CHAP. 33. MEN, BEING BY NATURE THE CHIL- DREN OF WRATH, NEEDED A MEDIATOR. IN WHAT SENSE GOD IS SAID TO BE ANGRY.
And so the human race was lying under a just condemnation, and all men were the children of wrath. Of which wrath it is written: "All our days are passed away in Thy wrath; we spend our years as a tale that is told."11 Of which wrath also Job says: " Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble."12 Of which wrath also the Lord Jesus says: " He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that be- lieveth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him." I3 He does not say it will come, but it "abideth on him." For every man is born with it; wherefore the apostle *says: " We were by nature the children of wrath, even as others." I4 Now, as men were lying under this wrath by reason of their original sin, and as this original sin was the 7 Ps. lix. 10. 8 Ps. xxiii. 6.
9 Matt. v. 44. IO Matt. vii. 7.
11 Ps. xc. 9. I2 Job. xiv. 1.
'3 John iii. 36. These words, attributed by the author to Christ, were really spoken by John the Baptist. *4 Eph. ii. 3.
Chap. XXXVI.]
ENCHIRIDION.
249 more heavy and deadly in proportion to the number and magnitude of the actual sins which were added to it, there was need for a Mediator, that is, for a reconciler, who, by the offering of one sacrifice, of which all the sacrifices of the law and the prophets were types, should take away this wrath. Where- fore the apostle says: " For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, being recon- ciled, we shall be saved by His life."1 Now when God is said to be angry, we do not attri- bute to Him such a disturbed feeling as exists in the mind of an angry man; but we call His just displeasure against sin by the name " anger," a word transferred by analogy from human emotions. But our being reconciled to God through a Mediator, and receiving the Holy Spirit, so that we who were enemies are made sons (" For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God"2): this is the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
CHAP. 34. THE INEFFABLE MYSTERY OF THE BIRTH OF CHRIST THE MEDIATOR THROUGH THE VIRGIN MARY.
Now of this Mediator it would occupy too much space to say anything at all worthy of Him; and, indeed, to say what is worthy of Him is not in the power of man. For who will explain in consistent words this single statement, that "the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us,"3 so that we may believe on the only Son of God the Father Almighty, born of the Floly Ghost and the Virgin Mary? The meaning of the Word being made flesh, is not that the divine nature was changed into flesh, but that the divine nature assumed our flesh. And by " flesh " we are here to under- stand "man," the part being put for the whole, as when it is said: " By the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified,"4 that is, no man. For we must believe that no part was wanting in that human nature which He put on, save that it was a nature wholly free from every taint of sin,- — not such a nature as is conceived between the two sexes through carnal lust, which is born in sin, and whose guilt is washed away in regeneration; but such as it behoved a virgin to bring forth, when the mother's faith, not her lust, was the condi- tion of conception. And if her virginity had been marred even in bringing Him forth, He would not have been born of a virgin; and it would be false (which God forbid) that He was born of the Virgin Mary, as is believed and declared by the whole Church, which, in 1 Rom. v. 10.
3 John 1. 14.
2 Rom. viii. 14. 4 Rom. iii. 20.
imitation of His mother, daily brings forth members of His body, and yet remains a virgin. Read, if you please, my letter on the virginity of the holy Mary which I sent to that eminent man, whose name I mention with respect and affection, Volusianus.5 CHAP. 35. — JESUS CHRIST, BEING THE ONLY SON OF GOD, IS AT THE SAME TIME MAN.
Wherefore Christ Jesus, the Son of God, is both God and man; God before all worlds; man in our world: God, because the Word of God (for "the Word was God"6); and man, because in His one person the Word was joined with a body and a rational soul. Wherefore, so far as He is God, He and the Father are one; so far as He is man, the Father is greater than He. For when He was the only Son of God, not by grace, but by nature, that He might be also full of grace, He became the Son of man; and He Himself unites both natures in His own identity, and both natures constitute one Christ; because, "being in the form of God, He thought it not robbery to be," what He was by nature, " equal with God."7 But He made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Himself the form of a servant, not losing or lessening the form of God. And, accordingly, He was both made less and remained equal, being both in one, as has been said: but He was one of these as Word, and the other as man. As Word, He is equal with the Father; as man, less than the Father. One Son of God, and at the same time Son of man; one Son of man, and at the same time Son of God; not two Sons of God, God and man, but one Son of God: God without beginning; man with a beginning, our Lord Jesus Christ.
