefore what be loved.

For, in the case of what is loved, either there is no labor, or the labor also is loved.
And consider how it should be matter for shame and grief, if there be pleasure in labor,
to take a wild beast, to fill cask and purse, to cast a ball, and there be no pleasure in
labors to win God! 27. Indeed in all spiritual delights, which unmarried women enjoy,
their holy conversation ought also to be with caution; lest haply, though their life be
not evil through haughtiness, their report be evil through negligence. Nor are they to be
listened to, whether they be holy men or women, when (upon occasion of their neglect in
some matter being blamed, through which it comes to pass that they fall into evil
suspicion, from which they know that their life is far removed) they say that it is enough
for them their conscience before God, despising what men think of them, not only
imprudently but also cruelly; when they slay the souls of others; whether of such as
blaspheme the way of God, who following their suspicion are displeased at what is the
chaste life of the Saints, as though, it were shameful, or of such also as make excuse,
and imitate, not what they see, but what they think. Wherefore whosoever guards his life
from charges of shameful and evil deeds, does good to himself; but whosoever guards his
character too, is merciful also towards others. For unto ourselves our ownlife is
necessary, unto others our character;and certainly even what we mercifully minister unto
others, for their health, abounds also to our own profit. Whence not in vain the Apostle,
"We provide good things," saith he, "not only before God, but also before men; also he
saith, "Please ye all men through all things;

even as I also please all men through all things, not seeking what is of profit unto
myself, but what unto many, that they may be saved. Also in a certain exhortation he says,
"For the rest, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are holy,
whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are most dear
whatsoever things are of good report; if any virtue, if any praise, these things think on,
which ye have both learned, and received, arid heard, and seen in me. You see howl among
many things, unto which by exhortation he admonished them, he neglected not to set,
"whatsoever things are of good report; and in two words included all things, where he
saith, "if any virtue, if any praise. For unto virtue pertain the good things of which He
made mention above; but good report unto praise. I think that the Apostle took not the
praise of men for any great thing, saying in another place, "But to me it is the least
thing, that I be judged of you, or of day of man; and in another place, "If I were
pleasing men, I should not be a servant of Christ; and again, "For our glory is this, the
testimony of our conscience. But of these two, that is, of a good life, and a good report,
or as is said more shortly, of virtue and praise, the one for his own sake he most wisely
kept, the other for the sake of others he most mercifully provided.

But, forasmuch as human caution, how great soever, cannot on every side avoid most
malevolent suspicions, when for our good report we shall have done whatever we rightly
can, if any, either by falsely pretending evil things of us, or from believing evil of us,
endeavor to stain our fair fame, let there be present the solace of conscience, and
clearly also the joy, in that our reward is great in Heaven, even when men say many evil
things of us, and we yet live godly and righteously. For that reward is as the pay of such
as serve as soldiers, through the arms of righteousness, not only on the right hand, but
on the left also; that is to say, through glory and mean estate, through ill report and
good report. 28. Go on therefore in your course, and run with perseverance, in order that
ye may obtain; and by pattern of life, and discourse of exhortation, carry away with you
into this same your course, whomsoever ye shall have had power. Let there not bend you
from this earnest purpose, whereby ye excite many to follow, the complaint of vain
persons, who say, How shall the human race subsist, if all shall have been continent? As
though it were for any other reason that this world is delayed, save that the predestined
number of the Saints be fulfilled, and were this the sooner fulfilled, assuredly the end
of the world would not be put off. Nor let it stay you from your earnest purpose of
persuading others to the same good ye have, if it be said to you, Whereas marriage also is
good, how shall there be all goods in the Body of Christ, both the greater, forsooth, and
the lesser, if all through praise and love of continence imitate? In the first place,
because with the endeavor that all be continent, there will still be but few, for "not all
receive this word. But forasmuch as it is written, "Whoso can receive, let him receive;
then do they receive who can, when silence is not kept even toward those who cannot. Next,
neither ought we to fear lest haply all receive it, and some one of lesser goods, that is,
married life, be wanting in the body of Christ.

For if all shall have heard, and all shall have received, we ought to understand that this
very thing was predestinated, that married goods already suffice in the number of those
members which so many have passed out of this life. For neither now, if all shall have
been continent, will they give the honor of the continent to those who have already borne
into the garners of the Lord the fruit thirty-fold, if that be understood of married good.
Therefore all these goods will have there their place, although from this time no woman
wish to be married, no man wish to marry a wife. Therefore without anxiety urge on whom ye
can, to become what ye are; and pray with watchfulness and fervor, that by the help of the
Right Hand of the Most High, and by the abundance of the most merciful grace of the Lord,
ye may both persevere in that which ye are, and may make advances unto that which ye shall
be.

29. Next I entreat you, by Him, from Whom ye have both received this gift, and hope for
the rewards of this gift, that ye be mindful to set me also in your prayers with all your
household Church. Forsooth it hath come to pass in most proper order, that I should write
unto your Mother now aged a letter concerning prayer; unto her, forsooth, it chiefly
pertains by praying to contend on your behalf, who is less full of care for herself than
for you; and that for you rather than for her I should compose this little work concerning
widowed continence; because unto you it remaineth to overcome, what her age hath already
overcome. But the holy virgin your child, if she desire aught concerning her profession
from our labors, she hath a large book on Holy Virginity to read. Concerning the reading
of which I had also admonished you, forasmuch as it contains many things necessary unto
either chastity, that is, virginal and widowed, which things on this account I have here
partly touched on lightly, partly altogether passed over, because I there discussed them
more fully.May you persevere in the grace of Christ.


ON CONTINENCE
=============

ON CONTINENCE Augustine of Hippo

AD 354–430

Bishop of Hippo, the most influential Latin father.

ON CONTINENCE

[De Continentia.]

Translated by Rev. C. L. Cornish, M.a., of Exeter College, Oxford. ST. Augustin speaks of
his work On Continence in Ep. 231, Ad Darium Comitem. [See vol. 1. of this edition, p.
584.-P. S.] Possidius, Ind. c. 10, mentions it, and it is cited in the Collectanea of Bede
or Florus, and by Eugypius. Erasmus is therefore wrong in ascribing it to Hugo on the
ground of the style, which is not unlike that of the earlier discourses. It is evidently a
discourse, and probably for that reason unnoticed in the Retractations. The Manichaean
heresy is impugned after the manner of his early works.-(Abridged from Benedictine ed.
vol. vi.) 1. IT is difficult to treat of the virtue of the soul, which is called
Continence, in a manner fully suitable and worthy; but He, whose great gift this virtue
is, will help our littleness under the burden of so great a weight. For He, who bestows it
upon His faithful ones when they are continent, Himself gives discourse of it to His
ministers when they speak. Lastly, of so great a matter purposing to speak what Himself
shall grant, in the first place we say and prove that Continence is the gift of God. We
have it written in the Book of Wisdom, that no one can be continent, unless God grant it.
But the Lord, concerning that greater and more glorious Continence itself, whereby there
is continence from the marriage bond, says, "Not all can receive this saying, but they to
whom it is given." And since marriage chastity also itself cannot be guarded, unless there
be Continence from unlawful intercourse, the Apostle declared both to be the gift of God,
when He spake of both lives, that is, both that of marriage and that without marriage,
saying, "I would that all men were so as myself; but each. hath his own gift from God; one
in this manner, another in that manner."

2. And lest it should seem that necessary Continence was to be hoped for from the Lord
only in respect of the lust of the lower parts of the flesh, it is also sung in the Psalm;
"Set, O Lord, a watch to my mouth, and a door of Continence around my lips." But in this
witness of the divine speech, if we understand "mouth" as we ought to understand it, we
perceive how great a gift of God Continence there set is. Forsooth it is little to contain
the mouth of the body, lest any thing burst forth thence, which is not for the better,
through the sound of the voice. For there is, within, the mouth of the heart, where he,
who spake these words, and wrote them for us to speak, desired of the Lord that the watch
and door of Continence should be set for him. For many things we say not with the mouth of
the body, and cry aloud with the heart: but there goes forth from the mouth of the body no
word of any thing, whereof there is silence in the heart. Therefore what flows not forth
thence, sounds not abroad: but what flows forth thence, if it be evil, although it move
not the tongue, defiles the soul. Therefore Continence must be set there, where the
conscience even of them who are silent speaks. For it is brought to pass by means of the
door of Continence, that there go not forth thence that, which, even when the lips of the
flesh are closed, pollutes the life of him that hath the thought.

3. Lastly, to show more plainly the inner mouth, which by these words he meant, after
having said, "Set a watch, O Lord, to my mouth, and a door of Continence around my lips,"
he added straightway, "Cause not my heart to fall aside into evil words." The failing
aside of the heart, what is it but the consent? For he hath not yet spoken, whosoever in
his heart hath with no failing aside of the heart consented unto suggestions that meet him
of each several thing that is seen. But, if he hath consented, he hath already spoken in
his heart, although he hath not uttered sound by the mouth; although he hath not done with
hand or any part whatever of the body, yet hath he done what in his thought he hath
already determined that he is to do: guilty by the divine laws, although hidden to human
senses; the word having been spoken in the heart, no deed having been committed through
the body. But in no case would he have moved the limb without, in a deed, the beginning of
which deed had not gone before within in word. For it is no lie that is written, that "the
beginning of every work is a word." Forsooth men do many things with mouth closed, tongue
quiet, voice bridled; but yet they do nothing by work of the body, which they have not
before spoken in the heart. And through this since there are many sins in inward sayings
which are not in outward deeds, whereas there are none in outward deeds, which do not go
before in inward sayings, there will be purity of innocence from both, if the door of
Continence be set around the inward lips.

4. For which cause our Lord Himself also with His own mouth saith, "Cleanse what are
within, and what are without will be clean. And, also, in another place, when He was
refuting the foolish speeches of the Jews, in that they spake evil against His disciples,
eating with unwashen hands; "Not what entereth into the mouth," said He, "defileth the
man: but what cometh forth out of the mouth, that defileth the man. Which sentence, if the
whole of it be taken of the mouth of the body, is absurd. For neither doth vomit defile
him, whom food defileth not. Forsooth food entereth into the mouth, vomit proceedeth forth
out of the mouth. But without doubt the former words relate to the mouth of the flesh,
where He says, "Not what entereth into the mouth defileth the man," but the latter words
to the mouth of the heart, where He saith, "But what proceedeth forth out of the mouth,
this defileth the man. Lastly, when the Apostle Peter sought of Him an explanation of this
as of a parable, He answered, "Are ye also yet without understanding? understand ye not,
that whatsoever entereth into the mouth, goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the
draught? Here surely we perceive the mouth of the flesh, into which the food enters. But
in what He next adds, in order that we might recognize the mouth of the heart, the
slowness of our heart would not follow, did not the Truth deign to walk even with the
slow.

For He saith, "But what things go forth from the mouth, go out of the heart; as though He
should say, When you hear it said "from the mouth," understand "from the heart. I say
both, but I set forth one by the other. The inner man hath an inner mouth, and this the
inner ear discerns: what things go forth from this mouth, go out of the heart, and they
defile the man. Then having left the term mouth, which may be understood also of the body,
He shows more openly what He is saying. "For from the heart go out," saith He, "evil
thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies; these are
what defile the man. There is surely no one of those evils, which can be committed also by
the members of the body, but that the evil thoughts go before and defile the man, although
something hinder the sinful and wicked deeds of the body from following. For if, because
power is not given, the hand is free from the murder of a man, is the heart of the
murderer forsooth therefore clean from sin? Or if she be chaste, whom one unchaste wishes
to commit adultery with, hath he on that account failed to commit adultery with her in his
heart? Or if the harlot be not found in the brothel, doth he, who seeks her, on that
account fail to commit fornication in his heart?

Or if time and place be wanting to one who wishes to hurt his neighbor by a lie, hath he
on that account failed already to speak false witness with his tuner mouth? Or if any one
fearing men, dare not utter aloud blasphemy with tongue of flesh, is he on this account
guiltless of this crime, who saith in his heart, "There is no Coot. Thus all the other
evil deeds of men, which no motion of the body performs, of which no sense of the body is
conscious, have their own secret criminals, who are also polluted by consent alone in
thought, that is, by evil words of the inner mouth. Into which he (the Psalmist) fearing
lest his heart should fall aside, asks of the Lord that the door of Continence be set
around the lips of this mouth, to contain the heart, that it fall not aside into evil
words: but contain it, by not suffering thought to proceed to consent: for thus, according
to the precept of the Apostle, sin reigneth not in our mortal body, nor do we yield our
members as weapons of unrighteousness unto sin. From fulfilling which precept they are
surely far removed, who on this account turn not their members to sin, because no power is
allowed them; and if this be present, straightway by the motions of their members, as of
weapons, they show, who reigneth in them within. Wherefore so far as is in themselves,
they yield their members weapons of unrighteousness unto sin;

because this is what they wish, which for this reason they yield not, because they are not
able. 5. And on this account that, which, the parts that beget being bridled by modesty,
is most chiefly and properly to be called Continence, is violated by no transgression, if
the higher Continence, concerning which we have been some time speaking, be preserved in
the heart. For this reason the Lord, after He had said, "For from the heart go forth evil
thoughts," then went on to add what it is that belongs to evil thoughts, "murders,
adulteries," and the rest. He spake not of all; but, having named certain by way of
instance, He taught that we are to understand others also. Of which there is no one that
can take place, unless an evil thought have gone before, whereby that is prepared within
which is done without, and going forth out of the mouth of the heart already defiles the
man, although, through no power being granted, it be not done without by means of the
members of the body. When therefore a door of Continence hath been set in the mouth of the
heart, whence go out all that defile the man, if nothing such be permitted to go out
thence, there followeth a purity, wherein now the conscience may rejoice; although there
be not as yet that perfection, wherein Continence shall not strive with vice. But now, so
long as "the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh," it is
enough for us not to consent unto the evils which we feel in us. But, when that consent
takes place, then there goeth out of the mouth of the heart what defileth the man. But
when through Continence consent is withheld, the evil of the lust of the flesh, against
which the lust of the spirit fights, is not suffered to harm.

6. But it is one thing to fight well, which now is, when the strife of death is resisted;
another thing not to have an adversary, which will then be, when death, "the last enemy,"
shall be destroyed. For Continence also itself, when it curbs and restrains lusts, at once
both seeks the good unto the immortality of which we aim, and rejects the evil with which
in this mortality we contend. Of the one it is forsooth the lover and beholder, but of the
other both the enemy and witness: both seeking what becomes, and fleeing what misbecomes.
Assuredly Continence would not labor in curbing lusts, if we had no wishes contrary to
what is becoming, if there were no opposition on the part of evil lust unto our good will.
The Apostle cries aloud, "I know," saith he, "that there dwelleth not in me, that is in my
flesh, good. For to will lieth near to me, but to accomplish good I find not." For now
good can be done, so far as that there be no assent given unto evil lust: but good will be
accomplished, when the evil lust itself shall come to an end. And also the same teacher of
the Gentiles cries aloud, "I take pleasure together with the law of God after the inner
man: but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind."

7. This conflict none experience in themselves, save such as war on the side of the
virtues, and war down the vices: nor doth any thing storm the evil of lust, save the good
of Continence. But there are, who, being utterly ignorant of the law of God, account not
evil lusts among their enemies, and through wretched blindness being slaves to them, over
and above think themselves also blessed, by satisfying them rather than taming them. But
whoso through the Law have come to know them, ("For through the Law is the knowledge of
sin," and, "Lust," saith he, "I knew not, unless the Law should say, Thou shalt not lust
after," and yet are overcome by their assault, because they live under the Law, whereby
what is good is commanded, but not also given: they live not under Grace, which gives
through the Holy Spirit what is commanded through the Law: unto these the Law therefore
entered, that in them the offense might abound. The prohibition increased the lust, and
made it unconquered: that there might be transgression also, which without the Law was
not, although there was sin, "For where there is not Law, neither is there transgression.
Thus the Law, Grace not helping, forbidding sin, became over and above the strength of
sin; whence the Apostle saith, "The Law is the strength of sin. Nor is it to be wondered
at, that man's weakness even from the good Law added strength to evil, whilst it trusts to
fulfill the Law itself of its own strength.

Forsooth being ignorant of the righteousness of God, which He gives unto the weak, and
wishing to establish his own, of which the weak is void, he was not made subject to the
righteousness of God, reprobate and proud. But if the Law, as a schoolmaster, lead unto
Grace one made an offender, as though for this purpose more grievously wounded, that he
may desire a Physician; against the baneful sweetness, whereby lust prevailed, the Lord
gives a sweetness that worketh good, that by it Continence may the more delight, and "our
land giveth her fruit," whereby the soldier is fed, who by the help of the Lord wars down
sin. 8. Such soldiers the Apostolic trumpet enkindles for battle with that sound,
"Therefore let not," saith he, "sin reign in your mortal body to obey its lusts; nor yield
your members weapons of unrighteousness unto sin; but yield yourselves unto God, as living
in place of dead, and your members weapons of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not
rule over you. For ye are not under the law, but under Grace." And in another place,
"Therefore," saith he, "brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the
flesh. For if ye shall live after the flesh, ye shall die; but if by the Spirit ye shall
mortify the deeds of the flesh, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of
God, these are sons of God." This therefore is the business in hand, so long as this our
mortal life under Grace lasts, that sin, that is the lust of sin, (for this he in this
place calls by the name of sin,) reign not in this our mortal body. But it is then shown
to reign, if obedience be yielded to its desires. There is therefore in us lust of sin,
which must not be suffered to reign; there are its desires, which we must not obey, lest
obeying it reign over us. Wherefore let not lust usurp our members, but let Continence
claim them for herself; that they be weapons of righteousness unto God, that they be not
weapons of unrighteousness unto sin; for thus sin shall not rule over us. For we are not
under the Law, which indeed commandeth what is good yet giveth it not: but we are under
Grace, which, making us to love that which the Law commands, is able to rule over the
free.

9. And also, when he exhorts us, that we live not after the flesh, lest we die, but that
by the Spirit we mortify the deeds of the flesh, that we may live; surely the trumpet
which sounds, shows the war in which we are engaged, and enkindles us to contend keenly,
and to do our enemies to death, that we be not done to death by them. But who those
enemies are, it hath set forth plainly enough. I For those are they, whom it willed should
be done to death by us, that is to say, the works of the flesh. For so it saith, "But if
by the Spirit ye shall mortify the deeds of the flesh, ye shall live. And in order that we
may know what these are, let us hear the same in like manner writing unto the Galatians,
and saying, "But the works of the flesh are manifest, which are, fornications,
uncleannesses, luxuries, idolatry, witchcrafts, hatreds, contentions, emulations, wraths,
strifes, heresies, envyings, drunkennesses, revellings, and such like; of which I foretell
to you, as I have foretold, that they who do such things shall not possess the kingdom of
God. For the very war there also was he showing, that he should speak of these, and unto
the death-doing of these enemies was he calling up the soldiers of Christ by the same
heavenly and spiritual trumpet. For he had said above, "But I say, walk in the Spirit, and
perform ye not the lusts of the flesh.

For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. For these are
opposed one to the other, that ye do not what ye would. But if ye are led by the Spirit,
ye are not under the Law. Therefore being set under Grace, he would have them have that
conflict against the works of the flesh. And in order to point out these works of the
flesh, he added what I have mentioned above. "But the works of the flesh are manifest,
which are, fornications," and the rest, whether what he mentioned, or whether what he
admonished were to be understood, chiefly as he added, "and such like. Lastly, in this
battle, against what is in a manner the carnal army leading forth as it were another
spiritual line, "But the fruit of the Spirit is," saith he, "charity, joy, peace, long-
suffering, kindness, goodness,faith, gentleness,continence; against such there is no law.
He saith not "against these," lest they should be thought to be alone: although even were
he to say this, we ought to understand all, whatever goods of the same kind we could think
of: but he saith, "against such," that is to say, both these and whatsoever are such like.
However, in that among the goods of which he made mention, he set Continence in the last
place, (concerning which we have now undertaken to treat, and on account of which we have
already said much,)he willed that it should in an especial manner cleave to our minds.

Forsooth this same is of great avail in this case, wherein the Spirit lusteth against the
flesh; forasmuch as in a certain way it crucifies the lusts of the flesh. Whence, after
the Apostle had thus spoken, he added straightway, "But they who are Jesus Christ's have
crucified their own flesh, with the passions and lusts. This is the acting of Continence:
thus the works of the flesh are done to death. But they do to death those, whom falling
away from Continence lust draweth into consent to do such works. 10. But in order that we
fall not away from Continence, we ought to watch specially against those snares of the
suggestions of the devil, that we presume not of our own strength. For, "Cursed is every
one that setteth his hope in man." And who is he, but man? We cannot therefore truly say
that he setteth not his hope in man, who setteth it in himself. For this also, to "live
after man," what is it but to "live after the flesh?" Whoso therefore is tempted by such a
suggestion, let him hear, and, if he have any Christian feeling, let him tremble. Let him
hear, I say, "If ye shall live after the flesh, ye shall die."

11. But some one will say to me that it is one thing to live after man, another thing to
live after the flesh; because man forsooth is a rational creature, and there is in him a
rational soul, whereby he differs from the beast: but the flesh is the lowest and earthly
part of man, and thus to live after it is faulty: and for this reason, he who lives after
man, assuredly lives not after the flesh, but rather after that part of man, whereby he is
man, that is, after the spirit of the mind whereby he excels the beasts. But this
discussion is perhaps of some force in the schools of philosophers: but we, in order to
understand the Apostle of Christ, ought to observe in what manner the Christian books are
used to speak; at any rate it is the belief of all of us, to whom to live is Christ, that
Man was taken unto Himself by the Word of God, not surely without a rational soul, as
certain heretics will have it; and yet we read, "The Word was made flesh. What is to be
here understood by "flesh," but Man? "And all flesh shall see the salvation of God. What
can be understood, but all men? "Unto Thee shall all flesh come. What is it, but all men?
"Thou hast given unto Him power over all flesh. What is it, but all men? "Of the works of
the Law shall no flesh be justified.

What is it, but no man shall be justified? And this the same Apostle in another place
confessing more plainly saith, "Man shall not be justified of the works of the Law. The
Corinthians also he rebukes, saying, "Are ye not carnal, and walk after man? After he had
called them carnal, he saith not, ye walk after the flesh, but after man, forasmuch as by
this also what would he have understood, but after the flesh? For surely if to walk, that
is, to live, after the flesh deserved blame, but after man deserved praise, he would not
say by way of rebuke, "ye walk after man. Let man recognize the reproach; let him change
his purpose, let him shun destruction. Hear thou man: walk not thou after man, but after
Him Who made man. Fall not thou away from Him Who made thee, even unto thyself. For a man
said, who yet lived not after man, "Not that we are sufficient to think any thing from
ourselves, as though of ourselves: but our sufficiency is of God. Consider if he lived
after man, who spake these things with truth. Therefore the Apostle, admonishing man not
to live after man, restores man to God. But whoso liveth not after man, but after God,
assuredly liveth not even after himself, because himself also is a man. But he is
therefore said also to live after the flesh, when he so lives; because also when the flesh
alone hath been named, man is understood, as we have already shown:

just as when the soul alone hath been named, man is understood: whence it is said, "Let
every soul be subject unto the higher powers," that is, every man; and, "Seventy-five
souls went down into Egypt with Jacob," that is, seventy-five men. Therefore live thou not
after thyself, O man: thou hadst thence perished, but thou wast sought. Live not then, I
say, after thyself, O man; thou hadst thence perished, but thou wast found. Accuse not
thou the nature of the flesh, when you hear it said, "If ye shall live after the flesh, ye
shall die. For thus could it be said, and most truly could it, If ye shall live after
yourselves ye shall die. For the devil hath not flesh, and yet, because he would live
after himself, "he abode not in the, truth. What wonder therefore, if, living after
himself, "when he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own," which the Truth spake truly of
him.

12. When, therefore, you hear it said, "Sin shall not reign over you;" have not thou
confidence of thyself, that sin reign not over thee, but of Him, unto Whom a certain Saint
saith in prayer, "Direct my paths after Thy Word, and let no iniquity have dominion over
me." For lest haply, after that we had heard, "sin shall not reign over you," we should
lift up ourselves, and lay this to our own strength, straightway the Apostle saw this, and
added, "For ye are not under the Law, but under Grace." Therefore, Grace causeth that sin
reign not over you. Do not thou, therefore, have confidence of thyself, lest it thence
reign much more over thee. And, when we hear it said, "If by the Spirit ye shall mortify
the deeds of the flesh, ye shall live," let us not lay this so great good unto our own
spirit, as though of itself it can do this. For, in order that we should not entertain
that carnal sense, the spirit being dead rather than that which putteth others to death,
straightway he added, "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of
God." Therefore that by our spirit we may mortify the works of the flesh, we are led by
the Spirit of God, Who gives Continence, whereby to curb, tame, overcome lust.

13. In this so great conflict, wherein man under Grace lives, and when, being aided, he
fights well, rejoices in the Lord with trembling, there yet are not wanting even to
valiant warriors, and mortifiers however unconquered of the works of the flesh, some
wounds of sins, for the healing of which they may say daily, "Forgive us our debts:
against the same vices, and against the devil the prince and king of vices, striving with
much greater watchfulness and keenness by the very prayer, that his deadly suggestions
avail not aught, whereby he further urges the sinner to excuse rather than accuse his own
sins; and thus those wounds not only be not healed, but also, although they were not
deadly, yet may be pressed home to grievous and fatal harm. And here therefore there is
need of a more cautious Continence, whereby to restrain the proud appetite of man; whereby
he is selfpleased, and unwilling to be found worthy of blame, and disdains, when he sins,
to be convicted that he himself has sinned; not with healthful humility taking upon him to
accuse himself, but rather with fatal arrogance seeking to find an excuse. In order to
restrain this pride, he, whose words I have already set down above, and, as I could,
commended, sought Continence from the Lord. For, after that he had said, "Set, O Lord, a
watch to my mouth, and a door of Continence around my lips. Make not my heart to fall
aside unto evil words;

explaining more clearly whereof he spake this, he saith, "to make excuses in sins. For
what more evil than these words, whereby the evil man denies that he is evil, although
convicted of an evil work, which he cannot deny. And since he cannot hide the deed, or say
that it is well done, and still sees that it is clear that it was done by him, he seeks to
refer to another what he hath done, as though he could remove thence what he hath
deserved. Being unwilling that himself be guilty, he rather adds to his guilt, and by
excusing, not accusing, his own sins, he knows not that he is putting from him, not
punishment, but pardon. For before human judges, forasmuch as they may be deceived, it
seems to profit somewhat for the time, to cleanse as it were what hath been done amiss by
any deceit whatever; but before God, Who cannot be deceived, we are to use, not a
deceitful defense, but a true confession of sins.

14. And some indeed, who are used to excuse their own sins, complain that they are driven
to sin by fate, as though the stars had decreed this, and heaven had first sinned by
decreeing such, in order that man should after sin by committing such, and thus had rather
impute their sin to fortune: who think that all things are driven to and fro by chance
accidents, and yet contend that this their wisdom and assertion is not of chance rashness,
but of ascertained reason. What madness then is it, to lay to reason their discussions,
and to make their actions subject to accidents! Others refer to the devil the whole of
what they do ill: and will not have even a share with him, whereas they may suspect
whether he by hidden suggestions hath persuaded them to evil, and on the other hand cannot
doubt that they have consented to those suggestions, from whatever source they have come.
There are also they who extend their defense of self unto an accusation of God, wretched
by the divine judgment, but blasphemers by their own madness. For against Him they bring
in from a contrary principle a substance of evil rebelling, which He could not have
resisted, had He not blended with that same that was rebelling a portion of His own
Substance and Nature, for it to contaminate and corrupt; and they say that they then sin
when the nature of evil prevails over the nature of God. This is that most unclean madness
of the Manichaeans, whose devilish devices the undoubted truth most easily overthrows;
which confesses that the nature of God is incapable of contamination and corruption. But
what wicked contamination and corruption do they not deserve to have believed of them, by
whom God, Who is good in the very highest degree, and in a way that admits not of
comparison, is believed to be capable of contamination and corruption?

15. And there are also they who in excuse of their sins so accuse God, as to say that sins
are pleasing to Him. For, if they were displeasing, say they, surely by His most Almighty
power He would by no means suffer them to take place. As though indeed God suffered sins
to be unpunished, even in the case of those whom by remission of sins He frees from
eternal punishment! No one forsooth receives pardon of more grievous punishment due,
unless he hath suffered some punishment, be it what it may, although far less than what
was due: and the fullness of mercy is so conveyed, as that the justice also of discipline
is not abandoned. For also sin, which seems unavenged, hath its own attendant punishment,
so that there is no one but by reason of what he hath done either suffers pain from
bitterness, or suffers not through blindness. As therefore you say, Why doth He permit
those things, if they are displeasing? so I say, Why doth He punish them, if they are
pleasing? And thus, as I confess that those things would not take place at all, unless
they were permitted by the Almighty, so confess thou that what are punished by the Just
One ought not to be done; in order that, by not doing what He punishes, we may deserve to
learn of Him, why He permits to exist what He punishes.

For, as it is written, "solid food is for the perfect," wherein they who have made good
progress already understand, that it pertained rather unto the Almighty power of God, to
allow the existence of evils coming from the free choice of the will So great forsooth is
His Almighty goodness, as that even of evil He can make good, either by pardoning, or by
healing, or by fitting and turning unto the profit of the pious, or even by most justly
taking vengeance. For all these are good, and most worthy a good and Almighty God: and yet
they are not made save of evils. What therefore better, what more Almighty, than He, Who,
whereas He maketh no evil, even of evils maketh well? They who have done ill cry unto Him,
"Forgive us our debts; He hears, He pardons. Their own evils have hurt the sinners; He
helps and heals their sicknesses. The enemies of His people rage; of their rage He makes
martyrs. Lastly, also, He condemns those, whom He judges worthy of condemnation; although
they suffer their own evils, yet He doeth what is good. For what is just cannot but be
good, and assuredly as sin is unjust, so the punishment of sin is just.

16. But God wanted not power to make man such as that he should not be able to sin: but He
chose rather to make him such, as that it should lie in his power to sin, if he would; not
to sin, if he would not; forbidding the one, enjoining the other; that it might be to him
first a good desert not to sin, and after a just reward not to be able to sin. For such
also at the last will He makes His Saints, as to be without all power to sin. Such
forsooth even now hath He His angels, whom in Him we so love, as to have no fear for any
of them, lest by sinning he become a devil. And this we presume not of any just man in
this mortal life. But we trust that all will be such in that immortal life. For Almighty
God Who worketh good even of our evils, what good will He give, when He shall have set us
free from all evils? Much may be said more fully and more subtilely on the good use of
evil; but this is not what we have undertaken in our present discourse, and we must avoid
in it excess of length.

17. Now therefore let us return to that, wherefore we have said what we have. We have need
of Continence, and we know it to be a divine gift, that our heart fall not away unto evil
words, to make excuses in sins. But what sin is there but that we have need of Continence,
to restrain it from being committed, since it is this very Continence which, in case it
have been committed, restrains it from being defended by wicked pride? Universally
therefore we have need of Continence, in order to turn away from evil. But to do good
seems to pertain to another virtue, that is, to righteousness. This the sacred Psalm
admonishes us, where we read, "Turn away from evil, and do good." But with what end we do
this, it adds bye and bye, saying, "Seek peace, and ensue it." For we shall then have
perfect peace, when, our nature cleaving inseparably to its Creator, we shall have nothing
of ourselves opposed to ourselves. This our Saviour also Himself would have us to
understand, so far as seems to me when He said, "Let your loins be girt, and your lamps
burning." What is it, to gird the loins? To restrain lusts, which is the work of
continence. But to have lamps burning is to shine and glow with good works, which is the
work of righteousness. Nor was He here silent with what end we do these things, adding and
saying, "And you like unto men waiting for their Lord, when He cometh from the marriage."
But, when He shall have come, He will reward us, who have kept ourselves from those things
which lust, and have done those things which charity hath bidden us: that we may reign in
His perfect and eternal peace, without any strife of evil, and with the highest delight of
good.

18. All we therefore, who believe in the Living and True God, Whose Nature, being in the
highest sense good and incapable of change, neither doth any evil, nor suffers any evil,
from Whom is every good, even that which admits of decrease, and Who admits not at all of
decrease in His own Good, Which is Himself, when we hear the Apostle saying, "Walk in the
Spirit, and perform ye not the lusts of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the
Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: For these are opposed one to another, that ye do
not what ye would. Far be it from us to believe, what the madness of the Manichees
believes, that there are here shown two natures or principles contrary one to another at
strife, the one nature of good, the other of evil. Altogether these two are both good;
both the Spirit is a good, and the flesh a good: and man, who is composed of both, one
ruling, the other obeying, is assuredly a good, but a good capable of change, which yet
could not be made save by a Good incapable of change, by Whom was created every good,
whether small or great; but how small soever, yet made by What is Great; and how great
soever, yet no way to be compared with the greatness of the Maker. But in this nature of
man, that is good, and well formed and ordered by One That is Good, there is now war,
since there is not yet health.

Let the sickness be healed, there is peace. But that sickness fault hath deserved, not
nature hath had. And this fault indeed through the layer of regeneration the grace of God
hath already remitted unto the faithful; but under the hands of the same Physician nature
as yet striveth with its sickness. But in such a conflict victory will be entire
soundness; and that, soundness not for a time, but for ever: wherein not only this
sickness is to come to an end, but also none to arise after it. Wherefore the just man
addresseth his soul and saith, "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His returns:
Who becometh propitious to all thy iniquities, Who healeth all thy sicknesses. He becometh
propitious to our iniquities, when He pardons sins: He heals sicknesses when He restrains
evil desires. He becometh propitious unto iniquities by the grant of forgiveness: He heals
sicknesses, by the grant of continence. The one was done in Baptism to persons confessing;
the other is done in the strife to persons contending; wherein through His help we are to
overcome our disease. Even now the one is done, when we are heard, saying, "Forgive us our
debts; but the other, when we are heard, saying, "Lead us not into temptation. For every
one is tempted," saith the Apostle James, "being drawn away and enticed by his own lust.

And against this fault there is sought the help of medicine from Him, Who can heal all
such sicknesses, not by the removal of a nature that is alien from us, but in the renewal
of our own nature. Whence also the above-mentioned Apostle saith not, "Every one is
tempted" by lust, but added, "by his own: that he who hears this may understand, how he
ought to cry, "I said, Lord, have mercy upon me, heal my soul, for I have sinned against
Thee. For it would not have needed healing, had it not corrupted itself by sinning, so
that its own flesh should lust against it, that is, itself should be opposed to itself, on
that side, wherein in the flesh it was made sick. 19. For the flesh lusts after nothing
save through the soul, but the flesh is said to lust against the spirit, when the soul
with fleshly lust wrestles against the spirit. This whole are we: and the flesh itself,
which on the departure of the soul dies, the lowest part of us is not put away as what we
are to flee from, but is laid aside as what we are to receive again, and, after having
received it, never again to leave. But "there is sown an animal body, there shall rise
again a spiritual body. Then from that time the flesh will not lust after any thing
against the spirit, when as itself also shall be called spiritual, forasmuch as not only
without any opposition, but also without any need of bodily aliment, it shall be for ever
made subject unto the spirit, to be quickened by Christ. Therefore these two things, which
are now opposed the one to the other within us, since we exist in both, let us pray and
endeavor that they may agree. For we ought not to think the one of them an enemy, but the
fault, whereby the flesh lusteth against the spirit: and this, when healed, will itself
cease to exist, and either substance will be safe, and no strife between either. Let us
hear the Apostle; "I know," saith he, "that there dwelleth not in me, that is, in my
flesh, any good. This certainly he saith; that the fault of the flesh, in a good thing, is
not good;

and, when this shall have ceased to exist, it will be flesh, but it will not be now
corrupted or faulty flesh. And yet that this pertains to our nature the same teacher
shows, by saying, first, "I know that there dwelleth not in me," in order to expound
which, he added, "that is, in my flesh, any good. Therefore he saith that his flesh is
himself. It is not then itself that is our enemy: and when its faults are resisted, itself
is loved, because itself is cared for; "For no one ever hated his own flesh," as the
Apostle himself saith. And in another place he saith, "So then I myself with the mind
serve the Law of God, but with the flesh the Law of sin. Let them hear that have ears. "So
then I myself; I with the mind, I with the flesh, but "with the mind I serve the Law of
God, but with the flesh the law of sin. How "with the flesh the law of sin? was it at all
by consenting unto fleshly lust? Far be it! but by having there motions of desires which
he would not have, and yet had. But, by not consenting to them, with the mind he served
the Law of God, and kept his members from becoming weapons of sins.

20. There are therefore in us evil desires, by consenting not unto which we live not ill:
there are in us lusts of sins, by obeying not which we perfect not evil, but by having
them do not as yet perfect good. The Apostle shows both, that neither is good here
perfected, where evil is so lusted after, nor evil here perfected, whereas such lust is
not obeyed. The one forsooth he shows, where he says, "To will is present with me, but to
perfect good is not; the other, where he says, "Walk in the Spirit, and perfect not the
lusts of the flesh. For neither in the former place doth he say that to do good is not
with him, but "to perfect," nor here doth he say, Have not "lusts of the flesh," but
"perfect not. Therefore there take place in us evil lusts, when that pleases which is not
lawful; but they are not perfected, when evil lusts are restrained by the mind serving the
Law of God. And good takes place, when that, which wrongly pleases, takes not place
through the good delight prevailing. But the perfection of good is not fulfilled, so long
as by the flesh serving the law of sin, evil lust entices, and, although it be restrained,
is yet moved. For there would be no need for it to be restrained, were it not moved. There
will be at some time also the perfection of good, when the destruction of evil:

the one will be highest, the other will be no more. And if we think that this is to be
hoped for in this mortal state, we are deceived. For it shall be then, when death shall
not be; and it shall be there, where shall be life eternal. For in that world, and in that
kingdom, there shall be highest good, no evil: when there shall be, and where there shall
be, highest love of wisdom, no labor of continence. Therefore the flesh is not evil, if it
be void of evil, that is, of fault, whereby man was rendered faulty, not made ill, but
himself making. For on either part, that is, both soul and body, being made good by the
good God, himself made the evil, whereby he was made evil. From the guilt of which evil
being already also set free through forgiveness, that he may not think what he hath done
to be light, he yet wars with his own fault through continence. But far be it that there
be any faults in such as reign in that peace which shall be hereafter; since in this state
of war there are lessened daily in such as make progress, not sins only, but the very
lusts also, with which, by not consenting, we strive, and by consenting unto which we sin.

21. That, therefore, the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, that there dwelleth not in our
flesh good, that the law in our members is opposed to the law of the mind, is not a
mingling of two natures caused of contrary principles, but a division of one against
itself caused through desert of sin. We were not so in Adam, before that nature, having
listened to and followed its deceiver, had despised and offended its Creator: that is, not
the former life of man created, but the latter punishment of man condemned. From which
condemnation when set free by Grace, through Jesus Christ, being free they contend with
their punishment, having received not as yet full salvation, but already a pledge of
salvation: but when not set free, they are both guilty by reason of sins, and involved in
punishments. But after this life for the guilty there will remain for ever punishment for
their crime: for the free there will no more remain for ever either crime or punishment:
but the good substances, spirit and flesh, will continue for ever, which God, Who is good,
and incapable of change, created good although capable of change. But they will continue
having been changed for the better, never from this time to be changed for the worse: all
evil being utterly destroyed, both what man hath unjustly done, and what he hath justly
suffered.

And, these two kinds of evil perishing utterly, whereof the one is of iniquity going
before, the other of unhappiness following after, the will of man will be upright without
any depravity. There it will be clear and plain to all, what now many of the faithful
believe, few understand, that evil is not a substance: but that, as a wound in a body, so
in a substance, which hath made itself faulty, it hath begun to exist, when the disease
hath commenced, and ceaseth to exist in it, when the healing hath been perfected.
Therefore, all evil having arisen from us, and having been destroyed in us, our good also
having been increased and perfected unto the height of most happy incorruption and
immortality, of what kind shall either of our substances be? forasmuch as now, in this
corruption and mortality, when as yet "the corruptible body weigheth down the soul; and,
what the Apostle saith, "the body is dead by reason of sin; yet the same himself beareth
such witness unto our flesh, that is, to our lowest and earthly part, as to say, what I
made mention of a little above, "No one ever hated his own flesh. And to add straightway,
"but nourisheth and cherisheth it, as also Christ the Church."

22. I say not, therefore, with what error, but with what utter madness, do the Manichees
attribute our flesh to some, I know not what, fabled "race of darkness," which they will
have hath had its own nature without any beginning ever evil: whereas the true teacher
exhorts men to love their own wives by the pattern of their own flesh, and exhorts them
unto this very thing by the pattern also of Christ and the Church. Lastly, we must call to
mind the whole place itself of the Epistle of the Apostle, relating greatly unto the
matter in hand. "Husbands," saith he, "love your wives, as Christ also loved the Church,
and delivered Himself up for it, that He might sanctify it, cleansing it by the laver of
the water in the word: that He might set forth unto Himself a glorious Church, not having
spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, but that it may be holy and unspotted. So," saith he,
"husbands also ought to love their own wives, as their own bodies. Whoso loveth his own
wife, loveth himself. Then he added, what we have already made mention of, "For no man
ever hated his own flesh, but nourisheth it, and cherisheth it; as also Christ the Church.
What saith the madness of most impure impiety in answer to these things? What say ye in
answer to these things, ye Manichees;

ye who wish to bring in upon us, as if out of the Epistles of the Apostles, two natures
without beginning, one of good, the other of evil: and will not listen to the Epistles of
the Apostles, that they may correct you from that sacrilegious perverseness? As ye read,
"The flesh lusteth against the spirit," and, "There dwelleth not in my flesh any good; so
read ye, "No one ever hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, as also
Christ the Church. As ye read, "I see another law in my members, opposed to the law of my
mind; so read ye, "As Christ loved the Church, so also ought men to love their own wives,
as their own bodies. Be not ye crafty in the former witnesses of Holy Scripture, and deaf
in this latter, and ye shall be correct in both. For, if ye receive the latter as right
is, ye will endeavor to understand the former also as truth is.

