Chapter III.—(5.) The Fifth Breviate.

V. “We must again,” he says, “inquire whether a man ought to be without sin. Beyond doubt he ought. If he ought, he is able; if he is not able, then he ought not. Now if a man ought not to be without sin, it follows that he ought to be with sin,—and then it ceases to be sin at all, if it is determined that it is owed. Or if it is absurd to say this, we are obliged to confess that man ought to be without sin; and it is clear that his obligation is not more than his ability.” We frame our answer with the same illustration that we employed in our previous reply. When we see a lame man who has the opportunity of being cured of his lameness, we of course have a right to say: “That man ought not to be lame; and if he ought, he is able.” And yet whenever he wishes he is not immediately able; but only after he has been cured by the application of the remedy, and the medicine has assisted his will. The same thing takes place in the inward man in relation to sin which is its lameness, by the grace of Him who “came not to call the righteous, but sinners;”8    Matt. ix. 13. since “the whole need not the physician, but only they that be sick.”9    Matt. ix. 12.

CAPUT III.

Ratiocinatio 5. Iterum, inquit, quaerendum est, utrumne debeat homo sine peccato esse. Procul dubio debet. Si debet, potest: si non potest, ergo nec debet. Et si non debet homo esse sine peccato, debet ergo cum peccato esse; et jam peccatum non erit, si illud deberi constiterit . Aut si hoc etiam dici absurdum est, confiteri necesse est, debere hominem sine peccato esse, et constat eum non aliud debere quam potest. Respondetur eadem similitudine, qua superius jam respondimus. Cum enim videmus claudum, qui sanari potest, recte utique dicimus, Debet homo iste esse sine claudicatione; et si debet, potest. Nec tamen cum vult, continuo potest; sed cum fuerit adhibita curatione sanatus, et medicina adjuverit voluntatem. Hoc fit in interiore homine, quod ad peccatum attinet tanquam ejus claudicationem 0295 , per ejus gratiam qui venit non vocare justos, sed peccatores; quia non est opus sanis medicus, sed male habentibus. (Matth. IX, 13, 12).