CHAP. 36. THE GRACE OF GOD IS CLEARLY AND REMARKABLY DISPLAYED IN RAISING THE MAN CHRIST JESUS TO THE DIGNITY OF THE SON OF GOD.
Now here the grace of God is displayed with the greatest power and clearness. For what merit had the human nature in the man Christ earned, that it should in this unpar- alleled way be taken up into the unity of the person of the only Son of God? What good- ness of will, what goodness of desire and in- tention, what good works, had gone before, which made this man worthy to become one person with God? Had He been a man pre- viously to this, and had He earned this un- precedented reward, that He should be thought worthy to become God? Assuredly 6 John i. 1.
250 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN.
[Chap. XXXVIII.
nay; from the very moment that He began to be man, He was nothing else than the Son of God, the only Son of God, the Word who was made flesh, and therefore He was God; so that just as each individual man unites in one person a body and a rational soul, so Christ in one person unites the Word and man. Now wherefore was this unheard of glory conferred on human nature, — a glory which, as there was no antecedent merit, was of course wholly of grace, — except that here those who looked at the matter soberly and honestly might behold a clear manifestation of the power of God's free grace, and might understand that they are justified from their sins by the same grace which made the man Christ Jesus free from the possibility of sin? And so the angel, when he announced to Christ's mother the coming birth, saluted her thus: " Hail, thou that art full of grace; " ' and shortly afterwards, "Thou hast found grace with God."2 Now she was said to be full of grace, and to have found grace with God, be- cause she was to be the mother of her Lord, nay, of the Lord of all flesh. But, speaking of Christ Himself, the evangelist John, after saying, " The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us," adds, " and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth."3 When he says, " The Word was made flesh," this is "full of grace;" when he says, "the glory of the only-begotten of the Father," this is " full of truth." For the Truth Himself, who was the only-begotten of the Father, not by grace, but by nature, by grace took our humanity upon Him, and so united it with His own person that He Himself became also the Son of man.
CHAP. 37. THE SAME GRACE IS FURTHER CLEARLY MANIFESTED IN THIS, THAT THE BIRTH OF CHRIST ACCORDING TO THE FLESH IS OF THE HOLY GHOST.
For the same Jesus Christ who is the only- begotten, that is, the only Son of God, our Lord, was born of the Holy Ghost and of the Virgin Mary. And we know that the Holy Spirit is the gift of God, the gift being Him- self indeed equal to the Giver. And there- fore the Holy Spirit also is God, not inferior to the Father and the Son. The fact, there- fore, that the nativity of Christ in His human nature was by the Holy Spirit, is another clear manifestation of grace. For when the Virgin asked the angel how this which he had announced should be, seeing she knew not a 1 Luke i. 28 (" Thou that are highly favored" A. V.).
2 Luke i. 30 (" Thou hast foundfavor with God," A. V.).
3 John i. 14.
man, the angel answered, " The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God."4 And when Joseph was minded to put her away, suspect- ing her of adultery, as he knew she was not with child by himself, he was told by the angel, "Fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife; for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost:"5 that is, what thou suspectest to be begotten of another man is of the Holy Ghost.
CHAP, 38. JESUS CHRIST, ACCORDING TO THE FLESH, WAS NOT BORN OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IN SUCH A SENSE THAT THE HOLY SPIRIT IS HIS FATHER.
