Bad Advertisement?
Are you a Christian?
Online Store:Visit Our Store
| - HELP 
Book
III.
1. Critob. I am charmed with the exuberance of your
eloquence, but at the same time I would remind you that,5282
“In the multitude of words
there wanteth not transgression.” And how does it bear upon the
question before us? You will surely admit that those who have received
Christian baptism are without sin. And that being free from sin they
are righteous. And that once they are righteous, they can, if they take
care, preserve their righteousness, and so through life avoid all
sin.
Attic. Do you not blush to follow the opinion of
Jovinian, which has been exploded and condemned? For he relies upon
just the same proofs and arguments as you do; nay, rather, you are all
eagerness for his inventions, and desire to preach in the East what was
formerly5283
| 5283 By a Synod
under Siricius in a.d. 390. | condemned at Rome, and not
long ago in5284
| 5284 The allusion
is to the African Synod, held a.d. 412, at
which Celestius was condemned and excommunicated. | Africa. Read then the reply
which was given to him, and you will there find the answer to yourself.
For in the discussion of doctrines and disputed points, we must have
regard not to persons but to things. And yet let me tell you that
baptism condones past offences, and does not preserve righteousness in
the time to come; the keeping of that is dependent on toil and
industry, as well as earnestness, and above all on the mercy of God. It
is ours to ask, to Him it belongs to bestow what we ask; ours to begin,
His it is to finish; ours to offer what we can, His to fulfil what we
cannot perform.5285
“For
except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it.
Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.”
Wherefore the Apostle5286
bids us so
run that we may attain. All indeed run, but one receiveth the crown.
And in the5287
Psalm it is written,
“O Lord, thou hast crowned us with thy favour as with a
shield.” For our victory is won and the crown of our victory is
gained by His protection and through His shield; and here we run that
hereafter we may attain; there he shall receive the crown who in this
world has proved the conqueror. And when we have been baptized we are
told,5288
“Behold thou art made
whole; sin no more lest a worse thing happen unto thee.” And
again,5289
“Know ye not that ye are
a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man
profane the temple of God, him shall God destroy.” And in another
place,5290
“The Lord is with you so
long as ye are with Him: if ye forsake Him, He will also forsake
you.” Where is the man, do you suppose, in whom as in a shrine
and sanctuary the purity of Christ is permanent, and in whose case the
serenity of the temple is saddened by no cloud of sin? We cannot always
have the same countenance, though the philosophers falsely boast that
this was the experience of Socrates; how much less can our minds be
always the same! As men have many expressions of countenance, so also
do the feelings of their hearts vary. If it were possible for us to be
always immersed in the waters of baptism, sins would fly over our heads
and leave us untouched. The Holy Spirit would protect us. But the enemy
assails us, and when conquered does not depart, but is ever lying in
ambush, that he may secretly shoot the upright in heart.
2. In the Gospel according to the Hebrews, which is
written in the Chaldee and Syrian language, but in Hebrew characters,
and is used by the Nazarenes to this day (I mean the Gospel according
to the Apostles, or, as is generally maintained, the Gospel according
to Matthew, a copy of which is in the library at Cæsarea), we
find, “Behold, the mother of our Lord and His brethren said to
Him, John Baptist baptizes for the remission of sins; let us go and be
baptized by him. But He said to them, what sin have I committed that I
should go and be baptized by him? Unless, haply, the very words which I
have said are only ignorance.” And in the same volume, “If
thy brother sin against thee in word, and make amends to thee, receive
him seven times in a day.” Simon, His disciple, said to Him,
“Seven times in a day?” The Lord answered and said to him,
“I say unto thee until seventy times seven.” Even the
prophets, after they were anointed with the Holy Spirit, were guilty of
sinful words. Ignatius, an apostolic man and a martyr, boldly writes,5291
| 5291 The words are
those of S. Barnabas. Possibly in Jerome’s copy the passage may
have been attributed to Ignatius. | “The Lord chose Apostles who
were sinners above all men.” It is of their speedy conversion
that the Psalmist sings,5292
“Their
infirmities were multiplied; afterwards they made haste.” If you
do not allow the authority of this evidence, at least admit its
antiquity, and see what has been the opinion of all good churchmen.
Suppose a person who has been
baptized to have been carried off by death either immediately, or on
the very day of his baptism, and I will generously concede that he
neither thought nor said anything whereby, through error and ignorance,
he fell into sin. Does it follow that he will, therefore, be without
sin, because he appears not to have overcome, but to have avoided sin?
Is not the true reason rather that by the mercy of God he was released
from the prison of sins and departed to the Lord? We also say this,
that God can do what He wills; and that man of himself and by his own
will cannot, as you maintain, be without sin. If he can, it is idle for
you now to add the word grace, for, with such a power, he has no need
of it. If, however, he cannot avoid sin without the grace of God, it is
folly for you to attribute to him an ability which he does not possess.
For whatever depends upon another’s will, is not in the power of
him whose ability you assert, but of him whose aid is clearly
indispensable.
3. C. What do you mean by this perversity, or, rather,
senseless contention? Will you not grant me even so much—that
when a man leaves the waters of baptism he is free from sin?
A. Either I fail to express my meaning clearly, or you
are slow of apprehension.
C. How so?
A. Remember both what you maintained and also what I
say. You argued that a man can be free from sin if he chooses. I reply
that it is an impossibility; not that we are to think that a man is not
free from sin immediately after baptism, but that that time of
sinlessness is by no means to be referred to human ability, but to the
grace of God. Do not, therefore, claim the power for man, and I will
admit the fact. For how can a man be able who is not able of himself?
Or what is that sinlessness which is conditioned by the immediate death
of the body? Should the man’s life be prolonged, he will
certainly be liable to sins and to ignorance.
C. Your logic stops my mouth. You do not speak with
Christian simplicity, but entangle me in some fine distinctions between
being and ability to be.
