is of the law? For that law is the law of God. Who has denied this, save Marcion and Manicheus, and such like pests? Since, then, that is the law of God, he says it is " his own " righteousness "which is of the law; " and this righteousness of his own he would not have, but cast it forth as " dung." Why so, except because it is this which I have above demonstrated,' that those are under the law who, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and going about to establish their own, are not subject to the righteousness of God?^ For they think that, by the strength of their own will, they will fulfil the com^iands of tlie law; and wrapped up in their pri8e, they are not converted to assisting grace. Thus the letter killeth ^ them either openly, as being guilty to themselves, by not doing what the law commands; or by thinking that they do it, although they do it not with spiritual love, which is of God. Thus they remain either plainly wicked or deceitfully righteous, — manifestly cut off in open unrighteousness, or foolishly elated in fallacious righteousness. And by this means — marvellous indeed, but yet true — the righteousness of the law is not fulfilled by the righteousness which is in the law, or by the law, but by that which is in the Spirit of grace.
Because the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in those, as it is written, who walk not according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. But, according to the righteousness which is in the law, the apostle says that he was blameless in the flesh, not in the Spirit; and he says that the righteousness which is of the law was his, not God's. It must be understood, therefore, that the righteousness of the law is not fulfilled according to the righteousness which is in the law or of the law, that is, according to the righteousness of man, but according to the righteousness which is in the Spirit of grace, therefore according to the righteousness of God, that is, which man has from God. Which may be thus more clearly and briefly stated: That the righteousness of the law is not fulfilled when the law commands, and man as it were of his own strength obeys; but when the Spirit aids, and man's free will, but freed by the grace of God, performs. Therefore the righteousness of the law is to command what is pleasing to God, to forbid what is displeasing; but the righteousness in the law is to obey the letter, and beyond it to seek for no assistance of God for holy living. For when he had said, " Not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is by the faith of Christ," he added, "Which is from God." That, therefore, is itself the righteousness of God, being ignorant of which the proud go about to establish their own; for it is not • See above, ch. 6.
Rom. X. 3.
3 2 Cor. iii. 6.
called the righteousness of God because by it God is righteous, but because man has it from God.
CHAP. 21. THAT RIGHTEOUSNESS IS NEVER PER- FECTED IN THIS LIFE.
Now, according to this righteousness of God, that is, which we have from God, faith now worketh by love. But it worketh that, in what way man can attain to Him on whom now, not seeing, he believes; and when he shall see Him, then that which was in faith through a glass enigmatically, shall at length be in sight face to face; and then shall be perfected even love itself.
Because it is said with excessive folly, that God, is loved as much before He is seen, as He will ^ be loved when He is seen. Further, if in this life, as no religious person doubts, the more we love God, so much the more righteous we certainly are, who can doubt that pious and true righteousness will then be perfected when the love of God shall be perfect? Then the law, therefore, shall be fulfilled; so that nothing at all is wanting to it, of which law, according to the apostle, the fulfilling is Love. And thus, when he had said, " Not having my own ric,^hteousness, which is of the law, but that which is by the faith of Jesus Christ, which is the righteousness from God in faith," he then added, '' That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings." * All these things were not yet full and perfect in the apostle; but, as if he were placed on the way, he was running towards their fulness and perfection. For how had he already perfectly known Christ, who says in another place, " Now I know in part; but then I shall know even as I am known "? 5 And how had he already perfectly known the power of His resurrection, to whom it remained to know it yet more fully by experience at the time of the resurrection of the flesh? And how had he perfectly known already the fellowship of His sufi"ering, if he had not yet experienced for him the suffering of death? Finally, he adds and says, " If in any manner I may attain unto the resurrection of the dead." ^ And then he says, " Not that I have already received or am already perfected."
What, then, does he confess that he has not yet received, and in what is he not yet perfected, except that righteousness which is of God, which he desired, not willing to have his own righteousness, which is of the law? For hence he was speaking, and such was the reason for his saying these things in resistance to the enemies of the grace of God, for the bestowal of which Christ was crucified; and of the race of whom are also these.
