I postponed for a more careful consideration afterwards: " J'orasmuch," 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." ' See liow 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 witliin. He speaks of the " fleshy tables of the ht^art," 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 chil- dren of Israel could not look stedfastly on the end of the face of Moses," and that he accord- ingly spoke to them through a veil,^ — 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 our- selves, we may flee to Him for refuge. Accordmgly, after most guardedly saying, " Such trust have we through Christ to God-ward," ^ the apostle immediately goes on to add the state- ment 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 Testa- ment; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life." * CHAP. 3 1 [XVIII.] THE OLD LAW MINISTERS DEATH; THE NEW, RIGHTEOUSNESS.
Now, since, as he says in another passage, " the law was added because of transgression," 5 mean- ing the law which is written externally to man, he therefore designates it both as " the ministra- tion of death," ^ and " the ministration of con- demnation; " 7 but the other, that is, the law of the New Testament, he calls " the ministration of the Spirit"** and "the ministration of right- eousness," 7 because through the Spirit we work righteousness, and are delivered from the con- demnation due to transgression. The one, there- fore, vanishes away, the other abides; for the terrifying schoolmaster will be dispensed with, when love has succeeded to fear. Now "where * 2 Cor. iii. s, 6.
5 Gal. iii. 19.
6 2 Cor. iii. 7.
7 2 Cor. iii. 9.
* 2 Cor. ill. 8.
the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." 9 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." '° By this " craftiness " and " deceitfulness " he would have us understand the hypocrisy with wliich 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." " 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 our- selves your servants for Jesus' sake. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of dark- ness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." '^ 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." '^ 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 I whilst longing for which " we groan, being bur- dened " with mortality, " earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from ■» Heaven," " that mortality might be swallowed I up of life; " '•* — 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; " 's and after a little he thus briefly draws the conclusion of the matter: " That we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." "' This is not the righteousness whereby God is Himself righteous, but that whereby we are made righteous by Him.
CHAP. 32 [XIX.] THE CHRISTIAN FAITH TOUCH- ING 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 9 2 Cor. iii. 17.
'° 2 Cor. iv. I, 2.
" Ps. xxxii. 2.
■- 2 Cor. iv. 5, 6.
'3 2 Cor. iv. 7.
'5 2 Cor. V. 5.
"" 2 Cor. V. 21.
1 Chap. 35.]
ON THE SPIRIT AND THE LETTER.
97 say that we become righteous through our own selves, without the grace of God worlcing 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 assist- ing 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.
CHAF.;^;^. — THE PROPHECY OF JEREMIAH CON- CERNING THE NEW TESTAMENT.
Observe this also in that testimony which was given by the prophet on this subject in the clear- est 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 t^e 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 remem- ber their sin no more." ' Whatllay we to this? One nowhere, or hardly anywhere, except in this passage of the prophet, finds in the Old Testa- ment 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 al^out to be given, but not so plainly as to have its very name mentioned. Consider then care- fully, what difference God has testified as existing between the two testaments — the old covenant and the new.
CHAP. 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: " Be- cause 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 ' Jer. xxxi. 31-34.
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." ^ Nevertheless, it is not by that law that the un- godly are made righteous, but by grace; and this change is effected by the life-giving Spirit, without whom the letter kills. " For if tiiere 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." ^ 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 ex- pressed in the next sentence: " Before, indeed, faith came, we were kept under the law, concluded for the faith which was afterwards revealed?"'* 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." s Accordingly, in the pas- sage 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," *^ — 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." 7 CHAP. 35 [XX.] — THE OLD LAW; THE NEW L.\W.
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 2 Matt. V. 17.
* Gal. iii. 23.
5 Rom. viii. 3, 4.
* Jer. xxxi. 31. 7 Jer. xxxi. 32.
98 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN.
[Chap. 36.
covet,"' is fulfilled by the New Testament? " Because," says the prophet, " they continued not in my covenant, I have also rejected them, saith the Lord," - It is then on account of the ofl'ence 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 have 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." ^ 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," •* because " not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God.""* And I apprehend that the aposde in this pas- sage had no other reason for mentioning " the New Testament " (" who hath made us able ministers of the Neiij 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." ^ ■CHAP. 36 [XXI.] THE LAW WRITTEN IN OUR HEARTS.
