No one was in transgression before Moses; but if no one was, neither is anyone blameworthy; therefore, neither Cain nor all those who on account of their own sins suffered the flood, or those in Sodom, were in 220 transgression; and before these, Adam and Eve. It must be said, then, to these people that the law of Moses does not work out the wrath in the judgment but the wrath according to itself, making some to be stoned, others to be burned with fire, or subjecting them to another punishment; but also, if where there is no law there is no transgression, when whatever the law says, it says to those in the law, † see them and the law of faith named by Paul himself working out the wrath of God and that there is transgression where the law of faith and of God is. But he himself clearly says that the law of God is one thing, in which alone he himself delights according to the inner man, and that another law besides this one is in his own members, warring against the law of my mind; and see whether this is truly the one working out wrath and where this law is not, there is no transgression; and those of this law are by no means heirs, on account of which it is said: "For if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void" *** Paul writes these things to those of the circumcision who are lifted up against those who believe in uncircumcision, thinking great things about themselves, | deceived by certain prophetic sayings which they have not understood, such as is the one in Jeremiah which goes thus: "If the heaven be lifted up on high, and the earth be made low beneath, I also will not reject the race of Israel for all the things they have done." *** but rather this 204 that transgression does not exist where | there is no law *** so neither must the law be accused of working out wrath for the lawless, nor must it be blamed if the concept of transgression arose with it, reaching those who did not keep it *** For he will say that this law, naturally inscribed in us and impressed by God on tablets of fleshly hearts, worked wrath for Cain and for those who perished in the flood and for the [...] and for the Sodomites, and since where there is no law there is no transgression, but there was transgression in these, then there was a law in them, not | the law of Moses but the one older than Moses and inscribed not on tablets of stone but on tablets of fleshly hearts *** [Rom. 4, 16-17] But the things brought forth from apocryphal writings concerning Abraham, that he was moved by natural concepts to believe in God, are contradicted, and especially by those who testify that such books are erroneous | *** But I think that [just as] being is not even conceived as given to us by God as a reward (for it is wholly and clearly a grace of the one who gave us being and especially made us rational), so also to be well and to obtain the inheritance of God and the promise is in no way a reward but is itself wholly a grace, it remaining in that, | that in the one case there was no cause for our existing, but in this case only believing in God *** in the catalogue of the gifts given according to the proportion of faith, faith also has been catalogued; 206 for Paul says after other things: "To another faith by the same Spirit." And the same man says elsewhere that "it has been granted to you on behalf of God not only to believe in Christ but also to suffer for his sake." But I think that the apostles also, persuaded that the faith