Letters & Polemics (CSEL) 42 part 5/5

For it seemed good not by human will alone, but as it pleased Him, 'who,' he says, 'speaks in me, Christ,' who works so that what is good may also seem good to us—for whom He has mercy and calls. And therefore he who follows Christ, when asked why he wished to be a Christian, can answer: 'It seemed good to me.' And when he says this, he does not deny that it seemed good to God; for 'by God the will of men is prepared.' For that God may be honoured by a holy man is the grace of God. Behold what this man should relish, if he delights in the words of Ambrose: that by God the will of men is prepared, and there is no question, or no great question, as to who or when he may be perfected—provided only that it be by no means doubted that this very thing cannot come to pass without the grace of Christ.

Then how easy it would have been for this man to attend to a single line from the words of Ambrose which he cited! For when Ambrose had said: 'For since the Church has been gathered from the Gentiles, that is, from sinners, how can she be immaculate out of the defiled, unless first she be washed from sin by the grace of Christ, and then abstain from sins by the quality of not sinning?'—Ambrose added something which it is plain why this man was unwilling to add. For Ambrose says: 'not immaculate from the beginning—for this is impossible to human nature—but by the grace of God and by her own quality, because she now sins no more, it comes about that she appears immaculate.' Who does not understand why this man did not add these words?

This is surely now being wrought in this present age: that the holy Church may attain to that most immaculate purity which all the saints desire, and which in the age to come—with no evil men mingled with her, and no law of sin within her resisting the law of the mind—she may lead a most pure life in the divine eternity. Yet let this man attend to what, according to the Scriptures, bishop Ambrose said: 'not immaculate from the beginning; for this is impossible to human nature.' For surely by 'from the beginning' he means from that origin whereby we are born of Adam. For Adam himself too was without doubt made immaculate; but in those who are by nature children of wrath, deriving from that which was corrupted in him, he defined it to be impossible to human nature to be immaculate from the beginning.

'Likewise John, bishop of Constantinople,' whose statement he set down, 'says that sin is not a substance, but a wicked act.' Who denies this? 'And because it is not natural, therefore against it a law was given, and it descends from liberty of choice.' This too, who denies? But the question is not about human nature as it is in this life; rather the question is about the grace of God, by which it is healed through the Physician Christ—of whom it would have no need, if it were sound—the nature which is defended by this man as being sound, or as able, by a self-sufficient choice of will, not to sin.

What Christian, likewise, is ignorant of what he records the most blessed Xystus, bishop of the Roman church and martyr of the Lord, to have said: 'that God has permitted men liberty of their own choice, so that, living purely and without sin, they may become like to God'? But it pertains to that very choice to hear Him who calls, and to believe, and to ask from Him in whom one believes the help of not sinning. For surely when he says 'they may become like to God,' it is through the charity of God that they are to become like to God—which charity has been poured out in our hearts, not by a capacity of nature, nor by the free choice that is in us, but by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. And as to what the same martyr says:

'A pure mind is a holy temple to God, and a heart clean and without sin is the best altar to Him'—who does not know that a clean heart is to be brought to that perfection while the inward man is renewed from day to day, yet not without the grace of God through the same Christ our Lord? Likewise, as to what he himself says: 'A chaste man and without sin has received power from God to be a son of God'—he surely admonished us that when anyone has been made thus chaste and without sin (where and when this may be perfected in him is a question of no small moment, but among the devout it is well inquired; among whom, however, it is agreed that it can come to pass, and that it cannot come to pass without the Mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus)—yet,

as I had begun to say, Xystus prudently admonished, that when anyone has been made such, and thereby rightly reckoned among the sons of God, he should not be thought to have been of his own power—the power which he received through grace from God, since he did not have it in a nature now vitiated and depraved—just as it is read in the Gospel: 'But as many as received Him, to them He gave power to become sons of God.' Which power they surely were not by nature, nor would they be at all, unless by receiving Him they had received, through His grace, power of this kind. This is the power which the strength of charity claims for itself—charity which is not in us except through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

What too did the venerable presbyter Jerome say in those things which he records him to have said, when he was expounding what is written, 'Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God'? 'Those whom no consciousness of any sin accuses'; and he added: 'The clean is beheld by the clean of heart; the temple of God cannot be defiled.' This surely is wrought in us by striving, labouring, praying, obtaining—that we may, by His grace, be brought to that perfection in which we can behold God with a clean heart, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Likewise, as to what he says was said by the aforementioned presbyter: 'God has made us of free choice; we are drawn neither to virtue nor to vices by necessity;'

