St. Augustine - W. J. Sparrow Simpson

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" " ST. AUGUSTINE

ON THE SPIRIT AND THE LETTER
BY
W. J. SPARROW SIMPSON, D.D.
LONDON
SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING CHRISTIAN KNow LEDGE
NEW YORK AND TORONTO: THE MACMILLAN Co.
1925
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Printed in India BY George KENNETH
At THE DIOCESAN PRESS, VEPERY,

MADRAs—1925. C3603
INTRODUCTION
It may be of assistance to the reader of this Treatise

to be reminded of the purpose and circumstances
under which it was written and its relation to the
great writer's thought. These points will be therefore
discussed under the following divisions:
I. The popular meaning of the phrase “the
Letter and the Spirit.”
II. St. Paul’s use of this Antithesis.
III. In which sense Augustine borrowed it.
IV. An analysis of the contents of the Treatise.
V. The influence of the Treatise on Christian
Thought.
I
IN popular use, the phrase “the Letter and the
Spirit' frequently represents the meaning which lies
on the surface and the meaning which lies below. It
is the contrast between the verbal expression and the
inner intention in the writer's mind.
Thus the letter of the law is contrasted with its
spirit. The former can be kept while the latter is
broken. Indeed the letter can be urged to frustrate
the spirit. The letter of a Scripture text may be
broken while its spirit is observed. The letter is the
outward form, the spirit is the inward reality. The
external observance of a religious rite is described as
the letter, while the personal surrender of the heart is
called the spirit. -
Explained in this sense, as representing the dis

tinction between the outward and the inner meaning,
the phrase “the Letter and the Spirit’ when applied
to Scripture becomes a method of interpretation.
2 ST. AUGUSTINE
Thus we have the spiritual meaning of a text con

trasted with the literal. There is no abler exponent
of this distinction than Origen." Origen insisted that
many a Scripture text if taken in its literal meaning
could only be misleading. When Isaiah” foretold
a time when ‘the wolf shall dwell with the lamb’ and
‘the lion shall eat straw like the ox;' or when God is
represented as exclaiming “it repenteth me that I
have set up Saul to be King;' * or when the question
is asked “shall there be evil in a city and the Lord
hath not done it; '* these and many similar passages
must not be taken according to the letter, but accord
ing to the spirit: that is to say with a figurative
meaning. Origen held that unedifying incidents in
Old Testament history are to be interpreted simply
as symbols of some sacred mystery.
The same symbolical interpretation was to be
applied to the New Testament also. The inner sense,
the Divine meaning, is to be elicited by those who
possess the mind of Christ. The literal historical
interpretation might suffice for those who could
advance no further, but the spiritual meaning lies
beyond. And ‘we speak wisdom among them that
are perfect.’ This is the really religious and edifying
use. We must go beyond the historical and literal
Scripture into the very soul and Spirit of Scripture.
Origen appeals to S. Paul's allegorical use of Old
Testament incidents. They are “shadows of heaven
ly things.” Origen further held that passages of
scripture which are incredible in their literal meaning
D * Origen, De Principiis, Bk. iv.cc, 8–20. * Isa. xi. 6.
* 1 Sam. xv. 11. * Amos iii. 6. * Heb. viii. 5.
ON THE SPIRIT AND THE LETTER 3
were providentially inserted with the express purpose

of leading the readers to a spiritual interpretation.
Thus the story of the days of the Creation, and the
Almighty walking in the Garden of Eden, or the high
mountain where the Tempter displayed to Christ the
Kingdoms of the world and the glory of them, are not
literal but figurative, mystical, allegorical. We must
understand them according to the spirit and not
according to the letter. Thus also there are New
Testament precepts (such as “Salute no man by the
way,” or the order not to put on two coats) which also
are to be spiritually understood. We are intended to
go beyond the letter.
Origen was of course far too acute not to realize
the dangerous extremes to which this distinc
tion between the letter and the spirit might be
pressed. He warned his readers not to imagine that
no precept of Scripture was to be literally understood,
or that Scripture was not based on solid facts, or
that the Commandments of Christ were not to be
taken according to the letter. But nevertheless he
ſaid such stress on the spirit as opposed to the letter
that he encouraged a method of exegesis in which the |
r
letter tended to disappear.
T This contrast between the letter and the spirit,
between the external sense and the inner meaning, so
profoundly characteristic of the Alexandrian School,
was adopted from Origen by S. Ambrose, and was
powerfully commended to Augustine in sermons preach
edin the Cathedral at Milan. "
* Cf. Confessions, vi. 4.

4 St. AUGUSTINE
The allegorical method of interpretation appealed

strongly to Augustine, at the time when he heard
Ambrose preach, because it provided him with an
escape from various intellectual difficulties which the
Titeral meaning of Scripture appeared to set in his
way. Consequently he came to revel in this method.
* At a later period he employed it with greater caution,
because he realized the enormous danger to religion
caused by substituting allegory for fact. He gave
emphatic warning on the subject in a passage in one
of his popular sermons which stands in striking
contrast with Ambrose’s expositions. He told his
people, above all things, in the name of the Lord, to
regard the Scripture narrative as actual fact ‘ne
subtracto fundamento rei gestae quasi in aere quaeratis
aedificare.”
This then is the popular sense of the phrase “the
Letter and the Spirit.’ It is the contrast between the
form and the substance, the transitory and the perma
ment, the accidental and the essential in religion. We
have spent some time in explaining this because this
is exactly what Augustine did not mean when he wrote
the Treatise on “the Spirit and the Letter'. He
"' acknowledged indeed that the phrase is capable of
being understood in this sense.
But the meaning which he intended is very widely
different. And this popular use of the terms must be
entirely dismissed if we are to grasp S. Augustine’s
teaching in the Treatise before us.”
* Cf. Bindemann, i. 207m. * De Sp. et, lit. § 6.

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II
THE title of Augustine's Treatise, “the Spirit and

the Letter,’ is derived from S. Paul’s words in 2 Cor.
iii. 6 ‘not that we are sufficient of ourselves, to
account anything as from ourselves: but our suffici
ency is from God; who also made us sufficient as
ministers of a New Covenant; not of the letter but of
the spirit; for the letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth
life.”
Now what S. Paul meant by the letter is, as S. John
Chrysostom” explains, the Law : that is to say, the
Jewish Law, the regulations of the Old Covenant.
The letter is not the ceremonial law as distinguished
from the moral law.
For when S. Paul selects a command of the Law as
an illustration, what he selects is the command ‘thou
shalt not covet.” This is not ceremonial law; it is
moral. For the same reason, the Law which S. Paul
intends is not Jewish Law as contrasted with Christian.
For the command ‘ thou shalt not covet” belongs
to the Christian Covenant as much as it does to the
Jewish.T - -
TNow it is the essential nature of all law that it is

a direction imposed upon the human will from with
out. It gives instruction as to human duty. It is
intrinsically excellent. S. Paul says in Rom. vii. 14
* In loc. Gaume's Edition, x. 556.

6 ST. AUGUSTINE
“we know that the law is spiritual.’ “Certainly ”

adds Chrysostom, “it is spiritual. But it by no means
imparts the Spirit.' Thus the letter conveys know
ledge. It gives instruction in moral and religious
ideals. But it does not impart the ability to perform.
And the consequence of this failure to secure achieve
“kills’. S. Paul means by this not physical death, but

moral condemnation. The Law pronounces adverse
judgment on the offender who has disobeyed it.
TSuch is S. Paul's teaching about the Law or the
letter. What then does he mean by the Spirit P. By
the Spirit he means the Holy Spirit, imparting grace
to the human soul. When he says that the spirit
‘giveth life,” what he means is that the living
personal Spirit of God, acting upon the soul within,
enables the human will to obey what the letter
enjoins from without. And this influence of grace
within the human personality creates in men the love
of what is right; and accordingly induces a desire to
fulfil the moral ideal which has been revealed. Thus
the Spirit giveth life, life in the highest of all senses,
the union of the soul with the source from whom all
religious life proceeds.
This is S. Paul's contrast between the Letter and
- the Spirit. It is not in the least the contrast between
the literal meaning of a precept and its higher sense.
We are in an entirely different realm of religious
/ conceptions. The letter is not the superficial meaning
of a command. The spirit is not the highest inter
pretation which can be placed upon that command.
For it is not true that the superficial meaning kills or
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condemns, while by contrast the highest interpretation

giveth life or unites with God. The very contrary to
this is in fact the case. If the literal meaning of a
moral law condemns mankind because they disobey it,
still more effectively and certainly will the spiritual
meaning of that law condemn them. The higher you
raise the moral ideal, the more you refine it and
spiritualize it, the more certainly and effectively it
pronounces condemnation on our human inability to
fulfil it. If the Jewish Law taken according to the
letter condemns, still more does it condemn when
taken according to the spiritual meaning given in the
Sermon on the Mount.
Accordingly S. Paul is here contrasting the funda
mental distinction between the Jewish and the Chris
tian religion. The Old Covenant was essentially a
system of moral and religious ideals and regulations.
The New Covenant is totally contrasted with this.
Not because it gives no moral instruction and religi
ous ideals: it does; but because it introduces the
power of the Holy Spirit, influencing the human heart
within. The New Covenant is essentially a Covenant
* of power, of grace, of imparted strength; a Covenant
of the Spirit. The two Covenants represent two
contrasted principles. The Mosaic Covenant is essen
tially, Law and letter and instruction from without.
"The Christian Covenant is essentially the lifegiving
power of the Holy Spirit working upon the soul
within."
*-*- -
* Cf. B. Weiss, Biblical Theology of AV. T., i. 483. 1882; cf.

Meyer in loc.
8 - St. AUGUSTINE
That this is the real meaning of S. Paul the whole

context of 2 Cor. iii. 6 makes clear.
And when the Apostle writes in Rom. vii. 6.
“But now we have been discharged from the Law,
having died to that wherein we were holden : so that
we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in the
oldness of the letter,’ his meaning is substantially the
same. For he goes on to acknowledge that the Law
is spiritual and yet to complain that the Law con
demns. The reason being that although the Law is
spiritual it does not confer the Spirit. Thus the
contrast is precisely the same as in the previous
passage to the Corinthians. “The oldness of the
letter' is a system of instruction by moral ideals from
without. ‘The Newness of the Spirit’ is the quicken
Ting vitality of the Holy Spirit operating on the human
soul within.”
This interpretation of S. Paul on the Letter and the
Spirit seems generally confirmed by expositors.
Meyer” goes so far as to say that Origen's theory
that the letter and the spirit represent respectively
the literal and the mystical meaning has nothing more
than an historical interest. And certainly Origen's
antithesis is no exposition of S. Paul. The letter is
*-----
with S. Paul always the Law of Moses, as a written

code, while spirit is the operation of the Holy Spirit
characteristic of Christianity.”
2—
* Cf. Liddon, Analysis of Romans, p. 119.

* Comm. on 2 Cor. (1870), p. 71.
* Sanday and Headlam, Romans, p. 176.
III
Now when Augustine adopted this Pauline antithesis,

The Spirit and the Letter, as the title of his Treatise, 2
he adopted it in the genuine Pauline meaning.
But he had previously employed the words in a
different sense. In his early Treatise on the value of 14 wº
faith, which was written during his priesthood about ...A ...
A.D. 391, he says of theOld Testament Ordinances of irs *
Sacrifices and Sabbath that nothing is more dangerous ... …,
than to interpret them according to the letter, and
nothing more healthful than to understand them
according to the spirit. And for this assertion he
appeals to the text “the Letter killeth but the spill
giveth life.” But when some nineteen years later he
wrote, in 412, the Treatise on the Spirit and the Letter,
he says that the passage the Letter killeth but the
Spirit giveth life’ is not merely to be understood as
contrasting the literal with the spiritual meaning of
a text. There is another and a more important
interpretation. The letter represents moral instruc
tion: the spirit is the Holy Spirit at work within the
soul. - - - - ** -- - - -------------
This interpretation represents Augustine's mature

judgment, which he confirmed in his final revision of
his writings in 428. At the very close of his life he
criticized his own earlier exposition and remarks that,
while it yields a sense which is not to be despised, yet
10 ST. AUGUSTINE
when S. Paul’s words are considered in relation to

the context and the subject with which he was dealing,
the exposition given in the Treatise on the Spirit and
the Letter is obviously the appropriate one.”
This Treatise then on the Spirit and the Letter is an
exposition of the Christian doctrine concerning Grace,
and the bearing of Grace on the various departments
of Christian truth and Christian experience. It is
beyond question one of Augustine's very best. It
was written just at the period when his thought was
most mature, and when controversy had not yet led
him into the pronounced Predestinarian extremes C
his later works. It was written in the yearſ412.
Some eighteen years were still to run before the grea
theologian’s labours closed. This freedom from
rigid and uncompromising Predestinarian assertions
makes the Treatise one of the best adapted for
modern study on the Doctrine of Grace.
It was written at the request of his friend, the
distinguished government official Marcellinus, a man
of high character and keen religious interests, who
co-operated eagerly with Augustine to promote Re
union in Africa, presided over the notorious con
ference of 410, and paid with his life the penalty for
his intervention in ecclesiastical disputes.
Marcellinus was at this period anxious to obtain.
instruction on the doctrine of Grace. For a novel
theory had arisen. It was being asserted in certain
Christian circles, in Africa and elsewhere, that human
perfection is attainable without the assistance of
* Retract, Bk. i, ch. xiv.

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God’s grace. This was the fundamental proposition

in the Pelagian religion.
As is the case in so many disputes, the discussion
was complicated by absence of definition. It was
difficult for the Pelagian to reject the term ‘Grace.”
A term so deeply rooted in Scriptural teaching could
not easily be discarded.
Nor had the Pelagian any desire to change the
Christian terminology. But he used the term without
defining it And he employed it in one sense while
his opponents employed it in another.
Now the term ‘Grace' may represent two very
different ideas.
(1) It may represent the natural endowments of our
mental constitution, intellect, affections and will,
including all instruction in doctrine, in morals, and
in good example.
And this is what Pelagius meant. Whether from
diplomatic cautiousness or from vagueness of thought,
he left the language undefined, what he meant by
Grace was always something in the region of the
natural.
(2) But ‘Grace’ may represent the supernatural
operation of God's Spirit on the innermost personality
of his creatures. It is not the imparting instruction
from without, but the awakening of the affections and
the strengthening of the will within.
Augustine employs the term ‘Grace’ in this second
meaning. Grace, he says elsewhere, is not Nature.
It is that whereby Nature is saved. It is not the
assistance given to Nature by imparting doctrine, or
by any other visible and external means. It is not
12 ST. AUGUSTINE
like water poured upon the plant from without. It is

the secret working of Divine benevolence upon the
soul within.”
Accordingly all through this present Treatise a
sharp distinction is maintained between the outward
and the inward in personal religion. Knowledge of
what is right is set over against love of what is right.
The intellectual awareness of an ideal is opposed to
whole-hearted self-surrender to that ideal. The two
words forinsecus and intrinsecus are thoroughly charac
teristic of the entire work. Instruction given from
without is contrasted with control over the heart
within. As Augustine says elsewhere, the sound of
the words may fall upon the ear, but the real Teacher
is within the listener’s soul. And unless the real
teacher is there, all outward instruction will be value
less. So Augustine understood Unction from the
Holy One to mean the indwelling of the illuminating
Holy Spirit within the heart.”
What Augustine feels intensely is that the Pelagian
theory of Grace is mere intellectualism, which fails to
appreciate man's moral feebleness. As he expresses
it elsewhere, ‘it does not follow by any means that
the man who has the gift of knowledge whereby
he has discovered what he ought to do, has also the
Grace of love by which to do it.” The real distinc
tion between knowing and doing, painfully self
evident though it is in mortal experience, was
strangely overlooked in the Pelagian psychology.
* Cf. Ep. 177, § 7.

* Tract iii, in Ep. S. Jn., § 13, p. 25.15
* On the Grace of Christ, § 36.
Pelagius analysed our spiritual nature into capacity,

will, and realization. The capacity was the natural
endowment. The will was the moral consent. The
realization was the action which results. Of these
three he ascribed the first only to God, while the
second and the third proceed entirely from ourselves.”
Augustine on the contrary maintained that God
co-operates with man’s will and with man's achieve
ments. For this doctrine he appealed to the text ‘it
is God that worketh in you both to will and to do.”
* On the Grace of Christ, § 46. * Phil. ii. 13.

IV
It is not possible to give a systematic analysis of

the Treatise, for the great writer does not appear to
have framed it on any definite logical plan. Rather
he writes out of the exuberance of thought, and is led
on to further considerations, not so much because
they flow as consequences on what he has written,
but because his mind is full to overflowing. Hence
there are numerous repetitions. Ideas are begun,
relinquished, and resumed elsewhere. He is led to
stray in various tempting directions; pulls himself
up again in the consciousness that he is wandering
far afield, and returns to something further which
requires to be emphasized. This style of composition
makes analysis difficult.
Nevertheless there are certain main ideas which
become prominent as the work proceeds. It is there
fore possible to divide the book into certain more or
less obvious divisions, of which the following may
be suggested as the chief:—
DIVISION 1
To the Pelagian proposition Augustine opposes “the

Christian Doctrine of Grace’ (§§ 4–8).
Augustine contends that while the natural endow
ments of man in mind and will are the indispensable
pre-suppositions of moral excellence, they are insuffi
cient of themselves to make men good. Obviously,
freewill is insufficient to enable a man to avoid

sin and to do right, unless there is also added a
knowledge of what is right. So far of course the
Pelagian would agree."
Therefore to the natural abilities there must be
added instruction in moral ideals. But, adds Augus
tine, instruction is insufficient to secure goodness.
For instruction only gives a man information. It
does not make him love. Of course instruction in the
moral ideals is indispensable. We must know before
we can do. But to know is one thing and to love
is another. And unless a man delights in what he
knows to be right and loves it, he will not yield
himself to its obedience. Now this love of God (i.e.
love towards God) is shed into our hearts not by our
own freewill but by the Holy Spirit which is given us
(Rom. v. 5).
And here Augustine introduces and interprets the
text which gives the title to this Treatise:
‘the letter killeth but the Spirit giveth life
(2 Cor. iii. 6). This is not to be understood merely
as a distinction between a literal and a figurative
interpretation. The “letter' denotes the moral ideal.
The ‘Spirit’ is the Holy Spirit of God. As an
example of the way in which the letter or Command
ment killeth, Augustine following S. Paul, quotes
the words, “Thou shalt not covet.” This is no figu
rative expression. It is to be interpreted literally.
But this command is “the letter which killeth ; '
simply because, unless the Holy Spirit enables us
to obey, the prohibition increases desire. For, says
Augustine, I know not how it is but an object of
16 ST. AUGUSTINE
desire becomes more seductive when it is forbidden

