" But how," asks he, " shall we separate pride itself from sin? " Now, why does he raise such a question, when it is manifest that even pride itself is a sin? "To sin," says he, "is quite as much to be proud, as to be proud is to sin; for only ask what every sin is, and see whether you can find any sin without the designation of pride." Then he thus pursues this opinion, and endeavours to prove it thus: " Every sin," says he, " if I mistake not, is a contempt of God, and every contempt of God is pride. For what is so proud as to despise God? All sin, then, is also pride, even as Scripture says. Pride is the beginning of all sin." 5 Let him seek diligently, and he will find in the law that the sin of pride is quite distinguished from all other sins. For many sins are committed through pride; but yet not all things which are wrongly done are done proudly, — at any rate, not by the ignorant, not by the infirm, and not, generally speaking, by the weep-; jng and sorrowful. And indeed pride, although I it be in itself a great sin, is of sudh sort in itself! alone apart from others, that, as I have already j remarked, it for the most part follows after and steals with more rapid foot, not so much upon I sins as upon things which are actually well done.
, However, that which he has understood in another sense, is after all most truly said: " Pride is the commencement of all sin; " because it was this which overthrew the devil, from whom arose the origin of sin; and afterwards, when his malice and envy pursued man, who was yet standing in his uprightness, it subverted him in the same way in which he himself fell. For the serpent, in fact, only sought for the door of pride whereby to enter when he said, " Ye shall be as gods." " Truly then is it said, " Pride is the commencement of all sin; " 5 and, " The beginning of pride is when a man departeth from God." 7 CHAP. 34 [XXX.] — A man's SIN IS HIS 0\\TSr, BUT HE NEEDS GRACE FOR HIS CURE.
Well, but what does he mean when he says "Then again, how^can one be subjected to God for the guilt of that sin, which he knows is not his own? For," says he, " his own it is not, if it is necessary. Or, if it is his own, it is voluntary: and if it is voluntary, it can be avoided." We reply: It is unquestionably his own. Buti the fault by which sin is committed is not yet in every respect healed, and the fact of its becoming permanently fixed in us arises from our not rightly using the healing virtue; and so out of this faulty condition the man who is now grow- * Ps. XXX. 6.
3 I Cor. vi. 19.
5 Ecclus. X.
13- 6 Gen. iii. 5.
7 Ecclus. X. 12.
Chap. 2<^.]
Til ing strong in depravity commits many sins, either through infirmity or bhndness. Prayer must therefore be made for him, that he may be healed, and that he may tlienceforward attain to a hfe of uninterrupted soundness of health; nor must pride be indulged in, as if any man were healed by the self-same power whereby he became corrupted.
CHAP. 35 [XXXI.] WHY GOD DOES NOT IMME- DIATELY CURE PRIDE ITSELF. THE SECRET AND INSIDIOUS GROWTH OF PRIDE. PREVENriNG AND SUBSEQUENT GRACE.
But I would indeed so treat these topics, as to confess myself ignorant of God's deeper counsel, why He does not at once heal the very principle of pride, which lies in wait for man's heart even in deeds rightly done; and for the cure of which pious souls, with tears and strong crying, beseech Him that He would stretch forth His right hand and help their endeavours to overcome it, and somehow tread and crush it under foot. Now when a man has felt glad that he has even by some good work overcome pride, from the very joy he lifts up his head and says: "Behold, I live; why do you triumph? Nay, I live because you triumph." Premature, however, this forwardness of his to triumph over pride may perhaps be, as if it were now vanquished, whereas its last shadow is to be swallowed up, as I suppose, in that noontide which is promised in the scripture which says, " He shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, md thy judgment as the noonday; " • provided Lhat be done which was written in the preceding verse: " Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust ilso in Him, and He shall bring it to pass,"^ — lot, as some suppose, that they themselves bring t to pass. Now, when he said, "And He shall bring it to pass," he evidently had none other n mind but those who say, We ourselves bring t to pass; that is to say, we ourselves justify Dur own selves. In this matter, no doubt, we do ourselves, too, work; but we are fellow-workers ■vith Him who does the work, because His nercy anticipates us. He anticipates us, however, that we may be healed; but then He will ilso follow us, that being healed we may grow lealthy and strong. He anticipates us that we nay be called; He will follow us that we may be glorified. He anticipates us that we may lead,^odly lives; He will follow us that we may ilways live with Him, because without Him ■ve can do nothing.^ Now the Scriptures refer o both these operations of grace. There is JOth this: " The God of my mercy shall antici-'ate me,"-* and again this: "Thy mercy shall bllow me all the days of my life." s Let us ' Ps. xxxvii. 6. ■• Ps. lix. lO.
