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Extract from Augustine's Retractions (Book II, Chapter 42): At that time also there came into my hands a certain book of Pelagius', in which he defends, with all the argumentative skill he could muster, the nature of man, in opposition to the grace of God whereby the unrighteous is justified and we become Christians. The treatise which contains my reply to him, and in which I defend grace, not indeed as in opposition to nature, but as that which liberates and controls nature, I have entitled On Nature and Grace. In this work sundry short passages, which were quoted by Pelagius as the words of the Roman bishop and martyr, Xystus, were vindicated by myself as if they really were the words of this Sixtus. For this I thought them at the time; but I afterwards discovered, that Sextus the heathen philosopher, and not Xystus the Christian bishop, was their author. This treatise of mine begins with the words: 'The book which you sent me.'"
The book which you sent to me, my beloved sons, Timasius and Jacobus, I have read through hastily, but not indifferently, omitting only the few points which are plain enough to everybody; and I saw in it a man inflamed with most ardent zeal against those, who, when in their sins they ought to censure human will, are more forward in accusing the nature of men, and thereby endeavour to excuse themselves. He shows too great a fire against this evil, which even authors of secular literature have severely censured with the exclamation: The human race falsely complains of its own nature!
This same sentiment your author also has strongly insisted upon, with all the powers of his talent. I fear, however, that he will chiefly help those who have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge,
who, being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God.
Romans 10:2-3 Now, what the righteousness of God is, which is spoken of here, he immediately afterwards explains by adding: For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believes.
Romans 10:4 This righteousness of God, therefore, lies not in the commandment of the law, which excites fear, but in the aid afforded by the grace of Christ, to which alone the fear of the law, as of a schoolmaster, Galatians 3:24 usefully conducts. Now, the man who understands this understands why he is a Christian. For If righteousness came by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.
Galatians 2:21 If, however He did not die in vain, in Him only is the ungodly man justified, and to him, on believing in Him who justifies the ungodly, faith is reckoned for righteousness. Romans 4:5 For all men have sinned and come short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His blood. Romans 3:23-24 But all those who do not think themselves to belong to the all who have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
have of course no need to become Christians, because they that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick;
Matthew 9:12 whence it is, that He came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Matthew 9:13
Therefore the nature of the human race, generated from the flesh of the one transgressor, if it is self-sufficient for fulfilling the law and for perfecting righteousness, ought to be sure of its reward, that is, of everlasting life, even if in any nation or at any former time faith in the blood of Christ was unknown to it. For God is not so unjust as to defraud righteous persons of the reward of righteousness, because there has not been announced to them the mystery of Christ's divinity and humanity, which was manifested in the flesh. 1 Timothy 3:16 For how could they believe what they had not heard of; or how could they hear without a preacher? Romans 10:14 For faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.
But I say (adds he): Have they not heard? Yea, verily; their sound went out into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world.
Romans 10:17-18 Before, however, all this had been accomplished, before the actual preaching of the gospel reaches the ends of all the earth— because there are some remote nations still (although it is said they are very few) to whom the preached gospel has not found its way,— what must human nature do, or what has it done— for it had either not heard that all this was to take place, or has not yet learned that it was accomplished— but believe in God who made heaven and earth, by whom also it perceived by nature that it had been itself created, and lead a right life, and thus accomplish His will, uninstructed with any faith in the death and resurrection of Christ? Well, if this could have been done, or can still be done, then for my part I have to say what the apostle said in regard to the law: Then Christ died in vain.
Galatians 2:21 For if he said this about the law, which only the nation of the Jews received, how much more justly may it be said of the law of nature, which the whole human race has received, If righteousness come by nature, then Christ died in vain.
If, however, Christ did not die in vain, then human nature cannot by any means be justified and redeemed from God's most righteous wrath— in a word, from punishment— except by faith and the sacrament of the blood of Christ.
Man's nature, indeed, was created at first faultless and without any sin; but that nature of man in which every one is born from Adam, now wants the Physician, because it is not sound. All good qualities, no doubt, which it still possesses in its make, life, senses, intellect, it has of the Most High God, its Creator and Maker. But the flaw, which darkens and weakens all those natural goods, so that it has need of illumination and healing, it has not contracted from its blameless Creator— but from that original sin, which it committed by free will. Accordingly, criminal nature has its part in most righteous punishment. For, if we are now newly created in Christ, 2 Corinthians 5:17 we were, for all that, children of wrath, even as others, Ephesians 2:3 but God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, has quickened us together with Christ, by whose grace we were saved.
Ephesians 2:4-5
This grace, however, of Christ, without which neither infants nor adults can be saved, is not rendered for any merits, but is given gratis, on account of which it is also called grace. Being justified,
says the apostle, freely through His blood.
Romans 3:24 Whence they, who are not liberated through grace, either because they are not yet able to hear, or because they are unwilling to obey; or again because they did not receive, at the time when they were unable on account of youth to hear, that bath of regeneration, which they might have received and through which they might have been saved, are indeed justly condemned; because they are not without sin, either that which they have derived from their birth, or that which they have added from their own misconduct. For all have sinned
— whether in Adam or in themselves— and come short of the glory of God.
Romans 3:23
The entire mass, therefore, incurs penalty and if the deserved punishment of condemnation were rendered to all, it would without doubt be righteously rendered. They, therefore, who are delivered therefrom by grace are called, not vessels of their own merits, but vessels of mercy.
Romans 9:23 But of whose mercy, if not His who sent Christ Jesus into the world to save sinners, whom He foreknew, and foreordained, and called, and justified, and glorified? Romans 8:29-30 Now, who could be so madly insane as to fail to give ineffable thanks to the Mercy which liberates whom it would? The man who correctly appreciated the whole subject could not possibly blame the justice of God in wholly condemning all men whatsoever.
If we are simply wise according to the Scriptures, we are not compelled to dispute against the grace of Christ, and to make statements attempting to show that human nature both requires no Physician,— in infants, because it is whole and sound; and in adults, because it is able to suffice for itself in attaining righteousness, if it will. Men no doubt seem to urge acute opinions on these points, but it is only word-wisdom, 1 Corinthians 1:17 by which the cross of Christ is made of none effect. This, however, is not the wisdom which descends from above.
James 3:15 The words which follow in the apostle's statement I am unwilling to quote; for we would rather not be thought to do an injustice to our friends, whose very strong and active minds we should be sorry to see running in a perverse, instead of an upright, course.