(§ 6).
Hence then the necessity of Grace : that is, of
moral power, divinely imparted, to kindle the affec
tions, to enable us to love and delight in, and thereby
to achieve, what we recognize to be our duty.
That is to say that human excellence is the product
of co-operation between God and man (§ 7).
The letter of moral instruction, if it exists in the
absence of the Holy Spirit's aid, kills because it makes
sin known rather than avoided, and increased rather
than diminished (§ 8). For what is now added is the
consciousness of having actually transgressed our
duty.
DIVISION 2
The Bearing of this Doctrine of Grace on human self

sufficiency (§§ 9–20).
The Christian doctrine, then, is that Grace is the
remedy for human inability to fulfil the moral ideal.
What had to be brought home to man was the consci
ousness of his moral weakness. This consciousness
was created by the moral ideal which he knew but
could not fulfil. And this consciousness of weakness
should drive him to take refuge in the treasures of
the Divine mercy: that is, in Grace (§ 9).
This is the teaching of S. Paul in his doctrine of
the power of Christ. See, for example, Rom. vi. 3-10
($ 10).
This Apostolic Christianity, this conception that
grace precedes good works [that God does not justify
the sinner because he is already true of heart, but
ON TEIE SPIRIT AND THE LETTER 17
in order that he may become true] is the corrective

to human self-sufficiency and self-esteem. We can
only be recipients of life from the Well of Life, and
of light from Him from Whom all human light is
derived (§ 11).
The Pelagian theory, which ascribes to self what is
a gift of God’s Grace, is born of our confidence in
self and presents the plainest contrast to S. Paul's
profound personal humility, to his earnest defence of
grace (§ 12), and to his searching criticisms on Jewish
self-sufficiency (§ 13). The Christian attitude is one
of glorying in God; that is ascribing the glory of
such moral successes as a man has to God and not to
himself. Whereas the Pelagian praises God because
he is human, and himself because he is righteous;
ascribing his existence to God, but his goodness to
himself: a distinction against which Augustine puts
forth all his energies.
For Pelagianism in reality makes man the author
of his own justification, not God. Pelagians, no
doubt, emphatically repudiated this assertion. But
none the less it is true. They protested that they
acknowledged God to be the author of their justifica
tion inasmuch as He gave us the moral law, instruct
ing us in the ideal of our conduct. But to say this is
to contradict S. Paul, who expressly affirmed that by
the deeds of the moral law no man was justified. It
created a knowledge of sin, not a power of resistence
(§ 14).
The Pelagian indeed attempted to escape all this
by saying, Certainly S. Paul was right in affirming
that by the law should no man be justified. For,
2
18 ST. AUGUSTINE
said the Pelagian, law merely indicates our duty. It

is the will which fulfils it. Consequently a man is not
justified by the law but by the free use of his will.
Augustine answers that this ascription of our
justification to our own unaided abilities is a denial
and rejection of the most fundamental Christian
principles. Moral excellence is not the independent
work of man: it is a Divine production within us:
the work of God.
The Pelagian contradicts the facts when he speaks
of being justified by our own freewill. For, as a
matter of fact, we have all sinned and come short
of the Glory of God. Consequently we are not
justified by our own freewill, but ‘freely by God’s
Grace’ (§ 15).
So then Divine Grace is the cause of human excel
lence : not the mere reward of human excellence
(§ 16).
Augustine proceeds to contrast the effect of the
Pelagian and the Catholic conceptions of Grace upon
human self-esteem and on the feeling of gratitude to
God. Quoting S. Paul’s question, ‘Where is boast
ing then P. It is excluded. By what law P Of works P
Nay, but by the law of faith’ (Rom. iii. 27).
Augustine shows that pride and self-esteem are
encouraged by the theory which regards human
excellence as due to a man's unaided effort. Where
as any such tendency is absolutely excluded and
expelled by the Catholic doctrine which insists that
a man has no virtue whatever which he did not
receive as a gift from God (§ 17).
And the natural result of regarding self as the
author of a man's goodness is ingratitude to God

who is in reality the giver of any excellence men
may possess. Hence Pelagianism is destructive to
genuine Christian worship. For gratitude is essential
to worship. Augustine quotes from the Sursum
Corda of the Eucharist the appeal to “give thanks
unto Our Lord God.” And he urges that gratitude
and thanksgiving is precisely what no man will offer
aright who ascribes to himself what he has really
received from God (§§ 18–19).
Thus law without grace does not produce excel
lence (§ 20).
DIVISION 3
The Bearing of Grace on Law and the Contrast between

the Jewish and the Christian Covenant (§§ 21–42)
Here then Augustine proceeds to draw out the
difference between the principle of works (lex factorum,
lex operum) and the principle of faith (lex fidei). See
Romans iii. 20–27 where these opposing principles
are propounded.
It will not do to say that the principle of works
exists in Judaism because it orders exceptional
observance, and the principle of faith in Christianity
because it abolishes them. The distinction is im
measurably deeper. The moral command “ thou shalt
not covet” belongs to the principle of works. And
this command is as evangelical and apostolical as it is
Judaical, Christianity includes the principle of works
as well as Judaism. Even with regard to externals,
the form may be altered, but the use of externals
remains ($ 21).
20 ST. AUGUSTINE
Wherein then does the difference between these

two principles of works and of faith consist 2
Augustine replies that the former principle com
mands and the latter enables. The principle of
works is the moral Law, instructing us what we are
to do. The principle of faith is the appeal to the
Divine Grace, which enables us to fulfil what the
moral Law commands.”
In the principle of works God says to man, Do
what I command : in the principle of faith man says
to God, Give grace to do what Thou commandest.
Thus the moral Law issues commands in order to
warn us what our faith should do: That is to say,
to Whom we must appeal for power, if we are as yet
unable to obey. And in any case we must realize to
Whom we are indebted for the grace enabling us to
obey. The grave defect of the Pelagian is that he
seeks to establish his own righteousness, and fails to
realize that righteousness is a gift from God.
Hence, says Augustine (again most characteristically)
the man who knows whence he may hope to obtain
a goodness which as yet he does not possess is far
more a son of faith than the man who ascribes to his
own exertions any goodness he may possess. And
better than either is the man who both possesses
goodness and knows from Whom he has derived it :
so long at least as he does not fall into the Pharisaic
delusion of imagining himself to require no further
grace.
* Quod operum lex minando imperat, hoc fidei lex credendo

impetrat. 22.
f
Accordingly the conclusion is that human accep

tability before God does not come from the principle
of works but from the principle of faith: not from
the letter but from the Spirit; not from the merits
of our actions but from the gratuitous Grace of God
(§ 22).
We must therefore be careful not to imagine that
the Law or principle of works denotes mere external
Jewish observances. It denotes the whole of the Deca
Jogue, which, says Augustine, with the one exception
of the Sabbath, is an obligation for the Christian.
The whole of the moral Law is the letter which
killeth, unless grace is given (§ 23).
Thus S. Paul does not hesitate to call the Deca
logue a ministration of condemnation and a ministra
tion of death (2 Cor. iii. 2-9).
The reason for this is that, in spite of the intrinsic
excellence of the moral ideal, “the Law worketh
wrath’ Rom. iv. 15.
It does not enable. It provokes opposition and
increases the knowledge of sin. It condemns and
kills (§ 24).
It would be ridiculous, says Augustine, to apply
this exclusively to the Law about the Sabbath. It is
obvious from experience that the letter, or precept
prohibiting sin, does not impart the principle of
life-giving power. It increases desire. It accumu
lates transgression. Nothing but liberating grace
can enable realization of the moral ideal. We must
have love infused into the heart by the Holy Spirit
if we are to fulfil God’s will. And here Augustine
quotes the great passage from Romans vii. 6—25
22 ST. AUGUSTINE
where S. Paul contrasts the newness of the Spirit

with the oldness of the letter, and insists on the
ineffectiveness of all moral ideals to win the love of
the natural man. Nothing could liberate from the
body of this moral death except the Grace of our
Lord Jesus Christ (§ 25).
Without that Grace moral enlightenment is unavail
ing. I acknowledge the beauty of the ideal but I
do not obey it. The consequence is that “He that
increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow': not
through any fault of the moral Law, but through his
own infirmity, in the absence of the grace of the Holy
Spirit. No act is good unless it is the product of
love. And love is a gift of the Spirit (§ 26).
This Doctrine of Grace is the peculiar distinction of
Christianity. It lay concealed in the Older Covenant.
It is revealed in the New (§ 27).
For where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is
freedom. By the Spirit we are enabled to delight in
goodness, whereas the natural man takes pleasure in
sin (§ 28).
Thus the difference between the two principles of
instruction and of Grace may be described by saying
that the former is external and the latter is within
(§ 29).”
The moral ideal is external to us, with its formid
able threatenings. The Grace of the Spirit is the
inward operation of the Spirit of love upon the heart.
The one “forinsecus terrificat.” The other “intrin
secus justificat' (§ 30).
* Lex extrinsecus posita est, qua injusti terrerentur: hic
intrinsicus data est, qua justificarentur.
Thus while the moral Law is a ministration of

condemnation and a ministration of death, the Grace
of Christ is a ministration of the Spirit and a minis
tration of righteousness (§ 31).
Here then is the essence of the Christian religion
on the subject of reconciliation of man with God.
We are not accepted for our own acquirements, but
for what the Grace of God effects within us. And
without that Grace acceptance is impossible (§ 32).
Repeating the idea very briefly : Law is given in
order that Grace may be sought: Grace is given in
order that Law may be fulfilled (§ 34).
|
Or once again, at somewhat greater length, yet
quite concisely, the whole idea is summed up by
saying that the Old Covenant is contrasted with the
New in this respect; that the one is a Law written in
tables, the other a Law written in the heart; that the
one is an external warning and the other an inward
delight; that the one is the letter which kills and the
other the Spirit which gives life; that God does not
only aid us to do good by external precepts but by
inwardly increasing our moral power; and that the
distinctly Christian element consists in love which is
actually imparted by the Holy Spirit who is given
unto us (§ 42).
DIVISION 4
The Bearing of this Doctrine on Pagan Virtues

(§§ 43–49)
Having shown the relation of the Religion of
Grace to Judaism, Augustine proceeds to show its
bearing on the Gentiles. For S. Paul speaks of the
24 St. AUGUSTINE
Gentiles, or Pagan world, ‘doing by nature the things

contained in the Law' (Rom. ii. 14).
This raises a difficulty with regard to the Christian
doctrine concerning Grace. For Pagans are here said
to obey the moral Law ‘By nature '. S. Paul does
not say that they do so by the Spirit of God or by
grace. But if the Pagan world had the law written
in its heart and obeyed it by nature, what superiority
remains in being under the Dispensation of Grace 2
Augustine answers that these Pagans to whom
S. Paul refers are either those who have been brought
under Christian influence, or those who are still in a
pre-Christian state.
1. If the former interpretation be correct, as he
himself believes, then what the Gentiles do by nature
is not meant as excluding Grace. The reference is
to nature repaired by Grace (§ 44).
Hence S. Paul says that men are justified “freely.’
By ‘freely' he means that works do not precede
justification. If Divine acceptance of Pagans were a
reward of their merit, grace would be no more grace
(§ 45).
In this case the distinction between converted
Gentiles and converted Jews lies in the fact that the
former do not come to Christ, like the latter, through
a Law and a Covenant already sent them. The dis
tinction does not consist in the Gentile fulfilling by
nature the Divine ideal in which the Jew had failed
(§ 46).
When S. Paul speaks of Gentiles doing the things
of the law, that is fulfilling the moral ideal, “By
nature,” where we should have expected him to say
by grace, or by the Spirit of God, there is nothing

contrary in this to our first interpretation. For
certainly S. Paul taught that the Spirit of Grace is
the Agent in all moral good, and that He restores in
man the Divine Image in which we were naturally
created (§ 47).
2. If however we adopt the second interpretation
of the passage, and understand S. Paul when he
speaks of doing by nature the things of the Law as
referring to Pagans who do not yet believe in Christ,
then it must be remembered that the Divine Image is
not altogether effaced in the unregenerate human
being. Nature even in its unregenerate condition is
not absolutely corrupt. Even the least sanctified
human being does some things which harmonize with
the law of God. He exhibits certain good works in a
life which is not good.
It must be remembered here that Augustine has
already laid it down that no action is good which is
not the product of love toward God. So that he
allows a certain moral excellence to conduct which,
judged from the spiritual or religious point of view,
is altogether inferior. But the Christian test of
actions is their reference to God and Christ: that is,
the Spirit by which they are prompted.
Judged from this lofty spiritual standpoint, it must
be said that the natural man, the Pagan, possesses by
nature a power within him to perceive what is right,
and in certain cases to fulfil it. But this doing by
nature the things of the law is a very different thing
indeed from the godliness which raises the soul into
the life which is blessed and eternal. Consequently
26 ST. AUGUSTINE
these virtues of the natural man, while they have a

certain relative excellence, have no reconciling justi
fying and saving power. Apart from grace, human
beings differ in the degree of their sinfulness.
But there is no reconciliation with God nor renewal
except through the one Mediator and His gift of Grace
(§ 48).
DIVISION 5
The Relation of Grace to Redemption (§§ 50–51)

The great principle is declared by S. Paul that if
righteousness comes by the law, if perfection is
acquired by the independent response of our will
apart from Divine support, then Christ died in vain
(Gal. ii. 21). But if Christ's Death secured Re
demption, and His Ascension enabled him to impart
gifts to men, then Christ is the source from Whom
Grace is derived. Christ is the end of the Law for
righteousness to every one that believeth (Rom. x.
4).
Hence the necessity of faith in Christ. For by
faith we plead for Redemption. By faith we flee to
the mercy of God that He may give us power to do
what He orders us to do.
DIVISION 6
The Relation of Grace to Freewill (§ 52)

Augustine is concerned to balance in right propor
tion the different elements of Christian doctrine.
His strong insistence on the doctrine of Grace raises
the problem of its relation to the human will.
Accordingly he teaches that Grace does not exclude
freewill. On the contrary, Grace pre-supposes free

will. For the moral ideal cannot be obeyed without
freewill. The function of Grace is to heal the
maladies of a will infirm through sin. Moral freedom
can only be obtained when the will is recovered from
malady and weakness.
The thing which to Augustine is unintelligible, the
thing which his whole religious experience contradicts,
is the reliance on the power of the will to the exclu
sion of Grace.
Why, he asks, with an earnestness born of bitter
experience, should miserable men pride themselves
on their freedom before they are free ? If they are
sin's slaves, why boast of their freedom 2 If they are
liberated, why boast as if they owed their freedom to
themselves 2
“If the Son shall make you free, then are ye free
indeed’ (S. John viii. 36).
DIVISION 7
The Bearing of Grace on Faith (§§ 53–60)

Still pushing forward in this analysis of the Divine
and Human elements in human progress, there is one
last problem which remains. It is the problem of
faith. Faith is the beginning of all spiritual develop
ment, the beginning of Salvation. The question is,
Does faith lie within our power 2
Here the obvious distinction must be remembered
between the will and the power. We may have the
will without the power, or the power without the
will. We sometimes will what we cannot effect, and
28 St. AUGUSTINE
| sometimes can effect what we refuse to will. Power

|
exists where the will is accompanied by the ability to
carry into effect (§ 53).
That is what we mean by power. Next consider
what we mean by faith. What we contemplate here
is not every sort of faith. Faith is assent to the truth
of what is propounded to us. Now clearly such
assent is a matter of the will. It follows therefore
that faith is in our power.
What sort of faith is it, then, which we mean, when
we inquire whether faith is within our power P. We
mean faith in God. And this not of a servile
character; not the product of fear, but of love. And
faith of this description would not be within us, so far
indeed as it is within us, unless it were imparted by
the Holy Spirit (§§ 55–56).
Here then we must inquire still further. Is the
will to believe a gift from God 2 Or is it a product
of our own natural ability independent of God’s
special influence 2
The answer appears to involve us in a dilemma.
For if we say (1) that faith depends entirely on
ourselves, being a consequence of our natural endow
ment, then the will to believe is altogether our own
decision, and we are possessors of something, which
we did not receive. We have a ground for self-com
plaisance. Augustine realizes keenly that this alter
native admits the Pelagian self-congratulation, God
made me human, I made myself righteous. Also at
the same time it contradicts the Apostolic words
“What hast thou that thou didst no receive P’
(1 Cor. iv. 7).
But conversely, if we say (2) that faith, or the will

to believe, depends entirely on God, then we leave
room for the sceptical to excuse their want of faith,
on the plea that God has not bestowed on them the
ability.
(3) And in either case why do not all men believe 2
For God wills all men to be saved and to come to the
knowledge of the truth.
The Reply. *
(i) Freewill is an intermediate power (media vis)
capable either of faith or of unbelief. It is a gift
which man has by nature. Thus it is certainly true
that all faith is a gift of God in the sense that the will,
or capacity for faith, is part of the natural endow
ments of mankind. (The Pelagian would of course
have acknowledged this.)
Also it is unquestionable that God wills all men to
be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth
(1 Tim. ii. 4). Nevertheless the Divine will is not
coercive. God does not will men's salvation in such
a sense as to deprive them of their freedom. In other
words He leaves them their responsibility of decision.
(Note that Augustine here takes a larger view of
the Divine benevolence than in his later interpreta *
tion of 1 Tim. ii. 4.) 14 *** * ,

(ii) But the will to believe must not be ascribed
º **
*.*.*
*: *
*
g
to God solely on the ground that the will itself is a *
Divine endowment of human nature. It is also to be "... "

** * º *
ascribed to God because He influences the decisions *
of the will.
(1) Not only is the will whereby we believe
a gift of God, because it is part of the natural
30 ST. AUGUSTINE
constitution of the creature; but also God acts upon

the will by persuasive influences in order to enable
men to consent and believe.
(2) Influences and suggestions are essential con
ditions of any act of faith. For no man can have the
will to believe unless there are reasons and motives
for his belief.
(3) The Divine influences upon the human will
are of two kinds. Some are external : such as sug
gestions through the visible world, or through the
Gospel Revelation, the Evangelical ideals. Others
are inward : Divine influence within the reasonable
soul, where no one can determine what thoughts shall
arise within his mind, nor the effect which they shall
produce upon him.
(4) Nevertheless the ultimate decision, whether
of consent or of rejection, lies within the creature's
will, and is therefore man’s responsibility.
(5) Hence the Apostolic challenge is unrefuted.
• What hast thou that thou didst not receive P’
(1 Cor. iv. 7).
Faith is due to the co-operation of the creature's
will with God: in which co-operation His mercy
precedes our endeavours, but neither overrules nor
supersedes them.
(iii) The final sentences of this section touch on
the problem elsewhere avoided in the Treatise:
Why is grace effective in one individual and not in
another 7 Could not Grace overcome repugnance in
both 2 Augustine here refuses to enter the dis
cussion. Consequently we are here spared the intri
cacies of predestination. It is this which makes the
Treatise of peculiar practical value for modern

religion. All Augustine will answer, is (1) that the
ways of God are unfathomable cf. Rom. xi. 33; (2)
that all His ways are just. There, Augustine leaves
it, with the penetrating remark that he who is dissatis
fied with this response must seek more learned
advisers, but should be careful lest what he gets are
only more self-confident. If this cautious utterance
had been Augustine's latest word, the Church might
have been spared much subsequent speculative
controversy on Predestination. Christian thought
would have confined itself to the fact of the practical
necessity of Grace.
Here then this great Treatise concludes in a brief
summary of the main outlines of the discussion
(§§ 61–66).
V
THE influence of this Treatise upon Christian thought.

has been remarkable. It is scarcely too much to say
that all the principal writers on the Doctrine of Grace
have derived inspiration from its pages. We find its
striking sentences quoted repeatedly. It guided the
expositions of S. Thomas. It was studied by
Bossuet' in preparation for his celebrated first
Whitsuntide Sermon, on 2 Cor. iii. 6 ‘the Letter
killeth but the Spirit giveth life '. And nearly every
thing of value in that Sermon is reproduced from
Augustine's Treatise. It was quoted by Fénelon” as
conclusive authority in the Jansenist controversies
on Grace. Its importance in Christian morals may
be seen in one of the latest works on the ethics of
S. Augustine, the learned volumes of Professor
Mausbach.*
Dr. Bright” says of the Treatise that it is “a book
which, perhaps, next to the Confessions, tells us most
of the thoughts of that rich profound and affectionate
mind, on the soul’s relation to its God.”
Augustine is universally acknowledged to be the
greatest exponent of the Doctrine of Grace since
* Works, ed. 1863, Lachat. x. 285.