Nevertheless, are we on this account to say that the Holy Ghost is the father of the man Christ, and that as God the Father begat the Word, so God the Holy Spirit begat the man, and that these two natures constitute the one Christ; and that as the Word He is the Son of God the Father, and as man the Son of God the Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit as His father begat Him of the Virgin Mary? Who will dare to say so? Nor is it necessary to show by reasoning how many other absurd- ities flow from this supposition, when it is itself so absurd that no believer's ears can bear to hear it. Hence, as we confess, " Our Lord Jesus Christ, who of God is God, and as man was born of the Holy Ghost and of the Virgin Mary, having both natures, the divine and the human, is the only Son of God the Father Almighty, from whom proceedeth the Holy Spirit."6 Now in what sense do we say that Christ was born of the Holy Spirit, if the Holy Spirit did not beget Him? Is it that He made Him, since our Lord Jesus Christ, though as God "all things were made by Him,"7 yet as man was Himself made; as the apostle says, " who was made of the seed of David according to the flesh?"8 But as that created thing which the Virgin conceived and brought forth, though it was united only to the person of the Son, was made by the whole Trinity (for the works of the Trinity are not separable), why should the Holy Spirit alone be mentioned as having made it? Or is it that, when one of the Three is men- tioned as the author of any work, the whole Trinity is to be understood as working? That is true, and can be proved by exam- ples. But we need not dwell longer on this 6 A quotation from a form of the Apostles' Creed anciently itt use in the Latin Church.
Chap. XLL] ENCHIRIDION.
25 solution. For the puzzle is, in what sense it is said, "born of the Holy Ghost," when He is in no sense the Son of the Holy Ghost? For though God made this world, it would not be right to say that it is the Son of God, or that it was born of God; we would say that it was created, or made, or framed, or ordered by Him, or whatever form of expression we can properly use. Here, then, when we make confession that Christ was born of the Holy Ghost and of the Virgin Mary, it is difficult to explain how it is that He is not the Son of the Holy Ghost and is the Son of the Virgin Mary, when He was born both of Him and of her. It is clear beyond a doubt that He was not born of the Holy Spirit as His father, in the same sense that He was born of the Virgin as His mother.
CHAP. 39. NOT EVERYTHING THAT IS BORN OF ANOTHER IS TO BE CALLED A SON OF THAT OTHER.
We need not therefore take for granted, that whatever is born of a thing is forthwith to be declared the son of that thing. For, to pass over the fact that a son is born of a man in a different sense from that in which a hair or a louse is born of him, neither of these being a son; to pass over this, I say> as too mean an illustration for a subject of so much importance: it is certain that those who are born of water and of the Holy Spirit cannot with propriety be called sons of the water, though they are called sons of God the Father, and of the Church their mother. In the same way, then, He who was born of the Holy Spirit is the Son of God the Father, not of the Holy Spirit. For what I have said of the hair and the other things is sufficient to show us that not everything which is born of another can be called the son of that of which it is born, just as it does not follow that all who are called a man's sons were born of him. for some sons are adopted. And some men are called sons of hell, not as being born of hell, but as prepared for it, as the sons of the kingdom are prepared for the kingdom.
chap. 40. — Christ's birth through the holy spirit manifests to us the grace of god.
And, therefore, as one thing may be born of another, and yet not in such a way as to be its son, and as not every one who is called a son was born of him whose son he is called, it is clear that this arrangement by which Christ was born of the Holy Spirit, but not as His son, and of the Virgin Mary as her son, is intended as a manifestation of the grace of God. For it was by this grace that a man, without any antecedent merit, was at the very commencement of His existence as man, so united in one person with the Word of God, that the very person who was Son of man was at the same time Son of God, and the very person who was Son of God was at the same time Son of man; and in the adoption of His human nature into the divine, the grace itself became in a way so natural to the man, as to leave no room for the entrance of sin. Wherefore this grace is signified by the Holy Spirit; for He, though in His own nat- ure God, may also be called the gift of God. And to explain all this sufficiently, if indeed it could be done at all, would require a very lengthened discussion.
CHAP. 41. CHRIST, WHO WAS HIMSELF FREE FROM SIN, WAS MADE SIN FOR US, THAT WE MIGHT BE RECONCILED TO GOD.
