文集 第 1 章

PROLOGUE. A PROFESSION OF FAITH AGAINST THOSE WHO, WHILE THEY SAY THAT SOME ARE DRAWN TO LIFE AND OTHERS PRESSED DOWN INTO DEATH BY THE WILL OF GOD ALONE, ON THE ONE HAND ASSERT FATE ALONG WITH THE PAGANS, AND ON THE OTHER DENY FREE WILL ALONG WITH THE MANICHAEANS. To the most blessed and most reverend Pope Leontius, Faustus. In that, for your pastoral solicitude, most blessed Pope Leontius, you assembled a council of the highest bishops for the condemning of the error of predestination, you rendered a service to all the churches of the Gauls.

But in that you committed to my weak shoulders the task and care of ordering those things which you most learnedly set forth in the public conference, you consulted too little, I think, for so great a business, too little for your own holy esteem; me you burdened with the judgment of your charity, yourselves with the peril of the choice. Since therefore you know that your own person also labors under the burden laid upon us, in this you plead a common cause, if you extend to him whom in your opinion you perceive to be unequal the hand of your support. Fittingly and wholesomely does he undertake the zeal for asserting grace who joins to it the obedience of servile labor, as though an attendant minister were inseparably to cleave to a patron or lord.

But if the one shall be without the other, either a lord will appear dishonored without a servant, or a servant, forgetful of his created condition, will usurp the place of his lord. Rightly therefore shall this order be preserved between him who aids and him who strives alike, that the former may hold dominion by full right and the latter render service in total subjection. And the dignity of him who commands shall be increased, if the diligence of him who obeys is ever at his disposal. Let the lowest be joined to the highest, and so joined that they be indeed subjected, not made equal. But just as it does not befit the helmsman to lack his oarsman, the priest his minister, the emperor his soldier, so it is fitting that grace be, as it were, a foster-child bound to obedience by inseparable service.

But because Pelagius too importunately exalts bare labor and, mad, foolishly believed that human weakness could suffice for itself without grace, and impiously preached this, attempting to raise the tower of his arrogance into heaven, we judged it necessary to constrain and refute his blasphemies in a brief discourse, lest perhaps he who excludes the gift of labor—that is, the precept of the one who commands—when we assert that God's mercy is to be merited by faith and works, should, ignorant of discernment, apply the Catholic voice to Pelagius's meaning, and, the royal way being abandoned, believe that we, falling to the right, decline to the left, and lest, while we speak of labor as servant to grace, we should seem to have set a stumbling-block before the feet of a blind man.

But when we make mention of work and labor, we shall use both the words and the meanings of the prophets, apostles, and evangelists. If anyone presumes to contradict these, he will attempt to destroy not our inventions, but without doubt to dissolve the heavenly ordinances and to undermine the foundations of the faith. We have drawn out the discourse concerning foreknowledge and predestination somewhat at length, so that things thought obscure might be rendered more clear to the slower. But let it not offend certain persons who delight in the trappings of words, that, content with the force of the testimonies, without loftiness of speech we have brought forth the light of truth; in which little work, indeed, after the subscription of the Council of Arles, when new errors had been detected, the Synod of Lyons demanded that some things be added.

CHAPTERS OF THE FIRST BOOK. I. That the sense of Pelagius, who denied grace, must in the first place be destroyed. II. Against the objection of Pelagius, by which he says that infants have no need of baptism. III. Against this, that they say that by grace alone every man is saved without any labor; against that sense which, by saying, 'One is predestined to death, another predestined to life,' by the very facts shuts off the hope of praying. IV. Where the works of the law are destroyed and grace is commended. V. On that which he says: By the grace of God I am what I am. VI. How this is to be understood: By grace, he says, you have been saved through faith, and not of yourselves. VII. Against this, that they say free will was entirely taken away. VIII.

In what manner the weakness of free will is to be understood. IX. How this is to be understood: It is not of him who wills nor of him who runs, but of God who has mercy; or that: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. X. Against this, that they say man's will is prompt only to evil, and not at all to good. XI. Against that sense which says that a vessel unto dishonor cannot rise up to be a vessel unto honor. XII. Likewise, that to will and not to will, as to the bad so also to the good part, was committed to man's free will. XIII. Where the grace of God and the human will are joined together by the assertion of testimonies, and the empty calumny concerning infants is briefly touched upon in passing. XIV.

Against this, that they say those who perish after baptism did not truly believe in baptism at all. XV. On the fall of the angel, and that the holy angels have a likeness of God, against the persuasion of certain persons. XVI. That Christ died for all. XVII. Against this, that they say God's violence hardens a man, so that he cannot come to salvation. XVIII. That none perishes if God wills it. THE FIRST BOOK. THAT THE SENSE OF PELAGIUS, WHO DENIED GRACE, MUST IN THE FIRST PLACE BE DESTROYED.

Being about to treat, with the Holy Spirit enlightening us, of the grace of God and the frailty of free will according to the evangelical teachings and apostolic rules, we believed that in the first place the blasphemies of Pelagius—already long since betrayed by the faith of the Catholic Church, confounded by learning, trodden down by authority—must be constrained in a brief and necessary discourse, for the reason that, among the other abominations of his dogma, he even attempted with damnable pride to affirm that man's labor can avail without grace.

And therefore we shall take care to bring his wicked opinions, at least in some part, into the open, so that each anxious person may recognize that it is a very different thing to join the office of labor to saving grace, and quite another thing with the sole rashness of the heart to assert bare labor apart from the patronage of grace. Here therefore, while, forgetful of the fear of God, he exalts human frailty too highly, he lost the soundness of his judgment, and thus fell on the other side, while he preaches the freedom of the will to be whole and unimpaired, like those who assert that it was entirely emptied out. In this place, therefore, twin errors wrestle with each other, of which the one insinuates grace alone, the other labor alone, the path and measure of truth being abandoned.

Different in the kind of their sects, but alike in impiety, with diverse zeal indeed, but they hiss with the spirit of one serpent. Of these, the one—that is, the preacher of grace alone—at the very front conceals his poison under the appearance of piety; the other—that is, the asserter of labor—straightway manifests his prominent swelling with wicked arrogance. This profession, by insinuating labor alone, is to be detested by its very title; that one, under a religious color, is the more to be feared. This one betrays its sacrilege to the very ears; that one pours its venom into the innermost bowels almost before it is felt. You would think two rocks besieged a narrow strait, of which the one is sunk down into the deep, the other threatens toward heaven.