* Fénelon, Correspondence, 1827, iii. 228.
* Mausbach, Die Ethik des h. Augustinus, 1909, 2 vols.
* Introduction to Anti-Pelagian Treatises, xxi.
S. Paul. He was qualified for this high office alike

by his extraordinary psychological insight and by his
deep personal experience of human weakness and
instability. It is said that a great preacher intending
to deliver a panegyric on Augustine divided his
subject into two parts: what Grace has done for
Augustine, and what Augustine has done for Grace.
The former aspect, however, proved to be inexhausti
ble, so that the second was never reached. But if any
one desires to realize what Augustine has done for
the doctrine of Grace, no better introduction can be
found than the Treatise on the Spirit and the Letter.
For here the great writer is at his very best. Those
who desire to understand something of this momentous
subject, above all, those whose function it is to give
instruction on the doctrine of Grace, will not easily
discover an exponent of S. Paul endowed with equal
sympathy, power and penetration.
Few treatises of Augustine's are of greater perma
nent applicability to human life than this treatise.
It is the doctrine of which above all others Augustine's
wonderful psychological insight and personal moral
experience enabled him to be the chief exponent. He
is of all things the theologian of grace.
The reader may sometimes wish that the writer were
not always so profuse, and that the richness of his
thought had at times been more restrained. But the
value of the treatise would be difficult to exaggerate.
It is profoundly true to the facts of human nature, and
to the Christian principles of spiritual development.
The false estimate of human capacity which he
refutes is constantly reappearing; for the Pelagian is
3
34 ST. AUGUSTINE
nothing else than the natural man with all his blind
ness and self-sufficiency. So long as human nature
remains what it is, it will always be essential to insist
with all possible power as Augustine has done on the
Christian doctrine of Grace.
THE SPIRIT AND THE LETTER
I -
QI Recently sent you, dear Son Marcellinus two

studies of mine, concerning the Baptism of Infants
and concerning the Perfection of Man’s righteous
ness, in which I remarked that no one seems to have
attained, or to be likely to attain, in this life, to that
Perfection excepting the one Mediator, Who endured
experiences of things human in the likeness of the
flesh of sin, yet without any sin whatsoever. After
reading these studies you replied that you were
disturbed by my asserting in the latter book that
exemption from sin by the help of God was possible
for a man if his will did not fail, yet with the excep
tion of the One in whom all will be made alive, no
one had lived or would live in whom while here on
earth this Perfection could be found. It seems to you
absurd to assert the possibility of a thing of which
there was no example. Although I believe you would
not doubt that it has never happened that a camel
has passed through a needle's eye, and yet Christ
said that even this is possible with God. Also you
may read that twelve thousand legions of angels
could have fought for Christ to prevent His suffering,
and yet it never happened. You may read that it
was possible for the nations to have been exterminat
ed once for all from the land which was given to the
Children of Israel, and yet God willed that it should
be done by slow degrees. Indeed a thousand things
we admit were possible in the past, or are possible
36 ST. AUGUSTINE
in the present, and yet we are unable to produce an

example of their occurrence. Accordingly we ought
not to deny the possibility of a man's being without
sin merely because there is no man in whom we can
prove it to have been realized, excepting Him who is
not only human but also by nature divine.
2. Here you may perhaps reply that the instances
which I have mentioned of unrealized possibilities
are works of God. But for a man to be without
sin belongs to the work of the man himself. Indeed
the attainment of righteousness, full and perfect and
complete in every way, is man’s noblest work.
Therefore it is not credible that there neither was
nor is nor will be any instance in this life of a man
who achieved this work, if it is a work within the
power of man to achieve. But you ought to consider
that although this achievement belongs to the work
of man, yet it is also God’s gift, and therefore we
must not doubt that it is also God's work. ‘For it is
God who worketh in you,” says the Apostle, ‘both to
will and to work according to His good will '.”
3. Furthermore those who assert that men are
living, or have lived here on earth without any sin
whatsoever, need not trouble us much by their
opinion. Nay, they should be urged, if they can do
it, to prove their opinion true. There is evidence in
Scripture, conclusive as I believe, that no man living
here, although using his freewill, is found to be
without sin. For example: ‘Enter not into judg
ment with Thy servant, for in Thy sight shall no
* Phil. ii. 13.

oN THE SPIRIT AND THE LETTER 37
man living be justified '.' If any one can show that

this and such like statements ought to be received in
a different sense from their apparent meaning ; and
if he succeeds in proving that a person or several
persons have lived here on earth without any sin;
we ought not merely to refrain from opposing him,
but cordially to agree with him ; otherwise we show
ourselves the most mean-spirited of men. In fact,
even if no such person exists, or was or will be
endowed with such Perfection, (as I am disposed to
believe) and yet it is affirmed and maintained that
such a one either is or was or will be : so far as I
can judge, the error is not great, nor dangerous;
for such a thinker is only misled by the kindliness
of his disposition: always provided that he who
maintains this opinion does not believe that he him
self is such a perfect man, without conclusive proof
that he is in reality such a one indeed.
- 4. But the sharpest and most forcible resistance
is to be offered to those who think that they can
perfect righteousness, or advance towards it by
persevering, by the mere force of the human will
without the help of God. When pressure is brought
upon them to explain how they ventured to assert
that this happens without the help of God, they
check themselves. They do not dare to make this
assertion seeing how impious and intolerable it is.
They now acknowledge that righteousness is not
achieved without the help of God both because
God created man and gave him a freewill ; and
* Ps. cxlii. 2.
38 ST. AUGUSTINE
-
because God by giving precepts instructs men how

they ought to live ; and because God certainly helps
a man, since by teaching He takes away his igno
rance, in order that man may know what action
to avoid, and what he ought to seek. Thus by
freewill implanted by nature, if man walks as God
directs, living soberly, righteously and godly, he may
deserve to attain the blessedness of eternal life.
5. Our doctrine however is that the human will is
divinely aided to do righteously in such a manner that,
in addition to the freedom of the will with which
man was created, and in addition to the teaching
whereby he is instructed how he ought to live, he
receives the Holy Spirit, through Whom there is
caused within his mind, even now while as yet he
walks by faith and not by sight,” the delight and the
love of that highest and unchangeable good which is
God. This pledge of the free gift is bestowed on
man in order that he may yearn to cleave to his
Creator, and ardently approach to communion with
that true light, so that he may derive his well-being from
Him from Whom he derives his being. For neither
does freewill avail for anything but sin if the way of
truth is concealed ; but also when our duty and our
ideal begin to be revealed, we neither do them, nor
undertake them, nor live aright, unless we delight in
them and love. Now in order that they should be
loved, the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts,
not by our own freewill, which originates in us, but
by the Holy Spirit which is given to us.”
* 2 Cor. V. 7. * Rom. v. 5.
6. For in truth the teaching by which we receive

a command to live soberly and rightly is “the Letter
that killeth,’ unless the ‘Spirit that giveth life' be
present. For the Scripture phrase, “the Letter
killeth but the Spirit giveth life,' " is not only to
be understood to mean that any figurative expression,
whose natural meaning is absurd, is not to be taken
literally, but that we should feed our souls by spiritual
understanding, considering the inner meaning which
it represents; since ‘to be carnally minded is death,
but to be spiritually minded is life and peace’.”
There are, for example, many things written in the
Song of Songs which if taken according to the flesh
would not be productive of enlightened love but
would tend to sensual desire. *
The words of the Apostle therefore ‘the Letter

killeth but the Spirit giveth life are not only to be
understood that way, but also, and indeed chiefly, as
it is spoken most plainly in another place, ‘I should
not have known evil desire unless the law had said
thou shalt not covet.” And a little further on he
says, “sin having taken occasion by the command
ment deceived me and by it slew me.' *
Here is the meaning of ‘the Letter killeth’. And
certainly, when it is said “thou shalt not covet,” it
is not something figuratively spoken, and to be
received in some other than the literal meaning : it
is the plainest and most wholesome commandment,
which if any man fulfils he will have no sin what
soever. For the Apostle chose this as a general
* 2 Cor, iii. 6. * Rom viii. 6. Rom. vii. 7, 11.

40 ST. AUGUSTINE
maxim, and included everything in it; as if this were

the voice of the law prohibiting every kind of sin,
when it says ‘ thou shalt not covet’. For there is
no sin which is not committed through desire. And
hence the law which gives this precept is good and
worthy of praise. But when the Holy Spirit does
not help, inspiring good desire in the place of evil
desire, that is, shedding abroad love within our hearts,
forthwith, that law, good though it be, increases by
prohibition the evil desire ; just as a force of water if it
continue incessantly to flow into one place, becomes
intensified by obstruction, and when the obstacle is
overcome the accumulated mass rushes headlong down
with greater violence. For somehow or other the
very object of our desire becomes more attractive
by being forbidden. And this is what the passage
means, “sin deceives by the commandment and by it
slays '. For wilful disobedience is now added,
which is unknown where there is no law.
7. But let us consider, if you please, the whole
passage in the Apostle's letter, and discuss it as the
Lord shall enable us. For I want to show if I can
that the Apostolic saying, ‘the Letter killeth but the
Spirit giveth life,” is not spoken concerning figurative
expressions, although there also it can be made to
apply, but rather concerning the law which openly
forbids what is evil. And when I have shown the
truth of this, it will at once become clearer that to
live aright is a gift of God. And this is the case not
only because God endowed man with freewill, with
out which neither a good nor bad life is possible ; nor
only because He gave commandments to instruct us
w
how we ought to live, but because He sheds

abroad love through the Holy Spirit into the hearts
of those whom He foreknew in order to foreordain,
foreordained in order to call, called in order to
justify, justified in order to glorify.” And when the
truth of this shall become quite plain, you will see, I
imagine, that it is futile to urge that the only things
that are possible although unexampled are the works
of God. [Such works like that already mentioned,
as the passage of a camel through a needle's eye,
and whatever else may be impossible with us but
easy with God: and that therefore human righteous
ness is not to be classified among these things because
it is the work of man not of God] ; and so there is
no reason why the perfection of human righteousness
should be thought to be unexampled, if it is possible
in this life.
The futility of this statement will be sufficiently
obvious when it becomes clear that human righteous
ness also is to be attributed to the action of God,
although not without the co-operation of the human
will. We cannot therefore deny the possibility of
perfection in the present life, since with God all
things are possible, both those which He achieves by
His own will alone, and those which He appoints to
be wrought by Himself with co-operation of the will
of His creatures. Whatsoever therefore among these
possibilities He does not actualize is indeed without
example among actual things; yet has the ground of
its possibility with God in His power, and the reason
* Rom. viii. 29–30.

42 ST. AUGUSTINE
why it is not actualized in His wisdom. And even if

the ground of this is concealed from men, let them
not forget that they are human, nor let them ascribe
unwisdom to God for the very reason that they do
not fully understand His wisdom. -
8. Hear then the Apostle in his epistle to the

Romans explaining and plainly showing that what He
wrote to the Corinthians, ‘the Letter killeth but the
Spirit giveth life,” is rather to be received in the sense
which we have already given: namely, that the letter
of the law, which teaches that we must not sin, kills, if
the life-giving Spirit is not present. For it causes
sin to be known rather than to be avoided, and
therefore to be increased rather than diminished,
because disobedience to the law is now added to
evil desire.
9. Accordingly the Apostle's intention is to extol
the grace which comes upon all nations through
Jesus Christ, so that the Jews should not boast their
superiority to the other nations on the ground that
they have received the Law. After declaring that
sin and death entered the human race through one
man, and through one man righteousness and life
eternal (meaning, clearly, Adam in the one case,
and Christ in the other) he says, “moreover the
law came in beside that the trespass might abound;
but where trespass abounded, grace did abound more
exceedingly : that, as sin reigned unto death, even so
may grace reign through righteousness unto eternal
life through Jesus Christ our Lord.’" Then he puts
* Rom. v. 20–21.
to himself the question, ‘What then shall we say’ 2

“Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound 2
God forbid.” For he realizes that perverse minds
might perversely construe his assertion that ‘ the law
came in beside, that the trespass might abound; but
where the trespass abounded, grace did abound more
exceedingly ', as if he had said that sin was beneficial
as causing abundance of grace. Refuting this, he
answers, “God forbid ': and adds, “We who died to
sin, how shall we live therein P’ ” That is to say,
since grace caused us to die to sin, if we live to sin,
what else are we doing than manifesting ingratitude
to grace To commend the effectiveness of a remedy
is not to represent as beneficial the diseases and
wounds which that remedy removes. The greater
‘the praise bestowed upon the remedy the greater the
blame and the loathing of the wounds and diseases
from which the thing commended sets men free. In
precisely the same way the praise and preaching of
grace is the blame and the condemnation of tres
passes. What had to be brought home to man was
the foulness of his weakness. Against his iniquity the
good and holy law was no avail. His sinfulness was
thereby intensified rather than diminished. Law indeed
came in besides that trespass might abound, in order
that, being thereby convicted and ashamed, he might
realize that what he required was not so much God as
a teacher, but God as a helper, by Whom his steps
might be directed, lest all evil should have dominion
|
over him. And so by taking refuge in the help of
* Rom. vi. 1. * Rom. vi. 2.

**, -
44 ST. AUGUSTINE
divine mercy, he might be healed. Thus where

trespass abounded grace might more exceedingly
abound, not through the merits of the sinner, but
through the help of Him Who came to his aid.
10. Next the Apostle shows that the same remedy
is mystically revealed in the Passion and Resurrection
of Christ. “Do ye not know that so many of us as
were baptized in Jesus Christ, were baptized in
His death 2 We were buried with Him therefore by
Baptism into death, that like as Christ rose * from
the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also
should walk in newness of life. For if we have been
planted together in the likeness of His death, so shall
we be also in that of His Resurrection. Knowing
this, that our old man is crucified together, that the
body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we
should not serve sin. For he that is dead is justified
from sin. But if we are dead with Christ, we believe
that we shall also live together with Him. Knowing
that Christ rising from the dead dieth no more, and
death shall have no more dominion over Him. For
in that He died unto sin, He died once : but in that
He liveth, He liveth unto God. So do ye also reckon
yourselves to be dead unto sin, but to live unto God
in Christ Jesus ”.”
It is quite clear that by the figure of the Lord's
death and Resurrection is signified the setting of our
old life and the rising of the new, and that here is
shown the abolishing of iniquity and the renewal of
* Surrexit, A. V. and R. V. ‘ was raised '.

* Rom. v. 20; vi. 11.
on THE SPIRIT AND THE LETTER 45.
righteousness. Whence then comes so great a benefit

to man through the letter of the law except it be
through faith in Jesus Christ 2
11. This sacred reflection preserves the sons of
men, living in hope under the protection of the divine
wings, that they may be abundantly satisfied with the
plenteousness of His house, and drink of the full
stream of His pleasure. For with Him is the well of
life, and in His light shall we see light, Who extends
His mercy to them that know Him, and His right
eousness unto them who are true of heart.” He does
not extend His mercy because they know Him, but in
order that they may know Him. Nor:does He extend
His righteousness whereby He justifies the ungodly
because they are true of heart, but in order that they
may become true. This reflection does not issue in
self-esteem. That fault arises when each man trusts
in himself, and takes himself to be the source of his
1ife.
By so doing man withdraws from that well of life,
whence alone righteousness [that is, a holy life] can
be derived; withdraws himself from that unchanging
light by sharing in which the rational soul is in a
manner kindled, and itself becomes a created light:
just as John was “a burning and a shining light', a
while nevertheless he acknowledged the source from
which his light was derived, when he said, ‘of His
fulness have we received ’. * Whose?fulness, if not
His compared with Whom John was not light at all 2
For ‘that was the true light which lighteth every man
* Ps. Xxxvi. 8. * S. John v. 35. * S. John i. 16.

46 St. AUGUSTINE
that cometh into this world’.” Moreover the Psalm

which says ‘Extend Thy mercy to them that know
Thee, and Thy righteousness unto them that are true
of heart, “goes on to say ” let not the foot of pride
come to me, and let not the hand of sinners move me;
there are they fallen, all who work iniquity; they are
driven out, they were not able to stand”. * By this
ungodliness whereby each ascribes to himself what is
| of God, he is driven into his own darkness, namely the
works of iniquity. For these works are clearly man’s
own, for their achievement he is competent. But
works of righteousness he does not perform, except
so far as he receives from that well and that light,
where is the life which lacks nothing, and where there
is no variableness neither shadow of turning.
12. Wherefore the Apostle, who, being originally
named Saul, selected the name Paul for no other
reason, as it seems to me, except to show himself
little, and as the least of the Apostles, strove with
such force and severity in praise of this Grace of God
* against the proud and arrogant and those who pre
sumed upon their own works. For assuredly this grace
was most conclusively and manifestly displayed in the
man who though he violently persecuted the Church
of God, and did such acts as merited the severest
punishment, yet obtained mercy instead of condem
nation, and received grace instead of penalty.
Rightly indeed does he cry aloud and strive in the
behalf of grace, indifferent to the hostility of those
who fail to understand a matter so deep and so
* S. John i. 9. * Ps. xxxv. 8-13.

\
abstruse, and who distort his sound utterances and

pervert his meaning. Meanwhile he incessantly
proclaims the gift of God, whereby alone the sons of
the promise, the sons of the divine benefits, the sons
of grace and mercy, the sons of the new Covenant,
are saved. In the first place every salutation of his
runs as follows: “Grace to you and peace from God
the Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ’.
Secondly the Epistle to the Romans is almost
entirely concerned with this question alone. And he
discusses it so persistently, and with such complexity
as to weary the reader's attention, although it is a
beneficial and wholesome wearying, calculated rather
to brace the faculties of the inner man rather than to
injure them.
13. Thence come the words which I quoted above.
Thence comes his rebuke of the Jew when he says
that although he is called a Jew, yet he by no means
fulfils his profession. “But if,’ says he, “thou art
called a Jew, and restest in the law, and gloriest
in God, and knowest His will, and examinest
things which differ, being instructed out of the law,
and art confident that thou thyself art a leader
of the blind, a light of them that are in darkness,
an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes,
having in the law the form of knowledge and of truth:
Thou therefore that teachest another, teachest thou
not thyself 2 Thou who preachest a man should not
steal, dost thou steal 2 Thou that sayest a man
should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adul
tery 2 Thou that abhorest idols, dost thou commit
sacrilege 2 Thou who gloriest in the law, through
48 ST. AUGUSTINE
transgression of the law dost thou dishonour God P

For the name of God is blasphemed through you
among the Gentiles, as it is written. For circumci
sion indeed profiteth if thou keep the law: but if thou
art a transgressor of the law, thy circumcision is made
uncircumcision. If therefore uncircumcision keep
the ordinances of the law, shall not his uncircumcision
be reckoned for circumcision ? And shall not un
circumcision which is by nature, when it keeps the
law, judge thee who by the letter and circumcision art
a transgressor of the law For he is not a Jew who is
one outwardly, nor is that circumcision which is out
ward in the flesh: but he is a Jew who is one inwardly,
and circumcision is of the heart, in the spirit, and not in
the letter, whose praise is not of men but of God’.”
Here the Apostle explains what he means by the
words about glorying in God. For indeed if such a
Jew truly gloried in God, in such a manner as is
required by grace, which is conferred as a gift and
not according to the merits of our actions, his praise
would have been of God and not of men. But the
Jewish manner of glorying in God was as if they were
the only people who deserved to receive His law : as
the Psalmist says, “He hath not done so to any nation,
neither has He revealed his judgment unto them ’.”
This Law the Jews supposed themselves to fulfil
by their own righteousness, when they were rather
its transgressors. And so the Law was working
wrath against them, for sin abounded, being com
mitted by men who knew the Law.
* Rom. ii. 17–29. * Ps. cxlvii. 20.

:
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And they too who did what the law commanded

acted without the aid of the Spirit of Grace, from fear
of punishment, not through love of righteousness.
Consequently in the sight of God there did not exist
in the will that goodness which in the sight of men
appeared in the work. Nay rather they were held
thereby condemned, because God knew that they
would prefer to sin if they could do it with impunity.
But what the Apostle calls, the circumcision of the
heart, represents a will free from all unlawful desire.
And this is not created by the letter which teaches
and threatens, but by the Spirit who helps and heals.
Accordingly the praise of such persons is not of men
but of God, for God by His grace furnishes them
with that which merits praise. And of God it is said
• In the Lord shall my soul be praised; ” and to God
it is said, “my praise is of Thee '.” They are not
like those who would have God praised because they
are men, but themselves because they are righteous.
14. But, say they,” we praise God also as the
author of our justification, inasmuch as He gave the
Law, by the study of which we know how we ought
to live. But they do not understand the passage they
read: ‘ by the Law shall no flesh be justified in the
sight of God’. They may be justified in the sight of
men, but not in His sight who discerns the heart and
the inmost will, wherein. He sees what a man does
through fear of the law, and what he would prefer to
do if it were permitted him. And lest anyone should
suppose that when the Apostle says, by the Law
* Ps. xxxiii. 3. * Ps. xxi. 26. * i. e. the Pelagians.

4
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50
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i t <a.
AUGUSTINE
shall no man be justified, he was referring to the

symbolical precepts of the ancient sacraments, such
as circumcision in the flesh which infants were ordered
to receive on the eighth day, he immediately adds what
law he means, and says ‘by the Law is the know
ledge of sin". That then is the law concerning
which he afterwards observes, “I had not known sin
but by the Law. For I had not known covetousness
unless the Law had said thou shalt not covet ’.”
For what else is meant by the words “for by the law
is the knowledge of sin 'P
15. At this point it may be that human arrogance,
unacquainted with the righteousness of God, and
endeavouring to establish its own, will urge that the
Apostle was correct in teaching that no man is justi
fied by the law, since the law only indicates what is
to be done or avoided, its purpose being to inform
the will; whereas man is justified, not by the direc
tions of the law, but by the action of his own
freewill.
But give attention to what follows. He says,
• But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of
God hath been manifested, being witnessed by the
law and the prophets’.” Surely the deaf might hear
that. He says “The righteousness of God hath been
manifested.” This is what those who would establish
their own righteousness do not understand. To this
they are unwilling to submit. He says “The right
eousness of God hath been manifested ': he does not
say the righteousness of man, or the righteousness of
* Rom. vii. 7. - * Rom. iii. 21.

www.cve ºva ºf ºf 7 ' ' '' ' ' ' ' ' '
*** * * - * * * * - -
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man's own will, but the righteousness of God; not

that whereby God is righteous, but that in which he
clothes man when he justifies the ungodly. This
is witnessed by the Law and the Prophets: to this the
Law and the Prophets bear evidence. The Law, in
the fact that it commands and threatens but justifies
no man, plainly shows that man is justified by the
gift of God through the aid of the Spirit: the Pro
phets show the same, because Christ fulfilled at
His coming what they had predicted. Now this is the
reason why the following words are joined on, “the
righteousness of God through faith of Jesus Christ,’
that is, through the faith whereby we believe in
Christ. Now just as this faith of Christ does not
mean the faith by which Christ believes, so also this
righteousness of God does not mean that by which
God is righteous. Both of them are qualities of man.
But they are called of God and of Christ because
by His generosity they are bestowed on us. Thus
the righteousness of God without the Law is not
manifested without the Law. For how can it be
witnessed by the Law if it were manifested without
the Law P But the righteousness of God without the
Law is that which God bestows on the believer
through the Spirit of grace without the aid of the
Law ; that is to say, unassisted by the Law. Indeed
through the Law God shows to a man his weakness,
in order that taking refuge by faith in His mercy he
may be healed. Concerning God’s wisdom it is said
“it carries the Law and Mercy on its tongue:” that
* Prov. iii. 16.

