4. Therefore I have in this letter, which has reached you, shown by passages of Holy Scripture, which you can examine for yourselves, that our good works and pious prayers and right faith could not possibly have been in us unless we had received them all from Him, concerning whom the Apostle James says, " Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights." ^ And so no man can say that it is by the merit of his own works, or by the merit of his own prayers, or by the merit of his own faith, that God's grace has been conferred upon him; nor suppose that the doctrme is true which those heretics hold, that the grace of God is given us in proportion to our own merit. This is altogether a most erroneous opinion; not, indeed, because there is no desert, good in pious persons, or evil in impious ones (for how else shall God judge the world?),^ but because a man is converted by that mercy and grace of God, of which the Psalmist says, " As for my God, His mercy shall prevent me;""* so that the unrighteous man is justified, that is, becomes just instead of impious, and begins to possess that good desert which God will crown when the world shall be judged.
5. There were many things which I wanted to send you, by the perusal whereof you would have been able to gain a more exact and full knowledge of all that has been done by the bishops in their councils against these Pelagian heretics. But the brethren were in haste who came to us from your company. By them we have sent you this letter; which is, however, not an answer to any communication, because, in truth, they brought us no epistle from your beloved selves. Yet we had no hesitation in receiving them; for their simple manners proved to us clearly enough that there could have been nothing unreal or deceptive in their visit to us. They were, however, in much haste, as wishing to spend Easter at home with you; and my earnest prayer is, that so sacred a day may, by the Lord's help, bring peace to you, and not dissension, 6. You will, indeed, take the better course (as I earnestly request you), if you will not refuse to send to me the very person by whom they say they have been disturbed. For either he does not understand my book, or else, perhaps, he is himself misunderstood, when he endeavours to solve and explain a question which is a very difficult one, and intelligible to few. For it is none other than the question of God's grace which has caused persons of no understanding to think that the Apostle Paul prescribes it to us as a rule, " Let us do evil that good may come."' It is in reference to these that the Apostle Peter writes in his second Epistle; " Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent, that ye may be found of Him in peace, without spot and blameless • and account that the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also, according to the wisdom given unto him, hath written unto you; as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things: in which are some things hard to be understood, which they that are unlearned and unstable wrest, as they do also the other Scriptures, unto their own destruction."* 7. Take good heed, then, to these fearful words of the great apostle; and when you feel that you do not understand, put your faith in the meanwhile in the inspired word of God, and believe both that man's will is free, and that there is also God's grace, without whose help man's free will can neither be turned towards God, nor make any progress in God. And what you piously believe, that pray that you may have a wise understanding of. And, indeed, it is for this very purpose, — that is, that we may have a wise understanding, that there is a free will. For unless we understood and were wise with a free will, it would not be enjoined to us in the words of Scripture, " Understand now, ye simple among the people; and ye fools, at length be wise," ' The very precept and injunction which calls on us to be intelligent and wise, requires also our obedience; and we could exercise no obedience without free will. But if it were in our power to obey this precept to be understanding and wise by free will, without the help of God's grace, it would be unnecessary to say to God, "Give me understanding, that I may learn Thy commandments;"^ nor would it have been written in the gospel, "Then opened He their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures; "9 nor should the Apostle-James address us in such words as, "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.""' But the Lord is able to grant, both to you and to us, that we may rejoice over very speedy tidings of your peace and pious unanimity. I send you greeting, not in my own name only, but of the brethren also who are with me; and I ask you to pray for us with one accord and with all earnestness. The Lord be with you.
LETTER IL TO MY VERY DEAR LORD AND MOST HONOURED BROTHER AMOXG THE MEMBERS OF CHRIST, VALENTINUS, AND TO THE BRETHREN THAT ARE WITH YOU, AUGUSTIN SENDS GREETING IN THE LORD.
