When, indeed, they deny that infants are in the power of darkness even before the help of the Lord the deliverer, they are in such wise praising in them the Creator's work as to destroy the mercy of the Redeemer. And because I confess this both in grown-up people and in infants, he says that this is without any ambiguity Manicheism, although it is the most ancient catholic ^ dogma by which the new heretical dogma of these men is overturned.
7 On Marriage and Concupiscence, i. 37.
I Cor. i. 13.
Chap. 13.]
AGAINST TWO LETTERS OF THE TELAGIANS.
;8i CHAP. 12. THE FOURTH CALUMNY, THAT THE SAINTS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT ARE SAID TO BE NOT FREE FROM SINS.
" They say," says he, " that the saints in the Old Testament were not without sins, — that is, that they were not free from crimes even by amendment, but they were seized by death in their guilt." Nay, I say that either before the law, or in the time of the Old Testament, they were freed from sins, — not by their own power, because " cursed is every one that hath put his hope in man," ' and without any doubt those are under this curse whom also the sacred Psalm notifies, " who trust in their own strength; " ^ nor by the old covenant which gendereth to bondage,^ although it was divinely given by the grace of a sure dispensation; nor by that law itself, holy and just and good as it was, where it is written, "Thou shalt not covet," ■» since it was not given as being able to give hfe, but it was added for the sake of transgression until the seed should come to whom the promise was j-Qiade; but I say that they were freed by the 4 iblood of the Redeemer Himself, who is the one! Mediator of God and man, the man Christ Ljesus.5 But those enemies of the grace of God, which is given to small and great through Jesus J Christ our Lord, say that the men of God of old were of a perfect righteousness, lest they should be supposed to have needed the incarnation, the passion, and resurrection of Christ, by belief in whom they were saved.
CHAP. 13 [viIL] — THE FIFTH CALUMNY, — THAT IT IS SAID THAT PAUL AND THE REST OF THE APOSTLES WERE POLLUTED BY LUST.
He says, "They say that even the Apostle Paul, even all the apostles, were always polluted by immoderate lust." What man, however profane he may be, would dare to say this? But ■ doubtless this man thus misrepresents because ' they contend that what the apostle said, " I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing, for to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not," ^ and other such things, he said not of himself, but that he introduced the person of somebody else, I know not who, who was suffering these things. Wherefore that passage in his epistle must be > carefully considered and investigated, that their error may not lurk in any obscurity of his. Although, therefore, the apostle is here arguing broadly, and with great and lasting conflict maintaining grace against those who were boasting in the law, yet we do come upon a few matters which pertain to the matter in hand. On which subject he says: " Because by the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight.
' Jer. xvii. 5. * Ex. XX. 7.
3 Gal. iv. 24. 6 Rom. vii. 18 For by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God by the faith of Jesus Christ unto all them that believe. For there is no difference. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus." ' And again: " Where is boasting? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No; but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the works of the law." ^ And again: " For the promise that he should be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but by the righteousness of faith. For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect. Because the law worketh wrath, for where no law is, there is no transgression." ^ And in another place: " Moreover, the law entered that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded grace did much more abound." '° In still another place: " For sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye are not under law, but under grace." " And again in another place: "Know ye not, brethren (for I speak to them that know the law), that the law hath dominion over a man so long as he liveth? For the woman which is under a husband is joined to her husband by the law so long as he liveth; but if her husband be dead, she is freed from the law of her husband." '- And a little after: " Therefore, my -brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that ye should belong to another, who has risen from the dead that we should bring forth fruit unto God. For when we were in the flesh the passions of sins which are by the law did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death, but now we are delivered from the law of death in which we were held, so that we may serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter." '3 With these and such like testimonies that teacher of the Gentiles showed with sufficient evidence that the law could not take away sin, but rather increased it, and that grace takes it away; since the law knew how to command, to which command weakness gives way, while grace knows to assist, whereby love is infused. '■♦ And lest any one, on account of these testimonies, should reproach the law, and contend that it is evil, the apostle, seeing what might occur to those who ill understand it, himself ])roposed to himself the same question. "What shall we say, then?" said he. " Is the law sin? Far from it. But I did not know sin except by the law." 'S He had ' Rom. ill. 27. 9 Rom. iv. 13, etc.
14 On the Spirit and the Letter, 6.
\S2 [Book L already said before, " For by the law is the knowledge of sin." It is not, therefore, the taking away, but the knowledge of sin.
CHAP. 14. — THAT THE APOSTLE IS SPEAKING IN HIS OWN PERSON AND THAT OF OTHERS WHO ARE UNDER GRACE, NOT STILL UNDER LAW.
