lay down my life for Thy sake; " ' attributing to himself, in his eagerness, what was aftenvards to be bestowed on him by his Lord. But the Lord turned away His face from him, and lie became troubled, so that in his fear of dying for Him he thrice denied Him. But the Lord again turned His face to him, and washed away his sin with his tears. For what else is, " He turned and looked upon him," ^ but, He restored to him the face which, for a little while. He had turned away from him? Therefore he had become troubled; but because he learned not to be confident concerning himself, even this was of excellent profit to him, by His agency who coworks for good with all things to those who love Him; because he had been called according to the purpose, so that no one could pluck him out of the hand of Christ, to whom he had been given.
CHAP. 25. — THEREFORE REBUKE IS TO BE USED.
Let no one therefore say that a man must not be rebuked when he deviates from the right way, but that his return and perseverance must only be asked for from the Lord for him. Let no considerate and believing man say this. For if such an one is called according to the purpose, beyond ail doubt God is co-working for good to him even in the fact of his being rebuked. But since he who rebukes is ignorant whether he is so called, let him do with love what he knows ought to be done; for he knows that such an one ought to be rebuked. God will show either mercy or judgment; mercy, indeed, if he who is rebuked is " made to differ " by the bestowal of grace from the mass of perdition, and is not found among the vessels of wrath which are completed for destruction, but among the vessels of mercy which God has prepared for glory; ^ but judgment, if among the former he is condemned, and is not predestinated among the latter.
CHAP. 26 [X.] WHETHER ADAM RECEIVED THE GIFT OF PERSEVERANCE. I Here arises another question, not reasonably \ to be slighted, but to be approached and solved | in the help of the Lord in whose hand are both we and our discourses.* For I am asked, in | respect of this gift of God which is to persevere ] in good to the end, what I think of the first man himself, who assuredly was made upright without any fault. And 1 do not say: If he had not perseverance, how was he without fault, i seeing that he was in want of so needful a gift, of God? For to this interrogatory the answer i is easy, that he had not perseverance, because j he did not persevere in that goodness in which 2 Luke xxii. 61.
i Rom. ix. 22, 23.
he was without sin; for he began to have sin from the point at which he fell; and if he began, certainly he was without sin before he had begun. For it is one thing not to have sin, and it is another not to abide in that goodness in which there is no sin. Because in that very fact, that he is not said never to have been without sin, but he is said not to have continued without sin, beyond all doubt it is demonstrated that he was without sin, seeing that he is blamed for not having continued in that goodness. But it should rather be asked and discussed with greater pains in what way we can answer those who say, " If in that uprightness in which he was made without sin he had perseverance, beyond all doubt he persevered in it; and if he persevered, he certainly did not sin, and did not forsake that his uprightness. But that he did sin, and was a forsaker of goodness, the Truth declares. Therefore he had not perseverance in that goodness; and if he had it not, he certainly received it not. For how should he have both received perseverance, and not have persevered? Further, if he had it not because he did not receive it, what sin did he commit by not persevering, if he did not receive perseverance? For it cannot be said that he did not receive it, for the reason that he was not separated by the bestowal of grace from the mass of perdition. Because that mass of perdition did not as yet exist in the human race before he had sinned from whom the corrupted source was derived."
CHAP. 27. — THE ANSWER.
Wherefore we most wholesomely confess what we most correctly believe, that the God and Lord of all things, who in His strength created all things good, and foreknew that evil things would arise out of good, and knew that it pertained to His most omnipotent goodness even to do good out of evil things rather than not to allow evil things to be at all, so ordained the life of angels and men that in it He might first of all sliow what their free will was capable of, and then what the kindness of His grace and the judgment of His righteousness was capable of. Finally, certain angels, of whom the chief is he who is called the devil, became by free will outcasts from the Lord God. Yet although they fled from His goodness, wherein they had been blessed, they could not flee from His judgment, by which they were made most wretched. Others, however, by the same free will stood fast in the truth, and merited the knowledge of that most certain truth that they should never fall. 5 For if from the Holy Scriptures we have been able to attain the knowledge that none of s " Eamqiie [ici'i. veritatemj de sue casu nunquam futuro certissimam scire."
