which nevertheless we do not celebrate in the same order in which they were celebrated, because, dividing the time of the promise from the time of the rendered truth, we now retain those sacraments delivered to us by Christ, by which we recognize and hold Christ as not about to suffer, but as having suffered for us. But that by the name of the cup the Old Testament also ought to be received, we show not by our own presumption, but by paternal tradition. For holy Augustine, in his exposition of the seventy-fourth psalm, when he had come to that place where it is said: For the cup in the hand of the Lord is full of pure wine mixed; and He hath inclined it from this to that; nevertheless the dregs thereof are not emptied out (Ps. 74:9), among other things speaks thus:
"The cup full of pure wine mixed seems to me to be the law which was given to the Jews, and all that Scripture of the Old which is called the Testament, where lie the weights of all the sentences: for there the New Testament lies hidden and concealed, as it were in the dregs of the corporeal sacraments." And when the same blessed Augustine was distinguishing those sacraments of the past time from the precepts of the life to be led, as it were dividing the cup, after he had recalled what was said: Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not commit adultery (Deut. 5:17, 18), and some things which are contained in the text of the decalogue, this same holy Augustine added, saying: "All these things pertain to the wine;
but those carnal things, as it were, settled down, so as to remain among them, and thus all spiritual understanding was poured out. For the cup is in the hand of the Lord, that is, in the power of the Lord; of pure wine, that is, of the sincere law; it is full of the mixture, that is, with the dregs of the corporeal sacraments: and because He now humbles the proud Jew, and exalts this confessing Gentile, He hath inclined it from this to that one, that is, from the Jewish people to the Gentile people. What hath He inclined? The law; and thence the spiritual understanding was strained out: nevertheless the dregs thereof are not emptied out, because all the carnal sacraments remained among the Jews." From these sayings of blessed Augustine I judge that the understanding of the cup also lies open,
whereby the division of the dregs and the wine can be recognized in the truth of the spiritual mystery: yet in such a way that no one should on that account wish to cast away the Old Testament, because he sees that its sacraments have ceased. For the New Testament ought so to be held with veneration, that the Old Testament is in no wise to be forsaken: which seems to me to be commended under the name of the old and new friend in the book Ecclesiasticus, where it is said: Forsake not an old friend, for the new will not be like to him (Sir. 9:14). This dissimilarity, which is in the sacraments of both Testaments, the divine discourse, foretelling through holy Jeremiah, says:
Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, and I will make a New Testament with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not according to the Testament which I made with their fathers (Jer. 31:31). But in this respect the New Testament is found to have been made not according to the Old Testament by the Lord, in that He both gave the perfection of the precepts, and, the old sacraments being removed, instituted dissimilar sacraments of the revealed truth, and thus what He promised in the Old, He perfected in the New. Accordingly, since the knowledge of the sacraments of the New Testament can then be truly salutary and sweet, if in the sacraments of the Old Testament a true promise is recognized to have gone before, therefore, when the Scripture had said:
Forsake not an old friend, for the new will not be like to him, it immediately added: A new friend is as new wine: let it grow old, and thou shalt drink it with pleasure (Sir. 9:15). What is it, let it grow old, except that in the Old Testament the type of the New Testament should appear? Then, therefore, is this new wine drunk with pleasure, if its signification and promise be recognized in the Old Testament. 47. This new wine the Lord made to grow old in the heart of the disciples, when, as those two were journeying to the village of Emmaus, He drew near and went with them; and when they had told Him, as to one ignorant, the things which had been done concerning His Passion, then He said to them:
O foolish and slow of heart to believe in all things which the prophets have spoken (Luke 24:25). See, I pray, in what manner the new wine grows old, that it may be drunk with pleasure. The Lord therefore added: Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and so to enter into His glory (ibid., 26)? Where the holy evangelist tells in what manner the new wine was growing old for them, to be drunk with pleasure: And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded to them in all the Scriptures the things that were concerning Him (ibid., 27). Then the ardor of newness and sweetness conceived from the wine growing old, they themselves afterward displayed, saying: Was not our heart burning within us, while He was speaking in the way, and opened to us the Scriptures (ibid., 32)?
