奥古斯汀《忏悔录》 英文原文(七)
(2012-01-01 12:18:49)
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CHAPTER XXIV
The Solution to Present Spiritual Enigmas to Be Awaited in
the Life of the World To Come 94.
And thus it will be that while the reprobated
angels and men go on in their eternal punishment, the saints will
go on learning more fully the blessings which grace has bestowed
upon them. Then, through the actual realities of
their experience, they will see more clearly the meaning of what is
written in The Psalms: "I will sing to thee of mercy and judgment,
O Lord"[199]
-- since no one is set free save by unmerited mercy and no
one is damned save by a merited condemnation.
95. Then what is now hidden will not be
hidden: when one of two infants is taken up by God's mercy and the
other abandoned through God's judgment -- and when the chosen one
knows what would have been his just deserts in judgment -- why was
the one chosen rather than the other, when the condition of the two
was the same?
Or again, why were miracles not wrought in the presence of
certain people who would have repented in the face of miraculous
works, while miracles were wrought in the presence of those who
were not about to believe. For our Lord saith
most plainly: "Woe to you, Chorazin; woe to you, Bethsaida.
For if in Tyre and Sidon had been wrought the
miracles done in your midst, they would have repented long ago in
sackcloth and ashes."[200] Now, obviously, God
did not act unjustly in not willing their salvation, even though
they could have been saved, if he willed it so.[201]
Then, in the clearest light of wisdom, will be seen what now
the pious hold by faith, not yet grasping it in clear understanding
-- how certain, immutable, and effectual is the will of God, how
there are things he can do but doth not will to do, yet willeth
nothing he cannot do, and how true is what is sung in the psalm:
"But our God is above in heaven; in heaven and on earth he hath
done all things whatsoever that he would."[202]
This obviously is not true, if there is anything
that he willed to do and did not do, or, what were worse, if he did
not do something because man's will prevented him, the Omnipotent,
from doing what he willed. Nothing, therefore,
happens unless the Omnipotent wills it to happen.
He either allows it to happen or he actually
causes it to happen.
96. Nor should we doubt that God doth
well, even when he alloweth whatever happens ill to happen.
For he alloweth it only through a just judgment
-- and surely all that is just is good.
Therefore, although evil, in so far as it is evil, is not
good, still it is a good thing that not only good things exist but
evil as well. For if it were not good that evil
things exist, they would certainly not be allowed to exist by the
Omnipotent Good, for whom it is undoubtedly as easy not to allow to
exist what he does not will, as it is for him to do what he does
will.
Unless we believe this, the very beginning of our Confession
of Faith is imperiled -- the sentence in which we profess to
believe in God the Father Almighty. For he is
called Almighty for no other reason than that he can do whatsoever
he willeth and because the efficacy of his omnipotent will is not
impeded by the will of any creature.
97. Accordingly, we must now inquire about
the meaning of what was said most truly by the apostle concerning
God, "Who willeth that all men should be saved."[203]
For since not all --
not even a majority -- _are_ saved, it would indeed appear
that the fact that what God willeth to happen does not happen is
due to an embargo on God's will by the human will.
Now, when we ask for the reason why not all are saved, the
customary answer is: "Because they themselves have not willed
it."
But this cannot be said of infants, who have not yet come to
the power of willing or not willing. For, if we
could attribute to their wills the infant squirmings they make at
baptism, when they resist as hard as they can, we would then have
to say that they were saved against their will.
But the Lord's language is clearer when, in the
Gospel, he reproveth the unrighteous city: "How often," he saith,
"would I have gathered your children together, as a hen gathers her
chicks, and you would not."[204] This sounds as
if God's will had been overcome by human wills and as if the
weakest, by not willing, impeded the Most Powerful so that he could
not do what he willed. And where is that
omnipotence by which "whatsoever he willed in heaven and on earth,
he has done,"
if he willed to gather the children of Jerusalem together,
and did not do so? Or, is it not rather the case
that, although Jerusalem did not will that her children be gathered
together by him, yet, despite her unwillingness, God did indeed
gather together those children of hers whom he would?
It is not that "in heaven and on earth" he hath
willed and done some things, and willed other things and not done
them. Instead, "all things whatsoever he willed,
he hath done."
CHAPTER XXV
Predestination and the Justice of God 98.
Furthermore, who would be so impiously foolish as
to say that God cannot turn the evil wills of men -- as he willeth,
when he willeth, and where he willeth -- toward the good?
But, when he acteth, he acteth through mercy;
when he doth not act, it is through justice. For,
"he hath mercy on whom he willeth; and whom he willeth, he
hardeneth."[205]
Now when the apostle said this, he was commending grace, of
which he had just spoken in connection with the twin children in
Rebecca's womb: "Before they had yet been born, or had done
anything good or bad, in order that the electing purpose of God
might continue -- not through works but through the divine calling
-- it was said of them, 'The elder shall serve the younger.'
"[206] Accordingly, he refers to another prophetic witness,
where it is written, "Jacob I loved, but Esau have I hated."[207]
Then, realizing how what he said could disturb
those whose understanding could not penetrate to this depth of
grace, he adds: "What therefore shall we say to this?
Is there unrighteousness in God?
God forbid!"[208] Yet it does seem unfair
that, without any merit derived from good works or bad, God should
love the one and hate the other. Now, if the
apostle had wished us to understand that there were future good
deeds of the one, and evil deeds of the other -- which God, of
course, foreknew -- he would never have said "not of good works"
but rather "of _future_ works." Thus he would have solved the
difficulty; or, rather, he would have left no difficulty to be
solved. As it is, however, when he went on to
exclaim, "God forbid!" -- that is, "God forbid that there should be
unfairness in God" -- he proceeds immediately to add (to prove that
no unfairness in God is involved here), "For he says to Moses, 'I
will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will show pity to
whom I will show pity.'"[209] Now, who but a fool would think God
unfair either when he imposes penal judgment on the deserving or
when he shows mercy to the undeserving? Finally,
the apostle concludes and says, "Therefore, it is not a question of
him who wills nor of him who runs but of God's showing
mercy."[210]
Thus, both the twins were "by nature children of
wrath,"[211]
not because of any works of their own, but because they were
both bound in the fetters of damnation originally forged by Adam.
But He who said, "I will have mercy on whom I
will have mercy," loved Jacob in unmerited mercy, yet hated Esau
with merited justice.
Since this judgment [of wrath] was due them both, the former
learned from what happened to the other that the fact that he had
not, with equal merit, incurred the same penalty gave him no ground
to boast of his own distinctive merits -- but, instead, that he
should glory in the abundance of divine grace, because "it is not a
question of him who wills nor of him who runs, but of God's showing
mercy."[212] And, indeed, the whole visage of
Scripture and, if I may speak so, the lineaments of its
countenance, are found to exhibit a mystery, most profound and
salutary, to admonish all who carefully look thereupon "that he who
glories, should glory in the Lord."[213]
99. Now, after the apostle had commended
God's mercy in saying, "So then, there is no question of him who
wills nor of him who runs, but of God's showing mercy," next in
order he intends to speak also of his judgment -- for where his
mercy is not shown, it is not unfairness but justice.
