CH.\P. 16 [VII.] — PAUL FOUGHT, BUT GOD GAVE THE VICTORY: HE RAN, BUT GOD SHOWED MERCY.
Let us, therefore, consider those very merits of the Apostle Paul which he said the Righteous Judge would recompense with the crown of righteousness; and let us see whether these merits of his were really his own — I mean, whether they were obtained by him of -himself, or were the gifts of God. " I have fought," says he, " the good fight; I have finished my course; I have kept the faith." 5 Now, in the first place, these good works were nothing, unless they had fbeen preceded by good thoughts. Observe, therefore, what he says concerning these very thoughts. His words, when writing to the Corinthians, are: " Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves; but * See Ps Ixviii. 18, and Eph. iv. 8.
our sufficiency is of God." ^ Then let us look at each several merit. " I have fought the good fight." Well, now, I want to know by what power he fought. Was it by a power which he J possessed of himself, or by strength given to him ' from above? It is impossible to suppose that so great a teacher as the apostle was ignorant of the law of God, which proclaims the following in Deuteronomy: " Say not in thine heart, My own strength and energy of hand hath wrought for me this great power; but thou shalt remember the Lord thy God, how it is He that giveth thee strength to acquire such power," 7 And what avails " the good fight," unless followed by victory? And who gives the victory but He of whom the apostle says himself, " Thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ"?^ Then, in anotlier passage, having quoted from the Psalm these words: " Because for Thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for slaughter," 9 he went on to declare: " Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors, through Him that loved us." '° Not by ourselves, therefore, is the victory accomplished, but by Him who hath loved us. In the second clause he says, " I have finished my course," Now, who is it that says this, but he who declares in another passage, " So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy." " And this sentence can by no means] be transposed, so that it could be said: It is not] of God, who showeth mercy, but of the man who! willeth and runneth. If any person be boldl enough to express the matter thus, he shows! himself most plainly to be at issue with the' apostle.
CHAP. 17. — THE FAITH TH.4T HE KEPT WAS THE FREE GIFT OF GOD.
His last clause runs thus: " I have kept the faith." But he who says this is the same who declares in another passage, " I have obtained mercy that I might be faithful." '^ He does not say, " I obtained mercy because I was faithful," but " in order that I might be faithful," thus showing that even faith itself cannot be had without God's mercy, and that it is the gift of God. This he very expressly teaches us when he says, " For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God." '^ They might possibly say, " We received grace because we believed;" as if they would attribute the faith to themselves, and the grace to God. Therefore, the apostle having said, " Ye are saved through faith," added, " And that not of yourselves, but it is the gift of God."
* 2 Cor. iii. 5.
9 Ps. xliv. 22.
'^ I Cor. vii. 25.
7 Deut. viii. 17. '° Rom. viii. 37. '3 Eph. ii. 8.
Chap. 20.]
And again, lest they should say they deserved so great a gift by their works, he immediately added, " Not of works, lest any man should boast." " Not that he denied good works, or emptied them of their value, when he says that God renders to every man according to his works; ^ but because works proceed from faith, and not faith from works. Therefore it is from Him that we have works of righteousness, from whom comes also faith itself, concerning which it is written, " The just shall live by faith." ^ CHAP. 18. -^FAfTH WITHOUT GOOD WORKS IS NOT SUFFICIENT FOR SALVATION.
Unintelligent persons, however, with regard to the apostle's statement: " VV^e conclude that a man is justified by faith without the works of the law,"* have thought him to mean that faith suffices to a man, even if he lead a bad life, and has no good works. Impossible is it that such a character should be deemed " a vessel of election " by the apostle, who, after declaring that " in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision," s adds at once, " but faith which worketh by love." It is such faith which severs God's faithful from unclean demons, — for even these " believe and tremble," ^ as the Apostle James says; but they do not do well. Therefore they possess not the faith by which the just man lives, — the faith which works by love in such wise, that God recompenses it according to its works with eternal life. But inasmuch as we have even our good works from God, from whom likewise comes our faith and our love, therefore the selfsame great teacher of the Gentiles has designated " eternal hfe " itself as His gracious " gift."?