52 ST. AUGUSTINE
is to say the law whereby He causes the proud to be

condemned ; but the mercy whereby He justifies the
humbled. Therefore ‘the righteousness of God
through faith in Jesus Christ is unto all them' that
believe: for there is no distinction; for all have
sinned and fall short of the glory of God’,” and not of
their own glory. For what have they that they have
not received P But if they have received it, why do
they glory as if they had not received it * *
They have fallen short, therefore, of the glory of
God. And note what follows: “being justified freely
through His grace’.” They are not therefore justi
fied by the law, nor justified by their own will, but
justified freely by His grace : not because it happens
without our will, but the weakness of our will is shown
by the Law, in order that grace may heal our will;
and the will being healed may fulfil the Law, being
| neither placed under the Law nor destitute of the Law.
16. Now ‘Law is not designed for a righteous
person,’ ” “but it is good if a man use it lawfully.”
When the Apostle associates these two apparent con
traries, he warns and urges the reader to investigate
the problem and to solve it. For how is “the Law
good if a man use it lawfully,' if the following state
ment is also true, “knowing this, that Law is not made
for a righteous man'? For who does use the Law
lawfully except a righteous man 2 Yet it is not made
for him but for the unrighteous. Or is the unrighte
ous man to use the Law lawfully in order that he may
be justified, since it is as a teacher leading him to
* Rom. iii. 22. * 1 Cor. iv. 7. * Rom. iii. 20–24.
* 1 Tim. i. 9. * 1 Tim. i. 8.
grace, through which alone it is possible to fulfil

what the Law commands 2 Through it he is justified
freely, that is without any previous merits in his own
actions, “otherwise grace would not be grace.’”
For grace is given, not because we have done good
works, but in order that we may be able to do them :
that is, not because we have fulfilled the Law, but
in order that we may be able to fulfil it.
For He Himself has said, ‘I came not to destroy
the Law but to fulfil it’: He of whom it is said “We
beheld His glory, glory as of the only-begotten of the
Father, full of grace and truth.” This is the glory
of which it is said “all have sinned and fallen short of
the glory of God.” And this is the grace of which he
goes on to say “being justified freely by His grace.”
The unrighteous person therefore uses the Law law
fully in order that he may become righteous; and
when that is achieved let him no longer use the Law
as a means of arrival when he has arrived, or rather,
to adopt the Apostle's previously quoted illustration,
as a teacher when he has become learned himself.
But how is it that the Law is not made for a righteous
man, if for a righteous man also it is necessary, not
to lead one who is unrighteous to justifying grace,
but to be used lawfully by one who is already righte
ous. Or is it perhaps the case (Nay, not perhaps but
assuredly) that the man who is already righteous law
fully uses the Law when he applies it as a menace to
the unrighteous; in order that when the disease of
unwonted desire begins to be intensified in them by
* Rom. xi. 6. * S. John i. 14.

54 ST. AUGUSTINE
the provocation of being a thing forbidden, and, by

the cumulative effect of their previous transgressions,
they should flee by faith to justifying grace, and
becoming delighted with the sweetness of righteous
ness, through the gift of the Spirit, they may escape
the penalty of the letter which threatens them. Thus ,
these two Apostolic statements that even a righteous"
man uses the Law lawfully, and yet Law is not made
for a righteous man—are not contraries nor opposed
to one another. For he is not justified by it, but by the
Law of faith, whereby he believed that it was impos
sible for him in any way to fulfil through his own weak
ness what the law of works commands, unless he were
supported by the grace of God.
17. Accordingly he says “Where then is your
- ***
glorying It is shut out. By what Law Of works P
No, but of the law of faith.” He may be using the
term glorying in the sense of something to be com
mended, namely, that which is in the Law, and says
that it is excluded, not in the sense of being driven
away, but in the sense of being forced out into pro
minence. This is the sense in which certain silver
smiths are called excluders (or pressers out). Thus it
says in the Psalms “That they may be excluded who
are tried by silver:” that is, that they may become
prominent who are tried by the Word of the Lord.
For elsewhere also it is said: “The words of the
Lord are pure words, silver tried by fire.” Or
the Apostle may desire to refer to a sinful glorying,
born of pride, the conduct of those who, when they
* Rom. iii. 27. * Ps. 1.xvii. 31. * Ps. Xi, 7.

ON TEIE SPIRIT AND THE LETTER 55
appear to themselves to live righteously, glory as if

it were not due to a gift received. And glorying of
this sort the Apostle says is excluded (that is, cast out.
and thrown away) not by the law of works, but by the
law of faith. For by the law of faith every man
perceives that if he lives at all a life which is good,
he owes it to the grace of God, and that, if he is to be
perfected in the love of righteousness, he can acquire
it from no other source.
18. And this reflection makes a man to be godly
since godliness is true wisdom. By godliness I mean
what the Greeks call 6eoaré8eta. It is the sort of godli
ness commended in the Book of Job when it is said to
man ‘behold, godliness is wisdom.” If we interpret
the word 6eoaré8eta according to its original meaning,
it may be called the adoration of God (Dei cultus).
And the central point of this adoration is that the soul
should not be ungrateful. Thus in that most true and
unrivalled sacrifice” we are urged to give thanks unto
our Lord God. But it would be ungrateful to ascribe
to oneself anything which comes to it from God. And
this is especially the case with righteousness. For
its works are more our real self-expression. To
glory in this would be no ordinary glorying (such as in
wealth or physical beauty or eloquence, and the other
endowments of body or of mind, whether of an outer
or of an inward nature, which even criminals also may
possess); for it would be glorying in qualities which
are the best of all good things, and would be seem
ingly the attitude of the wise. It is this fault which has
* Job xxviii. 28. * i.e. of the Eucharist.

56 St. AUGUSTINE
driven even distinguished men to drift from the

unchanging nature of God down to the shameful
practice of idolatry. Hence the same Apostle in this
very Epistle, in which he is so ardent a champion of
grace, after describing himself as a debtor both to the
Greeks and Barbarians, to the wise and foolish, and that
as far as is within his power, he is ready to preach the
Gospel also to those who were at Rome, adds, “for I am
not ashamed of the Gospel ; for it is the power of God
unto salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew
first and also to the Greek. For therein is revealed
a righteousness of God from faith unto faith, as it is
written, but the righteous lives by faith.” This is the
righteousness of God which is veiled in the Old
Covenant and revealed in the New. It is called the
righteousness of God because by imparting it God
makes men righteous ; just as ‘the Salvation of the
Lºd Lawr' * is that whereby He saves. And this is the
faith from which and unto which it is revealed : that is
from the faith of its proclaimers to the faith of those
who obey it. By this faith of Jesus Christ (that is,
which Christ brought to us) we believe that such righte
ousness as we now possess, and its future increase,
come to us of God. Therefore we give thanks to Him,
with that reverence with which He only is to be
worshipped.
19. Nor is it without reason that the Apostle
turns from this point to describe with horror those
who, light-minded and puffed up as they are by that
fault of which I have just spoken, uplifted by them
* Rom. i. 16, 17. * PS. iii. 9.

\
On THE SPIRIT AND THE LETTER 57
*
*. "
selves as through empty space, where they could not * -
rest, but must needs be broken and shattered in

pieces, have fallen down upon the fictions of idolatry---
as though upon stones. For since the Apostle had
commended the godliness of faith, whereby being
justified we ought to be grateful to God, by way of
suggesting the contrary which we are to abhor he
says: ‘for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven
against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men
who hold down” the truth in unrighteousness: for that
which is known of God is manifest in them ; for God
manifested it unto them. For the invisible things of
Him, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen,
being perceived through the things which are made ;
namely, His eternal power and Godhead, so that they
are without excuse : because knowing God they did º
not glorify Him as God, nor give Him thanks, but
became vain in their reasonings, and their foolish
heart was darkened : professing themselves to be
wise, they were made fools, and changed the glory of
the incorruptible God into the likeness of an image of
corruptible man, and of birds, and of four-footed
beasts and serpents.”
Observe that he did not charge them with ignorance
of the truth, but with holding the truth in unrighteous
ness. But because it came into his mind to inquire
from what source men to whom God had not given
the Law could desire a knowledge of the truth, he was
not silent as to whence they might be able to obtain
it. For he said that it was through the visible things
* Detinent. * Rom. i. 18–23.

58 ST. AUGUSTINE
of the creation that they arrived at an apprehension

of the invisible things of the Creator. For un
doubtedly, as far as great minds assiduously investi
gated, so far they were able to find. In what then
did their godlessness consist It consisted in the
fact that “although they knew God, they did not
glorify Him as God, or give Him thanks, but became
vain in their imaginations.” Vanity is the natural
disease of those who delude themselves into imagin
ing that they are something when they are nothing.
Overclouding themselves by this swelling pride, of
which the sacred singer who says “in thy light shall
we see light,” implores that its foot may not come
against him, they are finally turned away from the
very light of changeless truth, and ‘their foolish
heart is darkened.” For although they knew God,
their heart was not wise ; rather it was foolish,
because they did not glorify Him as God nor give
Him thanks. For unto men God said ‘behold, godli
ness is wisdom': and thus by ‘Saying that they were
wise ’ (which must be interpreted ascribing, their
wisdom to themselves) “they became fools.”
20. Is there any need to explain the words which
follow 2 These men, these men I say, who were able
to perceive the Creator through the creation, to what
depth they fell headlong through this ungodliness,
since “God resisteth the proud,” and in what depths.
they were submerged, is better described in the
following passage of this Epistle than in any words
of mine. Indeed in the present work I have not
* Ps. xxxvi. 11. S. James iv. 6.

***
- - ºil
** tº “ tº... . * * 1.
undertaken an exposition of the Epistle.* I am only

attempting to prove, relying chiefly on its evidence,
that the divine assistance given us to work righteous
ness, does not consist in the Law which God gave us
full of good and holy precepts; but in the fact that
our will, without which we can do no good, is assisted
and uplifted by the imparted spirit of grace, without
whose assistance that teaching * is the letter that
killeth ; because it holds men guilty of transgressing
it, instead of justifying the ungodly. For as the
knowledge of God brought no salvation to those who
apprehended Him through the creation, “because
while they knew God, they did not glorify Him as -
God nor give Him thanks, but considered themselves

to be wise ’: so neither does the knowledge how men
ought to live, which is derived through the Law, bring
justification ; for ‘desiring to establish their own
righteousness they have not submitted themselves to
the righteousness of God.” . . .
21. It is accordingly important to consider, and if i\, , ; , .
we can to observe and distinguish, the difference !
between the Law of human actions, that is the Law of
works, by which that glorying is not excluded, and
the Law of faith by which it is excluded. A man's
first impulse might be to say that the Law of works
existed in Judaism, but the Law of faith in Christia
nity; forasmuch as circumcision and other similar
works contained in the Law 4 are precisely those
which the Christian system does not retain. But
* i.e. to the Romans. * i.e. given by the Law

* Rom. x. 3. * i.e. Jewish Law.
60 ST. AUGUSTINE
what a fallacy this classification is, I have all this

while been labouring to show, and perhaps I have
already succeeded in showing it to those who are
sharp in appreciating distinctions, to yourself espe
cially, and to those who resemble you. Yet since the
matter is one of great importance, it will not be out
of place, if, with a view to make it plain, we linger
again and again over other testimonies. Now the
Apostle is speaking of the Law by which no one is
justified. He says it came in beside that transgres
sion might abound.” But to protect it from the
criticisms of the ignorant and the charges of the
profane, he says: “What therefore shall we say ? Is
the Law sin P God forbid. But I had not known sin
except through the Law. For I had not known
covetousness except the law had said, Thou shalt not
covet. But sin finding occasion, wrought in me
through the Commandment all manner of covetous
ness,” He says also, “The Law indeed is holy and
the Commandment is holy and righteous and good'.”
“But sin, that it might be shown to be sin, worked
death to me through that which is good.” It is
therefore the letter itself which killeth, which says,
“Thou shalt not covet': concerning which he says
again what I have previously mentioned, ‘For through
the Law cometh the knowledge of sin. But now
apart from the law, a righteousness of God hath been
manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the
prophets; even the righteousness of God through
* Rom. v. 20. * Rom. vii. 7–13.

* Rom. vii. 12. * Rom. vii. 13.
faith in Jesus Christ unto all them that believe; for

there is no distinction. For all have sinned, and fall
short of the glory of God; being justified freely by
His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus; Whom God set forth to be a propitiation,
through faith in His blood, for the showing forth of
His righteousness, because of the setting forth of
previous sins, in the forbearance of God, to show
forth His righteousness at this present season, that
He might be righteous and the justifier of him who is
of faith in Jesus.”
And then he adds the passage with which we are
now dealing: “where then is thy glorying 2 It is
excluded. By what Law 2 Of works 2 No, but by the
Law of faith.” It is therefore this very law of works
itself which says, “thou shalt not covet’; because by
it is the knowledge of sin. I want therefore to know,
will anyone venture to tell me that the command
“ thou shalt not covet” is no utterance of the law of
faith ? For if that were so, what reason could be given
why we who are under it should not sin with security
and impunity ? Now that is precisely what those men
thought the Apostle maintained, of whom he says,
“And as some affirm that we say, “Let us do evil that
good may come,” whose condemnation is just.’ ” But
if (the law of faith) itself does say, ‘ thou shalt not
covet” (as a whole host of passages in the Gospels
and Apostolic letters incessantly witness and declare)
then why is not this (law of faith) itself described as
a law of works P For the fact that it does not retain
* Rom. iii. 23–26. * Rom. iii. 27. * Rom. iii. 8.

2ſº *_{ 's Jº º ^w
62 ST. AUGUSTINE
the works of the old sacraments, such as circumcision

and the rest, does not make the sacraments which it
does possess, and which are adapted to the present
period, cease to be works. Nor was it a question of
sacramental works when reference was made to the
Law as causing a knowledge of sin, and because
through it no one is justified. Therefore it is not
through this law that glorying is excluded, but
through the law of faith by which the righteous lives.
But does not the knowledge of sin come through this
(law) also, seeing that this (law) also says “thou shalt
not covet” 2
22. What then the difference is I will briefly
explain. What the law of works commands by
º threatening the law of faith secures by believing.
The one says “thou shalt not covet': the other says
“When I perceived that no one could have self-control
unless God gave it; and that this was the very essence
of wisdom to know whose gift it was; I approached
unto the Lord and besought Him.” That is the
wisdom which is called godliness, with which the
Father of lights is worshipped, from whom every
good gift and every perfect gift proceeds. Now this
,
worship consists in the sacrifice of praise and giving
º
a º thanks, so that God’s worshipper does not glory in
tº himself but in God. Accordingly, by the law of
works God says, Do what I command: by the law of
faith we say to God, Give what Thou commandest.
Now the law commands in order to advise us what
faith must do. That is to say that the person
* Wisdom viii. 21.

commanded, if unable as yet (to obey), should know

what it is he must ask: and if he is forthwith able
(to obey) and obediently perform it, he should know
of whose gift it cometh that he is able (to obey).
‘For we have not received the spirit of this world,”
says this same unremitting preacher of grace, “but -
the spirit which is of God, that we may know what wº -
things are given to us by God.” Now what is the * *

* * * *
spirit of this world, unless it is the spirit of pride 2
By this their foolish heart is darkened who, knowing
God, did not glorify Him as God by giving of thanks.
Nor is it by any other spirit that they also are
deceived who, being ignorant of God’s righteousness,
and seeking to establish their own, are not subject to
the righteousness of God. From these considerations
it appears to me that he is far more a child of faith
who knows from what source to expect what as yet
he has not, than he who ascribes to himself whatever
he has : although to both of these the man is to be
preferred who both has and knows from whom he has
it; always provided that he does not believe himself
to be what as yet he is not, lest he fall into the fault
of the Pharisee,” who thanked God for what he
possessed, but asked for nothing further to be given
him ; just as if he needed nothing to increase and
complete his righteousness.
After considering and discussing these things with
such powers as the Lord has seen fit to give me, I
gather that a man is not justified by commanding him
to lead a good life, but by faith in Jesus Christ, that
* 1 Cor. ii. 12. * Luke xviii. 11-12.

*.* Z
* º** *- sº f * tº *
-
** * * tº . . .4/ 2'. /
“. ." .
*
64 ST. AUGUSTINE
is, not by the law of works but by the law of faith ;

not by the letter but by the spirit, not by the merits
of human actions but by freely granted grace.
23. Now it is true the Apostle appears so to
rebuke and correct those who were being advised to
practise circumcision, that he calls circumcision itself
by the title, the Law, as also other observances of
the same Law, which, as mere shadows of the future,
Christians do now reject, since they hold that which
those shadows symbolically foretold. Yet he desires
that Law, by which he says that no man is justified,
to be understood not only of those sacraments which
were the symbols of the future, but also of those
works which whosoever performs lives righteously,
wherein is included the command ‘thou shalt not
covet.” And in order that what I say may become
yet clearer, let us look at the Decalogue itself. For
Moses indeed received the Law upon the mountain,
written on tables of stone by the finger of God, to
give it to the people. This Law is comprised in Ten
Commandments. Nothing is prescribed concerning
circumcision, nor concerning animal sacrifices which
are not now offered by Christians. Can anyone tell
me what there is in these Ten Commandments,
excepting the observance of the Sabbath, which is
not to be observed by a Christian: whether it con
cerns the prohibition against making or worshipping
idols, and any other gods beside the one true God,
or concerning taking the name of God in vain, or
concerning the honour to be given to parents, or
concerning the avoidance of fornication, murder,
theft, false witness, adultery, covetousness. Which
A. -
º ~}.
º
"t tº - ** *…', t -
*: º
• * **
A* * .." -
º
º
.
º
.
- r
of these Commandments would any person say that a

Christian ought not to keep 2 Or can it by any
possibility be that by “the letter that killeth’ the
Apostle does not mean the Law written on the two
tables, but that law of circumcision, and other ancient
and now obsolete sacraments But how can we so
think when it contains the command, ‘thou shalt not
covet”: through which command, although it is
“holy and just and good, sin,’ says the Apostle,
• deceived me and through it killed me P’ What else
can this be but ‘the letter that killeth P’
24. Although in the passage itself addressed to
the Corinthians where he says, “the letter killeth but
the Spirit giveth life’ he speaks more clearly, he
does not desire any other letter to be understood than
the Decalogue itself written on those two tables.
For thus he says: ‘Ye are an epistle of Christ,
ministered by us, written not with ink, but by the
-º-' * *
Spirit of the living God ; not in tables of stone, but . ... .

-
. ."
in tables that are hearts of flesh. And such confi
dence have we through Christ to Godward : not that
we are sufficient of ourselves, to account anything as
from ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God; Who
also made us sufficient as ministers of a New Cove
nant; not of the letter but of the spirit: for the
letter killeth but the Spirit giveth life. For if the
ministration of death written and engraven on stones
was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not
look steadfastly upon the face of Moses for the glory
of his face, which glory was passing away; how
shall not the ministration of the Spirit be rather
glorious * For if the ministration of condemnation
5
*****, *… . . . 2 4 -
. . . s' …
. .: ******
-
*** * *
* **** 4. 4.4 ***aſ
66 St. AUGUSTINE ****
be glory, much more does the ministration of right

eousness abound in glory.’”
Much might be said concerning this passage, but
perhaps another time would be more appropriate.
For the present, notice how he speaks of ‘the letter
which killeth,’ bringing in, as if its contrary, the life
giving Spirit. Surely he calls it the ministration of
death engraven in letters of stone, and the ministra
tion of condemnation: because the law came in
theside, that transgression might abound. But, on the
other hand, the commandments themselves are so
useful and profitable to him who does them, that un
less a man does them he cannot have life. Or can it
really be that the Decalogue is called “the letter that
Rilleth' because that one command about the Sabbath
is placed therein 2 And is this one command so
called because any person who observes that day at
the present time in its literal meaning, is carnally
minded, and to be carnally minded is death P And are
we to regard those Nine Commandments, which are
rightly to be observed literally, as not belonging to
the law of works by which no man is justified, but to
the law of faith by which the righteous man lives 2
Who can maintain the absurdity that “the ministra
tion of death engraved in letters of stone' does not
refer to the Ten Commandments, but only to the one
concerned with the Sabbath 2 For if so, where shall
we place the following passages: “The Law worketh
wrath; for where no law is there is no trans
gression:’ ” and, “until the Law sin was in the
* 2 Cor. iii. 2-9. * Rom. iv. 15.

world, but sin was not imputed when there was no

Law : ' ' and that which we have so many times
repeated, ‘through the Law is the knowledge of
sin:’” and above all the passage where the Apostle
still more clearly brought out the point in question,
“I had not known covetousness, unless the Law had
said, thou shalt not covet 2' "
25. Give attention to the whole context, and see
whether it says anything about circumcision or
Sabbath or any thing else to do with a foreshadowing
sacrament; whether the whole point of the utterance
is not that the letter which forbids a man to sin does
not give him life, but rather kills him by increasing
desire and multiplying sin through transgression, un
less grace sets man free through the law of faith
which is in Christ Jesus, when love is shed abroad in
our hearts by the Holy Spirit which is given to us.4
For when he had said, ‘that we should serve in new
ness of spirit, and not in oldness of the letter: 's
he asks “What shall we say then 2 Is the Law sin P
God forbid. Howbeit I had not known sin, except
through the Law. For I had not known covetous
ness, except the Law had said, thou shalt not covet.
But sin, finding occasion through the commandment,
wrought in me all manner of covetousness. For
apart from the Law sin is dead. And I was alive
apart from the Law once : but when the command
ment came sin revived. But I died, and the com
mandment, which was unto life, this I found to be
unto death. For sin, finding occasion through the
* Rom. v. 13. * Rom. iii. 20. * Rom. vii. 7.
* Rom. v. 5. * Rom. vii. 5–25.
.* -
-- " ". .
A ** 2. * * * * *. . . . . . º,
-
- ſº ---
68 ST. ºAUGUSTINE * **.*.*. - **** 12.

tº 2.
-
commandment, beguiled me, and through it slew me.

