Letters & Polemics (CSEL) 50

I. ON THE PERFECTION OF MAN'S RIGHTEOUSNESS. To the holy brethren and fellow-bishops Eutropius and Paulus, Augustine. Your Charity, which is so great and so holy in you that it delights even to serve one who commands, has asked that I should respond to those which are called the definitions of Celestius. For thus was that same little document, which you gave me, entitled: 'Definitions, as it is said, of Celestius.' Which title, I believe, is not his, but of those who brought this from Sicily, where Celestius is reported not to be, but many babbling such things and, as the Apostle says, themselves erring and sending others into error. Yet that these are of his teaching, or even of certain of his associates, we too can suppose.

For neither do these brief definitions, or rather ratiocinations, differ from that man's cast of mind, which I have inspected in another work of his, of which it is established that he is the author; and not without reason do I judge that these brethren, who brought these things, heard in Sicily that he himself taught or wrote such things. But I could wish, if I were able, so to comply with your fraternal benevolence as that I too might answer as briefly. Yet unless I also recall those things to which I respond, who will be able to judge how I have responded? Nevertheless I shall try, as far as I am able — with your prayers too aiding me in the presence of the Lord's mercy — that my discourse may not run on further than is necessary.

'Before all things,' he says, 'he who denies that man can be without sin must be asked what any sin whatever is: something that can be avoided, or something that cannot be avoided. If something that cannot be avoided, it is not sin; if something that can be avoided, man can be without sin, which can be avoided. For no reason or justice suffers that even to be called sin which can in no way be avoided.' We answer that sin can be avoided, if the vitiated nature be healed by the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. For it is not sound in so far as it either does not see, through blindness, what is to be done, or does not fulfill it, through infirmity, while the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh, so that man does not the things that he would.

'Again it must be asked,' he says, 'whether sin is of the will or of necessity. If it is of necessity, it is not sin; if it is of the will, it can be avoided.' We answer as above, and, that we may be healed, we call upon Him to whom it is said in the psalm: Bring me out of my necessities. 'Again,' he says, 'it must be asked what sin is: natural or accidental. If natural, it is not sin; but if it is accidental, it can also depart; and what can depart, can be avoided; and what can be avoided, man can be without that which can be avoided.'

We answer that sin is not natural, but of nature — especially of a vitiated nature (whence we were made by nature children of wrath) — for the free choice of the will avails little toward not sinning, unless, being aided, it be healed by the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. 'Again,' he says, 'it must be asked what sin is: an act or a thing. If it is a thing, it must needs have an author; and if it is said to have an author, now another besides God will seem to be introduced as author of some thing; but if it is impious to say this, then it is necessary to confess that all sin is an act, not a thing. If, therefore, it is an act — nay rather, because it truly is an act — it can be avoided.' We answer that sin is indeed called, and is, an act, not a thing.

But in the body too, limping is by the same reasoning an act, not a substance, since the substance is the foot itself, or the body, or the man who limps with an injured foot; and yet he cannot avoid limping unless he has a healed foot. This can also happen in the inner man, but only by the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. The very defect by which a man limps is neither the foot, nor the body, nor the man, nor the limping itself — which indeed does not exist while he is not walking, though the defect that produces the limping is still present, coming into effect when he walks. Let him ask, then, what name he would impose upon this defect: whether he wishes to call it a substance, or an act, or rather an evil quality of the substance, by which a deformed act arises.

So too in the inner man the soul is the substance, robbery is the act, and avarice is the defect — that is, the quality according to which the soul is evil, even when it does nothing. Hence one may be a slave to one's avarice even while one hears, 'You shall not covet,' and reproaches oneself, and yet remains avaricious. But through faith he is renewed — that is, healed — from day to day, yet only by the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. 'Again,' he says, 'it must be asked whether a man ought to be without sin. Beyond doubt he ought. If he ought, he can; if he cannot, then neither ought he. And if a man ought not to be without sin, then he ought to be with sin; and then it will no longer be sin, if it be established that it must be held.'

'Or if it is absurd to say even this, then we must confess that a man ought to be without sin, and it is agreed that he owes nothing other than what he is able to do.' The answer is by the same comparison with which we already answered above. For when we see a lame man who can be healed, we rightly say: this man ought to be without lameness; and if he ought, he can. Yet he cannot do so the moment he wishes, but only when treatment has been applied and he has been healed, and the medicine has assisted his will. This happens in the inner man, as regards sin, which is as it were its lameness, through the grace of Him who came not to call the righteous but sinners; for the healthy have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.

'Again,' he says, 'it must be asked whether it has been commanded to man to be without sin. For either he cannot, and it has not been commanded; or, because it has been commanded, he can. For why should that be commanded which could not possibly be done?' The answer is that it is most wisely commanded to man that he walk with upright steps, so that, when he perceives that he cannot, he may seek the medicine which, for the inner man, is the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord, to heal the lameness of sin. 'Again,' he says, 'it must be asked whether God wills a man to be without sin. Beyond doubt He wills it, and beyond doubt He is able. For who is so mad as even to doubt that what he does not doubt God wills can be done?' The answer is:

If God did not will a man to be without sin, He would not have sent His Son, who was without sin, to heal men from their sins. This comes to pass in those who believe and make progress by the renewal of the inner man from day to day, until perfect righteousness is attained, as it were full health. 'Likewise,' he says, 'it must be asked how God wills a man to be: with sin or without sin. Beyond doubt He does not will him to be with sin. How great an impiety and blasphemy this is must be considered — that it should be said a man can be with sin, which God does not will, and be denied that he can be without sin, which God does wills;

as if God had created him for this purpose — that he might be able to be what He does not will, and be unable to be what He wills, and that he should exist rather contrary to His will than according to it.' The answer has already been given above, but I see that this must be added: that we were saved by hope; but hope that is seen is not hope, for what a man sees, why does he also hope for it? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. Then, therefore, will there be full righteousness, when there is full health; then full health, when there is full love — for love is the fullness of the law — and then full love, when we shall see Him as He is. For there will be nothing to be added to love once faith has arrived at sight.