CHAP, 19 [vni.] HOW IS ETERNAL LIFE BOTHA REWARD FOR SERVICE AND A FREE GIFT OF GR.\CE?
And hence there arises no small question, which must be solved by the Lord's gift. If eternal life is rendered to good works, as the Scripture most openly declares: " Then He shall reward every man according to his works: " ^ how can eternal life be a matter of grace, seeing that grace is not rendered to works, l)ut is given gratuitously, as the apostle himself tells us: "To j him that worketh is the reward not reckoned ofj grace, but of debt; " ^ and again: " There is a i remnant saved according to the election of grace; " with these words immediately subjoined: " And if of grace, then is it no more of works; otherwise grace is no more grace "?'° How, then, is eternal life by grace, when it is received from works? Does the apostle per- 3 Habak. ii. 4. * las. ii. 19. 9 Rom. iv. 4.
chance not say that eternal life is a grace? Nay, he has so called it, with a clearness which none can possibly gainsay. It reciuires no acute intellect, but only an attentive reader, to discover this. For after saying, "The wages of sin is death," he at once added, "The grace of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." 7 CHAP. 20. THE QUESTION ANSWERED. JUSTIFI- CATION IS GRACE SIMPLY AND ENTIRELY. ETER- NAL LIFE IS REWARD AND GRACE.
This question, then, seems to me to be by no means capable of solution, unless we understand that even those good works of ours, which are recompensed with eternal life, belong to the grace of God, because of what is said by the Lord Jesus: " Without me ye can do nothing." " And the apostle himself, after saying, " By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast; " '^ saw, of course, the possibility that men would think from this statement that good Avorks are not necessary to those who believe, but that faith alone suffices for them; and again, the possibility of men's boasting of their good works, as if they were of themselves capable of performing them. To meet, therefore, these opinions on both sides, he immediately added, " For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." '^ What is the purport of his saying, " Not of works, lest any man should boast," while commending the grace of God? And then why does he afterwards, when giving a reason for using such words, say, " For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works "? Why, therefore, does it run, " Not of works, lest any man should boast "? Now, hear and understand. " Not of works " is spoken of the works which you suj^pose have their origin in yourself alone; but you have to think of works for which God has moulded (that is, has formed and created) you. For of these he says, " AVe are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works." Now he does not here speak of that creation which made us human beings, but of that in reference to which one said who was already in full manhood, " Create in me a clean heart, O God; " '* concerning which also the apostle says, "Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all tilings are become new. And all things are of God." '5 We are framed, therefore, that is, formed and created, " in the good works which " we have not ourselves prepared, but " God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.''
" lohn XV. 5. «< "Ps. Ii. 12 Eph.
[Chap. 21.
It follows, then, dearly beloved, beyond all doubt, that as your good life is nothing else than God's grace, so also the eternal life which is the recompense of a good life is the grace of God; moreover it is given gratuitously, even as that is given gratuitously to which it is given. But that to which it is given is solely and simply grace; this therefore is also that which is given to it, because it is its reward; — grace is for grace, as if remuneration for righteousness; in order that it may be true, because it is true, that God " shall reward every man according to his works." ' CH.A.P. 2 1 [iX.] — ETERNAL LIFE IS "GRACE FOR GRACE."
