You see plainly what was at that time my opinion concerning faith and works, although I was labouring in commending God's grace; and in this opinion I see that those brethren of ours now are, because they have not been as careful to make progress with me in my writings as they were in reading them. For if they had been so careful, they would have found that question solved in accordance with the truth of the divine; Scriptures in the first book of the two which I I wrote in the very beginning of my episcopate to Simplicianus, of blessed memory. Bishop of the Church of Milan, and successor to St. Ambrose. Unless, perchance, they may not have known these books; in which case, take care that they do know them. Of this first of those two books, I first spoke in the second book of the Retractations; and what I said is as follows: " Of the books, I say, on which, as a bishop, I have laboured, the first two are addressed to Simplicianus, president of the Church of Milan, who succeeded the most blessed Ambrose, — concerning divers questions, two of which I gathered into the first book from the Epistle of Paul the Apostle to the Romans. The former of them is about what is written: ' \Vhat shall we say, then? Is the law sin? By no means;'"' as far as the passage where he says, ' Who shall deliver me from the botly of this death? The ' Rom. xi. 5.
2 I Cor. xii. 6.
i Eph. vi. 23.
[Chap. 9.
grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.' ' And therein I have expounded those words of the apostle: 'The law is spiritual; but I am carnal,' ^ and others in which the flesh is declared to be in conflict against the Spirit, in such a way as if a man were there described as still under law, and not yet established under grace. For, long afterwards, I perceived that those words might even be (and probably were) the utterance of a spiritual man. The latter question in this book is gathered from that passage where the apostle says, ' And not only this, but when Rebecca also had conceived by one act of intercourse, even by our father Isaac,' ^ as far as that place where he says, ' Except the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we should be as Sodoma, and should have been like unto Gomorrah.' ■♦ In the solution of this question I laboured indeed on behalf of the free choice of the human will, but God's grace overcame, and I could only reach that ])oint where the apostle IS perceived to have said with the most evident truth, ' For who maketh thee to differ? and what hast thou that thou hast not received? Now, if thou hast received it, why dost thou glory as if thou receivedst it not? ' 5 And this the martyr Cyprian was also desirous of setting forth when he compressed the whole of it m that title: ' That we must boast m nothing, since nothing is our own.' " ^ This is why I previously said that it was chiefly by this apostolic testimony that I myself had been convinced, when I thought otherwise concerning this matter; and this God revealed to me as I sought to solve this question when I was writing, as I said, to the Bishop Simplicianus. This testimony, therefore, of the apostle, when for the sake of repressing man's conceit he said, " For what hast thou which thou hast not received?" 5 does not allow any believer to say, I have faith which I received not. All the arrogance of this answer is absolutely repressed by these apostolic words. Moreover, it cannot even be said, " Although I have not a perfected faith, yet I have its beginning, whereby I first of all believed in Christ." Because here also is answered: " But what hast thou that thou hast not received? Now, if thou hast received it, why dost thou glory as if thou receivedst it not?"
CHAP. 9 [v.] — THE PURPOSE OF THE APOSTLE IX THESE WORDS.
The notion, however, which they entertain, " that these words, ' What hast thou that thou hast not received?' cannot be said of this faith, because it has remained in the same nature.
although corrupted, which at first was endowed with health and perfection," ' is perceived to have no force for the purpose that they desire, if it be considered why the apostle said these words. For he was concerned that no one should glory in man, because dissensions had sprung up among the Corinthian Christians, so that every one was saying, " I, indeed, am of Paul, and another, I am of Apollos, and another, I am of Cephas; " ^ and thence he went on to say: " God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the strong things; and God hath chosen the ignoble things of the world, and contemptible things, and those things which are not, to make of no account things which are; that no flesh should glory before God." ^ Here the intention of the apostle is of a certainty sufficiently plain against the pride of man, that no one should glory in man; and thus, no one should glory in himself. Finally, when he had said " that no flesh should glory before God," in order to show in what man ought to glory, he immediately added, " But it is of Him that ye are in Christ Jesus, who is made unto us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: that according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord." '° Thence that intention of his progressed, till afterwards rebuking them he says, " For ye are yet carnal; for whereas there are among you envying and contention, are ye not carnal, and walk according to man? For while one saith I am of Paul, and another, I am of Apollos, are ye not men? What, then, is xApollos, and what Paul? Ministers by whom you believed; and to every one as the Lord has given. I have planted, and Apollos watered; but God gave the increase. Therefore, neither is he that planteth anything, nor he that watereth, but God that giveth the increase." " Do you not see that the sole purpose of the apostle is that man may be humbled, and God alone exalted? Since in all those things, indeed, which are planted and watered, he says that not even are the planter and the waterer anything, but God who giveth the increase: and the very fact, also, that one plants and another waters he attributes not to themselves, but to God, when he says, " To every one as the Lord hath given; 1 have planted, Apollos watered." Hence, therefore, persisting in the same intention he comes to the point of saying, "Therefore let no man glory in man," '^ for he had already said, " He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord." After these and some other matters which are associated 3 Rom. ix. 10.
