the approbation of God.'° This trail of sadness, however, is the greater or the less, as each man has made more or less progress in his kindly purposes. If, then, these considerations, and such as these, be duly weighed, we are only right when we say in our prayers, " Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors." ' But what we say in our prayers we must carry into ^ For this reading of iiKmocrui'ni' instead of eAfnuoo- rnr there is high MS. authority. It is admitted also by Griesbach, Lachmann, I'ischendorf, Tregelles, Westcott and Hon, and AHord, Chap. 20.]
act, even to loving our very enemies; or if any one who is still a babe in Christ fails as yet to reach this point, he must at any rate, whenever one who has trespassed against him repents and craves his pardon, exercise forgiveness from the bottom of his heart, if he would have his heavenly Father listen to his prayer.
(19.) THE COMMANDMENT OF LOVE SHALL BE PERFECTLY FULFILLED IN THE LIFE TO COME.
And m this prayer, unless we choose to be contentious, there is placed before our view a: mirror of sufficient brightness in which to behold the life of the righteous, who live by faith, and; finish their course, although they are not without sin. Therefore they say, " Forgive us," because j they have not yet arrived at the end of their course. Hence the apostle says, " Not as if I i had already attained, either were already perfect...Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reachmg forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark, for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded." ' In other words, let us, as many as are running perfecdy, be thus resolved, that, being not yet perfected, we pursue our course to perfection along the way by which we have thus far run perfecdy, in order that " when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part may be done away; " ^ that is, may cease to be but in part any longer, but become whole and complete. For to faith and hope shall succeed at once the very substance itself, no longer to be beheved in and hoped for, but to be seen and grasped. Love, however, which is the greatest among the three, is not to be superseded, but increased and fulfilled, — contemplating in full vision what it used to see by faith, and acquiring in actual fruition what it once only embraced in hope. Then in all this plenitude of charity will be fulfilled the commandment, " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind."
^ For while there remains any remnant of the lust of the flesh, to be kept in check by the rein of continence, God is by no means loved with all one's soul. For the flesh does not lust without the soul; although it is the flesh which is said to lust, because the soul lusts carnally. In that perfect state the just man shall live absolutely without any sin, since there will be in his members no law warring against the law of his mind,-* but wholly will he love God, with all his heart, with all his soul, and I Phil. iii. 12-15. ^ ' Cor. xiii. lo.
3 A/oitf. The Septuagint, however like ilic Hebrew, has Swajjieu)'; * Rom. v'u. 23, A. v. " thy might." Comp. Deut. vi. 5 with Matt. x.\ii.
with all his mind,' which is the first and chief commandment. P'or why should not such perfection be enjoined on ihan, although in this life nobody may attain lu it? For we do not rightly run if we do not know whither we are to run. But how could it be known, unless it were pointed out in precepts?'^ Let us therefore " so run that we may obtain."? For all who run rightly will obtain, — not as in the contest of the theatre, where all indeed run, but only one wins the prize.*" Let us run, believing, hoping, longing; let us run, subjugating the body, cheerfully and heartily doing alms, — in giving kindnesses and forgiving injuries, praying tliat our strength may be helped as we run; and let us so listen to the commandments which urge us to perfection, as not to neglect running towards the fulness of love.
CHAP. IX. (20.) WHO MAY BE SAID TO WALK WITHOUT SPOT; DAMNABLE AND VENLVL SINS.
Having premised these remarks, let us carefully attend to the passages which he whom we are answering has produced, as if we ourselves had cjuoted them. " In Deuteronomy, ' Thou shalt be perfect before the Lord thy God.''^ Again, in the same book, ' There shall be not an imperfect man '° among the sons of Israel.' " In like manner the Saviour says in the Gospel. ' Be ye perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.' '^ So the apostle, in his second Epistle to the Corinthians, says: * Finally, brethren, farewell. Be perfect.' '^ Again, to the Colossians he writes: ' Warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ.' '•♦ And so to the Philippians: ' Do all things without murmurings and disputings, that ye may be blameless, and harmless, as the immaculate sons of God.' '5 In like manner to the Ephesians he writes: ' Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ; according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him.' '^ Then again [ to the Colossians he says in another passage: ' And you, that were sometime alienated, and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled in the body of His flesh through death; present yourselves hoi}' and unblameable and unreprovable in His sight.' '' In the same strain, he says to the Ephesians: ' That He might present to Himself a glorious Church, I 5 Matt. xxii. 37.