23. The Apostle has made known to us certain three unions, Christ and the Church, husband
and wife, spirit and flesh. Of these the former consult for the good of the latter, the
latter wait upon the former. All the things are good, when, in them, certain set over by
way of pre-eminence, certain made subject in a becoming manner, observe the beauty of
order. Husband and wife receive command and pattern how they ought to be one with another.
The command is, "Let wives be subject unto their own husbands, as unto the Lord; because
the husband is the head of the wife; and, "Husbands, love your wives. But there is given a
pattern, unto wives from the Church, unto husbands from Christ: "As the Church," saith he,
"is subject unto Christ, so also wives unto their own husbands in all things. In like
manner also, having given command to husbands to love their own wives, he added a pattern,
"As Christ loved the Church. But husbands he exhorted to it from a lower matter also, that
is, from their own body: not only from a higher, that is, from their Lord. For he not only
saith, "Husbands, love your wives, as Christ also loved the Church," which is from an
higher: but he said also, "Husbands ought to love their own wives, as their own bodies,"
which is from a lower: because both higher and lower are all good.

And yet the woman received not pattern from the body, or flesh, to be so subject to the
husband as the flesh to the spirit; but either the Apostle would have understood by
consequence, what he omitted to state: or haply because the flesh lusteth against the
spirit in the mortal and sick estate of this life, therefore he would not set the woman a
pattern of subjection from it. But the men he would for this reason, because, although the
spirit lusteth against the flesh, even in this it consults for the good of the flesh: not
like as the flesh lusting against the spirit, by such opposition consulteth neither for
the good of the spirit, nor for its own. Yet the good spirit would not consult for its
good, whether by nourishing and cherishing its nature by forethought, or by resisting its
faults by continence, were it not that each substance showeth God to be the Creator of
each, even by the seemliness of this its order. What is it, therefore, that with true
madness ye both boast yourselves to be Christians, and with so great, perverseness contend
against the Christian Scriptures, with eyes closed, or rather put out, asserting both that
Christ hath appeared, unto mortals in false flesh, and that the Church in the soul
pertains to Christ, in the body to the devil, and that the male andfemale sex are works of
the devil, not of God,and that the flesh is joined unto the spirit, as an evil substance
unto a good substance?

24. If what we have made mention of out of the Apostolic Epistles seem to you to fall
short of an answer, hear yet others, if ye have ears. What saith the utterly mad
Manichaean of the Flesh of Christ? That it was not true, but false. What saith the blessed
Apostle to this? "Remember that Christ Jesus rose again from the dead of the seed of
David, according to my Gospel. And Christ Jesus Himself saith, "Handle and see, that a
spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me to have. How is there truth in their
doctrine, which asserts that in the Flesh of Christ there was falsehood? How was there in
Christ no evil, in Whom was so great a lie? Because forsooth to men over-clean true flesh
is an evil, and false flesh instead of true is not an evil: it is an evil, true flesh of
one born of the seed of David, and it is no evil,false tongue of one saying, "Handle, and
see, that a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me to have. Of the Church what
saith the deceiver of men with deadly error? That on the side of souls it pertains unto
Christ, on the side of bodies unto the devil? What to this saith the Teacher of the
Gentiles in faith and truth? "Know ye not," saith he, "that your bodies are members of
Christ? Of the sex of male and female what saith the son of perdition?

That either sex is not of God, but of the devil. What to this saith the Vessel of
Election? "As," saith he, "the woman from out the man, so also the man through the woman:
but all things of God. Of the flesh what saith the unclean spirit through the Manichaean?
That it is an evil substance, and not the creation of God, but of an enemy. What to this
saith the Holy Spirit through Paul? "For as the body is one," saith he, "and hath many
members, but all the members of the body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. And
a little after; "God hath set," saith he, "the members, each one of them in the body, as
He willed. Also a little after; "God," saith he, "hath tempered the body, giving greater
honor unto that to which it was wanting, that there should be no schisms in the body, but
that the members have the self-same care one for another: and whether one member suffer,
all the members suffer with it: or one member be glorified, all the members rejoice with
it. How is the flesh evil, when the souls themselves are admonished to imitate the peace
of its members? How is it the creation of the enemy, when the souls themselves, which rule
the bodies, take pattern from the members of the body, not to have schisms of enmities
among themselves, in order that, what God hath granted unto the body by nature, this
themselves also may love to have by grace?

With good cause, writing to the Romans, "I beseech you," saith he, "brethren, by the mercy
of God, that ye present your bodies a sacrifice, living, holy, pleasing to God. Without
reason we contend that darkness is not light, nor light darkness, if we present a
sacrifice, living, holy, pleasing to God, of the bodies of the "nation of darkness." 25.
But, say they, how is the flesh by a certain likeness compared unto the Church? What! doth
the Church lust against Christ? whereas the same Apostle said, "The Church is subject unto
Christ. Clearly the Church is subject unto Christ; because the spirit therefore lusteth
against the flesh, that on every side the Church may be made subject to Christ; but the
flesh lusteth against the spirit, because not as yet hath the Church received that peace
which was promised perfect. And for this reason the Church is made subject unto Christ for
the pledge of salvation, and the flesh lusteth against the spirit from the weakness of
sickness. For neither were those other than members of the Church, unto whom he thus
spake, "Walk in the spirit, and fulfill not the lusts of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth
against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh; for these are opposed the one to the
other; that ye do not what we would. These things were assuredly spoken unto the Church,
which if it were not made subject unto Christ, the spirit would not in it lust against the
flesh through continence. By reason of which they were indeed able not to perfect the
lusts of the flesh, but through the flesh lusting against the Spirit they were not able to
do the things which they would, that is, not even to have the very lusts of the flesh.

Lastly, why should we not confess that in spiritual men the Church is subject unto Christ,
but in carnal men yet lusteth against Christ? Did not they lust against Christ unto whom
it was said, "Is Christ divided? and, "I could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but
as unto carnal. I have given unto yon milk to drink as unto babes in Christ, not meat, for
ye were not as yet able; but not even now are ye able: for ye are still carnal. For
whereas there is among you emulation, and strife, are ye not carnal? Against whom doth
emulation and strife lust, but against Christ? For these lusts of the flesh Christ healeth
in His own, but loveth in none. Whence the holy Church, so long as it hath such members,
is not yet without spot or wrinkle. To these are added those other sins also, for which
the daily cry of the whole Church is, "Forgive us our debts: and, that we should not think
spiritual persons exempt from these, not any one soever of carnal persons, nor any one
soever of spiritual persons themselves, but he, who lay on the breast of the Lord, and
whom He loved before others, saith, "If we shall say that we have not sin, we deceive
ourselves, and the truth is not in us. But in every sin, more in what is greater, less in
what is less, there is an act of lust against righteousness. And of Christ it is written:

"Who was made unto us by God, Wisdom, and Righteousness, and Sanctification, and
Redemption. In every sin therefore without doubt there is an act of lust against Christ.
But when He, Who "healeth all our sicknesses," a shall have led His Church unto the
promised healing of sickness, then in none of its members shall there be any, even the
very least spot or wrinkle. Then in no way shall the flesh lust against the spirit, and
therefore there shall be no cause why the spirit also lust against the flesh. Then all
this conflict shall come to an end, then there shall be the highest concord of both
substances; then to such a degree shall no one there be carnal, that even the flesh itself
shall be spiritual. What therefore each one living after Christ doth with his flesh,
whereas he both lusts against its evil lust, which he restrains, hereafter to be healed,
which he holds, not yet healed; and yet nourisheth and cherisheth its good nature, since
"no one ever hated his own flesh," this also Christ doth with the Church, so far as it is
lawful to compare lesser with greater matters. For He both represses it with rebukes, that
it burst not being puffed up with impunity; and raises it up with consolations, that it
sink not being weighed down with infirmity. Hence is that of the Apostle, "For if we would
judge ourselves, we should not be judged;

but when we are judged, we are rebuked of the Lord, that we be not condemned with this
world. And that in the Psalm, "After the multitude of my griefs in my heart, Thy
consolations have gladdened my soul. We are therefore then to hope for perfect soundness
of our flesh without any opposition, when there shall be sure security of the Church of
Christ without any fear. 26. Thus much will suffice to have treated on behalf of true
Continence against the Manichees deceitfully continent, lest the fruitful and glorious
labor of Continence, when it restrains and curbs the lowest part of us, that is, the body,
from immoderate and unlawful pleasures, be believed not healthfully to chasten, but
hostilely to persecute. Forsooth the body is indeed different from the nature of the soul,
yet is it not alien from the nature of man: for the soul is not made up of body, but yet
man is made up of soul and body: and assuredly, whom God frees, He frees the whole man.
Whence our Saviour Himself also took upon Him the whole man, having deigned to free in us
all that He made. They who hold contrary to this truth, what doth it profit them to
restrain lusts?if, that is, they restrain any. What in them can be made clean through
Continence, whose such Continence is unclean? and which ought not to be called Continence.
Forsooth to hold what they hold is the poison of the devil; but Continence is the gift of
God. But as not every one who suffers any thing, or with the greatest endurance suffers
any pain whatever, possesses that virtue, which in like manner is the gift of God, and is
called Patience; for many endure many torments, in order not to betray either such as are
wickedly privy with them in their crimes, or themselves;

many in order to satiate glowing lusts, and to obtain, or not to abandon those things,
whereunto they are bound by chain of evil love; many on behalf of different and
destructive errors, whereby they are strongly held: of all of whom far be it from us to
say that they have true patience: thus not every one, who contains in any thing, or who
marvellously retrains even the very lusts of the flesh, or mind, is to be said to possess
that continence, of the profit and beauty of which we are treating. For certain, what may
seem marvellous to say, through incontinence contain themselves: as if a woman were to
contain herself from her husband, because she hath sworn this to an adulterer. Certain
through injustice, as if spouse yield not to spouse the due of sexual intercourse, because
he or she is already able to overcome such appetite of the body. Also certain contain
deceived by false faith, and hoping what is vain, and following after what is vain: among
whom are all heretics, and whosoever under the name of religion are deceived by any error:
whose continence would be true, if their faith also were true: but, whereas that is not to
be called faith, on this account, because it is false; without doubt that also is unworthy
the name of continence. For what? are we prepared to call continence, which we must truly
say is the gift of God, sin? Far be from our hearts so hateful madness.

But the blessed Apostle saith "Every thing that is not of faith is sin. What therefore
hath not faith, is not to be called continence. 27. There are also they who, in doing open
service to evil demons, contain from pleasures of the body, that, through their means,
they may satisfy unlawful pleasures, the violence and glow whereof they contain not.
Whence also, (to name one case, and pass over the rest in silence by reason of the length
of the discourse,) certain come not near even untotheir own wives, whilst, as though
clean, they essay through magic arts to gain access untothe wives of others. O marvellous
continence, nay rather, singular wickedness and uncleanness! For, if it were true
continence, the lust of the flesh ought rather to contain from adultery, than, in order to
commit adultery, from marriage. Forsooth marriage continence is wont to ease this lust of
the flesh, and to check its curb but thus far, that neither in marriage itself it run riot
by immoderate license, but that a measure be observed, either such as is due to the
weakness of the spouse, unto whom the Apostle enjoins not this, as of command, but yields
it as of permission; or such as is suited for the begetting of sons, which was formerly
the one alone occasion of sexual intercourse to both holy fathers and mothers. But
continence doing this, that is, moderating, and in a certain way limiting in married
persons the lust of the flesh, and ordering in a certain way within fixed limits its
unquiet and inordinate motion, uses well the evil of man, whom it makes and wills to make
perfect good: as God uses even evil men, for their sake whom He perfects in goodness.

28. Far be it therefore that we say of continence, of which Scripture saith. "And this
very thing was wisdom, to know whose gift it was," that even they possess it, who, by
containing, either serve errors, or overcome any lesser desires for this purpose, that
they may fulfill others, by the greatness of which they are overcome. But that continence
which is true, coming from above, wills not to repress some evils by other evils, but to
heal all evils by goods. And, briefly to comprehend its mode of action, it is the place of
continence to keep watch to restrain and heal all delights whatsoever of lust, which are
opposed to the delight of wisdom. Whence without doubtthey set it within too narrow
bounds, who limit it to restraining the lusts of the body alone: certainly they speak
better, who say that it pertains to Continence to rule in general lust or desire. Which
desire is set down as a fault, nor is it only of the body, but also of the soul. For, if
the desire of the body be in fornications and drunkennesses; hard enmities, strifes,
emulations, lastly, hatreds, their exercise in the pleasure of the body, and not rather in
the motion and troubled states of the soul? Yet the Apostle called all these "works of the
flesh," whether what pertained to the soul, or what pertained properly to the flesh,
calling forsooth the man himself by the name of the flesh.

Forsooth they are the works of man, whatsoever are not called works of God; forasmuch as
man, who does these, lives after himself, not after God, so far as he does these. But
there are other works of man, which are rather to be called works of God. "For it is God,"
saith the Apostle, "Who worketh in you both to will and to do, according to His good
pleasure. Whence also is that, "For as many as are led by the spirit of God, these are
sons of God." 29. Thus the spirit of man, cleaving unto the Spirit of God, lusts against
the flesh, that is, against itself: but for itself, in order that those motions, whether
in the flesh or in the soul, after man, not after God, which as yet exist through the
sickness man hath gotten, may be restrained by continence, that so health may be gotten;
and man, not living after man, may now be able to say, "But I live, now not I, but there
liveth in me Christ. For where not I, there more happily I: and, when any evil motion
after man arises, unto which he, who with the mind serves the Law of God, consents not,
let him say that also, "Now it is not I that do this. To such forsooth are said those
words, which we, as partners and sharers with them, ought to listen to. "If ye have risen
together with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is sitting at the Right
Hand of God: mind the things that are above, not what are upon earth. For ye are dead, and
your life is hid with Christ in God: when Christ your life shall have appeared, then ye
also shall appear with Him in glory. Let us understand unto whom he is speaking, yea,
rather, let us listen with more attention. For what more plain than this? what more clear?
He is certainly speaking unto those, who had risen again with Christ, not yet surely in
the flesh, but in the mind:

whom he calls dead, and on this account the more living: for "your life," saith he, "is
hid with Christ in God. Of such dead the speech is: "But I live, now not I, but there
liveth in me Christ. They therefore, whose life was hidden in God, are admonished and
exhorted to mortify their members, which are upon the earth. For this follows, "Mortify,
therefore, your members, which are upon the earth. And, lest any through excess of
dullness should think that such are to mortify the members of the body that are seen,
straightway opening what it is he saith, "Fornication," saith he, "uncleanness, passion,
evil lust, and covetousness, which is idolatry. But is it so to be believed, that they,
who were already dead, and their life hidden with Christ in God, were still committing
fornication, were still living in unclean habits and works, were still slaves to passions
of evil lust and covetousness? What madman would thus think of such? What, therefore,
would he that they mortify, save the motions themselves still living in a certain
intrusion of their own, without the consent of our mind, without the action of the members
of the body? And how are they mortified by the work of continence, save when we consent
not to them with the mind, nor are the members of the body yielded to them as weapons;

and, what is greater, and to be looked to with yet greater watchfulness of continence, our
very thought itself, although in a certain way it be touched by their suggestion, and as
it were, whisper, yet turns away from these, that it receive not delight from them, and
turns to more delightful thoughts of things above: on this account naming them in
discourse, that men abide not in them, but flee from them. And this is brought to pass, if
we listen effectually, with His help, Who, through His Apostle gives this command, "Seek
things that are above, where Christ is sitting at the Right Hand of God. Mind the things
that are above, not what are on earth." 30. But, after that he had made mention of these
evils, he added and said, "On account of which cometh the wrath of God on the sons of
unbelief." Surely it was a wholesome alarm that believers might not think that they could
be saved on account of their faith alone, even although they should live in these evils:
the Apostle James with most clear speech crying out against that notion, and saying, "If
any say that he have faith, and have not works, shall his faith be able to save him?
Whence also here the Teacher of the Gentiles said, that on account of these evils the
wrath of God cometh on the sons of unbelief. But when he saith, "Wherein ye also walked
sometime, when ye were living therein;" he shows sufficiently that now they were not
living therein. Forsooth unto these they had died, that their life might be hidden in God
with Christ. When then they were now not living in them, they were now bidden to mortify
such. Forsooth, themselves not living in the same, the things were living, as I have
already shown a little above, and were called their members, that is to say, those faults
which dwelt in their members; by a way of speech, that which is contained through that
which contains; as it is said, The whole Forum talks of it, when men talk who are in the
Forum. In this very way of speech it is sung in the Psalm, "Let all the earth worship
Thee:" that is, all men who are in the earth.

31. "But now do ye also," saith he, "put down all; and he makes mention of several more
evils of that sort. But what is it, that it is not enough for him to say, "Do ye put down
all," but that he added the conjunction and said, "ye also? save that lest they should not
think that they did those evils and lived in them with impunity on this account, because
their faith set them free from wrath, which cometh upon the sons of unbelief, doing these
things, and living in them without faith. Do ye also, saith he, put down those evils, on
account of which cometh the wrath of God on the children of unbelief; nor promise
yourselves impunity of them on account of merit of faith. But he would not say, "put ye
down," unto those who had already laid down so far as that they consented not to such
faults, nor were yielding their members to them as weapons of sin, save that the life of
Saints stands in this past deed, and is still engaged in this work, so long as we are
mortal. For, so long as the Spirit lusteth against the flesh, this business proceeds with
great earnestness, resistance is offered unto evil delights, unclean lusts, carnal and
shameful motions, by the sweetness of holiness, by the love of chastity, by spiritual
vigor, and by the beauty of continence; thus they are laid down by them who are dead to
them, and who live not in them by consenting.

Thus, I say, they are put down, whilst they are weighed down by continued continence, that
they rise not again. Whosoever, as though secure, shall, cease from this laying aside of
them, straightway they will assault the Citadel of the mind, and will themselves put it
down thence, and will reduce it into slavery to them, captive after a base and unseemly
fashion. Then sin will reign in the mortal body of man to obey its desires; then will it
yield its members weapons of unrighteousness unto sin: and the last state of that man
shall be worse than the former. For it is much more tolerable not to have begun a contest
of this kind, than after one hath begun to have left the conflict, and to have become in
place of a good warrior, or even in place of a conqueror, a captive. Whence the Lord saith
not, whoso shall begin, but "Whoso shall persevere unto the end, he shall be saved."

32. But whether keenly contending, that we be not overcome, or overcoming divers times, or
even with unhoped and unlooked for ease, let us give the glory unto Him Who giveth
continence unto us. Let us remember that a certain just man said, "I shall never be
moved:" and that it was showed him how rashly he had said this, attributing as though to
his own strength, what was given to him from above. But this we have learnt from his own
confession: for soon after he added, "Lord, in Thy will Thou hast given strength to my
beauty; but Thou hast turned away Thy Face, and I was troubled." Through a remedial
Providence he was for a short time deserted by his Ruler, in order that he might not
himself through deadly pride desert his Ruler. Therefore, whether here, where we engage
with our faults in order to subdue and make them less, or there, as it shall be in the
end, where we shall be void of every enemy, because of all infection, it is for our health
that we are thus dealt with, in order that, "whoso glorieth, he may glory in the Lord."


OUR LORD’S SERMON ON THE MOUNT
==============================

OUR LORD’S SERMON ON THE MOUNT Augustine of Hippo

AD 354–430

Bishop of Hippo, the most influential Latin father.

INTRODUCTION

Explanation of the first part of the sermon delivered by our Lord on the mount, as
contained in the fifth chapter of Matthew.

CHAPTER I.

1. If any one will piously and soberly consider the sermon which our Lord Jesus Christ
spoke on the mount, as we read it in the Gospel according to Matthew, I think that he will
find in it, so far as regards the highest morals, a perfect standard of the Christian
life: and this we do not rashly venture to promise, but gather it from the very words of
the Lord Himself. For the sermon itself is brought to a close in such a way, that it is
clear there are in it all the precepts which go to mould the life. For thus He speaks:
"Therefore, whosoever heareth these words of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a
wise man, which built his house upon a rock: and the rain descended, and the floods came,
and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a
rock. And every one that heareth these words of mine, and doeth them not, I will liken
unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: and the rain descended, and the
floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the
fall of it." Since, therefore, He has not simply said, "Whosoever heareth my words," but
has made an addition, saying, "Whosoever heareth these words of mine," He has sufficiently
indicated, as I think, that these sayings which He uttered on the mount so perfectly guide
the life of those who may be willing to live according to them, that they may justly be
compared to one building upon a rock. I have said this merely that it may be clear that
the sermon before us is perfect in all the precepts by which the Christian life is
moulded; for as regards this particular section a more careful treatment will be given in
its own place.

2. The beginning, then, of this sermon is introduced as follows: "And when He saw the
great multitudes, He went up into a mountain: and when He was set, His disciples came unto
Him: and He opened His mouth, and taught them, saying. If it is asked what the "mountain"
means, it may well be understood as meaning the greater precepts of righteousness; for
there were lesser ones which were given to the Jews. Yet it is one God who, through His
holy prophets and servants, according to a thoroughly arranged distribution of times, gave
the lesser precepts to a people who as yet required to be bound by fear; and who, through
His Son, gave the greater ones to a people whom it had now become suitable to set free by
love. Moreover, when the lesser are given to the lesser, and the greater to the greater,
they are given by Him who alone knows how to present to the human race the medicine suited
to the occasion. Nor is it surprising that the greater precepts are given for the kingdom
of heaven, and the lesser for an earthly kingdom, by that one and the same God, who made
heaven and earth. With respect, therefore, to that righteousness which is the greater, it
is said through the prophet, "Thy righteousness is like the mountains of God: and this may
well mean that the one Master alone fit to teach matters of so great importance teaches on
a mountain.

Then He teaches sitting, as behooves the dignity of the instructor's office; and His
disciples come to Him, in order that they might be nearer in body for hearing His words,
as they also approached in spirit to fulfil His precepts. "And He opened His mouth, and
taught them, saying. The circumlocution before us, which runs, "And He opened His mouth,"
perhaps gracefully intimates by the mere pause that the sermon will be somewhat longer
than usual, unless, perchance, it should not be without meaning, that now He is said to
have opened His own mouth, whereas under the old law He was accustomed to open the mouths
of the prophets. 3. What, then, does He say? "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs
is the kingdom of heaven." We read in Scripture concerning the striving after temporal
things, "All is vanity and presumption of spirit;" but presumption of spirit means
audacity and pride: usually also the proud are said to have great spirits; and rightly,
inasmuch as the wind also is called spirit. And hence it is written, "Fire, hail, snow,
ice, spirit of tempest." But, indeed, who does not know that the proud are spoken of as
puffed up, as if swelled out with wind? And hence also that expression of the apostle,
"Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth." And "the poor in spirit" are rightly
understood here, as meaning the humble and God-fearing, i.e. those who have not the spirit
which puffeth up. Nor ought blessedness to begin at any other point whatever, if indeed it
is to attain unto the highest wisdom; "but the fear of the Lord is the beginning of
wisdom;" for, on the other hand also, "pride" is entitled "the beginning of all sin." Let
the proud, therefore, seek after and love the kingdoms of the earth; but "blessed are the
poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

CHAPTER II.

4. "Blessed are the meek, for they shall by inheritance possess the earth:" that earth, I
suppose, of which it is said in the Psalm, "Thou art my refuge, my portion in the land of
the living." For it signifies a certain firmness and stability of the perpetual
inheritance, where the soul, by means of a good disposition, rests, as it were, in its own
place, just as the body rests on the earth, and is nourished from it with its own food, as
the body from the earth. This is the very rest and life of the saints. Then, the meek are
those who yield to acts of wickedness, and do not resist evil, but overcome evil with
good. Let those, then, who are not meek quarrel and fight for earthly and temporal things;
but "blessed are the meek, for they shall by inheritance possess the earth," from which
they cannot be driven out.

5. "Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted." Mourning is sorrow arising
from the loss of things held dear; but those who are converted to God lose those things
which they were accustomed to embrace as dear in this world: for they do not rejoice in
those things in which they formerly rejoiced; and until the love of eternal things be in
them, they are wounded by some measure of grief. Therefore they will be comforted by the
Holy Spirit, who on this account chiefly is called the Paraclete, i.e. the Comforter, in
order that, while losing the temporal joy, they may enjoy to the full that which is
eternal. 6. "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they
shall be filled." Now He calls those parties, lovers of a true and indestructible good.
They will therefore be filled with that food of which the Lord Himself says, "My meat is
to do the will of my Father," which is righteousness; and with that water, of which
whosoever "drinketh," as he also says, it "shall be in him a well of water, springing up
into everlasting life."

7. "Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy." He says that they are blessed
who relieve the miserable, for it is paid back to them in such a way that they are freed
from misery. 8. "Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God." How foolish,
therefore, are those who seek God with these outward eyes, since He is seen with the
heart! as it is written elsewhere, "And in singleness of heart seek Him." For that is a
pure heart which is a single heart: and just as this light cannot be seen, except with
pure eyes; so neither is God seen, unless that is pure by which He can be seen. 9.
"Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God." It is the
perfection of peace, where nothing offers opposition; and the children of God are
peacemakers, because nothing resists God, and surely children ought to have the likeness
of their father. Now, they are peacemakers in themselves who, by bringing in order all the
motions of their soul, and subjecting them to reason-i.e. to the mind and spirit-and by
having their carnal lusts thoroughly subdued, become a kingdom of God: in which all things
are so arranged, that that which is chief and pre-eminent in man rules without resistance
over the other elements, which are common to us with the beasts; and that very element
which is pre-eminent in man, i.e. mind and reason, is brought under subjection to
something better still, which is the truth itself, the only-begotten Son of God. For a man
is not able to rule over things which are inferior, unless he subjects himself to what is
superior. And this is the peace which is given on earth to men of goodwill; this the life
of the fully developed and perfect wise man. From a kingdom of this sort brought to a
condition of thorough peace and order, the prince of this world is cast out, who rules
where there is perversity and disorder. When this peace has been inwardly established and
confirmed, whatever persecutions he who has been cast out shall stir up from without, he
only increases the glory which is according to God; being unable to shake anything in that
edifice, but by the failure of his machinations making it to be known with how great
strength it has been built from within outwardly. Hence there follows: "Blessed are they
which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

CHAPTER III.

1 10. There are in all, then, these eight sentences. For now in what remains He speaks in
the way of direct address to those who were present, saying: "Blessed shall ye be when men
shall revile you and persecute you." But the former sentences He addressed in a general
way: for He did not say, Blessed are ye poor in spirit, for yours is the kingdom of
heaven; but He says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of
heaven:" nor, Blessed are ye meek, for ye shall inherit the earth; but, "Blessed are the
meek, for they shall inherit the earth." And so the others up to the eighth sentence,
where He says: "Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs
is the kingdom of heaven." After that He now begins to speak in the way of direct address
to those present, although what has been said before referred also to His present
audience; and that which follows, and which seems to be spoken specially to those present,
refers also to those who were absent, or who would afterwards come into existence.

2 For this reason the number of sentences before us is to be carefully considered. For the
beatitudes begin with humility: "Blessed are the poor in spirit," i.e. those not puffed
up, while the soul submits itself to divine authority, fearing lest after this life it go
away to punishment, although perhaps in this life it might seem to itself to be happy.
Then it (the soul) comes to the knowledge of the divine Scriptures, where it must show
itself meek in its piety, lest it should venture to condemn that which seems absurd to the
unlearned, and should itself be rendered unteachable by obstinate disputations. After
that, it now begins to know in what entanglements of this world it is held by reason of
carnal custom and sins: and so in this third stage, in which there is knowledge, the loss
of the highest good is mourned over, because it sticks fast in what is lowest. Then, in
the fourth stage there is labour, where vehement exertion is put forth, in order that the
mind may wrench itself away from those things in which, by reason of their pestilential
sweetness, it is entangled: here therefore righteousness is hungered and thirsted after,
and fortitude is very necessary; because what is retained with delight is not abandoned
without pain. Then, at the fifth stage, to those persevering in labour, counsel for
getting rid of it is given;

3 for unless each one is assisted by a superior, in no way is he fit in his own case to
extricate himself from so great entanglements of miseries. But it is a just counsel, that
he who wishes to be assisted by a stronger should assist him who is weaker in that in
which he himself is stronger: therefore "blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain
mercy. At the sixth stage there is purity of heart, able from a good conscience of good
works to contemplate that, highest good, which can be discerned by the pure and tranquil
intellect alone. Lastly is the seventh, wisdom itself-i.e. the contemplation of the truth,
tranquillizing the whole man, and assuming the likeness of God, which is thus summed up:
"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. The eighth, as
it were, returns to the starting-point, because it shows and commends what is complete and
perfect: therefore in the first and in the eighth the kingdom of heaven is named, "Blessed
are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven; and, "Blessed are they which
are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven: as it is now
said, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or
persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Seven in number, therefore, are
the things which bring perfection:

4 for the eighth brings into light and shows what is perfect, so that starting, as it
were, from the beginning again, the others also are perfected by means of these stages.

CHAPTER IV.

11. Hence also the sevenfold operation of the Holy Ghost, of which Isaiah speaks, seems to
me to correspond to these stages and sentences. But there is a difference of order: for
there the enumeration begins with the more excellent, but here with the inferior. For
there it begins with wisdom, and closes with the fear of God: but "the fear of the Lord is
the beginning of wisdom. And therefore, if we reckon as it were in a gradually ascending
series, there the fear of God is first, piety second, knowledge third, fortitude fourth,
counsel fifth, understanding sixth, wisdom seventh. The fear of God corresponds to the
humble, of whom it is here said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit," i.e. those not puffed
up, not proud: to whom the apostle says, "Be not high-minded, but fear; i.e. be not lifted
up. Piety corresponds to the meek: for he who inquires piously honours Holy Scripture, and
does not censure what he does not yet understand, and on this account does not offer
resistance; and this is to be meek: whence it is here said, "Blessed are the meek.
Knowledge corresponds to those that mourn who already have found out in the Scriptures by
what evils they are held chained which they ignorantly have coveted as though they were
good and useful. Fortitude corresponds to those hungering and thirsting: for they labour
in earnestly desiring joy from things that are truly good, and in eagerly seeking to turn
away their love from earthly and corporeal things:

and of them it is here said, "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst
afterrighteousness. Counsel corresponds to the merciful: for this is the one remedy for
escaping from so great evils, that we forgive, as we wish to be ourselves forgiven; and
that we assist others so far as we are able, as we ourselves desire to be assisted where
we are not able: and of them it is here said, "Blessed are the merciful. Understanding
corresponds to the pure in heart, the eye being as it were purged, by which that may be
beheld which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, and what hath not entered into the heart of
man: and of them it is here said," Blessed are the pure in heart. Wisdom corresponds to
the peacemakers, in whom all things are now brought into order, and no passion is in a
state of rebellion against reason, but all things together obey the spirit of man, while
he himself also obeys God: and of them it is here said, "Blessed are the peacemakers."

12. Moreover, the one reward, which is the kingdom of heaven, is variously named according
to these stages. In the first, just as ought to be the case, is placed the kingdom of
heaven, which is the perfect and highest wisdom of the rational soul. Thus, therefore, it
is said, "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven: as if it
were said, "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. To the meek an inheritance is
given, as it were the testament of a father to those dutifully seeking it: "Blessed are
the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. To the mourners comfort, as to those who know
what they have lost, and in what evils they are sunk: "Blessed are they that mourn, for
they shall be comforted. To those hungering and thirsting, a full supply, as it were a
refreshment to those labouring and bravely contending for salvation: "Blessed are they
which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. To the merciful
mercy, as to those following a true and excellent counsel, so that this same treatment is
extended toward them by one who is stronger, which they extend toward the weaker: "Blessed
are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. To the pure in heart is given the power of
seeing God, as to those bearing about with them a pure eye for discerning eternal things:
"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

To the peacemakers the likeness of God is given, as being perfectly wise, and formed after
the imageof God by means of the regeneration of the renewed man: "Blessed are the
peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. And those promises can indeed
be fulfilled in this life, as we believe them to have been fulfilled in the case of the
apostles. For that all-embracing change into the angelic form, which is promised after
this life, cannot be explained in any words. "Blessed," therefore, "are they which are
persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. This eighth
sentence, which goes back to the starting-point, and makes manifest the perfect man, is
perhaps set forth in its meaning both by the circumcision on the eighth day in the Old
Testament, and by the resurrection of the Lord after the Sabbath, the day which is
certainly the eighth, and at the same time the first day; and by the celebration of the
eight festival days which we celebrate in the case of the regeneration of the new man; and
by the very number of Pentecost. For to the number seven, seven times multiplied, by which
we make forty-nine, as it were an eighth is added, so that fifty may be made up, and we,
as it were, return to the starting-point: on which day the Holy Spirit was sent, by whom
we are led into the kingdom of heaven, and receive the inheritance, and are comforted;

and are fed, and obtain mercy, and are purified, and are made peacemakers; and being thus
perfect, we bear all troubles brought upon us from without for the sake of truth and
righteousness.

CHAPTER V.

13. "Blessed are ye," says He, "when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall
say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad: for
great is your reward in heaven." Let any one who is seeking after the delights of this
world and the riches of temporal things under the Christian name, consider that our
blessedness, is within; as it is said of the soul of the Church by the mouth of the
prophet, "All the beauty of the king's daughter is within;" for outwardly revilings, and
persecutions, and disparagements are promised; and yet, from these things there is a great
reward in heaven, which is felt in the heart of those who endure, those who can now say,
"We glory in tribulations: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience,
experience; and experience, hope: and hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is
shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us." For it is not simply
the enduring of such things that is advantageous, but the bearing of such things for the
name of Christ not only with tranquil mind, but even with exultation. For many heretics,
deceiving souls under the Christian name, endure many such things; but they are excluded
from that reward on this account, that it is not said merely, "Blessed are they which
endure persecution;" but it is added," for righteousness' sake." Now, where there is no
sound faith, there can be no righteousness, for the just [righteous] man lives by faith.
Neither let schismatics promise themselves anything of that reward; for similarly, where
there is no love, there cannot be righteousness, for "love worketh no ill to his
neighbour;" and if they had it, they would not tear in pieces Christ's body, which is the
Church.

14. But it may be asked, What is the difference when He says, "when men shall revile you,"
and "when they shall say all manner of evil against you," since to revile is just this, to
say evil against? But it is one thing when the reviling word is hurled with contumely in
presence of him who is reviled, as it was said to our Lord, "Say we not the truth that
thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil?" and another thing, when our reputation is injured
in our absence, as it is also written of Him, "Some said, He is a prophet; others said,
Nay, but He deceiveth the people." Then, further, to persecute is to inflict violence, or
to assail with snares, as was done by him who betrayed Him, and by them who crucified Him.
Certainly, as for the fact that this also is not put in a bare form, so that it should be
said, "and shall say all manner of evil against you," but there is added the word
"falsely," and also the expression "for my sake;" I think that the addition is made for
the sake of those who wish to glory in persecutions, and in the baseness of their
reputation; and to say that Christ belongs to them for this reason, that many bad things
are said about them; while, on the one hand, the things said are true, when they are said
respecting their error; and, on the other hand, if sometimes also some false charges are
thrown out, which frequently happens from the rashness of men, yet they do not suffer such
things for Christ's sake. For he is not a follower of Christ who is not called a Christian
according to the true faith and the catholic discipline.

15. "Rejoice," says He, "and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven." I do
not think that it is the higher parts of this visible world that are here called heaven.
For our reward, which ought to be immoveable and eternal, is not to be placed in things
fleeting and temporal. But I think the expression "in heaven" means in the spiritual
firmament, where dwells everlasting righteousness: in comparison with which a wicked soul
is called earth, to which it is said when it sins," Earth thou art, and unto earth thou
shalt return." Of this heaven the apostle says, "For our conversation is in heaven." Hence
they who rejoice in spiritual good are conscious of that reward now; but then it will be
perfected in every part, when this mortal also shall have put on immortality. "For," says
He, "so persecuted they the prophets also which were before you." In the present case He
has used "persecution" in a general sense, as applying alike to abusive words and to the
tearing in pieces of one's reputation; and has well encouraged them by an example, because
they who speak true things are wont to suffer persecution: nevertheless did not the
ancient prophets on this account, through fear of persecution, give over the preaching of
the truth.

CHAPTER VI.

16. Hence there follows most justly the statement, "Ye are the salt of the earth;" showing
that those parties are to be judged insipid, who, either in the eager pursuit after
abundance of earthly blessings, or through the dread of want, lose the eternal things
which can neither be given nor taken away by men. "But if the salt have lost its savour,
wherewith shall it be salted?" i.e., If ye, by means of whom the nations in a measure are
to be preserved [from corruption], through the dread of temporal persecutions shall lose
the kingdom of heaven, where will be the men through whom error may be removed from you,
since God has chosen you, in order that through you He might remove the error of others?
Hence the savourless salt is "good for nothing, but to be cast out, and trodden under foot
of men." It is not therefore he who suffers persecution, but he who is rendered savourless
by the fear of persecution, that is trodden under foot of men. For it is only one who is
undermost that can be trodden under foot; but he is not undermost, who, however many
things he may suffer in his body on the earth, yet has his heart fixed in heaven.

17. "Ye are the light of the world. In the same way as He said above, "the salt of the
earth," so now He says, "the light of the world."For in the former case that earth is not
to be understood which we tread with our bodily feet, but the men who dwell upon the
earth, or even the sinners, for the preserving of whom and for the extinguishing of whose
corruptions the Lord sent the apostolic salt. And here, by the world must be understood
not the heavens and the earth, but the men who are in the world or love the world, for the
enlightening of whom the apostles were sent. "A city that is set on an hill cannot be
hid," i.e. [a city] founded upon great and distinguished righteousness, which is also the
meaning of the mountain itself on which our Lord is discoursing. "Neither do men light a
candle and put it under a bushel measure. What view are we to take? That the expression
"under a bushel measure" is so used that only the concealment of the candle is to be
understood, as if He were saying, No one lights a candle and conceals it? Or does the
bushel measure also mean something, so that to place a candle under a bushel is this, to
place the comforts of the body higher than the preaching of the truth; so that one does
not preach the truth so long as he is afraid of suffering any annoyance in corporeal and
temporal things?

And it is well said a bushel measure, whether on account of the recompense of measure, for
each one receives the things done in his body,-"that every one," says the apostle, "may
there receive the things done in his body; and it is said in another place, as if of this
bushel measure of the body, "For with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you
again: " -or because temporal good things, which are carried to completion in the body,
are both begun and come to an end in a certain definite number of days, which is perhaps
meant by the "bushel measure; while eternal and spiritual things are confined within no
such limit, "for God giveth not the Spirit by measure. Every one, therefore, who obscures
and covers up the light of good doctrine by means of temporal comforts, places his candle
under a bushel measure. "But on a candlestick. Now it is placed on a candlestick by him
who subordinates his body to the service of God, so that the preaching of the truth is the
higher, and the serving of the body the lower; yet by means even of the service of the
body the doctrine shines more conspicuously, inasmuch as it is insinuated into those who
learn by means of bodily functions, i.e. by means of the voice and tongue, and the other
movements of the body in good works. The apostle therefore puts his candle on a
candlestick, when he says, "So fight I, not as one that beateth the air;

but I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection, lest that by any means, when I
preach to others, I myself should be found a castaway. When He says, however, "that it may
give light to all who are in the house," I am of opinion that it is the abode of men which
is called a house, i.e. the world itself, on account of what He says before, "Ye are the
light of the world; or if any one chooses to understand the house as being the Church,
this, too, is not out of place.

CHAPTER VII.

18. "Let your light," says He, "so shine before men, that they may see your good works,
and glorify your Father which is in heaven." If He had merely said, "Let your light so
shine before men, that they may see your good works," He would seem to have fixed an end
in the praises of men, which hypocrites seek, and those who canvass for honours and covet
glory of the emptiest kind. Against such parties it is said, "If I yet pleased men, I
should not be the servant of Christ;" and, by the prophet, "They who please men are put to
shame, because God hath despised them;" and again, "God hath broken the bones of those who
please men;" and again the apostle, "Let us not be desirous of vainglory;" and still
another time, "But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in
himself alone, and not in another." Hence our Lord has not said merely, "that they may see
your good works," but has added, "and glorify your Father who is in heaven:" so that the
mere fact that a man by means of good works pleases men, does not there set it up as an
end that he should please men; but let him subordinate this to the praise of God, and for
this reason please men, that God may be glorified in him. For this is expedient for them
who offer praise, that they should honour, not man, but God; as our Lord showed in the
case of the man who was carried, where, on the paralytic being healed, the multitude,
marvelling at His powers, as it is written in the Gospel, "feared and glorified God, which
had given such power unto men." And His imitator, the Apostle Paul, says, "But they had
heard only, that he which persecuted us intimes past now preacheth the faith which once he
destroyed; and they glorified God in me."

19. And therefore, after He has exhorted His hearers that they should prepare themselves
to bear all things for truth and righteousness, and that they should not hide the good
which they were about to receive, but should learn with such benevolence as to teach
others, aiming in their good works not at their own praise, but at the glory of God, He
begins now to inform and to teach them what they are to teach; as if they were asking Him,
saying: Lo, we are willing both to bear all things for Thy name, and not to hide Thy
doctrine; but what precisely is this which Thou forbiddest us to hide, and for which Thou
commandest us to bear all things? Art Thou about to mention other things contrary to those
which are written in the law? "No," says He; "for think not that I am come to destroy the
law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil."

CHAPTER VIII.