The one is seen to be dangerous to those sailing, the other unforeseen works blind shipwrecks. That one speaks of grace, this one of labor. The divine oracles confirm both. If you remove the discordant elements and join the sayings, the full sincerity of the faith will appear. But because, like rash oarsmen, they commit their sails to an unexplored sea without a master, and know not how to temper the steering, nor have they learned to handle the rudder, here one is carried, as it were, into the evil peril of Scylla on the right, there the other stretches toward the sheer abyss of Charybdis on the left. And if you ask what they ought to do amid these: with a helmsman provided, let them entrust the ship to the waves, let them hold a middle course, and both, with a favorable breeze, will be brought to port.

Let us see to what impiety we may liken or compare this twin error. In like manner they strike against the rock of scandal, both those who presumed to assert that Christ the Lord is God alone, and those who, the light of discernment being lost, presumed to assert that he is man alone. Almost each excess, while it knows not how to hold the distinction and the difference, incurs an equal crime. Accordingly, he who says that Christ is man alone has denied the power of the Author; he who says he is God alone has lost the mercy of the Redeemer. And thus those who confess one substance in the Lord and Savior will be constrained to this necessity, that they be compelled to say either that God alone fell from heaven, or that man alone was crucified. But it is not so.

For neither could God alone have felt death, nor man alone have overcome it; and therefore, by reason of the twofold substance, man took it up and God conquered it. If therefore you render to the parts their own properties and believe and assert Christ to be at once God and man, it is just as if you were to join grace with labor and not to repel the effort of man from the help of God—yet in such a way that you in no wise mingle the guilt of arrogance with the devotion of the one who strives, since it is as much a loss not to labor as it is a peril to presume upon labor. Pelagius therefore says that for obtaining salvation the nature of man suffices for itself alone. Thus this pestilent teacher affirms, as though the workmanship of our creation still remained in its own state unimpaired.

I judge that the freedom of the will could not suffice for itself alone without the aid of grace, even before the first transgression violated its privilege. But how now can it suffice for itself alone, to whose arrogance it is said: For without me you can do nothing; to whose presumption the divine word is directed: Unless the Lord builds the house, in vain do they labor who build it? This indeed is denied to pride, that it should accomplish anything without grace, but it is granted to humility to fulfill it with grace. Pelagius goes on further to say that Adam was made mortal, who, whether he had sinned or had not sinned, would have died. But since the Apostle says:

Therefore, he says, just as through one man sin entered into this world, and through sin death, you understand that, if sin had not gone before, death would not have followed, and the granted immortality would have endured—which it is indeed manifest was bestowed under a proposed law and conferred with a condition, so that, if the proud one had not withdrawn from obedience, he would have remained eternal in glory. For when the heavenly interdict had sanctioned it, saying: On whatever day you eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you shall die the death, the ill-advised presumption of the forbidden tasting became the occasion of death by accident. You shall die the death, he says. If the grace of the Giver conferred nothing, what is it that the offense of the Condemner took away?

Death, therefore—that is, an alien and adventitious evil—is not the order of nature, but the penalty of a sentence. For, he says, the Lord did not make death. That immortality had been entrusted to man the very envy of the enemy testifies, and, because, being cast down, he envied him his immortality, he therefore brought in the cause of death by saying: On whatever day you eat of this tree, your eyes shall be opened and you shall be as gods. If he had said only this: When you have eaten, you shall take your fill of the sweetness of the food, the transgression would have reached only as far as the enticement of carnal concupiscence. But when he set this as the end of the prevarication, by saying: You shall be as gods, the guilt of gluttony advanced even to the ambition of divinity and even to the crime of high treason against majesty.

They were made, therefore, as gods by the gift of heavenly grace, and yet stripped of it and thrust down from the summit of their blessed station; and thus the cunning serpent, cast out of heaven for the evil of his pride, contrived from his own fall and downfall engines for the overthrow of man, and in the very manner he fell, so did he deceive. But what else is to be understood, even in that image of God according to which man was fashioned, save the mark of perpetuity? And this perpetuity you recognize as not only not taken from the soul, but even restored to the body by the power of the resurrection. Wherefore do not doubt that immortality was entrusted to man before his fault, since you perceive it restored even after his ruin. Pelagius, then, asserts that Adam, whether he had sinned or not sinned, would in every case have died.

And this proceeds from that very depravity by which he denies original sin. For while he strives to affirm that mortality was a necessity of man's condition and not of his transgression, he wishes it to appear that the origin of this debt began not from the servant but from the Lord, not from a despiser but from the Author, so that the law of death may be believed to be a matter of ordinance and not of crime. And is it to be thought that this lamentable ruin brought upon the human race was transmitted not by the transgressor but by the Creator? And where then is that word: 'By the envy of the devil death entered into the world'? But while he denies the sin of origin, he utterly removes the cause for which the Redeemer came. Let us see whether this unhappy and lamentable condition took its beginning through the will of God or through the depravity of man.

Hear what the trumpet of truth sounds forth: 'Therefore,' it says, 'as by one man sin entered into this world, and by sin death, so death passed upon all men, in whom all have sinned.' By saying that Adam was made mortal, Pelagius sets death in the first order of his making, whereas it is agreed that death was imposed in the third degree, as punishment for the guilt of transgression. For man is the work of God, sin the work of the devil, death the penalty of sin. For the Apostle did not say, 'the will of God is death,' but 'the wages of sin is death.' Let us then more carefully examine his deceits lying hidden in the deep. He therefore attributes death to the Creator, so that from which evil above all it takes its beginning cannot be recognized, and thus he may more freely affirm that infants are not held by the bond of origin.

In saying this he blasphemes with a twofold impiety, since he both refers death back to the reproach of the Author and, by denying the bond of origin, makes void the grace of the Restorer. And so, in order to be able to assert that little ones have no need of baptism, he denied the universal sin. This having been denied, such was the sequence of his error, that he did not know whence death was generated. What wonder if he does not recognize that tree in its fruits, which he was unwilling to acknowledge in its root? For he suppresses the cause of the wound and hides the sword by which the wound was inflicted. 'The wages of sin,' he says, 'is death.' Because he neglected to understand the prince of so great an evil, he was therefore ignorant that the imposed condition of death is the handmaid following upon sin, concerning which we spoke before: 'The wages of sin is death.'

