by any other thing, but by the blessed life itself, since he will have no life at all? And hence, although no feeling is left for his life to be thereby miserable (for the blessed life quits him, because life altogether quits him), yet he is wretched as long as he feels, because he knows that against his will that is being destroyed for the sake of which he loves all else, and DE TRIN. X 322 ON THE TEINITY. [BOOK XIII.
wliich he loves beyond all else. A life therefore cannot both be blessed, and yet quit a man against his will, since no one becomes blessed against his will; and hence how much more does it make a man miserable by quitting him against his will, when it would make him miserable if he had it against his will! But if it quit him with his will, even so how was that a blessed life, which he who had it willed should perish? It remains for them to say that neither of these is in the mind of the blessed man; that is, that he is neither unwilling nor willing to be quitted by a blessed life, when through death life quits him altogether; for that he stands firm with an even heart, prepared alike for either alternative. But neither is that a blessed life which is such as to be unworthy of his love whom it makes blessed. For how is that a blessed life which the blessed man does not love? Or how is that loved, of which it is received indifferently, whether it is to flourish or to perish? Unless perhaps the virtues, which we love in this way on account of blessedness alone, venture to persuade us that we do not love blessedness itself. Yet if they did this, we should certainly leave off loving the virtues themselves, when we do not love that on account of which alone we loved them. And further, how will that opinion be true, which has been so tried, and sifted, and thoroughly strained, and is so certain, viz. that all men will to be blessed, if they themselves who are already blessed neither will nor do not will to be blessed? Or if they will it, as truth proclaims, as nature constrains, in which indeed the supremely good and unchangeably blessed Creator has implanted that will; if, I say, they will to be blessed who are blessed, certainly they do not will to be not blessed. But if they do not will not to be blessed, without doubt they do not will to be annihilated and perish in regard to their blessedness. But they cannot be blessed except they are alive; therefore they do not will so to perish in regard to their life. Therefore, whoever are either truly blessed or desire to be so, will to be immortal. But he does not live blessedly who has not that which he wills. Therefore it follows that in no way can life be truly blessed unless it be eternal.
CHAP. IX.] WE BELIEVE IN IMMORTALITY THROUGH FAITH. 323 Chap. tx. — We say that future blessedness is truly eternal, not through human reasonings, hut hy the help of faith. The immortality of blessedness be- comes credible from the incarnation of the Son of God.
12. Whether human nature can receive this, which yet it confesses to be desirable, is no small question. But if faith be present, which is in those to whom Jesus has given power to become the sons of God, then there is no question. As- suredly, of those who endeavour to discover it from human reasonings, scarcely a few, and they endued with great abilities, and abounding in leisure, and learned with the most subtle learning, have been able to attain to the investigation of the immortality of the soul alone. And even for the soul they have not found a blessed life that is stable, that is, true; since they have said that it returns to the miseries of this life even after blessedness. And they among them who are ashamed of this opinion, and have thought that the purified soul is to be placed in eternal happiness without a body, hold such opinions concerning the backward eternity of the world, as to confute this opinion of theirs concerning the soul: a thing which here it is too long to demonstrate; but it has been, as I think, sufficiently explained by us in the twelfth book of the City of God} But that faith promises, not by human reasoning, but by divine authority, that the whole man, who certainly consists of soul and body, shall be immortal, and on this account truly blessed. And so, when it had been said in the G ospel, that Jesus has given " power to become the sons of God to them who received Him; " and what it is to have received Him had been shortly explained by saying, " To them that believe on His name;" and it was further added in what way they are to become sons of God, viz., " Which were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God;" — lest that infirmity of men which we all see and bear should despair of attaining so great excellence, it is added in the same place, " And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us;"^ that, on the contrary, men might be convinced of that which seemed incredible. For if He who is by nature the Son of God was made the Son of man through mercy for the sake of the sons of men, — for this is what is 324 ON THE TRINITY. [bOOK XIII.
meant by " The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us " men, — how much more credible is it that the sons of men by- nature should be made the sons of God by the grace of God, and should dwell in God, in whom alone and from whom alone the blessed can be made partakers of that immortality; of which that we might be convinced, the Son of God was made partaker of our mortality?