1 20. In this sentence the meaning is twofold. We must deal with it in both ways. For He
who says, "I am not come to destroy the law, but to fulfil," means it either in the way of
adding what is wanting, or of doing what is in it. Let us then consider that first which I
have put first: for he who adds what is wanting does not surely destroy what he finds, but
rather confirms it by perfecting it; and accordingly He follows up with the statement,
"Verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one iota or one tittle shall in nowise
pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. For, if even those things which are added for
completion are fulfilled, much more are those things fulfilled which are sent in advance
as a commencement. Then, as to what He says, "One iota or one tittle shall in nowise pass
from the law," nothing else can be understood but a strong expression of perfection, since
it is pointed out by means of single letters, among which letters "iota" is smaller than
the others, for it is made by a single stroke; while a "tittle" is but a particle of some
sort at the top of even that. And by these words He shows that in the law all the smallest
particulars even are to be carried into effect. After that He subjoins:

2 "Whosoever, therefore, shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men
so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. Hence it is the least
commandments that are meant by "one iota" and "one tittle. And therefore, "whosoever shall
break and shall teach [men] so,"-i.e. in accordance with what he breaks, not in accordance
with what he finds and reads,-"shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven; and
therefore, perhaps, he will not be in the kingdom of heaven at all, where only the great
can be. "But whosoever shall do and teach [men] so," -i.e. who shall not break, and shall
teach men so, in accordance with what he does not break,-"shall be called great in the
kingdom of heaven. But in regard to him who shall be called great in the kingdom of
heaven, it follows that he is also in the kingdom of heaven, into which the great are
admitted: for to this what follows refers.

CHAPTER IX.

21. "For I say unto you, that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of
the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven; i.e.,
unless ye shall fulfil not only those least precepts of the law which begin the man, but
also those which are added by me, who am not come to destroy the law, but to fulfil it, ye
shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. But you say to me: If, when He was speaking
above of those least commandments, He said that whosoever shall break one of them, and
shall teach in accordance with his transgression, is called the least in the kingdom of
heaven; but that whosoever shall do them, and shall teach [men] so, is called great, and
hence will be already in the kingdom of heaven, because he is great: what need is there
for additions to the least precepts of the law, if he can be already in the kingdom of
heaven, because whosoever shall do them, and shall so teach, is great? For this reason
that sentence is to be understood thus: "But whosoever shall do and teach men so, the same
shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven,"-i.e. not in accordance with those least
commandments, but in accordance with those which I am about to mention. Now what are they?
"That your righteousness," says He, "may exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees; for
unless it shall exceed theirs, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.

Whosoever, there fore, shall break those least commandments, and shall teach men so, shall
be called the least; but whosoever shall do those least commandments, and shall teach men
so, is not necessarily to be reckoned great and meet for the kingdom of heaven; but yet he
is not so much the least as the man who breaks them. But in order that he may be great and
fit for that kingdom, he ought to do and teach as Christ now teaches, i.e. in order that
his righteousness may exceed that of the scribes and Pharisees. The righteousness of the
Pharisees is, that they shall not kill; the righteousness of those who are destined to
enter into the kingdom of God, that they be not angry without a cause. The least
commandment, therefore, is not to kill; and whosoever shall break that, shall be called
least in the kingdom of heaven; but whosoever shall fulfil that commandment not to kill,
will not, as a necessary consequence, be great and meet for the kingdom of heaven, but yet
he ascends a certain step. He will be perfected, however, if he be not angry without a
cause; and if he shall do this, he will be much further removed from murder. For this
reason he who teaches that we should not be angry, does not break the law not to kill, but
rather fulfils it; so that we preserve our innocence both outwardly when we do not kill,
and in heart when we are not angry.

22. "Ye have heard" therefore, says He, "that it was said to them of old time, Thou shalt
not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment. But I say unto you,
that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the
judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council:
but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of the gehenna of fire." What is
the difference between being in danger of the judgment, and being in danger of the
council, and being in danger of the gehenna of fire? For this last sounds most weighty,
and reminds us that certain stages were passed over from lighter to more weighty, until
the gehenna of fire was reached. And, therefore, if it is a lighter thing to be in danger
of the judgment than to be in danger of the council, and if it is also a lighter thing to
be in danger of the council than to be in danger of the gehenna of fire, we must
understand it to be a lighter thing to be angry with a brother without a cause than to say
"Raca;" and again, to be a lighter thing to say "Raca" than to say "Thou fool." For the
danger would not have gradations, unless the sins also were mentioned in gradation.

23. But here one obscure word has found a place, for "Raca" is neither Latin nor Greek.The
others, however, are current in our language. Now, some have wished to derive the
interpretation of this expression from the Greek, supposing that a ragged person is called
"Raca," because a rag is called in Greek rakoj; yet, when one asks them what a ragged
person is called in Greek, they do not answer "Rata;" and further, the Latin translator
might have put the word ragged where he has placed "Raca," and not have used a word which,
on the one hand, has no existence in the Latin language, and, on the other, is rare in the
Greek. Hence the view is more probable which I heard from a certain Hebrew whom I had
asked about it; for he said that the word does not mean anything, but merely expresses the
emotion of an angry hind. Grammarians call those particles of speech which express an
affection of an agitated mind interjections; as when it is said by one who is grieved,
"Alas," or by one who is angry, "Hah." And these words in all languages are proper names,
and are not easily translated into another language; and this cause certainly compelled
alike the Greek and the Latin translators to put the word itself, inasmuch as they could
find no way of translating it.

24. There is therefore a gradation in the sins referred to, so that first one is angry,
and keeps that feeling as a conception in his heart; but if now that emotion shall draw
forth an expression of anger not having any definite meaning, but giving evidence of that
feeling of the mind by the very fact of the outbreak wherewith he is assailed with whom
one is angry, this is certainly more than if the rising anger were restrained by silence;
but if there is heard not merely an expression of anger, but also a word by which the
party using it now indicates and signifies a distinct censure of him against whom it is
directed, who doubts but that this is something more than if merely an exclamation of
anger were uttered? Hence in the first there is one thing, i.e. anger alone; in the second
two things, both anger and a word that expresses anger; in the third three things, anger
and a word that expresses anger, and in that word the utterance of distinct censure. Look
now also at the three degrees of liability,-the judgment, the council, the gehenna of
fire. For in the judgment an opportunity is still given for defence;

in the council, however, although there is also wont to be a judgment, yet because the
very distinction compels us to acknowledge that there is a certain difference in this
place, the production of the sentence seems to belong to the council, inasmuch as it is
not now the case of the accused himself that is in question, whether he is to be condemned
or not, but they who judge confer with one another to what punishment they ought to
condemn him, who, it is clear, is to be condemned; but the gehenna of fire does not treat
as a doubtful matter either the condemnation, like the judgment, or the punishment of him
who is condemned, like the council; for in the gehenna of fire both the condemnation and
the punishment of him who is condemned are certain. Thus there are seen certain degrees in
the sins and in the liability to punishment; but who can tell in what ways they are
invisibly shown in the punishments of souls? We are therefore to learn how great the
difference is between the righteousness ofthe Pharisees and that greater righteousness
which introduces into the kingdom of heaven, because while it is a more serious crime to
kill than to inflict reproach by means of a word, in the one case killing exposes one to
the judgment, but in the other anger exposes one to the judgment, which is the least of
those three sins;

for in the former case they were discussing the question of murder among men, but in the
latter all things are disposed of by means of a divine judgment, where the end of the
condemned is the gehenna of fire. But whoever shall say that murder is punished by a more
severe penalty under the greater righteousness if a reproach is punished by the gehenna of
fire, compels us to understand that there are differences of gehennas. 25. Indeed, in the
three statements before us, we must observe that some words are understood. For the first
statement has all the words that are necessary."Whosoever," says He, "is angry with his
brother without a cause, shall be in danger of the judgment." But in the: second, when He
says, "and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca," there is understood the expression
without cause, and thus there is subjoined, "shall be in danger of the council." In the
third, now, where He says, "but whosoever shall say, Thou fool," two things are
understood, both to his brother and without cause. And in this way we defend the apostle
when he calls the Galatians fools, to whom he also gives, the name of brethren; for he
does not do it without cause. And here the word brother is to be understood for this
reason, that the case of an enemy is spoken of afterwards, and how he also is to be
treated under the greater righteousness.

CHAPTER X.

26. Next there follows here: "Therefore, if thou hast brought thy gift to the altar, and
there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; leave there thy gift before
the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy
gift. From this surely it is clear that what is aid above is said of a brother: inasmuch
as the sentence which follows is connected by such a conjunction that it confirms the
preceding one; for He does not say, But if thou bring thy gift to the altar; but He says,
"Therefore, if thou bring thy gift to the altar. For if it is not lawful to be angry with
one's brother without a cause, or to say "Raca," or to say" Thou fool," much less is it
lawful so to retain anything in one's mind, as that indignation may be turned into hatred.
And to this belongs also what is said in another passage: "Let not the sun go down upon
your wrath. We are therefore commanded, when about to bring our gift to the altar, if we
remember that our brother hath ought against us, to leave the gift before the altar, and
to go and be reconciled to our brother, and then to come and offer the gift. But if this
is to be understood literally, one might perhaps suppose that such a thing ought to be
done if the brother is present;

for it cannot be delayed too long, since you are commanded to leave your gift before the
altar. If, therefore, such a thing should come into your mind respecting one who is
absent, and, as may happen, even settled down beyond the sea, it is absurd to suppose that
your gift is to be left before the altar until you may offer it to God after having
traversed both lands and seas. And therefore we are compelled to have recourse to an
altogether internal and spiritual interpretation, in order that what has been said may be
understood without absurdity. 27. And so we may interpret the altar spiritually, as being
faith itself in the inner temple of God, whose emblem is the visible altar. For whatever
offering we present to God, whether prophecy, or teaching, or prayer, or a psalm, or a
hymn, and whatever other such like spiritual gift occurs to the mind, it cannot be
acceptable to God, unless it be sustained by sincerity of faith, and, as it were, placed
on that fixedly and immoveably, so that what we utter may remain whole and uninjured. For
many heretics, not having the altar, i.e. true faith, have spoken blasphemies for praise;
being weighed down, to wit, with earthly opinions, and thus, as it were, throwing down
their offering on the ground. But there ought also to be purity of intention on the part
of the offerer. And therefore, when we are about to present any such offering in our
heart, i.e. in the inner temple of God ("For," as it is said, "the temple of God is holy,
which temple ye are; " and, "That Christ may dwell in the inner man by faith in your
hearts") if it occur to our mind that a brother hath ought against us, i.e. if we have
injured him in anything (for then he has something against uswhereas we have something
against him if he has injured us, and in that case it is not necessary to proceed to
reconciliation:

for you will not ask pardon of one who has done you an injury, but merely forgive him, as
you desire to be forgiven by the Lord what you have committed against Him), we are
therefore to proceed to reconciliation, when it has occurred to our mind that we have
perhaps injured our brother in something; but this is to be done not with the bodily feet,
but with the emotions of the mind, so that you are to prostrate yourself with humble
disposition before your brother, to whom you have hastened in affectionate thought, in the
presence of Him to whom you are about to present your offering. For thus, even if he
should be present, you will be able to soften him by a mind free from dissimulation, and
to recall him to goodwill by asking pardon, if first you have done this before God, going
to him not with the slow movement of the body, but with the very swift impulse of love;
and then coming, i.e. recalling your attention to that which you were beginning to do, you
will offer your gift.

28. But who acts in a way that he is neither angry with his brother without a cause, nor
says "Raca" without a cause, nor calls him a fool without a cause, all of which are most
proudly committed; or so, that, if perchance he has fallen into any of these, he asks
pardon with suppliant mind, which is the only remedy; who but just the man that is not
puffed up with the spirit of empty boasting? "Blessed" therefore "are the poor in spirit:
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." Let us look now at what follows.

CHAPTER XI.

29. "Be kindly disposed," says he, "toward thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the
way with him; lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the judge
deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison. Verily I say unto thee, thou
shalt by no means come Out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing." I
understand who the judge is: "For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all
judgment unto the Son." I understand who the officer is: "And angels," it is said,
"ministered unto Him:" and we believe that He will come with His angels to judge the quick
and the dead. I understand what is meant by the prison: evidently the punishments of
darkness, which He calls in another passage the outer darkness: for this reason, I
believe, that the joy of the divine rewards is something internal in the mind itself, or
even if anything more hidden can be thought of, that joy of which it is said to the
servant who deserved well, "Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord;" just as also, under this
republican government, one who is thrust into prison is sent out from the council chamber,
or from the palace of the judge.

30. But now, with respect to paying the uttermost farthing, it may be understood without
absurdity either as standing for this, that nothing is left unpunished; just as in common
speech we also say "to the very dregs," when we wish to express that something is so
drained out that nothing is left: or by the expression "the uttermost farthing" earthly
sins may be meant. For as a fourth part of the separate component parts of this world, and
in fact as the last, the earth is found; so that you begin with the heavens, you reckon
the air the second, water the third, the earth the fourth. It may therefore seem to be
suitably said, "till thou hast paid the last fourth," in the sense of "till thou hast
expiated thy earthly sins: for this the sinner also heard, "Earth thou art, and unto earth
shall thou return. Then, as to the expression "till thou hast paid," I wonder if it does
not mean that punishment which is called eternal. For whence is that debt paid where there
is now no opportunity given of repenting and of leading a more correct life? For perhaps
the expression "till thou hast paid" stands here in the same sense as in that passage
where it is said, "Sit Thou at my right hand, until I make Thine enemies Thy footstool;
for not even when the enemies have been put under His feet, will He cease to sit at the
right hand:

or that statement of the apostle, "For He must reign, till He hath put all enemies under
His feet; for not even when they have been put under His feet, will He cease to reign.
Hence, as it is there understood of Him respecting whom it is said, "He must reign, till
He hath put His enemies under His feet" that He will reign for ever, inasmuch as they will
be for ever under His feet: so here it may be understood of him respecting whom itis said,
"Thou shalt by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing," that
he will never come out; for he is always paying the uttermost farthing, so long as he is
suffering the everlasting punishment of his earthly sins. Nor would I say this in such a
way as that I should seem to prevent a more careful discussion respecting the punishment
of sins, as to how in the Scriptures it is called eternal; although in all possible ways
it is to be avoided rather than known.

31. But let us now see who the adversary himself is, with whom we are enjoined to agree
quickly, whiles we are in the way with him. For he is either the devil, or a man, or the
flesh, or God, or His commandment. But I do not see how we should be enjoined to be on
terms of goodwill, i.e. to be of one heart or of one mind, with the devil. For some have
rendered the Greek word which is found here "of one heart," others "of one mind: but
neither are we enjoined to show goodwill to the devil (for where there is goodwill there
is friendship: and no one would say that we are to make friends with the devil); nor is it
expedient to come to an agreement with him, against whom we have declared war by once for
all renouncing him, and on conquering whom we shall be crowned; nor ought we now to yield
to him, for if we had never yielded to him, we should never have fallen into such
miseries. Again, as to the adversary being a man, although we are enjoined to live
peaceably with all men, as far as lieth in us, where certainly goodwill, and concord, and
consent may be understood; yet I do not see how I can accept the view, that we are
delivered to the judge by a man, in a case where I understand Christ to be the judge,
"before" whose "judgment-seat we must all appear," as the apostle says:

how then is he to deliver me to the judge, who will appear equally with me before the
judge? Or if any one is delivered to the judge because he has injured a man, although the
party who has been injured does not deliver him, it is a much more suitable view, that the
guilty party is delivered to the judge by that law against which he acted when he injured
the man. And this for the additional reason, that if any one has injured a man by killing
him, there will be no time now in which to agree with him; for he is not now in the way
with him, i.e. in this life: and yet a remedy will not on that account be excluded, if one
repents and flees for refuge with the sacrifice of a broken heart to the mercy of Him who
forgives the sins of those who turn to Him, and who rejoices more over one penitent than
over ninety-nine just persons. But much less do I see how we are enjoined to bear goodwill
towards, or to agree with, or to yield to, the flesh. For it is sinners rather who love
their flesh, and agree with it, and yield to it; but those who bring it into subjection
are not the parties who yield to it, but rather they compel it to yield to them.

32. Perhaps, therefore, we are enjoined to yield to God, and to be well-disposed towards
Him, in order that we may be reconciled to Him, from whom by sinning we have turned away,
so that He can be called our adversary. For He is rightly called the adversary of those
whom He resists, for "God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble; and "pride
is the beginning of all sin, but the beginning of man's pride is to become apostate from
God; and the apostle says, "For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the
death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And from
this it may be perceived that no nature [as being] bad is an enemy to God, inasmuch as the
very parties who were enemies are being reconciled. Whoever, therefore, while in this way,
i.e. in this life, shall not have been reconciled to God by the death of His Son, will be
delivered to the judge by Him, for "the Father judgeth no man, but hath delivered all
judgment to the Son; and so the other things which are described in this section follow,
which we have already discussed. There is only one thing which creates a difficulty as
regards this interpretation, viz. how it can be rightly said that we are in the way with
God, if in this passage. He Himself is to be understood as the adversary of the wicked,
with whom we are enjoined to be reconciled quickly;

unless, perchance, because He is everywhere, we also, while we are in this way, are
certainly with Him. For as it is said, "If I ascend up into heaven, Thou art there; if I
make my bed in hell, behold, Thou art there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell
in the uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall Thy hand lead me, and Thy right hand
shall hold me. Or if the view is not accepted, that the wicked are said to be with God,
although there is nowhere where God is not present,-just as we do not say that the blind
are with the light, although the light surrounds their eyes,-there is one resource
remaining: that we should understand the adversary here as being the commandment of God.
For what is so much an adversary to those who wish to sin as the commandment of God, i.e.
His law and divine Scripture, which has been given us for this life, that it may be with
us in the way, which we must not contradict, lest it deliver us to the judge, but which we
ought to submit to quickly? For no one knows when he may depart out of this life. Now, who
is it that submits to divine Scripture, save he who reads or hears it piously, deferring
to it as of supreme authority;

so that what he understands he does not hate on this account, that he feels it to be
opposed to his sins, but rather loves being reproved by it, and rejoices that his maladies
are not spared until they are healed; and so that even in respect to what seems to him
obscure or absurd, he does not therefore raise contentious contradictions, but prays that
he may understand, yet remembering that goodwill and reverence are to be manifested
towards so great an authority? But who does this, unless just the man who has come, not
harshly threatening, but in the meekness of piety, for the purpose of opening and
ascertaining the contents of his father's will? "Blessed," therefore, "are the meek: for
they shall inherit the earth. Let us see what follows.

CHAPTER XII.

33. "Ye have heard that it was said to them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery:
but I say unto you, that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath committed
adultery with her already in his heart." The lesser righteousness, therefore, is not to
commit adultery by carnal connection; but the greater righteousness of the kingdom of God
is not to commit adultery in the heart. Now, the man who does not commit adultery in the
heart, much more easily guards against committing adultery in actual fact. Hence He who
gave the later precept confirmed the earlier; for He came not to destroy the law, but to
fulfil it. It is well worthy of consideration that He did not say, Whosoever lusteth after
a woman, but," Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her," i.e. turneth toward her
with this aim and this intent, that he may lust after her; which, in fact, is not merely
to be tickled by fleshly delight, but fully to consent to lust; so that the forbidden
appetite is not restrained, but satisfied if opportunity should be given.

34. For there are three things which go to complete sin: the suggestion of, the taking
pleasure in, and the consenting to. Suggestion takes place either by means of memory, or
by means of the bodily senses, when we see, or hear, or smell, or taste, or touch
anything. And if it give us pleasure to enjoy this, this pleasure, if illicit, must be
restrained. Just as when we are fasting, and on seeing food the appetite of the palate is
stirred up, this does not happen without pleasure; but we do not consent to this liking,
and we repress it by the right of reason, which has the supremacy. But if consent shall
take place, the sin will be complete, known to God in our heart, although it may not
become known to men by deed. There are, then, these steps: the suggestion is made, as it
were, by a serpent, that is to say, by a fleeting and rapid, i.e. a temporary, movement of
bodies: for if there are also any such images moving about in the soul, they have been
derived from without from the body; and if any hidden sensation of the body besides those
five senses touches the soul, that also is temporary and fleeting; and therefore the more
clandestinely it glides in, so as to affect the process of thinking, the more aptly is it
compared to a serpent.

Hence these three stages, as I was beginning to say, resemble that transaction which is
described in Genesis, so that the suggestion and a certain measure of suasion is put
forth, as it were, by the serpent; but the taking pleasure in it lies in the carnal
appetite, as it were in Eve; and the consent lies in the reason, as it were in the man:
and these things having been acted through, the man is driven forth, as it were, from
paradise, i.e. from the most blessed light of righteousness, into death -in all respects
most righteously. For he who puts forth suasion does not compel. And all natures are
beautiful in their order, according to their gradations; but we must not descend from the
higher, among which the rational mind has its place assigned, to the lower. Nor is any one
compelled to do this; and therefore, if he does it, he is punished by the just law of God,
for he is not guilty of this unwillingly. But yet, previous to habit, either there is no
pleasure, or it is so slight that there is hardly any; and to yield to it is a great sin,
as such pleasure is unlawful. Now, when any one does yield, he commits sin in the heart.
If, however, he also proceeds to action, the desire seems to be satisfied and
extinguished; but afterwards, when the suggestion is repeated, a greater pleasure is
kindled, which, however, is as yet much less than that which by continuous practice is
converted into habit.

For it is very difficult to overcome this; and yet even habit itself, if one does not
prove untrue to himself, and does not shrink back in dread from the Christian warfare, he
will get the better of under His (i.e. Christ's) leadership and assistance; and thus, in
accordance with primitive peace and order, both the man is subject to Christ, and the
woman is subject to the man. 35. Hence, just as we arrive at sin by three
steps,-suggestion, pleasure, consent,-so of sin itself there are three varieties,-in
heart, in deed, in habit,-as it were, three deaths: one, as it were, in the house, i.e.
when we consent to lust in the heart; a second now, as it were, brought forth outside the
gate, when assent goes forward into action; a third, when the mind is pressed down by the
force of bad habit, as if by a mound of earth, and is now, as it were, rotting in the
sepulchre. And whoever reads the Gospel perceives that our Lord raised to life these three
varieties of the dead. And perhaps he reflects what differences may be found in the very
word of Him who raises them, when He says on one occasion, "Damsel, arise;" on another,
"Young man, I say unto thee, Arise ;" and when on another occasion He groaned in the
spirit, and wept, and again groaned, and then afterwards "cried with a loud voice,
Lazarus, come forth."

36. And therefore, under the category of the adultery mentioned in this section, we must
understand all fleshly and sensual lust. For when Scripture so constantly speaks of
idolatry as fornication, and the Apostle Paul calls avarice by the name of idolatry, who
doubts but that every evil lust is rightly called fornication, since the soul, neglecting
the higher law by which it is ruled, and prostituting itself for the base pleasure of the
lower nature as its reward (so to speak), is thereby corrupted? And therefore let every
one who feels carnal pleasure rebelling against right inclination in his own case through
the habit of sinning, by whose unsubdued violence he is dragged into captivity, recall to
mind as much as he can what kind of peace he has lost by sinning, and let him cry out, "O
wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God
through Jesus Christ." For in this way, when he cries out that he is wretched, in the act
of bewailing he implores the help of a comforter. Nor is it a small approach to
blessedness, when he has come to know his wretchedness; and therefore "blessed" also "are
they that mourn, for they shall be comforted."

CHAPTER XIII.

37. In the next place, He goes on to say: "And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out,
and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should
perish, and not that thy whole body should go into hell." Here, certainly, there is need
of great courage in order to cut off one's members. For whatever it is that is mean.t by
the "eye," undoubtedly it is such a thing as is ardently loved. For those who wish to
express their affection strongly are wont to speak thus: I love him as my own eyes, or
even more than my own eyes. Then, when the word "right" is added, it is meant perhaps to
intensify the strength of the affection. For although these bodily eyes of ours are turned
in a common direction for the purpose of seeing, and if both are turned they have equal
power, yet men are more afraid of losing the right one. So that the sense in this case is:
Whatever it is which thou so lovest that thou reckonest it as a right eye, if it offends
thee, i.e. if it proves a hindrance to thee on the way to true happiness, pluck it out and
cast it from thee. For it is profitable for thee, that one of these which thou so lovest
that they cleave to thee as if they were members, should perish, rather than that thy
whole body should be cast into hell.

38. But since He follows it up with a similar statement respecting the right hand, "If thy
right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee
that one of thy members should perish, and not that thy whole body should go into hell,"
He compels us to inquire more carefully what He has spoken of as an eye. And as regards
this inquiry, nothing occurs to me as a more suitable explanation than a greatly beloved
friend: for this, certainly, is something which we may rightly call a member which we
ardently love; and this friend a counsellor, for it is an eye, as it were, pointing out
the road; and that in divine things, for it is the right eye: so that the left is indeed a
beloved counsellor, but in earthly matters, pertaining to the necessities of the body;
concerning which as a cause of stumbling it was superfluous to speak, inasmuch as not even
the right was to be spared. Now, a counsellor in divine things is a cause of stumbling, if
he endeavours to lead one into any dangerous heresy under the guise of religion and
doctrine. Hence also let the right hand be taken in the sense of a beloved helper and
assistant in divine works: for in like manner as contemplation is rightly understood as
having its seat in the eye, so action in the right hand; so that the left hand may be
understood in reference to works which are necessary for this life, and for the body.

CHAPTER XIV.

1 39. "It hath been said, Whosoever shall put away his wife, let him give her a writing of
divorcement. This is the lesser righteousness of the Pharisees, which is not opposed by
what our Lord says: "But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving
for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry
her that is loosed from her husband committeth adultery. For He who gave the commandment
that a writing of divorcement should be given, did not give the commandment that a wife
should be put away; but "whosoever shall put away," says He, "let him give her a writing
of divorcement," in order that the thought of such a writing might moderate the rash anger
of him who was getting rid of his wife. And, therefore, He who sought to interpose a delay
in putting away, indicated as far as He could to hard-hearted men that He did not wish
separation. And accordingly the Lord Himself in another passage, when a question was asked
Him as to this matter, gave this reply: "Moses did so because of the hardness of your
hearts. For however hard-hearted a man may be who wishes to put away his wife, when he
reflects that, on a writing of divorcement being given her, she could then without risk
marry another, he would be easily appeased. Our Lord, therefore, in order to confirm that
principle, that a wife should not lightly be put away, made the single exception of
fornication;

2 but enjoins that all other annoyances, if any such should happen to spring up, be borne
with fortitude for the sake of conjugal fidelity and for the sake of chastity; and he also
calls that man an adulterer who should marry her that has been divorced by her husband.
And the Apostle Paul shows the limit of this state of affairs, for he says it is to be
observed as long as her husband liveth; but on the husband's death he gives permission to
marry. For he himself also held by this rule, and therein brings forward not his own
advice, as in the case of some of his admonitions, but a commandby the Lord when he says:
"And unto the married I command, yet not I, but the Lord, Let not the wife depart from her
husband: but and if she depart, let her remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her husband:
and let not the husband put away his wife. I believe that, according to a similar rule, if
he shall put her away, he is to remain unmarried, or be reconciled to his wife. For it may
happen that he puts away his wife for the cause of fornication, which our Lord wished to
make an exception of. But now, if she is not allowed to marry while the husband is living
from whom she has departed, nor he to take another while the wife is living whom he has
put away, much less is it right to commit unlawful acts of fornication with any parties
whomsoever.

3 More blessed indeed are those marriages to be reckoned, where the parties concerned,
whether after the procreation of children, or even through contempt of such an earthly
progeny, have been able with common consent to practise self-restraint toward each other:
both because nothing is done contrary to that precept whereby the Lord forbids a spouse to
be put away (for he does not put her away who lives with her not carnally, but
spiritually), and because that principle is observed to which the apostle gives
expression, "It remaineth, that they that have wives be as though they had none."

CHAPTER XV.

40. But it is rather that statement which the Lord Himself makes in another passage which
is wont to disturb the minds of the little ones, who nevertheless earnestly desire to live
now according to the precepts of Christ: "If any man come to me, and hate not his father,
and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also,
he cannot be my disciple. For it may seem a contradiction to the less intelligent, that
here He forbids the putting away of a wife saving for the cause of fornication, but that
elsewhere He affirms that no one can be a disciple of His who does not hate his wife. But
if He were speaking with reference to sexual intercourse, He would not place father, and
mother, and brothers in the same category. But how true it is, that "the kingdom of heaven
suffereth violence, and they that use violence take it by force! For how great violence is
necessary, in order that a man may love his enemies, and hate his father, and mother, and
wife, and children, and brothers! For He commands both things who calls us to the kingdom
of heaven. And how these things do not contradict each other, it is easy to show under His
guidance; but after they have been understood, it is difficult to carry them out, although
this too is very easy when He Himself assists us.

For in that eternal kingdom to which He has vouchsafed to call His disciples, to whom He
also gives the name of brothers, there are no temporal relationships of this sort. For
"there is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor
female; "but Christ is all, and in all. And the Lord Himself says: "For in the
resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God
in heaven. Hence it is necessary that whoever wishes here and now to aim after the life of
that kingdom, should hate not the persons themselves, but those temporal relationships by
which this life of ours, which is transitory and is comprised in being born and dying, is
upheld; because he who does not hate them, does not yet love that life where there is no
condition of being born and dying, which unites parties in earthly wedlock.

41. Therefore, if I were to ask any good Christian who has a wife, and even though he may
still be having children by her, whether he would like to have his wife in that kingdom;
mindful in any case of the promises of God, and of that life where this incorruptible
shall put on incorruption, and this mortal shall put on immortality; though at present
hesitating from the greatness, or at least from a certain degree of love, he would reply
with execration that he is strongly averse to it. Were I to ask him again, whether he
would like his wife to live with him there, after the resurrection, when she had undergone
that angelic change which is promised to the saints, he would reply that he desired this
as strongly as he reprobated the other. Thus a good Christian is found in one and the same
woman to love the creature of God, whom he desires to be transformed and renewed; but to
hate the corruptible and mortal conjugal connection and sexual intercourse: i.e. to love
in her what is characteristic of a human being, to hate what belongs to her as a wife. So
also he loves his enemy, not in as far as he is an enemy, but in as far as he is a man; so
that he wishes the same prosperity to come to him as to himself, viz. that he may reach
the kingdom of heaven rectified and renewed.

This isto be understood both of father and mother and the other ties of blood, that we
hate in them what has fallen to the lot of the human race in being born and dying, but
that we love what can be carried along with us to those realms where no one says, My
Father; but all say to the one God, "Our Father: and no one says, My mother; but all say
to that other Jerusalem, Our mother: and no one says, My brother; but each says respecting
every other, Our brother. But in fact there will be a marriage on our part as of one
spouse (when we have been brought together into unity), with Him who hath delivered us
from the pollution of this world by the shedding of His own blood. It is necessary,
therefore, that the disciple of Christ should hate these things which pass away, in those
whom he desires along with himself to reach those things which shall for ever remain; and
that he should the more hate these things in them, the more he loves themselves.

42. A Christian may therefore live in concord with his wife, whether with her providing
for a fleshly craving, a thing which the apostle speaks by permission, not by commandment;
or providing for the procreation of children, which may be at present in some degree
praiseworthy; or providing for a brotherly and sisterly fellowship, without any corporeal
connection, having his wife as though he had her not, as is most excellent and sublime in
the marriage of Christians: yet so that in her he hates the name of temporal relationship,
and loves the hope of everlasting blessedness. For we hate, without doubt, that respecting
which we wish at least, that at some time hereafter it should not exist; as, for instance,
this same life of ours in the present world, which if we were not to hate as being
temporal, we would not long for the future life, which is not conditioned by time. For as
a substitute for this life the soul is put, respecting which it is said in that passage,
"If a man hate not his own soul also, he cannot be my disciple." For that corruptible meat
is necessary for this life, of which the Lord Himself says, "Is not the soul more than
meat?" i.e. this life to which meat is necessary. And when He says that He would lay down
His soul for His sheep, He undoubtedly means this life, as He is declaring that He is
going to die for us.


OUR LORD’S SERMON ON THE MOUNT
==============================

OUR LORD’S SERMON ON THE MOUNT continued

CHAPTER XVI.

43. Here there arises a second question, when the Lord allows a wife to be put away for
the cause of fornication, in what latitude of meaning fornication is to be understood in
this passage,-whether in the sense understood by all, viz. that we are to understand that
fornication to be meant which is committed in acts of uncleanness; or whether, in
accordance with the usage of Scripture in speaking of fornication (as has been mentioned
above), as meaning all unlawful corruption, such as idolatry or covetousness, and
therefore, of course, every transgression of the law on account of the unlawful lust
[involved in it]. But let us consult the apostle, that we may not say rashly. "And unto
the married I command," says he, "yet not I, but the Lord, Let not the wife depart from
her husband: but and if she depart, let her remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her
husband. For it may happen that she departs for that cause for which the Lord gives
permission to do so. Or, if a woman is at liberty to put away her husband for other causes
besides that of fornication, and the husband is not at liberty, what answer shall we give
respecting this statement which he has made afterwards, "And let not the husband put away
his wife "?

Wherefore did he not add, saving for the cause of fornication, which the Lord permits,
unless because he wishes a similar rule to be understood, that if he shall put away his
wife (which he is permitted to do for the cause of fornication), he is to remain without a
wife, or be reconciled to his wife? For it would not be a bad thing for a husband to be
reconciled to such a woman as that to whom, when nobody had dared to stone her, the Lord
said, "Go, and sin no more. And for this reason also, because He who says, It is not
lawful to putaway one's wife saving for the cause of fornication, forces him to retain his
wife, if there should be no cause of fornication: but if there should be, He does not
force him to put her away, but permits him, just as when it is said, Let it not be lawful
for a woman to marry another, unless her husband be dead; if she shall marry before the
death of her husband, she is guilty; if she shall not marry after the death of her
husband, she is not guilty, for she is not commanded to marry, but merely permitted. If,
therefore, there is a like rule in the said law of marriage between man and woman, to such
an extent that not merely of the woman has the same apostle said, "The wife hath not power
of her own body, but the husband;

but he has not been silent respecting him, saying, "And likewise also the husband hath not
power of his own body, but the wife;"-if, then, the rule is similar, there is no necessity
for understanding that it is lawful for a woman to put away her husband, saving for the
cause of fornication, as is the case also with the husband. 44. It is therefore to be
considered in what latitude of meaning we ought to understand the word fornication, and
the apostle is to be consulted, as we were beginning to do. For he goes on to say, "But to
the rest speak I, not the Lord. Here, first, we must see who are "the rest," for he was
speaking before on the part of the Lord to those who are married, but now, as from
himself, he speaks to "the rest: hence perhaps to the unmarried, but this does not follow.
For thus he continues: "If any brother hath a wife that believeth not, and she be pleased
to dwell with him, let him not put her away. Hence, even now he is speaking to those who
are married. What, then, is his object in saying "to the rest," unless that he was
speaking before to those who were so united, that they were alike as to their faith in
Christ; but that now he is speaking to "the rest," i.e. to those who are so united, that
they are not both believers? But what does he say to them? "If any brother hath a wife
that believeth not, and she be pleased to dwell with him, let him not put her away. And
the woman which hath an husband that believeth not, and if he be pleased to dwell with
her, let her not put him away.

If, therefore, he does not give a command as from the Lord, but advises as from himself,
then this good result springs from it, that if any one act otherwise, he is not a
transgressor of a command, just as he says a little after respecting virgins, that he has
no command of the Lord, but that he gives his advice; and he so praises virginity, that
whoever will may avail himself of it; yet if he shall not do so, he may not be judged to
have acted contrary to a command. For there is one thing which is commanded, another
respecting which advice is given, another still which is allowed. A wife is commanded not
to depart from her husband; and if she depart, to remain unmarried, or to be reconciled to
her husband: therefore it is not allowable for her to act otherwise. But a believing
husband is advised, if he has an unbelieving wife who is pleased to dwell with him, not to
put her away: therefore it is allowable also to put her away, because it is no command of
the Lord that he should not put her away, but an advice of the apostle: just as a virgin
is advised not to marry; but if she shall marry, she will not indeed adhere to the advice,
but she will not act in opposition to a command. Allowance is given when it is said, "But
I speak this by permission, and not of commandment.

And therefore, if it is allowable that an unbelieving wife should be put away, although it
is better not to put her away, and yet not allowable, according to the commandment of the
Lord, that a wife should be put away, saving for the cause of fornication, [then] unbelief
itself also is fornication. 45. For what sayest thou, O apostle? Surely, that a believing
husband who has an unbelieving wife pleased to dwell with him is not to put her away? Just
so, says he. When, therefore, the, Lord also gives this command, that a man should not put
away his wife, saving for the cause of: fornication, why dost thou say here, "I speak, not
the Lord "? For this reason, viz. that the idolatry which unbelievers follow, and every
other noxious superstition, is fornication. Now, the Lord permitted a wife to be put away
for the cause of fornication; but in permitting, He did not command it: He gave
opportunity to the apostle for advising that whoever wished should not put away an
unbelieving wife, in order that, perchance, in this way she might become a believer.
"For," says he, "the unbelieving husband is sanctified in the wife, and the unbelieving
wife is sanctified in the brother." I suppose it had already occurred that some wives were
embracing the faith by means of their believing husbands, and husbands by means of their
believing wives; and although not mentioning names, he yet urged his case by examples, in
order to strengthen his counsel. Then he goes on to say, "Else were your children unclean;
but now are they holy." For now the children were Christians, who were sanctified at the
instance of one of the parents, or with the consent of both; which would not take place
unless the marriage were broken up by one of the parties becoming a believer, and unless
the unbelief ofthe spouse were borne with so far as to give an opportunity of believing.
This, therefore, is the counsel of Him whom I regard as having spoken the words,
"Whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee."

46. Moreover, if unbelief is fornication, and idolatry unbelief, and covetousness
idolatry, it is not to be doubted that covetousness also is fornication. Who, then, in
that case can rightly separate any unlawful lust whatever from the category of
fornication, if covetousness is fornication? And from this we perceive, that because of
unlawful lusts, not only those of which one is guilty in acts of uncleanness with
another's husband or wife, but any unlawful lusts whatever, which cause the soul making a
bad use of the body to wander from the law of God, and to be ruinously and basely
corrupted, a man may, without crime, put away his wife, and a wife her husband, because
the Lord makes the cause of fornication an exception; which fornication, in accordance
with the above considerations, we are compelled to understand as being general and
universal. 47. But when He says, "saving for the cause of fornication," He has not said of
which of them, whether the man or the woman. For not only is it allowed to put away a wife
who commits fornication; but whoever puts away that wife even by whom he is himself
compelled to commit fornication, puts her away undoubtedly for the cause of fornication.
As, for instance, if a wife should compel one to sacrifice to idols, the man who puts away
such an one puts her away for the cause of fornication, not only on her part, but on his
own also: on her part, because she commits fornication; on his own, that he may not commit
fornication. Nothing, however, is more unjust than for a man to put away his wife because
of fornication, if he himself also is convicted of committing fornication. For that
passage occurs to one: "For wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself; for
thou that judgest doest the same things." And for this reason, whosoever wishes to put
away his wife because of fornication, ought first to be cleared of fornication; and a like
remark I would make respecting the woman also.

48. But in reference to what He says, "Whosoever shall marry her that is divorced
committeth adultery," it may be asked whether she also who is married commits adultery in
the same way as he does who marries her. For she also is commanded to remain unmarried, or
be reconciled to her husband; but this in the case of her departing from her husband.
There is, however, a great difference whether she put away or be put away. For if she put
away her husband, and marry another, she seems to have left her former husband from a
desire of changing her marriage connection, which is, without doubt, an adulterous
thought. But if she be put away by the husband, with whom she desired to be, he indeed who
marries her commits adultery, according to the Lord's declaration; but whether she also be
involved in a like crime is uncertain,-although it is much less easy to discover how, when
a man and woman have intercourse one with another with equal consent, one of them should
be an adulterer, and the other not. To this is to be added the consideration, that if he
commits adultery by marryingher who is divorced from her husband (although she does not
put away, but is put away), she causes him to commit adultery, which nevertheless the Lord
forbids. And hence we infer that, whether she has been put away, or has put away her
husband, it is necessary for her to remain unmarried, or be reconciled to her husband.

49. Again, it is asked whether, if, with a wife's permission, either a barren one, or one
who does not wish to submit to intercourse, a man shall take to himself another woman, not
another man's wife, nor one separated from her husband, he can do so without being
chargeable with fornication? And an example is found in the Old Testament history; but now
there are greater precepts which the human race has reached after having passed that
stage; and those matters are to be investigated for the purpose of distinguishing the ages
of the dispensation of that divine providence which assists the human race in the most
orderly way; but not for the purpose of making use of the rules of living. But yet it may
be asked whether what the apostle says, "The wife hath not power of her own body, but the
husband; and likewise also the husband hath not power of his own body, but the wife," can
be carried so far, that, with the permission of a wife, who possesses the power over her
husband's body, a man can have intercourse with another woman, who is neither another
man's wife nor divorced from her husband; but such an opinion is not to be entertained,
lest it should seem that a woman also, with her husband's permission, could do such a
thing, which the instinctive feeling of every one prevents.

50. And yet some occasions may arise, where a wife also, with the consent of her husband,
may seem under obligation to do this for the sake of that husband himself; as, for
instance, is said to have happened at Antioch about fifty years ago, in the times of
Constantius. For Acyndinus, at that time prefect and at one time also consul, when he
demanded of a certain public debtor the payment of a poundweight of gold, impelled by I
know not what motive, did a thing which is often dangerous in the case of those
magistrates to whom anything whatever is lawful, or rather is thought to be lawful, viz.
threatened with an oath and with a vehement affirmation, that if he did not pay the
foresaid gold on a certain day which he had fixed, he would be put to death. Accordingly,
while he was being kept in cruel confinement, and was unable to rid himself of that debt,
the dread day began to impend and to draw near. He happened, however, to have a very
beautiful wife, but one who had no money wherewith to come to the relief of her husband;
and when a certain rich man had had his desires inflamed by the beauty of this woman, and
had learned that her husband was placed in that critical situation, he sent to her,
promising in return for a single night, if she would consent to hold intercourse with him,
that he would give her the pound of gold.

