Writings of Augustine. A Treatise on the Spirit and the Letter.
Advanced Information
Augustin and the Pelagian Controversy.
A Treatise on the Spirit and the Letter.
Extract from Augustin's "Retractations," Book II. Chap. 37,
On the Following Treatise, "De spiritu et littera."
Published in 1886 by Philip Schaff,
New York: Christian Literature Publishing Co.
The person [709] to whom I had addressed the three books entitled De
Peccatorum Meritis et Remissione, in which I carefully discussed also
the baptism of infants, informed me, when acknowledging my
communication, that he was much distrurbed because I declared it to be
possible that a man might be without sin, if he wanted not the will,
by the help of God, although no man either had lived, was living, or
would live in this life so perfect in righteousness. He asked how I
could say that it was possible of which no example could be adduced.
Owing to this inquiry on the part of this person, I wrote the treatise
entitled De Spiritu et Littera, in which I considered at large the
apostle's statement, "The letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life."
[710] In this work, so far as God enabled me, I earnestly disputed
with those who oppose that grace of God which justifies the servances
of the Jews, who abstain from sundry meats and drinks in accordance
with their ancient law, I mentioned the "ceremonies of certain meats"
[quarumdam escarum cerimoniæ] [711] --a phrase which, though not used
in Holy Scriptures, seemed to me very convenient, because I remembered
that cerimoniæ is tantamount to carimoniæ, as if from carere, to be
without, and expresses the abstinence of the worshippers from certain
things. If however, there is any other derivation of the word, which
is inconsistent with the true religion, I meant no refernce whatever
to it; I confined my use to the sense above indicated. This work of
mine begins thus: "After reading the short treatise which I lately
drew up for you, my beloved son Marcellinus," etc.
Footnotes
[709] The Tribune Marcellinus with whose name are connected many other
treatises of Augustin. In this work the author informs us that the
occasion of its composition was furnished by this person, who mooted
an inquiry touching a statement in the preceding books Concerning the
Merits and the Remission of Sins. Those books, as we have already
indicated, were published A.D., 412. Now in the Retractations there is
placed after these very books the present work Concerning the Spirit
and the Letter,--not indeed, immediately next, but in the fourth place
after,--so that it was written, no doubt, about the end of the same
year, A.D. 412, some time previous to the death of Marcellinus, who
was killed in the month or September of the following year, 413. This
present work is also mentioned in the book On Faith and Works, c. 14;
and in that On Christian Doctrine, iii. 33. Compare the notes on p. 15
and p. 130.
[710] 2 Cor. iii. 6.
[711] See chap. 36 [xxi.].
A Treatise on the Spirit and the Letter,
by Aurelius Augustin, Bishop of Hippo;
In One Book,
Addressed to Marcellinus, a.d. 412.
Marcellinus, in a letter to Augustin, had expressed some surprise at
having read, in the preceding work, of the possibility being allowed
of a man continuing if he willed it, by God's help, without sin in the
present life, although not a single human example anywhere of such
perfect righteousness has ever existed. Augustin takes the opportunity
of discussing, in opposition to the Pelagians, the subject of the aid
of God's grace; and he shows that the divine help to the working of
righteousness by us does not lie in the fact of God's having given us
a law which is full of good and holy precepts; but in the fact that
our will itself, without which we can do nothing good, is assisted and
elevated by the Spirit of grace being imparted to us, without the aid
of which the teaching of the law is "the letter that killeth," because
instead of justifying the ungodly, it rather holds them guilty of
transgression. He begins to treat of the question proposed to him at
the commencement of this work, and returns to it towards its
conclusion; he shows that, as all allow, many things are possible with
God's help, of which there occurs indeed no example; and then
concludes that, although a perfect righteousness is unexampled among
men, it is for all that not impossible.
Chapter 1 [I.] --The Occasion of Writing This Work; A Thing May Be
Capable of Being Done, and Yet May Never Be Done.
After reading the short treatises which I lately drew up for you, my
beloved son Marcellinus, about the baptism of infants, and the
perfection of man's righteousness,--how that no one in this life seems
either to have attained or to be likely to attain to it, except only
the Mediator, who bore humanity in the likeness of sinful flesh,
without any sin whatever,--you wrote me in answer that you were
embarrassed by the point which I advanced in the second book, [712]
that it was possible for a man to be without sin, if he wanted not the
will, and was assisted by the aid of God; and yet that except One in
whom "all shall be made alive," [713] no one has ever lived or will
live by whom this perfection has been attained whilst living here. It
appeared to you absurd to say that anything was possible of which no
example ever occurred,--although I suppose you would not hesitate to
admit that no camel ever passed through a needle's eye, [714] and yet
He said that even this was possible with God; you may read, too, that
twelve thousand legions [715] of angels could possibly have fought for
Christ and rescued Him from suffering, but in fact did not; you may
read that it was possible for the nations to be exterminated at once
out of the land which was given to the children of Israel, [716] and
yet that God willed it to be gradually effected. [717] And one may
meet with a thousand other incidents, the past or the future
possibility of which we might readily admit, and yet be unable to
produce any proofs of their having ever really happened. Accordingly,
it would not be right for us to deny the possibility of a man's living
without sin, on the ground that amongst men none can be found except
Him who is in His nature not man only, but also God, in whom we could
prove such perfection of character to have existed.
Footnotes
[712] On the Merits of Sins, etc., ii. 6, 7, 20.
[713] 1 Cor. xv. 22.
[714] Matt. xix. 24, 26.
[715] Matt. xxvi. 53, but observe the "thousand" inserted.
[716] Deut. xxxi. 3.
[717] Judg. ii. 3.
Chapter 2 [II.]--The Examples Apposite.
Here, perhaps, you will say to me in answer, that the things which I
have instanced as not having been realized, although capable of
realization, are divine works; whereas a man's being without sin falls
in the range of a man's own work,--that being indeed his very noblest
work which effects a full and perfect righteousness complete in every
part; and therefore that it is incredible that no man has ever
existed, or is existing, or will exist in this life, who has achieved
such a work, if the achievement is possible for a human being. But
then you ought to reflect that, although this great work, no doubt,
belongs to human agency to accomplish, yet it is also a divine gift,
and therefore, not doubt that it is a divine work; "for it is God who
worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure." [718]
Footnotes
[718] Phil. ii. 13.
Chapter 3.--Theirs is Comparatively a Harmless Error, Who Say that a
Man Lives Here Without Sin.
They therefore are not a very dangerous set of persons and they ought
to be urged to show, if they are able, that they are themselves such,
who hold that man lives or has lived here without any sin whatever.
There are indeed passages of Scripture, in which I apprehend it is
definitely stated that no man who lives on earth, although enjoying
freedom of will, can be found without sin; as, for instance, the place
where it is written, "Enter not into judgment with Thy servant, for in
Thy sight shall no man living be justified." [719] If, however,
anybody shall have succeeded in showing that this text and the other
similar ones ought to be taken in a different sense from their obvious
one, and shall have proved that some man or men have spent a sinless
life on earth,--whoever does not, not merely refrain from much
opposing him, but also does not rejoice with him to the full, is
afflicted by extraordinary goads of envy. Moreover, if there neither
is, has been, nor will be any man endowed with such perfection of
purity (which I am more inclined to believe), and yet it is firmly set
forth and thought there is or has been, or is to be,--so far as I can
judge, no great error is made, and certainly not a dangerous one, when
a man is thus carried away by a certain benevolent feeling; provided
that he who thinks so much of another, does not think himself to be
such a being, unless he has ascertained that he really and clearly is
such.
Footnotes
[719] Ps. cxliii. 2.
Chapter 4.--Theirs is a Much More Serious Error, Requiring a Very
Vigorous Refutation, Who Deny God's Grace to Be Necessary.
They, however, must be resisted with the utmost ardor and vigor who
suppose that without God's help, the mere power of the human will in
itself, can either perfect righteousness, or advance steadily towards
it; and when they begin to be hard pressed about their presumption in
asserting that this result can be reached without the divine
assistance, they check themselves, and do not venture to utter such an
opinion, because they see how impious and insufferable it is. But they
allege that such attainments are not made without God's help on this
account, namely, because God both created man with the free choice of
his will, and, by giving him commandments, teaches him, Himself, how
man ought to live; and indeed assists him, in that He takes away his
ignorance by instructing him in the knowledge of what he ought to
avoid and to desire in his actions: and thus, by means of the
free-will naturally implanted within him, he enters on the way which
is pointed out to him, and by persevering in a just and pious course
of life, deserves to attain to the blessedness of eternal life.
Chapter 5 [III.]--True Grace is the Gift of the Holy Ghost, Which
Kindles in the Soul the Joy and Love of Goodness.
We, however, on our side affirm that the human will is so divinely
aided in the pursuit of righteousness, that (in addition to man's
being created with a free-will, and in addition to the teaching by
which he is instructed how he ought to live) he receives the Holy
Ghost, by whom there is formed in his mind a delight in, and a love
of, that supreme and unchangeable good which is God, even now while he
is still "walking by faith" and not yet "by sight;" [720] in order
that by this gift to him of the earnest, as it were, of the free gift,
he may conceive an ardent desire to cleave to his Maker, and may burn
to enter upon the participation in that true light, that it may go
well with him from Him to whom he owes his existence. A man's
free-will, indeed, avails for nothing except to sin, if he knows not
the way of truth; and even after his duty and his proper aim shall
begin to become known to him, unless he also take delight in and feel
a love for it, he neither does his duty, nor sets about it, nor lives
rightly. Now, in order that such a course may engage our affections,
God's "love is shed abroad in our hearts," not through the free-will
which arises from ourselves, but "through the Holy Ghost, which is
given to us." [721]
Footnotes
[720] 2 Cor. v. 7.
[721] Rom. v. 5.
Chapter 6 [IV.]--The Teaching of Law Without the Life-Giving Spirit is
"The Letter that Killeth."
For that teaching which brings to us the command to live in chastity
and righteousness is "the letter that killeth," unless accompanied
with "the spirit that giveth life." For that is not the sole meaning
of the passage, "The letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life,"
[722] which merely prescribes that we should not take in the literal
sense any figurative phrase which in the proper meaning of its words
would produce only nonsense, but should consider what else it
signifies, nourishing the inner man by our spiritual intelligence,
since "being carnally-minded is death, whilst to be spiritually-minded
is life and peace." [723] If, for instance, a man were to take in a
literal and carnal sense much that is written in the Song of Solomon,
he would minister not to the fruit of a luminous charity, but to the
feeling of a libidinous desire. Therefore, the apostle is not to be
confined to the limited application just mentioned, when he says, "The
letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life;" [724] but this is also
(and indeed especially) equivalent to what he says elsewhere in the
plainest words: "I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou
shalt not covet;" [725] and again, immediately after: "Sin, taking
occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me." [726]
Now from this you may see what is meant by "the letter that killeth."
There is, of course, nothing said figuratively which is not to be
accepted in its plain sense, when it is said, "Thou shall not covet;"
but this is a very plain and salutary precept, and any man who shall
fulfil it will have no sin at all. The apostle, indeed, purposely
selected this general precept, in which he embraced everything, as if
this were the voice of the law, prohibiting us from all sin, when he
says, "Thou shalt not covet;" for there is no sin committed except by
evil concupiscence; so that the law which prohibits this is a good and
praiseworthy law. But, when the Holy Ghost withholds His help, which
inspires us with a good desire instead of this evil desire (in other
words, diffuses love in our hearts), that law, however good in itself,
only augments the evil desire by forbidding it. Just as the rush of
water which flows incessantly in a particular direction, becomes more
violent when it meets with any impediment, and when it has overcome
the stoppage, falls in a greater bulk, and with increased impetuosity
hurries forward in its downward course. In some strange way the very
object which we covet becomes all the more pleasant when it is
forbidden. And this is the sin which by the commandment deceives and
by it slays, whenever transgression is actually added, which occurs
not where there is no law. [727]
Footnotes
[722] 2 Cor. iii. 6.
[723] Rom. viii. 6.
[724] 2 Cor. iii. 6.
[725] Rom. vii. 7.
[726] Rom. vii. 11.
[727] Rom. iv. 15.
Chapter 7 [V.]--What is Proposed to Be Here Treated.
We will, however, consider, if you please, the whole of this passage
of the apostle and thoroughly handle it, as the Lord shall enable us.
