CHAP. 1 7 [XII.] — NO ONE RIGHTEOUS IN ALL THINGS.7 That illustrious testimony of God, therefore, in which Job is commended, is not contrary to «the passage in which it is said, " In Thy sight shall no man living be justified; " ** for it does * Job i. 22.
* Ps. cxxxviii. 8.
5 Qua se noverat injustuin. Several MSS. have j'ustum [g. d. 'had discovered what his own righteousness was," — i.e. nothing!.
6 Phil iii. 6-8.
' See below, chap. 23.
* Ps. cxliii. 2.
not lead us to suppose that in him there was nothing at all which might either by himself truly or by the Lord God rightly be blamed, although at the same time he might with no untruth be said to be a righteous man, and a sincere worshipper of God, and one who keeps himself from every evil work. For these are God's words concerning him: " Hast thou diligently considered my servant Job? For there is none like him on the earth, blameless, righteous, a true worshipper of God, who keeps himself from every evil work." ^ First, he is here praised for his excellence in comparison with all men on earth. He therefore excelled all who were at that time able to be righteous upon earth; and yet, because of this superiority over others in righteousness, he was not therefore altogether without sin. He is next said to be " blameless " — no one could fairly bring an accusation against him in respect of his life; " 7-i':;hf eons'" — he had advanced so greatly in moral probity, that no man could be mentioned on a par with him; "a true worshipper of God^' — because he was a sincere and humble confessor of his own sins; " who keeps himself from eveiy evil rvork " — it would have been wonderful if this had extended to every evil word and thought. How great a man indeed Job was, we are not told; but we know that he was a just man; we know, too, that in the endurance of terrible afflictions and trials he was great; and we know that it was not on account of his sins, but for the purpose of demonstrating his righteousness, that he had to bear so much suffering. But the language in which the Lord commends Job might also be applied to him who " delights in the law of God after the inne'r man, whilst he sees another law in his members warring against the law of his mind; " '° especially as he says, " The good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now, if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth Observe how he too after the inward in me >> II man is separate from every evil work, because such work he does not himself effect, but the evil which dwells in his flesh; and yet, since he does not have even that ability to delight in the law of God except from the grace of God, he, as still in want of deliverance, exclaims, " O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? God's grace, through Jesus Christ our Lord! " '^ CHAP. 18 [XIII.] PERFECT HUM.\xV RIGHTEOUS- NESS IS IMPERFECT.
There are then on earth righteous men, there are great men, brave, prudent, chaste, patient, [Book II.
pious, merciful, who endure all kinds of temporal evil with an even mind for righteousness' sake. If, however, there is truth — nay, because there is truth — in these words, " If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves," ' and in these, " In Thy sight shall no man living be justified," they are not without sin; nor is there one among tliem so proud and foolish as not to think that the Lord's Prayer is needful to him, by reason of his manifold sins.
CHAP. 19. — ZACHARIAS AND ELISABETH, SINNERS.
Now what must we say of Zacharias and Elisabeth, who are often alleged against us in discussions on this question, except that there is clear evidence in the Scripture ^ that Zacharias was a man of eminent righteousness among the chief priests, whose duty it was to offer up the sacrifices of the Old Testament? We also read, however, in the Epistle to the Hebrews, in a passage which I have already quoted in my previous book,^ that Christ was the only High Priest who had no need, as those who were called high priests, to offer daily a sacrifice for his own sins first, and then for the people. " For such a High Priest," it says, '' became us, righteous, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens; who needeth not daily, as those high priests, to offer up sacrifice, first for his own sins." '* Amongst the priests here referred to was Zacharias, amongst them was Phinehas, yea, Aaron himself, from whom this priesthood had its beginning, and whatever others there were who lived laudably and righteously in this priesthood; and yet all these were under the necessity, first of all, of offering sacrifice for their own sins, — Christ, of whose future coming they were a type, being the only one who, as an incontaminable priest, had no such necessity.
CHAP. 20. PAUL WORTHY TO BE THE PRINCE OF THE APOSTLES, AND VET A SINNER.
