CHAP. 80. SINS, HOWEVER GREAT AND DETEST- ABLE, SEEM TRIVIAL WHEN WE ARE AC- CUSTOMED TO THEM.
Add to this, that sins, however great and detestable they may be, are looked upon as trivial, or as not sins at all, when men get accustomed to them; and so far does this go, that such sins are not only not concealed, but are boasted of, and published far and wide; and thus, as it is written, " The wicked boast- eth of his heart's desire, and blesseth the covetous, whom the Lord abhorreth. " " In- iquity of this kind is in Scripture called a cry. You have an instance in the prophet Isaiah, in the case of the evil vineyard: " He looked 264 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN.
[Chap. LXXXIV.
for judgment, but behold oppression; for righteousness, but behold a cry."1 Whence also the expression in Genesis: " The cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great," 2 because in these cities crimes were not only not punished, but were openly committed, as if under the pro- tection of the law. And so in our own times: many forms of sin, though not just the same as those of Sodom and Gomorrah, are now so openly and habitually practised, that not only dare we not excommunicate a layman, we dare not even degrade a clergyman, for the commission of them. So that when, a few years ago, I was expounding the Epistle to the Galatians, in commenting on that very place where the apostle says, " I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed labor upon you in vain," I was compelled to exclaim, "Woe to the sins of men! for it is only when we are not accustomed to them that we shrink from them: when once we are accustomed to them, though the blood of the Son of God was poured out to wash them away, though they are so great that the kingdom of God is wholly shut against them, constant familiarity leads to the toleration of them all, and habitual toleration leads to the practice of many of them. And grant, O Lord, that we may not come to practise all that we have not the power to hinder." But I shall see whether the extravagance of grief did not betray me into rashness of speech.
CHAP. 8l. — THERE ARE TWO CAUSES OF SIN, IGNORANCE AND WEAKNESS; AND WE NEED DIVINE HELP TO OVERCOME BOTH.
I shall now say this, which I have often said before in other places of my works. There are two causes that lead to sin: either we do not yet know our duty, or we do not perform the duty that we know. The former is the sin of ignorance, the latter of weakness. Now against these it is our duty to struggle; but we shall certainly be beaten in the fight, unless we are helped by God, not only to see our duty, but also, when we clearly see it, to make the love of righteousness stronger in us than the love of earthly things, the eager longing after which, or the fear of losing which, leads us with our eyes open into known sin. In the latter case we are not only sin- ners, for we are so even when we err through ignorance, but we are also transgressors of the law; for we leave undone what we know we ought to do, and we do what we know we ought not to do. Wherefore not only ought we to pray for pardon when we have sinned, * Isa. v. 7.
* Isa. v. 7.
saying, " Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors; " but we ought to pray for guid- ance, that we may be kept from sinning, say- ing, " and lead us not into temptation. " And we are to pray to Him of whom the Psalmist says, "The Lord is my light and my salva- tion:"3 my light, for He removes my ig- norance; my salvation, for He takes away my infirmity.
CHAP. 82. — THE MERCY OF GOD IS NECESSARY TO TRUE REPENTANCE.
Now even penance itself, when by the law of the Church there is sufficient reason for its being gone through, is frequently evaded through infirmity; for shame is the fear of losing pleasure when the good opinion of men gives more pleasure than the righteousness which leads a man to humble himself in peni- tence. Wherefore the mercy of God is neces- sary not only when a man repents, but even to lead him to repent. How else explain what the apostle says of certain persons: " if God peradventure will give them repentance "? 4 And before Peter wept bitterly, we are told by the evangelist, "The Lord turned, and looked upon him." s CHAP. 83. THE MAN WHO DESPISES THE MERCY OF GOD IS GUILTY OF THE SIN AGAINST THE HOLY GHOST.
Now the man who, not believing that sins are remitted in the Church, despises this great gift of God's mercy, and persists to the last day of his life in his obstinacy of heart, is guilty of the unpardonable sin "against the Holy Ghost, in whom Christ forgives sins.6 But this difficult question I have discussed as clearly as I could in a book devoted exclus- ively to this one point.
CHAP. 84. — THE RESURRECTION OF THE BODY GIVES RISE TO NUMEROUS QUESTIONS.