Chap. x. — There was no other more suitable way of freeing man from the misery of mortality than the incarnation of the Word. The merits which are called ours are the gifts of God.
13. Those then who say. What, had God no other way by which He might free men from the misery of this mortality, that He should will the only-begotten Son, God co-eternal with Himself, to become man, by putting on a human soul and flesh, and being made mortal to endure death? — these, I say, it is not enough so to refute, as to assert that that mode by which God deigns to free us through the Mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus, is good and suitable to the dignity of God; but we must show also, not indeed that no other mode was possible to God, to whose power all things are equally subject, but that there neither was nor need have been any other mode more appropriate for curing our misery. For what was so necessary for the building up of our hope, and for the freeing the minds of mortals cast down by the condition of mortality itself, from despair of immortality, than that it should be demonstrated to us at how great a price God rated us, and how greatly He loved us? But what is more mani- fest and evident in this so great proof hereof, than that the Son of God, unchangeably good, remaining what He w^as in Himself, and receiving from us and for us what He was not, apart from any loss of His own nature, and deigning to enter into the fellowship of ours, should first, without any evil desert of His own, bear our evils; and so with un-owed munifi- cence should bestow His own gifts upon us, who now believe how much God loves us, and who now hope that of which we used to despair, without any good deserts of our own, nay, with our evil deserts too going before?
14. Since those also which are called our deserts, are His CHAP. X.] CREDIBILITY OF OUR IMMORTALITY. ' 325 gifts. For, that faith may work by love/ " the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto, us." ^ And He was then given, when Jesus was glorified by the resurrection. For then He promised that He Himself would send Him, and He sent Him f because then, as it was vsrritten and foretold of Him, " He ascended up on high. He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men."* These gifts are our deserts, by which we arrive at the chief good of an immortal blessedness. " But God," says the apostle, " com- mendeth His love towards us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more, then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him." To this he goes on to add, " For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son; much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life." Those whom he first calls sinners he afterwards calls the enemies of God; and those whom he first speaks of as justified by His blood, he afterwards speaks of as reconciled by the death of the Son of God; and those whom he speaks of first as saved from wrath through Him, he afterwards speaks of as saved by His life. We were not, therefore, before that grace merely anyhow sinners, but in such sins that we were enemies of God. But the same apostle calls us above several times by two appellations, viz. sinners and enemies of God, — one as if the most mild, the other plainly the most harsh, — saying, " For if, when we were yet weak, in due time Christ died for the ungodly."^ Those whom he called weak, the same he called ungodly. Weakness seems something slight; but sometimes it is such as to be called impiety. Yet except it were weakness, it would not need a physician, who is in the Hebrew Jesus, in the Greek ScdtiJp, but in our speech Saviour. And this word the Latin language had not pre- viously, but could have, seeing that it could have it when it wanted it. And this foregoing sentence of the apostle, where he says, " For when we were yet weak, in due time He died for the ungodly," coheres with those two following sentences; in the one of which he spoke of sinners, in the other of enemies 326 ON THE TRINITY. [BOOK XIIL of God, as though he referred each severally to each, viz. sinners to the weak, the enemies of God to the ungodly.
Chap. xi. — A difficulty, how we arejusiified in the blood of the Son of God.