Perhaps you ask whether we ever read in the Sacred Scriptures oi '' grace for grace." Well, you possess the Gospel according to John, which is perfectly clear in its very great light. Here John the Baptist says of Christ: " Of His fulness have we all received, evtn grace for grace.'" ^ So that out of His fulness we have received, according to our humble measure, our particles of ability as it were for leading good lives — *' according as God hath dealt to every man his measure of faith; " 3 because " every man hath his proper gift of God; one after this manner, and another after that."-* And this is grace. But, over and above this, we shall also receive " grace for grace," when we shall have awarded to us eternal life, of which the apostle said: " The grace of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord," s having just said that " the wages of sin is death." Deservedly did he call it " wages" because everlasting death is awarded as its proper due to diabolical service. Now, when it was in his power to say, and rightly to say: " But the wages of righteousness is eternal life," he yet preferred to say: "The grace of God is eternal life; " in order that we may hence understand that God does not, for any merits of our own, but from His own divine compassion, prolong our existence to everlasting life. Even as the Psalmist says to his soul, " Who crowneth thee with mercy and compassion." ^ Well, now, is not a crown given as the reward of good deeds? It is, however, only because He works good works in good men, of whom it is said, " It is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure," 7 that the Psalm has it, as just now quoted: " He crowneth thee with mercy and compassion," since it is through His mercy that we perform the good deeds to which the crown is awarded. It is not, however, to be for a moment supposed, because he said, " It is God that * Matt, xvi 27; 3 Rom xii. 3. ' Ps. ciii 4.
Ixii. 12; Rev. xxii. * I Cor. vii. 7. 7 Phil. ii. 13.
woi keth in you both to will and to do of his own good pleasure," that free will is taken away. If thi-1, indeed, had been his meaning, he would not have said just before, " Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling." ^ For when the command is given " to work," their free will is addressed; and when it is added, " with fear and trembling," they are warned against boasting of their good deeds as if they were their own, by attributing to themselves the performance of anything good. It is pretty much as if the apostle had this question put to him: " Why did you use the phrase, 'with fear and trembling '? " And as if he answered the inquiry of his examiners by telling them, " For it is God which worketh in you." Because if you fear and tremble, you do not boast of your good works — as if they were your own, since it is God who works within you.
CH.-XP. 22 [X.] — WHO IS THE TRANSGRESSOR OF THE LAW? THE OLDNESS OF ITS LETTER. THE NEWNESS OF ITS SPIRIT.
Therefore, brethren, you ought by free will not do evil but do good; this, indeed, is the lesson taught us in the law of God, in the Holy Scriptures — both Old and New. Let us, however, read, and by the Lord's help understand, what the apostle tells us: " Because by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight; for by the law is the knowledge of sin." ^ Observe, he says " the knowledge" not " the destruction," of sin. But when a man knows sin, and grace does not help him to avoid what he knows, undoubtedly the law works wrath. And this the apostle explicitly says in another passage. His words are: " The law worketh wrath." '° The reason of this statement lies in the fact that God's wrath is greater in the case of the transgressor who by the law knows sin, and yet commits it; such a man is thus a transgressor of the law, even as the apostle says in another sentence, " For where no law is, there is no transgression." '° It is in accordance with this principle that he elsewhere says, " That we may serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter; " " wishing the huo to be here understood by " the oldness of the letter," and what else by " newness of spirit " than^rcz^^/ Then, that it might not be thought that he had brought any accusation, or suggested any blame, against the law, he immediately takes himself to task with this inquiry: " ^Vhat shall we say, then? Is the law sin? God forbid." He then adds the statement: " Nay, I had not known sin but by the law; " '^ which is of the same import as the passage above quoted: " By the law 8 Phil. ii. 12. " Rom. vii. 6.
'° Rom: IV. 15.
Chap 24.]
is the knowledge of sin." ' Then: " For I had not known lust," he says, " except the law had said, ' Thou shalt not covet.' ^ But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in nie all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead. For I was alive without the law once; but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. Wherefore the law is holy; and the commandment holy, just, and good. Was, then, that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, worked death in me by that which is good, — in order that the sinner, or^ the sin, might by the commandment become beyond measure." •♦ And to the Galatians he writes: " Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, except through faith in Jesus Christ, even we have be-Heved in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified." s CHAP. 23 [XI.J THE PELAGIANS MAINTAIN THAT THE LAW IS THE GRACE OF GOD WHICH HELPS US NOT TO SIN.
