Writings of Augustine. On the Trinity, De Trinitate
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The Enchiridion,
Addressed to Laurentius;
Being a Treatise on Faith, Hope and Love.
Translated by Professor J. F. Shaw, Londonderry.
Published in 1886 by Philip Schaff,
New York: Christian Literature Publishing Co.
Introductory Notice
By the Editor.
St. Augustin speaks of this book in his Retractations, l. ii. c. 63,
as follows:
"I also wrote a book on Faith, Hope, and Charity, at the request of
the person to whom I addressed it, that he might have a work of mine
which should never be out of his hands, such as the Greeks call an
Enchiridion (Hand-Book). There I think I have pretty carefully treated
of the manner in which God is to be worshipped, which knowledge divine
Scripture defines to be the true wisdom of man. The book begins: `I
cannot express,'" etc. [1088]
The Enchiridion is among the latest books of Augustin. It was written
after the death of Jerome, which occurred Sept. 30, 420; for he
alludes in ch. 87 to Jerome "of blessed memory" (sanctæ memoriæ
Hieronymus presbyter).
It is addressed to Laurentius, in answer to his questions. This person
is otherwise unknown. One ms. calls him a deacon, another a notary of
the city of Rome. He was probably a layman.
The author usually calls the book "On Faith, Hope and Love," because
he treats the subject under these three heads (comp. (I Cor. xiii.
13). He follows under the first head the order of the Apostles' Creed,
and refutes, without naming them, the Manichæan, Apollinarian, Arian,
and Pelagian heresies. Under the second head he gives a brief
exposition of the Lord's Prayer. The third part is a discourse on
Christian love.
The original is in the sixth volume of the Benedictine edition. A neat
edition of the Latin text, with three other small tracts of Augustin,
(De Catechizandis Rudibus; De Fide Rerum quæ non creduntur; De
Utilitate Credendi), is also published in C. Marriott's S. Aurelius
Augustinus, 4th ed. by H. de Romestin, Oxford and London (Parker and
Comp.), 1885 (pp. 150-251.) An English edition of the same tracts by
H. de Romestin, Oxford and London, 1885 (pp. 151-251). His English
translation is based on that of C. L. Cornish, M.A., which appeared in
the Oxford "Library of the Fathers," Oxford 1847 ("Seventeen Short
Treatises of St. Aug." pp. 85-158).
The present translation by Professor Shaw was first published in Dr.
Dods's series of Augustin's works, Edinburgh, (T. and T. Clark,) 3d
ed. 1883. It is more free and idiomatic than that of Cornish. I have
in a few cases conformed it more closely to the original.
P.S.
Footnotes
[1088] "Scripsi etiam librum `de Fide, Spe et Charitate' cum a me ad
quem scriptus est postulasset ut aliquod opusculum haberet meum de
suis manibus nunquam recessurum, quod genus Græci Enchiridion vocant.
Ubi satis diligenter mihi videor esse complexus quomodo sit colendus
Deus quam sapientiam esse hominis utique veram Divina Scriptura
definit. Hic liber sic incipit, `Dici non potest, dilectissime fili
Laurenti, quantum tuâ eruditione delecter.'"
The Enchiridion.
Argument.
Laurentius having asked Augustin to furnish him with a handbook of
Christian doctrine, containing in brief compass answers to several
questions which he had proposed, Augustin shows him that these
questions can be fully answered by any one who knows the proper
objects of faith, hope, and love. He then proceeds, in the first part
of the work (Chap. ix.--cxiii.), to expound the objects of faith,
taking as his text the Apostles' Creed; and in the course of this
exposition, besides refuting divers heresies, he throws out many
observations on the conduct of life. The second part of the work
(Chap. cxiv.--cxvi.) treats of the objects of hope, and consists of a
very brief exposition of the several petitions in the Lord's Prayer.
The third and concluding part (Chap. cxvii.-cxxii.) treats of the
objects of love, showing the pre-eminence of this grace in the gospel
system, that it is the end of the commandment and the fulfilling of
the law, and that God himself is love.
Chapter 1.--The Author Desires the Gift of True Wisdom for Laurentius.
I Cannot express, my beloved son Laurentius, the delight with which I
witness your progress in knowledge, and the earnest desire I have that
you should be a wise man: not one of those of whom it is said, "Where
is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world?
hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?" [1089] but one of
those of whom it is said, "The multitude of the wise is the welfare of
the world," [1090] and such as the apostles wishes those to become,
whom he tells," I would have you wise unto that which is good, and
simple concerning evil." [1091] Now, just as no one can exist of
himself, so no one can be wise of himself, but only by the
enlightening influence of Him of whom it is written," All wisdom
cometh from the Lord." [1092]
Footnotes
[1089] 1 Cor. i. 20
[1090] Wisd. vi. 24. [Greek text, ver. 25: plethos sophon soteria
kosmou.--P.S.]
[1091] Rom. xvi. 19
[1092] Ecclus. i. 1
Chapter 2.--The Fear of God is Man's True Wisdom.
The true wisdom of man is piety. You find this in the book of holy
Job. For we read there what wisdom itself has said to man: "Behold,
the fear of the Lord [pietas], that is wisdom." [1093] If you ask
further what is meant in that place by pietas, the Greek calls it more
definitely theosebeia, that is, the worship of God. The Greeks
sometimes call piety eusebeia, which signifies right worship, though
this, of course, refers specially to the worship of God. But when we
are defining in what man's true wisdom consists, the most convenient
word to use is that which distinctly expresses the fear of God. And
can you, who are anxious that I should treat of great matters in few
words, wish for a briefer form of expression? Or perhaps you are
anxious that this expression should itself be briefly explained, and
that I should unfold in a short discourse the proper mode of
worshipping God?
Footnotes
[1093] Job xxviii. 28
Chapter 3.--God is to Be Worshipped Through Faith, Hope, and Love.
Now if I should answer, that God is to be worshipped with faith, hope,
and love, you will at once say that this answer is too brief, and will
ask me briefly to unfold the objects of each of these three graces,
viz., what we are to believe, what we are to hope for, and what we are
to love. And when I have done this, you will have an answer to all the
questions you asked in your letter. If you have kept a copy of your
letter, you can easily turn it up and read it over again: if you have
not, you will have no difficulty in recalling it when I refresh your
memory.
Chapter 4.--The Questions Propounded by Laurentius.
You are anxious, you say, that I should write a sort of handbook for
you, which you might always keep beside you, containing answers to the
questions you put, viz.: what ought to be man's chief end in life;
what he ought, in view of the various heresies, chiefly to avoid; to
what extent religion is supported by reason; what there is in reason
that lends no support to faith, when faith stands alone; what is the
starting-point, what the goal, of religion; what is the sum of the
whole body of doctrine; what is the sure and proper foundation of the
catholic faith. Now, undoubtedly, you will know the answers to all
these questions, if you know thoroughly the proper objects of faith,
hope, and love. For these must be the chief, nay, the exclusive
objects of pursuit in religion. He who speaks against these is either
a total stranger to the name of Christ, or is a heretic. These are to
be defended by reason, which must have its starting-point either in
the bodily senses or in the intuitions of the mind. And what we have
neither had experience of through our bodily senses, nor have been
able to reach through the intellect, must undoubtedly be believed on
the testimony of those witnesses by whom the Scriptures, justly called
divine, were written; and who by divine assistance were enabled,
either through bodily sense or intellectual perception, to see or to
foresee the things in question.
Chapter 5.--Brief Answers to These Questions.
Moreover, when the mind has been imbued with the first elements of
that faith which worketh by love, [1094] it endeavors by purity of
life to attain unto sight, where the pure and perfect in heart know
that unspeakable beauty, the full vision of which is supreme
happiness. Here surely is an answer to your question as to what is the
starting-point, and what the goal: we begin in faith, and are made
perfect by sight. This also is the sum of the whole body of doctrine.
But the sure and proper foundation of the catholic faith is Christ.
"For other foundation," says the apostle, "can no man lay than that is
laid, which is Jesus Christ." [1095] Nor are we to deny that this is
the proper foundation of the catholic faith, because it may be
supposed that some heretics hold this in common with us. For if we
carefully consider the things that pertain to Christ, we shall find
that, among those heretics who call themselves Christians, Christ is
present in name only: in deed and in truth He is not among them. But
to show this would occupy us too long, for we should require to go
over all the heresies which have existed, which do exist, or which
could exist, under the Christian name, and to show that this is true
in the case of each,--a discussion which would occupy so many volumes
as to be all but interminable.
Footnotes
[1094] Gal. v. 6
[1095] 1 Cor. iii. 11
Chapter 6.--Controversy Out of Place in a Handbook Like the Present.
Now you ask of me a handbook, that is, one that can be carried in the
hand, not one to load your shelves. To return, then, to the three
graces through which, as I have said, God should be worshipped--faith,
hope, and love: to state what are the true and proper objects of each
of these is easy. But to defend this true doctrine against the
assaults of those who hold an opposite opinion, requires much fuller
and more elaborate instruction. And the true way to obtain this
instruction is not to have a short treatise put into one's hands, but
to have a great zeal kindled in one's heart.
Chapter 7.--The Creed and the Lord's Prayer Demand the Exercise of
Faith, Hope, and Love.
For you have the Creed and the Lord's Prayer. What can be briefer to
hear or to read? What easier to commit to memory? When, as the result
of sin, the human race was groaning under a heavy load of misery, and
was in urgent need of the divine compassion, one of the prophets,
anticipating the time of God's grace, declared: "And it shall come to
pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be
delivered." [1096] Hence the Lord's Prayer. But the apostle, when, for
the purpose of commending this very grace, he had quoted this
prophetic testimony, immediately added: "How then shall they call on
Him in whom they have not believed?" [1097] Hence the Creed. In these
two you have those three graces exemplified: faith believes, hope and
love pray. But without faith the two last cannot exist, and therefore
we may say that faith also prays. Whence it is written: "How shall
they call on Him in whom they have not believed?"
Footnotes
[1096] Joel ii. 32
[1097] Rom. x. 14
Chapter 8.--The Distinction Between Faith and Hope, and the Mutual
Dependence of Faith, Hope, and Love.
Again, can anything be hoped for which is not an object of faith? It
is true that a thing which is not an object of hope may be believed.
What true Christian, for example, does not believe in the punishment
of the wicked? And yet such an one does not hope for it. And the man
who believes that punishment to be hanging over himself, and who
shrinks in horror from the prospect, is more properly said to fear
than to hope. And these two states of mind the poet carefully
distinguishes, when he says: "Permit the fearful to have hope." [1098]
Another poet, who is usually much superior to this one, makes a wrong
use of the word, when he says: "If I have been able to hope for so
great a grief as this." [1099] And some grammarians take this case as
an example of impropriety of speech, saying, "He said sperare [to
hope] instead of timere [to fear]." Accordingly, faith may have for
its object evil as well as good; for both good and evil are believed,
and the faith that believes them is not evil, but good. Faith,
moreover, is concerned with the past, the present, and the future, all
three. We believe, for example, that Christ died,--an event in the
past; we believe that He is sitting at the right hand of God,--a state
of things which is present; we believe that He will come to judge the
quick and the dead,--an event of the future. Again, faith applies both
to one's own circumstances and those of others. Every one, for
example, believes that his own existence had a beginning, and was not
eternal, and he believes the same both of other men and other things.
Many of our beliefs in regard to religious matters, again, have
reference not merely to other men, but to angels also. But hope has
for its object only what is good, only what is future, and only what
affects the man who entertains the hope. For these reasons, then,
faith must be distinguished from hope, not merely as a matter of
verbal propriety, but because they are essentially different. The fact
that we do not see either what we believe or what we hope for, is all
that is common to faith and hope. In the Epistle to the Hebrews, for
example, faith is defined (and eminent defenders of the catholic faith
have used the definition as a standard) "the evidence of things not
seen." [1100] Although, should any one say that he believes, that is,
has grounded his faith, not on words, nor on witnesses, nor on any
reasoning whatever, but on the direct evidence of his own senses, he
would not be guilty of such an impropriety of speech as to be justly
liable to the criticism, "You saw, therefore you did not believe." And
hence it does not follow that an object of faith is not an object of
sight. But it is better that we should use the word "faith" as the
Scriptures have taught us, applying it to those things which are not
seen. Concerning hope, again, the apostle says: "Hope that is seen is
not hope; for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we
hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it."
[1101] When, then, we believe that good is about to come, this is
nothing else but to hope for it. Now what shall I say of love? Without
it, faith profits nothing; and in its absence, hope cannot exist. The
Apostle James says: "The devils also believe, and tremble." [1102]
--that is, they, having neither hope nor love, but believing that what
we love and hope for is about to come, are in terror. And so the
Apostle Paul approves and commends the "faith that worketh by love;"
[1103] and this certainly cannot exist without hope. Wherefore there
is no love without hope, no hope without love, and neither love nor
hope without faith.
Footnotes
[1098] Lucan, Phars. ii. 15.
[1099] Virgil, Æneid, iv. 419.