For I want, if possible, to prove that the apostle's words, "The
letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life," do not refer to
figurative phrases,--although even in this sense a suitable
signification might be obtained from them,--but rather plainly to the
law, which forbids whatever is evil. When I shall have proved this, it
will more manifestly appear that to lead a holy life is the gift of
God,--not only because God has given a free-will to man, without which
there is no living ill or well; nor only because He has given him a
commandment to teach him how he ought to live; but because through the
Holy Ghost He sheds love abroad in the hearts [728] of those whom he
foreknew, in order to predestinate them; whom He predestinated, that
He might call them; whom He called, that he might justify them; and
whom he justified, that He might glorify them. [729] When this point
also shall be cleared, you will, I think, see how vain it is to say
that those things only are unexampled possibilities, which are the
works of God,--such as the passage of the camel through the needle's
eye, which we have already referred to, and other similar cases, which
to us no doubt are impossible, but easy enough to God; and that man's
righteousness is not to be counted in this class of things, on the
ground of its being properly man's work, not God's; although there is
no reason for supposing, without an example, that his perfection
exists, even if it is possible. That these assertions are vain will be
clear enough, after it has been also plainly shown that even man's
righteousness must be attributed to the operation of God, although not
taking place without man's will; and we therefore cannot deny that his
perfection is possible even in this life, because all things are
possible with God, [730] --both those which He accomplishes of His own
sole will, and those which He appoints to be done with the cooperation
with Himself of His creature's will. Accordingly, whatever of such
things He does not effect is no doubt without an example in the way of
accomplished facts, although with God it possesses both in His power
the cause of its possibility, and in His wisdom the reason of its
unreality. And should this cause be hidden from man, let him not
forget that he is a man; nor charge God with folly simply because he
cannot fully comprehend His wisdom.
Footnotes
[728] Rom. vii. 7.
[729] Rom. viii. 29, 30.
[730] Mark x. 27.
Chapter 8.--Romans Interprets Corinthians.
Attend, then, carefully, to the apostle while in his Epistle to the
Romans he explains and clearly enough shows that what he wrote to the
Corinthians, "The letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life," [731]
must be understood in the sense which we have already indicated,--that
the letter of the law, which teaches us not to commit sin, kills, if
the life-giving spirit be absent, forasmuch as it causes sin to be
known rather than avoided, and therefore to be increased rather than
diminished, because to an evil concupiscense there is now added the
transgression of the law.
Footnotes
[731] 2 Cor. iii. 6.
Chapter 9 [VI].--Through the Law Sin Has Abounded.
The apostle, then, wishing to commend the grace which has come to all
nations through Jesus Christ, lest the Jews should extol themselves at
the expense of the other peoples on account of their having received
the law, first says that sin and death came on the human race through
one man, and that righteousness and eternal life came also through
one, expressly mentioning Adam as the former, and Christ as the
latter; and then says that "the law, however, entered, that the
offence might abound: but where sin abounded, grace did much more
abound: that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign
through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord."
[732] Then, proposing a question for himself to answer, he adds, "What
shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
God forbid." [733] He saw, indeed, that a perverse use might be made
by perverse men of what he had said: "The law entered, that the
offence might abound: but where sin abounded, grace did much more
abound,"--as if he had said that sin had been of advantage by reason
of the abundance of grace. Rejecting this, he answers his question
with a "God forbid!" and at once adds: "How shall we, that are dead to
sin, live any longer therein?" [734] as much as to say, When grace has
brought it to pass that we should die unto sin, what else shall we be
doing, if we continue to live in it, than showing ourselves ungrateful
to grace? The man who extols the virtue of a medicine does not contend
that the diseases and wounds of which the medicine cures him are of
advantage to him; on the contrary, in proportion to the praise
lavished on the remedy are the blame and horror which are felt of the
diseases and wounds healed by the much-extolled medicine. In like
manner, the commendation and praise of grace are vituperation and
condemnation of offences. For there was need to prove to man how
corruptly weak he was, so that against his iniquity, the holy law
brought him no help towards good, but rather increased than diminished
his iniquity; seeing that the law entered, that the offence might
abound; that being thus convicted and confounded, he might see not
only that he needed a physician, but also God as his helper so to
direct his steps that sin should not rule over him, and he might be
healed by betaking himself to the help of the divine mercy; and in
this way, where sin abounded grace might much more abound,--not
through the merit of the sinner, but by the intervention of his
Helper.
Footnotes
[732] Rom. v. 20, 21.
[733] Rom. vi. 1. 2.
[734] Rom. vi. 2.
Chapter 10.--Christ the True Healer.
Accordingly, the apostle shows that the same medicine was mystically
set forth in the passion and resurrection of Christ, when he says,
"Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ
were baptized into His death? Therefore we were 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 justified 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." [735] Now it is plain enough that here by the mystery of the
Lord's death and resurrection is figured the death of our old sinful
life, and the rising of the new; and that here is shown forth the
abolition of iniquity and the renewal of righteousness. Whence then
arises this vast benefit to man through the letter of the law, except
it be through the faith of Jesus Christ?
Footnotes
[735] Rom. vi. 3-11.
Chapter 11 [VII.]--From What Fountain Good Works Flow.
This holy meditation preserves "the children of men, who put their
trust under the shadow of God's wings," [736] so that they are
"drunken with the fatness of His house, and drink of the full stream
of His pleasure. For with Him is the fountain of life, and in His
light shall they see light. For He extendeth His mercy to them that
know Him, and His righteousness to the upright in heart." [737] He
does not, indeed, extend His mercy to them because they know Him, but
that they may know Him; nor is it because they are upright in heart,
but that they may become so, that He extends to them His
righteousness, whereby He justifies the ungodly. [738] This meditation
does not elevate with pride: this sin arises when any man has too much
confidence in himself, and makes himself the chief end of living.
Impelled by this vain feeling, he departs from that fountain of life,
from the draughts of which alone is imbibed the holiness which is
itself the good life,--and from that unchanging light, by sharing in
which the reasonable soul is in a certain sense inflamed, and becomes
itself a created and reflected luminary; even as "John was a burning
and a shining light," [739] who notwithstanding acknowledged the
source of his own illumination in the words, "Of His fulness have all
we received." [740] Whose, I would ask, but His, of course, in
comparison with whom John indeed was no light at all? For "that was
the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world."
[741] Therefore, in the same psalm, after saying, "Extend Thy mercy to
them that know Thee, and Thy righteousness to the upright in heart,"
[742] he adds, "Let not the foot of pride come against me, and let not
the hands of sinners move me. There have fallen all the workers of
iniquity: they are cast out, and are not able to stand." [743] Since
by that impiety which leads each to attribute to himself the
excellence which is God's, he is cast out into his own native
darkness, in which consist the works of iniquity. For it is manifestly
these works which he does, and for the achievement of such alone is he
naturally fit. The works of righteousness he never does, except as he
receives ability from that fountain and that light, where the life is
that wants for nothing, and where is "no variableness, nor the shadow
of turning." [744]
Footnotes
[736] Ps. xxxvi. 7.
[737] Ps. xxxvi. 8-10.
[738] Rom. iv. 5.
[739] John v. 35.
[740] John i. 16.
[741] John i. 9.
[742] Ps. xxxvi. 10.
[743] Ps. xxxvi. 11, 12.
[744] Jas. i. 17.
Chapter 12.--Paul, Whence So Called; Bravely Contends for Grace.
Accordingly Paul, who, although he was formerly called Saul, [745]
chose this new designation, for no other reason, as it seems to me,
than because he would show himself little, [746] --the "least of the
apostles," [747] --contends with much courage and earnestness against
the proud and arrogant, and such as plume themselves on their own
works, in order that he may commend the grace of God. This grace,
indeed, appeared more obvious and manifest in his case, inasmuch as,
while he was pursuing such vehement measures of persecution against
the Church of God as made him worthy of the greatest punishment, he
found mercy instead of condemnation, and instead of punishment
obtained grace. Very properly, therefore, does he lift voice and hand
in defence of grace, and care not for the envy either of those who
understood not a subject too profound and abstruse for them, or of
those who perversely misinterpreted his own sound words; whilst at the
same time he unfalteringly preaches that gift of God, whereby alone
salvation accrues to those who are the children of the promise,
children of the divine goodness, children of grace and mercy, children
of the new covenant. In the salutation with which he begins every
epistle, he prays: "Grace be to you, and peace, from God the Father,
and from the Lord Jesus Christ;" [748] whilst this forms almost the
only topic discussed for the Romans, and it is plied with so much
persistence and variety of argument, as fairly to fatigue the reader's
attention, yet with a fatigue so useful and salutary, that it rather
exercises than breaks the faculties of the inner man.
Footnotes
[745] Acts. xiii. 9.
[746] See Augustin's Confessions, viii. 4.
[747] 1 Cor. xv. 9.
[748] See Rom. i. 7, 1 Cor. i. 3, and Gal. i. 3.
Chapter 13 [VIII.]--Keeping the Law; The Jews' Glorying; The Fear of
Punishment; The Circumcision of the Heart.
Then comes what I mentioned above; then he shows what the Jew is, and
says that he is called a Jew, but by no means fulfils what he promises
to do. "But if," says he, "thou callest thyself a Jew, and restest in
the law, and makest thy boast of God, and knowest His will, and triest
the things that are different, being instructed out of the law; and
art confident that thou art thyself a guide of the blind, a light of
them that are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of
babes, which hast the form of knowledge and of the truth in the law.
Thou therefore who teachest another, teachest thou not thyself? thou
that preachest a man should not steal, dost thou steal? thou that
sayest a man should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adultery?
thou that abhorrest idols, dost thou commit sacrilege? thou that
makest thy boast of the law, through breaking the law dishonorest thou
God? For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles through you,
as it is written. Circumcision verily profiteth, if thou keep the law;
but if thou be a breaker of the law, thy circumcision is made
uncircumcision. Therefore, if the uncircumcision keep the
righteousness of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be counted for
circumcision? And shall not uncircumcision which is by nature, if it
fulfil the law, judge thee, who by the letter and circumcision dost
transgress the law? For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly; neither
is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh: but he is a Jew
who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the
spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of
God." [749] Here he plainly showed in what sense he said, "Thou makest
thy boast of God." For undoubtedly if one who was truly a Jew made his
boast of God in the way which grace demands (which is bestowed not for
merit of works, but gratuitously), then his praise would be of God,
and not of men. But they, in fact, were making their boast of God, as
if they alone had deserved to receive His law, as the Psalmist said:
"He did not the like to any nation, nor His judgments has He displayed
to them." [750] And yet, they thought they were fulfilling the law of
God by their righteousness, when they were rather breakers of it all
the while! Accordingly, it "wrought wrath" [751] upon them, and sin
abounded, committed as it was by them who knew the law. For whoever
did even what the law commanded, without the assistance of the Spirit
of grace, acted through fear of punishment, not from love of
righteousness, and hence in the sight of God that was not in the will,
which in the sight of men appeared in the work; and such doers of the
law were held rather guilty of that which God knew they would have
preferred to commit, if only it had been possible with impunity. He
calls, however, "the circumcision of the heart" the will that is pure
from all unlawful desire; which comes not from the letter, inculcating
and threatening, but from the Spirit, assisting and healing. Such
doers of the law have their praise therefore, not of men but of God,
who by His grace provides the grounds on which they receive praise, of
whom it is said, "My soul shall make her boast of the Lord;" [752] and
to whom it is said, "My praise shall be of Thee:" [753] but those are
not such who would have God praised because they are men; but
themselves, because they are righteous.
Footnotes
[749] Rom. ii. 17-29.
[750] Ps. cxlvii. 20.
[751] Rom. iv. 15.
[752] Ps. xxxiv. 2.
[753] Ps. xxii. 25
Chapter 14.--In What Respect the Pelagians Acknowledge God as the
Author of Our Justification.
"But," say they, "we do praise God as the Author of our righteousness,
in that He gave the law, by the teaching of which we have learned how
we ought to live." But they give no heed to what they read: "By the
law there shall no flesh be justified in the sight of God." [754] This
may indeed be possible before men, but not before Him who looks into
our very heart and inmost will, where He sees that, although the man
who fears the law keeps a certain precept, he would nevertheless
rather do another thing if he were permitted. And lest any one should
suppose that, in the passage just quoted from him, the apostle had
meant to say that none are justified by that law, which contains many
precepts, under the figure of the ancient sacraments, and among them
that circumcision of the flesh itself, which infants were commanded to
receive on the eighth day after birth; he immediately adds what law he
meant, and says, "For by the law is the knowledge of sin." [755] He
refers then to that law of which he afterwards declares, "I had not
known sin but by the law; for I had not known lust except the law had
said, Thou shalt not covet." [756] For what means this but that "by
the law comes the knowledge of sin?"
Footnotes
[754] Rom. iii. 20.
[755] Rom. iii. 20.
[756] Rom. vii. 7.
Chapter 15 [IX.]--The Righteousness of God Manifested by the Law and
the Prophets.