However ardent, then, is the zeal which the author of the book you have forwarded to me entertains against those who find a defence for their sins in the infirmity of human nature; not less, nay even much greater, should be our eagerness in preventing all attempts to render the cross of Christ of none effect. Of none effect, however, it is rendered, if it be contended that by any other means than by Christ's own sacrament it is possible to attain to righteousness and everlasting life. This is actually done in the book to which I refer— I will not say by its author wittingly, lest I should express the judgment that he ought not to be accounted even a Christian, but, as I rather believe, unconsciously. He has done it, no doubt, with much power; I only wish that the ability he has displayed were sound and less like that which insane persons are accustomed to exhibit.
For he first of all makes a distinction: It is one thing,
says he, to inquire whether a thing can be, which has respect to its possibility only; and another thing, whether or not it is.
This distinction, nobody doubts, is true enough; for it follows that whatever is, was able to be; but it does not therefore follow that what is able to be, also is. Our Lord, for instance, raised Lazarus; He unquestionably was able to do so. But inasmuch as He did not raise up Judas must we therefore contend that He was unable to do so? He certainly was able, but He would not. For if He had been willing, He could have effected this too. For the Son quickens whomsoever He will. John 5:21 Observe, however, what he means by this distinction, true and manifest enough in itself, and what he endeavours to make out of it. We are treating,
says he, of possibility only; and to pass from this to something else, except in the case of some certain fact, we deem to be a very serious and extraordinary process.
This idea he turns over again and again, in many ways and at great length, so that no one would suppose that he was inquiring about any other point than the possibility of not committing sin. Among the many passages in which he treats of this subject, occurs the following: I once more repeat my position: I say that it is possible for a man to be without sin. What do you say? That it is impossible for a man to be without sin? But I do not say,
he adds, that there is a man without sin; nor do you say, that there is not a man without sin. Our contention is about what is possible, and not possible; not about what is, and is not.
He then enumerates certain passages of Scripture, which are usually alleged in opposition to them, and insists that they have nothing to do with the question, which is really in dispute, as to the possibility or impossibility of a man's being without sin. This is what he says: No man indeed is clean from pollution; and, There is no man that sins not; and, There is not a just man upon the earth; and, There is none that does good. There are these and similar passages in Scripture,
says he, but they testify to the point of not being, not of not being able; for by testimonies of this sort it is shown what kind of persons certain men were at such and such a time, not that they were unable to be something else. Whence they are justly found to be blameworthy. If, however, they had been of such a character, simply because they were unable to be anything else, they are free from blame.
See what he has said. I, however, affirm that an infant born in a place where it was not possible for him to be admitted to the baptism of Christ, and being overtaken by death, was placed in such circumstances, that is to say, died without the bath of regeneration, because it was not possible for him to be otherwise. He would therefore absolve him, and, in spite of the Lord's sentence, open to him the kingdom of heaven. The apostle, however, does not absolve him, when he says: By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; by which death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.
Romans 5:12 Rightly, therefore, by virtue of that condemnation which runs throughout the mass, is he not admitted into the kingdom of heaven, although he was not only not a Christian, but was unable to become one.
But they say: He is not condemned; because the statement that all sinned in Adam, was not made because of the sin which is derived from one's birth, but because of imitation of him.
If, therefore, Adam is said to be the author of all the sins which followed his own, because he was the first sinner of the human race, then how is it that Abel, rather than Christ, is not placed at the head of all the righteous, because he was the first righteous man? But I am not speaking of the case of an infant. I take the instance of a young man, or an old man, who has died in a region where he could not hear of the name of Christ. Well, could such a man have become righteous by nature and free will; or could he not? If they contend that he could, then see what it is to render the cross of Christ of none effect, 1 Corinthians 1:1 to contend that any man without it, can be justified by the law of nature and the power of his will. We may here also say, then is Christ dead in vain Galatians 2:21 forasmuch as all might accomplish so much as this, even if He had never died; and if they should be unrighteous, they would be so because they wished to be, not because they were unable to be righteous. But even though a man could not be justified at all without the grace of Christ, he would absolve him, if he dared, in accordance with his words, to the effect that, if a man were of such a character, because he could not possibly have been of any other, he would be free from all blame.
He then starts an objection to his own position, as if, indeed, another person had raised it, and says: 'A man,' you will say, 'may possibly be [without sin]; but it is by the grace of God.'
He then at once subjoins the following, as if in answer to his own suggestion: I thank you for your kindness, because you are not merely content to withdraw your opposition to my statement, which you just now opposed, or barely to acknowledge it; but you actually go so far as to approve it. For to say, 'A man may possibly, but by this or by that,' is in fact nothing else than not only to assent to its possibility, but also to show the mode and condition of its possibility. Nobody, therefore, gives a better assent to the possibility of anything than the man who allows the condition thereof; because, without the thing itself, it is not possible for a condition to be.
After this he raises another objection against. himself: But, you will say, 'you here seem to reject the grace of God, inasmuch as you do not even mention it;'
and he then answers the objection: Now, is it I that reject grace, who by acknowledging the thing must needs also confess the means by which it may be effected, or you, who by denying the thing do undoubtedly also deny whatever may be the means through which the thing is accomplished?
He forgot that he was now answering one who does not deny the thing, and whose objection he had just before set forth in these words: A man may possibly be [without sin]; but it is by the grace of God.
How then does that man deny the possibility, in defence of which his opponent earnestly contends, when he makes the admission to that opponent that the thing is possible, but only by the grace of God?
That, however, after he is dismissed who already acknowledges the essential thing, he still has a question against those who maintain the impossibility of a man's being without sin, what is it to us? Let him ply his questions against any opponents he pleases, provided he only confesses this, which cannot be denied without the most criminal impiety, that without the grace of God a man cannot be without sin. He says, indeed: Whether he confesses it to be by grace, or by aid, or by mercy, whatever that be by which a man can be without sin,— every one acknowledges the thing itself.
I confess to your love, that when I read those words I was filled with a sudden joy, because he did not deny the grace of God by which alone a man can be justified; for it is this which I mainly detest and dread in discussions of this kind. But when I went on to read the rest, I began to have my suspicions, first of all, from the similes he employs. For he says: If I were to say, man is able to dispute; a bird is able to fly; a hare is able to run; without mentioning at the same time the instruments by which these acts can be accomplished— that is, the tongue, the wings, and the legs; should I then have denied the conditions of the various offices, when I acknowledged the very offices themselves?
