But your friend, in comparison with what he has shown himself to be further on, thus far makes mistakes which one may somewhat tolerate. He apparently felt some disposition to relent; not, to be sure, at what he ought to have misgivings about, namely, for having ventured to assert that original sin is relaxed even in the case of the unbaptized, and that remission is given to them of all their sins, so that they are admitted into paradise, that is, to a place of great happiness, and possess a claim to the happy mansions in our Father's house; but he seems to have entertained some regret at having conceded to them abodes of lesser blessedness outside the kingdom of heaven. Accordingly he goes on to say, " Or if any one is perhaps reluctant to believe that paradise is bestowed as a temporary and provisional gift on the soul of the thief or of Dinocrates (for there remains for them still, in the resurrection, the reward of the kingdom of heaven), although that principal passage stands in the way,^ — ' Except a man H be born again of water and of the Spirit, he shall | not enter into the kingdom of God,' •* — he may / yet hold my assent as ungrudgingly given to this point; only let him magnify 5 both the aim and the effect of the divine compassion and foreknowledge." These words have I copied, as I read them in his second book. Well, now, could any one have shown on this erroneous 2 This is a loose reference to the narrative in 2 Mace. xii. 39-45.
3 Seittiiitia ilia prittcipnlhy in which princifiaHs may mean either '' principal," " chief," or " belongmg to the Prince."
* John iii. 5.
5 Or perhaps, "as simply amplifying both tlie effect and the pnrpose of," etc., etc.
Chap. iS.]
point greater boldness, recklessness, or presumption? He actually quotes and calls attention to the Lord's weighty sentence, encloses it in a statement of his own, and then says, " Although the opinion is opposed to the ' principal passage,' * Except a man be born again of water and of the Spirit, he shall not enter into the kingdom of God; ' " he dares then to lift his haughty head in censure against the. Prince's judgment: " He may yet hold my assent as ungrudgingly given to this point; " and he explains his point to be, that the souls of unbaptized persons have a claim to paradise as a temporary gift; and in this class he mentions the dying thief and Dinocrates, as if he were prescribing, or rather prejudging, their destination; moreover, in the resurrection, he will have them transferred to a better provision, even making them receive the reward of the kingdom of heaven. "Although," says he, "this is opposed to the sentence of the Prince." Now, do you, my brother, I pray you, seriously consider this question: What sentence of the Prince shall that man deserve to have passed upon him, who imposes on any person an assent of his own which runs counter to the authority of the Prince Himself?
CHAP. 17. DISOBEDIENT COMPASSION AND COM- PASSIONATE DISOBEDIENCE REPROBATED. MAR- TYRDOM IN LIEU OF BAPTISM.
The new-fangled Pelagian heretics have been most justly condemned by the authority of catholic councils and of the Apostolic See, on the ground of their having dared to give to unbaptized infants a place of rest and salvation, even apart from the kingdom of heaven. This they would not have dared to do, if they did not deny their having original sin, and the need of its remission by the sacrament of baptism. This man, however, professes the catholic belief on this point, admitting that infants are tied in the bonds of original sin, and yet he releases them from these bonds without the laver of regeneration, and after death, in his compassion, he admits them into paradise; while, with a still ampler compassion, he introduces them after the resurrection even to the kingdom of heaven. Such compassion did Saul see fit to assume when he spared the king whom God commanded to be slain; ' deservedly, however, was his disobedient compassion, or (if you prefer it) his compassionate disobedience, reprobated and condemned, that man may be on his guard against extending mercy to his fellow-man, in opposition to the sentence of Him by whom man was made. Truth, by the mouth of Itself incarnate, proclaims as if in a voice of thunder: " Except ■ I Sam. XV. 9.