Begotten and conceived, then, without any indulgence of carnal lust, and therefore bring- ing with Him no original sin, and by the grace of God joined and united in a wonder- ful and unspeakable way in one person with the Word, the Only-begotten of the Father, a son by nature, not by grace, and therefore having no sin of His own; nevertheless, oa account of the likeness of sinful flesh in which He came, He was called sin, that He might be sacrificed to wash away sin. For, under the Old Covenant, sacrifices for sin were called sins. * And He, of whom all these sac- rifices were types and shadows, was Himself truly made sin. Hence the apostle, after saying, "We pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God," forthwith adds: " for He hath made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin; that we might be made the right- eousness of God in Him."2 He does not say, as some incorrect copies read, " He who knew no sin did sin for us," as if Christ had Himself sinned for our sakes; but he says, "Him who knew no sin," that is, Christ, God, to whom we are to be reconciled, " hath made to be sin for us," that is, hath made Him a sacrifice for our sins, by which we might be reconciled to God. He, then, being made sin, just as we are made righteousness (our righteousness being not our own, but God's, not in ourselves, but in Him); He being made sin, not His own, but ours, not in Himself, but in us, showed, by the likeness of sinful flesh in which He was crucified, that though sin was not in Him, yet that in a cer- tain sense He died to sin, by dying in the flesh which was the likeness of sin; and that although He Himself had never lived the old 1 Hos. iv. 8.
Cor. v. 20, 21.
252 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN.
[Chap. XLVI.
life of sin, yet by His resurrection He typified our new life springing up out of the old death in sin.
CHAP. 42. THE SACRAMENT OK BAPTISM IN- DICATES OUR DEATH WITH CHRIST TO SIN, AND OUR RESURRECTION WITH HIM TO NEW- NESS OF LIFE.
And this is the meaning of the great sacra- ment of baptism which is solemnized among us, that all who attain to this grace should die to sin, as He is said to have died to sin, because He died in the flesh, which is the likeness of sin; and rising from the font re- generate, as He arose alive from the grave, should begin a new life in the Spirit, what- ever may be the age of the body?
CHAP. 43. BAPTISM AND THE GRACE WHICH IT TYPIFIES ARE OPEN TO ALL, BOTH INFANTS AND ADULTS.
For from the infant newly born to the old man bent with age, as there is none shut out from baptism, so there is none who in baptism does not die to sin. But infants die only to original sin; those who are older die also to all the sins which their evil lives have added to the sin which they brought with them.
CHAP. 44. IN SPEAKING OF SIN, THE SINGU- LAR NUMBER IS OFTEN PUT FOR THE PLURAL, AND THE PLURAL FOR THE SINGULAR.
But even these latter are frequently said to die to sin, though undoubtedly they die not to one sin, but to all the numerous actual sins they have committed in thought, word, or ■deed: for the singular number is often put for the plural, as when the poet says, " They fill its belly with the armed soldier," * though in the case here referred to there were many soldiers concerned. And we read in our own Scriptures: " Pray to the Lord, that He take away the serpent from us."2 He does not say serpents, though the people were suffer- ing from many; and so in other cases. When, on the other hand, the original sin is expressed in the plural number, as when we say that infants are baptized for the remis- sion of sins, instead of saying for the remis- sion of sin, this is the converse figure of speech, by which the plural number is put in place of the singular; as in the Gospel it is said of the death of Herod, "for they are dead which sought the young child's life," 3 instead of saying, "he is dead." And in Exodus: "They have made them," Moses 1 " Uterumque armato milite coraplent.". — Virgil, sEn. ii. 20.
says, "gods of gold," 4 though they had made only one calf, of which they said: " These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt," 5— here, too, putting the plural in place of the singular.
CHAP. 45. — IN ADAM'S FIRST SIN, MANY KINDS OF SIN WERE INVOLVED.
However, even in that one sin, which "by one man entered into the world, and so passed upon all men,"6 and on account of which in- fants are baptized, a number of distinct sins may be observed, if it be analyzed as it were into its separate elements. For there is in it pride, because man chose to be under his own dominion, rather than under the dominion of God; and blasphemy, because he did not believe God; and murder, for he brought death upon himself; and spiritual fornication, for the purity of the human soul was cor- rupted by the seducing blandishments of the serpent; and theft, for man turned to his own use the food he had been forbidden to touch; and avarice, for he had a craving for more than should have been sufficient for him; and whatever other sin can be discovered on care- ful reflection to be involved in this one ad- mitted sin.
CHAP. 46. IT IS PROBABLE THAT CHILDREN ARE INVOLVED IN THE GUILT NOT ONLY OF THE FIRST PAIR, BUT OF THEIR OWN IMMEDIATE PARENTS.