It is at once apparent that he has here instanced such things as are by nature efficient; for the members of the bodily structure which are here mentioned are created with natures of such a kind— the tongue, the wings, the legs. He has not here posited any such thing as we wish to have understood by grace, without which no man is justified; for this is a topic which is concerned about the cure, not the constitution, of natural functions. Entertaining, then, some apprehensions, I proceeded to read all the rest, and I soon found that my suspicions had not been unfounded.
Perfect Wayfarers.
But before I proceed further, see what he has said. When treating the question about the difference of sins, and starting as an objection to himself, what certain persons allege, that some sins are light by their very frequency, their constant irruption making it impossible that they should be all of them avoided;
he thereupon denied that it was proper that they should be censured even as light offences, if they cannot possibly be wholly avoided.
He of course does not notice the Scriptures of the New Testament, wherein we learn that the intention of the law in its censure is this, that, by reason of the transgressions which men commit, they may flee for refuge to the grace of the Lord, who has pity upon them— the schoolmaster
Galatians 3:24 shutting them up unto the same faith which should afterwards be revealed;
Galatians 3:23 that by it their transgressions may be forgiven, and then not again be committed, by God's assisting grace. The road indeed belongs to all who are progressing in it; although it is they who make a good advance that are called perfect travellers.
That, however, is the height of perfection which admits of no addition, when the goal to which men tend has begun to be possessed.
But the truth is, the question which is proposed to him— Are you even yourself without sin?
— does not really belong to the subject in dispute. What, however, he says,— that it is rather to be imputed to his own negligence that he is not without sin,
is no doubt well spoken; but then he should deem it to be his duty even to pray to God that this faulty negligence get not the dominion over him,— the prayer that a certain man once put up, when he said: Order my steps according to Your word, and let not any iniquity have dominion over me,
— lest, while relying on his own diligence as on strength of his own, he should fail to attain to the true righteousness either by this way, or by that other method in which, no doubt, perfect righteousness is to be desired and hoped for.
That, too, which is said to him, that it is nowhere written in so many words, A man can be without sin,
he easily refutes thus: That the question here is not in what precise words each doctrinal statement is made.
It is perhaps not without reason that, while in several passages of Scripture we may find it said that men are without excuse, it is nowhere found that any man is described as being without sin, except Him only, of whom it is plainly said, that He knew no sin.
2 Corinthians 5:21 Similarly, we read in the passage where the subject is concerning priests: He was in all points tempted like as we are, only without sin,
Hebrews 4:15 — meaning, of course, in that flesh which bore the likeness of sinful flesh, although it was not sinful flesh; a likeness, indeed, which it would not have borne if it had not been in every other respect the same as sinful flesh. How, however, we are to understand this: Whosoever is born of God does not commit sin; neither can he sin, for his seed remains in him;
1 John 3:9 while the Apostle John himself, as if he had not been born of God, or else were addressing men who had not been born of God, lays down this position: If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us,
1 John 1:8 — I have already explained, with such care as I was able, in those books which I wrote to Marcellinus on this very subject. It seems, moreover, to me to be an interpretation worthy of acceptance to regard the clause of the above quoted passage: Neither can he sin,
as if it meant: He ought not to commit sin. For who could be so foolish as to say that sin ought to be committed, when, in fact, sin is sin, for no other reason than that it ought not to be committed?
Now that passage, in which the Apostle James says: But the tongue can no man tame,
James 3:8 does not appear to me to be capable of the interpretation which he would put upon it, when he expounds it, as if it were written by way of reproach; as much as to say: Can no man then, tame the tongue? As if in a reproachful tone, which would say: You are able to tame wild beasts; cannot you tame the tongue? As if it were an easier thing to tame the tongue than to subjugate wild beasts.
I do not think that this is the meaning of the passage. For, if he had meant such an opinion as this to be entertained of the facility of taming the tongue, there would have followed in the sequel of the passage a comparison of that member with the beasts. As it is, however, it simply goes on to say: The tongue is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison,
James 3:8 — such, of course, as is more noxious than that of beasts and creeping things. For while the one destroys the flesh, the other kills the soul. For, The mouth that belies slays the soul.
Wisdom 1:11 It is not, therefore, as if this is an easier achievement than the taming of beasts that St. James pronounced the statement before us, or would have others utter it; but he rather aims at showing what a great evil in man his tongue is— so great, indeed, that it cannot be tamed by any man, although even beasts are tameable by human beings. And he said this, not with a view to our permitting, through our neglect, the continuance of so great an evil to ourselves, but in order that we might be induced to request the help of divine grace for the taming of the tongue. For he does not say: None can tame the tongue;
but No man;
in order that, when it is tamed, we may acknowledge it to be effected by the mercy of God, the help of God, the grace of God. The soul, therefore, should endeavour to tame the tongue, and while endeavouring should pray for assistance; the tongue, too, should beg for the taming of the tongue,— He being the tamer who said to His disciples: It is not you that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaks in you.
Matthew 10:20 Thus, we are warned by the precept to do this,— namely, to make the attempt, and, failing in our own strength, to pray for the help of God.
Accordingly, after emphatically describing the evil of the tongue— saying, among other things: My brethren, these things ought not so to be
James 3:10 — he at once, after finishing some remarks which arose out of his subject, goes on to add this advice, showing by what help those things would not happen, which (as he said) ought not: Who is a wise man and endowed with knowledge among you? Let him show out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. But if you have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descends not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where there is envying and strife, there is confusion and every evil work. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.
James 3:13-17 This is the wisdom which tames the tongue; it descends from above, and springs from no human heart. Will any one, then, dare to divorce it from the grace of God, and with most arrogant vanity place it in the power of man? Why should I pray to God that it be accorded me, if it may be had of man? Ought we not to object to this prayer lest injury be done to free will which is self-sufficient in the possibility of nature for discharging all the duties of righteousness? We ought, then, to object also to the Apostle James himself, who admonishes us in these words: If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that gives to all men liberally, and upbraids not, and it shall be given him; but let him ask in faith, nothing doubting.
James 1:5-6 This is the faith to which the commandments drive us, in order that the law may prescribe our duty and faith accomplish it. For through the tongue, which no man can tame, but only the wisdom which comes down from above, in many things we all of us offend.