What commendation, however, is bestowed on Zacharias and Elisabeth which is not comprehended in what the apostle has said about himself before he believed in Christ? He said that, " as touching the righteousness which is in the law, he had been blameless." s The same is said also of them: "They were both righteous before Cod, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless."^ It was because whatever righteousness they had in them was not a pretence before men that it is said accordingly, "They walked de/ore the Lord."
1 I Johni. 8.
2 Luke i. 6-9 * Luke i. 6. [See also his work, De Gratia Christi, 53.]
But that which is written of Zacharias and his wife in the plirase, in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord, the apostle briefly expressed by the words, in the lain. For there was not one law for him and another for them previous to the gospel. It was one and the same law which, as we read, was given by INIoses to their fathers, and according to which, also, Zacharias was priest, and offered sacrifices in his course. And yet the apostle, who was then endued with the like righteousness, goes on to say: " But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ; for whose sake I have not only thought all things to be only detriments, but I have even counted them as dung, that I may win Christ, and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His suffering, being made comformable unto His death; if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead."? So far, then, is it from being true that we should, from the words in which Scripture describes them, suppose that Zacharias and Elisabeth had a perfect righteousness without any sin, that we must even regard the apostle himself, according to the selfsame rule, as not perfect, not only in that righteousness of the law which he possessed in common with them, and which he counts as loss and dung in comparison with that most excellent righteousness which is by the faith of Christ, but also in the very gospel itself, wherein he deserved the pre-eminence of his great apostleship. Now I would not venture to say this if I did not deem it very wrong to refuse credence to himself. He extends the passage which we have quoted, and says: " Not as though I had already attained, or were already perfect; but I follow after, if I may comprehend that for which also I am apprehended in Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the j mark, for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus." ** Here he confesses that he has not yet attained, and is not yet perfect in that plenitude of righteousness which he had longed to obtain in Christ; but that he was as yet press-; ing towards the mark, and, forgetting what was past, was reaching out to the things which are before him. We are sure, then, that what he says elsewhere is true even of himself: " Al- Chap. 22.]
though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is renewed day by day." ' Although he was already a perfect - traveller, he had not yet attained the perfect end of his journey. All such he would fain take with him as companions: of his course. This he expresses in the words, which follow our former quotation: " Let as, many, then, of us as are perfect, be thus minded: and if ye be yet of another mind, God will ' reveal "even this also to you. Nevertheless, whereunto we have already attained, let us walk by that rule."^ This " walk " is not performed with the legs of the body, but with the affections, of the soul and the character of the life, so that they who possess righteousness may arrive at perfection, who, advancing in their renewal day by day along the straight path of faith, have by this time become perfect as travellers in the selfsame righteousness.
CHAP. 2 1 [XIV.] — ALL RIGHTEOUS MEN SINNERS.
In like manner, all who are described in the Scriptures as exhibiting in their present life good will and the actions of righteousness, and all who have lived like them since, although lacking the same testimony of Scripture; or all who are even now so living, or shall hereafter so live: all these are great, they are all righteous, and they are all really worthy of praise, — yet they are by no means without sin: inasmuch as, on the authority of the same Scriptures which make us believe in their virtues, we believe also that in " God's sight no man living is justified," ^ whence all ask that He will " not enter into judgment with His servants: " ■* and that not only to all the faithful in general, but to each of them in particular, the Lord's Prayer is necessary, which He delivered to His disciples.s CHAP. 22 [XV.] AN OBJECTION OF THE PELA- GUNS; PERFECTION IS RELATIVE; HE IS RIGHTLY SAID TO BE PERFECT IN RIGHTEOUSNESS WHO HAS MADE MUCH PROGRESS THEREIN.
" Well, but," they say, " the Lord says, ' Be ye perfect even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect,' ^ — an injunction which He would not have given, if He had known that what He enjoined /Was impracticable." Now the present question is not whether it be possible for any men, during this present life, to be without sin if they receive that perfection for the purpose; for the question of possibility we have already discussed: ^ — but what we have now to consider is, whether any man in fact achieves perfection.
' 2 Cor. iv. 16.