2 Ps. xxxvii. 5. 5 Ps. xxiii. 6.
•3 John XV. 5.
therefore unveil to Him our life by confession, not praise it with a vindication. For if it is not His way, but our own, beyond doubt it is not the right one. Let us therefore reveal this by making our confession to Him; for however much we may endeavour to conceal it, it is not hid from Him. It is a good thing to confess unto the Lord.
CHAP. 36 [xXXIL] PRIDE EVEN IN SUCH THINGS AS ARE DONE ARIGHT MUST BE AVOIDED. FREE WILL IS NOT TAKEN AWAY WHEN GR.\CE IS PREACHED.
So will He bestow on us whatever pleases Him, that if there be anything displeasing to Him in us, it will also be displeasing to us. " He will," as the Scripture has said, " turn aside our paths from His own way," ^ and will make that which is His own to be our way; because it is by Himself that the favour is bestowed on such as believe in Him and hope in Him that we will do it. For there is a way of righteousness of which they are ignorant " who have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge,"? and who, wishing to frame a righteousness of their own, " have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God." ^ " For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth;"9 and He has said, "I am the way." '° Yet God's voice has alarmed those who have already begun to walk in this way, lest they should be lifted up, as if it were by their own energies that they were walking therein. For the same persons to whom the apostle, on account of this danger, says, " Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God that worketh in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure," " are likewise for the selfsame reason admonislied in the psalm: " Ser\'e the Lord with fear, and rejoice in Him with trembling. Accept correction, lest at any time the Lord be angry, and ye perish from the righteous way, when His wrath shall be suddenly kindled upon you," '^ He does not say, " Lest at any time the Lord be angry and refuse to show you the righteous way," or, " refuse to lead you into the way of righteousness; " but even after you are walking therein, he was able so to terrify as to say, " Lest ye perish from the righteous way." Now, whence could this arise if not from pride, which (as I have so often said, and must repeat again and again) has to be guarded against even in things which are rightly done, that is, in the very way of righteousness, lest a man, by regarding as his own that which is really God's, lose what is God's and be reduced merely to what is his own? Let us then carry out * See Ps. xliv. 18. 9 Rom. X. 4 '■^ Ps. ii. II, 12.
I [Chap. 37.
the concluding injunction of this same psahn, " Blessed are all they that trust in Him," ' so that He may Himself indeed effect and Himself show His own way in us, to whom it is said,! " Show us Thy mercy, O Lord; " ' and Himself; bestow on us the pathway of safety that we may | walk therein, to whom the prayer is offered, "And grant us Thy salvation;"^ and Himself lead us in the self-same way, to whom again it [ is said, " Guide me, O Lord, in Thy way, and in Thy truth will I walk; " ^ Himself, too, conduct us to those promises whither His way leads, to whom it is said, " Even there shall Thy hand lead me and Thy right hand shall hold me; " •* Himself pasture therein those who sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, of whom it is said, " He shall make them sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them." s Now we do not, when we make mention of these things, take away freedom of will, but we preach the grace of God. For to whom are those gracious gifts of use, but to the man who uses, but humbly uses, his own will, and makes no boast of the power and energy thereof, as if it alone were sufficient for perfecting him in righteousness?
CH.AP. 37 [XXXIII.] BEING WHOLLY WITHOUT SIN DOES NOT PUT MAN ON AN EQUALITY WITH GOD.