Now, as to the resurrection of the body, — not a resurrection such as some have had, who came back to life for a time and died again, but a resurrection to eternal life, as the body of Christ Himself rose again, — I do not see how I can discuss the matter brief!)', and at the same time give a satisfactory answer to all the questions that are ordinarily raised about it. Yet that the bodies of all men — both those who have been born and those who shall be born, both those who have died and those who shall die — shall be raised again, no Christian ought to have the shadow of a doubt.
2 Gen. xviii. 20.
3 Ps. xxvii. 1. 5 Luke xxii. 61.
Chap. LXXXIX.]
ENCHIRIDION.
265 CHAP. S5.— THE CASE OF ABORTIVE CONCEP- TIONS.
Hence in the first place arises a question about abortive conceptions, which have in- deed been born in the mother's womb, but not so born that they could be born again. For if we shall decide that these are to rise again, we cannot object to any conclusion that may be drawn in regard to those which are fully formed. Now who is there that is not rather disposed to think that unformed abor- tions perish, like seeds that have never fruc- tified? But who will dare to deny, though he may not dare to affirm, that at the resurrec- tion every defect in the form shall be sup- plied, and that thus the perfection which time would have brought shall not be wanting, any more than the blemishes which time did bring shall be present: so that the nature shall neither want anything suitable and in har- mony with it that length of days would have added, nor be debased by the presence of anything of an opposite kind that length of days has added; but that what is not yet com- plete shall be completed, just as what has been injured shall be renewed.
CHAP. 86.— IF THEY HAVE EVER LIVED, THEY MUST OF COURSE HAVE DIED, AND THEREFORE SHALL HAVE A SHARE IN THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD.
And therefore the following question may be very carefully inquired into and discussed by learned men, though I do not know whether it is in man's power to resolve it: At what time the infant begins to live in the womb: whether life exists in a latent form before it manifests itself in the motions of the living being. To deny that the young who are cut out limb by limb from the womb, lest if they were left there dead the mother should die too, have never been alive, seems too auda- cious. Now, from the time that a man be- gins to live, from that time it is possible for him to die. And if he die, wheresoever death may overtake him, I cannot discover on what principle he can be denied an interest in the resurrection of the dead.
CHAP. 87. — THE CASE OF MONSTROUS BIRTHS.
We are not justified in affirming even of monstrosities, which are born and live, how- ever quickly they may die, that they shall not rise again, nor that they shall rise again in their deformity, and not rather with an amended and perfected body. God forbid that the double -limbed man who was lately born in the East, of whom an account was brought by most trustworthy brethren who had seen him, — an account which the presby- ter Jerome, of blessed memory, left in writ- ing; '—God forbid, I say, that we should think that at the resurrection there shall be one man with double limbs, and not two distinct men, as would have been the case had twins been born. And so other births, which, be- cause they have either a superfluity or a de- fect, or because they are very much deformed, are called monstrosities, shall at the resurrec- tion be restored to the normal shape of man; and so each single soul shall possess its own body; and no bodies shall cohere together even though they were born in cohesion, but each separately shall possess all the members which constitute a complete human body.
CHAP. 88. — THE MATERIAL OF THE BODY NEVER PERISHES.
Nor does the earthly material out of which men's mortal bodies are created ever perish; but though it may crumble into dust and ashes, or be dissolved into vapors and exha- lations, though it maybe transformed into the substance of other bodies, or dispersed into the elements, though it should become food for beasts or men, and be changed into their flesh, it returns in a moment of time to that human soul which animated it at the first, and which caused it to become man, and to live and grow.
CHAP. 89. BUT THIS MATERIAL MAY BE DIF- FERENTLY ARRANGED IN THE RESURRECTION BODY.
And this earthly material, which when the soul leaves it becomes a corpse, shall not at the resurrection be so restored as that the parts into which it is separated, and which under various forms and appearances become parts of other things (though they shall all return to the same body from which they were separated), must necessarily return to the same parts of the body in which they were originally situated. For otherwise, to sup- pose that the hair recovers all that our fre- quent clippings and shavings have taken away from it, and the nails all that we have so often pared off, presents to the imagination such a picture of ugliness and deformity, as to make the resurrection of the body all but incred- ible. But just as if a statue of some soluble met'al were either melted by fire, or broken into dust, or reduced to a shapeless mass, 1 lerorae, mh\s EfiistZe to Vitalis: "Or because in our times a man was born at Lvdda with two heads, four hands, one belly, and two feet, does it necessarily follow that all men are so born?