A. Is it I who play these tricks with words? The article
came from your own workshop. For you say, not that a man is free from
sin, but that he is able to be; I, on the other hand, will grant what
you deny, that a man is free from sin by the grace of God, and yet will
maintain that he is not able of himself.
C. It is useless to give commandments if we cannot keep
them.
A. No one doubts that God commanded things possible. But
because men do not what they might, therefore the whole world is
subject to the judgment of God, and needs His mercy. On the other hand,
if you can produce a man who has fulfilled the whole law, you will
certainly be able to show that there is a man who does not need the
mercy of God. For everything which can happen must either take place in
the past, the present, or the future. As to your assertion that a man
can be without sin if he chooses, show that it has happened in the
past, or at all events that it does happen at the present day; the
future will reveal itself. If, however, you can point to no one who
either is, or has been, altogether free from sin, it remains for us to
confine our discussion to the future. Meanwhile, you are vanquished and
a captive as regards two out of three periods of time, the past and the
present. If anyone hereafter shall be greater than patriarchs,
prophets, apostles, inasmuch as he is without sin, then you may perhaps
be able to convince future generations as to their time.
4. C. Talk as you like, argue as you please, you will
never wrest from me free will, which God bestowed once for all, nor
will you be able to deprive me of what God has given, the ability if I
have the will.
A. By way of example let us take one proof:5293
| 5293 Acts xiii. 32; Ps. lxxxviii. 21. | “I have found David, the Son of
Jesse, a man after Mine own heart, who shall do all My will.”
There is no doubt that David was a holy man, and yet he who was chosen
that he might do all God’s will is blamed for certain actions. Of
course it was possible for him who was chosen for the purpose to do all
God’s will. Nor is God to blame Who beforehand spoke of his doing
all His will as commanded, but blame does attach to him who did not
what was foretold. For God did not say that He had found a man who
would unfailingly do His bidding and fulfil His will, but only one who
would do all His will. And we, too, say that a man can avoid sinning,
if he chooses, according to his local and temporal circumstances and
physical weakness, so long as his mind is set upon righteousness and
the string is well stretched upon the lyre. But if a man grow a little
remiss it is with him as with the boatman pulling against the stream,
who finds that, if he slackens but for a moment, the craft glides back
and he is carried by the flowing waters whither he would not. Such is
the state of man; if we are a little careless we learn our weakness,
and find that our power is limited. Do you suppose that the Apostle
Paul, when he wrote5294
“the
coat (or cloak) that I left at Troas with Carpus, bring when thou
comest, and the books, especially the parchments,” was thinking of heavenly
mysteries, and not of those things which are required for daily life
and to satisfy our bodily necessities? Find me a man who is never
hungry, thirsty, or cold, who knows nothing of pain, or fever, or the
torture of strangury, and I will grant you that a man can think of
nothing but virtue. When the Apostle was5295
struck by the servant, he delivered
himself thus against the High Priest who commanded the blow to be
given: “God shall strike thee, thou whited wall.” We miss
the patience of the Saviour Who was led as a lamb to the slaughter, and
opened not His mouth, but mercifully said to the smiter,5296
“If I have spoken evil, bear
witness of the evil; but if well, why smitest thou Me?” We do not
disparage the Apostle, but declare the glory of God Who suffered in the
flesh and overcame the evil inflicted on the flesh and the weakness of
the flesh—to say nothing of what the Apostle says elsewhere:5297
“Alexander, the coppersmith,
did me much evil; the Lord, the righteous Judge, will recompense him in
that day.”
5. C. I have been longing to say something, but have
checked the words as they were bursting from my lips. You compel me to
say it.
A. Who hinders you from saying what you think? Either
what you are going to say is good—and you ought not to deprive us
of what is good—or it is bad, and, therefore, it is not regard
for us, but shame that keeps you silent.
C. I will say, I will say after all, what I think. Your
whole argument tends to this: You accuse nature, and blame God for
creating man such as he is.
A. Is this what you wished, and yet did not wish, to
say? Pray speak out, so that all may have the benefit of your wisdom.
Are you censuring God because he made man to be man? Let the angels
also complain because they are angels. Let every creature discuss the
question, Why it is as it was created? and not what the Creator could
have made it. I must now amuse myself with the rhetorical exercises of
childhood, and passing from the gnat and the ant to cherubim and
seraphim, inquire why each was not created with a happier lot. And when
I reach the exalted powers, I will argue the point: Why God alone is
only God, and did not make all things gods? For, according to you, He
will either be unable to do so, or will be guilty of envy. Censure Him,
and demand why He allows the devil to be in this world, and carry off
the crown when you have won the victory.
C. I am not so senseless as to complain of the existence
of the devil, through whose malice death entered into the world; but
what grieves me is this: that dignitaries of the Church, and those who
usurp the title of master, destroy free will; and once that is
destroyed, the way is open for the Manichæans.
A. Am I the destroyer of free will because, throughout
the discussion, my single aim has been to maintain the omnipotence of
God as well as free will?
C. How can you have free will, and yet say that man can
do nothing without God’s assistance?
A. If he is to be blamed who couples free will and
God’s help, it follows that we ought to praise him who does away
with God’s help.
C. I am not making God’s help unnecessary, for to
His grace we owe all our ability; but I and those who think with me
keep both within their own bounds. To God’s grace we assign the
gift of the power of free choice; to our own will, the doing, or the
not doing, of a thing; and thus rewards and punishments for doing or
not doing can be maintained.
6. A. You seem to me to be lost in forgetfulness, and to
be going over the lines of argument already traversed as though not a
word had been previously said. For, by this long discussion, it has
been established that the Lord, by the same grace wherewith He bestowed
upon us free choice, assists and supports us in our individual
actions.
C. Why, then, does He crown and praise what He has
Himself wrought in us?
A. That is to say, our will which offered all it could,
the toil which strove in action, and the humility which ever looked to
the help of God.