Chap. 30.]
the holy angels shall fall evermore, how much more have they themselves attained tliis knowledge by the truth more sublimely revealed to them! Because to us is promised a blessed life without end, and equality with the angels,' from which promise we are certified that when after judgment we shall have come to that life, we, shall not fall from it; but if the angels are ignorant of this truth concerning themselves, we shall not ■ l)e their equals, but more blessed i than they. But the Truth has promised us ' equality with them. It is certain, then, that they have known this by sight, which we ha\-e known by faith, to wit, that there shall be now, no more any fall of any holy angel. But the j devil and his angels, although they were blessed before they fell, and did not know that they should fall unto misery, — there was still something which might be added to their blessedness, if by free will they had stood in the truth, until they should receive that fulness of the highest blessing as the reward of that continuance; that is, that by the great abundance of the love of God, given by" the Holy Spirit, they should absolutely not be able to fall any more, and that they should know this with complete certainty concerning tliemselves. They had not this plenitude of blessedness; but since they were igno- 1 rant of their future misery, they enjoyed a ' blessedness which was less, indeed, but still I without any defect. For if they had known their future fall and eternal punishment, they 1 certainly could not have been blessed, since the ' fear of so great an evil as this would compel them even then to be miserable. j CHAP. 28. — THE FIRST MAN HHMSELF ALSO MIGHT: HAVE STOOD BY HIS FREE WILL..
Thus also He made man with free will; and; although ignorant of his future fall, yet therefore happy, because he thought it was in his own power both not to die and not to become miser- j able. And if he had willed by his own free will \ to continue in this state of uprightness and I freedom from sin, assuredly without any experience of death and of unhappiness he would have received by the merit of that continuance the fulness of blessing with which the holy angels also are blessed; that is, the impossibility of falling any more, and the knowledge of this with absolute certainty. For even he himself could not be blessed although in Paradise, nay, he would not be there, where it would not become him to be miserable, if the foreknowledge of his fall had made him wretched with tiie dread of such a disaster. But because he forsook God of his free will, he experienced the just judgment of God, that with his whole race, which being as ' Matt. xxii. 30.
' Matt. xxii. 30.
yet all placed in him had sinned with him, he should be condemned. For as many of this race as are delivered by God's grace are certainly deliveretl from the condemnation in which they are already hekl bound. Whence, even if none should be delivered, no one could justly blame the judgment of God. That, therefore, in comparison of those that perish few, but in their absolute number many, are delivered, is effected by grace,- is effected freely: ^ thanks must be given, because it is effected, so that no one may be lifted up as of his own deserving^, but that every moutli may be stopped, ^ and he that glorieth may glory in the Lord.-* CHAP. 29 [XI.] DISTIN'CTION' BETWEEN THE GR.ACE GIVEN BEFORE AND AFTER THE FALL.
What then? Did not Adam have the grace of God? Yes, truly, he had it largely, but of a different kind. He was placed in the midst of benefits which he had recci\'ed from the goodness of his Creator; for he had not procured those benefits by his own deservings; in which benefits he suffered absolutely no evil. But saints in this life, to whom pertains this grace of deliverance, are in the midst of evils out of which they cry to God, " Deliver us from evil." s He in those benefits needed not the death of Christ: these, the blood of that Lamb absolves from guilt, as well inherited as their own. He had no need of that assistance which they implore when they say, " I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind, and making me captive in the kw of sin which is in my members. 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." ^ Because in them the tlesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the fiesh, and as they labour and are imperilled in such a contest, they ask that by the grace of Christ the strength to fight and to conquer may be given them. He, however, tempted and disturbed in no such conflict concerning himself against himself, in that position of blessediaess enjoyed his peace with himself.
CHAP. 30. — THE INC.\R!n"ATI0N OF THE WORD.
Hence, although these do not now require a grace more joyous for the present, they nevertheless need a more powerful grace; and what grace is more powerful than the only-begotten Son of God, equal to the Father and co-eternal, made man for them, and, without any sin of His own, either original or actual, crucified by men who were sinners? And although He rose again on the third day, never to die any more, He yet bore death for men and gave life to the dead, so 2 Craiid — gratis. s Matt. vi. 13.
3 Rom. iii. 19. 6 Rom. vii. 23.
* Jer. ix. 24.