6 See above in Augustin's Dc Spiritii et Littera, 64. I 7 I Cor ix. 23. " I Cor. ix. 24. 9 Deut. xviii. 13.
'° Augustin's word is i)icotisuiiiniatus. The Septuagint term TeA^(T^•oMt'■o<; (which properly signifies coiuf>lctc, perfects comes to mean one initiated into the mysteries of idolatrous worship.
" Col. i. 21. 22.
i66 [Chap. 21.
not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.' ' j So in his first Epistle to the Corinthians he says: j ' Be ye sober, and righteous, and sin not.' ^ So ] again in the Epistle of St. Peter it is written: [ ' Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be; sober, and hope to the end, for the grace that [ is offered to you:...as obedient children, not fashioning yourselves according to the former lusts in your ignorance: but as He who hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; because it is written,^ Be ye holy; for I am holy.''* Whence blessed David likewise says; ' O Lord, who shall sojourn in Thy ■ tabernacle, or who shall rest on Thy holy mountain? He that walketh without blame, and worketh righteousness.' 5 And in another pas-I shall be blameless with Him.' *" And Blessed are the blameless in the who walk in the law of the Lord.' 7 To sage yet way, agam the same effect it is written in Solomon: ' The Lord loveth holy hearts, and all they that are blameless are acceptable unto Him.' " ^ Now some of these passages exhort men who are running their course that they run perfectly; others refer to the end thereof, that men may reach forward to it as they run. He, however, is not unreasonably said to walk blamelessly, not who has already reached the end of his journey, but who is pressing on towards the end in a blameless manner, free from damnable sins, and at the ] same time not neglecting to cleanse by almsgiving such sins as are venial. For the way in which we walk, that is, the road by which we reach perfection, is cleansed by clean prayer. That, however, is a clean prayer in which we say in truth, "Forgive us, as we ourselves forgive." 9 So that, as there is nothing censured when blame is not imputed, we may hold on our course to perfection without censure, in a word, blamelessly; and in this perfect state, when we arrive at it at last, we shall find that there is absolutely nothing which requires cleansing by forgiveness.
CHAP. X. (21.) TO WHOM GOD'S COMMANDMENTS ARE GRIEVOUS; AND TO WHOM, NOT. WHY SCRIPTURE SAYS THAT GOD'S COMMANDMENTS ARE NOT GRIEVOUS; A COMMANDMENT IS A PROOF OF THE FREEDOM OF MAN'S WILL; PRAYER IS A PROOF OF GRACE.
He next quotes passages to show that God's commandments are not grievous. But who can be ignorant of the fact that, since the generic commandment is love (for "the end of the commandment is love," '° and " love is the fulfilling of the law " "), whatever is accomplished ^ I Cor. XV. 34.
S Ps. XV. r, 2.
* Prov. xi. 20.
" Rom. xiii. lo.
3 Lev. xix. 2. * Ps, xviii. 23. 9 Matt. VI. 12.
by the operation of love, and not of fear, is not grievous? They, however, are oppressed by the commandments of God, who try to fulfil them by fearing. " But perfect love casteth out fear; " '^ and, in respect of the burden of the commandment, it not only takes off the pressure of its heavy weight, but it actually lifts it up as if on wings. In order, however, that this love may be possessed, even as far as it can possibly be possessed in the body of this death, the determination of will avails but little, unless it be helped by God's grace through our Lord Jesus Christ.
For as it must again and again be stated, it is " shed abroad in our hearts," not bv our own selves, but " by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us." '3 And for no other reason does Holy Scripture insist on the truth that God's commandments are not grievous, than this, that the soul which finds them grievous may understand that it has not yet received those resources which make the Lord's commandments to be such as they are commended to us as being, even gentle and pleasant; and that it may pray with groaning of the will to obtain the gift of facility. For the man who says, " Let my heart be blameless;" '■♦ and, " Order Thou my steps according to Thy word: and let not any iniquity have dominion over me; " '5 and, "Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven; " '^ and, " Lead us not into temptation; " '7 and other prayers of a like purport, which it would be too long to particularize, does in effect offer up a prayer for ability to keep God's commandments. Neither, indeed, on the one hand, would any injunctions be laid upon us to keep them, if our own will had nothing to do in the matter; nor, on the other hand, would there be any room for prayer, if our will were alone sufficient. God's commandments, therefore, are commended to us as being not grievous, in order that he to whom they are grievous may understand that he has not as yet received the gift which removes their grievousness; and that he may not think that he is really performing them, when he so keeps them that they are grievous to him. For it is a cheerful giver whom God loves.'^ Nevertheless, when a man finds God's commandments grievous, let him not be broken down by despair; let him rather oblige himself to seek, to ask, and to knock.