For with God there is no injustice.
Thus, he immediately added, "For the Scripture
says to Pharaoh, 'For this very purpose I raised you up, that I may
show through you my power, and that my name may be proclaimed in
all the earth."[214] Then, having said this, he
draws a conclusion that looks both ways, that is, toward mercy and
toward judgment:
"Therefore," he says, "he hath mercy on whom he willeth, and
whom he willeth he hardeneth." He showeth mercy out of his great
goodness; he hardeneth out of no unfairness at all.
In this way, neither does he who is saved have a
basis for glorying in any merit of his own; nor does the man who is
damned have a basis for complaining of anything except what he has
fully merited. For grace alone separates the
redeemed from the lost, all having been mingled together in the one
mass of perdition, arising from a common cause which leads back to
their common origin. But if any man hears this in
such a way as to say: "Why then does he find fault?
For who resists his will?"[215] -- as if to make
it seem that man should not therefore be blamed for being evil
_because_
God "hath mercy on whom he willeth and whom he willeth he
hardeneth" -- God forbid that we should be ashamed to give the same
reply as we see the apostle giving: "O man, who are you to reply to
God? Does the molded object say to the molder,
'Why have you made me like this?' Or is not the
potter master of his clay, to make from the same mass one vessel
for honorable, another for ignoble, use?"[216]
There are some stupid men who think that in this part of the
argument the apostle had no answer to give; and, for lack of a
reasonable rejoinder, simply rebuked the audacity of his gainsayer.
But what he said -- "O man, who are you?" -- has
actually great weight and in an argument like this recalls man, in
a single word, to consider the limits of his capacity and, at the
same time, supplies an important explanation.
For if one does not understand these matters, who is he to
talk back to God? And if one does understand, he
finds no better ground even then for talking back.
For if he understands, he sees that the whole
human race was condemned in its apostate head by a divine judgment
so just that not even if a single member of the race were ever
saved from it, no one could rail against God's justice.
And he also sees that those who are saved had to
be saved on such terms that it would show -- by contrast with the
greater number of those not saved but simply abandoned to their
wholly just damnation -- what the whole mass deserved and to what
end God's merited judgment would have brought them, had not his
undeserved mercy interposed. Thus every mouth of
those disposed to glory in their own merits should be stopped, so
that "he that glories may glory in the Lord."[217]
CHAPTER XXVI
The Triumph of God's Sovereign Good Will
100. These are "the great works
of the Lord, well-considered in all his acts of will"[218] -- and
so wisely well-considered that when his angelic and human creation
sinned (that is, did not do what he willed, but what it willed) he
could still accomplish what he himself had willed and this through
the same creaturely will by which the first act contrary to the
Creator's will had been done. As the Supreme
Good, he made good use of evil deeds, for the damnation of those
whom he had justly predestined to punishment and for the salvation
of those whom he had mercifully predestined to grace.
For, as far as they were concerned, they did what God did
not will that they do, but as far as God's omnipotence is
concerned, they were quite unable to achieve their purpose.
In their very act of going against his will, his
will was thereby accomplished.
This is the meaning of the statement, "The works of the Lord
are great, well-considered in all his acts of will" -- that in a
strange and ineffable fashion even that which is done against his
will is not done without his will. For it would
not be done without his allowing it -- and surely his permission is
not unwilling but willing -- nor would he who is good allow the
evil to be done, unless in his omnipotence he could bring good even
out of evil.
101. Sometimes, however, a man of good
will wills something that God doth not will, even though God's will
is much more, and much more certainly, good -- for under no
circumstances can it ever be evil. For example,
it is a good son's will that his father live, whereas it is God's
good will that he should die.
Or, again, it can happen that a man of evil will can will
something that God also willeth with a good will -- as, for
example, a bad son wills that his father die and this is also God's
will. Of course, the former wills what God doth
not will, whereas the latter does will what God willeth.
Yet the piety of the one, though he wills not
what God willeth, is more consonant with God's will than is the
impiety of the other, who wills the same thing that God willeth.
There is a very great difference between what is
fitting for man to will and what is fitting for God -- and also
between the ends to which a man directs his will -- and this
difference determines whether an act of will is to be approved or
disapproved. Actually, God achieveth some of his
purposes -- which are, of course, all good -- through the evil
wills of bad men. For example, it was through the
ill will of the Jews that, by the good will of the Father, Christ
was slain for us -- a deed so good that when the apostle Peter
would have nullified it he was called "Satan" by him who had come
in order to be slain.[219] How good seemed the
purposes of the pious faithful who were unwilling that the apostle
Paul should go to Jerusalem, lest there he should suffer the things
that the prophet Agabus had predicted![220] And
yet God had willed that he should suffer these things for the sake
of the preaching of Christ, and for the training of a martyr for
Christ. And this good purpose of his he achieved,
not through the good will of the Christians, but through the ill
will of the Jews. Yet they were more fully his
who did not will what he willed than were those who were willing
instruments of his purpose -- for while he and the latter did the
very same thing, he worked through them with a good will, whereas
they did his good will with their ill will.
102. But, however strong the wills either
of angels or of men, whether good or evil, whether they will what
God willeth or will something else, the will of the Omnipotent is
always undefeated. And this will can never be
evil, because even when it inflicts evils, it is still just; and
obviously what is just is not evil. Therefore,
whether through pity "he hath mercy on whom he willeth," or in
justice "whom he willeth, he hardeneth," the omnipotent God never
doth anything except what he doth will, and doth everything that he
willeth.
CHAPTER XXVII
Limits of God's Plan for Human Salvation
103. Accordingly, when we hear
and read in sacred Scripture that God "willeth that all men should
be saved,"[221] although we know well enough that not all men are
saved, we are not on that account to underrate the fully omnipotent
will of God. Rather, we must understand the
Scripture, "Who will have all men to be saved," as meaning that no
man is saved unless God willeth his salvation: not that there is no
man whose salvation he doth not will, but that no one is saved
unless He willeth it. Moreover, his will should
be sought in prayer, because if he willeth, then what he willeth
must necessarily be. And, indeed, it was of
prayer to God that the apostle was speaking when he made that
statement. Thus, we are also to understand what
is written in the Gospel about Him "who enlighteneth every
man."[222] This means that there is no man who is
enlightened except by God.