'Again it must be asked,' he says, 'by what a man is made sinful: by necessity of nature, or by liberty of the will. If by necessity of nature, he is free from blame; if by liberty of the will, it must be asked from whom he received that very liberty of the will. Beyond doubt, from God. But what God gave is certainly good; this cannot be denied. By what reasoning, then, is it proved good, if it is more inclined to evil than to good? For it is more inclined to evil than to good, if through it a man can be with sin and cannot be without sin.' The answer is that it was by liberty of the will that it came about that man was with sin; but now penal defectiveness, following upon it, has out of liberty made necessity.

Hence faith cries to God: 'Bring me out of my necessities.' Placed under these, we either cannot understand what we will, or, having understood, we will it yet lack the strength to fulfill it. For even liberty itself is promised to believers by the Liberator. 'If the Son,' He says, 'shall make you free, then you shall be free indeed.' For the will, conquered by the defect into which it fell, lost its natural liberty. Hence another Scripture says: 'For by whom a man is overcome, to him also is he bound as a slave.' Therefore, just as the healthy have no need of a physician but the sick, so the free have no need of a liberator but slaves — that the thanksgiving of liberty may say to Him: 'You have saved my soul out of its necessities.'

For that very health is true liberty, which would not have perished if the will had remained good. But because the will sinned, the hard necessity of having sin has followed the sinner, until the whole infirmity is healed and so great a liberty is received in which, just as the will of living blessedly must remain, so there will be also a voluntary and happy necessity of living well and never sinning. 'Accordingly,' he says, 'God made man good, and beyond making him good, He further commanded him to do good. How impious it is to confess that man is evil — which he was neither made nor commanded to be — if we deny that he can be good, which he was made and was commanded to be!' We answer:

Because, then, it was not man who made himself, but God who made man good, it is God, not man himself, who remakes him to be good — while He delivers the one who wills, believes, and calls upon Him from the evil which he himself did to himself. But this comes to pass while, by the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord, the inner man is renewed from day to day, so that the outer man may rise on the last day to eternal life, not to punishment. 'Again,' he says, 'it must be asked in how many ways every sin consists. In two, unless I am mistaken: either when those things are done which are forbidden, or when those things are not done which are commanded. Certainly all those things which are forbidden can be avoided, just as those which are commanded can be fulfilled. For in vain would that be forbidden or commanded which could neither be shunned nor fulfilled.'

'And how shall we deny that a man can be without sin, when it must be confessed that he can as much avoid all those things which are forbidden as fulfill those which are commanded?' The answer is that there are many divine precepts in the holy Scriptures, which it would be too laborious to recount all; but the Lord, who, completing and abridging the word, made it upon the earth, said that upon two precepts hang the Law and the Prophets — so that we might understand that whatever else has been divinely commanded has its end in these two and is to be referred to these two: 'You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, and with your whole soul, and with your whole mind,' and: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'

'On these two precepts,' He says, 'hangs the whole Law and the Prophets.' Whatever, therefore, we are forbidden by the law of God, and whatever we are commanded to do, we are forbidden and commanded for this end: that we may fulfill these two. And perhaps the general prohibition is 'You shall not covet,' and the general command 'You shall love.' Hence, briefly, the Apostle Paul also embraced both in a certain passage. For the prohibition is: 'Do not be conformed to this world,' and the command: 'but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.' The former pertains to not coveting, the latter to loving; the former to continence, the latter to righteousness; the former to turning away from evil, the latter to doing good. For by not coveting we are stripped of the old, and by loving we are clothed with the new.

But no one can be continent unless God grant it, and the love of God is poured out in our hearts not through ourselves, but through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. And this comes to pass from day to day in those who, by willing and believing and calling upon God, make progress and, forgetting the things that are behind, reach out toward those which are ahead. For this is why that law commanded — so that, when a man falls short in fulfilling it, he may not be puffed up and lifted up with pride, but may flee wearied to grace; and thus the law, by terrifying, may lead him, in the office of a tutor, to love Christ. 'Again it must be asked,' he says, 'in what way a man cannot be without sin: by will or by nature. If by nature, it is not sin;

but if by will, the will can most easily be changed by the will.' We answer, admonishing that it must be considered how great is this presumption, by which it is said not only that the will can — which indeed, with the help of God's grace, must not be denied — but even that the will can most easily be changed by the will; when the Apostle says: 'The flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh; for these are opposed to one another, so that you do not do the things that you will.' For he does not say, 'These are opposed to one another, so that you do not will the things you can do,' but 'so that you do not do the things that you will.'

