For it is a small thing to will, although even our willing is prepared by the Lord; yet (as I have said) it is a small thing to will, unless the Lord have mercy. But God, who calls to peace, does not have mercy, unless a will already indeed healed have gone before: because 'peace to men of good will.' And just as no one can even will, unless admonished and called—whether inwardly, where no man sees, or outwardly through the sounding word, or through certain visible signs—it comes to pass that God works in us even the very willing. For to that supper which the Lord in the Gospel says was prepared, not all who were called wished to come, nor could those who came have come, unless they were called.
Nor ought those who came to attribute it to themselves, because they came called: nor ought those who refused to come to attribute it to another, but only to themselves: since, that they might come, they were called while in free power. To call, therefore, works the will before merit: therefore even if anyone attributes it to himself that he came when called, he cannot attribute to himself that he was called. But he who, called, did not come, as he has no merit of reward that he should be called, so he falls into the merit of punishment, who, called, neglected to come. Thus shall those two things be: 'Mercy and judgment I will sing to thee, O Lord.' To mercy belongs the calling; to judgment belongs the blessedness of those who came when called, and the punishment of those who refused to come.
Was it then hidden from Pharaoh how great a good those lands were going to obtain through the coming of Joseph? The knowledge of that deed done, therefore, becomes his calling, that, treating the people of Israel mercifully, he might not be ungrateful. But because he was unwilling to obey this calling, and exercised cruelty upon those to whom humanity and mercy were due, he merited the penalty, that his heart should be hardened, and that he should suffer so great a blindness of mind that he would not believe so many and so great and so manifest signs of God—whereby the people might be instructed, by his punishment whether of hardening or of final visible submersion, so that by that affliction, both of the hidden dulling and of the manifest submersion, he might procure it for himself by the just desert of his disobedience.
Now this calling, which works its effect whether in individual men, or in whole peoples, and indeed in the very human race, according to the opportune moments of the times, belongs to another and more profound ordering; to which pertains also that word: 'In the womb I sanctified you; and while you were in the loins of your father, I saw you.' And, 'Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated,' though it was said before he was born. Nor can it be grasped, except perhaps by those who love the Lord their God with their whole heart, and with their whole soul, and with their whole mind, and their neighbour as themselves. For being grounded in so great a charity, they are able now, if perchance together with the saints, to comprehend the length, the breadth, and the depth.
Yet this must be held with the most steadfast faith: that God does nothing unjustly, and that there is no nature which does not owe to God that which it is. For to God is owed all comeliness, and beauty, and the fitting proportion of parts; and if you pursue this to the very end, and strip away from things all their remaining traces, nothing at all remains. Since therefore by sinning we have lost merit, and if the mercy of God be withdrawn, nothing else is owed to sinners save eternal punishment, what does a man born of the lump of perdition mean, when he answers back to God and says: 'Why have you made me thus?' If you wish to know these things, be not clay, but become a son of God through the mercy of him who gave power to become the sons of God to those who believe in his name.
But that which you desire is not given to men who desire to know divine things before they believe. For the reward of knowledge is rendered to merits; but by believing merit is acquired. Yet grace itself, which is given through faith, is given with no merits of ours going before. For what merit has a sinner and an ungodly man? But Christ died for sinners and for the ungodly, so that we might be called to believe not by merit but by grace, and by believing might then lay up merit as well. Sinners therefore are commanded to believe, and by believing are cleansed from their sins. For they do not know what they shall see by living rightly:
wherefore, since they cannot see unless they live rightly, nor can they live rightly unless they believe, it is manifest that one must begin from faith, so that the precepts by which believers are turned away from this world may make them clean, that God may there be seen; and then at last you will hear rightly, and not preposterously, whatever things there are concerning the most hidden merits of souls and concerning the secret grace or justice of almighty God. Faith too, that you may believe, he gives, from whom is every good gift; for what have you that you did not receive? You say to me therefore: 'Why is it still sought? for who resists his will?' It is true that he is not resisted; because the very will of God is doubted by no Christian to be good and just. O man, who are you, that you should answer back to God?