^ [Augustin plays on the woid 15, [Angus ^ Phil. lii. 15, 16. ■♦ Ps. cxliii. 2. 5 Matt. vi. 12: Luke xi. 4. ^ Matt V. 4S. ' See above, chap. 7.
■ perfect." — W.J We have, however, already recognised the fact that no man wills as much as the duty demands, as also the testimony of the Scriptures, which we have quoted so largely above, declares. When, indeed, perfection is ascribed to any particular person, we must look carefully at the thing in which it is ascribed. For I have just above quoted a passage of the apostle, wherein he confesses that he was not yet perfect in the attainment of righteousness which he desired; but still he immediately adds, " Let as many of us as are perfect be thus minded." Now he would certainly not have uttered these two sentences if he had not been perfect in one thing, and not in another. For instance, a man may be perfect as a scholar in the pursuit of wisdom: and this could not yet be said of those to whom [the apostle] said, " I have fed you with niilk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye have not been able to bear it, neither are ye yet able; " * whereas to those of whom it could be said he says, " Howbeit we speak wisdom among them that are perfect," — meaning, of course, "perfect pupils " to be understood. It may happen, therefore, as I have said, that a man may be already perfect as a scholar, though not as yet perfect as a teacher of wisdom; may be perfect as a learner, though not as yet perfect as a doer of righteousness; may be perfect as a lover of his enemies, though not as yet perfect in bearing their wrong.? Even in the case of him who is so far perfect as to love all men, inasmuch as he has attained even to the love of his enemies, it still remains a question whether he be perfect in that love, — in other words, whether he so loves those whom he loves as is prescribed to be exercised towards those to be loved, by the unchangeable love of truth. Whenever, then, we read in the Scriptures of any man's perfection, it must be carefully considered in what it is asserted, since a man is not therefore to be understood as being entirely without sin because he is described as perfect in some particular thing; although the term ~may also be employed to show, not, indeed, that there is no longer any point left for a man to reach his way to perfection, but that he has in fact advanced a very great way, and on that account may be deemed worthy of the designation. Thus, a man may be said to be perfect in the science of the law, even if there be still something unknown to him; and in the same manner the apostle called men perfect, to whom he said at the same time, " Vet if in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this to you. Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule." '° 8 I Cor. iii. 2.
9 rv su(Terat is his antithesis here to iit diligat. 10 Phil. lii. 15.
[Book II.
CHAP. 23 [XXI.] — WHY GOD PRESCRIBliS WHAT HE KNOWS CANNOT BE OBSERVED.
We must not deny that God commands that we ought to be so perfect in doing rigliteousness, as to have no sin at all. Now that cannot be sin, whatever it may be, unless God has enjoined that it shall not be. Why then, they ask, does He command what He knows no man living will perform? In this manner it may also be asked, ^V'hy He commanded the first human beings, who were only two, what He knew they would not obey? For it must not be pretemled that He issued that command, that some of us might obey it, if they did not; for, that they should not partake of the fruit of the particular tree, God commanded them, and none besides. Because, as He knew what amount of righteousness they would fail to perform, so did He also know what righteous measures He meant Himself to adopt concerning them. In the same way, then, He orders all men to commit no sin, although He knows beforehand that no man will fulfil the command; in order that He may, in the case of all who impiously and condemnably despise His precepts, Himself do what is just in their condemnation; and, in the case of all who while obediently and piously pressing on in his precepts, though failing to observe to the utmost all things which He has enjoined, do yet forgive others as they wish to be forgiven themselves. Himself do what is good in their cleansing. For how can forgiveness be bestowed by God's mercy on the forgivmg, when there is no sin? or how prohibition fail to be given by the justice of God, when there is sin?
CHAP. 24. — AN OBJECTION OF THE PELAGIANS. THE APOSTLE PAUL WAS NOT FREE FROM SIN so LONG AS HE LIVED.
