This treatise introduces us to a change of circumstances. The preceding one was, as we have seen, addressed to a small group of simple believers in sacred truth, who were not personally known to the author, and, though zealous in the maintenance of the faith, occupied only a private place in society; but the present work was writ- ten at the urgent request of a nobleman in high office as a minister of state, and well known to the writer. It is pleasant to trace a similar earnestness, in such dissimilar ranks, in the defence of the assailed faith: and it illuslO PREFACE TO VOLUME 11. OF THE EDINBURGH EDITION.
trates the wide stretch of mind and comprehensive love of Augustin, that he could so promptly sympathize with the anxieties of all classes and conditions in the Christian life; and, what is more, so administer comfort and conviction out of the treasures of his wisdom, as to settle their doubts and reassure them in faith. Nor does the change end here. Instead of Pelagius and Ccclestius, Augustin has in this work to confute the powerful argu- ment of Julianus, bishop of Celanum, the ablest of his Pelagian opponents. This man was really the mainstay of the heresy; he had greater resources of mind and a firmer character than either of his associates; — more candid and sincere than Pelagius, and less ambitious and impatient than Ccelestius, he seemed to contend for truth for its own sake, and this disposition found a complete response in the Church's earnest and accomplished champion. Notwithstanding the difficulty and delicacy of the subject, which removes, no doubt, the treatise De A^uptiis et CoicupiscentiA out of the category of what is called " general reading," the great author never did a higher service to the faith than when he provided for it this defence of a fundamental point. The venerable Jerome rejoiced at the good service, and longed to embrace his brother Saint from his distant retreat of Beth- lehem. " Testem invoco Dfutn,'" he wrote to Augustin, and his dear friend and helper Alypius, " qitod si posset fieri, assuvtptis alis columlkc, vestris aviplexUms 1711 pi i carer ^^ In the last and longest work, translated for this volume, we come upon a change, both of subject and cir- cumstances, as complete as that we have just noticed. Vincentius Victor, whose unsafe opinions are reviewed, was a young African of great ability and rhetorical accomplishment. His fluent tongue had fairly bewitched not only crowds of thoughtless hearers, but staid persons, whose faith should have been proof against a seductive influence which was soon shown to be transient and flimsy. The young disputant seems to have been more of a schismatic in the Donatist party, than a heretic with Pelagius; showy, however, and unstable, and hardly weigh- ing the consequence of his own opinions, he began to air his metaphysics, and soon fell into strange errors about the nature and origin of the human soul. In his youthful arrogance he happened to censure Augustin for his cautious teaching on so profound a subject; kindly does the aged bishop receive the criticism, show its unreason- ableness, and point out to his rash assailant some serious errors which he was propounding at random. He also reproves one of Victor's friends, who happened to be a presbyter, for allowing himself to be misled by the young man's eloquent sophistry; and in the latter half of his treatise, with fatherly love and earnestness, he advises Victor to renounce his dangerous errors, some of which were rankly Pelagian, and something worse. The result of Augustin's admonitions — adorned as they were with great depth and width of reflection and knowledge (extend- ing this time even to physical science, on some facts of which he playfully comments with the ease of a modern experimenter), with loving consideration for his opponent's inexperience, kindly deference to his undoubted abili- ties, and a pious desire to win him over to the cause of truth and godliness — was entirely satisfactory. We find from the Retractations (ii. 56), that Victor in time abjured all his errors, and doubtless, like another Apollos, ably employed his best powers in the service of true religion. This was a real trophy, great among the greatest of Augustin's achievements for faith and charity. For so great a soul to stoop to the level of so captious a spirit, and with industrious love and patience to trace out and refute all its ambitious error, was " a labour of love " indeed. He remembered the wise counsel of the apostle: " Count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother; " and he reaped the victory the Saviour promised: " Thou hast gained thy brother."
The translation, as in the former volume of the Anti-Pelagian writings of our author, has been made from the tenth volume of the Antwerp reprint of the Benedictine edition of St. Augustin's works.
PETER HOLMES.