Here, perhaps, it may be said by that presumption of man, which is
ignorant of the righteousness of God, and wishes to establish one of
its own, that the apostle quite properly said, "For by the law shall
no man be justified," [757] inasmuch as the law merely shows what one
ought to do, and what one ought to guard against, in order that what
the law thus points out may be accomplished by the will, and so man be
justified, not indeed by the power of the law, but by his free
determination. But I ask your attention, O man, to what follows. "But
now the righteousness of God," says he, "without the law is
manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets." [758] Does
this then sound a light thing in deaf ears? He says, "The
righteousness of God is manifested." Now this righteousness they are
ignorant of, who wish to establish one of their own; they will not
submit themselves to it. [759] His words are, "The righteousness of
God is manifested:" he does not say, the righteousness of man, or the
righteousness of his own will, but the "righteousness of God,"--not
that whereby He is Himself righteous, but that with which He endows
man when He justifies the ungodly. This is witnessed by the law and
the prophets; in other words, the law and the prophets each afford it
testimony. The law, indeed, by issuing its commands and threats, and
by justifying no man, sufficiently shows that it is by God's gift,
through the help of the Spirit, that a man is justified; and the
prophets, because it was what they predicted that Christ at His coming
accomplished. Accordingly he advances a step further, and adds, "But
righteousness of God by faith of Jesus Christ," [760] that is by the
faith wherewith one believes in Christ for just as there is not meant
the faith with which Christ Himself believes, so also there is not
meant the righteousness whereby God is Himself righteous. Both no
doubt are ours, but yet they are called God's, and Christ's, because
it is by their bounty that these gifts are bestowed upon us. The
righteousness of God then is without the law, but not manifested
without the law; for if it were manifested without the law, how could
it be witnessed by the law? That righteousness of God, however, is
without the law, which God by the Spirit of grace bestows on the
believer without the help of the law,--that is, when not helped by the
law. When, indeed, He by the law discovers to a man his weakness, it
is in order that by faith he may flee for refuge to His mercy, and be
healed. And thus concerning His wisdom we are told, that "she carries
law and mercy upon her tongue," [761] --the "law," whereby she may
convict the proud, the "mercy," wherewith she may justify the humbled.
"The righteousness of God," then, "by faith of Jesus Christ, is unto
all that believe; for there is no difference, for all have sinned, and
come short of the glory of God" [762] --not of their own glory. For
what have they, which they have not received? Now if they received it,
why do they glory as if they had not received it? [763] Well, then,
they come short of the glory of God; now observe what follows: "Being
justified freely by His grace." [764] It is not, therefore, by the
law, nor is it by their own will, that they are justified; but they
are justified freely by His grace,--not that it is wrought without our
will; but our will is by the law shown to be weak, that grace may heal
its infirmity; and that our healed will may fulfil the law, not by
compact under the law, nor yet in the absence of law.
Footnotes
[757] Rom. iii. 20.
[758] Rom. iii. 21.
[759] Rom. x. 3.
[760] Rom. iii. 22.
[761] Prov. iii. 16.
[762] Rom. iii. 22, 23.
[763] 1 Cor. iv. 7.
[764] Rom. iii. 24.
Chapter 16 [X.]--How the Law Was Not Made for a Righteous Man.
Because "for a righteous man the law was not made;" [765] and yet "the
law is good, if a man use it lawfully." [766] Now by connecting
together these two seemingly contrary statements, the apostle warns
and urges his reader to sift the question and solve it too. For how
can it be that "the law is good, if a man use it lawfully," if what
follows is also true: "Knowing this, that the law is not made for a
righteous man?" [767] For who but a righteous man lawfully uses the
law? Yet it is not for him that it is made, but for the unrighteous.
Must then the unrighteous man, in order that he may be
justified,--that is, become a righteous man,--lawfully use the law, to
lead him, as by the schoolmaster's hand, [768] to that grace by which
alone he can fulfil what the law commands? Now it is freely that he is
justified thereby,--that is, on account of no antecedent merits of his
own works; "otherwise grace is no more grace," [769] since it is
bestowed on us, not because we have done good works, but that we may
be able to do them,--in other words, not because we have fulfilled the
law, but in order that we may be able to fulfil the law. Now He said,
"I am not come to destroy the law, but to fulfil it," [770] of whom it
was said, "We have seen His glory, the glory as of the only-begotten
of the Father, full of grace and truth." [771] This is the glory which
is meant in the words, "All have sinned, and come short of the glory
of God;" [772] and this the grace of which he speaks in the next
verse, "Being justified freely by His grace." [773] The unrighteous
man therefore lawfully uses the law, that he may become righteous; but
when he has become so, he must no longer use it as a chariot, for he
has arrived at his journey's end,--or rather (that I may employ the
apostle's own simile, which has been already mentioned) as a
schoolmaster, seeing that he is now fully learned. How then is the law
not made for a righteous man, if it is necessary for the righteous man
too, not that he may be brought as an unrighteous man to the grace
that justifies, but that he may use it lawfully, now that he is
righteous? Does not the case perhaps stand thus,--nay, not perhaps,
but rather certainly,--that the man who is become righteous thus
lawfully uses the law, when he applies it to alarm the unrighteous, so
that whenever the disease of some unusual desire begins in them, too,
to be augmented by the incentive of the law's prohibition and an
increased amount of transgression, they may in faith flee for refuge
to the grace that justifies, and becoming delighted with the sweet
pleasures of holiness, may escape the penalty of the law's menacing
letter through the spirit's soothing gift? In this way the two
statements will not be contrary, nor will they be repugnant to each
other: even the righteous man may lawfully use a good law, and yet the
law be not made for the righteous man; for it is not by the law that
he becomes righteous, but by the law of faith, which led him to
believe that no other resource was possible to his weakness for
fulfilling the precepts which "the law of works" [774] commanded,
except to be assisted by the grace of God.
Footnotes
[765] 1 Tim. i. 8.
[766] 1 Tim. i. 9.
[767] 1 Tim. i. 9.
[768] Gal. iii. 24.
[769] Rom. xi. 6.
[770] Matt. v. 17.
[771] John i. 14.
[772] Rom. iii. 23.
[773] Rom. iii. 24.
[774] Rom. iii. 27.
Chapter 17.--The Exclusion of Boasting.
Accordingly he says, "Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what
law? of works? Nay; but by the law of faith." [775] He may either
mean, the laudable boasting, which is in the Lord; and that it is
excluded, not in the sense that it is driven off so as to pass away,
but that it is clearly manifested so as to stand out prominently.
Whence certain artificers in silver are called "exclusores." [776] In
this sense it occurs also in that passage in the Psalms: "That they
may be excluded, who have been proved with silver," [777] --that is,
that they may stand out in prominence, who have been tried by the word
of God. For in another passage it is said: "The words of the Lord are
pure words, as silver which is tried in the fire." [778] Or if this be
not his meaning, he must have wished to mention that vicious boasting
which comes of pride--that is, of those who appear to themselves to
lead righteous lives, and boast of their excellence as if they had not
received it,--and further to inform us, that by the law of faith, not
by the law of works, this boasting was excluded, in the other sense of
shut out and driven away; because by the law of faith every one learns
that whatever good life he leads he has from the grace of God, and
that from no other source whatever can he obtain the means of becoming
perfect in the love of righteousness.
Footnotes
[775] Rom. iii. 27.
[776] [The allusion appears to be to the special workmen engaged in
producing hammered or beaten (repoussé) work. For other special
classes of silver workers, see Guhl and Koner: The Life of the Greeks
and Romans, p. 449.--W.]
[777] Ps. lxviii. 30.
[778] Ps. xii. 6.
Chapter 18 [XI.]--Piety is Wisdom; That is Called the Righteousness of
God, Which He Produces.
Now, this meditation makes a man godly, and this godliness is true
wisdom. By godliness I mean that which the Greeks designate
theosebeia,--that very virtue which is commended to man in the passage
of Job, where it is said to him, "Behold, godliness is wisdom." [779]
Now if the word theosebeia be interpreted according to its derivation,
it might be called "the worship of God;" [780] and in this worship the
essential point is, that the soul be not ungrateful to Him. Whence it
is that in the most true and excellent sacrifice we are admonished to
"give thanks unto our Lord God." [781] Ungrateful however, our soul
would be, were it to attribute to itself that which it received from
God, especially the righteousness, with the works of which (the
especial property, as it were, of itself, and produced, so to speak,
by the soul itself for itself) it is not puffed up in a vulgar pride,
as it might be with riches, or beauty of limb, or eloquence, or those
other accomplishments, external or internal, bodily or mental, which
wicked men too are in the habit of possessing, but, if I may say so,
in a wise complacency, as of things which constitute in an especial
manner the good works of the good. It is owing to this sin of vulgar
pride that even some great men have drifted from the sure anchorage of
the divine nature, and have floated down into the shame of idolatry.
Whence the apostle again in the same epistle, wherein he so firmly
maintains the principle of grace, after saying that he was a debtor
both to the Greeks and to the Barbarians, to the wise and to the
unwise, and professing himself ready, so far as to him pertained, to
preach the gospel even to those who lived in Rome, adds: "I am not
ashamed of the Gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto
salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to
the Greek. For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith
to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith." [782] This
is the righteousness of God, which was veiled in the Old Testament,
and is revealed in the New; and it is called the righteousness of God,
because by His bestowal of it He makes us righteous, just as we read
that "salvation is the Lord's," [783] because He makes us safe. And
this is the faith "from which" and "to which" it is revealed,--from
the faith of them who preach it, to the faith of those who obey it. By
this faith of Jesus Christ--that is, the faith which Christ has given
to us--we believe it is from God that we now have, and shall have more
and more, the ability of living righteously; wherefore we give Him
thanks with that dutiful worship with which He only is to be
worshipped.
Footnotes
[779] Job xxviii. 28.
[780] Cultus Dei is Augustin's Latin expression for the synonym.
[781] One of the suffrages of the Sursum Corda in the Communion
Service [preserved also in the English service, which reads as
follows: "Priest. Lift up your hearts. Answer. We lift them up to the
Lord. Priest. Let us give thanks unto our Lord God. Answer. It is meet
and right so to do."--W.]
[782] Rom. i. 14-17.
[783] Ps. iii. 8.
Chapter 19 [XII]--The Knowledge of God Through the Creation.
And then the apostle very properly turns from this point to describe
with detestation those men who, light-minded and puffed up by the sin
which I have mentioned in the preceding chapter, have been carried
away of their own conceit, as it were, through empty space where they
could find no resting-place, only to fall shattered to pieces against
the vain figments of their idols, as against stones. For, after he had
commended the piety of that faith, whereby, being justified, we must
needs be pleasing to God, he proceeds to call our attention to what we
ought to abominate as the opposite. "For the wrath of God," says he,
"is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness
of men, who hold down the truth in unrighteousness; because that which
may be known of God is manifest in them: for God hath showed it unto
them. For the invisible things of Him are clearly seen from the
creation of the world, being understood through the things that are
made, even His eternal power and divinity; so that they are without
excuse: because, knowing God, they yet glorified Him not as God,
neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and
their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise,
they became fools; and they changed the glory of the uncorruptible God
into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and to four
footed beasts, and to creeping things." [784] Observe, he does not say
that they were ignorant of the truth, but that they held down the
truth in unrighteousness. For it occurred to him, that he would
inquire whence the knowledge of the truth could be obtained by those
to whom God had not given the law; and he was not silent on the source
whence they could have obtained it: for he declares that it was
through the visible works of creation that they arrived at the
knowledge of the invisible attributes of the Creator. And, in very
deed, as they continued to possess great faculties for searching, so
they were able to find. Wherein then lay their impiety? Because "when
they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, nor gave Him thanks, but
became vain in their imaginations." Vanity is a disease especially of
those who mislead themselves, and "think themselves to be something,
when they are nothing." [785] Such men, indeed, darken themselves in
that swelling pride, the foot of which the holy singer prays that it
may not come against him, [786] after saying, "In Thy light shall we
see light;" [787] from which very light of unchanging truth they turn
aside, and "their foolish heart is darkened." [788] For theirs was not
a wise heart, even though they knew God; but it was foolish rather,
because they did not glorify Him as God, or give Him thanks; for "He
said unto man, Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom." [789] So
by this conduct, while "professing themselves to be wise" (which can
only be understood to mean that they attributed this to themselves),
"they became fools." [790]
Footnotes
[784] Rom. i. 18-23.
[785] Gal. vi. 3.
[786] Ps. xxxvi. 11.
[787] Ps. xxxvi. 9.
[788] Rom. i. 21.
[789] Job xxviii. 28.
[790] Rom. i. 22.
Chapter 20.--The Law Without Grace.
