You may now see (what bears very closely on our subject) how he endeavours to exhibit hu- man nature, as if it were wholly without fault, and how he struggles against the plainest of God's Scriptures with that " wisdom of word " ^ which renders the cross of Christ of none effect. That cross, however, shall certainly never be made of none effect; rather sliall such wisdom be subverted. Now, after we shall have demon- strated this, it may be that God's mercy may visit him, so that he may be sorry that he ever said these things: " We have," he says, " first of all to discuss the position which is maintained, that our nature has been weakened and changed by sin. I think," continues he, " that before all other things we have to inquire what sin is, — some substance, or wholly a name without sub- stance, whereby is expressed not a thing, not an existence, not some sort of a body, but the doing of a wrongful deed." He then adds: " I suppose that this is the case; and if so," he asks, " how could that which lacks all substance have possibly weakened or changed human na- ture?" Observe, I beg of you, how in his ignorance he struggles to overthrow the most salutary words of the remedial Scriptures: " I said, O Lord, be merciful unto me; heal my soul, for I have sinned against Thee." 7 Now, how can a thing be healed, if it is not wounded nor hurt, nor weakened and corrupted? But, as there is here something to be healed, whence did it receive its injury? You hear [the Psalmist] confessing the fact; what need is there of discussion? He says: "Heal my soul." Ask him how that which he wants to be healed became injured, and then listen to his following words: " Because I have sinned against Thee."
Cor.
I. 17.
7 Ps. xli. 4.
128 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN.
[Chap. 22.
Let him, however, put a question, and ask what he deemed a suitable inquiry, and say: " O you who exclaim, Heal my soul, for I have sinned against Thee! pray tell me what sin is? Some substance, or wholly a name without substance, whereby is expressed, not a thing, not an exist- ence, not some sort of a body, but merely the doing of a wrongful deed?" Then the other returns for answer: " It is even as you say; sin is not some substance; but under its name there is merely expressed the doing of a wrongful deed." But he rejoins: " Then why cry out. Heal my soul, for I have sinned against Thee? How could that have possibly corrupted your soul which lacks all substance?" Then would the other, worn out with the anguish of his wound, in order to avoid being diverted from prayer by the discussion, briefly answer and say: " Go from me, I beseech you; rather discuss the point, if you can, with Him who said: ' They that are whole need no physician, but they that are sick; I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners,' " ' — in which words, of course. He designated the righteous as the whole, and sin- ners as the sick.
CHAP. 22 [XX.] — HOW OUR NATURE COULD BE VITIATED BY SIN, EVEN THOUGH IT BE NOT A SUBSTANCE.
Now, do you not perceive the tendency and direction of this controversy? Even to render of none effect the Scripture where it is said: "Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins." ^ For how is He to save where there is no malady? For the sins, from which this gospel says Christ's people have to be saved, are not substances, and accord- ing to this writer are incapable of corrupting. O brother, how good a thing it is to remember that you are a Christian! To believe, might per- haps be enough; but still, since you persist in discussion, there is no harm, nay there is even benefit, if a firm faith precede it; let us not sup- pose, then, that human nature cannot be cor- rupted by sin, but rather, believing, from the inspired Scriptures, that it is corrupted by sin, let our inquiry be how this could possibly have come about. Since, then, we have already learnt that sin is not a substance, do we not consider, not to mention any other example, that not to eat is also not a substance? Because such absti- nence is withdrawal from a substance, inasmuch as food is a substance. To abstain, then, from food is not a substance; and yet the substance of our body, if it does altogether abstain from food, so languishes, is so impaired by broken health, is so exhausted of strength, so weakened and broken with very weariness, that even if it Matt. ix. 12, 13.