Why, then, is the concupiscence of the flesh — which is certainly culpable and defective, and is nothing else than the desire of sin, which that same Apostle bids should not reign in our mortal body, where he sufficiently shows that there is nevertheless in our mortal body that which must not be permitted to reign — why, then, is this concupiscence not changed by that will which the Apostle sufficiently and evidently expressed when he said, 'so that you do not do the things that you will,' if the will can easily be changed by the will? Nor indeed in this way do we accuse the nature, whether of soul or of body, which God created and which is wholly good; but we say that, vitiated by its own will, it cannot be healed without the grace of God.

'Again,' he says, 'it must be asked: if a man cannot be without sin, whose fault is it — the man's own, or some other's? If the man's own, how is it the man's fault, if it is that which cannot be?' We answer that it is therefore the man's fault that he is not without sin, because it was by the man's will alone that it came about that he arrived at this necessity, which the man's will alone cannot overcome. 'Again,' he says, 'it must be asked: if the nature of man is good — which none but Marcion or Manichaeus will dare to deny — how then is it good, if it is not possible for it to be without evil? For who can doubt that every sin is evil?' We answer both that the nature of man is good, and that it can be without evil.

For this reason we cry: 'Deliver us from evil.' This is not accomplished so long as the body, which is corrupted, weighs down the soul. But this is brought about by grace through faith, so that at some time it may be said: 'Where, O death, is your strife? Where, O death, is your sting?' Now the sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law, since the law, by forbidding, increases the desire of sin, unless the Spirit pour out love, which will then be full and perfect when we shall see face to face. 'And this too,' he says, 'must be said: certainly God is just — for this cannot be denied — but God imputes to man every sin. And this too, I think, must be confessed: that neither is that a sin which shall not be imputed as sin.

And if there is some sin which cannot be avoided, how is God called just, if He is believed to impute to someone that which cannot be avoided?' We answer that it was cried out long ago against the proud: 'Blessed is he to whom the Lord will not impute sin.' For He does not impute it to those who faithfully say to Him: 'Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.' And He justly does not impute it, because it is just, as He says: 'With what measure you have measured, it shall be measured back to you.' Now there is sin whenever either the love which ought to be is not present, or is less than it ought to be — whether this could be avoided by the will or not; for if it can, the present will does it; but if it cannot, the past will did it;

and yet it can be avoided, not when the proud will is praised, but when the humble will is assisted. After these things, the one who wrote them introduces his own person, as if disputing with another, and represents himself being questioned and, as it were, being told by his questioner: 'Do you grant me a man without sin?' And he answers: 'I grant you one who could be.' And again the questioner says to him: 'Who is he?' And he answers: 'You yourself.' 'But if you should say,' he says, 'I cannot be, the answer must be: whose fault is it? And if he should say: mine, it must be said: and how is it yours, if you cannot be?' Again he represents himself being questioned and being told: 'Are you yourself without sin, who say that a man can be without sin?' And he answers:

'That I am not without sin — whose fault is it? But if he should say,' he says, 'it is yours, the answer must be: how is it mine, if I cannot be?' We answer that there ought to be no dispute with them over these words, since he did not dare to say that a man is without sin — whether anyone else or he himself — but only answered that a man can be without sin, which we too do not deny. But when he can, and through whom he can — this is the question. For if it is possible now, then it need not be prayed and said by every faithful soul placed in the body of this death: 'Forgive us our debts,' since in holy baptism all past debts have already been forgiven.

But whoever attempts to persuade the faithful members of Christ that this ought not to be prayed, professes nothing else than that he himself is not a Christian. Furthermore, if a man can be without sin through himself, then Christ died in vain. But Christ did not die in vain; therefore a man cannot be without sin, even if he wills it, unless he be helped by the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. And that this may be accomplished, it is even now being brought about in those who make progress, and it will be fulfilled in every way when the strife of death has been consumed, and love — which is nourished by believing and hoping — has been perfected by seeing and possessing. He next undertakes to argue his intent by divine testimonies. Let us more diligently attend to what sort of thing this is.

'These are the testimonies,' he says, 'by which it is proved that it has been commanded to man to be without sin.' To this we answer: the question is not whether it has been commanded — which is very manifest — but this very thing, that what is agreed to have been commanded, whether it can be fulfilled in the body of this death, where the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh, so that we do not do the things that we will. From this body of this death, not everyone who ends this life is delivered, but he who in this life has received grace, and who has taken care not to receive it in vain by good works.

For it is one thing to depart from this body, which the last day of this life compels all men to do, but another thing to be delivered from the body of this death, which the grace of God alone, through Jesus Christ our Lord, bestows upon His holy and faithful ones. But after this life the perfecting reward is rendered, yet only to those by whom, in this life, the merit of that same reward is acquired. For no one will arrive at the fullness of righteousness when he has departed hence, unless while he is here he has run to it by hungering and thirsting; for blessed indeed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. So long, therefore, as we walk by faith and not by sight, being pilgrims away from the Lord — whence it is said:

'The just lives by faith' — this is our righteousness in this very pilgrimage: that toward that perfection and fullness of righteousness, where in the vision of His beauty love will already be full and perfect, we now strain by the uprightness and perfection of this very course — chastising our body and bringing it into subjection, giving alms in bestowing benefits and remitting the sins that are committed against us, doing so cheerfully and from the heart, and persevering unceasingly in prayers, and doing these things in sound doctrine, by which right faith, firm hope, and pure love are built up. This is now our righteousness, by which we run, hungering and thirsting, toward the perfection and fullness of righteousness, that we may afterward be filled with it.