Now why need I speak of what follows? For why it was that by this
their impiety those men--I mean those who could have known the Creator
through the creature--fell (since "God resisteth the proud" [791] )
and whither they plunged, is better shown in the sequel of this
epistle than we can here mention. For in this letter of mine we have
not undertaken to expound this epistle, but only mainly on its
authority, to demonstrate, so far as we are able, that we are assisted
by divine aid towards the achievement of righteousness,--not merely
because God has given us a law fall of good and holy precepts, but
because our very will without which we cannot do any good thing, is
assisted and elevated by the importation of the Spirit of grace,
without which help mere teaching is "the letter that killeth," [792]
forasmuch as it rather holds them guilty of transgression, than
justifies the ungodly. Now just as those who come to know the Creator
through the creature received no benefit towards salvation, from their
knowledge,--because "though they knew God, they glorified Him not as
God, nor gave Him thanks, although professing themselves to be wise;"
[793] --so also they who know from the law how man ought to live, are
not made righteous by their knowledge, because, "going about to
establish their own righteousness, they have not submitted themselves
unto the righteousness of God." [794]
Footnotes
[791] Jas. iv. 6.
[792] 2 Cor. iii. 6.
[793] Rom. i. 21.
[794] Rom. x. 3.
Chapter 21 [XIII.]--The Law of Works and the Law of Faith.
The law, then, of deeds, that is, the law of works, whereby this
boasting is not excluded, and the law of faith, by which it is
excluded, differ from each other; and this difference it is worth our
while to consider, if so be we are able to observe and discern it.
Hastily, indeed, one might say that the law of works lay in Judaism,
and the law of faith in Christianity; forasmuch as circumcision and
the other works prescribed by the law are just those which the
Christian system no longer retains. But there is a fallacy in this
distinction, the greatness of which I have for some time been
endeavoring to expose; and to such as are acute in appreciating
distinctions, especially to yourself and those like you, I have
possibly succeeded in my effort. Since, however, the subject is an
important one, it will not be unsuitable, if with a view to its
illustration, we linger over the many testimonies which again and
again meet our view. Now, the apostle says that that law by which no
man is justified, [795] entered in that the offence might abound,
[796] and yet in order to save it from the aspersions of the ignorant
and the accusations of the impious, he defends this very law in such
words as these: "What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid.
Nay, I had not known sin but by the law: for I had not known
concupiscence, except the law had said, Thou shall not covet. But sin,
taking occasion, wrought, by the commandment, in me all manner of
concupiscence." [797] He says also: "The law indeed is holy, and the
commandment is holy, and just, and good; but sin, that it might appear
sin, worked death in me by that which is good." [798] It is therefore
the very letter that kills which says, "Thou shalt not covet," and it
is of this that he speaks in a passage which I have before referred
to: "By the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of
God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the
prophets; even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus
Christ upon all them that believe; for there is no difference: seeing
that all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God: being
justified freely by His grace, through the redemption that is in
Christ Jesus; whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through
faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of
sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; to declare His
righteousness at this time; that He might be just, and the justifier
of him which believeth in Jesus." [799] And then he adds the passage
which is now under consideration: "Where, then, is your boasting? It
is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay; but by the law of faith."
[800] And so it is the very law of works itself which says, "Thou
shalt not covet;" because thereby comes the knowledge of sin. Now I
wish to know, if anybody will dare to tell me, whether the law of
faith does not say to us, "Thou shalt not covet"? For if it does not
say so to us, what reason is there why we, who are placed under it,
should not sin in safety and with impunity? Indeed, this is just what
those people thought the apostle meant, of whom he writes: "Even as
some affirm that we say, Let us do evil, that good may come; whose
damnation is just." [801] If, on the contrary, it too says to us,
"Thou shall not covet" (even as numerous passages in the gospels and
epistles so often testify and urge), then why is not this law also
called the law of works? For it by no means follows that, because it
retains not the "works" of the ancient sacraments,--even circumcision
and the other ceremonies,--it therefore has no "works" in its own
sacraments, which are adapted to the present age; unless, indeed, the
question was about sacramental works, when mention was made of the
law, just because by it is the knowledge of sin, and therefore nobody
is justified by it, so that it is not by it that boasting is excluded,
but by the law of faith, whereby the just man lives. But is there not
by it too the knowledge of sin, when even it says, "Thou shall not
covet?"
Footnotes
[795] Rom. iii. 20.
[796] Rom. v. 20.
[797] Rom. vii. 7, 8.
[798] Rom. vii. 12, 13.
[799] Rom. iii. 20-26.
[800] Rom. iii. 27.
[801] Rom. iii. 8.
Chapter 22.--No Man Justified by Works.
What the difference between them is, I will briefly explain. What the
law of works enjoins by menace, that the law of faith secures by
faith. The one says, "Thou shalt not covet;" [802] the other says,
"When I perceived that nobody could be continent, except God gave it
to him; and that this was the very point of wisdom, to know whose gift
she was; I approached unto the Lord, and I besought Him." [803] This
indeed is the very wisdom which is called piety, in which is
worshipped "the Father of lights, from whom is every best giving and
perfect gift." [804] This worship, however, consists in the sacrifice
of praise and giving of thanks, so that the worshipper of God boasts
not in himself, but in Him. [805] Accordingly, by the law of works,
God says to us, Do what I command thee; but by the law of faith we say
to God, Give me what Thou commandest. Now this is the reason why the
law gives its command,--to admonish us what faith ought to do, that
is, that he to whom the command is given, if he is as yet unable to
perform it, may know what to ask for; but if he has at once the
ability, and complies with the command, he ought also to be aware from
whose gift the ability comes. "For we have received not the spirit of
this world," says again that most constant preacher of grace, "but the
Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely
given to us of God." [806] What, however, "is the spirit of this
world," but the spirit of pride? By it their foolish heart is
darkened, who, although knowing God, glorified Him not as God, by
giving Him thanks. [807] Moreover, it is really by this same spirit
that they too are deceived, who, while ignorant of the righteousness
of God, and wishing to establish their own righteousness, have not
submitted to God's righteousness. [808] It appears to me, therefore,
that he is much more "a child of faith" who has learned from what
source to hope for what he has not yet, than he who attributes to
himself whatever he has; although, no doubt, to both of these must be
preferred the man who both has, and at the same time knows from whom
he has it, if nevertheless he does not believe himself to be what he
has not yet attained to. Let him not fall into the mistake of the
Pharisee, who, while thanking God for what he possessed, yet failed to
ask for any further gift, just as if he stood in want of nothing for
the increase or perfection of his righteousness. [809] Now, having
duly considered and weighed all these circumstances and testimonies,
we conclude that a man is not justified by the precepts of a holy
life, but by faith in Jesus Christ,--in a word, not by the law of
works, but by the law of faith; not by the letter, but by the spirit;
not by the merits of deeds, but by free grace.
Footnotes
[802] Ex. xx. 17.
[803] Wisdom viii. 21.
[804] Jas. i. 17.
[805] 2 Cor. x. 17.
[806] 1 Cor. ii. 12.
[807] Rom. i. 21.
[808] Rom. x. 3.
[809] Luke xviii. 11, 12.
Chapter 23 [XIV.]--How the Decalogue Kills, If Grace Be Not Present.
Although, therefore, the apostle seems to reprove and correct those
who were being persuaded to be circumcised, in such terms as to
designate by the word "law" circumcision itself and other similar
legal observances, which are now rejected as shadows of a future
substance by Christians who yet hold what those shadows figuratively
promised; he at the same time nevertheless would have it to be clearly
understood that the law, by which he says no man is justified, lies
not merely in those sacramental institutions which contained
promissory figures, but also in those works by which whosoever has
done them lives holily, and amongst which occurs this prohibition:
"Thou shalt not covet." Now, to make our statement all the clearer,
let us look at the Decalogue itself. It is certain, then, that Moses
on the mount received the law, that he might deliver it to the people,
written on tables of stone by the finger of God. It is summed up in
these ten commandments, in which there is no precept about
circumcision, nor anything concerning those animal sacrifices which
have ceased to be offered by Christians. Well, now, I should like to
be told what there is in these ten commandments, except the observance
of the Sabbath, which ought not to be kept by a Christian,--whether it
prohibit the making and worshipping of idols and of any other gods
than the one true God, or the taking of God's name in vain; or
prescribe honour to parents; or give warning against fornication,
murder, theft, false witness, adultery, or coveting other men's
property? Which of these commandments would any one say that the
Christian ought not to keep? Is it possible to contend that it is not
the law which was written on those two tables that the apostle
describes as "the letter that killeth," but the law of circumcision
and the other sacred rites which are now abolished? But then how can
we think so, when in the law occurs this precept, "Thou shall not
covet," by which very commandment, notwithstanding its being holy,
just, and good, "sin," says the apostle, "deceived me, and by it slew
me?" [810] What else can this be than "the letter" that "killeth"?
Footnotes
[810] See Rom. vii. 7-12.
Chapter 24.--The Passage in Corinthians.
In the passage where he speaks to the Corinthians about the letter
that kills, and the spirit that gives life, he expresses himself more
clearly, but he does not mean even there any other "letter" to be
understood than the Decalogue itself, which was written on the two
tables. For these are His words: "Forasmuch as ye are manifestly
declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not
with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of
stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart. And such trust have we
through Christ to God-ward: not that we are sufficient of ourselves to
think anything as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God; who
hath made us fit, as ministers of the new testament; not of the
letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit
giveth life. But if the ministration of death, written and engraven in
stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not
stedfastly behold the face of Moses for the glory of his countenance,
which was to be done away; how shall not the ministration of the
Spirit be rather glorious? For if the ministration of condemnation be
glory, much more shall the ministration of righteousness abound in
glory. [811] A good deal might be said about these words; but perhaps
we shall have a more fitting opportunity at some future time. At
present, however, I beg you to observe how he speaks of the letter
that killeth, and contrasts therewith the spirit that giveth life. Now
this must certainly be "the ministration of death written and engraven
in stones," and "the ministration of condemnation," since the law
entered that sin might abound. [812] But the commandments themselves
are so useful and salutary to the doer of them, that no one could have
life unless he kept them. Well, then, is it owing to the one precept
about the Sabbath-day, which is included in it, that the Decalogue is
called "the letter that killeth?" Because, forsooth, every man that
still observes that day in its literal appointment is carnally wise,
but to be carnally wise is nothing else than death? And must the other
nine commandments, which are rightly observed in their literal form,
not be regarded as belonging to the law of works by which none is
justified, but to the law of faith whereby the just man lives? Who can
possibly entertain so absurd an opinion as to suppose that "the
ministration of death, written and engraven in stones," is not said
equally of all the ten commandments, but only of the solitary one
touching the Sabbath-day? In which class do we place that which is
thus spoken of: "The law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is
no transgression?" [813] and again thus: "Until the law sin was in the
world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law?" [814] and also
that which we have already so often quoted: "By the law is the
knowledge of sin?" [815] and especially the passage in which the
apostle has more clearly expressed the question of which we are
treating: "I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt
not covet?" [816]
Footnotes
[811] 2 Cor. iii. 3-9.
[812] Rom. v. 20.
[813] Rom. iv. 15.
[814] Rom. v. 13.
[815] Rom. iii. 20.
[816] Rom. vii. 7.
Chapter 25.--The Passage in Romans.
Now carefully consider this entire passage, and see whether it says
anything about circumcision, or the Sabbath, or anything else
pertaining to a foreshadowing sacrament. Does not its whole scope
amount to this, that the letter which forbids sin fails to give man
life, but rather "killeth," by increasing concupiscence, and
aggravating sinfulness by transgression, unless indeed grace liberates
us by the law of faith, which is in Christ Jesus, when His love is
"shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given to us?"
[817] The apostle having used these words: "That we should serve in
newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter," [818] goes
on to inquire, "What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid.
Nay; I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust,
except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet. But sin, taking
occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of
concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead. For I was alive
without the law once; but when the commandment came, sin revived, and
I died. And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be
unto death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment deceived me,
and by it slew me. Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment
holy, and just, and good. Was then that which is good made death unto
me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, worked death in me
by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become
exceeding sinful. For we know that the law is spiritual; whereas I am
carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do I allow not: for what I
would, that I do not; but what I hate, that I do. If then I do that
which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. But then it
is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know
that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing. To will,
indeed, is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I
find not. For the good that I would, I do not; but the evil which I
would not, that I do. Now, if I do that which I would not, it is no
more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law,
that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in
the law of God after the inward man: but I see another law in my
members warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into
captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man
that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The grace
of God, through Jesus Christ out Lord. So then with the mind I myself
serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin." [819]
Footnotes
[817] Rom. v. 5.
[818] Rom. vii. 6.
[819] Rom. vii. 7-25.
Chapter 26.--No Fruit Good Except It Grow from the Root of Love.
It is evident, then, that the oldness of the letter, in the absence of
the newness of the spirit, instead of freeing us from sin, rather
makes us guilty by the knowledge of sin. Whence it is written in
another part of Scripture, "He that increaseth knowledge, increaseth
sorrow," [820] --not that the law is itself evil, but because the
commandment has its good in the demonstration of the letter, not in
the assistance of the spirit; and if this commandment is kept from the
fear of punishment and not from the love of righteousness, it is
servilely kept, not freely, and therefore it is not kept at all. For
no fruit is good which does not grow from the root of love. If,
however, that faith be present which worketh by love, [821] then one
begins to delight in the law of God after the inward man, [822] and
this delight is the gift of the spirit, not of the letter; even though
there is another law in our members still warring against the law of
the mind, until the old state is changed, and passes into that newness
which increases from day to day in the inward man, whilst the grace of
God is liberating us from the body of this death through Jesus Christ
our Lord.