James 3:2 For this truth also the same apostle pronounced in no other sense than that in which he afterwards declares: The tongue no man can tame.
James 3:8
There is a passage which nobody could place against these texts with the similar purpose of showing the impossibility of not sinning: The wisdom of the flesh is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be; so then they that are in the flesh cannot please God;
Romans 8:7-8 for he here mentions the wisdom of the flesh, not the wisdom which comes from above: moreover, it is manifest, that in this passage, by the phrase, being in the flesh,
are signified, not those who have not yet quitted the body, but those who live according to the flesh. The question, however, we are discussing does not lie in this point. But what I want to hear from him, if I can, is about those who live according to the Spirit, and who on this account are not, in a certain sense, in the flesh, even while they still live here,— whether they, by God's grace, live according to the Spirit, or are sufficient for themselves, natural capability having been bestowed on them when they were created, and their own proper will besides. Whereas the fulfilling of the law is nothing else than love; Romans 13:10 and God's love is shed abroad in our hearts, not by our own selves, but by the Holy Ghost which is given to us. Romans 5:5
He further treats of sins of ignorance, and says that a man ought to be very careful to avoid ignorance; and that ignorance is blameworthy for this reason, because it is through his own neglect that a man is ignorant of that which he certainly must have known if he had only applied diligence;
whereas he prefers disputing all things rather than to pray, and say: Give me understanding, that I may learn Your commandments.
It is, indeed, one thing to have taken no pains to know what sins of negligence were apparently expiated even through various sacrifices of the law; it is another thing to wish to understand, to be unable, and then to act contrary to the law, through not understanding what it would have done. We are accordingly enjoined to ask of God wisdom, who gives to all men liberally;
James 1:5 that is, of course, to all men who ask in such a manner, and to such an extent, as so great a matter requires in earnestness of petition.
He confesses that sins which have been committed do notwithstanding require to be divinely expiated, and that the Lord must be entreated because of them,
— that is, for the purpose, of course, of obtaining pardon; because that which has been done cannot,
it is his own admission, be undone,
by that power of nature and will of man
which he talks about so much. From this necessity, therefore, it follows that a man must pray to be forgiven. That a man, however, requires to be helped not to sin, he has nowhere admitted; I read no such admission in this passage; he keeps a strange silence on this subject altogether; although the Lord's Prayer enjoins upon us the necessity of praying both that our debts may be remitted to us, and that we may not be led into temptation,— the one petition entreating that past offences may be atoned for; the other, that future ones may be avoided. Now, although this is never done unless our will be assistant, yet our will alone is not enough to secure its being done; the prayer, therefore, which is offered up to God for this result is neither superfluous nor offensive to the Lord. For what is more foolish than to pray that you may do that which you have it in your own power to do.
You may now see (what bears very closely on our subject) how he endeavours to exhibit human nature, as if it were wholly without fault, and how he struggles against the plainest of God's Scriptures with that wisdom of word
1 Corinthians 1:17 which renders the cross of Christ of none effect. That cross, however, shall certainly never be made of none effect; rather shall such wisdom be subverted. Now, after we shall have demonstrated this, it may be that God's mercy may visit him, so that he may be sorry that he ever said these things: We have,
he says, first of all to discuss the position which is maintained, that our nature has been weakened and changed by sin. I think,
continues he, that before all other things we have to inquire what sin is,— some substance, or wholly a name without substance, whereby is expressed not a thing, not an existence, not some sort of a body, but the doing of a wrongful deed.
He then adds: I suppose that this is the case; and if so,
he asks, how could that which lacks all substance have possibly weakened or changed human nature?
Observe, I beg of you, how in his ignorance he struggles to overthrow the most salutary words of the remedial Scriptures: I said, O Lord, be merciful unto me; heal my soul, for I have sinned against You.
Now, how can a thing be healed, if it is not wounded nor hurt, nor weakened and corrupted? But, as there is here something to be healed, whence did it receive its injury? You hear [the Psalmist] confessing the fact; what need is there of discussion? He says: Heal my soul.
Ask him how that which he wants to be healed became injured, and then listen to his following words: Because I have sinned against You.
Let him, however, put a question, and ask what he deemed a suitable inquiry, and say: O you who exclaim, Heal my soul, for I have sinned against You! pray tell me what sin is? Some substance, or wholly a name without substance, whereby is expressed, not a thing, not an existence, not some sort of a body, but merely the doing of a wrongful deed?
Then the other returns for answer: It is even as you say; sin is not some substance; but under its name there is merely expressed the doing of a wrongful deed.
But he rejoins: Then why cry out, Heal my soul, for I have sinned against You? How could that have possibly corrupted your soul which lacks all substance?
Then would the other, worn out with the anguish of his wound, in order to avoid being diverted from prayer by the discussion, briefly answer and say: Go from me, I beseech you; rather discuss the point, if you can, with Him who said: 'They that are whole need no physician, but they that are sick; I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners,'
Matthew 9:12-13 — in which words, of course, He designated the righteous as the whole, and sinners as the sick.
Now, do you not perceive the tendency and direction of this controversy? Even to render of none effect the Scripture where it is said You shall call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins.
Matthew 1:21 For how is He to save where there is no malady? For the sins, from which this gospel says Christ's people have to be saved, are not substances, and according to this writer are incapable of corrupting. O brother, how good a thing it is to remember that you are a Christian! To believe, might perhaps be enough; but still, since you persist in discussion, there is no harm, nay there is even benefit, if a firm faith precede it; let us not suppose, then, that human nature cannot be corrupted by sin, but rather, believing, from the inspired Scriptures, that it is corrupted by sin, let our inquiry be how this could possibly have come about. Since, then, we have already learned that sin is not a substance, do we not consider, not to mention any other example, that not to eat is also not a substance? Because such abstinence is withdrawal from a substance, inasmuch as food is a substance. To abstain, then, from food is not a substance; and yet the substance of our body, if it does altogether abstain from food, so languishes, is so impaired by broken health, is so exhausted of strength, so weakened and broken with very weariness, that even if it be in any way able to continue alive, it is hardly capable of being restored to the use of that food, by abstaining from which it became so corrupted and injured. In the same way sin is not a substance; but God is a substance, yea the height of substance and only true sustenance of the reasonable creature. The consequence of departing from Him by disobedience, and of inability, through infirmity, to receive what one ought really to rejoice in, you hear from the Psalmist, when he says: My heart is smitten and withered like grass, since I have forgotten to eat my bread.