[1100] Heb. xi. 1
[1101] Rom. viii. 24, 25
[1102] Jas. ii. 19
[1103] Gal. v. 6
Chapter 9.--What We are to Believe. In Regard to Nature It is Not
Necessary for the Christian to Know More Than that the Goodness of the
Creator is the Cause of All Things.
When, then, the question is asked what we are to believe in regard to
religion, it is not necessary to probe into the nature of things, as
was done by those whom the Greeks call physici; nor need we be in
alarm lest the Christian should be ignorant of the force and number of
the elements,--the motion, and order, and eclipses of the heavenly
bodies; the form of the heavens; the species and the natures of
animals, plants, stones, fountains, rivers, mountains; about
chronology and distances; the signs of coming storms; and a thousand
other things which those philosophers either have found out, or think
they have found out. For even these men themselves, endowed though
they are with so much genius, burning with zeal, abounding in leisure,
tracking some things by the aid of human conjecture, searching into
others with the aids of history and experience, have not found out all
things; and even their boasted discoveries are oftener mere guesses
than certain knowledge. It is enough for the Christian to believe that
the only cause of all created things, whether heavenly or earthly,
whether visible or invisible, is the goodness of the Creator the one
true God; and that nothing exists but Himself that does not derive its
existence from Him; and that He is the Trinity--to wit, the Father,
and the Son begotten of the Father, and the Holy Spirit proceeding
from the same Father, but one and the same Spirit of Father and Son.
Chapter 10.--The Supremely Good Creator Made All Things Good.
By the Trinity, thus supremely and equally and unchangeably good, all
things were created; and these are not supremely and equally and
unchangeably good, but yet they are good, even taken separately. Taken
as a whole, however, they are very good, because their ensemble
constitutes the universe in all its wonderful order and beauty.
Chapter 11.--What is Called Evil in the Universe is But the Absence of
Good.
And in the universe, even that which is called evil, when it is
regulated and put in its own place, only enhances our admiration of
the good; for we enjoy and value the good more when we compare it with
the evil. For the Almighty God, who, as even the heathen acknowledge,
has supreme power over all things, being Himself supremely good, would
never permit the existence of anything evil among His works, if He
were not so omnipotent and good that He can bring good even out of
evil. For what is that which we call evil but the absence of good? In
the bodies of animals, disease and wounds mean nothing but the absence
of health; for when a cure is effected, that does not mean that the
evils which were present--namely, the diseases and wounds--go away
from the body and dwell elsewhere: they altogether cease to exist; for
the wound or disease is not a substance, but a defect in the fleshly
substance,--the flesh itself being a substance, and therefore
something good, of which those evils--that is, privations of the good
which we call health--are accidents. Just in the same way, what are
called vices in the soul are nothing but privations of natural good.
And when they are cured, they are not transferred elsewhere: when they
cease to exist in the healthy soul, they cannot exist anywhere else.
Chapter 12.--All Beings Were Made Good, But Not Being Made Perfectly
Good, are Liable to Corruption.
All things that exist, therefore, seeing that the Creator of them all
is supremely good, are themselves good. But because they are not, like
their Creator, supremely and unchangeably good, their good may be
diminished and increased. But for good to be diminished is an evil,
although, however much it may be diminished, it is necessary, if the
being is to continue, that some good should remain to constitute the
being. For however small or of whatever kind the being may be, the
good which makes it a being cannot be destroyed without destroying the
being itself. An uncorrupted nature is justly held in esteem. But if,
still further, it be incorruptible, it is undoubtedly considered of
still higher value. When it is corrupted, however, its corruption is
an evil, because it is deprived of some sort of good. For if it be
deprived of no good, it receives no injury; but it does receive
injury, therefore it is deprived of good. Therefore, so long as a
being is in process of corruption, there is in it some good of which
it is being deprived; and if a part of the being should remain which
cannot be corrupted, this will certainly be an incorruptible being,
and accordingly the process of corruption will result in the
manifestation of this great good. But if it do not cease to be
corrupted, neither can it cease to possess good of which corruption
may deprive it. But if it should be thoroughly and completely consumed
by corruption, there will then be no good left, because there will be
no being. Wherefore corruption can consume the good only by consuming
the being. Every being, therefore, is a good; a great good, if it can
not be corrupted; a little good, if it can: but in any case, only the
foolish or ignorant will deny that it is a good. And if it be wholly
consumed by corruption, then the corruption itself must cease to
exist, as there is no being left in which it can dwell.
Chapter 13.--There Can Be No Evil Where There is No Good; And an Evil
Man is an Evil Good.
Accordingly, there is nothing of what we call evil, if there be
nothing good. But a good which is wholly without evil is a perfect
good. A good, on the other hand, which contains evil is a faulty or
imperfect good; and there can be no evil where there is no good. From
all this we arrive at the curious result: that since every being, so
far as it is a being, is good, when we say that a faulty being is an
evil being, we just seem to say that what is good is evil, and that
nothing but what is good can be evil, seeing that every being is good,
and that no evil can exist except in a being. Nothing, then, can be
evil except something which is good. And although this, when stated,
seems to be a contradiction, yet the strictness of reasoning leaves us
no escape from the conclusion. We must, however, beware of incurring
the prophetic condemnation: "Woe unto them that call evil good, and
good evil: that put darkness for light, and light for darkness: that
put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter." [1104] And yet our Lord
says: "An evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart bringeth
forth that which is evil." [1105] Now, what is evil man but an evil
being? for a man is a being. Now, if a man is a good thing because he
is a being, what is an evil man but an evil good? Yet, when we
accurately distinguish these two things, we find that it is not
because he is a man that he is an evil, or because he is wicked that
he is a good; but that he is a good because he is a man, and an evil
because he is wicked. Whoever, then, says, "To be a man is an evil,"
or, "To be wicked is a good," falls under the prophetic denunciation:
"Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil!" For he condemns
the work of God, which is the man, and praises the defect of man,
which is the wickedness. Therefore every being, even if it be a
defective one, in so far as it is a being is good, and in so far as it
is defective is evil.
Footnotes
[1104] Isa. v. 20
[1105] Luke vi. 45
Chapter 14.--Good and Evil are an Exception to the Rule that Contrary
Attributes Cannot Be Predicated of the Same Subject. Evil Springs Up
in What is Good, and Cannot Exist Except in What is Good.
Accordingly, in the case of these contraries which we call good and
evil, the rule of thelogicians, that two contraries cannot be
predicated at the same time of the same thing, does not hold. No
weather is at the same time dark and bright: no food or drink is at
the same time sweet and bitter: no body is at the same time and in the
same place black and white: none is at the same time and in the same
place deformed and beautiful. And this rule is found to hold in regard
to many, indeed nearly all, contraries, that they cannot exist at the
same time in any one thing. But although no one can doubt that good
and evil are contraries, not only can they exist at the same time, but
evil cannot exist without good, or in anything that is not good. Good,
however, can exist without evil. For a man or an angel can exist
without being wicked; but nothing can be wicked except a man or an
angel: and so far as he is a man or an angel, he is good; so far as he
is wicked, he is an evil. And these two contraries are so far
co-existent, that if good did not exist in what is evil, neither could
evil exist; because corruption could not have either a place to dwell
in, or a source to spring from, if there were nothing that could be
corrupted; and nothing can be corrupted except what is good, for
corruption is nothing else but the destruction of good. From what is
good, then, evils arose, and except in what is good they do not exist;
nor was there any other source from which any evil nature could arise.
For if there were, then, in so far as this was a being, it was
certainly a good: and a being which was incorruptible would be a great
good; and even one which was corruptible must be to some extent a
good, for only by corrupting what was good in it could corruption do
it harm.
Chapter 15.--The Preceding Argument is in No Wise Inconsistent with
the Saying of Our Lord: "A Good Tree Cannot Bring Forth Evil Fruit."
But when we say that evil springs out of good, let it not be thought
that this contradicts our Lord's saying: "A good tree cannot bring
forth evil fruit." [1106] For, as He who is the Truth says, you cannot
gather grapes of thorns, [1107] because grapes do not grow on thorns.
But we see that on good soil both vines and thorns may be grown. And
in the same way, just as an evil tree cannot bring forth good fruit,
so an evil will cannot produce good works. But from the nature of man,
which is good, may spring either a good or an evil will. And certainly
there was at first no source from which an evil will could spring,
except the nature of angel or of man, which was good. And our Lord
Himself clearly shows this in the very same place where He speaks
about the tree and its fruit. For He says: "Either make the tree good,
and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit
corrupt," [1108] --clearly enough warning us that evil fruits do not
grow on a good tree, nor good fruits on an evil tree; but that
nevertheless the ground itself, by which He meant those whom He was
then addressing, might grow either kind of trees.
Footnotes
[1106] Matt. vii. 18
[1107] Matt. vii. 16
[1108] Matt. xii. 33
Chapter 16.--It is Not Essential to Man's Happiness that He Should
Know the Causes of Physical Convulsions; But It Is, that He Should
Know the Causes of Good and Evil.
Now, in view of these considerations, when we are pleased with that
line of Maro, "Happy the man who has attained to the knowledge of the
causes of things," [1109] we should not suppose that it is necessary
to happiness to know the causes of the great physical convulsions,
causes which lie hid in the most secret recesses of nature's kingdom,
"whence comes the earthquake whose force makes the deep seas to swell
and burst their barriers, and again to return upon themselves and
settle down." [1110] But we ought to know the causes of good and evil
as far as man may in this life know them, in order to avoid the
mistakes and troubles of which this life is so full. For our aim must
always be to reach that state of happiness in which no trouble shall
distress us, and no error mislead us. If we must know the causes of
physical convulsions, there are none which it concerns us more to know
than those which affect our own health. But seeing that, in our
ignorance of these, we are fain to resort to physicians, it would seem
that we might bear with considerable patience our ignorance of the
secrets that lie hid in the earth and heavens.
Footnotes
[1109] Virgil, Georgics, ii. 490.
[1110] Ibid
Chapter 17.--The Nature of Error. All Error is Not Hurtful, Though It
is Man's Duty as Far as Possible to Avoid It.
For although we ought with the greatest possible care to avoid error,
not only in great but even in little things, and although we cannot
err except through ignorance, it does not follow that, if a man is
ignorant of a thing, he must forthwith fall into error. That is rather
the fate of the man who thinks he knows what he does not know. For he
accepts what is false as if it were true, and that is the essence of
error. But it is a point of very great importance what the subject is
in regard to which a man makes a mistake. For on one and the same
subject we rightly prefer an instructed man to an ignorant one, and a
man who is not in error to one who is. In the case of different
subjects, however,--that is, when one man knows one thing, and another
a different thing, and when what the former knows is useful, and what
the latter knows is not so useful, or is actually hurtful,--who would
not, in regard to the things the latter knows, prefer the ignorance of
the former to the knowledge of the latter? For there are points on
which ignorance is better than knowledge. And in the same way, it has
sometimes been an advantage to depart from the right way,--in
travelling, however, not in morals. It has happened to myself to take
the wrong road where two ways met, so that I did not pass by the place
where an armed band of Donatists lay in wait for me. Yet I arrived at
the place whither I was bent, though by a roundabout route; and when I
heard of the ambush, I congratulated myself on my mistake, and gave
thanks to God for it. Now, who would not rather be the traveller who
made a mistake like this, than the highwayman who made no mistake? And
hence, perhaps, it is that the prince of poets puts these words into
the mouth of a lover in misery: [1111] "How I am undone, how I have
been carried away by an evil error!" for there is an error which is
good, as it not merely does no harm, but produces some actual
advantage. But when we look more closely into the nature of truth, and
consider that to err is just to take the false for the true, and the
true for the false, or to hold what is certain as uncertain, and what
is uncertain as certain, and that error in the soul is hideous and
repulsive just in proportion as it appears fair and plausible when we
utter it, or assent to it, saying, "Yea, yea; Nay, nay,"--surely this
life that we live is wretched indeed, if only on this account, that
sometimes, in order to preserve it, it is necessary to fall into
error. God forbid that such should be that other life, where truth
itself is the life of the soul, where no one deceives, and no one is
deceived. But here men deceive and are deceived, and they are more to
be pitied when they lead others astray than when they are themselves
led astray by putting trust in liars. Yet so much does a rational soul
shrink from what is false, and so earnestly does it struggle against
error, that even those who love to deceive are most unwilling to be
deceived. For the liar does not think that he errs, but that he leads
another who trusts him into error. And certainly he does not err in
regard to the matter about which he lies, if he himself knows the
truth; but he is deceived in this, that he thinks his lie does him no
harm, whereas every sin is more hurtful to the sinner than to the
sinned against.
Footnotes
[1111] Virgil, Eclog. viii. 41.
Chapter 18.--It is Never Allowable to Tell a Lie; But Lies Differ Very
Much in Guilt, According to the Intention and the Subject.