Hence the Lord in the Gospel, when He had said: 'Do not do your righteousness before men, to be seen by them' — lest we measure this course of ours by the end of human glory — did not, in expounding that righteousness, pursue anything but these three: fasting, almsgiving, and prayers; by fasting signifying, namely, the whole chastisement of the body; by almsgiving all benevolence and beneficence, whether of giving or of pardoning; and by prayer intimating all the rules of holy desire:

so that — since in the chastisement of the body that concupiscence is bridled which ought not to be bridled but ought not to exist at all, and will not exist in that perfection of righteousness where there will be no sin whatever, and which often, even in the use of things allowed and permitted, exerts its immoderation — and since in that very beneficence itself, by which the just man cares for his neighbor, certain things are done which harm when they were thought to profit, and sometimes through weakness, either when the needs of others are insufficiently met, or when what is expended of kindness and labor profits them little, weariness creeps in, by which is darkened that cheerfulness in which God loves the giver, and it creeps in the more, the less anyone has advanced, and the less, the more he has advanced — considering these things and things of this kind, we rightly say in prayer:

'Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors' — provided, however, that we do what we say, so that either enemies themselves are also loved, or, if anyone still a little child in Christ does not yet do this, he may nevertheless, from the depth of his heart, pardon the one who repents of the sin he committed against him and seeks forgiveness, if he wishes his heavenly Father to hear his prayer. In this prayer, if we are unwilling to be contentious, a sufficient mirror is set before us, in which may be beheld the life of the just, who live by faith and run perfectly, although they are not without sin. Whence they say: 'Forgive us,' because they have not yet arrived at the goal toward which one runs. Hence the Apostle says: 'Not that I have already attained, or am already perfect.'

'Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but this one thing I do: forgetting the things that are behind, and reaching out to the things that are before, I follow, according to my aim, toward the palm of the supernal calling of God in Christ Jesus. As many of us, therefore, as are perfect, let us be thus minded' — that is: as many as run perfectly, let us be thus minded, that we are not yet perfect, so that we may be perfected there whither we still run perfectly; so that, when that which is perfect has come, that which is in part may be destroyed — that is, may no longer be in part but in whole; because to faith and hope the very reality will succeed, no longer that which is believed and hoped, but that which is seen and held; but love, which is greater than these three, will not be taken away, but increased and fulfilled, having beheld what it believed and obtained what it hoped.

In this fullness of love that precept will be fulfilled: 'You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, and with your whole soul, and with your whole mind.' For as long as there is still something of carnal concupiscence which must be bridled by continence, God is not in every way loved with the whole soul. For the flesh does not lust without the soul, although the flesh is said to lust, because the soul lusts carnally. Then will the just man be without any sin whatever, because there will be no law in his members warring against the law of his mind, but he will altogether love God with his whole heart, whole soul, and whole mind — which is the first and greatest precept. Why, then, should this perfection not be commanded to man, although no one has it in this life?

For one does not run rightly if one does not know whither one must run. And how could it be known, if it were shown by no precepts? So then, let us so run that we may lay hold. For all who run rightly will lay hold — not as in the theatrical contest, where indeed all run, but one receives the palm. Let us run by believing, hoping, desiring; let us run by chastising the body, and by cheerfully and from the heart giving alms in good things and pardoning evils, and by praying that the strength of those who run may be assisted; and so let us hear the precepts of perfection, lest we neglect to run to the fullness of love. These things being premised, let us diligently hear those testimonies which this man to whom we are replying has set down, as if we ourselves had brought them forward. 'In Deuteronomy:

'You, however, shall be perfect before the Lord your God'; likewise there: 'And there shall not be one uncompleted among the sons of Israel'; likewise the Savior in the Gospel: 'Be perfect, because your Father who is in heaven is perfect'; likewise the Apostle in Second Corinthians: 'For the rest, brethren, rejoice, be perfect'; likewise to the Colossians: 'admonishing every man and teaching in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ'; likewise to the Philippians: 'Do all things without murmuring and hesitation, that you may be blameless and simple, as the immaculate sons of God'; likewise to the Ephesians:

'Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and immaculate in His sight'; likewise to the Colossians: 'And you, when at one time you were estranged and enemies in mind by evil works, yet now reconciled in the body of His flesh through His death, present yourselves holy and immaculate and blameless'; likewise to the Ephesians: 'that He might present to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and immaculate'; likewise in First Corinthians: 'Be sober and just, and do not sin'; likewise in the epistle of Saint Peter:

'Wherefore, having girded up the loins of your mind, hope perfectly and soberly for the grace that is offered to you, as children of obedience, not conformed to the former lusts of your ignorance, but according to Him who called you, holy; and be yourselves holy in all your conversation, because it is written: You shall be holy, because I am holy.' Hence blessed David too says: 'Lord, who shall dwell in Your tabernacle? Or who shall rest on Your holy mountain? He who walks without spot and works righteousness'; and elsewhere: 'And I shall be immaculate with Him'; and elsewhere: 'Blessed are the immaculate in the way, who walk in the law of the Lord'; likewise in Solomon: 'The Lord loves holy hearts; and all the immaculate are acceptable to Him.'