But observe how, by specious arguments, he continues to oppose the truth of Holy Scripture. The Lord Jesus, who is called Jesus because He saves His people from their sins, Matthew 1:21 in accordance with this His merciful character, says: They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick; I have come not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
Matthew 9:12 Accordingly, His apostle also says: This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.
1 Timothy 1:15 This man, however, contrary to the faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation,
declares that this sickness ought not to have been contracted by sins, lest the punishment of sin should amount to this, that more sins should be committed.
Now even for infants the help of the Great Physician is sought. This writer asks: Why seek Him? They are whole for whom you seek the Physician. Not even was the first man condemned to die for any such reason, for he did not sin afterwards.
As if he had ever heard anything of his subsequent perfection in righteousness, except so far as the Church commends to our faith that even Adam was delivered by the mercy of the Lord Christ. As to his posterity also,
says he, not only are they not more infirm than he, but they actually fulfilled more commandments than he ever did, since he neglected to fulfil one,
— this posterity which he sees so born (as Adam certainly was not made), not only incapable of commandment, which they do not at all understand, but hardly capable of sucking the breast, when they are hungry! Yet even these would He have to be saved in the bosom of Mother Church by His grace who saves His people from their sins; but these men gainsay such grace, and, as if they had a deeper insight into the creature than ever He possesses who made the creature, they pronounce [these infants] sound with an assertion which is anything but sound itself.
The very matter,
says he, of sin is its punishment, if the sinner is so much weakened that he commits more sins.
He does not consider how justly the light of truth forsakes the man who transgresses the law. When thus deserted he of course becomes blinded, and necessarily offends more; and by so falling is embarrassed and being embarrassed fails to rise, so as to hear the voice of the law, which admonishes him to beg for the Saviour's grace. Is no punishment due to them of whom the apostle says: Because that, when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened?
Romans 1:21 This darkening was, of course, already their punishment and penalty; and yet by this very penalty— that is, by their blindness of heart, which supervenes on the withdrawal of the light of wisdom— they fell into more grievous sins still. For giving themselves out as wise, they became fools.
This is a grievous penalty, if one only understands it; and from such a penalty only see to what lengths they ran: And they changed,
he says, the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things.
Romans 1:23 All this they did owing to that penalty of their sin, whereby their foolish heart was darkened.
And yet, owing to these deeds of theirs, which, although coming in the way of punishment, were none the less sins (he goes on to say): Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, through the lusts of their own hearts.
Romans 1:24 See how severely God condemned them, giving them over to uncleanness in the very desires of their heart. Observe also the sins they commit owing to such condemnation: To dishonour,
says he, their own bodies among themselves.
Romans 1:24 Here is the punishment of iniquity, which is itself iniquity; a fact which sets forth in a clearer light the words which follow: Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.
For this cause,
says he, God gave them up unto vile affections.
Romans 1:25-26 See how often God inflicts punishment; and out of the self-same punishment sins, more numerous and more severe, arise. For even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature; and likewise the men also, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly.
Romans 1:26-27 Then, to show that these things were so sins themselves, that they were also the penalties of sins, he further says: And receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet.
Romans 1:27 Observe how often it happens that the very punishment which God inflicts begets other sins as its natural offspring. Attend still further: And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge,
says he, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, odious to God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant-breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful.
Romans 1:28-31 Here, now, let our opponent say: Sin ought not so to have been punished, that the sinner, through his punishment, should commit even more sins.
Perhaps he may answer that God does not compel men to do these things, but only forsakes those who deserve to be forsaken. If he does say this, he says what is most true. For, as I have already remarked, those who are forsaken by the light of righteousness, and are therefore groping in darkness, produce nothing else than those works of darkness which I have enumerated, until such time as it is said to them, and they obey the command: Awake you that sleep, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light.
Ephesians 5:14 The truth designates them as dead; whence the passage: Let the dead bury their dead.
The truth, then, designates as dead those whom this man declares to have been unable to be damaged or corrupted by sin, on the ground, forsooth, that he has discovered sin to be no substance! Nobody tells him that man was so formed as to be able to pass from righteousness to sin, and yet not able to return from sin to righteousness.
But that free will, whereby man corrupted his own self, was sufficient for his passing into sin; but to return to righteousness, he has need of a Physician, since he is out of health; he has need of a Vivifier, because he is dead. Now about such grace as this he says not a word, as if he were able to cure himself by his own will, since this alone was able to ruin him. We do not tell him that the death of the body is of efficacy for sinning, because it is only its punishment; for no one sins by undergoing the death of his body; but the death of the soul is conducive to sin, forsaken as it is by its life, that is, its God; and it must needs produce dead works, until it revives by the grace of Christ. God forbid that we should assert that hunger and thirst and other bodily sufferings necessarily produce sin. When exercised by such vexations, the life of the righteous only shines out with greater lustre, and procures a greater glory by overcoming them through patience; but then it is assisted by the grace, it is assisted by the Spirit, it is assisted by the mercy of God; not exalting itself in an arrogant will, but earning fortitude by a humble confession. For it had learned to say unto God: You are my hope; You are my trust.
Now, how it happens that concerning this grace, and help and mercy, without which we cannot live, this man has nothing to say, I am at a loss to know; but he goes further, and in the most open manner gainsays the grace of Christ whereby we are justified, by insisting on the sufficiency of nature to work righteousness, provided only the will be present. The reason, however, why, after sin has been released to the guilty one by grace, for the exercise of faith, there should still remain the death of the body, although it proceeds from sin, I have already explained, according to my ability, in those books which I wrote to Marcellinus of blessed memory.
As to his statement, indeed, that the Lord was able to die without sin;
His being born also was of the ability of His mercy, not the demand of His nature: so, likewise, did He undergo death of His own power; and this is our price which He paid to redeem us from death. Now, this truth their contention labours hard to make of none effect; for human nature is maintained by them to be such, that with free will it wants no such ransom in order to be translated from the power of darkness and of him who has the power of death, Hebrews 2:14 into the kingdom of Christ the Lord. Colossians 1:13 And yet, when the Lord drew near His passion, He said, Behold, the prince of this world comes and shall find nothing in me,
John 14:30 — and therefore no sin, of course, on account of which he might exercise dominion over Him, so as to destroy Him. But,
added He, that the world may know that I do the will of my Father, arise, let us go hence;
John 14:31 as much as to say, I am going to die, not through the necessity of sin, but in voluntariness of obedience.