And so indeed the Law is holy, and the command
ment is holy and righteous and good. Was then that
which is good made death unto me 2 God forbid.
But sin, that it might be shown to be sin, worked
death to me through that which is good; that through
the commandment sin might be made exceeding
sinful. For we know that the Law is spiritual : but I
am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I work I
know not. For not what I would, that do I practise;
but what I hate, that I do ; but if what I would not,
that I do ; I consent unto the Law that it is good.
So now it is no more I that work it, but sin which
dwelleth in me. For I know that in me, that is in
my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. For to will is
present with me, but to accomplish that which is good
is not. For the good which I would I do not : but
the evil which I would not, that I practise. But if
what I would not, that I do, it is no more I that work
it, but sin which dwelleth in me. I find then the Law,
that to me who would do good, since evil is present
with me. For I delight in the Law of God after
the inward man: but I see another Law in my
members, warring against the Law of my mind,
bringing me into captivity to the Law of sin, which
is in my members. O wretched man that I am, who
shall deliver me from the body of this death 2 I
thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then
I myself with the mind serve the Law of God, but
with the flesh the Law of sin.”
* Rom. vii. 5-25.

* ***...* wº … s. ſº
* * *
-
*** *
** * - - - - - - -º a --- * * ***
-: , , on THE SPIRIT AND THE LETTER

- A 69
^^*- : * * * * * * ***…* , - " " ' ". ...A. da * * * v.4, c. ; :
26. It is then evident that the oldness
e of the letter,
if the newness of the Spirit is wanting, makes us
guilty through the knowledge of sin, rather than sets
us free from sin. Hence it is elsewhere written, “He
that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.” Not
that the law itself is an evil, but because the good
ness of the commandment consists in the letter which
points the way, not in the Spirit which enables: and
if this commandment is obeyed through the fear of
punishment, and not though love of righteousness, it
is obeyed slavishly, not freely, and therefore not at
all. For no fruit is good which does not spring from
the root of love. If however there be present faith |
which works by love,” then one begins to delight in
the Law of God after the inner man; and this delight
is not a gift of the letter but of the Spirit; even
though another Law in our members still opposes the
Law of the mind, until all the oldness is changed, and
passes into newness, which day by day is increased
in the inner man, while the Grace of God frees us
from the body of this death, through Jesus Christ
our Lord.
27. This grace lay concealed under a veil in the
Old Covenant, but it has been revealed in the Gospel
of Christ in that perfectly ordered dispensation of
times as God knows how to order all things. And
perhaps it is part of this very concealment that in the
Decalogue that was given on Mount Sinai, the refer
ence to the Sabbath alone was hidden under a sym
bolical commandment. Now the Sabbath is the day
* Eccles. i. 18. * Gal. v. 6.

70 ST. AUGUSTINE
of sanctification. Nor is it meaningless that, among

all the works which God made, sanctification is first
mentioned when He rested from His labours. This
is not the place to discuss that point. But what I
consider singularly applicable to the present subject
is, that it was not without purpose that the people
was ordered to abstain from servile work on that day,
meaning from sin; for not to sin belongs to sanctifi
cation, that is to the gift of God through the Holy
Spirit. What alone was placed among the rest in the
obscurity of symbol under which the Jews observed
the Sabbath, in that Law which was written on two
tables of stone, was done in order to signify by this
very circumstance that then was the period for the
concealment of grace which was to be revealed in
the New Covenant through the Passion of Christ as
by the rending of a veil.” For, says the Apostle,
‘when it shall turn to Christ, the veil shall be taken
away.”
28. “Now the Lord is the spirit; and where the
spirit of the Lord is there is freedom.” Now this
Spirit of God by Whose gift we are justified (whereby
it comes to pass that sin delights us not, which is a
state of freedom, even as when we are without this
Spirit sin delights us, which is a state of slavery,
from whose works we must abstain) this Holy Spirit
through Whom Love is shed abroad in our hearts,
which is the fulfilment of the Law, is called in
the Gospel the finger of God. Both those tables
then were written with the finger of God, and
* S. Matt. xxvii. 51. * Cor. iii. 16-17.
S’* *
* -
ON THE SPIRIT AND THE LETTER 71.
the finger of God is the Spirit of God through

whom we are sanctified, so that living by faith
we may work good works through love. Is there
not something impressive in the similarity and
yet distinction revealed herein 2 Fifty days can be
counted from the celebration of the Passover, which
was directed through Moses to be kept by the sym
bolical slaying of a lamb, to signify the future Passion
of the Lord, to the day when Moses received the Law
on tables written by the finger of God. In a similar
manner, when fifty days had been completed after the
slaying and resurrection of Him Who was led as a
lamb to be slaughtered, the finger of God, that is the
Holy Spirit, filled the faithful who were assembled
together in unity.
29. And yet in this wonderful harmony there is
this very great difference, that in the one case the
people was withheld by awful dread from approach
ing the place where the Law was being given, whereas Crº eſ
in the other the people were assembled together in { sº---via
- -- - -
y; e -
expectation of His promised advent, when the Holy
Spirit came upon them. In the one case the finger of
God wrought on tables of stone, in the other on the
hearts of men. In the one case the Law was imposed
externally to frighten the unrighteous, in the other
it was given inwardly to justify men. For this,
‘Thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt do no
murder, thou shalt not covet, and if there be any
other commandment’ written in those tables, ‘it is
included ', he says, “in this word, thou shalt love thy
neighbour as thyself. Love of one’s neighbour
worketh no ill. Therefore Love is the fulfilling of the
72 St. AUGUSTINE
Law.’” This was not written on tables of stone, but

‘shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit which
**
is given to us.’” Therefore the Law of God is love.
rºl To this “the carnal mind is not subject; neither indeed
ºn |can it be.’ ” When then the works of love are written
f
in tables in order to alarm the carnal mind, it is the
ºtn =
law of works, and the letter which slays the trans
gressor : but when love itself is spread abroad in the
heart of the believing, it is the law of faith, and the
Spirit giving life to him who loves.
30. See now how closely this difference agrees
with those Apostolic words which a little while ago I
quoted in another connection, postponing their fuller
discussion. “Forasmuch as ye are manifestly de
clared to be an epistle of Christ ministered by us, not
written with ink, but by the Spirit of the living God;
not in tables of stone but in fleshy tables of the heart.”
Observe how he shows that the one is written outside
the man, to alarm him from without, and the other
inside the man, in order to justify him within. And
he calls them fleshy tables of the heart (meaning) not
the carnal mind, but a living person having sensation
contrasted with a stone which is senseless. And
what he says a little after, that the children of Israel
could not look steadfastly on the face of Moses, and
that accordingly he spoke to them through a veil,
signifies that the letter of the law justifies no man,
and that a veil is interposed in reading the Old
.. . ; --- **
... *** 2-3
Covenant, until we turn to Christ and the veil is taken
* * * * *** - Jaway. That is, until we pass to grace, and under
* Rom. xiii. 9, 10. * Rom. v. 5. * Rom. viii. 7.

* ~*
* * *
-
-----
*
stand that our justification, whereby we do what he

commands, comes to us from Him. He commands
us in order that, since in ourselves we fail, we may
take refuge in Him. So after He had been most
careful to say ‘such trust have we through Christ
in God,” lest we should ascribe this to our own
strength, he proceeds at once to commend the grace
of which we are speaking, and says, “not that we are
sufficient of ourselves to think anything as from our
selves; but our sufficiency is of God, who also has
made us sufficientas ministers of the New Covenant,
not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter
killeth, but the Spirit giveth life.’”
31. And so because, as he says elsewhere, ‘the
Law was imposed for the sake of transgressions,”
that is that letter which is written outside a man,
therefore he calls it both a ministration of death, and
a ministration of condemnation. But this other Law,
that is, of the New Covenant, he calls the ministra
tion of the Spirit, and the ministration of righteous
ness; because by the gift of the Spirit we work right
eousness, and are set free from the condemnation of
transgression. The former therefore is abolished :
the latter abides. The school-master who terrifies us
will be taken away when love succeeds to fear. For
A
“where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom.”
But this ministration, so the Apostle teaches, is not
the product of human merits, but of mercy: “where
fore having this ministry, as we have received mercy
let us not faint; but let us cast away the hidden
* 2 Cor. iii. 5–6. * Gal. iii. 19.
*/// & -** ºver/ ſ.
74 - ST. AUGUSTINE
things of disorder, not walking in craftiness, nor

handling the Word of God deceitfully'.” By this
craftiness and deceit he would have us understand
-- hypocrisy whereby the proud desire to appear righte
ous. Whence in that Psalm which the Apostle quotes
in evidence for this very grace, it is written, “blessed
is the man to whom the Lord has not imputed sin,
and in whose mouth there is no guile ’.” This is the
confession of lowly saints, not of men who boast
themselves to be what they are not. And shortly
after the Apostle writes, ‘For we preach not ourselves
but Jesus Christ the Lord, and ourselves your
servants through Jesus. For God who commanded
the light to shine out of darkness hath shined
in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of
His glory in the face of Jesus Christ’.” This is the
knowledge of His glory, the knowledge that He is
the light which illumines our darkness. Observe
then how he impresses this thought on us : “but we
have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excel
lence of the power may be of God and not of us'.”
And then he goes on with greater fullness to com
mend this same grace in our Lord Jesus Christ, until
he comes to speak of that vesture of the righteous
ness of faith, whereby being clothed we shall not be
found naked, and for which we yearn being burdened
with mortality, desiring to be clothed upon with our
house which is from heaven, that mortality may be
swallowed up by life. And see what he adds here :
* 2 Cor. iv. 1–2. * Rom. iv. 8 ; Ps. xxxi. 2.

* 2 Cor. iv. 5–6. * 2 Cor. iv. 7.
C -j-lºº. --
* *
‘Now He Who hath wrought us for this selfsame

thing is God, who hath given unto us the earnest of
the Spirit”. And after a little he adds: ‘that we may
be the righteousness of God in Him '. This right
eousness of God is not that whereby He is righteous,
but that whereby we are made righteous by Him.
32. Therefore let no Christian wander from this
faith which alone is Christian. Neither let anyone
who shrinks from saying that we become righteous
through our own selves, and not by the grace of
God working this in us (because he sees that faithful
and godly people cannot endure this assertion), take
refuge in the assertion that the reason why we cannot
be justified without the working of God's grace is
that He gave the Law, He appointed its teaching, He
gave us Holy Commandments. For beyond all ques
tion these things without the aid of the Spirit are the
letter which kills: but when the life-giving spirit is
present, He causes that to be loved as written within
which the Law caused to be feared when written
without.
33. Look into this a little while in that passage also
where the Prophet gives the clearest testimony on
the subject. ‘Behold the days come, saith the Lord,
that I will accomplish a New Covenant with the House
of Israel and with the House of Judah: not according
to the Covenant which I made with their fathers in
the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out
from the land of Egypt: for they have not persevered
in my Covenant, and I have forsaken them, saith the
Lord. For this is the Covenant which I will ordain
for the House of Israel: after those days, saith the
º * - ".
- - - * - * ** * * * ** : * ~ * ~ *
76 ST. AUGUSTINE
lord, I will put my Laws in their heart, and in their

mind will I write them : and I will be their God and
they shall be my people : and they shall teach no
more every one his neighbour and every one his
brother, saying, know the Lord : for all shall know
me, from the least unto the greatest of them; for
I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin will I
remember no more ”.”
What are we to say to this It would be impos
sible, or very difficult, to find in the ancient Scriptures,
except in this prophetic passage, any mention in so
many words of the New Covenant. In many a place
it is symbolized and foretold, but not expressly
mentioned by its name. Consider therefore with
care what difference God orders to exist between the
two Covenants, the Old and the New.
34. When He had said, ‘Not according to the
Covenant which I made with their fathers, in the day
that I took them by the hand to bring them out of
the land of Egypt,” see what He added : * because
they continued not in my Covenant.” He ascribes
it to their fault that they did not continue in God’s
Covenant. He does this lest the fault should be
ascribed to the Law which they had received. For
it is this Law which Christ came not to destroy but
to fulfil. Nevertheless the ungodly are not justified
by this law but by grace. For this is the work of the
life-giving Spirit, without whom the letter kills. ‘For
if a law had been given which could have given life,
verily righteousness should have been by the Law:
* Jerem. xxxi. 31-34.
g
** - . .
* - * :s *
* ** *
' '
but the Scripture hath included all things under sin,

that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be
given to them that believe.’ ” By this promise, that
is, by the kindness of God, the Law itself is fulfilled,
which without this promise makes men transgressors:
either by the actual commission of some evil deed,
if the flame of desire surpasses even the restraining
influence of fear; or at least in the will itself, if the
fear of penalties overrule the seductiveness of desire.
And in the passage ‘the Scripture hath included all
under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ
might be given to them that believe,” he points out
the benefit of this “inclusion.” For to what purpose
is this “inclusion,’ unless, as he says elsewhere,
‘ before indeed faith came, we were kept under the
Law, included for the faith which was afterwards
revealed.’” The Law was therefore given in order
that grace might be sought: grace was given in
order that the Law might be fulfilled. That the Law
was not fulfilled was not the fault of the Law but of
the carnal mind. And this fault had to be pointed
out by the Law before it could be remedied by grace.
“For what the Law could not do, in that it was weak .
through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the
likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in
the flesh; that the righteousness of the Law might
be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh but
after the Spirit.' * Hence in the passage quoted
from the Prophet he says: ‘I will complete a New
Covenant with the House of Israel and with the
* Gal. iii. 21-22. * Gal. iii. 23. * Rom. viii. 3–4.

78 ST. AUGUSTINE
House of Judah: [And, “I will complete,” must

mean I will fulfil]. “Not according to the Covenant
which I made with their Fathers, in the day that I
took them by the hand to bring them out of the
land of Egypt.’”
35. The former Covenant therefore was old
because the latter is new. But whence is it that the
one is old and the other new, if the same law is
fulfilled in the New Covenant which said in the Old
“ thou shalt not covet” 2. He answers, “because they
did not continue in my Covenant, and I forsook them,
saith the Lord.’ ” It is therefore called the Old
Covenant on account of the infirmity of the old man
which the letter, commanding and threatening, by no
means healed. The other Covenant is called the
New, because of the newness of the Spirit, which
heals the new man from the faults of the old. Then
consider what follows, and see in how strong a light
this is made clear; though men who trust in them
selves will not see it: ‘For this is the Covenant
which I will make with the House of Israel: after
those days, saith the Lord, I will place my Laws in
their heart, and in their mind will I write them.’ “
See then the source of the Apostle's language which
I have already quoted : " not in tables of stone but in
tables of the heart; ' for it is ‘not with ink but with
the Spirit of the living God.' Nor was it, I think,
for any other reason that the Apostle wished to
mention the New Covenant in this passage (when he
says “Who hath made us sufficient as ministers of the
* Jer. xxxi. 32. * Jer. xxxi. 32. * Jer. xxxi. 33.

k * ... - ...! lºw cºll. * ~ :
ON THE SPIRIT AND THE LETTER
ſ. f * - ºf tºwas."
} 79 |
** * *** * *- : * *.
New Covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit ), -T ‘. .
except that he had in view this prophetic utterance, vº tºº.”
when he said “Not in tables of stone, but in fleshy

tables of the heart; ' for the words of the prophet
are, ‘in their hearts will I write them,” when he
makes an explicit promise of the New Covenant.
36. What then are the Laws of God written in the s
heart by God Himself, but the very presence of the

Holy Spirit, who is the finger of God, by whose *
presence Love is shed abroad in our hearts; Love
which is the fulfilment of the Law, and the end of the
commandment.” Now the promises of the Old
Covenant are earthly, although (except the Sacra
ments, which were shadows of things to come, such
as circumcision, and the Sabbath, and other obser
vances of days, and ceremonies concerning certain
foods,” and the complicated ceremonial of sacrifices
and sacred things; all of which were in accordance
with the ancient servile yoke of a carnal law) it
contained such commands concerning righteousness
as we even now are ordered to observe, especially
those which are formulated for the most part in those
two tables, without any symbol or shadow, for
example, ‘thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt
do no murder, thou shalt not covet, and if there
is any other commandment which is briefly compre
hended in this saying, love thy neighbour as
thyself.' * Nevertheless, as I said, in that Covenant
earthly and temporal promises are proclaimed, the
f
º
* 1 Tim. i. 5. * See Retract ii. 37.

(a.
* Exod. xx. 14–17; Rom. xiii. 9.
80 ST. AUGUSTINE
good things which belong to this corruptible flesh;

although doubtless in them the eternal and heavenly
things which belong to the New Covenant are sym
ººff bolised. But what is promised now is the good
º s tº things belonging to the heart, the good things of the
* * **
/ mind, the good things of the Spirit, that is to say,
"intellectual good things; since it is said “I will
place my Laws in their mind, and in their hearts will
I write them.” By this he implies that they should
not fear the Law which terrifies from without, but
should love the Law of righteousness itself which
dwells within.
37. Then also He adds the reward : “And I will
be their God and they shall be My people.’ This
resembles what the Psalmist says to God, ‘It is
good for me to hold me fast by God.’” “I will
be,” he says, “their God, and they shall be My
people.” What is better than this good, what is
happier than this happiness: to live to God, to live
on God, with Whom is the well of life, and in Whose
light we shall see light P* Of this life the Lord
Himself says, “But this is life eternal, that they may
know Thee, the one true God, and Jesus Christ
Whom Thou hast sent: * * meaning to know Thee
and Jesus Christ, Whom Thou has sent, to be the
one true God. For this is what He Himself promised
to those who love Him : “He that loveth Me keepeth
My commandments, and he that loveth Me shall be
loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will
show Myself to him : " " that is, doubtless in the
* Ps. lxxii. 28. * Ps. xxxv. 10.
* John xvii. 3. * John xiv. 21.
-
º
º- Eve- - (alº | *- * - . -, º
form of God in which He is equal to the Father; not

in the form of a servant, for in this He will show
Himself to the godless also. Then indeed will come
to pass what is written “Let the ungodly be taken
away, that he see not the Glory of the Lord,’ ” when
‘the evil shall go into eternal fire and the righteous
into eternal life.’”
Now this eternal life, as I have said, is explained
to be the knowledge of the one true God. Accord
ingly John also says: “Beloved, we are the Sons of
God, and it hath not yet appeared what we shall be.
We know that when He shall appear, we shall be like , ,,
* ***
Him, for we shall see Him as He is.’ ” This likeness * *
begins now to be formed again in us, while the inner * * * *
man is being renewed from day to day,” after the “. ***
image of Him Who created him."

38. But what is this commencement, or of what
extent is it, compared with that complete perfection
which in the future is to be 2 The Apostle giving
some sort of illustration of those ineffable things
from things which are known, compares it to childhood
and maturity. “When I was a child,’ he says, “I
spake as a child,—I felt as a child, I thought as
a child, but when I became a man, I put away
childish things.” But what prompted him to say
this he immediately explains; “for now we see,’
he says, “in a mirror in a riddle, but then face to .*
face : now I know in part, but then shall I know even . . "
as also I have been known.”
* Isa. xxvi. 10. * Matt. xxvi. 10. * Isa. iii. 2.