C. So, then, if we have not done what He commanded,
either God was willing to assist us, or He was not. If He was willing
and did assist us, and yet we have not done what we wished, then He,
and not we, has been overcome. But if He would not help, the man is not
to be blamed who wished to do His will, but God, who was able to help,
but would not.
A. Do you not see that your dilemma has landed you in a
deep abyss of blasphemy? Whichever way you take it, God is either weak
or malevolent, and He is not so much praised because He is the author
of good and gives His help, as abused for not restraining evil. Blame
Him, then, because He allows the existence of the devil, and has
suffered, and still suffers, evil to be done in the world. This is what
Marcion asks, and the whole pack of heretics who mutilate the Old Testament, and have mostly spun an
argument something like this: Either God knew that man, placed in
Paradise, would transgress His command, or He did not know. If He knew,
man is not to blame, who could not avoid God’s foreknowledge, but
He Who created him such that he could not escape the knowledge of God.
If He did not know, in stripping Him of foreknowledge you also take
away His divinity. Upon the same showing God will be deserving of blame
for choosing Saul, who was to prove one of the worst of kings. And the
Saviour must be convicted either of ignorance, or of unrighteousness,
inasmuch as He said in the Gospel,5298
“Did I not choose you the
twelve, and one of you is a devil?” Ask Him why He chose Judas, a
traitor? Why He entrusted to him the bag when He knew that he was a
thief? Shall I tell you the reason? God judges the present, not the
future. He does not make use of His foreknowledge to condemn a man
though He knows that he will hereafter displease Him; but such is His
goodness and unspeakable mercy that He chooses a man who, He perceives,
will meanwhile be good, and who, He knows, will turn out badly, thus
giving him the opportunity of being converted and of repenting. This is
the Apostle’s meaning when he says,5299
“Dost thou not know that the
goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance? but after thy hardness and
impenitent heart treasurest up for thyself wrath in the day of wrath
and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, Who will render to
every man according to his works.” For Adam did not sin because
God knew that he would do so; but God inasmuch as He is God, foreknew
what Adam would do of his own free choice. You may as well accuse God
of falsehood because He said by the mouth of Jonah:5300
“Yet three days, and Nineveh shall
be overthrown.” But God will reply by the mouth of Jeremiah,5301
“At what instant I shall speak
concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to
break down, and to destroy it; if that nation, concerning which I have
spoken, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought
to do unto them. And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation,
and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it; if it do evil in my
sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good,
wherewith I said I would benefit them.” Jonah, on a certain
occasion, was indignant because, at God’s command, he had spoken
falsely; but his sorrow was proved to be ill founded, since he would
rather speak truth and have a countless multitude perish, than speak
falsely and have them saved. His position was thus illustrated:5302
“Thou grievest over the ivy (or
gourd), for the which thou hast not laboured, neither madest it grow,
which came up in a night, and perished in a night; and should not I
have pity on Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than six score
thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their
left hand?” If there was so vast a number of children and simple
folk, whom you will never be able to prove sinners, what shall we say
of those inhabitants of both sexes who were at different periods of
life? According to Philo, and the wisest of philosophers, Plato (so the
“Timæus” tells us), in passing from infancy to
decrepit old age, we go through seven stages, which so gradually and so
gently follow one another that we are quite insensible of the
change.
C. The drift of your whole argument is this—what
the Greeks call αὐτέξουσιον
, and we free will, you admit in terms, but in effect destroy. For you
make God the author of sin, in asserting that man can of himself do
nothing, but that he must have the help of God to Whom is imputed all
we do. But we say that, whether a man does good or evil, it is imputed
to him on account of the faculty of free choice, inasmuch as he did
what he chose, and not to Him Who once for all gave him free
choice.
A. Your shuffling is to no purpose; you are caught in
the snares of truth. For upon this showing, even if He does not Himself
assist, according to you He will be the author of evil, because He
might have prevented it and did not. It is an old maxim that if a man
can deliver another from death and does not, he is a homicide.
C. I withdraw and yield the point; you have won;
provided, however, that victory is the subverting of the truth by
specious words, that is to say, not by truth, but by falsehood. For I
might make answer to you in the Apostle’s words,5303
“Though I be rude in speech, yet
not in knowledge.” When you speak, your rhetorical tricks are too
much for me, and I seem to agree with you; but when you stop speaking,
it all goes out of my head, and I see quite clearly that your argument
does not flow from the fountains of truth and Christian simplicity, but
rests on the laboured subtleties of the philosophers.
A. Do you wish me, then, once more to resort to the
evidence of Scripture? If so, what becomes of the boast of your
disciples that no one can answer
your arguments or solve the questions you raise?
C. I not only wish, but am eager that you should do so.
Show me any place in Holy Scripture where we find that, the power of
free choice being lost, a man does what of himself he either would not,
or could not do.
8. A. We must use the words of Scripture not as you
propose, but as truth and reason demand. Jacob says in his prayer,5304
“If the Lord God will be with
me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to
eat, and raiment to put on, so that I come again to my father’s
house in peace, then shall the Lord be my God, and this stone, which I
have set up for a token, shall be God’s house; and of all that
Thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto Thee.” He
did not say, If thou preserve my free choice, and I gain by my toil
food and raiment, and return to my father’s house. He refers
everything to the will of God, that he may be found worthy to receive
that for which he prays. On Jacob’s return from Mesopotamia5305
an army of angels met him, who are
called God’s camp. He afterwards contended with an angel in the
form of a man, and was strengthened by God; whereupon, instead of
Jacob, the supplanter, he received the name, the most upright
of God. For he would not have dared to return to his cruel brother
unless he had been strengthened and secured by the Lord’s help.
In the sequel we read,5306
“The sun
rose upon him after he passed over Phanuel,” which is, being
interpreted, the face of God. Hence5307
Moses also says, “I have seen
the Lord face to face, and my life is preserved,” not by any
natural quality—but by the condescension of God, Who had mercy.