[Volume III. of the Edinburgh edition appeared without dedication or preface, in 1876. It contained trans- lations of Augustin's treatises on Grace aiid Free-Will, Rebuke and Grace, The Predestination of the Saints, The Gift of Perseverance, and of his wox)/^ Against Two Letters of the Pelagians. Of these, only the first was from the pen of Dr. Holmes, the rest being the work of Dr. Robert Ernest Wallis, whose name has been accordingly placed on the general titlepage of this revision. — W.]
A TREATISE ON THE MERITS AND FORGIVENESS OF SINS. AND ON THE BAPTISM OF INFANTS.
II EXTRACT FROM AUGUSTIN'S " RETRACTATIONS," Book II. Chap. 23, ON THE FOLLOWING TREATISE, DE PECCATORUM MERITIS ET REMISSIOXE."
A NECESSITY arose which compelled me to write against the new heresy of Pelagius. Our previous opposition to it was confined to ser- mons and conversations, as occasion suggested, and according to our respective abilities and duties; but it had not yet assumed the shape of a controversy in writing. Certain questions were then submitted to me [by our brethren] at Carthage, to which I was to send them back answers in writing: I accordingly wrote first of all three books, under the title, " On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins," in which I mainly discussed the baptism of infants because of original sin, and the grace of God by which we are justified, that is, made righteous; but [I remarked] no man in this life can so keep the commandments which prescribe holiness of life, as to be beyond the necessity of using this prayer for his sins: " Forgive us our trespasses." ' It is in direct opposition to these principles that they have devised their new heresy. Now throughout these three books I thought it right not to men- tion any of their names, hoping and desiring that by such reserve they might the more readily be set right; nay more, in the third book (which is really a letter, but reckoned amongst the books, ' See Matt. vi. 12.
because I wished to connect it with the two pre- vious ones) I actually quoted Pelagius' name with considerable commendation, because his conduct and life were made a good deal of l)y manv per- sons; and those statements of his which I refuted, he had himself adduced in his writings, not indeed in his own name, but had quoted them as the words of other persons. However, when he was afterwards confirmed in heresy, he defended them with most persistent animosity. Coelestius, in- deed, a disciple of his, had already been excom- municated for similar opinions at Carthage, in a council of bishops, at which I was not present. In a certain passage of my second book I used these words: " Upon some there will be bestowed this blessing at the last day, that they shall not per- ceive the actual suffering of death in the sudden- ness of the change which shall happen to them; "^ — reserving the passage for a more careful con- sideration of the subject; for they will either die, or else by a most rapid transition from this life to death, and then from death to eternal life, as in the twinkling of an eye, they will not undergo the feeling of mortality. This work of mine begins with this sentence: " Ihnvevci intense tlic anxieties and annoyances absorbing and absorbing and 2 See Book ii. ch. 50.
12 CONTENTS OF THE TREATISE "ON THE MERITS AND FOR- GIVENESS OF SINS. AND ON THE BAPTISM OF INFANTS."
BOOK I.
CHAPTER PACE 1. Introductory, in the shape of an inscription to his friend Marcellinus 15 2. If Adam had not sinned, he would never have died 15 3. It is one thing to be mortal, another thing to be subject to death 16 4. Even bodily death is from sin 16 5. The words, MORTALE (capable of dying), MORTUUM (dead), and MORITURUS (destined to die)...16 6. How it is that the body is dead because of sin 17 7. The lifs of the body the object of hope, the life of the spirit being a prelude to it 17 "^8. Bodily death from Adam's sin 18 9. Sin passes on to all men by natural descent, and not merely by imitation 18 10 The analogy of grace 18 IT. Distinction between actual and original sin 19 12. The law could not take away