And this belongs to one who contradicts: even if it were so as you say, who were you, that you should answer back to God? you who ought to keep silence, and to do what is commanded you; if he commands you to do good, you ought to understand that he himself is also good, to whom evil is not pleasing, and from which he forbids you. Did he say: 'O man, what you said is false'? but he said: 'O man, who are you, that you should answer back to God?' and the rest. Does the thing formed say to him who formed it: 'Why have you made me thus?' Has not the potter power over the clay? He does not say that he cannot, nor ought not; he wills that we be as mute before the Lord, as the clay is toward the potter:
for when we do not understand, we ought not to think evil of God, knowing that no fault can fall upon God, since his judgements are hidden, but are not unjust. Out of the same lump, to make one vessel indeed unto honour, but another unto dishonour? He speaks of that lump of the sinful people, from which as from Adam we were all created. But if God, willing to show his wrath and to make known his power. The will of God is merciful and just, and wills nothing save what is good, pious, and just. He endured with much patience. He who long endured that people blaspheming, and afflicting his own people with hard labours. The vessels of wrath fitted unto destruction, that he might show the riches of his glory.
By filling up their sins, they had been made worthy vessels of wrath, fitted by themselves unto destruction, not only through original sin, but through actual sin. For wrath is not rendered except as a debt, lest there be iniquity with God. And from this the vessels of mercy understand how freely mercy is bestowed upon them, in that to the vessels of wrath, with whom they share the same cause of perdition and the common lump, wrath is repaid as owed and just, while to these an undeserved mercy is granted. Upon the vessels of mercy, which he prepared unto glory, whom also he called. Because he himself willed to have mercy on them, and to make them vessels of mercy out of vessels of wrath. Not only of the Jews. If he had called them individually, he would have called the Jews alone;
but we find that he neither spared the Jews when they sinned, nor forbade the Gentiles to be saved. But also from the Gentiles, as Hosea says. For even then a good number of Egyptians had gone out with them. 'I will call that which was not my people, my people; and her that was not beloved, beloved.' Through the prophet he shows it foretold, that the Gentiles would pass over to Christ. 'And her that had not obtained mercy, one that has obtained mercy.' 'And it shall be in the place where it was said to them, You are not my people: there they shall be called sons of the living God.' To such a degree does he call whom he wills, that he chose even the ungodly Gentiles, who had never wrought any good. For if he chose according to merits, Israel alone, who always served God, ought to have obtained this:
but he saves all freely, and none by their own merits, since, as he says: 'He has shut up all under sin, that he might have mercy upon all.' But Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: 'If the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea.' It is for them, if they believe, that which is threatened against them. 'A remnant shall be saved.' Isaiah shows that a small number of the Jews would believe, who are the vessels unto honour; for the remaining multitude are vessels unto dishonour. 'A word consummating and cutting short in equity.' According to the literal sense it is thus understood: as I shorten and finish the word, so God will do that thing swiftly. But according to the allegory, the New Testament receives the shortened word, because all things are briefly comprehended in it, as it is:
'I believe in God the Father almighty, and in his Son Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Spirit,' and the rest that follows in the Creed. Or that: 'What you do not wish to be done to yourselves, do not do to others.' That is, so that by a compendium of faith, through grace, he may save the believers, not through countless observances by which that multitude was slavishly burdened and oppressed. For through grace he made for us a word consummating and cutting short upon the earth, saying: 'My yoke is easy and my burden is light.' Or that: 'You shall love God and your neighbour; on these precepts hang all the law and the prophets.' 'For the Lord will make a shortened word upon the earth.' 'The Lord has drawn together and cut short the people of Israel.' And as Isaiah foretold:
'Unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we should have become as Sodom, and been made like unto Gomorrah.' Because he did not suffer all to perish with the ungodly, but from thence made at least a few righteous, and the seed of Abraham came, which should save those things that were perishing; unless he had willed to save even a few, we should all alike have perished, but that he might fulfil what he had promised to Abraham. But why this one receives and that one does not, since both do not merit to receive, and whoever receives, receives undeservedly, let them measure their own strength, and not search into things too strong for them; let it suffice them to know that there is no iniquity with God. What then shall we say, that the Gentiles, who did not follow after righteousness, laid hold on righteousness?
If it is not as we say, namely that it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, how did the Gentiles, who never sought after righteousness, find righteousness? and Israel, who always followed after righteousness, could not attain to the law of righteousness? He answered: Because those believed, but these would not, but gloried in works which they did not even keep. What then do we say against these things which can be objected to us, that is, that the Gentiles, not following after, laid hold, but Israel did not lay hold? but let us tremble at the judgements of God, which, as I said, are hidden; yet are they never unjust. But righteousness which is of faith; but Israel, following after the law of righteousness, did not attain to the law of righteousness.