He received a reward worthy of such a work; he who served the devil earned such wages. Whence the vessel of election most plainly shows and proclaims the reason of redemption, saying: 'For why, when as yet we were weak, did Christ die for the ungodly? For scarcely for a righteous man will one die.' This is as much as to say: if righteousness had abounded upon earth, the medicine would not have been sent from heaven; but that the one healing might come, the universal infirmity demanded it. Amid all this, since Pelagius is bound by so many chains of sacrileges, it is no wonder if, through a reprobate sense, he is given over to manifold error, who thinks that he can be saved by his own labor alone.

Rightly against the presumption of this arrogance the divine word put forth the force of its authority and rebuke: 'No man,' it says, 'comes to me, unless the Father draw him,' and again: 'It is not of him that wills, nor of him that runs, but of God that shows mercy.' And whoever, with Pelagius, places his salvation in his own will and power will justly reckon this to have been said against himself. But this need not be objected against him who does not presume upon labor alone, but knows that God's daily mercy and constant grace must be implored by his own efforts, and who begs for the Lord's help with unwearied supplication. II. AGAINST THE OBJECTION OF PELAGIUS, BY WHICH HE SAYS THAT LITTLE ONES HAVE NO NEED OF BAPTISM. Pelagius also urges this:

If original sin is taken away by the gift of baptism, then children born of two baptized persons ought to lack this sin. 'How,' he says, 'do they transmit to their descendants what they themselves in no way have in them?' To these it is easily answered that there are two births, of which in the one sin is transmitted through the pleasure of the one begetting, while from the other sanctification is bestowed through the adoption of the One who regenerates. 'How,' he says, 'do they transmit to their descendants what they themselves in no way have in them?' O how irrational and full of iniquity an objection! You do not wish that they should transmit to their descendants what belongs to nature, and yet you wish that they should be able, as of their own, to confer on them what belongs to grace, concerning which nature the Apostle says: 'We were,' he says, 'by nature children of wrath.'

Rightly they cannot give as of their own what they received from above and from without. Most imprudently does Pelagius believe that purity of innocence is given to children by their parents. The second birth does not pertain to the ministry of parents. He would make an office of man what is a gift of God, so that what stands outside human substance should run, as by a kind of hereditary order, through the succession of men. But there is no doubt that original sin passes from parents—even baptized ones—to their children through the origin of the flesh, since we daily say with the prophet: 'Behold, I was conceived in iniquities, and in sins did my mother bear me,' just as the Apostle also confirms that this incurable guilt has passed from one to all men.

But Pelagius says that there is no original sin, because the very desire of generation is from God. If, however, you ask whence this bond comes that drags down posterity: without doubt it is through the ardor of accursed generation as its incentive, and through the enticing embrace of both parents. For since you see him alone to be free from the original contagion, who was conceived not of flesh but of the Spirit, not by a shameful passion but by a wondrous benediction, recognize that the cause of the original evil was born from the delight of conception and from the vice of pleasure.

For this reason also this condition did not hold Adam and Eve as liable in their origin, because their coming into being, being foreign to the ministry of two persons, knew no enticement in its birth and creation. But perhaps you ask why original sin is placed in conception. The beginning of the whole ruin was disobedience. For man was first exalted, and afterward was humbled and confounded.

And because, when he was in honor, he did not understand, therefore he was compared to the senseless beasts and was made like unto them. As long, therefore, as humility maintained reverence toward obedience to the Author, an unstained conscience did not feel its nakedness; but when, with that mind of becoming a god, he craved a taste of the deadly food and stretched out his damnable desire in ambition for majesty, then, forgetful of the law and rebellious against the commandments of the law, he is punished by the warring of his own members, and, while he presumes upon equality with his Lord, he lost the mastery over his own body. From pride was born incontinence. For he showed what had been struck in him, when he covered his shameful parts. Elation went before; confusion followed.

He who was ambitious of divinity began to be a captive of lust. But perhaps you say: while you discuss these things, you are caught condemning marriage. It is not so. The ordinance of marriage began from blessing; generation conceived corruption from transgression. Between the gift of marriage, still granted in paradise by the Creator, and the use of it, which took its beginning already outside paradise, sin came in the midst. Between generation and concupiscence, whatever the divine precept established, this I praise; whatever human transgression added, this I reprove. Just as if someone should sprinkle the whiteness of a snowy garment with a black stain, it is not the making that displeases, but the blemish. The garment did not lose its use, though it lost its dignity.

The generation would undoubtedly have been chaste and sincere, had not the hostile transgression intervened. But the flesh, given over to the curse, defiled the unstained marriage-bed, and through the spirit of pride corrupted the simple affection, and, as it lost the privilege of immortality, so it lost the gift of purity. It is not the grace of marriage that is called into complaint, but the injury of obscene passion. It is not gold that comes under blame, but whatever adulterating fraud of iniquity has mingled with the pure gold—just as the very spirit of Pelagius, created by God for better pursuits, the author of wickedness has infected with the pestilential corruption of malice. III. AGAINST THIS, WHICH THEY SAY: THAT BY GRACE ALONE EVERY MAN IS SAVED WITHOUT ANY LABOR.

Now we must come to those who, while they assert that grace is given to some and denied to others, have lost the gift of grace along with Pelagius. They say, therefore, that for the worship and service of God, even after the saving gift of baptism, no obedience of devoted service is required, but that grace alone by itself works the effect of human salvation. 'The whole,' they say, 'belongs to grace alone.' This could better be said by us; this rather befits our side to apply, who confess that the benefits of grace are extended not to a part, but to the whole human race—yet in such a way that we judge the zeal of human vigilance to be joined to it in all things. For whoever denies that the effort of the servant's labor is to be associated with grace takes away from man the duty of service.