sin 19 13. Meaning of the Apostle's phrase "the reign of death" 19 14 Superabundance of grace 20 15. The one sin common to all men 20 16. How death is by one and life by one 21 17. Whom sinners imitate 21 18. Only Christ justifies 21 19. Sin is from natural descent, as righteousness is from regeneration; how "all" are sinners through Adam, and "all" are just through Christ 22 20. Original sin alone is contracted by natural birth 22 21. Unbaptized infants damned, but most lightly; the penalty of Adam's sin, the grace of his body lost...22 22. To infants personal sin is not to be ATTRIBUiaBD 23 23. He refutes those who allege that infants are baptized not for the remission of sins, but for the OBTAINING of the KINGDOM OF HEAVEN 23 24. Infants saved as sinners 24 25. Infants are described as believers and as penitents. Sins alone separate between God and men 24 26. No one, except he be baptized, rightly comes to the table of the Lord 25 27. Infants must feed on Christ 25 28. Baptized infants, of the faithful; unbaptized, of the lost 25 29. It is an inscrutable mystery why some are saved, and others not 25 30. W'HY one is baptized AND ANOTHER NOT, NOT OTHERWISE INSCRUTABLE 26 31. He REFUTES THOSE WHO SUPPOSE TH.^T SOULS, ON ACCOUNT OF SINS CO.MMITTED IN ANOTHER STATE, ARE THRUST INTO BODIES SUITED TO THEIR MERITS, IN WHICH THEY ARE MORE OR LESS TOR.MENTED...26 32. The CASE of certain idiots and simpletons 27 33. Christ is the Saviour.■vnd Redeemer even of infants 28 34. Baptism is called salv.\tion, and the Eucharist, life, by the Christians of Carthage 28 35. Unless infants are baptized, they remain in darkness 29 36. Infants not enlightened as soon as they are born 29 37. How God enlightens every person 92 38. What "lighteth" means 29 .39. The conclusion drawn, that all are involved in original sin 30 40. A collection of Scripture testimonies. Fro.m the gospels T 30 41. From the first Epistle of Peter 31 42. From the first Epistle of John 31 43. Fro.m the Epistle to the Ro.mans 31 44. From the Epistles to the Corinthi.\ns 32 45. From the Epistle to the Gal.\tians 32 46. From the Epistle to the Ephesians 53 47. From the Epistle to the Colossians 3S 48. From the Epistles to Timothy 33 49. From the Epistle to Titus 33 50. From the Epistle to the Hebrews 34 52. Fro.m the Acts of the Apostles 34' 53. The utility of the books of the Old Testament 35 54. By the sacrifices of the Old Testament, men were convinced of sins and led to the Saviour 35 55. He concludes that all men need the death of Christ, th.at they may be saved. Unbaptized infants will be INVOLVED in the CONDE.MNATION OF THE DEVIL. HoW ALL MEN THROUGH Ad.\.M ARE UNTO CONDEMN.\TION; AND THROUGH Christ unto justification. No one is reconciled with God, e.xcept through Christ 36 56. No ONE is reconciled to God except through Christ 37 57. The GOOD of marriage; four different cases of the good and the evil use of matri.mony 37 58. In what respect the Pelagians regarded baptism as necessary for infants 37 59. The context of their chief text 38 60. Christ, the head and the body; owing to the union of the natures in the person of Christ, He both remained in heaven, and walked about on earth: how the one Christ could ascend to heaven; the head, and the body, the one Christ 38 61. The serpent lifted up in the wilderness prefigured Christ suspended on the cross; even infants the.mselves POISONED BY THE SERPENt'S BITE ' 39 62. No ONE CAN BE RECONCILED TO GoD, EXCEPT BY ChRIST 4O 63. The form, or rite, of baptism. Exorcis.m 40 64. A TWOFOLD mistake RESPECTING INFANTS 40 65. In infants there is no sin of their own commission 41 66. Infants' faults spring fro.m their sheer ignorance 41 67. On the ignorance of infants, and whence it arises 42 68. If Adam was not cke.ated of such a ch.\r.acter as that in which we are born, how is it that Christ, although FREE from sin, WAS BORN AN INFANT AND IN WEAKNESS? 42 69. The ignorance and the infirmity of an infant 43 70 How far sin is done away in infants by baptism, also in adults, and what advantage results therefrom...43 13 14 CONTENTS.
BOOK II.
