17. It is one thing to depart from the body, another thing to be liberated from the BODY of this death 164 18. The righteousness of this life comprehended in three parts, — fasting, almsgiving, and PRAYER 164 "19. The commandment of love shall be perfectly fulfilled in the life to come...165 20. \Yho may be said to walk without spot; damnable and venial sins 165 21. To whom God's commandments are grievous; and to whom, not. Why Scripture says that God's commandments are not grievous; a commandment is a proof of the freedom of man's WILL; prayer is a proof of grace 166 22. Passages to show that God's commandments are not grievous 166 23. Passages of Scripture which, when objected against him by the catholics, Ccelestius endeavours to elude by other passages: the first passage 167 24. To be without sin, and to be without blame — how differing 167 25. Forgiveness of one's injuries gives right to ask for forgiveness i68 26. Why Job was so great a sufferer i68 27. Who may be said to keep the ways of the Lord; what it is to decline and depart from the ways of the Lord i68 157 158 CONTENTS.
CHAPTER PAGE 2S. When our heart may be said not to reproach us; avhen good is to be perfected...i6S 29. The second passage. Who may be said to abstain from every evil thing 169 30. "Every man is a liar," owing to himself alone; but "every man is true," by help only of the grace of god 169 31. The third passage. It is one thing to depart, and another thing to have departed, from ALL SIN. "There is none that doeth good," — of whom this is to be under- stood 170 32. The fourth passage. In what sense God only is good. With God to be good and to BE Himself are the same thing 170 33. The fifth passage 171 34. The opposing passages 171 35. The Church will be without spot and wrinkle after the resurrection 172 36. The difference between the upright in heart and the clean in heart 172 37. The sixth passage 172 38. The seventh passage. Who may be called immaculate. How it is that in God's sight no man is justified 173 39. The eighth passage. In what sense he is said not to sin who is born of God. In what way he who sins shall not see nor know god 1 73 40. The NINTH PASSAGE I74 41. Specimens of Pelagian exegesis 174 42. God's promises conditional. Saints of the Old Testament were saved by the grace of Christ 175 43. No MAN IS assisted unless he does himself also work. Our course is a constant progress 175 44. Conclusion of the work. In the regenerate it is not concupiscence, but consent, which IS sin 176 A TREATISE CONCERNING MAN'S PERFECTION IN RIGHTEOUSNESS, BY AU RE LI US AUGUSTIN, BISHOP OF HIPPO; In One Book, ADDRESSED TO EUTROPIUS AND PAULUS, A.D. 415.
PAPER CONTAINING SUNDRY DEFINITIONS/ SAID TO HAVE BEEN DRAWN UP BY. COELESTIUS, WAS PUT INTO THE HANDS OF AUGUSTIN. IN THIS DOCUMENT, CCELESTIUS, OR SOME PERSON WHO SHARED IN HIS ERRORS, HAD RECKLESSLY ASSERTED THAT A MAN HAD IT IN HIS POWER TO LIVE HERE WITHOUT SIN. AUGUSTIN FIRST REFUTES THE SEVERAL PROPOSITIONS IN BRIEF ANSWERS, SHOWING THAT THE PERFECT AND PLENARY STATE OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, IN WHICH A MAN EXISTS ABSOLUTELY WITHOUT SIN, IS UNATTAINABLE WITHOUT GRACE BY THE MERE RESOURCES OF OUR CORRUPT NATURE, AND NEVER OCCURS IN THIS PRESENT STATE OF EXISTENCE. HE NEXT PROCEEDS TO CONSIDER THE AUTHORITIES WHICH THE PAPER CONTAINED AS GATHERED OUT OF THE SCRIP- TURES; SOME OF THEM TEACHING MAN TO BE " UNSPOTTED " AND "PERFECT;" OTHERS MENTIONING THE COMMANDMENTS OF GOD AS "NOT GRIEVOUS;" WHILE OTHERS AGAIN ARE QUOTED AS OPPOSED TO THE AUTHORITATIVE PASSAGES WHICH THE CATHOLICS WERE ACCUSTOMED TO ADVANCE AGAINST THE PELAGIANS.
Augiistin to his holy brethren and fellow-bishops Eutropius and Paulus.^ CHAP. L Your love, which in both of you is so great and so holy that it is a delight to obey its com- mands, has laid me under an obligation to reply to some definitions which are said to be the work of Coelestius; for so runs the title of the paper which you have given me, "The definitions, so it is said, of Coelestius." As for this title, I take it that it is not his, but theirs who have brought this work from Sicily, where Coelestius is said not to be, — although many there ^ make boast- * These breves defittitiojtes, which Augustin also calls ratioci- naiioKcs, are short argumentative statements, which may be desig- nated breviates.
