Chapter 7 [V.]—What is Proposed to Be Here Treated.

We will, however, consider, if you please, the whole of this passage of the apostle and thoroughly handle it, as the Lord shall enable us. For I want, if possible, to prove that the apostle’s words, “The letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life,” do not refer to figurative phrases,—although even in this sense a suitable signification might be obtained from them,—but rather plainly to the law, which forbids whatever is evil. When I shall have proved this, it will more manifestly appear that to lead a holy life is the gift of God,—not only because God has given a free-will to man, without which there is no living ill or well; nor only because He has given him a commandment to teach him how he ought to live; but because through the Holy Ghost He sheds love abroad in the hearts17    Rom. vii. 7. of those whom he foreknew, in order to predestinate them; whom He predestinated, that He might call them; whom He called, that he might justify them; and whom he justified, that He might glorify them.18    Rom. viii. 29, 30. When this point also shall be cleared, you will, I think, see how vain it is to say that those things only are unexampled possibilities, which are the works of God,—such as the passage of the camel through the needle’s eye, which we have already referred to, and other similar cases, which to us no doubt are impossible, but easy enough to God; and that man’s righteousness is not to be counted in this class of things, on the ground of its being properly man’s work, not God’s; although there is no reason for supposing, without an example, that his perfection exists, even if it is possible. That these assertions are vain will be clear enough, after it has been also plainly shown that even man’s righteousness must be attributed to the operation of God, although not taking place without man’s will; and we therefore cannot deny that his perfection is possible even in this life, because all things are possible with God, 19    Mark x. 27.—both those which He accomplishes of His own sole will, and those which He appoints to be done with the cooperation with Himself of His creature’s will. Accordingly, whatever of such things He does not effect is no doubt without an example in the way of accomplished facts, although with God it possesses both in His power the cause of its possibility, and in His wisdom the reason of its unreality. And should this cause be hidden from man, let him not forget that he is a man; nor charge God with folly simply because he cannot fully comprehend His wisdom.

Chapter 8.—Romans Interprets Corinthians.

Attend, then, carefully, to the apostle while in his Epistle to the Romans he explains and clearly enough shows that what he wrote to the Corinthians, “The letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life,”20    2 Cor. iii. 6. must be understood in the sense which we have already indicated,—that the letter of the law, which teaches us not to commit sin, kills, if the life-giving spirit be absent, forasmuch as it causes sin to be known rather than avoided, and therefore to be increased rather than diminished, because to an evil concupiscense there is now added the transgression of the law.

CAPUT V.

7. Quid hic tractandum. Sed totum ipsum apostolicae epistolae locum, si placet, consideremus, et sicut Dominus adjuverit pertractemus. Volo enim, si potuero, demonstrare illud quod ait Apostolus, Littera occidit, spiritus autem vivificat, non de figuratis locutionibus dictum, quamvis et illino congruenter accipiatur; sed potius de lege aperte quod malum est prohibente. Quod cum ostendero, profecto manifestius apparebit, bene vivere donum esse divinum: non tantum quia homini Deus dedit liberum arbitrium, sine quo nec male nec bene vivitur; nec tantum quia praeceptum dedit, quo doceat quemadmodum sit vivendum: sed quia per Spiritum sanctum diffundit charitatem in cordibus eorum quos praescivit ut praedestinaret, praedestinavit ut vocaret, vocavit ut justificaret, justificavit ut glorificaret (Id. VIII, 29, 30). Hoc autem cum apparuerit, videbis, ut existimo, frustra dici illa tantum esse possibilia sine exemplo, quae Dei opera sunt; sicut de cameli transitu per foramen acus commemoravimus, et quaecumque alia sunt apud nos impossibilia, apud Deum autem facilia: et ideo non inter haec humanam deputandam esse justitiam, quod non ad Dei, sed ad hominis opus pertinere debeat; cujus perfectio, si est in hac vita possibilis, nullam esse causam cur sine exemplo esse credatur. Hoc ergo frustra dici, satis elucebit, cum et ipsam humanam justitiam operationi Dei tribuendam esse claruerit, quamvis non fiat sine hominis voluntate: et ideo ejus perfectionem etiam in hac vita esse possibilem, negare non possumus; quia omnia possibilia sunt Deo (Marc. X, 27), sive quae facit sola sua voluntate, sive quae cooperantibus creaturae suae voluntatibus a se fieri posse constituit. Ac per hoc quidquid eorum non facit, sine exemplo est quidem in operibus factis; sed apud Deum et in ejus virtute habet causam qua fieri possit, et in ejus sapientia quare non factum sit: quae causa etiamsi lateat hominem, non se obliviscatur esse hominem, nec propterea Deo det insipientiam, quia non plene capit ejus sapientiam.

8. Attende igitur Apostolum ad Romanos explicantem, satisque monstrantem quod scripsit ad Corinthios, 0205 Littera occidit, spiritus autem vivificat, sic magis accipiendum, quemadmodum supra diximus; quoniam legis littera quae docet non esse peccandum, si spiritus vivificans desit, occidit: sciri enim facit peccatum potius quam caveri, et ideo magis augeri quam minui, quia malae concupiscentiae etiam praevaricatio legis accedit.