I know not where or when he ought to take rest from work, when he ought to be left to idleness, who even in paradise is commanded to labor, in which, as we read, he was so placed that he should till it and keep it. AGAINST THAT NOTION WHICH, BY SAYING THAT ONE IS FOREORDAINED TO DEATH AND ANOTHER PREDESTINED TO LIFE, BY THE VERY FACTS CUTS OFF THE HOPE OF PRAYING. When they have said, 'The whole belongs to the grace of God,' who would not bow with every affection of his heart at so revered a name? But when we have answered, 'The whole assuredly belongs to grace, but the Creator and Redeemer offers and presses it upon all for the salvation of all,' to this they, departing far from the path of piety, will presume to answer: 'The Savior did not give it to all, because neither did He die for all.'

Behold, at once, in his second words, appears the assailant of grace, who in his first words was thought to be its champion. They put forward the name of grace, that they may cover the abominable meaning of blasphemy. And so, on either side, they exclude the supports of prayer. For what further should he hope for, whom grace has already made its own? On the contrary, in what should he not despair, whom a violent predetermination has condemned? In the one there is no place for fault, in the other none for grace. In both, justice is imperiled. The one taken up without the merit of faith will be rewarded; the other forsaken without a crime of his own will be condemned. Salvation is to be thrust upon the former who does not seek it, and taken away from the latter who labors. But you say: 'For this reason he ought to pray, because he does not know to which part he belongs.' Who would not think this a reasonable and wise answer?

But what will it profit a man to pray, when he is in every way established in one of these two conditions? For although he is ignorant to which part he has been assigned, yet he is not ignorant that both parts are fixed and unchangeable. What does it matter if he does not yet know his place, who knows most definitely that he can now receive neither peril on the right hand nor advancement on the left? But if such a confused persuasion still holds prayer to be necessary, let him acknowledge without doubt that, contrary to his own determination, he can pass both from salvation to perdition and from perdition to salvation. If, therefore, he does not think the practice of praying is to be omitted, let him not exclude the zeal of working. What is this? Do you judge that I must knock, and yet despair that it must be opened to me?

Let him therefore do one or the other: either deny the fruit of prayer, or exclude the law of appointed perdition. And so we see that this whole assertion, full of error, while it cuts off the cause of praying, begins from the light of grace and its end runs down and fails into the darkness of sacrilege. Thus the devil, by the cunning of his old craft and manifold ingenuity, seasons the allurements of sinning. Thus too poisoners are wont to do, who temper the deadly juices of herbs, and in a spiced or some sweet cup compose for the unsuspecting drinkers a taste of counterfeit sweetness, and hide the venom of bitterness under the deceit of sweetness. The first scent of the cup allures, but the enclosed savor of the poison chokes.

It is honey that rises to the lips, but gall that descends into the inward parts. They say that in either state of things death claims the one for itself, life defends the other. And when they say this—affirming the one lost in his origin, the other chosen in predestination—see to what a wicked persuasion they decline. For what else do they say, than that neither has need of the help of prayer? For to those already foreordained to life it will not be necessary; to those assigned to death it will be able to profit nothing. In the one it will be judged superfluous, in the other ineffectual. The benefits of supplication he does not require who is in the predestination of acquisition; but he who is in the part of perdition does not receive them.

But if he judges that care must be bestowed upon prayer, let him understand without doubt that the things which threaten can be changed, according to that word of the Gospel: 'Watch and pray, that you enter not into temptation'; likewise: 'Watch therefore at all times, praying, that you may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that are to come, and to stand before the Son of man'; and again: 'This kind of demon is not cast out except by prayer and fasting.' But if prayer is not necessary, why did He Himself, who is to be entreated, institute a form of prayer and pray? In him, therefore, who with the assertion of grace alone flatters untaught ears, that prophetic word will be fulfilled: 'The malignant one,' it says, 'does harm, when he mingles himself with the just.'

The appearance of gold is presented at first by its color, but the baseness of lead is detected lurking within. Just as if under the preferred guise of a feigned fellow-citizen an enemy should suddenly appear, or if the crafty subtlety of the foe should transfigure itself into an angel of light, so under the front of piety the evil of heathenism, and within the name of grace, a fatal decree will lie hidden. If, therefore, one is assigned to life and another to perdition, as they assert, then, as one of the saints said, 'we are born not to be judged, but already judged,' and no equity of judgment can hold according to these things. For if God gave nothing to the servant, what will He require back from the servant? IV. THE WORKS OF THE LAW ARE DESTROYED AND THOSE OF GRACE ARE COMMENDED.

AGAINST THIS, THAT MOST UNLEARNEDLY THEY PUT FORWARD TESTIMONIES IN SUPPORT OF GRACE ALONE. 'We read,' they say, 'in the Epistle to the Romans: For if Abraham was justified by works, he has glory, but not before God'; likewise: 'Now to him that works, the reward is not reckoned according to grace, but according to debt; but to him that works not, yet believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned unto righteousness.' They add also: 'But if by grace, then not of works; otherwise grace is no more grace.' To these it must be answered that there are two kinds of works, of which one is removed after the coming of the Lord, the other is approved. For by saying:

but to him that works not, yet believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned unto righteousness—here he plainly sets faith before the works of the law. Nor shall we say that the testimonies of the apostles are conflicting and contrary to one another, when another apostle says: 'Faith without works is dead,' and again: 'Show me your faith without works, and I will show you my faith by my works. You believe that there is one God; you do well. The demons also believe, and tremble'; likewise: 'For as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.' Nor will the very teacher of the Gentiles, Paul, appear at variance and contrary to himself, when he says thus:

'In all things let us show ourselves as ministers of God, in much patience, in tribulations, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, in prisons, in seditions, in labors,' and again: 'Each one shall receive his own reward according to his own labor.' These things will seem discordant to the inexperienced and untaught, and to those who resist the truth with an obstinate spirit. But according to the catholic rule, the works of the law are made void, which are according to the letter, and those which are to be done after grace, grace accompanying, are asserted. Let us see whether we can prove by the very facts that this is so. We read that the works of the law are destroyed, when he restrains the boasting of the Jews, saying: 'Where is your glorying? It is excluded. By what law?'

'Of works? No, but by the law of faith. For we reckon that a man is justified by faith, without the works of the law.' Similarly also to the Galatians he says: 'Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, we also believe in Christ Jesus, that we may be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law; because by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified before Him.' And thus the impious error said that works are made void, but by deceitful cunning it suppressed which works those were. Now, therefore, you will find difficulty of understanding removed, if you understand the distinction of persons or of works. For to the Jews it is said: 'By the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.'

