反亞流神學文集 第 10 章 第 3/9 段

whom the mercy of God, going before, freely illuminated that they might believe, and following, instructed spiritually that they might teach. For these, holding throughout the truth of apostolic preaching, most certainly knew, and left it to be known in their books and epistles, that the grace of God is not given generally to all men. For the grace of God is a gratuitous gift. Wherefore the Apostle says, that each one has his proper gift from God: one indeed thus, another thus (1 Cor. 7:7). This grace, which God freely gives to the vessels of mercy, begins from the illumination of the heart; and it does not find man's will good, but makes it so; and that it may be chosen, it first chooses;

nor is it received or loved, unless it itself work this in the heart of man. Therefore both the reception and the desire of grace is the work of grace itself. This grace no man will be able to desire, or to ask for, nor even to know, unless he first receive it from Him who bestows it by no preceding works or good wills, to this end, that it itself may prepare the will in which it may ever abide, itself give, itself illuminate, itself arouse, itself preserve, itself consummate. CHAP. 16. — 34. Therefore, that the grace of God may be known and loved, desired and sought, it is first given to man not knowing, not loving, not desiring, nor asking. It therefore itself makes itself to be known, loved, desired, asked for.

For when the Lord, as He speaks through the prophet Ezekiel, takes away the stony heart from men and gives them a heart of flesh (Ezek. 11:19), He surely changes man's will through the illumination of His grace. This is a change not of human free will, but of the right hand of the Most High (Ps. 76[77]:11); through which the sons of men, heavy of heart, who love vanity and seek after lying (Ps. 4:3), do not themselves bring good will to loving and seeking the truth, but receive from the Lord the gift of good will. For it is written, that the will is prepared by the Lord (Prov. 8:35, according to the LXX).

For from that true Light, which enlightens every man coming into this world, good will is given, that man may believe in God and faithfully love God, by whom that very will is continually governed and ruled, so that neither may the faith of man fail, nor may his charity grow cold. Whence the Saviour says to Peter: 'I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not' (Luke 22:32). And faith itself is that of the saints, which works through charity. Therefore just as no one can have the beginning of good will unless he has been illuminated by the prevenient mercy of God, because the will is prepared by the Lord, and again it is written: 'My God, His mercy shall go before me' (Ps. 58[59]:11):

so likewise no one will be able to retain that same good will unto the end, unless he has been continually preserved by the same following mercy. For blessed David says to God: 'Thy mercy shall follow me all the days of my life' (Ps. 22[23]:6). Mercy therefore, which freely goes before the evil man, that he may be changed for the better, itself also rules by following him whom it makes good, that he be not changed for the worse. 35. Every good, therefore, of will and of work can then be in man, if it be given by the bounty of prevenient grace, and be preserved by the aid of the same subsequent grace. Which goes before the evil, that he may begin to have, God bestowing, the good will which before he did not have, because he could not have it by himself:

and it follows the good, that he may persevere and advance in the good will, which he could not have from himself, but received by grace. It goes before therefore by directing the crooked heart of man, because it is written: 'The Lord directeth the hearts' (Prov. 21:2). And it follows by keeping guard over the one corrected, because likewise it is written: 'My just help is from the Lord, who saveth the upright of heart' (Ps. 7:11). Grace therefore works in both: namely, both in the one erring, that being corrected he may live, and in the one corrected, that being depraved he may not fall away. CHAP. 17. — 36. But that this grace is not given to all, and that to those to whom it is given it is not given equally to all, whoever piously seeks knows by the attestation of the holy oracles.

For what good can there be first in man, by which he may tend toward eternal life, than a good will? Concerning which, however, it is said in Proverbs: 'The will is prepared by the Lord' (Prov. 8:35, according to the LXX). The Lord therefore, who prepares good will in us, Himself gives us the beginning of good will. That God also works in us not only that we may will, but even that we may do what we rightly will, the Apostle teaches, saying: 'With fear and trembling work out your salvation. For it is God who worketh in us both to will and to accomplish, according to good will' (Phil. 2:12-13). That the beginning of this good will consists in faith, the book of the Canticle of Canticles (chap. 4:8, according to