But here arises a very difficult and very intricate question, about
which I once wrote a large book, finding it necessary to give it an
answer. The question is this: whether at any time it can become the
duty of a good man to tell a lie? For some go so far as to contend
that there are occasions on which it is a good and pious work to
commit perjury even, and to say what is false about matters that
relate to the worship of God, and about the very nature of God
Himself. To me, however, it seems certain that every lie is a sin,
though it makes a great difference with what intention and on what
subject one lies. For the sin of the man who tells a lie to help
another is not so heinous as that of the man who tells a lie to injure
another; and the man who by his lying puts a traveller on the wrong
road, does not do so much harm as the man who by false or misleading
representations distorts the whole course of a life. No one, of
course, is to be condemned as a liar who says what is false, believing
it to be true, because such an one does not consciously deceive, but
rather is himself deceived. And, on the same principle, a man is not
to be accused of lying, though he may sometimes be open to the charge
of rashness, if through carelessness he takes up what is false and
holds it as true; but, on the other hand, the man who says what is
true, believing it to be false, is, so far as his own consciousness is
concerned, a liar. For in saying what he does not believe, he says
what to his own conscience is false, even though it should in fact be
true; nor is the man in any sense free from lying who with his mouth
speaks the truth without knowing it, but in his heart wills to tell a
lie. And, therefore, not looking at the matter spoken of, but solely
at the intention of the speaker, the man who unwittingly says what is
false, thinking all the time that it is true, is a better man than the
one who unwittingly says what is true, but in his conscience intends
to deceive. For the former does not think one thing and say another;
but the latter, though his statements may be true in fact, has one
thought in his heart and another on his lips: and that is the very
essence of lying. But when we come to consider truth and falsehood in
respect to the subjects spoken of, the point on which one deceives or
is deceived becomes a matter of the utmost importance. For although,
as far as a man's own conscience is concerned, it is a greater evil to
deceive than to be deceived, nevertheless it is a far less evil to
tell a lie in regard to matters that do not relate to religion, than
to be led into error in regard to matters the knowledge and belief of
which are essential to the right worship of God. To illustrate this by
example: suppose that one man should say of some one who is dead that
he is still alive, knowing this to be untrue; and that another man
should, being deceived, believe that Christ shall at the end of some
time (make the time as long as you please) die; would it not be
incomparably better to lie like the former, than to be deceived like
the latter? and would it not be a much less evil to lead some man into
the former error, than to be led by any man into the latter?
Chapter 19.--Men's Errors Vary Very Much in the Magnitude of the Evils
They Produce; But Yet Every Error is in Itself an Evil.
In some things, then, it is a great evil to be deceived; in some it is
a small evil; in some no evil at all; and in some it is an actual
advantage. It is to his grievous injury that a man is deceived when he
does not believe what leads to eternal life, or believes what leads to
eternal death. It is a small evil for a man to be deceived, when, by
taking falsehood for truth, he brings upon himself temporal
annoyances; for the patience of the believer will turn even these to a
good use, as when, for example, taking a bad man for a good, he
receives injury from him. But one who believes a bad man to be good,
and yet suffers no injury, is nothing the worse for being deceived,
nor does he fall under the prophetic denunciation: "Woe to those who
call evil good!" [1112] For we are to understand that this is spoken
not about evil men, but about the things that make men evil. Hence the
man who calls adultery good, falls justly under that prophetic
denunciation. But the man who calls the adulterer good, thinking him
to be chaste, and not knowing him to be an adulterer, falls into no
error in regard to the nature of good and evil, but only makes a
mistake as to the secrets of human conduct. He calls the man good on
the ground of believing him to be what is undoubtedly good; he calls
the adulterer evil, and the pure man good; and he calls this man good,
not knowing him to be an adulterer, but believing him to be pure.
Further, if by making a mistake one escape death, as I have said above
once happened to me, one even derives some advantage from one's
mistake. But when I assert that in certain cases a man may be deceived
without any injury to himself, or even with some advantage to himself,
I do not mean that the mistake in itself is no evil, or is in any
sense a good; I refer only to the evil that is avoided, or the
advantage that is gained, through making the mistake. For the mistake,
considered in itself, is an evil: a great evil if it concern a great
matter, a small evil if it concern a small matter, but yet always an
evil. For who that is of sound mind can deny that it is an evil to
receive what is false as if it were true, and to reject what is true
as if it were false, or to hold what is uncertain as certain, and what
is certain as uncertain? But it is one thing to think a man good when
he is really bad, which is a mistake; it is another thing to suffer no
ulterior injury in consequence of the mistake, supposing that the bad
man whom we think good inflicts no damage upon us. In the same way, it
is one thing to think that we are on the right road when we are not;
it is another thing when this mistake of ours, which is an evil, leads
to some good, such as saving us from an ambush of wicked men.
Footnotes
[1112] Isa. v. 20
Chapter 20.--Every Error is Not a Sin. An Examination of the Opinion
of the Academic Philosophers, that to Avoid Error We Should in All
Cases Suspend Belief.
I am not sure whether mistakes such as the following,--when one forms
a good opinion of a bad man, not knowing what sort of man he is; or
when, instead of the ordinary perceptions through the bodily senses,
other appearances of a similar kind present themselves, which we
perceive in the spirit, but think we perceive in the body, or perceive
in the body, but think we perceive in the spirit (such a mistake as
the Apostle Peter made when the angel suddenly freed him from his
chains and imprisonment, and he thought he saw a vision [1113] ); or
when, in the case of sensible objects themselves, we mistake rough for
smooth, or bitter for sweet, or think that putrid matter has a good
smell; or when we mistake the passing of a carriage for thunder; or
mistake one man for another, the two being very much alike, as often
happens in the case of twins (hence our great poet calls it "a mistake
pleasing to parents" [1114] ),--whether these, and other mistakes of
this kind, ought to be called sins. Nor do I now undertake to solve a
very knotty question, which perplexed those very acute thinkers, the
Academic philosophers: whether a wise man ought to give his assent to
anything, seeing that he may fall into error by assenting to
falsehood: for all things, as they assert, are either unknown or
uncertain. Now I wrote three volumes shortly after my conversion, to
remove out of my way the objections which lie, as it were, on the very
threshold of faith. And assuredly it was necessary at the very outset
to remove this utter despair of reaching truth, which seems to be
strengthened by the arguments of these philosophers. Now in their eyes
every error is regarded as a sin, and they think that error can only
be avoided by entirely suspending belief. For they say that the man
who assents to what is uncertain falls into error; and they strive by
the most acute, but most audacious arguments, to show that, even
though a man's opinion should by chance be true, yet that there is no
certainty of its truth, owing to the impossibility of distinguishing
truth from falsehood. But with us, "the just shall live by faith."
[1115] Now, if assent be taken away, faith goes too; for without
assent there can be no belief. And there are truths, whether we know
them or not, which must be believed if we would attain to a happy
life, that is, to eternal life. But I am not sure whether one ought to
argue with men who not only do not know that there is an eternal life
before them, but do not know whether they are living at the present
moment; nay, say that they do not know what it is impossible they can
be ignorant of. For it is impossible that any one should be ignorant
that he is alive, seeing that if he be not alive it is impossible for
him to be ignorant; for not knowledge merely, but ignorance too, can
be an attribute only of the living. But, forsooth, they think that by
not acknowledging that they are alive they avoid error, when even
their very error proves that they are alive, since one who is not
alive cannot err. As, then, it is not only true, but certain, that we
are alive, so there are many other things both true and certain; and
God forbid that it should ever be called wisdom, and not the height of
folly, to refuse assent to these.
Footnotes
[1113] Acts xii. 9
[1114] Virgil, Æn. x. 392.
[1115] Rom. i. 17
Chapter 21.--Error, Though Not Always a Sin, is Always an Evil.
But as to those matters in regard to which our belief or disbelief,
and indeed their truth or supposed truth or falsity, are of no
importance whatever, so far as attaining the kingdom of God is
concerned: to make a mistake in such matters is not to be looked on as
a sin, or at least as a very small and trifling sin. In short, a
mistake in matters of this kind, whatever its nature and magnitude,
does not relate to the way of approach to God, which is the faith of
Christ that "worketh by love." [1116] For the "mistake pleasing to
parents" in the case of the twin children was no deviation from this
way; nor did the Apostle Peter deviate from this way, when, thinking
that he saw a vision, he so mistook one thing for another, that, till
the angel who delivered him had departed from him, he did not
distinguish the real objects among which he was moving from the
visionary objects of a dream; [1117] nor did the patriarch Jacob
deviate from this way, when he believed that his son, who was really
alive, had been slain by a beast. [1118] In the case of these and
other false impressions of the same kind, we are indeed deceived, but
our faith in God remains secure. We go astray, but we do not leave the
way that leads us to Him. But yet these errors, though they are not
sinful, are to be reckoned among the evils of this life which is so
far made subject to vanity, that we receive what is false as if it
were true, reject what is true as if it were false, and cling to what
is uncertain as if it were certain. And although they do not trench
upon that true and certain faith through which we reach eternal
blessedness, yet they have much to do with that misery in which we are
now living. And assuredly, if we were now in the enjoyment of the true
and perfect happiness that lies before us, we should not be subject to
any deception through any sense, whether of body or of mind.
Footnotes
[1116] Gal. v. 6
[1117] Acts xii. 9-11
[1118] Gen. xxxvii. 33
Chapter 22.--A Lie is Not Allowable, Even to Save Another from Injury.
But every lie must be called a sin, because not only when a man knows
the truth, but even when, as a man may be, he is mistaken and
deceived, it is his duty to say what he thinks in his heart, whether
it be true, or whether he only think it to be true. But every liar
says the opposite of what he thinks in his heart, with purpose to
deceive. Now it is evident that speech was given to man, not that men
might therewith deceive one another, but that one man might make known
his thoughts to another. To use speech, then, for the purpose of
deception, and not for its appointed end, is a sin. Nor are we to
suppose that there is any lie that is not a sin, because it is
sometimes possible, by telling a lie, to do service to another. For it
is possible to do this by theft also, as when we steal from a rich man
who never feels the loss, to give to a poor man who is sensibly
benefited by what he gets. And the same can be said of adultery also,
when, for instance, some woman appears likely to die of love unless we
consent to her wishes, while if she lived she might purify herself by
repentance; but yet no one will assert that on this account such an
adultery is not a sin. And if we justly place so high a value upon
chastity, what offense have we taken at truth, that, while no prospect
of advantage to another will lead us to violate the former by
adultery, we should be ready to violate the latter by lying? It cannot
be denied that they have attained a very high standard of goodness who
never lie except to save a man from injury; but in the case of men who
have reached this standard, it is not the deceit, but their good
intention, that is justly praised, and sometimes even rewarded. It is
quite enough that the deception should be pardoned, without its being
made an object of laudation, especially among the heirs of the new
covenant, to whom it is said: "Let your communication be, Yea, yea;
Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil." [1119]
And it is on account of this evil, which never ceases to creep in
while we retain this mortal vesture, that the co-heirs of Christ
themselves say, "Forgive us our debts." [1120]
Footnotes
[1119] Matt. v. 37
[1120] Matt. vi. 12
Chapter 23.--Summary of the Results of the Preceding Discussion.
As it is right that we should know the causes of good and evil, so
much of them at least as will suffice for the way that leads us to the
kingdom, where there will be life without the shadow of death, truth
without any alloy of error, and happiness unbroken by any sorrow, I
have discussed these subjects with the brevity which my limited space
demanded. And I think there cannot now be any doubt, that the only
cause of any good that we enjoy is the goodness of God, and that the
only cause of evil is the falling away from the unchangeable good of a
being made good but changeable, first in the case of an angel, and
afterwards in the case of man.
Chapter 24.--The Secondary Causes of Evil are Ignorance and Lust.
This is the first evil that befell the intelligent creation--that is,
its first privation of good. Following upon this crept in, and now
even in opposition to man's will, ignorance of duty, and lust after
what is hurtful: and these brought in their train error and suffering,
which, when they are felt to be imminent, produce that shrinking of
the mind which is called fear. Further, when the mind attains the
objects of its desire, however hurtful or empty they may be, error
prevents it from perceiving their true nature, or its perceptions are
overborne by a diseased appetite, and so it is puffed up with a
foolish joy. From these fountains of evil, which spring out of defect
rather than superfluity, flows every form of misery that besets a
rational nature.
Chapter 25.--God's Judgments Upon Fallen Men and Angels. The Death of
the Body is Man's Peculiar Punishment.
And yet such a nature, in the midst of all its evils, could not lose
the craving after happiness. Now the evils I have mentioned are common
to all who for their wickedness have been justly condemned by God,
whether they be men or angels. But there is one form of punishment
peculiar to man--the death of the body. God had threatened him with
this punishment of death if he should sin, [1121] leaving him indeed
to the freedom of his own will, but yet commanding his obedience under
pain of death; and He placed him amid the happiness of Eden, as it
were in a protected nook of life, with the intention that, if he
preserved his righteousness, he should thence ascend to a better
place.