a man be born again of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." ^ And in order to except martyrs from this sentence, to whose l(jt it has fallen to be slain for the name of Christ before being washed in the baptism of Christ, He says in another passage, " He that loseth his life for my sake shall find it." 3 And so far from promising the abolition of original sin to any one who has not been regenerated in the laver pf Christian faith, the apostle exclaims, " V>y the offence of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation." •♦ And as a counterbalance against this condemnation, the Lord exhibits the help of His salvation alone, saying, " He that believeth, and is baptized, shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned." s Now the mystery of this believing in the case of infants is completely effected by the response of the sureties by whom they are taken to baptism; and unless this be effected, they all pass by the offence of one into condemnation. And yet, in opposition to such clear declarations uttered by the Truth, forth marches before all men a vanity which is more foolish than pitiful, and says: Not only do infants not pass into condemnation, though no laver of Christian faith absolves them from the chain of original sin, but they even after death have an intermediate enjoyment of the felicities of paradise, and after the resurrection they shall possess even the happiness of the kingdom of heaven. Now, would this man dare to sa\' all this in opposition to the firmly-established catholic faith, if he had not presumptuously under- 1 taken to solve a question which transcends his \ powers touching the origin of the soul?
CHAP. 18 [XIII.] victor's DILEMNL'^ AND FALL.
For he is hemmed in within terrible straits by those who make the natural inquiry: " ^\'hy has God visited on the soul so unjust a jnmishment as to have willed to relegate it into a body of sin, since by its consorting with the flesh that began to be sinful, which else could not have been sinful?" For, of course, they say: "The soul could not have been sinful, if God had not commingled it in the participation of sinful flesh." Well, this opponent of mine was unable to discover the justice of God's doing this, especially in consequence of the eternal damnation of infants who die without the remission of original sin by baptism; and his inability was equally great in finding out why the good and righteous God both bound the souls of infants, who He foresaw would derive no advantage from the sacrament of Christian grace, with the chain of original sin, by sending them into the body which they derive from.Adam, — the souls them- 2 John iii. 5. 5 Mark xvi. 16.
3 Matt. X. 39.
■* Rom. V. 18 [Book II.
selves being free from all taint of propagation, — and by this means also made them amenable to eternal damnation. No less was he unwilling to admit that these very souls likewise derived their sinful origin from that one primeval soul. And so he preferred escaping by a miserable shipwreck of faith, rather than to furl his sails and steady his oars, in the voyage of his controversy, and by such prudent counsel check the fatal rashness of his course. Worthless in his youthful eye was our aged caution; just as if this most troublesome and perilous question of his was more in need of a torrent of eloquence than the counsel of prudence. And this was foreseen even by himself, but to no purpose; for, as if to set forth the points which were objected to him by his opponents, he says: " After them other reproachful censures are added to the querulous murmurings of those who rail against us; and, as if tossed about in a whirlwind, we are dashed repeatedly among huge rocks." After saying this, he propounded for himself the very dangerous question, which we have already treated, wherein he has wrecked the catholic faith, unless by a real repentance he shall have repaired the faith which he had shattered. That whirlwind and those rocks I have myself avoided, unwilling to entrust my frail barque to their dangers; and when writing on this subject I have expressed myself in such a way as rather to explain the grounds of my hesitancy, than to exhibit the rashness of presumption.' This little work of mine excited his derision, when he met with it at your house, and in utter recklessness he flung himself upon the reef: he showed more spirit than wisdom in his conduct. To what lengths, however, that over-confidence of his led him, I suppose that you can now yourself perceive. But I give heartier thanks to God, since you even before this descried it. For all the while he was refusing to check his headlong career, when the issue of his course was still in doubt, he alighted on his miserable enterprise, and maintained that God, in the case of infants who died without Christian regeneration, conferred upon them paradise at once, and ultimately the kingdom of heaven.
CHAP. 19 [xrv.] — VICTOR RELIES ON AMBIGUOUS SCRIPTURES.
The passages of Scripture, indeed, which he has adduced in the attempt to prove from them that God did not derive human souls by propagation from the primitive soul, but as in that first instance that He formed them by breathing them into each individual, are so uncertain and ambiguous, that they can with the utmost facility ' See Augustin's treatises, On Free Will, iii. 21; On the Merits 0/ Sins, ii. (last chapter); Letter (166) to Jerome, and (190; to Optatus.