' Rom. vii. 24. 2 Rom. vii. 14.
^ Cypr. Test Book iii. ch. 4; see The Ante-Nicette Fathers, p 528. Augustin's Retractations, II. i. i.
" I Cor. lii. 3 ff. "1 Cor. hi. 21.
,30.
Chap, ii.]
therewith, that same intention of his is carried on in the words: " And these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and to Apollos for your sakes, that ye might learn in us that no one of you should be puffed up for one against another above that which is written. For who maketh thee to differ? And what hast thou which thou hast not received? Now, if thou hast received it, why dost thou glory as if thou receivedst it not?" ' CHAP. 10. IT IS god's grace WHICH SPECIALLY DISTINGUISHES ONE MAN FROM ANOTHER.
In this the apostle's most evident intention, in which he speaks against human pride, so that none should glory in man but in God, it is too absurd, as I think, to suppose God's natural gifts, whether man's entire and perfected nature itself, as it was bestowed on him in his first state, or the remains, whatever they may be, of his degraded nature. For is it by such gifts as these, which are common to all men, that men are distinguished from men? But here he first said, '"For who maketh thee to differ?" and then added, " And what hast thou that thou hast not received?" Because a man, puffed up against another, might say, " My faith makes me to differ," or " My righteousness," or anything else of the kind. In reply to such notions, the good teacher says, " But what hast thou that thou hast not received? " And from whom but from Him who maketh thee to differ from another, on whom He bestowed not what He bestowed on thee? '•' Now if," says he, " thou hast received it, why dost thou glory as if thou receivedst it not? " Is he concerned, I ask, about anything else save that he who glorieth should glory in the Lord? But nothing is so opposed to this feeling as for any one to glory concerning his own merits in such a way as if he himself had made them for himself, and not the grace of God, — a grace, however, which makes the good to differ from the wicked, and is not common to the good and the wicked. Let the grace, therefore, whereby we are living and reasonable creatures, and are distinguished from cattle, be attributed to nature; let that grace also by which, among men themselves, the handsome are made to differ from the ill-formed, or the intelligent from the stupid, or anything of that kind, be ascribed to nature. But he whom the apostle was rebuking did not puff himself up as contrasted with cattle, nor as contrasted with any other man, in respect of any natural endowment which might be found even in the worst of men. But he ascribed to himself, and not to God, some good gift which pertained to a holy life, and was puffed up therewith when he * I Cor. iv. 6.
deserved to hear the rebuke, " Who hath made thee to differ? and what hast thou that thou receivedst not?" For though the capacity to have faith is of nature, is it also of nature to have it? "For all men have not faith," ^ although all men have the capacity to have faith. But the apostle does not say, " And what hast thou capacity to have, the capacity to have which thou receivedst not?" but he says, " And what hast thou which thou receivedst not?" Accordingly, the capacity to have faith, ^ as the capacity to have love, belongs to men's nature; but to have faith, even as to have love, belongs to the grace of believers. That nature, therefore, in which is given to us the capacity of having faith, does not distinguish man from man, but faith itself makes the believer to differ from the unbeliever. And thus, when it is said, " For who maketh thee to differ? and what hast thou that thou receivedst not? " if any one dare to say, " I have faith of myself, I did not, therefore, receive it," he directly contradicts this most manifest truth, — not because it is not in the choice of man's will to beUeve or not to believe, but because in the elect the will is prepared by the Lord. Thus, moreover, the passage, " For who maketh thee to differ? and what hast thou that thou receivedst not?" refers to that very faith which is in the will of man.
CHAP. 1 1 [VI.] — THAT SOME MEN ARE ELECTED IS OF god's MERCY.