Why, therefore, do those very vain and per-, verse Pelagians say that the law is the grace of God by which we are helped not to sin? Do they not, by making such an allegalion, unhappily and beyond all doubt contradict the great apostle? He, indeed, says, that by the law sin received strength against man; and that man, by the commandment, although it be holy, and j just, and good, nevertheless dies, and that death works in him through that which is good, from which death there is no deliverance unless the Spirit quickens him, whom the letter had killed, — as he says in another passage, " The letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life," ^ And yet these obstinate persons, blind to God's light, and deaf to His voice, maintain that the letter which kills gives life, and thus gainsay the quickening Spirit. " Therefore, brethren " (that I may warn you with better effect in the words of the apostle himself), " we are debtors not to the flesh, to live after the flesh; for if ye live after the flesh ye shall die; but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live." ^ I have said this to deter your free will from evil, and to exhort it to good by apostolic words; but yet you must not therefore ' Rom. iii. 20. ^ Ex. xx. 17.
3 Ut fiat supra niodtt^n peccator, ant pec<.atu>n, etc. [This odd reading probably arose from mistaking the Greek article >; for the disjunctive particle jj. It occurs frequently in Augustm. — W.J glory in man, — that is to say, in your own sehes, — and not in the Lord, when you live not after the flesh, but through the Spirit mortify the deeds of the flesh. For in order that they to whom the apostle addressed this language might not exalt themselves, thinking that they were themselves able of their own spirit to do such good works as these, and not by the Spirit of God, after saying to them, " If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the flesh, ye shall live," he at once added, " For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God." ** When, therefore, you by the Spirit mortify the deeds of the flesh, that you may have life, glorify Him, praise Him, give thanks to Him by whose Spirit you are so led as to be able to do such things as show you to be the children of God; " for as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God."
CHAP. 24 [nil] — WHO MAY BE SAID TO WISH TO ESTABLISH THEIR OWN RIGHTEOUSNESS. " GOD'S RIGHTEOUSNESS," SO CALLED, WHICH MAN HAS FROM GOD.
As many, therefore, as are led by their own spirit, trusting in their own virtue, with the addition merely of the law's assistance, without the help of grace, are not the sons of God. Such are they of whom the same apostle speaks as " being ignorant of God's righteousness, and wishing to establish their own righteousness, who have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God." 9 He said this of the Jews, who in their self-assumption rejected grace, and therefore did not believe m Christ. Their own righteousness, indeed, he says, they wish to establish; and this righteousness is of the law, — not that the law was established by themselves, but that they had constituted their righteousness in the law which is of God, when they supposed themselves able to fulfil that law by their own strength, ignorant of God's righteousness, — not indeed that by which God is Himself righteous, but that which man has from God. And that you may know that he designated as theirs the righteousness which is of the law, and as God's that which man receives from God, hear what he says in another passage, when speaking of Christ: " For whose sake I counted all things not only as loss, but I deemed them to be dung, that I might win Christ, and be found in Him — not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, which is of God." '° Now what does he mean by " not having my own righteousness, which is of the law," when the law is really not his at all, but God's, — except this, that he called it his own righteousness, although it was of the law, because he ' Rom. viii. 14.
9 Rom. X. 3.
»o PhiL iii. 8, 9.