Footnotes
[1121] Gen. ii. 17
Chapter 26.--Through Adam's Sin His Whole Posterity Were Corrupted,
and Were Born Under the Penalty of Death, Which He Had Incurred.
Thence, after his sin, he was driven into exile, and by his sin the
whole race of which he was the root was corrupted in him, and thereby
subjected to the penalty of death. And so it happens that all
descended from him, and from the woman who had led him into sin, and
was condemned at the same time with him,--being the offspring of
carnal lust on which the same punishment of disobedience was
visited,--were tainted with the original sin, and were by it drawn
through divers errors and sufferings into that last and endless
punishment which they suffer in common with the fallen angels, their
corrupters and masters, and the partakers of their doom. And thus "by
one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death
passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." [1122] By "the world"
the apostle, of course, means in this place the whole human race.
Footnotes
[1122] Rom. v. 12
Chapter 27.--The State of Misery to Which Adam's Sin Reduced Mankind,
and the Restoration Effected Through the Mercy of God.
Thus, then, matters stood. The whole mass of the human race was under
condemnation, was lying steeped and wallowing in misery, and was being
tossed from one form of evil to another, and, having joined the
faction of the fallen angels, was paying the well-merited penalty of
that impious rebellion. For whatever the wicked freely do through
blind and unbridled lust, and whatever they suffer against their will
in the way of open punishment, this all evidently pertains to the just
wrath of God. But the goodness of the Creator never fails either to
supply life and vital power to the wicked angels (without which their
existence would soon come to an end); or, in the case of mankind, who
spring from a condemned and corrupt stock, to impart form and life to
their seed, to fashion their members, and through the various seasons
of their life, and in the different parts of the earth, to quicken
their senses, and bestow upon them the nourishment they need. For He
judged it better to bring good out of evil, than not to permit any
evil to exist. And if He had determined that in the case of men, as in
the case of the fallen angels, there should be no restoration to
happiness, would it not have been quite just, that the being who
rebelled against God, who in the abuse of his freedom spurned and
transgressed the command of his Creator when he could so easily have
kept it, who defaced in himself the image of his Creator by stubbornly
turning away from His light, who by an evil use of his free-will broke
away from his wholesome bondage to the Creator's laws,--would it not
have been just that such a being should have been wholly and to all
eternity deserted by God, and left to suffer the everlasting
punishment he had so richly earned? Certainly so God would have done,
had He been only just and not also merciful, and had He not designed
that His unmerited mercy should shine forth the more brightly in
contrast with the unworthiness of its objects.
Chapter 28.--When the Rebellious Angels Were Cast Out, the Rest
Remained in the Enjoyment of Eternal Happiness with God.
Whilst some of the angels, then, in their pride and impiety rebelled
against God, and were cast down from their heavenly abode into the
lowest darkness, the remaining number dwelt with God in eternal and
unchanging purity and happiness. For all were not sprung from one
angel who had fallen and been condemned, so that they were not all,
like men, involved by one original sin in the bonds of an inherited
guilt, and so made subject to the penalty which one had incurred; but
when he, who afterwards became the devil, was with his associates in
crime exalted in pride, and by that very exaltation was with them cast
down, the rest remained steadfast in piety and obedience to their
Lord, and obtained, what before they had not enjoyed, a sure and
certain knowledge of their eternal safety, and freedom from the
possibility of falling.
Chapter 29.--The Restored Part of Humanity Shall, in Accordance with
the Promises of God, Succeed to the Place Which the Rebellious Angels
Lost.
And so it pleased God, the Creator and Governor of the universe, that,
since the whole body of the angels had not fallen into rebellion, the
part of them which had fallen should remain in perdition eternally,
and that the other part, which had in the rebellion remained
steadfastly loyal, should rejoice in the sure and certain knowledge of
their eternal happiness; but that, on the other hand, mankind, who
constituted the remainder of the intelligent creation, having perished
without exception under sin, both original and actual, and the
consequent punishments, should be in part restored, and should fill up
the gap which the rebellion and fall of the devils had left in the
company of the angels. For this is the promise to the saints, that at
the resurrection they shall be equal to the angels of God. [1123] And
thus the Jerusalem which is above, which is the mother of us all, the
city of God, shall not be spoiled of any of the number of her
citizens, shall perhaps reign over even a more abundant population. We
do not know the number either of the saints or of the devils; but we
know that the children of the holy mother who was called barren on
earth shall succeed to the place of the fallen angels, and shall dwell
for ever in that peaceful abode from which they fell. But the number
of the citizens, whether as it now is or as it shall be, is present to
the thoughts of the great Creator, who calls those things which are
not as though they were, [1124] and ordereth all things in measure,
and number, and weight. [1125]
Footnotes
[1123] Luke xx. 36
[1124] Rom. iv. 17
[1125] Wisd. xi. 20
Chapter 30.--Men are Not Saved by Good Works, Nor by the Free
Determination of Their Own Will, But by the Grace of God Through
Faith.
But this part of the human race to which God has promised pardon and a
share in His eternal kingdom, can they be restored through the merit
of their own works? God forbid. For what good work can a lost man
perform, except so far as he has been delivered from perdition? Can
they do anything by the free determination of their own will? Again I
say, God forbid. For it was by the evil use of his free-will that man
destroyed both it and himself. For, as a man who kills himself must,
of course, be alive when he kills himself, but after he has killed
himself ceases to live, and cannot restore himself to life; so, when
man by his own free-will sinned, then sin being victorious over him,
the freedom of his will was lost. "For of whom a man is overcome, of
the same is he brought in bondage." [1126] This is the judgment of the
Apostle Peter. And as it is certainly true, what kind of liberty, I
ask, can the bond-slave possess, except when it pleases him to sin?
For he is freely in bondage who does with pleasure the will of his
master. Accordingly, he who is the servant of sin is free to sin. And
hence he will not be free to do right, until, being freed from sin, he
shall begin to be the servant of righteousness. And this is true
liberty, for he has pleasure in the righteous deed; and it is at the
same time a holy bondage, for he is obedient to the will of God. But
whence comes this liberty to do right to the man who is in bondage and
sold under sin, except he be redeemed by Him who has said, "If the Son
shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed?" [1127] And before this
redemption is wrought in a man, when he is not yet free to do what is
right, how can he talk of the freedom of his will and his good works,
except he be inflated by that foolish pride of boasting which the
apostle restrains when he says, "By grace are ye saved, through
faith." [1128]
Footnotes
[1126] 2 Pet. ii. 19
[1127] John viii. 36
[1128] Eph. ii. 8
Chapter 31.--Faith Itself is the Gift of God; And Good Works Will Not
Be Wanting in Those Who Believe.
And lest men should arrogate to themselves the merit of their own
faith at least, not understanding that this too is the gift of God,
this same apostle, who says in another place that he had "obtained
mercy of the Lord to be faithful," [1129] here also adds: "and that
not of yourselves; it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man
should boast." [1130] And lest it should be thought that good works
will be wanting in those who believe, he adds further: "For we are His
workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath
before ordained that we should walk in them." [1131] We shall be made
truly free, then, when God fashions us, that is, forms and creates us
anew, not as men--for He has done that already--but as good men, which
His grace is now doing, that we may be a new creation in Christ Jesus,
according as it is said: "Create in me a clean heart, O God." [1132]
For God had already created his heart, so far as the physical
structure of the human heart is concerned; but the psalmist prays for
the renewal of the life which was still lingering in his heart.
Footnotes
[1129] 1 Cor. vii. 25
[1130] Eph. ii. 8, 9
[1131] Eph. ii. 10
[1132] Ps. li. 10
Chapter 32.--The Freedom of the Will is Also the Gift of God, for God
Worketh in Us Both to Will and to Do.
And further, should any one be inclined to boast, not indeed of his
works, but of the freedom of his will, as if the first merit belonged
to him, this very liberty of good action being given to him as a
reward he had earned, let him listen to this same preacher of grace,
when he says: "For it is God which worketh in you, both to will and to
do of His own good pleasure;" [1133] and in another place: "So, then,
it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God
that showeth mercy." [1134] Now as, undoubtedly, if a man is of the
age to use his reason, he cannot believe, hope, love, unless he will
to do so, nor obtain the prize of the high calling of God unless he
voluntarily run for it; in what sense is it "not of him that willeth,
nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy," except that,
as it is written, "the preparation of the heart is from the Lord?"
[1135] Otherwise, if it is said, "It is not of him that willeth, nor
of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy," because it is of
both, that is, both of the will of man and of the mercy of God, so
that we are to understand the saying, "It is not of him that willeth,
nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy," as if it
meant the will of man alone is not sufficient, if the mercy of God go
not with it,--then it will follow that the mercy of God alone is not
sufficient, if the will of man go not with it; and therefore, if we
may rightly say, "it is not of man that willeth, but of God that
showeth mercy," because the will of man by itself is not enough, why
may we not also rightly put it in the converse way: "It is not of God
that showeth mercy, but of man that willeth," because the mercy of God
by itself does not suffice? Surely, if no Christian will dare to say
this, "It is not of God that showeth mercy, but of man that willeth,"
lest he should openly contradict the apostle, it follows that the true
interpretation of the saying, "It is not of him that willeth, nor of
him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy," is that the whole
work belongs to God, who both makes the will of man righteous, and
thus prepares it for assistance, and assists it when it is prepared.
For the man's righteousness of will precedes many of God's gifts, but
not all; and it must itself be included among those which it does not
precede. We read in Holy Scripture, both that God's mercy "shall meet
me," [1136] and that His mercy "shall follow me." [1137] It goes
before the unwilling to make him willing; it follows the willing to
make his will effectual. Why are we taught to pray for our enemies,
[1138] who are plainly unwilling to lead a holy life, unless that God
may work willingness in them? And why are we ourselves taught to ask
that we may receive, [1139] unless that He who has created in us the
wish, may Himself satisfy the wish? We pray, then, for our enemies,
that the mercy of God may prevent them, as it has prevented us: we
pray for ourselves that His mercy may follow us.
Footnotes
[1133] Phil. ii. 13
[1134] Rom. ix. 16
[1135] Prov. xvi. 1
[1136] Ps. lix. 10
[1137] Ps. xxiii. 6
[1138] Matt. v. 44
[1139] Matt. vii. 7
Chapter 33.--Men, Being by Nature the Children of Wrath, Needed a
Mediator. In What Sense God is Said to Be Angry.
And so the human race was lying under a just condemnation, and all men
were the children of wrath. Of which wrath it is written: "All our
days are passed away in Thy wrath; we spend our years as a tale that
is told." [1140] Of which wrath also Job says: "Man that is born of a
woman is of few days, and full of trouble." [1141] Of which wrath also
the Lord Jesus says: "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting
life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the
wrath of God abideth on him." [1142] He does not say it will come, but
it "abideth on him." For every man is born with it; wherefore the
apostle says: "We were by nature the children of wrath, even as
others." [1143] Now, as men were lying under this wrath by reason of
their original sin, and as this original sin was the more heavy and
deadly in proportion to the number and magnitude of the actual sins
which were added to it, there was need for a Mediator, that is, for a
reconciler, who, by the offering of one sacrifice, of which all the
sacrifices of the law and the prophets were types, should take away
this wrath. Wherefore 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." [1144] Now when God is
said to be angry, we do not attribute to Him such a disturbed feeling
as exists in the mind of an angry man; but we call His just
displeasure against sin by the name "anger," a word transferred by
analogy from human emotions. But our being reconciled to God through a
Mediator, and receiving the Holy Spirit, so that we who were enemies
are made sons ("For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are
the sons of God" [1145] ): this is the grace of God through Jesus
Christ our Lord.
Footnotes
[1140] Ps. xc. 9
[1141] Job xiv.1
[1142] John iii. 36. These words, attributed by the author to Christ,
were really spoken by John the Baptist.
[1143] Eph. ii. 3
[1144] Rom. v. 10
[1145] Rom. viii. 14
Chapter 34.--The Ineffable Mystery of the Birth of Christ the Mediator
Through the Virgin Mary.
Now of this Mediator it would occupy too much space to say anything at
all worthy of Him; and, indeed, to say what is worthy of Him is not in
the power of man. For who will explain in consistent words this single
statement, that "the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us," [1146]
so that we may believe on the only Son of God the Father Almighty,
born of the Holy Ghost and the Virgin Mary. The meaning of the Word
being made flesh, is not that the divine nature was changed into
flesh, but that the divine nature assumed our flesh. And by "flesh" we
are here to understand "man," the part being put for the whole, as
when it is said: "By the deeds of the law shall no flesh be
justified," [1147] that is, no man. For we must believe that no part
was wanting in that human nature which He put on, save that it was a
nature wholly free from every taint of sin,--not such a nature as is
conceived between the two sexes through carnal lust, which is born in
sin, and whose guilt is washed away in regeneration; but such as it
behoved a virgin to bring forth, when the mother's faith, not her
lust, was the condition of conception. And if her virginity had been
marred even in bringing Him forth, He would not have been born of a
virgin; and it would be false (which God forbid) that He was born of
the Virgin Mary, as is believed and declared by the whole Church,
which, in imitation of His mother, daily brings forth members of His
body, and yet remains a virgin. Read, if you please, my letter on the
virginity of the holy Mary which I sent to that eminent man, whose
name I mention with respect and affection, Volusianus. [1148]
Footnotes
[1146] John i. 14
[1147] 3[1147] Rom. iii. 20
[1148] Ep. 137.