266 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN.
[Chap. XCII.
and a sculptor wished to restore it from the same quantity of metal, it would make no difference to the completeness of the work what part of the statue any given par- ticle of the material was put into, as long as the restored statue contained all the ma- terial of the original one; so God, the Artificer of marvellous and unspeakable power, shall with marvellous and unspeakable rapidity re- store our body, using up the whole material of which it originally consisted. Nor will it affect the completeness of its restoration whether hairs return to hairs, and nails to nails, or whether the part of these that had perished be changed into flesh, and called to take its place in another part of the body, the great Artist taking careful heed that nothing shall be unbecoming or out of place.
CHAP. 90. — IF THERE BE DIFFERENCES AND IN- EQUALITIES AMONG THE BODIES OF THOSE WHO RISE AGAIN, THERE SHALL BE NOTHING OFFENSIVE OR DISPROPORTIONATE IN ANY.
Nor does it necessarily follow that there shall be differences of stature among those who rise again, because they were of different statures during life; nor is it certain that the lean shall rise again in their former leanness, and the fat in their former fatness. But if it is part of the Creator's design that each should preserve his own peculiarities of feature, and retain a recognizable likeness to his former self, while in regard to other bodily advan- tages all should be equal, then the material of which each is composed may be so modified that none of it shall be lost, and that any de- fect may be supplied by Him who can create at His will out of nothing. But if in the bodies of those who rise again there shall be a well-ordered inequality, such as there is in the voices that make up a full harmony, then the material of each man's body shall be so dealt with that it shall form a man fit for the assemblies of the angels, and one who shall bring nothing among them to jar upon their sensibilities. And assuredly nothing that is unseemly shall be there; but whatever shall be there shall be graceful and becoming: for if anything is not seemly, neither shall it be.
CHAP. 91. THE BODIES OF THE SAINTS SHALL AT THE RESURRECTION BE SPIRITUAL BODIES.
The bodies of the saints, then, shall rise again free from every defect, from every blem- ish, as from all corruption, weight, and im- pediment. For their ease of movement shall be as complete as their happiness. Whence their bodies have been called spiritual, though undoubtedly they shall be bodies and not spirits. For just as now the body is called animate, though it is a body, and not a soul [anima], so then the body shall be called spiritual, though it shall be a body, not a spirit.1 Hence, as far as regards the corrup- tion which now weighs down the soul, and the vices which urge the flesh to lust against the spirit,2 it shall not then be flesh, but body; for there are bodies which are called celestial. Wherefore it is said, " Flesh and blood can- not inherit the kingdom of God; " and, as if in explanation of this, "neither doth corrup- tion inherit incorruption. " 3 What the apostle first called " flesh and blood," he afterwards calls "corruption;" and what he first called "the kingdom of God," he afterwards calls ' incorruption." But as far as regards the substance, even then it shall be flesh. For even after the resurrection the body of Christ was called flesh. 4 The a postle, however, says: " It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body;"5 because so perfect shall then be the harmony between flesh and spirit, the spirit keeping alive the subjugated flesh without the need of any nourishment, that no part of our nature shall be in discord with an- other; but as we shall be free from enemies without, so we shall not have ourselves for enemies within.
CHAP. 92. THE RESURRECTION OF THE LOST.
But as for those who, out of the mass of perdition caused by the first man's sin, are not redeemed through the one Mediator be- tween God and man, they too shall rise again, each with his own body, but only to be pun- ished with the devil and his angels. Now, whether they shall rise again with all their dis- eases and deformities of body, bringing with them the diseased and deformed limbs which they possessed here, it would be labor lost to inquire. For we need not weary ourselves speculating about their health or their beauty, which are matters uncertain, when their eter- nal damnation is a matter of certainty. Nor need we inquire in what sense their body shall be incorruptible, if it be susceptible of pain; or in what sense corruptible, if it be free from the possibility of death. For there is no true life except where there is happiness in life, and no true incorruption except where health is unbroken by any pain. When, however, the unhappy are not permitted to die, then, if I may so speak, death itself dies not; and where pain without intermission afflicts the Chap. XCVIL] ENCHIRIDION.
;67 soul, and never comes to an end, corruption itself is not completed. This is called in Holy Scripture "the second death."1 CHAP. 93. BOTH THE FIRST AND THE SECOND DEATHS ARE THE CONSEQUENCE OF SIN. PUNISHMENT IS PROPORTIONED TO GUILT.