[Chap. 3L that redeemed by His blood, having received so great and such a pledge, they could say, " If God be for us, who is against us? He who spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how has He not with Him also given to us all things?"' God therefore took upon Him our nature — that is, the rational soul and iiesh of the man Christ — by an undertaking singularly marvellous, or marvellously singular; so that with no preceding merits of His own righteousness He might in such wise be the Son of God from the beginning, in which He had begun to be man, that He, and the Word which is without beginning, might be one person. For there is no one blinded by such ignorance of this matter and the Faith as to dare to say that, although born of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary the Son of man, yet of His own free will by righteous living and by doing good works, without sm, He deserved to be the Son of God; m opposition to the gospel, which says, " The Word was made flesh." ^ For where was this made flesh except in the Virginal womb, whence was the beginnmg of the man Christ? And, moreover, when the Virgin asked how that should come to pass which was told her by the angel, the angel answered, " The Holy Ghost shall come over on to thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee, therefore that holy thing that shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God." ^ " Therefore," he said; not because of works, of which certainly of a yet unborn infant there are none; but " therefore," because " the Holy Ghost shall come over on to thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee, that holy tiling which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God." That nativity, absolutely gratuitous, conjoined, in the unity of the person, man to God, flesh to the Word! Good works followed that nativity; good works did not merit it. For it was in no wise to be feared that the human nature taken up by God the Word in that ineffable manner into a unity of person, would sin by free choice of will, since that taking up itself was such that the nature of man so taken up by God would admit into itself no movement of an evil will. Through this Mediator God makes known that He makes those whom He redeemed by His blood from evil, everlastingly good; and Him He in such wise assumed that He never would be evil, and, not being made out of evil, would always be good.+ CHAP. 31. — THE FIRST MAN HAD RECEIVED THE GRACE NECESSARY FOR HIS PERSEVERANCE, BUT ITS EXERCISE WAS LEFT IN HIS FREE CHOICE.
The first man had not that grace by which he Rom. vili. 31, 32.
John i.
14.
3 Luke i. 35.
* Some editions have, instead of " and not being made," etc., " lest bemg made of evil he should not always be good."
should never will to be evil; but assuredly he had that in which if he willed to abide he would never be evil, and without which, moreover, he could not by free will be good, but which, nevertheless, by free will he could forsake. God, therefore, did not will even him to be without His grace, which He left in his free will; because free will is sufficient for evil, but is too little 5 for good, unless it is aided by Omnipotent Good. And if that man liad not forsaken that assistance of his free will, he would always have been good; but he forsook it, and he was forsaken. Because such was the natu^e of the aid, that he could forsake it when he would, and that he could continue in it if he would; but not such that it could be brought about that he would. This first is the grace which was given to the first Adam; but more powerful than this is that in the second Adam. For the first is that whereby it is effected that a man may have righteousness if he will; the second, therefore, can do more than this, since by it it is even effected that he will, and will so much, and love with such ardour, that by the will of the Spirit he overcomes the will of the flesh, that lusteth in opposition to it.'' Nor was that, indeed, a small grace by which was demonstrated even the power of free will, because man was so assisted that without this assistance he could not continue in good, but could forsake this assistance if he would. But this latter grace is by so much the greater, that it is too little for a man by its means to regain his lost freedom; it is too little, finally, not to be able without it either to apprehend the good or to continue in good if he will, unless he is also ma^e to will.
CHAP. 32. — THE GIFTS OF GR.^CE CONFERRED ON ADAM IN CREATION.
At that time, therefore, God had given to man a good will, 7 because in that will He had made him, since He had made him upright. He had given help without which he could not continue therein if he would; but that he should will. He left in his free will. He could therefore continue if he would, because the help was not wanting whereby he could, and without which he could not, perseveringly hold fast the good which he would. But that he willed not to continue is absolutely the fault of him whose merit it would have been if he had willed to continue; as the holy angels did, who, while others fell by free will, themselves by the same free will stood, and deserved to receive the due reward of this continuance — to wit, such a fulness of blessing that by it they might have the fullest certainty of always abiding in it. If, however, this help 5 Some MSS. read, " of no avail."
<> There are other readings of this passage, but coming to the same substantial result.
^ Some MSS. read, " a free will."