" But see," say they, " how the apostle says, * I have fought a good fight, I have kept the faith, I have finished my course: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness; ' ' which he would not have said if he had | any sin." It is for them, then, to explain how j he could have said this, when there still remained for him to encounter the great conflict, the grievous and excessive weight of that suff'ering which he had just said awaited him.^ In order to finish his course, was there yet wanting only a small thing, when that in fact was still left to suffer wherein would be a fiercer and more cruel foe? If, however, he uttered such words of joy feeling sure and secure, because he had been made sure and secure by Him who had revealed to him the imminence of his suffering, then he spoke these words, not in the fulness of realization, but in the firmness of hope, and represents what he foresees is to come as if it had already been done. If, therefore, he had added to those words the further statement, " I have no longer any sin," we must have understood him as even _j then speaking of a perfection arising from a future prospect, not from an accomplished fact. For his having no sin, which they suppose was completed when he spoke these words, pertained to the finishing of his course; just in the same way as his triumphing over his adversary in the decisive conflict of his suffering had also reference to the finishing of his course, although this they must needs themselves allow remained yet to be effected, when he was speaking these words.
The \^•hole of this, therefore, we declare to have been as yet awaiting its accomplishment, at the time when the apostle, with his perfect trust in the promise of God, spoke of it all as having been already realized. For it was in reference to the finishing of his course that he forgave the sins of those who sinned against him, and prayed that his own sins might in like manner be forgiven him; and it was in his most certain confidence in this promise of the Lord, that he believed he should have no sin in that last end, which was still future, even when in his trustfulness he spoke of it as already accomplished. Now, omitting all other considerations, I wonder whether, when he uttered the words in which he is thought to imply that he had no sin, that " thorn of the flesh " had been already removed from him, for the taking away of which he had three times entreated the Lord, and had received this answer: " My grace is sufficient for thee; foi* my strength is made perfect in weakness." ^ For bringing so great a man to perfection, it was needful that that " messenger of Satan " should not be taken away by whom he was therefore to be buffeted, " lest he should be unduly exalted by the abundance of his revelations," ■» and is there then any man so bold as either to think or to say, that any one who has to bend beneath the burden of this life is altogether clean from all sin whatever?
CHAP. 25, GOD PUNISHES BOTH IN WRATH AND IN MERCY, Although there are some men who are so eminent in righteousness that God speaks to them out of His cloudy pillar, such as "Moses and Aaron among His priests, and Samuel among them that call upon His name," s the latter of whom is much praised for his piety and purity in the Scriptures of truth, from his earliest childhood, in which his mother, to accomplish her vow, placed him in God's temple, and devoted ii Chap. 27.]
him to the Lord as His servant; — yet even of such men it is written, " Thou, O God, wast propitious unto them, though Thou didst punish all their devices." ' Now the children of wrath God punishes in anger; whereas it is in mercy that He punishes the children of grace; since " whom He loveth He correcteth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth." ^ However, there are no punishments, no correction, no scourge of God, but what are owing to sin, except in the case of Him who prepared His back for the smiter, in order that He might experience all things in our likeness without sin, in order that He might be the saintly Priest of saints, making intercession even for saints, who with no sacrifice of truth say each one even for hunself, " Forgive us our trespasses, even as we also forgive them that trespass against us." ^ Wherefore even our opponents in this controversy, whilst they are chaste in their life, and commendable in character, and although they do not hesitate to do that which the Lord enjoined on the rich man, who inquired of Him about the attainment of eternal life, after he had told Him, in answer to His first question, that he had already fully kept every commandment in the law, — that " if he wished to be perfect, he must sell all that he had and give to the poor, and transfer his treasure to heaven; " ^ yet they do not in any one instance venture to say that they are without sin. But this, as we believe, they refrain from saying, with deceitful intent; but if they are lying, in this very act they begin either to augment or commit sin.
CHAP. 26 [XVII.] — (3) 5 WHY NO ONE IN THIS LIFE IS WITHOUT SIN.
