Chapter 1 [I.] —The Occasion of Writing This Work; A Thing May Be Capable of Being Done, and Yet May Never Be Done.

After reading the short treatises which I lately drew up for you, my beloved son Marcellinus, about the baptism of infants, and the perfection of man’s righteousness,—how that no one in this life seems either to have attained or to be likely to attain to it, except only the Mediator, who bore humanity in the likeness of sinful flesh, without any sin whatever,—you wrote me in answer that you were embarrassed by the point which I advanced in the second book,1    On the Merits of Sins, etc., ii. 6, 7, 20. that it was possible for a man to be without sin, if he wanted not the will, and was assisted by the aid of God; and yet that except One in whom “all shall be made alive,”2    1 Cor. xv. 22. no one has ever lived or will live by whom this perfection has been attained whilst living here. It appeared to you absurd to say that anything was possible of which no example ever occurred,—although I suppose you would not hesitate to admit that no camel ever passed through a needle’s eye,3    Matt. xix. 24, 26. and yet He said that even this was possible with God; you may read, too, that twelve thousand legions4    Matt. xxvi. 53, but observe the “thousand” inserted. of angels could possibly have fought for Christ and rescued Him from suffering, but in fact did not; you may read that it was possible for the nations to be exterminated at once out of the land which was given to the children of Israel,5    Deut. xxxi. 3. and yet that God willed it to be gradually effected.6    Judg. ii. 3. And one may meet with a thousand other incidents, the past or the future possibility of which we might readily admit, and yet be unable to produce any proofs of their having ever really happened. Accordingly, it would not be right for us to deny the possibility of a man’s living without sin, on the ground that amongst men none can be found except Him who is in His nature not man only, but also God, in whom we could prove such perfection of character to have existed.

CAPUT PRIMUM.

0201

1. Occasio scribendi hujus libri. Aliquid posse fieri, tametsi factum sit nunquam, Lectis opusculis, quae ad te nuper elaboravi, fili charissime Marcelline, de Baptismo parvulorum, et de perfectione justitiae hominis, quod eam nemo in hac vita vel assecutus, vel assecuturus videatur, excepto uno Mediatore, qui humana perpessus est in similitudine carnis peccati, sine ullo omnino peccato: rescripsisti te moveri eo, quod in posteriore duorum libro fieri posse dixi, ut sit homo sine peccato, si voluntas ejus non desit ope adjuvante divina, et tamen praeter unum in quo omnes vivificabuntur (I Cor. XV, 22), neminem fuisse vel fore in quo hic vivente esset ista perfectio. Absurdum enim tibi videtur dici, aliquid fieri posse cujus desit exemplum, cum, sicut credo, non dubites, nunquam esse factum ut per foramen acus camelus transiret, et tamen ille hoc quoque dixit Deo esse possibile (Matth. XIX, 24, 26): legas etiam duodecim millia legiones Angelorum pro Christo, ne pateretur, pugnare potuisse (Id. XXVI, 53), nec tamen factum: legas fieri potuisse ut semel gentes exterminarentur a terra quae dabatur filiis Israel (Deut. XXXI, 3), Deum tamen paulatim fieri voluisse (Judic. II, 3): et alia sexcenta possunt occurrere, quae fieri, vel potuisse, vel posse fateamur, et eorum tamen exempla quod facta sint proferre nequeamus. Unde non ideo negare debemus, fieri posse ut homo sine peccato sit, quia nullus est hominum, praeter illum qui non tantum homo, sed etiam natura Deus est, in quo id esse perfectum demonstrare possimus.