Which the Lord gave to the called, that they might believe. Why? Because it was not of faith, but as it were of works. 'As it were,' because not truly. They stumbled. They stumble at the stone of stumbling, as it were by subtly defending the law, and by casting themselves headlong through nature and free will: even as the philosophers of the world. Upon the stone of stumbling. He who sees the stone, the stone is one of salvation to him who does not stumble against it; but he who is blind stumbles against the stone. So too the Jews, whom their own malice blinded, lest they should acknowledge Christ, stumbled against him, doing him injury, whereas in him the believing Gentiles laid hold on righteousness.
Therefore Christ was foretold as a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence, because many are scandalized at his Passion and his Nativity, as it is written: 'Because they were scandalized in him.' And Paul himself to the Corinthians: 'Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling-block, but to the Gentiles foolishness: but to those who are called, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.' Whence here too it follows: 'He who believes in him shall not be confounded.' Peter also says that to the believers the stone is elect and cornerstone, but to the unbelieving a stone of offence. As it is written: 'Behold, I lay in Sion a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence.' This he said in the prophet Isaiah. 'And everyone who believes in him shall not be confounded.' Because he understands the power of God and the wisdom of God. Chapter 10.
Brethren, the desire indeed of my heart, and my supplication to God, is made. For enemies one must pray not only with the lips, but also with the heart. For them unto salvation. For the Jews. 'For I bear them witness that they have a zeal of God.' They have a zeal for following the law of God. 'But not according to knowledge.' Unless a man does all things according to the knowledge given by God, he strikes his foot, even if he be perfect. If the Jews had the knowledge of God, they would recognize that Christ came not against the law, but according to the law, and that they cannot be justified according to the law, but that God justifies freely by faith, not by the works of the law in which they gloried. For being ignorant of God's righteousness.
they were ignorant that he justifies freely by faith, and not by the works of the law in which they gloried, saying that they had kept the law, which they had not kept, and by justifying themselves through it, they do not submit themselves to the remission of sins, lest they should seem to have been sinners. For they were not compelled unwillingly to be unbelievers, but by refusing to believe, they were not free from the guilt of unbelief. And seeking to establish their own, they were not subject to the righteousness of God. Which is of the law, or which they were deceived to think was of free will, as they are deceived; and while they attribute to themselves that which is God's, they are not subject to the righteousness of God. The righteousness of the law, then, is to command what pleases God, and to forbid what displeases him.
In the law is righteousness: to serve, and beyond it to seek no help of God for living rightly. But God's righteousness is: not to presume upon one's own strength. It is called the righteousness of God, not by which God is righteous, but by which God gives to man, that man may be righteous through God. For Christ is the end of the law, unto righteousness. Christ is called the end of the law, because he himself is, or in him is, the whole perfection. And it is called 'end' from being consummated, not from being consumed; for it is one thing that the bread is finished, another that the web is finished: the one that it should not be, the other that it should be perfected.
He therefore who believes in Christ, himself fulfils the law, because toward him our whole intention ought to tend and hasten, since beyond him there is nothing further to seek, because all things are fulfilled, whatsoever were foretold of him in the holy Scriptures. To everyone who believes. To Jew and Greek. But Moses wrote that the righteousness which is of the law, the man who does it. Moses indeed spoke of the law according to the literal history, but the Apostle applies it to Christ, because the law was neither in heaven, nor in the abyss, and therefore he commands them always to meditate on the law, that they may there find Christ. He shall live in it. But the righteousness which is of faith speaks thus.
No one of them therefore lives, because no one does it, for in comparison with sins so great, even if there were a few who did it, they would be believed to be as nothing. Do not say in your heart: 'Who shall ascend into heaven?' that is, to bring Christ down: or, 'Who shall descend into the abyss?' that is, to call Christ back from the dead. But what does the Scripture say? 'The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart.' That is, you ought not in your heart to doubt anything concerning his Passion, nor his Resurrection, nor his Ascension, as though it was not done by himself. This is the word of faith, which we preach. This is the New Testament. Because if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved.