And from this point he now begins — and it was on account of this that I undertook the consideration of these things — to introduce his own person, and to speak as if about himself; where the Pelagians will not have it that the apostle himself is to be understood, but say that he has transfigured another person into himself, — that is, a man placed still under the law, not yet freed by grace. And here, indeed, they ought at least to concede that " in the law no one is justified," as the same apostle says elsewhere; but that the law avails for the knowledge of sin, and for the transgression of the law itself, so that sin, being known and increased, grace may be sought for through faith. But they do not fear that those things should be understood concerning the apostle which he might also say concerning his past, but they fear those things which follow. For here he says: " I had not known lust if the law had not said, Thou shalt not covet. But j the occasion being taken, sin wrought in me by the commandment all manner of lust. For without the law sin was dead. But I was alive without the law once, but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died, and the commandment which was for life was found for me to be death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.
Therefore the law indeed is holy, and the commandment holy, just, and good. Was, then, that which is good made death unto me? By no means. But sin, that it might appear sin, worked death to me by that which is good, that the sinner or the sin might become by the commandment excessive." ' All these things, as I have said, the apostle can seem to have comnaemorated from his past life: so that from what he says, " For I was alive without the law once," he may have wished his first age from infancy to be understood, before the years of reason; but in that he added, " But when the commandment came, sin revived, but I died," he would fain show himself able to receive the commandment, but not to do ^ it, and therefore a transgressor of the law.
CH.\P. 15 [iX.] HE SINS IN WILL WHO IS ONLY DETERRED FROM SINNING BY FEAR.
Nor let us be disturbed by what he wrote to the Philippians: " Touching the righteousness which is in the law, one who is without blame." 3 For he could be within in evil affections a transgressor of the law, and yet fulfil the open works of the law, either by the fear of men or of God Himself; but by terror of punishment, not by love and delight in righteousness. For it is one thing to do good with the will of doing good, and another thing to be so inclined by the will to do evil, that one would actually do it if it h could be allowed without punishment. For thus assuredly he is sinning within in his will itself, ■ who abstains from sin not by will but by fear. And knowing himself to have been such in these his internal affections, before the grace of God which is through Jesus Christ our Lord, the apostle elsewhere confesses this very plainly. For writing to the Ephesians, he says: " And you, though ye were dead in your trespasses and sins, wherein sometime ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of that spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience, in whom also we all at one time had our conversation in the lusts of our flesh, doing the will of our flesh and our affections, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others also: but God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us even when we were dead in sins, quickened us together with Christ, by whose grace we are saved." •♦ Again to Titus he says: " For we ourselves also were sometime foolish and unbelieving, erring, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, and holding one another in hatred." s Such was Saul w^hen he says that he was, touching the righteousness which is in the law, without reproach. For that he had not pressed on in the law, and changed his character so as to be without reproach after this hateful life, he plainly shows in what follows, when he says that he was not changed from these evils except by the grace of the Saviour. For adding also this very thing, here as well as to the Ephesians, he says: " But when the kindness and love of God our Saviour shone forth, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and of the renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom He shed on us most abundantly, through Jesus Christ our Saviour, that being justified by His grace we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal hfe." ^ CHAP. 16. — HOW SIN DIED, AND HOW IT REVIVED.
And what he says in that passage of the Epistle to the Romans, " Sin, that it might appear sin, wrought death to me by that which ' Horn. vii. 7 ff.
* Prcecepti capax sed non efficax.
3 Phil. iii. 6. 6 Tit. iii. 4 ff.
Eph.
5 Tit.
m. 3.
Chap. 19.]
is good," ' agrees with the former passages wlicre he said, " But I hati not known sin but by the law, for I had not known lust unless the law had said. Thou shalt not covet." ^ And previously, "By the law is the knowledge of sin," for he said this also here, " that it might appear sin; " that we might not understand what he had said, " For without law sin was dead," except in the sense as if it were not, " it lies hidden, it does not appear, it is completely ignored, as if it were buried in I know not what darkness of ignorance." And in that he says, " And I was alive once without the law," what does he say except, I seemed to myself to live? And with respect to what he added, " But when the commandment came, sin revived," what else is it but sin shone forth, became apparent? Nor yet does he say lived, but revived. For it had lived formerly in Paradise, where it sufficiently appeared, admitted in opposition to the command given; but when it is inherited by children coming into the world, it lies concealed, as if it were dead, until its evil, resisting righteousness, is felt by its prohibition, when one thing is commanded and approved, another thing delights and rules: then, in some measure sin revives in the knowledge of the man that is born, although it had lived already for some time in the knowledge of the man as at first made.