Chap. 34.]
had been wanting, either to angel or to man when they were first made, since their nature Avas not made such that without the divine help it could abide if it would, they certainly would not have fallen by their own fault, because the help would have been wanting without which they could not continue. At the present time, however, to those to whom such assistance is wanting, it is the penalty of sin; but to those to whom it is given, it is given of grace, not of debt; and by so much the more is given through Jesus Christ our Lord to those to whom it has pleased God to give it, that not only we have that help without which we cannot continue even if we will, but, moreover, we have so great and such a lielp as to loill. Because by this grace of God there is caused in us, in the reception of good and in the persevering hold of it, not only to be able to do what we will, but even to will to do what we are able. But this was not the case in the first man; for the one of these things was in him, but the other was not. For he did not need grace to receive good, because he had not yet lost it; but he needed the aid of grace to continue in it, and without this aid he could not do this at all; and he had received the ability if he would, but he had not the will for what he could; for if he had possessed it, he would have persevered. For he could persevere if he would; but that he would not was the result of free will, which at that time was in such wise free that he was capable of willing well and ill. For what shall be more free than free will, when it shall not be able to serve sin? and this should be to man also as it was made to the holy angels, the reward of deserving. But now that good deserving has been lost by sin, in those who are delivered that has become the gift of grace which would have been the reward of deserving.
CHAP. 33 [XII.] WHAT IS THE DIFFEREXCE BE- TWEEN THE ABILITY NOT TO SIN, TO DIE, AND FORSAKE GOOD, AND THE INABILITY TO SIN, TO DIE, AND TO FORSAKE GOOD?
On which account we must consider with diligence and attention in what respect those pairs differ from one another, — to be able not to sin, and not to be able to sin; to be able not to die, and not to be able to die; to be able not to forsake good, and not to be able to forsake good. For the first man was able not to sin, was able not to die, was able not to forsake good. Are we to say that he who had such a free will could not sin? Or that he to whom it was said, " If thou shalt sin thou shalt die by death," could not die? Or that he could not forsake good, when he would forsake this by sinning, and so die? Therefore the first liberty of the will was to be able not to sin, the last will be much greater, not to be able to sin; the first immortality was to be able not to die, the last will be much greater, not to be able to die; the first was the power of perseverance, to be able not to forsake good — the last will be the felicity of perseverance, not to be able to forsake good. But because the last blessings will be preferable and better, were those first ones, therefore, either no blessings at all, or trifling ones?
CHAP. 34. — THE AID WITHOLTT WHICH A THING DOES NOT COME TO PASS, AND THE AID WITH WHICH A THING COMES TO PASS.
Moreover, the aids themselves are to be distinguished. The aid without which a thing does not come to pass is one thing, and the aid by which a thing comes to pass is another. For without food we cannot live; and yet although food should be at hand, it would not cause a man to live who should will to die. Therefore the aid of food is that without which it does not come to pass that we live, not that by which it comes to pass that we live. But, indeed, when the blessedness which a man has not is given him, he becomes at once blessed. For the aid is not only that without which that does not happen, but also with which that does happen for the sake of which it is given. Wherefore this is an assistance both by which it comes to pass, and without which it does not come to pass; because, on the one hand, if blessedness should be given to a man, he becomes at once blessed; and, on the other, if it should never be given he will never be so. But food does not of necessity cause a man to live, and yet without it he cannot live. Therefore to the first man, who, in that good in which he had been made upright, had received the ability not to sin, the ability not to die, the ability not to forsake that good itself, was given the aid of perseverance, — not that by which it should be brought about that he should persevere, but that without which he could not of free will persevere. But now to the saints predestinated to the kingdom of God by God's grace, the aid of perseverance that is given is not such as the former, but such that to them perseverance itself is bestowed; not only so that without that gift they cannot persevere, but, moreover, so that by means of this gift they cannot help persevcrmg.
For not only did He say, " Without me ye can do nothing," ' but He also said, " Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain."^ B^- which words He showed that He had given them not only righteousness, but perseverance therein. For when Christ thus ordained them that they should go and bring forth fruit, and that their * John XV. 5.