CHAP. 2 2. — NATURE OF HUMAN RIGHTEOUSNESS AND PERFECTION.
For from the place in which he undertook to say these things, he thus began, " Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision. For we are the circumcision, who serve God in the Spirit," — or, as some codices have it, "who serve God the Spirit," or "the Spirit of God," — "and glory in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh." ' Here it is manifest that he is speaking against the Jews, who, observing the law carnally, and going about j to establish their own righteousness, were slain I by the letter, and not made alive by the Spirit, 1 and gloried in themselves while the apostles and; all. the children of the promise were glorying j in Christ. Then he added, " Although I may have confidence in the flesh. If any one else thinks that he has confidence in the flesh, I more." ^ And enumerating all things which have glory according to the flesh, he ended at that point where he says, " According to the righteousness which is in the law, blameless."
And when he had said that he regarded all these things as altogether loss and disadvantage and dung that he might gain Christ, he added the passage which I am treating, " And be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, but that which is by the faith of Christ, which is from God." He confessed that he had not yet received the perfection of this righteousness, which will not be except in that excellent knowledge of Christ, on account of which he said that all things were loss to him; and he confessed, therefore, that he was not yet perfect. " But I follow on," said he, " if I may apprehend that in which I also am apprehended of Christ Jesus." ^ " I may apprehend that in which I also am apprehended," is much the same as, " I may know, even as I also am known." " Brethren," says he, " I count not myself to have apprehended: but one thing, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forward to those which are before, I follow on according to the purpose for the reward of the supreme calling of God in Christ Jesus." •* The order of the words is, " But one thing I follow." Of which one thing the Lord also is well understood to have admonished Martha, where he says, " Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: but one thing is needful." 5 The apostle, wishing to apprehend this as if set in the way, said that he followed on to the reward of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. For who can delay when he would apprehend that which he declares that he is following, that he shall then have a righteousness equal to the righteousness 3 Phil. iii. 12.
of the holy angels, none of whom, of course, does any messenger of Satan buffet lest he should be lifted up with the greatness of his revelations? Then, admonishing those who might think themselves already perfect with the fulness of that righteousness, he says, " Let as many of us, therefore, as are perfect, be thus minded." ^ As if he should say. If, according to the capacity of mortal man for the little measure of this life, we are perfect, let us understand that it also belongs to that perfection that we percei\e that we are not yet perfected in that angelical righteousness which we shall have in the manifestation of Christ. "And if in anything," he said, "ye be otherwise minded, God shall also reveal even this unto you."^ How, save to those that are walking and advancing in the way of the faith, until that wandering be finished and they come to the actual vision? Whence following on, he added, " Nevertheless, whereunto we have already attained, let us walk therein." ^ Then he concludes that they should be bewared of, concerning whom this passage treated at its beginning. " Brethren, be imitators of me, and mark them which so walk as ye have our example. For many walk, of whom I have spoken often, and now tell you even weeping, whose end is destruction," ^ and the rest. These are the very ones of whom, in the beginning, he had said, " Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers," and what follows. Therefore all are enemies of the cross of Christ who, going about to establish their own righteousness, which is of the law, — that is, where only the letter commands, and the Spirit does not fulfil, — are not subject to the law of God. For if they who are of the law be heirs, faith is made an empty thing. " If righteousness is by the law, then Christ has died in vain: then is the offence of the cross done away." And thus those are enemies of the cross of Christ who say that righteousness is by the law, to which it belongs to command, not to assist. But the grace of God through Jesus Christ the Lord in the Holy Spirit helpeth our infirmity.
CH.\P. 23. — THERE IS NO TRUE RIGHTEOUSNESS WITHOUT THE FAITH OF THE GRACE OF CHRIST.