2 Matt. i. 21.
be in any way able to continue alive, it is hardly capable of being restored to the use of that food, by abstaining from which it became so corrupted and injured. In the same way sin is not a sub- stance; but God is a substance, yea the height of substance and only true sustenance of the rea- sonable creature. The consequence of depart- ing from Him by disobedience, and of inability, through infirmity, to receive what one ought really to rejoice in, you hear from the Psalmist, when he says: " My heart is smitten and with- ered like grass, since I have forgotten to eat my bread." 3 CHAP. 23 [XXI.] — ADAM DELIVERED BY THE MERCY OF CHRIST.
But observe how,, by specious arguments, he continues to oppose the truth of Holy Scripture. The Lord Jesus, who is called Jesus because He saves His people from their sins,- in accordance with this His merciful character, says: " They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick; I am come not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance." ^ Accordingly, His apostle also says: " This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners." ^ This man, how- ever, contrary to the " faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation," declares that '" this sickness ought not to have been contracted by sins, lest the punishment of sin should amount to this, that more sins should be committed." Now even for infants the help of the Great Physician is sought. This writer asks: " Why seek Him? They are whole for whom you seek the Physician. Not even was the first man condemned to die for any such reason, for he did not sin afterwards." As if he had ever heard anything of his sub- sequent perfection in righteousness, except so far as the Church commends to our faith that even Adam was delivered by the mercy of the Lord Christ. " As to his posterity also," says he, ''not only are they not more infirm than he, but they actually fulfilled more commandments than he ever did, since he neglected to fulfil one," — this posterity which he sees so born (as Adam certainly was not made), not only incapa- ble of commandment, which they do not at all understand, but hardly capable of sucking the breast, when they are hungry! Yet even these would He have to be saved in the bosom of Mother Church by His grace who saves His people from their sins; but these men gainsay such grace, and, as if they had a deeper insight into the creature than ever He possesses who made the creature, they pronounce [these in- fants] sound with an assertion which is anything but sound itself.
3 Ps.
ClI. 4.
4 Matt. ix. 12.
s I Tim. i. 15.
Chap. 25.]
ON NATURE AND GRACE.
129 CHAP. 24 [XXII.] SIN AND THE PENALTY OF SIN THE S-AiME.
" The very matter," says he, " of sin is its pun- ishment, if the sinner is so much weakened that he commits more sins." He does not consider how justly the light of truth forsakes the man Avho transgresses the law. When thus deserted, he of course becomes blinded, and necessarily offends more; and by so falling is embarrassed, and being embarrassed fails to rise, so as to hear the voice of the law, which admonishes him to beg for the Saviour's grace. Is no punishment due to them of whom the apostle says: " Be- cause that, when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened? " ' This darkening was, of course, already their punishment and penalty; and yet by this very penalty — that is, by their blindness of heart, which super\-enes on the withdrawal of the light of wisdom — they fell into more grievous sins still. " For giving themselves out as wise, they became fools." This is a grievous penalty, if one only understands it; and from such a penalty only see to what lengths they ran: "And they changed," he says, "the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fjur-footed beasts, and creeping things." ^ All this they did owing to that penalty of their sin, whereby "their foolish heart was darkened." And yet, owing to these deeds of theirs, which, although coming in the way of punishment, were none the less sins (he goes on to say): " Where- fore God also gave them up to uncleanness, through the lusts of their own hearts." ^ See how severely God condemned them, giving them over to uncleanness in the very desires of their heart. Observe also the sins they commit owing to such condemnation: "To dishonour," says he, "their own bodies among themselves." ^ Here is the punishment of iniquity, which is it- self iniquity; a fact which sets forth in a clearer light the words which follow: " Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen." " For this cause," says he, "God gave them up unto vile affec- tions." ■* See how often God inflicts punishment; and out of the self-same punishment sins, more numerous and more severe, arise. " For even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature; and likewise the men also, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly." 5 Then, to show that these things were so sins themselves.
that they were also the penalties of sins, he further says: " And receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet." ^ Observe how often it happens that the very pun- ishment which God inflicts begets other sins as its natural offspring. Attend still further: ".\nd even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge," says he, " God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; being filled with all unrighteous- ness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, mali- ciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, odious to God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without under- standing, covenant-breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful." ^ Here, now, let our opponent say: " Sin ought not so to have been punished, that the sinner, through his pun- ishment, should commit even more sins."