the LXX) shows, where Christ says to the Church: 'Thou shalt come and pass over from the beginning of faith.' Yet that this faith is not given to all, blessed Paul asserts, saying: 'For all men have not faith' (2 Thess. 3:2); and again: 'All do not obey the Gospel' (Rom. 10:16). But that to those to whom it is given, it is not given equally, we learn from the same teacher who says: 'For I say, through the grace that is given to me, to all that are among you, not to be more wise than it behoveth to be wise, but to be wise unto sobriety, and to every one as God hath divided the measure of faith' (Rom. 12:3). 37. On this account the very choir of the apostles, who had not received the spirit of this world, but the Spirit that is of God, that they might know the things that were given them by God (1 Cor.

2:12), knowing that the beginning of faith had been conferred upon them by the Lord, sought from Him that the same be increased. For Luke the evangelist records that the disciples said to the Lord: 'Lord, increase our faith' (Luke 17:5). And if the will of man could have its beginning from himself, from himself surely it would have taken its increase. But the blessed apostles, whence they knew themselves to have received the beginning of faith which they did not have, thence they sought for themselves the increase of the same: because the grace which had conferred upon them the beginning of faith, itself aroused in them the desire of its increase.

In which desire, however, although the will was already faithful, yet it would in no way suffice for itself, unless He who had given the beginning of faith to those not asking, should also confer the increase upon those asking, by His benign compassion. That the apostles therefore might believe, will was not lacking, but the Lord Himself prepared that very will in them. For that man should not believe, he has unbelief from himself; but that he should believe in God, he receives faith from God, and that faith may be perfected in him by a following increase, this is done not by the strength of the human will, but by divine grace: because God, just as He prepares the will for believing through grace, so consummates that very will by grace working;

and just as He gives faith to those not having it, so also in those who have it He multiplies it. Wherefore in the Epistle which is written to the Hebrews, it is thus said: 'Laying aside therefore every weight, and the sin which surrounds us, let us run by patience to the contest set before us, looking on Jesus the author and consummator of faith' (Heb. 12:1-2). Accordingly, if man has faith from himself, Jesus is not the author of faith; and if man perfects faith by his own strength, Jesus is not the consummator of faith: but the apostolic authority confesses the Lord Jesus to be the author and consummator of our faith;

it is certain therefore that faith can neither be nor grow in us, unless He bestow it upon us, increase it once bestowed, and perfect it once increased, whom the apostolic authority professes to be the author and consummator of faith. Wherefore the apostle Paul, in the Epistle which he wrote to the Ephesians, just as he proclaims that grace is given by God, so testifies that it is not given equally to all; but according as He mercifully bestows, who is wont not to repay it for merits, but to bestow it freely. For he says: 'To every one of us is given grace according to the measure of the giving of Christ' (Eph. 4:7).

By these and testimonies of this kind it is shown, that grace is neither given to all, nor to those to whom it is given is it given equally, but according to the measure of the giving of Christ. Hence it is that the blessed Apostle, concluding the same Epistle, wishes peace, charity, and faith to be bestowed from on high, saying: 'Peace to the brethren, and charity with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ' (Eph. 6:23). CHAP. 18. — 38. Therefore, that we might will to believe in God, He conferred upon us good will; that we might believe in Him, He Himself gave us faith; that we might also love Him, the same poured into our hearts, through the Holy Spirit, the grace of His charity. Not therefore because we willed did we receive grace, but grace was given to us not yet willing.

Which very grace we were able to have, that we might receive grace; but to us unbelievers faith was given out of grace. Which the Vessel of election plainly testifies, saying: 'By grace you are saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, for it is the gift of God' (Eph. 2:8). Grace alone therefore makes good will in us, grace alone gives faith to that very will. But when good will has faith, without which it cannot be good, because without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb. 11:6), it begins to work good, provided only that the aid of grace never be lacking to the one working. For to this end the grace of God makes good will in us, that it may have what it may aid in us, not only willing, but also working;

and therefore it pours into our will the gift of believing, that it may not be lacking to that same will believing and working. Therefore, that it may have faith, let it know that this very bounty of faith is in it not from itself, but from the grace of God. 39. But it is little for us to know that faith is given to each one from on high, unless we most certainly know that so much is bestowed on each as God deigns to give, not as much as the human will merits. Which, before it receives faith, can merit through itself punishment, not faith. For everything that is not of faith is sin, and without faith it is impossible to please God (Rom. 14:23; Heb. 11:6). But he who does not please God, without doubt displeases Him; and he who displeases God does not appease Him, but rather provokes Him.