1. That Cresconius and Felix, and another Felix, the servants of God, who came to us from your brotherhood, have sjjent Easter with us is known to your Love.' We have detained them somewhile longer in order that they might return to you better instructed against the new Pelagian heretics, into whose error every one falls who supposes that it is according to any human merits that the grace of God is given to us, which alone delivers a man through Jesus Christ our Lord. But he, too, is no less in error who thinks that, when the Lord shall come to judgment, a man is not judged according to his works who has been able to use throughout his life free choice of will. For only infants, who have not yet done any works of their own, either good or bad, will be condemned on account of original sin alone, when they have not been delivered by the Saviour's grace in the laver of regeneration. As for all others who, in the use of their free will, have added to original sin, sins of their own commission, but who have not been delivered by God's grace from the power of darkness and removed into the kingdom of Christ, they will receive judgment according to the deserts not of their original sin only, but also of the acts of their own will. The good, indeed, shall receive their reward according to the merits of their own good-will, but then they received this very good-will through the grace of God; and thus is accomplished that sentence of Scripture, " Indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile: but glory, honour, and peace to every man that worketh good; to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile." ^ 2. Touching the very difficult question of will and grace, I have felt no need of treating it further in this letter, having given them another letter also when they were about to return in greater haste. I have written a book likewise for you,^ and if you, by the Lord's help, read it, and have a lively understanding of it, I think that no further dissension on this subject will arise among you. They take with them other documents besides, which, as we supposed, ought to be sent to you, in order that from these you may ascertain what means the catholic Church has adopted for repelling, in God's mercy, the poison of the Pelagian heresy. For the letters to Pope Innocent, Bishop of Rome, from the Council of the province of Carthage, and from the Council of Numidia, and one wTitten with exceeding care by five bishops, and what he wrote back to these three; our letter also to Pope Zosimus about the African Council, and his answer addressed to all bishops throughout the world; and a brief constitution, which we drew up against the error itself at a later plenary Council of all Africa; and the above-mentioned book of mine, which I have just written for you, — all these we have both read over with them, while they were with us, and have now despatched by theii hands to you.* 3. Furthermore, we have read to them the work of the most blessed mart\T C\-prian on the Lord's Prayer, and have pointed out to them how He taught that all things pertaining to our morals, which constitute right living, must be sought from our Father which is in heaven, lest, by presuming on free will, we fall from divine grace. From the same treatise we have also shown them how the same glorious martyr has taught us that it behoves us to pray even for our enemies who have not yet believed in Christ, that they may believe; which would of course be all in vain unless the Church believed that even the evil and unbelieving wills of men might, by the grace of God, be converted to good. This book of St. Cyprian, however, we have not sent you, because they told us that you possessed it among yourselves already. My letter, also, which had been sent to Sixtus, presbyter of the Church at Rome,* and which they brought with them to us, we read over with them, and pointed out how that it had been written in opposition to those who say that God's grace is bestowed according to our merits, — that is to say, in opposition to the same Pelagians.
4. As far, then, as lay in our power, we have used our influence with them, as both your brethren and our own, with a view to their persevering in the soundness of the catholic faith, which neither denies free will whether for an evil or a good life, nor attributes to it so much power that it can avail anything without God's grace, whether that it may be changed from evil to good, or that it may persevere in the pursuit of good, or that it may attain to eternal good when there is no further fear of failure. To yourselves, too, my most dearly beloved, I also, in this letter, give the same exhortation which the apostle addresses to us all, "not to think ' The phrase of Christian salutation, vestra cariias which may be rendered " your loving or beloved selves; " it is a parallel phrase with the more familiar one to modern ears, " Your Honour."
2 Rom. ii. 8, 9. 3 The following treatise is here referred to, — On Grace and Free Will.
of yourselves more highl}- than you ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith." ' 5. Mark well the counsel which the Holy Ghost gives us by Solomon: " Make straight paths for thy feet, and order thy ways aright. Turn not aside to the right hand nor to the left, but turn away thy foot from the evil way; for the Lord knoweth the ways on the right hand, but those on the left are perverse. He will make thy ways straight, and will direct thy steps in peace." '^ Now consider, my brethren, that in these words of Holy Scripture, if there were no free will, it would not be said, " Make straight paths for thy feet, and order thy ways; turn not aside to the right hand, nor to the left." Nor yet, were this possible for us to achieve without the grace of God, would it be afterwards added, " He will make thy ways straight, and will direct thy steps in peace."