2 [Probably Spanish refugees; they had recently presented to Augustin a memorial against certain heresies. Oros.ad Aug. i. — \\'.]
5 In his epistle (157) to Hilary, written a little while before this work, he mentions Cslestius and the condemnation of his errors in ful pretension of holding views like his, and, to use the apostle's word, " being themselves de- ceived, lead others also astrav." "♦ That these views are, however, his, or those of some asso- ciates 5 of his, we, too, can well believe. For the above-mentioned brief definitions, or rather propositions, are by no means at variance with his opinion, such as I have seen it expressed in another work, of which he is the undoubted author. There was therefore good reason, I a Council held at Carthage; he expresses also some apprehension of Ccclestius attempting to spread his opinions in Sicily: " Whether he he himself there," says Augustin, " or only others who are partners in his errors, there are too many of them: and, unless they be checked, they lead astray others to join their sect; and so great is their increase, that I cannot tell whither they will force their way," etc.
* 2 Tim. iii. 13.
* 2 Tim. iii. 13.
5 Sociorum ejus. It has been proposed to read sectatorunt ejus, — not imsuitably (although not justified by MS. evidence), because Ccclestius " had," to use Jerome's words. " by this time turned out a master with a following, — the leader of a perfect army." — Jerome's Epistle to CtesiphoH, written in the year 413 or 414.
159 i6o THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN.
[Chap. i.
think, for the report which those brethren, who brought these tiiUngs to us, heard in Sicily, that Coelestius taught or wrote such opinions. I should like, if it were possible, so to meet the obligation imposed on me by your brotherly kindness, that 1, too, in my own answer should be equally brief. But unless I set forth also the propositions which I answer, who will be able to form a judgment of the value of my answer? Still I will try to the best of my ability, assisted, too, by God's mercy, by your own prayers, so to conduct the discussion as to keep it from running to an unnecessary length.
CHAP. II. (l.) THE FIRST BREVIATE OF CCELESTIUS.
I. " First of all," says he, " he must be asked who denies man's ability to live without sin, what every sort of sin is, — is it such as can be avoided? or is it unavoidable? If it is unavoidable, then it is not sin; if it can be avoided, then a man can live without the sin which can be avoided. No reason or justice permits us to designate as sin what cannot in any way be avoided." Our answer to this is, that sin can be avoided, if our corrupted nature be healed by God's grace, through our Lord Jesus Christ. For, in so far as it is not sound, in so far does it either through blindness fail to see, or through weakness fail to accomplish, that which it ought to do; " for the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh," ■ so that a man does not do the things which he would.
(2.) THE SECOND BREVIATE.
II. "We must ne»xt ask," he says, "whether sin comes from will, or from necessity? If from necessity, it is not sin; if from will, it can be avoided." We answer as before; and in order that we may be healed, we pray to Him to whom it is said in the psalm: " Lead Thou me out of my necessities." ^ (3.) THE THIRD BREVIATE.
III. "Again we must ask," he says, "what sin is, — natural? or accidental? If natural, it is not sin; if accidental, it is separable; ^ and if it is separable, it can be avoided; and because it can be avoided, man can be without that which can be avoided." The answer to this is, that sin is not natural; but nature (especially in that corrupt state from which we have become by nature " children of wrath " •*) has too little determina- tion of will to avoid sin, unless assisted and healed by God's grace through Jesus Christ our Lord.
3 [An accident " is a modification or quality which does not essen- tially belong to a thing, nor form one of its constituent or invariable attributes: as motion in relation to matter, or heat to iron." — Flem- ing: Vocabulary of Philosophy. — W.J ■* Eph. ii. 3.
(4.) THE FOURTH BREVIATE.