The testimony of the heart is the confession of the mouth. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Of past sins, not of future. Therefore if faith suffices unto righteousness, and confession unto salvation, Jew and Greek are one in Christ. For the Scripture says: 'Everyone who believes in him shall not be confounded.' Not the Jew only. For there is no distinction of Jew and Greek. Of former sin or of idolatry: you cannot therefore confound those whom the Scripture says cannot be confounded. (Here begins an exposition excerpted from the book of Saint Augustine, from the passage 'To Saint Simplicianus,' concerning Jacob and Esau;
although it may not seem to fit in the order of this treatise, yet it has not been passed over, because it is necessary and complete, and on that account it has been written down here, so that, the obscurity of the passage itself being revealed, it may evidently illuminate the reader's understanding.) It was said not of works, but of him who calls: 'That the elder shall serve the younger.' The grace, therefore, is of him who calls; and good works consequently belong to him who receives the grace: not works that beget grace, but works that are begotten by grace: for fire does not heat in order that it may be fervent, but because it is fervent. Nor does a wheel run well in order that it may be round, but because it is round. So no one works well in order that he may receive grace, but because he has received it. For how can he live justly, who has not been justified?
How can he live holily, if he has not been sanctified? or live at all, who has not been justified (or, in another reading, quickened)? But grace justifies, so that the justified may be able to live justly. First therefore is grace, second are good works, as he says in another place: 'But to him who works, the reward is not reckoned according to grace, but according to debt.' For they did not understand that by the very fact that it is evangelical grace, it is not owed to works: otherwise grace is now no longer grace. In many places he often testifies this, setting the grace of faith before works: not that he may extinguish works, but that he may show that works do not precede grace, but follow it:
namely, that no one may suppose that he has received grace because he has done well; but rather that he cannot do well, unless through faith he has received grace. But a man begins to receive grace from the time when he begins to believe in God, being moved to faith by an inner or an outer admonition. Yet it matters at what points of time, or by the celebration of the sacraments, the fuller and more evident grace is poured in. But that we may speak rather of the matter under discussion, these things are recalled in order to break and cast down the pride of men ungrateful to the grace of God, and daring to glory in their own merits. For when they were not yet born, nor had done anything good or evil, it was said not of works, but of him who calls: 'That the elder shall serve the younger.'
The grace, therefore, is of him who calls. If then it is election through foreknowledge, and God foreknew the faith of Jacob, whence do you prove that he did not also choose him out of works? If for this reason, because they were not yet born, and had not yet done anything good or evil; likewise none of them had yet believed either: but, as foreknowledge saw that he would believe, so foreknowledge could have seen that he would work. So that, just as he is said to be chosen on account of future faith, which God foreknew, so another might say that he was rather chosen on account of future works, which God nonetheless foreknew. Wherefore, how does the Apostle show that it was said not of works: 'The elder shall serve the younger'?
If it be because they were not yet born, then not only was it not said of works, but neither was it said of faith, because both were lacking in those not yet born. Not therefore by foreknowledge either did he will it to be understood that the election of the younger was made, so that the elder should serve him. For, wishing to show that it was not made of works, he therefore added, saying: 'For when they were not yet born, nor had done anything good or evil.' Otherwise it could be said to him: but God already knew who would do what. Wherefore it is asked, whence that election was made; because if not of works, which were not in those not yet born, nor of faith, because that also was not there. Whence then?
Or must it be said that there was no election, since there existed no diversity in the mother's womb, whether of faith, or of works, or of any merits whatsoever? But it was said: 'That the purpose of God according to election might stand.' And therefore we inquire, because it was said: unless perhaps the sentence is to be distinguished thus, not so that we understand that it was said 'not of works, but of him who calls: The elder shall serve the younger,' as though for this end, that the purpose of God according to election might stand; but rather thus, that this example be taken as given concerning those not yet born and not yet having done anything, lest any election be here understood. For when they were not yet born, nor had done anything good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand:
that is, they had not yet done anything good or evil, so that on account of that very action any election of him who had done well might be made. Since therefore there was no election of one doing well, according to which the purpose of God might stand, it was said not of works, but of him who calls: that is, of him who by calling to faith justifies the ungodly by grace: 'That the elder shall serve the younger.' Not therefore that the purpose of God might stand according to election, but by election from the purpose; that is, not because God found good works in men which he might choose, does the purpose of his justification stand: but because that stands, that he may justify believers, therefore he finds works which he may then choose unto the kingdom of the taken. For unless there were an election, there would be no elect, nor would it rightly be said:
'Who shall accuse against the elect of God?' Yet election does not precede justification, but justification precedes election. For no one is chosen, unless he is already distinct from him who is rejected. Whence, as to what is said, that God chose us before the foundation of the world, I do not see how it is said, except by foreknowledge. But here, where he says: 'It was said to her not of works, but of him who calls, that the elder shall serve the younger,' he willed it to be understood not by an election of merits, which come after the justification of grace, but by the liberality of God's gifts, lest anyone be exalted over works. 'For by the grace of God we have been saved: and this not of works, but it is the gift of God: not of works, lest perhaps anyone be exalted.'