CHAFTKR PAGE I. What has thus far deen dwelt on; and what is to be treated in this book 44 a. Some persons attribite too much to the fkeedom of man's will; ignorance and inhrmitv 44 3. In what way God commands nothing impossible. Works of mercy, means of wiping olt sins 44 4. Concupiscence, how far in us; the baitized are not injured by concupiscence, but only by consent therewith. 45 5. The will of man requires the help of God 45 6. Wherein the Pharisee sinned when he thanked God; to God's grace must be added the exertion of our own will, 46 7! Four questions on the perfection of righteousness: (i) Whether a man can be without sin in this life.. 46 8. (2) Whether there is in this world a man without sin 47 g. The beginning of renewal; resurrection called regeneration; they are the sons of God who lead lives suitable to newness of life 47 10. Perfection, when to be realized 48 11. An objection of the Pelagians: why does not a righteous man beget a righteous man? 48 la. He reconciles some passages of Scripture 49 13. A subterfuge of the Pelagians 49 14. Job was not without sin 49 15. Carnal generation condemned on account of original sin 50 16. Job foresaw that Christ would come to suffer; the way of humiutv in those that are perfect 50 17. No one righteous in all things 51 18. Perfect hu.man righteousness is imperfect 51 19. Zacharias and Elisabeth, sinners 5' ao. Paul worthy to be the prince op the apostles, and yet a sinner 52 ai. All righteous men sinners 53 22. An objection of the Pelagians; perfection is relative; he is rightly said to ke perfect in righteousness who has made much progress therein 53 a3. Why God prescribes what he knows cannot be observed 54 a4. An objection of the Pelagians. The Apostle Paul was not free from sin so long as he lived 54 85. God punishes both in wrath and in mercy 54 a6. (j) Why no one in this life is without sin 55 aj.,1he divine remedy for pride 55 a8. A good will comes from God 56 29. A subterfuge of the Pelagians 56 30. All will is either good, and then it loves righteousness, or evil, when it does not love righteousness...56 31. Grace is given to some men in mercy; is withheld from others in justice and truth 56 32. God's sovereignty in his grace 57 33. Through grace we have both the knowledge of good, and the delight which it affords 57 34. (4) That no man, with the exception of Christ, has ever lived, qfi can live without sin 57 35. Adam and Eve; obedience most strongly enjoined by God on man 58 36. Man's state before the fall 59 37. The corruption of nature is by sin, its renovation is by Christ 59 38. What benefit has been conferred on us by the incarnation of the word; Christ's birth in the flesh, wherein IT IS LIKE and wherein UNLIKE OUR OWN BIRTH 59 39. An objection of the Pelagians 60 40. An argument anticipated 60 41. Children of believers are called "clean" by the apostle 61 42. Sanctification manifold; sacrament of catechumens 61 43. Why the children of the baptized should be baptized 62 44. An objection of the Pelagians.62 45. The law of sin is called sin; how concupiscence still remains after its evil has been removed in the baptized, 62 46. Guilt may bf taken away but concupiscence remain 63 47i All the predestinated are saved through the one mediator Christ, and by one and the same faith 63 48. Christ the Saviour even of infants; Christ, when an infant, was free from ignorance and mental weakness. 63 49. An objection of the Pelagians 64 50. Why it is that death itself is not abolished, along with sin, by baptism 64 51. Why the devil is said to hold the power and dominion of death 65 52. Why Christ, after his resurrection, withdrew his presence from the world 65 53. An objection of the Pelagians 65 54. Why punishment is still inflicted, after sin has been forgiven 66 55. To recover the righteousness which had been lost bv sin, man has to struggle, with abundant labour and sorrow, 66 56. The case of David, in illustration 66 57. Turn to neither hand. 67 58. " Likeness of sinful flesh " implies the reality -.. 67 59. Whether the soul is propagated; on obscure points, concerning which the Scriptures give us no assistance, we must be on our guard against forming hasty judgments and opinions; the scrlptures are clear enough on those subjects which are necessary to salvation 67 > BOOK III.