6. Decline, therefore, neither to the right hand nor to the left, although the paths on the right hand are praised, and those on the left hand are blamed. This is why he added, "Turn away thy foot from the evil way," — that is, from the left-hand path. This he makes manifest in the following words, saying, " For the Lord knoweth the ways on the right hand; but those on the left are perverse." In those ways we ought surely to walk which the Lord knows; and it is of these that we read in the Psalm, " The Lord knoweth the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish;"^ for this way, which is on the left hand, the Lord does not know. As He will also say at l^st to such as are placed on His left hand at the day of judgment: " I know you not."* Now what is that which He knows not, who knows all things, both good and evil, in man.'' But what is the meaning of the words, " I know you not," unless it be that you are now such as I never made you.'
Precisely as that passage runs, which is spoken of the Lord Jesus Christ, that "He knew no sin."-'' How knew it not, except that He had never made it.' And, therefore, how is to be understood the passage, "The ways which are on the right hand the Lord knoweth," except in the sense that He made those ways Himself, — even " the paths of the righteous," which no doubt are " those good works that God," as the apostle tells us, " hath before ordained that we should walk in them".'* Whereas the left-hand ways — those perverse paths of the unrighteous — He truly knows nothing of, because He never made them for man, but man made them for himself. Wherefore He says, " The perverse ways of the wicked I utterly abhor; they are on the left hand."
7. But the reply is made: Why did He say, " Turn not aside to the right hand, nor to the left," when he clearly ought rather to have said. Keep to the right hand, and turn not off to the left, if the right-hand paths are good.' Why, do we think, except this, that the paths on the right hand are so good that it is not good to turn off from them, even to the right? For that man, indeed, is to be understood as declining to the right who chooses to attribute to himself, and not to God, even those good works which appertain to right-hand ways. Hence it was that after saying, " For the Lord knoweth the wa)'S on the right hand, but those on the left hand are perverse," as if the objection were raised to Him, Wherefore, then, do you not wish us to turn aside to the right? He immediately added as follows: " He will Himself make thy paths straight, and will direct thy ways in peace." Understand, therefore, the precept, " Make straight paths for thy feet, and order thy ways aright," in such a sense as to know that whenever you do all this, it is the Lord God who enables you to do it. Then you will not turn off to the right, although you are walking in right-hand paths, not trusting in your own strength; and He will Himself be your strength, who will make straight paths for your feet, and will direct your ways in peace.
8. Wherefore, most dearly beloved, whosoever says, ^ly will suffices for me to perform good works, declines to the right. But, on the other hand, they who think that a good way of life should be forsaken, when they hear God's grace so preached as to lead to the supposition and belief that it of itself makes men's wills from evil to good, and it even of itself keeps them what it has made them; and who, as the result of this opinion, go on to say, " Let us do evil that good may come," ' — these persons decline to the left. This is the reason why he said to you, " Turn not aside to the right hand, nor to the left; " in other words, do not uphold free will in such wise as to attribute good works to it without the grace of God, nor so defend and maintain grace as if, by reason of it, you may love evil works in security and safety, — which may God's grace itself avert from you! Now it was the words of such as these which the apostle had in view when he said, " What shall we say, then.' Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? " ^ And to this cavil of erring men, who know nothing about the grace of God, he returned such an answer as he ought in these words: " God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? " Nothing could have been said more succinctly, and yet to the point. For what more useful gift does the grace of God confer upon us, in this present evil world, than our dying unto sin.'