(22.) PASSAGES TO SHOW TH.AT GOD'S COMMAND- MENTS ARE NOT GRIEVOUS.
He afterwards adduces those passages which represent God as recommending His own commandments as not grievous: let us now attend to their testimony. " Because," says he, "God's commandments are not only not impossible, but they are not even grievous. In Deuteronomy: '< Ps. cxix. 80. *' Matt. VI. 13.
Chap. 24.]
'The Lord thy God will again turn and rejoice over thee for good, as He rejoiced over thy fathers, if ye shall hearken to the voice of the Lord your God, to keep His commandments, and His ordinances, and His judgments, written in the book of this law; if thou turn to the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul. For this command, which I give thee this day, is not grievous, neither is it far from thee: it is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, ^Vho will ascend into heaven, and obtain it for us, that we may hear and do it? neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who will cross over the sea, and obtain it for us, that we hiay hear and do it? The word is nigh thee, in thy mouth, and in thine heart, and in thine hands to do it.' ' In the Gospel likewise the Lord says: ' Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.' ^ So also in the Epistle of Saint John it is written: ' This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments: and His commandments are not grievous.' " ^ On hearing these testimonies out of the law, and the gospel, and the epistles, let us be built up unto that grace which those persons do not understand, who, '■ being ignorant of God's righteousness, and wishing to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God." ■♦ For, if they understand not the passage of Deuteronomy in the sense that the Aposde Paul quoted it, — that " with the heart men believe unto righteousness, and with their mouth make confession unto salvation; " 5 since " they that be whole need not a pliysician, but they that are sick,'"^ — they certainly ought (by that very passage of the Apostle John which he quoted last to this effect: "This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not grievous "3) to be admonished that God's commandment is not grievous to the love of God, which is shed abroad in our hearts only by the Holy Ghost, not by the determination of man's will by attributing to which more than they ought, they are ignorant of God's righteousness. This love, however, shall then be made perfect, when all fear of punishment shall be cut off.
CHAP. XI. (23.) PASS.'VGES OF SCRIPTURE WHICH, WHEN OBJECTED AGAINST HIM BY THE CATHO- LICS, CCELESTIUS ENDEAVOURS TO ELUDE BY OTHER PASSAGES: THE FIRST PASSAGE.
After this he adduced the passages which are usually quoted against them. He does not attempt to explain these passages, but, by quoting what seem to be contrary ones, he has entangled the (questions more tiglitly. " For," says he, " there are passages of Scripture which are in opposition to those who ignorantly suppose that they are able to destroy the liberty of the will, or the possibility of not sinning, by the authority of Scripture. For," he adds, " they are in the habit of quoting against us what holy Job said: ' Who is pure from uncleanness? Not one; even if he be an infant of only one day upon the earth.' " 7 Then he proceeds to give a sort of answer to this passage by help of otlier quotations; as when Job himself said: " For although I am a righteous and blameless man, I have become a subject for mockery," ^ — not understanding that a man may be called righteous, who has gone so far towards perfection in righteousness as to be very near it; and tliis we do not deny to have been in the power of many even in this life, when they walk in it by faith.
(24.) TO BE WITHOUT SIN, AND TO BE WITHOUT BLAME — HOW DIFFERING.