So then the Sun of Righteousness rises upon us when God makes His face
to shine upon us and gives us strength. Joseph in Egypt was shut up in
prison, and we next hear that the keeper of the prison, believing in
his fidelity, committed everything to his hand. And the reason is
given:5308
“Because the Lord was
with him: and whatsoever he did, the Lord made it to prosper.”
Wherefore, also, dreams were suggested to Pharaoh’s attendants,
and Pharaoh had one which none could interpret, that so Joseph might be
released, and his father and brethren fed, and Egypt saved in the time
of famine. Moreover, God5309
said to
Israel, in a vision of the night, “I am the God of thy fathers;
fear not to go down into Egypt; for I will make of thee there a great
nation, and I will go down with thee into Egypt; and I will also surely
bring thee up again, and Joseph shall put his hand upon thine
eyes.” Where in this passage do we find the power of free choice?
Is not the whole circumstance that he ventured to go to his son, and
entrust himself to a nation that knew not the Lord, due to the help of
the God of his fathers? The people was released from Egypt with a
strong hand and an outstretched arm; not the hand of Moses and Aaron,
but of Him who set the people free by signs and wonders, and at last
smote the firstborn of Egypt, so that they who at5310
first were persistent in keeping the
people, eagerly urged them to depart. Solomon5311
says, “Trust in the Lord with
all thine heart, and lean not upon thine own understanding: in all thy
ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths.” Understand
what He says—that we must not trust in our wisdom, but in the
Lord alone, by Whom the steps of a man are directed. Lastly, we are
bidden to show Him our ways, and make them known, for they are not made
straight by our own labour, but by His assistance and mercy. And so it
is written,5312
“Make my way right before
Thy face,” so that what is right to Thee may seem also right to
me. Solomon says the same—5313
“Commit thy works unto the
Lord, and thy thoughts shall be established.” Our thoughts are
then established when we commit all we do to the Lord our helper,
resting it, as it were, upon the firm and solid rock, and attribute
everything to Him.
9. The Apostle Paul, rapidly recounting the benefits of
God, ended with the words,5314
“And
who is sufficient for these things?” Wherefore, also, in another
place he5315
says, “Such confidence have
we through Christ to Godward; not that we are sufficient of ourselves
to think anything as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is from God; Who
also made us sufficient as ministers of a new covenant; not of the
letter but of the spirit; for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth
life.” Do we still dare to pride ourselves on free will, and to
abuse the benefits of God to the dishonour of the giver? Whereas the
same chosen vessel openly5316
writes,
“We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the exceeding
greatness of the power may be of God, and not from ourselves.”
Therefore, also, in another place, checking the impudence of the
heretics, he5317
says,
“He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. For not he that
commendeth himself is approved, but whom the Lord commendeth.”
And again,5318
“In nothing was I
behind the very chiefest Apostles, though I be nothing.” Peter, disturbed by
the greatness of the miracles he witnessed, said to the Lord,5319
“Depart from me, for I am a
sinful man.” And the Lord said to His disciples,5320
“I am the vine and ye are the
branches: He that abideth in Me and I in him, the same beareth much
fruit, for apart from Me ye can do nothing.” Just as the vine
branches and shoots immediately decay when they are severed from the
parent stem, so all the strength of men fades and perishes, if it be
bereft of the help of God. “No one,”5321
He says, “can come unto Me
except the Father Who sent Me draw him.” When He says, “No
one can come unto Me,” He shatters the pride of free will;
because, even if a man will to go to Christ, except that be realized
which follows—“unless My heavenly Father draw
him”—desire is to no purpose, and effort is in vain. At the
same time it is to be noted that he who is drawn does not run freely,
but is led along either because he holds back and is sluggish, or
because he is reluctant to go.
10. Now, how can a man who cannot by his own strength
and labour come to Jesus, at the same time avoid all sins? and avoid
them perpetually, and claim for himself a name which belongs to the
might of God? For if He and I are both without sin, what difference is
there between me and God? One more proof only I will adduce, that I may
not weary you and my hearers.5322
Sleep was
removed from the eyes of Ahasuerus, whom the Seventy call Artaxerxes,
that he might turn over the memoirs of his faithful ministers and come
upon Mordecai, by whose evidence he was delivered from a conspiracy;
and that thus Esther might be more acceptable, and the whole people of
the Jews escape imminent death. There is no doubt that the mighty
sovereign to whom belonged the whole East, from India to the North and
to Ethiopia, after feasting sumptuously on delicacies gathered from
every part of the world would have desired to sleep, and to take his
rest, and to gratify his free choice of sleep, had not the Lord, the
provider of all good things, hindered the course of nature, so that in
defiance of nature the tyrant’s cruelty might be overcome. If I
were to attempt to produce all the instances in Holy Writ, I should be
tedious. All that the saints say is a prayer to God; their whole prayer
and supplication a strong wrestling for the pity of God, so that we,
who by our own strength and zeal cannot be saved, may be preserved by
His mercy. But when we are concerned with grace and mercy, free will is
in part void; in part, I say, for so much as this depends upon it, that
we wish and desire, and give assent to the course we choose. But it
depends on God whether we have the power in His strength and with His
help to perform what we desire, and to bring to effect our toil and
effort.
11. C. I simply said that we find the help of God not in
our several actions, but in the grace of creation and of the law, that
free will might not be destroyed. But there are many of us who maintain
that all we do is done with the help of God.
A. Whoever says that must leave your party. Either,
then, say the same yourself and join our side, or, if you refuse, you
will be just as much our enemy as those who do not hold our views.
C. I shall be on your side if you speak my sentiments,
or rather you will be on mine if you do not contradict them. You admit
health of body, and deny health of the soul, which is stronger than the
body. For sin is to the soul what disease or a wound is to the body. If
then you admit that a man may be healthy so far as he is flesh, why do
you not say he may be healthy so far as he is spirit?
A. I will follow in the line you point out,
“and you to-day
Shall ne’er escape; where’r you call, I
come.”