In any case, the word concerning God, "who will have all men
to be saved," does not mean that there is no one whose salvation he
doth not will -- he who was unwilling to work miracles among those
who, he said, would have repented if he had wrought them --
but by "all men" we are to understand the whole of mankind,
in every single group into which it can be divided: kings and
subjects; nobility and plebeians; the high and the low; the learned
and unlearned; the healthy and the sick; the bright, the dull, and
the stupid; the rich, the poor, and the middle class;
males, females, infants, children, the adolescent, young
adults and middle-aged and very old; of every tongue and fashion,
of all the arts, of all professions, with the countless variety of
wills and minds and all the other things that differentiate people.
For from which of these groups doth not God will
that some men from every nation should be saved through his only
begotten Son our Lord? Therefore, he doth save
them since the Omnipotent cannot will in vain, whatsoever he
willeth.
Now, the apostle had enjoined that prayers should be offered
"for all men"[223] and especially "for kings and all those of
exalted station,"[224] whose worldly pomp and pride could be
supposed to be a sufficient cause for them to despise the humility
of the Christian faith. Then, continuing his
argument, "for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our
Saviour"[225]--
that is, to pray even for such as these [kings] -- the
apostle, to remove any warrant for despair, added, "Who willeth
that all men be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth."[226]
Truly, then, God hath judged it good that through
the prayers of the lowly he would deign to grant salvation to the
exalted -- a paradox we have already seen exemplified.
Our Lord also useth the same manner of speech in
the Gospel, where he saith to the Pharisees, "You tithe mint and
rue and every herb."[227]
Obviously, the Pharisees did not tithe what belonged to
others, nor all the herbs of all the people of other lands.
Therefore, just as we should interpret "every
herb" to mean "every kind of herb," so also we can interpret "all
men" to mean "all kinds of men." We could interpret it in any other
fashion, as long as we are not compelled to believe that the
Omnipotent hath willed anything to be done which was not done.
"He hath done all things in heaven and earth,
whatsoever he willed,"[228] as Truth sings of him, and surely he
hath not willed to do anything that he hath not done.
There must be no equivocation on this
point.
CHAPTER XXVIII
The Destiny of Man 104.
Consequently, God would have willed to preserve
even the first man in that state of salvation in which he was
created and would have brought him in due season, after the
begetting of children, to a better state without the intervention
of death --
where he not only would have been unable to sin, but would
not have had even the will to sin -- if he had foreknown that man
would have had a steadfast will to continue without sin, as he had
been created to do. But since he did foreknow
that man would make bad use of his free will -- that is, that he
would sin -- God prearranged his own purpose so that he could do
good to man, even in man's doing evil, and so that the good will of
the Omnipotent should be nullified by the bad will of men, but
should nonetheless be fulfilled.
105. Thus it was fitting that man should
be created, in the first place, so that he could will both good and
evil -- not without reward, if he willed the good; not without
punishment, if he willed the evil. But in the
future life he will not have the power to will evil; and yet this
will not thereby restrict his free will. Indeed,
his will will be much freer, because he will then have no power
whatever to serve sin. For we surely ought not to
find fault with such a will, nor say it is no will, or that it is
not rightly called free, when we so desire happiness that we not
only are unwilling to be miserable, but have no power whatsoever to
will it.
And, just as in our present state, our soul is unable to
will unhappiness for ourselves, so then it will be forever unable
to will iniquity. But the ordered course of God's
plan was not to be passed by, wherein he willed to show how good
the rational creature is that is able not to sin, although one
unable to sin is better.[229] So, too, it was an
inferior order of immortality --
but yet it was immortality -- in which man was capable of
not dying, even if the higher order which is to be is one in which
man will be incapable of dying.[230]
106. Human nature lost the former kind of
immortality through the misuse of free will. It
is to receive the latter through grace -- though it was to have
obtained it through merit, if it had not sinned.
Not even then, however, could there have been any
merit without grace. For although sin had its
origin in free will alone, still free will would not have been
sufficient to maintain justice, save as divine aid had been
afforded man, in the gift of participation in the immutable good.
Thus, for example, the power to die when he wills
it is in a man's own hands -- since there is no one who could not
kill himself by not eating (not to mention other means).
But the bare will is not sufficient for
maintaining life, if the aids of food and other means of
preservation are lacking.
Similarly, man in paradise was capable of self-destruction
by abandoning justice by an act of will; yet if the life of justice
was to be maintained, his will alone would not have sufficed,
unless He who made him had given him aid. But,
after the Fall, God's mercy was even more abundant, for then the
will itself had to be freed from the bondage in which sin and death
are the masters. There is no way at all by which
it can be freed by itself, but only through God's grace, which is
made effectual in the faith of Christ. Thus, as
it is written, even the will by which "the will itself is prepared
by the Lord"[231] so that we may receive the other gifts of God
through which we come to the Gift eternal -- this too comes from
God.
107. Accordingly, even the life eternal,
which is surely the wages of good works, is called a _gift_ of God
by the apostle.
"For the wages of sin," he says, "is death; but the gift of
God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord."[232]
Now, wages for military service are paid as a
just debit, not as a gift. Hence, he said "the
wages of sin is death," to show that death was not an unmerited pun
ishment for sin but a just debit. But a gift,
unless it be gratuitous, is not grace. We are,
therefore, to understand that even man's merited goods are gifts
from God, and when life eternal is given through them, what else do
we have but "grace upon grace returned"[233]?
Man was, therefore, made upright, and in such a fashion that
he could either continue in that uprightness -- though not without
divine aid -- or become perverted by his own choice.
Whichever of these two man had chosen, God's will
would be done, either by man or at least _concerning_ him.
Wherefore, since man chose to do his own will
instead of God's, God's will _concerning_ him was done; for, from
the same mass of perdition that flowed out of that common source,
God maketh "one vessel for honorable, another for ignoble
use"[234]; the ones for honorable use through his mercy, the ones
for ignoble use through his judgment; lest anyone glory in man, or
-- what is the same thing -- in himself.
108. Now, we could not be redeemed, even
through "the one Mediator between God and man, Man himself, Christ
Jesus,"[235] if he were not also God. For when
Adam was made -- being made an upright man -- there was no need for
a mediator. Once sin, however, had widely
separated the human race from God, it was necessary for a mediator,
who alone was born, lived, and was put to death without sin, to
reconcile us to God, and provide even for our bodies a resurrection
to life eternal -- and all this in order that man's pride might be
exposed and healed through God's humility. Thus
it might be shown man how far he had departed from God, when by the
incarnate God he is recalled to God; that man in his contumacy
might be furnished an example of obedience by the God-Man; that the
fount of grace might be opened up; that even the resurrection of
the body -- itself promised to the redeemed --
might be previewed in the resurrection of the Redeemer
himself;
that the devil might be vanquished by that very nature he
was rejoicing over having deceived -- all this, however, without
giving man ground for glory in himself, lest pride spring up
anew.