[3^.] 5 Let us now consider the point which I mentioned as our third inquiry. Since by divine grace assisting the human will, man may possibly exist in this life without sin, why does he not? To this question I might very easily and truthfully answer: Because men are unwilling. But if I am asked why they are unwilling, we are drawn into a lengthy statement. And yet, without prejudice to a more careful examination, I may briefly say this much: Men are unwilling to do what is right, either because what is right is unknown to them, or because it is unpleasant to them. For we desire a thing more ardently in proportion to the certainty of our knowledge of its goodness, and the warmth of our delight in it. Ignorance, therefore, and infirmity are faults which impede the will from moving either for doing a good work, or for refraining from an evil one. But that what was hidden may come to ' Ps. xcix. 8.
^ Prov. iii. 12; Heb. xii. 6.
3 Matt. vi. 12, 14; Luke xi. 4.
* ISIatt. xix. 12.
s See above, chs. 7 and 8.
light, and what was unpleasant may be made agreeable, is of the grace of God which helps the wills of men; and that they are not helped by it, has its cause likewise in themselves, not in God, whether they be predestinated to condemnation, on account of the iniquity of their pride, or whether they are to be judged and disciplined contrary to their very pride, if they are children of mercy. Accordingly Jeremiah, after saying, " I know, O Lord, that the way of man is not in himself, and that it belongeth not to any man to walk and direct his steps," ^ immediately adds, " Correct me, O Lord, but with judgment, and not in Thine anger; " ^ as much as to say, I know that it is for my correction that I am too little assisted by Thee, for my footsteps to be perfectly directed: but yet do not in this so deal with me as Thou dost in Thine anger, when Thou dost determine to condemn the wicked; but as Thou dost in Thy judgment whereby Thou dost teach Thy children not to be proud. Whence in another passage it is said, " And Thy judgments shall help me."^ CHAP. 27.9 THE DIVINE REMEDY FOR PRIDE.
You cannot therefore attribute to God the cause of any human fault. For of all human offences, the cause is pride. For the conviction and removal of this a great remedy comes from heaven. God in mercy humbles Himself, descends from above, and displays to man, lifted up by pride, pure and manifest grace in very manhood, which He took upon Himself out of vast love for those who partake of it. For, not even did even this One, so conjoined to the Word of God that by that conjunction he became at once the one Son of God and the same One the one Son of man, act by the antecedent merits of His own -will. It behoved Him, without doubt, to be one; had there been two, or three, or more, if this could have been done, it would not have come from the pure and simple gift of God, but from man's free will and choice. '° This, then, is especially commended to us; this, so far as I dare to think, is the divine lesson especially taueht and learned in those treasures of wisdom and knowledge which are hidden in Christ. Every one of us, therefore, now knows, now does not know — now rejoices, now does not rejoice — to begin, continue, and complete our good work, in order that he may know that it is due not to his own will, but to the gift of God, that he either knows or rejoices; and thus he is cured * Ps. cxix. 175.
9 See below, in ch. 33; also De NaturA et GratiA, 29-32; and De Corrcpt. et Gratia, 10.
'° [Augustin appears to say, in this obscure passage, that had there been two persons, instead of two natures only, in our blessed Lord's person, then no doubt salvation would have been due partly to a human cause. — W.J =^6 [Book II.
of vanity which elated him, and knows how truly it is said not of this earth of ours, but spiritually, " The Lord will give kindness and sweet grace, and our land shall yield her fruit." ■ A good work, moreover, affords greater delight, in proportion as God is more and more loved as the highest unchangeable Good, and as the Author of all good things of every kind whatever. And that God may be loved, "His love is shed abroad in our hearts," not by ourselves, but "by the Holy Ghost that is given unto us." ^ CHAP. 28 [XVIII.] — A GOOD WILL COMES FROM GOD.
Men, however, are laboring to find in our own will some good thing of our own, — not given to us by God; but how it is to be found I cannot imagine. The apostle says, when speaking ot men's good works, " What hast thou that thou didst not receive? now, if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?"^ But, besides this, even reason itself, which may be estimated in such things by such as we are, sharply restrains every one of us in our investigations so as that we may not so defend grace as to seem to take away free will, or, on the other hand, so assert free will as to be judged ungrateful to the grace of God, in our arrogant impiety.-* CH.\P. 29. A SUBTERFUGE OF THE PELAGIANS.