CHAPTER, PAGE 1. PeLAGIUS ESTEEMED A HOLY MAN; HIS EXPOSITIONS ON SaINT PaUL 69 2. PelAGIUS' OBJECTION; INFANTS RECKONED AMONG THE NUMBER OF BELIEVERS AND THE FAITHFUL 69 3. PeLAGIUS MAKES GoD UNJUST JO 4. Reference to former books. 70 5. PeLAGIUS PRAISED BY SOME; ARGUMENTS AGAINST ORIGINAL SIN PROPOSED BY PELAGIUS IN HIS COMMENTARY 70 6. Why Pelagius does not speak in his own person 71 7. Proof of original sin in infants 71 8. Jesus is the Saviour even of infants 71 9. The AMBIGUITY OF " Adam is the figure of Him to come " 72 10. He shows that Cyprian had not doubted the original sin of infants 72 11. The ancients assumed original sin 73 12. The universal consensus respecting original sin 73 13. The error of Jovinianus did not extend so far.. 74 14. The opinions of all controversialists whatever are not, however, canonical authority; original sin, how another's; we were all one man in Adam 74 15. We all sinned Adam's sin 74 16. Origin of errors; a simile sought from the foreskin of the circumcised, and from the chaff of wheat...74 17. Christians do not always beget Christian, nor the pure, pure children 75 18. Is THE soul derived BV NATURAL PROPAGATION? 76 19. Sin and death in Adam, righteousness and life in Christ 76 20. The sting of death, what? 76 ai. The precept about touching the menstruous woman not to be figuratively understood; the necessity of the sacraments..., 77 32. We ought to be anxious to secure the baptism of infants 78 83. Epilogue 78 A TREATISE ON THE MERITS AND FORGIVENESS OF SINS. AND ON THE BAPTISM OF INFANTS, BY AURELIUS AUGUST IN, BISHOP OF HIPPO; In Three Books, ADDRESSED TO MARCELLINUS, A.D. 412.
BOOK I.
IN WHICH HE REFUTES THOSE WHO MAINTAIN, THAT ADAM MUST HAVE DIED EVEN IF HE HAD NEVER SINNED; AND THAT NOTHING OF HIS SIN HAS BEEN TRANS- MITTED TO HIS POSTERITY BY NATURAL DESCENT. HE ALSO SHOWS, THAT DEATH HAS NOT ACCRUED TO MAN BY ANY NECESSITY OF HIS NATURE, BUT AS THE PENALTY OF SIN; HE THEN PROCEEDS TO PROVE THAT IN ADAM's SIN HIS ENTIRE OFFSPRING IS IMPLICATED, SHOWING THAT INFANTS ARE BAPTIZED FOR THE EXPRESS PURPOSE OF RECEIVING THE REMISSION OF ORIGINAL SIN, CHAP. I [l.] — INTRODUCTORY, IN THE SHAPE OF j AN INSCRIPTION TO HIS FRIEND MARCELLINUS. I However absorbing and intense the anxieties! and annoyances in the whirl and warmth of which; we are engaged with sinful men ' who forsake the j law of God, — even though we may well ascribe these very evils to the fault of our own sins, — lam unwilling, and, to say the truth, unable, any longer. to remain a debtor, my dearest Marcellinus,- to that zealous affection of yours, which only en- hances my o\vn grateful and pleasant estimate of yourself. I am under the impulse [of a twofold emotion]: on the one hand, there is that very love which makes us unchangeably one in the one hope of a change for the better; on the other ' This is probably an allusion to the Donatists, who were then fiercely assailing the Catholics; [and over the conference between , whom and the Catholics, Marcellinus had presided the previous year (411). -W.]
^ [Flavins Marcellinus, a " tribune and notary," a Christian man 3f high character and devout mind, who was much interested in theo- logical discussions. He was appointed by Honorius to preside over Ithe commission of inquiry into the disputes between the Catholics I and Donatists in 411, and held the famous conference between the par- ties, that met in Carthage on the ist, 3d, and 8th of June, 411. He dis- charged this whole business with singular patience, moderation, and good judgment; which appears to have cemented the intimate friend- ship between him and Augustin..^ugustin's treatise on The Spirit and Letter is also addressed to him, and he undertook the City of God on his suggestion. See below, p. 80. — W.J hand, there is the fear of offending God in your- self, who has given you so earnest a desire, in gratifying which I shall be only serving Him who has given it to you. And so strongly has this impulse led and attracted me to solve, to the best of my humble ability, the questions which you have submitted to me in writing, that my mind has gradually admitted this inquiry to an impor- tance transcending that of all others; [and it will now give me no rest] until I accomplish something which shall make it manifest that I have yielded, if not a sufficient, yet at any rate an obedient, compliance with your own kind wish and the desire of those to whom these questions are a source of anxiety.
CHAP. 2 [n.] IF ADAM HAD NOT SINNED, HE WOULD NEVER H.-VVE DIED.