But to Christians, now reborn in Christ, the word of instruction is thus directed: 'Work good toward all, but especially toward those who are of the household of faith,' and again: 'Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast and immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.' To Christians, I say, it is said: 'So let your light shine before all men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father who is in heaven'—that is, that we may not so much dissolve into idleness as glory in good works, not in ourselves but in the Lord. To Christians it is said:

'In truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons, but in every nation he that fears Him and works righteousness is accepted with Him.' V. CONCERNING THAT WHICH HE SAYS: BY THE GRACE OF GOD I AM WHAT I AM. Hear the Apostle mingling labor with grace in a humble confession: 'By the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace in me was not void, but I labored more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God with me.' See how to the gift of grace he always joins the service of labor: 'yet not I.' Because he had brought in mention of labor alone, he quickly ran back, as to the embrace of grace his mother, saying: 'but the grace of God with me.' 'By the grace of God,' he says, 'I am.'

The first part, in pious subjection, he ascribed to grace alone; all the middle things, as the teacher of obedience, he assigned to labor; and, tempering both at the consummation, he joined together grace and labor. He did not say, 'I without grace,' or 'grace without me,' but 'the grace of God with me.' What he had first set forth as distinct and separate, how well he connected at the end of his discourse! And so, among the regenerate, when grace without labor, or labor without grace, is set down in the Scriptures, it is suppressed, not separated. When one is named without the other, the other is passed over in silence, not denied, according to that rule which the bishop Augustine intimates: 'Not all things that are passed over in silence are denied.' But in another place also the Apostle says:

'I chastise my body and bring it into subjection, lest perhaps, when I have preached to others, I myself should become a castaway.' Behold, the blessed Apostle, already won for Christ, already made the vessel of election, in no way slackens his hands into idleness under the name of predestination and grace, but joins his own efforts to the benefits of God and says: 'I chastise my body and bring it into subjection.' Behold, he is now a soldier of the right-hand company, and see how, though already approved, he fears to be imperiled; how, though elect, he dreads to be reprobated. Already he has the victory in his hands, and yet he does not lay down his arms; already he has been led to triumph, and still he fears the outcome of the warfare.

Since these things are so, perceive that you rise up with the weapons of impious error not against some weak person, but against the doctrine of the chief Apostle, and that you contradict Christ, who speaks within him. And while you take away the service of labor and the causes of praying, know that you are shutting the door of salvation against the human race; and while you know not how to flee the impiety of Pelagius, understand that you are declining to the pestilential dogma of the Manichaeans, who deny free will altogether. VI. HOW THIS IS TO BE UNDERSTOOD: 'BY GRACE YOU ARE SAVED THROUGH FAITH, AND THIS NOT OF YOURSELVES; FOR IT IS THE GIFT OF GOD, NOT OF WORKS, LEST ANY MAN SHOULD BOAST'—WHERE BOTH FAITH IS NUMBERED AMONG WORKS, AND THE FOOD OF THE LAW IS DESCRIBED AS PERISHING, THE FOOD OF GRACE AS ABIDING.

Just as, between the works of the law and of faith, you—friend of sloth and ignorant of discernment—have wandered from the path of understanding, so, between the two times of grace, following your persuasion as a most wicked guide, you have lost the shining rule of the catholic faith. The time of grace by which we were redeemed did not await the merits of men, sought no works at all; God was content with the devotion of our faith alone, according to that word of the Apostle: 'Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him unto righteousness,' as also in another place He says: 'But my just one lives by faith; but if he withdraw himself, he shall not please my soul.' He asserted that this man is just and lives by faith, because He remembers that He conferred faith and righteousness on him who sought them. But by saying:

'but if he withdraw himself'—when he has voluntarily turned aside to bypaths, he did not perish as one forsaken, but as one who ungratefully withdrew himself from the mercy that pressed upon him. Likewise to the Hebrews: 'But he that comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder to them that seek Him.' How well He joined both the office of the Lord and of the servant by saying: 'and that He is a rewarder to them that seek Him.' For as to God belongs the bounty of rewarding, so to man belongs the devotion of seeking. But you say that faith itself cannot belong to all. It is no wonder if to the man from whom you deny that works pertain, you also strive to take away faith, which it is manifest is reckoned among works, as we have in the Gospel:

'Work not for the food that perishes, but for that which endures unto eternal life,' where the food—that is, the understanding of the letter—is described as perishing, but the food of grace—that is, faith—as abiding. And so the continued discourse follows: 'The Jews said to Him, What shall we do, that we may work the works of God? Jesus answered and said to them, This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent.' You perceive that nothing is done in the service of God without work, since even he who seems to believe, works. Likewise in the Apostle: 'Neither circumcision avails anything, nor uncircumcision, but faith, which works by love.' Similarly also to the Thessalonians [the second epistle]:

'May God count you worthy of His calling, and fulfill all the good pleasure of His goodness, and the work of faith in you'; and concerning Abraham in the epistle of the Apostle James: 'You see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect.' Recognize here a twofold office, both of working and of faith. 'By grace,' he says, 'you are saved through faith.' The first calling, therefore, requires of us the short summary of faith; but the grace of the following time enjoins upon the redeemed, the cleansed, the renewed, the diligence of work and the care of laborious service, so that what we received without labor we may keep with labor, by the help of aid, the Apostle admonishing: 'See,' he says, 'that you receive not the grace of God in vain.'

Recognize that the degrees of calling and of consummation are distinct. He awaits faith from the little ones; he requires works together with faith from the confirmed—yet in such a way that he may increase the affection of belief in those who make progress, and stand as a daily helper to those who labor. VII. AGAINST THIS, WHICH THEY SAY, THAT FREE WILL HAS BEEN WHOLLY TAKEN AWAY. The asserter of this wicked persuasion judges that man—enriched with intellect, endowed with reason, adorned with the honor of the divine image—is to be compared to brute animals and senseless beasts, so that he is dragged to the right way by no guidance of his own, but only by the violent command of the Author.