Then she, knowing that she herself had not power over her body, but her husband, conveyed
the intelligence to him, telling him that she was prepared to do it for the sake of her
husband, but only if he himself, the lord by marriage of her body, to whom all that
chastity was due, should wish it to be done, as if disposing of his own property for the
sake of his life. He thanked her, and commanded that it should be done, in no wise judging
that it was an adulterous embrace, because it was no lust, but great love for her husband,
that demanded it, at his own bidding and will. The woman came to the villa of that rich
man, did what the lewd man wished; but she gave her body only to her husband, who desired
not, as was usual, his marriage rights, but life. She received the gold; but he who gave
it took away stealthily what he had given, and substituted a similar bag with earth in it.
When the woman, however, on reaching her home, discovered it, she rushed forth in public
in order to proclaim the deed she had done, animated by the same tender affection for her
husband by which she had been forced to do it; she goes to the prefect, confesses
everything, shows the fraud that had been practised upon her.

Then indeed the prefect first pronounces himself guilty, because the matter had come to
this by means of his threats, and, as if pronouncing sentence upon another, decided that a
pound of gold should be brought into the treasury from the property of Acyndinus; but that
she (the woman) be installed as mistress of that piece of land whence she had received the
earth instead of the gold. I offer no opinion either way from this story: let each one
form a judgment as he pleases, for the history is not drawn from divinely authoritative
sources; but yet, when the story is related, man's instinctive sense does not so revolt
against what was done in the case of this woman, at her husband's bidding, as we formerly
shuddered when the thing itself was set forth without any example. But in this section of
the Gospel nothing is to be more steadily kept in view, than that so great is the evil of
fornication, that, while married people are bound to one another by so strong a bond, this
one cause of divorce is excepted; but as to what fornication is, that we have already
discussed.

CHAPTER XVII.

51. "Again," says He, "ye have heard that it hath been said to them of old time, Thou
shalt not forswear thyself, but shalt perform unto the Lord thine oath: But I say unto
you, Swear not at all; neither by heaven, for it is God's throne; nor by the earth, for it
is His footstool; neither by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great King. Neither
shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black. But let
your communication be Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of
evil. The righteousness of the Pharisees is not to forswear oneself; and this is confirmed
by Him who gives the command not to swear, so far as relates to the righteousness of the
kingdom of heaven. For just as he who does not speak at all cannot speak falsely, so he
who does not swear at all cannot swear falsely. But yet, since he who takes God to witness
swears, this section must be carefully considered, lest the apostle should seem to have
acted contrary to the Lord's precept, who often swore in this way, when he says, "Now the
things which I write unto you, behold, before God I lie not; and again, "The God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is blessed for evermore, knoweth that I lie not.

Of like nature also is that asseveration, "For God is my witness, whom I serve with my
spirit in the gospel of His Son, that without ceasing I make mention of you always in my
prayers. Unless, perchance, one were to say that it is to be reckoned swearing only when
something is spoken of by which one swears; so that he has not used an oath, because he
has not said, by God; but has said, "God is witness. It is ridiculous to think so; yet
because of the contentious, or those very slow of apprehension, lest any one should think
there is a difference, let him know that the apostle has used an oath in this way also,
saying, "By your rejoicing, I die daily. And let no one think that this is so expressed as
if it were said, Your rejoicing makes me die daily; just as it is said, By his teaching he
became learned, i.e. by his teaching it came about that he was perfectly instructed:the
Greek copies decide the matter, where we find it written, Nh thn kauxhsin umeteran, an
expression which is used only by one taking an oath. Thus, then, it is understood that the
Lordgave the command not to swear in this sense, lest any one should eagerly seek after an
oath as a good thing, and by the constant use of oaths sink down through force of habit
into perjury.

And therefore let him who understands that swearing is to be reckoned not among things
that are good, but among things that are necessary, refrain as far as he can from
indulgingin it, unless by necessity, when he sees men slow to believe what it is useful
for them to believe,except they be assured by an oath. To this, accordingly, reference is
made when it is said, "Let your speech be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay; this is good, and what is
to be desired. "For whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil; i.e., if you are
compelled to swear, know that it comes of a necessity arising from the infirmity of those
whom you are trying to persuade of something; which infirmity is certainly an evil, from
which we daily pray to be delivered, when we say, "Deliver us from evil. Hence He has not
said, Whatsoever is more than these is evil; for you are not doing what is evil when you
make a good use of an oath, which, although not in itself good, is yet necessary in order
to persuade another that you are trying to move him for some useful end; but it "cometh of
evil" on his part by whose infirmity you are compelled to swear. But no one learns, unless
he has had experience, how difficult it is both to get rid of a habit of swearing, and
never to do rashly what necessity sometimes compels him to do.

52. But it may be asked why, when it was said, "But I say unto you, Swear not at all," it
was added, "neither by heaven, for it is God's throne," etc., up to "neither by thy head.
I suppose it was for this reason, that the Jews did not think they were bound by the oath,
if they had sworn by such things: and since they had heard it said, "Thou shalt perform
unto the Lord thine oath," they did not think an oath brought them under obligation to the
Lord, if they swore by heaven, or earth, or by Jerusalem, or by their head; and this
happened not from the fault of Him who gave the command, but because they did not rightly
understand it. Hence the Lord teaches that there is nothing so worthless among the
creatures of God, as that any one should think that he may swear falsely by it; since
created things, from the highest down to the lowest, beginning with the throne of God and
going down to a white or black hair, are ruled by divine providence. "Neither by heaven,"
says He, "for it is God's throne; nor by the earth, for it is His footstool: i.e., when
you swear by heaven or the earth, do not imagine that your oath does not bring you under
obligation to the Lord; for you are convicted of swearing by Him who has heaven for His
throne, and the earth for His footstool. "Neither by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the
great King;

a better expression than if He had said, "My [city]; although, however, we understand Him
to have meant this. And, because He is undoubtedly the Lord, the man who swears by
Jerusalem is bound by his oath to the Lord. "Neither shall thou swear by thy head. Now,
what could any one suppose to belong more to himself than his own head? But how is it
ours, when we have not the power of making one hair white or black? Hence, whoever should
wish to swear even by his own head, is bound by his oath to God, who in an ineffable way
keeps all things in His power, and is everywhere present. And here also all other things
are understood, which could not of course be enumerated; just as that saying of the
apostle we have mentioned, "By your rejoicing, I die daily. And to show that he was bound
by this oath to the Lord, he has added, "which I have in Christ Jesus."

53. But yet (I make the remark for the sake of the carnal) we must not think that heaven
is called God's throne, and the earth His footstool, because God has members placed in
heaven and in earth, in some such way as we have when we sit down; but that seat means
judgment. And since, in this organic whole of the universe, heaven has the greatest
appearance, and earth the least,-as if the divine power were more present where the beauty
excels, but still were regulating the least degree of it in the most distant and in the
lowest regions,-He is said to sit in heaven, and to tread upon the earth. But spiritually
the expression heaven means holy souls, and earth sinful ones: and since the spiritual man
judges all things, yet he himself is judged of no man, he is suitably spoken of as the
seat of God; but the sinner to whom it is said, "Earth thou art, and unto earth shall thou
return," because, in accordance with that justice which assigns what is suitable to men's
deserts, he is placed among things that are lowest, and he who would not remain in the law
is punished under the law, is suitably taken as His footstool.

CHAPTER XVIII.

54. But now, to conclude by summing up this passage, what can be named or thought of more
laborious and toilsome, where the believing soul is straining every nerve of its industry,
than the subduing of vicious habit? Let such an one cut off the members which obstruct the
kingdom of heaven, and not be overwhelmed by the pain: in conjugal fidelity let him bear
with everything which, however grievously annoying it may be, is still free from the guilt
of unlawful corruption, i.e. of fornication: as, for instance, if any one should have a
wife either barren, or misshapen in body, or faulty in her members,-either blind, or deaf,
or lame, or having any other defect,-or worn out by diseases and pains and weaknesses, and
whatever else may be thought of exceeding horrible, fornication excepted, let him endure
it for the sake of his plighted love and conjugal union; and let him not only not put away
such a wife, but even if he have her not, let him not marry one who has been divorced by
her husband, though beautiful, healthy, rich, fruitful. And if it is not lawful to do such
things, much less is it to be deemed lawful for him to come near any other unlawful
embrace; and let him so flee from fornication, as to withdraw himself from base corruption
of every sort. Let him speak the truth, and let him commend it not by frequent oaths, but
by the probity of his morals;

and with respect to the innumerable crowds of all bad habits rising up in rebellion
against him, of which, in order that all may be understood, a few have been mentioned, let
him betake himself to the citadel of Christian warfare, and let him lay them prostrate, as
if from a higher ground. But who would venture to enter upon labours so great, unless one
who is so inflamed with the love of righteousness, that, as it were utterly consumed with
hunger and thirst, and thinking there is no life for him till that is satisfied, he puts
forth violence to obtain the kingdom of heaven? For otherwise he will not be able bravely
to endure all those things which the lovers of this world reckon toilsome and arduous, and
altogether difficult in getting rid of bad habits. "Blessed," therefore, "are they which
do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled."

55. But yet, when any one encounters difficulty in these toils, and advancing through
hardships and roughnesses surrounded with various temptations, and perceiving the troubles
of his past life rise up on this side and on that, becomes afraid lest he should not be
able to carry through what he has undertaken, let him eagerly avail himself of the counsel
that he may obtain assistance. But what other counsel is there than this, that he who
desires to have divine help for his own infirmity should bear that of others, and should
assist it as much as possible? And so, therefore, let us look at the precepts of mercy.
The meek and the merciful man, however, seem to be one and the same: but there is this
difference, that the meek man, of whom we have spoken above, from piety does not gainsay
the divine sentences which are brought forward against his sins, nor those statements of
God which he does not yet understand; but he confers no benefit on him whom he does not
gainsay or resist. But the merciful man in such a way offers no resistance, that he does
it for the purpose of correcting him whom he would render worse by resisting.

CHAPTER XIX.

56. Hence the Lord goes on to say: "Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an
eye, and a tooth for a tooth: but I say unto you, that ye resist not evil; but whosoever
shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if any man will sue
thee at the law, and take away thy coat [tunic, undergarment], let him have thy cloak
also. And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. Give to him that
asketh thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away." It is the lesser
righteousness of the Pharisees not to go beyond measure in revenge, that no one should
give back more than he has received: and this is a great step. For it is not easy to find
any one who, when he has received a blow, wishes merely to return the blow; and who, on
hearing one word from a man who reviles him, is content to return only one, and that just
an equivalent; but he avenges it more immoderately, either under the disturbing influence
of anger, or because he thinks it just, that he who first inflicted injury should suffer
more severe injury than he suffered who had not inflicted injury. Such a spirit was in
great measure restrained by the law, where it was written, "An eye for an eye, and a tooth
for a tooth;" by which expressions a certain measure is intended, so that the vengeance
should not exceed the injury. And this is the beginning of peace: but perfect peace is to
have no wish at all for such vengeance.

57. Hence, between that first course which goes beyond the law, that a greater evil should
be inflicted in return for a lesser, and this to which the Lord has given expression for
the purpose of perfecting the disciples, that no evil at all should be inflicted in return
for evil, a middle course holds a certain place, viz. that as much be paid back as has
been received; by means of which enactment the transition is made from the highest discord
to the highest concord, according to the distribution of times. See, therefore, at how
great a distance any one who is the first to do harm to another, with the desire of
injuring and hurting him, stands from him who, even when injured, does not pay back the
injury. That man, however, who is not the first to do harm to any one, but who yet, when
injured, inflicts a greater injury in return, either in will or in deed, has so far
withdrawn himself from the highest injustice, and made so far an advance to the highest
righteousness; but still he does not yet hold by what the law given by Moses commanded.
And therefore he who pays back just as much as he has received already forgives something:
for the party who injures does not deserve merely as much punishment as the man who was
injured by him has innocently suffered.

And accordingly this incomplete, by no means severe, but [rather] merciful justice, is
carried to perfection by Him who came to fulfil the law, not to destroy it. Hence there
are still two intervening steps which He has left to be understood, while He has chosen
rather to speak of the very highest development of mercy. For there is still what one may
do who does not come fully up to that magnitude of the precept which belongs to the
kingdom of heaven; acting in such a way that he does not pay back as much, but less; as,
for instance, one blow instead of two, or that he cuts off an ear for an eye that has been
plucked out. He who, rising above this, pays back nothing at all, approaches the Lord's
precept, but yet he does not reach it. For still it seems to the Lord not enough, if, for
the evil which you may have received, you should inflict no evil in return, unless you be
prepared to receive even more. And therefore He does not say, "But I say unto you," that
you are not to return evil for evil; although even this would be a great precept: but He
says, "that ye resist not evil; so that not only are you not to pay back what may have
been inflicted on you, but you are not even to resist other inflictions. For this is what
He also goes on to explain:

"But whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also: for He
does not say, If any man smite thee, do not wish to smite him; but, Offer thyself further
to him if he should go on to smite thee. As regards compassion, they feel it most who
minister to those whom they greatly love as if they were their children, or some very dear
friends in sickness, or little children, or insane persons, at whose hands they often
endure many things; and if their welfare demand it, they even show themselves ready to
endure more, until the weakness either of age or of disease pass away. And so, as regards
those whom the Lord, the Physician of souls, was instructing to take care of their
neighbours, what else could He teach them, than that they endure quietly the infirmities
of those whose welfare they wish to consult? For all wickedness arises from infirmity of
mind: because nothing is more harmless than the man who is perfect in virtue.

58. But it may be asked what the right cheek means. For this is the reading we find in the
Greek copies, which are most worthy of confidence; though many Latin ones have only the
word "cheek," without the addition of "right. Now the face is that by which any one is
recognised; and we read in the apostle's writings, "For ye suffer, if a man bring you into
bondage, if a man devour you, if a man take of you, if a man exalt himself, if a man smite
you on the face: then immediately he adds, "I speak as concerning reproach; so that he
explains what striking on the face is, viz. to be contemned and despised. Nor is this
indeed said by the apostle for this reason, that they should not bear with those parties;
but that they should bear with himself rather, who so loved them, that he was willing that
he himself should be spent for them. But since the face cannot be called right and left,
and yet there may be a worth according to the estimate of God and according to the
estimate of this world, it is so distributed as it were into the right and left cheek that
whatever disciple of Christ might have to bear reproach for being a Christian, he should
be much more ready to bear reproach in himself, if he possesses any of the honours of this
world.

Thus this same apostle, if he had kept silence respecting the dignity which he had in the
world, when men were persecuting in him the Christian name, would not have presented the
other cheek to those that were smiting the right one. For when he said, I am a Roman
citizen, he was not unprepared to submit to be despised, in that which he reckoned as
least, by those who had despised in him so precious and life-giving a name. For did he at
all the less on that account afterwards submit to the chains, which it was not lawful to
put on Roman citizens, or did lie wish to accuse any one of this injury? And if any spared
him on account of the name of Roman citizenship, yet he did not on that account refrain
from offering an object they might strike at, since he wished by his patience to cure of
so great perversity those whom he saw honouring in him what belonged to the left members
rather than the right. For that point only is to be attended to, in what spirit he did
everything, how benevolently and mildly he acted toward those from whom he was suffering
such things. For when he was smitten with the hand by order of the high priest, what he
seemed to say contumeliously when he affirms, "God shall smite thee, thou whited wall,"
sounds like an insult to those who do not understand it; but to those who do, it is a
prophecy.

For a whited wall is hypocrisy, i.e. pretence holding forth the sacerdotal dignity before
itself, and under this name, as under a white covering, concealing an inner and as it were
sordid baseness. For what belonged to humility he wonderfully preserved, when, on its
being said to him, "Revilest thou the high priest? he replied, "I wist not, brethren, that
he was the high priest; for it is written, Thou shall not speak evil of the ruler of thy
people. And here he showed with what calmness he had spoken that which he seemed to have
spoken in anger, because he answered so quickly and so mildly, which cannot be done by
those who are indignant and thrown into confusion. And in that very statement he spoke the
truth to those who understood him, "I wist not that he was the high priest: as if he said,
I know another High Priest, for whose name I bear such things, whom it is not lawful to
revile, and whom ye revile, since in me it is nothing else but His name that ye hate.
Thus, therefore, it is necessary for one not to boast of such things in a hypocritical
way, but to be prepared in the heart itself for all things, so that he can sing that
prophetic word, "My heart is prepared, O God, my heart is prepared. For many have learned
how to offer the other cheek, but do not know how to love him by whom they are struck.

But in truth, the Lord Himself, who certainly was the first to fulfil the precepts which
He taught, did not offer the other cheek to the servant of the high priest when smiting
Him thereon; but, so far from that, said, "If I have spoken evil, hear witness of the
evil; but if well, why smitest thou me? Yet was He not on that account unprepared in
heart, for the salvation of all, not merely to be smitten on the other cheek, but even to
have His whole body crucified. 59. Hence also what follows, "And if any man will sue thee
at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also," is rightly understood as
a precept having reference to the preparation of heart, not to a vain show of outward
deed. But what is said with respect to the coat and cloak is to be carried out not merely
in such things, but in the case of everything which on any ground of right we speak of as
being ours for time. For if this command is given with respect to what is necessary, how
much more does it become us to contemn what is superfluous! But still, those things which
I have called ours are to be included in that category under which the Lord Himself gives
the precept, when He says, "If any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat.
Let all these things therefore be understood for which we may be sued at the law, so that
the right to them may pass from us to him who sues, or for whom he sues; such, for
instance, as clothing, a house, an estate, a beast of burden, and in general all kinds of
property. But whether it is to be understood of slaves also is a great question. For a
Christian ought not to possess a slave in the same way as a horse or money:

although it may happen that a horse is valued at a greater price than a slave, and some
article of gold or silver at much more. But with respect to that slave, if he is being
educated and ruled by time as his master, in a way more upright, and more honourable, and
more conducing to the fear of God, than can be done by him who desires to take him away, I
do not know whether any one would dare to say that he ought to be despised like a garment.
For a man ought to love a fellow-man as himself, inasmuch as he is commanded by the Lord
of all (as is shown by what follows) even to love his enemies. 60. It is carefully to be
observed that every tunic is a garment, but that every garment is not a tunic. Hence the
word garment means more than the word tunic. And therefore I think it is so expressed,
"And if any one will sue thee at the law, and take away thy tunic, let him have thy
garment also," as if He had said, Whoever wishes to take away thy tunic, give over to him
whatever other clothing thou hast. And so some have interpreted the word pallium, which in
the Greek as used here is imation

61. "And whosoever," says He, "shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him other two. And
this, certainly, not so much in the sense that thou shouldest do it on foot, as that thou
shouldest be prepared in mind to do it. For in the Christian history itself, which is
authoritative, you will find no such thing done by the saints, or by the Lord Himself when
in His human nature, which He condescended to assume, He was showing us an example of how
to live; while at the same time, in almost all places, you will find them prepared to bear
with equanimity whatever may have been wickedly forced upon them. But are we to suppose it
is said for the sake of the mere expression, "Go with him other two; or did He rather wish
that three should be completed,-the number which has the meaning of perfection; so that
every one should remember when he does this, that he is fulfilling perfect righteousness
by compassionately bearing the infirmities of those whom he wishes to be made whole? It
may seem for this reason also that He has recommended these precepts by three examples: of
which the first is, if any one shall smite thee on the cheek; the second, if any one shall
wish to take away thy coat; the third, if any one shall compel thee to go a mile: in which
third example twice as much is added to the original unit, so that in this way the triplet
is completed.

And if this number in the passage before us does not, as has been said, mean perfection,
let this be understood, that in laying down His precepts, as it were beginning with what
is more tolerable, He has gradually gone on, until He has reached as far as the enduring
of twice as much more. For, in the first place, He wished the other cheek to be presented
when the right had been smitten, so that you may be prepared to bear less than you have
borne. For whatever the right means, it is at least something more dear than that which is
meant by the left; and if one who has borne with something in what is more dear, bears
with it in what is less dear, it is something less. Then, secondly, in the case of one who
wishes to take away a coat, He enjoins that the garment also should be given up to him:
which is either just as much, or not much more; not, however, twice as much. In the third
place, with respect to the mile, to which He says that two miles are to be added, He
enjoins that you should bear with even twice as much more: thus signifying that whether it
be somewhat less than the original demand, or just as much, or more, that any wicked man
shall wish to take from thee, it is to be borne with tranquil mind.

CHAPTER XX.

62. And, indeed, in these three classes of examples, I see that no class of injury is
passed over. For all matters in which we suffer any injustice are divided into two
classes: of which the one is, where restitution cannot be made; the other, where it can.
But in that case where restitution cannot be made, a compensation in revenge is usually
sought. For what does it profit, that on being struck you strike in return? Is that part
of the body which was injured for that reason restored to its original condition? But an
excited mind desires such alleviations. Things of that sort, however, afford no pleasure
to a healthy and firm one; nay, such an one judges rather that the other's infirmity is to
be compassionately borne with, than that his own (which has no existence) should be
soothed by the punishment of another. 63. Nor are we thus precluded from inflicting such
punishment [requital] as avails for correction, and as compassion itself dictates; nor
does it stand in the way of that course proposed, where one is prepared to endure more at
thehand of him whom he wishes to set right. But no one is fit for inflicting this
punishment except the man who, by the greatness of his love, has overcome that hatred
wherewith those are wont to be inflamed who wish to avenge themselves. For it is not to be
feared that parents would seem to hate a little son when, on committing an offence, he is
beaten by them that he may not go on offending. And certainly the perfection of love is
set before us by the imitation of God the Father Himself when it is said in what follows:
"Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which persecute you;
and yet it is said of Him by the prophet, "For whom the Lord loveth He correcteth; yea, He
scourgeth every son whom He receiveth. The Lord also says, "The servant that knows not his
Lord's will, and does things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes; but the
servant that knows his Lord's will, and does things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten
with many stripes. No more, therefore, is sought for, except that he should punish to
whom, in the natural order of things, the power is given;

and that he should punish with the same goodwill which a father has towards his little
son, whom by reason of his youth he cannot yet hate. For from this source the most
suitable example is drawn, in order that it may be sufficiently manifest that sin can be
punished in love rather than be left unpunished; so that one may wish him on whom he
inflicts it not to be miserable by means of punishment, but to be happy by means of
correction, yet be prepared, if need be, to endure with equanimity more injuries inflicted
by him whom he wishes to be corrected, whether he may have the power of putting restraint
upon him or not. 64. But great and holy men, although they at the time knew excellently
well that that death which separates the soul from the body is not to be dreaded, yet, in
accordance with the sentiment of those who might fear it, punished some sins with death,
both because the living were struck with a salutary fear, and because it was not death
itself that would injure those who were being punished with death, but sin, which might be
increased if they continued to live. They did not judge rashly on whom God had bestowed
such a power of judging. Hence it is that Elijah inflicted death on many, both with his
own hand and by calling down fire from heaven; as was done also without rashness by many
other great and godlike men, in the same spirit of concern for the good of humanity. And
when the disciples had quoted an example from this Elias, mentioning to the Lord what had
been done by him, in order that He might give to themselves also the power of calling down
fire from heaven to consume those who would not show Him hospitality, the Lord reproved in
them, not the example of the holy prophet, but their ignorance in respect to taking
vengeance, their knowledge being as yet elementary; perceiving that they did not in love
desire correction, but in hated desired revenge.

Accordingly, after He had taught them what it was to love one's neighbour as oneself, and
when the Holy Spirit had been poured out, whom, at the end of ten days after His
ascension, He sent from above, as He had promised, there were not wanting such acts of
vengeance, although much more rarely than in the Old Testament. For there, for the most
part, as servants they were kept down by fear; but here mostly as free they were nourished
by love. For at the words of the Apostle Peter also, Ananias and his wife, as we read in
the Acts of the Apostles, fell down dead, and were not raised to life again, but buried.
65. But if the heretics who are opposed to the Old Testament will not credit this book,
let them contemplate the Apostle Paul, whose writings they read along with us, saying with
respect to a certain sinner whom he delivered over to Satan for the destruction of the
flesh, "that the spirit may be saved." And if they will not here understand death (for
perhaps it is uncertain), let them acknowledge that punishment [requital] of some kind or
other was inflicted by the apostle through the instrumentality of Satan; and that he did
this not in hatred, but in love, is made plain by that addition, "that the spirit may be
saved." Or let them notice what we say in those books to which they themselves attribute
great authority, where it is written that the Apostle Thomas imprecated on a certain man,
by whom he had been struck with the palm of the hand, the punishment of death in a very
cruel form, while yet commending his soul to God, that it might be spared in the world to
come,-whose hand, torn from the rest of his body after he had been killed by a lion, a dog
brought to the table at which the apostle was feasting. It is allowable for us not to
credit this writing, for it is not in the catholic canon; yet they both read it, and
honour it as being thoroughly uncorrupted and thoroughly truthful, who rage very fiercely
(with I know not what blindness) against the corporeal punishments which are in the Old
Testament, being altogether ignorant in what spirit and at what stage in the orderly
distribution of times they were inflicted.

66. Hence, in this class of injuries which is atoned for by punishment, such a measure
will be preserved by Christians, that, on an injury being received, the mind will not
mount up into hatred, but will be ready, in compassion for the infirmity, to endure even
more; nor will it neglect the correction, which it can employ either by advice, or by
authority, or by [the exercise of] power. There is another class of injuries, where
complete restitution is possible, of which there are two species: the one referring to
money, the other to labour. And therefore examples are subjoined: of the former in the
case of the coat and cloak, of the latter in the case of the compulsory service of one and
two miles; for a garment may be given back, and he whom you have assisted by labour may
also assist you, if it should be necessary. Unless, perhaps, the distinction should rather
be drawn in this way: that the first case which is supposed, in reference to the cheek
being struck, means all injuries that are inflicted by the wicked in such a way that
restitution cannot be made except by punishment; and that the second case which is
supposed, in reference to the garment, means all injuries where restitution can be made
without punishment;

and therefore, perhaps, it is added, "if any man will sue thee at the law," because what
is taken away by means of a judicial sentence is not supposed to be taken away with such a
degree of violence as that punishment is due; but that the third case is composed of both,
so that restitution may be made both without punishment and with it. For the man who
violently exacts labour to which he has no claim, without any judicial process, as he does
who wickedly compels a man to go with him, and forces in an unlawful way assistance to be
rendered to himself by one who is unwilling, is able both to pay the penalty of his
wickedness and to repay the labour, if he who endured the wrong should ask it again. In
all these classes of injuries, therefore, the Lord teaches that the disposition of a
Christian ought to be most patient and compassionate, and thoroughly prepared to endure
more.

67. But since it is a small matter merely to abstain from injuring, unless you also confer
a benefit as far as you can, He therefore goes on to say, "Give to every one that asketh
thee, and from him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away." "To every one that
asketh," says He; not, Everything to him that asketh: so that you are to give that which
you can honestly and justly give. For what if he should ask money, wherewith he may
endeavour to oppress an innocent man? what if, in short, he should ask something unchaste?
But not to recount many examples, which are in fact innumerable, that certainly is to be
given which may hurt neither thyself nor the other party, as far as can be known or
supposed by man; and in the case of him to whom you have justly denied what he asks,
justice itself is to be made known, so that you may not send him away empty. Thus you will
give to every one that asketh you, although you will not always give what he asks; and you
will sometimes give something better, when you have set him right who was making unjust
requests.

68. Then, as to what He says, "From him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away," it
is to be referred to the mind; for God loveth a cheerful giver. Moreover, every one who
accepts anything borrows, even if he himself is not going to pay it; for inasmuch as God
pays back more to the merciful, whosoever does a kindness lends at interest. Or if it does
not seem good to understand the borrower in any other sense than of him who accepts of
anything with the intention of repaying it, we must understand the Lord to have included
those two methods of doing a favour. For we either give in a present what we give in the
exercise of benevolence, or we lend to one who will repay us. And frequently men who,
setting beforethem the divine reward, are prepared to give away in a present, become slow
to give what is asked in loan, as if they were destined to getnothing in return from God,
inasmuch as he who receives pays back the thing which is given him. Rightly, therefore,
does the divine authority exhort us to this mode of bestowing a favour, saying, "And from
him that would borrow of thee turn not thou away:" i.e., do not alienate your goodwill
from him who asks it, both because your money will be useless, and because God will not
pay you back, inasmuch as the man has done so; but when you do that from aregard to God's
precept, it cannot be unfruitful with Him who gives these commands.

CHAPTER XXI.

69. In the next place, He goeson to say, "Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt
love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy: But I say unto you, Love your enemies, do good
to them that have you, and pray for them which persecute you; that ye may be the children
of your Father which is in heaven: for He commandeth His sun to rise on the evil and on
the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love
you, what reward have ye? Do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your
brethren only, what do ye more than others? Do not even the Gentiles the very same? Be ye
therefore perfect, even as your Father who is in heaven is perfect." For without this
love, wherewith we are commanded to love even our enemies and persecutors, who can fully
carry out those things which are mentioned above? Moreover, the perfection of that mercy,
wherewith most of all the soul that is in distress is cared for, cannot be stretched
beyond the love of an enemy; and therefore the closing words are: "Be ye therefore
perfect, even as your Father who is in heaven is perfect." Yet in such a way that God is
understood to be perfect as God, and the soul to be perfect as a soul.

70. That there is, however, a certain step [in advance] in the righteousness of the
Pharisees, which belongs to the old law, is perceived from this consideration, that many
men hate even those by whom they are loved; as, for instance, luxurious children hate
their parents for restraining them in their luxury. That than therefore rises a certain
step, who loves his neighbour, although as yet he hates his enemy. But in the kingdom of
Him who came to fulfil the law, not to destroy it, he will bring benevolence and kindness
to perfection, when he has carried it out so far as to love an enemy. For the former
stage, although it is something, is yet so little that it may be reached even by the
publicans as well. And as to what is said in the law, "Thou shalt hate thine enemy," it is
not to be understood as the voice of command addressed to a righteous man, but rather as
the voice of permission to a weak man.

71. Here indeed arises a question in no way to be blinked, that to this precept of the
Lord, wherein He exhorts us to love our enemies, and to do good to those who hate us, and
to pray for those who persecute us, many other parts of Scripture seem to those who
consider them less diligently and soberly to stand opposed; for in the prophets there are
found many imprecations against enemies, which are thought to be curses: as, for instance,
that one, "Let their table become a snare," and the other things which are said there; and
that one, "Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow," and the other statements
which are made either before or afterwards in the same Psalm by the prophet, as bearing on
the case of Judas. Many other statements are found in all parts of Scripture, which may
seem contrary both to this precept of the Lord, and to that apostolic one, where it is
said, "Bless; and curse not; " while it is both written of the Lord, that He cursed the
cities which received not His word; and the above-mentioned apostle thus spoke respecting
a certain man, "The Lord will reward him according to his works."

72. But these difficulties are easily solved, for the prophet predicted by means of
imprecation what was about to happen, not as praying for what he wished, but in the spirit
of one who saw it beforehand. So also the Lord, so also the apostle; although even in the
words of these we do not find what they have wished, but what they have foretold. For when
the Lord says, "Woe unto thee, Capernaum," He does not utter anything else than that some
evil will happen to her as a punishment of her unbelief; and that this would happen the
Lord did not malevolently wish, but saw by means of His divinity. And the apostle does not
say, May [the Lord] reward; but, "The Lord will reward him according to his work; which is
the word of one who foretells, not of one uttering an imprecation. Just as also, in regard
to that hypocrisy of the Jews of which we have already spoken, whose destruction he saw to
he impending, he said," God shall smite thee, thou whited wall. But the prophets
especially are accustomed to predict future events under the figure of one uttering an
imprecation, just as they have often foretold those things which were to come under the
figure of past time: as is the case, for example, in that passage, "Why have the nations
raged, and the peoples imagined vain things? For he has not said, Why will the heathen
rage, and the people imagine vain things?

although he was not mentioning those things as if they were already past, but was looking
forward to them as yet to come. Such also is that passage, "They have parted my garments
among them, and have cast lots upon my vesture: " for here also he has not said, They will
part my garments among them, and will cast lots upon my vesture. And yet no one finds
fault with these words, except the man who does not perceive that variety of figures in
speaking in no degree lessens the truth of facts, and adds very much to the impressions on
our minds.

CHAPTER XXII.

73. But the question before us is rendered more urgent by what the Apostle John says: "If
any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and the Lord
shall give him life for him who sinneth not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do
not say that he shall pray for it. For he manifestly shows that there are certain brethren
for whom we are not commanded to pray, although the Lord bids us pray even for our
persecutors. Nor can the question in hand be solved, unless we acknowledge that there are
certain sins in brethren which are more heinous than the persecution of enemies. Moreover,
that brethren mean Christians can be proved by many examples from the divine Scriptures.
Yet that one is plainest which the apostle thus states: "For the unbelieving husband is
sanctified in the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified in the brother. For he has
not added the word our; but has thought it plain, as he wished a Christian who had an
unbelieving wife to be understood by the expression brother. And therefore he says a
little after, "But if the unbelieving depart, let him depart: a brother or a sister is not
under bondage in such cases.

Hence I am of opinion that the sin of a brother is unto death, when any one, after coming
to the knowledge of God through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, makes an assault on
the brotherhood, and is impelled by the fires of envy to oppose that grace itself by which
he is reconciled to God. But the sin is not unto death, if any one has not withdrawn his
love from a brother, but through some infirmity of disposition has failed to perform the
incumbent duties of brotherhood. And on this accountour Lord also on the cross says,
"Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do: for, not yet having become
partakers of thegrace of the Holy Spirit, they had not yet entered the fellowship of the
holy brotherhood. And the blessed Stephen in the Acts of the Apostles prays for those by
whom he is being stoned, because they had not yet believed on Christ, and were not
fighting against that common grace. And the Apostle Paul on this account, I believe, does
not pray for Alexander, because he was already a brother, and had sinned unto death, viz.
by making an assault on the brotherhood through envy. But for those who had not broken off
their love, but had given way through fear, he prays that they may bepardoned. For thus he
expresses it: "Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil: the Lord will reward him
according to his works. Of whom be thou ware also; for he hath greatlywithstood our words.

Then he adds for whom he prays, thus expressing it: "At my first defence no man stood with
me, but all men forsook me: I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge." 74. It is
this difference in their sins which separates Judas the betrayer from Peter the denier:
not that a penitent is not to be pardoned, for we must not come into collision with that
declaration of our Lord, where He enjoins that a brother is to be pardoned, when he asks
his brother to pardon him; but that the ruin connected with that sin is so great, that he
cannot endure the humiliation of asking for it, even if he should be compelled by a bad
conscience both to acknowledge and divulge his sin. For when Judas had said, "I have
sinned, in that I have betrayed the innocent blood," yet it was easier for him in despair
to run and hang himself, than in humility to ask for pardon. And therefore it is of much
consequence to know what sort of repentance God pardons. For many much more readily
confess that they have sinned, and are so angry with themselves that they vehemently wish
they had not sinned; but yet they do not condescend to humble the heart and to make it
contrite, and to implore pardon: and this disposition of mind we must suppose them to
have, as feeling themselves already condemned because of the greatness of their sin.

75. And this is perhaps the sin against the Holy Ghost, i.e. through malice and envy to
act in opposition to brotherly love after receiving the grace of the Holy Ghost,-a sin
which our Lord says is not forgiven either in this world or in the world to come. And
hence it may be asked whether the Jews sinned against the Holy Ghost, when they said that
our Lord was casting out devils by Beelzebub, the prince of the devils: whether we are to
understand this as said against our Lord Himself, because He says of Himself in another
passage, "If they have called the Master of the house Beelzebub, how muchmore shall they
call them of His household! or whether, inasmuch as they had spoken from great envy, being
ungrateful for so manifest benefits, although they were not yet Christians, theyare, from
the very greatness of their envy, to be supposed to have sinned against the Holy Ghost?
This latter is certainly not to be gathered from our Lord's words. For although He has
said in the same passage, "And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall
be forgiven him; but whosoever speaketh a word against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be
forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come; yet it may seem that He
admonished them for this purpose, that they should come to His grace, and after accepting
of it should not so sin as they have now sinned.

For now they have spoken a word against the Son of man, and it may be forgiven them, if
they be converted, and believe on Him, and receive the Holy Ghost; but if, after receiving
Him, they should choose to envy the brotherhood, and to assail the grace they have
received, it cannot be forgiven them, neither in this world nor in the world to come. For
if He reckoned them so condemned, that there was no hope left for them, He would not judge
that they ought still to be admonished, as He did by adding the statement, "Either make
the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt."
76. Let it be understood, therefore, that we are to love our enemies, and to do good to
those who hate us, and to pray for those who persecute us, in such a way, that it is at
the same time understood that there are certain sins of brethren for which we are not
commanded to pray; lest, through unskilfulness on our part, divine Scripture should seem
to contradict itself (a thing which cannot happen). But whether, as we are not to pray for
certain parties, so we are also to pray against some, has not yet become sufficiently
evident. For it is said in general, "Bless, and curse not;" and again, "Recompense to no
man evil for evil." Moreover, while you do not pray for one, you do not therefore pray
against him: for you may see that his punishment is certain, and his salvation altogether
hopeless; and you do not pray for him, not because you hate him, but because you feel you
can profit him nothing, and you do not wish your prayer to be rejected by the most
righteous Judge. But what are we to think respecting those parties against whom we have it
revealed that prayers were offered by the saints, not that they might be turned from their
error (for in this way prayer is offered rather for them), but that final condemnation
might come upon them: not as it was offered against the betrayer of our Lord by the
prophet; for that, as has been said, was a prediction of things to come, not a wish for
punishment: nor as it was offered by the apostle against Alexander; for respecting that
also enough has been already said: but as we read in the Apocalypse of John of the martyrs
praying that they may be avenged; while the well-known first martyr prayed that those who
stoned him should be pardoned.

77. But we need not be moved by this circumstance. For who would venture to affirm, in
regard to those white-robed saints, when they pleaded that they should be avenged, whether
they pleaded against the men themselves or against the dominion of sin? For of itself it
is a genuine avenging of the martyrs, and one full of righteousness and mercy, that the
dominion of sin should be overthrown, under which dominion they were subjected to so great
sufferings. And for its overthrow the apostle strives, saying, "Let not sin therefore
reign in your mortal body. But the dominion of sin is destroyed and overthrown, partly by
the amendment of men, so that the flesh is brought under subjection to the spirit; partly
by the condemnation of those who persevere in sin, so that they are righteously disposed
of in such a way that they cannot be troublesome to the righteous who reign with Christ.
Look at the Apostle Paul; does it not seem to you that he avenges the martyr Stephen in
his own person, when he says: "So fight I, not as one that beateth the air: but I keep
under my body, and bring it into subjection"? For he was certainly laying prostrate, and
weakening, and bringing into subjection, and regulating that principle in himself whence
he had persecuted Stephen and the other Christians.

Who then can demonstrate that the holy martyrs were not asking from the Lord such an
avenging of themselves, when at the same time, in order to their being avenged, they might
lawfully wish for the end of this world, in which they had endured such martyrdoms? And
they who pray for this, on the one hand pray for their enemies who are curable, and on the
other hand do not pray against those who have chosen to be incurable: because God also, in
punishing them, is not a malevolent Torturer, but a most righteous Disposer. Without any
hesitation, therefore, let us love our enemies, let us do good to those that hate us, and
let us pray for those who persecute us.

CHAPTER XXIII.

78. Then, as to the statement which follows, "that ye may be the children of your Father
which is in heaven," it is to be understood according to that rule in virtue of which John
also says, "He gave them power to become the sons of God." For one is a Son by nature, who
knows nothing at all of sin; but we, by receiving power, are made sons, in as far as we
perform those things which are commanded us by Him. And hence the apostolic teaching gives
the name of adoption to that by which we are called to an eternal inheritance, that we may
be joint-heirs with Christ. We are therefore made sons by a spiritual regeneration, and we
are adopted into the kingdom of God, not as aliens, but as being made and created by Him:
so that it is one benefit, His having brought us into being through His omnipotence, when
before we were nothing; another, His having adopted us, so that, as being sons, we might
enjoy along with Him eternal life for our participation. Therefore He does not say, Do
those things, because ye are sons; but, Do those things, that ye may be sons.

79. But when He calls us to this by the Only-begotten Himself, He calls us to His own
likeness. For He, as is said in what follows, "maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on
the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. Whether you are to understand
His sun as being not that which is visible to the fleshly eyes, but that wisdom of which
it is said, "She is the brightness of the everlasting light ; of which it is also said,
"The Sun of righteousness has arisen upon me; and again, "But unto you that fear the name
of the Lord shall the Sun of righteousness arise: so that you would also understand the
rain as being the watering with the doctrine of truth, because Christ hath appeared to the
good and the evil, and is preached to the good and the evil. Or whether you choose rather
to understand that sun which is set forth before the bodily eyes not only of men, but also
of cattle; and that rain by which the fruits are brought forth, which have been given for
the refreshment of the body, which I think is the more probable interpretation: so that
that spiritual sun does not rise except on the good and holy; for it is this very thing
which the wicked bewail in that book which is called the Wisdom of Solomon, "And the sun
rose not upon us: and that spiritual rain does not water any except the good;

for the wicked were meant by the vineyard of which it is said "I will also command my
clouds that they rain no rain upon it. But whether you understand the one or the other, it
takes place by the great goodness of God, which we are commanded to imitate, if we wish to
be the children of God. For who is there so ungrateful as not to feel how great the
comfort, so far as this life is concerned, which that visible light and the material rain
bring? And this comfort we see bestowed in this life alike upon the righteous and upon
sinners in common. But He does not say, "who maketh the sun to rise on the evil and on the
good; but He has added the word "His," i.e. which He Himself made and established, and for
the making of which He took nothing from any one, as it is written in Genesis respecting
all the luminaries; and He can properly say that all the things which He has created out
of nothing are His own: so that we are hence admonished with how great liberality we
ought, according to His precept, to give to our enemies those things which we have not
created, but have received from His gifts.