And neither the first death, which takes place when the soul is compelled to leave the body, nor the second death, which takes place when the soul is not permitted to leave the suffering body, would have been inflicted on man had no one sinned. And, of course, the mildest punishment of all will fall upon those who have added no actual sin, to the original sin they brought with them; and as for the rest who have added such actual sins, the pun- ishment of each will be the more tolerable in the next world, according as his iniquity has been less in this world.
CHAP. 94. THE SAINTS SHALL KNOW MORE FULLY IN THE NEXT WORLD THE BENEFITS THEY HAVE RECEIVED BY GRACE.
Thus, when reprobate angels and men are left to endure everlasting punishment, the saints shall know more fully the benefits they have received by grace. Then, in contem- plation of the actual facts, they shall see more clearly the meaning of the expression in the psalms, " I will sing of mercy and judgment; "2 for it is only of unmerited mercy that any is redeemed, and only in well-merited judgment that any is condemned.
CHAP. 95. GOD'S JUDGMENTS SHALL THEN BE EXPLAINED.
Then shall be made clear much that is now dark. For example, when of two infants, whose cases seem in all respects alike, one is by the mercy of God chosen to Himself, and the other is by His justice abandoned (where- in the one who is chosen may recognize what was of justice due to himself, had not mercy intervened); why, of these two, the one should have been chosen rather than the other, is to us an insoluble problem. And again, why miracles were not wrought in the presence of men who would have repented at the working of the miracles, while they were wrought in the presence of others who, it was known, would not repent. For our Lord says most distinctly: " Woe unto thee, Chorazin! woe unto thee, Bethsaida! for if the mighty works, which were done in you, had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented 1 Rev. ii. 2.
2 Ps. ci. 1.
long ago in sackcloth and ashes." 3 And as- suredly there was no injustice in God's not willing that they should be saved, though they could have been saved had He so willed it. Then shall be seen in the clearest light of wis- dom what with the pious is now a faith, though it is not yet a matter of certain knowledge, how sure, how unchangeable, and how effect- ual is the will of God; how many things He can do which He does not will to do, though willing nothing which He cannot perform; and how true is the song of the psalmist, "But our God is in the heavens; He hath done whatsoever He hath pleased."4 And this certainly is not true, if God has ever willed anything that He has not performed; and, still worse, if it was the will of man that hin- dered the Omnipotent from doing whac He pleased. Nothing, therefore, happens but by the will of the Omnipotent, He either per- mitting it to be done, or Himself doing it.
CHAP. 96. THE OMNIPOTENT GOD DOES WELL EVEN IN THE PERMISSION OF EVIL.
Nor can we doubt that God does well even in the permission of what is evil. For He permits it only in the justice of His judgment. And surely all that is just is good. Although, therefore, evil, in so far as it is evil, is not a good; yet the fact that evil as well as good ex- ists, is a good. For if it were not a good that evil should exist, its existence would not be permitted by the omnipotent Good, who with- out doubt can as easily refuse to permit what He does not wish, as bring about what He does wish. And if we do not believe this, the very first sentence of our creed is endangered, wherein we profess to believe in God the Father Almighty. For He is not truly called Almighty if He cannot do whatsoever He pleases, or if the power of His almighty will is hindered by the will of any creature what- soever.
CHAP. 97. IN WHAT SENSE DOES THE APOSTLE SAY THAT " GOD WILL HAVE ALL MEN TO BE SAVED," WHEN, AS A MATTER OF FACT, ALL ARE NOT SAVED?
Hence we must inquire in what sense is said of God what the apostle has mostly truly said: " Who will have all men to be saved." 5 For, as a matter of fact, not all, nor even a ma- jority, are saved: so that it would seem that what God wills is not done, man's will inter- fering with, and hindering the will of God. When we ask the reason why all men are not saved, the ordinary answer is: " Because men 3 Matt. xi. 21. 4 Ps. cxv. 3. Si Tim. ii. 4. [See R. V.]