Of these testimonies, some exhort those who are running, that they may run perfectly; others recall the very end toward which they strain by running. But to walk without spot is not absurdly said also of him who is not yet perfect, but who runs blamelessly toward that very perfection, being free from damnable crimes and not neglecting to cleanse the very venial sins themselves by almsgiving. For our entrance — that is, our journey by which we strive toward perfection — clean prayer cleanses; and prayer is clean where it is truly said: 'Forgive us, as we also forgive,' so that, while what is not imputed is not reprehended,

our course toward perfection may be held without reprehension — that is, without spot — in which perfection, when we shall have come to it, there will no longer be anything at all to be cleansed by pardon. Next, this man adduces testimonies by which he may show that the divine precepts are not burdensome. But who does not know that, since the general precept is love — for the end of the precept is love, and the fullness of the law is love — that is not burdensome which is done by loving, not by fearing? For they labor in the precepts of God who try to fulfill them by fearing; but perfect love casts out fear, and makes the burden of the precept light, not only not oppressing with the weight of heavy loads, but even lifting up in place of wings.

Yet, in order that this love may be had, even in such measure as can be had in the body of this death, the choice of our will is too little, unless the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord assist it; for it is poured out in our hearts — which must often be said — not through ourselves, but through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. Nor for any other cause does Scripture recall that the divine precepts are not burdensome, except that the soul which feels them to be burdensome may understand that it has not yet received the strength by which the Lord's precepts may be such as they are commended to be — namely, light and sweet — and may pray with the groaning of the will, that it may obtain the gift of ease. For he who says: 'Let my heart be immaculate,' and:

'Direct my steps according to Your word, and let no iniquity have dominion over me,' and: 'Your will be done, as in heaven, so also on earth,' and: 'Lead us not into temptation,' and the rest of this kind, which it would be long to recount — this man surely prays that he may do the precepts of God, which, in order that they be done, would neither be commanded, if our will did nothing there, nor prayed for, if it alone sufficed. They are commended, therefore, as not burdensome, so that he to whom they are burdensome may understand that he has not yet received the gift by which they are not burdensome; nor may he suppose that he fulfills them when he does so in such a way that they are burdensome — for God loves a cheerful giver — nor yet, when he feels them to be burdensome, may he be broken by despair, but be compelled to seeking, asking, and knocking.

Let us hear, then, in these testimonies which he next set down, God commending His precepts as not burdensome. 'That the commandments of God,' he says, 'are not only not impossible, but not even burdensome. In Deuteronomy: And the Lord your God will turn to feast over you upon good things, as He feasted over your fathers, if you will hear the voice of the Lord your God, to keep and to do all His commandments and His statutes and His judgments which are written in the book of this law; if you turn to the Lord your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul. For this commandment, which I command you today, is not burdensome, nor far from you. It is not in heaven, that you should say:

'Who shall ascend into heaven and take it for us, that we may hear and do it? It is not beyond the sea, that you should say: Who shall cross the sea and take it for us, that we may hear and do it? For the word is very near you, in your mouth, in your heart, and in your hands to do it.' Likewise the Lord in the Gospel: 'Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am meek and humble of heart, and you shall find rest for your souls; for My yoke is easy, and My burden is light.' Likewise in the epistle of Saint John: 'This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome.'

Having heard these legal, evangelical, and apostolic testimonies, let us be built up unto grace, which those do not understand who, being ignorant of the righteousness of God and wishing to establish their own, are not subject to the righteousness of God. For if they do not understand that passage from Deuteronomy in the way the Apostle Paul recalled it — namely, that with the heart one believes unto righteousness, but with the mouth confession is made unto salvation, because the healthy have no need of a physician, but those who are sick — surely by this testimony of the apostle John, which he set down last for this argument, where he says: 'This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments';

And His commandments are not burdensome: they ought surely to be reminded that God's commandment is not burdensome to the love of God, which is poured out in our hearts only through the Holy Spirit, not through any choice of the human will; and by attributing more to that will than is proper, they are ignorant of the righteousness of God. Yet this love will be perfect only when all penal fear has withdrawn. After this he set forth the testimonies which are wont to be alleged against them, and did not resolve them, but by rehearsing them, as though they were contrary, he bound the questions more tightly. For he says: 'The testimonies of the Scriptures which are to be set on the opposite side against those who ignorantly suppose that they can, by the authority of the Scriptures, overthrow the freedom of the will or the possibility of not sinning.'

'For they are wont to object,' he says, 'that holy Job said: Who is clean from sin? not even an infant whose life upon the earth is of a single day.' Then, as though he answered this testimony with other testimonies, namely that Job himself said: For I, a righteous man and without complaint, am become a laughingstock — he does not understand that a man can be called righteous who has drawn very near to the perfection of righteousness, so that he has come close to it: which we do not deny that many have been able to attain even in this life, in which one lives by faith. This is confirmed also by that testimony which he consequently added, spoken by the same Job: Behold, I am near to my judgment, and I know that I shall be found righteous. For this is the judgment of which it is said elsewhere:

And He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your judgment as the noonday. In short, he did not say 'I am there,' but 'I am near.' But if he wished that judgment of his to be understood not as the judgment by which he himself will judge, but as that by which he is to be judged at the end, then in that judgment all will be found righteous who do not say deceitfully: Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors. For through this forgiveness they will be found righteous, and because they have blotted out by almsgiving those sins which they had here. Whence the Lord says: Give alms, and behold, all things are clean unto you. In short, this shall be said to the righteous who are to go into the promised kingdom: For I was hungry, and you gave Me to eat, and the rest of this kind.