Chapter 35.--Jesus Christ, Being the Only Son of God, is at the Same
Time Man.
Wherefore Christ Jesus, the Son of God, is both God and man; God
before all worlds; man in our world: God, because the Word of God (for
"the Word was God" [1149] ); and man, because in His one person the
Word was joined with a body and a rational soul. Wherefore, so far as
He is God, He and the Father are one; so far as He is man, the Father
is greater than He. For when He was the only Son of God, not by grace,
but by nature, that He might be also full of grace, He became the Son
of man; and He Himself unites both natures in His own identity, and
both natures constitute one Christ; because, "being in the form of
God, He thought it not robbery to be," what He was by nature, "equal
with God." [1150] But He made Himself of no reputation, and took upon
Himself the form of a servant, not losing or lessening the form of
God. And, accordingly, He was both made less and remained equal, being
both in one, as has been said: but He was one of these as Word, and
the other as man. As Word, He is equal with the Father; as man, less
than the Father. One Son of God, and at the same time Son of man; one
Son of man, and at the same time Son of God; not two Sons of God, God
and man, but one Son of God: God without beginning; man with a
beginning, our Lord Jesus Christ.
Footnotes
[1149] John i. 1
[1150] Phil. ii. 6
Chapter 36.--The Grace of God is Clearly and Remarkably Displayed in
Raising the Man Christ Jesus to the Dignity of the Son of God.
Now here the grace of God is displayed with the greatest power and
clearness. For what merit had the human nature in the man Christ
earned, that it should in this unparalleled way be taken up into the
unity of the person of the only Son of God? What goodness of will,
what goodness of desire and intention, what good works, had gone
before, which made this man worthy to become one person with God? Had
He been a man previously to this, and had He earned this unprecedented
reward, that He should be thought worthy to become God? Assuredly nay;
from the very moment that He began to be man, He was nothing else than
the Son of God, the only Son of God, the Word who was made flesh, and
therefore He was God so that just as each individual man unites in one
person a body and a rational soul, so Christ in one person unites the
Word and man. Now wherefore was this unheard of glory conferred on
human nature,--a glory which, as there was no antecedent merit, was of
course wholly of grace,--except that here those who looked at the
matter soberly and honestly might behold a clear manifestation of the
power of God's free grace, and might understand that they are
justified from their sins by the same grace which made the man Christ
Jesus free from the possibility of sin? And so the angel, when he
announced to Christ's mother the coming birth, saluted her thus:
"Hail, thou that art full of grace;" [1151] and shortly afterwards,
"Thou hast found grace with God." [1152] Now she was said to be full
of grace, and to have found grace with God, because she was to be the
mother of her Lord, nay, of the Lord of all flesh. But, speaking of
Christ Himself, the evangelist John, after saying, "The Word was made
flesh, and dwelt among us," adds, "and we beheld His glory, the glory
as of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth."
[1153] When he says, "The Word was made flesh," this is "full of
grace;" when he says, "the glory of the only-begotten of the Father,"
this is "full of truth." For the Truth Himself, who was the
only-begotten of the Father, not by grace, but by nature, by grace
took our humanity upon Him, and so united it with His own person that
He Himself became also the Son of man.
Footnotes
[1151] Luke i. 28 ("thou that are highly favored," A.V.).
[1152] Luke i. 30 ("Thou hast found favor with God," A.V.).
[1153] John i. 14
Chapter 37.--The Same Grace is Further Clearly Manifested in This,
that the Birth of Christ According to the Flesh is of the Holy Ghost.
For the same Jesus Christ who is the only-begotten, that is, the only
Son of God, our Lord, was born of the Holy Ghost and of the Virgin
Mary. And we know that the Holy Spirit is the gift of God, the gift
being Himself indeed equal to the Giver. And therefore the Holy Spirit
also is God, not inferior to the Father and the Son. The fact,
therefore, that the nativity of Christ in His human nature was by the
Holy Spirit, is another clear manifestation of grace. For when the
Virgin asked the angel how this which he had announced should be,
seeing she knew not a man, the angel answered, "The Holy Ghost shall
come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee:
therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be
called the Son of God." [1154] And when Joseph was minded to put her
away, suspecting her of adultery, as he knew she was not with child by
himself, he was told by the angel, "Fear not to take unto thee Mary
thy wife; for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost:"
[1155] that is, what thou suspectest to be begotten of another man is
of the Holy Ghost.
Footnotes
[1154] Luke i. 35
[1155] Matt. i. 20
Chapter 38.--Jesus Christ, According to the Flesh, Was Not Born of the
Holy Spirit in Such a Sense that the Holy Spirit is His Father.
Nevertheless, are we on this account to say that the Holy Ghost is the
father of the man Christ, and that as God the Father begat the Word,
so God the Holy Spirit begat the man, and that these two natures
constitute the one Christ; and that as the Word He is the Son of God
the Father, and as man the Son of God the Holy Spirit, because the
Holy Spirit as His father begat Him of the Virgin Mary? Who will dare
to say so? Nor is it necessary to show by reasoning how many other
absurdities flow from this supposition, when it is itself so absurd
that no believer's ears can bear to hear it. Hence, as we confess,
"Our Lord Jesus Christ, who of God is God, and as man was born of the
Holy Ghost and of the Virgin Mary, having both natures, the divine and
the human, is the only Son of God the Father Almighty, from whom
proceedeth the Holy Spirit." [1156] Now in what sense do we say that
Christ was born of the Holy Spirit, if the Holy Spirit did not beget
Him? Is it that He made Him, since our Lord Jesus Christ, though as
God "all things were made by Him," [1157] yet as man was Himself made;
as the apostle says, "who was made of the seed of David according to
the flesh?" [1158] But as that created thing which the Virgin
conceived and brought forth though it was united only to the person of
the Son, was made by the whole Trinity (for the works of the Trinity
are not separable), why should the Holy Spirit alone be mentioned as
having made it? Or is it that, when one of the Three is mentioned as
the author of any work, the whole Trinity is to be understood as
working? That is true, and can be proved by examples. But we need not
dwell longer on this solution. For the puzzle is, in what sense it is
said, "born of the Holy Ghost," when He is in no sense the Son of the
Holy Ghost? For though God made this world, it would not be right to
say that it is the Son of God, or that it was born of God; we would
say that it was created, or made, or framed, or ordered by Him, or
whatever form of expression we can properly use. Here, then, when we
make confession that Christ was born of the Holy Ghost and of the
Virgin Mary, it is difficult to explain how it is that He is not the
Son of the Holy Ghost and is the Son of the Virgin Mary, when He was
born both of Him and of her. It is clear beyond a doubt that He was
not born of the Holy Spirit as His father, in the same sense that He
was born of the Virgin as His mother.
Footnotes
[1156] A quotation from a form of the Apostles' Creed anciently in use
in the Latin Church.
[1157] John i. 3
[1158] Rom. i. 3
Chapter 39.--Not Everything that is Born of Another is to Be Called a
Son of that Other.
We need not therefore take for granted, that whatever is born of a
thing is forthwith to be declared the son of that thing. For, to pass
over the fact that a son is born of a man in a different sense from
that in which a hair or a louse is born of him, neither of these being
a son; to pass over this, I say, as too mean an illustration for a
subject of so much importance: it is certain that those who are born
of water and of the Holy Spirit cannot with propriety be called sons
of the water though they are called sons of God the Father, and of the
Church their mother. In the same way, then, He who was born of the
Holy Spirit is the Son of God the Father, not of the Holy Spirit. For
what I have said of the hair and the other things is sufficient to
show us that not everything which is born of another can be called the
son of that of which it is born, just as it does not follow that all
who are called a man's sons were born of him, for some sons are
adopted. And some men are called sons of hell, not as being born of
hell, but as prepared for it, as the sons of the kingdom are prepared
for the kingdom.
Chapter 40.--Christ's Birth Through the Holy Spirit Manifests to Us
the Grace of God.
And, therefore, as one thing may be born of another, and yet not in
such a way as to be its son, and as not every one who is called a son
was born of him whose son he is called, it is clear that this
arrangement by which Christ was born of the Holy Spirit, but not as
His son, and of the Virgin Mary as her son, is intended as a
manifestation of the grace of God. For it was by this grace that a
man, without any antecedent merit, was at the very commencement of His
existence as man, so united in one person with the Word of God, that
the very person who was Son of man was at the same time Son of God,
and the very person who was Son of God was at the same time Son of
man; and in the adoption of His human nature into the divine, the
grace itself became in a way so natural to the man, as to leave no
room for the entrance of sin. Wherefore this grace is signified by the
Holy Spirit; for He, though in His own nature God, may also be called
the gift of God. And to explain all this sufficiently, if indeed it
could be done at all, would require a very lengthened discussion.
Chapter 41.--Christ, Who Was Himself Free from Sin, Was Made Sin for
Us, that We Might Be Reconciled to God.
Begotten and conceived, then, without any indulgence of carnal lust,
and therefore bringing with Him no original sin, and by the grace of
God joined and united in a wonderful and unspeakable way in one person
with the Word, the Only-begotten of the Father, a son by nature, not
by grace, and therefore having no sin of His own; nevertheless, on
account of the likeness of sinful flesh in which He came, He was
called sin, that He might be sacrificed to wash away sin. For, under
the Old Covenant, sacrifices for sin were called sins. [1159] And He,
of whom all these sacrifices were types and shadows, was Himself truly
made sin. Hence the apostle, after saying, "We pray you in Christ's
stead, be ye reconciled to God," forthwith adds: "for He hath made Him
to be sin for us who knew no sin; that we might be made the
righteousness of God in Him." [1160] He does not say, as some
incorrect copies read, "He who knew no sin did sin for us," as if
Christ had Himself sinned for our sakes; but he says, "Him who knew no
sin," that is, Christ, God, to whom we are to be reconciled, "hath
made to be sin for us," that is, hath made Him a sacrifice for our
sins, by which we might be reconciled to God. He, then, being made
sin, just as we are made righteousness (our righteousness being not
our own, but God's, not in ourselves, but in Him); He being made sin,
not His own, but ours, not in Himself, but in us, showed, by the
likeness of sinful flesh in which He was crucified, that though sin
was not in Him, yet that in a certain sense He died to sin, by dying
in the flesh which was the likeness of sin; and that although He
Himself had never lived the old life of sin, yet by His resurrection
He typified our new life springing up out of the old death in sin.
Footnotes
[1159] Hos. iv. 8
[1160] 2 Cor. v. 20, 21
Chapter 42.--The Sacrament of Baptism Indicates Our Death with Christ
to Sin, and Our Resurrection with Him to Newness of Life.
And this is the meaning of the great sacrament of baptism which is
solemnized among us, that all who attain to this grace should die to
sin, as He is said to have died to sin, because He died in the flesh,
which is the likeness of sin; and rising from the font regenerate, as
He arose alive from the grave, should begin a new life in the Spirit,
whatever may be the age of the body?
Chapter 43.--Baptism and the Grace Which It Typifies are Open to All,
Both Infants and Adults.
For from the infant newly born to the old man bent with age, as there
is none shut out from baptism, so there is none who in baptism does
not die to sin. But infants die only to original sin; those who are
older die also to all the sins which their evil lives have added to
the sin which they brought with them.
Chapter 44.--In Speaking of Sin, the Singular Number is Often Put for
the Plural, and the Plural for the Singular.
But even these latter are frequently said to die to sin, though
undoubtedly they die not to one sin, but to all the numerous actual
sins they have committed in thought, word, or deed: for the singular
number is often put for the plural, as when the poet says, "They fill
its belly with the armed soldier," [1161] though in the case here
referred to there were many soldiers concerned. And we read in our own
Scriptures: "Pray to the Lord, that He take away the serpent from us."
[1162] He does not say serpents though the people were suffering from
many; and so in other cases. When, on the other hand, the original sin
is expressed in the plural number, as when we say that infants are
baptized for the remission of sins, instead of saying for the
remission of sin, this is the converse figure of speech, by which the
plural number is put in place of the singular; as in the Gospel it is
said of the death of Herod, "for they are dead which sought the young
child's life," [1163] instead of saying, "he is dead." And in Exodus:
"They have made them," Moses says, "gods of gold," [1164] though they
had made only one calf, of which they said: "These be thy gods, O
Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt," [1165]
--here, too, putting the plural in place of the singular.
Footnotes
[1161] "Uterumque armato milite complent.".--Virgil, Æn. ii. 20.
[1162] Num. xxi. 7 ("serpents," A. and R.V.).