IV. "We must ask, again," he says, "What is sin, — an act, or a thing? If it is a thing, it must have an author; and if it be said to have an author, then another besides God will seem to be introduced as the author of a thing. But if it is impious to say this, we are driven to confess that every sin is an act, not a thing. If there- fore it is an act, for this very reason, because it is an act, it can be avoided." Our reply is, that sin no doubt is called an act, and is such, not a thing. But likewise in the bodv, lameness for the same reason is an act, not a thing, since it is the foot itself, or the body, or the man who walks lame because of an injured foot, that is the thing; but still the man cannot avoid the lameness, unless his foot be cured. The same change may take place in the inward man, but it is by God's grace, through our Lord Jesus Christ. The defect itself which causes the lame- ness of the man is neither the foot, nor the body, nor the man, nor indeed the lameness itself; for there is of course no lameness when there is no walking, although there is neverthe- less the defect which causes the lameness when- ever there is an attempt to walk. Let him therefore ask, what name must be given to this defect, — would he have it called a thing, or an act, or rather a bad property 5 in the thing, by which the deformed act comes into existence? So in the inward man the soul is the thing, theft is an act, and avarice is the defect, that is, the property by which the soul is evil, even when it does nothing in gratification of its avarice, — even when it hears the prohibition, " Thou shalt not covet," ^ and censures itself, and yet remains avaricious. By faith, however, it receives reno- vation; in other words, it is healed day by day,^ — yet only by God's grace through our Lord Jesus Christ.
CHAP. III. (5.) THE FIFTH BREVIATE.
V. " We must again," he says, " inquire whether a man ought to be without sin. Beyond doubt he ought. If he ought, he is able; if he is not able, then he ought not. Now if a man ought not to be without sin, it follows that he ought to be with sin, — and then it ceases to be sin at all, if it is determined that it is owed. Or if it is absurd to say this, we are obliged to con- fess that man ought to be without sin; and it is clear that his obligation is not more than his ability." We frame our answer with the same illustration that we employed in our previous reply. \\n'ien we see a lame man who has the 5 [Coelestius had in the previous breviate confined sin to either nature or accident: Augustin declares it to be a property. By tl.is he apparently means that it is a non-essential attribute, without which m;in would remain man, but yet not what is called a " separable acci- dent."—W.J Chap. 9.]
ON MAN'S PERFECTION IN RIGHTEOUSNESS.
161 opportunity of being cured of his lameness, we of course have a right to say: " That man ouglit not to be lame; and if he ought, he is able." And }'et whenever he wishes he is not immedi- ately able; but only after he has been cured by the application of the remedy, and the medicine has assisted his will. The same thing takes l>lace in the inward man in relation to sin which is its lameness, by the grace of Him who " came not to call the righteous, but sinners; " ' since " the whole need not the physician, but only they that be sick." ^ (6.) THE SIXTH BREVTATE.
VI. "Again," he says, "we have to inquire whether man is commanded to be without sin; for either he is not able, and then he is not com- manded; or else because he is commanded, he is able. For why should that be commanded which cannot at all be done?" The answer is, that man is most wisely commanded to walk with right steps, on purpose that, when he has dis- covered his own inability to do even this, he may seek the remedy which is provided for the inward man to cure the lameness of sin, even the grace of God, through our Lord Jesus Christ.
(7.) THE SEVENTH BREVIATE.
VII. "The next question we shall have to propose," he says, " is, whether God wishes that man be without sin. Beyond doubt God wishes it; and no doubt he has the ability. For who is so foolhardy as to hesitate to believe that to be possible, which he has no doubt about God's wishing? " This is the answer. If God wished not that man should be without sin. He would not have sent His Son without sin, to heal men of their sins. This takes place in believers, who are being renewed day by day,3 until their righteousness becomes perfect, like fully restored health.
(8.) THE EIGHTH BREVIATE.
VIII. "Again, this question must be asked," he says, " how God wishes man to be, — with sin, or without sin? Beyond doubt. He does not wish him to be with sin. We must reflect how great would be the impious blasphemy for it to be said that man has it in his power to be with sin, which God does not wish; and for it to be denied' that he has it in his power to be without sin, which God wishes: just as if God had created any man for such a result as this, — that he should be able to be what He would i not have him, and unable to be what He would have him; and that he should lead an existence contrary to His will, rather than one which should be in accordance therewith." This has Matt.
IX. 13.
' Matt. ix. 12.
3 2 Cor. iv. i5.
been in fact already answered; but I see that it is necessary for me to make here an additional remark, that we are saved by hope. " But hope that is seen is not hope; for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it." * Full righteousness, therefore, will only then be reached, when fulness of health is at- tained; and this fulness of health shall be when there is fulness of love, for "love is the fulfill- ing of the law;"^ and then shall come fulness of love, when " we shall see Him even as He is." '^ Nor will any addition to love be possible more, when faith shall have reached the fruition of sight.
CHAP, IV. — (9.) THE NINTH BREVIATE.