Hence he shows himself ungrateful to grace itself who chooses to live in sin by reason of that whereby we die unto sin. May God, however, who is rich in mercy, grant you both to think soundly and wisely, and to continue perseveringly and progressively to the end in every good determination and purpose. For yourselves, for us, for all who love you, and for those who hate you, pray that this gift may be attained, — pray earnestly and vigilantly in brotherly peace. Live unto God. If I deserve any favour at your hands, let brother Florus come to me.
CONTENTS OF THE TREATISE "ON GRACE AND FREE WILL."
CHAPTER PAGB 1. The occasion and argument of this work 443 2. He proves the existence of free will in man from the precepts addressed to him by God 444 3. Sinners are convicted when attempting to excuse themselves by blaming God, because THEY have free WILL 444 4. The divine commands which are most suited to the will itself illustrate its freedom 444 5. He shows that ignorance affords no such excuse as shall free the offender from punishment; but that to sin with knowledge is a graver thing than to sin in ignorance 445 6. God's grace to be maintained against the Pelagians; the Pelagian heresy not an old one 446 7. Grace is necessary along with free will to lead a good life 446 8. Conjugal chastity is itself the gift of God 447 9. Entering into temptation. Prayer is a proof of grace 447 10. Free will and God's grace are simultaneously commended 448 11. Other passages of Scripture which the Pelagians abuse 448 12. He proves out of St. Paul that grace is not given according to men's merits...448 13. The grace of God is not given according to merit, but itself makes all good desert, 449 14. Paul first received grace that he might win the crown 449 15. The Pelagians profess that the only grace which is not given according to our merits is that of the forgiveness of sins 450 16. Paul fought, but God gave the victory: he ran, but God showed mercy 450 17. The faith that he kept was the free gift of God 450 18. Faith without good works is not sufficient for salvation 45^ 19. How is eternal life both a reward for service and a free gift of grace? 451 20. The question answered. Justification is grace simply and entirely. Eternal life is reward and grace 451 21. Eternal life is "grace for grace" 452 22. Who is the transgressor of the law? The oldness of its letter. The newness of ITS spirit 453 23. The Pelagians maintain that the law is the grace of God which helps us not to sin, 453 24. Who may be said to wish to establish their own righteousness. "God's righteousness," so called, which man has from God 453 25. As the law is not, so neither is our nature itself that grace by which we are Christians 454 26. The Pelagians contend that the grace, which is neither the law nor nature, avails only to the remission of past sins, but not to the avoidance of future ones.. 454 27. Grace effects the fulfilment of the law, the deliverance of nature, and the suppression OF sin's dominion 455 28. Faith is the gift of God 455 29. God is able to convert opposing wills, and to take away from the heart its hardness 455 30. The grace by which the stony heart is removed is not preceded by good deserts, but by evil ones 456 31. Free will has its function in the heart's conversion; but grace too has its...456 32. In what sense it is rightly said that, if we like, we may keep God's commandments. 457 2Z- A good will may be small and weak; an ample will, great love. Operating and 34. The Apostle's eulogy of love. Correction to be administered with love 458 35. Commendations of love 458 36. Love commended by our Lord Himself 459 37. The love which fulfils the commandments is not of ourselves, but of God 459 38. We would not love God unless He first loved us. The Apostles chose Christ because they were chosen; they were not chosen because they chose Christ 459 39. The spirit of fear a great gift of God 460 40. The ignorance of the Pelagians in maintaining that the knowledge of the law comes from God, but that love comes from ourselves 460 41. The wills of men are so much in the power of God, that He can turn them whithersoever it pleases Him 461 42. God does whatsoever He wills in the hearts of even wicked men 462 43. God operates on men's hearts to incline their wills whithersoever He pleases...463 44. Gratuitous grace exemplified in infants 463 45. The reason why one person is assisted by grace, and another is not helped, must be referred to the secret judgments of god 464 46. Understanding and wisdom must be sought from God 465 A TREATISE ON GRACE AND FREE WILL.
BY AURELIUS AUGUSTIN, BISHOP OF HIPPO; ADDRESSED TO VALENTINUS AND THE MONKS OF ADRUMETUM, AND COMPLETED IN ONE BOOK.