* 2 Cor. iv. 16. * Col. iii, 10. *1 Cor. xiii. 11–12.
6
º -
** * *
*
- - /. , -
º St. AUGUSTINE
39. With the same object it is further stated by

the Prophet whose witness we are discussing,
that in God is the reward, in Him is the end,
in Him is the perfection of happiness, in Him
the sum of a blessed and eternal life. For after
saying, “I will be their God, and they shall be My
people,’ he immediately added, “and they shall not
teach every man his fellow and every man his brother,
saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the
1east unto the greatest of them.” Now the present
time is assuredly the time of the New Covenant, to
which belongs the promise given by the Prophet
in those words which I have quoted from his prophecy.
Why then does each man still say to his fellow and to
his brother “Know the Lord * * or perhaps this
does not refer to the preaching of the Gospel, and
the very essence of its preaching is that it should be
said everywhere. For why does the Apostle call
himself the teacher of the Gentiles,” except because
thereby he fulfilled his own saying; ‘How shall they
call on Him in Whom they have not believed 2 and
how shall they believe in Him of Whom they have not
heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher ?”
Since then this preaching is extending everywhere,
how can this be the time of the New Covenant of
which the Prophet says, “and they shall not teach
every man his fellow and his brother, saying, know
the Lord ; for all shall know Me, from the least
unto the greatest of them ’; unless the Prophet has
included in his promise the eternal reward of the New
* Jer. xxxi. 34. * 1: Tim. ii. 7. * Rom. x. 14.

tº ºc ºri (ke **** º jº * . .
Covenant, that is, the beatific contemplation of God

Himself P
40. What then is meant by “all from the least unto
the greatest of them,” unless all pertaining spiritu
ally to the house of Israel, to the house of Judah, that
is, to the sons of Isaac, to the seed of Abraham P. For
such is the promise, wherein it was said to him, “In
Isaac shall thy seed be called. For not they who are
the sons of the flesh are sons of God ; but the sons of
the promise are reckoned for a seed. For this is the
word of promise: at this time I will come, and Sarah
shall have a son. And not only this, but Rebecca
also conceived by one, namely, Isaac our father. For
of the children yet unborn, and having done nothing
either good or bad, that the purpose of God according
to election might stand, not of works but of Him who
called them, it was said to him, the elder shall serve
the younger.’” “This is the house of Israel, or rather
the house of Judah, for Christ came of the tribe
of Judah. This is the house of the children of
promise, not the children of their own works, but of the
loving-kindness of God. For what God promises He
Himself performs. He does not promise and another
perform, which indeed is not to promise but to fore
tell. Hence it is “not of works but of Him who
calleth:”’” lest it should be their own, not God’s; lest
the reward should not be reckoned as of grace but as
of debt, and so grace would no longer be grace
(grace, I say,) whose strenuous champion and main
tainer was the least of the Apostles who laboured
* Rom. ix. 7–13. * Rom, ix. 11.

84 ST. AUGUSTINE
more abundantly than they all, yet not he but the

grace of God that was with him.” “For all,” he says,
“shall know Me.” A11 : the house of Israel and
the house of Judah. “Not all, however, are Israel
who are of Israel’: but all to whom it is said in
the Psalm for the morning aid (that is, for the new
light, that is the light of the New Covenant) “all
ye seed of Jacob, glorify Him; fear Him, all ye seed
of Israel.” All the seed universally, all the seed, that
is to say, of the promised and of the called, but only
of those who are called according to His purpose.
“For whom he did foreordain, them. He also called ;
and whom He called, them. He also justified; and
whom He justified, them. He also glorified.” “There
fore it is of faith, that the promise according to grace
might be sure to all the seed; not only to that which
is of the Law' (that is, which comes from the Old
Covenant into the New); but to that also which is of
faith, who have not previously received the Law.
And the faith is the faith of Abraham, that is, those
who are imitators of Abraham's faith, “who is the
father of us all, as it is written, I have made thee
a father of many nations.” All these, then, fore
ordained, called, justified, glorified, will know God by
the grace of the New Covenant, “from the least unto
the greatest of them.”
41. As then the Law of works, written in tables of
stone, and its reward, the land of promise, which the
house of Israel after the flesh received when it was
* 1 Cor. xv. 9.-10. * * Ps. Xxi. 24.

* Rom. viii. 28. * Rom. iv. 17.
delivered out of Egypt, belongs to the Old Covenant:

so the Law of faith, written in the heart, and its
reward, the beatific vision,” which the house of Israel
after the Spirit will obtain when delivered from the
present world, belongs to the New Covenant. Then
will come to pass what the Apostle has spoken :
“whether there be prophecies they shall fail, whether
there be tongues they shall cease, whether there be
knowledge it shall be done away':” meaning the
childish knowledge in which the present life is lived,
which is but in part, through a mirror in a riddle.
For as long as future succeeds to past prophecy is
required. It is for this cause also that tongues (that
is a multiplicity of signs) are required: since it is by
variety of signs that variety of ideas are suggested to
him who does not as yet behold with purified intelli
gence the eternal light of evident truth. But when
that which is perfect is come, all that which is partial
shall be done away. Then He Who assumed flesh to
.* *
appear to flesh shall show His real self to those who
love Him. Then shall it be eternal life to know the
one true God. Then shall we be like Him, * for then
shall we know even as also we are known.” Then
“shall every man no more teach his fellow or his
brother, saying, know the Lord: for all shall know
Him, from the least even unto the greatest of them.*
This may be understood in many ways: either that
there also each saint differs in glory as star from
star." It is immaterial whether we say ‘from the
* Species contemplationis. * 1 Cor. xiii.
* 1 John iii. 2. "...º. *::::::: * Jer. xxxi. 34.
or. xv. 4.1.
86 ST. AUGUSTINE
least unto the greatest,’ as the actual expression is, or

say from the greatest to the least. As also it is
immaterial whether we interpret ‘the least” to mean
those who simply believe, and ‘the greatest” those
who are also able to understand (so far as in this life
that is possible), what is the incorporeal and unchang
ing light. Or whether by “the least ’ he means us to
understand those who are later in time, and by “the
greatest' those who are earlier in time. For all will
receive the promised vision of God at the same time:
since even they foresaw these better things for us, in
order that they should not acquire perfection without
us. And so “the least ’ are considered as the earlier,
because they are not delayed so long : just as in the
Gospel illustrations of the penny a day, which they
were the first to receive who were the last to enter
the vineyard. Or possibly the least and the greatest
are to be understood in some other way which at
present escapes my intelligence.
42. But I ask you to fix your mind as far as
possible on the point which I am labouring my utmost
to prove. When the Prophet promised the New
Covenant, not according to the Covenant formerly
made with the people of Israel when they had been
delivered out of Egypt, he said nothing about any
change in the sacrifices or sacraments, although
undoubtedly such change would follow, as we see '
that it has followed, and as the same prophetic Scrip
ture witnesses in many other places. All he did was
to call attentioſ to the difference, that God would
place His Laws within the minds of those who belong
ed to this Covenant, and would write them in their
hearts. And hence the Apostle derived the thought

* not with ink, but with the Spirit of the Living God,
not on tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the
heart.” And that the eternal reward of this righteous
ness was not the land from which the Amorites and
Hittites, and other nations therein mentioned were
driven out, but God Himself, to whom it is good to
hold fast, so that the good thing which they love in
God is God Himself whom they love; between whom
and men nothing can make a barrier but sins which
can only be forgiven by the same grace. According
ly after He had said “for all shall know Me, from the
least unto the greatest of them ; ” He immediately
adds “for I will be merciful to their Iniquity and their
sins will I remember no more.”
By the Law of works, then, the Lord says, “Thou
shalt not covet: ' by the Law of Faith he says, “with
out Me ye can do nothing; ” for the Lord was speak
ing of good works, that is, the fruit of the vine
branches. Here then the difference between the Old
Covenant and the New is plain : the former is a Law
ºn tº
ast * * *
written on tables, the latter written in the heart, so s
that what in the former terrifies us from without, in

the latter delights us within ; in the former a man
becomes a transgressor through the letter which
killeth, in the latter he becomes a lover of the Law
through the life-giving Spirit. We are therefore not
to maintain that the manner in which God helps us to
work righteousness and works in us to will and to do
of His good pleasure, is by appealing to our senses
* Jer. xxxi. 34. * John xv. 5.

|
/, …/~ *~~~ 2
-
* - /
88 St. Augustine
from without by precepts of righteousness, but by

giving the increase within, and by shedding abroad
love in our hearts through the Holy Spirit Who is
given to us.
43. We are next to consider in what sense it is
that the Apostle says “for when the Gentiles who have
not the Law, do by nature the things of the Law, they,
not having the Law, are a Law unto themselves,
which show the work of the Law written in their
hearts.” For this passage might seem to imply that
no clear distinction exists in the New Covenant in the
Divine promise to write His Laws in the hearts of His
people, inasmuch as the Gentiles possess these Laws
by nature. This question therefore has to be dis
cussed ; and it is by no means insignificant. For
someone will say, if God distinguishes the New
Covenant from the old precisely because in the Old
He wrote His Law on tables, but in the New has
written them in the heart: how are the faithful of the
New Covenant to be distinguished from the Gentiles,
who have the work of the Law written in their hearts,
so that they do by nature the things of the Law ; as
if they were superior to that ancient people who
received the Law written on tables, and in advance of
the new nation upon which the New Covenant has
conferred what these Gentiles already possess by
nature ?
44. Is it possible that the nations whom the
Apostle mentioned as having the Law written in their
hearts were those who belong to the New Covenant 2
* Rom. ii. 14-15.

.* - - º A ze
2, 2.24v. Zºº
A.' …e.”
º -
* - z
,, … f. , tº a . . .*
z
** * *
A
ON THE "SPIRIT AND THE LETTER 89
We must look to the context from which it is derived.

In the first place, commending the Gospel he says
“for it is the power of God to salvation to everyone
that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.
For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from
faith to faith, as it is written, the righteous lives by
faith.” Then he goes on to speak of the ungodly
whose knowledge of God did not profit them, owing
to their pride, because they did not glorify Him as
God, nor give Him thanks. Thence he passes on to
those who judge other people and do the same things
which they condemn (meaning unquestionably the
Jews, who gloried concerning the Law of God,
although he has not so far mentioned them by name),
and so he says, “Indignation and wrath, tribulation
and anguish, upon every soul of man that worketh
evil, of the Jew first and of the Greek: but glory
and honour and peace to every man that worketh
good, to the Jew first and to the Greek. For there
is no acceptance of persons with God. For whoso
ever have sinned without Law shall also perish
without Law. And whosoever have sinned in the
Law shall be judged by the Law. For not the hearers
of the Law are righteous before God, but the doers of
the Law shall be justified.” To this passage he adds
the words under discussion : * for when the Gentiles
who have no Law do by nature the things contained
in the Law,’ and the rest which I have already quoted.
Evidently therefore no others seem to be represented
under the title ‘Gentiles' than those whom he had
previously represented as Greeks, when he said, “To
the Jew first and to the Greek.’ Further, if the
90 ST. AUGUSTINE
Gospel is “the power of God to salvation to every one

who believes, to the Jew first and to the Greek ;
and wrath and indignation, tribulation and anguish
upon every soul of man that worketh evil, of the Jew
first and also of the Greek; but glory and honour
and peace to every man that worketh good, to the
Jew first and to the Greek; ' and if this “Greek'
represents the Gentiles, doing by nature the things of
the Law, and the work of the Law which they have
written in their hearts: then clearly the Gentiles who
have the Law written in their hearts belong to the
Gospel, which to those who believe is the power of
God unto salvation. But to what Gentiles working
aright could there be promised glory and honour and
peace, if they are placed beyond the grace of the
Gospel ? For since there is no acceptance of persons
with God, and it is not the hearers of the Law but
the doers who are justified; it follows that whether
a man is a Jew or a Greek, that is, any Gentile who
believes, he shall in either case have salvation in the
Gospel. For as he afterwards says “There is no
difference. For all have sinned and fall short of the
glory of God, being justified freely by His grace.' "
Or how can it be said that the Greek doer of the Law
is justified without the grace of the Saviour?
45. Nor does the Apostle contradict himself in
saying that “the doers of the Law shall be justified; '
as if men were justified by their works and not by
grace: since he says that a man is freely justified by
faith without the works of the Law ; and by saying
* Rom. iii. 23–24.

Ilu- yº: ********
* Av
, fºr !. -
****
“freely,’ he desires nothing else to be implied but

that works do not precede justification. Indeed he
openly says elsewhere, “if it is of grace, then it is no
longer of works; otherwise grace is no more grace.”
But the sentence, ‘the doers of the Law shall be
justified ' is to be understood as meaning that they
are not otherwise doers of the Law unless they are:
justified: so that justification is not a supplement to
works but precedes them. For what else is meant }
by ‘justified ' than made righteous, that is, by Him
who justifies the ungodly, and out of an ungodly
person makes a righteous one P For just in ordinary
converse if we say that men shall be made free, it is
understood to mean that freedom is to be given to
those who are already men: but if we say, men shall
be created, it is not understood that persons were
created who were men already, but that in the act of
their creation they are made men. Similarly, if it is
said, that the doers of the Law shall be honoured, it
is not correctly understood except as meaning that
honour comes to those who are already doers of the
Law : but when it is said “the doers of the Law shall
be justified ', what else is said than that the righteous
shall be justified ? For the doers of the Law are
already righteous. Accordingly it is equivalent to
saying, doers of the Law shall be created, not as
already existing, but to give them existence : So may
the Jewish hearers of the Law understand that they
need the grace of the Justifier in order to become
doers; or the words “they will be justified" may
* Rom. xi. 6.
92 ST. AUGUSTINE
mean, they will be considered righteous, reckoned

righteous, just as it is said of a certain man, “but he
wishing to justify himself,” that is to be considered
or reckoned righteous. In the same way we say in
one sense, God sanctifies His saints, and in another
sense, sanctified be Thy name. For the former
means that He makes them holy who were not holy,
but the latter that what is always holy in itself should
be regarded as holy also by men: that is, that it
may be reverently feared.
46. If then the Apostle is referring to the Gentiles
‘doing by nature the things of the Law, and having
the work of the Law written in their hearts, and
desires us to understand it of believers in Christ
(since they do not come to faith like the Jews,
through a Law already sent them): there is no reason
why we should try to distinguish them from those to
whom our Lord, promising by the Prophet the New
Covenant, says that He will write His Laws in their
hearts. For the Gentiles too, by the in-grafting
which the Apostle says was granted to the wild olive,
belong to the same olive tree, that is to the same
people of God.
Indeed this Apostle's witness too rather agrees
with that of the Prophet, that to belong to the New
Covenant is to have the Law of God written not on
tables but in the heart: that is to say, to embrace
the righteousness of the Law with our innermost
affections, where faith works by love. ‘For God
justifies the Gentiles by faith ; ' which “the Scripture,
foreseeing, foretold to Abraham saying, in thy seed
shall all the Gentiles be blessed ': that by this grace
of promise the wild olive should be grafted into the

olive, and the faithful Gentiles should be made sons.
of Abraham in the seed of Abraham, which is Christ;
following the faith of him who not having received
the Law in tables, and not yet having circumcision
itself, ‘believed in God and it was reckoned to him
for righteousness.” And so what the Apostle has
said of the Gentiles under these conditions, ‘they
have the work of the Law written in their hearts,’
means the same as his words to the Corinthians,
‘not on tables of stone, but on fleshy tables of the
heart.”
For so they are made of the house of Israel when
their uncircumcision is reckoned for circumcision,
showing that the righteousness of the Law does not
consist in the cutting of the flesh, but in the love of ºl.
the heart: since ‘if uncircumcision keep the righte
ousness of the Law, shall not his uncircumcision be
reckoned for circumcision ?” And therefore they
are sharers in the New Covenant, in the house of the
Israel indeed in which there is no guile, for God
places His Laws in their minds and writes them in
their hearts by His finger, the Holy Spirit, by Whom
is there shed abroad the love which is the fulfilling of
the Law.
47. Nor need it disturb us that the Apostle says.
that the Gentiles do the things of the Law by nature,
not by the Spirit of God, not by faith, not by grace.
For the Spirit of Grace is the agent in this, in order
to restore in us the Divine image in which we were:
1 Gen. xv. 6; Rom. iv. 3, * Rom, ii. 26.

…
*
2.- … • * ~ */* * *
94 ST. AUGUSTINE
naturally created. For all sin is contrary to nature,

and it is grace that heals sin.
On this account we pray to God, ‘Have mercy upon
me, heal my soul, for I have sinned against Thee.”
Accordingly by nature men do the things of the Law,
for those who fail to do them fail by their own defect.
And by this defect the Law of God is effaced from
their hearts. Accordingly when this defect is healed,
when God's Law is written there, they do by nature
the things of the Law: not that by nature grace is de
nied, but rather that by grace nature is restored. “For
through one man sin entered into the world and death
through sin: and so death passed upon all men, for:
in him all have sinned.” And therefore since “there
is no difference, they fall short of the glory of God,
being justified freely by His grace.” By which grace
righteousness, which his fault had effaced, is written
within the man who is renewed. And this mercy
‘extends to the human race through Jesus Christ our
Lord. For ‘there is one God and one Mediator
- between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus.’
al ſº ka fººt 48. But if they who do by nature the things of the
Law are not to be understood as being as yet in the
•r. Yaº
number of those justified by the grace of Christ, but
º º ſk, rather among those of whom, although they are un
... godly and worship not the true God truly and righte
º
* * * * **
ously, yet are the doers of certain deeds, which when
º, we read or know or hear, we not only cannot blame
º* , by the law of righteousness but must even deservedly
and rightly praise (although if the motive which
* PS. xl. 5. * Rom. v. 12.

prompted them were analysed, scarcely any might be

found to deserve the praise and commendation which
is due to righteousness) : yet still since the Divine
image is not so utterly worn away in the human soul
by the corrosion of earthly affections, that not even
the slightest trace thereof is left, and therefore it may
reasonably be said that they do or can appreciate
somewhat of the law even in the midst of their un
godly life : if this is what is meant by the saying that
the ‘Gentiles who have no Law,’ that is no Law of
God, “do by nature the things of the Law,’ and that
such men “are a Law unto themselves,' and ‘have
the work of the Law written in their hearts,’ that is to
say that what was imprinted upon them by their like
ness to God at their creation is not altogether effaced ;
even so the difference which separates the New
Covenant from the Old will not be disturbed since the
Law of God which through the Old was written on
tables (of stone) is through the New written in the
heart of the faithful. That which was not altogether
destroyed in the old conditions is written therein”
through renewal. For as the actual image of God,
which ungodliness had not entirely destroyed, is
renewed in the minds of believers through the New
Covenant (for there remained at any rate those
rational elements without which the human soul could
not exist); so also there the Law of God, which is not
altogether blotted out by unrighteousness, is forth
with written anew by grace. And this writing within
the man, which is justification, is what the Jewish
* i.e. in the heart.

3./... * yº • * … ey &
96 ST. AUGUSTINE
Law written on tables cannot produce, since what it

produces is only transgression. For these persons
themselves were men, and that power of nature was
within them by which the reasonable soul perceives
and performs some lawful acts. But godliness, which
translates men into another life, which is blessed and
eternal, has a stainless Law converting souls; that
by its light they may be renewed, and there may be
fulfilled in them (the words) “the light of Thy
countenance, O Lord, has set its seal upon us.”
Since they were turned away from this light they
deserved to wax old ; nor can they be renewed except
by Christian grace, that is, except by the intercession
of the Mediator. “For there is one God, and one
Mediator between God and man, the Man Christ
Jesus, Who gave Himself as a ransom for all.” And
if they of whom I write are strangers to this grace,
and in the sense already explained, “do by nature the
things of the Law; ' what do their thoughts, excusing
themselves ‘in the day when God shall judge the
secrets of men,” avail, unless perhaps to lessen their
punishment 2 For just as certain venial sins, without
which the present life is not lived, do not exclude a
righteous person from eternal life; so certain good
works, without which any human life, even the very
worst, can scarcely be found, avail nothing to secure
it. But as in the Kingdom of God, the saints differ
in glory as star from star,” so in the eternal condem
nation it will be more tolerable for Sodom than for
* Ps. iv. 7. see Aug. Enar. in Ps. iv. 7.

* 1 Tim. ii. 6. * Rom. ii. 14-16. * 1 Cor. xv. 41.
another city ; * and some will be twofold more the

children of hell than others; * so neither in the
Divine judgment will it be of no account that even
within that ungodliness of the condemned, one will
have sinned more and another less.
49. What then did the Apostle wish to prove when
after saying, to check the pride of the Jews, ‘Not the
hearers of the Law are righteous before God, but the
doers of the Law shall be justified,” he immediately
goes on to speak of those who ‘not having the Law,
do by nature the things of the Law 2° if the reference
is not to those who belong to the grace of the
Mediator, but rather to those who, though they do
not worship the true God with true godliness, yet
exhibit certain good works in the midst of an ungodly
life 2 Perhaps he thought that by this he could prove
what he had previously said, that “there is no accept
ance of persons with God,” and what he had afterwards
added, “He is not the God of the Jews only but also
of the Gentiles.' For even the smallest works of the
Law planted in them by nature would not be found in
those who had not received the Law, unless they had
been derived from what remains of the image of God
in them; and God does not despise this image when
they believe in Him, for ‘with Him there is no
acceptance of persons P’ In any case, whatever inter
pretation we accept, it is certain that the grace of
God is promised even by the Prophet through the
New Covenant, and that this grace consists in the
writing of the Divine Laws in the hearts of men, and
* Luke x. 12. * Matt. xxiii. 15.