No merit therefore of receiving faith can that will have which does not have faith: because not to have faith is to displease God. But the evil of unbelief is the desert not of justification, but of damnation. The dividing of faith is therefore gratuitous, which is bestowed on each not according to the faith of the unbelieving, which is none, but according to the voluntary bounty of the justifying God. This indeed the Doctor of the Gentiles, teaching, admonishes us, not to be more wise than it behoveth to be wise, but to be wise unto sobriety (Rom. 12:3); and to every one as God hath divided the measure of faith (1 Pet. 4:10). Blessed Peter also testifies that the grace of God is manifold.

Wherefore he commands each of the faithful to work according to the quality of the grace received, saying: 'Be hospitable one to another without murmuring; every one, as he hath received grace, ministering the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God' (1 Pet. 4:9-10). Blessed Paul also says: 'We being many are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another: having different gifts according to the grace that is given to us' (Rom. 12:5-6). CHAP. 19. — 40.

Further, lest anyone should strive to ascribe the difference of the gifts to any human works or merits, the same apostle shows that they are bestowed by the voluntary bounty of spiritual grace, which finds no merit on which to confer the gift, but itself gives the beginnings of good merits. He says therefore: 'There are divisions of graces, but the same Spirit; and there are divisions of ministries, but the same Lord; and there are divisions of operations, but the same God, who worketh all in all' (1 Cor. 12:4-6). And after the enumeration of the charisms he says: 'But all these things worketh one and the same Spirit, dividing to every one according as He will' (1 Cor. 12:11).

Accordingly, every Christian ought to know that the beginning of saving grace rests neither upon the powers of nature nor upon the precepts of the Law, but upon the enlightenment of the heart and the free gift of the divine goodness, whereby it comes to pass that what is enjoined by God can be not only acknowledged by us but also loved and carried out. For human nature cannot of itself ever recover a good will pleasing to God, since it lost that will in the first man, when, depraved from the uprightness it had received from God, it consented with the devil.

It then so lost that will that no one of mankind thereafter can have it of himself, unless each one receives it freely from Him from whom the first man received it when he was created; and had the first man not lost it, every man thereafter would possess it by nature. The precepts of the Law can indeed sound outwardly in the ears of the flesh; but inwardly no one profitably perceives them at all with the hearing of the heart, unless he has first received within the gift of spiritual grace. For the letter, by forbidding, increases sin, if the help of spiritual grace be wanting to the hearer; and once the law is known, a man is made a transgressor, unless his will be prepared by the Lord to fulfil the law:

For the law works wrath, and where there is no law, neither is there transgression (Rom. iv. 15); and, the Scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the justification by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe (Gal. iii. 22). The law therefore, without grace, can show the sickness but not heal it; it points out the wounds but does not administer the remedies: but that the precept of the law may be fulfilled, grace inwardly administers help. And thus the law reveals guilt, grace confers pardon. It belongs then to the law that we recognize our sins; to grace that we avoid them. For the Apostle says: I had not known sin but by the law. For I had not known concupiscence, unless the law had said: Thou shalt not covet (Rom. vii. 7). Concerning grace he also says:

Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord (ibid. 24). It is therefore a fault of depraved nature that man sins; the office of the law is to point out to man the sin he knows not: but the gift of grace is to heal the fault of man which nature brought upon itself and the knowledge of the law heaped up. Grace therefore works both enlightenment in men and salvation: so that the commandments of the law, which so long as man could not fulfil them, he heard not only uselessly but even damnably, may—when he is anticipated by the aid of grace—not only be known to be holy and just and good, but he may also receive that charity whereby he can both love and fulfil what he learns. CHAPTER XX.