But it is one thing to be without sin, which in this life is said of the Only-begotten alone; and another to be without complaint, which could be said of many righteous men even in this life, since there is a certain measure of good living, concerning which, even in this human intercourse, no just complaint can be made. For who justly complains of a man who wishes ill to no one, who faithfully counsels those he can, and who holds no lust of vengeance against anyone's injuries, so that he truthfully says: As we also forgive our debtors? And yet by that very fact — that he says truly: Forgive, as we also forgive — he declares that he is not without sin. Hence it is that he says: There was nothing unjust in my hands, but my prayer was pure.

For from this his prayer was pure, because he asked pardon not unjustly, since he truly granted it. And as to what he says of the Lord: For He has multiplied my afflictions without cause — he did not say 'He has inflicted none with cause,' but 'many without cause.' For his many afflictions were brought upon him not on account of his many sins, but for the testing of his patience. For on account of his sins — of which, as he confesses elsewhere, he was not free — he judges that he ought to have suffered fewer. Again, as to what he says: For I have kept His ways and have not turned aside from His commandments, nor will I depart — he keeps the ways of God who does not so stray as to abandon them, but by running in them makes progress, even though he sometimes, as being weak, stumbles or totters;

but he makes progress by diminishing his sins, until he arrives where he may be without sin. For he cannot make progress in that manner except by keeping His ways. But he turns aside from the commandments of the Lord and departs as an apostate — not the man who, even though he has sin, nevertheless does not abandon perseverance in struggling against it, until he arrives where no contention with death shall remain. In this conflict, therefore, we are clothed with that righteousness by which one here lives by faith, and with it, as it were, we are armored. We also take up judgment, which we exercise even against ourselves for our own sake, when by accusing our sins we condemn them. Whence it is written: The righteous man is his own accuser at the beginning of his speech. Hence likewise he says:

I was clothed with righteousness, and I put judgment about me as a cloak. For this garment too is wont to belong to war rather than to peace, where concupiscence is still being fought against, not where righteousness will be full without any enemy at all, the last enemy, death, being destroyed. But as to what the same holy Job says again: For my heart has not reproached me in all my life — then in this life, in which we live by faith, our heart does not reproach us, if that same faith, by which one believes in the heart unto righteousness, does not neglect to reproach our sin. Whence the Apostle says: For the good that I would, I do not; but the evil that I hate, that I do. For it is good not to lust, and this good the righteous man wills, who lives by faith;

and yet he does what he hates, because he lusts, although he does not go after his lusts: but if he were to do so, then he himself would truly have brought it about that he yields, that he consents, that he obeys the desire of sin. Then his heart reproaches him, because it reproaches him, not that sin of his which dwells in his members. But when he does not permit sin to reign in his mortal body so as to obey its desires, nor yields his members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, sin is indeed present in his members, but it does not reign, because its desires are not obeyed. And therefore, while he does what he does not will — that is, he does not will to lust, and yet lusts — he consents to the law, because it is good.

For he himself wills the very thing that the law wills, because he himself wills not to lust, and the law says: You shall not lust. In this, since he wills what the law also wills, he without doubt consents to the law; yet he lusts, because he is not without sin. But now it is no longer he himself who works it, but the sin that dwells in him. Therefore his heart does not reproach him in all his life — that is, in his faith — because the righteous lives by faith, and therefore his faith is his life. For he knows that no good dwells in his flesh, where sin dwells; but by not consenting to it he lives by faith, because he calls upon God to be helped as he fights against sin. And that it may be there no more at all, to will is present with him, but to perfect the good is not present with him.

'Not to do good' is not present with him, but 'to perfect it.' For in that he does not consent, he does good; and in that he hates his concupiscence, he does good; and in that he does not cease to give alms, he does good; and in that he forgives the one who sins against him, he does good; and in that he asks that his debts be forgiven him and truly says that he too forgives his debtors, and prays that he be not led into temptation but delivered from evil, he does good. Yet to perfect the good is not present with him — which will come to pass when that concupiscence which dwells in his members shall be no more.

Therefore his heart does not reproach him, when it reproaches the sin that dwells in his members, and it has no unbelief of his to reproach. Thus neither in his life — that is, in his faith — is he reproached by his heart, and yet he is convicted of not being without sin. This too Job confesses of himself, where he says: None of my sins was hidden from You. You have sealed up my iniquities in a bag, and have noted if I have transgressed anything unwillingly. Therefore, the testimonies which he set forth from the words of the holy man Job, we have shown, as we were able, how they are to be received. Yet he did not resolve what he proposed that the same Job had said: For who is clean from sin? not even an infant whose life upon the earth is of a single day.

'Again they are wont to propose,' he says, 'Every man is a liar.' Nor did he resolve this which was proposed by himself against himself; but by rehearsing other testimonies, as though contrary, he left the divine oracles in strife among those who do not understand Holy Scripture. For he says: 'To whom it must be answered that in the book of Numbers it is written: A truthful man; and of holy Job it is read thus: There was a man dwelling in the region of Ausitis by the name of Job, truthful, without crime, righteous, a worshipper of God, abstaining from every evil thing.' I wonder that he dared to set forth this testimony, where it is said: abstaining from every evil thing, since he would have this understood of every sin, whereas he had said above that sin is an evil act, not a thing.