IN THIS TREATISE AUGUSTIN TEACHES US TO BEWARE OF MAINTAINING GRACE BY DENYING FREE WILL, OR FREE WILL BY DENYING GRACE; FOR THAT IT IS EVIDENT FROM THE TESTIMONY OF SCRIPTURE THAT THERE IS IN MAN A FREE CHOICE OF WILL; AND THERE ARE ALSO IN THE SAME SCRIPTURES INSPIRED PROOFS GIVEN OF THAT VERY GRACE OF GOD WITHOUT WHICH WE CAN DO NOTH-ING GOOD. AFTERWARDS, IN OPPOSITION TO THE PELAGIANS, HE PROVES THAT GRACE IS NOT BESTOWED ACCORDING TO OUR MERITS. HE EXPLAINS HOW ETERNAL LIFE, WHICH IS RENDERED TO GOOD WORKS, IS REALLY OF GRACE. HE THEN GOES ON TO SHOW THAT THE GRACE WHICH IS GIVEN TO US THROUGH OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST IS NEITHER THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE LAW, NOR NATURE, NOR SIMPLY REMISSION OF SINS; BUT THAT IT IS GRACE THAT MAKES US FULFIL THE LAW, AND CAUSES NATURE TO BE LIBERATED FROM THE DOMINION OF SIN. HE DEMOL-ISHES THAT VAIN SUBTERFUGE OF THE PELAGIANS, TO THE EFFECT THAT "GRACE, ALTHOUGH IT IS NOT BESTOWED ACCORDING TO THE MERITS OF GOOD WORKS, IS YET GIVEN ACCORDING TO THE MERITS OF THE ANTECEDENT GOOD-WILL OF THE MAN WHO BELIEVES AND PRAYS." HE INCIDENTALLY TOUCHES THE QUESTION, WHY GOD COMMANDS WHAT HE MEANS HIMSELF TO GIVE, AND WHETHER HE IMPOSES ON US ANY COMMANDS WHICH WE ARE UNABLE TO PERFORM. HE CLEARLY SHOWS THAT THE LOVE WHICH IS INDISPENSABLE FOR FULFILLING THE COM-MANDMENTS IS ONLY WITHIN US FROM GOD HIMSELF. HE POINTS OUT THAT GOD WORKS IN men's hearts TO INCLINE THEIR WILLS WHITHERSOEVER HE WILLETH, EITHER TO GOOD WORKS ACCORDING TO HIS MERCY, OR TO EVIL ONES IN RETURN FOR THEIR DESERVING; HIS JUDGMENT, INDEED, BEING SOMETIMES MANIFEST, SOMETIMES HIDDEN, BUT ALWAYS RIGHTEOUS. LASTLY, HE TEACHES US THAT A CLEAR EXAMPLE OF THE GRATUITOUSNESS OF GRACE, NOT GIVEN IN RETURN FOR OUR DESERTS, IS SUPPLIED TO US IN THE CASE OF THOSE INFANTS WHICH ARE SAVED, WHILE OTHERS PERISH THOUGH THEIR CASE IS IDENTICAL WITH THAT OF THE REST.
CHAP. I [l.] — THE OCCASION AND ARGUMENT OF THIS WORK.
With reference to those persons who so preach and defend man's free will, as boldly to deny, and endeavour to do away with, the grace of God which calls us to Him, and dehvers us from our evil deserts, and by which we obtain the good deserts which lead to everlasting life: we have already said a good deal in discussion, and committed it to writing, so far as the Lord has vouchsafed to enable us. But since there are some persons who so defend God's grace as to deny man's free will, or who [Chap.
suppose that free will is denied when grace is defended, I have determined to write somewhat on this point to your Love,' my brother Valentinus, and the rest of you, who are serving God together under the impulse of a mutual love.