CHAP. 25 [XXIII.] — GOD FORSAKES ONLY THOSE WHO DESERVE TO BE FORSAKEN. WE ARE SUF- FICIENT OF OURSELVES TO COMMIT SIN; BUT NOT TO RETURN TO THE WAY OF RIGHTEOUS- NESS. DEATH IS THE PUNISHMENT, NOT THE CAUSE OF SIN.
Perhaps he may answer that God does not compel men to do these things, but only for- sakes those who deserve to be forsaken. If he does say this, he says what is most true. For, as I have already remarked, those who are for- saken by the light of righteousness, and are therefore groping in darkness, produce nothing else than those works of darkness which I have enumerated, until such time as it is said to them, and they obey the command: " Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light." '^ The truth desig- nates them as dead; whence the passage: " Let the dead bury their dead." The truth, then, designates as dead those whom this man de- clares to have been unable to be damaged or I corrupted by sin, on the ground, forsooth, that he has discovered sin to be no substance 1 No- body tells him that " man was so formed as to be able to pass from righteousness to sin, and yet not able to return from sin to righteous- ness." But that free will, whereby man cor- rupted his own self, was sufficient for his passing into sin; but to return to righteousness, he has need of a Physician, since he is out of health; he has need of a Vivifier, because he is dead. Now about such grace as this he says not a word, as if he were able to cure himself by his own will, since this alone was able to ruin him. We do not tell him that the death of the body is of efficacy for sinning, because it is only its 21.
25, 26.
3 Rom. i. 24.
' Rom. i. 27.
1 Rom. i. 28-31.
Eph.
V. 14.
IjO THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN.
[Chap. 26.
punishment; for no one sins by undergoing the death of his body; but the death of the soul is conducive to sin, forsaken as it is by its life, that is, its God; and it must needs produce dead works, until it revives by the grace of Christ. God forbid that we should assert that hunger and thirst and other bodily sufferings necessarily produce sin. When exercised by such vexa- tions, the life of the righteous only shines out with greater lustre, and procures a greater glory by overcoming them through patience; but then it is assisted by the grace, it is assisted by the Spirit, it is assisted by the mercy of God; not exalting itself in an arrogant will, but earning fortitude by a humble confession. For it had learnt to say unto God: " Thou art my hope; Thou art my trust." ' Now, how it happens that concerning this grace, and help and mercy, without which we cannot live, this man has noth- ing to say, I am at a loss to know; but he goes further, and in the most open manner gainsays the grace of Christ whereby we are justified, by insisting on the sufficiency of nature to work righteousness, provided only the will be present. The reason, however, why, after sin has been released to the guilty one by grace, for the exercise of faith, there should still remain the death of the body, although it proceeds from sin, I have already explained, according to my ability, in those books which I wrote to Marcellinus of blessed memory.^ CH.A.P. 26 [XXIV.] CHRIST DIED OF HIS OWN POWER AND CHOICE.
As to his statement, indeed, that " the Lord was able to die without- sin; " His beinsf born also was of the ability of His mercy, not the demand of His nature: so, likewise, did He undergo death of His own power; and this is our price which He paid to redeem us from death. Now, this truth their contention labours hard to make of none effect; for human nature is maintained by them to be such, that with free will it wants no such ransom in order to be translated from the power of darkness and of him who has the power of death,^ into the king- dom of Christ the Lord.-* And yet, when the Lord drew near His passion. He said, " Behold, the prince of this world cometh and shall find nothing in me," s — and therefore no sin, of course, on account of which he might exercise dominion over Him, so as to destroy Him. " But," added He, " that the world may know ' Ps. Ixxi. 5.
' Ps. Ixxi. 5.