Let him remember, then, that even if it be an act, it can be called a thing. But he abstains from every evil thing who never consents at all to the sin without which he is not, or, if he is at times pressed, is not overwhelmed; just as a stronger wrestler, even though he is at times gripped, does not for that reason lose his position of superiority. It is indeed read that a man is without crime, it is read that he is without complaint, but it is not read that he is without sin except the Son of Man, one and the same only Son of God. 'Likewise,' he says, 'in Job himself: And He held fast the marvel of a truthful man; likewise in Solomon concerning wisdom: Lying men will not be mindful of her; but truthful men shall be found in her; likewise in the Apocalypse: And in their mouth was found no lie;

they are without spot.' To these we also reply, admonishing how a man is to be called truthful through the grace and truth of God, who by himself is without doubt a liar. Whence it is said: Every man is a liar. This also is the meaning of that testimony concerning wisdom which he himself set forth: But truthful men shall be found in her — men who without doubt will be found to be liars not in her, but in themselves; just as it is: You were once darkness, but now light in the Lord. When he said 'darkness,' he did not add 'in the Lord'; but when he said 'light,' he certainly added 'in the Lord,' because in themselves they could not be light. So that he who glories, let him glory in the Lord. But those in the Apocalypse are for this reason called such,

namely that no lie was found in their mouth, is because they did not say that they had no sin. For if they were to say this, they would deceive themselves, and the truth would not be in them; and further, if the truth were not in them, a lie would be found in their mouth. But if, out of envy, being without sin, they were to say that they were not without sin, this very thing would be a lie, and it would be false that it was said: No lie was found in their mouth. Therefore they are without spot for this reason, because, just as they themselves forgave their debtors, so they, God forgiving them, were cleansed. Behold, we have expounded, as we were able, how the testimonies which he cited for his cause are to be received. But he himself — how is that to be received which is written: Every man is a liar?

He by no means resolved it, nor will he be able to resolve it unless the error be corrected by which he believes that a man, without the help of the grace of God, can be truthful through his own will alone. Thus he proposed the other question that follows, and did not resolve it; nay rather, he increased it and made it more difficult by proposing against himself a proven testimony: There is none that does good, there is not so much as one — and by adducing, as it were, contrary testimonies by which he might show that there are men who do good. This indeed he showed, but it is one thing not to do good, another not to be without sin, even if a man does many good things. Wherefore those testimonies which he set forth are not against that which is said, that in this life there is no man without sin.

But he himself did not show in what sense it was said: There is none that does good, there is not so much as one. For he says: 'Holy David said: Hope in the Lord, and do goodness.' This is a precept, not a deed. And this precept those did not indeed keep, 'of whom it was said: There is none that does good, there is not so much as one.' He also says that holy Tobit said: Fear not, my son; we have led a poor life, but we shall have many good things, if we fear God and depart from every sin and do well. Most truly then will a man have many good things, when he shall have departed from every sin; for then he will have no evils, so that he need not say: Deliver us from evil.

Although even now everyone who makes progress, progressing with right intention, departs from every sin, and becomes so much the more distant from it the nearer he is to the fullness and perfection of righteousness, because concupiscence itself — which is the sin dwelling in our flesh — even though it still remains in our mortal members, nevertheless does not cease to be diminished in those who make progress. It is therefore one thing to depart from every sin, which is now in the doing; another to have departed from every sin, which will be so in that perfection then. But nevertheless both he who has already departed and he who is still departing must not be denied to do good. In what sense, therefore, was it said:

There is none that does good, there is not so much as one — which he proposed and left unresolved — save that that Psalm blames a certain people, among whom there was not even one who did good, while they wish to remain sons of men and not to be sons of God, by whose grace a man becomes good so as to do good? For here we must take it of that good of which it says there: God looked down from heaven upon the sons of men, to see if there is any that understands or seeks after God. This good, then — namely to seek after God — there was none that did it, there was not so much as one, but among that kind of men which is predestined to destruction. For upon these the foreknowledge of God looked down and pronounced sentence.

'Likewise they say,' he says, 'that which the Saviour said: Why do you call Me good? None is good save God alone.' This proposition likewise he by no means resolved, but set over against it, as it were from the opposite side, other testimonies by which he might prove that there is also a good man. For he said that it must be answered by what the same Lord says elsewhere: A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things; and again: Who makes His sun to rise upon the good and the evil. 'And elsewhere it is written,' he says, 'Good things were created for the good from the beginning; and again: They who are good shall be inhabitants of the earth.' To this it must be so answered that this too may be understood, in what sense it was said: None is good save one, God.

Either because all things that are created, although God made them very good, yet compared to the Creator are not even good — compared to whom they even are not; for most exaltedly and in a certain proper manner He said of Himself: I am who I am. Thus it was said: None is good save one, God, in the same way as it was said of John: He was not that Light, although the Lord calls him a lamp, as also the disciples, to whom He said: You are the light of the world; no one lights a lamp and puts it under a bushel;

but in comparison with that Light which is the true Light that enlightens every man coming into this world, he was not that Light — or else because even the sons of God themselves, compared to themselves as they will be in that eternal perfection, are so good that as yet they are even evil. This I would not dare to say of them — for who would dare to call them evil whose Father is God? — unless the Lord Himself said: If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him! For when He said 'your Father,' He certainly showed that they were already sons of God, whom nevertheless He did not keep silent to be still evil.