'otherwise, where there is necessity, there is no crown'—who would not acknowledge this, who would not receive it with his whole heart, who would deny that human nature was created otherwise? But in doing right there is therefore no bond of necessity, because there is the liberty of charity. Return then to the apostolic statement: 'The charity of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.' By whom, save by Him who 'ascended on high, led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men'? But that from the vices of nature, not from the constitution of nature, there is a certain necessity of sinning, let a man hear, and, that this same necessity may be no more, let him learn to say to God:

'Bring me out of my necessities'; because even in a prayer of this kind there is a struggle against the tempter, who fights against us by that very necessity. And through this, by the help of grace through our Lord Jesus Christ, both the evil necessity will be removed and full liberty bestowed. Let us come to ourselves. 'Likewise,' he says, 'Augustine the bishop, in the books On Free Choice: Whatever this cause of the will is, if it cannot be resisted, it is yielded to without sin; but if it can be resisted, let it not be yielded to, and there will be no sin. Does it perhaps deceive the unwary? Then let him beware, lest he be deceived. Or is the deception so great that it cannot be guarded against at all? Then there are no sins. For who sins in that which can in no way be guarded against? But sin is committed;'

'therefore it can be guarded against.' I acknowledge them—they are my words; but let him himself also deign to acknowledge all that was said above. For the matter under discussion is the grace of God, which through the Mediator gives us the aid of medicine—not the impossibility of righteousness. That cause, then, whatever it may be, can be resisted—it can indeed. For in this we ask for help, saying, 'Lead us not into temptation'; which help we would not seek, if we believed it could in no way be resisted. Sin can be guarded against—but by the help of Him who cannot be deceived. For this very thing pertains to the guarding against of sin, if we say truthfully, 'Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.'

For in two ways too, in the body, the evil of disease is guarded against: both that it may not befall, and that, if it should befall, it may be quickly healed. That it may not befall, let us guard against it by saying, 'Lead us not into temptation'; that it may be quickly healed, let us guard against it by saying, 'Forgive us our debts.' Whether therefore it threatens or is present, it can therefore be guarded against. But that my view on this matter may sufficiently appear not only to those, but also to those who have not read these same books of mine, On Free Choice, which this man read, and who—not having read those—perhaps read this book, I ought to recall from those very books what, if this man held it and set it down in his writings, no controversy on this matter would remain between us.

For immediately after my words which this man recorded, I myself subjoined what could occur as an objection, and, as far as I could, I treated it, saying: 'And yet even certain things done through ignorance are disapproved and judged to be in need of correction, as we read in the divine authorities.' And thereupon, having adduced examples, I spoke also of infirmity, saying: 'There are also things done by necessity which are to be disapproved, where a man wishes to do right and cannot. For whence are those cries: 'For the good that I would, I do not, but the evil that I hate, that I do'?' And having recalled other testimonies of the divine oracles in this matter, I said: 'But all these are the voices of men coming from that condemnation of death.'

For if this is not the penalty of man, but his nature, then these are no sins. Then a little after: 'It remains, therefore,' I say, 'that this penalty comes justly from the condemnation of man. Nor is it to be wondered at that, either through ignorance, man does not have free choice of the will to choose what he may rightly do, or that, with carnal habit resisting—which by the violence of mortal succession has in a certain manner grown strong as though naturally—he sees what ought rightly to be done and wills it, and yet cannot fulfil it. For that is the most just penalty of sin: that each should lose that which he was unwilling to use well, when he could have used it without any difficulty had he willed. That is, that he who, knowing, does not do right, should lose the knowledge of what is right, and that he who, when he could, was unwilling to do right,'

'should lose the ability when he wills.' For in truth there are, for every sinning soul, these two penalties: ignorance and difficulty. From ignorance, error disgraces; from difficulty, torment afflicts. But to approve false things for true, so as to err unwillingly, and, with the pain of the carnal bond resisting and racking, to be unable to refrain from lustful works, is not the nature of man as instituted, but the penalty of man condemned. But when we speak of the free will of doing right, we speak of course of that will in which man was made. Hence now, to men laying, as it were, a just complaint about the vices of this same ignorance and difficulty passed on and transfused into the offspring of the first man, the answer was thus given:

'To whom,' I say, 'a brief answer is given, that they may be quiet and cease to murmur against God. For they would perhaps complain rightly, if there existed no conqueror of error and lust among men; but since He is everywhere present who in many ways, through the creature that serves Him as Lord, harms the one turned away, teaches the believer, consoles the one who hopes, exhorts the one who loves, aids the one who strives, hears the one who prays—it is not imputed to you as a fault that you unwillingly are ignorant, but that you neglect to seek what you are ignorant of; nor that you do not bind up your wounded members, but that you despise Him who is willing to heal you.'

