生平·會規與作品 第 59 章

I. If anyone says that by the offense of Adam's transgression man was not changed for the worse in his whole being — that is, in body and soul — but believes that, with the liberty of the soul remaining unharmed, only the body was made subject to corruption, he is deceived by the error of Pelagius and opposes the Scripture which says: 'The soul that sins, it shall die' (Ezek. 18); and: 'Know you not that to whom you yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants you are whom you obey?' (Rom. 6); and: 'By whom a man is overcome, of the same is he also made the slave' (2 Pet. 2). II. If anyone asserts that Adam's transgression harmed himself alone and not also his offspring;

or if he testifies that only the death of the body, which is the penalty of sin, but not also sin, which is the death of the soul, passed through one man into the whole human race, he will ascribe injustice to God, contradicting the Apostle who says: 'By one man sin entered into the world, and by sin death, and so death passed upon all men, in whom all have sinned' (Rom. 5). III. If anyone says that the grace of God can be conferred in response to human invocation, but not that grace itself brings it about that it is invoked by us, he contradicts the prophet Isaiah, or the Apostle saying the same: 'I was found by them that sought me not; I appeared openly to them that asked not after me' (Isa. 65; Rom. 10). IV.

If anyone contends that, in order for us to be cleansed from sin, God waits upon our will, and does not confess that even the fact that we wish to be cleansed is brought about in us by the infusion and operation of the Holy Spirit, he resists the Holy Spirit Himself, who says through Solomon: 'The will is prepared by the Lord' (Prov. 8, according to the Septuagint); and the Apostle who wholesomely proclaims: 'It is God who works in you both to will and to accomplish, according to His good will' (Phil. 2). V.

If anyone says that, just as the increase, so also the beginning of faith, and the very affection of believing, by which we believe in Him who justifies the ungodly, and by which we come to the regeneration of holy baptism, is in us not through the gift of grace — that is, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit correcting our will from unbelief to faith, from ungodliness to godliness — but is in us naturally, he is shown to be an adversary of the apostolic teachings, since blessed Paul teaches: 'We are confident that He who began in us a good work will perfect it unto the day of our Lord Jesus Christ' (Phil. 1); and that other saying: 'To you it is given for Christ's sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for Him' (ibid.); and:

'By grace you are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; for it is the gift of God' (Eph. 2). For those who say that the faith by which we believe in God is natural, define, in a manner, all those who are strangers to the Church of Christ to be believers. VI. If anyone says that mercy is conferred divinely upon us who believe, will, desire, strive, labor, watch, are zealous, ask, seek, and knock, without the grace of God;

and does not confess that it is brought about in us by the infusion and inspiration of the Holy Spirit that we believe, will, or are able to do all these things as we ought — and if he subordinates the help of grace to human humility or obedience, and does not agree that the very fact that we are obedient and humble is the gift of grace itself — he resists the Apostle who says: 'What have you that you did not receive?' (1 Cor. 4); and: 'By the grace of God I am what I am' (1 Cor. 15). VII.

If anyone affirms that by the vigor of nature he can, without the illumination and inspiration of the Holy Spirit — who gives to all sweetness in consenting to and believing the truth — think, as is expedient, or choose anything good pertaining to the salvation of eternal life, or consent to the saving, that is, to the evangelical preaching, he is deceived by a heretical spirit, not understanding the voice of God saying in the Gospel: 'Without me you can do nothing' (John 15); and that word of the Apostle: 'Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God' (2 Cor. 3). VIII. If anyone contends that some come to the grace of baptism through mercy, but others

come to the grace of baptism through free will — which in all who are born of the transgression of the first man is agreed to be vitiated — he is proved to be estranged from the right faith. For he asserts that the free will of all was weakened through the sin of the first man; or at least he thinks it so harmed that nevertheless certain persons are able, without the revelation of God, to attain by themselves to the mystery of eternal salvation. How contrary this is, the Lord Himself proves, who testifies that not merely someone, but no one, is able to come to Him except him whom the Father shall have drawn, just as He says also to Peter: 'Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jona, for flesh and blood has not revealed it to thee, but my Father who is in heaven'; and the Apostle:

'No one can say the Lord Jesus [Jesus Christ], except in the Holy Spirit' (1 Cor. 12). IX. It is of the divine gift when we both think rightly and restrain our feet from falsehood and injustice. For as often as we do good, God works in us and with us that we may work. X. The help of God is always to be implored even by the reborn and the holy, that they may be able to come to a good end, or to persevere in good work. XI. No one rightly vows anything to the Lord unless he has received from Him that which he vows, as it is written: 'What we have received from Thy hand, we give Thee' (1 Chron. 29). XII. God loves us such as we shall be by His gift, not such as we are by our own merit. XIII.

The freedom of the will, weakened in the first man, cannot be restored except through the grace of baptism: for what was lost cannot be given back except by Him who was able to give it. Whence Truth itself says: 'If the Son shall have set you free, then shall you be truly free.' XIV. No wretched one is freed from any misery whatsoever, save he who is anticipated by the mercy of God, as the Psalmist says: 'Let Thy mercy speedily anticipate us, O Lord' (Ps. 78); and that other: 'My God, His mercy shall go before me' (Ps. 58). XV. From that which God formed, Adam was changed — but for the worse, through his own iniquity:

from that which iniquity wrought, the believer is changed — but for the better, through the grace of God. That former change, then, was of the first transgressor; this latter, according to the Psalmist: 'This change is of the right hand of the Most High' (Ps. 76). XVI. Let no one glory in that which he seems to have, as though he had not received it; or think that he has received it for this reason, that the letter appeared outwardly, whether to be read, or sounded to be heard. For as the Apostle says: 'If justice is by the law, then Christ died in vain. Ascending on high, He led captivity captive; He gave gifts to men' (Gal. 2; Ps. 67; Eph. 4). Whoever has, has from thence. But whoever denies that he has from thence,

either truly does not have it, or that which he seems to have shall be taken away from him. XVII. Worldly desire produces the fortitude of the heathen; but the charity of God produces the fortitude of Christians, which is poured out in our hearts, not through the choice of will which is in us, but through the Holy Spirit who is given to us. XVIII. Since no merits precede the grace of God, a reward is due to good works if they are done; but grace, which is not due, goes before, that they may be done. XIX. Human nature, even if it had remained in that integrity in which it was created, would in no way have preserved itself without the help of its Creator.