This He did again, saying: These are the words which I spoke to you, while I was yet with you; that all things must be fulfilled which are written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning Me. Then He opened their understanding, that they might understand the Scriptures (Luke 24:44). Thus He made the new wine to grow old with pleasure, while He indubitably showed the promises of the New Testament to appear in the reading of the Old Testament: lest the new friend be so held that the old is forsaken, because the new remains like in faith, although it may appear dissimilar in the celebration of the sacraments. Indeed, one is the faith of the New and of the Old Testament. This, in the ancient fathers, believed the things promised, which in us now believes them fulfilled.
But what was in our fathers the faith of the promise, that same in us is the faith of the exhibited truth fulfilled: whence, because this old and new friend is indissolubly joined, and the one without the other is not salutarily held, the new wine ought to grow old, that it may be for the faithful to be drunk with pleasure. EPISTLE XV. The African bishops, exiles in Sardinia, to John and Venerius, concerning the grace of God and human free will.
To the holy brethren most worthy to be embraced by the grace of God, JOHN the presbyter and archimandrite, and VENERIUS the deacon, and the faithful men whose subscription is contained in your letter: DATIANUS, FORTUNATUS, PETRUS, VICTOR, SCHOLASTICUS, ORONTIUS, VINDICIANUS, VICTOR, JANUARIUS, VICTORIANUS, PHOTINUS, QUODVULTDEUS, servants of Christ, salvation in the Lord. 1. Inasmuch as through the grace of Christ, in the unity of faith, the joining of charity holds the members of the ecclesiastical body together, so far is it necessary that the members be solicitous for one another, so that, the disease of any depraved dogma being repelled, an assiduous and unwearied instancy both of discourse and of prayer be expended not only for health to be preserved, but even to be repaired.
For so it comes to pass that, while the solicitude of fraternal purity keeps watch, the Holy Spirit Himself, through whom the charity of God is poured forth in our hearts, works all things together unto good for those who love God and their neighbor in God. For just as we receive love itself by the gift of spiritual grace, so, while we are solicitous for the brethren, we not only demonstrate the divine grace to be within us, but also, the more the purity of charity is expended by us, so much the more is the grace of the divine recompense increased for us. 2. And so we have received your charity's letter, which in part relieved, but in part saddened, our exile. For we rejoice, because you hold the right opinion concerning the grace of God, by whose gift (or light)
the free choice of the human mind is illuminated, and is governed by its aid: but we are affected with a certain cloud of sorrow, because you have signified that certain brethren, in the question concerning the grace of God and human free will, do not hold the right path of catholic faith, but wish to raise up the liberty of human choice against the grace of God. 3. Herein first, most beloved brethren, you ought to recognize—nay, we do not doubt that you have recognized—that these things are divinely permitted for this end, that hence the power of divine grace may be understood by the document of a more manifest judgment. Since indeed grace itself is by no means recognized unless it be given: which, as long as it is not in a man, so long is it necessary that he either resist it in speech, or in deed.
For he resists the grace of God in speech, who bears a mind contrary to the Christian faith; and he resists in deed, who does not retain in his morals the institute of the Christian life. For this grace divinely given works in man, that the soul, having received the gift of faith and charity, may both bring forth a good word, and persist in the zeal of good operation. That this is divinely given to the faithful, the blessed Apostle both showed and besought, saying: Now our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and God our Father, who hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation, and good hope in grace, exhort your hearts, and confirm you in every good work and word (2 Thess. 2:16, 17). 4.
From God, therefore, is all our grace of good speech and work, from whom it is also manifest that the sufficiency even of good thought itself is bestowed upon us: that a man may learn to glory not in himself, but in the Lord. For the blessed Apostle assigned a man's good thought to divine grace when he said: And such confidence we have through Christ toward God: not that we are sufficient to think anything of ourselves, as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is from God (2 Cor. 3:4, 5). Accordingly, even if certain persons, not yet having grace, do not understand that they do not have it, yet those who have received grace divinely ought all the more to be confirmed in the assertion of that grace, the more they see it not bestowed on all.
It must needs be that grace is unknown to those to whom it is not granted, and is recognized by those to whom it is given by the divine bounty. For the Apostle testifies that the gifts of the Holy Spirit are known by the reception of that same Holy Spirit. Therefore he says: 'Now we have received not the spirit of this world, but the Spirit which is of God, that we may know the things that are given to us by God; which things also we speak, not in the learned words of human wisdom, but in the doctrine of the Spirit, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man perceiveth not these things that are of the Spirit of God; for it is foolishness to him, and he cannot understand, because it is spiritually examined. But the spiritual man judgeth all things, and he himself is judged of no man' (1 Cor. 2:12-15).