He, however, did not resolve how both these are good and yet none is good save God alone. Whence that man was admonished, who had asked what good he might do, that he should seek Him by whose grace he might be good, for whom to be good is this very thing, to be, because being unchangeably good He cannot at all be evil. 'Likewise they say,' he says, 'Who shall glory that he has a chaste heart?' And to this he responded with many testimonies, wishing to show that there can be in a man a chaste heart; nor does he say how that is to be received which he proposed as said against himself: Who shall glory that he has a chaste heart? — lest the divine Scripture, in this testimony and in those by which he responds, seem to be adverse to itself.

But we, in reply to this, say that the words followed thus: Who shall glory that he has a chaste heart? because there went before: When the righteous King shall sit upon His throne. For with however great a righteousness a man is endowed, he ought to consider lest something in him which he himself does not see be found to be blameworthy, when the righteous King shall sit upon His throne, whose scrutiny sins cannot escape — not even those of which it is said: Who understands his faults? When, therefore, the righteous King shall sit upon His throne, who shall glory that he has a chaste heart, or who shall glory that he is clean from sin, unless perhaps those who wish to glory in their own righteousness, not in the mercy of the Judge Himself?

Nevertheless those things also are true which he subjoined in his reply: what the Saviour says in the Gospel: Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God; and what David says: Who shall ascend into the mountain of the Lord? or who shall stand in His holy place? He that is innocent of hands and pure in heart; and elsewhere: Do good, O Lord, to the good and to the upright in heart; likewise in Solomon: Good is the substance in which there is no sin in the conscience; likewise there: Turn away from sin and direct your hands, and cleanse your heart from every sin; likewise in the epistle of John: If our heart does not reproach us, we have confidence toward God, and whatsoever we ask we shall receive from Him.

For this is accomplished by the will, by believing, hoping, loving, chastising the body, giving alms, forgiving injuries, praying earnestly, and imploring strength to make progress, and truthfully saying: Forgive us, as we also forgive; and: Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. By this precisely it is accomplished that the heart be cleansed and every sin be taken away, and that whatever the righteous Judge, when He shall sit upon His throne, shall find hidden and less cleansed, may be remitted by His mercy, so that by the sight of God the whole may be rendered sound and clean; for judgment is without mercy, but to him who has not shown mercy; but mercy exults over judgment. And if this were not so, what hope would there be?

Since, when the righteous King shall sit upon His throne, who shall glory that he has a chaste heart? or who shall glory that he is clean from sin? Then therefore, through His mercy, the righteous, fully and perfectly cleansed, shall shine forth in the kingdom of their Father as the sun; then fully and perfectly the Church shall be not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing. For then also she shall be truly glorious. For when he did not merely say that He might present the Church to Himself not having spot or wrinkle, but added 'glorious,' he sufficiently signified when she shall be without spot and wrinkle or any such thing: then indeed, when she shall be glorious.

For not now, amid such great evils, amid such great scandals, amid so great a mingling of the worst of men, amid so great reproaches of the ungodly, is she to be called glorious, because kings serve her, where there is more perilous and greater temptation; but rather then shall she be glorious, when that shall come to pass which the same Apostle says: When Christ, your life, shall appear, then you also shall appear with Him in glory. For since the Lord Himself, according to the form of a servant, through which as Mediator He joined Himself to the Church, was not glorified except by the glory of the resurrection — whence it was said: But the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified — how is His Church to be called glorious before her resurrection?

He therefore now cleanses her by the washing of water in the word, washing away past sins and driving from her the dominion of the evil angels; then, perfecting her healings, He makes her come forth into that glorious state without spot and wrinkle. For whom He predestined, them He also called; and whom He called, them He also justified; and whom He justified, them He also glorified. In this mystery I think it was said: Behold, I cast out demons and perform cures today and tomorrow, and on the third day I am consummated — that is, I am perfected. For He said this in the person of His body, which is the Church, putting 'days' for distinct and ordered periods of time, which He also signified in His own resurrection by the space of three days. But I think there is a difference between the upright in heart and the pure in heart.

For the upright in heart also stretches forward to the things that are before, forgetting the things that are behind, so that by a right course — that is, by right faith and intention — he may arrive where he may dwell as pure in heart. Just as those single phrases are to be assigned to their several places, where it was said: Who shall ascend into the mountain of the Lord? or who shall stand in His holy place? He that is innocent of hands and pure in heart — the innocent of hands shall ascend, and the pure in heart shall stand: the one is in the doing, the other in the end — and there is rather to be understood that which was said: Good is the substance in which there is no sin in the conscience. For then will there truly be a good substance, that is, true riches, when all poverty shall have passed away, that is, when all infirmity shall have been consummated.

But now let a man turn himself away from sin, since by making progress he departs from it and is renewed from day to day, and let him direct his hands in the work of mercy, and cleanse his heart from every sin, and show mercy, so that what remains may be remitted through pardon. For this is understood, in a wholesome way and without vain and empty boasting, in that which holy John said: If our heart does not reproach us, we have confidence toward God, and whatsoever we ask we shall receive from Him. For in this passage he seems to have admonished that our heart may not reproach us in the very prayer and petition — that is, lest perhaps, when we shall have begun to say: Forgive us,