By which kind of reasoning he strives to liken man even to insensible elements, so that, just as in the case of the earth—which produces nothing of fertility by its own choice, which is ignorant of its own fruitfulness, to which belongs neither any sense nor liberty nor will, yet from which the yield of crops is obtained through the labor of a cultivator—so from man, idle from all exercise of virtue, the fruits of righteousness and the desire and progress of good things are taken up by God alone pressing upon him; and, as though he neither feels nor consents in anything, so whatever he desires or does is judged to pertain in nothing to his own effort and zeal; and, just as the great sea, which is tossed hither and thither by the driving winds, so to whatever good deed the human mind is turned by the sole impulse of divine power, without any affection of its own.

Since these things are so, if intellect does not recall man from the left hand of evil, if desire does not rouse him toward the right hand of good, then he will now be held not in the condition of a man, but of a beast. Behold, the heretic, under the pretext of grace, shows what kind of man he wishes man to be after grace. And so, if free will has wholly perished—which surely consists in the love of innocence, or in the working of righteousness, or in the sanctification of the body—if this has been wholly taken away in the transgression of the first man, how do we read: 'Learn righteousness, you who inhabit the earth,' and again: 'But my just one lives by faith,' and: 'The just shall possess the earth by inheritance,' and: 'The eyes of the Lord are upon the just, and His ears unto their prayers'?

Has innocence utterly perished, because in its first degree its possessor neglected to stand? I think not, because it is written: 'The innocent and upright have cleaved to me,' and again: 'Who shall stand in His holy place? He that is innocent in hands and clean of heart,' and again: 'The Lord will not deprive of good things those who walk in innocence.' Has the sanctification of the body been wholly lost, because the dignity of the first purity was shattered when the members in the rebellious servant did not keep their servitude? Not at all, because we read: 'That you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, pleasing to God,' and again: 'Be holy, for I am holy.'

Thus, of that kind of goods which the ill-secured dweller of paradise had received from the kindly Author, the exercise did not perish, though the perfection was lost. Not, I say, did the chastity of these virtues perish, though the virginal integrity was violated. VIII. IN WHAT MANNER THE WEAKNESS OF FREE WILL IS TO BE UNDERSTOOD. But you ask and say: how is the weakened will of the human mind to be understood? Its diminished liberty so requires the supports of grace, just as a man worn out by long infirmity, with tottering step, needs aids and comforts the more.

Therefore, just as after an inveterate habit of luxury the recovery of continence will cost much labor, and just as, after long use of drunkenness, sobriety once made captive is scarcely recovered with the violence of a rigid cross—sobriety which before, while it was kept unharmed, was preserved with little trouble, since with a certain pleasure it is possessed by an inviolate conscience—and just as, after the various allurements of carnal vices which early youth, retaining its state, could easily have trodden under foot, one returns to the way of virtue with great struggle, as it were against the ascent of a steep mountain: so the liberty of the human will, granted by God, lost the flower and vigor of its grace, yet did not itself perish, so that the divine gifts should not be felt as wholly forbidden to it.

...which he recognizes must be sought again for himself, with the utmost toil and sweat, through the patronage of God's help. Hear the lawgiver disputing about the free choice of the will, when he says: 'I have set before your face life and death, good and evil; choose life, that you may live'; and again: 'I have chosen the way of truth; I have not forgotten your judgments.' You see that here no necessity of fate or of imposed perdition oppresses anyone, where the power of choosing is granted; nor does predestination drag a man to one side, where the election of either side is offered. Likewise: 'Let your hand save me, for I have chosen your commandments'—which is to say: the pernicious pleasure of the world was indeed enticing me toward the left hand, but the profit of your commandments drew me to the right.

Therefore, since the very nations are directed to the judgment of evil or good by the choice innate within them, how much more can the humble Christian govern toward the good part the liberty of his own will—he who places his own capacity in the strength of God his helper, to whom it is said: 'If you wish to be perfect, go, sell what you have'; and again: 'Do you wish to be made whole?' Being aware how much the mighty Maker has implanted in the human heart, He questions the will of the very one He is about to heal. For in another place also He rebukes a people that walks in the liberty of choice granted to it, thus: 'Bring forth the people that is blind and yet has eyes, that is deaf and yet has ears.' Here, that they are deaf and blind is understood to be a matter of obstinacy, not of nature.

And in the Gospel He openly shows that the disposition of good will has been implanted in man: 'If any man,' He says, 'will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me'—which is to say: it belongs to my mercy that you are called, but it is committed to your will that you follow. Let us see whether God invites man to Himself through ease. 'Let him deny himself,' He says—that is, let the man who is evil strive to be good, and beseeching say: 'Of my own will I will confess to Him.' Each one is commanded to be converted of his own will, lest perhaps the sinner despair that he can be changed for the better. 'If any man,' He says, 'will come after me, let him deny himself'—that is, let one thing be made out of another.

Let patience conquer wrath, let temperance rein in concupiscence, let humility drive out pride, let the cross crush pleasure. Who would reckon that these things are to be conferred, without labor of heart, without affliction of the flesh, without the great striving of the whole man, upon one who sleeps, by grace alone? 'Let him deny himself'—that is to say: O man, do not think that you were so fashioned by your Author that you cannot become just from unjust, chaste from lustful, kindly from ill-willed. That you may be able to attain this, it is not your making that must be changed, but your life. Now, in saying these things, we do not equate the labor with grace, but rather set grace altogether beyond comparison before it. IX. HOW THIS IS TO BE UNDERSTOOD:

'IT IS NOT OF HIM THAT WILLS, NOR OF HIM THAT RUNS, BUT OF GOD THAT SHOWS MERCY'; OR ELSE THAT SAYING: 'I CAME NOT TO CALL THE JUST, BUT SINNERS TO REPENTANCE.' But you say: so entirely is nothing of man's, but all of the grace of God, that the Apostle says: 'Not of him that wills nor of him that runs.' Just as the Jew arrogates to himself out of the Law, or the Pelagian out of the presumption of free choice—yet, though it be with man's service, it is nonetheless of God who shows mercy, not of him that wills nor of him that runs. Here he plainly marks and rebukes the one who thinks that he alone suffices for himself without the hand of a helper. But to him who joins his own efforts to the aid of Him who shows mercy, he does not say 'not of him that wills nor of him that runs,' but speaks far otherwise to him: 'So run,' he says, 'that you may obtain'; and again:

'You were running so well; who hindered you from obeying the truth?' If the will of the runner is not also to be looked for, why is it said: 'I therefore so run, not as uncertainly'; and again: 'I have finished the course, I have kept the faith'? 'Not of him that wills nor of him that runs'—he has veiled himself in the darkness of errors who, in the Holy Scriptures, knows neither how to inquire into the persons nor into the causes. In this place the Apostle, asserting the faith of the Gentiles, restrains and checks the pride of the Jews, who arrogated righteousness to themselves out of the works of the Law and spurned God's mercy and grace—who, as the Apostle says, 'seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God.'