CHAP. I 7 [X.] — " THE LAW IS SPIRITUAL, BUT I AM CARNAL," TO BE UNDERSTOOD OF PAUL.
But it is not so clear how what follows can be understood concerning Paul. " For we know," says he, " that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal." ^ He does not say, " I was," but, " I am." Was, then, the apostle, when he wrote this, carnal? or does he say this with respect to his body? For he was still in the body of this death, not yet made what he speaks of elsewhere: " It is sown a natural body, it shall be raised a spiritual body." ■♦ For then, of the whole of himself, that is, of both parts of which he consists, he shall be a spiritual man, when even the body shall be spiritual. For it is not absurd that in that life even the ilesh should be spiritual, if in this life in those who still mind earthly things even the spirit itself may be carnal. Thus, then, he said, " But I am carnal," because the apostle had not yet a spiritual body, as he might say, " But I am mortal," which assuredly he could not be understood to have said except in respect of his body, which had not yet been clothed with immortality. Moreover, in reference to what he added, " sold under sin," ^ lest any one think that he was not yet redeemed by ' Rom. vii. 13. 2 Rom. vii. 7. 3 Rom. vii. 14 * I Cor. XV. 44. [The Lruin word for "natural" is aiiininlc, i.e., " animated," " living." derived from the word nuiiiia, " soul," or " animated and animating principle." Compare the note on ch. 36 of Un the Soul and its Origin, above. — W.J ^ the blood of Christ, this also may be understood in respect of that wiiich he says: " And we our- I selves, having the first-fruits of the Spirit, even - we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for I the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our { body." 5 For if in this respect he says that he I was sold under sin, that as yet his body has not been redeemed from corruption; or that he was sold once in the first transgression of the com- I mandment so as to have a corruptible body which drags down the soul; '^ what hinders the I apostle here from being understood to say about himself that which he says in such wise that it may be understood also of himself, even if in his person he wishes not himself alone, but all, to be received who had known themselves as struggling, without consent, in spiritual delight with the affection of the flesh?
CHAP. 18. HOW THE APOSTLE SAID TH.\T HE DID THE EVIL TH.AT HE WOULD NOT.
Or by chance do we fear what follows, " For that which I do I know not, for what I will I do not, but what I hate that I do," ' lest perhaps from these words some one should suspect that the apostle is consenting to the evil works of the concupiscence of the flesh? But we must consider what he adds: " But if I do that which I will not, I consent to the law that it is good." For he says that he rather consents to the law than to the concupiscence of the flesh. For this he calls by the name of sin. Therefore he said that he acted and laboured not with the desire of consenting and fulfilling, but from the impulse of lusting itself. Hence, then, he says, " I consent to the law that it is good." I consent because I do not will what it does not will. Afterwards he says, " Now, then, it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwelleth in me." ^ What does he mean by " now then," but, now at length, under the grace which has delivered the delight of my will from the consent of lust? For, " it is not I that do. it," cannot be better understood than that he does not consent to set forth his members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin. For if he lusts and consents and acts, how can he be said not to do the thing himself, even although he may grieve that he does it, and deeply groan at being overcome?
CHAP. 19. — WHAT IT IS TO ACCOMPLISH WHAT IS GOOD.
x\nd now does not what follows most plainly show whence he spoke? " For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing "?9 For if he had not exi)lained what he said by the addition of " that is, in my flesh," it might, perchance, be otherwise understood.
s Rom. viii. 23. 8 Rom. vii. 17.
6 Wisd. ix. 15. 9 Rom. vii i3.
' Rom. vii. 15.
[Book I.
when he said, " in me." And therefore he repeats and urges the same thing in another form: " For to will is present with me, but to perform that which is good is not." ' For this is to perform that which is good, that a man should not even lust. For the good is incomplete when one lusts, even although a man does not consent to the evil of lust. " For the good that I would," says he, " I do not; but the evil that I would not, that I do. Now, if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me." ^ This he repeated impressively, and as it were to stir up the most slothful from slumber: " I find then that the law," said he, " is for me wishing to do good, since evil is present with me." ^ The law, then, is for one who would do good, but evil is present from lust, though he does not consent to this who says, " It is no longer I that do it."
CHAP. 20. — IN ME, THAT IS, IN MY FLESH.