Let us not therefore suppose that the grace of God is given to all men. For all men have not faith, and certain ones do not receive the love of God so as to be saved. Yet in these, that they neither believe nor love God, is a fault of the human will: which, so long as it is not changed by the grace of the divine gift, either does not understand the precepts, or, understanding them, despises them—that is, either it sins in ignorance, or it heaps up its sin by the fault of transgression. Concerning those, then, whom the darkness of ignorance hems in, it is said: They have not known nor understood, they walk in darkness (Ps. lxxxi. 5).

These, as the Apostle says, walk in the vanity of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart (Eph. iv. 17, 18). But concerning those who know, he says that, when they had known God, they glorified Him not as God, neither gave thanks, but became vain in their thoughts (Rom. i. 21). And concerning the contemptuous servant it is said: A stubborn servant will not be corrected by words; for even if he understand, he will not obey (Prov. xxix. 19). But what does this mean, He will not be corrected by words, save this: if grace be wanting, by the command of the law alone he will not be converted? For God, converting us, gives us life, that His people may rejoice in Him (Ps. lxxxiv. 7).

He Himself shows us His mercy, and He Himself gives us His salvation (ibid. 8). So that a man should not believe in God, he has of himself the fault of unbelief; but that he should believe and love Him, is the gift of the divine bounty. For if it be asked what kind of men grace finds, it finds them indeed such as the Apostle describes—that is, foolish and unbelieving, erring, serving divers desires and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another (Titus iii. 3). From all which vices he proclaims that we are saved, not by the possibility of nature and the knowledge of the law, but by the kindness of God our Saviour (ibid. 4).

By His help it comes to pass that, denying ungodliness and worldly desires, we live soberly, and justly, and godly in this world (Titus ii. 12). CHAPTER XXI. This, then, the grace of God through our Lord Jesus Christ effects: that it may make the foolish wise, bestow faith on the unbelieving, not only call the erring to life but also recall them from wicked desires; that, earthly desires being driven out, it may inspire the desire of the heavenly kingdom; that, the lust of carnal pleasures being taken away, it may pour in the gift of spiritual delight and will; that it may root out malice by implanted goodness; that it may drive out envy by the gift of kindness; and that to the hateful and to those hating one another it may grant the gift of holy love.

That we may therefore become good out of evil, and that we may burn with the fire of holy charity, it is begun in us by the work of spiritual grace, and by His operation it is perfected in us. For the fruit of the Spirit is charity, joy, peace, long-suffering, goodness, benignity (Gal. v. 22, 23), and the rest which apostolic teaching commends. This we know is to be done in us wholesomely by the working of the Spirit, because He Himself works in us that we may do what we know. For we have not received the spirit of this world, but the Spirit which is of God, that we may know the things that are given us of God (1 Cor. ii. 12). By the same Spirit also we are led, that acting well we may be sons of God. For whosoever are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God (Rom. viii. 14).

Obeying therefore the heavenly words, let us hold most firmly that the beginning of all good things is conferred upon us by the divine bounty. But we, that we may hold ourselves back from doing evil, and that we may begin to will or to do good, can have neither the beginning nor the progress of it from ourselves. For as it is written concerning continence, that no one can be continent unless God grant it (Wis. viii. 21), and the Apostle numbers it among the fruits of the Spirit (Gal. v. 23): so charity, which does not deal wrongfully (1 Cor. xiii. 4)—which pertains to continence—and which by good works covers a multitude of sins (1 Pet. iv. 8), through which God works together in us, not only that we may turn aside from evil, but also that we may do good;

whereby we may love not only our neighbours but also our enemies, and do good to them that hate us, and pray for them that persecute and calumniate us (Matt. v. 44); this charity, then, neither begins to be nor grows in us of our own will; but, by the working of God's grace, it is poured forth in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who is given to us. CHAPTER XXII. Whoever therefore does not wish, in the name of grace, either to be deceived or to deceive, let him hear the Apostle carefully repressing the pride of human swelling, which strives to attribute to itself the beginning of a good will, when he says: For who distinguisheth thee? And what hast thou that thou hast not received?