[Chap. 25.
thought he could fulfil without the aid of grace which the law by his own will, through faith in Christ? Wherefore, after saying, " Not having my own righteousness, which is of the law," he immediately subjoined, " But that which is through the faith of Christ, which is of God." This is what they were ignorant of, of whom he says, " Being ignorant of God's righteousness," — that is, the righteousness which is of God (for it is given not by the letter, which kills, but by the life-giving Spirit), "and wishing to establish their own righteousness," which he expressly described as the righteousness of the law, when he said, " Not having my own righteousness, which is of the law; " they were not subject to the righteousness of God, — in other words, they submitted not themselves to the grace of God. For they were under the law, not under grace, and therefore sin had dominion over them, from: which a man is not freed by the law, but by! grace. On which account he elsewhere says, " For sin shall not have dominion over you;! because ye are not under the law, but under grace." ' Not that the law is evil; but because they are under its power, whom it makes guilty by imposing commandments, not by aiding. It is by grace that any one is a doer of the law; and without this grace, he who is placed under the law will be only a hearer of the law. To such persons he addresses these words: " Ye who are justified by the law are fallen from grace." ^ CHAP. 25 [xIIl] — AS THE LAW IS NOT, SO NEITHER IS OUR NATURE ITSELF THAT GRACE BY WHICH WE ARE CHRISTIANS.
Now who can be so insensible to the words of the apostle, who so foolishly, nay, so insanely ignorant of the purport of his statement, as to venture to affirm that the law is grace, when he who knew very well what he was saying emphatically declares, " Ye who are justified by the law are fallen from grace "? Well, but if the law is not grace, seeing that in order that the law itself may be kept, it is not the law, but only grace which can give help, will not nature at any rate be grace? For this, too, the Pelagians have been bold enough to aver, that grace is the nature in which we were created, so as to possess a rational mind, by which we are enabled to understand, — formed as we are in the image of God, so as to have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that creepeth upon the earth. This, however, is not the grace wjiich the apostle commends to us through the faith of Jesus Christ. For it is certain that we possess this nature in common with ungodly men and unbelievers; whereas the grace which comes through ' Rom. vi. 14.
2 Gal. V. 4.
the faith of Jesus Christ belongs only to them to whom the faith itself appertains. " For all men have not faith." 3 Now, as the apostle, with perfect truth, says to those who by wishing to be justified by the law have fallen from grace, ' " If righteousness come by the law, then Christ ' is dead in vain;" '^ so hkewise, to those who think that the grace which he commends and faith in Christ receives, is nature, the same language is with the same degree of truth applicable: if righteousness come from nature, then Christ is dead in vain. But the law was in existence up to that time, and it did not justify; and nature existed too, but it did not justify. It was not, then, in vain that Christ died, in order that the law might be fulfilled through Him who said, " I am come not to destroy the law, but to fulfil it; " 5 and that our nature, which was lost through Adam, might through Him be recovered, who said that " He was come to seek and to save that which was lost;"^ in whose coming the old fathers likewise who loved God believed.
CHAP. 26. — THE PELAGIANS CONTEND THAT THE GRACE, WHICH IS NEITHER THE LAW NOR NA- TURE, AVAILS ONLY TO THE REMISSION OF PAST SINS, BUT NOT TO THE AVOIDANCE OF FUTURE ONES.
They also maintain that God's grace, which is given through the faith of Jesus Christ, and which is neither the law nor nature, avails only for the remission of sins that have been committed, and not for the shunning of future ones, or the subjugation of those which are now assailing us. Now if all this were true, surely after offering the petition of the Lord's Prayer, " Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors," we could hardly go on and say, " And lead us not into temptation." 7 The former petition we present that our sins may be forgiven; the latter, that they may be avoided or subdued, — a favour which we should by no means beg of our Father who is in heaven if we were able to accomplish it by the virtue of our human will. Now I strongly advise and earnestly require your Love ^ to read attentively the book of the blessed Cyprian which he wrote On the Lord's Prayer. As far as the Lord shall assist you, understand it, and commit it to memory. In this work you will see how he so appeals to the free will of those whom he edifies in his treatise, as to show them, that whatever they have to fulfil in the law, they must ask for in the prayer. But this, of course, would be utterly empty if the human will were sufficient for the performance without the help of God.
* Matt, xviii. 11; Luke xix. 10. ^ Matt. vi. 12, 13 * Caritatem vestrani, a phrase of the same sort as our common address, " your Honour."
