from above, — concerning which I forbear from inquiring now.
CHAP. 70 [XXXLX.] HOW FAR SIN IS DONE AWAY IN INFANTS BY BAPTISM, ALSO IN ADULTS, AND WHAT ADVANTAGE RESULTS THEREFROM.
In infants it is certain that, by the grace of ■Cod, through His baptism who came in the likeaiess of sinful flesh, it is brought to pass that the ^sinful flesh is done away. This result, however, 1 is so effected, that the concupiscence which is diffused over and innate in the living flesh itself is not removed all at once, so as to exist in it no longer \ but only that that might not be injurious to a man at his death, which was inherent at his birth. For should an inf:\nt live after baptism, and arrive at an age capable of obedience to a law, he finds there somewhat to fight against, and, by God's help, to overcome, if he has not received His grace in vain, and if he is not will- ing to be a reprobate. For not even to those who are of riper years is it given in baptism (except, perhaps, by an unspeakable miracle of the almighty Creator), that the law of sin which is in their members, warring against the law of their mind, should be entirely extinguished, and cease to exist; but that zvhatever of evil has been done, said, or thought by a man whilst he was servant to a mind subject to its concu- piscence, should be abolished, and regarded as if it had never occurred. The concupiscence itself, however, (notwithstanding the loosening of the bond of guilt in which the devil, by it, used to keep the soul, and the destruction of the barrier which separated man from his Maker,) remains in the contest in w^hich we chasten our body and bring it into subjection, whether to be relaxed for lawful and necessary uses, or to be restrained by continence.' But inasmuch as the Spirit of God, who knows so much better than we do all the past, and present, and future of the human race, foresaw and fore- told that the life of man would be such that " no man living should be justified in God's sight," - it happens that through ignorance or infirmity we do not exert all the powers of our will against it, and so yield to it in the commission. of sun- dry unlawful things, — becoming worse in pro- portion to the greatness and frequency of our surrender; and better, in proportion to its un- importance and infrequency. The investigation, however, of the point in which we are now in- terested— whether there could possibly be (or whether in fact there is, has been, or ever will be) a man without sin in this present life, except Him who said, "The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me " ^ — requires a much fuller discussion; and the arrangement of the present treatise is such as to make us postpone the question to the commencement of another book.
BOOK 11.
IK WHICH AUGUSTIN ARGUES AGAINST SUCH AS SAY THAT IN THE PRESENT LIFE THERE ARE, HAVE BEEN, AND WILL BE, MEN WHO HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO SIN AT ALL. HE LAYS DOWN FOUR PROPOSITIONS ON THIS HEAD: AND TEACHES, FIRST, THAT A MAN MIGHT POSSIBLY LIVE IN THE PRESENT LIFE WITHOUT SIN, BY THE GRACE OF GOD AND HIS OWN FREE WILL; HE NEXT SHOWS THAT NEVERTHELESS IN FACT THERE IS NO MAN WHO LIVES QUITE FREE FROM SIN IN THIS LIFE j THIRDLY, HE SETS FORTH THE REASON OF THIS, — BECAUSE THERE IS NO MAN WHO EXACTLY CONFINES HIS WISHES WITHIN THE LIMITS OF THE JUST REQUIRE- MENT OF EACH CASE, WHICH JUST REQUIREMENT HE EITHER FAILS TO PERCEIVE, OR IS UNWILLING TO CARRY OUT IN PRACTICE; IN THE FOURTH PLACE, HE PROVES THAT THERE IS NOT, NOR HAS BEEN, NOR EVER WILL BE, A HUMAN BEING — EXCEPT THE ONE MEDIATOR, CHRIST WHO IS FREE FROM ALL SIN.
CHAP. I [l.] WHAT HAS THUS FAR BEEN DWELT ON; AND WHAT IS TO BE TREATED IN TfflS BOOK.
We have, my dearest Marcellinus, discussed at sufificient length, I think, in the former book the baptism of infants, — how that it is given to them not only for entrance into the kingdom of God, but also for attaining salvation and eternal life, which none can have without the kingdom of God, or without that union with the Saviour Christ, wherein He has redeemed us by His blood. I undertake in the present book to dis- cuss and explain the question, Whether there lives in this world, or has yet lived, or ever will live, any one without any sin whatever, except " the one Mediator between God and man, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all;"' — with as much care and ability as He may Himself vouchsafe to me. And should there occasionally arise in this discussion, either inevitably or casually from the argument, any question about the baptism or the sin of infants, I must neither be surprised nor must I shrink from giving the best answer I can, at such emer- gencies, to whatever point challenges my atten- tion.