And if thou hast received it, why dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it (1 Cor. iv. 7)? Let him also follow with sincere humility of heart the saying of James, whereby he calls us back from error and leads us into the way of truth, saying: Do not err, my brethren: every best gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights (James i. 16, 17). Our own Creator and Redeemer also, when He spoke to the crowds in parables, in order to show that the faculty of interior knowledge is present only in those to whom He Himself has willed to grant it—for He it is who teaches man knowledge (Ps. xciii. 10)—when His disciples said to Him: Why speakest thou to them in parables? (Matt. xiii. 10),

He opened by a manifest response the gift of heavenly grace, saying: Because to you it is given to know the mystery of the kingdom of God, but to the rest in parables (Luke viii. 10). His own confession also, directed to the Father, plainly shows that all the wisdom of the human mind is powerless for the understanding of the divine preaching, unless God—who teaches outwardly through the man that speaks—by teaching inwardly through Himself, enlightens and aids the hearer. For He says: I confess to thee, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hidden these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to little ones (Matt. xi. 25). How then is grace asserted to be given to all, which is shown—on the testimony of the Giver Himself—to be hidden from the wise and prudent?

For in the following words also He shows that the knowledge of God consists not in human power but in divine revelation, when He says: No one knoweth the Son but the Father, neither doth any one know the Father but the Son, and he to whom the Son shall will to reveal Him (ibid. 27). Who here does not see that a man hears in vain from a man the discourse of heavenly teaching, unless the Master, God, mercifully speaks to him in his heart by revealing? CHAPTER XXIII. But this revelation is special to the sons of God, whereby they receive not only the gift of knowledge but also of divine love. For this revelation or knowledge is not such as that of those concerning whom the Apostle says that what is known of God is manifest in them.

For God hath manifested it to them (Rom. i. 19), namely that they should be without excuse, because when they had known God, they glorified Him not as God, nor gave thanks (ibid. 20, 21). That manifestation, therefore, whereby they knew God—they who, knowing Him, did not love Him—did not possess the grace whereby God is so known as to be loved. Because therefore they did not receive grace, on that account, knowing God, they gave no thanks; and because they were vessels of wrath fitted for destruction, that manifestation whereby they knew God wrought this in them: that by knowing they might grow proud, not that by humbling themselves they might love.

By such knowledge, then, being taken away, there is excuse removed, not salvation conferred. But in this revelation, which the grace of God works in the vessels of mercy, at once both the knowledge of God and love are divinely conferred on man. For those who are not elect are without excuse, but the elect are made unaccusable. For the Apostle said: Who shall accuse the elect of God? It is God that justifieth; who is he that shall condemn? It is Christ Jesus that died, yea that is risen again, who is at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us (Rom. viii. 33, 34). In the vessels of mercy, therefore, the guilt of nature is loosed by humble faith and charity, which spiritual grace bestows; but in the vessels of wrath it is nourished by proud knowledge.

By that knowledge the blind heart is puffed up by itself unto death; but by this it is divinely enlightened and humbled unto life. By that knowledge the foolish heart is darkened, while the proud man attributes to himself what belongs to God; but by this it receives light, so that it may not doubt that this very thing—that it knows and loves God—is present in it, not from the possibility of nature, nor from the hearing of the law, nor from its own will, but from the gift of God; and it may always remember to be humble, lest by growing proud it lose what it received unworthily. That knowledge, therefore, adds to sin the guilt of transgression; this removes punishment from the sinner. That justly condemns, this freely justifies.

There knowledge that puffs up nourishes and increases sin, here charity that builds up covers a multitude of sins. BOOK TWO. CHAPTER I. In the preceding book, with the help of the grace of God—which alone can both pour into the human heart the gift of holy thought and grant to the mouth the right faculty of speaking, because both we and our words are in the hand of God—I first discoursed fully and more than enough concerning Jacob and Esau: showing, on the authority of the Apostle's statement, that holy Jacob was chosen before he was born, with no merits of preceding or following works being required, but distinguished solely by the kindness of the divine purpose. This the blessed Paul is known to have clearly asserted by that word in which he says:

For while they were not yet born, nor had done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand (Rom. ix. 11). This the Apostle said for this reason, that he might show that it stood not according to man, but according to the purpose of Him that calleth by election; and that the election might be known not from any merit of the one about to be born, but from the will of God. For truly the calling of God would have been an election from man's merit, and not from the grace of God, if any good or evil action were found in the little ones.