80. But who can either be prepared to bear injuries from the weak, in as far as it is
profitable for their salvation; and to choose rather to suffer more injustice from another
than to repay what he has suffered; to give to every one that asketh anything from him,
either what he asks, if it is in his possession, and if it can rightly be given, or good
advice, or to manifest a benevolent disposition, and not to turn away from him who desires
to borrow; to love his enemies, to do good to those who hate him, to pray for those who
persecute him;-who, I say, does these things, but the man who is fully and perfectly
merciful? And with that counsel misery is avoided, by the assistance of Him who says, "I
desire mercy, and not sacrifice." "Blessed," therefore, "are the merciful: for they shall
obtain mercy." But now I think it will be more convenient, that at this point the reader,
fatigued with so long a volume, should breathe a little, and recruit himself for
considering what remains in another book.

INTRODUCTION

On the latter part of our lord's sermon on the mount, contained in the sixth and seventh
chapters of Matthew.

CHAPTER I.

1. The subject of mercy, with the treatment of which the first book came to a close, is
followed by that of the cleansing of the heart, with which the present one begins. The
cleansing of the heart, then, is as it were the cleansing of the eye by which God is seen;
and in keeping that single, there ought to be as great care as the dignity of the object
demands, which can be beheld by such an eye. But even when this eye is in great part
cleansed, it is difficult to prevent certain defilements from creeping insensibly over it,
from those things which are wont to accompany even our good actions,-as, for instance, the
praise of men. If, indeed, not to live uprightly is hurtful; yet to live uprightly, and
not to wish to be praised, what else is this than to be an enemy to the affairs of men,
which are certainly so much the more miserable, the less an upright life on the part of
men gives pleasure? If, therefore, those among whom you live shall not praise you when
living uprightly, they are in error: but if they shall praise you, you are in danger;
unless you have a heart so single and pure, that in those things in which you act
uprightly you do not so act because of the praises of men; and that you rather
congratulate those who praise what is right, as having pleasure in what is good, than
yourself;

because you would live uprightly even if no one were to praise you: and that you
understand this very praise of you to be useful to those who praise you, only when it is
not yourself whom they honour in your good life, but God, whose most holy temple every man
is who lives well; so that what David says finds its fulfilment, "In the Lord shall my
soul be praised; the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad. It belongs therefore to the
pure eye not to look at the praises of men in acting rightly, nor to have reference to
these while you are acting rightly, i.e. to do anything rightly with the very design of
pleasing men. For thus you will be disposed also to counterfeit what is good, if nothing
is kept in view except the praise of man; who, inasmuch as he cannot see the heart, may
also praise things that are false. And they who do this, i.e. who counterfeit goodness,
are of a double heart. No one therefore has a single, i.e. a pure heart, except the man
who rises above the praises of men; and when he lives well, looks at Him only, and strives
to please Him who is the only Searcher of the conscience. And whatever proceeds from the
purity of that conscience is so much the more praiseworthy, the less it desires the
praises of men.

2. "Take heed, therefore," says He, "that ye do not your righteousness before men, to be
seen of them:" i.e., take heed that ye do not live righteously with this intent, and that
ye do not place your happiness in this, that men may see you. "Otherwise ye have no reward
of your Father who is in heaven:" not if ye I should be seen by men; but if ye should live
righteously with the intent of being seen by men. For, [were it the former], what would
become of the statement made in the beginning of this sermon, "Ye are the light of the
world. A city that is set on an hilt cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put
it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the
house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works"? But He did
not set up this as the end; for He has added, "and glorify your Father who is in heaven."
But here, because he is finding fault with this, if the end of our right actions is there,
i.e. if we act rightly with this design, only of being seen of men; after He has said,
"Take heed that ye do not your righteousness before men," He has added nothing. And hereby
it is evident that He has said this, not to prevent us from acting rightly before men, but
lest perchance we should act rightly before men for the purpose of being seen by them,
i.e. should fix our eye on this, and make it the end of what we have set before us.

3. For the apostle also says, "If I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of
Christ; while he says in another place, "Please all men in all things, even as I also
please all men in all things. And they who do not understand this think it a
contradiction; while the explanation is, that he has said he does not please men, because
he was accustomed to act rightly, not with the express design of pleasing men, but of
pleasing God, to the love of whom he wished to turn men's hearts by that very thing in
which he was pleasing men. Therefore he was both right in saying that he did not please
men, because in that very thing he aimed at pleasing God: and right in authoritatively
teaching that we ought to please men, not in order that this should be sought for as the
reward of our good deeds; but because the man who would not offer himself for imitation to
those whom he wished to be saved, could not please God; but no man possibly can imitate
one who has not pleased him. As, therefore, that man would not speak absurdly who should
say, In this work of seeking a ship, it is not a ship, but my native country, that I seek:
so the apostle also might fitly say, In this work of pleasing men, it is not men, but God,
that I please;

because I do not aim at pleasing men, but have it as my object, that those whom I wish to
be saved may imitate me. Just as he says of an offering that is made for the saints, "Not
because I desire a gift, but I desire fruit; i.e., In seeking your gift, I seek not it,
but your fruit. For by this proof it could appear how far they had advanced Godward, when
they offered that willingly which was sought from them not for the sake of his own joy
over their gifts, but for the sake of the fellowship of love. 4. Although when He also
goes on to say, "Otherwise ye have no reward of your Father who is in heaven," He points
out nothing else but that we ought to be on our guard against seeking man's praise as the
reward of our deeds, i.e. against thinking we thereby attain to blessedness.


OUR LORD’S SERMON ON THE MOUNT
==============================

OUR LORD’S SERMON ON THE MOUNT continued

CHAPTER II.

5. "Therefore, when thou doest thine alms," says He, "do not sound a trumpet before thee,
as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory of
men. Do not, says He, desire to become known in the same way as the hypocrites. Now it is
manifest that hypocrites have not that in their heart also which they hold forth before
the eyes of men. For hypocrites are pretenders, as it were setters forth of other
characters, just as in the plays of the theatre. For be who acts the part of Agamemnon in
tragedy, for example, or of any other person belonging to the history or legend which is
acted, is not really the person himself, but personates him, and is called a hypocrite. In
like manner, in the Church, or in any phase of human life, whoever wishes to seem what he
is not is a hypocrite. For he pretends, but does not show himself, to be a righteous man;
because he places the whole fruit [of his acting] in the praise of men, which even
pretenders may receive, while they deceive those to whom they seem good, and are praised
by them. But such do not receive a reward from God the Searcher of the heart, unless it be
the punishment of their deceit: from men, however, says He, "They have received their
reward; and most righteously will it be said to them, Depart from me, ye workers of
deceit; ye had my name, but ye did not my works.

Hence they have received their reward, who do their alms for no other reason than that
they may have glory of men; not if they have glory of men, but if they do them for the
express purpose of having this glory, as has been discussed above. For the praise of men
ought not to be sought by him who acts rightly, but ought to follow him who acts rightly,
so that they may profit who can also imitate what they praise, not that he whom they
praise may think that they are profiling him anything. 6. "But when thou doest alms, let
not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth." If yon should understand unbelievers to
be meant by the left hand, then it will seem to be no fault to wish to please believers;
while nevertheless we are altogether prohibited from placing the fruit and end of our good
deed in the praise of any men whatever. But as regards this point, that those who have
been pleased with your good deeds should imitate you, we are to act before the eyes not
only of believers, but also of unbelievers, so that by our good works, which are to be
praised, they may honour God, and may come to salvation. But if you should be of opinion
that the left hand means an enemy, so that your enemy is not to know when you do alms, why
did the Lord Himself, when His enemies the Jews were standing round, mercifully heal men?
why did the Apostle Peter, by healing the lame man whom he pitied at the gate Beautiful,
bring also the wrath of the enemy upon himself, and upon the other disciples of Christ?
Then, further, if it is necessary that the enemy should not know when we do our alms, how
shall we do with the enemy himself so as to fulfil that precept, "If thine enemy be
hungry, give him bread to eat; and if he be thirsty, give him water to drink"?

7. A third opinion is wont to be held by carnal people, so absurd and ridiculous, that I
would not mention it had I not found that not a few are entangled in that error, who say
that by the expression left hand a wife is meant; so that, inasmuch as in family affairs
women are wont to be more tenacious of money, it is to be kept hid from them when their
husbands compassionately spend anything upon the needy, for fear of domestic quarrels. As
if, forsooth, men alone were Christians, and this precept were not addressed to women
also! From what left hand, then, is a woman enjoined to conceal her deed of mercy? Is a
husband also the left hand of his wife? A statement most absurd. Or if any one thinks that
they are left hands to each other; if any part of the family property be expended by the
one party in such a way as to be contrary to the will of the other party, such a marriage
will not be a Christian one; but whichever of them should choose to do alms according to
the command of God, whomsoever he should find opposed, would inevitably be an enemy to the
command of God, and therefore reckoned among unbelievers,-the command with respect to such
parties being, that a believing husband should win his wife, and a believing wife her
husband, by their good conversation and conduct;

and therefore they ought not to conceal their good works from each other, by which they
are to be mutually attracted, so that the one may be able to attract the other to
communion in the Christian faith. Nor are thefts to be perpetrated in order that God may,
be rendered propitious. But if anything is to be concealed as long as the infirmity of the
other party is unable to bear with equanimity what nevertheless is not done unjustly and
unlawfully; yet, that the left hand is not meant in such a sense on the present occasion,
readily appears from a consideration of the whole section, whereby it will at the same
time be discovered what He calls the left hand. 8. "Take heed," says He, "that ye do not
your righteousness before men, to be seen of them; otherwise ye have no reward of your
Father which is in heaven. Here He has mentioned righteousness generally, then He follows
it up in detail. For a deed which is done in the way of alms is a certain part of
righteousness, and therefore He connects the two by saying, "Therefore, when thou doest
thine alms, do not sound a trumpet before thee, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and
in the streets, that they may have glory of men. In this there is a reference to what He
says before, "Take heed that ye do not your righteousness before men, to be seen of them.
But what follows, "Verily I say unto you, They have received their reward," refers to that
other statement which He has made above, "Otherwise ye have no reward of your Father which
is in heaven. Then follows, "But when thou doest alms. When He says, "But thou," what else
does He mean but, Not in the same manner as they? What, then, does He bid me do? "But when
thou doest alms," says He, "let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth. Hence
those other parties so act, that their left hand knoweth what their right hand doeth.
What, therefore, is blamed in them, this thou art forbidden to do. But this is what is
blamed in them, that they act in such a way as to seek the praises of men.

And therefore the left hand seems to have no more suitable meaning than just this delight
in praise. But the right hand means the intention of fulfilling the divine commands. When,
therefore, with the consciousness of him who does alms is mixed up the desire of man's
praise, the left hand becomes conscious of the work of the right hand: "Let not,
therefore, thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth; i.e. Let there not be mixed up in
thy consciousness the desire of man's praise, when in doing alms thou art striving to
fulfil a divine command. 9. "That thine alms may be in secret. What else is meant by "in
secret," but just in a good conscience, which cannot be shown to human eyes, nor revealed
by words? since, indeed, the mass of men tell many lies. And therefore, if the right hand
acts inwardly in secret, all outward things, which are visible and temporal, belong to the
left hand. Let thine alms, therefore, be in thine own consciousness, where many do alms by
their good intention, even if they have no money or anything else which is to be bestowed
on one who is needy. But many give alms outwardly, and not inwardly, who either from
ambition, or for the sake of some temporal object, wish to appear merciful, in whom the
left hand only is to be reckoned as working. Others again hold, as it were, a middle place
between the two; so that, with a design which is directed Godward, they do their alms, and
yet there insinuates itself into this excellent wish also some desire after praise, or
after a perishable and temporal object of some sort or other. But our Lord much more
strongly prohibits the left hand alone being at work in us, when He even forbids its being
mixed up with the works of the right hand: that is to say, that we are not only to beware
of doing alms from the desire of temporal objects alone;

but that in this work we are not even to have regard to God in such a way as that there
should be mingled up or united therewith the grasping after outward advantages. For the
question under discussion is the cleansing of the heart, which, unless it be single, will
not be clean. But how will it be single, if it serves two masters, and does not purge its
vision by the striving after eternal things alone, but clouds it by the love of mortal and
perishable things as well? "Let thine alms," therefore, "be in secret; and thy Father, who
seeth in secret, shall reward thee. Altogether most righteously and most truly. For if you
expect a reward from Him who is the only Searcher of the conscience, let conscience itself
suffice thee for meriting a reward. Many Latin copies have it thus, "And thy Father who
seeth in secret shall reward thee openly; but because we have not found the word "openly"
in the Greek copies, which are earlier, we have not thought that anything was to be said
about it.

CHAPTER III.

10. "And when ye pray," says He, "ye shall not be as the hypocrites are; for they love to
pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen
of men." And here also it is not the being seen of men that is wrong, but doing these
things for the purpose of being seen of men; and it is superfluous to make the same remark
so often, since there is just one rule to be kept, from which we learn that what we should
dread and avoid is not that men know these things, but that they be done with this intent,
that the fruit of pleasing men should be sought after in them. Our Lord Himself, too,
preserves the same words, when He adds similarly, "Verily I say unto you, They have
received their reward;" hereby showing that He forbids this,-the striving after that
reward in which fools delight when they are praised by men.

11. "But when ye pray," says He, "enter into your bed-chambers." What are those bed-
chambers but just our hearts themselves, as is meant also in the Psalm, when it is said,
"What ye say in your hearts, have remorse for even in your beds"? "And when ye have shut
the doors," says He, "pray to your Father who is in secret." It is a small matter to enter
into our bed-chambers if the door stand open to the unmannerly, through which the things
that are outside profanely rush in and assail our inner man. Now we have said that outside
are all temporal and visible things, which make their way through the door, i.e. through
the fleshly sense into our thoughts, and clamorously interrupt those who are praying by a
crowd of vain phantoms. Hence the door is to be shut, i.e. the fleshly Sense is to be
resisted, so that spiritual prayer may be directed to the Father, which is done in the
inmost heart, where prayer is offered to the Father which is in secret. "And your Father,"
says He, "who seeth in secret, shall reward you." And this had to be wound up with a
closing statement of such a kind; for here at the present stage the admonition is not that
we should pray, but as to how we should pray. Nor is what goes before an admonition that
we should give alms, but as to the spirit in which we should do so, inasmuch as He is
giving instructions with regard to the cleansing of the heart, which nothing cleanses but
the undivided and single-minded striving after eternal life from the pure love of wisdom
alone.

12. "But when ye pray," says He, "do not speak much, as the heathen do; for they think
that they shall be heard for their much speaking." As it is characteristic of the
hypocrites to exhibit themselves to be gazed at when praying, and their fruit is to please
men, so it is characteristic of the heathen, i.e of the Gentiles, to think they are heard
for their much speaking. And in reality, every kind of much speaking comes from the
Gentiles, who make it their endeavour to exercise the tongue rather than to cleanse the
heart. And this kind of useless exertion they endeavour to transfer even to the
influencingof God by prayer, supposing that the Judge, just like man, is brought over by
words to a certain way of thinking. "Be not ye, therefore, like unto them," says the only
true Master. "For your Father knoweth what things are necessary for you, before ye ask
Him." For if many words are made use of with the intent that one who is ignorant may be
instructed and taught, what need is there of them for Him who knows all things, to whom
all things which exist, by the very fact of their existence, speak, and show themselves as
having been brought into existence; and those things which are future do not remain
concealed from His knowledge and wisdom, in which both those things which are past, and
those things which will yet come to pass, are all present and cannot pass away?

13. But since, however few they may be, yet there are words which He Himself also is about
to speak, by which He would teach us to pray; it may be asked why even these few words are
necessary for Him who knows all things before they take place, and is acquainted, as has
been said, with what is necessary for us before we ask Him? Here, in the first place, the
answer is, that we ought to urge our case with God, in order to obtain what we wish, not
by words, but by the ideas which we cherish in our mind, and by the direction of our
thought, with pure love and sincere desire; but that our Lord has taught us the very ideas
in words, that by committing them to memory we may recollect those ideas at the time we
pray. 14. But again, it may be asked (whether we are to pray in ideas or in words) what
need there is for prayer itself, if God already knows what is necessary for us; unless it
be that the very effort involved in prayer calms and purifies our heart, and makes it more
capacious for receiving the divine gifts, which are poured into us spiritually. For it is
not on account of the urgency of our prayers that God hears us, who is always ready to
give us His light, not of a material kind, but that which is intellectual and spiritual:
but we are not always ready to receive, since we are inclined towards other things, and
are involved in darkness through our desire for temporal things. Hence there is brought
about in prayer a turning of the heart to Him, who is ever ready to give, if we will but
take what He has given; and in the very act of turning there is effected a purging of the
inner eye, inasmuch as those things of a temporal kind which were desired are excluded, so
that the vision of the pure heart may be able to bear the pure light, divinely shining,
without any setting or change: and not only to bear it, but also to remain in it; not
merely without annoyance, but also with ineffable joy, in which a life truly and sincerely
blessed is perfected.

CHAPTER IV.

15. But now we have to consider what things we are taught to pray for by Him through whom
we both learn what we are to pray for, and obtain what we pray for. "After this manner,
therefore, pray ye," says He: "Our Father who art in heaven, Hallowed be Thy name. Thy
kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily
bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And bring us not into
temptation, but deliver us from evil. Seeing that in all prayer we have to conciliate the
goodwill of him to whom we pray, then to say what we pray for; goodwill is usually
conciliated by our offering praise to him to whom the prayer is directed, and this is
usually put in the beginning of the prayer: and in this particular our Lord has bidden us
say nothing else but "Our Father who art in heaven. For many things are said in praise of
God, which, being scattered variously and widely over all the Holy Scriptures, every one
will be able to consider when he reads them: yet nowhere is there found a precept for the
people of Israel, that they should say "Our Father," or that they should pray to God as a
Father; but as Lord He was made known to them, as being yet servants, i.e. still living
according to the flesh.

I say this, however, inasmuch as they received the commands of the law, which they were
ordered to observe: for the prophets often show that this same Lord of ours might have
been their Father also, if they had not strayed from His commandments: as, for instance,
we have that statement, "I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled
against me; and that other," I have said, Ye are gods; and all of you are children of the
Most High; and this again, "If then I be a Father, where is mine honour? and if I be a
Master, where is my fear? and very many other statements, where the Jews are accused of
showing by their sin that they did not wish to become sons: those things being left out of
account which are said in prophecy of a future Christian people, that they would have God
as a Father, according to that gospel statement," To them gave He power to become the sons
of God. The Apostle Paul, again, says, "The heir, as long as he is a child, differeth
nothing from a servant; and mentions that we have received the Spirit of adoption,
"whereby we cry, Abba, Father."

16. And since the fact that we are called to an eternal inheritance, that we might be
fellow-heirs with Christ and attain to the adoption of sons, is not of our deserts, but of
God's grace; we put this very same grace in the beginning of our prayer, when we say "Our
Father. And by that appellation both love is stirred up-for what ought to be dearer to
sons than a father?-and a suppliant disposition, when men say to God, "Our Father: and a
certain presumption of obtaining what we are about to ask; since, before we ask anything,
we have received so great a gift as to be allowed to call God "Our Father. For what would
He not now give to sons when they ask, when He has already granted this very thing,
namely, that they might be sons? Lastly, how great solicitude takes hold of the mind, that
he who says "Our Father," should not prove unworthy of so great a Father! For if any
plebeian should be permitted by the party himself to call a senator of more advanced age
father; without doubt he would tremble, and would not readily venture to do it, reflecting
on the humbleness of his origin, and the scantiness of his resources, and the
worthlessness of his plebeian person:

how much more, therefore, ought we to tremble to call God Father, if there is so great a
stain and so much baseness in our character, that God might much more justly drive forth
these from contact with Himself, than that senator might the poverty of any beggar
whatever! Since, indeed, he (the senator) despises that in the beggar to which even he
himself may be reduced by the vicissitude of human affairs: but God never falls into
baseness of character. And thanks be to the mercy of Him who requires this of us, that He
should be our Father,-a relationship which can be brought about by no expenditure of ours,
but solely by God's goodwill. Here also there is an admonition to the rich and to those of
noble birth, so far as this world is concerned, that when they have become Christians they
should not comport themselves proudly towards the poor and the low of birth; since
together with them they call God "Our Father,"-an expression which they cannot truly and
piously use, unless they recognise that they themselves are brethren.

CHAPTER V.

17. Let the new people, therefore, who are called to an eternal inheritance, use the word
of the New Testament, and say, "Our Father who art in heaven,"? i.e. in the holy and the
just. For God is not contained in space. For the heavens are indeed the higher material
bodies of the world, but yet material, and therefore cannot exist except in some definite
place; but if God's place is believed to be in the heavens, as meaning the higher parts of
the world, the birds are of greater value than we, for their life is nearer to God. But it
is not written, The Lord is nigh unto tall men, or unto those who dwell on mountains; but
it is written, "The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart," which refers
rather to humility. But as a sinner is called earth, when it is said to him, "Earth thou
art, and unto earth shalt thou return;" so, on the other hand, a righteous man may be
called heaven. For it is said to the righteous, "For the temple of God is holy, which
temple ye are." And therefore, if God dwells in His temple, and the saints are His temple,
the expression "which art in heaven" is rightly used in the sense, which art in the
saints. And most suitable is such a similitude, so that spiritually there may be seen to
be as great a difference between the righteous and sinners, as there is materially between
heaven and earth.

18. And for the purpose of showing this, when we stand at prayer, we turn to the east,
whence the heaven rises: not as if God also were dwelling there, in the sense that He who
is everywhere present, not as occupying space, but by the power of His majesty, had
forsaken the other parts of the world; but in order that the mind may be admonished to
turn to a more excellent nature, i.e. to God, when its own body, which is earthly, is
turned to a more excellent body, i.e. to a heavenly one. It is also suitable for the
different stages of religion, and expedient in the highest degree, that in the minds of
all, both small and great, there should be cherished worthy conceptions of God. And
therefore, as regards those who as yet are taken up with the beauties that are seen, and
cannot think of anything incorporeal, inasmuch as they must necessarily prefer heaven to
earth, their opinion is more tolerable, if they believe God, whom as yet they think of
after a corporeal fashion, to be in heaven rather than upon earth: so that when at any
future time they have learned that the dignity of the soul exceeds even a celestial body,
they may seek Him in the soul rather than in a celestial body even;

and when they have learned how great a distance there is between the souls of sinners and
of the righteous, just as they did not venture, when as yet they were wise only after a
carnal fashion, to place Him on earth, but in heaven, so afterwards with better faith or
intelligence they may seek Him again in the souls of the righteous rather than in those of
sinners. Hence, when it is said, "Our Father which art in heaven," it is rightly
understood to mean in the hearts of the righteous, as it were in His holy temple. And at
the same time, in such a way that he who prays wishes Him whom he invokes to dwell in
himself also; and when he strives after this, practises righteousness,-a kind of service
by which God is attracted to dwell in the soul. 19. Let us see now what things are to be
prayed for. For it has been stated who it is that is prayed to, and where He dwells. First
of all, then, of those things which are prayed for comes this petition, "Hallowed be Thy
name." And this is prayed for, not as if the name of God were not holy already, but that
it may be held holy by men; i.e., that God may so become known to them, that they shall
reckon nothing more holy, and which they are more afraid of offending. For, because it is
said, "In Judah is God known; His name is great in Israel," we are not to understand the
statement in this way, as if God were less in one place, greater in another; but there His
name is great, where He is named according to the greatness of His majesty. And so there
His name is said to be holy, where He is named with veneration and the fear of offending
Him. And this is what is now going on, while the gospel, by becoming known everywhere
throughout the different nations, commends the name of the one God by means of the
administration of His Son.

CHAPTER VI.

20. In the next place there follows, "Thy kingdom come. Just as the Lord Himself teaches
in the Gospel that the day of judgment will take place at the very time when the gospel
shall have been preached among all nations: a thing which belongs to the hallowing of
God's name. For here also the expression "Thy kingdom come" is not used in such a way as
if God were not now reigning. But some one perhaps might say the expression "come" meant
upon earth; as if, indeed, He were not even now really reigning upon earth, and had not
always reigned upon it from the foundation of the world. "Come," therefore, is to be
understood in the sense of "manifested to men. For in the same way also as a light which
is present is absent to the blind, and to those who shut their eyes; so the kingdom of
God, though it never departs from the earth, is yet absent to those who are ignorant of
it. But no one will be allowed to be ignorant of the kingdom of God, when His Only-
begotten shall come from heaven, not only in a way to be apprehended by the understanding,
but also visibly in the person of the Divine Man, in order to judge the quick and the
dead. And after that; judgment, i.e.

when the process of distinguishing and separating the righteous from the unrighteous has
taken place, God will so dwell in the righteous, that there will be no need for any one
being taught by man, but all will be, as it is written, "taught of God. Then will the
blessed life in all its parts be perfected in the saints unto eternity, just as now the
most holy and blessed heavenly angels are wise and blessed, from the fact that God alone
is their light; because the Lord hath promised this also to His own: "In the
resurrection," says He, "they will be as the angels in heaven." 21. And therefore, after
that petition where we say, "Thy kingdom come," there follows, "Thy will be done, as in
heaven so in earth :" i.e., just as Thy will is in the angels who are in heaven, so that
they wholly cleave to Thee, and thoroughly enjoy Thee, no error beclouding their wisdom,
no misery hindering their blessedness; so let it be done in Thy saints who are on earth,
and made from the earth, so far as the body is concerned, and who, although it is into a
heavenly habitation and exchange, are yet to be taken from the earth. To this there is a
reference also in that doxology of the angels, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth
peace to men of goodwill:" so that when our goodwill has gone before, which follows Him
that calleth, the will of God is perfected in us, as it is in the heavenly angels; so that
no antagonism stands in the way of our blessedness: and this is peace. "Thy will be done"
is also rightly understood in the sense of, Let obedience be rendered to Thy precepts: "as
in heaven so on earth," i.e. as by the angels so by men. For, that the will of God is done
when His precepts are obeyed, the Lord Himself says, when He affirms, "My meat is to do
the will of Him that sent me;" and often, "I came, not to do mine own will, but the will
of Him that sent me;" and when He says, "Behold my mother and my brethren! For whosoever
shall do the will of God, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother." And therefore,
in those at least who do the will of God, the will of God is accomplished; not because
they cause God to will, but because they do what He wills, i.e. they do according to His
will.

22. There is also that other interpretation, "Thy will be done as in heaven so on
earth,"-as in the holy and just, so also in sinners. And this, besides, may be understood
in two ways: either that we should pray even for our enemies (for what else are they to be
reckoned, in spite of whose will the Christian and Catholic name still spreads?), so that
it is said, "Thy will be done as in heaven so on earth,"-as if the meaning were, As the
righteous do Thy will, in like manner let sinners also do it, so that they may be
converted unto Thee; or in this sense, "Let Thy will be done as in heaven so on earth," so
that every one may get his own; which will take place at the last judgment, the righteous
being requited with a reward, sinners with condemnation-when the sheep shall be separated
from the goats.

23. That other interpretation also is not absurd, may, it is thoroughly accordant with
both our faith and hope, that we are to take heaven and earth in the sense of spirit and
flesh. And since the apostle says, "With the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with
the flesh the law of sin," we see that the will of God is done in the mind, i.e. in the
spirit. But when death shall have been swallowed up in victory, and this mortal shall have
put on immortality, which will happen at the resurrection of the flesh, and at that change
which is promised to the righteous, according to the prediction of the same apostle, let
the will of God be done on earth, as it is in heaven; i.e., in such a way that, in like
manner as the spirit does not resist God, but follows and does His will, so the body also
may not resist the spirit or soul, which at present is harassed by the weakness of the
body, and is prone to fleshly habit: and this will be an element of the perfect peace in
the life eternal, that not only will the will be present with us, but also the performance
of that which is good. "For to will," says he, "is present with me; but how to perform
that which is good I find not: for not yet in earth as in heaven, i.e. not yet in the
flesh as in the spirit, is the will of God done.

For even in our misery the will of God is done, when we suffer those things through the
flesh which are due to us in virtue of our mortality, which our nature has deserved
because of its sin. But we are to pray for this, that the will of God may be done as in
heaven so in earth; that in like manner as with the heart we delight in the law after the
inward man, so also, when the change in our body has taken place, no part of us may, on
account of earthly griefs or pleasures, stand opposed to this our delight. 24. Nor is that
view inconsistent with truth, that we are to understand the words, "Thy will be done as in
heaven so in earth," as in our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, so also in the Church: as if one
were to say, As in the man who fulfilled the will of the Father, so also in the woman who
is betrothed to him. For heaven and earth are suitably understood as if they were man and
wife; since the earth is fruitful from the heaven fertilizing it.

CHAPTER VII.

25. The fourth petition is, "Give us this day our daily bread." Daily bread is put either
for all those things which meet the wants of this life, in reference to which He says in
His teaching, "Take no thought for the morrow:" so that on this account there is added,
"Give us this day:" or, it is put for the sacrament of the body of Christ, which we daily
receive: or, for the spiritual food, of which the same Lord says, "Labour for the meat
which perisheth not;" and again, "I am the bread of life, which came down from heaven."
But which of these three views is the more probable, is a question for consideration. For
perhaps some one may wonder why we should pray that we may obtain the things which are
necessary for this life,-such, for instance, as food and clothing,-when the Lord Himself
says, "Be not anxious what ye shall eat, or what ye shall put on." Can any one not be
anxious for a thing which he prays that he may obtain; when prayer is to be offered with
so great earnestness of mind, that to this refers all that has been said about shutting
our closets, and also the command, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His
righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you"? Certainly He does not say,
Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and then seek those other things; but "all these
things," says He, "shall be added unto you," that is to say, even though ye are not
seeking them. But I know not whether it can be found out, how one is rightly said not to
seek what he most earnestly pleads with God that he may receive.

26. But with respect to the sacrament of the Lord's body (in order that they may not start
a question, who, the most of them being in Eastern parts; do not partake of the Lord's
supper daily, while this bread is called daily bread: in order, therefore, that they may
be silent, and not defend their way of thinking about this matter even by the very
authority of the Church, because they do such things without scandal, and are not
prevented from doing them by those who preside over their churches, and when they do not
obey are not condemned; whence it is proved that this is not understood as daily bread in
these parts: for, if this were the case, they would be charged with the commission of a
great sin, who do not on that account receive it daily; but, as has been said, not to
argue at all to any extent from the case of such parties), this consideration at least
ought to occur to those who reflect, that we have received a rule for prayer from the
Lord, which we ought not to transgress, either by adding or omitting anything. And since
this is the case, who is there who would venture to say that we ought only once to use the
Lord's Prayer, or at least that, even if we have used it a second or a third time before
the hour at which we partake of the Lord's body, afterwards we are assuredly not so to
pray during the remaining hours of the day? For we shall no longer be able to say, "Give
us this day, respecting what we have already received; or every one will be able to compel
us to celebrate that sacrament at the very last hour of the day.

27. It remains, therefore, that we should understand the daily bread as spiritual, that is
to say, divine precepts, which we ought daily to meditate and to labour after. For just
with respect to these the Lord says, "Labour for the meat which perisheth not. That food,
moreover, is called daily food at present, so long as this temporal life is measured off
by means of days that depart and return. And, in truth, so long as the desire of the soul
is directed by turns, now to what is higher, now to what is lower, i.e. now to spiritual
things, now to carnal, as is the case with him who at one time is nourished with food, at
another time suffers hunger; bread is it daily necessary, in order that the hungry man may
be recruited, and he who is falling down may be raised up. As, therefore, our body in this
life, that is to say, before that great change, is recruited with food, because it feels
loss; so may the soul also, since by means of temporal desires it sustains as it were a
loss in its striving after God, be reinvigorated by the food of the precepts. Moreover, it
is said, "Give us this day," as long as it is called to-day, i.e. in this temporal life.
For we shall be so abundantly provided with spiritual food after this life unto eternity,
that it will not then be called daily bread;

because there the flight of time, which causes days to succeed days, whence it may be
called to-day, will not exist. But as it is said, "To-day, if ye will hear His voice,"
which the apostle interprets in the Epistle to the Hebrews, As long as it is called to-
day; so here also the expression is to be understood, "Give us this day. But if any one
wishes to understand the sentence before us also of food necessary for the body, or of the
sacrament of the Lord's body, we must take all three meanings conjointly; that is to say,
that we are to ask for all at once as daily bread, both the bread necessary for the body,
and the visible hallowed bread, and the invisible bread of the word of God.

CHAPTER VIII.

28. The fifth petition follows: "And forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.
It is manifest that by debts are meant sins, either from that statement which the Lord
Himself makes, "Thou shall by no means come out thence, till thou hast paid the uttermost
farthing; or from the fact that He called those men debtors who were reported to Him as
having been killed, either those on whom the tower fell, or those whose blood Herod had
mingled with the sacrifice. For He said that men supposed it was because they were debtors
above measure i.e. sinners, and added "I tell you, Nay: but, except ye repent, ye shall
all likewise die. Here, therefore, it is not a money claim that one is pressed to remit,
but whatever sins another may have committed against him. For we are enjoined to remit a
money claim by that precept rather which has been given above, "If any man will sue thee
at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also; nor is it necessary to
remit a debt to every money debtor; but only to him who is unwilling to pay, to such an
extent that he wishes even to go to law. "Now the servant of the Lord," as says the
apostle, "must not go to law. And therefore to him who shall be unwilling, either
spontaneously or when requested, to pay the money which he owes, it is to be remitted.

For his unwillingness to pay will arise from one of two causes, either that he has it not,
or that he is avaricious and covetous of the property of another; and both of these belong
to a state of poverty: for the former is poverty of substance, the latter poverty of
disposition. Whoever, therefore, remits a debt to such an one, remits it to one who is
poor, and performs a Christian work; while that rule remains in force, that he should be
prepared in mind to lose what is owing to him. For if he has used exertion in every way,
quietly and gently, to have it restored to him, not so much aiming at a money profit, as
that he may bring the man round to what is right, to whom without doubt it is hurtful to
have the means of paying, and yet not to pay; not only will he not sin, but he will even
do a very great service, in trying to prevent that other, who is wishing to make gain of
another's money, from making shipwreck of the faith; which is so much more serious a
thing, that there is no comparison. And hence it is understood that in this fifth petition
also, where we say, "Forgive us our debts "the words are spoken not indeed in reference to
money, but in reference to all ways in which any one sins against us, and by consequence
in reference to money also.

For the man who refuses to pay you the money which he owes, when he has the means of doing
so, sins against you. And if you do not forgive this sin, you will not be able to say,
"Forgive us, as we also forgive; but if you pardon it, you see how he who is enjoined to
offer such a prayer is admonished also with respect to forgiving a money debt. 29. That
may indeed be construed in this way, that when we say, "Forgive us our debts, as we also
forgive," then only are we convicted of having acted contrary to this rule, if we do not
forgive them who ask pardon, because we also wish to be forgiven by our most gracious
Father when we ask His pardon. But, on the other hand, by that precept whereby we are
enjoined to pray for our enemies, it is not for those who ask pardon that we are enjoined
to pray. For those who are already in such a state of mind are no longer enemies. By no
possibility, however, could one truthfully say that he prays for one whom he has not
pardoned. And therefore we must confess that all sins which are committed against us are
to be forgiven, if we wish those to be forgiven by our Father which we commit against Him.
For the subject of revenge has been sufficiently discussed already, as I think.

CHAPTER IX.

30. The sixth petition is, "And brings us not into temptation." Some manuscripts have the
word"lead," which is, I judge, equivalent in meaning: for both translations have arisen
from the one Greek word which is used. But many parties in prayer express themselves thus,
"Suffer us not to be led into temptation;" that is to say, explaining in what sense the
word "lead" is used. For God does not Himself lead, but suffers that man to be led into
temptation whom He has deprived of His assistance, in accordance with a most hidden
arrangement, and with his deserts. Often, also, for manifest reasons, He judges him worthy
of being so deprived, and allowed to be led into temptation. But it is one thing to be led
into temptation, another to be tempted. For without temptation no one can be proved,
whether to himself, as it is written, "He that hath not been tempted, what manner of
things doth he know?" or to another, as the apostle says, "And your temptation in my flesh
ye despised not:" for from this circumstance he learnt that they were stedfast, because
they were not turned aside from charity by those tribulations which had happened to the
apostle according to the flesh. For even before all temptations we are known to God, who
knows all things before they happen.

31. When, therefore, it is said, "The Lord your God tempteth (proveth) you, that He may
know if ye love Him," the words "that He may know" are employed for what is the real state
of the case, that He may make you know: just as we speak of a joyful day, because it makes
us joyful; of a sluggish frost, because it makes us sluggish; and of innumerable things of
the same sort, which are found either in ordinary speech, or in the discourse of learned
men, or in the Holy Scriptures. And the heretics who are opposed to the Old Testament, not
understanding this, think that the brand of ignorance, as it were, is to be placed upon
Him of whom it is said, "The Lord your God tempteth you:" as if in the Gospel it were not
written of the Lord, "And this He said to tempt (prove) him, for He Himself knew what He
would do." For if He knew the heart of him whom He was tempting, what is it that He wished
to see by tempting him? But in reality, that was done in order that he who was tempted
might become known to himself, and that he might condemn his own despair, on the
multitudes being filled with the Lord's bread, while he had thought they had not enough to
eat.

32. Here, therefore, the prayer is not, that we should not be tempted, but that we should
not be brought into temptation: as if, were it necessary that any one should be examined
by fire, he should pray, not that he should not be touched by the fire, but that he should
not be consumed. For "the furnace proveth the potter's vessels. and the trial of
tribulation righteous men. Joseph therefore was tempted with the allurement of debauchery,
but he was not brought into temptation. Susanna was tempted, but she was not led or
brought into temptation; and many others of both sexes: but Job most of all, in regard to
whose admirable stedfastness in the Lord his God, those heretical enemies of the Old
Testament, when they wish to mock at it with sacrilegious mouth, brandish this above other
weapons, that Satan begged that he should be tempted. For they put the question to
unskilful men by no means able to understand such things, how Satan could speak with God:
not understanding (for they cannot, inasmuch as they are blinded by superstition and
controversy) that God does not occupy space by the mass of His corporeity; and thus exist
in one place, and not in another, or at least have one part here, and another elsewhere:
but that He is everywhere present in His majesty, not divided by parts, but everywhere
complete.

But if they take a fleshly view of what is said, "The heaven is my throne, and the earth
is my footstool," -to which passage our Lord also bears testimony, when He says, "Swear
not at all: neither by heaven, for it is God's throne; nor by the earth, for it is His
footstool," -what wonder if the devil, being placed on earth, stood before the feet of
God, and spoke something in His presence? For when will they be able to understand that
there is no soul, however wicked, which can yet reason in any way, in whose conscience God
does not speak? For who but God has written the law of nature in the hearts of men?-that
law concerning which the apostle says: "For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do
by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto
themselves: which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also
bearing them witness, and their thoughts the meanwhile accusing or else excusing one
another, in the day when the Lord shall judge the secrets of men. And therefore, as in the
case of every rational soul, which thinks and reasons, even though blinded by passion, we
attribute whatever in its reasoning is true, not to itself but to the very light of truth
by which, however faintly, it is according to its capacity illuminated, so as to perceive
some measure of truth by its reasoning;

what wonder if the depraved spirit of the devil, perverted though it be by lust, should be
represented as having heard from the voice of God Himself, i.e. from the voice of the very
Truth, whatever true thought it has entertained about a righteous man whom it was
proposing to tempt? But whatever is false is to be attributed to that lust from which he
has received the name of devil. Although it is also the case that God has often spoken by
means of a corporeal and visible creature whether to good or bad, as being Lord and
Governor of all, and Disposer according to the merits of every deed: as, for instance, by
means of angels, who appeared also under the aspect of men; and by means of the prophets,
saying, Thus saith the Lord. What wonder then, if, though not in mere thought, at least by
means of some creature fitted for such a work, God is said to have spoken with the devil?

33. And let them not imagine it unworthy of His dignity, and as it were of His
righteousness, that God spoke with him: inasmuch as He spoke with an angelic spirit,
although one foolish and lustful, just as if He were speaking with a foolish and lustful
human spirit. Or let such parties themselves tell us how He spoke with that rich man,
whose most foolish covetousness He wished to censure, saying: "Thou fool, this night thy
soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be which thou hast
provided?" Certainly the Lord Himself says so in the Gospel, to which those heretics,
whether they will or no, bend their necks. But if they are puzzled by this circumstance,
that Satan asks from God that a righteous man should be tempted; I do not explain how it
happened, but I compel them to explain why it is said in the Gospel by the Lord Himself to
the disciples, "Behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat;"
and He says to Peter, "But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not." And when they
explain this to me, they explain to themselves at the same time that which they question
me about. But if they should not be able to explain this, let them not dare with rashness
to blame in any book what they read in the Gospel without offence.

34. Temptations, therefore, take place by means of Satan not by his power, but by the
Lord's permission, either for the purpose of punishing men for their sins, or of proving
and exercising them in accordance with the Lord's compassion. And there is a very great
difference in the nature of the temptations into which each one may fall. For Judas, who
sold his Lord, did not fall into one of the same nature as Peter fell into, when, under
the influence of terror, he denied his Lord. There are also temptations common to man, I
believe, when every one, though well disposed, yet yielding to human frailty, falls into
error in some plan, or is irritated against a brother, in the earnest endeavour to bring
him round to what is right, yet a little more than Christian calmness demands: concerning
which temptations the apostle says, "There hath no temptation taken you but such as is
common to man;" while he says at the same time, "But God is faithful, who will not suffer
you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to
escape, that ye may be able to bear it." And in that sentence he makes it sufficiently
evident that we are not to pray that we may not be tempted, but that we may not be led
into temptation. For we are led into temptation, if such temptations have happened to us
as we are not able to bear. But when dangerous temptations, into which it is ruinous for
us to be brought and led, arise either from prosperous or adverse temporal circumstances,
no one is broken down by the irksomeness of adversity, who is not led captive by the
delight of prosperity.