Chap. 29.]
CHAP. 27 [XIV.J GRACE EFFECTS THE FULFIL- MENT OF THE LAW, THE DELIVERANCE OF NA- TURE, AND THE SUPPRESSION OF SIN'S DOMINION.
It has, however, been shown to demonstration, that instead of really maintaining free will, they have only inflated a theory of it, which, having no stability, has fallen to the gromid. Neither the knowledge of God's law, nor nature, nor the mere remission of sins is that grace which is given to us through our Lord Jesus Christ; but it is this very grace which accomplishes the fulfilment of the law, and the liberation of nature, and the removal of the dominion of sin. Being, therefore, convicted on these points, they resort to another expedient, and endeavour to show in some way or other that the grace of God is given us according to our merits. For they say: " Granted that it is not given to us according to the merits of good works, inasmuch as it is through it that we do any good thing, still it is given to us according to the merits of a good will; for," say they, " the good will of him who prays precedes his prayer, even as the will of the believer preceded his faith, so that according to these merits the grace of God who hears, follows."
CHAP. 28. — FAITH IS THE GIFT OF GOD.
I have already discussed ' the point concerning faith, that is, concerning the will of him who believes, even so far as to show that it appertains to grace, — so that the apostle did not tell us, " I have obtained mercy because I was faithful; " but he said, " I have obtained mercy in order to be faithful."^ And there are many other passages of similar import, — among them, that in which he bids us " think soberly, accord- j ing as God hath dealt out to every man the pro- ] portion of faith;"3 and that which I have already quoted: " By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God; " ■♦ and again another in the same Epistle to the Ephesians: " Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith, from God the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ; " s and to the same effect that passage in which he says, " For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake." *> Both alike are therefore due to the grace of God, — the faith of those who believe, and the patience of those who suffer, because the apostle spoke of both as given. Then, again, there is the passage, especially noticeable, in which he says, " We, having the same spirit of faith," 7 for his phrase is not " the ktiotvledge of faith,'' but " the spirit of faith; " and he expressed himself thus in order that we might understand how that faith is given to us, even when it is not sought, so that other blessings may be granted to it at its request. For " how," says he, " shall they call upon Him in whom they have not believed?"**. The spirit of grace, therefore, causes us to have faith, in order that through faith we may, on praying for it, obtain the ability to do what we are commanded. On this account the apostle himself constantly puts faith before the law; since we are not able to do what the law commands unless we obtain the strength to do it by the prayer of faith.
CHAP. 29. —GOD IS ABLE TO CONVERT OPPOSING WILLS, AND TO TAKE AWAY FROM THE HEART ITS HARDNESS.
Now if faith is simply of free will, and is not given by God, why do we pray for those who will not believe, that they may believe? This it would be absolutely useless to do, unless we beheve, with perfect propriety, that Almighty God is able to turn to belief wills that are perverse and opposed to faith. Man's free will is addressed when it is said, " To-day, if ye will hear His voice, harden not your hearts." ^ But if God were not able to remove from the human heart even its obstinacy and hardness, He would not say, through the prophet, " I will take from them their heart of stone, and will give them a heart of flesh." '° That all this was foretold in reference to the New Testament is shown clearly enough by the apostle when he says, " Ye are our episde,...written not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshly tables of the heart." " We must not, of course, suppose that such a phrase as this is used as if those might live in a fleshly •* way who ought to live spiritually; but inasmuch as a stone has no feeling, with which man's hard heart is compared, what was there left Him to compare man's intelligent heart with but the flesh, which possesses feeling? For this is what is said by the prophet Ezekiel: " I will give them another heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh; that they 'may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God, saith the Lord." '^ Now can we possibly, without extreme absurdity, maintain that there previously existed in any man the good merit of a good will, to entitle him to the removal of his stony heart, when all the while this very heart of stone signifies nothing else than a will of the hardest kind and such as* is absolutely inflexible against God? For