Chapter 5.—Free Choice Did Not Perish With Adam ’s Sin. What Freedom Did Perish.

But in defending free will they hasten to confide rather in it for doing righteousness than in God’s aid, and to glory every one in himself, and not in the Lord.3    1 Cor. i. 31. But who of us will say that by the sin of the first man free will perished from the human race? Through sin freedom indeed perished, but it was that freedom which was in Paradise, to have a full righteousness with immortality; and it is on this account that human nature needs divine grace, since the Lord says, “If the Son shall make you free, then shall ye be free indeed”4    John viii. 36.—free of course to live well and righteously. For free will in the sinner up to this extent did not perish,—that by it all sin, especially they who sin with delight and with love of sin; what they are pleased to do gives them pleasure. Whence also the apostle says, “When ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.”5    Rom. vi. 20. Behold, they are shown to have been by no means able to serve sin except by another freedom. They are not, then, free from righteousness except by the choice of the will, but they do not become free from sin save by the grace of the Saviour. For which reason the admirable Teacher also distinguished these very words: “For when ye were the servants,” says he, “of sin, ye were free from righteousness. What fruit had ye, then, in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death. But now being freed from sin and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end eternal life.”6    Rom. vi. 20. He called them “free” from righteousness, not “freed;” but from sin not “free,” lest they should attribute this to themselves, but most watchfully he preferred to say “freed,” referring this to that declaration of the Lord, “If the Son shall make you free, then shall ye be free indeed.”7    John viii. 36 ff. Since, then, the sons of men do not live well unless they are made the sons of God, why is it that this writer wishes to give the power of good living to free will, when this power is not given save by God’s grace through Jesus Christ our Lord, as the gospel says: “And as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God”?8    John i. 12.

5. Liberum autem arbitrium defendendo praecipitant, ut de illo potius ad faciendam justitiam, quam de Domini adjutorio confidatur, atque ut in se quisque, non in Domino glorietur (I Cor. I, 31). Quis autem nostrum dicat, quod primi hominis peccato perierit liberum arbitrium de humano genere? Libertas quidem periit per peccatum, sed illa quae in paradiso fuit, habendi plenam cum immortalitate justitiam; propter quod natura humana divina indiget gratia, dicente Domino, Si vos Filius liberaverit, tunc vere liberi eritis (Joan. VIII, 36): utique liberi ad bene justeque vivendum. Nam liberum arbitrium usque adeo in peccatore non periit, ut per illud peccent, maxime omnes qui cum delectatione peccant et amore peccati, hoc eis placet quod eos libet . Unde et Apostolus, Cum essetis inquit, servi peccati, liberi fuistis justitiae. Ecce ostenduntur etiam peccato minime potuisse, nisi alia libertate, servire. Liberi ergo a justitia non sunt, nisi arbitrio voluntatis: liberi autem a peccato non fiunt, nisi gratia Salvatoris. Propter quod admirabilis Doctor etiam verba ipsa discrevit: Cum enim servi essetis, inquit, peccati, liberi fuistis justitiae. Quem ergo fructum habuistis tunc in his, in quibus nunc erubescitis? Nam finis illorum mors est: nunc autem liberati a peccato, servi autem facti Deo, habetis fructum vestrum in sanctificationem, finem vero vitam aeternam (Rom. VI, 20-22). Liberos dixit justitiae, non liberatos: a peccato autem non liberos, ne sibi hoc tribuerent; sed vigilantissime maluit dicere liberatos, referens hoc ad illam Domini sententiam, Si vos Filius liberaverit, tunc vere liberi eritis. Cum itaque non vivant bene filii hominum , nisi effecti filii Dei, quid est quod iste libero arbitrio vult bene vivendi tribuere potestatem; cum haec potestas non detur nisi gratia Dei, per Jesum Christum Dominum nostrum (Id. VII, 25), dicente Evangelio, Quotquot autem receperunt eum, dedit eis potestatem filios Dei fieri (Joan. I, 12)?