IX. " The next question we shall require to be solved," says he, " is this: By what means is it brought about that man is with sin? — by the necessity of nature, or by the freedom of choice? If it is by the necessity of nature, he is blame- less; if by the freedom of choice, then the question arises, from whom he has received this freedom of choice. No doubt, from God. Well, but that which God bestows is certainly good. This cannot be gainsaid. On what prin- ciple, then, is a thing proved to be good, if it is more prone to evil than to good? For it is more prone to evil than to good if by means of it man can be with sin and cannot be without sin." The answer is this: It came by the freedom of choice that man was with sin; but a penal cor- ruption closely followed thereon, and out of the liberty produced necessity. Hence the cry of faith to God, " Lead Thou me out of my neces- sities." 7 With these necessities upon us, we are either unable to understand what we want, or else (while having the wish) we are not strong enough to accomplish what we have come to understand. Now it is just liberty itself that is promised to believers by the Liber- ator. " If the Son," says He, " shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." ** For, van- quished by the sin into which it fell by its voli- tion, nature has lost liberty. Hence another scripture says, " For of whom a man is over- come, of the same is he brought in bondage." 9 Since therefore " the whole need not the physi- cian, but only they that be sick; " ^ so likewise it is not the free that need the Deliverer, but only the enslaved. Hence the cry of joy to Him for deliverance, " Thou hast saved my soul from the straits of necessity." '° For true liberty is also real health; and this would never have been lost, if the will had remained good. But because the will has sinned, the hard necessity 7 Ps. XXV. 17.
'° Ps. xxxi. 7.
S Rom. xiii. 10. ^ John viii. 38.
9 2 John iii. Pet. ii. 3 2. 10, l62 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN.
[Chap. io.
of having sin has pursued the sinner; until his infirmity be wholly healed, and such freedom be regained, that there must needs be, on the one hand, a permanent will to live happily, and, on the other hand, a voluntary and happy neces- sity of living virtuously, and never sinning. j (lO.) THE TENTH BREVIATE.
X. "Since God made man good," he says, " and, besides making him g^od, further com- manded him to do good, how impious it is for us to hold that man is evil, when he was neither made so, nor so commanded; and to deny him the ability of being good, although he was both i made so, and commanded to act so! " Our \ answer here is: Since then it was not man him- j self, but God, who made man good; so also is j it God, and not man himself, who remakes him j to be good, while liberating him from the evil which he hiniself did upon his wishing, believ- ing, and invoking such a deliverance. But all \ this is effected by the renewal day by day of the j inward man,' by the grace of God through our Lord Jesus Christ, with a view to the outward man's resurrection at the last day to an eternity not of punishment, but of life.
CHAP. V. (ll.) THE ELEVENTH BREVIATE.
XI. " The next question which must be put," he saj's, " is, in how many ways all sin is mani- fested? In two, if I mistake not: if either those things are done which are forbidden, or those things are not done which are commanded. Now, it is just as certain that all tiling which are forbidden are able to be avoided, as it is that all things which are commanded are able to be effected. For it is vain either to forbid or to enjoin that which cannot either be guarded against or accomplished. And how shall we deny the possibility of man's being without sin, when we are compelled to admit that he can as well avoid all those things which are forbidden, as do all those which are commanded?" My answer is, that in the Holy Scriptures there are many divine precepts, to mention the whole of which would be too laborious; but the Lord, who on earth consummated and abridged ^ His word, expressly declared that the law and the prophets hung on two commandments, ^ that we might understand that whatever else has been enjoined on us by God ends in these two com- mandments, and must be referred to them: " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind; " •♦ and ** Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." 5 " On these two commandments," * 2 Cor. iv. i6.
* An application of Rom. ix. 28.
i Malt. xxiL 40. ■♦ Mall. xxii.
says He, " hang all the law and the prophets." ^ Whatever, therefore, we are by God's law for- bidden, and whatever we are bidden to do, we are forbidden and bidden with the direct object of fulfilling these two commandments. And per- haps the general prohibition is, " Thou shalt not covet; " '' and the general precept, " Thou shalt love." 7 Accordingly the Apostle Paul, in a certain place, briefly embraced the two, express- ing the prohibition in these words, " Be not conformed to this world," '^ and the command in these, " But be ye transformed by the renew- ing of your mind." ^ The former falls under the negative precept, not to covet; the latter under the positive one, to love. The one has reference to continence, the other to righteous- ness. The one enjoins avoidance of evil; the other, pursuit of good. By eschewing covetous- ness we put off the old man, and by showing love we put on the new. But no man can be continent unless God endow him with the gift; '' nor is God's love shed abroad in our hearts by our own selves, but by the Holy Ghost that is given to us.'° This, however, takes place day after day in those who advance by willing, be- lieving, and praying, and who, " forgetting those things which are behind, reach forth unto those things which are before." " For the reason why the law inculcates all these precepts is, that when a man has failed in fulfilling them, he may not be swollen with pride, and so exalt himself, but may in very weariness betake himself to grace. Thus the law fulfils its office as " school- master," so terrifying the man as " to lead him to Christ," to give Him his love.'^ CHAP. VI. (12.) THE TWELFTH BREVIATE.