Therefore it is through the grace of the Holy Spirit that we receive, so that, this Spirit being received, it may be within us to know what we have received. Wherefore, most beloved brethren, both the needy poverty of human free will and the unfailing bounty of divine grace must be known and confessed by the right tenor of the true faith. For 'what hast thou,' says the Apostle, 'that thou hast not received? And if thou hast received it, why dost thou glory, as if thou hadst not received it?' (1 Cor. 4:7). Indeed, before the bounty of grace there is in man a free will, but not a good one, because it is not enlightened. And so, unless grace be given, that will itself is not held to be good. For man's free will apart from the gift of grace is just as an eye is without light.
For the eye also was made for seeing; but unless it receives light, it will not see. And that is the true light 'which enlighteneth every man that cometh into this world' (John 1:9); and it enlightens man by giving itself through grace. Therefore, just as the eye of the body always needs to receive light in order that it may behold the light itself, so also no knowledge of grace can avail man's free will unless the very infusion of that spiritual grace be given. Accordingly, that we may set before you concerning those matters which you have set down in your letter what the truth of catholic doctrine holds, we have taken care briefly to define each point, following the gift of that same grace which she herself has deigned to pour into the hearts and tongues of the holy Fathers.
You said, therefore, that when you assert that Esau and Jacob, not yet born, Jacob was chosen through free mercy, while Esau, held fast by original sin, was held in hatred by the just judgment of God—those others say, on the contrary, that in Esau there is the figure of the Jewish people, to be condemned for their future evil works, while in Jacob there is the figure of the people of the Gentiles, to be saved by their future good works. These two things, which you severally propose, it is good that you join together in catholic agreement. For thus both the grace of God is fittingly acknowledged by them, and the prophetic mystery is not denied by you. For in those two brothers the signification of two peoples is worthily received:
especially since to Rebecca herself, when she consulted the Lord, two peoples were foretold as destined to be separated from her womb. Nevertheless, in that distinction both the free goodness and the just severity are to be recognized. For since 'every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights' (James 1:17), and by grace are all saved whosoever are saved, assuredly it was not human works in Jacob that were chosen and beloved, but divine gifts. Again, since our iniquity commends the justice of God, without doubt in Esau the wickedness of human iniquity was condemned. In Jacob, indeed, God showed the gratuitous benefit of His mercy, in that He deigned to adopt him by grace freely given;
nor did He choose him for the merits of any future good working, but foreknew that He Himself would give to him both faith and good works. Hence it is that to the seed of Abraham, whose figure preceded in Jacob, the blessed Apostle says: 'By grace you are saved through faith' (Eph. 2:8). To show that faith is not given for any good merits, but that by the gift of faith itself every good merit is begun, and that faith itself is the gift of God, he added, following on: 'and this not of yourselves, for it is the gift of God' (ibid., 9). And lest anyone should dare to claim for himself the merit of any good works whatsoever, and think that he has received faith for whatever works, he added: 'not of works, lest any man should glory.'
But to show that not only faith, but also good works are divinely bestowed, he immediately subjoined: 'For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus in good works,' which he testifies are not only given by God, but also prepared by Him, saying: 'which God hath prepared that we should walk in them' (Eph. 2:10). And so by grace Jacob was saved through faith; by grace he obtained the capacity for good works. Wherefore, since it is certain that Esau was a vessel of wrath, but Jacob a vessel of mercy, IT MUST MOST CERTAINLY BE HELD that the one, in order that he might be condemned, justly merited wrath—for 'God is not unjust who inflicteth wrath' (Rom. 3:5)—and the other, in order that he might be saved, freely received the gift of prevenient mercy.
Jacob, therefore, being freely justified by the grace of God, was made a vessel of mercy through undeserved grace, and through that same grace was mercifully prepared unto glory; but Esau, through just wrath, was justly prepared unto punishment: for 'our iniquity commendeth the justice of God' (ibid.). God, then, showed in Jacob the mercy of gratuitous goodness, but in Esau the judgment of just severity; who indeed, having received the sacrament of circumcision on the eighth day according to the tenor of the divine ordinance, was freed from the guilt of original sin, but through the wickedness of his heart remained in the oldness of the earthly man; there abandoned to the judgment of Him who freely saves and justly condemns.