And if there are other advantages accruing from so great a
mystery of the Mediator, which those who profit from them can see
or testify -- even if they cannot be described -- let them be added
to this list.
CHAPTER XXIX
"The Last Things"
109. Now, for the time that intervenes
between man's death and the final resurrection, there is a secret
shelter for his soul, as each is worthy of rest or affliction
according to what it has merited while it lived in the body.
110. There is no denying that the souls of
the dead are benefited by the piety of their living friends, when
the sacrifice of the Mediator is offered for the dead, or alms are
given in the church. But these means benefit only those who, when
they were living, have merited that such services could be of help
to them.
For there is a mode of life that is neither so good as not
to need such helps after death nor so bad as not to gain benefit
from them after death. There is, however, a good
mode of life that does not need such helps, and, again, one so
thoroughly bad that, when such a man departs this life, such helps
avail him nothing. It is here, then, in this
life, that all merit or demerit is acquired whereby a man's
condition in the life hereafter is improved or worsened.
Therefore, let no one hope to obtain any merit
with God after he is dead that he has neglected to obtain here in
this life.
So, then, those means which the Church constantly uses in
interceding for the dead are not opposed to that statement of the
apostle when he said, "For all of us shall stand before the
tribunal of Christ, so that each may receive according to what he
has done in the body, whether good or evil."[236]
For each man has for himself while living in the
body earned the merit whereby these means can benefit him [after
death]. For they do not benefit all.
And yet why should they not benefit all, unless
it be because of the different kinds of lives men lead in the
body?
Accordingly, when sacrifices, whether of the altar or of
alms, are offered for the baptized dead, they are thank offerings
for the very good, propitiations for the not-so-very-bad [non valde
malis], and, as for the very bad -- even if they are of no help to
the dead -- they are at least a sort of consolation to the
living.
Where they are of value, their benefit consists either in
obtaining a full forgiveness or, at least, in making damnation more
tolerable.
111. After the resurrection, however, when
the general judgment has been held and finished, the boundary lines
will be set for the two cities: the one of Christ, the other of the
devil;
one for the good, the other for the bad -- both including
angels and men. In the one group, there will be
no will to sin, in the other, no power to sin, nor any further
possibility of dying. The citizens of the first
commonwealth will go on living truly and happily in life eternal.
The second will go on, miserable in death
eternal, with no power to die to it. The
condition of both societies will then be fixed and endless.
But in the first city, some will outrank others
in bliss, and in the second, some will have a more tolerable burden
of misery than others.
112. It is quite in vain, then, that some
-- indeed very many -- yield to merely human feelings and deplore
the notion of the eternal punishment of the damned and their
interminable and perpetual misery. They do not
believe that such things will be.
Not that they would go counter to divine Scripture -- but,
yielding to their own human feelings, they soften what seems harsh
and give a milder emphasis to statements they believe are meant
more to terrify than to express the literal truth.
"God will not forget," they say, "to show mercy,
nor in his anger will he shut up his mercy." This is, in fact, the
text of a holy psalm.[237]
But there is no doubt that it is to be interpreted to refer
to those who are called "vessels of mercy,"[238] those who are
freed from misery not by their own merits but through God's mercy.
Even so, if they suppose that the text applies to
all men, there is no ground for them further to suppose that there
can be an end for those of whom it is said, "Thus these shall go
into everlasting punishment."[239] Otherwise, it
can as well be thought that there will also be an end to the
happiness of those of whom the antithesis was said: "But the
righteous into life eternal."
But let them suppose, if it pleases them, that, for certain
intervals of time, the punishments of the damned are somewhat
mitigated. Even so, the wrath of God must be
understood as still resting on them. And this is
damnation -- for this anger, which is not a violent passion in the
divine mind, is called "wrath" in God. Yet even
in his wrath -- his wrath resting on them -- he does not "shut up
his mercy." This is not to put an end to their eternal afflictions,
but rather to apply or interpose some little respite in their
torments. For the psalm does not say, "To put an
end to his wrath," or, "_After_ his wrath," but, "_In_ his
wrath."
Now, if this wrath were all there is [in man's damnation],
and even if it were present only in the slightest degree
conceivable -- still, to be lost out of the Kingdom of God, to be
an exile from the City of God, to be estranged from the life of
God, to suffer loss of the great abundance of God's blessings which
he has hidden for those who fear him and prepared for those who
hope in him[240] -- this would be a punishment so great that, if it
be eternal, no torments that we know could be compared to it, no
matter how many ages they continued.
113. The eternal death of the damned --
that is, their estrangement from the life of God -- will therefore
abide without end, and it will be common to them all, no matter
what some people, moved by their human feelings, may wish to think
about gradations of punishment, or the relief or intermission of
their misery. In the same way, the eternal life
of the saints will abide forever, and also be common to all of them
no matter how different the grades of rank and honor in which they
shine forth in their effulgent harmony.
CHAPTER XXX
The Principles of Christian Living: Faith and Hope
114. Thus, from our confession
of _faith_, briefly summarized in the Creed (which is milk for
babes when pondered at the carnal level but food for strong men
when it is considered and studied spiritually), there is born the
good _hope_ of the faithful, accompanied by a holy _love_.[241]
But of these affirmations, all of which ought
_faithfully_ to be believed, only those which have to do with
_hope_ are contained in the Lord's Prayer. For
"cursed is everyone," as the divine eloquence testified, "who rests
his hope in man."[242] Thus, he who rests his
hope in himself is bound by the bond of this curse.
Therefore, we should seek from none other than the Lord God
whatever it is that we hope to do well, or hope to obtain as reward
for our good works.
115. Accordingly, in the Evangelist
Matthew, the Lord's Prayer may be seen to contain seven petitions:
three of them ask for eternal goods, the other four for temporal
goods, which are, however, necessary for obtaining the eternal
goods.
For when we say: "Hallowed be thy name.
Thy Kingdom come.
Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven"[243] -- this
last being wrongly interpreted by some as meaning "in body and
spirit"
-- these blessings will be retained forever.
They begin in this life, of course; they are
increased in us as we make progress, but in their perfection --
which is to be hoped for in the other life -- they will be
possessed forever! But when we say: "Give us this
day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as
we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into
temptation, but deliver us from evil,"[244] who does not see that
all these pertain to our needs in the present life?
In that life eternal -- where we all hope to be
-- the hallowing of God's name, his Kingdom, and his will, in our
spirit and body will abide perfectly and immortally.
But in this life we ask for "daily bread" because
it is necessary, in the measure required by soul and body, whether
we take the term in a spiritual or bodily sense, or both.
And here too it is that we petition for
forgiveness, where the sins are committed; here too are the
temptations that allure and drive us to sinning; here, finally, the
evil from which we wish to be freed. But in that
other world none of these things will be found.