The same thing is affirmed in another passage, which he has quoted immediately afterwards, as spoken by the same Job: " Behold, I am very near my judgment, and I know that I shall be found righteous." 9 Now this is the judgment of which it is said in another scripture: "And He shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday." But he does not say, I am already there; but, " I am very near." If, indeed, the judgment of his which he meant was not that which he would himself exercise, but that whereby he was to be judged at the last day, then in such judgment all will be found righteous who with sincerity pray: " Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors." '° For it is through this forgiveness that they will be found righteous; on this account that whatever sins they have here incurred, they have blotted out by their deeds of charity. Whence the Lord says Give alms things are clean unto you.'
and, behold, all For in the end, it shall be said to the righteous, when about to enter into the promised kingdom: " I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat," '^ and so forth. However, it is one thing to be without sin, which in this life can only be predicated of the Onlybegotten, and another thing to be without accusation, which might be said of many just persons even in the present life; for there is a certain measure of a good life, according to which even in this himian intercourse there could no just accusation be possibly laid against him. For 7 Job xiv. 4, 5. 9 Job xiii. iS. " Luke; : XI. 41, 1 68 [Chap. 25.
who can justly accuse the man who wishes evil to no one, and who faithfully does good to all he can, and never cherishes a wish to avenge himself on any man who does him wrong, so that he can truly say, " As we forgive our debtors? " And yet by the very fact that he truly says, " Forgive, as we also forgive," he plainly admits that he is not witliout sin.
(25.) Hence the force of the statement: " There was no injustice in my hands, but my prayer was pure." ' For the purity of his prayer arose from this circumstance, that it was not improper for him to ask forgiveness in prayer, when he really bestowed forgiveness himself.
(26.) y^HV JOB WAS so GREAT A SUFFERER.
And when he says concerning the Lord, " For many bruises hath He inflicted upon me without a cause,"- observe that his words are not, He hath inflicted 7ione 7uith a cause; but, "many without a cause." For it was not because of his manifold sins that these many bruises were inflicted on him, but in order to make trial of his patience. For on account of his sins, indeed, without which, as he acknowledges in another passage, he was certainly not, he yet judges that he ought to have suffered less.^ (27.) WHO MAY BE SAID TO KEEP THE WAYS OF THE LORD; WHAT IT IS TO DECLINE AND DEPART FROM THE WAYS OF THE LORD.
Then again, as for what he says, " For I have kept His ways, and have not turned aside from His commandments, nor will I depart from them; " ■♦ he has kept God's ways who does not so turn aside as to forsake them, but makes progress by running his course therein; although, weak as he is, he sometimes stumbles or falls, onward, however, he still goes, sinning less and less until he reaches the perfect state in which he will sin no more. For in no other way could he make progress, except by keeping His ways. The man, indeed, who declines from these and becomes an apostate at last, is certainly not he who, although he has sin, yet never ceases to persevere in fighting against it until he arrives at the home where there shall remain no more conflict with death. Well now, it is in our present struggle therewith that we are clothed with the righteousness in which we here live by faith, — clothed with it as it were with a breastplate.5 Judgment also we take on ourselves; and even when it is against us, we turn it round to our own behalf; for we become our own accusers and condemn our sins: whence that scripture which says, " The righteous man accuses himself at the beginning of his speech." '^ Hence also he says: " I put on righteousness, and clothed ' Job xvi. 18.
* Job xxiii. II, 12.
^ Job IX. 17. S Eph. vi. 14.
myself with judgment like a mantle." ^ Our vesture at present no doubt is wont to be armour for war rather than garments of peace, while concupiscence has still to be subdued; it will be diff'erent by and by, when our last enemy death shall be destroyed,^ and our righteousness shall be full and complete, without an enemy to molest us more.
(28.) WHEN OUR HEART MAY BE SAID NOT TO RE- PROACH US; WHEN GOOD IS TO BE PERFECTED.
Furthermore, concerning these words of Job, " My heart shall not reproach me in all my life," "> we remark, that it is in this present life of ours, in which we live by faith, that our heart does not reproach us, if the same faith whereby we believe unto righteousness does not neglect to rebuke our sin. On this principle the apostle says: " The good that I would I do not; but the evil which I would not, that I do." '° Now it is a good thing to avoid concupiscence, and this good the just man would, who lives by faith; " and still he does what he hates, because he has concupiscence, although " he goes not after his lusts; " '- if he has done this, he has himself at that time really done it, so as to yield to, and acquiesce in, and obey the desire of sin.