Thus I have exhorted, as far as I could, to right living, and I have not made void the grace of God, without which human nature, now darkened and vitiated, cannot be enlightened and healed. On which matter the whole question with these people turns: lest by a perverse defence of nature we frustrate the grace of God, which is in Christ Himself, our Lord. Concerning which nature, likewise, a little later I said: 'We speak of nature itself in one way when we properly speak of the nature of man in which he was first made blameless in his kind, and in another way of this nature in which, from the penalty of that condemned man, we are born both ignorant and subject to the flesh. According to which manner the apostle says: 'For we too were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.'

If, therefore, we wish 'to rouse and kindle by Christian exhortations minds cold and sluggish toward right living,' let us first exhort them to the faith by which they become Christians and are made subject to His name, without which they cannot be saved. But if they are already Christians and neglect to live rightly, let them be scourged with terrors and lifted up with the praises of rewards. So indeed, that we should remember to exhort them not only to good actions,

but also to devout prayers, and to instruct them with this soundness of doctrine: that on the one hand they may give thanks, when they have set themselves to live well, because they have done something without difficulty, and on the other, where they feel some difficulty, they may persist in obtaining facility from the Lord by most faithful and most persevering prayers and by ready works of mercy. But as to where and when those who thus make progress may be perfected in the fullest righteousness, I do not overmuch concern myself; but wherever and whenever they shall have been perfected, I affirm that they cannot be perfected except by the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Yet, of course, when they shall have clearly recognized that they have no sin, they will not say that they have no sin.

lest the truth should not be in them — as in fact the truth is not in those who, though they possess it, say that they do not possess it. Now 'the commandments are exceedingly good, if we use them lawfully.' For by this very fact, that it is most firmly believed that 'God, being just and good, could not have commanded impossibilities,' we are thereby warned both what to do in easy matters and what to ask for in difficult ones. For all things become easy to charity, to which alone the burden of Christ is light, or rather it is the one burden that is itself light. It is according to this that it was said, 'And his commandments are not heavy'; so that whoever finds them heavy should consider that it could not have been said by God, 'They are not heavy,' unless there could be an affection of heart to which they are not heavy. And let him ask for that which he lacks, so as to fulfil what is commanded.

And what is said to Israel in Deuteronomy, if it be understood piously, holily, and spiritually, signifies this same thing; for surely, when the Apostle had cited this testimony, 'The word is near thee, in thy mouth and in thy heart' — where the passage has 'in thy hands'; for the spiritual hands are in the heart — 'this is,' he says, 'the word of faith which we preach.' Whoever therefore has turned, as is there commanded, to the Lord his God with all his heart and with all his soul, will not find the commandment of God heavy. For how is it heavy, since it is the commandment of love? For either a man does not love, and therefore it is heavy; or he loves, and it cannot be heavy.

But he does love, if, as Israel is there admonished, he has turned to the Lord his God with all his heart and with all his soul. 'A new commandment,' he says, 'I give unto you, that ye love one another'; and, 'He that loveth his neighbour hath fulfilled the law'; and, 'Love is the fulfilling of the law.' It is according to this that this too was said: 'If they had walked in good paths, they would surely have found the paths of righteousness easy.' How then is it said, 'Because of the words of thy lips I have kept hard ways,' unless because both are true? They are hard to fear, easy to love. Charity therefore in its beginning is righteousness begun; charity advanced is righteousness advanced; charity great is righteousness great;

perfect charity is perfect righteousness — but charity 'out of a pure heart, and a good conscience, and faith unfeigned,' which is then greatest in this life when for its own sake life itself is despised. Yet I wonder whether it does not still have room to grow, once it has departed from this mortal life. But wherever and whenever it is so full that nothing can be added to it, nevertheless it is not poured forth in our hearts by the resources either of nature or of the will that are within us, but 'by the Holy Spirit who is given unto us,' who both succours our weakness and cooperates with our health. For this is the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom, with the Father and the Holy Spirit, belongs eternity, goodness, world without end. Amen.

There came also then into my hands a certain book of Pelagius, in which with all the argument he could muster he defended the nature of man against the grace of God, by which the ungodly is justified and by which we are Christians. Accordingly the book in which I replied to this, defending grace not against nature but as that by which nature is set free and governed, I entitled 'On Nature and Grace.' In it I defended certain words which Pelagius had put forward as though they were those of Xystus, bishop of Rome and martyr, as if they were indeed the words of that same Xystus — for so I had supposed —; but afterwards I read that they belong to Sextus the philosopher, not to Xystus the Christian. This book begins thus: 'The book which you sent…'