CHAP. 2 [n.] SOME PERSONS ATTRIBUTE TOO MUCH TO THE FREEDOM OF MAN's WILL; IGNO- RANCE AND INFIRMITY.
A solution is extremely necessary of this ques- tion about a human life unassailed by any de- ception or preoccupation of sin, in consequence ' 1 Tim. ii. 5, 6.
even of our daily prayers. For there are some persons who presume so much upon the free determination of the human will, as to suppose that it need not sin, and that we require no divine assistance, — attributing to our nature, once for all, this determination of free will. An inevitable consequence of this is, that we ought not to pray " not to enter into temptation," — that is, not to be overcome of temptation, either when it deceives and surprises us in our igno- rattce, or when it presses and importunes us in our weakness. Now how hurtful, and how per- nicious and contrary to our salvation in Christ, and how violently adverse to the religion itself in which we are instructed, and to the piety whereby we worship God, it cannot but be for us not to beseech the Lord for the attainment i of such a benefit, but be rather led to think that petition of the Lord's Prayer, " Lead us not into temptation," ^ a vain and useless insertion, — i it is beyond my ability to express in words. | CHAP. 3 [in.] IN WHAT WAY GOD COMMANDS NOTHING IMPOSSIBLE. WORKS OF JMERCY, ME.ANS OF WIPING OUT SINS.
Now these people imagine that they are acute (as if none among us knew it) when they say, that " if we have not the will, we commit no sin; nor would God command man to do what was impossible for human volition." But they do not see, that in order to overcome certain things, which are the objects either of an evil desire or an ill-conceived fear, fnen need the 2 Matt. vi. 13.
44 Chap. 5.]
ON FORGIVENESS OF SINS, AND BAPTISM.
45 strenuous efforts, and sometimes even all the energies, of the will; and that we should only imperfectly employ these in every instance, Pie foresaw who willed so true an utterance to be spoken by the prophet: " In Thy sight shall no man living be justified." ' The Lord, therefore, foreseeing that such would be our character, was pleased to provide and endow with efficacious virtue certain healthful remedies against the guilt and bonds even of sins committed after baptism, — for instance, the works of mercy, — as when he says: " Forgive, and ye shall be for- given; give, and it shall be given unto you." ^ For who could quit this life with any hope of obtaining eternal salvation, with that sentence impending: " Whosoever shall keep the whole, law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all," ^ if there did not soon after follow: " So speak ye, and so do, as they that shall be judged by the law of liberty: for he^ shall have judg- ment without mercy that hath showed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment?" •♦ CHAP. 4 [iV.] — CONCUPISCENCE, HOW FAR IN US; THE BAPTIZED ARE NOT INJURED BY CON- CUPISCENCE, BUT ONLY BY CONSENT THERE- WITH.
Concupiscence, therefore, as the law of sin which remains in the members of this body of death, is born with infants. In baptized in- fants, it is deprived of guilt, is left for the struggle [of life], 5 but pursues with no con- demnation, such as die before the struggle. Un- baptized infants it implicates as guilty and as children of wrath, even if they die in infancy, draws into condemnation. In baptized adults, however, endowed with reason, whatever con- sent their mind gives to this concupiscence for the commission of sin is an act of their own will. After all sins have been blotted out, and that guilt has been cancelled which by nature ^ bound men in a conquered condition, it still remains, — but not to hurt in any way those who yield no consent to it for unlawful deeds, — until death is swallowed up in victory,'' and, in that perfec- tion of peace, nothing is left to be conquered. Such, however, as yield consent to it for the commission of unlawful deeds, it holds as guilty; and unless, through the medicine of repentance, and through works of mercy, by the intercession in our behalf of the heavenly High Priest, they be healed, it conducts us to the second death and utter condemnation. It was on this account that the Lord, when teaching us to pray, advised us, besides other petitions, to say: " Forgive us * Jas. ii. 10.
* Jas. ii. 12.