But God forbid that we should meet him with such an assertion as he says certain persons advance against him: " That man is placed on an equality with God, if he is described as being without sin; " as if indeed an angel, because he is without sin, is put in such an equality. For my own part, I am of this opinion that the creature will never become equal with God, even when so perfect a holiness shall be accomplished in us, that it shall be quite incapable of receiving anv addition. No; all who maintain that our progress is to be so complete that we shall be changed into the substance of God, and that we shall thus become what He is, should look well to it how they build up their opinion; for myself I must confess that I am not persuaded of this.
CHAP. 38 [XXXIV.] — WE MUST NOT LIE, EVEN FOR THE SAKE OF MODERATION. THE PRAISE OF HUMILITY MUST NOT BE PLACED TO THE ACCOUNT OF FALSEHOOD.
I am favourably disposed, indeed, to the view of our author, when he resists those who say to him, " What you assert seems indeed to be reasonable, but it is an arrogant thing to allege that any man can be without sin," with this answer, that if it is at all true, it must not on any account I Ps. ii. 12.
* Ps. cxxxix. 10.
2 Ps. Ixxxv. 7. S Luke xii. 37.
3 Ps. Ixxxvi. II.
be called an arrogant statement; for with very great truth and acuteness he asks, " On what side must humility be placed? No doubt on the side of falsehood, if you prove arrogance to exist on the side of truth." And so he decides, and rightly decides, that humility should rather be ranged on the side of truth, not of falsehood. Whence it follows that he who said, " If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us," ^ must without hesitation be held to have spoken the truth, and not be thouglit to have spoken falsehood for the sake of humility. Therefore he added the words, " And the truth is not in us; " whereas it might perhaps ha\'e been enough if he merely said, " We deceive ourselves," if he had not observed that some were capable of supposing that the clause " we deceive ourselves " is here employed on the ground that the man who praises himself is even extolled for a really good action. So that, by the addition of " the truth is not in us," he clearly shows (even as our author most correctly observes) that it is not at all true if we say that we have no sin, lest humility, if placed on the side of falsehood, should lose the reward of truth.
CHAP. 39. — PELAGIUS GLORIFIES GOD AS CREATOR AT THE EXPENSE OF GOD AS SAVIOUR.
Beyond this, however, although he flatters himself that he vindicates the cause of God by defending nature, he forgets that by predicating soundness of the said nature, he rejects the Physician's mercy. He, however, who created him is also his Saviour. We ought not, therefore, so to magnify the Creator as to be compelled to say, nay, rather as to be convicted of saying, that the Saviour is superfluous. Man's nature indeed we may honour with worthy praise, and attribute the praise to the Creator's glory; but at the same time, while we show our gratitude to Him for having created us, let us not be ungrateful to Him for healing us. Our sins which He heals we must undoubtedly attribute not to God's operation, but to the wilfulness of man, and submit them to I/is righteous punishment; as, however, we acknowledge that it was in our power that they should not be committed, so let us confess that it lies in His mercy rather than in our own power that they should be healed. But this mercy and remedial help of the Saviour, according to this writer, consists only in this, that He forgives the transgressions that are past, not that He helps us to avoid such as are to come. Here he is most fatally mistaken; here, however unwittingly — here he hinders us from being watchful, and from praying that " we enter not into temptation," since he • 6 I John i. 8.
Chap. 43.]
maintains that it lies entirely in our own control that this should not happen to us.
CHAP. 40 [X.XXV.] WHY THERE IS A RECORD IN SCRIPTURE OF CERTAIN MEN'S SLN'S. RECKLESS- NESS IN SIN ACCOUNTS IT TO BE SO MUCH LOSS WHENEVER IT FALLS SHORT IN GRATIFYING LUST.
He who has a sound judgment says soundly, " that the examples of certain persons, of whose sinning we read in Scripture, are not recorded for this purpose, that they may encourage despair of not sinning, and seem somehow to afford security in committing sin," — but that we may learn the humility of repentance, or else discover that even in such falls salvation ought not to be despaired of. For there are some who, when they have fallen into sin, perish rather from the recklessness of despair, and not only neglect the remedy of repentance, but become the slaves of lusts and wicked desires, so far as to run all lengths in gratifying these depraved and abandoned dispositions, — as if it were a loss to them if they failed to accomplish what their lust impelled them to, whereas all the while there awaits them a certain condemnation. To oppose this morbid recklessness, which is only too full of danger and ruin, there is great force in the record of those sins into which even just and holy men have before now fallen.
CH.AP. 41. WHETHER HOLY MEN HAVE DIED WITHOUT SIN.
But there is clearly much acuteness in the question put by our author, " How must we suppose that those holy men quitted this life, — with sin, or without sin? " For if we answer, '• With sin," condemnation will be supposed to have been their destiny, which it is shocking to imagine; but if it be said that they departed this life " without sin," then it would be a proof that man had been without sin in his present life, at all events, when death was approaching. But, with all his acuteness, he overlooks the circumstance that even righteous persons not without good reason offer up this prayer: " Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors; " ' and that the Lord Christ, after explaining the prayer in His teaching, most truly added: '' For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your Father will also forgive you your trespasses." ^ Here, indeed, we have the daily incense, so to speak, of the Spirit, which is offered to God on the altar of the heart, which we are bidden " to lift up," — implying that, even if we cannot live here without sin, we may yet die without sin, when in merciful forgiveness the sin is blotted out which is committed in ignorance or infirmity.
' Matt. vi. 12.
2 Matt. vi. 14.
CHAP. 42 [XXXVI.] THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY MAY HAVE LIVED WITHOUT SIN. NONE OP THE SAINTS BESIDES HER WITHOLTl" SIN.
He then enumerates those " who not only lived without sin, but are described as having led holy lives, — Abel, Enoch, Melchizedek, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joshua the son of Nun, Phinehas, Samuel, Nathan, l-^lijah, Joseph, Elisha, Micaiah, Daniel, Hananiah, Azariah, Mishael, Mordecai, Simeon, Joseph to whom the Virgin Mary was espoused, John." And he adds the names of some women, — " Deborah, Anna the mother of Samuel, Judith, Esther, the other Anna, daughter of Phanuel, Elisabeth, and also the mother of our Lord and Saviour, for of her," he says, " we must needs allow that her piety had no sin in it." We must except the holy Virgin Mary, concerning whom I wish to raise no question when it touches the subject of sins, out of honour to the Lord; for from Him we know what abundance of grace for overcoming sin in every particular was conferred upon her who had the merit to conceive and bear Him who undoubtedly had no sin.^ Well, then, if, with this exception of the Virgin, we could only assemble together all the forementioned holy men and women, and ask them whether they lived without sin whilst they were in this life, what can we suppose w'ould be their answer? Would it be in the language of our author, or in the words of the Apostle John? I put it to you, whether, on having such a question submitted to them, however excellent might have been their sanctity in this body, they would not have exclaimed with one voice: " If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us?"-* But perhaps this their answer would have been more humble than true! .Well, but our author has already determined, and rightly determined, " not to place the praise of humility on the side of falsehood." If, therefore, they spoke the truth in giving such an answer, they would have sin, and since they humbly acknowledged it, the truth would be in them; but if they lied in their answer, they would still have sin, because the truth would not be in them.
CHAP. 43 [xXXVIl] — WHY SCRIPTURE HAS NOT MENTIONED THE SINS OF ALL.
" But perhaps," says he, " they will ask me: Could not the Scripture have mentioned sins of all of these? " And surely they would say the truth, whoever should put such a question to him; and I do not discover that he has anywhere given a sound reply to them, although I perceive that he was unwilling to be silent.
3 I John ill. 5.
* I John i. 8.
[Chap. 44.
What he has said, I beg of you to observe: " This," says he, " might be rightly asked of those whom Scripture mentions neitlier as good nor as bad; but of those whose holiness it commemorates, it would also without doubt have commemorated the sins likewise, if it had perceived that they had sinned in anything." Let him say, then, that their great faith did not attain to righteousness in the case of those who comprised " the multitudes that went before and that followed " the colt on which the Lord rode, when " they shouted and said, Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord," ' even amidst the malignant men who with murmurs asked why they were doing all this! Let him then boldly tell us, if he can, that there was not a man in all that vast crowd who had any sin at all. Now, if it is most absurd to make such a statement as this, why has not the Scripture mentioned any sins in the persons to whom reference has been made, especially when it has carefully recorded the eminent goodness of their faith?