[1163] Matt. ii. 20
[1164] Ex. xxxii. 31
[1165] Ex. xxxii. 4
Chapter 45.--In Adam's First Sin, Many Kinds of Sin Were Involved.
However, even in that one sin, which "by one man entered into the
world, and so passed upon all men," [1166] and on account of which
infants are baptized, a number of distinct sins may be observed, if it
be analyzed as it were into its separate elements. For there is in it
pride, because man chose to be under his own dominion, rather than
under the dominion of God; and blasphemy, because he did not believe
God; and murder, for he brought death upon himself; and spiritual
fornication, for the purity of the human soul was corrupted by the
seducing blandishments of the serpent; and theft, for man turned to
his own use the food he had been forbidden to touch; and avarice, for
he had a craving for more than should have been sufficient for him;
and whatever other sin can be discovered on careful reflection to be
involved in this one admitted sin.
Footnotes
[1166] Rom. v. 12
Chapter 46.--It is Probable that Children are Involved in the Guilt
Not Only of the First Pair, But of Their Own Immediate Parents.
And it is said, with much appearance of probability, that infants are
involved in the guilt of the sins not only of the first pair, but of
their own immediate parents. For that divine judgment, "I shall visit
the iniquities of the fathers upon the children," [1167] certainly
applies to them before they come under the new covenant by
regeneration. And it was this new covenant that was prophesied of,
when it was said by Ezekiel, that the sons should not bear the
iniquity of the fathers, and that it should no longer be a proverb in
Israel, "The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth
are set on edge." [1168] Here lies the necessity that each man should
be born again, that he might be freed from the sin in which he was
born. For the sins committed afterwards can be cured by penitence, as
we see is the case after baptism. And therefore the new birth would
not have been appointed only that the first birth was sinful, so
sinful that even one who was legitimately born in wedlock says: "I was
shapen in iniquities, and in sins did my mother conceive me." [1169]
He did not say in iniquity, or in sin, though he might have said so
correctly; but he preferred to say "iniquities" and "sins," because in
that one sin which passed upon all men, and which was so great that
human nature was by it made subject to inevitable death, many sins, as
I showed above, may be discriminated; and further, because there are
other sins of the immediate parents, which though they have not the
same effect in producing a change of nature, yet subject the children
to guilt unless the divine grace and mercy interpose to rescue them.
Footnotes
[1167] Ex. xx. 5; Deut. v. 9
[1168] Ezek. xviii. 2
[1169] Ps. li. 5 (The A.V. has the singular, "iniquity" and "sin").
Chapter 47.--It is Difficult to Decide Whether the Sins of a Man's
Other Progenitors are Imputed to Him.
But about the sins of the other progenitors who intervene between Adam
and a man's own parents, a question may very well be raised. Whether
every one who is born is involved in all their accumulated evil acts,
in all their multiplied original guilt, so that the later he is born,
so much the worse is his condition; or whether God threatens to visit
the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and
fourth generations, because in His mercy He does not extend His wrath
against the sins of the progenitors further than that, lest those who
do not obtain the grace of regeneration might be crushed down under
too heavy a burden if they were compelled to bear as original guilt
all the sins of all their progenitors from the very beginning of the
human race, and to pay the penalty due to them; or whether any other
solution of this great question may or may not be found in Scripture
by a more diligent search and a more careful interpretation, I dare
not rashly affirm.
Chapter 48.--The Guilt of the First Sin is So Great that It Can Be
Washed Away Only in the Blood of the Mediator, Jesus Christ.
Nevertheless, that one sin, admitted into a place where such perfect
happiness reigned, was of so heinous a character, that in one man the
whole human race was originally, and as one may say, radically,
condemned; and it cannot be pardoned and blotted out except through
the one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who only
has had power to be so born as not to need a second birth.
Chapter 49.--Christ Was Not Regenerated in the Baptism of John, But
Submitted to It to Give Us an Example of Humility, Just as He
Submitted to Death, Not as the Punishment of Sin, But to Take Away the
Sin of the World.
Now, those who were baptized in the baptism of John, by whom Christ
was Himself baptized, [1170] were not regenerated; but they were
prepared through the ministry of His forerunner, who cried, "Prepare
ye the way of the Lord," [1171] for Him in whom only they could be
regenerated. For His baptism is not with water only, as was that of
John, but with the Holy Ghost also; [1172] so that whoever believes in
Christ is regenerated by that Spirit, of whom Christ being generated,
He did not need regeneration. Whence that announcement of the Father
which was heard after His baptism, "This day have I begotten Thee,"
[1173] referred not to that one day of time on which He was baptized,
but to the one day of an unchangeable eternity, so as to show that
this man was one in person with the Only-begotten. For when a day
neither begins with the close of yesterday, nor ends with the
beginning of to-morrow, it is an eternal to-day. Therefore He asked to
be baptized in water by John, not that any iniquity of His might be
washed away, but that He might manifest the depth of His humility. For
baptism found in Him nothing to wash away, as death found in Him
nothing to punish; so that it was in the strictest justice, and not by
the mere violence of power, that the devil was crushed and conquered:
for, as he had most unjustly put Christ to death, though there was no
sin in Him to deserve death, it was most just that through Christ he
should lose his hold of those who by sin were justly subject to the
bondage in which he held them. Both of these, then, that is, both
baptism and death, were submitted to by Him, not through a pitiable
necessity, but of His own free pity for us, and as part of an
arrangement by which, as one man brought sin into the world, that is,
upon the whole human race, so one man was to take away the sin of the
world.
Footnotes
[1170] Matt. iii. 13-15
[1171] Matt. iii. 3
[1172] Matt. iii. 11
[1173] Ps. ii. 7; Heb. i. 5, v. 5. It is by a mistake that Augustin
quotes these words as pronounced at our Lord's baptism.
Chapter 50.--Christ Took Away Not Only the One Original Sin, But All
the Other Sins that Have Been Added to It.
With this difference: the first man brought one sin into the world,
but this man took away not only that one sin, but all that He found
added to it. Hence the apostle says: "And not as it was by one that
sinned, so is the gift: for the judgment was by one to condemnation,
but the free gift is of many offenses unto justification." [1174] For
it is evident that the one sin which we bring with us by nature would,
even if it stood alone, bring us under condemnation; but the free gift
justifies man from many offenses: for each man, in addition to the one
sin which, in common with all his kind, he brings with him by nature,
has committed many sins that are strictly his own.
Footnotes
[1174] Rom. v. 16
Chapter 51.--All Men Born of Adam are Under Condemnation, and Only If
New Born in Christ are Freed from Condemnation.
But what he says a little after, "Therefore, as by the offense of one
judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the
righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto
justification of life," [1175] shows clearly enough that there is no
one born of Adam but is subject to condemnation, and that no one,
unless he be new born in Christ, is freed from condemnation.
Footnotes
[1175] Rom. v. 18
Chapter 52.--In Baptism, Which is the Similitude of the Death and
Resurrection of Christ, All, Both Infants and Adults, Die to Sin that
They May Walk in Newness of Life.
And after he has said as much about the condemnation through one man,
and the free gift through one man, as he deemed sufficient for that
part of his epistle, the apostle goes on to speak of the great mystery
of holy baptism in the cross of Christ, and to clearly explain to us
that baptism in Christ is nothing else than a similitude of the death
of Christ, and that the death of Christ on the cross is nothing but a
similitude of the pardon of sin: so that just as real as is His death,
so real is the remission of our sins; and just as real as is His
resurrection, so real is our justification. He says: "What shall we
say, then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?" [1176]
For he had said previously, "But where sin, abounded, grace did much
more abound." [1177] And therefore he proposes to himself the
question, whether it would be right to continue in sin for the sake of
the consequent abounding grace. But he answers, "God forbid;" and
adds, "How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?"
Then, to show that we are dead to sin, "Know ye not," he says, "that
so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into
His death?" If, then, the fact that we were baptized into the death of
Christ proves that we are dead to sin, it follows that even infants
who are baptized into Christ die to sin, being baptized into His
death. For there is no exception made: "So many of us as were baptized
into Jesus Christ, were baptized into His death." And this is said to
prove that we are dead to sin. Now, to what sin do infants die in
their regeneration but that sin which they bring with them at birth?
And therefore to these also applies what follows: "Therefore we are
buried with Him by baptism into death; that, like as Christ was raised
up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should
walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the
likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His
resurrection: knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him,
that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not
serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin. Now if we be dead
with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him: knowing that
Christ, being raised from the dead, dieth no more; death hath no more
dominion over Him. For in that He died, He died unto sin once; but in
that He liveth, He liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves
to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ
our Lord." Now he had commenced with proving that we must not continue
in sin that grace may abound, and had said: "How shall we that are
dead to sin live any longer therein?" And to show that we are dead to
sin, he added: "Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into
Jesus Christ, were baptized into His death?" And so he concludes this
whole passage just as he began it. For he has brought in the death of
Christ in such a way as to imply that Christ Himself also died to sin.
To what sin did He die if not to the flesh, in which there was not
sin, but the likeness of sin, and which was therefore called by the
name of sin? To those who are baptized into the death of Christ,
then,--and this class includes not adults only, but infants as
well,--he says: "Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed
unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord." [1178]
Footnotes
[1176] Rom. vi. 1
[1177] Rom. v. 20
[1178] Rom. vi. 1-11
Chapter 53.--Christ's Cross and Burial, Resurrection, Ascension, and
Sitting Down at the Right Hand of God, are Images of the Christian
Life.
All the events, then, of Christ's crucifixion, of His burial, of His
resurrection the third day, of His ascension into heaven, of His
sitting down at the right hand of the Father, were so ordered, that
the life which the Christian leads here might be modelled upon them,
not merely in a mystical sense, but in reality. For in reference to
His crucifixion it is said: "They that are Christ's have crucified the
flesh, with the affections and lusts." [1179] And in reference to His
burial: "We are buried with Him by baptism into death." [1180] In
reference to His resurrection: "That, like as Christ was raised up
from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk
in newness of life." [1181] And in reference to His ascension into
heaven and sitting down at the right hand of the Father: "If ye then
be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ
sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above,
not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with
Christ in God." [1182]
Footnotes
[1179] Gal. v. 24
[1180] Rom. vi. 4
[1181] Rom. vi. 5
[1182] Col. iii. 1-3
Chapter 54.--Christ's Second Coming Does Not Belong to the Past, But
Will Take Place at the End of the World.
But what we believe as to Christ's action in the future, when He shall
come from heaven to judge the quick and the dead, has no bearing upon
the life which we now lead here; for it forms no part of what He did
upon earth, but is part of what He shall do at the end of the world.
And it is to this that the apostle refers in what immediately follows
the passage quoted above: "When Christ, who is our life, shall appear,
then shall ye also appear with Him in glory." [1183]
Footnotes
[1183] Col. iii. 4
Chapter 55.--The Expression, "Christ Shall Judge the Quick and the
Dead," May Be Understood in Either of Two Senses.
Now the expression, "to judge the quick and the dead," may be
interpreted in two ways: either we may understand by the "quick" those
who at His advent shall not yet have died, but whom He shall find
alive in the flesh, and by the "dead" those who have departed from the
body, or who shall have departed before His coming; or we may
understand the "quick" to mean the righteous, and the "dead" the
unrighteous; for the righteous shall be judged as well as others. Now
the judgment of God is sometimes taken in a bad sense, as, for
example, "They that have done evil unto the resurrection of judgment;"
[1184] sometimes in a good sense, as, "Save me, O God, by Thy name,
and judge me by Thy strength." [1185] This is easily understood when
we consider that it is the judgment of God which separates the good
from the evil, and sets the good at His right hand, that they may be
delivered from evil, and not destroyed with the wicked; and it is for
this reason that the Psalmist cried, "Judge me, O God," and then
added, as if in explanation, "and distinguish my cause from that of an
ungodly nation." [1186]
Footnotes
[1184] John v. 29 (damnation, A.V.)
[1185] Ps. liv. 1
[1186] Ps. xliii. 1 ("Plead my cause against an ungodly nation,"
A.V.).
Chapter 56.--The Holy Spirit and the Church. The Church is the Temple
of God.