Wherefore he who lives according to the righteousness which is in the law, without the faith of the grace of Christ, as the apostle declares that he lived blameless, must be accounted to have no true righteousness; not because the law is not true and holy, but because to wish to obey the letter which commands, without the Spirit of God which quickens, as if of the strength of free will, is not true righteousness. But the righteousness according to which the <> Phil. iii. 15.
7 Phil. iii. j6.
THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN [Book III.
righteous man lives by faith, since man has it from God by the Spirit of grace, is true righteousness. And although this is not undeservedly said to be perfect in some righteous men, according to the capacity of this life, yet it is but little to that great righteousness which the equality of the angels receives. And he who had not yet possessed this, on the one hand, in respect of that which was already in him, said that he was perfect; and in respect of that which was still wanting to him, said that he was imperfect. But manifestly that lower degree of righteousness makes merit, that higher kind becomes reward. Whence he who does not strive after the former does not attain unto the latter. Wherefore, after the resurrection of man, to deny that there will be a fulness of righteousness, and to think that the righteousness in the body of that life will be such as it can be in the body of this death, is singular folly. But it is most true that men do not there begin to fulfil those commands of God which here they have been unwilling to obey. For there will be the fulness of the most perfect righteousness, yet not of men striving after what is commanded, and making gradual endeavours after that fulness; but in the twinkling of an eye, even as shall be that resurrection of the dead itself, because that greatness of perfect righteousness will be given as a reward to those who here have obeyed the commandments, and will not itself be commanded to them as a thing to be accomplished. But I should in such wise say they have done the commandments, that we might remember that to these very commandments belongs the prayer in which the holy children of promise daily say with truth, " Thy will be done," ■ and " Forgive us our debts." ^ CHAP. 24 [vni.] — THERE ARE THREE PRINCIPAL HEADS IN THE PELAGIAN HERESY.
When, then, the Pelagians are pressed with these and such like testimonies and words of truth, not to deny original sin; not to say that the grace of God whereby we are justified is not given freely, but according to our merits; nor to say that in mortal man, however holy and well doing, there is so great righteousness that even after the washing of regeneration, until he finishes this life of his, forgiveness of sins is not necessary to him, — therefore when they are pressed not to make these three assertions, and by their means alienate men who believe them from the grace of the Saviour, and persuade the lifted-up unto pride to go headlong unto the judgment of the devil: they introduce the clouds of other questions in which their impietj' — in the sight of men more simple ' Matt. vi. 10.
> Matt. vi. 13.
minded, whether that they are more slow or less instructed in the sacred writings — may be concealed. These are the misty questions of the praise of the creature, of the praise of marriage, of the praise of the law, of the praise of free will, of the praise of the saints; as if any one of our people were in the habit of disparaging those things, and not rather of announcing all things with due praises to the honour of the Creator and Saviour. But even the creature does not desire in such wise to be praised as to be unwilling to be healed. And the more marriage is to be praised, the less is to be attributed to it the shameful concupiscence of the flesh, which is not of the Father, but of the world; and which assuredly marriage found and did not make in men; because, moreover, it is actually in very many without marriage, and if nobody had sinned marriage itself might be without it. And the law, holy and just and good, is neither grace itself, nor is anything rightly done by it without grace; because the law is not given that it may give life, but it was added because of transgression, that it might conclude all persons convicted under sin, and that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.^ And the free will taken captive does not avail, except for sin; but for righteousness, unless divinely set free and aided, it does not avail. And thus, also, all the saints, whether from that ancient Abel to John the Baptist, or from the apostles themselves up to this time, and henceforth even to the end of the world, are to be praised m the Lord, not in themselves. Because the voice, even of those earlier ones, is, " In the Lord shall my soul be praised." + And the voice of the later ones is, " By the grace of God I am what I am." 5 And to all belongs, " That he that glorieth may glory in the Lord." And it is the common confession of all, " If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." ^ CHAP. 25 [iX.] — HE SHOWS THAT THE OPINION OF THE CATHOLICS IS THE MEAN BETWEEN THAT OF THE MANICHEANS AND PELAGIANS, AND RE- FUTES BOTH.