What then is God's law written by God Him- self 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,5 and the end of the commandment?^ Now the promises of the Old Testament are earthly; and 3'et (with the exception of the sacramental or- dinances which were the shadow of things to come, such as circumcision, the Sabbath and other observances of days, and the ceremonies of certain meats, ^ 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," ^ " and what- soever other commandment is briefly compre- hended in the saying. Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." ^ Nevertheless, whereas as in the said Testament earthly and temporal ' See Retractations, ii. 37, printed at the head of this treatise. 8 Ex. XX. 13, 14, 17. 9 Rom. xiii 9.
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 it- self, 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," 3 — by which He sig- nified that men would not fear the law which alarmed them externally, but would love the very righteousness of the law which dwelt in- wardly in their hearts.
CHAP. 3 7 [XXII.] THE ETERNAL REWARD.
He then went on to state the reward: " I will be their God, and they shall be my people." 3 This corresponds to the Psalmist's words to God: " It is good for me to hold me fast by God." '° " 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? " 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," '^ — 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 command- ments; and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will mani- fest myself unto him," '^ — 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 dis- play Himself even to the wicked also. Then, however, shall 4hat come to pass which is writ- ten, " Let the ungodly man be taken away, that he see not the glory of the Lord." '•♦ Then also shall " the wicked go into everlasting punishment, and the righteous into life eternal." '= Now this eternal life, as I have just mentioned, has been defined to be, that they may know the one true God.'^ 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." "^ This likeness be- gins even now to be re-formed in us, while the inward man is being renevved from day to day, according to the image of Him that created him.''
CHAP. 38 [xXIIL] 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 '' Ps. XXX vi 9. '■• Isa xwi. 10. " Col. iii. 10.
Chap. 40.]
ON THE SPIRIT AND THE LETTER.
99 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, comj)aring the period of childhood with the age of man- hood. "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." ' He then immedi- ately 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." - CHAP. 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 sura 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." ^ 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. ^^'hy 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 every- where 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," •♦ if it be not that what he himself implies in the following passage be- comes 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? "5 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," ^ unless it be that he has included in his prophetic forecast the eternal re- ward of the said New Testament, by promising us the most blessed contemplation of God Himself?
CHAP. 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 ' I Cor. xiii. ii. ■♦ 1 Tim. ii. 7.
3 Jer. xxxi. 34.
least unto the greatest of them," but all that be- long 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." ^ 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 Him- self promise, and another perform; which would no longer be promising, but prophesying. Hence it is "not of works, but of Him that calleth," 7 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.* " They shall all know me,"^ He says, — "Ail,'' the house of Israel and house of Judah. "All," however, " are not Israel w^hich are of Israel," ") but they only to whom it is said in "the psalm concerning the morning aid " '° (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." " All the seed, with- out exception, even the entire seed of the prom- ise and of the called, but only of those who are the called according to His purpose.'^ " 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." '^ "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 Tes- tament 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 fiiith of Abraham, — " who is the father of us all; as it is written, I have made 7 Rom. ix. II.
* I Cor. XV. 9, lo.
* Rom. ix. 7-12.
9 Rom ix. 6.
'" See title of Ps. xxii. (xxi. Sept.) in the Sept. and latin. '1 Ps. x.xii. 23. '- Rom. viii. 28. '^ Rom. viii. 30.
lOO THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN.
[Chap. 41.
thee the father of many nations." ' 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.
CHAP. 41. THE LAW WRITTEN IN THE HEART, AND THE REWARD OF THE ETERNAL CONTEMPLA- TION 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, be- longed 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," - — even that imperfect knowledge of "the child "3 in which this present life is passed, and which is but " in part," " by means of a mirror darkly."-* 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 con- template with a perfectly purified mind the ever- lasting light of transparent truth. "When that, however, which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away/' 5 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 Hfe for us to know the one very God; ^ then shall Ave be like Him, 7 because "we shall then know, even as we are known;"^ 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 great- est of them." 9 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 beHeve, and '^ the greatest" those who have been further able to understand — so far as may be in this