And now, having spoken of Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, our Lord,
with the brevity suitable to a confession of our faith, we go on to
say that we believe also in the Holy Ghost,--thus completing the
Trinity which constitutes the Godhead. Then we mention the Holy
Church. And thus we are made to understand that the intelligent
creation, which constitutes the free Jerusalem, [1187] ought to be
subordinate in the order of speech to the Creator, the Supreme
Trinity: for all that is said of the man Christ Jesus has reference,
of course, to the unity of the person of the Only-begotten. Therefore
the true order of the Creed demanded that the Church should be made
subordinate to the Trinity, as the house to Him who dwells in it, the
temple to God who occupies it, and the city to its builder. And we are
here to understand the whole Church, not that part of it only which
wanders as a stranger on the earth, praising the name of God from the
rising of the sun to the going down of the same, and singing a new
song of deliverance from its old captivity; but that part also which
has always from its creation remained steadfast to God in heaven, and
has never experienced the misery consequent upon a fall. This part is
made up of the holy angels, who enjoy uninterrupted happiness; and (as
it is bound to do) it renders assistance to the part which is still
wandering among strangers: for these two parts shall be one in the
fellowship of eternity, and now they are one in the bonds of love, the
whole having been ordained for the worship of the one God. Wherefore,
neither the whole Church, nor any part of it, has any desire to be
worshipped instead of God, nor to be God to any one who belongs to the
temple of God--that temple which is built up of the saints who were
created by the uncreated God. And therefore the Holy Spirit, if a
creature, could not be the Creator, but would be a part of the
intelligent creation. He would simply be the highest creature, and
therefore would not be mentioned in the Creed before the Church; for
He Himself would belong to the Church, to that part of it which is in
the heavens. And He would not have a temple, for He Himself would be
part of a temple. Now He has a temple, of which the apostle says:
"Know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is
in you, which ye have of God?" [1188] Of which body he says in another
place: "Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ?"
[1189] How, then, is He not God, seeing that He has a temple? and how
can He be less than Christ, whose members are His temple? Nor has He
one temple, and God another, seeing that the same apostle says: "Know
ye not that ye are the temple of God?" [1190] and adds, as proof of
this, "and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you." [1191] God, then,
dwells in His temple: not the Holy Spirit only, but the Father also,
and the Son, who says of His own body, through which He was made Head
of the Church upon earth ("that in all things He might have the
pre-eminence):" [1192] "Destroy this temple, and in three days I will
raise it up." [1193] The temple of God, then, that is, of the Supreme
Trinity as a whole, is the Holy Church, embracing in its full extent
both heaven and earth.
Footnotes
[1187] Gal. iv. 26
[1188] 1 Cor. vi. 19
[1189] 1 Cor. vi. 15
[1190] 1 Cor. iii. 16
[1191] 1 Cor. iii. 16
[1192] Col. i. 18
[1193] John ii. 19
Chapter 57.--The Condition of the Church in Heaven.
But of that part of the Church which is in heaven what can we say,
except that no wicked one is found in it, and that no one has fallen
from it, or shall ever fall from it, since the time that "God spared
not the angels that sinned," as the Apostle Peter writes, "but cast
them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be
reserved unto judgment?" [1194]
Footnotes
[1194] 2 Pet. ii. 4
Chapter 58.--We Have No Certain Knowledge of the Organization of the
Angelic Society.
Now, what the organization is of that supremely happy society in
heaven: what the differences of rank are, which explain the fact that
while all are called by the general name angels, as we read in the
Epistle to the Hebrews, "but to which of the angels said God at any
time, Sit on my right hand?" [1195] (this form of expression being
evidently designed to embrace all the angels without exception), we
yet find that there are some called archangels; and whether the
archangels are the same as those called hosts, so that the expression,
"Praise ye Him, all His angels: praise ye Him, all His hosts," [1196]
is the same as if it had been said, "Praise ye Him, all His angels:
praise ye Him, all His archangels;" and what are the various
significations of those four names under which the apostle seems to
embrace the whole heavenly company without exception, "whether they be
thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers:" [1197] --let
those who are able answer these questions, if they can also prove
their answers to be true; but as for me, I confess my ignorance. I am
not even certain upon this point: whether the sun, and the moon, and
all the stars, do not form part of this same society, though many
consider them merely luminous bodies, without either sensation or
intelligence.
Footnotes
[1195] Heb. i. 13
[1196] Ps. cxlviii. 2, ["host," R.V.].
[1197] Col. i. 16
Chapter 59.--The Bodies Assumed by Angels Raise a Very Difficult, and
Not Very Useful, Subject of Discussion.
Further, who will tell with what sort of bodies it was that the angels
appeared to men, making themselves not only visible, but tangible; and
again, how it is that, not through material bodies, but by spiritual
power, they present visions not to the bodily eyes, but to the
spiritual eyes of the mind, or speak something not into the ear from
without, but from within the soul of the man, they themselves being
stationed there too, as it is written in the prophet, "And the angel
that spake in me said unto me" [1198] (he does not say, "that spake to
me," but "that spake in me"); or appear to men in sleep, and make
communications through dreams, as we read in the Gospel, "Behold, the
angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying"? [1199] For
these methods of communication seem to imply that the angels have not
tangible bodies, and make it a very difficult question to solve how
the patriarchs washed their feet, [1200] and how it was that Jacob
wrestled with the angel in a way so unmistakeably material. [1201] To
ask questions like these, and to make such guesses as we can at the
answers, is a useful exercise for the intellect, if the discussion be
kept within proper bounds, and if we avoid the error of supposing
ourselves to know what we do not know. For what is the necessity for
affirming, or denying, or defining with accuracy on these subjects,
and others like them, when we may without blame be entirely ignorant
of them?
Footnotes
[1198] Zech. i. 9 ("The angel that talked with me," A.V.).
[1199] Matt. i. 20
[1200] Gen. xviii. 4, xix. 2
[1201] Gen. xxxii. 24, 25
Chapter 60.--It is More Necessary to Be Able to Detect the Wiles of
Satan When He Transforms Himself into an Angel of Light.
It is more necessary to use all our powers of discrimination and
judgment when Satan transforms himself into an angel of light, [1202]
lest by his wiles he should lead us astray into hurtful courses. For,
while he only deceives the bodily senses, and does not pervert the
mind from that true and sound judgment which enables a man to lead a
life of faith, there is no danger to religion; or if, feigning himself
to be good, he does or says the things that befit good angels, and we
believe him to be good, the error is not one that is hurtful or
dangerous to Christian faith. But when, through these means, which are
alien to his nature, he goes on to lead us into courses of his own,
then great watchfulness is necessary to detect, and refuse to follow,
him. But how many men are fit to evade all his deadly wiles, unless
God restrains and watches over them? The very difficulty of the
matter, however, is useful in this respect, that it prevents men from
trusting in themselves or in one another, and leads all to place their
confidence in God alone. And certainly no pious man can doubt that
this is most expedient for us.
Footnotes
[1202] 2 Cor. xi. 14
Chapter 61.--The Church on Earth Has Been Redeemed from Sin by the
Blood of a Mediator.
This part of the Church, then, which is made up of the holy angels and
the hosts of God, shall become known to us in its true nature, when,
at the end of the world, we shall be united with it in the common
possession of everlasting happiness. But the other part, which,
separated from it, wanders as a stranger on the earth, is better known
to us, both because we belong to it, and because it is composed of
men, and we too are men. This section of the Church has been redeemed
from all sin by the blood of a Mediator who had no sin, and its song
is: "If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not His
own Son, but delivered Him up for us all." [1203] Now it was not for
the angels that Christ died. Yet what was done for the redemption of
man through His death was in a sense done for the angels, because the
enmity which sin had put between men and the holy angels is removed,
and friendship is restored between them, and by the redemption of man
the gaps which the great apostasy left in the angelic host are filled
up.
Footnotes
[1203] Rom. viii. 31
Chapter 62.--By the Sacrifice of Christ All Things are Restored, and
Peace is Made Between Earth and Heaven.
And, of course, the holy angels, taught by God, in the eternal
contemplation of whose truth their happiness consists, know how great
a number of the human race are to supplement their ranks, and fill up
the full tale of their citizenship. Wherefore the apostle says, that
"all things are gathered together in one in Christ, both which are in
heaven and which are on earth." [1204] The things which are in heaven
are gathered together when what was lost therefrom in the fall of the
angels is restored from among men; and the things which are on earth
are gathered together, when those who are predestined to eternal life
are redeemed from their old corruption. And thus, through that single
sacrifice in which the Mediator was offered up, the one sacrifice of
which the many victims under the law were types, heavenly things are
brought into peace with earthly things, and earthly things with
heavenly. Wherefore, as the same apostle says: "For it pleased the
Father that in Him should all fullness dwell: and, having made peace
through the blood of His cross, by Him to reconcile all things to
Himself: by Him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in
heaven." [1205]
Footnotes
[1204] Eph. i. 10
[1205] Col. i. 19, 20. [ R.V. "summed up."].
Chapter 63.--The Peace of God, Which Reigneth in Heaven, Passeth All
Understanding.
This peace, as Scripture saith, "passeth all understanding," [1206]
and cannot be known by us until we have come into the full possession
of it. For in what sense are heavenly things reconciled, except they
be reconciled to us, viz. by coming into harmony with us? For in
heaven there is unbroken peace, both between all the intelligent
creatures that exist there, and between these and their Creator. And
this peace, as is said, passeth all understanding; but this, of
course, means our understanding, not that of those who always behold
the face of their Father. We now, however great may be our human
understanding, know but in part, and see through a glass darkly.
[1207] But when we shall be equal unto the angels of God [1208] then
we shall see face to face, as they do; and we shall have as great
peace towards them as they have towards us, because we shall love them
as much as we are loved by them. And so their peace shall be known to
us: for our own peace shall be like to theirs, and as great as theirs,
nor shall it then pass our understanding. But the peace of God, the
peace which He cherisheth towards us, shall undoubtedly pass not our
understanding only, but theirs as well. And this must be so: for every
rational creature which is happy derives its happiness from Him; He
does not derive His from it. And in this view it is better to
interpret "all" in the passage, "The peace of God passeth all
understanding," as admitting of no exception even in favor of the
understanding of the holy angels: the only exception that can be made
is that of God Himself. For, of course, His peace does not pass His
own understanding.
Footnotes
[1206] Phil. iv. 7
[1207] 1 Cor. xiii. 12
[1208] Luke xx. 36
Chapter 64.--Pardon of Sin Extends Over the Whole Mortal Life of the
Saints, Which, Though Free from Crime, is Not Free from Sin.
But the angels even now are at peace with us when our sins are
pardoned. Hence, in the order of the Creed, after the mention of the
Holy Church is placed the remission of sins. For it is by this that
the Church on earth stands: it is through this that what had been
lost, and was found, is saved from being lost again. For, setting
aside the grace of baptism, which is given as an antidote to original
sin, so that what our birth imposes upon us, our new birth relieves us
from (this grace, however, takes away all the actual sins also that
have been committed in thought, word, and deed): setting aside, then,
this great act of favor, whence commences man's restoration, and in
which all our guilt, both original and actual, is washed away, the
rest of our life from the time that we have the use of reason provides
constant occasion for the remission of sins, however great may be our
advance in righteousness. For the sons of God, as long as they live in
this body of death, are in conflict with death. And although it is
truly said of them, "As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are
the sons of God," [1209] yet they are led by the Spirit of God, and as
the sons of God advance towards God under this drawback, that they are
led also by their own spirit, weighted as it is by the corruptible
body; [1210] and that, as the sons of men, under the influence of
human affections, they fall back to their old level, and so sin. There
is a difference, however. For although every crime is a sin, every sin
is not a crime. And so we say that the life of holy men, as long as
they remain in this mortal body, may be found without crime; but, as
the Apostle John says, "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive
ourselves, and the truth is not in us." [1211]
Footnotes
[1209] Rom. viii. 14
[1210] Wisd. ix. 15
[1211] 1 John i. 8
Chapter 65.--God Pardons Sins, But on Condition of Penitence, Certain
Times for Which Have Been Fixed by the Law of the Church.
But even crimes themselves, however great, may be remitted in the Holy
Church; and the mercy of God is never to be despaired of by men who
truly repent, each according to the measure of his sin. And in the act
of repentance, where a crime has been committed of such a nature as to
cut off the sinner from the body of Christ, we are not to take account
so much of the measure of time as of the measure of sorrow; for a
broken and a contrite heart God doth not despise. [1212] But as the
grief of one heart is frequently hid from another, and is not made
known to others by words or other signs, when it is manifest to Him of
whom it is said, "My groaning is not hid from Thee," [1213] those who
govern the Church have rightly appointed times of penitence, that the
Church in which the sins are remitted may be satisfied; and outside
the Church sins are not remitted. For the Church alone has received
the pledge of the Holy Spirit, without which there is no remission of
sins--such, at least, as brings the pardoned to eternal life.
Footnotes
[1212] Ps. li. 17
[1213] Ps. xxxviii. 9
Chapter 66.--The Pardon of Sin Has Reference Chiefly to the Future
Judgment.
Now the pardon of sin has reference chiefly to the future judgment.
For, as far as this life is concerned, the saying of Scripture holds
good: "A heavy yoke is upon the sons of Adam, from the day that they
go out of their mother's womb, till the day that they return to the
mother of all things." [1214] So that we see even infants, after
baptism and regeneration, suffering from the infliction of divers
evils: and thus we are given to understand, that all that is set forth
in the sacraments of salvation refers rather to the hope of future
good, than to the retaining or attaining of present blessings. For
many sins seem in this world to be overlooked and visited with no
punishment, whose punishment is reserved for the future (for it is not
in vain that the day when Christ shall come as Judge of quick and dead
is peculiarly named the day of judgment); just as, on the other hand,
many sins are punished in this life, which nevertheless are pardoned,
and shall bring down no punishment in the future life. Accordingly, in
reference to certain temporal punishments, which in this life are
visited upon sinners, the apostle, addressing those whose sins are
blotted out, and not reserved for the final judgment, says: "For if we
would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are
judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned
with the world." [1215]
Footnotes
[1214] Ecclus. xl. 1
[1215] 1 Cor. xi. 31, 32
Chapter 67.--Faith Without Works is Dead, and Cannot Save a Man.