For it has been told me concerning you, brethren, by some members of your brotherhood who have visited us, and are the bearers of this communication of ours to you, that there are dissensions among you on this subject. This, then, being the case, dearly beloved, that you be not disturbed by the obscurity of this question, I counsel you first to thank God for such things as you understand; but as for all which is beyond the reach of your mind, pray for understanding from the Lord, observing, at the same time, peace and love among yourselves; and until He Himself lead you to perceive what at present is beyond your comprehension, Walk firmly on the ground of which you are sure. This is the advice of the Apostle Paul, who, after saying that he was not yet perfect,^ a little later adds, " Let us, therefore, as many as are perfect, be thus minded," 3 — meaning perfect to a certain extent, but not having attained to a perfection sufficient for us; and then immediately adds, " And if, in any thing, ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. Nevertheless, whereunto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule." ■* For by walking in what we have attained, we shall be able to advance to what we have not yet attained, — God revealing it to us if in anything we are otherwise minded, — provided we do not give up what He has already revealed.
CHAP. 2 [n.] — HE PROVES THE EXISTENCE OF FREE WILL IN MAN FROM THE PRECEPTS AD- DRESSED TO HIM BY GOD.
Now He has revealed to us, through His Holy Scriptures, that there is in a man a free choice of will. But how He has revealed this I do not recount in human language, but in divine. There is, to begin with, the, fact that God's precepts themselves would be of no use to a man unless he had free choice of will, so that by performing them he might obtain the promised rewards. For they are given that no one might be able to plead the excuse of ignorance, as the Lord says concerning the Jews in the gospel: •• If I had not come and spoken unto them, they would not have sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin." s Of what sin does He speak but of that great one which He foreknew, while speaking thus, that they would make their own — that is, the death they were going to inflict upon Him? For they did not have "no sin " before Christ came to them in the flesh.
' A form of address, like " your Honour.' 3 Phil iii 15. •♦ Phil. iii. 16.
The apostle also says: " The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold back the truth in unrighteousness; because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath showed it unto them. For the invisible things of Him are from the creation of the world clearly seen — being understood by the things that are made — even His eternal power land Godhead, so that vhey are inexcusable."*^ In what sense does he pronounce them to be " inexcusable," except with reference to such excuse as human pride is apt to allege in such words as, " If I had only known, I would have done it; did I not fail to do it because I was ignorant of it?" or, " I would do it if I knew how; but I do not know, therefore I do not do it"? All such excuse is removed from them when the precept is given them, or the knowledge is made manifest to them how to avoid sin.
CHAP. 3. SINNERS ARE CONVICTED WHEN AT- TEMPl'ING TO EXCUSE THEMSELVES BY BLAMING GOD, BECAUSE THEY HAVE FREE WILL.
There are, however, persons who attempt to ' find excuse for themselves even from God. The [ Apostle James says to such: " Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God; for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempt-I eth He any man. But every man is tempted ' when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then, when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, ' bringeth forth death." ^ Solomon, too, in his j book of Proverbs, has this answer for such as ' wish to find an excuse for themselves from God ' Himself: " The folly of a man spoils his wa3's; ' but he blames God in his heart." ^ And in the I book of Ecclesiasticus we read: " Say not thou, It is through the Lord that I fell away; for thou oughtest not to do the things that He hateth: nor do thou sav, He hath caused me to err; for He hath no need of the sinful man. The Lord! hateth all abomination, and they that fear God! love it not. He Himself made man from the beginning, and left him in the hand of His counsel. If thou be willing, thou shalt keep His commandments, and perform true fidelity. He hath set fire and water before thee: stretch forth thine hand unto whether thou wilt. Before man is life and death, and whichsoever pleaseth him shall be given to him." 9 Observe how very plainly is set before our view the free choice of the human will.
CHAP. 4. THE DIVINE COMMANDS WHICH ARE MOST SUITED TO THE WILL ITSELF ILLUSTRATE ITS FREEDOM.
What is the import of the fact that in so many 2 Phil. iii. 12. 5 John XV. 22.
7 Jas. i. 13-15.
8 Prov. xix. 3.
Chap. 5.]
ON GRACE AND FREE WILL