116. However, the Evangelist Luke, in his
version of the Lord's Prayer, has brought together, not seven, but
five petitions. Yet, obviously, there is no
discrepancy here, but rather, in his brief way, the Evangelist has
shown us how the seven petitions should be understood.
Actually, God's name is even now hallowed in the
spirit, but the Kingdom of God is yet to come in the resurrection
of the body. Therefore, Luke was seeking to show
that the third petition ["Thy will be done"] is a repetition of the
first two, and makes this better understood by omitting it.
He then adds three other petitions, concerning
daily bread, forgiveness of sins, and avoidance of
temptation.[245]
However, what Matthew puts in the last place, "But deliver
us from evil," Luke leaves out, in order that we might understand
that it was included in what was previously said about temptation.
This is, indeed, why Matthew said, "_But_ deliver
us," instead of, "_And_ deliver us," as if to indicate that there
is only one petition -- "Will not this, but that" -- so that anyone
would realize that he is being delivered from evil in that he is
not being led into temptation.
CHAPTER XXXI
Love 117. And now
regarding _love_, which the apostle says is greater than the other
two -- that is, faith and hope -- for the more richly it dwells in
a man, the better the man in whom it dwells. For
when we ask whether someone is a good man, we are not asking what
he believes, or hopes, but what he loves. Now,
beyond all doubt, he who loves aright believes and hopes
rightly.
Likewise, he who does not love believes in vain, even if
what he believes is true; he hopes in vain, even if what he hopes
for is generally agreed to pertain to true happiness, unless he
believes and hopes for this: that he may through prayer obtain the
gift of love. For, although it is true that he
cannot hope without love, it may be that there is something without
which, if he does not love it, he cannot realize the object of his
hopes. An example of this would be if a man hopes
for life eternal -- and who is there who does not love that? -- and
yet does not love _righteousness_, without which no one comes to
it.
Now this is the true faith of Christ which the apostle
commends: faith that works through love. And what
it yet lacks in love it asks that it may receive, it seeks that it
may find, and knocks that it may be opened unto it.[246]
For faith achieves what the law commands [fides
namque impetrat quod lex imperat].
And, without the gift of God -- that is, without the Holy
Spirit, through whom love is shed abroad in our hearts -- the law
may bid but it cannot aid [jubere lex poterit, non juvare].
Moreover, it can make of man a transgressor, who
cannot then excuse himself by pleading ignorance.
For appetite reigns where the love of God does
not.[247]
118. When, in the deepest shadows of
ignorance, he lives according to the flesh with no restraint of
reason -- this is the primal state of man.[248]
Afterward, when "through the law the knowledge of
sin"[249] has come to man, and the Holy Spirit has not yet come to
his aid -- so that even if he wishes to live according to the law,
he is vanquished -- man sins knowingly and is brought under the
spell and made the slave of sin, "for by whatever a man is
vanquished, of this master he is the slave"[250].
The effect of the knowledge of the law is that
sin works in man the whole round of concupiscence, which adds to
the guilt of the first transgression. And thus it
is that what was written is fulfilled: "The law entered in, that
the offense might abound."[251] This is the
_second_ state of man.[252]
But if God regards a man with solicitude so that he then
believes in God's help in fulfilling His commands, and if a man
begins to be led by the Spirit of God, then the mightier power of
love struggles against the power of the flesh.[253]
And although there is still in man a power that
fights against him -- his infirmity being not yet fully healed --
yet he [the righteous man]
lives by faith and lives righteously in so far as he does
not yield to evil desires, conquering them by his love of
righteousness. This is the _third_ stage of the
man of good hope.
A final peace is in store for him who continues to go
forward in this course toward perfection through steadfast piety.
This will be perfected beyond this life in the
repose of the spirit, and, at the last, in the resurrection of the
body.
Of these four different stages of man, the first is before
the law, the second is under the law, the third is under grace, and
the fourth is in full and perfect peace. Thus,
also, the history of God's people has been ordered by successive
temporal epochs, as it pleased God, who "ordered all things in
measure and number and weight."[254] The first
period was before the law; the second under the law, which was
given through Moses; the next, under grace which was revealed
through the first Advent of the Mediator."[255]
This grace was not previously absent from those
to whom it was to be imparted, although, in conformity to the
temporal dispensations, it was veiled and hidden.
For none of the righteous men of antiquity could
find salvation apart from the faith of Christ.
And, unless Christ had also been known to them,
he could not have been prophesied to us -- sometimes openly and
sometimes obscurely -- through their ministry.
119. Now, in whichever of these four
"ages" -- if one can call them that -- the grace of regeneration
finds a man, then and there all his past sins are forgiven him and
the guilt he contracted in being born is removed by his being
reborn. And so true is it that "the Spirit
breatheth where he willeth"[256] that some men have never known the
second "age" of slavery under the law, but begin to have divine aid
directly under the new commandment.
120. Yet, before a man can receive the
commandment, he must, of course, live according to the flesh.
But, once he has been imbued with the sacrament
of rebirth, no harm will come to him even if he then immediately
depart this life -- "Wherefore on this account Christ died and rose
again, that he might be the Lord of both the living and the
dead."'[257] Nor will the kingdom of death have dominion over him
for whom He, who was "free among the dead,"[258] died.
CHAPTER XXXII
The End of All the Law 121.
All the divine precepts are, therefore, referred
back to _love_, of which the apostle says, "Now the end of the
commandment is love, out of a pure heart, and a good conscience and
a faith unfeigned."[259] Thus every commandment
harks back to love. For whatever one does either
in fear of punishment or from some carnal impulse, so that it does
not measure up to the standard of love which the Holy Spirit sheds
abroad in our hearts -- whatever it is, it is not yet done as it
should be, although it may seem to be. Love, in
this context, of course includes both the love of God and the love
of our neighbor and, indeed, "on these two commandments hang all
the Law and the Prophets"[260] --
and, we may add, the gospel and the apostles, for from
nowhere else comes the voice, "The end of the commandment is
love,"[261]
and, "God is love."[262]
Therefore, whatsoever things God commands (and one of these
is, "Thou shalt not commit adultery"[263]) and whatsoever things
are not positively ordered but are strongly advised as good
spiritual counsel (and one of these is, "It is a good thing for a
man not to touch a woman"[264]) -- all of these imperatives are
rightly obeyed only when they are measured by the standard of our
love of God and our love of our neighbor in God [propter
Deum].
This applies both in the present age and in the world to
come.
Now we love God in faith; then, at sight.
For, though mortal men ourselves, we do not know
the hearts of mortal men. But then "the Lord will
illuminate the hidden things in the darkness and will make manifest
the cogitations of the heart; and then shall each one have his
praise from God"[265] -- for what will be praised and loved in a
neighbor by his neighbor is just that which, lest it remain hidden,
God himself will bring to light. Moreover,
passion decreases as love increases[266] until love comes at last
to that fullness which cannot be surpassed, "for greater love than
this no one has, that a man lay down his life for his
friends."[267] Who, then, can explain how great
the power of love will be, when there will be no passion
[cupiditas] for it to restrain or overcome?