But it is asked, whether either faith merits a man's justification, or whether even the merits of faith do not precede the mercy of God, but faith itself also is numbered among the gifts of grace. Since even in this place, when he had said 'not of works,' he did not say, 'but it was said to her of faith, that the elder shall serve the younger'; but he said: 'But of him who calls': for no one believes who is not called. And a merciful God calls: bestowing this by no merits even of faith, because the merits of faith follow the calling rather than precede it. 'For how shall they believe in him whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher?' Unless therefore the mercy of God precede by calling, no one can even believe, so as to begin thereby to be justified, and to receive the ability of working well.
Therefore before every merit is grace. For indeed Christ died for the ungodly. From him who calls, then, the younger receives it, not from any merits of his own works, that the elder should serve him; so that even what is written, 'Jacob I loved,' is of God who calls, not of Jacob who works. And what next of Esau, that he serves the younger, and what is written: 'But Esau I hated': by what evils of his own did he merit this, since he too had not yet been born, nor had done anything good or evil, when it was said: 'And the elder shall serve the younger'? Or is it perhaps that, just as that word concerning Jacob was said with no merits of a good action, so Esau is hateful with no merits of an evil action?
For if, because God foreknew his future evil works, he therefore predestined him to serve the younger, then he likewise predestined Jacob, that the elder should serve him, because he foreknew his future good works: and then it is already false what he says, 'not of works.' But if it is true that it is 'not of works,' and he proves this from the fact that it was said of those not yet born, nor having yet done anything: whence it is also not of faith, which likewise was not yet in those not yet born, by what merit is Esau hated before he was born? For that God made the things which he would love, there is no question. But if we should say that he made the things which he would hate, it is absurd, another Scripture meeting us and saying: 'Neither did you establish anything in hatred;'
'and you hated none of the things which you have made, or have established.' For by what merit was the sun made? or what did the moon offend, that it should be so much inferior to it? or what did it earn, that it should be created so much brighter than the other stars? But all things were created good, each in its own kind. For God would not say: 'The sun I loved, but the moon I hated'; or: 'The moon I loved, but the stars I hated': as he said: 'Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.' But he loved all those things, though ordered in diverse degrees of excellence: since God saw that they were good, being established by his word! But that he should have hated Esau, unless by the merit of injustice, is unjust. And if we grant this, then Jacob too begins to be loved by the merit of righteousness.
But if that is true, then it is false that it is 'not of works.' Or is it perhaps of the righteousness of faith? What then does it help you, 'For when they were not yet born'? since in one not yet born not even the righteousness of faith could exist. And so the Apostle saw what could occur to the mind of the hearer or reader from these words, and at once he added: 'What then shall we say? Is there injustice with God? God forbid.' And as though teaching how it is not: 'For he says to Moses,' he says, 'I will have mercy on whom I have had mercy, and I will show mercy to whom I have been merciful.' By which words did he solve the question, or rather more tightly bind it together? For it is this very thing that most disturbs us:
if he has mercy on whom he will have had mercy, and shows mercy to whom he will have been merciful, why was this mercy lacking to Esau, that through it he too might be good, just as through it Jacob was made good? Or was it said, 'I will have mercy on whom I have had mercy, and I will show mercy to whom I have been merciful,' for this reason: because on whom God has had mercy, that he may call him, he will have mercy on him that he may believe; and to whom he has been merciful that he may believe, he will show mercy, that is, he will make him merciful, that he may also work well? Whence we are admonished that no one ought to glory or be exalted even in the very works of mercy, as though he had earned God by them as by his own: