CHAP. I 7 [iX.] — CHRISTUNS DO NOT ALWAYS BE- GET CHRISTIAN, NOR THE PURE, PURE CHILDREN.
With these and such like palpable arguments, should I endeavour, as I best could, to convince those persons who believed that sacraments of cleansing were superfluously applied to the chil- dren of the cleansed, how right is the judgment of baptizing the infants of baptized parents, and how it may happen that to a man who has with- in him the twofold seed — of death in the flesh, and of immortality in the spirit — that may prove no obstacle, regenerated as he is by the Spirit, which is an obstacle to his son, who is generated by the flesh; and that that may be cleansed in the one by remission, which in the other still requires cleansing by like remission, just as in the case supposed of circumcision, and as in the case of the winnowing and thrashing.
But now, when we are contending with those who allow that the children of the baptized ought to be baptized, we may much more con- veniently conduct our discussion, and can say: You who a.ssert that the children of such per- sons as have been cleansed from the pollution of sin ought to have been born without sin, why do you not perceive that by the same rule you might just as well say that the children of Chris- tian parents ought to have been born Christians? \Vhy, therefore, do you rather maintain that they ought to become Christians? Was there not in their parents, to whom it is said, " Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ?" ' a Christian body? Perhaps you suppose that a Christian body may be born of Christian par- ents, without having received a Christian soul? Well, this would render the case much more wonderful still. For you would think of the soul one of two things as you pleased, — be- cause, of course, you hold with the apostle, that before birth it had done nothing good or evil: ^ — either that it was derived by transmission, and just as the body of Christians is Chris- tian, so should also their soul be Christian; or else that it was created by Christ, either in the Christian body, or for the sake of the Christian body, and it ought therefore to have been cre- ated or given in a Christian condition. Unless perchance you shall pretend that, although Chris- tian parents had it in their power to beget a Christian body, yet Christ Himself was not able to produce a Christian soul. Believe then the truth, and see that, as it has been possible (as you yourselves admit) for one who is not a Christian to be born of Christian parents, for one who is not a member of Christ to be born of members of Christ, and (that we may answer all, who, however falsely, are yet in some sense pos- sessed with a sense of religion) for a man who is not consecrated to be born of parents who are consecrated; so also it is quite possible for one who is not cleansed to be born of parents who are cleansed. Now what account will you give us, of why from Christian parents is born one who is not a Christian, unless it be that not generation, but regeneration makes Christians? Resolve therefore your own question with a like reason, that cleansing from sin comes to no one by being born, but to all by being born again. And thus any child who is born of parents who are cleansed, because born again, must himself be born again, in order that he too may be cleansed. For it has been quite possible for parents to transmit to their children that which they did not possess themselves, — thus resem- bling not only the wheat which yielded the chaff, and the circumcised the foreskin, but also the ' I Cor. vi. 15. ' Rom. ix. II.
1^ THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN.
[Book III.
instance which you yourselves adduce, even that of believers who convey unbelief to their pos- terity; which, however, does not accrue to the faithful as regenerated by the Spirit, but it is owing to the fault of the mortal seed by which they have been, born of the flesh. For in respect of the infants whom you judge it necessary to make believers by the sacrament of tlie faithful, you do not deny that they were born in unbelief, although of believing parents.
CHAP. 1 8 [x.] — IS THE SOUL DERIVED BY NATUR.A.L PROPAGATION?
Well, but " if the soul is not propagated, but the flesh alone, then the latter alone has propa- gation of sin, and it alone deserves punishment: " this is what they thinly, saying " that it is unjust that the soul which is only recently produced, and that not out of Adam's substance, should bear the sin of another committed so long ago." Now observe, I pray you, how the circumspect Pelagius felt the question about the soul to be a very difficult one, and acted accordingly, — for the words which I have just quoted are copied from his book. He does not say abso- lutely, " Because the soul is not propagated," but hypothetically. If the soul is not propagated, rightly determining on so obscure a subject (on which we can find in Holy Scriptures no certain and obvious testimonies, or with very great diffi- culty discover any) to speak with hesitation rather than with confidence. Wherefore I too, on my side, answer this proposition with no hasty assertion: If the soul is not propagated, where is the justice that, what has been but recently created and is quite free from the con- tagion of sin, should be compelled in infants to endure the passions and other torments of the flesh, and, what is more terrible still, even the attacks of evil spirits? For never does the flesh so suffer anything of this kind that the living and feeling soul does not rather undergo the punishment. If this, indeed, is shown to be just, it may be shown, on the same terms, with what justice original sin comes to exist in our sinful flesh, to be subsequently cleansed by the sacrament of baptism and God's gracious mercy. If the former point cannot be shown, I imagine that the latter point is equally incapable of demonstration. We must therefore either bear with both positions in silence, and remember that we are human, or else we must prepare, at some other time, another work on the soul, if it shall appear necessary, discussing the whole question with caution and sobriety.
CHAP. 19 [XI.] — SIN AND DEATH IN ADAM, RIGHTEOUSNESS AND LIFE IN CHRIST.
What the apostle says: " By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so it passed upon all men, in which all have sinned; " we must, however, for the present so accept as not to seem rashly and foolishly to oppose the many great passages of Holy Scripture, which teach us that no man can obtain eternal life without that union with Christ which is effected in Him and with Him, when we are imbued with His sacraments and incorporated with the mem- bers of His body. Now this statement which the apostle addresses to the Romans, " By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so it passed upon all men, in which all have sinned," tallies in sense with his words to the Corinthians: " Since by man came death, by Man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." ^ For nobody doubts that the subject here referred to is the death of the body, because the apostle was with mucli ear- nestness dwelling on the resurrection of the body; and he seems to be silent here about sin for this reason, namely, because the question was not about righteousness. Both points are mentioned in the Epistle to the Romans, and both points are, at very great length, insisted on by the apostle, — sin in Adam, righteousness in Christ; and death in Adam, life in Christ.
However, as I have observed already, I have thoroughly examined and opened, in the first book of this treatise, all these words of the apostle's argument, as far as I was able, and as much as seemed necessary.
CHAP. 20. THE STING OF DEATH, WHAT?
But even in the passage to the Corinthians, where he had been treating fully of the resurrec- tion, the apostle concludes his statement in such a way as not to permit us to doubt that the death of the body is the result of sin. For after he had said, "This corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality: so when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal immortality, then," he added, " shall be brought to pass the saying which is written. Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy victory? O' death, where is thy sting?" and at last he sub- joined these words: " The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law." s Now, because (as the apostle's words most plainly declare) death shall then be swallowed up in- victory when this corruptible and mortal shall i have put on incorruption and immortality, — that is, when " God shall quicken even our mor- tal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in us," — it manifestly follows that the sting of the body of this death, which is the contrary of the resur- I Rom. V. 12.
Chap. 21.]
ON FORGIVENESS OF SINS, AND BAPTISM.
11 rection of the body, is sin. The sting, however, is that by which death was made, and not that which deatii made, since it is by sin that we cHe, and not by death that we sin. It is therefore called "the sting of death" on the principle which originated the phrase " the tree of life," — not because the life of man produced it, but because by it the life of man was made. In like manner " the tree of knowledge " was that whereby man's knowledge was made, not that which man made by his knowledge. So also " the sting of death " is that by which death was produced, not that which death made. We similarly use the expression " the cup of death," since by it some one has died, or might die, — not meaning, of course, a cup made by a dying or dead man.' The sting of death is therefore sin, because by the puncture of sin the human race has been slain. Why ask further: the death of what, — whether of the soul, or of the body? ^^'hether the first which we are all of us now dying, or the second which the wicked here- after shall die? There is no occasion for plying the question so curiously; there is no room for subterfuge. The words in which the apostle ex- presses the case answer the questions: " When this mortal," says he, " shall have put on im- mortality, then shall be brought to pass the say- ing which is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law." He was treating of the resurrection of the body, wherein death shall be swallowed up in victory, when this mortal shall have put on immortality. Then over death itself shall be raised the shout of triumph, when at the resurrection of the body it shall be swallowed up in victory; then shall be said to it, " O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is thy sting?" To the death of the body, therefore, is this said. For victorious immortality shall swallow it up, when this mortal shall put on immortality. I repeat it, to the death of the body shall it be said, " Where is thy victory? " — that victory in which thou didst conquer all, so that even the Son of God en- gaged in conflict with thee, and by not shrinking but grappling with thee overcame. In these that die thou hast conquered; but thou art thy- self conquered in these that rise again. Thy victory was but temporal, in which thou didst swallow up the bodies of them that die. Our victory will abide eternal, in which thou art swallowed up in the bodies of them that rise again. " Where is thy sting? " — that is, the sin wherewithal we are punctured and poisoned, so ' [This is only one of many examples of the care with which Augustin, writing for the popular eye, illustrates his excgetical points. "Of death" he thus shows is genitive of the object, not of the subject; giving to the phrase the meaning of " the sting which slays man." — W.]
that thou didst fix thyself in our very bodies, and for so long a time didst hold them in pos- session. "The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law." We all sinned in one, so that we all die in one; we received the law, not by amendment according to its pre- cepts to put an end to sin, but by transgression to increase it. For " the law entered that sin might abound; " ^ and " the Scripture hath con- cluded all under sin; " ^ Ijut " thanks be to God, who hath given us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ," •♦ in order that " where sin abounded, grace might much more abound; " ^ and " that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe; " ^ and that we might overcome death by a deathless resurrection, and sin, " the sting " thereof, by a free justification.
CHAP. 21 [XII.] THE PRECEPT ABOUT TOUCH- ING THE MENSTRUOUS WOMAN NOT TO BE FIGU- RATIVELY UNDERSTOOD; THE NECESSITY OF THE SACRAMENTS.
Let no one, then, on this subject be either deceived or a deceiver. The manifest sense of Holy Scripture which we have considered, removes all obscurities. Even as death is in this our mortal body derived from the beginning, so from the beginning has sin been drawn into this sinful flesh of ours, for the cure of which, both as it is derived by propagation and aug- mented by wilful transgression, as well as for the quickening of our flesh itself, our Physician came in the likeness of sinful flesh, who is not needed by the sound, but only by the sick, — and who ' came not to call the righteous, but sinners, s Therefore the saying of the apostle, when ad- vising believers not to separate themselves from unbelieving partners: " For the unbelieving hus- band is sanctified by the wife, and the unbeliev- ing wife is sanctified by the husband: else were your children unclean; but now are they holy,"^ must be either so understood as both we our- selves elsewhere, ^ and as Pelagius in his notes on this same Epistle to the Corinthians, •'* has ex- pounded it, according to the purport of the pas- sages already mentioned, that sometimes wives gained husbands to Christ, and sometimes hus- bands converted wives, whilst the Christian will of even one of the parents prevailed towards making their children Christians; or else (as the apostle's words seem rather to indicate, and to a certain degree compel us) some particular sanctification is to be here understood, by which 2 Rom. V. 20.
3 Gal. iii. 22.
* I Cor. vii. T4.
' See.\ugustin's work On the Sermon on the Rfount, i. 16.
* See the Commentaries on St. Paul in Jerome's works, vol. xi. (Vallarsius), the work of either I'elagius or one of his followers.
78 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN.