Whom also in another place He condemns, under a feigned justification and by an oblique, ironic utterance, saying: 'I came not to call the just, but sinners to repentance.' The 'just'—that is, those who flatter themselves out of a presumption of righteousness—just as in another place He spurns the Pharisee justifying himself and receives the publican accusing himself. 'I came not,' He says, 'to call the just, but sinners to repentance'—that is, I came not to call the Jews, who claim for themselves the privileges of righteousness out of the Law, but rather I seek the Gentiles, who out of faith profess the repentance of sinners. For, aimed at their haughtiness, He also says in another place: 'They that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick.' The Jews, however, boasted themselves to be just and whole, but they were not.

But who would dare with a sound heart to call himself sound, when the whole race of mankind lay languishing, stricken by the single bite of the serpent? There is therefore one hope of health for the sick man: if he acknowledge himself sick before the physician. Truly it is fitting that he should lack the remedy who feigns not to know his own sickness. And therefore there shall be greater joy among the angels in heaven over one sinner doing penance than over ninety-nine just persons who need no penance. Who, in this place, would not believe those to be truly just who need no penance? Yet no one is more in need of salvation than he who does not understand that he is in need of it.

And therefore that true Shepherd rejoices more over the one sheep that has been called back from wandering than over the ninety-nine sheep that did not wander. And who could be immune from the evil of deadly error, when the prophet testifies: 'All we like sheep have gone astray; every one has turned aside into his own way'? How lamentable was the blindness of the Jews, which, having denied the Savior, had lost the way and refused to know its own error! Here, therefore, the divine discourse, under the name of the 'just'—without prejudging the other sense—rather marks and chides the arrogance of the Jews. For since the number one hundred and the denarius signify the just and perfect, so the number nine and ninety-nine, by the very reckoning of the imperfect number, signify the unjust and sinners.

And so in this place the Apostle's teaching chastises the haughtiness of the Jew, who, justifying himself out of the Law, had repudiated the mercy of the Redeemer, by saying 'not of him that wills'—because in the humble Christian that very obedience and submission is a running and an ascent, but in the Jew's haughtiness it is a fall and a downward course. 'Not,' he says, 'of him that wills nor of him that runs.' How can this utterance pertain to the faithful man, subject to the laws of Christ, to whom it is said: 'And in the law of the Lord was his will,' and what we mentioned before: 'If any man will come after me,' and: 'Freely will I sacrifice to you, O Lord,' and: 'He that will save his soul shall lose it, and he that shall lose his soul for my sake shall find it'?

See how great and how arduous a work—the losing and finding of the soul—He establishes even in man's will, and therefore He concluded thus: 'For the Son of Man shall come in the glory of his Father, and then shall he render to every man according to his works.' Note that, when He says 'according to his works,' the Bestower of grace has placed man's salvation not in the predestination of the Maker, but in the working of the servant. Therefore here it is not man's condition that is designated, but his conduct; and so in another place He says: 'We shall all stand before the tribunal of God, that every one may render an account of the things done in his own body, according as he has done, whether it be good or evil.' Recognize in this place that it is not the evils of another's race or origin, but the deeds done in one's own body, that are to be examined at the final judgment.

Wherefore, concerning a man who has been reborn in Christ, it stands that what shall be called into examination is not that he was born, but what he has done. If therefore the act of man is not also of the will, how does He say: 'If you be willing and will hear me, you shall eat the good things of the land'? And so God, the Creator of both—that is, of the outer and the inner man—just as by His power He arranged the members of the human body, so by His ordinance He permitted man to carry out and administer the ministry and use of those members.

And just as He Himself formed the right hand in every man, yet placed it in man's power to stretch it out wherever he willed and to apply it to diverse works, in like manner He inserted, inspired, and infused into each and every soul the perception of reason and the choice of the will, but left it to be governed and exercised in the hand of human counsel, and committed its offices to the right and dominion of man—so that, if being corrupted he should crave evil, he might know that it was permitted him in the liberty of choice, yet not know that it was lawful; but if he should desire good, he might request the action and completion of it from the Creator, while to him should pertain the dutiful devotion toward its reward. And therefore the Fashioner and Ruler of man assigned to man the use of good will, but reserved to Himself its accomplishment.

He did not therefore, in an equal and just manner, grant willing to one and deny it to another; but just as He gave to every man a hand, an eye, and a step, so likewise He bestowed on every man a will, that he might turn it toward whatever parts he chose. Righteousness, therefore, in man is not a personal, but a general and public gift of God. The access to attaining salvation, like a certain fountain set forth in the midst of this world and granted in common for the drawing, lies open to all, so that he who has neglected to draw is deservedly guilty toward the Giver. And so, that which has been offered to all is to be required back from all. For if, as they say, there is a special dispensation concerning man's salvation, I do not know how the reckoning can be general. But when He says:

'We must all be made manifest before the tribunal of God'—He would not so terribly exact it from all, unless He had mercifully offered it to all. Therefore the Apostle exhorts the man set in the readiness of warfare thus: 'Labor as a good soldier of Christ. No man being a soldier to God entangles himself with secular business, that he may please Him to whom he has proved himself. For he also that strives in the contest is not crowned unless he strive lawfully'; and again: 'The husbandman that labors must first partake of the fruits.' Hear the Apostle in another place too, not preaching your idleness: 'For the rest,' he says, 'brethren, be strengthened in the Lord and in the might of His power. Put on the armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.'