15. But what is meant by "justified in His blood"? What power is there in this, blood, I beseech you, that they who believe should be justified in it? And what is meant by "being reconciled by the death of His Son"? Was it in- deed so, that when God the Father was wroth with us, He saw the death of His Son for us, and was appeased towards us? Was then His Son already so far appeased towards us, that He even deigned to die for us; while the Father was still so far wroth, that except His Son died for us. He would not be appeased? And what, then, is that which the same teacher of the Gentiles himself says in another place: " What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all; how has He not with Him also freely given us all things?" ^ Fray, unless the Father had been already appeased, would He have delivered up His own Son not sparing Him for us? Does not this opinion seem to be as it were contrary to that? In the one, the Son dies for us, and the Father is reconciled to us by His death; in the other, as though the Father first levied us. He Himself on our account does not spare the Son, He Himself for us delivers Him up to death. But I see that the Father loved us also before, not only before the Son died for us, but before He created the world; the apostle himself being witness, who says, " According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world." ^ Nor was the Son delivered up for us as it were un- willingly, the Father Himself not sparing Him; for it is said also concerning Him, "Who loved me, and delivered up Himself for me."^ Therefore together both the Father and the Son, and the Spirit of both, work all things equally and harmoniously; yet we are justified in the blood of Christ, and we are recon- ciled to God by the death of His Son. And I will explain, as I shall be able, here also, how this was done, as much as may seem sufficient.
CHAP. XIL] how we AEE JUSTIFIED. 327 Chap. xii. — All, on account of the sin of Adam, ivere delivered into the power of the devil.
1 6. By the justice of God in some sense, the human race was delivered into the power of the devil; the sin of the first man passing over originally into all of both sexes in their birth through conjugal union, and the debt of our first parents bind- ing their whole posterity. This delivering up is first signified in Genesis, where, when it had been said to the serpent, " Dust shalt thou eat," it was said to the man, "Dust thou art, and unto dust thou shalt return."^ In the words, "Unto dust shalt thou return," the death of the body is fore-announced, because he would not have experienced that either, if he had continued to the end upright as he was made; but in that it is said to him whilst still living, " Dust thou art," it is shown that the whole man was changed for the worse. For " Dust thou art " is much the same as, " My spirit shall not always remain in these men, for that they also are flesh." ^ Therefore it was at that time shown, that he was delivered to him, in that it had been said to him, " Dust shalt thou eat." But the apostle declares this more clearly, where he says: " And you who were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of un- faithfulness; among whom we also had our conversation in times past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others." ^ The " children of unfaithfulness " are the un- believers; and who is not this before he becomes a believer? And therefore all men are originally under the prince of the power of the air, " who worketh in the children of unfaithfulness." And that which I have expressed by " originally" is the same that the apostle expresses when he says, themselves who " by nature " were as others; viz. by nature, as it has been depraved by sin, not as it was created upright from the beginning. But the way in which man was thus delivered into the power of the devil, ought not to be so understood as if God did this, or commanded it to be done; but that He only permitted it, yet that justly. For when He abandoned the sinner, the author 328 ON THE TRINITY. [bOOK XIII.
of the sin immediately entered. Yet God did not certainly so abandon His own creature as not to show Himself to him as God creating and quickening, and among penal evils be- stowing also many good things upon the evil. For He hath not in anger shut up His tender mercies.^ Nor did He dis- miss man from the law of His own power, when He permitted him to be in the power of the devil; since even the devil himself is not estranged from the power of the Omnipotent, as neither from His goodness. For whence do even the evil angels subsist in whatever manner of life they have, except through Him who quickens all things? If, therefore, the commission of sins through the just anger of God subjected man to the devil, doubtless the remission of sins through the merciful reconciliation of God rescues man from the devil.
Chap. xiii. — Man was to he rescued from the power of the devilf not by might, but by righteousness.
17. But the devil was to be overcome, not by the might of God, but by His righteousness. For what is more mighty than the Omnipotent? Or what creature is there of which the power can be compared to the power of the Creator? But since the devil, by the fault of his own perversity, was made a lover of might, and a forsaker and assailant of righteousness, for thus also men imitate him so much the more in proportion as they set their hearts on might, to the neglect or even hatred of righteousness, and as they either rejoice in the attainment of might, or are inflamed by the lust of it, — it pleased God, that in order to the rescuing of man from the power of the devil, the devil should be conquered, not by might, but by righteousness; and that so also men, imitating Christ, should seek to conquer the devil by righteousness, not by might. "Not that might is to be shunned as though it were something evil; but the order must be preserved, whereby righteousness is before it. For how great can be the might of mortals? Therefore let mortals cleave to righteousness; might will be given to immortals. And compared to this, the might, how great soever, of those men who are called mighty on earth, is found to be ridiculous weakness, and a pitfall is dug there for the sinner, where the wicked seem to be most powerful And the * Ps. Ixxvii. 9.