He asserts that no evil is the cause of anything good;
as if punishment, forsooth, were good, although thereby many have been reformed. There are, then, evils which are of use by the wondrous mercy of God. Did that man experience some good thing, when he said, You hid Your face from me, and I was troubled?
Certainly not; and yet this very trouble was to him in a certain manner a remedy against his pride. For he had said in his prosperity, I shall never be moved;
and so was ascribing to himself what he was receiving from the Lord. For what had he that he did not receive?
1 Corinthians 4:7 It had, therefore, become necessary to show him whence he had received, that he might receive in humility what he had lost in pride. Accordingly, he says, In Your good pleasure, O Lord, You added strength to my beauty.
In this abundance of mine I once used to say, I shall not be moved;
whereas it all came from You, not from myself. Then at last You turned away Your face from me, and I became troubled.
Man's proud mind has no relish at all for this; God, however, is great, in persuading even it how to find it all out. We are, indeed, more inclined to seek how best to reply to such arguments as oppose our error, than to experience how salutary would be our condition if we were free from error. We ought, therefore, to encounter all such, not by discussions, but rather by prayers both for them and for ourselves. For we never say to them, what this opponent has opposed to himself, that sin was necessary in order that there might be a cause for God's mercy.
Would there had never been misery to render that mercy necessary! But the iniquity of sin,— which is so much the greater in proportion to the ease wherewith man might have avoided sin, while no infirmity did as yet beset him,— has been followed closely up by a most righteous punishment; even that [offending man] should receive in himself a reward in kind of his sin, losing that obedience of his body which had been in some degree put under his own control, which he had despised when it was the right of his Lord. And, inasmuch as we are now born with the self-same law of sin, which in our members resists the law of our mind, we ought never to murmur against God, nor to dispute in opposition to the clearest fact, but to seek and pray for His mercy instead of our punishment.
Observe, indeed, how cautiously he expresses himself: God, no doubt, applies His mercy even to this office, whenever it is necessary because man after sin requires help in this way, not because God wished there should be a cause for such necessity.
Do you not see how he does not say that God's grace is necessary to prevent us from sinning, but because we have sinned? Then he adds: But just in the same way it is the duty of a physician to be ready to cure a man who is already wounded; although he ought not to wish for a man who is sound to be wounded.
Now, if this simile suits the subject of which we are treating, human nature is certainly incapable of receiving a wound from sin, inasmuch as sin is not a substance. As therefore, for example's sake, a man who is lamed by a wound is cured in order that his step for the future may be direct and strong, its past infirmity being healed, so does the Heavenly Physician cure our maladies, not only that they may cease any longer to exist, but in order that we may ever afterwards be able to walk aright,— to which we should be unequal, even after our healing, except by His continued help. For after a medical man has administered a cure, in order that the patient may be afterwards duly nourished with bodily elements and ailments, for the completion and continuance of the said cure by suitable means and help, he commends him to God's good care, who bestows these aids on all who live in the flesh, and from whom proceeded even those means which [the physician] applied during the process of the cure. For it is not out of any resources which he has himself created that the medical man effects any cure, but out of the resources of Him who creates all things which are required by the whole and by the sick. God, however, whenever He— through the one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus
— spiritually heals the sick or raises the dead, that is, justifies the ungodly, and when He has brought him to perfect health, in other words, to the fulness of life and righteousness, does not forsake, if He is not forsaken, in order that life may be passed in constant piety and righteousness. For, just as the eye of the body, even when completely sound, is unable to see unless aided by the brightness of light, so also man, even when most fully justified, is unable to lead a holy life, if he be not divinely assisted by the eternal light of righteousness. God, therefore, heals us not only that He may blot out the sin which we have committed, but, furthermore, that He may enable us even to avoid sinning.
He no doubt shows some acuteness in handling, and turning over and exposing, as he likes, and refuting a certain statement, which is made to this effect, that it was really necessary to man, in order to take from him all occasion for pride and boasting, that he should be unable to exist without sin.
He supposes it to be the height of absurdity and folly, that there should have been sin in order that sin might not be; inasmuch as pride is itself, of course, a sin.
As if a sore were not attended with pain, and an operation did not produce pain, that pain might be taken away by pain. If we had not experienced any such treatment, but were only to hear about it in some parts of the world where these things had never happened, we might perhaps use this man's words, and say, It is the height of absurdity that pain should have been necessary in order that a sore should have no pain.
But God,
they say, is able to heal all things.
Of course His purpose in acting is to heal all things; but He acts on His own judgment, and does not take His procedure in healing from the sick man. For undoubtedly it was His wish to endow His apostle with very great power and strength, and yet He said to him: My strength is made perfect in weakness;
2 Corinthians 12:9 nor did He remove from him, though he so often entreated Him to do so, that mysterious thorn in the flesh,
which He told him had been given to him lest he should be unduly exalted through the abundance of the revelation.
2 Corinthians 12:7-8 For all other sins only prevail in evil deeds; pride only has to be guarded against in things that are rightly done. Whence it happens that those persons are admonished not to attribute to their own power the gifts of God, nor to plume themselves thereon, lest by so doing they should perish with a heavier perdition than if they had done no good at all, to whom it is said: Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God which works in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure.
Philippians 2:12-13 Why, then, must it be with fear and trembling, and not rather with security, since God is working; except it be because there so quickly steals over our human soul, by reason of our will (without which we can do nothing well), the inclination to esteem simply as our own accomplishment whatever good we do; and so each one of us says in his prosperity: I shall never be moved?
Therefore, He who in His good pleasure had added strength to our beauty, turns away His face, and the man who had made his boast becomes troubled, because it is by actual sorrows that the swelling pride must be remedied.
Therefore it is not said to a man: It necessary for you to sin that you may not sin;
but it is said to a man: God in some degree forsakes you, in consequence of which you grow proud, that you may know that you are 'not your own,' but are His, 1 Corinthians 6:19 and learn not to be proud.
Now even that incident in the apostle's life, of this kind, is so wonderful, that were it not for the fact that he himself is the voucher for it whose truth it is impious to contradict, would it not be incredible? For what believer is there who is ignorant that the first incentive to sin came from Satan, and that he is the first author of all sins? And yet, for all that, some are delivered over unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.