CHAP. 44. — PELAGIUS ARGUES THAT ABEL WAS SINLESS.
This, however, even he probably observed, and therefore he went on to say: " But, granted that it has sometimes abstained, in a numerous crowd, from narrating the sins of all; still, in the very beginning of the world, when there were only four persons in existence, what reason (asks he) have we to give why it chose not to mention the sins of all? Was it in consideration of the vast multitude, which had not vet come into existence? or because, having mentioned only the sins of those who had transgressed, it was unable to record any of him who had not yet committed sin?" And then he proceeds to add some words, in which he unfolds this idea with a fuller and more explicit illustration. " It is certain," says he, " that in the earliest age Adam and Eve, and Cain and Abel their sons, are mentioned as being the only four persons then in being. Eve sinned, — the Scripture distinctly says so much; Adam also transgressed, as the same Scripture does not fail to inform us; whilst it affords us an equally clear testimony that Cain also sinned: and of all these it not only mentions the sins, but also indicates the character of their sins. Now if Abel had likewise sinned, Scripture would without doubt have said so. But it has not said so, therefore he committed no sin; nay, it even shows him to have been righteous. What we read, therefore, let us believe; and what we do not read, let us deem it wicked to add."
' Matt. xxi. 9.
' Matt. xxi. 9.
CHAP. 45 [xXXVin.J — WHY CAIN HAS BEEN BY SOME THOUGHT TO HAVE HAD CHILDREN BY HIS MOTHER EVE. THE SINS OF RIGHTEOUS MEN. WHO CAN BE BOTH RIGHTEOUS, AND YET NOT WITHOUT SIN.
When he says this, he forgets what he had himself said not long before: " After the human race had multiplied, it was possible that in the crowd the Scripture may have neglected to notice the sins of all men." If indeed he had borne this well in mind, he would have seen that even in one man there was such a crowd and so vast a number of slight sins, that it would have been impossible (or, even if possible, not desirable) to describe them. For only such are recorded as the due bounds allowed, and as would, by few examples, serve for instructing the reader in the many cases where he needed warning. Scripture has indeed omitted to mention concerning the few persons who were then in existence, either how many or who they were, — in other words, how! many sons and daughters Adam and Eve begat, and what names they gave them; and from this I circumstance some, not considering how many j things are quietly passed over in Scripture, have gone so far as to suppose that Cain cohabited 1 with his mother, and by her had the children which are mentioned, thinking that Adam's sons j had no sisters, because Scripture failed to mention j them in the particular place, although it afterwards, in the way of recapitulation, implied what I it had previously omitted, — that "Adam begat ] sons and daughters," - without, however, dropping a syllable to intimate either their number or the time when they were born. In like manner it was unnecessary to state whether Abel, notwithstanding that he is righdy styled " righteous," ever indulged in immoderate laughter, or was ever jocose in moments of relaxation, or ever looked at an object with a covetous eye, or ever plucked fruit to extravagance, or ever suffered indigestion from too much eating, or ever in the midst of his prayers permitted his thoughts to wander and call him away from the purpose of his devotion; as well as how frequently these and many other similar failings stealthily crept over his mind. And are not these failings sins, about which the apostle's precept gives us a general admonition that we should avoid and restrain them, when he says: " Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof? " ^ To escape from such an obedience, we have to struggle in a constant and daily conflict against unlawful and unseemly inclinations. Only let the eye be directed, or rather abandoned, to an object which it ought to avoid, and let the mischief strengthen and get the mastery, and * Gen. V. 4.
3 Rom. vi. 12.
Chap. 48.]