C. I am ready to listen.
A. And I to speak to deaf ears. I will therefore reply
to your argument. Made up of soul and body, we have the nature of both
substances. As the body is said to be healthy if it is troubled with no
weakness, so the soul is free from fault if it is unshaken and
undisturbed. And yet, although the body may be healthy, sound, and
active, with all the faculties in their full vigour, yet it suffers
much from infirmities at more or less frequent intervals, and, however
strong it may be, is sometimes distressed by various humours; so the
soul, bearing the onset of thoughts and agitations, even though it
escape shipwreck, does not sail without danger, and remembering its
weakness, is always anxious about death, according as it is written,5323
“What man is he that shall
live and not see death?”—death, which threatens all mortal
men, not through the decay of nature, but through the death of sin,
according to the prophet’s words,5324
“The soul that sinneth, it
shall die.” Besides, we know that Enoch and Elias have not yet
seen this death which is common to man and the brutes. Show me a body
which is never sick, or which after sickness is ever safe and sound,
and I will show you a soul which
never sinned, and after acquiring virtues will never again sin. The
thing is impossible, and all the more when we remember that vice
borders on virtue, and that, if you deviate ever so little, you will
either go astray or fall over a precipice. How small is the interval
between obstinacy and perseverance, miserliness and frugality,
liberality and extravagance, wisdom and craft, intrepidity and
rashness, caution and timidity! some of which are classed as good,
others as bad. And the same applies to bodies. If you take precautions
against biliousness, the phlegm increases. If you dry up the humours
too quickly, the blood becomes heated and vitiated with bile, and a
sallow hue spreads over the countenance. Without question, however much
we may exercise all the care of the physician, and regulate our diet,
and be free from indigestion and whatever fosters disease, the causes
of which are in some cases hidden from us and known to God alone, we
shiver with cold, or burn with fever, or howl with colic, and implore
the help of the true physician, our Saviour, and5325
say with the Apostles, “Master,
save us, we perish.”
12. C. Granted that no one could avoid all sin in
boyhood, youth, and early manhood; can you deny that very many
righteous and holy men, after falling into vice, have heartily devoted
themselves to the acquisition of virtue and through these have escaped
sin?
A. This is what I told you at the beginning—that
it rests with ourselves either to sin or not to sin, and to put the
hand either to good or evil; and thus free will is preserved, but
according to circumstances, time, and the state of human frailty; we
maintain, however, that perpetual freedom from sin is reserved for God
only, and for Him Who being the Word was made flesh without incurring
the defects and the sins of the flesh. And, because I am able to avoid
sin for a short time, you cannot logically infer that I am able to do
so continually. Can I fast, watch, walk, sing, sit, sleep
perpetually?
C. Why then in Holy Scripture are we stimulated to aim
at perfect righteousness? For example:5326
“Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they shall see God,” and5327
“Blessed are the undefiled in
the way, who walk in the law of the Lord.” And God says to
Abraham,5328
“I am thy God, be thou
pleasing in My sight, and be thou without spot, or blame, and I will
make My covenant between Me and thee, and will multiply thee
exceedingly.” If that is impossible which Scripture testifies, it
was useless to command it to be done.
A. You play upon Scripture until you wear a question
threadbare, and remind me of the platform tricks of a conjurer who
assumes a variety of characters, and is now Mars, next moment Venus; so
that he who was at first all sternness and ferocity is dissolved into
feminine softness. For the objection you now raise with an air of
novelty—“Blessed are the pure in heart,”
“Blessed are the undefiled in the way,” and “Be
without spot,” and so forth—is refuted when the Apostle
replies,5329
“We know in part, and we
prophesy in part,” and, “Now we see through a mirror
darkly, but when that which is perfect is come, that which is in part
shall be done away.” And therefore we have but the shadow and
likeness of the pure heart, which hereafter is destined to see God,
and, free from spot or stain, to live with Abraham. However great the
patriarch, prophet, or Apostle may be, it is5330
said to them, in the words of our Lord
and Saviour, “If ye 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 which ask Him?” Then again even Abraham, to
whom it was said,5331
“Be
thou without spot and blame,” in the consciousness of his frailty
fell upon his face to the earth. And when God had spoken to Him,
saying, “Thy wife Sarai shall no longer be called Sarai, but Sara
shall her name be, and I will give thee a son by her, and I will bless
him and he shall become a great nation, and kings of nations shall
spring from him,” the narrative at once proceeds to say,
“Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart,
Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall
Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear?” And Abraham said unto
God, “Oh, that Ishmael might live before thee!” And God
said, “Nay, but Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son, and thou
shalt call his name Isaac,” and so on. He certainly had heard the
words of God, “I am thy God, be thou pleasing in My sight, and
without spot”; why then did he not believe what God promised, and
why did he laugh in his heart, thinking that he escaped the notice of
God, and not daring to laugh openly? Moreover he gives the reasons for
his unbelief, and says, “How is it possible for a man that is an
hundred years old to beget a son of a wife that is ninety years
old?” “Oh, that Ishmael might live before thee,” he
says. “Ishmael whom thou once gavest me. I do not ask a hard
thing, I am content with the blessing I have received.” God
convinced him by a mysterious
reply. He said, “Yea.” The meaning is, that shall come to
pass which you think shall not be. Your wife Sara shall bear you a son,
and before she conceives, before he is born, I will give the boy a
name. For, from your error in secretly laughing, your son shall be
called Isaac, that is laughter. But if you think that God is
seen by those who are pure in heart in this world, why did Moses, who
had previously said, “I have seen the Lord face to face, and my
life is preserved,” afterwards entreat that he might see him
distinctly? And because he said that he had seen God, the Lord told
him,5332
“Thou canst not see My face.
For man shall not see My face, and live.” Wherefore also the
Apostle5333
calls Him the only invisible
God, Who dwells in light unapproachable, and Whom no man hath seen, nor
can see. And the Evangelist John in holy accents testifies, saying,5334
“No man hath at any time seen
God. The only begotten Son Who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath
declared Him.” He Who sees, also declares, not how great He is
Who is seen, nor how much He knows Who declares; but as much as the
capacity of mortals can receive.