" Many hear the word of truth; but some believe, while others contradict. Therefore, the former will to believe; the latter do not will." Who does not know this? Who can deny this? But since in some the will is prepared by the Lord, in others it is not prepared, we must assuredly be able to distinguish what comes from God's mercy, and what from His judgment. " What Israel sought for," says the apostle, " he hath not obtained, but the election hath obtained it; and the rest were blinded, as it is written, God gave to them the spirit of compunction, — eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear, even to this day. And David said. Let their table be made a snare, a retribution, and a stumblingblock to them; let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see; and bow down their back always." ■» Here is mercy and judgment, — mercy towards the election which has obtained the righteousness of God, but judgment to the rest which have beenblinded. And yet the former, because they 2 2 Thcss. iii 2.
3 Thence say^ Bernard, in his treatise On Grace and Free Will, ch. i.: "God is the author of salvation Free will is only capable of it." Comp. On the Calling of tlie Gentiles. Book li. ch. 2, and Fulgentius, On the Incarnation and Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, chs. 22, 23, and 24.
4 Rom. xi. 7, [Chap. 12.
willed/ believed; the latter, because they did not will believed not. Therefore mercy and judgment were manifested in the very wills themselves. Certainly such an election is of grace, not at all of merits. For he had before said, " So, therefore, even at this present time, the remnant has been saved by the election of grace. And if by grace, now it is no more of works; otherwise grace is no more grace." ^ Therefore the election obtained what it obtained gratuitously; there preceded none of those things which they might first give, and it should be given to them again. He saved them for nothing. But to the rest who were blinded, as is there plainly declared, it was done in recompense. " All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth." ^ But His ways are unsearchable. Therefore the mercy by which He freely delivers, and the truth by which He righteously judges, are equally unsearchable.
CHAP. 1 2 [VII.] — WHY THE APOSTLE SAID THAT WE ARE JUSTIFIED BY FAITH AND NOT BY WORKS.
But perhaps it may be said: " The apostle distinguishes faith from works; he says, indeed, that grace is not of works, but he does not say that it is not of faith." This, indeed, is true. But Jesus says that faith itself also is the work of God, and commands us to work it. For the Jews said to Him, " What shall we do that we may work the work of God? Jesus answered, ■and said unto them. This is the work of God, that ye beheve on Him whom He hath sent." ■* The apostle, therefore, distinguishes faith from works, just as Judah is distinguished from Israel in the two kingdoms of the Hebrews, although Judah is Israel itself. And he says that a man is justified by faith and not by works, because faith itself is first given, from which may be obtained other things which are specially characterized as works, in which a man may live righteously. For he himself also says, " By grace ye are saved through faith; and this not of yourselves; but it is the gift of God," 5 — that is to say, " And in saying, ' through faith,' even faith itself is not of yourselves, but is God's gift" " Not of works," he says, " lest any man should be lifted up." For it is often said, " He deserved to believe, because he was a good man even before he believed." Which may be said of Cornelius,'' since his alms were accepted and his prayers heard before he had believed on Christ; and yet without some faith he neither gave alms nor prayed. For how did he call on Him on whom he had not believed? But if he could have been saved without the faith of Christ, the Apostle Peter would not have been ' According to the Vatican Mss. is read, " The former who willed," and below, " The latter who willed not."
2 Rom. xi, 5. 3 Ps. XXV. lo. * John vi. 28.
sent as an architect to build him up; although, " Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain who build it." 7 And we are told, Faith is of ourselves; other things which pertain to works of righteousness are of the Lord; as if faith did not belong to the building, — as if, I say, the foundation did not belong to the building. But if this primarily and especially belongs to it, he labours in vain who seeks to build up the faith by preaching, unless the Lord in His mercy builds it up from within. \\'hatever, therefore, of good works Cornelius performed, as well before he believed in Christ as when he believed and after he had believed, are all to be ascribed to God, lest, perchance any man be lifted up.
CHAP. 13 [VIII.] — THE EFFECT OF DIVINE GRACE.
Accordingly, our only Master and Lord Himself, when He had said what I have above mentioned, — " This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent," — says a little afterwards in that same discourse of His, " I said unto you that ye also have seen me and have not believed. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me." ^ What is the meaning of " shall come to me," but, " shall believe in me "?
But It is the Father's gift that this may be the case. Moreover, a little after He says, " Murmur not among yourselves. No one can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him; and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets. And they shall be all teachable ^ of God. Every man that hath heard of the Father, and hath learned, Cometh unto me." '° What is the meaning of, " Every man that hath heard from the Father, and hath learned, cometh unto me," except that there is none who hears from the Father, and learns, who cometh not to me? For if every one who has heard from the Father, and has learned, comes, certainly every one who does not come has not heard from the Father; for if he had heard and learned, he would come. For no one has heard and learned, and has not come; but every one, as the Truth declares, who has heard from the Father, and has learned, comes. Far removed from the senses of the flesh is this teaching in which the Father is heard, and teaches to come to the Son. Engaged herein is also the Son Himself, because He is His Word by which He thus teaches; and He does not do this through the ear of the flesh, but of the heart. Herein engaged, also, at the same time, is the Spirit of the Father and of the Son; and He, too, teaches, and does not teach separately, since we have learned that the workings of the Trinity are inseparable. And 7 Ps cxxvii. I.