Footnotes
[820] Eccles. i. 18.
[821] Gal. v. 6.
[822] Rom. vii. 22.
Chapter 27 [XV.]--Grace, Concealed in the Old Testament, is Revealed
in the New.
This grace hid itself under a veil in the Old Testament, but it has
been revealed in the New Testament according to the most perfectly
ordered dispensation of the ages, forasmuch as God knew how to dispose
all things. And perhaps it is a part of this hiding of grace, that in
the Decalogue, which was given on Mount Sinai, only the portion which
relates to the Sabbath was hidden under a prefiguring precept. The
Sabbath is a day of sanctification; and it is not without significance
that, among all the works which God accomplished, the first sound of
sanctification was heard on the day when He rested from all His
labours. On this, indeed, we must not now enlarge. But at the same
time I deem it to be enough for the point now in question, that it was
not for nothing that the nation was commanded on that day to abstain
from all servile work, by which sin is signified; but because not to
commit sin belongs to sanctification, that is, to God's gift through
the Holy Spirit. And this precept alone among the others, was placed
in the law, which was written on the two tables of stone, in a
prefiguring shadow, under which the Jews observe the Sabbath, that by
this very circumstance it might be signified that it was then the time
for concealing the grace, which had to be revealed in the New
Testament by the death of Christ,--the rending, as it were, of the
veil. [823] "For when," says the apostle, "it shall turn to the Lord,
the veil shall be taken away." [824]
Footnotes
[823] Matt. xxvii. 51.
[824] 2 Cor. iii. 16.
Chapter 28 [XVI]--Why the Holy Ghost is Called the Finger of God.
"Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is,
there is liberty." [825] Now this Spirit of God, by whose gift we are
justified, whence it comes to pass that we delight not to sin,--in
which is liberty; even as, when we are without this Spirit, we delight
to sin,--in which is slavery, from the works of which we must
abstain;--this Holy Spirit, through whom love is shed abroad in our
hearts, which is the fulfilment of the law, is designated in the
gospel as "the finger of God." [826] Is it not because those very
tables of the law were written by the finger of God, that the Spirit
of God by whom we are sanctified is also the finger of God, in order
that, living by faith, we may do good works through love? Who is not
touched by this congruity, and at the same time diversity? For as
fifty days are reckoned from the celebration of the Passover (which
was ordered by Moses to be offered by slaying the typical lamb, [827]
to signify, indeed, the future death of the Lord) to the day when
Moses received the law written on the tables of stone by the finger of
God, [828] so, in like manner, from the death and resurrection of Him
who was led as a lamb to the slaughter, [829] there were fifty
complete days up to the time when the finger of God--that is, the Holy
Spirit--gathered together in one [830] perfect company those who
believed.
Footnotes
[825] 2 Cor. iii. 17.
[826] Luke xi. 20.
[827] Ex. xii. 3.
[828] Ex. xxxi. 18.
[829] Isa. liii. 7.
[830] Acts ii. 2.
Chapter 29 [XVII.]--A Comparison of the Law of Moses and of the New
Law.
Now, amidst this admirable correspondence, there is at least this very
considerable diversity in the cases, in that the people in the earlier
instance were deterred by a horrible dread from approaching the place
where the law was given; whereas in the other case the Holy Ghost came
upon them who were gathered together in expectation of His promised
gift. There it was on tables of stone that the finger of God operated;
here it was on the hearts of men. There the law was given outwardly,
so that the unrighteous might be terrified; [831] here it was given
inwardly, so that they might be justified. [832] For this, "Thou shalt
not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not covet; and if
there be any other commandment,"--such, of course, as was written on
those tables,--"it is briefly comprehended," says he, "in this saying,
namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Love worketh no ill
to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law." [833]
Now this was not written on the tables of stone, but "is shed abroad
in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us." [834] God's
law, therefore, is love. "To it the carnal mind is not subject,
neither indeed can be;" [835] but when the works of love are written
on tables to alarm the carnal mind, there arises the law of works and
"the letter which killeth" the transgressor; but when love itself is
shed abroad in the hearts of believers, then we have the law of faith,
and the spirit which gives life to him that loves.
Footnotes
[831] Ex. xix. 12, 16.
[832] Acts ii. 1-47.
[833] Rom. xiii. 9, 10.
[834] Rom. v. 5.
[835] Rom. viii. 7.
Chapter 30.--The New Law Written Within.
Now, observe how consonant this diversity is with those words of the
apostle which I quoted not long ago in another connection, and which I
postponed for a more careful consideration afterwards: "Forasmuch,"
says he, "as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ
ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the
living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the
heart." [836] See how he shows that the one is written without man,
that it may alarm him from without; the other within man himself, that
it may justify him from within. He speaks of the "fleshy tables of the
heart," not of the carnal mind, but of a living agent possessing
sensation, in comparison with a stone, which is senseless. The
assertion which he subsequently makes,--that "the children of Israel
could not look stedfastly on the end of the face of Moses," and that
he accordingly spoke to them through a veil, [837] --signifies that
the letter of the law justifies no man, but that rather a veil is
placed on the reading of the Old Testament, until it shall be turned
to Christ, and the veil be removed;--in other words, until it shall be
turned to grace, and be understood that from Him accrues to us the
justification, whereby we do what He commands. And He commands, in
order that, because we lack in ourselves, we may flee to Him for
refuge. Accordingly, after most guardedly saying, "Such trust have we
through Christ to God-ward," [838] the apostle immediately goes on to
add the statement which underlies our subject, to prevent our
confidence being attributed to any strength of our own. He says: "Not
that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves;
but our sufficiency is of God; who also hath made us fit to be
ministers of the New Testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit:
for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life." [839]
Footnotes
[836] 2 Cor. iii. 3.
[837] 2 Cor. iii. 13.
[838] 2 Cor. iii. 4.
[839] 2 Cor. iii. 5, 6.
Chapter 31 [XVIII.]--The Old Law Ministers Death; The New,
Righteousness.
Now, since, as he says in another passage, "the law was added because
of transgression," [840] meaning the law which is written externally
to man, he therefore designates it both as "the ministration of
death," [841] and "the ministration of condemnation;" [842] but the
other, that is, the law of the New Testament, he calls "the
ministration of the Spirit" [843] and "the ministration of
righteousness," [844] because through the Spirit we work
righteousness, and are delivered from the condemnation due to
transgression. The one, therefore, vanishes away, the other abides;
for the terrifying schoolmaster will be dispensed with, when love has
succeeded to fear. Now "where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is
liberty." [845] But that this ministration is vouchsafed to us, not on
account of our deserving, but from His mercy, the apostle thus
declares: "Seeing then that we have this ministry, as we have received
mercy, let us faint not; but let us renounce the hidden things of
dishonesty, not walking in craftiness, nor adulterating the word of
God with deceit." [846] By this "craftiness" and "deceitfulness" he
would have us understand the hypocrisy with which the arrogant would
fain be supposed to be righteous. Whence in the psalm, which the
apostle cites in testimony of this grace of God, it is said, "Blessed
is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin, and in whose mouth is
no guile." [847] This is the confession of lowly saints, who do not
boast to be what they are not. Then, in a passage which follows not
long after, the apostle writes thus: "For we preach not ourselves, but
Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake.
For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined
in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God
in the face of Jesus Christ." [848] This is the knowledge of His
glory, whereby we know that He is the light which illumines our
darkness. And I beg you to observe how he inculcates this very point:
"We have," says he, "this treasure in earthen vessels, that the
excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us." [849] When
further on he commends in glowing terms this same grace, in the Lord
Jesus Christ, until he comes to that vestment of the righteousness of
faith, "clothed with which we cannot be found naked," and whilst
longing for which "we groan, being burdened" with mortality,
"earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from
Heaven," "that mortality might be swallowed up of life;" [850]
--observe what he says: "Now He that hath wrought us for the self-same
thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit;"
[851] and after a little he thus briefly draws the conclusion of the
matter: "That we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." [852]
This is not the righteousness whereby God is Himself righteous, but
that whereby we are made righteous by Him.
Footnotes
[840] Gal. iii. 19.
[841] 2 Cor. iii. 7.
[842] 2 Cor. iii. 9.
[843] 2 Cor. iii. 8.
[844] 2 Cor. iii. 9.
[845] 2 Cor. iii. 17.
[846] 2 Cor. iv. 1, 2.
[847] Ps. xxxii. 2.
[848] 2 Cor. iv. 5, 6.
[849] 2 Cor. iv. 7.
[850] See 2 Cor. v. 1-4.
[851] 2 Cor. v. 5.
[852] 2 Cor. v. 21.
Chapter 32 [XIX.]--The Christian Faith Touching the Assistance of
Grace.
Let no Christian then stray from this faith, which alone is the
Christian one; nor let any one, when he has been made to feel ashamed
to say that we become righteous through our own selves, without the
grace of God working this in us,--because he sees, when such an
allegation is made, how unable pious believers are to endure
it,--resort to any subterfuge on this point, by affirming that the
reason why we cannot become righteous without the operation of God's
grace is this, that He gave the law, He instituted its teaching, He
commanded its precepts of good. For there is no doubt that, without
His assisting grace, the law is "the letter which killeth;" but when
the life-giving spirit is present, the law causes that to be loved as
written within, which it once caused to be feared as written without.
Chapter 33.--The Prophecy of Jeremiah Concerning the New Testament.
Observe this also in that testimony which was given by the prophet on
this subject in the clearest way: "Behold, the days come, saith the
Lord, that I will consummate a new covenant with the house of Israel,
and with the house of Judah; not according to the covenant which I
made with their fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand, to
bring them out of the land of Egypt. Because they continued not in my
covenant, I also have rejected them, saith the Lord. But this shall be
the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those
days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and
write it in their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be
my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and
every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know
me, from the least unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I
will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more."
[853] What say we to this? One nowhere, or hardly anywhere, except in
this passage of the prophet, finds in the Old Testament Scriptures any
mention so made of the New Testament as to indicate it by its very
name. It is no doubt often referred to and foretold as about to be
given, but not so plainly as to have its very name mentioned. Consider
then carefully, what difference God has testified as existing between
the two testaments--the old covenant and the new.
Footnotes
[853] Jer. xxxi. 31-34.
Chapter 34.--The Law; Grace.
After saying, "Not according to the covenant which I made with their
fathers in the day that I took them by the hand, to bring them out of
the land of Egypt," observe what He adds: "Because they continued not
in my covenant." He reckons it as their own fault that they did not
continue in God's covenant, lest the law, which they received at that
time, should seem to be deserving of blame. For it was the very law
that Christ "came not to destroy, but to fulfil." [854] Nevertheless,
it is not by that law that the ungodly are made righteous, but by
grace; and this change is effected by the life-giving Spirit, without
whom the letter kills. "For if there had been a law given which could
have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law. But
the Scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith
of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe." [855] Out of
this promise, that is, out of the kindness of God, the law is
fulfilled, which without the said promise only makes men
transgressors, either by the actual commission of some sinful deed, if
the flame of concupiscence have greater power than even the restraints
of fear, or at least by their mere will, if the fear of punishment
transcend the pleasure of lust. In what he says, "The Scripture hath
concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ
might be given to them that believe," it is the benefit of this
"conclusion" itself which is asserted. For what purposes "hath it
concluded," except as it is expressed in the next sentence: "Before,
indeed, faith came, we were kept under the law, concluded for the
faith which was afterwards revealed?" [856] The law was therefore
given, in order that grace might be sought; grace was given, in order
that the law might be fulfilled. Now it was not through any fault of
its own that the law was not fulfilled, but by the fault of the carnal
mind; and this fault was to be demonstrated by the law, and healed by
grace. "For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the
flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and
for sin, condemned sin in the flesh; that the righteousness of the law
might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the
Spirit." [857] Accordingly, in the passage which we cited from the
prophet, he says, "I will consummate a new covenant with the house of
Israel, and with the house of Judah," [858] --and what means I will
consummate but I will fulfil?--"not, according to the covenant which I
made with their fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand, to
bring them out of the land of Egypt." [859]
Footnotes
[854] Matt. v. 17.
[855] Gal. iii. 21, 22.
[856] Gal. iii. 23.
[857] Rom. viii. 3, 4.
[858] Jer. xxxi. 31.
[859] Jer. xxxi. 32.
Chapter 35 [XX.]--The Old Law; The New Law.