13. And whereas you think he is blessed who is undefiled
in the way, and walks in His law, you must interpret the former clause
by the latter. From the many proofs I have adduced you have learnt that
no one has been able to fulfil the law. And if the Apostle, in
comparison with the grace of Christ, reckoned those things as filth
which formerly, under the law, he counted gain, so that he might win
Christ, how much more certain ought we to be that the reason why the
grace of Christ and of the Gospel has been added is that, under the
law, no one could be justified? Now if, under the law, no one is
justified, how is he perfectly undefiled in the way who is still
walking and hastening to reach the goal? Surely, he who is in the
course, and who is advancing on the road, is inferior to him who has
reached his journey’s end. If, then, he is undefiled and perfect
who is still walking in the way and advancing in the law, what more
shall he have who has arrived at the end of life and of the law? Hence
the Apostle, speaking of our Lord, says that, at the end of the world,
when all virtues shall receive their consummation, He will present His
holy Church to Himself without spot or wrinkle, and yet you think that
Church perfect, while yet in the flesh, which is subject to death and
decay. You deserve to be told, with the Corinthians,5335
“Ye are already perfect, ye
are already made rich: ye reign without us, and I would that ye did
reign, that we might also reign with you”—since true and
stainless perfection belongs to the inhabitants of heaven, and is
reserved for that day when the bridegroom shall say to the bride,5336
“Thou art all fair, my love;
and there is no spot in thee.” And in this sense we must
understand the words:5337
“That ye may be blameless and
harmless, as children of God, without blemish”; for He did not
say ye are, but may be. He is contemplating the future,
not stating a case pertaining to the present; so that here is toil and
effort, in that other world the rewards of labour and of virtue.
Lastly, John writes:5338
“Beloved, we are sons of
God, and it is not yet made manifest what we shall be. We know that
when He shall be manifested, we shall be like Him: for we shall see Him
even as He is.” Although, then, we are sons of God, yet likeness
to God, and the true contemplation of God, is promised us then, when He
shall appear in His majesty.
14. From this swelling pride springs the audacity in
prayer which marks the directions in your letter to a5339
| 5339 See S. Aug.
De Gest. Pelag. § 16. The widow was Juliana, mother to Demetrias
(to whom Jerome addressed his Letter CXXX. “On the keeping of
Virginity”). Pelagius’ letter to Demetrias is found in
Jerome’s works (Ed. Vall.), vol. xi. col. 15. | certain widow as to how the saints
ought to pray. “He,” you say,5340
| 5340 The whole
passage, as quoted by Augustin, runs as follows: “May piety find
with thee a place which it has never found elsewhere. May truth, which
no one now knows, be thy household friend; and the law of God, which is
despised by almost all men, be honoured by thee alone.”
“How happy, how blessed art thou, if that justice which we are to
believe exists only in heaven is found with thee alone upon
earth.” Then follow the words quoted above. | “rightly lifts up his hands to
God; he pours out supplications with a good conscience who can say,
‘Thou knowest, Lord, how holy, how innocent, how pure from all
deceit, wrong, and robbery are the hands which I spread out unto Thee;
how righteous, how spotless, and free from all falsehood are the lips
with which I pour forth my prayers unto Thee, that Thou mayest pity
me.’” Is this the prayer of a Christian, or of a proud
Pharisee like him who5341
says in the
Gospel, “God, I thank Thee that I am not as other men are,
robbers, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican: I fast twice in
the week, I give tithes of all that I possess.” Yet he merely
thanks God because, by His mercy, he is not as other men: he execrates
sin, and does not claim his righteousness as his own. But you say,
“Now Thou knowest how holy, how innocent, how pure from all
deceit, wrong, and robbery are the hands which I spread out before
Thee.” He says that he fasts twice in the week, that he may
afflict his vicious and wanton flesh, and he gives tithes of all his substance. For5342
“the ransom of a man’s
life is his riches.” You join the devil in boasting,5343
“I will ascend above the
stars, I will place my throne in heaven, and I will be like the Most
High.” David says,5344
“My
loins are filled with illusions”; and5345
“My wounds stink and are corrupt
because of my foolishness”; and5346
“Enter not into judgment with
Thy servant”; and5347
“In
Thy sight no man living shall be justified.” You boast that you
are holy, innocent, and pure, and spread out clean hands unto God. And
you are not satisfied with glorying in all your works, unless you say
that you are pure from all sins of speech; and you tell us how
righteous, how spotless, how free from all falsehood your lips are. The
Psalmist sings,5348
“Every man is a liar”;
and this is supported by apostolical authority: “That God may be
true,” says St. Paul,5349
“and
every man a liar”; and yet you have lips righteous, spotless, and
free from all falsehood. Isaiah laments, saying,5350
“Woe is me! for I am undone,
because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a
people of unclean lips”; and afterwards one of the seraphim
brings a hot coal, taken with the tongs, to purify the prophet’s
lips, for he was not, according to the tenor of your words, arrogant,
but he confessed his own faults. Just as we read in the Psalms,5351
“What shall be due unto thee, and
what shall be done more unto thee in respect of a deceitful tongue?
Sharp arrows of the mighty, with coals that make desolate.” And
after all this swelling with pride, and boastfulness in prayer, and
confidence in your holiness, like one fool trying to persuade another,
you finish with the words “These lips with which I pour out my
supplication that Thou mayest have pity on me.” If you are holy,
if you are innocent, if you are cleansed from all defilement, if you
have sinned neither in word nor deed—although James says,5352
“He who offends not in word is
a perfect man,” and “No one can curb his
tongue”—how is it that you sue for mercy? so that,
forsooth, you bewail yourself, and pour out prayers because you are
holy, pure, and innocent, a man of stainless lips, free from all
falsehood, and endowed with a power like that of God. Christ prayed
thus on the cross:5353
“My
God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? Why art Thou so far from
helping Me?” And, again,5354
“Father, into Thy hands I
commend My spirit,” and5355
“Father,
forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And this is He,
who, returning thanks for us, had said,5356
“I confess to Thee, O Father,
Lord of heaven and earth.”