9 Or. " docile towards God.'
Chap. 15.]
that is certainly tlie same Holy Spirit of whom the apostle says, " We, however, having the ^ame Spirit of faith." ' But this is especially attributed to the Father, for the reason that of Him is begotten the Only Begotten, and from Him proceeds the Holy Spirit, of which it would be tedious to argue more elaborately; and I think *that my work in fifteen books on the Trinity which God is, has already reached you. Very far removed, I say, from the senses of the flesh is this instruction wherein God is heard and teaches. We see that many come to the Son because we see that many believe on Christ, but when and iiow they have heard this from the Father, and have learned, we see not. It is true that that grace is exceedingly secret, but who doubts that it is grace? This grace, therefore, which is hiddenly bestowed in human hearts by the Divine gift, is rejected by no hard heart, because it is given for the sake of first taking away the hardness of the heart. When, therefore, the Father is heard within, and teaches, so that a man comes to the Son, He takes away the heart of stone and gives a heart of flesh, as in the declaration of the prophet He has promised. Because He thus makes them children and vessels of mercy which He has prepared for glory.
CHAP. 14. — WHY THE FATHER DOES NOT TEACH ALL THAT THEY MAY COIME TO CHRIST.
Why, then, does He not teach all that they may come to Christ, except because all whom He teaches. He teaches in mercy, while those whom He teaches not, in judgment He teaches not? Since, " On whom He will He has mercy, and whom He will He hardeneth." ^ But He has mercy when He gives good things. He hardens when He recompenses what is deserved. Or if, as some would prefer to distinguish them, those words also arc his to whom the apostle says, " Thou sayest then unto me," so that he may be regarded as having said, "Therefore hath He mercy on whom He will, and whom He will He hardeneth," as well as those which follow, — to wit, " W' hat is it that is still complained of? for who resists His will?" does the apostle answer, " O man, what thou hast said is false? " No; but he says, " O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Doth the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay of the same lump?"^ and what follows, which you very well know. And yet in a certain sense the Father teaches all men to come to His Son. For it was not in vain that it was written in the prophets, " And they shall all be teachable of God." •♦ And when He 2 Rom. ix. 18.
3 Rom. ix. 18, S.
too had premised this testimony. He added, " Kvery man, therefore, who has heard of the Father, and has learned, cometh to me." As, therefore, we speak justly when we say concerning any teacher of literature who is alone in a city. He teaches literature here to everybody, — not that all men learn, but that there is none who learns literature there who does not learn from I him, — so we justly say, God teaches all men to come to Christ, not because all come, but be-) cause none comes in any other way. And why I He does not teach all men the apostle explained, I as far as he judged that it was to be explained, 1 because, "willing to show His wrath, and to ' exhibit His power. He endured with much patience the vessels of wrath which were perfected for destruction; and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy which He has prepared for glory." 5 Hence it is that the " word of the cross is foolishness to them that perish; but unto them that are saved it is the power of God." ^ God teaches all such to come to Christ, for He wills all such to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the truth. And if He had willed to teach even those to whom the word of the cross is foolishness to come to Christ, beyond all doubt these also would have come. For He neither deceives nor is deceived when He says, " Every one that hath heard of the Father, and hath learned, cometh to me." Away, then, with the thought that any one cometh ftot, who has heard I of the Father and has learned. i CHAP. 15. — IT IS BELIEVERS THAT ARE T.\UGHT " ^V hy," say they, " does He not teach all men?" If we should say that they whom He does not teach are unwilling to learn, we shall be met with the answer: And what becomes of what is said to Him, " O God, Thou wilt turn us again, and quicken us "? ' Or if God does not make men willing who were not willing, on what principle does the Church pray, according to the Lord's commandment, for her persecutors? For thus also the blessed Cyprian ^ would have it to be understood that we say, " Thy will be done, as in heaven so in earth," — that is, as in those who have already believed, and who are, as it were, heaven, so also in those who do not believe, and on this account are still the earth. What, then, do we pray for on behalf of those who are unwilling to believe, except that God would work in them to will also? Certainly the apostle says, " Brethren, my heart's good will, indeed, and my prayer to God for them, is for their salvation." ^ He prays for those who do not believe, — for what, except * Cypr. Treatise on the Lord'i Prayer. 9 Rom. x. i.