^Z7 adultery is consummated in the body, which is committed in the heart only so much more quickly as thought is more rapid than action and there is no impediment to retard and delay it. They who in a great degree have curlied this sin, that is, this appetite of a corrupt affection, so as not to obey its desires, nor to " yield their members to it as instruments of unrighteousness," ' have fairly deserved to be called righteous persons, and this by the help of the grace of God. Since, however, sin often stole over them in very small matters, and when they were off their guard, they were both righteous, and at the same time not sinless. To conclude, if there was in righteous Abel that love of God whereby alone he is truly righteous who is righteous, to enable him, and to lay him under a moral obligation, to advance in holiness, still in whatever degree he fell short therein was of sin. And who indeed can help thus f:illing short, until he come to that mighty power thereof, in which man's entire infirmity shall be swallowed up?
CHAP. 46 [XXXIX.] — SHALL WE FOLLOW SCRIP- TURE, OR ADD TO ITS DECLARATIONS?
It is, to be sure, a grand sentence with which he concluded this passage, when he says: "What we read, therefore, let us believe; and what we do not read, let us deem it wicked to add; and let it suffice to have said this of all cases." On the contrary, I for my part say that we ought not to believe even everything that we read, on the sanction of the apostle's advice: " Read all things; hold fast that which is good." ^ Nor is it wicked to add something which we have not read; for it is in our power to add something which we have dona fide experienced as witnesses, even if it so happens that we have not read about it. Perhaps he will say in reply: " When I said this, I wa-s treating of the Holy Scriptures." Oh how I wish that he were never willing to add, I will not say anything but what he reads in the Scriptures, but in opposition to what he reads in them; that he would only faithfully and obediently hear that which is written there: " By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men; in which all have sinned; " 3 and that he would not weaken the grace of the great Physician, — all by his unwillingness to confess that human nature is corrupted! Oh how I wish that he would, as a Christian, read the sentence, " There is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved; " •♦ and that he would not so uphold the possibility of human nature, as to believe that man can be saved by free will without that Name!
' Rom. vi. 13. * Acts iv. 12.
^ I Thess. V. 21.
3 Rom. V. 12.
CHAP. 47 [xL.] — FOR WH.Vr PELAGIUS THOUGHT THAT CHRIST IS NECESSARY TO US.
Perhaps, however, he thinks the name of Christ to be necessary on this account, that by His gospel we may learn how we ought to live; but'^not that we may be also assisted by His grace, in order withal to lead good lives. Well, even this consideration should lead him at least to confess that there is a miserable darkness in the human mind, which knows how i,t ought to tame a lion, but knows not how to live. To know this, too, is it enough for us to have free will and natural law? This is that wisdom of word, whereby " the cross of Christ is rendered of none effect." 5 He, however, who said, " I will destroy the wisdom of the wise," '' since that cross cannot be made of none effect, in very deed overthrows that wisdom by the foolishness of preaching whereby believers are healed. For if natural capacity, by help of free will, is in itself sufficient both for discovering how one ought to live, and also for leading a holy life, then " Christ died in vain," 7 and therefore also " the offence of the cross is ceased." ^ Why also may I not myself exclaim? — nay, I will exclaim, and chide them with a Christian's sorrow, — "Christ is become of no effect unto you, whosoever of you are justified by nature; ye are fallen from grace; " '^ for, "being ignorant of God's righteousness, and wishing to establish your own righteousness, you have not submitted yourselves to the righteousness of God." '° For even as "Christ is the end of the law," so likewise is He the Saviour of man's corrupted nature, " for righteousness to every one that believeth." " CHAP. 48 [XLI.] — HOW THE TERM " ALL " IS TO BE UNDERSTOOD.
His opponents adduced the passage, "All have sinned," '^ and he met their statement founded on this with the remark that " the apostle was manifesdy speaking of the then existing generation, that is, the Jews and the Gentiles; " but surely the passage which I have quoted, " By one man sin entered the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men; in which all have sinned," ^ embraces in its terms the generations both of old and of modern times, both ourselves and our posterity. He adduces also this passage, whence he would prove that we ought not to understand all without exception, when "all" is used: — " As by the oftence of one," he says, " upon all men to condemnation, even so by the righteousness of One, upon all men unto justification of life." '3 " There can be no doubt," he says, " that not all men are sanctified by the righteousness of Christ, but only those who are 1^.8 [Chap. 49.