In whose person are signified not only those who deny the faith, but also those who, being placed within the Church until the end of their life, persevere in evil works. Of whom the Apostle says: 'For they who do such things shall not obtain the kingdom of God' (Gal. 5:21). For just as that circumcised one perished, because he loved darkness rather than light, so everyone who does not put off the old man, 'which is corrupted according to the desires of error,' shall be condemned in judgment, because he has not worthily used the sacrament of baptism. For to that same old man belong not only those who are ignorant of God, but also those of whom the Apostle says: 'They profess that they know God, but in their works they deny Him' (Titus 1:16).
But concerning little children, the rule of catholic truth must be held without any doubt: that the little child who is baptized is saved by the gratuitous goodness of God, while the one who dies without baptism is condemned on account of original sin. Nor is he to be said to have been snatched away from future impiety by any benefit of God, who, dying without the grace of justification, is reckoned in the fellowship of the impious: from which impiety anyone, whether little child or of greater age, is delivered by one remedy alone, if he be redeemed by the blood of Christ. But WHOEVER THINKS RIGHTLY OF GRACE does not suppose it to be given to all men, since not only is the faith not of all, but there are still found certain nations to which the preaching of the faith has not reached. And the blessed Apostle says:
'How shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? Or how shall they believe Him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?' (Rom. 10:14). THEREFORE GRACE is not given to all, since those cannot be partakers of that grace who are not faithful, nor can they believe, to whom the very hearing of faith is found not at all to have come. But that same grace, to whomsoever it is given, is not given equally, but 'according to the measure of the giving of Christ' (Eph. 4:7), and 'to every one according as God hath divided the measure of faith'; who accepteth not the persons of men, but 'one and the same Spirit worketh all things, dividing to every one according to his own, as He will' (1 Cor. 12:11).
But as to what you say, that man is saved by the mercy of God alone, while those others say that unless a man run and labor by his own will he cannot be saved—both are worthily held, if the right order of divine mercy and human will be preserved: that the former precede, the latter follow; that the mercy of God alone confer the beginning of salvation; to which the will of man may then become a cooperator of its own salvation, so that the prevenient mercy of God may direct the course of the human will, and the human will, obeying, with that same mercy following after, may run according to its intention toward the prize;
and thereby the human will, in that which it usefully runs and labors, may acknowledge that the gift of its running and laboring is to it from the mercy of God; and may not be ungrateful to the mercy through which it receives the beginning of salvation, so that through it may attain to the full effect of eternal salvation: because it will then be good, if it be prevented by the gift of God, and will then remain good, if it be not forsaken by His help. But whoever thinks that grace is bestowed by God as when one gives money upon receipt of a suitable pledge, is in error; for the Lord assuredly both confers the pledge of the Holy Spirit Himself upon whom He will, and distributes His money—to be demanded of the bankers, as He Himself says in the Gospel (Matt. 25:27)—to the care and office of His servants.
But that saying of the Apostle in which it is said: 'Therefore He hath mercy on whom He will, and whom He will He hardeneth' (Rom. 9:18), is indeed better taken as spoken in the person of one affirming an objection. And if anyone will not take it in the person of one so affirming, let him attend without contention to what is subsequently said: 'Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same mass to make one vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor?' (ibid., 21). And when in the making of both vessels he has recognized the power of the potter, let him understand in the vessel of honor the undeserved grace of the merciful God, and in the vessel of dishonor let him acknowledge the due judgment of the God who hardens, that is, who forsakes.
But God is said to harden, not because He compels to iniquity, but when He does not rescue from iniquity: which, because He is just, He does justly. Therefore, when God shows mercy, man is saved without his own merits; but when God hardens, man justly receives what he deserves. For God saves by the gift of goodness, and hardens by the judgment of severity. As for that which you also say, 'For it is God who worketh in you both to will and to work, according to His good will' (Phil. 2:13), while those others say: 'If you be willing and will hearken to me, you shall eat the good things of the land' (Isa. 1:19): if the mind, tranquil in faith, receive both as it ought, no question concerning grace and free will will remain.