\ be taken in a diff"erent sense from that which he ' would assign to them. This point I have already demonstrated = with sufficient clearness, I think, j in the book which I addressed to that friend of ours, of whom I have made mention above.
j The passages which he has used for his proofs, inform us that God gives, or makes, or fashions men's souls; but whence He gives them, or of what He makes or fashions them, they tell us notliing: they leave untouched the question, whether it be by propagation from the first soul, or by insufflation, like the first soul. This writer, however, simply because he reads that God "giveth" souls, ^ "hath made " souls, "formeth" souls, supposes that these phrases amount to a denial of the propagation of souls; whereas, by the testimony of the same scripture, God gives men their bodies, or makes them, ox fashions and [forms them; although no one doubts that the I said bodies are given, made, and formed by Him by seminal propagation.
CHAP. 20. — VICTOR QUOTES SCRIPTURES FOR THEIR SILENCE, AND NEGLECTS THE BIBLICAL USAGE.
As for the passage which affirms that " God hath made of one blood all nations of men," •♦ and that in which Adam says, " This is now bone j of my bones, and flesh of my flesh," 5 inasmuch as it is not said in the one, ''' of one soui," and in j the other, " sou i of my soul" he supposes that it, is denied that children's souls come from their parents, or the first woman's from her husband; _ just as if, forsooth, had the sentence run in the j way suggested, " of one soul,''' instead of " of one blood," anything else than the whole human, being could be understood, without any denial of the propagation of the body. So likewise, if it had been said, '■'■soul of my soul," the flesh would not be denied, of course, which evidently had been taken out of the man. Constantly does Holy Scripture indicate the whole by a part, and a part by the whole. For certainly, if in the passage which this man has quoted as his proof it had been said that the human race had been made, not " of one blood," but " of one man," it could not have prejudiced the opinion of those who deny the propagation of souls, although man is not soul alone, nor only flesh, but both. For they would have their answer ready to this effect, that the Scripture here might have meant to indicate a part by the whole, that is to say, the flesh only by the entire human being. In like manner, they who maintain the propagation of souls contend that in the passage where it is said, "of one blood," the human being is implied by the term " blood," on the principle of the whole being expressed by a part. For just as the one party seems to be assisted by the expres- 2 See above in Book i. 17 [x'lv.] and following cli.T'ter^.
3 Isa. xlii. 5. * Acts xvii. 26. ^ Gen. ii. 23.
i Chap. 22.]
sion, "of one blood," instead of the phrase, "of one man," so the other side evidently gets countenance from the statement being so plainly written, " By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for in him all sinned," ' instead of its being said, "in whom the flesh of all sinned." Similarly, as one party seems to receive assistance from the fact that Scripture says, " This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh," on the ground that a part covers the whole; so, again, the other side derives some advantage from what is written in the immediate sequel of the passage, " She shall be called woman, because she was taken out of her husband." For, according to their contention, the latter clause should have run, " Because her flesh was taken out of her husband," if it was not true that the entire woman, soul and all, but only her flesh, was taken out of man. The fact, however, of the whole matter is simply this, that after hearing both sides, anybody whose judgment is free from party prejudice sees at once that loose quotation is unavailing in this controversy; for against one party, which maintains the opinion of the propagation of souls, those passages must not be adduced which mention only a part, inasmuch as the Scripture might mean by the part to imply the whole in all such passages; as, for instance, when we read, " The Word was made flesh," ^ we of course understand not the flesh only, but the entire human being; nor against the other party, who deny this doctrine of the soul's propagation, is it of any avail to quote those passages which do not mention a part of the human being, but the whole; because in these the Scripture might possibly mean to imply a part by the whole; as we confess that Christ was buried, whereas it was only His flesh that was laid in the sepulchre. We therefore say, that on such grounds there is no ground on the one hand for rashly constructing, nor on the other hand for, with ecjual rashness, demolishing the theory of propagation; but we add this advice, that other passages be duly looked out, such as admit of no ambiguity.^ CHAP. 2 1 [XV.] — victor's PERPLEXITY AND FAILURE.