[Book III.
an unbelieving husband or wife was sanctified by the beUeving partner, and by which the chil- dren of the believing parents were sanctified, — whether it was that the husband or the wife, during the woman's menstruation, abstained from cohabiting, having learned that duty in the law (for Ezekiel classes this amongst the precepts which were not to be taken in a metaphorical sense ' ), or on account of some other voluntary sanctification which is not there expressly pre- scribed,— a sprinkling of holiness arising out of the close ties of married life and children. Nevertheless, whatever be the sanctification meant, this must be steadily held: that there is no other valid means of making Christians and remitting sin^ except by men becoming believers through the sacrament according to the institution of Christ and the Church. For neither are unbelieving husbands and wives, not- withstanding their intimate union with holy and righteous spouses, cleansed of the sin which sepa- rates men from the kingdom of God and drives them into condemnation, nor are the children who are born of parents, however just and holy, absolved from the guilt of original sin, Uiiless they have been baptized into Christ; and in behalf of these our plea should be the more earnest, the less able they are to urge one them- selves.
CHAP. 2 2 [xm.] WE OUGHT TO BE ANXIOUS TO SECURE THE BAPTISM OF INFANTS.
For this is the point aimed at by the contro- versy, against the novelty of which we have to struggle by the aid of ancient truth: that it is clearly altogether superfluous for infants to be baptized. Not that this opinion is avowed m so many words, lest so firmly established a cus- tom of the Church should be unable to endure its assailants. But if we are taught to render help to orphans, how much more ought we to labour in behalf of those children who, though under the protection of parents, will still be left more destitute and wretched than orphans, ' Ezek. xviii. 6.
should that grace of Christ be denied them, which they are all unable to demand for them- selves?
CHAP. 23. — EPILOGUE.
As for what they say, that some men, by the use of their reason, have lived, and do live, in this world without sin, we should wish that it were true, we should strive to make it true, we should pray that it be true; but, at the same time, we should confess that it is not yet true. For to those who wish and strive and worthily pray for this result, whatever sins remain in them are daily remitted because we sincerely pray, " For- give us our debts, as we forgive our debtors." ^ Whosoever shall deny that this prayer is in this life necessary for every righteous man who knows and does the will of God, except the one Saint of saints, greatly errs, and is utterly inca- pable of pleasing Him whom he praises. More- over, if he supposes himself to be such a character, " he deceives himself, and the truth is not in him," 3 — for no other reason than that he thinks what is false. That Physician, then, who is not needed by the sound, but by the sick, knows how to heal us, and by healing to perfect us unto eternal life; and He does not in this world take away death, although inflicted because of sin, from those whose sins He remits, m order that they may enter on their conflict, and over- come the fear of death with full sincerity of faith.
In some cases, too, He declines to help even His righteous servants, so long as they are capa- ble of still higher elevation, to the attainment of a perfect righteousness, in order that (while in His sight no man living is justified-*) we may always feel it to be our duty to give Him thanks for mercifully bearing with us, and so, by holy humility, be healed of that first cause of all our failings, even the swellings of pride. This letter, as my intention first sketched it, was to have been a short one; it has grown into a lengthy book. Would that it were as perfect as it has at last become complete!
2 Matt. vi. 12.
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."
The person ' to whom I had addressed the three books entitled De Peccatorum Mentis et Remissione, in which I carefully discussed also the baptism of infants, informed me, when ac- knowledging my communication, that he was much disturbed because I declared it to be pos- sible 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 was possible of which no example could be adduced. Owing to this inquiry on the part of this person, I \\TOte the treatise entitled De Spiritu et Littera, in which I considered at large the apostle's ' 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 a7id 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 of September of the following year, 413. This present work is also mentioned in the book On Faith and Works, c. 14; and in that Oti Christian Doc- trine, iii. 33. Compare the notes on p. 15 and p. 130.