35. The seventh and last petition is, "But deliver us from evil." For we are to pray not
only that we may not be led into the evil from which we are free, which is asked in the
sixth place; but that we may also be delivered from that into which we have been already
led. And when this has been done, nothing will remain terrible, nor will any temptation at
all have to be feared. And yet in this life, so long as we carry about our present
mortality, into which we were led by the persuasion of the serpent, it is not to be hoped
that this can be the case; but yet we are to hope that at some future time it will take
place: and this is the hope which is not seen, of which the apostle, when speaking, said,
"But hope which is seen is not hope." But yet the wisdom which is granted in this life
also, is not to be despaired of by the faithful servants of God. And it is this, that we
should with the most wary vigilance shun what we have understood, from the Lord's
revealing it, is to be shunned; and that we should with the most ardent love seek after
what we have understood, from the Lord's revealing it, is to be sought after. For thus,
after the remaining burden of this mortality has been laid down in the act of dying, there
shall be perfected in every, part of man at the fit time, the blessedness which has been
begun in this life, and which we have from time to time strained every nerve to lay hold
of and secure.

CHAPTER X.

36. But the distinction amongthese seven petitions is to be considered and commended. For
inasmuch as our temporal life is being spent now, and that which is eternal hoped for, and
inasmuch as eternal things are superior in point of dignity, albeit it is only when we
have done with temporal things that we pass to the other; although the three first
petitions begin to be answered in this life, which is being spent in the present world
(for both the hallowing of God's name begins to be carried on just with the coming of the
lord of humility; and the coming of His kingdom, to which He will come in splendour, will
be manifested, not after the end of the world, but in the end of the world; and the
perfect doing of His will in earth as in heaven, whether you understand by heaven and
earth the righteous and sinners, or spirit and flesh, or the Lord and the Church, or all
these things together, will be brought to completion just with the perfecting of our
blessedness, and therefore at the close of the world), yet all three will remain to
eternity. For both the hallowing of God's name will go on for ever, and there is no end of
His kingdom, and eternal life is promised to our perfected blessedness. Hence those three
things will remain consummated and thoroughly completed in that life which is promised us.

37. But the other four things which we ask seem to me to belong to this temporal life. And
the first of them is, "Give us this day our daily bread. For whether by this same thing
which is called daily bread be meant spiritual bread, or that which is visible in the
sacrament or in this sustenance of ours, it belongs to the present time, which He has
called "to-day," not because spiritual food is not everlasting, but because that which is
called daily food in the Scriptures is represented to the soul either by the sound of the
expression or by temporal signs of any kind: things all of which will certainly no more
have existence when all shall be taught of God, and thus shall no longer be making known
to others by movement of their bodies, but drinking in each one for himself by the purity
of his mind the ineffable light of truth itself. For perhaps for this reason also it is
called bread, not drink, because bread is converted into aliment by breaking and
masticating it, just as the Scriptures feed the soul by being opened up and made the
subject of discourse; but drink, when prepared, passes as it is into the body: so that at
present the truth is bread, when it is called daily, bread; but then it will be drink,
when there will be no need of the labour of discussing and discoursing, as it were of
breaking and masticating, but merely of drinking unmingled and transparent truth.

And sins are at present forgiven us, and at present we forgive them; which is the second
petition of these four that remain: but then there will be no pardon of sins, because
there will be no sins. And temptations molest this temporal life; but they will have no
existence when these words shall be fully realized, "Thou shall hide them in the secret of
Thy presence. And the evil from which we wish to be delivered, and the deliverance from
evil itself, belong certainly to this life, which as being mortal we have deserved at the
hand of God's justice, and from which we are delivered by His mercy.

CHAPTER XI.

38. The sevenfold number of these petitions also seems to me to correspond to that
sevenfold number out of which the whole sermon before us has had its rise. For if it is
the fear of God through which the poor in spirit are blessed, inasmuch as theirs is the
kingdom of heaven; let us ask that the name of God may be hallowed among men through that
"fear which is clean, enduring for ever. If it is piety through which the meek are
blessed, inasmuch as they shall inherit the earth; let us ask that His kingdom may come,
whether it be over ourselves, that we may become meek, and not resist Him, or whether it
be from heaven to earth in the splendour of the Lord's advent, in which we shall rejoice,
and shall be praised, when He says, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom
prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For "in the Lord," says the prophet,
"shall my soul be praised; the meek shall hear thereof, and be glad. If it is knowledge
through which those who mourn are blessed, inasmuch as they shall be comforted; let us
pray that His will may be done as in heaven so in earth, because when the body, which is
as it were the earth, shall agree in a final and complete peace with the soul, which is as
it were heaven, we shall not mourn:

for there is no other mourning belonging to this present time, except when these contend
against each other, and compel us to say, "I see another law in my members, warring
against the law of my mind; and to testify our grief with tearful voice, "O wretched man
that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? If it is fortitude through
which those are blessed who hunger and thirst after righteousness, inasmuch as they shall
be filled; let us pray that our daily bread may be given to us to-day, by which, supported
and sustained, we may be able to reach that most abundant fulness. If it is prudence
through which the merciful are blessed, inasmuch as they shall obtain mercy; let us
forgive their debts to our debtors, and let us pray that ours may be forgiven to us. If it
is understanding through which the pure in heart are blessed, inasmuch as they shall see
God; let us pray not to be led into temptation, lest we should have a double heart, in not
seeking after a single good, to which we may refer all our actings, but at the same time
pursuing things temporal and earthly. For temptations arising from those things which seem
to men burdensome and calamitous, have no power over us, if those other temptations have
no power which befall us through the enticements of such things as men count good and
cause for rejoicing.

If it is wisdom through which the peacemakers are blessed, inasmuch as they shall be
called the children of God; let us pray that we may be freed from evil, for that very
freedom will make us free, i.e. sons of God, so that we may cry in the spirit of adoption,
"Abba, Father." 39. Nor are we indeed carelessly to pass by the circumstance, that of all
those sentences in which the Lord has taught us to pray, He has judged that that one is
chiefly to be commended which has reference to the forgiveness of sins: in which He would
have us to be merciful, because it is the only wisdom for escaping misery. For in no other
sentence do we pray in such a way that we, as it were, enter into a compact with God: for
we say, "Forgive us, as we also forgive." And if we lie in that compact, the whole prayer
is fruitless. For He speaks thus: "For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly
Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will
your Father forgive your trespasses."

CHAPTER XII.

40. There follows a precept concerning fasting, having reference to that same purification
of heart which is at present under discussion. For in this work also we must be on our
guard, lest there should creep in a certain ostentation and hankering after the praise of
man, which would make the heart double, and not allow it to be pure and single for
apprehending God. "Moreover, when ye fast," says He, "be not, as the hypocrites, of a sad
countenance: for they disfigure their faces, that they may appear unto men to fast. Verily
I say unto you, they have their reward. But ye, when ye fast, anoint your head, and wash
your face; that ye appear not unto men to fast, but unto your Father which is in secret:
and your Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward you." It is manifest from these
precepts that all our effort is to be directed towards inward joys, lest, seeking a reward
from without, we should be conformed to this world, and should lose the promise of a
blessedness so much the more solid and firm, as it is inward, in which God has chosen that
we should become conformed to the image of His Son.

41. But in this section it is chiefly to be noticed, that there may be ostentatious
display not merely in the splendour and pomp of things pertaining to the booty, but also
in doleful squalor itself; and the more dangerous on this account, that it deceives under
the name of serving God. And therefore he who is very conspicuous by immoderate attention
to the body, and by the splendour of his clothing or other things, is easily convicted by
the things themselves of being a follower of the pomps of the world, and misleadsno one by
a cunning semblance of sanctity;I but in regard to him who under a profession of
Christianity, fixes the eyes of men upon himself by unusual squalor and filth, when he
does it voluntarily, and not under the pressure of necessity, it may be conjectured from
the rest of his actings whether he does this from contempt of superfluous attention to the
body, or from a certain ambition: for the Lord has enjoined us to beware of wolves under a
sheep's skin; but "by their fruits," says He, "shall ye know them." For when by
temptations of any kind those very things begin to be withdrawn from them or refused to
them, which under that veil they either have obtained or desire to obtain, then of
necessity it appears whether it is a wolf in a sheep's skin or a sheep in its own. For a
Christian ought not to delight the eyes of men by superfluous ornament on this account,
because pretenders also too often assume that frugal and merely necessary dress, that they
may deceive those who are not on their guard: for those sheep also ought not to lay aside
their own skins, if at any time wolves cover themselves there with.

42. It is usual, therefore, to ask what He means, when He says: "But ye, when ye fast,
anoint your head, and wash your faces, that ye appear not unto men to fast. For it would
not be right in any one to teach (although we may wash our face according to daily custom)
that we ought also to have our heads anointed when we fast. If, then, all admit this to be
most unseemly, we must understand this precept with respect to anointing the head and
washing the face as referring to the inner man. Hence, to anoint the head refers to joy;
to wash the face, on the other hand, refers to purity: and therefore that man anoints his
head who rejoices inwardly in his mind and reason. For we rightly understand that as being
the head which has the pre-eminence in the soul, and by which it is evident that the other
parts of man are ruled and governed. And this is done by him who does not seek his joy
from without, so as to draw his delight in a fleshly way from the praises of men. For the
flesh, which ought to be subject, is in no way the head of the whole nature of man. "No
man," indeed, "ever yet hated his own flesh," as the apostle says, when giving the precept
as to loving one's wife; but the man is the head of the woman, and Christ is the head of
the man.

Let him, therefore, rejoice inwardly in his fasting in this very circumstance, that by his
fasting he so turns away from the pleasure of the world as to be subject to Christ, who
according to this precept desires to have the head anointed. For thus also he will wash
his face, i.e. cleanse his heart, with which he shall see God, no veil being interposed on
account of the infirmity contracted from squalor; but being firm and stedfast, inasmuch as
he is pure and guileless. "Wash you," says He, "make you clean; put away the evil of your
doings from before mine eyes. From the squalor, therefore, by which the eye of God is
offended, our face is to be washed. For we, with open face beholding as in a glass the
glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image. 43. Often also the thought of things
necessary belonging to this life wounds and defiles our inner eye; and frequently it makes
the heart double, so that in regard to those things in which we seem to act rightly with
our fellowmen, we do not act with that heart wherewith the Lord enjoins us; i.e., it is
not because we love them, but because we wish to obtain some advantage from them for the
necessity of the present life. But we ought to do them good for their eternal salvation,
not for our own temporal advantage. May God, therefore, incline our heart to His
testimonies, and not to covetousness. For "the end of the commandment is charity out of a
pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfeigned." But he who looks after his
brother from a regard to his own necessities in this life, does not certainly do so from
love, because he does not look after him whom he ought to love as himself, but after
himself; or rather not even after himself, seeing that in this way he makes his own heart
double, by which he is hindered from seeing God, in the vision of whom alone there is
certain and lasting blessedness.

CHAPTER XIII.

44. Rightly, therefore, does he who is intent on cleansing our heart follow up what He has
said with a precept, where He says: "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where
moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: but lay up for
yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where
thieves do not break through nor steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart
be also." If, therefore, the heart be on earth, i.e. if one perform anything with a heart
bent on obtaining earthly advantage, how will that heart be clean which wallows on earth?
But if it be in heaven, it will be clean, because whatever things are heavenly are clean.
For anything becomes polluted when it is mixed with a nature that is inferior, although
not polluted of its kind; for gold is polluted even by pure silver, if it be mixed with
it: so also our mind becomes polluted by the desire after earthly things, although the
earth itself be pure of its kind and order. But we would not understand heaven in this
passage as anything corporeal, because everything corporeal is to be reckoned as earth.
For he who lays up treasure for himself in heaven ought to despise the whole world. Hence
it is in that heaven of which it is said, "The heaven of heavens is the Lord's i.e. in the
spiritual firmament: for it is not in thatwhich is to pass away that we ought to fix and
place our treasure and our heart, but in that which ever abideth; but heaven and earth
shall pass away.

45. And here He makes it manifest that He gives all these precepts with a view to the
cleansing of the heart, when He says: "The candle of the body is the eye: if therefore
thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy
whole body shall be full of darkness. If, therefore, the light [lamp] that is in thee be
darkness, how great is that darkness!" And this passage we are to understand in such a way
as to learn from it that all our works are pure and well-pleasing in the sight of God,
when they are done with a single heart, i.e. with a heavenly intent, having that end of
love in view; for love is also the fulfilling of the law. Hence we ought to take the eye
here in the sense of the intent itself, wherewith we do whatever we are doing; and if this
be pure and right, and looking at that which ought to be looked at, all our works which we
perform in accordance therewith are necessarily good. And all those works He has called
the whole body; for the apostle also speaks of certain works of which he disapproves as
our members, and teaches that they are to be mortified, saying, "Mortify therefore your
members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, covetousness," and all other
such things.

46. It is not, therefore, what one does, but the intent with which he does it, that is to
be considered. For this is the light in us, because it is a thing manifest to ourselves
that we do with a good intent what we are doing; for everything which is made manifest is
light. For the deeds themselves which go forth from us to human society, have an uncertain
issue; and therefore He has called them darkness. For I do not know, when I present money
to a poor man who asks it, either what he is to do with it, or what he is to suffer from
it; and it may happen that he does some evil with it, or suffers some evil on account of
it, a thing I did not wish to happen when I gave it to him, nor would I have given it with
such an intention. If, therefore, I did it with a good intention,-a thing which was known
to me when I was doing it, and is therefore called light,-my deed also is lighted up,
whatever issue it shall have; but that issue, inasmuch as it is uncertain and unknown, is
called darkness. But if I have done it with a bad intent, the light itself even is
darkness. For it is spoken of as light, because every one knows with what intent he acts,
even when he acts with a bad intent;

but the light itself is darkness, because the aim is not directed singly to things above,
but is turned downwards to things beneath, and makes, as it were, a shadow by means of a
double heart. "If, therefore, the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that
darkness! i.e., if the very intent of the heart with which you do what you are doing
(which is known to you) is polluted by the hunger after earthly and temporal things, and
blinded, how much more is the deed itself, whose issue is uncertain, polluted and full of
darkness! Because, although what you do with an intent which is neither upright nor pure,
may turn out for some one's good, it is the way in which you have done it, not how it has
turned out for him, that is reckoned to you.

CHAPTER XIV.

47. Then, further, the statement which follows, "No man can serve two masters," is to be
referred to this very intent, as He goes on to explain, saying: "For either he will hate
the one, and love the other; or else he will submit to the one, and despise the other."
And these words are to be carefully considered; for who the two masters are he forthwith
shows, when He says, "Ye cannot serve God and mammon." Riches are said to be called mammon
among the Hebrews. The Punic name also corresponds: for gain is called mammon in Punic.
But he who serves mammon certainly serves him who, as being set over those earthly things
in virtue of his perversity, is called by our Lord the prince of this world. A man will
therefore "either hate" this one, "and love the other," i.e. God; "or he will submit to
the one, and despise the other. For whoever serves mammon submits to a hard and ruinous
master: for, being entangled by his own lust, he becomes a subject of the devil, and he
does not love him; for who is there who loves the devil? But yet he submits to him; as in
any large house he who is connected with another man's maid servant submits to hard
bondage on account of his passion. even though he does not love him whose maid-servant he
loves.

48. But "he will despise the other," He has said; not, he will hate. For almost no one's
conscience can hate God; but he despises, i.e. he does not fear Him, as if feeling himself
secure in consideration of His goodness. From this carelessness and ruinous security the
Holy Spirit recalls us, when He says by the prophet, "My son, do not add sin upon sin, and
say, The mercy of God is great ;" and, "Knowest thou not that the patience of God inviteth
thee to repentance?" For whose mercy can be mentioned as being so great as His, who
pardons all the sins of those who return, and makes the wild olive a partaker of the
fatness of the olive? and whose severity as being so great as His, who spared not the
natural branches, but broke them off because of unbelief? But let not any one who wishes
to love God, and to beware of offending Him, suppose that he can serve two masters; and
let him disentangle the upright intention of his heart from all doubleness: for thus he
will think of the Lord with a good heart, and in simplicity of heart will seek Him.

CHAPTER XV.

49. "Therefore," says He, "I say unto you, Have not anxiety for your life, what ye shall
eat; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on." Lest perchance, although it is not now
superfluities that are sought after, the heart should be made double by reason of
necessaries themselves, and the aim should be wrenched aside to seek after those things of
our own, when we are doing something as it were from compassion; i.e. so that when we wish
to appear to be consulting for some one's good, we are in that matter looking after our
own profit rather than his advantage: and we do not seem to ourselves to be sinning for
this reason, that it is not superfluities, but necessaries, which we wish to obtain. But
the Lord admonishes us that we should remember that God, when He made and compounded us of
body and soul, gave us much more than food and clothing, through care for which He would
not have us make our heart, double. "Is not," says He, "the soul more than the meat?" So
that you are to understand that He who gave the soul will much more easily give meat. "And
the body than the raiment," i.e. is more than raiment: so that similarly you are to
understand, that He who gave the body will much more easily give raiment.

50. And in this passage the question is wont to be raised, whether the food spoken of has
reference to the soul, since the soul is incorporeal, and the food in question is
corporeal food. But let us admit that the soul in this passage stands for the present
life, whose support is that corporeal nourishment. In accordance with this signification
we have also that statement: "He that loveth his soul shall lose it." And here, unless we
understand the expression of this present life, which we ought to lose for the kingdom of
God, as it is clear the martyrs were able to do, this precept will be in contradiction to
that sentence where it is said: "What is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world,
and lose his own soul?" 51. "Behold," says He, "the fowls of theair: for they sow not,
neither do they reap, nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them: are ye
not much better than they?" i.e. ye are of more value. For surely a rational being such as
man has a higher rank in the nature of things than irrational ones, such as birds. "Which
of you, by taking thought, can add one cubit unto his stature? And why take ye thought for
raiment?" That is to say, the providence of Him by whose power and sovereignty it has come
about that your body was brought up to its present stature, can also clothe you; but that
it is not by your care that it has come about that your body should arrive at this
stature, may be understood from this circumstance, that if you should take thought, and
should wish to add one cubit to this stature, you cannot. Leave, therefore, the care of
protecting the body to Him by whose care you see it has come about that you have a body of
such a statute.

52. But an example was to be given for the clothing too, just as one is given for the
food. Hence He goes on to say, "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil
not, neither do they spin: and yet I say unto you, that even Solomon in all his glory was
not arrayed like one of these. Wherefore, if God so clothe the grass of the field, which
to-day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven; shall He not much more clothe you, O ye of
little faith?" But these examples are not to be treated as allegories, so that we should
inquire what the fowls of heaven or the lilies of the field mean: for they stand here, in
order that from smaller matters we may be persuaded respecting greater ones; just as is
the case in regard to the judge who neither feared God nor regarded man, and yet yielded
to the widow who often importuned him to consider her case, not from piety or humanity,
but that he might be saved annoyance.For that unjust judge does not in any way
allegorically represent the person of God; but yet as to how far God, who is good and
just, cares for those who supplicate Him, our Lord wishedthe inference to be drawn from
this circumstance, that not even an unjust man can despise those who assail him with
unceasing petitions, even were his motive merely to avoid annoyance

CHAPTER XVI.

53. "Therefore be not anxious," says He," saying, What shall we eat? or, What shall we
drink? or, Wherewithal shall we be clothed? (For after all these things do the Gentiles
seek:) for your Father knoweth thatye have need of all these things. But seek ye first the
kingdom of God and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." Here
He shows most manifestly that these things are not to be sought as if they were our
blessings in such sort, that on account of them we ought to do well in all our actings,
but yet that they are necessary. For what the difference is between a blessing which is to
be sought, and a necessary which is to be taken for use, He has made plain by this
sentence, when He says, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all
these things shall be added unto you." The kingdom and the righteousness of God therefore
are our good; and this is to be sought, and there the end is to be set up, on account of
which we are to do everything which we do. But because we serve as soldiers in this life,
in order that we may be able to reach that kingdom, and because our life cannot be spent
without these necessaries, "These things shall be added unto you," says He; "but seek ye
first the kingdom of God and His righteousness." For in using that word "first," He has
indicated that this is to be sought later, not in point of time, but in point of
importance: the one as being our good, the other as being something necessary for us; but
the necessary on account of that good.

54. For neither ought we, for example, to preach the gospel with this object, that we may
eat; but to eat with this object, that we may preach the gospel: for if we preach the
gospel for this cause, that we may eat, we reckon the gospel of less value than food; and
in that case our good will be in eating, but that which is necessary for us in preaching
the gospel. And this the apostle also forbids, when he says it is lawful for himself even,
and permitted by the Lord, that they who preach the gospel should live of the gospel, i.e.
should have from the gospel the necessaries of this life; but yet that he has not made use
of this power. For there were many who were desirous of having an occasion for getting and
selling the gospel, from whom the apostle wished to cut off this occasion, and therefore
he submitted to a way of living by his own hands. For concerning these parties he says in
another passage, "That I may cut off occasion from them which seek occasion. Although even
if, like the rest of the good apostles, by the permission of the Lord he should live of
tim gospel, he would not on that account place the end of preaching the gospel in that
living, but would rather make the gospel the end of his living; i.e., as I have said
above, he would not preach the gospel with this object, that he might get his food and all
other necessaries;

but he would take such things for this purpose, in order that he might carry out that
other object, viz. that willingly, and not of necessity, he should preach the gospel. For
this he disapproves of when he says, "Do ye not know, that they which minister in the
temple eat the things which are of the temple? and they which wait at the altar are
partakers with the altar? Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel
should live of the gospel. But I have used none of these things. Hence he shows that it
was permitted, not commanded; otherwise he will be held to have acted contrary to the
precept of the Lord. Then he goes on to say: "Neither have I written these things, that it
should be so done unto me: for it were better for me to die, than that any man should make
my glorying void. This he said, as he had already resolved, because of some who were
seeking occasion, to gain a living by his own hands. "For if I preach the gospel," says
he, "I have nothing to glory of: i.e., if I preach the gospel in order that such things
may be done in my case, or, if I preach with this object, in order that I may obtain those
things, and if I thus place the end of the gospel in meat and drink and clothing. But
wherefore has he nothing to glory of? "Necessity," says he," is laid upon me; i.e.

so that I should preach the gospel for this reason, because I have not the means of
living, or so that I should acquire temporal fruit from the preaching of eternal things;
for thus, consequently, the preaching of the gospel will be a matter of necessity, not of
free choice "For woe is unto me" says he, "if I preach not the gospel! But how ought he to
preach the gospel? Evidently in such a way as to place the reward in the gospel itself,
and in the kingdom of God: for thus he can preach the gospel, not of constraint, but
willingly. "For if I do this thing willingly," says he, "I have a reward: but if against
my will, a dispensation of the gospel is committed unto me; " if, constrained by the want
of those things which are necessary for temporal life, I preach the gospel, others will
have through me the reward of the gospel, who love the gospel itself when I preach it; but
I shall not have it, because it is not the gospel itself I love, but its price lying in
those temporal things. And this is something sinful, that any one should minister the
gospel not as a son, but as a servant to whom a stewardship of it has been committed;

that he should, as it were, pay out what belongs to another, but should himself receive
nothing from it except victuals, which are given not in consideration of his sharing in
the kingdom, but from without, for the support of a miserable bondage. Although in another
passage he calls himself also a steward. For a servant also, when adopted into the number
of the children, is able faithfully to dispense to those who share with him that property
in which he has acquired the lot of a fellow-heir. But in the present case, where he says,
"But if against my will, a dispensation (stewardship) is committed unto me," he wished
such a steward to be understood as dispenses what belongs to another, and from it gets
nothing himself. 55. Hence anything whatever that is sought for the sake of something
else, is doubtless inferior to that for the sake of which it is sought; and therefore that
is first for the sake of which you seek such a thing, not the thing which you seek for the
sake of that other. And for this reason, if we seek the gospel and the kingdom of God for
the sake of food, we place food first, and the kingdom of God last; so that if food were
not to fail us, we would not seek the kingdom of God: this is to seek food first, and then
the kingdom of God. But if we seek food for this end, that we may gain the kingdom of God,
we do what is said, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness; and all these
things shall be added unto you."


OUR LORD’S SERMON ON THE MOUNT
==============================

OUR LORD’S SERMON ON THE MOUNT continued

CHAPTER XVII.

56. For in the case of those whoare seeking first the kingdom of God and His
righteousness, i.e. who are preferring this to all other things, so that for its sake they
are seeking the other things, there ought not to remain behind the anxiety lest those
things should fail which are necessary to this life for the sake of the kingdom of God.
For He has said above, I "Your Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things. And
therefore, when He had said, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness," He
did not say, Then seek such things (although they are necessary), but He affirms "all
these things shall be added unto you," i.e. will follow, if ye seek the former, without
any hindrance on your part: lest while ye seek such things, ye should be turned away from
the other; or lest ye should set up two things to be aimed at, so as to seek both the
kingdom of God for its own sake, and such necessaries: but these rather for the sake of
that other; so shall they not be wanting to you. For ye cannot serve two masters. But the
man is attempting to serve two masters, who seeks both the kingdom of God as a great good,
and these temporal things.

He will not, however, be able to have a single eye, and to serve the Lord God alone,
unless he take all other things, so far as they are necessary, for the sake of this one
thing, i.e. for the sake of the kingdom of God. But as all who serve as soldiers receive
provisions and pay, so all who preach the gospel receive food and clothing. But all do not
serve as soldiers for the welfare of the republic, but some do so for what they get: so
also all do not minister to God for the welfare of the Church, but some do so for the sake
of these temporal things, which they are to obtain in the shape as it were of provisions
and pay; or both for the one thing and for the other. But it has been already said above,
"Ye cannot serve two masters. Hence it is with a single heart and only for the sake of the
kingdom of God that we ought to do good to all; and we ought not in doing so to think
either of the temporal reward alone, or of that along with the kingdom of God: all which
temporal things He has placed under the category of to-morrow, saying, "Take no thought
for to-morrow. For to-morrow is not spoken of except in time, where the future succeeds
the past. Therefore, when we do anything good, let us not think of what is temporal, but
of what is eternal; then will that be a good and perfect work.

"For the morrow," says He, "will be anxious for the things of itself; " i.e., so that,
when you ought, you will take food, or drink, or clothing, that is to say, when necessity
itself begins to urge you. For these things will be within reach, because our Father
knoweth that we have need of all these things. For "sufficient unto the day," says He, "is
the evil thereof; " i.e. it is sufficient that necessity itself will urge us to take such
things. And for this reason, I suppose, it is called evil, because for us it is penal: for
it belongs to this frailty and mortality which we have earned by sinning. Do not add,
therefore, to this punishment of temporal necessity anything more burdensome, so that you
should not only suffer the what of such things, but should also for the purpose of
satisfying this want enlist as a soldier for God.

57. In the use of this passage, however, we must be very specially on our guard, lest
perchance, when we see any servant of God making provision that such necessaries shall not
be wanting either to himself or to those with whose care he has been entrusted, we should
decide that he is acting contrary to the Lord's precept, and is anxious for the morrow.
For the Lord Himself also, although angels ministered to Him, yet for the sake of example,
that no one might afterwards be scandalized when he observed any of His servants procuring
such necessaries, condescended to have money bags, out of which whatever might be required
for necessary uses might be provided; of which bags, as it is written, Judas, who betrayed
Him, was the keeper and the thief. In like manner, the Apostle Paul also may seem to have
taken thought for the morrow, when he said: "Now concerning the collection for the saints,
as I have given order to the saints of Galatia, even so do ye: upon the first day of the
week let every one of you lay by him in store what shall seem good unto him, that there be
no gatherings when I conic. And when I come whomsoever ye shall approve by your letters,
them will I send to bring your liberality unto Jerusalem. And if it be meet that I go
also, they shall go with me. Now I will come unto you when I shall pass through Macedonia:
for I shall pass through Macedonia.

And it may be that I will abide, yea, and winter with you, that ye may bring me on my
journey whithersoever I go. For I will not see you now by the way; but I trust to tarry a
while with you, if the Lord permit. But I will tarry at Ephesus until Pentecost. In the
Acts of the Apostles also it is written, that such things as are necessary for food were
provided for the future, on account of an impending famine. For we thus read: "And in
these days came prophets down from Jerusalem to Antioch, and there was great rejoicing.
And when we were gathered together, there stood up one of them named Agabus, and signified
by the Spirit that there should be great dearth throughout all the world: which came to
pass in the days of Claudius Caesar. Then the disciples, every one according to his
ability, determined to send relief to the elders for the brethren which dwelt in Judaea,
which also they did by the hands of Barnabas and Saul. And in the case of the necessaries
presented to him, wherewith the same Apostle Paul when setting sail was laden, food seems
to have been furnished for more than a single day. And when the same apostle writes, "Let
him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing
which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth;

to those who misunderstand him he does not seem to keep the Lord's precept, which runs,
"Behold the fowls of the air; for they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into
barns; and, "Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow; they toil not, neither do
they spin; while he enjoins the parties in question to labour, working with their hands,
that they may have something which they may be able to give to others also. And in what he
often says of himself, that he wrought with his hands that he might not be burdensome; and
in what is written of him, that he joined himself to Aquila on account of the similarity
of their occupation, in order that they might work together at that from which they might
make a living; he does not seem to have imitated the birds of the air and the lilies of
the field. From these and such like passages of Scripture, it is sufficiently apparent
that our Lord does not disapprove of it, when one looks after such things in the ordinary
way that men do; but only when one enlists as a soldier of God for the sake of such
things, so that in what he does he fixes his eye not on the kingdom of God, but on the
acquisition of such things.

58. Hence this whole precept is reduced to the following rule, that even in looking after
such things we should think of the kingdom of God, but in the service of the kingdom of
God we should not think of such things. For in this way, although they should sometimes be
wanting (a thing which God often permits for the purpose of exercising us), they not only
do not weaken our proposition, but even strengthen it, when it is examined and tested.
For, says He, "we glory in tribulations also; knowing that tribulation worketh patience,
and patience experience, and experience hope: And hope maketh not ashamed, because the
love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. Now, in
the mention of his tribulations and labours, the same apostle mentions that he has had to
endure not only prisons and shipwrecks and many such like annoyances, but also hunger and
thirst, cold and nakedness. But when we read this, let us not imagine that the promises of
God have wavered, so that the apostle suffered hunger and thirst and nakedness while
seeking the kingdom and righteousness of God, although it is said to us, "Seek ye first
the kingdom of God and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you :

since that Physician to whom we have once for all entrusted ourselves wholly, and from
whom we have the promise of life present and future, knows such things just as helps, when
He sets them before us, when He takes them away, just as He judges it expedient for us;
whom He rules and directs as parties who require both to be comforted and exercised in
this life, and after this life to be established and confirmed in perpetual rest. For man
also, when he frequently takes away the fodder from his beast of burden, is not depriving
it of his care, but rather does what he is doing in the exercise of care.

CHAPTER XVIII.

59. And inasmuch as when such things are either provided against the time to come, or
reserved, if there is no cause wherefore you should expend them, it is uncertain with what
intention it is done, since it may be done with a single heart, and also with a double
one, He has seasonably added in this passage: "Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with
what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged, and with what measure ye mete, it shall be
measured to you again. In this passage, I am of opinion that we are taught nothing else,
but that in the case of those actions respecting which it is doubtful with what intention
they are done, we are to put the better construction on them. For when it is written, "By
their fruits ye shall know them," the statement has reference to things which manifestly
cannot be done with a good intention; such as debaucheries, or blasphemies, or thefts, or
drunkenness, and all such things, of which we are permitted to judge, according to the
apostle's statement: "For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye
judge them that are within? " But concerning the kind of food, because every kind of human
food can be taken indiscriminately with a good intention and a single heart, without the
vice of concupiscence, the same apostle forbids that they who ate flesh and drank wine be
judged by those who abstained from such kinds of sustenance:

"Let not him that eateth," says he, "despise him that eateth not; and let not him which
eateth not, judge him that eateth. There also he says: "Who art thou that judges another
man's servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. For in reference to such matters
as can be done with a good and single and noble intention, although they may also be done
with an intention the reverse of good, those parties wished, howbeit they were [mere] men,
to pronounce judgment upon the secrets of the heart, of which God alone is Judge. 60. To
this category belongs also what he says in another passage: "Therefore judge nothing
before the time, until the Lord come, who both will bring to light the hidden things of
darkness, and will make manifest the thoughts of the hearts: and then shall every man have
praise of God." There are therefore certain ambiguous actions, respecting which we are
ignorant with what intention they are performed, because they may be done both with a good
or with an evil one, of which it is rash to judge, especially for the purpose of
condemning. Now the time will come for these to be judged, when the Lord "will bring to
light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts."
In another passage also the same apostle says: "Some men's aims are manifest beforehand,
going before to judgment; and some men they follow after." He calls those sins manifest,
with regard to which it is clear with what intention they are done; these go before to
judgment, because if a judgment shall follow, it is not rash. But those which are
concealed follow, because neither shall they remain hid in their own time. So we must
understand with respect to good works also. For he adds to this effect: "Likewise also the
good works of some are manifest beforehand; and they that are otherwise cannot be hid."
Let us judge, therefore, with respect to those which are manifest; but respecting those
which are concealed, let us leave the judgment to God: for they also cannot be hid,
whether they be good or evil, when the time shall come for them to be manifested.

61. There are two things, moreover, in which we ought to beware of rash judgment; when it
is uncertain with what intention any thing is done; or when it is uncertain what sort of a
person he is going to be, who at preset is manifestly either good or bad. If, therefore,
any one, for example, complaining of his stomach, would not fast, and you, not believing
this, were to attribute it to the vice of gluttony, you would judge rashly. Likewise, if
you were to come to know the gluttony and drunkenness as being manifest, and were so to
administer reproof as if the man could never be amended and changed, you would
nevertheless judge rashly. Let us not therefore reprove those things about which we do not
know with what intention they are done; nor let us so reprove those things which are
manifest, as that we should despair of a return to a right state of mind; and thus we shad
avoid the judgment of which in the present instance it is said, "Judge not, that ye be not
judged."

62. But what He says may cause perplexity: "For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be
judged; and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again. Is it the case,
then, that if we shall judge any thing with a rash judgment, God will also judge rashly
with respect to us? or if we shall measure any thing with an unjust measure, is there with
God also an unjust measure, according to which it shall be measured to us again? (for by
the expression measure also, I suppose the judgment itself is meant. By no means does God
either judge rashly, or recompense to any one with an unjust measure; but it is so
expressed, inasmuch as that very same rashness wherewith you punish another must
necessarily punish yourself. Unless, perchance, it is to be imagined that injustice does
harm in some way to him against whom it goes forth, but in no way to him from whom it goes
forth; but nay, it often does no harm to him who suffers the injury, but it must
necessarily do harm to him who inflicts it. For what harm did the injustice of the
persecutors do to the martyrs? None; but very much to the persecutors themselves. For
although some of them were turned from the error of their ways, yet at the time at which
they were acting as persecutors, their wickedness was blinding them. So also a rash
judgment frequently does no harm to him who is the object of the rash judgment;

but to him who judges rashly, the rashness itself must necessarily do harm. According to
such a rule, I judge of that saying also: "Every one that strikes with the sword shall
perish with the sword. For how many take the sword, and yet do not perish with the sword,
Peter himself being an instance! But lest any should think that he escaped such punishment
by the pardon of his sins (although nothing could be more absurd than to think that the
punishment of the sword, which did not befall Peter, could have been greater than that of
the cross, which actually befell him), yet what would they say of the malefactors who were
crucified with our Lord; for both he who got pardon, got it after he was crucified, and
the other did not get it at all? Or had theyperhaps crucified all whom they had slain; and
did they therefore themselves too deserve to suffer the same thing? It is ridiculous to
think so. For what else is meant by the statement, "For all they that take the sword shall
perish with the sword," but that the soul dies by that very sin, whatever it may be, which
it has committed?

CHAPTER XIX.

63. And inasmuch as the Lord is admonishing us in this passage with respect to rash and
unjust judgment,-for He wishes that whatever we do, we should do it with a heart that is
single and directed toward God alone; and inasmuch as, with respect to many things, it is
uncertain with what intention they are done, regarding which it is rash to judge;
inasmuch, moreover, as those parties especially judge rashly respecting things that are
uncertain, and readily find fault, who love rather to censure and to condemn than to
amendand to improve, which is a fault arising eitherfrom pride or from envy; therefore He
has subjoined the statement: "And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's
eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?" So that if perchance, for
example, he has transgressed in anger, you should find fault in hatred; there being, as it
were, as much difference between anger and hatred as between a mote and a beam. For hatred
is inveterate anger, which, as it were simply by its long duration, has acquired so great
strength as to be justly called a beam. Now, it may happen that, though you are angry with
a man, you wish him to be turned from his error; but if you hate a man, you cannot wish to
convert him.

64. "Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and,
behold, a beam is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine
own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye;
i.e., first cast the hatred away from thee, and then, but not before, shalt thou be able
to amend him whom thou lovest. And He well says, "Thou hypocrite. For to make complaint
against vices is the duty of good and benevolent men; and when bad men do it, they are
acting a part which does not belong to them; just like hypocrites, who conceal under a
mask what they are, and show themselves off in a mask what they are not. Under the
designation hypocrites, therefore, you are to understand pretenders. And there is, in
fact, a class of pretenders much to be guarded against, and troublesome, who, while they
take up complaints against all kinds of faults from hatred and spite, also wish to appear
counsellors. And therefore we must piously and cautiously watch, so that when necessity
shall compel us to find fault with or rebuke any one, we may reflect first whether the
fault is such as we have never had, or one from which we have now become free; and if we
have never had it, let us reflect that we are men, and might have had it;

but if we have had it, and are now free from it, let the common infirmity touch the
memory, that not hatred but pity may go before that fault-finding or administering of
rebuke: so that whether it shall serve for the conversion of him on whose account we do
it, or for his perversion (for the issue is uncertain), we at least from the singleness of
our eye may be free from care. If, however, on reflection, we find ourselves involved in
the same fault as he is whom we were preparing to censure, let us not censure nor rebuke;
but yet let us mourn deeply over the case, and let us invite him not to obey us, but to
join us in a common effort. 65. For in regard also to what the apostle says,-"Unto the
Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as
under the law (not being under the law), that I might gain them that are under the law; to
them that are without law, as without law (being not without law to God, but under the law
to Christ), that I might gain them that are without law. To the weak became I as weak,
that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might gain all,"-he
did not certainly so act in the way of pretence, as some wish it to be understood, in
order that their detestable pretence may be fortified by the authority of so great an
example; but he did so from love, under the influence of which he thought of the infirmity
of him whom he wished to help as if it were his own. For this he also lays as the
foundation beforehand, when he says: "For although I be free from all men, yet have I made
myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more." And that you may understand this as
being done not in pretence, but in love, under the influence of which we have compassion
for men who are weak as if we were they, he thus admonishes us in another passage, saying,
"Brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the
flesh, but by love serve one another." And this cannot be done, unless each one reckon the
infirmity of another as his own, so as to bear it with equanimity, until the party for
whose welfare he is solicitous is freed from it.

66. Rarely, therefore, and in a case of great necessity, are rebukes to be administered;
yet in such a way that even in these very rebukes we may make it our earnest endeavour,
not that we, but that God, should be served. For He, and none else, is the end: so that we
are to do nothing with a double heart, removing from our own eye the beam of envy, or
malice, or pretence, in order that we may see to cast the mote out of a brother's eye. For
we shall see it with the dove's eyes,-such eyes as are declared to belong to the spouse of
Christ, whom God hath chosen for Himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle,
i.e. pure and guileless.

CHAPTER XX.

67. But inasmuch as the word "guileless" may mislead some who are desirous of obeying
God's precepts, so that they may think it wrong, at times, to conceal the truth, just as
it is wrong at times to speak a falsehood, and inasmuch as in this way,-by disclosing
things which the parties to whom they are disclosed are unable to bear,-they may do more
harm than if they were to conceal them altogether and always, He very rightly adds: "Give
not that which is holy to the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they
trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you." For the Lord Himself,
although He never told a lie, yet showed :hat He was concealing certain truths, when He
said, "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now." And the
Apostle Paul, too, says: "And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but
as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have fed you with milk, and not with meat:
for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able. For ye are yet
carnal."

68. Now, in this precept by which we are forbidden to give what is holy to the dogs, and
to cast our pearls before swine, we must carefully require what is meant by holy, what by
pearls, what by dogs, what by swine. A holy thing is something which it is impious to
violate and to corrupt; and the very attempt and wish to commit that crime is held to be
criminal, although that holy thing should remain in its nature inviolable and
incorruptible. By pearls, again, are meant whatever spiritual things we ought to set a
high value upon, both because they lie hid in a secret place, are as it were brought up
out of the deep, and are found in wrappings of allegory, as it were in shells that have
been opened. We may therefore legitimately understand that one and the same thing may be
called both holy and a pearl: but it gets the name of holy for this reason, that it ought
not to be corrupted; of a pearl for this reason, that it ought not to be despised. Every
one, however, endeavours to corrupt what he does not wish to remain uninjured: but he
despises what he thinks worthless, and reckons to be as it were beneath himself; and
therefore whatever is despised is said to be trampled on.

And hence, inasmuch as dogs spring at a thing in order to tear it in pieces, and do not
allow what they are tearing in pieces to remain in its original condition, "Give not,"
says He, "that which is holy unto the dogs: for although it cannot be torn in pieces and
corrupted, and remains unharmed and inviolable, yet we must think of what is the wish of
those parties who bitterly and in a most unfriendly spirit resist, and, as far as in them
lies, endeavour, if it were possible, to destroy the truth. But swine, although they do
not, like dogs, fall upon an object with their teeth, yet by recklessly trampling on it
defile it: "Do not therefore cast your pearls before swine, test they trample them under
their feet, and turn again and rend you. We may therefore not unsuitably understand dogs
as used to designate the assailants of the truth, swine the despisers of it.