His heart then reproaches him, because it reproaches himself, and not his sin which dwelleth in him. But whensoever he suffers not sin to reign in his mortal body to obey it in the lusts thereof,'^ and }-ields not his members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin,'* sin no doubt is present in his members, but it does not reign, because its desires are not obeyed. Therefore, while he does that which he would not, — in other words, while he wishes not to lust, but still lusts, — he consents to the law that it is good: 's for what the law would, that he also wishes \ because it is his desire not to indulge concupiscence, and the law expressly says, " Thou shalt not covet." "^ Now in that he wishes what tlie law also would have done, he no doubt consents to the law: but still he lusts, because he is not without sin; it is, however, no longer himself that does the thing, but the sin which dwells within him. Hence it is that " his heart does not reproach him in all his life;" that is, in his faith, because the just man lives by faith, so that' his faith is his very life. He knows, to be sure, that in himself dwells nothing good, — even in his flesh, which is the dwelling-place of sin. By not consenting, however, to it, he lives by faith, wherewith he also calls upon God to help him in his contest against sin. Moreover, there is present to him to will that no sin at all should be in him, but then how to perfect this good is ' Job. xxix. 14, '° Kom. vii. 15. 'J Rom. vi. 12. '*" Ex. XX. 17.
9 Job xxvii. 6. '- Ecclus. xviii. 30. '5 Rom. vii. 16.
Chap. 30.]
not present. It is not the mere "doing" of a goocf thing that is not present to liim, but the " perfecting " of it. For in this, that he yields no consent, he does good; he does good again, in this, that he hates his own lust; he does good also, in this, that he does not cease to give alms; and in this, that he forgives the man who sins against him, he does good; and in this, that he asks forgiveness for his own trespasses, — sincerely avowing in his petition that he also forgives those who trespass against himself, and pra)'ing that he may not be led into temptation, but be delivered from evil, — he does good. But how to perfect the good is not present to him; it will be, however, in that final state, when the concupiscence which dwells in his members shall exist no more. His heart, therefore, does not reproach him, when it reproaches the sin which dwells in his members; nor can it reproach unbelief in him. Thus " in all his life," — that is, in his faith, — he is neither reproached by his own heart, nor convinced of not being without sin. And Job himself acknowledges this concerning himself, when he says, " Not one of my sins hath escaped Thee; Thou hast sealed up my transgressions in a bag, and marked if I have done iniquity unawares." ' With regard, then, to the passages which he has adduced from the book of holy Job, we have shown to the best of our ability in what sense they ought to be taken. He, however, has failed to explain the meaning of the words which he has himself quoted from the same Job: " Who then is pure from uncleanness? Not one; even if he be an infant of only one day upon the earth." ^ CHAP. XII. (29.) THE SECOND PASSAGE. WHO MAY BE SAID TO ABSTAIN FROM EVERY EVIL THING.
"They are in the habit of next quoting," says he, " the passage: ' Every man is a liar.' " ^ But here again he offers no solution of words which are quoted against himself even by himself; all he does is to mention other apparently opposite passages before persons who are unacquainted with the sacred Scriptures, and thus to cast the word of God into conflict. This -is what he says: " We tell them in answer, how in the book of Numbers it is said, ' Man is true.' ■♦ While of holy Job this eulogy is read: ' There was a certain man in the land of Ausis, whose name was Job; that man was true, blameless, righteous, and godly, abstaining from every evil thing.' "5 I am surprised that he has brought forward this passage, which sa}'s that Job " ab- ' Job xiv. 16 * If this refe 17- Job XIV. 4, 5.
3 Ps. CXV. 2.
fer to Num. xxiv. 3, 15 {as the editions mark it), the (Quotation is most inexact. The Septuagint words o aiypwiro? 6 aArjOii'i,)? opcur is not a proposition equal to " homo verax," as an amiihesis to the proposition " oinnis homo mendax." fejobi. I.
Stained from every evil thing," wishing it to mean " abstained from every sin; " because he has argued already "^ that sin is not a thing, but an act. Let him recollect that, even if it is an act, it may still be called a thing. That man, however, abstains from every evil thing, who either never consents to the sin, which is always with him, or, if sometimes hard pressed by it, is never oppressed by it; just as the wresUing champion, who, although he is sometimes caught in a fierce grapple, does not for all that lose the prowess which constitutes him the better man. We read, indeed, of a man without blame, of one without accusation; but we never read of one without sin, except the Son of man, who is also the only-begotten Son of God.
(30.) "every M.\N IS A LIAR," OWING TO HIM- SELF alone; but "every man is true," by HELP only of the GRACE OF GOD.