The one was therefore old, because the other is new. But whence comes
it that one is old and the other new, when the same law, which said in
the Old Testament, "Thou shalt not covet," [860] is fulfilled by the
New Testament? "Because," says the prophet, "they continued not in my
covenant, I have also rejected them, saith the Lord." [861] It is then
on account of the offence of the old man, which was by no means healed
by the letter which commanded and threatened, that it is called the
old covenant; whereas the other is called the new covenant, because of
the newness of the spirit, which heals the new man of the fault of the
old. Then consider what follows, and see in how clear a light the fact
is placed, that men who bare faith are unwilling to trust in
themselves: "Because," says he, "this is the covenant which I will
make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I
will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts."
[862] See how similarly the apostle states it in the passage we have
already quoted: "Not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the
heart," [863] because "not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living
God." [864] And I apprehend that the apostle in this passage had no
other reason for mentioning "the New Testament" ("who hath made us
able ministers of the New Testament; not of the letter, but of the
spirit"), than because he had an eye to the words of the prophet, when
he said "Not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart,"
inasmuch as in the prophet it runs: "I will write it in their hearts."
[865]
Footnotes
[860] Ex. xx. 17.
[861] Jer. xxxi. 32.
[862] Jer. xxxi. 33.
[863] 2 Cor. iii. 3.
[864] 2 Cor. iii. 3.
[865] Jer. xxxi. 33.
Chapter 36 [XXI.]--The Law Written in Our Hearts.
What then is God's law written by God Himself in the hearts of men,
but the very presence of the Holy Spirit, who is "the finger of God,"
and by whose presence is shed abroad in our hearts the love which is
the fulfilling of the law, [866] and the end of the commandment? [867]
Now the promises of the Old Testament are earthly; and yet (with the
exception of the sacramental ordinances which were the shadow of
things to come, such as circumcision, the Sabbath and other
observances of days, and the ceremonies of certain meats, [868] and
the complicated ritual of sacrifices and sacred things which suited
"the oldness" of the carnal law and its slavish yoke) it contains such
precepts of righteousness as we are even now taught to observe, which
were especially expressly drawn out on the two tables without figure
or shadow: for instance, "Thou shalt not commit adultery," "Thou shalt
do no murder," "Thou shalt not covet," [869] "and whatsoever other
commandment is briefly comprehended in the saying, Thou shall love thy
neighbour as thyself." [870] Nevertheless, whereas as in the said
Testament earthly and temporal promises are, as I have said, recited,
and these are goods of this corruptible flesh (although they prefigure
those heavenly and everlasting blessings which belong to the New
Testament), what is now promised is a good for the heart itself, a
good for the mind, a good of the spirit, that is, an intellectual
good; since it is said, "I will put my law in their inward parts, and
in their hearts will I write them," [871] --by which He signified that
men would not fear the law which alarmed them externally, but would
love the very righteousness of the law which dwelt inwardly in their
hearts.
Footnotes
[866] Rom. xiii. 10.
[867] 1 Tim. i. 5.
[868] See Retractations, ii. 37, printed at the head of this treatise.
[869] Ex. xx. 13, 14, 17.
[870] Rom. xiii. 9.
[871] Jer. xxxi. 33.
Chapter 37 [XXII.]--The Eternal Reward.
He then went on to state the reward: "I will be their God, and they
shall be my people." [872] This corresponds to the Psalmist's words to
God: "It is good for me to hold me fast by God." [873] "I will be,"
says God, "their God, and they shall be my people." What is better
than this good, what happier than this happiness,--to live to God, to
live from God, with whom is the fountain of life, and in whose light
we shall see light? [874] Of this life the Lord Himself speaks in
these words: "This is life eternal that they may know Thee the only
true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent," [875] --that is,
"Thee and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent," the one true God. For no
less than this did Himself promise to those who love Him: "He that
loveth me, keepeth my commandments; and he that loveth me shall be
loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself unto
him" [876] --in the form, no doubt, of God, wherein He is equal to the
Father; not in the form of a servant, for in this He will display
Himself even to the wicked also. Then, however, shall that come to
pass which is written, "Let the ungodly man be taken away, that he see
not the glory of the Lord." [877] Then also shall "the wicked go into
everlasting punishment, and the righteous into life eternal." [878]
Now this eternal life, as I have just mentioned, has been defined to
be, that they may know the one true God. [879] Accordingly John again
says: "Beloved, now are we the sons of God; and it doth not yet appear
what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be
like Him; for we shall see Him as He is." [880] This likeness begins
even now to be reformed in us, while the inward man is being renewed
from day to day, according to the image of Him that created him. [881]
Footnotes
[872] Jer. xxxi. 33.
[873] Ps. lxxiii. 28.
[874] Ps. xxxvi. 9.
[875] John xvii. 3.
[876] John xiv. 21.
[877] Isa. xxvi. 10.
[878] Matt. xxv. 46.
[879] John xvii. 3.
[880] 1 John iii. 2.
[881] Col. iii. 10.
Chapter 38 [XXIII.]--The Re-Formation Which is Now Being Effected,
Compared with the Perfection of the Life to Come.
But what is this change, and how great, in comparison with the perfect
eminence which is then to be realized? The apostle applies some sort
of illustration, derived from well-known things, to these
indescribable things, comparing the period of childhood with the age
of manhood. "When I was a child," says he, "I used to speak as a
child, to understand as a child, to think as a child; but when I
became a man, I put aside childish things." [882] He then immediately
explains why he said this in these words: "For now we see by means of
a mirror, darkly but then face to face: now I know in part; but then
shall I know even as also I am known." [883]
Footnotes
[882] 1 Cor. xiii. 11.
[883] 1 Cor. xiii. 12.
Chapter 39 [XXIV]--The Eternal Reward Which is Specially Declared in
the New Testament, Foretold by the Prophet.
Accordingly, in our prophet likewise, whose testimony we are dealing
with, this is added, that in God is the reward, in Him the end, in Him
the perfection of happiness, in Him the sum of the blessed and eternal
life. For after saying, "I will be their God, and they shall be my
people," he at once adds, "And they shall no more teach every man his
neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they
shall all know me, from the least even unto the greatest of them."
[884] Now, the present is certainly the time of the New Testament, the
promise of which is given by the prophet in the words which we have
quoted from his prophecy. Why then does each man still say even now to
his neighbour and his brother, "Know the Lord?" Or is it not perhaps
meant that this is everywhere said when the gospel is preached, and
when this is its very proclamation? For on what ground does the
apostle call himself "a teacher of the Gentiles," [885] if it be not
that what he himself implies in the following passage becomes
realized: "How shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed?
and how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? and how
shall they hear without a preacher?" [886] Since, then, this preaching
is now everywhere spreading, in what way is it the time of the New
Testament of which the prophet spoke in the words, "And they shall not
every man teach his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know
the Lord; for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the
greatest of them," [887] unless it be that he has included in his
prophetic forecast the eternal reward of the said New Testament, by
promising us the most blessed contemplation of God Himself?
Footnotes
[884] Jer. xxxi. 34.
[885] 1 Tim. ii. 7.
[886] Rom. x. 14.
[887] Jer. xxxi. 34.
Chapter 40.--How that is to Be the Reward of All; The Apostle
Earnestly Defends Grace.
What then is the import of the "All, from the least unto the greatest
of them," but all that belong spiritually to the house of Israel and
to the house of Judah,--that is, to the children of Isaac, to the seed
of Abraham? For such is the promise, wherein it was said to him, "In
Isaac shall thy seed be called; for they which are the children of the
flesh are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are
counted for the seed. For this is the word of promise, At this time
will I come, and Sarah shall have a son. And not only this; but when
Rebecca also had conceived by one, even by our father Isaac, (for the
children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil,
that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of
works, but of Him that calleth,) it was said unto her, "The elder
shall serve the younger." [888] This is the house of Israel, or rather
the house of Judah, on account of Christ, who came of the tribe of
Judah. This is the house of the children of promise,--not by reason of
their own merits, but of the kindness of God. For God promises what He
Himself performs: He does not Himself promise, and another perform;
which would no longer be promising, but prophesying. Hence it is "not
of works, but of Him that calleth," [889] lest the result should be
their own, not God's; lest the reward should be ascribed not to His
grace, but to their due; and so grace should be no longer grace which
was so earnestly defended and maintained by him who, though the least
of the apostles, laboured more abundantly than all the rest,--yet not
himself, but the grace of God that was with him. [890] "They shall all
know me," [891] He says,--"All," the house of Israel and house of
Judah. "All," however, "are not Israel which are of Israel," [892] but
they only to whom it is said in "the psalm concerning the morning aid"
[893] (that is, concerning the new refreshing light, meaning that of
the new testament), "All ye the seed of Jacob, glorify Him; and fear
Him, all ye the seed of Israel." [894] All the seed, without
exception, even the entire seed of the promise and of the called, but
only of those who are the called according to His purpose. [895] "For
whom He did predestinate, them He also called; and whom He called,
them He also justified; and whom He justified, them He also
glorified." [896] "Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by
grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed: not to
that only which is of the law,"--that is, which comes from the Old
Testament into the New,--"but to that also which is of faith," which
was indeed prior to the law, even "the faith of Abraham,"--meaning
those who imitate the faith of Abraham,--"who is the father of us all;
as it is written, I have made thee the father of many nations." [897]
Now all these predestinated, called, justified, glorified ones, shall
know God by the grace of the new testament, from the least to the
greatest of them.
Footnotes
[888] Rom. ix. 7-12.
[889] Rom. ix. 11.
[890] 1 Cor. xv. 9, 10.
[891] Jer. xxxi. 34.
[892] Rom. ix. 6.
[893] See title of Ps. xxii. (xxi. Sept.) in the Sept. and Latin.
[894] Ps. xxii. 23.
[895] Rom. viii. 28.
[896] Rom. viii. 30.
[897] Rom. iv. 16, 17.
Chapter 41.--The Law Written in the Heart, and the Reward of the
Eternal Contemplation of God, Belong to the New Covenant; Who Among
the Saints are the Least and the Greatest.
As then the law of works, which was written on the tables of stone,
and its reward, the land of promise, which the house of the carnal
Israel after their liberation from Egypt received, belonged to the old
testament, so the law of faith, written on the heart, and its reward,
the beatific vision which the house of the spiritual Israel, when
delivered from the present world, shall perceive, belong to the new
testament. Then shall come to pass what the apostle describes:
"Whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be
tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish
away," [898] --even that imperfect knowledge of "the child" [899] in
which this present life is passed, and which is but "in part," "by
means of a mirror darkly." [900] Because of this, indeed, "prophecy"
is necessary, for still to the past succeeds the future; and because
of this, too, "tongues" are required,--that is, a multiplicity of
expressions, since it is by different ones that different things are
suggested to him who does not as yet contemplate with a perfectly
purified mind the everlasting light of transparent truth. "When that,
however, which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be
done away," [901] then, what appeared to the flesh in assumed flesh
shall display Itself as It is in Itself to all who love It; then,
there shall be eternal life for us to know the one very God; [902]
then shall we be like Him, [903] because "we shall then know, even as
we are known;" [904] then "they shall teach no more every man his
neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for they
shall all know me, from the least unto the greatest of them." [905]
Now this may be understood in several ways: Either, that in that life
the saints shall differ one from another in glory, as star from star.
It matters not how the expression runs,--whether (as in the passage
before us) it be, "From the least unto the greatest of them," or the
other way, From the greatest unto the least. And, in like manner, it
matters not even if we understand "the least" to mean those who simply
believe, and "the greatest" those who have been further able to
understand--so far as may be in this world--the light which is
incorporeal and unchangeable. Or, "the least" may mean those who are
later in time; whilst by "the greatest" He may have intended to
indicate those who were prior in time. For they are all to receive the
promised vision of God hereafter, since it was for us that they
foresaw the future which would be better than their present, that they
without us should not arrive at complete perfection. [906] And so the
earlier are found to be the lesser, because they were less deferred in
time; as in the case of the gospel "penny a day," which is given for
an illustration. [907] This penny they are the first to receive who
came last into the vineyard. Or, "the least and the greatest" ought
perhaps to be taken in some other sense, which at present does not
occur to my mind.
Footnotes
[898] 1 Cor. xiii. 8.
[899] Ib. ver. 11.
[900] Ib. ver. 12.
[901] 1 Cor. xiii. 10.
[902] John xvii. 3.
[903] 1 John iii. 2.
[904] 1 Cor. xiii. 12.
[905] Jer. xxxi. 34.
[906] Heb. xi. 40.
[907] Matt. xx. 8.
Chapter 42 [XXV.]--Difference Between the Old and the New Testaments.