7
98 ST. AUGUSTIne
that they come to that knowledge of God wherein

“they shall not teach every man his fellow or his
brother, saying, know God; for all shall know Him
from the least unto the greatest of them.” This is
the gift of the Holy Spirit, by Whom love is shed
abroad in our hearts. And this love is of no ordinary
kind, it is the love of God out of a pure heart and a
good conscience and unfeigned faith, from which the
righteous, living in this his pilgrimage, is led onward
beyond mirror and riddle and whatever is only
partial, to the reality, where he may know face to
face, even as he is known. For one thing he has
desired of the Lord, and this he does require, that he
may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of his
life, that so he may behold the delight of the Lord.”
50. Let no man therefore glory in that which he
seems to have as though he had not received it; not
let him suppose that he has received it through the
external letter of the law, whether read or heard.
For ‘if righteousness is through the law, then Christ
died in vain.' * But if He did not die in vain, but
‘ascended on high, and led captivity captive, and gave
gifts unto men;' * then whosoever the man is that
has it, this is the source from which he has it. But
if a man denies that he has it from this source, either
he has it not, or that which he has will be taken away
from him." For there is one God who justifies the
circumcision by faith, and the uncircumcision through
faith." And there is no distinction here as if “by
- * * ****
* Jer. xxxi. 34. * Ps. xxvi. 4. * Gal. ii. 21.
• * isvili, is and HP... ,

Onn. 111. JU. 's L. viii. 18.
faith’ meant one thing, and ‘through faith’ another.

It is only a variety of speech. In fact, in another
place, in speaking of the Gentiles, that is, the un
circumcised, he said, “Scripture foreseeing that God
justifies the Gentiles by faith’.” And again, speaking
of the circumcision to which he himself belonged, he
said, ‘we who are Jews by nature and not sinners of
the Gentiles, knowing that a man is not justified by
the works of the law, except through faith in Jesus
Christ, we also believe in Christ Jesus ”.”
Observe he now says that the uncircumcision is
justified by faith and the circumcision through faith,
provided that circumcision hold the righteousness of
faith. For thus ‘the Gentiles who followed not after
righteousness have obtained righteousness, namely,
the righteousness which is by faith : that is by
asking it from God and not by presuming to derive it
from themselves. But Israel although following after
the law of righteousness did not arrive at the law
of righteousness. Wherefore ? Becanse it was not
of faith but of works.’ ” They thought to work
it of themselves: they did not believe that God
worked in them. ‘For it is God who worketh in us
both to will and to work, according to His good
pleasure.' * And this is why they ‘stumbled against
the stone of stumbling '." For the meaning of the
phrase ‘because it was not of faith but as if of works,”
he expounds most clearly when he says “for being
ignorant of the righteousness of God, and desiring to
* Gal. iii. 8. * Gal. ii. 15–16. 3. Rom. ix. 30–31.

* Phil. ii. 13. * Rom. ix. 32.
-
*
100 ST. AUGUSTINE
establish their own, they have not subjected them

selves to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the
end of the Law for righteousness to every one that
believeth'."
Can we then any further doubt what are the works
of the Law by which a man is not justified, if he
regards them as his own without the aid and gift of
God, which comes ‘by faith in Jesus Christ'? And
shall we suppose it refers to circumcision and such
like things, on the ground that similar remarks are
read concerning these Sacraments also in other
places 2 But neither in this instance was it circumci
sion which these man were desiring to establish as
their righteousness. For God had established that by
commanding it.
Nor can the reference be to those works concerning
which the Lord said to them, ‘Ye reject the com
mandment of God to establish your own traditions.”
‘For Israel,” he says, “following after the Law of
righteousness did not arrive at the law of righteous
ness.” He does not say following after their own
traditions. The only difference therefore lies herein:
that they ascribed to themselves (the power to fulfil
the command) “thou shalt not covet,” as also the other
commandments, which are holy and good, and which
God enables a man to do by working in him through
the faith of Jesus Christ, who is the end for righteous
ness to every one who believes. That is that every
man who is incorporated through the Spirit and made
His member, is able, when Christ gives the increase
* Rom. x, 3–4. * Rom. ix. 31.

within, to work righteousness, concerning whose works

He Himself has said “without Me ye can do nothing.’
51. Now the righteousness of the Law is put forth
for the reason that whoso does it shall live in it; and
that when each man realizes his own weakness, he
may advance, not of his own strength, nor by the
letter of the Law itself [which is impossible] but through
faith may gain for himself a justifier, and arrive at
righteousness, and do it, and live in it. For the
work which whoso doeth shall live in it is not per
formed except by the justified. Now justification is
obtained by faith, concerning which it is written, “say
not in thy heart, who ascends into heaven 2 that is, to
bring Christ down : or who descends into the depth 2
that is, to bring Christ back from the dead. But
what does it say ? The word is near thee, in thy
mouth and in thy heart, that is (he says) the word of
faith which we preach ; for if thou shalt confess with
thy mouth that Jesus is Lord, and shalt believe in thy
heart that God raised Him from the dead, thou shalt
be saved ’.” So far as a man is saved to that extent
he is righteous. For by this faith we believe that
God even raises us also from the dead.
Meanwhile (He has done so) in the Spirit, that we
may live soberly and justly and godly in this world, in
the newness of His grace. Hereafter our flesh itself
is to rise to immortality, which is the reward of the
Spirit, which Spirit goes before (the flesh) in that
order of resurrection which is appropriate to it, that
is, in justification. “For we are buried with Christ by
* Rom. x. 5–9.
102 ST. AUGUSTINE
baptism into death, that like as Christ rose from the

dead through the glory of the Father, so we also may
walk in newness of life'."
Therefore by the faith in Jesus Christ we attain
salvation, both as far as it is begun in us in reality,
and as far as its accomplishment is waited for in hope.
‘For every one who shall call on the name of the
Lord shall be saved.’ ” And the Psalmist says, “How
great is the multitude of thy pleasures, O Lord, which
Thou hast hidden from those that fear Thee, and
which Thou hast accomplished for those that hope in
Thee '.” By the Law we fear God, by faith we hope
in God : but from those who fear punishment is grace
concealed. And when the soul labours under that
fear, because it has not overcome its evil desires, and
fear—that stern keeper—has not departed from it; let
it flee by faith for refuge to the mercy of God, that he
may give what He commands, and by infusing the
sweetness of grace through the Holy Spirit, cause the
command to have greater attractiveness than that
which hinders obedience. And therefore great is the
multitude of His pleasures: that is, the Law of faith,
the love of God, written and shed abroad in the heart,
brings it to pass to those that hope in Him, that the
soul thus healed works good, not through fear of
penalty but through love of righteousness.
52. Do we then by grace obliterate the freedom
of the will God forbid. On the contrary we
establish the freedom of the will. For just as the
| Law is not obliterated by (the idea of) faith, but
* Rom, vi. 4. * Rom. x, 13. * Ps. xxx. 20.

- *
ſco (c. (/
is established by it, so is freedom of the will by

grace. For the Law is not fulfilled except through
freedom of the will. But by the law comes the
knowledge of sin, by faith the obtaining of grace
against sin, by grace the healing of the soul from the yA.
defect of sin, by the healing of the soul comes the
freedom of the will, by the freedom of the will the
love of righteousness, by the love of righteousness
comes obedience to the law. Accordingly just as
law is not obliterated but established by faith, because
faith obtains grace whereby the law may be fulfilled,
so freedom of the will is not obliterated by grace, but
is established, because grace heals the will, and
thereby righteousness is freely loved. All these
things which I have systematically connected have
their illustrations in Holy Scripture.
The law says, “thou shalt not covet.” Faith says,
“heal my soul for I have sinned against thee.” Grace
says, “Behold thou art made whole, sin no more lest a
worse thing happen unto thee.” Health says, “O
Lord my God, I cried unto thee, and thou hast healed
me.” Freedom of will says, “Freely will I sacrifice X
unto thee.” Love of righteousness says, “The un
righteous have declared pleasures unto me, but not,
O Lord, according to thy law.” Why then should
miserable men venture to pride themselves on their X.
freewill before they are set free, or on their strength -
if they are already set free ? Nor do they observe

that the very word freewill speaks of freedom. “For
* Exod. xx. 17, * PS. x1. 5. * John v. 14.

* Ps. xxix. 3. * PS. 11ti. 8. * Ps. cxix. 85.
104 ST. AUGUSTINE
where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom.”

If then they are slaves of sin, why do they boast
concerning the freedom of their will 2 For by whom
a man is overcome, to him he is assigned in slavery.
But if they are already free, why boast themselves as
if the act was theirs, and glory as if they had not
received it 2 Or are they free in such a sense that
they do not desire to have Him as their Lord, Who
says to them, ‘Without Me ye can do nothing P’” and
“if the son hath set you free, then shall ye be free
| indeed 'P3
53. The question may here be raised whether faith
* ‘Fºrt itself, which appears to be the beginning of salvation,
tº !---or of that series which leads to salvation which I have
• * * *-*** mentioned, lies within our power. This we shall see
more easily if we first consider somewhat carefully
what is meant by power. For we must distinguish
two things: the will and the power. He who has the
will has not therefore the power, nor he who has the
power therefore the will. For as we sometimes will
what we have not the power to do, so sometimes we
can do what we have not the will to do. The deriva
tion of the words themselves is clear. The word
voluntas comes from velle (to will). The word power
(or ability) comes from posse (Meaning, to be able).
Accordingly, as he who wills has the will, so he who
is able has the power. But in order that the power to
do should produce anything, the will must be present.
For we do not call that an act of power which was
done unwillingly. Although if we investigate deeper,
* 2 Cor. iii. 17. * S. J. xv. 5. ° S. J. viii. 36.
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even that which a man does under compulsion unwill
ingly is, if he does it, an act of his will. But because
he would have preferred to do something else, there
fore we are accustomed to say that he does it unwill
ingly, or against his will. He is compelled to do
what he does by some evil which he wishes to avoid
or remove from him. Now if the will is so strong
that he prefers not to do this rather than not to
have the other done to him, then undoubtedly he
will resist compulsion, and he will not do it. Accord
ingly, if he does it, he does not act with full and
complete freewill, yet he does not act except by will.
And since the effect follows upon the will, we cannot
say that power was lacking to the agent. For if
yielding to compulsion he desired to act but could not,
we say that the will was present, although under com
pulsion, but that the power was not present. But
when he did not act because he did not will, the power
was present indeed but the will was absent, so long as
he resisted the pressure and did not act. Hence it is
that those who compel or persuade are accustomed to
say: why not do what lies in your power to escape
this evil And those who actually cannot do what
others, believing them to be able, attempt to compel
them to do, are accustomed to plead for themselves by
way of answer: I would do it if it lay within my power.
What have we then further to seek P What we denote
by ‘power’ is a state in which the will is accompanied
by the ability to carry into effect. Hence every man
is said to have a thing within his power which if
he wills he does, and if he does not will, does
not do.
T. . . . . !, (. . . . . . . . . .
106 ST. AUGUSTINE
54. Consider now the point which I have set

forward for discussion: whether faith is in our power P.
The kind of faith which I have in view is that which
we exhibitowhen we believe anything, not the kind
which we give when we promise anything: although
that also is entitled “faith'. But there is a clear
distinction between saying, he has no faith in me, and
he has not kept faith with me. The former means he
did not believe what I said; the latter that he has not
done what he said. According to that faith whereby
we believe, we are faithful to God: According to
that faith by which a promise is fulfilled God, himself
is faithful to us. For the Apostle says as much :
“God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted
above that which you are able.” That is the kind
of faith concerning which we inquire whether it is
within our power: namely, the faith whereby we
believe God, or believe in God. For hence it is
written, ‘Abraham believed God, and it was reckon
ed unto him for righteousness;' and ‘To him who
believes in Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is
reckoned for righteousness.’ See now whether any
one believes if he does not will ; or does not believe if
he wills. And if that is absurd [for what else is to
believe but to assent to the truth of what is propound
ed? Consent being a matter of the will]: then it
follows that faith is in our power. But, as the Apostle
said, “there is no power but of God.” What reason is
there then why the question should not be asked
in this matter also, “what hast thou which thou didst
not receive P' For the power to believe is also God's
gift. We nowhere read in Holy Scripture, there is no
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º * * * *5N THE SPIRIT AND THE Letter 107
will but of God. And there is reason that this is not

written because it is not true. For otherwise, if
there were no will but from Him, God would be
also the author of sins : which God forbid. For an
evil will is in itself already sin, even if it fail of
its effect, that is, if it have not the power. Indeed
since the evil will has received the power to fulfil what
it desires, this comes from the judgment of God, with
whom is no iniquity. He punishes indeed this way;
nor indeed unjustly because secretly. But the unjust
does not realize that this is punishment, unless
through open penalty he is unwillingly forced to feel
how great the evil is which he willingly committed.
This is what the Apostle says of certain men : “God
gave them over to the desires of their own hearts, to
work what is not fitting.” “Hence also Our Lord said
to Pilate, “Thou couldest have no power against me,
unless it were given thee from above.” But the gift of . |
power does not involve necessity. Thus when David
had received the power of slaying Saul, he chose
to spare rather than to smite. Hence we understand
that the evil receive power to the condemnation
of their own evil will, and the good to the commenda
tion of their own good will. |
55. Since then faith is in our power, for what any
man wills he believes, and when he believes he does
so willingly, it is further to be inquired, indeed
to be considered again, what kind of faith it is
which the Apostle commends with so much energy.
For not every sort of belief is good. For if it
be, why the saying, “ Brethren, believe not every
Spirit, but prove the Spirit which is of God’ ” And
108 ST. AUGUSTINE
the phrase, “believeth all things’, which is placed

among the praises of love, is not to be interpreted as
if the refusal to believe at once whatever we hear,
proved any defect of love. Does not the same love
prompt us not easily to believe any evil concerning a
brother, and judge that the province of love is rather
to refuse to believe when anything of the kind is
uttered 2 Finally, love itself, which believes all
things, does not believe every spirit: for this reason
that it believes all things indeed, but in God; for it is
not said that love believes all men. Consequently
there can be no doubt that the kind of faith which the
Apostle commends is that whereby we believe in
God.
56. But there is a further distinction to be drawn.
For they also believe in God who are under the Law,
and are induced by fear of punishment to try to work
their own righteousness; and therefore are not work
ing the righteousness of God, for that is the work of
love. For nothing is pleasing to love save that which
is lawful : whereas fear is compelled to regard in its
work what is lawful, while it has something else in its
will which would prefer that the unlawful were lawful,
if it were only possible. These men also believe in
God; for if they had no faith whatsoever, they
would by no means fear the punishment of the Law.
But that is not the sort of faith which the Apostle
commends when he says, “for ye have not received
the spirit of bondage again unto fear; but ye have
received the spirit of the adoption of sons, whereby
we cry Abba, Father.” Such fear is therefore servile.
And although it involves faith in the same Lord, yet
it is not love of righteousness but fear of condemnation.

For sons cry, Abba, Father: of which two words one
represents the circumcision and the other the un
circumcision, “of the Jew first and also of the Greek’:
since there is one God who justifies the circumcision
by faith and the uncircumcision through faith. But
when men cry, it is because they ask for something.
And what is it that they seek but that for which they
hunger and thirst 2 And what is that but what is
referred to in the words ‘blessed are they who hunger
and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled '.
Let those then who are under the Law advance to
this, so that they may be changed from slaves into
sons. Not indeed in such a manner that they cease to
be slaves, but that as sons they may freely serve their
Lord and Father; for this is what they have received.
For He, the only Son, “gave power to become the
sons of God to those who believe in His Name.’ And
He encourages them to ask, to seek, to knock, that
they may receive, and find, and it may be opened to
them ; adding a rebuke in the words “if ye, being
evil, know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more shall your Father which is in Heaven
give good things to them that ask Him?” When there
fore the Law, which is the strength of sin, intensifies
the sting of death, so that sin, taking occasion by the
Commandment works all manner of desire ; from
whom are we to seek for self-control, unless from Him
Who knows how to give good gifts to His sons 2 Or
is not the foolish human being aware that no one can
be self-controlled unless God gives the power 2 Well
then, in order to know this, he stands in need of
110 ST. AUGUSTINE
wisdom. Why then does he not hear the spirit of his

Father, speaking by the Apostle of Christ, or Christ
Himself, saying in His Gospel, “ask and ye shall
receive ’2 or speaking in His Apostle and saying, “If
any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who
gives liberally to all and upbraideth not, and it shall
be given unto him : but let him ask in faith, nothing
doubting *** This is the faith whereby the righteous
lives. This is the faith whereby a man believes in
Him Who justifies the ungodly. This is the faith
whereby glorying is excluded, either by the dismissal
of our self-esteem, or by the prominence of our
glorying in the Lord. This is the faith which the
fulness of the Spirit obtains, concerning which it is
written, “For we in the Spirit wait by faith for the
hope of righteousness.” Here indeed it may yet be
inquired whether by the hope of righteousness he
means the hope which righteousness feels, or the hope
which men place in righteousness. For the righteous
lives by faith and hopes for eternal life. And faith,
hungering and thirsting after righteousness, advances
in it, by the daily renewal of the inner man, and hopes
to be satisfied therein in eternal life, where that which
is spoken concerning God in the Psalms will be
fulfilled, “Who satisfies thy desire with good things.”
This is the faith whereby men are saved to whom it
was said “By grace are ye saved through faith; and
that not of yourselves, but it is the gift of God: not
of works, lest perhaps any man should boast, for
we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus
* S. James i. 6. * Gal. v. 5.
for good works, which God has prepared for us to

walk in.”
Finally, this is the faith which works by love, not
by fear; not by alarm of penalty, but by love of
righteousness. Whence therefore comes this love, by
which faith works, unless from the source from which
faith has obtained it? Nor would this (faith) be in us,
so far indeed as it is in us, unless it were shed abroad
in our hearts, by the Holy Spirit who is given to us.
The love of God which is said to be shed abroad in
our hearts is not that love whereby He loves us,
but that whereby He makes us to become His lovers.
Just as the righteousness of God is that whereby
through His gift we are made righteous; and the
salvation of the Lord is that whereby He causes us to
be saved; and faith of Jesus Christ is that whereby
He makes us faithful. This is the righteousness of
God which He not only teaches through the commands
of the Law, but also gives through the gift of the
Spirit.
57. But the next step is to enquire briefly whether
this will to believe is itself a gift of God, or whether
it is a property of that freedom of the will which is
implanted in us by nature. For if we deny that it is a
gift of God, the danger is that we shall think we have
discovered something of our own. So that when
the Apostle rebukes us with the question “What
hast thou that thou didst not receive P But if thou
hast received it, why dost thou glory as if thou didst
not receive it 2 ' We shall be able to answer, see we
have the will to believe. We did not receive this.
We have something to glory in which we did not
112 ST. AUGUSTINE
receive. But if on the contrary we say that this

capacity also of the will is nothing else but a gift from
God, the danger is that the unbelieving and the un
godly will appear to be reasonably excused for their
unbelief, on the ground that God has declined to give
them the will.
For the saying, “It is God who worketh in us both
to will and to work according to His good pleasure '*
applies to grace which faith obtains, and by which
good works are rendered possible, which faith works
by love, which love is shed abroad in our hearts
by the Holy Spirit who is given to us. If faith is
requisite to obtain this grace, and faith is an act
of the will, the question is, whence does this act of the
will arise 2 If from nature, why does it not exist in
all men P Since all men have the same God as their
Creator. But if it is God’s gift, then also why does it
not exist in all men P Since God wills that all men
should be saved, and should come to the knowledge
of the truth Pº
58. Let us then in the first place maintain, and let
us see whether it will suffice to our enquiry, that free
will is a natural endowment bestowed by the Creator
on the rational soul ; and that it is an intermediate
power which can be either directed toward faith or
turned to infidelity: and on this ground a man cannot
be said to possess this will whereby he believes God
as something which he has not received, although
at the Divine call this will arise out of the freewill
which man received by nature at his creation.
1 Phil. i. 13. * 1 Tim. ii. 4.

But God desires that all men should be saved, and

should come to the knowledge of the truth, not
however in such a sense as to deprive them of free
will, by the good or evil use of which they are
righteously judged. And when this comes to pass,
the unbelieving indeed act contrary to the will of God,
since they do not believe His Gospel. Nevertheless
they do not overcome it, but deprive themselves of
the greatest and highest good, and involve them
selves in evil and in penalties, and will experience
in punishment the power of Him among whose gifts
is the mercy which they have despised. Thus the
will of God ever remains unconquered. It would
indeed be overcome if it knew not what to do with
its despisers, or if in any way they could escape the
fate which He assigns for such.
For if a person, for example, says, I will that all
these my slaves shall work in my vineyard, and after
labour shall rest and feast, and that whoso refuses
to obey shall grind for ever in the mill: the slave who
despised this direction may seem indeed to act against
his master's will, and indeed would overcome that
will, if in his disdain he could also escape the grinding
at the mill. But that is exactly what is impossible
under the power of God. Accordingly it is written,
“God speaks once’, that is unchangeably (although the
passage may be also interpreted of God's only word).
And then he adds what it is that is unchangeably
spoken. “Two things I have heard,' " he says: ‘that
power is of God, and that mercy O Lord is thine, for
* Ps. lxii. 12–13.