2 The tribune Marcellinus had been put to death in the Septem- ber of 413, " having, though innocent, fallen a victim to the cruel hatred of the tyrant Heraclius," as Jerome writes in his book iii. against the Pelagians. Honorius mentions him as a " man of con- spicuous renown," in a law enacted August 30, in the year 414, con- tained in the Cod Theod. xvi. 5 (de ha;reticis), line 55. Compare the notes above, pp. 15 and 80.
that I do the will of my Father, arise, let us go hence; " *> as much as to say, I am going to die, not through the necessity of sin, but in volun- tariness of obedience.
CHAP. 27. — EVEN EVILS, THROUGH GOD'S MERCV, ARE OF USE.
He asserts that " no evil is the cause of any- thing good;" as if punishment, "forsooth, were good, although thereby many have been re- formed. There are, then, evils which are of use by the wondrous mercy of God. Did that man experience some good thing, when he said, " Thou didst hide Thy face from me, and I was troubled? "7 Certainly not; and yet this very trouble was to him in a certain manner a rem- edy against his pride. For he had said in his prosperity, " I shall never be moved; " ^ and so was ascribing to himself what he was receiving from the Lord. " For what had he that he did not receive? " 9 It had, therefore, become ne- cessary to show him whence he had received, that he might receive in humility what he had lost in pride. Accordingly, he says, " In Thy good pleasure, O Lord, Thou didst add strength to my beauty." ^ In this abundance of mine I once used to say, " I shall not be moved; " whereas it all came from Thee, not from myself. Then at last Thou didst turn away Thy face from me, and I became troubled, CHAP. 28 [XXV.] — THE DISPOSITION OF NEARLY ALL WHO GO ASTR.\Y. WITH SOME HERETICS OUR BUSINESS OUGHT NOT TO BE DISPUTATION, BUT PR.'WER.
Man's proud mind has no relish at all for this; God, however, is great, in persuading even it how to find it all out. We are, indeed, more inclined to seek how best to reply to such argu- ments as oppose our error, than to experience how salutary would be our condition if we were free from error. We ought, tlierefore, to en- counter all such, not by discussions, but rather by prayers both for them and for ourselves. For we ne\^er say to them, what this opponent has opposed to himself, that " sin was necessary in order that there might be a cause for God's mercy." Would there had never been misery to render that mercy necessary! But the in- 1 iquity of sin, — which is so much the greater ' in proportion to the ease wherewith man might have avoided sin, whilst no infirmity did as yet beset him, — has been followed closely up by a most righteous punishment; even that [offend- ing man] should receive in himself a reward in kind of his sin, losing that obedience of his body which had been in some degree put under his own control, which he had despised when it ' Ps. XXX. 7.
8 Ps. XXX. 8.
I Chap. 31.]
ON NATURE AND GRACE.
^31 was the right of his Lord. And, inasmuch as we are now born with the self-same law of sin, which in our members resists the law of our mind, we ought never to murmur against God, nor to dispute in opposition to the clearest fact, but to seek and pray for His mercy instead of our punishment.
chap. 29 [xxvi.] a simile to show that god's grace is necessary for doing any good work whatever. god never forsakes the justified man if he be not himself forsaken.'