our debts, as we forgive our debtors; and lead us not into tempation, but deliver us from evil." ^ For evil remains in our flesh, not by reason of the nature in which man was created by God and wisdom, but by reason of that offence into which he fell by his own will, and in which, since its powers are lost, he is not healed with the same facility of will as that with which he was wounded. Of this evil the apostle says: " I know that in my flesh dwelleth no good thing; "'^ and it is likewise to the same evil that he counsels us to give no obedience, when he says: " Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to obey the lusts there- of." '° When, therefore, we have by an unlawful inclination of our will yielded consent to these lusts of the flesh, we say, with a view to the cure of this fault, " Forgive us our debts; " " and we at the same time apply the remedy of a work of mercy, in that we add, " As we forgi\-e our debtors." That we may not, however, yield such consent, let us pray for assistance, and say, " And lead us not into temptation; " — not that God ever Himself tempts any one with such temptation, " for God is not a tempter to evil, neither tempteth He any man; " '^ but in order that whenever we feel the rising of temptation from our concupiscence, we may not be de- serted by His help, in order that thereby Ave may be able to conquer, and not be carried away by enticement. We then add our request for that which is to be perfected at the last, when mortality shall be swallowed up of life: '^ " But deliver us from evil." '-" For then there will exist no longer a concupiscence which we are bidden to struggle against, and not to con- sent to. The whole substance, accordingly, of these three petitions may be thus briefly ex- pressed: " Pardon us for those things in which we have been drawn away by concupiscence; help us not to be drawn away by concupis- cence; take away concupiscence from us."
CHAP. 5 [v.] — THE WILL OF MAN REQUIRES THE HELP OF GOD.
Now for the commission of sin we get no help from God; but we are not able to do justly, and to fulfil the law of righteousness in every part thereof, except we are helped by God. For as the bodily eye is not helped by the light to turn away therefrom shut or averted, but is helped by it to see, and cannot see at all unless it help it; so God, who is the light of the inner man, helps our mental sight, in order that we may do some good, not according to our own, but ac- cording to His righteousness. But if we turn ' Matt. vi. 12, 13.
46 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN.
[Book II.
away from Him, it is our own act; we then are wise according to the flesh, we then consent to the concupiscence of the flesh for unlawful deeds. When we turn to Him, therefore, God helps us; when we turn away from Him, He forsakes us. But then He helps us even to turn to Him; and this, certainly, is something that light does not do for the eyes of the body. When, therefore. He commands us in the words, "Turn ye unto me, and I will turn unto you," ' and we say to Him, "Turn us, O God of our salvation,"^ and again, "Turn us, O God of hosts; " ^ what else do we say than, " Give what Thou commandest? " ■» W^hen He com- mands us, saying, " Understand now, ye simple among the people," s and we say to Him, " Give me understanding, that I may learn Thy commandments;"'^ what else do we say than, "Give what Thou commandest?" WHien He commands us, saying, " Go not after thy lusts," ^ and we say to Him, " We know that no man can be continent, except God gives it to him; " ^ what else do we say than, " Give what Thou commandest?" W'hen He commands us, say- ing, " Do justice," 9 and we say, " Teach me Thy judgments, O Lord; " '° what else do we say than, "Give what Thou commandest?" In like manner, when He says: " Blessed are they which hunger and thirst after righteousness; for they shall be filled," " from whom ought we to seek for the meat and drink of righteousness, but from Him who promises His fulness to such as hunger and thirst after it?
CHAP. 6. WHEREIN THE PHARISEE SINNED WHEN HE THANKED GOD; TO GOD'S GRACE MUST BE ADDED THE EXERTION OF OUR OWN WILL.
Let US then drive away from our ears and minds those who say that we ought to accept the determination of our own free will and not pray God to help us not to sin. By such dark- ness as this even the Pharisee was not blinded; for although he erred in thinking that he needed no addition to his righteousness, and supposed himself to be saturated with abundance of it, he nevertheless gave thanks to God that he was not " like other men, unjust, extortioners, adulterers, or even as the publican; for he fasted twice in the week, he gave tithes of all that he pos- sessed." '^ He wished, indeed, for no addition ■ Zech. i. 3.
^ Ps. Ixxxv. 4.
^ Ps. Ixxx. 3, 4.
•♦ Da quod jubes; see the Confessions, Book x. chap. 26.
s Ps. xciv. 8.
' Ps. cxix. 7j.
' Ecclus. xviii. 30.
8 Wisd. viii. 21.
9 Tsa. Ivi. I., '° Ps. cxix. io8.
" Matt. V.6.
to his own righteousness; but yet, by giving thanks to God, he confessed that all he had he had received from Him. Notwithstanding, he was not approved, both because he asked for no further food of righteousness, as if he were already filled, and because he arrogantly pre- ferretl himself to the publican, who was hunger- ing and thirsting after righteousness. \\'hat, then, is to be said of those who, whilst acknowl- edging that they have no righteousness, or no fulness thereof, yet imagine that it is to be had from themselves alone, not to be besought from their Creator, in whom is its stora and its foun- tain? And yet this is not a question about prayers alone, as if the energy of our will also should not be strenuously added. God is said to be " our Helper; " '^ but nobody can be helped who does not make some effort of his own ac- cord. For God does not work our salvation in us as if he were working in insensate stones, or in creatures in whom nature has placed neither reason nor will. ^Vhy, however. He helps one man, but not another; or why one man so much, and another so much; or why one man in one way, and another in another, — He reserves to Himself according to the method of His own most secret justice, and to the excellency of His power.