1 Timothy 1:20 How comes it to pass, then, that Satan's work is prevented by the work of Satan? These and such like questions let a man regard in such a light that they seem not to him to be too acute; they have somewhat of the sound of acuteness, and yet when discussed are found to be obtuse. What must we say also to our author's use of similes whereby he rather suggests to us the answer which we should give to him? What
(asks he) shall I say more than this, that we may believe that fires are quenched by fires, if we may believe that sins are cured by sins?
What if one cannot put out fires by fires: but yet pains can, for all that, as I have shown, be cured by pains? Poisons can also, if one only inquire and learn the fact, be expelled by poisons. Now, if he observes that the heats of fevers are sometimes subdued by certain medicinal warmths, he will perhaps also allow that fires may be extinguished by fires.
But how,
asks he, shall we separate pride itself from sin?
Now, why does he raise such a question, when it is manifest that even pride itself is a sin? To sin,
says he, is quite as much to be proud, as to be proud is to sin; for only ask what every sin is, and see whether you can find any sin without the designation of pride.
Then he thus pursues this opinion, and endeavours to prove it thus: Every sin,
says he, if I mistake not, is a contempt of God, and every contempt of God is pride. For what is so proud as to despise God? All sin, then, is also pride, even as Scripture says, Pride is the beginning of all sin.
Sirach 10:13 Let him seek diligently, and he will find in the law that the sin of pride is quite distinguished from all other sins. For many sins are committed through pride; but yet not all things which are wrongly done are done proudly,— at any rate, not by the ignorant, not by the infirm, and not, generally speaking, by the weeping and sorrowful. And indeed pride, although it be in itself a great sin, is of such sort in itself alone apart from others, that, as I have already remarked, it for the most part follows after and steals with more rapid foot, not so much upon sins as upon things which are actually well done. However, that which he has understood in another sense, is after all most truly said: Pride is the commencement of all sin;
because it was this which overthrew the devil, from whom arose the origin of sin; and afterwards, when his malice and envy pursued man, who was yet standing in his uprightness, it subverted him in the same way in which he himself fell. For the serpent, in fact, only sought for the door of pride whereby to enter when he said, You shall be as gods.
Genesis 3:5 Truly then is it said, Pride is the commencement of all sin;
Sirach 10:13 and, The beginning of pride is when a man departs from God.
Sirach 10:12
Well, but what does he mean when he says: Then again, how can one be subjected to God for the guilt of that sin, which he knows is not his own? For,
says he, his own it is not, if it is necessary. Or, if it is his own, it is voluntary: and if it is voluntary, it can be avoided.
We reply: It is unquestionably his own. But the fault by which sin is committed is not yet in every respect healed, and the fact of its becoming permanently fixed in us arises from our not rightly using the healing virtue; and so out of this faulty condition the man who is now growing strong in depravity commits many sins, either through infirmity or blindness. Prayer must therefore be made for him, that he may be healed, and that he may thenceforward attain to a life of uninterrupted soundness of health; nor must pride be indulged in, as if any man were healed by the self-same power whereby he became corrupted.
But I would indeed so treat these topics, as to confess myself ignorant of God's deeper counsel, why He does not at once heal the very principle of pride, which lies in wait for man's heart even in deeds rightly done; and for the cure of which pious souls, with tears and strong crying, beseech Him that He would stretch forth His right hand and help their endeavours to overcome it, and somehow tread and crush it under foot. Now when a man has felt glad that he has even by some good work overcome pride, from the very joy he lifts up his head and says: Behold, I live; why do you triumph? Nay, I live because you triumph.
Premature, however, this forwardness of his to triumph over pride may perhaps be, as if it were now vanquished, whereas its last shadow is to be swallowed up, as I suppose, in that noontide which is promised in the scripture which says, He shall bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your judgment as the noonday;
provided that be done which was written in the preceding verse: Commit your way unto the Lord; trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass,
— not, as some suppose, that they themselves bring it to pass. Now, when he said, And He shall bring it to pass,
he evidently had none other in mind but those who say, We ourselves bring it to pass; that is to say, we ourselves justify our own selves. In this matter, no doubt, we do ourselves, too, work; but we are fellow-workers with Him who does the work, because His mercy anticipates us. He anticipates us, however, that we may be healed; but then He will also follow us, that being healed we may grow healthy and strong. He anticipates us that we may be called; He will follow us that we may be glorified. He anticipates us that we may lead godly lives; He will follow us that we may always live with Him, because without Him we can do nothing. John 15:5 Now the Scriptures refer to both these operations of grace. There is both this: The God of my mercy shall anticipate me,
and again this: Your mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.
Let us therefore unveil to Him our life by confession, not praise it with a vindication. For if it is not His way, but our own, beyond doubt it is not the right one. Let us therefore reveal this by making our confession to Him; for however much we may endeavour to conceal it, it is not hid from Him. It is a good thing to confess unto the Lord.
So will He bestow on us whatever pleases Him, that if there be anything displeasing to Him in us, it will also be displeasing to us. He will,
as the Scripture has said, turn aside our paths from His own way,
and will make that which is His own to be our way; because it is by Himself that the favour is bestowed on such as believe in Him and hope in Him that we will do it. For there is a way of righteousness of which they are ignorant who have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge,
Romans 10:2 and who, wishing to frame a righteousness of their own, have not submitted themselves to the righteousness of God.
Romans 10:3 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believes;
Romans 10:4 and He has said, I am the way.
John 14:6 Yet God's voice has alarmed those who have already begun to walk in this way, lest they should be lifted up, as if it were by their own energies that they were walking therein. For the same persons to whom the apostle, on account of this danger, says, Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God that works in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure,
Philippians 2:12 are likewise for the self-same reason admonished in the psalm: Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice in Him with trembling. Accept correction, lest at any time the Lord be angry, and you perish from the righteous way, when His wrath shall be suddenly kindled upon you.
He does not say, Lest at any time the Lord be angry and refuse to show you the righteous way,
or, refuse to lead you into the way of righteousness;
but even after you are walking therein, he was able so to terrify as to say, Lest you perish from the righteous way.