Observe, indeed, how cautiously he expresses himself: "God, no doubt, applies His mercy even to this office, whenever it is necessary; because man after sin requires help in this way, not because God wished there should be a cause for such necessity." Do you not see how he does not say that God's grace is necessary to prevent us from sinning, but because we have sinned? Then he adds: " But just in the same way it is the duty of a physician to be ready to cure a man who is already wounded; although he ought not to wish for a man who is sound to be wounded." Now, if this simile suits the subject of which we are treating, human nature is certainly incapable of receiving a wound from sin, inasmuch as sin is not a substance. As therefore, for example's sake, a man who is lamed by a wound is cured in order that his step for the future may be direct and strong, its past infirmity being healed, so does the Heavenly Physician cure our maladies, not only that they may cease any longer to exist, but in order that we may ever afterwards be able to walk aright, — to which we should be unequal, even after our healing, except by His continued help. For after a medical man has administered a cure, in order that the padent may be afterwards duly nourished with bodily elements and aliments, for the completion and continuance of the said cure by suitable means and help, he commends him to God's good care, who bestows these aids on all who live in the flesh, and from whom pro- ceeded even those means which [the physician] applied during the process of the cure. For it is not out of any resources which he has him- self created that the medical man effects any cure, but out of the resources of Him who cre- ates all things which are required by the whole and by the sick. God, however, whenever He — through " the one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus " — spiritually heals the sick or raises the dead, that is, justifies the ungodly, and when He has brought him to per- fect health, in other words, to the fulness of life and righteousness, does not forsake, if He is not ■ See the treatise De Peccatorum Meritis, ii. 22.
forsaken, in order that life may be passed in constant piety and righteousness. For, just as the eye of the body, even when completely sound, is unable to see unless aided by the brightness of light, so also man, even when most fully justified, is unable to lead a holy life, if he be not divinely assisted by the eternal light of righteousness. God, therefore, heals us not only that He may blot out the sin which we have committed, but, furthermore, that He may enable us even to avoid sinning.
CHAP. 30 [xXVIl] — SIN IS REMOVED BY SIN.
He no doubt shows some acuteness in han- dling, and turning over and exposing, as he likes, and refuting a certain statement, which is made to this effect, that " it was really necessary to man, in order to take from him all occasion for pride and boasting, that he should be unable to exist without sin." He supposes it to be " the height of absurdity and folly, that there should have been sin in order that sin might not be; inasmuch as pride is itself, of course, a sin." As if a sore were not attended with pain, and an operation did not produce pain, that pain might be taken away by pain. If we had not experienced any such treat- ment, but were only to hear about it in some parts of the world where these things had never hap- pened, we might perhaps use this man's words, and say. It is the height of absurdity that pain should have been necessary in order that a sore should have no pain.
i.
chap. 31. — THE ORDER AND PROCESS OF HEAL- ING OUR HEAVENLY PHYSICIAN DOES NOT ADOPT FROM THE SICK PATIENT, BUT DERIVES FROM HIM- SELF. WHAT CAUSE THE RIGHTEOUS HAVE FOR FEARING.
" But God," they say, " is able to heal all things." Of course His purpose in acting is to heal all things; but He acts on His own judg- ment, and does not take His procedure in heal- ing from the sick man. For undoubtedly it was His wish to endow His apostle with very great power and strength, and yet He said to him: " My strength is made perfect in weakness; " ^ nor did He remove from him, though he so often entreated Him to do so, that mysterious " thorn in the flesh," which He told him had been given to him " lest he should be unduly exalted through the abundance of the revelation." ^ For all other sins only prevail in ex^il deeds; pride only has to be guarded against in things that are rightly done. Whence it happens that those persons are ad- monished not to attribute to their own power the gifts of God, nor to plume themselves there- on, lest by so doing they should perish with a ^ 2 Cor xii. 9.
3 2 Cor. xii. 7, 8.
132 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN.
[Chap. 32.
heavier perdition than if they had done no good at all, to whom it is said: " Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God which worketh in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure." ' Why, then, must it be with fear and trembling, and not rather with ' security, since God is working; except it be | because there so quickly steals over our human soul, by reason of our will (without which we can do nothing well), the inclination to esteem simply as our own accomplishment whatever good we do; and so each one of us says in his prosperity: " I shall never be moved? " ^ There- fore, He who in His good pleasure had added strength to our beauty, turns away His face, and the man who had made his boast becomes troubled, because it is by actual sorrows that the swelling pride must be remedied.
CHAP. 32 [XXVIII.] — GOD FORSAKES US TO SOME EXTENT THAT WE MAY NOT GROW PROUD.