They who say that Adam was so formed that he would even without any demerit of sin have died, not as the penalty of sin, but from the necessity of his being, endeavour indeed to refer that pas- sage in the law, which says: " On the day ye eat thereof ye shall surely die," ^ not to the death of 3 Gen. ii. 17.
IS i6 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN.
[Book I.
the body, but to that death of the soul wliich takes place in sin. It is the unbelievers who have died this death, to whom the Lord pointed when He said, " Let the dead bury their dead." ' Now what will be their answer, when we read that God, when reproving and sentencing the first man after his sin, said to him, '• Dust thou art, and unto dust shalt tliou return? " ^ For it was not in respect of his soul that he was " dust," but clearly by rea- son of his body, and it was by the death of the self-same body that he was destined to " return to dust." Still, although it was by reason of his body that he was dust, and although he bare about the natural body in wliich he was created, he would, if he had not sinned, have been changed into a spiritual body, and would have passed into the in- corruptible state, which is promised to the faith- ful and the saints, without the peril of death. ^ And for this issue we not only are conscious in our- selves of having an earnest desire, but we learn it from the apostle's intimation, when he says: " For in this we groan, longing to be clothed upon with our ha,bitation which is from heaven; if so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being bur- .dened; not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality may be swallowed up of life." •* Therefore, if Adam had not sinned, he would not have been divested of his body, but would have been clothed upon with immortality and incorruption, that "mortality might have been swallowed up of life; " that is, that he might have passed from the natural body into the spiritual body.
CH.4P. 3 [in.] — IT IS ONE THING TO BE MORTAL, ANOTHER THING TO BE SUBJECT TO DEATH.
Nor was there any reason to fear that if he had happened to live on here longer in his natural body, he would have been oppressed with old age, and have gradually, by increasing age, arrived at death. For if God granted to the clothes and the shoes of the Israelites that " they wa.xed not old " during so many years, s what wonder if for \ obedience it had been by the power of the same ' [God] allowed to man, that although he had a natural and mortal body, he should have in it a certain condition, in which he might grow full of years without decrepitude, and, whenever God pleased, pass from mortality to immortality without the medium of death? For even as this very flesh of ours, which we now possess, is not therefore invulnerable, because it is not neces- sary that it should be wounded; so also was his not therefore immortal, because there was no necessity for its dying. Such a condition, whilst ' Matt. viii. 22; Luke ix. 60.
2 Gen. iii. 19.
5 Deut. xxix. 5.
Still in their natural and mortal body, I suppose, was granted even to those who were translated hence without death.^ For Enoch and Elijah were not reduced to the decrepitude of old age by their long life. But yet I do not believe that they were then changed into that spiritual kind of body, such as is promised in the resurrection, and which the Lord was the first to receive; only they probably do not need those aliments, which by their use minister refreshment to the body; but ever since their translation they so live, as to enjoy such a sufficiency as was provided during the forty days in which Elijah lived on the cruse of water and the cake, without substantial food; 7 or else, if there be any need of such sus- tenance, they are, it may be, sustained in Paradise in some such way as Adam was, before he brought on himself expulsion therefrom by sinning. And he, as I suppose, was supphed with sustenance against decay from the fruit of the various trees, and from the tree of life with security against old age.
CHAP. 4 [iV.] — EVEN BODILY DEATH IS FROM SIN.
But in addition to the passage where God in punishment said, "Dust thou art, unto dust shalt thou return," ^ — a passage which I cannot under- stand how any one can apply except to the death of the body, — there are other testimonies like- wise, from which it most fully appears that by rea- son of sin the human race has brought upon itself not spiritual death merely, but the death of the body also. The apostle says to the Romans: " But if Christ be in you, the body is dead be- cause of sin, but the spirit is life because of right- eousness. If therefore the Spirit of Him thati raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you. He that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall quicken also your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you." ^ I think that so clear and open a sentence as this only requires to be read, and not expounded. T/ie body, says he, is dead, not because of earthly frailty, as being made of the dust of the ground, but because of sin; what more do we want? And he is most careful in his words: he does not say " is mortal,'' but '■^ dead.''
CHAP. 5 [v.] THE WORDS, MORTALE (CAPABLE OF DYING), MORTUUM (dEAD), AND MORITU- RUS (DESTINED TO DIe).