268 THE WORKS OF ST. AUGUSTIN.
[Chap. XCIX.
themselves are not willing." This, indeed, cannot be said of infants, for it is not in their power either to will or not to will. But if we could attribute to their will the childish move- ments they make at baptism, when they make all the resistance they can, we should say that even they are not willing to be saved. Our Lord says plainly, however, in the Gospel, when upbraiding the impious city: "How often would I have gathered thy children to- gether, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! " * as if the will of God had been overcome by the will of men, and when the weakest stood in the way with their want of will, the will of the strongest could not be carried out. And where is that omnipotence which hath done all that it pleased on earth and in heaven, if God willed to gather together the children of Jerusalem, and did not accomplish it? or rather, Jerusalem was not willing that her chil- dren should be gathered together? But even though she was unwilling, He gathered to- gether as many of her children as He wished: for He does not will some things and do them, and will others and do them not; but "He hath done all that He pleased in heaven and in earth."
€HAP. 98. — PREDESTINATION TO ETERNAL LIFE IS WHOLLY OF GOD'S FREE GRACE.
And, moreover, who will be so foolish and blasphemous as to say that God cannot change the evil wills of men, whichever, whenever, and wheresoever He chooses, and direct them to what is good? But when He does this, He does it of mercy; when He does it not, it is of justice that He does it not; for " He hath mercy on whom He will have mercy, and whom He will He hardeneth."2 And when the apostle said this, he was illus- trating the grace of God, in connection with which he had just spoken of the twins in the womb of Rebecca, " who being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of Him that calleth, it was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger."3 And in reference to this matter he quotes another prophetic testimony: " Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated." 4 But perceiving how what he had said might affect those who could not penetrate by their understanding the depth of this grace: "What shall we say then?" he says: "Is there unrighteousness with God? God for- bid."5 For it seems unjust that, in the ab- 1 Matt, xxiii. 37. •4 Rom. ix. 13; Mai.
2 Rom. ix. 18. 3. 5 Rom. ix.
3 Rom. ix. 12 14.
sence of any merit or demerit, from good or evil works, God should love the one and hate the other. Now, if the apostle had wished us to understand that there were future good works of the one, and evil works of the other, which of course God foreknew, he would never have said, " not of works," but, " of future works," and in that way would have solved the difficulty, or rather there would then have been no difficulty to solve. As it is, however, after answering, "God forbid;" that is, God forbid that there should be unrighteousness with God; he goes on to prove that there is no unrighteousness in God's doing this, and says: "For He saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have com- passion." 6 Now, who but a fool would think that God was unrighteous, either in inflicting penal justice on those who had earned it, or in extending mercy to the unworthy? Then he draws his conclusion: " So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy."7 Thus both the twins were born children of wrath, not on account of any works of their own, but be- cause they were bound in the fetters of that original condemnation which came through Adam. But He who said, " I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy," loved Jacob of His undeserved grace, and hated Esau of His deserved judgment. And as this judgment was due to both, the former learnt from the case of the latter that the fact of the same punishment not falling upon himself gave him no room to glory in any merit of his own, but only in the riches of the divine grace; because "it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy." And indeeed the whole face, and, if I may use the expression, every linea- ment of the countenance of Scripture conveys by a very profound analogy this wholesome warning to every one who looks carefully into it, that he who glories should glory in the Lord.8 CHAP. 99. AS GOD'S MERCY IS FREE,- SO HIS JUDGMENTS ARE JUST, AND CANNOT BE GAIN- SAID.
Now after commending the mercy of God, saying, " So it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy," that he might commend His justice also (for the man who does not obtain mercy finds, not iniquity, but justice, there being no iniquity with God), he immediately adds: Chap. CI.]
ENCHIRIDION.
269 " For the scripture saith unto Pharoah, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth." ' And then he draws a conclusion that applies to both, that is, both to His mercy and His justice: " Therefore hath He mercy on whom He will have mercy, and whom He will He hardeneth."2 " He hath mercy" of His great goodness, " He harden- eth " without any injustice; so that neither can he that is pardoned glory in any merit of his own, nor he that is condemned complain of anything but his own demerit. For it is grace alone that separates the redeemed from the lost, all having been involved in one com- mon perdition through their common origin. Now if any one, on hearing this, should say, "Why doth He yet find fault? for who hath resisted His will? "3 as if a man ought not to be blamed for being bad, because God hath mercy on whom He will have mercy, and whom He will He hardeneth, God forbid that we should be ashamed to answer as we see the apostle answered: "Nay, but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to Him that formed it, Why hast Thou made me thus? Hath not the pot-