But since, in these five particulars which I have set forth, in which they seek lurking-places, and from which they weave misrepresentations, they are forsaken and convicted by the divine writings, they have thought to deter those whom they could by the hateful name of Manicheans, lest in opposition to their most perverse teachings their ears should be conformed to the truth; because doubtless the Manicheans blasphemously condemn the three former of those five dogmas, saying that neither the human creature, nor * Ps. xxxiv. 2.
5 I Cor. XV. 10.
marriage, nor the law was ordained by the supreme and true God. But they do not receive what the truth says, that sin took its origin from free will, and that all evil, whether of angel or man, comes from it; because they prefer to believe, in their turning aside from God, that the nature of evil was always evil, and co-eternal with God. They, moreover, attack the holy patriarchs and prophets with as many execrations as they can. This is the way in which the modern heretics think, that by objecting the name of Manicheans, they evade the force of truth. But they do not evade it; because it follows them up, and overturns at once Manicheans and Pelagians. For in that when a man is born there is something good, so far as he is a man, he condemns the Manichean, and praises the Creator; but in so far as he derives original sin, he condemns the Pelagian, and holds a Saviour necessary. For even because that nature is said to be healahle, it repels both teachings; because it would not, on the one hand, have need of medicine if it were sound, which is opposed to the Pelagian, nor could it be healed at all if the evil in it were eternal and immutable, which is opposed to the Manichean. Moreover, in that to marriage, which we praise as ordained of God, we do not say that the concupiscence of the flesh is to be attributed, this is both contrary to the Pelagians, who make this concupiscence itself a matter of praise, and contrary to the Manicheans, who attribute it to a foreign and evil nature, when it really is an evil accidental to our nature, not to be separated by the disjunction from God, but to be healed by the mercy of God. Moreover, in that we say that the law, holy and just and good, was given not for the justification of the wicked, but for the conviction of the proud, for the sake of transgressions, — this is, on the one hand, opposed to the Manicheans, in that according to the apostle the law is praised; and on the other opposed to the Pelagians, in that, in accordance with the apostle, no one is justified by the law; and therefore, for the sake of making alive those whom the letter has killed, that is, whom the law, enjoining good, makes guilty by transgressions, the Spirit of grace freely brings aid. Also in that we say that the will is free in evil, but for doing good it must be made free by God's grace, this is opposed to the Pelagians; but in that we say it originated from that which previously was not evil, this is opposed to the Manicheans. Again, that we honour the holy patriarchs and prophets with praises due to them in God, is in opposition to the Manicheans; but that we say that even to them, however righteous and pleasing to God they might have been, the propitiation of tlie Lord was necessary, this is in opposition to the Pelagians. The catholic faith, therefore, finds them both, as it does also other heretics, in opposition to it, and convicts both by the authority of the divine testimonies and by the light of truth.
CHAP. 26 [x.J — THE PELAGIANS STILL STRIVE AFTER A HIDING-PLACE, BY INTRODUCING THE NEEDLESS QUESTION OF THE ORIGIN OF THE SOUL.
SOUL.
The Pelagians, indeed, add to the clouds which envelop their lurking-places the unnecessary question concerning the origin of the soul, for the purpose of erecting a hiding-place by disturbing manifest things by the obscurity of other matters. For they say " that we guard the continuous propagation of souls with the continuous propagation of sin." And where and when they have read this, either in the addresses or in the writings of those who maintain the catholic faith against this, I do not know; because, although I find something written by catholics on the subject, yet the defence of the truth had not yet been undertaken against those men, neither was there any anxiety to answer them. But this I say, that according to the Holy Scriptures original sin is so manifest, and that this is put away in infants by the laver of regeneration is confirmed by such antiquity and authority of the catholic faith, notorious by such a clear concurrent testimony of the Church, that what is argued by the inquiry or affirmation of anybody concerning the origin of the soul, if it is contrary to this, cannot be true. Wherefore, whoever builds up, either concerning the soul or any other obscure matter, any edifice whence he may destroy this, which is true, best founded, •and best known, whether he is a son or an enemy of the Church, must either be corrected or avoided. But let this be the end of this Book, that the things which follow may have another beginning.