80 80 statement, "The letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life." ^ In this work, so far as God en- abled me, I earnestly disputed with those who oppose that grace of God which justifies the ungodly. While treating, however, of the ob- servances of the Jews, who abstain from sundry meats and drinks in accordance with their ancient law, I mentioned " the ceremonies of certain meats " \_qiia7-umdam escariim ce7-imoiiice\ ^ — a phrase which, though not used in Holy Scrip- ture, seemed to me very convenient, because I remembered that coinionice is tantamount to carimonice, 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 reference whatever to it; I confined my use to the sense above indicated. This work of mine begins thus: "After reading the short treatises which I lately drew up for you, my beloved son Marcellinus," etc.
^ 2 Cor. iii. 6.
CONTENTS OF THE TREATISE "ON THE SPIRIT AND THE LETTER."
CHAPTER PAGE 1. The occasion of writing this work; a thing may be capable of being done, and yet MAY never be done 83 2. The examples apposite 84 3. Theirs is comparatively a harmless error, who say that a man lives here without sin, 84 4. Theirs is a much more serious error, requiring a very vigorous refutation, who deny God's grace to be necessary 84 5. True grace is the gift of the Holy Ghost, which kindles in the soul the joy and love of goodness 84 6. The teaching of law without the life-giving spirit is " the letter that killeth ".. 85 7. What is proposed to be here treated 85 8. Romans interprets Corinthians 86 9. Through the law sin has abounded 86 ID. Christ the true healer 86 11. From what fountain good works flow 87 12. Paul, whence so called; bravely contends for grace 87 13. Keeping the law; the Jews' glorying; the fear of punishment; the circumcision op the heart 87 14. In what respect the Pelagians acknowledge God as the Author of our justification, 88 15. The righteousness of God manifested by the law and the prophets 88 16. How the law was not made for a righteous man 89 17. The exclusion of boasting 90 18. Piety is wisdom; that is called the righteousness of God, which He produces...90 19. The knowledge of God through the creation 91 20. The law without grace 91 21. The law of works and the law of faith 91 22. No man justified by works 92 23. How the decalogue kills, if grace be not present 93 24. The passage in Corinthians 93 25. The passage in Romans 94 26. No fruit good except it grow from the root of love 94 27. Grace, concealed in the Old Testament, is revealed in the New 95 28. Why the Holy Ghost is called the finger of God 95 29. a comparison of the law of moses and of the new law 95 30. The new law written within 95 31. The old law ministers death; the new, righteousness 96 32. The Christian faith touching the assistance of grace 96 33. The prophecy of Jeremiah concerning the New Testament 97 34. The law; grace 97 35. The old law; the new law 97 36. The law written in our hearts 98 37. The eternal reward 98 38. The re-formation which is now being effected, compared with the perfection of the life to come 98 39. The eternal reward which is specially declared in the New Testament, foretold by the prophet 99 81 82 CONTENTS.
CHAPTER PAGE 40. how that is to be the reward of all; the apostle earnestly defends grace...99 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 lOO 42. Difference between the Old and the New Testaments loo 43. A question touching the passage in the apostle about the Gentiles who are said to DO BY nature the LAW's CO.MMANDS, WHICH THEY ARE ALSO SAID TO HAVE WRITTEN ON their HEARTS lOI The answer is, that the passage must be understood of the faithful of the new covenant 101 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 102 How the passage of the law agrees with THAT of THE PROPHET I02 The law "being done by nature" means, done by nature as restored by grace.,. 103 The image of God is not wholly blotted out in these unbelievers; venial sins,.. 103 The grace promised by the prophet for the new covenant 104 Righteousness is the gift of god 104 Faith the ground of all righteousness 105 Grace establishes free will 106 Volition and ability 106 Whether faith be in a man's own power 107 What faith is laudable 107 The faith of those who are under the law different from the faith of others.. 107 Whence comes the will to believe? 108 The free will of man is an intermediate power 109 Mercy and pity in the judgment of God 109 The will to believe is from God no Conclusion of the work in He returns to the question which MaRCELLINUS had proposed to him Ill An objection in When the commandment to love is fulfilled 112