Whence, since without the grace of God it cannot keep the salvation which it received, how without the grace of God will it be able to restore what it has lost? XX. God does many good things in a man which the man does not do; but a man does no good things which God does not grant that the man may do. XXI. Just as to those who, wishing to be justified in the law, have fallen from grace, the Apostle most truly says: 'If justice is by the law, then Christ died in vain' (Gal. 2); so to those who think that grace, which the faith of Christ commends and receives, is nature, it is most truly said: 'If justice is by nature, then Christ died in vain.' For here already there was the law, and it did not justify;

here too there was nature already, and it did not justify. Therefore Christ did not die in vain, so that both the law might be fulfilled through Him who said: 'I came not to destroy the law, but to fulfill it' (Matt. 5); and nature, lost through Adam, might be restored through Him who said that He came 'to seek and to save that which was lost.' XXII. No one has anything of his own except lying and sin. But if a man has anything of truth and justice, it is from that fount which we ought to thirst after in this desert, that, bedewed by it as by certain drops, we may not faint by the way. XXIII. Men do their own will, not God's, when they do that which displeases God.

But when they do that which they will, and yet serve the divine will — although they act as willing — nevertheless it is the will of Him by whom is both prepared and commanded that which they will. XXIV. The branches are so in the vine that they confer nothing on the vine, but receive from it that whence they may live: for the vine is so in the branches that it supplies vital nourishment to them, and does not take from them. And through this, both to have Christ abiding in themselves and to abide in Christ profits the disciples in some way, not Christ. For when the branch is cut off, another can sprout from the living root; but he who is cut off cannot live without the root. XXV. Utterly, it is the gift of God to love God (Prosper, Sentences 363).

He Himself gave that He might be loved, who loves though unloved. Displeasing, we were loved, that there might be in us that whereby we might be pleasing. For the Spirit of the Father and of the Son, whom with the Father and the Son we love, pours out charity in our hearts. And thus, according to the above-written sentences of the Holy Scriptures, or the definitions of the ancient Fathers, this, God being propitious, we ought both to preach and to believe: that through the sin of the first man free will was so bent down and weakened that no one afterward can either love God as he ought, or believe in God, or work for God's sake that which is good, unless the grace of divine mercy has anticipated him.

Whence also to righteous Abel, and to Noah, and to Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and to all the multitude of the ancient Fathers, that illustrious faith which the apostle Paul proclaims in their praise (Heb. 11) was, we believe, conferred not through the good of nature, which had first been given in Adam, but through the grace of God. And this grace, even after the coming of the Lord, we know and believe to be conferred, to all who desire to be baptized, not as held in free will, but by the bounty of Christ — according to that which has now often been said, and which the apostle Paul proclaims: 'To you it is given for Christ's sake, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for Him' (Phil. 1); and that:

'God, who began in you a good work, will perfect it unto the day of our Lord Jesus Christ' (ibid. 6); and that: 'By grace you are saved through faith, and this not of yourselves; for it is the gift of God' (Eph. 2). And that which the Apostle says of himself: 'I obtained mercy, that I might be faithful' (1 Cor. 7). He did not say 'because I was,' but 'that I might be'; and that: 'What have you that you did not receive?' (1 Cor. 4); and that: 'Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights' (James 1); and that: 'No one has anything, unless it be given him from above' (John 3). Innumerable are the testimonies of the Holy Scriptures which can be brought forward to prove grace;

but for the sake of brevity they have been passed over, because in truth, to him for whom few do not suffice, many will be of no profit. This also, according to the catholic faith, we believe: that, the grace having been received through baptism, all the baptized, with Christ helping and cooperating, both can and ought to fulfill those things which pertain to the salvation of the soul, if they are willing to labor faithfully. But that some have been predestined to evil by divine power, we not only do not believe, but even, if there are any who are willing to believe so great an evil, we with all detestation pronounce anathema upon them. This too we wholesomely profess and believe: that in every good work it is not we who begin, and are afterward helped through God's mercy;

but He Himself, with no preceding good merits on our part, first inspires in us both faith and love of Himself, that we may faithfully seek the sacraments of baptism, and that after baptism, with His help, we may be able to fulfill those things which are pleasing to Him. Whence it is most manifestly to be believed that the so marvelous faith, both of that thief whom the Lord recalled to the fatherland of paradise (Luke 23), and of Cornelius the centurion to whom the angel of the Lord was sent (Acts 10), and of Zacchaeus, who was counted worthy to receive the Lord Himself (Luke 19), was not of nature, but the gift of the divine bounty.

And because we both desire and long that the definition of the ancient Fathers, and our own which is subscribed below, should be a remedy not only for religious but also for laymen, it has pleased us that the illustrious and eminent men who came together with us for the aforementioned festival should also subscribe it with their own hand.