And he declares both more plainly in what follows: " For I delight in the law of God after the inward man; but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members." * But in that he said, " bringing me into captivity," he can feel emotion without consenting to it. Whence, because of those three things, two, to wit, of which we have already argued, in that he says, " But I am carnal," and " Sold under sin," and this third, " Bringing me into captivity in the law of sin, which is in my members," the apostle seems to be describing a man who is still Hving under the law, and is not yet under grace. But as I have expounded the former two sayings in respect of the still corruptible flesh, so also this latter may be understood as if he had said, " bringing me into captivity," in the flesh, not in the mind; in emotion, not in consent; and therefore " bringing me into captivity," because even in the flesh there is not an alien nature, but our own. As, therefore, he himself expounded what he had said, " For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing," so also now out of the exposition of that we ought to learn the meaning of this passage, as if he had said, " Bringing;//«? into captivity," that is, " my flesh," " to the law of sin, which is in my members."
CHAP. 21. — NO CONDEMNATION IN CHRIST JESUS.
Then he adds the reason why he said all these things: " O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord! " And thence he concludes: " Therefore I myself with the mind serve the ^ Rom. vii. 20.
3 Rom. vii. 21.
law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin." 5 To wit, with the flesh, the law of sin, by lusting; but with the mind, the law of God, by not consenting to that lust. " For there is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus." ^ For he is not condemned who does not consent to the evil of the lust of the flesh. " For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made thee free from the law of sin and death," so that, to wit, the lust of the flesh may not appropriate to itself thy consent. And what follows more and more demonstrates the same meaning. But moderation must be used.
CHAP. 2 2. WHY THE PASSAGE REFERRED TO MUST BE UNDERSTOOD OF A MAN ESTABLISHED UNDER GRACE.
And it had once appeared to me also that the apostle was in this argument of his describing a man under the law.? But afterwards I was constrained to give up the idea by those words where he says, " Now, then, it is no more I that do it." For to this belongs what he says subsequently also: " There is, therefore, now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus." And because I do not see how a man under the law should say, " I delight in the law of God after the inward man; " since this very delight in good, by which, moreover, he does not consent to evil, not from fear of penalty, but from love of righteousness (for this is meant by "delighting"), can only be attributed to grace.
CHAP. 23 [XI.] WHAT IT IS TO BE DELIVERED FROM THE BODY OF THIS DEATH.
For when he says also, " \\'ho shall deliver me from the body of this death? "^ who can deny that when the apostle said this he was still in the body of this death? And certainly the wicked are not delivered from this, to whom the same bodies are returned for eternal torment. Therefore, to be delivered from the body of this death is to be healed of all the weakness of fleshly lust, and to receive the body, not for penalty, but for glory. With this passage also those words are sufficiently in harmony: " Ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, the redemption, of our body." For surely we groan with that groaning wherein we say, " O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" That also where he says, " For what I do, I know not; " what else is it than: " I will not, I do not approve, I do not consent, I do not do "? Otherwise it is con- ' See Augnstin's ExfiositioJi 0/ Certain Propositions in the Epistle to the I\oinans, 44, 45; also his Conimcntary on Galatians, V. 17; also his letter to SivipU'cianus, book i. 7, 9.
° Rom. vii. 24.
Chap. 27.]
trary to what he said above, " Ey the law is the knowledge of sin," and, " I had not known sin but by the law," and, " Sin, tliat it might appear sin, worked death in me by that which is good." For how did he know sin, of whicli he was ignorant, by the law? How does sin which is not known api)ear? Therefore it is said, "I know not," for " I do not," because I myself commit it with no consent of mine; in the same way in which the Lord will say to the wicked, " I know you not," ' although, beyond a doubt, nothing can be hid from Him; and as it is said, " Him who had not known sin," ^ which means who had not done sin, for He had not known what He condemned.
CHAP. 24. HE CONCLUDES THAT THE APOSTLE SPOKE LM HIS OWN PERSON, AND THAT OF THOSE WHO ARE UNDER GRACE.
On the careful consideration of these things, and things of the same kind in the context of that apostolical Scripture, the apostle is rightly understood to have signified not, indeed, himself alone in his own person, but others also estaljlished under grace, and with him not yet established in that perfect peace in which death shall be swallowed up in victory. ' And concerning this he afterwards says, " But if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness. If, then, the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwelleth in you. He that raised up Jesus from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you." + Therefore, after our mortal bodies have been quickened, not only will there be no consent to sinning, but even the lust of the flesh itself, to which there is no consent, will not remain. And not to have this resistance to the spirit in the mortal flesh, was possible only to that man who came not by the flesh to men. And that the apostles, because they were men, and carried about in the mortality of this life a body which is corrupted and weighs down the soul, 5 were, therefore, " always polluted with excessive lust," as that man injuriously affirms, be it far from me to say. But I do say that although they were free from consent to depraved lusts, they nevertheless groaned concerning the concupiscence of the flesh, which they bridled by restraint with such humility and piety, that they desired rather not to have it than to subdue it.