69. But when He says," they turn again and rend you," He does not say, they rend the
pearls themselves. For by trampling on them, just when they turn in order that they may
hear something more, they yet rend him by whom the pearls have just been cast before them
which they have trampled on. For you would not easily find out what pleasure the man could
have who has trampled pearls under foot, i.e. has despised divine things whose discovery
is the result of great labour. But in regard to him who teaches such parties, I do not see
how he would escape being rent in pieces through their anger and wrathfulness. Moreover,
both animals are unclean, the dog as well as the swine. We must therefore be on our guard,
lest anything should be opened up to him who does not receive it: for it is better that he
should seek for what is hidden, than that he should either attack or slight at what is
open. Neither, in fact, is any other cause found why they do not receive those things
which are manifest and of importance, except hatred and contempt, the one of which gets
them the name of dogs, the other that of swine. And all this impurity is generated by the
love of temporal things, i.e. by the love of this world, which we are commanded to
renounce, in order that we may be able to be pure.

The man, therefore, who desires to have a pure and single heart, ought not to appear to
himself blameworthy, if he conceals anything from him who is unable to receive it. Nor is
it to be supposed from this that it is allowable to lie: for it does not follow that when
truth is concealed, falsehood is uttered. Hence, steps are to be taken first, that the
hindrances which prevent his receiving it may be removed; for certainly if pollution is
the reason he does not receive it, he is to be cleansed either by word or by deed, as far
as we can possibly do it. 70. Then, further, when our Lord is found to have made certain
statements which many who were present did not accept, but either resisted or despised, He
is not to be thought to have given that which is holy to the dogs, or to have cast pearls
before swine: for He did not give such things to those who were not able to receive them,
but to those who were able, and were at the same time present; whom it was not meet that
He should neglect on account of the impurity of others. And when tempters put questions to
Him, and He answered them, so that they might have nothing to gainsay, although they might
pine away from the effects of their own poisons, rather than be filled with His food, yet
others, who were able to receive His teaching, heard to their profit many things in
consequence of the opportunity created by these parties. I have said this, lest any one,
perhaps, when he is not able to reply to one who puts a question to him, should seem to
himself excused, if he should say that he is unwilling to give that which is holy to the
dogs, or to cast pearls before swine. For he who knows what to answer ought to do it, even
for the sake of others, in whose minds despair arises, if they believe that the question
proposed cannot be answered: and this in reference to matters that are useful, and that
belong to saving instruction.

For many things which may be the subject of inquiry on the part of idle people are
needless and vain, and often hurtful, respecting which, however, something must be said;
but this very point is to be opened up and explained, viz. why such things ought not to
form the subject of inquiry. In reference, therefore, to things that are useful, we ought
sometimes to give a reply to what is asked of us: just as the Lord did, when the Sadducees
had asked Him about the woman who had seven husbands, to which of them she would belong in
the resurrection. For He answered that in the resurrection they will neither marry, nor be
given in marriage, but will be as the angels in heaven. But sometimes, he who asks is to
be asked something else, by telling which he would answer himself as to the matter he
asked about; but if he should refuse to make a statement, it would not seem to those who
are present unfair, if he himself should not hear anything as to the matter he inquired
about. For those who put the question, tempting Him, whether tribute was to be paid, were
asked another question, viz. whose image the money bore which was brought forward by
themselves; and because they told what they had been asked, i.e. that the money bore the
image of Caesar, they gave a kind of answer to themselves in reference to the question
they had asked the Lord:

and accordingly from their answer He drew this inference, "Render therefore unto Caesar
the things which are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's. When, however, the
chief priests and elders of the people had asked by what authority He was doing those
things, He asked them about the baptism of John: and when they would not make a statement
which they saw to be against themselves, and yet would not venture to say anything bad
about John, on account of the bystanders, "Neither tell I you," says He, "by what
authority I do these things; a refusal which appeared most just to the bystanders. For
they said they were ignorant of that which they really knew, but did not wish to tell.
And, in truth, it was right that they who wished to have an answer to what they asked,
should themselves first do what they required to be done toward them; and if they had done
this, they would certainly have answered themselves. For they themselves had sent to John,
asking who he was; or rather they themselves, being priests and Levites, had been sent,
supposing that he was the very Christ, but he said that he was not, and gave forth a
testimony concerning the Lord: a testimony respecting which if they chose to make a
confession, they would teach themselves by what authority as the Christ He was doing those
things; which as if ignorant of they had asked, in order that they might find an avenue
for calumny.

CHAPTER XXI.

71. Since, therefore, a command had been given that what is holy should not be given to
dogs, and pearls should not be cast before swine, a hearer might object and say, conscious
of his own ignorance and weakness, and hearing a command addressed to him, that he should
not give what he felt that he himself had not yet received,-might (I say) object and say,
What holy thing do you forbid me to give to the dogs, and what pearls do you forbid me to
cast before swine, while as yet I do not see that I possess such things? Most opportunely
He has added the statement: "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find;
knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that
seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened." The asking refers to the
obtaining by request soundness and strength of mind, so that we may be able to discharge
those duties which are commanded; the seeking, on the other hand, refers to the finding of
the truth. For inasmuch as the blessed life is summed up in action and knowledge, action
wishes for itself a supply of strength, contemplation desiderates that matters should be
made clear: of these therefore the first is to be asked, the second is to be sought; so
that the one may be given, the other found. But knowledge in this life belongs rather to
the way than to the possession itself: but whoever has found the true way, will arrive at
the possession itself which, however, is opened to him that knocks.

72. In order, therefore, that these three things-viz. asking, seeking, knocking-may be
made clear, let us suppose, for example, the case of one weak in his limbs, who cannot
walk: in the first place, he is to be healed and strengthened so as to be able to walk;
and to this refers the expression He has used, "Ask." But what advantage is it that he is
now able to walk, or even run, if he should go astray by devious paths? A second thing
therefore is, that he should find the road that leads to the place at which he wishes to
arrive; and when he has kept that road, and arrived at the very place where he wishes to
dwell, if he find it closed, it will be of no use either that he has been able to walk, or
that he has walked and arrived, unless it be opened to him; to this, therefore, the
expression refers which has been used, "Knock."

73. Moreover, great hope has been given, and is given, by Him who does not deceive when He
promises: for He says, "Every one that asketh, receiveth; and he that seeketh, findeth;
and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened. Hence there is need of perseverance, in
order that we may receive what we ask, and find what we seek, and that what we knock at
may be opened. Now, just as He talked of the fowls of heaven and of the lilies of the
field, that we might not despair of food and clothing being provided for us, so that our
hopes might rise from lesser things to greater; so also in this passage, "Or what man is
there of you," says He, "whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask
a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts
unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to
them that ask Him? How do the evil give good things? Now, He has called those evil who are
as yet the lovers of this world and sinners. And, in fact, the good things are to he
called good according to their feeling, because they reckon these to be good things.
Although in the nature of things also such things are good, but temporal, and pertaining
to this feeble life: and whoever that is evil gives them, does not give of his own;

for the earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof, who made heaven, and earth, the sea,
and all that therein is. How much reason, therefore, there is for the hope that God will
give us good things when we ask Him, and that we cannot be deceived, so that we should get
one thing instead of another, when we ask Him; since we even, although we are evil, know
how to give that for which we are asked? For we do not deceive our children; and whatever
good things we give are not given of our own, but of what is His.

CHAPTER XXII.

74. Moreover, a certain strength and vigour in walking along the path of wisdom ties in
good morals, which are made to extend as far as to purification and singleness of heart,-a
subject on which He has now been speaking long, and thus concludes: "Therefore all good
things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is
the law and the prophets. In the Greek copies we find the passage runs thus: "Therefore
all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them. But I
think the word "good" has been added by the Latins to make the sentence clear. For the
thought occurred, that if any one should wish something wicked to be done to him, and
should refer this clause to that,-as, for instance, if one should wish to be challenged to
drink immoderately, and to get drunk over his cups, and should first do this to the party
by whom he wishes it to be done to himself,-it would be ridiculous to imagine that he had
fulfilled this clause. Inasmuch, therefore, as they were influenced by this consideration,
as I suppose, one word was added to make the matter clear; so that in the statement,
"Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you," there was inserted
the word "good. But if this is wanting in the Greek copies, they also ought to be
corrected: but who would venture to do this?

It is to be understood, therefore, that the clause is complete and altogether perfect,
even if this word be not added. For the expression used, "whatsoever ye would," ought to
be understood as used not in a customary and random, but in a strict sense. For there is
no will except in the good: for in the case of bad and wicked deeds, desire is strictly
spoken of, not will. Not that the Scriptures always speak in a strict sense; but where it
is necessary, they so keep a word to its perfectly strict meaning, that they do not allow
anything else to be understood. 75. Moreover, this precept seems to refer to the love of
our neighbour, and not to the love of God also, seeing that in another passage He says
that there are two precepts on which "hang all the law and the prophets. For if He had
said, All things whatsoever ye would should be done to you, do ye even so; in this one
sentence He would have embraced both those precepts: for it would soon be said that every
one wishes that he himself should be loved both by God and by men; and so, when this
precept was given to him, that what he wished done to himself he should himself do, that
certainly would be equivalent to the precept that he should love God and men. But when it
is said more expressly of men, "Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should
do to you, do ye even so to them," nothing else seems to be meant than, "Thou shall love
thy neighbour as thyself. But we must carefully attend to what He has added here: "for
this is the law and the prophets. Now, in the case of these two precepts, He not merely
says, The law and the prophets hang; but He has also added, "all the law and the
prophets," which is the same as the whole of prophecy: and in not making the same addition
here, He has kept a place for the other precept, which refers to the love of God.

Here, then, inasmuch as He is following out the precepts with respect to a single heart,
and it is to be dreaded test any one should have a double heart toward those from whom the
heart can be hid, i.e. toward men, a precept with respect to that very thing was to be
given. For there is almost nobody that would wish that any one of double heart should have
dealings with himself. But no one can bestow anything upon a fellowman with a single
heart, unless he so bestow it that he expects no temporal advantage from him, and does it
with the intention which we have sufficiently discussed above, when we were speaking of
the single eye. 76. The eye, therefore, being cleansed and rendered single, will be
adapted and suited to behold and contemplate its own inner light. For the eye in question
is the eye of the heart. Now, such an eye is possessed by him who, in order that his works
may be truly good, does not make it the aim of his good works that he should please men;
but even if it should turn out that he pleases them, he makes this tend rather to their
salvation and to the glory of God, not to his own empty boasting; nor does he do anything
that is good tending to his neighbour's salvation for the purpose of gaining by it those
things that are necessary for getting through this present life; nor does he rashly
condemn a man's intention and wish in that action in which it is not apparent with what
intention and wish it has been done; and whatever kindnesses he shows to a man, he shows
them with the same intention with which he wishes them shown to himself, viz. as not
expecting any temporal advantage from him: thus will the heart be single and pure in which
God is sought. "Blessed," therefore, "are the pure in heart: for they shall see God."

CHAPTER XXIII.

77. But because this belongs to few, He now begins to speak of searching for and
possessing wisdom, which is a tree of life; and certainly, in searching for and
possessing, i.e. contemplating this wisdom, such an eye is led through all that precedes
to a point where there may now be seen the narrow way and the strait gate. When,
therefore, He says in continuation, "Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate,
and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:
because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there
be that find it; He does not say so for this reason, that the Lord's yoke is rough, or His
burden heavy; but because few are willing to bring their labours to an end, giving too
little credit to Him who cries, "Come unto me, all ye that labour, and I will give you
rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: for my
yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (hence, moreover, the sermon before us took as its
starting-point the lowly and meek in heart): and this easy yoke and light burden which
many spurn, few submit to; and on that account the way becomes narrow which leadeth unto
life, and the gate strait by which it is entered.

CHAPTER XXIV.

78. Here, therefore, those who promise a wisdom and a knowledge of the truth which they do
not possess, are especially to be guarded against; as, for instance, heretics, who
frequently commend themselves on account of their fewness. And hence, when He had said
that there are few who find the strait gate and the narrow way, lest they [the heretics]
should falsely substitute themselves under the pretext of their fewness, He immediately
added, "Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they
are ravening wolves." But such parties do not deceive the single eye, which knows how to
distinguish a tree by its fruits. For He says: "Ye shall know them by their fruits." Then
He adds the similitudes: "Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? Even so,
every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit. A
good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good
fruit. Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them."

79. And in [the interpretation of] this passage we must be very much on our guard against
the error of those who judge from these same two trees that there are two original
natures, the one of which belongs to God, but the other neither belongs to God nor springs
from Him. And this error has both been already discussed in other books [of ours] very
copiously, and if that is still too little, will be discussed again; but at present we
have merely to show that the two trees before us do not help them. In the first place,
because it is so clear that He is speaking of men, that whoever reads what goes before and
what follows will wonder at their blindness. Secondly, they fix their attention on what is
said, "A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth
good fruit," and therefore think that neither can it happen that an evil soul should be
changed into something better, nor a good one into something worse; as if it were said, A
good tree cannot become evil, nor an evil tree good. But it is said, "A good tree cannot
bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. For the tree is
certainly the soul itself, i.e. the man himself, but the fruits are the works of the man;
an evil man, therefore, cannot perform good works, nor a good man evil works.

If an evil man, therefore, wishes to perform good works, let him first become good. So the
Lord Himself says in another passage more plainly: "Either make the tree good, or make the
tree bad. But if He were figuratively representing the two natures of such parties by
these two trees, He would not say, "Make: for who of the sons of men can make a nature?
Then also in that passage, when He had made mention of these two trees, He added, "Ye
hypocrites, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? As long, therefore, as any one is
evil, he cannot bring forth good fruits; for if he were to bring forth good fruits, he
would no longer be evil. So it might most truly have been said, snow cannot be warm; for
when it begins to be warm, we no longer call it snow, but water. It may therefore come
about, that what was snow is no longer so; but it cannot happen that snow should be warm.
So it may come about, that he who was evil is no longer evil; it cannot, however, happen
that an evil man should do good. And although he is sometimes useful, this is not the
man's own doing; but it is done through him, in virtue of the arrangements of divine
providence: as, for instance, it is said of the Pharisees, "What they bid you, do; but
what they do, do not consent to do.

This very circumstance, that they spoke things that were good, and that the things which
they spoke were usefully listened to and done, was not a matter belonging to them: for,
says He, "they sit in Moses' seat. It was, therefore, when engaged through divine
providence in preaching the law of God, that they were able to be useful to their hearers,
although they were not so to themselves. Respecting such it is said in another place by
the prophet, "They have sown wheat, but shall reap thorns; because they teach what is
good, and do what is evil. Those, therefore, who listened to them, and did what was said
by them, did not gather grapes of thorns, but through the thorns gathered grapes of the
vine: just as, were any one to thrust his hand through a hedge, or were at least to gather
a grape from a vine which was entangled in a hedge, that would not be the fruit of the
thorns, but of the vine.

80. The question, indeed, is most rightly put, What are the fruits He would wish us to
attend to, whereby we might know the tree? For many reckon among the fruits certain things
which belong to the sheep's clothing, and in this way are deceived by wolves: as, for
instance, either fastings, or prayers, or almsgivings; but unless all of these things
could be done even by hypocrites, He would not say above, "Take heed that ye do not your
righteousness before men, to be seen of them." And after prefixing this sentence, He goes
on to speak of those very three things, almsgiving, prayer, fasting. For many give largely
to the poor, not from compassion, but from vanity; and many pray, or rather seem to pray,
while not keeping God in view, but desiring to please men; and many fast, and make a
wonderful show of abstinence before those to whom such things appear difficult, and by
whom they are reckoned worthy of honour: and catch them with artifices of this sort, while
they hold up to, view one thing for the purpose of deceiving, and put forth another for
the purpose of preying upon or killing those who cannot see the wolves under that sheep's
clothing, These, therefore, are not the fruits by which He admonishes us that the tree is
known. For such things, when they are done with a good intention in sincerity, are the
appropriate clothing of sheep; but when they are done in wicked deception, they cover
nothing else but wolves. But the sheep ought not on this account to hate their own
clothing, because the wolves often conceal themselves therein.

81. What the fruits are by the finding of which we may know an evil tree, the apostle
tells us: "Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; adulteries,
fornications, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatreds, variances,
emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness,
revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time
past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God." And what the
fruits are by which we may know a good tree, the very same apostle goes on to tell us:
"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness,
faith, meekness, temperance." It must be known, indeed, that "joy" stands here in a strict
and proper sense; for bad men are, strictly speaking, not said to rejoice, but to make
extravagant demonstrations of joy: just as we have said above, that "will" which the
wicked do not possess, stands in a strict sense where it is said, "All things whatsoever
ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them." In accordance with that strict
sense of the word, in virtue of which joy is spoken of only in the good, the prophet also
speaks, saying: "Rejoicing is not for the wicked, saith the Lord." So also "faith" stands,
not certainly as meaning any kind of it, but true faith: and the other things which find a
place here have certain resemblances of their own in bad men and deceivers; so that they
entirely mislead, unless one has the pure and single eye by which he may know such things.
It is accordingly the best arrangement, that the cleansing of the eye is first discussed,
and then mention is made of what things were to be guarded against.

CHAPTER XXV.

82. But seeing that, however pure an eye one may have, i.e. with however single and
sincere a heart one may live, he yet cannot look into the heart of another: whatever
things could not have become apparent in deeds or words, are disclosed by trials. Now
trial is twofold; either in the hope of obtaining some temporal advantage, or in the
terror of losing it. And especially must we be on our guard, lest, when striving after
wisdom, which can be found in Christ alone, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom
and knowledge; -we must be on our guard, I say, lest, under the very name of Christ, we be
deceived by heretics, or by any parties whatever defective in intelligence, and lovers of
this world. For on this account He adds a warning, saying, "Not every one that saith unto
Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of My
Father which is in heaven, he shall enter into the kingdom of heaven:" lest we should
think that the mere fact of one saying to our Lord, "Lord, Lord," belongs to those fruits;
and from that he should seem to us to be a good tree. But those are the fruits, to do the
will of the Father who is in heaven, in the doing of which He has condescended to exhibit
Himself as an example.

83. But the question may fairly be started, how with this sentence the statement of the
apostle is to be reconciled, where he says, "No man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth
Jesus accursed; and no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost: for
neither can we say that any who have the Holy Spirit will not enter into the kingdom of
heaven, if they persevere onwards to the end; nor can we affirm that those who say, "Lord,
Lord," and yet do not enter into the kingdom of heaven, have the Holy Spirit. How then
does no one say "that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost," unless it is because the
apostle has used the word "say" here in a strict and proper sense, so that it implies the
will and understanding of him who says? But the Lord has used the word which He employs in
a general sense: "Not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the
kingdom of heaven. For he also who neither wishes nor understands what he says, seems to
say it; but he properly says it, who gives expression to his will and mind by the sound of
his voice: just as, a little before, what is called "joy" among the fruits of the Spirit
is called so in a strict and proper sense, not in the way in which the same apostle
elsewhere uses the expression, "Rejoiceth not in iniquity: as if any one could rejoice in
iniquity:

for that transport of a mind making confused and boisterous demonstrations of joy is not
joy; for this latter is possessed by the good alone. Hence those also seem to say it, who
neither perceive with the understanding nor engage with the deliberate consent of the will
in this which they utter, but utter it with the voice merely; and after this manner the
Lord says, "Not every one that saith unto Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of
heaven. But truly and properly those parties say it whose utterance in speech really
represents their will and intention; and it is in accordance with this signification that
the apostle has said, "No one can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost." 84.
And besides, it belongs especially to the matter in hand, that, in striving after the
contemplation of the truth, we should not only not be deceived by the name of Christ, by
means of those who have the name and have not the deeds; but also not by certain deeds and
miracles, for when the Lord performed of the same kind for the sake of unbelievers, He has
warned us not to be deceived by such things, thinking that an invisible wisdom is present
where we see a visible miracle. Hence He annexes the statement: "Many will say to Me on
that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Thy name, and in Thy name have cast out
devils, and in Thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I say unto them, I never
knew you: depart from Me, ye that work iniquity." He will not, therefore, recognise any
but the man that worketh righteousness. For He forbade also His own disciples themselves
to rejoice in such things, viz. that the spirits were subject unto them: "But rejoice,"
says He, "because your names are written in heaven;" I suppose, in that city of Jerusalem
which is in heaven, in which only the righteous and holy shall reign. "Know ye not," says
the apostle, "that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God?"

85. But perhaps some one may say that the unrighteous cannot perform those visible
miracles, and may believe rather that those parties are telling a lie, who will be found
saying, "We have prophesied in Thy name, and have cast out devils in Thy name, and have
done many wonderful works." Let him therefore read what great things the magi of the
Egyptians did who resisted Moses, the servant of God; or if he will not read this, because
they did not do them in the name of Christ, let him read what the Lord Himself says of the
false prophets, speaking thus: "Then, if any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ,
or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and
shall show great signs and wonders, insomuch that the very elect shall be deceived.
Behold, I have told you before."

86. How much need, therefore, is there of the pure and single eye, in order that the way
of wisdom may be found, against which there is the clamour of so great deceptions and
errors on the part of wicked and perverse men, to escape from all of which is indeed to
arrive at the most certain peace, and the immoveable stability of wisdom! For it is
greatly to be feared, lest, by eagerness in quarrelling and controversy, one should not
see what can be seen by few, that small is the disturbance of gainsayers, unless one also
disturbs himself. And in this direction, too, runs that statement of the apostle: "And the
servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, in
meekness instructing those that think differently; if God peradventure will give them
repentance to the acknowledging of the truth." "Blessed," therefore, "are the peacemakers:
for they shall be called the children of God." )

87. Hence we must take special notice how terribly the conclusion of the whole sermon is
introduced: "Therefore, whosoever heareth these sayings of Mine, and doeth them, is like
unto a wise man, which built his house upon the rock. For no one confirms what he hears or
understands, unless by doing. And if Christ is the rock, as many Scripture testimonies
proclaim that man builds in Christ who does what he hears from Him. "The rain descended,
and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it
was founded upon a rock. Such an one, therefore, is not afraid of any gloomy superstitions
(for what else is understood by rain, when it is put in the sense of anything bad?), or of
turnouts of men, which I think are compared to winds; or of the river of this life, as it
were flowing over the earth in carnal lusts. For it is the man who is seduced by the
prosperity that is broken down by the adversities arising from these three things; none of
which is feared by him who has his house founder upon a rock, i.e. who not only hears, but
also does, the Lord's commands. And the man who hears and does them not is in dangerous
proximity to all these, for he has no stable foundation; but by hearing and not doing, he
builds a ruin. For He goes on to say:

"And every one that heareth these sayings of Mine, and doeth them not, shall be like unto
a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: and the rain descended, and the floods
came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of
it. And it came to pass, when Jesus hid ended these sayings, the people were astonished at
His doctrine: for He taught them as one having authority, and not as their scribes. This
is what I said before was meant by the prophet in the Psalms, when he says: "I will act
confidently in regard of him. The words of the Lord are pure words: as silver tried and
proved in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. And from this number, I am admonished
to trace back those precepts also to the seven sentences which He has placed in the
beginning of this sermon, when He was speaking of those who are blessed; and to those
seven operations of the Holy Spirit, which the prophet Isaiah mentions; but whether the
order before us, or some other, is to be considered in these, the things we have heard
from the Lord are to be done, if we wish to build upon a rock.


EXPOSITION OF CERTAIN PROPOSITIONS FROM THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS
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EXPOSITION OF CERTAIN PROPOSITIONS FROM THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS Augustine of Hippo

AD 354–430

Bishop of Hippo, the most influential Latin father.

EXPOSITION OF CERTAIN PROPOSITIONS FROM THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS

These are the meanings in the Epistle of the Apostle Paul to the Romans. First of all,
that everyone should understand that in this epistle the question being treated concerns
the works of the law and grace. 1. [1.] When he says: According to the Spirit of
sanctification from the resurrection of the dead, that is, because they received the gift
of the Spirit after his resurrection; and he mentions the resurrection of the dead,
because in him we were all crucified and rose again. 2. [2.] When he says: That I may
impart to you some spiritual grace, namely the love of God and neighbor, so that through
the charity of Christ they might not at all envy the Gentiles who were called to the
Gospel. 3. [3.] When he said: The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all
ungodliness, and so on, Solomon too says concerning the wise men of the world: For if they
were able to know so much that they could estimate the world, how did they not more easily
find the Lord and Creator of that very world? But those whom Solomon reproves did not come
to know the Creator through the creature; whereas those whom the Apostle reproves did know
him, but they did not give thanks, and while saying that they were wise they became fools
and fell to worshiping idols. For that the wise men of the nations could find the Creator,
the same Apostle clearly showed when he was speaking with the Athenians. For when he had
said: For in him we live and move and are, he added: As certain ones among you also have
said. But with this intention he first reproves the ungodliness of the Gentiles, that from
it he may prove that even those converted can attain to grace. For it is unjust that they
should undergo the penalty of ungodliness and not receive the reward of faith.

4. [4.] When he says: Knowing God, they did not glorify him as God or give thanks, this is
the head of sin, of which it is said: The beginning of all sin is pride. For had they
given thanks to God, who had given this wisdom, they would not have attributed anything to
themselves by their own thoughts. Wherefore they were given over by the Lord into the
desires of their heart, to do the things that were not fitting. 5. [5.] When he says: He
gave them over, it is understood: he dismissed them into the desires of their heart. And
he says they received a reciprocal recompense from God, namely to be given over into the
desires of their heart. 6. [6.] When at last he says: God gave them over to a reprobate
mind, etc., filled, he says, with all iniquity, we are given to understand that these
things he now names, that is, crimes, pertain to doing harm to others. But above he was
speaking of the corruptions that are called shameful deeds, from which one comes to
crimes; for each person, following the pernicious sweetness of shameful deeds, while he
tries to remove the persons who hinder him, proceeds to crime. Thus too that passage in
the Wisdom of Solomon is distinguished, where, when he had enumerated the shameful deeds
above, he says: Let us lie in wait for the poor righteous man, because he is useless to
us, etc.

7. [7.-8.] When he says: Not only those who do these things, but also those who consent to
those who do them, he means that whatever they did, they did not unwillingly; but, when
they consent to evil deeds, they also approve even those things which they did not do; and
therefore, of sins now fully accomplished, he says: Therefore you are inexcusable, O every
man who judges. And when he says every, he now brings in a further point, to show not only
the Gentile but also the Jew, who wished to judge the Gentiles according to the law. 8.
[9.] When he says: You are storing up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath, he
everywhere uses the wrath of God for vengeance. Therefore he says: Of the just judgment of
God. It should be noted, however, that the wrath of God is placed also in the New
Testament—which, when men who are opposed to the old law read it in the Old, they think it
something to be blamed; whereas God is surely not subject to perturbations as we are, as
Solomon says: But you, O Lord of hosts, judge with tranquility. But wrath, as has been
said, is used in the signification of vengeance.

9. [10.] When he says: Their conscience bearing witness, he speaks according to that
passage of the apostle John, where he says: Beloved, if our heart reproves us, God is
greater than our conscience, etc. 10. [11.] When he says: By the spirit, not the letter,
this means that the law is to be understood according to the spirit, not according to what
the letter contains—which surely happened to those who received circumcision more carnally
than spiritually. 11. [12.] When he says: Whose praise is not from men but from God, this
fits with what he says: He who is a Jew in secret. 12. [13.-18. When he says: Because no
flesh shall be justified in the law before him; for through the law comes knowledge of
sin, and other similar things which some think must be raised as a reproach against the
law, these must be read carefully enough, so that neither may the law seem to be
disapproved by the Apostle, nor may free will be taken away from man. So let us
distinguish these four stages of man: before the law, under the law, under grace, in
peace. Before the law we follow the concupiscence of the flesh; under the law we are
dragged by it; under grace we neither follow it nor are dragged by it; in peace there is
no concupiscence of the flesh. Before the law, then, we do not fight, because we not only
lust and sin, but even approve of our sins. Under the law we fight, but we are conquered;
for we confess that the things we do are evil, and by confessing them to be evil, we
certainly do not wish to do them, but because grace is not yet present, we are overcome.
In this stage it is shown to us how we lie prostrate, and while we wish to rise and yet
fall, we are more grievously afflicted. Hence it is said here: The law entered in
secretly, that sin might abound. Hence too what is now set down: For through the law comes
knowledge of sin—for it is not the removal of sin, since sin is removed by grace alone.

The law, therefore, is good, because it forbids the things that ought to be forbidden and
commands the things that ought to be commanded. But when anyone thinks to fulfill it by
his own strength, and not through the grace of his Liberator, this presumption profits him
nothing; indeed, it even harms him so much that he is both swept away by a more vehement
desire for sin and is found to be a transgressor in his sins as well. For where there is
no law, neither is there transgression. So then, lying thus prostrate, when anyone
recognizes that he cannot rise by himself, let him implore the help of the Liberator.
Grace, therefore, comes, which forgives past sins, and helps him as he strives, and
bestows the love of righteousness, and takes away fear. And when this happens, although
certain desires of the flesh, while we are in this life, fight against our spirit to lead
it into sin, yet the spirit, not consenting to these desires, because it is fixed in the
grace and love of God, ceases to sin. For we do not sin in the evil desire itself, but in
our consent. To this pertains what the same Apostle says: Let not sin therefore reign in
your mortal body, so as to obey its desires. For by this he shows that there are desires
which, by not obeying, we do not allow sin to reign in us.

But since these desires arise from the mortality of the flesh, which we draw from the
first sin of the first man, from whom we are born carnally, they will not come to an end
until, by the resurrection of the body, we attain that transformation which is promised to
us, where there will be perfect peace, when we shall be established in the fourth stage.
And it will be perfect peace, because nothing will resist us when we do not resist God.
This is what the Apostle says: The body indeed is dead because of sin, but the spirit is
life because of righteousness. If, then, the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead
dwells in you, he who raised Jesus Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal
bodies through his Spirit dwelling in you. Free will, therefore, existed perfectly in the
first man; but in us, before grace, there is no free will so that we may not sin, but only
so that we may not wish to sin. But grace brings it about that we not only wish to do
right but also are able to, not by our own strength but by the help of the Liberator, who
will also grant us perfect peace in the resurrection—which perfect peace follows upon good
will. For, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will.

13. [19.] When he says: Do we then make the law void through faith? God forbid! Rather we
establish the law—that is, we confirm it. But how was the law to be confirmed except
through righteousness? And through the righteousness that is by faith, since the very
things that could not be fulfilled through the law have been fulfilled through faith. 14.
[20.] When he says: For if Abraham was justified by works, he has glory, but not before
God, this means that Abraham, being without the law, since he does not gain glory from the
works of the law—as if he were fulfilling the law by his own strength, when that law had
not yet been given—that glory is God's, not his own. For he was justified not by his own
merit as if from works, but by the grace of God, through faith. 15. [21.] When he says:
But to him who works, the reward is not reckoned according to grace but according to debt,
he spoke of how men render reward to men. For God gave by grace, since he gave to sinners,
that they might live justly through faith, that is, might work well. Therefore that we
work well, once grace has been received, is to be attributed not to us but to him who
justified us by grace. For if he wished to render the wage that was owed, he would render
to sinners the penalty that was owed.

16. [22.] When he says: Who justifies the ungodly, this means: he makes the godly out of
the ungodly, so that henceforth he may remain in that very godliness and righteousness;
for he was justified for this purpose, that he might be righteous, not that he should
think it permitted him to sin. 17. [23.] When he says: For the law works wrath, this
signifies vengeance and pertains to that stage when a person is under the law. 18. [24.]
When he says: Before God, in whom he believed, he indicated that faith is in the inner
man, in the sight of God, not in the display before men, such as is the circumcision of
the flesh. 19. [25.] When he says of Abraham: Giving glory to God, this is set against
those who sought their own glory from the works of the law before men. 20. [26.] When he
says: And not only so, but we also glory in tribulations, and the rest, he leads on step
by step up to the love of God—which love he says we have through the gift of the
Spirit—and he shows that all those things which we might attribute to ourselves are to be
attributed to God, who has deigned to give grace through the Holy Spirit.

21. [27.-28.] When he says: For until the law sin was in the world, it must be understood:
until grace should come. For it was said against those who suppose that sins could be
taken away through the law. For the Apostle says that sins were made manifest through the
law, but not taken away, when he says: But sin was not imputed when there was no law. For
he does not say: There was no sin, but: it was not imputed. Nor, when the law was given,
was it taken away, but it began to be imputed, that is, to appear. Let us not, then,
suppose that until the law was said as though there were no sin now under the law; rather
it was said thus: until the law, so that you may count the whole time of the law up to the
end of the law, which is Christ.

22. [29. 1.] When he says: But death reigned from Adam to Moses, even in those who did not
sin after the likeness of Adam's transgression, this may be distinguished in two ways:
either, Death reigned after the likeness of Adam's transgression, because even those who
did not sin died from the origin of Adam's mortality; or else, Death reigned even in those
who did not sin after the likeness of Adam's transgression, but sinned before the law—so
that those are understood to have sinned after the likeness of Adam's transgression who
received the law, since Adam too sinned once the law of the commandment had been received.
Certainly, too, what is said, until Moses, is to be understood as the whole time of the
law. And Adam is called the figure of the one to come, but by contrast; so that as through
him came death, so through our Lord came life.

23. [29. 2. When he says: But the gift is not as the offense, the gift excels in two ways:
either because grace much more abounds—since through it one lives forever, whereas through
Adam's death, death reigned only temporally; or because by the condemnation of one offense
the death of many came about through Adam, whereas through our Lord Jesus Christ grace was
given, by the free gift covering many offenses, unto eternal life. But he explains another
difference thus, saying: And the gift is not as it was through the one who sinned. For the
judgment indeed was from one unto condemnation, but grace is from many offenses unto
justification. When, therefore, it says from one, offense is to be understood, since there
follows: but grace from many offenses. This, then, is the difference: that in Adam one
offense was condemned, but by the Lord many were forgiven. What follows, therefore,
contains both these differences, so that it is explained thus: For if by one man's offense
death reigned through one, much more shall those who receive the abundance of grace and of
righteousness reign in life through one, Jesus Christ. What he said, then—much more shall
they reign—pertains to eternal life; but what he said—they receive the abundance of
grace—pertains to the forgiveness of many offenses. After these differences have been
explained, he returns to the figure from which he had begun, whose sequence he had
suspended, when he said: For as through one man sin entered into this world, and through
sin, death.

To which he now returns, when he says: Therefore, as through one man's offense it came
upon all men unto condemnation, so also through one man's righteous act it comes upon all
men unto justification of life. For as through the disobedience of one man many were made
sinners, so also through the obedience of one many shall be made righteous. This is the
figure of the coming Adam, of which he had begun to speak above, and, interposing certain
of its differences, he had deferred the sequence, to which he now, returning, brought his
conclusion, saying: Therefore, as through one man's offense it came upon all men, etc. 24.
[30.] When he says: The law entered in secretly, that sin might abound, by this very word
he sufficiently indicated that the Jews did not know by what dispensation the law was
given. For it was not given as something that could give life, since grace gives life
through faith; rather the law was given to show by how great and how tight bonds of sins
those were constrained who presumed to fulfill righteousness by their own strength. Thus
sin abounded, since both concupiscence became more ardent from the prohibition, and to
those sinning against the law was added the charge of transgression. This is understood by
one who considers the second stage among those four stages. 25. [31.] When he says: What
then shall we say? Shall we remain in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid! We who are
dead to sin, how shall we live in it? By this he shows that it was done regarding past
sins, that they should be forgiven, and that in this grace superabounded—that past sins
should be remitted. Therefore whoever still seeks increases of sin in order to feel an
increase of grace does not understand that he is acting so that grace works nothing in
him. For it is the work of grace that we die to sin.

26. [32.-34.] When he says: Knowing this, that our old man was crucified together with
him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, this refers to what was said through Moses:
Cursed is everyone who hangs upon a tree. For the crucifixion of the old man was signified
in the cross of the Lord, just as the renewal of the new man was signified in the
resurrection. And it is clear that we enact the old man—the one who is cursed—on account
of whom, in respect of sin, no one doubts that it was said even of the Lord that he bore
our sins, and was made sin for us, and from sin condemned sin. But what is it "to destroy
the body of sin"? He himself explained it: That we should no longer serve sin; and that
which he says: If we are dead with Christ—that is, if we have been crucified with Christ.
For he says in another place: For those who are Christ Jesus' have crucified their flesh
with its vices and concupiscences. Moses, therefore, did not curse the Lord, but
prophesied what his crucifixion would show.

27. [35.] When he says: For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under
the law but under grace, this surely pertains now to that third stage, where a man already
serves the law of God with his mind, although with the flesh he serves the law of sin. For
he does not obey the desire of sin, although concupiscences still solicit and provoke him
to consent, until the body too is made alive and death is swallowed up in victory. Since,
therefore, we do not consent to evil desires, we are in grace, and sin does not reign in
our mortal body; and altogether, from that passage where he says: We who are dead to sin,
how shall we live in it? he describes the one who is established under grace. But he over
whom sin has dominion, although he may wish to resist sin, is still under the law, not yet
under grace.

28. [36. When he says: For a woman, while her husband lives, is bound by the law to her
husband; but if her husband dies, she is released from the law of her husband, etc., it
must be noted that this comparison differs in this from the matter for which it was
employed: that here he says the husband dies, so that the woman may marry whom she wishes,
being freed from the law of her husband; but there, when he sets up the soul as the woman,
and the passions of sins as the husband—which work in our members so as to bring forth
fruit unto death, that is, so that from such a union offspring worthy of death may be
born—and the law that was given not to take away sin or for liberation from sin, but to
reveal sin before grace, through which it came about that those placed under the law were
swept away by a more vehement desire of sinning and sinned still more by transgression;
since, then, there too there are three: the soul as the woman, the passions of sins as the
husband, and the law as the law of the husband—yet there he does not say that the soul is
freed by the sins dying, as by the husband dying, but that the soul itself dies to sin and
is freed from the law, so that it may belong to another husband, that is, Christ, once it
has died to sin, although sin itself is as it were still living;

which happens when, with the desires and certain incitements to sinning still remaining in
us, we nevertheless do not obey nor consent, serving the law of God with our mind, because
we are dead to sin. But sin too will die when the reformation of the body takes place in
the resurrection, of which he afterward says: He will give life to your mortal bodies
also, on account of his Spirit remaining in you. 29. [37. 1.] When he says: But sin,
having taken occasion, worked in me through the commandment every concupiscence, it must
be understood that it was not the whole of concupiscence before it was increased by the
prohibition. For concupiscence is increased by the prohibition when the grace of the
Liberator is absent; and therefore it is not yet "all" before it is prohibited. But when
it has been prohibited, grace being absent, as we have said, concupiscence grows so much
that thus in its own kind it becomes "all," that is, consummated—so that it is even done
against the law and heaps up the charge by transgression. 30. [37. 2.] When he says: For
without the law sin is dead, he said it is dead not because it does not exist, but because
it lies hidden—which he makes clear in what follows, when he says: But sin, that it might
appear as sin, worked death in me through what is good. For the law is good, but without
grace it only shows sins, it does not take them away.

31. [38.] When he says: But I once lived without the law, it must be understood: I seemed
to myself to live, because before the commandment sin lay hidden. And when he says: But
when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died, it must be understood: sin began to
appear, and I recognized that I was dead. 32. [39.] When he says: For sin, having taken
occasion through the commandment, deceived me and through it slew me, this was said
because the fruit of a forbidden desire is sweeter. Hence too whatever sins are done
secretly are the sweeter, though this sweetness is deadly. Hence it is that, in Solomon, a
woman, sitting as the image of deceitful teaching and inviting the foolish to come to her,
is written to say: Gladly eat hidden bread and drink stolen sweet water. This sweetness is
the occasion of sin found through the commandment, which, when it is desired, surely
deceives and turns into greater bitterness.

33. [40.] When he says: Did then that which is good become death to me? God forbid! But
sin, that it might appear as sin, worked death in me through what is good—here he
evidently shows that what he had said above, For without the law sin is dead, he said
because it lies hidden, since he now says that it was not that good thing, that is, the
law, that became death to him, but that sin worked death through the good of the law, that
is, so that the sin which lay hidden without the law might appear. For then each one
recognizes that he is dead, when he cannot fulfill what he confesses to have been rightly
commanded, and by the charge of transgression sins more than if he were not forbidden.
This is what he says in what follows: That the sinner, or sin, might become beyond measure
sinful through the commandment—which before the commandment was less, because where there
is no law, neither is there transgression.

34. [41.] When he says: We know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal, he
sufficiently shows that the law cannot be fulfilled except by the spiritual, such as the
grace of God makes. For anyone who has become like the law itself easily fulfills what it
commands; nor will he be under it but with it—and such is he who is no longer captivated
by temporal goods, nor terrified by temporal evils. 35. [42.] When he says: I was sold
under sin, it must be understood that each one, by sinning, sells his soul to the devil,
having received, as it were as a price, the sweetness of temporal pleasure. Hence our Lord
too was called Redeemer, because in this way, as has been said, we had been sold. 36.
[43.] When he says: For what I do, I know not, it may seem to those who understand less to
be contrary to that statement in which he said: Sin, that it might appear as sin, worked
death in me through what is good. For how does it appear, if it is not known? But I know
not is said in this place so that it may be understood: I do not approve. For just as
darkness is not seen but is perceived by comparison with light—and to perceive darkness is
precisely not to see—so also sin, because it is not illumined by the light of
righteousness, is discerned by not understanding, just as darkness was said to be
perceived by not seeing. And to this pertains what is said in the Psalm: Who understands
his faults?