Now, whence could this arise if not from pride, which (as I have so often said, and must repeat again and again) has to be guarded against even in things which are rightly done, that is, in the very way of righteousness, lest a man, by regarding as his own that which is really God's, lose what is God's and be reduced merely to what is his own? Let us then carry out the concluding injunction of this same psalm, Blessed are all they that trust in Him,
so that He may Himself indeed effect and Himself show His own way in us, to whom it is said, Show us Your mercy, O Lord;
and Himself bestow on us the pathway of safety that we may walk therein, to whom the prayer is offered, And grant us Your salvation;
and Himself lead us in the self-same way, to whom again it is said, Guide me, O Lord, in Your way, and in Your truth will I walk;
Himself, too, conduct us to those promises whither His way leads, to whom it is said, Even there shall Your hand lead me and Your right hand shall hold me;
Himself pasture therein those who sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, of whom it is said, He shall make them sit down to meat, and will come forth and serve them.
Luke 12:37 Now we do not, when we make mention of these things, take away freedom of will, but we preach the grace of God. For to whom are those gracious gifts of use, but to the man who uses, but humbly uses, his own will, and makes no boast of the power and energy thereof, as if it alone were sufficient for perfecting him in righteousness?
But God forbid that we should meet him with such an assertion as he says certain persons advance against him: That man is placed on an equality with God, if he is described as being without sin;
as if indeed an angel, because he is without sin, is put in such an equality. For my own part, I am of this opinion that the creature will never become equal with God, even when so perfect a holiness shall be accomplished in us, that it shall be quite incapable of receiving any addition. No; all who maintain that our progress is to be so complete that we shall be changed into the substance of God, and that we shall thus become what He is, should look well to it how they build up their opinion; for myself I must confess that I am not persuaded of this.
I am favourably disposed, indeed, to the view of our author, when he resists those who say to him, What you assert seems indeed to be reasonable, but it is an arrogant thing to allege that any man can be without sin,
with this answer, that if it is at all true, it must not on any account be called an arrogant statement; for with very great truth and acuteness he asks, On what side must humility be placed? No doubt on the side of falsehood, if you prove arrogance to exist on the side of truth.
And so he decides, and rightly decides, that humility should rather be ranged on the side of truth, not of falsehood. Whence it follows that he who said, If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us,
1 John 1:8 must without hesitation be held to have spoken the truth, and not be thought to have spoken falsehood for the sake of humility. Therefore he added the words, And the truth is not in us;
whereas it might perhaps have been enough if he merely said, We deceive ourselves,
if he had not observed that some were capable of supposing that the clause we deceive ourselves
is here employed on the ground that the man who praises himself is even extolled for a really good action. So that, by the addition of the truth is not in us,
he clearly shows (even as our author most correctly observes) that it is not at all true if we say that we have no sin, lest humility, if placed on the side of falsehood, should lose the reward of truth.
Beyond this, however, although he flatters himself that he vindicates the cause of God by defending nature, he forgets that by predicating soundness of the said nature, he rejects the Physician's mercy. He, however, who created him is also his Saviour. We ought not, therefore, so to magnify the Creator as to be compelled to say, nay, rather as to be convicted of saying, that the Saviour is superfluous. Man's nature indeed we may honour with worthy praise, and attribute the praise to the Creator's glory; but at the same time, while we show our gratitude to Him for having created us, let us not be ungrateful to Him for healing us. Our sins which He heals we must undoubtedly attribute not to God's operation, but to the wilfulness of man, and submit them to His righteous punishment; as, however, we acknowledge that it was in our power that they should not be committed, so let us confess that it lies in His mercy rather than in our own power that they should be healed. But this mercy and remedial help of the Saviour, according to this writer, consists only in this, that He forgives the transgressions that are past, not that He helps us to avoid such as are to come. Here he is most fatally mistaken; here, however unwittingly— here he hinders us from being watchful, and from praying that we enter not into temptation,
since he maintains that it lies entirely in our own control that this should not happen to us.
He who has a sound judgment says soundly, that the examples of certain persons, of whose sinning we read in Scripture, are not recorded for this purpose, that they may encourage despair of not sinning, and seem somehow to afford security in committing sin,
— but that we may learn the humility of repentance, or else discover that even in such falls salvation ought not to be despaired of. For there are some who, when they have fallen into sin, perish rather from the recklessness of despair, and not only neglect the remedy of repentance, but become the slaves of lusts and wicked desires, so far as to run all lengths in gratifying these depraved and abandoned dispositions,— as if it were a loss to them if they failed to accomplish what their lust impelled them to, whereas all the while there awaits them a certain condemnation. To oppose this morbid recklessness, which is only too full of danger and ruin, there is great force in the record of those sins into which even just and holy men have before now fallen.
But there is clearly much acuteness in the question put by our author, How must we suppose that those holy men quitted this life,— with sin, or without sin?
For if we answer, With sin,
condemnation will be supposed to have been their destiny, which it is shocking to imagine; but if it be said that they departed this life without sin,
then it would be a proof that man had been without sin in his present life, at all events, when death was approaching. But, with all his acuteness, he overlooks the circumstance that even righteous persons not without good reason offer up this prayer: Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors;
Matthew 6:12 and that the Lord Christ, after explaining the prayer in His teaching, most truly added: For if you forgive men their trespasses, your Father will also forgive you your trespasses.
Matthew 6:14 Here, indeed, we have the daily incense, so to speak, of the Spirit, which is offered to God on the altar of the heart, which we are bidden to lift up,
— implying that, even if we cannot live here without sin, we may yet die without sin, when in merciful forgiveness the sin is blotted out which is committed in ignorance or infirmity.
He then enumerates those who not only lived without sin, but are described as having led holy lives,— Abel, Enoch, Melchizedek, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joshua the son of Nun, Phinehas, Samuel, Nathan, Elijah, Joseph, Elisha, Micaiah, Daniel, Hananiah, Azariah, Mishael, Mordecai, Simeon, Joseph to whom the Virgin Mary was espoused, John.
And he adds the names of some women,— Deborah, Anna the mother of Samuel, Judith, Esther, the other Anna, daughter of Phanuel, Elisabeth, and also the mother of our Lord and Saviour, for of her,
he says, we must needs allow that her piety had no sin in it.
We must except the holy Virgin Mary, concerning whom I wish to raise no question when it touches the subject of sins, out of honour to the Lord; for from Him we know what abundance of grace for overcoming sin in every particular was conferred upon her who had the merit to conceive and bear Him who undoubtedly had no sin. 1 John 3:5