15. Our Lord so instructed His Apostles that, daily at
the sacrifice of His body, believers make bold to say, “Our
Father, Which art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name”; they
earnestly desire the name of God, which in itself is holy, to be
hallowed in themselves; you say, “Thou knowest, Lord, how holy,
how innocent, and how pure are my hands.” Then they say:
“Thy Kingdom come,” anticipating the hope of the future
kingdom, so that, when Christ reigns, sin may by no means reign in
their mortal body, and to this they couple the words, “Thy will
be done in earth as it is in Heaven”; so that human weakness may
imitate the angels, and the will of our Lord may be fulfilled on earth;
you say, “A man can, if he chooses, be free from all sin.”
The Apostles prayed for the daily bread, or the bread better than all
food, which was to come, so that they might be worthy to receive the
body of Christ; and you are led by your excess of holiness and well
established righteousness to boldly claim the heavenly gifts. Next
comes, “Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our
debtors.” No sooner do they rise from the baptismal font, and by
being born again and incorporated into our Lord and Saviour thus fulfil
what is written of them,5357
“Blessed are they whose
iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered,” than at the
first communion of the body of Christ they say, “Forgive us our
debts,” though these debts had been forgiven them at their
confession of Christ; but you in your arrogant pride boast of the
cleanness of your holy hands and of the purity of your speech. However
thorough the conversion of a man may be, and however perfect his
possession of virtue after a time of sins and failings, can such
persons be as free from fault as they who are just leaving the font of
Christ? And yet these latter are commanded to say, “Forgive us
our debts, as we also forgive our debtors”; not in the spirit of
a false humility, but because they are afraid of human frailty and
dread their own conscience. They say, “Lead us not into
temptation”; you and Jovinian unite in saying that those who with
a full faith have been baptized cannot be further tempted or sin.
Lastly, they add, “But deliver us from the evil one.” Why
do they beg from the Lord what they have already by the power of free
will? Oh, man, now thou hast been made clean in the laver, and of thee
it is said, “Who is this that cometh up all white, leaning upon her beloved?” The
bride, therefore, is washed, yet she cannot keep her purity, unless she
be supported by the Lord. How is it that you long to be set free by the
mercy of God, you who but a little while ago were released from your
sins? The only explanation is the principle by which we maintain that,
when we have done all, we must confess we are unprofitable.
16. So then your prayer outdoes the pride of the
Pharisee, and you are condemned when compared with the Publican. He,
standing afar off, did not dare to lift up his eyes unto Heaven, but
smote upon his breast, saying,5358
“God be merciful unto me a
sinner.” And on this is based our Lord’s declaration,
“I say unto you this man went down to his house justified rather
than the other. For every one that exalteth himself shall be abased,
and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.” The Apostles are
humbled that they may be exalted. Your disciples are lifted up that
they may fall. In your flattery of the widow previously mentioned you
are not ashamed to say that piety such as is found on earth, and truth
which is everywhere a stranger, had made their home with her in
preference to all others. You do not recollect the familiar words,5359
“O my people, they which call
thee blessed cause thee to err, and destroy the paths of thy
feet”; and you expressly praise her and say, “Happy beyond
all thought are you! how blessed! if righteousness, which is believed
to be now nowhere but in Heaven, is found with you alone on
earth.” Is this teaching or slaying? Is it raising from earth, or
casting down from heaven, to attribute that to a poor creature of a
woman, which angels would not dare arrogate to themselves? If piety,
truth, and righteousness are found on earth nowhere but in one woman,
where shall we find your righteous followers, who, you boast, are
sinless on earth? These two chapters on prayer and praise you and your
disciples are wont to swear are none of yours, and yet your brilliant
style is so clearly seen in them, and the elegance of your Ciceronian
diction is so marked that, although you strut about with the slow pace
of a tortoise, you have not the courage to acknowledge what you teach
in private and expose for sale. Happy man! whose books no one writes
out but your own disciples, so that whatever appears to be
unacceptable, you may contend is not your own but some one else’s
work. And where is the man with ability enough to imitate the charm of
your language?
17. C. I can put it off no longer; my patience is
completely overcome by your iniquitous words. Tell me, pray, what sin
have little infants committed. Neither the consciousness of wrong nor
ignorance can be imputed to those who, according to the prophet Jonah,
know not their right hand from their left. They cannot sin, and they
can perish; their knees are too weak to walk, they utter inarticulate
cries; we laugh at their attempts to speak; and, all the while, poor
unfortunates! the torments of eternal misery are prepared for them.
A. Ah! now that your disciples have turned masters you
begin to be fluent, not to say eloquent. Antony,5360
| 5360 The grandfather
of the Triumvir, born b.c. 142, died in the
civil conflict excited by Marius, b.c. 87. | an excellent orator, whose praises
Tully loudly proclaims, says that he had seen many fluent men, but so
far never an eloquent speaker; so don’t amuse me with flowers of
oratory which have not grown in your own garden, and with which the
ears of inexperience and of boyhood are wont to be tickled, but plainly
tell me what you think.
C. What I say is this—you must at least allow that
they have no sin who cannot sin.
A. I will allow it, if they have been baptized into
Christ; and if you will not then immediately bind me to agree with your
opinion that a man can be without sin if he chooses; for they neither
have the power nor the will; but they are free from all sin through the
grace of God, which they received in their baptism.
C. You force me to make an invidious remark and ask,
Why, what sin have they committed? that you may immediately have me
stoned in some popular tumult. You have not the power to kill me, but
you certainly have the will.
A. He slays a heretic who allows him to be a heretic.
But when we rebuke him we give him life; you may die to your heresy,
and live to the Catholic faith.
C. If you know us to be heretics, why do you not accuse
us?
A. Because the5361
Apostle
teaches me to avoid a heretic after the first and second admonition,
not to accuse him. The Apostle knew that such an one is perverse and
self-condemned. Besides, it would be the height of folly to make my
faith depend on another man’s judgment. For supposing some one
were to call you a Catholic, am I to immediately give assent? Whoever
defends you, and says that you rightly hold your perverse opinions,
does not succeed in rescuing you from infamy, but charges himself with
perfidy. Your numerous supporters will never prove you to be a
Catholic, but will show that you
are a heretic. But I would have such opinions as these suppressed by
ecclesiastical authority; otherwise we shall be in the case of those
who show some dreadful picture to a crying child. May the fear of God
grant us this—to despise all other fears. Therefore, either
defend your opinions, or abandon what you are unable to defend. Whoever
may be called in to defend you must be enrolled as a partisan, not as a
patron.
18. C. Tell me, pray, and rid me of all doubts, why
little children are baptized.
A. That their sins may be forgiven them in baptism.
C. What sin are they guilty of? How can any one be set
free who is not bound?
A. You ask me! The Gospel trumpet will reply, the
teacher of the Gentiles, the golden vessel shining throughout the
world:5362
“Death reigned from Adam
even unto Moses: even over those who did not sin after the likeness of
the transgression of Adam, who is a figure of Him that was to
come.” And if you object that some are spoken of who did not sin,
you must understand that they did not sin in the same way as Adam did
by transgressing God’s command in Paradise. But all men are held
liable either on account of their ancient forefather Adam, or on their
own account. He that is an infant is released in baptism from the chain
which bound his father. He who is old enough to have discernment is set
free from the chain of his own or another’s sin by the blood of
Christ. You must not think me a heretic because I take this view, for
the blessed martyr Cyprian, whose rival you boast of being in the
classification of Scripture proofs, in the5363
| 5363 Cyp. Ep. 64
(al. 59). S. Augustine preaching at Carthage on June 27, 413, quoted
the same letter, which was a Synodical letter of a.d. 253. See Bright’s Anti-Pelagian Treatises,
Introduction, p. xxi. | epistle addressed to Bishop Fidus on
the Baptism of Infants speaks thus: “Moreover, if even the worst
offenders, and those who previous to baptism sin much against God, once
they believe have the gift of remission of sins, and no one is kept
from baptism and from grace, how much more ought not an infant to be
kept from baptism seeing that, being only just born, he has committed
no sin? He has only, being born according to the flesh among
Adam’s sons, incurred the taint of ancient death by his first
birth. And he is the more easily admitted to remission of sins because
of the very fact that not his own sins but those of another are
remitted to him. And so, dearest brother, it was our decision in
council that no one ought to be kept by us from baptism and from the
grace of God, Who is merciful to all, and kind, and good. And whereas
this rule ought to be observed and kept with reference to all, bear in
mind that it ought so much the more to be observed with regard to
infants themselves and those just born, for they have the greater
claims on our assistance in order to obtain Divine mercy, because their
cries and tears from the very birth are one perpetual
prayer.”
19. That holy man and eloquent bishop Augustin not long
ago wrote to5364
| 5364 Marcellinus
was the lay imperial commissioner appointed to superintend the
discussion between the Catholics and Donatists at the Council of
Carthage, a.d. 411. In 413 Heraclian, governor
of Africa, revolted against Honorius, the Emperor, and invaded Italy.
The enterprise failed, and on his return to Africa the promoter of it
was put to death. The Donatists, called by Jerome
“heretics,” are supposed to have accused Marcellinus of
taking part in the rebellion. He was executed in 414. | Marcellinus
(the same that was afterwards, though innocent, put to death by
heretics on the pretext of his taking part in the tyranny of
Heraclian5365
| 5365 “On the
Deserts and Remission of Sins, and the Baptism of Infants,” in
three books, the earliest of S. Augustin’s Anti-Pelagian
treatises. It was composed in reply to a letter from his friend
Marcellinus, who was harassed by Pelagianising disputants. See S. Aug.
“De Gest. Pel.” § 25. | ) two treatises on infant
baptism, in opposition to your heresy which maintains that infants are
baptized not for remission of sins, but for admission to the kingdom of
heaven, according as it is written in the Gospel,5366
“Except a man be born again of
water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of
heaven.” He addressed a5367
| 5367 The “De
Spiritu et Littera.” Marcellinus found a difficulty in
Augustin’s view of the question of sinlessness. See
Bright’s Anti-Pelagian Treatises, Introduction, p. xix. | third,
moreover, to the same Marcellinus, against those who say as do you,
that a man can be free from sin, if he chooses, without the help of
God. And, recently, a5368
| 5368 Whether he
who was made Bishop of Arles, in 429, is disputed. The treatise was the
“De Natura et Gratia,” written early in 415. | fourth to
Hilary against this doctrine of yours, which is full of perversity. And
he is said to have others on the anvil with special regard to you,
which have not yet come to hand. Wherefore, I think I must abandon my
task, for fear Horace’s words may be thrown at me,5369
“Don’t carry firewood
into a forest.” For we must either say the same as he does, and
that would be superfluous; or, if we wished to say something fresh, we
should5370
| 5370 Or,
better positions have been occupied. | find our best points anticipated
by that splendid genius. One thing I will say and so end my discourse,
that you ought either to give us a new creed, so that, after baptizing
children into the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, you may
baptize them into the kingdom of heaven; or, if you have one baptism
both for infants and for persons of mature age, it follows that infants
also should be baptized for the remission of sins after the likeness of
the transgression of Adam. But if you think the remission of another’s sins implies injustice,
and that he has no need of it who could not sin, cross over to Origen,
your special favourite, who says that ancient offences5371
| 5371 Origen held
the pre-existence of souls, endowed with free will, and supposed their
condition in this world to be the result of their conduct in their
previous state of probation. | committed long before in the heavens
are loosed in baptism. You will then be not only led by his authority
in other matters, but will be following his error in this also.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