5o6 [Chap. i6.
that they may believe? For in no other way do they obtain salvation. If, then, the faith of the petitioners precede the grace of God, does the faith of them on whose behalf prayer is made that they may believe precede the grace of God? — since this is the very thing that is besought for them, that on them that believe not — that is, who have not (ahh — faith itself may be bestowed? When, therefore, the gospel is preached, some believe, some believe not; but they who believe at the voice of the preacher from without, hear of the Father from within, and learn; while they who do not believe, hear outwardly, but inwardly do not hear nor learn; — that is to say, to the former it is given to believe; to the latter it is not given. Because " no man," says He, " cometh to me, except the Father which sent me draw him." ' And this is more plainly said afterwards. For after a little time, when He was speaking of eating his flesh and drinking His blood, and some even of His disciples said, "This is a hard saying, who can hear it? Jesus, knowing in Himself that His disciples murmured at this, said unto them, Doth this offend you?"^ And a Httle after He said, " The words that I have spoken unto you are spirit and life; but there are some among you which believe not." ^ And immediately the evangelist says, " For Jesus knew from the beginning who were the behevers, and who should betray Him; and He said. Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me except it were given him of my Father." Therefore, to be drawn to Christ by the Father, and to hear and learn of the Father in order to come to Christ, is nothing else than to receive from the Father the gift by which to believe in Christ. For it was not the hearers of the gospel that were distinguished from those who did not hear, but the believers from those who did not believe, by Him who said, " No man cometh to me except it were given him of my Father."
CHAP. 1 6. — WHY THE GIFT OF FAITH IS NOT GIVEN TO ALL.
Faith, then, as well in its beginning as in its completion, is God's gift; and let no one have any doubt whatever, unless he desires to resist the plainest sacred writings, that this gift is given to some, while to some it is not given. But why it is not given to all ought not to disturb the believer, who believes that from one all have gone into a condemnation, which undoubtedly is most righteous; so that even if none were delivered therefrom, there would be no just cause for finding fault with God. Whence it is plain that it is a great grace for many to be delivered, and to acknowledge in those that are not delivered ' John vi. 44.
2 John vi. 60 ff.
3 John vi. 63 fl.
what would be due to themselves; so that he that glorieth may glory not in his own merits, which he sees to be equalled in those that are condemned, but in the Lord. But why He delivers one rather than another, — " His judgments are unsearchable, and His ways past finding out." * For it is better in this case for us to hear or to say, " O man, who art thou that repliest against God?" 5 than to dare to speak as if we could know what He has chosen to he kept secret. Since, moreover, He could not will anything unrighteous.
CHAP. I 7 [iX.] — HIS ARGUMENT IN HIS LETTER AGAINST PORPHYRY, AS TO WHY THE GOSPEL CAME SO LATE INTO THE WORLD.
But that which you remember my saying in a certain small treatise of mine against Porphyry, under the title of T/ie Time of the Christian Religion, I so said for the sake of escaping this more careful and elaborate argument about grace; although its meaning, which could be unfolded elsewhere or by others, was not wholly omitted, although I had been unwilling in that place to explain it. For, among other matters, 1 spoke thus in answer to the question proposed, why it was after so long a time that Christ came: " Accordingly, I say, since they do not object to Christ that aJl do not follow His teaching (for even they themselves feel that this could not be objected at all with any justice, either to the wisdom of the pliilosophers or even to the deity of their own gods), what will they reply, if — leaving out of the cjuestion that depth of God's wisdom and knowledge where perchance some other divine plan is far more secretly hidden, without prejudging also other causes, which cannot be traced out by the wise — we say to them only this, for the sake of brevity in the arguing of this question, that Christ willed to appear to men, and that His doctrine should be preached among them, at that time when He knew, and at that place where He knew, that there were some who would believe on Him. For at those times, and in those places, at which His gospel was not preached, He foreknew that all would be in His preaching such as, not indeed all, but many were in His bodily presence, who would not believe on Him, even when the dead were raised by Him; such as we see many now, who, although the declarations of the prophets concerning Him are fulfilled by such manifestations, are still unwilling to believe, and prefer to resist by human astuteness, rather than yield to divine authority so clear and perspicuous, and so lofty, and sublimely made known, so long as the human understanding is small and weak in its approach to divine truth. What wonder is it, then, if