I beg of you, however, carefully to observe, as far as you can, what I
am endeavouring to prove with so much effort. When the prophet
promised a new covenant, not according to the covenant which had been
formerly made with the people of Israel when liberated from Egypt, he
said nothing about a change in the sacrifices or any sacred
ordinances, although such change, too, was without doubt to follow, as
we see in fact that it did follow, even as the same prophetic
scripture testifies in many other passages; but he simply called
attention to this difference, that God would impress His laws on the
mind of those who belonged to this covenant, and would write them in
their hearts, [908] whence the apostle drew his conclusion,--"not with
ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone,
but in fleshy tables of the heart;" [909] and that the eternal
recompense of this righteousness was not the land out of which were
driven the Amorites and Hittites, and other nations who dwelt there,
[910] but God Himself, "to whom it is good to hold fast," [911] in
order that God's good that they love, may be the God Himself whom they
love, between whom and men nothing but sin produces separation; and
this is remitted only by grace. Accordingly, after saying, "For all
shall know me, from the least to the greatest of them," He instantly
added, "For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their
sin no more." [912] By the law of works, then, the Lord says, "Thou
shalt not covet:" [913] but by the law of faith He says, "Without me
ye can do nothing;" [914] for He was treating of good works, even the
fruit of the vine-branches. It is therefore apparent what difference
there is between the old covenant and the new,--that in the former the
law is written on tables, while in the latter on hearts; so that what
in the one alarms from without, in the other delights from within; and
in the former man becomes a transgressor through the letter that
kills, in the other a lover through the life-giving spirit. We must
therefore avoid saying, that the way in which God assists us to work
righteousness, and "works in us both to will and to do of His good
pleasure," [915] is by externally addressing to our faculties precepts
of holiness; for He gives His increase internally, [916] by shedding
love abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given to us."
[917]
Footnotes
[908] Jer. xxxi. 32, 33.
[909] 2 Cor. iii. 3.
[910] Josh. xii.
[911] Ps. lxxiii. 28.
[912] Jer. xxxi. 34.
[913] Ex. xx. 17.
[914] John xv. 5.
[915] Phil. ii. 13.
[916] 1 Cor. iii. 7.
[917] Rom. v. 5.
Chapter 43 [XXVI.]--A Question Touching the Passage in the Apostle
About the Gentiles Who are Said to Do by Nature the Law's Commands,
Which They are Also Said to Have Written on Their Hearts.
Now we must see in what sense it is that the apostle says, "For when
the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things
contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto
themselves, which show the work of the law written in their hearts,"
[918] lest there should seem to be no certain difference in the new
testament, in that the Lord promised that He would write His laws in
the hearts of His people, inasmuch as the Gentiles have this done for
them naturally. This question therefore has to be sifted, arising as
it does as one of no inconsiderable importance. For some one may say,
"If God distinguishes the new testament from the old by this
circumstance, that in the old He wrote His law on tables, but in the
new He wrote them on men's hearts, by what are the faithful of the new
testament discriminated from the Gentiles, which have the work of the
law written on their hearts, whereby they do by nature the things of
the law, [919] as if, forsooth, they were better than the ancient
people, which received the law on tables, and before the new people,
which has that conferred on it by the new testament which nature has
already bestowed on them?"
Footnotes
[918] Rom. ii. 14, 15.
[919] Rom. ii. 14.
Chapter 44.--The Answer Is, that the Passage Must Be Understood of the
Faithful of the New Covenant.
Has the apostle perhaps mentioned those Gentiles as having the law
written in their hearts who belong to the new testament? We must look
at the previous context. First, then, referring to the gospel, he
says, "It is the power of God unto salvation to every one that
believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein is the
righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written,
The just shall live by faith." [920] Then he goes on to speak of the
ungodly, who by reason of their pride profit not by the knowledge of
God, since they did not glorify Him as God, neither were thankful.
[921] He then passes to those who think and do the very things which
they condemn,--having in view, no doubt, the Jews, who made their
boast of God's law, but as yet not mentioning them expressly by name;
and then he says, "Indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish,
upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of
the Gentile: but glory, honour, and peace, to every soul that doeth
good; to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile: for there is no
respect of persons with God. For as many as have sinned without law,
shall also perish without law; and as many as have sinned in the law,
shall be judged by the law; for not the hearers of the law are just
before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified." [922] Who
they are that are treated of in these words, he goes on to tell us:
"For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the
things contained in the law," [923] and so forth in the passage which
I have quoted already. Evidently, therefore, no others are here
signified under the name of Gentiles than those whom he had before
designated by the name of "Greek" when he said, "To the Jew first, and
also to the Greek." [924] Since then the gospel is "the power of God
unto salvation to every one that believeth, to the Jew first, and,
also to the Greek;" [925] and since "indignation and wrath,
tribulation and anguish, are upon every soul of man that doeth evil,
of the Jew first, and also of the Greek: but glory, honour, and peace,
to every man that doeth good; to the Jew first, and also to the
Greek;" since, moreover, the Greek is indicated by the term "Gentiles"
who do by nature the things contained in the law, and which have the
work of the law written in their hearts: it follows that such Gentiles
as have the law written in their hearts belong to the gospel, since to
them, on their believing, it is the power of God unto salvation. To
what Gentiles, however, would he promise glory, and honour, and peace,
in their doing good works, if living without the grace of the gospel?
Since there is no respect of persons with God, [926] and since it is
not the hearers of the law, but the doers thereof, that are justified,
[927] it follows that any man of any nation, whether Jew or Greek, who
shall believe, will equally have salvation under the gospel. "For
there is no difference," as he says afterwards; "for all have sinned,
and come short of the glory of God: being justified freely by His
grace." [928] How then could he say that any Gentile person, who was a
doer of the law, was justified without the Saviour's grace?
Footnotes
[920] Rom. i. 16, 17.
[921] Rom. i. 21.
[922] Rom. ii. 8-13.
[923] Rom. ii. 14.
[924] Rom. i. 16.
[925] Rom. i. 16.
[926] Rom. ii. 11.
[927] Rom. ii. 13.
[928] Rom. iii. 22-24.
Chapter 45.--It is Not by Their Works, But by Grace, that the Doers of
the Law are Justified; God's Saints and God's Name Hallowed in
Different Senses.
Now he could not mean to contradict himself in saying, "The doers of
the law shall be justified," [929] as if their justification came
through their works, and not through grace; since he declares that a
man is justified freely by His grace without the works of the law,
[930] intending by the term "freely" nothing else than that works do
not precede justification. For in another passage he expressly says,
"If by grace, then is it no more of works; otherwise grace is no
longer grace." [931] But the statement that "the doers of the law
shall be justified" [932] must be so understood, as that we may know
that they are not otherwise doers of the law, unless they be
justified, so that justification does not subsequently accrue to them
as doers of the law, but justification precedes them as doers of the
law. For what else does the phrase "being justified" signify than
being made righteous,--by Him, of course, who justifies the ungodly
man, that he may become a godly one instead? For if we were to express
a certain fact by saying, "The men will be liberated," the phrase
would of course be understood as asserting that the liberation would
accrue to those who were men already; but if we were to say, The men
will be created, we should certainly not be understood as asserting
that the creation would happen to those who were already in existence,
but that they became men by the creation itself. If in like manner it
were said, The doers of the law shall be honoured, we should only
interpret the statement correctly if we supposed that the honour was
to accrue to those who were already doers of the law: but when the
allegation is, "The doers of the law shall be justified," what else
does it mean than that the just shall be justified? for of course the
doers of the law are just persons. And thus it amounts to the same
thing as if it were said, The doers of the law shall be created,--not
those who were so already, but that they may become such; in order
that the Jews who were hearers of the law might hereby understand that
they wanted the grace of the Justifier, in order to be able to become
its doers also. Or else the term "They shall be justified" is used in
the sense of, They shall be deemed, or reckoned as just, as it is
predicated of a certain man in the Gospel, "But he, willing to justify
himself," [933] --meaning that he wished to be thought and accounted
just. In like manner, we attach one meaning to the statement, "God
sanctifies His saints," and another to the words, "Sanctified be Thy
name;" [934] for in the former case we suppose the words to mean that
He makes those to be saints who were not saints before, and in the
latter, that the prayer would have that which is always holy in itself
be also regarded as holy by men,--in a word, be feared with a hallowed
awe.
Footnotes
[929] Rom. ii. 13.
[930] Rom. iii. 24, 28.
[931] Rom. xi. 6.
[932] Rom. ii. 13.
[933] Luke x. 29.
[934] Matt. vi. 9.
Chapter 46.--How the Passage of the Law Agrees with that of the
Prophet.
If therefore the apostle, when he mentioned that the Gentiles do by
nature the things contained in the law, and have the work of the law
written in their hearts, [935] intended those to be understood who
believed in Christ,--who do not come to the faith like the Jews,
through a precedent law,--there is no good reason why we should
endeavour to distinguish them from those to whom the Lord by the
prophet promises the new covenant, telling them that He will write His
laws in their hearts, [936] inasmuch as they too, by the grafting
which he says had been made of the wild olive, belong to the self-same
olive-tree, [937] --in other words, to the same people of God. There
is therefore a good agreement of this passage of the apostle with the
words of the prophet so that belonging to the new testament means
having the law of God not written on tables, but on the heart,--that
is, embracing the righteousness of the law with innermost affection,
where faith works by love. [938] Because it is by faith that God
justifies the Gentiles; and the Scripture foreseeing this, preached
the gospel before to Abraham, saying, "In thy seed shall all nations
be blessed," [939] in order that by this grace of promise the wild
olive might be grafted into the good olive, and believing Gentiles
might be made children of Abraham, "in Abraham's seed, which is
Christ," [940] by following the faith of him who, without receiving
the law written on tables, and not yet possessing even circumcision,
"believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness." [941] Now
what the apostle attributed to Gentiles of this character,--how that
"they have the work of the law written in their hearts;" [942] must be
some such thing as what he says to the Corinthians: "not in tables of
stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart." [943] For thus do they
become of the house of Israel, when their uncircumcision is accounted
circumcision, by the fact that they do not exhibit the righteousness
of the law by the excision of the flesh, but keep it by the charity of
the heart. "If," says he, "the uncircumcision keep the righteousness
of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision?"
[944] And therefore in the house of the true Israel, in which is no
guile, [945] they are partakers of the new testament, since God puts
His laws into their mind, and writes them in their hearts with his own
finger, the Holy Ghost, by whom is shed abroad in them the love [946]
which is the" fulfilling of the law." [947]
Footnotes
[935] Rom. ii. 14, 15.
[936] Jer. xxxii. 32.
[937] Rom. xi. 24.
[938] Gal. v. 6.
[939] Gal. iii. 8; Gen. xxii. 18.
[940] Gal. iii. 16.
[941] Gen. xv. 6; Rom. iv. 2.
[942] Rom. ii. 15.
[943] 2 Cor. iii. 3.
[944] Rom. ii. 26.
[945] See John i. 47.
[946] Rom. v. 5.
[947] Rom. xiii. 10.
Chapter 47 [XXVII.]--The Law "Being Done by Nature" Means, Done by
Nature as Restored by Grace.
Nor ought it to disturb us that the apostle described them as doing
that which is contained in the law "by nature,"--not by the Spirit of
God, not by faith, not by grace. For it is the Spirit of grace that
does it, in order to restore in us the image of God, in which we were
naturally created. [948] Sin, indeed, is contrary to nature, and it is
grace that heals it,--on which account the prayer is offered to God,
"Be merciful unto me: heal my soul; for I have sinned against Thee."
[949] Therefore it is by nature that men do the things which are
contained in the law; [950] for they who do not, fail to do so by
reason of their sinful defect. In consequence of this sinfulness, the
law of God is erased out of their hearts; and therefore, when, the sin
being healed, it is written there, the prescriptions of the law are
done "by nature,"--not that by nature grace is denied, but rather by
grace nature is repaired. For "by one man sin entered into the world,
and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men; in which all have
sinned;" [951] wherefore "there is no difference: they all come short
of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace." [952] By
this grace there is written on the renewed inner man that
righteousness which sin had blotted out; and this mercy comes upon the
human race through our Lord Jesus Christ. "For there is one God, and
one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus." [953]
Footnotes
[948] Gen. i. 27.
[949] Ps. xli. 4.
[950] Rom. ii. 14.
[951] Rom. v. 12.
[952] Rom. iii. 22-24.
[953] 1 Tim. ii. 5.
Chapter 48.--The Image of God is Not Wholly Blotted Out in These
Unbelievers; Venial Sins.
According to some, however, they who do by nature the things contained
in the law must not be regarded as yet in the number of those whom
Christ's grace justifies, but rather as among those some of whose
actions (although they are those of ungodly men, who do not truly and
rightly worship the true God) we not only cannot blame, but even
justly and rightly praise, since they have been done--so far as we
read, or know, or hear--according to the rule of righteousness; though
at the same time, were we to discuss the question with what motive
they are done, they would hardly be found to be such as deserve the
praise and defence which are due to righteous conduct. [XXVIII.]