CHAP. XIIL] man justified THROUGH RIGHTEOUSNESS. 329 righteous man says in his song, " Blessed is the man whom Thou chastenest, 0 Lord, and teachest him out of Thy law: that Thou mayest give him rest from the days of adversity, until the pit be digged for the wicked. For the Lord will not cast off His people, neither will He forsake His inheritance, until righteousness return unto judgment, and all who follow it are upright in heart." ^ At this present time, then, in which the might of the people of God is delayed, " the Lord will not cast off His people, neither will He forsake His inheritance," how bitter and unworthy things soever it may suffer in its humility and weakness; " until the righteousness," which the weakness of the pious now possesses, "shall return to judg- ment," that is, shall receive the power of judging; which is preserved in the end for the righteous, when might in its due order shall have followed after righteousness going before. For might joined to righteousness, or righteousness added to might, constitutes a judicial authority. But righteousness belongs to a good will; whence it was said by the angels when Christ was born: " Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to. men of good will."^ But might ought to follow righteousness, not to go before it; and accordingly it is placed in " second," that is, prosperous fortune; and this is called "second"^ from "following." For whereas two things make a man blessed, as we have argued above, to will well, and to be able to do what one wills, people ought not to be so perverse, as has been noted in the same discus- sion, as that a man should choose from the two things which make him blessed, the being able to do what he wills, and should neglect to will what he ought; whereas he ought first to have a good will, but great power afterwards. Further, a good will must be purged from vices, by which if a man is overcome, he is in such wise overcome as that he wills evil; and then how will his will be still good? It is to be wished, then, that power may now be given, but power against vices, to conquer which men do not wish to be powerful, while they wish to be so in order to conquer men; and why is this, unless that, being in truth conquered, they feignedly conquer, and are conquerors not in truth, but in opinion? Let a man will to be prudent, * Ps. xciv. 12-15. 2 Luke ii. 14. ^ jjgg secundos.
330 ON THE TRINITY. [BOOK XIII.
will to be strong, will to be temperate, will to be just; and that be may be able to have these things truly, let him certainly desire power, and seek to be powerful in himself, and (strange though it be) against himself for himself. But all the other things which he wills rightly, and yet is not able to have, as, for instance, immortality, and true and full felicity, let him not cease to long for, and let him patiently expect.
Chap. xiv. — The unowed death of Christ has freed those who were liable to death.
18. What, then, is the righteousness by which the devil was conquered? What, except the righteousness of Jesus Christ? And how was he conquered? Because, when he found in Him nothing worthy of death, yet he slew Him. And certainly it is just, that we whom he held as debtors, should be dismissed free by believing in Him whom he slew without any debt. In this way it is that we are said to be justified in the blood of Christ.-^ For so that innocent blood was shed for the re- mission of our sins. Whence He calls Himself in the Psalms, " Free among the dead." ^ For he only that is dead is free from the debt of death. Hence also in another psalm He says, " Then I restored that which I seized not;" ^ meaning sin by the thing seized, because sin is laid hold of against what is lawful. Whence also He says, by the mouth of His own Flesh, as is read in the Gospel: " For the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me," that is, no sin; but "that the world may know," He says, " that I do the commandment of the Father; arise, let us go hence." * And thence He pro- ceeds to His passion, that He might pay for us debtors that which He Himself did not owe. Would then the devil be conquered by this most just right, if Christ had willed to deal with him by might, not by righteousness? But He held back what was possible to Him, in order that He might first do what was fitting. And hence it was necessary that He should be both man and God. For unless He had been man. He could not have been slain; unless He had been God, men would not have believed that He would not do what He could, but that He could not do what He would; nor should we have thought that righteousness Avas preferred by Him to might, but that He CHAP. XV.] THE DEATH OF CHRIST FREES FROM DEATH. 331'