For these reasons I fail thus far to discover what this instructor has taught you, and what grounds you have for the gratitude you have lavished upon him. For the question remains just as it was, which inquires about the origin of souls, whether God gives, forms, and makes them for men by propagating them from that one soul which He breathed into the first man, or whether it is by His own inbreathing that He does this 3 Compare on this chapter Book i. 29.
in every case, as He did for the first man. For that God docs form, and make, and bestow souls on men, the Christian faith does not hesitate to aver. Now, when this person endeavoured to solve the question without gauging his own resources, by denying the propagation of souls, and asserting that the Creator inbreathed them into men pure from all contagion of sin, — not out of nothing, but out of Himself, — He dishonoured the very nature of God by opprobriously attributing mutability to it, an imputation which was necessarily untenable. Then, desirous of avoiding all implication which might lead to God's being deemed unrighteous, if He ties with the bond of original sin souls which are pure of all actual sin, although not redeemed by Christian regeneration, he has given utterance to words and sentiments which I only wish he had not taught you. For he has accorded to unbaptized infants such happiness and salvation as even the Pelagian heresy could not have \'entured on doing. And yet for all this, when the question touches the many thousands of infants who are born of the ungodly, and die among the ungodly, — I do not mean those whom charitable persons are unable to assist by baptism, however desirous of doing so, but those of whose baptism nobody either has been able or shall be able to think, and for whom no one has offered or is likely to offer the sacrifice which, as this instructor of yours thought, ought to be offered even for those who have not been baptized,^ — he has discovered no means of solving it. If he were questioned concerning them, what their souls deserved that God should involve them in sinful flesh to incur eternal damnation, never to be washed in the laver of baptism, nor atoned for by the sacrifice of Christ's body and blood, he will then either feel himself at an utter loss, and so will regard our hesitation with a real, though tardy favour; or else will determine that Christ's body must be offered for all those infants which all the world over die without Christian baptism (their names having been never heard of, since they are unknown in the Church of Christ), although not incorporated into the body of Christ.
CH.\p. 22 [xvi.] — Peter's RESPONSiBiLm' in the CASE OF VICTOR.
Far be it from you, my brother, that such views should be pleasant to you, or that you should either feel pleasure in having acquired them, or presume ever to teach them. Otherwise, even he would be a far better man tiian yourself. Because at the commencement of his first book he has prefixed the following modest < [The editions give the manifestly false reading nobis for;ion, yielding the sense: "even for ourselves who have been baptized."— W.J [Book II.
and humble preface: " Though I desire to comply with your request, I am only affording a clear proof of my presumption." And a little further on he says,' " Inasmuch as I am, indeed, by no means confident of being able to prove what I may have advanced; and nioreo\'er I should always be anxious not to insist on any opinion of my own, if it is found to be an improbable one; and it would be my hearty desire, in case my own judgment is condemned, earnestly -to follow better and truer views. For as it shows evidence of the best intention, and a laudable purpose, to permit yourself to be easily led to truer views of a subject; so it betokens an obstinate and depraved mind to refuse to turn quickly aside into the pathway of reason." Now, as he said all tliis sincerely, and still feels as he spoke, he no doubt entertains a very hopeful feeling about a right issue. In similar strain he concludes his second book: " You must not think," says he, " that there is any chance of its ever recoiling invidiously against you, that I constitute you the judge of my words. And lest by chance the sharp eye of some inquisitive reader may have opportunity of turning up and encountering any possible vestiges of elemental error which may be left behind on my illegal sheets, I beg you to tear up page after page with unsparing hand, if need be; and after expending on me your critical censure, punish me further, by smearing out the very ink which has given form to my worthless words; so that, having your full opportunity, you may prevent all ridicule, on the score either of the favourable opinion you so strongly entertain of me, or of the inaccuracies which lurk in my writings."
CH.AP. 23 [XVII.] WHO THEY ARE THAT ARE NOT INJURED BY READING INJURIOUS BOOKS.
Forasmuch, then, as he has both commenced and terminated his books with such safeguards, and has placed on your shoulders the religious burden of their correction and emendation, I only trust that he may find in you all that he has asked you for, that you may " correct him righteously in mercy, and reprove him; whilst the oil of the sinner wliich anoints his head " ^ is absent from your hands and eyes, — even the indecent compliance of the flatterer, and the deceitful leniency of the sycophant. If, however, you decline to apply correction when you see anything to amend, you offend against love; but if he does not appear to you to require correction, because you think him to be right in his opinions, then you are wise against truth. He, therefore, is a better man (since he is only too ' See below iii Book iii. 20 (xiv.).