Still, since God's image has not been so completely erased in the soul
of man by the stain of earthly affections, as to have left remaining
there not even the merest lineaments of it whence it might be justly
said that man, even in the ungodliness of his life, does, or
appreciates, some things contained in the law; if this is what is
meant by the statement that "the Gentiles, which have not the law"
(that is, the law of God), "do by nature the things contained in the
law," [954] and that men of this character "are a law to themselves,"
and "show the work of the law written in their hearts,"--that is to
say, what was impressed on their hearts when they were created in the
image of God has not been wholly blotted out:--even in this view of
the subject, that wide difference will not be disturbed, which
separates the new covenant from the old, and which lies in the fact
that by the new covenant the law of God is written in the hearts of
believers, whereas in the old it was inscribed on tables of stone. For
this writing in the heart is effected by renovation, although it had
not been completely blotted out by the old nature. For just as that
image of God is renewed in the mind of believers by the new testament,
which impiety had not quite abolished (for there had remained
undoubtedly that which the soul of man cannot be except it be
rational), so also the law of God, which had not been wholly blotted
out there by unrighteousness, is certainly written thereon, renewed by
grace. Now in the Jews the law which was written on tables could not
effect this new inscription, which is justification, but only
transgression. For they too were men, and there was inherent in them
that power of nature, which enables the rational soul both to perceive
and do what is lawful; but the godliness which transfers to another
life happy and immortal has "a spotless law, converting souls," [955]
so that by the light thereof they may be renewed, and that be
accomplished in them which is written, "There has been manifested over
us, O Lord, the light of Thy countenance." [956] Turned away from
which, they have deserved to grow old, whilst they are incapable of
renovation except by the grace of Christ,--in other words, without the
intercession of the Mediator; there being "one God and one Mediator
between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom
for all." [957] Should those be strangers to His grace of whom we are
treating, and who (after the manner of which we have spoken with
sufficient fulness already) "do by nature the things contained in the
law," [958] of what use will be their "excusing thoughts" to them "in
the day when God shall judge the secrets of men," [959] unless it be
perhaps to procure for them a milder punishment? For as, on the one
hand, there are certain venial sins which do not hinder the righteous
man from the attainment of eternal life, and which are unavoidable in
this life, so, on the other hand, there are some good works which are
of no avail to an ungodly man towards the attainment of everlasting
life, although it would be very difficult to find the life of any very
bad man whatever entirely without them. But inasmuch as in the kingdom
of God the saints differ in glory as one star does from another, [960]
so likewise, in the condemnation of everlasting punishment, it will be
more tolerable for Sodom than for that other city; [961] whilst some
men will be twofold more the children of hell than others. [962] Thus
in the judgment of God not even this fact will be without its
influence,--that one man will have sinned more, or less, than another,
even when both are involved in the ungodliness that is worthy of
damnation.
Footnotes
[954] Rom. ii. 14.
[955] Ps. xix. 7.
[956] Ps. iv. 6.
[957] 1 Tim. ii. 5, 6.
[958] Rom. ii. 14.
[959] Rom. ii. 15, 16.
[960] 1 Cor. xv. 41.
[961] Luke x. 12.
[962] Matt. xxiii. 15.
Chapter 49.--The Grace Promised by the Prophet for the New Covenant.
What then could the apostle have meant to imply by,--after checking
the boasting of the Jews, by telling them that "not the hearers of the
law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified,"
[963] --immediately afterwards speaking of them "which, having not the
law, do by nature the things contained in the law," [964] if in this
description not they are to be understood who belong to the Mediator's
grace, but rather they who, while not worshipping the true God with
true godliness, do yet exhibit some good works in the general course
of their ungodly lives? Or did the apostle perhaps deem it probable,
because he had previously said that "with God there is no respect of
persons," [965] and had afterwards said that "God is not the God of
the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles," [966] --that even such
scanty little works of the law, as are suggested by nature, were not
discovered in such as received not the law, except as the result of
the remains of the image of God; which He does not disdain when they
believe in Him, with whom there is no respect of persons? But
whichever of these views is accepted, it is evident that the grace of
God was promised to the new testament even by the prophet, and that
this grace was definitively announced to take this shape,--God's laws
were to be written in men's hearts; and they were to arrive at such a
knowledge of God, that they were not each one to teach his neighbour
and brother, saying, Know the Lord; for all were to know Him, from the
least to the greatest of them. [967] This is the gift of the Holy
Ghost, by which love is shed abroad in our hearts, [968] --not,
indeed, any kind of love, but the love of God, "out of a pure heart,
and a good conscience, and an unfeigned faith," [969] by means of
which the just man, while living in this pilgrim state, is led on,
after the stages of "the glass," and "the enigma," and "what is in
part," to the actual vision, that, face to face, he may know even as
he is known. [970] For one thing has he required of the Lord, and that
he still seeks after, that he may dwell in the house of the Lord all
the days of his life, in order to behold the pleasantness of the Lord.
[971]
Footnotes
[963] Rom. ii. 13.
[964] Rom. ii. 14.
[965] Rom. ii. 11.
[966] Rom. iii. 29.
[967] Jer. xxxi. 33, 34.
[968] Rom. v. 5.
[969] 1 Tim. i. 5.
[970] 1 Cor. xiii. 12.
[971] Ps. xxvii. 4.
Chapter 50 [XXIX.]--Righteousness is the Gift of God.
Let no man therefore boast of that which he seems to possess, as if he
had not received it; [972] nor let him think that he has received it
merely because the external letter of the law has been either
exhibited to him to read, or sounded in his ear for him to hear. For
"if righteousness is by the law, then Christ has died in vain." [973]
Seeing, however, that if He has not died in vain, He has ascended up
on high, and has led captivity captive, and has given gifts to men,
[974] it follows that whosoever has, has from this source. But
whosoever denies that he has from Him, either has not, or is in great
danger of being deprived of what he has. [975] "For it is one God
which justifies the circumcision by faith, and the uncircumcision
through faith;" [976] in which clauses there is no real difference in
the sense, as if the phrase "by faith" meant one thing, and "through
faith" another, but only a variety of expression. For in one passage,
when speaking of the Gentiles,--that is, of the uncircumcision,--he
says, "The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen by
faith;" [977] and again, in another, when speaking of the
circumcision, to which he himself belonged, he says, "We who are Jews
by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles, knowing that a man is not
justified by the works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ,
even we believed in Jesus Christ." [978] Observe, he says that both
the uncircumcision are justified by faith, and the circumcision
through faith, if, indeed, the circumcision keep the righteousness of
faith. For the Gentiles, which followed not after righteousness, have
attained to righteousness, even the righteousness which is by faith,
[979] --by obtaining it of God, not by assuming it of themselves. But
Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath not
attained to the law of righteousness. And why? Because they sought it
not by faith, but as it were by works [980] --in other words, working
it out as it were by themselves, not believing that it is God who
works within them. "For it is God which worketh in us both to will and
to do of His own good pleasure." [981] And hereby "they stumbled at
the stumbling-stone." [982] For what he said, "not by faith, but as it
were by works," [983] he most clearly explained in the following
words: "They, being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about
to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves
unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for
righteousness to every one that believeth." [984] Then are we still in
doubt what are those works of the law by which a man is not justified,
if he believes them to be his own works, as it were, without the help
and gift of God, which is "by the faith of Jesus Christ?" And do we
suppose that they are circumcision and the other like ordinances,
because some such things in other passages are read concerning these
sacramental rites too? In this place, however, it is certainly not
circumcision which they wanted to establish as their own
righteousness, because God established this by prescribing it Himself.
Nor is it possible for us to understand this statement, of those works
concerning which the Lord says to them, "Ye reject the commandment of
God, that ye may keep your own tradition;" [985] because, as the
apostle says, Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness,
hath not attained to the law of righteousness." [986] He did not say,
Which followed after their own traditions, framing them and relying on
them. This then is the sole distinction, that the very precept, "Thou
shalt not covet," [987] and God's other good and holy commandments,
they attributed to themselves; whereas, that man may keep them, God
must work in him through faith in Jesus Christ, who is "the end of the
law for righteousness to every one that believeth." [988] That is to
say, every one who is incorporated into Him and made a member of His
body, is able, by His giving the increase within, to work
righteousness. It is of such a man's works that Christ Himself has
said, "Without me ye can do nothing." [989]
Footnotes
[972] 1 Cor. iv. 7.
[973] Gal. ii. 21.
[974] Ps. lxviii. 18; Eph. iv. 8.
[975] Luke viii. 18; xix. 26.
[976] Rom. iii. 30.
[977] Gal. iii. 8.
[978] Gal. ii. 15, 16. [The discussion turns on the difference in the
Latin prepositions ex and per, representing the Greek ek and dia.--W.]
[979] Rom. ix. 30.
[980] Rom. ix. 31, 32.
[981] Phil. ii. 13.
[982] Rom. ix. 32.
[983] Rom. ix. 32.
[984] Rom. x. 3, 4.
[985] Mark vii. 9.
[986] Rom. ix. 31.
[987] Ex. xx. 17.
[988] Rom. x. 4.
[989] John xv. 5.
Chapter 51.--Faith the Ground of All Righteousness.
The righteousness of the law is proposed in these terms,--that
whosoever shall do it shall live in it; and the purpose is, that when
each has discovered his own weakness, he may not by his own strength,
nor by the letter of the law (which cannot be done), but by faith,
conciliating the Justifier, attain, and do, and live in it. For the
work in which he who does it shall live, is not done except by one who
is justified. His justification, however, is obtained by faith; and
concerning faith it is written, "Say not in thine heart, Who shall
ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring down Christ therefrom;) or, Who
shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from
the dead.) But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy
mouth, and in thy heart: that is (says he), the word of faith which we
preach: That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and
shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead,
thou shalt be saved." [990] As far as he is saved, so far is he
righteous. For by this faith we believe that God will raise even us
from the dead,--even now in the spirit, that we may in this present
world live soberly, righteously, and godly in the renewal of His
grace; and by and by in our flesh, which shall rise again to
immortality, which indeed is the reward of the Spirit, who precedes it
by a resurrection which is appropriate to Himself,--that is, by
justification. "For we are buried with Christ by baptism unto 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." [991] By
faith, therefore, in Jesus Christ we obtain salvation,--both in so far
as it is begun within us in reality, and in so far as its perfection
is waited for in hope; "for whosoever shall call on the name of the
Lord shall be saved." [992] "How abundant," says the Psalmist, "is the
multitude of Thy goodness, O Lord, which Thou hast laid up for them
that fear Thee, and hast perfected for them that hope in Thee!" [993]
By the law we fear God; by faith we hope in God: but from those who
fear punishment grace is hidden. And the soul which labours under this
fear, since it has not conquered its evil concupiscence, and from
which this fear, like a harsh master, has not departed,--let it flee
by faith for refuge to the mercy of God, that He may give it what He
commands, and may, by inspiring into it the sweetness of His grace
through His Holy Spirit, cause the soul to delight more in what He
teaches it, than it delights in what opposes His instruction. In this
manner it is that the great abundance of His sweetness,--that is, the
law of faith,--His love which is in our hearts, and shed abroad, is
perfected in them that hope in Him, that good may be wrought by the
soul, healed not by the fear of punishment, but by the love of
righteousness.
Footnotes
[990] Rom. x. 6-9.
[991] Rom. vi. 4.
[992] Rom. x. 13; Joel ii. 32.
[993] Ps. xxxi. 19.
Chapter 52 [XXX.]--Grace Establishes Free Will.
Do we then by grace make void free will? God forbid! Nay, rather we
establish free will. For even as the law by faith, so free will by
grace, is not made void, but established. [994] For neither is the law
fulfilled except by free will; but by the law is the knowledge of sin,
by faith the acquisition of grace against sin, by grace the healing of
the soul from the disease of sin, by the health of the soul freedom of
will, by free will the love of righteousness, by love of righteousness
the accomplishment of the law. Accordingly, as the law is not made
void, but is established through faith, since faith procures grace
whereby the law is fulfilled; so free will is not made void through
grace, but is established, since grace cures the will whereby
righteousness is freely loved. Now all the stages which I have here
connected together in their successive links, have severally their
proper voices in the sacred Scriptures. The law says: "Thou shall not
covet." [995] Faith says: "Heal my soul, for I have sinned against
Thee." [996] Grace says: "Behold, thou art made whole: sin no more,
lest a worse thing come unto thee." [997] Health says: "O Lord my God,
I cried unto Thee, and Thou hast healed me." [998] Free will says: "I
will freely sacrifice unto Thee." [999] Love of righteousness says:
"Transgressors told me pleasant tales, but not according to Thy law, O
Lord." [1000] How is it then that miserable men dare to be proud,
either of their free will, before they are freed, or of their own
strength, if they have been freed? They do not observe that in the
very mention of free will they pronounce the name of liberty. But
"where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." [1001] If,
therefore, they are the slaves of sin