And it is said, with much appearance of probability, that infants are involved in the guilt of the sins not only of the first pair, but of their own immediate parents. For that divine judgment, "I shall visit the iniquities of the fathers upon the children," 7 certainly applies to them before they come under the new covenant by regeneration. And it was this new covenant that was prophesied of, when it was said by Ezekiel, that the sons should not bear the iniquity of the fathers, and that it should no longer be a proverb in Israel, " The fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge." 8 Here lies the necessity that each man should be born again, that he might be freed from the sin in which he was born. For the sins committed afterwards can be cured by penitence, as we see is the case after baptism. And therefore the new birth would not have been appointed only that the. first birth was sinful, so sinful that even one who was legitimately born in wedlock says: "I was shapen in iniquities, 5 Ex. xxxii. 4.
Chap. L.]
ENCHIRIDION.
255 and in sins did my mother conceive me.'' * He did not say in iniquity, or in sin, though he might have said so correctly; but he pre- ferred to say "iniquities" and "sins," because in that one sin which passed upon all men, and which was so great that human nature was by it made subject to inevitable death, many sins, as I showed above, may be dis- criminated; and further, because there are other sins of the immediate parents, which, though they have not the same effect in pro- ducing a change of nature, yet subject the children to guilt unless the divine grace and mercy interpose to rescue them.
CHAP. 47. IT IS DIFFICULT TO DECIDE WHE- THER THE SINS OF A MAN'S OTHER PROGENI- TORS ARE IMPUTED TO HIM.
But about the sins of the other progenitors who intervene between Adam and a man's own parents, a question may very well be raised. Whether every one who is born is involved in all their accumulated evil acts, in all their multiplied original guilt, so that the later he is born, so much the worse is his con- dition; or whether God threatens to visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generations, because in His mercy He does not extend His wrath against the sins of the progenitors further than that, lest those who do not obtain the grace of regeneration might be crushed down under too heavy a burden if they were com- pelled to bear as original guilt all the sins of all their progenitors from the very beginning of the human race, and to pay the penalty due to them; or whether any other solution of this great question may or may not be found in Scripture by a more diligent search and a more careful interpretation, I dare not rashly affirm.
CHAP. 48. THE GUILT OF THE FIRST SIN IS SO GREAT THAT IT CAN BE WASHED AWAY ONLY IN THE BLOOD OF THE MEDIATOR, JESUS CHRIST.
Nevertheless, that one sin, admitted into a place where such perfect happiness reigned, was of so heinous a character, that in one man the whole human race was originally, and as one may say, radically, condemned; and it cannot be pardoned and blotted out except through the one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who only has had power to be so born as not to need a second birth.
1 Ps. Ii. s (The A. V. has the singular, " iniquity " and "sin").
CHAP. 49. CHRIST WAS NOT REGENERATED IN THE BAPTISM OF JOHN, BUT SUBMITTED TO IT TO GIVE US AN EXAMPLE OF HUMILITY, JUST AS HE SUBMITTED TO DEATH, NOT AS THE PUNISHMENT OF SIN, BUT TO TAKEAWAY THE SIN OF THE WORLD.
Now, those who were baptized in the bap- tism of John, by whom Christ was Himself baptized,2 were not regenerated; but they were prepared through the ministry of His fore- runner, who cried, "Prepare ye the way of the Lord," 3 for Him in whom only they could be regenerated. For His baptism is not with water only, as was that of John, but with the Holy Ghost also; + so that whoever believes in Christ is regenerated by that Spirit, of whom Christ being generated, He did not need re- generation. Whence that announcement of the Father which was heard after His bap- tism, " This day have I begotten Thee," 5 re- ferred not to that one day of time on which He was baptized, but to the one day of an unchangeable eternity, so as to show that this man was one in person with the Only-be- gotten. For when a day neither begins with the close of yesterday, nor ends with the be- ' ginning of to-morrow, it is an eternal to-day. Therefore He asked to be baptized in water by John, not that any iniquity of His might be washed away, but that He might manifest the depth of His humility. For baptism found in Him nothing to wash away, as death found in Him nothing to punish; so that it was in the strictest justice, and not by the