114 ST. AUGUSTINE
Thou shalt reward everyone according to his works.’

He therefore who disdains to believe in God’s mercy
will be adjudged to condemnation under God’s power,
but whosoever shall believe, and yield himself to
Him to be absolved from all his sins, and to be
healed of all his defects, and to be kindled and illu
mined by God's fire and light, shall by His Grace
have good works, through which even according to
the body he shall be redeemed from corruption of
death, and shall be crowned, and satisfied with good
things, not temporal but eternal, above all that we
ask or think.
59. This is the order which the Psalm observes
wherein it is written, “Bless the Lord, O my soul,
and forget not all His recompenses; Who forgives all
thy misdeeds, Who heals all thy infirmities, Who
redeems thy life from corruption, Who crowns thee
with pity and compassion, Who satisfies thy desire
with good things.’ “
And lest perchance these good things should be
despaired of, in the deformity of this old state, that
is, of mortality, the Psalmist says, “Thy youth shall
be renewed like the eagle’s.’ ” As much as to say:
what you have heard refers to the new man and to
the new covenant. Review with me I beg you these
matters once more, and contemplate with joy the
praise of God's mercy, that is, of His grace. He
says, “Bless the Lord, O my soul and forget not all
His recompenses '; He does not say His gifts, but
His recompenses: for God returns good for evil.
* Ps. ciii. 2-4. * Ps. ciii. 5.

“Who forgives all thy sins: ' that takes place in the
Sacrament of Baptism. “Who healeth all thy infir
mities': herein the faithful is concerned during the
present life, while the flesh desires against the spirit,
and the spirit against the flesh, so that we do not the
things that we would, while a different law in the
members contends with the law of the mind, while to
will is present but to perform what is good is not.
If with persistent purpose we advance, the weaknesses
of our old nature * are healed, as that nature is day
by day renewed by faith which works by love. “Who
redeems thy life from corruption: ' this will take
place in the final resurrection of the dead. “Who
crowneth thee with pity and compassion': this
comes to pass in the judgment, where, when the
righteous king shall sit on His throne, to reward
everyone according to his works; who will boast that
his heart is pure ? or boast that he is free from sin 2
This is the reason why he is bound to mention in
this place the pity and the compassion of the Lord ;
for debts might seem to be so exacted, and deserts
measured, that there could be no room for compas
sion. Therefore God crowns in pity and compassion,
yet still in accordance with man’s works. For one
will be separated on the right hand, and to him it will
be spoken, ‘I was hungered and ye gave me to eat':
since ‘judgment is without compassion,” but ‘to
lim who did not exercise compassion.” But ‘blessed
are the compassionate, for God will have compassion
tupon them.’ Accordingly while they upon the left
* Languores vetustatis,
116 ST. AUGUSTINE
hand will go into eternal burning, the righteous will

go into life eternal. For ‘this is life eternal, that
they may know Thee, the one true God, and Jesus
Christ Whom Thou hast sent.” By that knowledge,
by that vision, by that contemplation, the soul's desire
will be satisfied with good things. For satisfaction
is only found, when there is no further object of
desire, of longing or of demand. This satisfaction
was his desire who said to the Lord Christ, ‘Show us
the Father and it sufficeth us; ' and to whom the
answer was given, “He that hath seen Me hath seen
the Father also.’ ‘For this is life eternal, that they
may know Thee the One true God, and Jesus Christ
Whom thou hast sent.' Now if he who has seen the
Son has seen the Father also, it follows that he who
sees both the Father and the Son also sees the Holy
Spirit of the Father and of the Son. We do not
therefore destroy the freedom of the will, and our soul
blesses the Lord, and forgets not all His benefits.
Nor does it ignore God's righteousness and desire to
establish its own. But it believes in Him who justifies
the ungodly, and it lives by faith, until it is advanced
to sight; 1 that is, by faith which works by love.
And this love is shed abroad in our hearts, not by the
sufficiency of our own will nor by the letter of the
Law, but by the Holy Spirit Who is given to us.
60. If this discussion is sufficient to solve our
question, let it suffice. But perhaps the objection
will be raised that we must beware lest any one
suppose that sin, which is the product of freewill,
* Speciem.
must be ascribed to God, if on the ground of the

text, “what hast thou which thou didst not receive P’
even the will whereby we believe is regarded as a
gift of God, because it springs from the freedom of
the will which we received at our creation. If this
objection is raised, let the objector consider and
perceive that this will (to believe) is not only to be
ascribed to God as the Giver, on the ground that it is
a product of that freedom of the will, which was
bestowed upon us by nature, simultaneously with our
creation ; but also because God acts upon us to will
and to believe through the influence of things seen.
Sometimes (God acts upon us) from without, as
through the instructions of the Gospel. For even the
Commandments of the law contribute in some degree
to this result, if they warn a man of his weakness,
and impel him to flee by faith to justifying grace.
Sometimes (God acts upon us) from within, for it is
in no man’s power to determine what thoughts shall
enter his mind, but his assent or rejection depends
upon his own will. When therefore by such ways as
these God influences the rational soul to believe in
Him (for it is impossible for anything to be believed
by an act of the will, unless there is some influence or
inducement to promote belief) it follows that God
Himself works in man this will to believe, and in all
things His compassion goes before us. But, as I
said before, our assent to the divine inducement, or
our rejection of it, depends upon our own will.
Consequently the facts so far from weakening the
statement ‘what hast thou that thou didst not receive,’
actually strengthen it. Indeed the soul cannot
118 - ST. AUGUSTINE
receive and possess the gifts by which it hears this

said except by its own assent. Accordingly it rests
with God what they shall possess and what they shall
receive : but the reception and possession is the act
of the recipient and possessor. But now if any one
drives us on to the consideration of that deep pro
blem, why one man is so influenced as to be convinced,
whereas another man is not, there are only two
remarks which for the time I should desire to make.
One is, “O the depth of the riches' and the other is,
‘Is there unrighteousness with God’ ” And if this
answer fails to satisfy, let the inquirer look for men
more learned, but let him take care lest he encounters
the more self-confident.
61. Here then let me bring this Treatise to an end.
Whether anything has been achieved by its volumi
nousness, I cannot tell. This does not refer to you
(my dear Marcellinus). Of your faith I am well
aware. I refer to the mental condition of those for
whom you desired me to write : those men who
oppose, I will not say my opinion, but (to put it
mildly and without naming Him who spake through
His Apostles) who, undoubtedly against the opinion
of so great a man as the Apostle Paul, an opinion not
merely stated 'n one solitary passage, but through a
very earnest vigorous and acute controversy, pre
ferred to maintain their own opinion, rather than to
hear him beseeching by the compassion of God, and
urging, ‘through the Grace of God which is given to
him, not to think more highly than they ought to
think, but to think soberly, according as God has
given to each man a measure of faith.”
62. Consider then what the subject was which you

propounded, and what this lengthy discussion has
achieved. What disturbed you was the problem how
it could be said that it was possible for a man to be
without sin, by the divine assistance, if his own will
did not fail : and yet that no one in this life has ever
been, or is, or will be, of such perfect righteousness.
My proposition in the treatise which I formerly wrote
to you was, “If I am asked whether it is possible for
a man in this life to be without sin, I acknowledge
that it is possible, by the Grace of God, and his own
freewill. Nor do I doubt that the man's freewill is
a product of God's Grace, that is, it is one of the
Divine gifts; and this is the case not as far as con
cerns the existence of the will only, but also as
concerning its quality; that is, in its conversion and
obedience to the divine commands. Accordingly the
Grace of God not only reveals what ought to be
performed, but also assists, in order to render possible
the ideal which it has revealed.’” To you however
the idea of a thing being possible yet without example
seemed absurd. Hence arose the problems of this
book. It became my business to show that a thing
might be possible although no example of it could be
produced. In reply to this I set at the beginning of
this discourse certain passages out of the Gospel and
the Law, such as the passing of a camel through a
needle's eye, and the twelve thousand legions of
Angels, who might, had He willed it, have fought
for Christ, and these nations of whom God said that
* De Pecc. Merit. ii. 7.

120 ST. AUGUSTINE
He could have destroyed them at once before the

face of His people: none of which things took place.
To these might be added what is read in the book of
Wisdom, how many strange tortures God could have
applied to the ungodly by using the creation which
is obedient to His nod, though He did not apply
them.1
Mention might also be made of the mountain which
faith could cast into the sea: which yet I have never
read or heard of as happening. But if any one were
to say that any of these is impossible with God, you
see how foolish he would be, and how he would be
making assertions contrary to the mind of His
Scripture.
Many other things of a similar nature may occur to
one who reads or thinks, which we cannot deny to be
within the range of divine power, although there
exists no example of their occurrence.
63. But since the objection might be made that
these works are works of God, whereas to live right
eously belongs to the works of man, I undertook to
prove that this also is a work of God, and this I have
accomplished in the present treatise at greater length
it may be than was required. But as opposing the
enemies of the Grace of God I seem to myself to have
said too little. And I am never so pleased to speak
as when passages of the Sacred Scripture supporting
me occur in profusion, when my purpose is that he
who glories should glory in the Lord, and that in all
things we should give thanks to the Lord our God,
* Wisd. xvi. 24.

lifting up our hearts to that place, whence every good

gift and every perfect gift proceeds from the Father
of lights. Now if it were not the work of God, because
it is done by ourselves, or because we act through His
gift; then neither is it the work of God that a
mountain should be cast into the sea, because it was
through the faith of men that our Lord affirmed that
to be possible, and ascribed it to their work, saying,
“if ye shall have in you faith as a grain of mustard seed,
ye shall say to this mountain, go hence and be cast
into the sea, and it will be done, and nothing will be
impossible to you’. Clearly He says “to you ’: not
to Me or to My Father. And yet no man will ever do
this unless by God's gift and co-operation. We may
see then how perfect righteousness is unexampled in
mankind, and yet it is not impossible. For it would
be realized if will adequate to so great an end were
brought to bear on it. And that would be the case if
nothing pertaining to righteousness were concealed
from us, and if righteousness were so to delight the
mind that all hindrances whatsoever of pleasure or of
pain were conquered by this delight. And if this is
not so, it is not due to impossibility but to the judg
ment of God. For who is ignorant that man's know
ledge is not within his power, and that it does not
follow that a man will actually seek what he knows he
ought to seek, unless it delights him as greatly as it
deserves to be loved 2 but this is characteristic only
of the healthy soul.
64. It is however possible that some one may
suppose that nothing is lacking to our knowledge of
righteousness, since the Lord “finishing and cutting
122 St. AUGUSTINE
short His word on earth,’” said, that all the law and
the prophets depend on two commandments, nor did
He keep silence about them, but declared them in the
plainest of words. For he said, ‘Thou shalt love the
Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul,
and with all thy mind; and thou shalt love thy
neighbour as thyself.' What can be truer than that
the fulfilment of these is the complete fulfilment of
righteousness P But let him who realizes this realize
also that in many things we all offend, while we think
that our actions are pleasing God whom we love, or
not displeasing Him; and yet, at a later time, we are
warned by His Scriptures, or by some clear and un
questionable reason, and we learn that it did not
please Him, and repent and pray Him to forgive.
Human life is full of such experiences. But whence
came this imperfect knowledge of His will, unless
from our imperfect knowledge of Himself f “For
now we see through a mirror in a riddle, but then
face to face.” Now can anyone venture to suppose
that when that state is reached which is described as
“knowing even as I am also known ', the love for
God which shall exist in those who behold Him will
be no more than exists in those who believe in Him
now 2 Or that in any way the one can bear compari
son with the other ? Now if the greater the know
ledge the greater will be the love, we must believe
that our capacity for fulfilling righteousness is defec
tive in proportion to the defectiveness of our love.
But a thing can be known or believed without being
* Rom. ix. 28.

loved : but that which is neither known or believed

cannot be loved. But if, by believing, the saints
have been able to reach so great a love than which,
as the Lord Himself declares, no greater in this life
is possible, namely to lay down their lives for the
Faith or for their brethren, unquestionably when we
pass from this pilgrimage, in which we now walk by
faith, and arrive at the actual vision which, not yet
seeing, we hope for and by patience we await, our
love will not only surpass what here we have on earth,
but extend far beyond all that we can ask or think.
And yet it is impossible for it to surpass a love with
all the heart and all the soul and all the mind. There
is nothing left in us which can be added to all that we
possess; for if there were, then all that we possess
would not be all. Accordingly this command of
righteousness, which orders us to love God with all
the heart and all the soul and all the mind, upon
which follows the second command concerning love
of our neighbour, will be fulfilled in that life wherein
we shall see face to face. But the command is given
to us in the present life, to warn us what we ought to
ask by faith, whither to send forward our hope, and
forgetting those things that are behind, reach forward
to the things that are before. Therefore, as it appears
to me, a man has much advanced in the acquisition of
righteousness when he realizes by advancing how
remote he is from the perfection of righteousness.
65. But if one speak of a lesser righteousness
adapted to the present life, whereby the righteous
lives by faith, although absent from the Lord, and
therefore walks by faith and not by sight: it is
124 ST. AUGUSTINE
not absurd to say that even this righteousness ought

to take heed not to sin.
For indeed if there cannot as yet be such a love of
God as full and perfect knowledge would require, this is
not to be instantly ascribed to our fault. For it is one
thing not to have attained to perfect love, it is another
to have no desire to attain to it. Wherefore although
a man loves God far less than he will be able to love
Him when He is seen, yet he ought at least to seek
after nothing which is forbidden : just as in matters
which concern our physical senses, the eye is able not
to delight itself in any darkness, although it is not
able to fix itself upon the most brilliant light.
But let us now suppose a human soul so constituted
in this corruptible body, that although it has not yet
by that supreme perfection of Love toward God ab
sorbed and destroyed all movement of earthly passion,
yet lives in that degree of lesser righteousness as not
to consent by any inclination to work that evil passion.
Now to that life already immortal belongs the
precept, “thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all
thy heart and all thy soul and all thy strength '; but
to this lower life ‘let not sin reign in your mortal
body to obey the desires thereof * : to the former,
“thou shalt not covet”; to the latter “go not after thy
desires’: to the former it belongs to seek nothing
further than to persist in that perfection; to the latter
that a man should work on what he has in hand, and
hope for its perfection as his reward. So in that
higher life the righteous man liveth without end in
that sight which he has desired in this life, while in
the lower life the righteous man lives by faith in which
he desires the higher life which is its certain end.

(On this understanding it will be seen if a man who
lives by faith consents at times to any unlawful plea
sure : not merely in committing dreadful crimes and
wickednesses, but also even in lighter things;
such as yielding his attention to something which
ought not to be heard, or his tongue to something
which ought not to be spoken ; or if he so thinks
something in his heart as to wish an evil pleasure
were permissible, when he knows it by the command
ment to be unlawful : even such consent as this
belongs to sin, and would be carried into effect unless
the penalty terrified). Have righteous persons of this
description, living indeed by faith, no need to say,
“Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors ’’
And do they prove that it is falsely written ‘ in Thy
sight shall no man living be justified ?’ And, “If we
say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the
truth is not in us.” And, “For there is no man that will
not sin P’ And, “There is no righteous person on
earth who will do good and not sin P’ For not one
of these testimonies speak concerning the past, that
is that the man has sinned, but of the future, that is,
that he will sin: to say nothing of other passages
where Holy Scripture declares this principle.
But since it is impossible that these statements
should be false, the inference is quite plain, that what
ever quality or extent we can ascribe to righteousness
in the present life, there is no man in it who is abso
lutely free from sin. For every man must necessarily
give so that it may be given to him, and forgive
that he may be forgiven. Whatever he may have of
126 St. AUGUSTINE
righteousness, he must not presume, as if it were

derived from himself, since it comes from the Grace
of God Who makes men righteous. And he must
still hunger and thirst after righteousness from Him
Who is the living bread, and with Whom is the foun
tain of life, Who so works righteousness in His saints,
as they struggle in the temptation of this present life,
that it is nevertheless what He freely gives to those
that ask and what He mercifully forgives to those
who confess. -
66. But let these men discover, if they can, any

one living under the burden of this corruption, in S
whom God has nothing to forgive. For except they
confess that such a person has been enabled to
become such as this, not through the instruction of a
Law given to him, but even through the infusion of
the Spirit of Grace, they involve themselves in the
guilt of no ordinary crime but of the very essence of
ungodliness. It is true that, if they receive in the
right spirit those divine declarations, they cannot
possible find such a person. But still we must by no
means maintain that the possibility does not exist for
God of so aiding the human will that not only the
righteousness which is of faith may be completely
realized in a human being here on earth, but even that
righteousness which is to be realized in eternity in
the actual contemplation of God. Although if God
were now to will in any person that this corruptible
should put on incorruption, and bid him live on earth
among dying men a life without dying, whereby all
his ancient condition being obliterated, no law within
his members should oppose the law of the mind, and
he should know God everywhere present, even as the

saints shall know Him hereafter : who will be so
senseless as to dare to assert that with God this is
impossible 2 Men indeed raise the question, why
then does not God do it: but the objectors do not
consider their human limitations. I know that neither
impossibility nor iniquity exists with God. I know
also that He resists the proud, and gives grace to the
humble. I know also that to him to whom there was
given a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, to
buffet him, lest he should be exalted above measure,
it was said, “My grace is sufficient for thee; for
strength is made perfect in weakness.”
There exists therefore something in the deep and
secret judgments of God whereby it comes to pass
that every mouth of the righteous should be silenced
in His praise, and should not be closed except in the
praises of God. But what this something is, who is
liable to search out and find out and know * “For so
unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past
finding out. For who has known the mind of the Lord,
and who has been His counsellor 2 or who first gave
to Him and it will be requited unto him again for
of Him and through Him and in Him are all things:
to Whom be glory for ever and ever. AMEN.’”
* 2 Cor. xii. 9. * Rom. xi. 33–36.
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ſº Aw celus

" " ST. AUGUSTINE

W. J. SPARROW SIMPSON, D.D.

Printed in India BY George KENNETH

At THE DIOCESAN PRESS, VEPERY,

It may be of assistance to the reader of this Treatise

Explained in this sense, as representing the dis

Thus we have the spiritual meaning of a text con

were providentially inserted with the express purpose

* Cf. Confessions, vi. 4.

The allegorical method of interpretation appealed

* Cf. Bindemann, i. 207m. * De Sp. et, lit. § 6.

THE title of Augustine's Treatise, “the Spirit and

TNow it is the essential nature of all law that it is

* In loc. Gaume's Edition, x. 556.

“we know that the law is spiritual.’ “Certainly ”

“kills’. S. Paul means by this not physical death, but

condemns, while by contrast the highest interpretation

* Cf. B. Weiss, Biblical Theology of AV. T., i. 483. 1882; cf.

That this is the real meaning of S. Paul the whole

with S. Paul always the Law of Moses, as a written

* Cf. Liddon, Analysis of Romans, p. 119.

Now when Augustine adopted this Pauline antithesis,

This interpretation represents Augustine's mature

when S. Paul’s words are considered in relation to

* Retract, Bk. i, ch. xiv.

God’s grace. This was the fundamental proposition

like water poured upon the plant from without. It is

* Cf. Ep. 177, § 7.

Pelagius analysed our spiritual nature into capacity,

* On the Grace of Christ, § 46. * Phil. ii. 13.

It is not possible to give a systematic analysis of

To the Pelagian proposition Augustine opposes “the

freewill is insufficient to enable a man to avoid

desire becomes more seductive when it is forbidden

The Bearing of this Doctrine of Grace on human self

in order that he may become true] is the corrective

said the Pelagian, law merely indicates our duty. It

author of a man's goodness is ingratitude to God

The Bearing of Grace on Law and the Contrast between

Wherein then does the difference between these

* Quod operum lex minando imperat, hoc fidei lex credendo

Accordingly the conclusion is that human accep

where S. Paul contrasts the newness of the Spirit

Thus while the moral Law is a ministration of

The Bearing of this Doctrine on Pagan Virtues

Gentiles, or Pagan world, ‘doing by nature the things

by grace, or by the Spirit of God, there is nothing

these virtues of the natural man, while they have a

The Relation of Grace to Redemption (§§ 50–51)

The Relation of Grace to Freewill (§ 52)

freewill. On the contrary, Grace pre-supposes free

The Bearing of Grace on Faith (§§ 53–60)

| sometimes can effect what we refuse to will. Power

But conversely, if we say (2) that faith, or the will

tion of 1 Tim. ii. 4.) 14 *** * ,

Divine endowment of human nature. It is also to be "... "

constitution of the creature; but also God acts upon

Treatise of peculiar practical value for modern

68 ST. ºAUGUSTINE * **... - **** 12.