CHAP. 7 [VI.] — FOUR QUESTIONS ON THE PER- FECTION OF RIGHTEOUSNESS: (l.) WHETHER A MAN CAN BE WITHOUT SIN IN THIS LIFE.
Now those who aver that a man can exist in this life without sin, must not be immediately op- posed with incautious rashness; for if we should deny the possibility, we should derogate both from the free will of man, who in his wish de- sires it, and from the power or mercy of God, who by His help effects it. But it is one ques- tion, whether he could exist; and another ques- tion, whether he does exist. Again, it is one question, if he does not exist when he could exist, why he does not exist; and another ques- tion, whether such a man as had never sinned at all, not only is in existence, but also could ever have existed, or can ever exist. Now, if in the order of this fourfold set of interrogative proposi- tions, I were asked, [i^/,] Whether it be possible for a man in this life to be without sin? I should allow the possibility, through the grace of God and the man's own free will; not doubting that the free will itself is ascribable to God's grace, in other words, to the gifts of God, — not only as to its existence, but also as to its being good, that is, to its conversion to doing the command- ments of God. Thus it is that God's grace not only shows what ought to be done, but also helps to the possibility of doing what it shows. "What •i Ps. xl. 17, Ixx. 5.
I Chap. 9.]
ON FORGIVENESS OF SINS, AND BAPTISM.
47 indeed have we that we have not received? " ' Whence also Jeremiah says: " I know, O Lord, that the way of man is not in himself; it is not in man to walk and direct his steps." ^ Accord- ingly, when in the Psalms one says to God, " Thou hast commanded me to keep Thy pre- cepts diligently," ^ he at once adds not a word of confidence concerning himself but a wish to be able to keep these precepts: " O that my ways," says he, " were directed to keep Thy statutes! Then should I not be ashamed, when I have respect to all Thy commandments." •♦ Now who ever wishes for what he has already so in his own power, that he requires no further help for attaining it? To whom, however, he directs his wish, — not to fortune, or fate, or some one else besides God, — he shows with sufficient clearness in the following words, where he says: " Order my steps in Thy word; and let not any iniquity have dominion over me." 5 From the thraldom of this execrable dominion they are liberated, to whom the Lord Jesus gave power to become the sons of God.^ From so horrible a domination were they to be freed, to whom He says, " If the Son shall make you free, then shall ye be free indeed." ^ From these and many other like testimonies, I cannot doubt that God has laid no impossible command on man; and that, by God's aid and help, nothing is impossi- ble, by which is wrought what He commands. In this way may a man, if he pleases, be without sin by the assistance of God.
CHAP. 8 [vil.] — (2) WHETHER THERE IS IN THIS WORLD A MAN WITHOUT SIN.
[2«c/.] If, however, I am asked the second question which I have suggested, — whether there be a sinless man, — I believe there is not. For I rather beheve the Scripture, which says: " Enter not into judgment with Thy servant; for in Thy sight shall no man living be justified." ^ There is therefore need of the mercy of God, which " exceedingly rejoiceth against judg- ment," 9 and which that man shall not obtain who does not show mercy.9 And whereas the prophet says, " I said, I will confess my trans- gressions unto the Lord, and Thou forgavest the iniquity of my heart," '° he yet immediately adds, " For this shall every saint pray unto Thee in an acceptable time."" Not indeed every sinner, but " every saint; " for it is the voice of saints which says, " If we say that we have no sin, we * John i. 12.
^ John viii. 36.
° P-s. cxliii. 2.
'^ Jas. ii. 13. '° Ps. xxxii. 5. '' Ps. xxxii. 5.
deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." '^ Accordingly we read, in the Apocalypse of the same Apostle, of " the hundred and forty and four thousand " saints, " which were not defiled with women; for they continued virgins: and in their mouth was found no guile; for they are without fault." '3 " Without fault," indeed, they no doubt are for this reason, — because they truly found fault with themselves; and for this reason, '' in their mouth was discovered no guile," — "because if they said they had no sin, they deceived themselves, and the truth was not in them." '^ Of course, where the truth was not, there would be guile; and when a righteous man begins a statement by accusing himself, he verily utters no falsehood.
CHAP. 9. THE BEGINNING OF RENEWAL; RES- URRECTION CALLED REGENERATION; THEY ARE THE SONS OF GOD WHO LEAD LIVES SUITABLE TO NEWNESS OF LIFE.