It is believed, moreover, by some, that men who do not abandon the
name of Christ, and who have been baptized in the Church by His
baptism, and who have never been cut off from the Church by any schism
or heresy, though they should live in the grossest sin and never
either wash it away in penitence nor redeem it by almsgiving, but
persevere in it persistently to the last day of their lives, shall be
saved by fire; that is, that although they shall suffer a punishment
by fire, lasting for a time proportionate to the magnitude of their
crimes and misdeeds, they shall not be punished with everlasting fire.
But those who believe this, and yet are Catholics, seem to me to be
led astray by a kind of benevolent feeling natural to humanity. For
Holy Scripture, when consulted, gives a very different answer. I have
written a book on this subject, entitled Of Faith and Works, in which,
to the best of my ability, God assisting me, I have shown from
Scripture, that the faith which saves us is that which the Apostle
Paul clearly enough describes when he says: "For in Jesus Christ
neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith
which worketh by love." [1216] But if it worketh evil, and not good,
then without doubt, as the Apostle James says, "it is dead, being
alone." [1217] The same apostle says again, "What doth it profit, my
brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? Can
faith save him?" [1218] And further, if a wicked man shall be saved by
fire on account of his faith alone, and if this is what the blessed
Apostle Paul means when he says, "But he himself shall be saved, yet
so as by fire;" [1219] then faith without works can save a man, and
what his fellow-apostle James says must be false. And that must be
false which Paul himself says in another place: "Be not deceived:
neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate,
nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor
drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners; shall inherit the kingdom
of God." [1220] For if those who persevere in these wicked courses
shall nevertheless be saved on account of their faith in Christ, how
can it be true that they shall not inherit the kingdom of God?
Footnotes
[1216] Gal. v. 6
[1217] Jas. ii. 17. [See R.V.]
[1218] Jas. ii. 14
[1219] 1 Cor. iii. 15
[1220] 1 Cor. vi. 9, 10
Chapter 68.--The True Sense of the Passage (I Cor. III. 11-15) About
Those Who are Saved, Yet So as by Fire.
But as these most plain and unmistakeable declarations of the apostles
cannot be false, that obscure saying about those who build upon the
foundation, Christ, not gold, silver, and precious stones, but wood,
hay, and stubble (for it is these who, it is said, shall be saved, yet
so as by fire, the merit of the foundation saving them [1221] ), must
be so interpreted as not to conflict with the plain statements quoted
above. Now wood, hay, and stubble may, without incongruity, be
understood to signify such an attachment to worldly things, however
lawful these may be in themselves, that they cannot be lost without
grief of mind. And though this grief burns, yet if Christ hold the
place of foundation in the heart,--that is, if nothing be preferred to
Him, and if the man, though burning with grief, is yet more willing to
lose the things he loves so much than to lose Christ,--he is saved by
fire. If, however, in time of temptation, he prefer to hold by
temporal and earthly things rather than by Christ, he has not Christ
as his foundation; for he puts earthly things in the first place, and
in a building nothing comes before the foundation. Again, the fire of
which the apostle speaks in this place must be such a fire as both men
are made to pass through, that is, both the man who builds upon the
foundation, gold, silver, precious stones, and the man who builds
wood, hay, stubble. For he immediately adds: "The fire shall try every
man's work, of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he hath
built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be
burned, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved, yet so as
by fire." [1222] The fire then shall prove, not the work of one of
them only, but of both. Now the trial of adversity is a kind of fire
which is plainly spoken of in another place: "The furnace proveth the
potter's vessels: and the furnace of adversity just men." [1223] And
this fire does in the course of this life act exactly in the way the
apostle says. If it come into contact with two believers, one "caring
for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord,"
[1224] that is, building upon Christ the foundation, gold, silver,
precious stones; the other "caring for the things that are of the
world, how he may please his wife," [1225] that is, building upon the
same foundation wood, hay, stubble,--the work of the former is not
burned, because he has not given his love to things whose loss can
cause him grief; but the work of the latter is burned, because things
that are enjoyed with desire cannot be lost without pain. But since,
by our supposition, even the latter prefers to lose these things
rather than to lose Christ, and since he does not desert Christ out of
fear of losing them, though he is grieved when he does lose them, he
is saved, but it is so as by fire; because the grief for what he loved
and has lost burns him. But it does not subvert nor consume him; for
he is protected by his immoveable and incorruptible foundation.
Footnotes
[1221] 1 Cor. iii. 11-15. [The "fire" in ver. 15 is not the
purgatorial fire in the state between death and resurrection, but, as
in ver. 14, the fire of the day of judgment.--P.S.]
[1222] 1 Cor. iii. 13-15
[1223] Ecclus. xxvii. 5, ii. 5
[1224] 1 Cor. vii. 32
[1225] 1 Cor. vii. 33. [See R.V.]
Chapter 69.--It is Not Impossible that Some Believers May Pass Through
a Purgatorial Fire in the Future Life.
And it is not impossible that something of the same kind may take
place even after this life. It is a matter that may be inquired into,
and either ascertained or left doubtful, whether some believers shall
pass through a kind of purgatorial fire, and in proportion as they
have loved with more or less devotion the goods that perish, be less
or more quickly delivered from it. This cannot, however, be the case
of any of those of whom it is said, that they "shall not inherit the
kingdom of God," [1226] unless after suitable repentance their sins be
forgiven them. When I say "suitable," I mean that they are not to be
unfruitful in almsgiving; for Holy Scripture lays so much stress on
this virtue, that our Lord tells us beforehand, that He will ascribe
no merit to those on His right hand but that they abound in it, and no
defect to those on His left hand but their want of it, when He shall
say to the former, "Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the
kingdom," and to the latter, "Depart from me, ye cursed, into
everlasting fire." [1227]
Footnotes
[1226] 1 Cor. vi. 10
[1227] Matt. xxv. 31-46
Chapter 70.--Almsgiving Will Not Atone for Sin Unless the Life Be
Changed.
We must beware, however, lest any one should suppose that gross sins,
such as are committed by those who shall not inherit the kingdom of
God, may be daily perpetrated, and daily atoned for by almsgiving. The
life must be changed for the better; and almsgiving must be used to
propitiate God for past sins, not to purchase impunity for the
commission of such sins in the future. For He has given no man license
to sin, [1228] although in His mercy He may blot out sins that are
already committed, if we do not neglect to make proper satisfaction.
Footnotes
[1228] Ecclus. xv. 20
Chapter 71.--The Daily Prayer of the Believer Makes Satisfaction for
the Trivial Sins that Daily Stain His Life.
Now the daily prayer of the believer makes satisfaction for those
daily sins of a momentary and trivial kind which are necessary
incidents of this life. For he can say, "Our Father which art in
heaven," [1229] seeing that to such a Father he is now born again of
water and of the Spirit. [1230] And this prayer certainly takes away
the very small sins of daily life. It takes away also those which at
one time made the life of the believer very wicked, but which, now
that he is changed for the better by repentance, he has given up,
provided that as truly as he says, "Forgive us our debts" (for there
is no want of debts to be forgiven), so truly does he say, "as we
forgive our debtors;" [1231] that is, provided he does what he says he
does: for to forgive a man who asks for pardon, is really to give
alms.
Footnotes
[1229] Matt. vi. 9
[1230] John iii. 5
[1231] Matt. vi. 12
Chapter 72.--There are Many Kinds of Alms, the Giving of Which Assists
to Procure Pardon for Our Sins.
And on this principle of interpretation, our Lord's saying, "Give alms
of such things as ye have, and, behold, all things are clean unto
you," [1232] applies to every useful act that a man does in mercy. Not
only, then, the man who gives food to the hungry, drink to the
thirsty, clothing to the naked, hospitality to the stranger, shelter
to the fugitive, who visits the sick and the imprisoned, ransoms the
captive, assists the weak, leads the blind, comforts the sorrowful,
heals the sick, puts the wanderer on the right path, gives advice to
the perplexed, and supplies the wants of the needy,--not this man
only, but the man who pardons the sinner also gives alms; and the man
who corrects with blows, or restrains by any kind of discipline one
over whom he has power, and who at the same time forgives from the
heart the sin by which he was injured, or prays that it may be
forgiven, is also a giver of alms, not only in that he forgives, or
prays for forgiveness for the sin, but also in that he rebukes and
corrects the sinner: for in this, too, he shows mercy. Now much good
is bestowed upon unwilling recipients, when their advantage and not
their pleasure is consulted; and they themselves frequently prove to
be their own enemies, while their true friends are those whom they
take for their enemies, and to whom in their blindness they return
evil for good. (A Christian, indeed, is not permitted to return evil
even for evil. [1233] ) And thus there are many kinds of alms, by
giving of which we assist to procure the pardon of our sins.
Footnotes
[1232] Luke xi. 41
[1233] Rom. xii. 17; Matt. v. 44
Chapter 73.--The Greatest of All Alms is to Forgive Our Debtors and to
Love Our Enemies.
But none of those is greater than to forgive from the heart a sin that
has been committed against us. For it is a comparatively small thing
to wish well to, or even to do good to, a man who has done no evil to
you. It is a much higher thing, and is the result of the most exalted
goodness, to love your enemy, and always to wish well to, and when you
have the opportunity, to do good to, the man who wishes you ill, and,
when he can, does you harm. This is to obey the command of God: "Love
your enemies, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which
persecute you." [1234] But seeing that this is a frame of mind only
reached by the perfect sons of God, and that though every believer
ought to strive after it, and by prayer to God and earnest struggling
with himself endeavor to bring his soul up to this standard, yet a
degree of goodness so high can hardly belong to so great a multitude
as we believe are heard when they use this petition, "Forgive us our
debts, as we forgive our debtors;" in view of all this, it cannot be
doubted that the implied undertaking is fulfilled if a man, though he
has not yet attained to loving his enemy, yet, when asked by one who
has sinned against him to forgive him his sin, does forgive him from
his heart. For he certainly desires to be himself forgiven when he
prays, "as we forgive our debtors," that is, Forgive us our debts when
we beg forgiveness, as we forgive our debtors when they beg
forgiveness from us.
Footnotes
[1234] Matt. v. 44
Chapter 74.--God Does Not Pardon the Sins of Those Who Do Not from the
Heart Forgive Others.
Now, he who asks forgiveness of the man against whom he has sinned,
being moved by his sin to ask forgiveness, cannot be counted an enemy
in such a sense that it should be as difficult to love him now as it
was when he was engaged in active hostility. And the man who does not
from his heart forgive him who repents of his sin, and asks
forgiveness, need not suppose that his own sins are forgiven of God.
For the Truth cannot lie. And what reader or hearer of the Gospel can
have failed to notice, that the same person who said, "I am the
Truth," [1235] taught us also this form of prayer; and in order to
impress this particular petition deeply upon our minds, said, "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"? [1236] The man whom the thunder
of this warning does not awaken is not asleep, but dead; and yet so
powerful is that voice, that it can awaken even the dead.
Footnotes
[1235] John xiv. 6
[1236] Matt. vi. 14, 15
Chapter 75.--The Wicked and the Unbelieving are Not Made Clean by the
Giving of Alms, Except They Be Born Again.
Assuredly, then, those who live in gross wickedness, and take no care
to reform their lives and manners, and yet amid all their crimes and
vices do not cease to give frequent alms, in vain take comfort to
themselves from the saying of our Lord: "Give alms of such things as
ye have; and, behold, all things are clean unto you." [1237] For they
do not understand how far this saying reaches. But that they may
understand this, let them hear what He says. For we read in the Gospel
as follows: "And as He spake, a certain Pharisee besought Him to dine
with him; and He went in, and sat down to meat. And when the Pharisee
saw it, he marvelled that He had not first washed before dinner. And
the Lord said unto him, Now do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of
the cup and the platter; but your inward part is full of ravening and
wickedness. Ye fools, did not he that made that which is without, make
that which is within also? But rather give alms of such things as ye
have; and, behold, all things are clean unto you." [1238] Are we to
understand this as meaning that to the Pharisees who have not the
faith of Christ all things are clean, if only they give alms in the
way these men count almsgiving, even though they have never believed
in Christ, nor been born again of water and of the Spirit? But the
fact is, that all are unclean who are not made clean by the faith of
Christ, according to the expression, "purifying their hearts by
faith;" [1239] and that the apostle says, "Unto them that are defiled
and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is
defiled." [1240] How, then, could all things be clean to the
Pharisees, even though they gave alms, if they were not believers? And
how could they be believers if they were not willing to have faith in
Christ, and to be born again of His grace? And yet what they heard is
true: "Giv