'For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against the spiritual wickednesses in high places. Therefore take unto you the armor of God, that you may be able to resist in the evil day and to stand perfect in all things. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with charity, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and your feet shod in the preparation of the gospel of peace, in all things taking the shield of faith, wherewith you may be able to extinguish all the fiery darts of the most wicked one.' When he says 'that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil,' and again 'that you may be able to resist in the evil day,' and in what follows:

'taking the shield of faith, wherewith you may be able to extinguish all the fiery darts of the most wicked one,' he shows most plainly that the capacity of choice has been granted by God to every man, whereby it should be ready for him not only to resist his own flesh, but even to fight back against the devil—concerning whom he also says in another place: 'Be watchful,' he says, 'for your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, goes about seeking whom he may devour.' If to this adversary the necessity of origin had already, as you assert, allotted certain fixed ones, he would not seek whom to deceive, nor would it profit the allotted to be watchful. But it is not so.

For just as the enemy is set upon all, so to all the right hand of protection and help is not denied, and to those who pray and watch it is succored by the kindness of mercy—which surely is bestowed on those who knock more from devotion than from predestination. And so, amid these things, does not the one who says that grace alone, without the exercise of work and labor, can suffice, seem to you to burst forth, with a mind estranged, into this voice of blasphemy:

Let no one watch, let no one fast, let no one chastise the assault of lust with the crushing of abstinence, let no one declare war on the vices by the mortification of the outer man, let no one contend with the wounds of inward care by a health-giving affliction, let no one gainsay lust, let no one seek remedies for his crimes through the labor of a mortified flesh, let no one strike back at the enemy—armed with the enticements of obscene pleasure—by the strength of the cross, but let him expose his bared breast to the fiery javelins of the foe; let no one redeem the debts liable to eternal death by the sacrifices of alms, let no one through works of mercy and righteousness bring care to his wounds, but let him carry them whole and by himself to the day of judgment?

Behold, here he who a little before was thought to be a champion of grace, by blocking the way of human salvation, is found to be an assailant of the grace through which that salvation itself is conferred, and is shown to have crossed over into the counsels of the devil as an abettor of perdition. X. AGAINST THIS, THAT THEY SAY FREE CHOICE IS READY IN MAN ONLY TOWARD EVIL, AND NOT AT ALL TOWARD GOOD. Where is that word of the prophet: 'Hear me, you that follow that which is just, and seek the Lord'; or that of the Apostle: 'Know you not that to whom you yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants you are whom you obey, whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness'?

Therefore, while the Apostle demands better endeavors from man, he shows that there is in him the faculty of good will; and when we prefer this, we openly proclaim the ordering and the wondrous arrangement of our Author, which the same Apostle demonstrates to be prepared for righteous offices, saying: 'Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, so as to obey the lusts thereof. Neither yield your members as instruments of iniquity unto sin, but present yourselves to God as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.' Likewise: 'I speak after the manner of men, because of the infirmity of your flesh.'

'For as you have yielded your members to serve uncleanness and iniquity unto iniquity, so now yield your members to serve righteousness unto sanctification.' Does he not here summon that very same man to the pursuit of good works, whom he makes plain to have formerly been given over to evils? Therefore, while the slayer of free choice pronounces that all things are established and defined by predestination toward one or the other side, he empties out even the last remedies of penance by the sense of an abrupt impiety. And how does he preach grace, who denies mercy? How does he seem to assert the gift of God, whose help he takes away? How does he dare to lay claim to testimonies from the Scriptures, who tries to exclude the benefits of the Scriptures? How is it said to me:

'Turn away from evil and do good,' if I can no longer turn away from evil? Why does the Apostle speak: 'Mortify,' he says, 'your members'; and again: 'You were,' he says, 'sometime darkness, but now light in the Lord; walk as children of light'? How does the preacher of the law suggest to me a change of myself, if the Maker imposed an unchangeable law: 'Stripping yourselves,' he says, 'of the old man with his deeds, and putting on the new'? How do you contend that the ingrained stain of sin pertains inseparably to origin and condition, which you acknowledge can be laid down and put off?

Understand that you speak by a contrary spirit against the Holy Spirit, who has given to the world, as a help, the sacraments of the Law and the Prophets, the oracles of the evangelical truth, and has promised the heavenly kingdom to those who keep the divine precepts through the offices of laborious service, with grace cooperating. Wherefore measure the honor of holy work and labor by the greatness and dignity of the reward, whose palm and crown you doubtless judge cheap if you affirm that it can be grasped without laborious contrition. Can that command of the divine precept be fulfilled without a great intention of work: 'Be not,' he says, 'overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good'; or that: 'Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners'?

And how, amid these things, do you assert that the received gift of grace is in no way endangered, when you read that the good ingrained in the character can be corrupted by evil? Will it be a matter of ease to obtain what the Apostle says: 'In all things we suffer tribulation, but are not distressed; we are perplexed, but not left destitute; we suffer persecution, but are not forsaken; we are cast down, but perish not'; and what he says in another place: 'The world is crucified to me, and I to the world'? If these things, and such as these, of which the Holy Scriptures are full, are procured through ease, why are they not obtained by all? Much will be derogated both from the glory of the rewarded and from the justice of the Rewarder, if the highest and most illustrious men are crowned through rest and sloth. And where is that prophetic saying:

'Because of the words of your lips I have kept hard ways'? If the procuring of salvation to be sought is an idle business, then the way of virtue is common and general and broad; therefore the Gospels lie when they say: 'How strait is the gate and narrow the way that leads to life, and few there are that find it.' If works shall cease, merits shall have no honor; if there be nothing arduous in labor, there shall be nothing precious in virtue. But this arduous way offends the slothful, and labor deters the idle. It is therefore not the violence of the Foreknower, but the disobedience of the sinner, that is the cause—as we read: 'They have perished for their iniquities, like the dream of one that awakes'; and again: 'Depart from me, all you that work iniquity'; and in another place:

'They kept not the covenant of God, and would not walk in His law.' It is therefore not impossibility that calls man back from the work of righteousness, but iniquity and the will. Now, since the Apostle says: 'Him that sins reprove before all,' there is no reason by which he should be either reproved or condemned who transgresses unwillingly. But it is not so. For since the Lord says through His prophet: 'I will judge every one according to his ways, O house of Israel,' whoever has succumbed to passion has been overcome not by pressing foreknowledge, but seduced by flattering sin. Still denying the striving of human labor, they oppose this testimony: 'Unless the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.'