2 Ps. cxii.
ready to be corrected, if a true censurer be at hand) than yourself, if either knowing him to be in error you despise him with derision, or ignorant of his wandering course you at the same time closely follow his error. Everything, therefore, which you find in the books that lie has addressed and forwarded to you, I beg you to consider with sobriety and vigilance; and you will perhaps make fuller discoveries than I have myself of statements which deserve to be censured. And as for such of their contents as are worthy of praise and approbation, — whatever good you have learnt therein, and by his instruction, which perhaps you were really ignorant of before, tell us plainly what it is, that all may know that it was for this particular benefit that you expressed your obligations to him, and not for the manifold statements in his books which call for their disapproval, — all, I mean, who, like yourself, heard him read his writings, or who afterwards read the same for themselves: lest in his ornate style they may drink poison, as out of a choice goblet, at your instance, though not after your own example, because they know not precisely what it is you have drunk yourself, and what you have left untasted, and because, from your high character, they suppose that whatever is drunk out of this fountain would be for their health. For what else are hearing, and reading, and copiously depositing things in the memory, than several processes of drinking? The Lord, ho\yever, foretold concerning His faithful followers, that even " if they should drink any deadly thing, it should not hurt them." ^ And thus it happens that they who read with judgment, and bestow their approbation on whatever is commendable according to the rule of faith, and disapprove of things which ought to be reprobated, even if they commit to their memory statements which are declared to be worthy of disapproval, they receive no harm from the poisonous and depraved nature of the sentences. To myself, through the Lord's mercy, it can never become a matter of the least regret, that, actuated by our previous love, I have given your reverend and religious self advice and warning on these points, in whatever way you may receive the admonition for which I have regarded you as possessing the first claim upon me. Abundant thanks, indeed, shall I give unto Him in whose mercy it is most salutary to put one's trust, if this letter of mine shall either find or else make your faith both free from the depraved and erroneous opinions which I have been able herein to point out from this man's books, and sound in cathohc integrity.
3 Mark xvl. 18.
ADDRESSED TO VINCENTIUS VICTOR.
AUGUSTIN POINTS OUT TO VINCENTIUS VICTOR THE CORRECTIONS WHICH HE OUGHT TO MAKE IN HIS BOOKS CONCERNING THE ORIGIN OF THE SOUL, IF HE WISHES TO BE A CATHOLIC. THOSE OPINIONS ALSO WHICH HAD BEEN ALREADY REFUTED IN THE PRECEDING BOOKS ADDRESSED TO RENATUS AND PETER, AUGUSTIN BRIEFLY CENSURES IN THIS THIRD BOOK, WHICH IS WRITTEN TO VICTOR HIMSELF: MORE-OVER, HE CLASSIFIES THEM UNDER ELEVEN HEADS OF ERROR.
As to that which I have thought it my duty to write to you, my much-loved son Victor, I would have you to entertain this above all other thoughts in your mind, if I seemed to despise you, that it was certainly not my intention to do so. At the same time I must beg of you not to abuse our condescension in such a way as to suppose that you possess my approval merely because you have not my contempt. For it is not to follow, but. to correct you, that I give you my love; and since I by no means despair of the possibility of your amendment, I do not want you to be surprised at my inability to despise the man who has my love. Now, since it was my bounden duty to love you before you had united with us, in order that you might become a catholic; how much more ought I now to love you since your union with us, to prevent your becoming a new heretic, and that you may become so firm a catholic that no heretic may be able to withstand you! So far as appears from the mental endowments which God has largely bestowed upon you, you would be undoubtedly a wise man if you only did not believe that you were one already, and begged of Him who maketh men wise, with a pious, humble, and earnest prayer, that you might become one, and preferred not to be led astray with error rather than to be honoured with the flattery of those who go astray.
CHAP. 2 [ll.] WHY VICTOR ASSUMED THE NAME