AFTER HAVING SET ASIDE IN THE FORMER BOOKS THE CALUMNIES HURLED AGAINST THE CATHOLICS, AUGUSTIN HERE PROCEEDS TO OPEN UP THE SNARES WHICH LIE HIDDEN IN THE REMAINING PART OF THE SECOND EPISTLE OF THE PELAGIANS, IN THE FIVE HEADS OF THEIR DOCTRINE IN THE PRAISE, TO WIT, OF THE CREATURE, THE PRAISE OF MARRIAGE, THE PRAISE OF THE LAW, THE PRAISE OF FREE WILL, AND THE PRAISE OF THE SAINTS; IN CONNECTION WITH WHICH HEADS THE PELAGIANS MALIGNANTLY BOAST THAT THEY ARE AT ISSUE NOT MORE WITH THE MANICHEANS THAN WITH THE CATHOLICS. HENCE THESE FIVE POINTS MAY BRING US BACK TO THIS, THAT THEY PUT FORWARD THEIR THREE-FOLD ERROR — NAMELY, THE TWO FIRST, THE DENIAL OF ORIGINAL SIN; THE TWO FOLLOWING, THE ASSERTION THAT GRACE IS GIVEN ACCORDING TO MERITS; THE FIFTH, THEIR STATEMENT THAT THE SAINTS HAD NOT SINNED IN THIS LIFE.
AUGUSTIN SHOWS THAT BOTH HERESIES, THAT OF THE MANICHEANS AND THAT OF THE PELAGIANS, ARE OPPOSED AND EQUALLY ODIOUS TO THE CATHOLIC FAITH, WHERE-BY WE PROFESS, FIRST, THAT THE NATURE CREATED BY A GOOD GOD WAS GOOD, BUT THAT, NEVERTHELESS, IT IS IN NEED OF A SAVIOUR BECAUSE OF ORIGINAL SIN, WHICH PASSED INTO ALL MEN FROM THE TRANSGRESSION OF THE FIRST MAN: THEN SECONDLY, THAT MARRIAGE IS GOOD, TRULY INSTITUTED BY GOD, BUT THAT THAT CONCUPISCENCE IS EVIL WHICH WAS ASSOCIATED WITH MARRIAGE BY sin: also thirdly that the law of GOD IS GOOD, BUT IN SUCH WISE AS ONLY TO MANIFEST SIN, NOT TO TAKE IT AWAY: THAT FOURTHLY FREE WILL IS ASSUREDLY INHERENT IN THE NATURE OF MAN, BUT THAT NOW, HOWEVER, IT IS SO ENSLAVED THAT IT DOES NOT AVAIL TO THE DOING OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, UNLESS WHEN IT SHALL HAVE BEEN MADE FREE BY GRACE! BUT THAT FIFTHLY THE SAINTS, WHETHER OF THE OLD OR NEW TESTAMENT, W^ERE INDEED ENDUED WITH A RIGHTEOUSNESS, WHICH WAS TRUE BUT NOT PERFECT, NOR SO FULL THAT THEY SHOULD BE FREE FROM ALL SIN. IN CONCLUSION, HE BRINGS FORWARD THE TESTIMONIES OF CYPRIAN AND AMBROSE ON BEHALF OF THE CATHOLIC FAITH, SOME CONCERNING ORIGINAL SIN, OTHERS ABOUT THE ASSISTANCE OF GRACE, AND THE LAST CONCERNING THE IMPERFECTION OF PRESENT RIGHTEOUSNESS.