2 John XV. 16.
[Chap. 35.
fruit should remain, who would dare to say, It shall not remain? Who would dare to say, Perchance it will not remain? " For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance; " ' j but the calling is of those who are called according to the purpose. When Christ intercedes, therefore, on behalf of these, that their faith should not ' fail, doubtless it will not fail unto the end. And thus it shall persevere even imto the end; nor shall the end of this life find it anything but continuing.
CHAP. 35. THERE IS A GREATER FREEDOM NOW IN THE SAINTS THAN THERE WAS BEFORE IN ADAM.
Certainly a greater liberty is necessary in the face of so many and so great temptations, which had no existence in Paradise, — a liberty fortified and confirmed by the gift of perseverance, so that this world, with all its loves, its fears, its errors, may be overcome: the martyrdoms of the saints have taught this. In fine, he [AdamJ, not only with nobody to make him afraid, but, moreover, in spite of the authority of God's fear, using free will, did not stand in such a state of happiness, in such a facility^ of [not] sinning.
But these [the saints], I say, not under the fear of the world, but in spite of the rage of the world lest they should stand, stood firm in the faith; while he could see the good things present which he was going to forsake, they could not see the good things future which they were going to receive. Whence is this, save by the gift of Him from whom they obtained mercy to be faithful; from whom they received the spirit, not of fear, whereby they would yield to the persecutors, but of power, and of love, and of continence, in which they could overcome all threatenings, all seductions, all torments? To him, therefore, without any sin, was given the free will with which he was created; and he made it to serve sin. But although the will of these had been the servant of sin, it was delivered by Him who said, "If the Son shall make you free, then shall ye be free indeed." ^ And by that grace they receive so great a freedom, that although as long as they live here they are fighting against sinful lusts, and some sins creep upon them unawares, on account of which they daily say, " Forgive us our debts," •♦ yet they do not any more obey the sin which is unto death, of which the Aposde John says, " There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it." s Concerning which sin (since it is not expressed) many and different ' Rom. xi. 29.
^ The original is, in tanti peccandi facilitate. Of course, non must be inserted, but the translator ventures to conjecture facilitate instead oi facilitate.
notions may be entertained. I, however, say, that that sin is to forsake even unto death the faith which worketh by love. This sin they no longer serve who are not in the first condition, as Adam, free; but are freed by the grace of God through the second Adam, and by that deliverance have that free will which enables them to serve God, not that by which they may be made captive by the devil. From being made free from sin they have become the servants of righteousness,'^ in which they will stand till the end, by the gift to them of perseverance from Him who foreknew them, and predestinated them, and called them according to His purpose, and justified them, and glorified them, since He has even already formed those things that are to come which He promised concerning them. And when He promised, " Abraham believed Him, and it was counted unto hii"^ for righteousness." ^ For " he gave glory to God, most fully believing," as it is written, " that what He has promised He is able also to perform."?
CH.AP. 36. — GOD NOT ONLY FOREKNOWS THAT MEN WILL BE GOOD, BUT HIMSELF MAKES THEM SO.
It is He Himself, therefore, that makes those men good, to do good works. For He did not promise them to Abraham because He foreknew that of themselves they would be good. For if this were the case, what He promised was not His, but theirs. But it was not thus that Abraham believed, but " he was not weak in faith, giving glory to God; " and " most fully believing that what He has promised He is able also to perform." ^ He does not say, " What He foreknew. He is able to promise; " nor " What He foretold. He is able to manifest;" nor "What He promised. He is able to foreknow: " but " What He promised. He is able also to do." It is He, therefore, who makes them to persevere in good, who makes them good. But they who fall and perish have never been in the number of the predestinated. Although, then, the apostle might be speaking of all persons regenerated and living piously when he said, " Who art thou that judgest another man's servant? To his own master he standeth or falleth; " yet he at once had regard to the predestinated, and said, " But he shall stand; " and that they might not arrogate this to themselves, he says, " For God is able to make him stand." ^ It is He Himself, therefore, that gives perseverance, who is able to establish those who stand, so that they may stand fast with the greatest perseverance; or to restore those who have fallen, for " the Lord setteth up those who are broken down." '° 6 Rom. vi. 18. ^ Rom. iv. 19.
9 Rom. xiv. 4, etc. ^° Ps. cxiv.
Chap. 39.]
CHAP. 37. TO A SOUND WILL IS COMMITTED THE POWER OF PERSEVERING OR OF NOT PERSEVERING.