37. [44.] When he says: For what I will, that I do not, but what I hate, that I do. But if
I do what I do not will, I consent to the law, that it is good—the law is indeed
sufficiently defended from every accusation; but care must be taken lest anyone suppose
that by these words free will is taken from us, which is not so. For now a man is
described as placed under the law before grace; for at that time he is conquered by sins,
while he tries to live justly by his own strength without the help of God's liberating
grace. But by free will he has it to believe in the Liberator and to receive grace, so
that now, with him who bestows it liberating and helping, he does not sin, and thus ceases
to be under the law, but is with the law or in the law, fulfilling it by the love of God,
which he could not do by fear.

38. [45.-46. When he says: I see another law in my members warring against the law of my
mind and taking me captive under the law of sin which is in my members, he calls the law
of sin that by which each one, entangled by carnal habit, is bound fast. He says that this
wars against the law of his mind and takes him captive under the law of sin—from which it
is understood that the man being described is one who is not yet under grace. For if
carnal habit only warred and did not take captive, there would be no condemnation. For
condemnation lies in this: that we submit to and serve evil carnal desires. But if such
desires exist and are not lacking, yet we do not obey them, we are not taken captive, and
we are already under grace—of which he will speak, when he has cried out and implored the
help of the Liberator, so that through grace charity may accomplish what through the law
fear could not. For he said: Wretched man that I am, who will free me from the body of
this death? And he added: The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Then he begins
to describe the man established under grace, which is the third of those four stages we
distinguished above. To this stage now belongs what he immediately adds: Therefore I
myself with my mind serve the law of God, but with my flesh the law of sin;

for although carnal desires exist, he no longer serves by consenting so as to commit
sin—he who, established under grace, serves the law of God with his mind, but with his
flesh the law of sin. And by the law of sin he means the mortal condition arising from
Adam's transgression, by which we were made mortal. For from this taint of the flesh
carnal concupiscence solicits us, and according to this he says in another place: We too
were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. 39. [47.] When he says: There is
therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, he sufficiently shows
that there is no condemnation if carnal desires exist, but only if one obeys them so as to
sin. This happens to those who are established under the law, not yet under grace. For
those established under the law not only have concupiscence warring against them, but are
also led captive when they submit to it. But this does not happen to those who serve the
law of God with their mind.

40. [48. When he says: For what was impossible for the law, in that it was weakened
through the flesh, God, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, even from sin
condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us,
who walk not according to the flesh but according to the spirit—he teaches most clearly
that these very precepts of the law were for this reason not fulfilled, although they
ought to have been fulfilled: because those to whom the law was given before grace were
given over to carnal goods and desired to acquire happiness from them, and feared nothing
except when adversity threatened such goods; and therefore, when those temporal goods were
disturbed, they easily withdrew from the precepts of the law. The law, therefore, was
weakened by not fulfilling what it commanded, not by its own fault but through the
flesh—that is, through those men who, in desiring carnal goods, did not love the
righteousness of the law but preferred temporal advantages to it. Therefore our Liberator,
the Lord Jesus Christ, by taking on mortal flesh, came in the likeness of sinful flesh.
For to sinful flesh death is owed. But that death of the Lord was of condescension, not of
debt; and yet the Apostle calls even this "sin"—the assumption of mortal flesh, though not
sinful flesh—because, being immortal, he as it were enacts sin when he dies. But from sin,
he says, he condemned sin in the flesh. For the Lord's death accomplished this:

that death should not be feared, and that thereafter temporal goods should no longer be
sought nor temporal evils feared—in which lay that carnal prudence in which the precepts
of the law could not be fulfilled. But when this prudence is destroyed and removed in the
Lord's manhood, the righteousness of the law is fulfilled, when one walks not according to
the flesh but according to the spirit. Hence it was most truly said: I came not to abolish
the law but to fulfill it. Love, therefore, is the fullness of the law. And love belongs
to those who walk according to the spirit. For this belongs to the grace of the Holy
Spirit. For when there was not the love of righteousness but fear, the law was not
fulfilled. 41. [49.] When he says: Because the prudence of the flesh is hostile toward
God, for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can it be, he shows what he meant
by hostile—lest anyone suppose that, as from an opposing principle, some nature which God
did not create wages enmity against God. He is therefore called an enemy of God who does
not submit to his law, and this through the prudence of the flesh, that is, when he
desires temporal goods and fears temporal evils. For the definition of prudence is usually
set out in the desiring of goods and the avoiding of evils. Wherefore the Apostle rightly
calls it the prudence of the flesh, by which these things are desired as if they were
great goods, though they do not endure with a man, and by which it is feared that these
may be lost, which must one day be lost. But such prudence cannot submit to the law of
God; rather the law is submitted to only when this prudence has been extinguished, so that
the prudence of the spirit may succeed it, by which our hope is neither in temporal goods
nor our fear in temporal evils. For the same nature of the soul both has the prudence of
the flesh, when it pursues lower things, and the prudence of the spirit, when it chooses
higher things—just as the same nature of water both freezes with cold and melts with heat.
Thus, then, it was said: The prudence of the flesh is not subject to the law of God, nor
indeed can it be—just as it would rightly be said that snow cannot be made warm, nor
indeed can it; but when, heat being applied, it is dissolved and the water grows warm, now
no one can call it snow.

42. [50.] When he says: The body indeed is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life
because of righteousness, the body is called dead in the sense of mortal. For from its
mortality the need of earthly things solicits the soul and stirs up certain desires,
which, so as to sin, he does not obey who now serves the law of God with his mind. 43.
[51.] When he says: If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus Christ from the dead dwells in
you, he who raised Jesus Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies
through his Spirit dwelling in you, he now shows the fourth of those four stages which we
distinguished above. But this stage is not found in this life. For it pertains to the hope
by which we await the redemption of our body, when this corruptible shall put on
incorruption and this mortal shall put on immortality. There peace is perfect, because the
soul suffers no troubles from the body, now made alive and transformed into a heavenly
quality.

44. [52. When he says: For you have not received a spirit of servitude unto fear, but you
have received the Spirit of the adoption of sons, in whom we cry: Abba, Father!—the times
of the two Testaments are most clearly distinguished; for that one pertains to fear, but
the New to love. But it is asked, what is the spirit of servitude? For the Spirit of the
adoption of sons is surely the Holy Spirit; the spirit of servitude in fear, then, is he
who has the power of death, because by that very fear those were held liable to servitude
throughout their whole life who lived under the law, not under grace. Nor is it to be
wondered at that those who pursued temporal goods received him through divine
providence—not that the law and the commandment are his. For: The law is holy, and the
commandment holy and just and good; but that spirit of servitude, which is surely not
good, is received by those who cannot fulfill the precepts of the given law, while they
serve carnal desires, not yet taken up by the grace of the Liberator into the adoption of
sons; for that spirit of servitude too holds no one in its power except him who, by the
order of divine providence, has been handed over to it, God's justice assigning to each
his own. This power the Apostle had received, when he says of certain persons: Whom I have
handed over to Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme; and again of another:

I have already judged, he says, to hand over such a one to Satan for the destruction of
the flesh, that the soul may be saved. Those, therefore, who are not yet under grace and,
established under the law, are conquered by sins so as to obey carnal desires, and by
transgression increase the guilt of their crimes, have received the spirit of servitude,
that is, the spirit of him who has the power of death. For if we understand by the spirit
of servitude the very spirit of man, then the spirit of adoption too begins to be
understood as that same spirit changed for the better. But since we take the Spirit of
adoption to be the Holy Spirit—which he clearly shows when he says: The Spirit himself
bears witness to our spirit—it remains that we understand the spirit of servitude to be
that one whom sinners serve, so that, just as the Holy Spirit delivers from the fear of
death, so the spirit of servitude, which has the power of death, holds the guilty by the
terror of that same death, so that each one may turn himself to the help of the
Liberator—even against the will of the devil himself, who desires always to hold him in
his power.

45. [53. When he says: For the expectation of the creature awaits the revelation of the
sons of God; for the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, etc., down to
what he says: And we ourselves groan within ourselves, awaiting the adoption, the
redemption of our body—this is to be understood in such a way that we neither suppose that
there is a sense of grieving and groaning in trees and vegetables and stones and other
creatures of this kind (for this is the error of the Manichaeans), nor think that the holy
angels are subjected to vanity, or judge of them that they will be freed from the
servitude of destruction, since they surely are not going to perish; but let us understand
the whole creation as being in man himself, without any distortion. For no creature can
exist except either spiritual, which is preeminent in the angels, or animal, which appears
well enough also in the life of beasts, or corporeal, which can be seen or touched; and
all of these are also in man, because man consists of spirit and soul and body. Therefore
the creature awaits the revelation of the sons of God—whatever now in man labors and lies
subject to corruption awaits that manifestation of which the same Apostle says: For you
are dead, and your life is hidden with Christ in God; when Christ, your life, shall
appear, then you also shall appear with him in glory. John too says:

Beloved, now we are the sons of God, and it has not yet appeared what we shall be; but we
know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is. This
revelation of the sons of God, then, the creature awaits, which in man is now subjected to
vanity, as long as it is given over to temporal things, which pass away like a shadow.
Hence too it is said in the Psalm: Man has become like vanity; his days pass away like a
shadow. Solomon too speaks of vanity, when he says: Vanity of vanities, and all is vanity;
what abundance has a man in all his labor with which he labors under the sun? Of which
David likewise says: Why do you love vanity and seek a lie? He says the creature was
subjected to vanity not willingly, because this subjection is penal. For man, though he
sinned willingly, was not likewise condemned willingly—yet this condemnation was inflicted
upon our nature not without hope of restoration. And therefore: On account of him, he
says, who subjected it in hope, because the creature itself also shall be freed from the
servitude of destruction into the liberty of the glory of the sons of God—that is, even
that which is only creature, not yet gathered by faith into the number of the sons of God;
yet in those who were going to believe the Apostle saw what he says:

that the creature shall be freed from the servitude of destruction, so that it may not
serve destruction, which all sinners serve. For to the sinner it was said: You shall die
the death. But it shall be freed into the liberty of the glory of the sons of God—that is,
so that it too may attain to the liberty of the glory of the sons of God through faith;
and when this faith was not in it, it was called only creature. And to this he refers what
follows: For we know that the creature groans together and is in pain until now. For there
were still those going to believe, who even in spirit lay subject to laborious errors. But
lest anyone should think it was said only of their labor, he adds a further word about
those who had already believed. For although they served the law of God with the spirit,
that is, with the mind, yet because the flesh serves the law of sin, as long as we suffer
the troubles and solicitations of our mortality, therefore he added, saying: And not only
so, but we ourselves also, having the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan
within ourselves.

Not only, then, he says, does that which is called merely creature in those men who have
not yet believed—and therefore are not yet established in the number of the sons of
God—groan together and grieve, but we ourselves also, who believe and have the firstfruits
of the Spirit, because we already cleave to God in spirit through faith, and therefore are
no longer called creature but sons of God—yet we ourselves also groan within ourselves,
awaiting the adoption, the redemption of our body. For this adoption, which has already
been accomplished in those who have believed, was accomplished in spirit, not in body. For
the body has not yet been reformed into that heavenly transformation, as the spirit has
already been changed, being turned from its errors to God by the reconciliation of faith.
Therefore even in those who have believed, that manifestation is still awaited which will
come about in the resurrection of the body, which pertains to that fourth stage, where
peace will be wholly perfect and rest eternal, with no corruption on any side resisting us
or trouble soliciting us.

46. [54.] When he says: Likewise the Spirit also helps our weakness; for what we should
pray as we ought, we do not know, it is clear that he speaks of the Holy Spirit, which is
plain in what follows, where he says: Because he intercedes for the saints according to
God. We, therefore, do not know what we should pray as we ought, for two reasons: both
because that which we hope to be future and toward which we tend does not yet appear; and
because in this very life many things can seem to us favorable which are adverse, and
adverse which are favorable. For even tribulation, when it comes upon a servant of God for
testing or amendment, sometimes seems useless to those who understand less; but if it is
referred to what was said: Give us help from tribulation, and vain is the salvation of
man, it is understood that God very often helps us out of tribulation, and that safety is
vainly desired which is sometimes adverse, when it entangles the soul with delight and
love of this life. Hence too is that saying: I found tribulation and sorrow, and I called
upon the name of the Lord. For when he says I found, he signifies something useful; for we
do not rightly rejoice at having found anything except what we were seeking. Therefore we
do not know what we should pray as we ought. For God knows both what is expedient for us
in this life and what he is going to give after this life. But the Spirit himself
intercedes with unutterable groanings. He says the Spirit groans in the sense that he
makes us groan, arousing by love the desire of the life to come, just as he says: The Lord
your God tests you, that he may know whether you love him, that is, that he may make you
know. For nothing is hidden from God.

47. [55.] When he says: Whom he called, them he also justified, it may prompt the question
whether all who are called are justified. But elsewhere we read: Many are called, but few
are chosen. Yet because the chosen too are surely called, it is clear that none are
justified except the called—though not all the called, but those who are called according
to purpose, as he said above. And the purpose is to be understood as God's, not their own.
And he himself explains what according to purpose means, when he says: For whom he
foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son. For not all who are
called are called according to purpose; for this purpose pertains to the foreknowledge and
predestination of God. Nor did he predestine anyone except him whom he foreknew would
believe and would follow his calling, whom he also calls the chosen. For many do not come
when they have been called, but no one comes who has not been called.

48. [56.] When he says: That he might be the firstborn among many brethren, he teaches
well enough that our Lord is to be understood in one way as only-begotten, in another as
firstborn. For where he is called Only-begotten, he has no brethren and is by nature the
Son of God, the Word in the beginning, through whom all things were made. But according to
the assumption of manhood and the dispensation of the incarnation—through which he deigned
to call even us, who are not sons by nature, into the adoption of sons—he is called
firstborn, with the addition of brethren. For where he is called first, he is surely not
alone, but has brethren who are to follow into that which he himself has gone before.
Hence in another place too he calls him the firstborn from the dead, that he himself might
hold the primacy. For the resurrection of the dead, so that they die no more, was before
him in no one, but after him is of many saints, whom he is not ashamed to call brethren on
account of that very sharing of humanity.

49. [57.] When he says: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Tribulation, or
distress, or persecution? and the rest, it depends on the earlier statement, where he
says: If indeed we suffer together, that we may also be glorified together; for I reckon
that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the future
glory that shall be revealed in us. For the whole intent of this passage is directed to
this exhortation: that those to whom he speaks might not be broken by persecutions, if
they were to live according to the prudence of the flesh, by which temporal goods are
desired and temporal evils feared. 50. [58. When he says: For I am certain—and he did not
say: For I think—he held with full faith that neither any death, nor temporal life
promised, nor the rest that follows, can turn the believer away from the love of God. No
one, therefore, separates us: neither he who threatens death, because he who believes in
Christ, though he die, shall live; nor he who promises life, because that One gives
eternal life. For the promise of temporal life is to be despised in comparison with the
eternal. Nor does an angel separate us, because, though an angel, he says, should come
down from heaven and announce to you anything beyond what you have received, let him be
anathema. Nor principality—that is, an adverse one—because he himself stripped off these
principalities and powers, triumphing over them in himself. Nor things present nor things
to come—that is, temporal things, whether those that delight, or those that oppress, or
those that give hope, or those that strike fear. Nor power (and here an adverse power must
be understood, according to which he says: No one shall plunder the goods of the strong
man unless he first binds the strong man), nor height, nor depth. For very often an empty
curiosity about those things which cannot be found, or are even found in vain, whether in
heaven or in the abyss, separates one from God, unless love conquers, which invites us to
sure spiritual things, not by the vanity of the things that are outside, but by the inner
man.

Nor any other creature. This can be understood in two ways: either the visible
creature—since we too, that is, the soul, are a creature, but an invisible one—so that he
meant this: that no other creature separates us, that is, the love of bodies; or else that
no other creature separates us from the love of God, from the fact that there is no other
creature between us and God which might set itself against us and exclude us from his
embrace. For above human minds, which are rational, there is no longer any creature, but
God. 51. [59.] When he says: Whose are the fathers, from whom is Christ according to the
flesh, and adds: Who is over all, God blessed forever, he commends the fullest faith,
because we confess our Lord both, according to the assumption of the flesh, the Son of
Man, and, according to eternity, the Word in the beginning, God blessed over all forever.
But because the Jews held only part of this confession, they are refuted by the Lord. For
when he had asked them whose son they said the Christ was, they answered: David's. But
this is according to the flesh. Concerning his divinity, however—that he is God—they
answered nothing. Therefore the Lord said to them: How then does David in the spirit call
him Lord? That they might understand that they had confessed only this, that Christ is the
son of David, but had passed over in silence that Christ is the Lord of David himself. For
the former is according to the assumption of the flesh, the latter according to the
eternity of the divinity.

52. [60. When he says: For when they were not yet born, nor had done anything good or
evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of him
who calls, it was said to her: The elder shall serve the younger; as it is written: Jacob
I loved, but Esau I hated—this moves some to think that the apostle Paul has taken away
free will, by which we earn God's favor through the good of godliness or offend him
through the evil of ungodliness. For they say that before any works, whether good or evil,
of two not yet born, God loved the one and hated the other. But we reply that this came
about by the foreknowledge of God, by which he knows even of the not-yet-born what each
one will be. But lest anyone say: God, then, chose the works in the one whom he loved,
although they did not yet exist, because he foreknew they would be—and if he chose works,
how does the Apostle say the election was made not of works?—therefore it must be
understood that good works are done through love, but that love is in us through the gift
of the Holy Spirit, as the same Apostle says: The love of God is poured out in our hearts
through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us. Therefore no one ought to glory in
works as his own, which he has through the gift of God, since love itself works the good
in him.

What, then, did God choose? For if he grants the Holy Spirit, through whom love works the
good, to whom he wills, how did he choose to whom he should grant it? For if there is no
merit, there is no election; for all are equal before merit, and among things wholly
equal, election cannot be spoken of. But since the Holy Spirit is not given except to
believers, God did not indeed choose the works which he himself bestows when he gives the
Holy Spirit, that through love we may do good works—yet he did choose faith. For unless a
person believes in him and remains in the will to receive, he does not receive the gift of
God, that is, the Holy Spirit, through whom, love being poured out, he may be able to do
good. God, therefore, did not choose anyone's works in foreknowledge, which he himself was
going to give, but he chose faith in foreknowledge, so that the one whom he foreknew would
believe in him, him he chose, to whom he would give the Holy Spirit, so that by doing good
he might also attain eternal life. For the same Apostle says: It is the same God who works
all things in all, but nowhere is it said: God believes all things in all. Therefore that
we believe is our own, but that we do good belongs to him who gives the Holy Spirit to
those who believe in him.

This example was set against certain Jews who had believed in Christ and gloried in works
before grace, and said that they had merited the very grace of the Gospel by their
preceding good works—whereas good works can exist in no one except one who has received
grace. But it is grace that the calling is proffered to the sinner, when his merits, none
of them, have gone before except unto damnation. But if the called follows him who
calls—which is now in free will—he will merit also the Holy Spirit, through whom he may be
able to do good; and remaining in this (which is likewise in free will), he will merit
also eternal life, which can be corrupted by no taint. 53. [61.] When he says: I will have
mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will show mercy to whom I will be merciful, it is
shown from this that there is no injustice with God—which some can allege when they hear:
Before they were born, Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated. For I will have mercy, he says, on
whom I will have mercy. For God first had mercy on us, when we were sinners, so as to call
us. Therefore on whom I will have mercy, he says, so as to call him, I will have mercy on
him still further, when he has believed. But how still further, except that he gives the
Holy Spirit to the one who believes and asks? And when this is given, he will show mercy
to him to whom he will be merciful, that is, so as to make him merciful, whereby he may be
able to do good through love. Let no one, therefore, dare to attribute to himself that he
acts mercifully, because God has given him love through the Holy Spirit, without which no
one can be merciful. God, therefore, did not choose those who work well, but rather those
who believe, so that he himself may make them work well. For it is ours to believe and to
will, but his to give to those who believe and will the ability to work well through the
Holy Spirit, through whom the love of God is poured out in our hearts, that he may make us
merciful.

54. [62. When he says: It is therefore not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of
God who shows mercy, he does not take away free will, but says that our willing is not
sufficient unless God helps us, by making us merciful for working well, through the gift
of the Holy Spirit—referring this to what he said above: I will have mercy on whom I will
have mercy, and I will show mercy to whom I will be merciful. Because we can neither will
unless we are called; and when, after the calling, we have willed, our will and our
running are not sufficient, unless God both supplies strength to those who run and leads
them where he calls. It is clear, therefore, that our working well is not of him who wills
nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy—although our will is there too, which by
itself could do nothing. Hence there follows also the testimony concerning Pharaoh's
punishment, when Scripture says of Pharaoh: For this I raised you up, that I might show my
power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth; for, as we read in
Exodus, the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, so that he was not moved by such evident signs.
That Pharaoh at that time did not obey the commands of God already came from his
punishment.

But no one can say that that hardening of heart befell Pharaoh undeservedly, but by the
judgment of God repaying his unbelief with the deserved penalty. Therefore this is not
imputed to him—that he then did not obey, since with a hardened heart he could not
obey—but that he showed himself deserving of having his heart hardened, by his prior
unfaithfulness. For just as in those whom God chooses, not works but faith begins the
merit, so that by the gift of God they may work well, so in those whom he condemns,
unfaithfulness and ungodliness begin the merit of punishment, so that through the
punishment itself they may even work evil, as the same Apostle says above: And because
they did not approve of having God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate
mind, to do the things that are not fitting. Wherefore the Apostle concludes thus:
Therefore he has mercy on whom he wills, and whom he wills he hardens. For on whom he has
mercy, he makes him work well; and whom he hardens, he abandons him, so that he works
evil. But that mercy is granted to the preceding merit of faith, and that hardening to
preceding ungodliness, so that we both do good through the gift of God and evil through
punishment—while yet free will is not taken away from man, whether unto believing God,
that mercy may follow us, or unto ungodliness, that punishment may follow. This conclusion
having been drawn, he introduces a question as if from an objector.

For he says: You will say to me then: Why does he still find fault? For who resists his
will? To which inquiry he replies in such a way that we may understand that to spiritual
men, and to those who no longer live according to the earthly man, the first merits of
faith and of ungodliness can lie open—how God, foreknowing, chooses those who will believe
and condemns the unbelieving, neither choosing the former for their works nor condemning
the latter for their works, but granting to the faith of the former that they may work
well, and hardening the ungodliness of the latter by abandoning them, so that they may
work evil. And because this understanding, as I said, lies open to the spiritual, but is
far removed from carnal prudence, he thus refutes the inquirer, so that he may understand
that he must first put off the man of clay, in order to be worthy to investigate these
things through the spirit. And so he says: O man, who are you who answer back to God? Does
the thing formed say to him who formed it: Why have you made me thus? Or does not the
potter have power over the clay, from the same lump to make one vessel unto honor and
another unto dishonor?

As long as you are a thing formed, he says, and belong to the lump of clay, not yet
brought to spiritual things, so as to be a spiritual man judging all things and judged by
no one, you ought to restrain yourself from an inquiry of this kind and not answer back to
God. For whoever desires to know his counsel must first be received into his
friendship—which cannot happen except to the spiritual, who now bear the image of the
heavenly man. For he now says: I will not call you servants but friends, for all the
things which I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. And so, as long as you
are an earthen vessel, this very thing in you must first be broken by that iron rod, of
which it is said: You shall rule them with an iron rod, and you shall break them in pieces
like a potter's vessel, so that, with the outer man destroyed and the inner renewed, you
may be able, rooted and grounded in love, to comprehend the breadth, length, height, and
depth, and to know also the surpassing knowledge of the love of God. Now, therefore, when
out of the same lump God makes some vessels unto honor and others unto dishonor, it is not
yours to examine this, whoever you are who still live according to this lump, that is, who
are wise with an earthly and carnal sense.

55. [63.] When he says: He bore with much patience the vessels of wrath, which were fitted
for destruction, he sufficiently indicated by this that the hardening of heart which took
place in Pharaoh came from the merits of a prior hidden ungodliness, which nevertheless
God patiently endured, until Pharaoh should be brought to that time at which vengeance
might opportunely proceed against him—for the correction of those whom he had determined
to free from error, and to lead them, by recalling them to his own worship and godliness,
granting help to their prayers and groanings. 56. [64.] When he says: Whom he also called,
namely us, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles, as he says also in Hosea: I
will call that which was not my people, my people, and the rest, he brings the purpose of
this whole discussion to this: that since he has taught that our working well is of God's
mercy, the Jews should not glory as if from works—who, when they had received the Gospel,
thinking it was to be attributed to their own merits, did not want it given to the
Gentiles; from which pride they must now desist, understanding that if we are called, not
from works but by the mercy of God, that we may believe, and it is granted to believers
that they may work well, then this mercy is not to be begrudged the Gentiles, as though
the merit of the Jews—which is nothing—were preferred.

57. [65.] When he says: But Isaiah cries out for Israel: If the number of the children of
Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved, he shows how God is the
cornerstone, joining both walls in himself. For the testimony of the prophet Hosea was
spoken for the Gentiles: I will call that which was not my people, my people, and her that
was not beloved, beloved; and the testimony of Isaiah was spoken for Israel, that a
remnant shall be saved, so that those may be counted in the seed of Abraham who have
believed in Christ. Thus he makes both peoples in concord, according also to the testimony
of the Lord, who says in the Gospel concerning the Gentiles: I have other sheep, which are
not of this fold, whom I must bring, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.

58. [66.] When he says: Brethren, the good will of my heart and my prayer to God is made
for them, unto salvation, from here he now begins to speak of the hope of the Jews, lest
the Gentiles too should dare to be proud against them. For just as the pride of the Jews,
who gloried as if from works, had to be refuted, so too the Gentiles must be met, lest
they be proud as though preferred to the Jews. 59. [67.] When he says: The word is near,
in your mouth and in your heart; this is the word of faith which we preach: that if you
confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him
from the dead, you shall be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, but
with the mouth confession is made unto salvation—this whole passage refers to what he said
above: For the Lord will make a word consummating and abridging upon the earth. For, the
innumerable and manifold sacraments by which the Jewish people were burdened being
removed, it came about, through the mercy of God, that by the brevity of the confession of
faith we might attain to salvation.

60. [68.] When he says, according to the testimony of Moses: I will lead you to jealousy
by that which is not a nation; by a foolish nation I will provoke you—by saying a foolish
nation, he explained what he had said, that which is not a nation, as though that which is
foolish should not even be called a nation. Yet by the faith of this nation he says the
Jewish people is to be provoked, because they laid hold of what the others rejected. Or
else, that which is not a nation, a foolish nation, means that, since it was a foolish
nation—every people worshiping idols—it nevertheless laid aside its heathenism by
believing. Hence too is that saying: If, then, the uncircumcised keep the righteousness of
the law, shall not his uncircumcision be counted as circumcision? So that this is the
sense: I will lead you to jealousy by that which has become no nation, laying aside its
heathenism through faith in Christ, though it had been a foolish nation in worshiping
idols.

61. [69.] When he says: Has God then rejected his people? God forbid! For I too am an
Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin, this refers to what he said
above: But the word of God cannot fail. For not all who are of Israel are Israelites, nor
because they are the seed of Abraham are all sons, but: In Isaac shall your seed be
called—so that from the very people of the Jews those may be counted in the seed who
believed the Lord. Of this too he says above: A remnant shall be saved. 62. [70.] When he
says: I say then, Did they so stumble that they should fall? God forbid! But by their fall
salvation has come to the Gentiles, he does not say this because they did not fall, but
because their fall was not empty, since it profited unto the salvation of the Gentiles.
They did not, then, so stumble as to fall—that is, only to fall, as if solely for their
own punishment—but so that this very fact, that they fell, might profit the Gentiles unto
salvation. Then from this passage he begins to commend the people of the Jews, even on
account of their very fall of unbelief, so that the Gentiles may not be proud, because
even the fall of the Jews proved so precious for the salvation of the Gentiles; rather the
Gentiles ought all the more to take care lest, while they are proud, they likewise fall.

63. [71.] When he says: If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he thirsts, give him drink;
for in doing this you will heap coals of fire upon his head, it can seem to many to
contradict that saying by which the Lord commanded that we love our enemies and pray for
those who persecute us, or even this which the same Apostle said above: Bless those who
persecute you; bless, and do not curse, and again: Rendering to no one evil for evil. For
how does anyone love him to whom he gives food and drink for the purpose of heaping coals
of fire upon his head, if coals of fire in this place signify some grievous punishment?
Wherefore it must be understood that this was said so that we might provoke him who has
injured us to repentance for his deed, when we do good to him. For these coals of fire
avail for the burning, that is, the contrition of the spirit, which is as it were the head
of the soul, in which all malice is burned away, when a man is changed for the better
through repentance—like those coals of fire of which it is said in the Psalms: What shall
be given you, or what shall be added to you, against a deceitful tongue? The sharp arrows
of the mighty, with devastating coals.

64. [72. When he says: Let every soul be subject to the higher powers; for there is no
power except from God, he most rightly admonishes, lest anyone, because he has been called
to freedom by his Lord and made a Christian, be lifted up into pride and not think that on
the journey of this life he must keep his own order, and suppose that he need not be
subject to the higher powers, to whom, for the time being, the government of temporal
affairs has been handed over. For since we consist of soul and body, and, as long as we
are in this temporal life, use also temporal things for the support of leading that life,
we ought, in that part which pertains to this life, to be subject to the powers, that is,
to men who administer human affairs with some honor. But in that part by which we believe
God and are called into his kingdom, we ought not to be subject to any man who desires to
overturn in us that very thing which God has deigned to grant unto eternal life. If
anyone, therefore, thinks that, because he is a Christian, he need not pay toll or
tribute, or need not render the honor owed to those powers who attend to these matters, he
is caught in a great error.

Likewise, if anyone thinks he must be subject in such a way as to judge that he who excels
by some eminence in administering temporal affairs has power even over his faith, he falls
into a greater error. But this measure must be kept, which the Lord himself prescribes:
that we render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are
God's. For although we are called to that kingdom where there will be no power of this
world, yet while we journey on this road, until we arrive at that age where every
principality and power is done away, let us bear our condition for the sake of the very
order of human affairs, doing nothing in pretense, and in this very thing obeying not so
much men as God, who commands these things. 65. [73.] When he says: Do you wish not to
fear the power? Do good, and you shall have praise from it, this can trouble some, when
they consider that Christians have often suffered persecution from these powers. Did they,
then, not do good, since they were not only not praised by these powers, but were even
subjected to punishments and killed? The words of the Apostle, therefore, must be
considered. For he does not say: Do good, and the power will praise you; but he says: Do
good, and you shall have praise from it. For whether it approves your good deed or
persecutes it, you shall have praise from it—either when you gain it into the service of
God, or when by its persecution you merit a crown. This too is understood in what follows,
when he says: For it is God's minister to you for good—even if to itself for evil.

66. [74.] When he says: Be subject of necessity, this avails so that we may understand
that it is necessary, on account of this life, that we ought to be subject, not resisting
if they wish to take away anything of temporal things over which power has been given
them; and because these things pass away, therefore this subjection too must be
established not in goods that are to endure, but in things necessary to this time. Yet
because he said, Be subject of necessity, lest anyone should become subject to powers of
this kind with less than a whole heart and pure love, he added, saying: Not only on
account of wrath but also on account of conscience—that is, not only to avert wrath, which
can be done even in pretense, but so that in your conscience you may be certain that you
do it out of love for him to whom you are subject, by the command of your Lord, who wishes
all to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For when the Apostle said this,
he was dealing with those very powers. This is what he urges upon servants in another
place: Not serving to the eye, as though pleasing men, so that, in the very fact that they
are subject to their masters, they may not hate them or desire to win their favor by
deceits.

67. [75.] When he says: For he who loves another has fulfilled the law, he shows that the
consummation of the law is placed in love, that is, in charity; hence the Lord too says
that on those two commandments the whole Law hangs, and all the Prophets, that is, on the
love of God and of neighbor. Hence too he himself, who came to fulfill the law, bestowed
love through the Holy Spirit, so that what before fear could not fulfill, love might
afterward fulfill. Hence is that saying of the same Apostle: But love is the fullness of
the law; and that: But the end of the commandment is love, from a pure heart and a good
conscience and unfeigned faith. 68. [76.] When he says: And this, knowing the time, that
it is now the hour for us to rise from sleep, this looks to what was said: Behold, now is
the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation. For the time of the Gospel is
signified, and that opportune season of saving those who believe in God.

69. [77.] When he says: And make not provision for the flesh in its concupiscences, he
shows that provision for the flesh is not to be blamed, when those things are provided
which avail for the necessity of bodily health. But if it is for superfluous delights and
luxuries, so that one may rejoice in the things that the flesh desires, he is rightly
reproved, because he makes provision for the flesh in its concupiscences, since he who
sows in his flesh shall reap corruption from the flesh, that is, he who rejoices in carnal
delights. 70. [78.] When he says: Receive him who is weak in faith, not in disputes over
thoughts, he says this so that we may receive the one who is weak in faith, and by our own
firmness bear with his weakness, and not pass judgment on his thoughts—that is, that we
should not dare to pass sentence on another's heart, which we do not see. Therefore it
follows and he says: One indeed believes he may eat all things; but he who is weak, let
him eat vegetables. For at that time many, now firm in faith and knowing, according to the
teaching of the Lord, that the things which enter into the mouth do not defile, but the
things which come out, took food indifferently with a clear conscience. But certain weaker
ones abstained from meats and from wine, lest even unknowingly they should fall upon the
things that were sacrificed to idols. For at that time all sacrificial meat was sold in
the market, and the Gentiles poured out libations of the firstfruits of the wine to their
idols, and made certain sacrifices at the very winepresses. The Apostle therefore commands
both those who used such foods with a clear conscience not to despise the weakness of
those who abstained from such food and drink, and those weak ones not to judge, as though
defiled, those who did not abstain from meats and drank wine. To this pertains what he
says consequently: Let him who eats not judge—that is, despise—him who does not eat; and
let him who does not eat not judge him who eats. For the strong were contemptuously
despising the weaker, and the weak were rashly judging the strong.

71. [79.] When he says: Who are you to judge another's servant? he says this so that, in
those matters which can be done with either a good or a bad intention, we may leave the
judgment to God, and not dare to pass sentence on another's heart, which we do not see.
But in those matters which are so grasped that it is clear they cannot be done with a good
and chaste intention, one is not disapproved if we judge. And so, in what he says about
foods—since it is not known with what intention it is done—he does not want us to be
judges, but God; but concerning that abominable defilement, where a certain man had taken
his father's wife, he judged that it must be judged by the precepts. For that man could
not say that he had committed so monstrous a shameful deed with a good intention.
Therefore whatever deeds are so manifest that it cannot be said, "I did it with a good
intention," are to be judged by us; but whatever things are so done that it is uncertain
with what intention they are done, are not to be judged but reserved for the judgment of
God, as it is written: The things that are hidden belong to God, but the things that are
manifest, to you and to your children.

72. [80.] When he says: One indeed judges between day and day, but another judges every
day, setting aside for the moment a better consideration, it seems to me to be said not of
two men, but of man and God. For he who judges between day and day is man, for he can
judge one thing today and another tomorrow—that is, whomever he has today condemned as a
proven or confessed evildoer, he may find good tomorrow, when he has corrected himself;
or, on the contrary, when he has today praised someone as righteous, he may find him
tomorrow depraved. But he who judges every day is God, because he knows not only what each
one is, but also what he will be on every day. Therefore: Let each one abound in his own
understanding, he says—that is, let him dare to judge only so far as is granted to human
understanding, or to each man. He who is wise as to the day, he says, is wise to the
Lord—that is, because this very thing, that he judges the present day well, is wise to the
Lord. And this is to judge well as to the day: that you know his correction in the future
is not to be despaired of, concerning whose manifest fault you have judged in the present.

73. [81.] When he says: Blessed is he who does not judge himself in that which he
approves, this is best referred to what he said above: Let not our good, then, be
blasphemed. For this is also what he now says before that statement: The faith which you
have, keep to yourself before God—so that, since this faith is good, by which we believe
that all things are clean to the clean, and in that faith we approve ourselves, we may use
our good well; lest perhaps, when we have abused that good to the stumbling of weak
brethren, we sin against the brethren and judge ourselves in that very good, when we
scandalize the weak, in which good we approve ourselves, when that faith pleases us. 74.
[82.] When he says: For I say that Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth
of God, to confirm the promises of the fathers, but that the Gentiles should glorify God
for his mercy, he says this so that the Gentiles may understand that the Lord Christ was
sent to the Jews, and may not be proud. For, the Jews rejecting what was sent to them, it
came about that the Gospel was preached to the Gentiles also—which is most clearly written
in the Acts of the Apostles, when the Apostles say to the Jews: To you it was necessary
that the word be preached first; but since you have judged yourselves unworthy, behold, we
turn ourselves to the Gentiles. According also to the testimonies of the Lord himself,
when he says: I am not sent except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and again: It
is not good to send the children's bread to the dogs. And if the Gentiles consider this
well, they understand that, by this their own faith, by which they now believe that all
things are clean to the clean, they ought not to insult those—if any perchance be weak
among the circumcision—who, on account of association with idols, dare not touch any meats
at all.

75. [83.] When he says: That I may be a minister of Christ Jesus among the Gentiles,
consecrating the Gospel of God, that the offering of the Gentiles may become acceptable,
sanctified in the Holy Spirit, this is understood: that the Gentiles are offered to God,
as an acceptable sacrifice, when, believing in Christ, they are sanctified through the
Gospel—as he also says above: I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercy of God, that
you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God. 76. [84.] When he says:
I beseech you, brethren, to mark those who make dissensions and scandals contrary to the
teaching which you have learned, he is understood to speak of those of whom he also wrote
to Timothy, saying: As I asked you to remain at Ephesus, when I was going into Macedonia,
that you might charge certain persons not to teach otherwise, nor to give heed to fables
and endless genealogies, which furnish questions rather than the edification of God, which
is in faith; and to Titus: For there are many unruly, vain talkers and seducers of minds,
especially those who are of the circumcision, who must be refuted, who subvert whole
households, teaching things they ought not, for the sake of filthy gain; one of them,
their own prophet, said: The Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy bellies. For to
this refers what he also says here: For these do not serve Christ the Lord, but their own
belly—of whom he says in another place: Whose God is their belly.

Notes


SOURCES AND CREDITS
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Where each text comes from, and the licence under which it may be reused.

AGAINST TWO LETTERS OF THE PELAGIANS English translation: an older public-domain
translation as collected in the Writings-Database (HistoricalChristianFaith), mostly from
the Ante-Nicene, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers and similar nineteenth-century editions.
SermonIndex has only divided it into chapters and short sections; the wording is the
translator’s own. No Greek or Latin text is shown beside it yet, and no modern English
version has been made. Licence: Public domain.

ON GRACE AND FREE WILL English translation: an older public-domain translation as
collected in the Writings-Database (HistoricalChristianFaith), mostly from the Ante-
Nicene, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers and similar nineteenth-century editions.
SermonIndex has only divided it into chapters and short sections; the wording is the
translator’s own. No Greek or Latin text is shown beside it yet, and no modern English
version has been made. Licence: Public domain.

ON REBUKE AND GRACE English translation: an older public-domain translation as collected
in the Writings-Database (HistoricalChristianFaith), mostly from the Ante-Nicene, Nicene
and Post-Nicene Fathers and similar nineteenth-century editions. SermonIndex has only
divided it into chapters and short sections; the wording is the translator’s own. No Greek
or Latin text is shown beside it yet, and no modern English version has been made.
Licence: Public domain.

ON THE PREDESTINATION OF THE SAINTS English translation: an older public-domain
translation as collected in the Writings-Database (HistoricalChristianFaith), mostly from
the Ante-Nicene, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers and similar nineteenth-century editions.
SermonIndex has only divided it into chapters and short sections; the wording is the
translator’s own. No Greek or Latin text is shown beside it yet, and no modern English
version has been made. Licence: Public domain.

ON THE GOOD OF MARRIAGE English translation: an older public-domain translation as
collected in the Writings-Database (HistoricalChristianFaith), mostly from the Ante-
Nicene, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers and similar nineteenth-century editions.
SermonIndex has only divided it into chapters and short sections; the wording is the
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version has been made. Licence: Public domain.

ON HOLY VIRGINITY English translation: an older public-domain translation as collected in
the Writings-Database (HistoricalChristianFaith), mostly from the Ante-Nicene, Nicene and
Post-Nicene Fathers and similar nineteenth-century editions. SermonIndex has only divided
it into chapters and short sections; the wording is the translator’s own. No Greek or
Latin text is shown beside it yet, and no modern English version has been made. Licence:
Public domain.

ON THE GOOD OF WIDOWHOOD English translation: an older public-domain translation as
collected in the Writings-Database (HistoricalChristianFaith), mostly from the Ante-
Nicene, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers and similar nineteenth-century editions.
SermonIndex has only divided it into chapters and short sections; the wording is the
translator’s own. No Greek or Latin text is shown beside it yet, and no modern English
version has been made. Licence: Public domain.

ON CONTINENCE English translation: an older public-domain translation as collected in the
Writings-Database (HistoricalChristianFaith), mostly from the Ante-Nicene, Nicene and
Post-Nicene Fathers and similar nineteenth-century editions. SermonIndex has only divided
it into chapters and short sections; the wording is the translator’s own. No Greek or
Latin text is shown beside it yet, and no modern English version has been made. Licence:
Public domain.

OUR LORD’S SERMON ON THE MOUNT English translation: an older public-domain translation as
collected in the Writings-Database (HistoricalChristianFaith), mostly from the Ante-
Nicene, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers and similar nineteenth-century editions.
SermonIndex has only divided it into chapters and short sections; the wording is the
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EXPOSITION OF CERTAIN PROPOSITIONS FROM THE LETTER TO THE ROMANS English translation: an
older public-domain translation as collected in the Writings-Database
(HistoricalChristianFaith), mostly from the Ante-Nicene, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers
and similar nineteenth-century editions. SermonIndex has only divided it into chapters and
short sections; the wording is the translator’s own. No Greek or Latin text is shown
beside it yet, and no modern English version has been made. Licence: Public domain.