For God commands man to will, but God works in man even the willing; He commands him to do, but God works in him even the doing. Therefore the blessed Apostle joins both, saying: 'With fear and trembling work out your salvation: for it is God who worketh in you both to will and to accomplish, according to His good will.' So that, though every man work out his own salvation with fear and trembling, it is the work of the willing man, yet this very willing God works in His own; and thereby, since man has free will, he hears the precepts which he is to keep; but for the fulfilling of the precepts free will is by no means rendered fit, unless it be helped from on high.
So it comes about that man acknowledges he ought to work, while he receives the precept, and knows that he always owes every good to God, both that which he wills and that which he does: whom, as the Apostle testifies, he knows to work in man both to will and to accomplish, according to His good will. Who deigned to promise this grace to His faithful ones through the Prophet, saying: 'I will put My Spirit in you, and I will cause you to walk in My justifications, and to keep My judgments and do them' (Ezek. 36:27). Therefore, when God has begun to work in man the willing, then man is turned toward God, and, with the same God working in him, he works whereby he may please God Himself. For concerning God the Apostle says:
'May He fit you in every good work, that you may do His will, doing in you that which is pleasing before Himself' (Heb. 13:21). Toward life also man is able to stretch forth his hand only insofar as he has the Lord for his protection over his right hand (Ps. 111:5). But it is exceedingly absurd for those to be reckoned vessels of mercy who possess either secular or ecclesiastical dignity, and to esteem as vessels of dishonor clerics and monks and laymen; since the Apostle calls those vessels of mercy which God prepared unto glory—not the present glory, to be sure, but the future—to whom he says: 'When Christ shall appear, who is your life, then you also shall appear with Him in glory' (Col. 3:4).
Therefore a little above he says to them: 'Mind the things that are above, not the things that are upon the earth' (ibid., 1). For vessels of mercy are those to whom it is said: 'Come, ye blessed of My Father, receive the kingdom'; but vessels of dishonor are those to whom it is said: 'Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, which was prepared for the devil and his angels.' And so it is not ecclesiastical or secular dignity that makes vessels of mercy, but spiritual charity within the Church. Wherefore, in whatever profession a man holds the faith which works through charity, he will be a vessel unto honor, sanctified and useful to the Lord, prepared for every good work.
But against the predestination of the saints, it is of great obstinacy for anyone either to prepare or to hold a conflict, since none dares to oppose the apostolic preaching, by which it is said not only concerning God: 'Whom He foreknew, He also predestinated to be made conformable to the image of His Son' (Rom. 8:29); and in another place: 'He predestinated us unto the adoption of children, through Jesus Christ unto Himself' (Eph. 1:5): but the blessed Paul confidently preaches that even our very Head, the very Firstborn among many brethren, was predestinated, saying: 'Who was made to Him of the seed of David according to the flesh, who was predestinated the Son of God in power, according to the Spirit of sanctification' (Rom. 1:3-4). Whoever, therefore,
denies that Christ and His saints were predestinated, perversely assails the apostolic faith. But all the predestinated are those very ones whom God wills to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. Who are for this reason called 'all,' because in both sexes, from every kind, rank, age, and condition of men, they are saved. For the will of the omnipotent God is always fulfilled, because His power is in no wise overcome: for He it is 'who hath done all things whatsoever He would, in heaven and on earth, in the sea and in all the deeps' (Ps. 134:6), and whose will no one resists. For that is true which the Son testified concerning Himself, that 'He quickeneth whom He will';
because in quickening He awaits no beginning of human will, but by making the will itself good, He quickens it. This in the case of the greater. But little children, in whom a good will cannot yet come to be, He causes to be saved by the operation of grace alone. Free will, indeed, which was sound in the first man before sin, is now in the sons of God shaken by its own infirmity, but is lifted up by the greater grace of the divine gift. But the question of souls we ought either to leave in silence, or to treat without contention:
because whether they come from propagation, or are newly made for each body—which the authority of the Holy Scriptures does not manifestly declare—it ought to be inquired into with caution, especially since it can be left unknown by the faithful without detriment to the faith. This above all is to be observed and held: that the souls of the little children being born are bound by the bond of original sin, and that the sacrament of holy baptism is necessary for all, by which the bond of original sin is broken, and the adoption of children lost in the first man is recovered through the second Man. You, therefore, most beloved brethren, be steadfast and immovable by the grace of God; and, holding the true faith, show charity to the brethren who think otherwise;