CHAP. 25 [xIL] THE SIXTH CALUMNY, THAT AUGUSTIN ASSERTS THAT EVEN CHRIST WAS NOT FREE FROM SINS.
In like manner as to what he added, that I say,*"' " that Christ even was not free from sins, •! Rom. viii. 10, 11. 5 Wisd. be. 15. '> Sec Book iii. i6, below.
but that, from the necessity of the flesh. He spoke falsely, and was stained witli other faults," he should see from whom he heard these things, or in whose letters he read them; for that, indeed, he perchance did not understand them, and turned them by the deceitfulness of malice into calumnious meanings.
CHAP. 26 [XIII.] THE SEVENTH CALUMNY, THAT AUGUSTIN ASSERTS TH.'^T IN BAPTISM ALL SINS ARE NOT REMIITED.
" They also say," says he, " that baptism does not give complete remission of sins, nor take away crimes, but that it shaves them off, so that the roots of all sins are retained in the evil flesh." Who but an unbeliever can affirm this against the Pelagians? I say, therefore, that baptism gives remission of all sins, and takes away guilt, and does not shave them off; and " that the roots of all sins are " not " retained in the evil flesh, as if of shaved hair on the head, whence the sins may grow to be cut down again." For it was I that found out that similitude, too,, for them to use for the purposes of their calumny, as if I thought and said this.
CH.'VP. 27. IN WH.AT SENSE LUST IS CALLED SIN IN THE REGENERATE.
But concerning that concupiscence of the flesh of which they speak, I believe that they are deceived, or that they deceive; for with this even he that is baptized must struggle with a pious mind, however carefully he presses forward, and is led by the Spirit of God. But although this is called sin, it is certainly so called not because it is sin, but because it is made by sin, as a writing is said to be some one's " hand " because the hand has written it. But they are sins which are unlawfully done, spoken, thought, according to the lust of the flesh, or to ignorance — things which, once done, keep their doers guilty if they are not forgiven. And this very concupiscence of the flesh is in such wise put away in baptism, that although it is inherited by all that are born, it in no respect hurts those that are born anew. And yet from these, if they carnally beget children, it is again derived; and again it will be hurtful to those that are born, unless by the same form it is remitted to them as born again, and remains in them in no way hindering the future life, because its guilt, derived by generation, has been put away by regeneration; and thus it is now no more sin, but is called so, whether because it became what it is by sin, or because it is stirred by the delight of sinning, although by the conquest of the delight of righteousness consent is not given to it. Nor is it on account of this, the guilt of which has already been taken away in the la\-er of regeneration, i86 [Book I.
that the baptized say in their prayer, " Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors; " ' but on account of sins which are committed, whether in consentings to it, when what is right is overcome by that wliich pleases, or when by ignorance evil is accepted as if it were good. And they are committed, whether by acting, or by speaking, or — and this is the easiest and the quickest — by thinking. From all which I things what believer ever will boast that he has i his heart pure? or who will boast that he is pure j from sin? - Certainly that which follows in the ■ prayer is said on account ot concupiscence: j " Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." " For every one," as it is written,, •^^ is tempted when he is drawn awa)^ of his own vconcupiscence, and enticed; then, when concupiscence hath conceived, it bringeth forth ■sin." 3 ' CHAP. 2S [xiv.] — ^^AK^' without crime, none | WITHOUT SIN. I .All these products of concupiscence, and the; old guilt of concupiscence itself, are put away by the washing of baptism. And whatever that i concupiscence now brings forth, if they are not ithose i)roducts which are called not only sins, but even crimes, are purified by that method of ■daily prayer when we say, " Forgive us our debts, as we forgive," and by the sincerity of almsgiving. For no one is so foolish as to say that that precept of our Lord does not refer to baptized people: " Forgive and it shall be forgiven 3'ou, give and it siiall be given you." •♦ But none could rightly be ordained a minister in the Church if the aposde had said, " If any is without sin," where he says, '" If any is without crime; " 5 or if he had said, " Having no sin," where he says, " Having no crime." '^ Because many baptized believers are without crime, but I should say that no one in this life is without sin, — however much the Pelagians are inflated, and burst asunder in madness against me because I say this: not because there remains anything of sin which is not remitted in baptism; but because by us who remain in the weakness of this life such sins do not cease daily to be committed, as are daily remitted to those who pray in faith and work in mercy. This is the soundness of the catholic faith, which the Holy Siiirit everywhere sows, — not the vanity and presumption of spirit of heretical pravity.