XII. " Again the question arises," he says, " how it is that man is unable to be without sin, — by his will, or by nature? If by nature, it is not sin; if by his will, then v/ill can very easily be changed by will." We answer by reminding him how he ought to reflect on the extreme presumption of saying — not simply that it is possible (for this no doubt is undeniable, when God's grace comes in aid), but — that it is "very easy" for will to be changed by will; whereas the apostle says, " The flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other; so that ye- do not the things that ye would." '^ He does not say, "These are contrary the one to the other, so that ye will not do the things that ye can," but, " so that ye do not the things that ye would." '+ How hap- pens it, then, that the lust of the flesh which of course is culpable and corrupt, and is nothing *= Ex. XX 27. 7 Deut. vi. 5.
^ Rom. xii. 2. »' Phil. iii. 13.
"<>" Chap. i6.]
ON MAN'S PERFECTION IN RIGHTEOUSNESS.
163 else than tlie desire for sin, as to which the same apostle instructs us not to let it " reign in our mortal body; " ' by which expression he shows us plainly enough that that must have an exist- ence in our mortal body which must not be i)er- mitted to hold a dominion in it; — how happens it, I say, that such lust of the flesh has not been changed by that will, which the apostle clearly implied the existence of in his words, " So that ye do not the things that ye taouU,'^ if so be that the will can so easily be changed by will? Not that we, indeed, by this argument throw the blame upon the nature either of the soul or of the body, which God created, and which is wholly good; but we say that it, having been corrupted by its own will, cannot be made whole without the grace of God.
(13.) THE THIRTEENTH BREVIATE.
XIII. "The next question we have to ask," says he, " is this: If man cannot be without sin, whose fault is it, — man's own, or some one's else? If man's own, in what way is it his fault if he is not that which he is unable to be? " We reply, that it is man's fault that he is not without sin on this account, because it has by man's sole will come to pass that he has come into such a necessity as cannot be overcome by man's sole will.
(14.) THE FOURTEENTH BREVIATE.
XIV. " Again the question must be asked," he says, " If man's nature is good, as nobody but Marcion or Manich?eus will venture to deny, in what way is it good if it is impossible for it to be free from evil? For that all sin is evil who can gainsay? " \Ve answer, that man's nature is both good, and is also able to be free from evil. Therefore do we earnestly pray, " Deliver us from evil." ^ This deliverance, indeed, is not fully wrought, so long as the soul is oppressed by the body, which is hastening to corruption.^ This j)rocess, however, is being effected by grace through faith, so that it may be said by and by, " O death, where is thy struggle? Where is thy sting, O death? The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law; " "♦ because the law by prohibiting sin only increases the desire for it, unless the Holy Ghost spreads abroad that love, which shall then be full and perfect, when we shall see face to face.
(15.) THE FIFTEENTH BREVUTE.
XV. " And this, moreover, has to be said," he says: " God is certainly righteous; this cannot be denied. But God imputes every sin to man. This too, I suppose, must be allowed, that what- ever shall not be imputed as sin is not sin. Now ' Rom. vi. 12.
2 Matt. vi. 13.
^ Wisd. ix. 15.
if there is any sin which is unavoidable, how is God said to be righteous, when He is supposed to impute to any man that which cannot be avoided?" We reply, that long ago was it de- clared in opposition to the proud, " Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not sin." 5 Now He does not impute it to those who say to Him in faith, " Forgive us our debts, as we for- give our debtors." *" And justly does He with- hold this imputation, because that is just which He says: " With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again." ^ That, howe\er, is sin in which there is either not the love which ought to be, or where the love is less than it ought to be,** — whether it can be avoided bv the human will or not; because when it can be avoided, the man's present will does it, but if it cannot be avoided his past will did it; and yet it can be avoided, — not, however, when the proud will is lauded, but when the humble one is assisted.
CHAP. VII. (16.) THE SIXTEENTH BREVIATE.