For, then, the supreme state of true health [summa sanitas]
will have been reached, when the struggle with death shall be no
more.
CHAPTER XXXIII
Conclusion 122. But
somewhere this book must have an end. You can see
for yourself whether you should call it an Enchiridion, or use it
as one. But since I have judged that your zeal in
Christ ought not to be spurned and since I believe and hope for
good things for you through the help of our Redeemer, and since I
love you greatly as one of the members of his body, I have written
this book for you -- may its usefulness match its prolixity! -- on
Faith, Hope, and Love.
NOTES
[1] 1 Cor. 1:20.
[2] Wis. 6:26 (Vulgate).
[3] Rom. 16:19.
[4] A later interpolation, not found in the best MSS., adds,
"As no one can exist from himself, so also no one can be wise in
himself save only as he is enlightened by Him of whom it is
written, 'All wisdom is from God' [Ecclus. 1:1]."
[5] Job 28:28.
[6] A transliteration of the Greek, literally, a handbook or
manual.
[7] Cf. Gal. 5:6.
[8] Cf. 1 Cor. 13:10, 11.
[9] 1 Cor. 3:11.
[10] Already, very early in his ministry (397), Augustine
had written De agone Christiano, in which he had reviewed and
refuted a full score of heresies threatening the orthodox
faith.
[11] The Apostles' Creed. Cf. Augustine's
early essay On Faith and the Creed.
[12] Joel 2:32.
[13] Rom. 10:14.
[14] Lucan, Pharsalia, II, 15.
[15] Virgil, Aeneid, IV, 419. The context
of this quotation is Dido's lament over Aeneas' prospective
abandonment of her. She is saying that if she
could have foreseen such a disaster, she would have been able to
bear it. Augustine's criticism here is a
literalistic quibble.
[16] Heb. 11:1.
[17] Sacra eloquia -- a favorite phrase of Augustine's for
the Bible.
[18] Rom. 8:24, 25 (Old Latin).
[19] James 2:19.
[20] One of the standard titles of early Greek philosophical
treatises would translate into Latin as De rerum natura.
This is, in fact, the title of Lucretius' famous
poem, the greatest philosophical work written in classical
Latin.
[21] This basic motif appears everywhere in Augustine's
thought as the very foundation of his whole system.
[22] This section (Chs. III and IV) is the most explicit
statement of a major motif which pervades the whole of Augustinian
metaphysics. We see it in his earliest writings,
Soliloquies, 1, 2, and De ordine, II, 7. It is
obviously a part of the Neoplatonic heritage which Augustine
appropriated for his Christian philosophy. The
good is positive, constructive, essential; evil is privative,
destructive, parasitic on the good.
It has its origin, not in nature, but in the will.
Cf.
Confessions, Bk. VII, Chs. III, V, XII-XVI; On Continence,
14-16;
On the Gospel of John, Tractate XCVIII, 7; City of God, XI,
17;
XII, 7-9.
[23] Isa. 5:20.
[24] Matt. 12:35.
[25] This refers to Aristotle's well-known principle of "the
excluded middle."
[26] Matt. 7:18.
[27] Cf. Matt. 12:33.
[28] Virgil, Georgios, II, 490.
[29] Ibid., 479.
[30] Sed in via pedum, non in via morum.
[31] Virgil, Eclogue, VIII, 42. The
context of the passage is Damon's complaint over his faithless
Nyssa; he is here remembering the first time he ever saw her --
when he was twelve! Cf.
Theocritus, II, 82.
[32] Cf. Matt. 5:37.
[33] Cf. Confessions, Bk. X, Ch. XXIII.
[34] Ad consentium contra mendacium, CSEL (J. Zycha, ed.),
Vol.
41, pp. 469-528; also Migne, PL, 40, c. 517-548; English
translation by H.B. Jaffee in Deferrari, St. Augustine: Treatises
on Various Subjects (The Fathers of the Church, New York, 1952),
pp. 113-179. This had been written about a year
earlier than the Enchiridion. Augustine had also
written another treatise On Lying much earlier, c. 395; see De
mendacio in CSEL (J. Zycha, ed.), Vol. 41, pp. 413-466; Migne, PL,
40, c. 487-518; English translation by M.S. Muldowney in Deferrari,
op. cit., pp. 47-109.
This summary of his position here represents no change of
view whatever on this question.
[35] Sallust, The War with Catiline, X, 6-7.
[36] Cf. Acts 12:9.
[37] Virgil, Aeneid, X, 392.
[38] This refers to one of the first of the Cassiciacum
dialogues, Contra Academicos. The gist of
Augustine's refutation of skepticism is in III, 23ff.
Throughout his whole career he continued to
maintain this position: that certain knowledge begins with
self-knowledge. Cf. Confessions, Bk. V, Ch. X,
19; see also City of God, XI, xxvii.
[39] Hab. 2:4; Rom. 1:17.
[40] A direct contrast between suspensus assenso -- the
watchword of the Academics -- and assensio, the badge of Christian
certitude.
[41] See above, VII, 90.
[42] Matt. 5:37.
[43] Matt. 6:12.
[44] Rom. 5:12.
[45] Cf. Luke 20:36.
[46] Rom. 4:17.
[47] Wis. 11:20.
[48] 2 Peter 2:19.
[49] John 8:36.
[50] Eph. 2:8.
[51] 1 Cor. 7:25.
[52] Eph. 2:8, 9.
[53] Eph. 2:10.
[54] Cf. Gal. 6:15; I1 Cor. 5:17.
[55] Ps. 51:10.
[56] Phil. 2:13.
[57] Rom. 9:16.
[58] Prov. 8:35 (LXX).
[59] From the days at Cassiciacum till the very end,
Augustine toiled with the mystery of the primacy of God's grace and
the reality of human freedom. Of two things he
was unwaveringly sure, even though they involved him in a paradox
and the appearance of confusion. The first is
that God's grace is not only primary but also sufficient as the
ground and source of human willing. And against
the Pelagians and other detractors from grace, he did not hesitate
to insist that grace is irresistible and inviolable.
Cf.
On Grace and Free Will, 99, 41-43; On the Predestination of
the Saints, 19:10; On the Gift of Perseverance, 41; On the Soul and
Its Origin, 16; and even the Enchiridion, XXIV, 97.
But he never drew from this deterministic emphasis the
conclusion that man is unfree and everywhere roundly rejects the
not illogical corollary of his theonomism, that man's will counts
for little or nothing except as passive agent of God's will.
He insists on responsibility on man's part in
responding to the initiatives of grace. For this
emphasis, which is characteristically directed to the faithful
themselves, see On the Psalms, LXVIII, 7-8; On the Gospel of John,
Tractate, 53:6-8; and even his severest anti-Pelagian tracts: On
Grace and Free Will, 6-
8, 10, 31 and On Admonition and Grace, 2-8.
[60] Ps. 58:11 (Vulgate).
[61] Ps. 23:6.
[62] Cf. Matt. 5:44.
[63] The theme that he had explored in Confessions, Bks.
I-IX.
See especially Bk. V, Chs. X, XIII; Bk. VII, Ch. VIII; Bk.
IX, Ch.
I.
[64] Cf. Ps. 90:9.
[65] Job 14:1.
[66] John 3:36.
[67] Eph. 2:3.
[68] Rom. 5:9, 10.
[69] Rom. 8:14.
[70] John 1:14.
[71] Rom. 3:20.
[72] Epistle CXXXVII, written in 412 in reply to a list of
queries sent to Augustine by the proconsul of Africa.
[73] John 1:1.
[74] Phil. 2:6, 7.
[75] These metaphors for contrasting the "two natures" of
Jesus Christ were favorite figures of speech in Augustine's
Christological thought. Cf. On the Gospel of
John, Tractate 78;
On the Trinity, I, 7; II, 2; IV, 19-20; VII, 3; New
Testament Sermons, 76, 14.
[76] Luke 1:28-30.
[77] John 1:14.
[78] Luke 1:35.
[79] Matt. 1:20.
[80] Rom. 1:3.
[81] Rom. 8:3.
[82] Cf. Hos. 4:8.
[83] I1 Cor. 5:20, 21.
[84] Virgil, Aeneid, II, 1, 20.
[85] Num. 21:7 (LXX).
[86] Matt. 2:20.
[87] Ex. 32:4.
[88] Rom. 5:12.
[89] Deut. 5:9.
[90] Ezek. 18:2.
[91] Ps. 51:5.
[92] 1 Tim. 2:5.
[93] Matt. 3:13.
[94] Luke 3:4; Isa. 40:3.
[95] Ps. 2:7; Heb. 5:5; cf. Mark 1:9-11.
[96] Rom. 5:16.
[97] Rom. 5:18.
[98] Rom. 6:1.
[99] Rom. 5:20.
[100] Rom. 6:2.
[101] Rom. 6:3.
[102] Rom. 6:4-11.
[103] Gal. 5:24.
[104] Col. 3:1-3.
[105] Col. 3:4.
[106] John 5:29.
[107] Ps. 54:1.
[108] Cf. Matt. 25:32, 33.
[109] Ps. 43:1.
[110] Reading the classical Latin form poscebat (as in
Scheel and PL) for the late form poxebat (as in Riviere and many
old MSS.).
[111] Cf. Ps. 113:3.
[112] Here reading unum deum (with Riviere and PL) against
deum (in Scheel).
[113] A hyperbolic expression referring to "the
saints."
Augustine's Scriptural backing for such an unusual phrase is
Ps.
82:6 and John 10:34f. But note the firm
distinction between ex diis quos facit and non factus Deus.
[114] 1 Cor. 6:19.
[115] 1 Cor. 6:15.
[116] Col. 1:18.
[117] John 2:19.
[118] 2 Peter 2:4 (Old Latin).
[119] Heb. 1:13.
[120] Ps. 148:2 (LXX).
[121] Col. 1:16.
[122] Zech. 1:9.
[123] Matt. 1:20.
[124] Gen. 18:4; 19:2.
[125] Gen. 32:24.
[126] Rom. 8:31, 32.
[127] Cf. Eph. 1:10.
[128] Col. 1:19, 20.
[129] Cf. 1 Cor. 13:9, 12
[130] Cf. Luke 20:36.
[131] 1 Cor. 13:12.
[132] Cf. Luke 15:24.
[133] Rom. 8:14.
[134] 1 John 1:8.
[135] In actione poenitentiae; cf. Luther's similar
conception of poenitentiam agite in the 95 Theses and in De
poenitentia.
[136] Ps. 51:17.
[137] Ps. 38:9.
[138] I1 Cor. 1:22.
[139] Ecclus. 40:1 (Vulgate).
[140] 1 Cor. 11:31, 32.
[141] This chapter supplies an important clue to the date of
the Enchiridion and an interesting side light on Augustine's
inclination to re-use "good material." In his treatise on The Eight
Questions of Dulcitius (De octo Dulcitii quaestionibus), 1:
10-13, Augustine quotes this entire chapter as a part of his
answer to the question whether those who sin after baptism are ever
delivered from hell. The date of the De octo is
422 or, possibly, 423; thus we have a terminus ad quem for the date
of the Enchiridion. Still the best text of De
octo is Migne, PL, 40, c.
147-170, and the best English translation is in Deferrari,
St.
Augustine: Treatises on Various Subjects (The Fathers of the
Church, New York, 1952), pp. 427-466.
[142] A short treatise, written in 413, in which Augustine
seeks to combine the Pauline and Jacobite emphases by analyzing
what kind of faith and what kind of works are _both_ essential to
salvation. The best text is that of Joseph Zycha in CSEL, Vol. 41,
pp. 35-97; but see also Migne, PL, 40, c. 197-230.
There is an English translation by C.L. Cornish
in A Library of Fathers of the Holy Catholic Church; Seventeen
Short Treatises, pp. 37-84.
[143] Gal. 5:6.
[144] James 2:17.
[145] James 2:14.
[146] 1 Cor. 3:15.
[147] 1 Cor. 6:9, 10.
[148] 1 Cor. 3:11, 12.
[149] 1 Cor. 3:11-15.
[150] Ecclus. 27:5.
[151] Cf. 1 Cor. 7:32, 33
[152] See above, XVIII, 67.
[153] Matt. 25:34, 41.
[154] Ecclus. 15:20.
[155] John 3:5.
[156] Matt. 6:9-12.
[157] Cf. Luke 11 :41.
[158] This is a close approximation of the medieval lists of
"The Seven Works of Mercy." Cf. J.T. McNeill, A History of the Cure
of Souls, pp. 155, 161. (Harper &
Brothers, 1951, New York.)
[159] Matt. 5:44.
[160] John 14:6.
[161] Matt. 6:14, 15.
[162] Luke 11:37-41.
[163] Acts 15:9.
[164] Titus 1:15.
[165] Ecclus. 30:24 (Vulgate).
[166] Rom. 5:16.
[167] Rom. 5:8.
[168] Luke 10:27.
[169] Luke 11:42.
[170] Matt. 23:26.
[171] Ps. 10:6 (Vulgate).
[172] Ps. 58:11 (Vulgate); cf. Ps. 59:10 (R.S.V.).
[173] 1 Cor. 7:5 (mixed text).
[174] 1 Cor. 6:1.
[175] 1 Cor. 6:4-6.
[176] 1 Cor. 6:7a.
[177] 1 Cor. 6:7b.
[178] Matt. 5:40.
[179] Luke 6:30.
[180] James 3:2 (Vulgate).
[181] Matt. 5:22, 23.
[182] Gal. 4:11 (Vulgate).
[183] Ps. 10:3 (Vulgate).
[184] Isa. 5:7 (LXX).
[185] Gen. 18:20 (Vulgate with one change).
[186] For example, Contra Faust., XXII, 78; De pecc. meritis
et remissione, I, xxxix, 70; ibid., II, xxii, 26; Quaest. in
Heptateuch, 4:24; De libero arbitrio, 3:18, 55; De div. quaest.,
83:26; De natura et gratia, 67:81; Contra duas ep. Pelag., I:3,
7;
I:13:27.
[187] Ps. 27:1.
[188] 2 Tim. 2:25 (mixed text).
[189] Cf. Luke 22:61.
[190] Cf. John 20:22, 23.
[191] This libellus is included in Augustine's Sermons
(LXXI, PL, 38, col. 445-467), to which Possidius gave the title De
blasphemia in Spiritum Sanctum. English
translation in N-PNF, 1st Series, Vol. VI, Sermon XXI, pp.
318-332.
[192] Sicut semina quae concepta non fuerint.
[193] Jerome, Epistle to Vitalis, Ep. LXXII, 2; PL, 22,
674.
Augustine also refers to similar phenomena in The City of
God, XVI. viii, 2.
[194] Gal. 5:17.
[195] 1 Cor. 15:40.
[196] 1 Cor. 15:50.
[197] 1 Cor. 15:44.
[198] Rev. 2:11; 20:6, 14.
[199] Ps. 100:1 (Vulgate); cf. Ps. 101:1 (R.S.V.).
[200] Matt. 11:21.
[201] This is one of the rare instances in which a textual
variant in Augustine's text affects a basic issue in the
interpretation of his doctrine. All but one of
the major old editions, up to and including Migne, here read: Nec
utique deus injuste noluit salvos fiere eum possent salvi esse SI
VELLENT (if _they_ willed it).
This would mean the attribution of a decisive role in human
salvation to the human will and would thus stand out in bold relief
from his general stress in the rest of the Enchiridion and
elsewhere on the primacy and even irresistibility of grace.
The Jansenist edition of Augustine, by Arnauld in
1648, read SI VELLET
(if _He_ willed it) and the reading became the subject of
acrimonious controversy between the Jansenists and the
Molinists.
The Maurist edition reads si vellet, on the strength of much
additional MS. evidence that had not been available up to that
time. In modern times, the si vellet reading has
come to have the overwhelming support of the critical editors,
although Riviere still reads si vellent. Cf.
Scheel, 76-77 (See Bibl.); Riviere, 402-403; J.G. Krabinger, S.
Aurelii Augustini Enchiridion (Tubingen, 1861 ), p. 116;
Faure-Passaglia, S. Aurelii Augustini Enchiridion (Naples, 1847),
p. 178; and H. Hurter, Sanctorum Patrum opuscula selecta
(Innsbruck, 1895), p. 123.
[202] Cf. Ps. 113:11 (a mixed text; composed inexactly from
Ps.
115:3 and Ps. 135:6; an interesting instance of Augustine's
sense of liberty with the texts of Scripture.
Here he is doubtless quoting from memory).
[203] 1 Tim. 2:4.
[204] Matt. 23:37.
[205] Rom. 9:18.
[206] Rom. 9:11, 12.
[207] Cf. Mal. 1:2, 3 and Rom. 9:13.
[208] Rom. 9:14.
[209] Rom. 9:15.
[210] Rom. 9:15; see above, IX, 32.
[211] Eph. 2:3.
[212] Rom. 9:16.
[213] 1 Cor. 1 :31; cf. Jer. 9:24. The
_religious_ intention of Augustine's emphasis upon divine
sovereignty and predestination is never so much to account for the
doom of the wicked as to underscore the sheer and wonderful
gratuity of salvation.
[214] Rom. 9:17; cf. Ex. 9:16.
[215] Rom. 9:19.
[216] Rom. 9:20, 21.
[217] 1 Cor. 1:31.
[218] Ps. 110:2 (Vulgate).
[219] Matt. 16:23.
[220] Acts 21:10-12.
[221] 1 Tim. 2:4.
[222] John 1:9.
[223] 1 Tim. 2:1.
[224] 1 Tim. 2:2.
[225] 1 Tim. 2:3.
[226] 1 Tim. 2:4.
[227] Luke 11:42.
[228] Ps. 135:6.
[229] Another example of Augustine's wordplay.
Man's original capacities included both the power
not to sin and the power to sin (posse non peccare et posse
peccare). In Adam's original sin, man lost the
posse non peccare (the power not to sin) and retained the posse
peccare (the power to sin) -- which he continues to exercise.
In the fulfillment of grace, man will have the
posse peccare taken away and receive the highest of all, the power
not to be able to sin, non posse peccare. Cf. On
Correction and Grace XXXIII.
[230] Again, a wordplay between posset non mori and non
possit mori.
[231] Prov. 8:35 (LXX).
[232] Rom. 6:23.
[233] Cf. John 1:16.
[234] Rom. 9:21.
[235] 1 Tim. 2:5 (mixed text).
[236] Rom. 14:10; I1 Cor. 5:10.
[237] Cf. Ps. 77:9.
[238] Rom. 9:23.
[239] Matt. 25:46.
[240] Cf. Ps. 31:19.
[241] Note the artificial return to the triadic scheme of
the treatise: faith, hope, and love.
[242] Jer. 17:5.
[243] Matt. 6:9, 10.
[244] Matt. 6:11-13.
[245] Luke 11:2-4.
[246] Matt. 7:7.
[247] Another wordplay on cupiditas and caritas.
[248] An interesting resemblance here to Freud's description
of the Id, the primal core of our unconscious life.
[249] Rom. 3:20.
[250] 2 Peter 2:19.
[251] Rom. 5:20.
[252] Compare the psychological notion of the effect of
external moral pressures and their power to arouse guilt feelings,
as in Freud's notion of "superego."
[253] Gal. 5:17.
[254] Wis. 11:21 (Vulgate).
[255] Cf. John 1:17.
[256] John 3:8.
[257] Rom. 14:9.
[258] Cf. Ps. 88:5.
[259] 1 Tim. 1:5.
[260] Matt. 22:40.
[261] 1 Tim. 1:5.
[262] 1 John 4:16.
[263] Ex. 20:14; Matt. 5:27; etc.
[264] 1 Cor. 7:1.
[265] 1 Cor. 4:5.
[266] Minuitur autem cupiditas caritate crescente.
[267] John 15:23.
The End
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