which is in our power was lacking, and confessing that they already had this, yet desiring that which is according to the grace of God, say to the Savior: "Increase our faith" *** if therefore the heirs and the promise are of faith so that it may be by grace, not even faith itself which is before grace, according to which it is said for this reason 'of faith, that it might be by grace,' can exist without grace *** wherefore all things concerning the one who is | saved have their authority in grace, which I think is found in the manner of a treasure by those who, so to speak, have been fortunate enough to stumble upon it *** it is one thing to find grace before the Lord God and to find grace before men, and another to receive grace from God before someone, as it is said: "And the Lord was with Joseph | and poured out his mercy upon him and

οὐδεὶς ἐν παραβάσει γέγονε πρὸ Μωσέως· εἰ δὲ μὴ γέγονέ τις, οὐδὲ ψεκτός· οὔτε οὖν Κάϊν οὔτε πάντες οἱ διὰ τὰς ἑαυτῶν ἁμαρτίας τὸν κατακλυσμὸν παθόντες ἢ οἱ ἐν Σοδόμοις ἐν 220 παραβάσει γεγόνασιν· καὶ πρό γε τούτων Ἀδὰμ καὶ ἡ Εὔα. Λεκτέον οὖν πρὸς τούτους ὅτι ὁ Μωσέως νόμος οὐ τὴν ἐν τῇ κρίσει ὀργὴν κατεργάζεται ἀλλὰ τὴν κατ' αὐτόν, τοὺς μὲν λιθολεύστους ποιῶν, ἑτέρους δὲ ἐπὶ πυρὸς κατακαίων, ἢ ἑτέρᾳ ὑποβάλλων τιμωρίᾳ· ἀλλὰ καὶ εἴπερ οὗ οὐκ ἔστι νόμος οὐδὲ παράβασις, ὅτε ὅσα ὁ νόμος λαλεῖ τοῖς ἐν τῷ νόμῳ λαλεῖ, † ὅρα δὲ αὐτοὺς καὶ τὸν παρ' αὐτῷ Παύλῳ νόμον πίστεως ὀνομαζόμενον Θεοῦ ὀργὴν κατεργάζεσθαι καὶ παράβασιν εἶναι ἔνθα ἔστιν ὁ τῆς πίστεως νόμος καὶ ὁ τοῦ Θεοῦ. Σαφῶς δὲ αὐτὸς ἕτερον μὲν εἶναι νόμον τὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ, ᾧ μόνῳ καὶ αὐτὸς συνήδεται κατὰ τὸν ἔσω ἄνθρωπον, ἕτερον δὲ νόμον παρὰ τοῦτόν φησιν εἶναι ἐν τοῖς μέλεσιν ἑαυτοῦ ἀντιστρατευόμενον τῷ νόμῳ τοῦ νοός μου· καὶ ὅρα μήποτε οὗτος ἀληθῶς ἐστιν ὀργὴν κατεργα|ζόμενος καὶ οὗ οὐκ ἔστιν οὗτος ὁ νόμος, ἐκεῖ οὐδὲ παράβασις ἔστιν· καὶ οἱ ἐκ τούτου τοῦ νόμου οὐδαμῶς εἰσιν κληρονόμοι δι' ὃν λέγεται· «Εἰ γὰρ οἱ ἐκ νόμου κληρονόμοι, κεκένωται ἡ πίστις» *** τοῖς ἐκ περιτομῆς ἐπαιρομένοις κατὰ τῶν πισ τευόντων ἐν ἀκροβυστίᾳ μεγάλα περὶ αὑτῶν φρονοῦσιν ταῦτα γράφει ὁ Παῦλος, | ἀπατηθεῖσιν διά τινων προφητικῶν ῥητῶν ἃ μὴ νενοήκασιν, ὁποῖόν ἐστιν καὶ τὸ ἐν τῷ Ἰερεμίᾳ οὕτως ἔχον· «Ἐὰν ὑψωθῇ ὁ οὐρανὸς εἰς τὸ μετέωρον καὶ ἡ γῆ ταπεινωθῇ κάτω, κἀγὼ οὐκ ἀποδοκιμάσω τὸ γένος Ἰσραὴλ περὶ πάντων ὧν ἐποίησαν» *** ἀλλὰ τοῦτο μᾶλλον τὸ 204 μὴ ὑφεστηκέναι τὴν παράβασιν ἔνθα | οὐκ ἔστιν νόμος *** οὕτως οὐδὲ κατη γορητέον τοῦ νόμου ὀργὴν κατεργαζομένου τοῖς παρανόμοις, οὐδὲ αἰτιατέον αὐτὸν εἰ συνυπέστη αὐτῷ ἡ τῆς παραβάσεως ἔννοια φθάνουσα ἐπὶ τοὺς μὴ τηρήσαντας αὐτόν *** Φήσει γὰρ ὅτι οὗτος ὁ φυσικῶς ἡμῖν ἐγγεγραμμένος νόμος καὶ ἐν πλαξὶν καρδί‖αις σαρκίναις ὑπὸ τοῦ Θεοῦ ἐντετυπωμένος ὀργὴν κατήργαστο τῷ Κάϊν καὶ τοῖς ἀπολωλόσιν ἐν τῷ κατακλυσμῷ καὶ τῷ ·[··] καὶ τοῖς Σοδομίταις, καὶ ἐπείπερ οὗ οὐκ ἔστιν νόμος οὐδὲ παράβασις, παράβασις δὲ ἦν ἐν τούτοις, νόμος ἄρα ἦν ἐν αὐτοῖς ἀλλ' οὐ|χ ὁ Μωσέως ἀλλ' ὁ πρεσβύτερος τοῦ Μωσέως καὶ ἐγγεγραμμένος οὐκ ἐν πλαξὶν λιθί ναις ἀλλ' ἐν πλαξὶν καρδίαις σαρκίναις *** [Rom. 4, 16-17] Τὰ δὲ περὶ τοῦ Ἀβραὰμ φερόμενα ἐξ ἀποκρύφων ὡς ἄρα ἀπὸ φυσικῶν ἐννοιῶν κινηθεὶς ἐπίστευσεν τῷ Θεῷ ἀντιλέγεται καὶ μάλιστα ὑπὸ τῶν μ̣α̣ρτυρουμένων τὰς τοιαύτας βίβλους ὡς πεπλανημένας | *** Οἶμαι δὲ ὅτι [ὥσπερ] τὸ εἶναι οὐδὲ ἐπινοεῖται κατὰ μισθὸν ἡμῖν δεδόσθαι ὑπὸ Θεοῦ (ὅλον γάρ ἐστιν σαφῶς χάρις τοῦ ἡμᾶς οὐσιώσαντος καὶ μάλιστα λογικοὺς ποιήσαντος), οὕτως καὶ τὸ καλῶς ε̣ἰ῀̣ν̣α̣ι̣ καὶ τυγχάνειν κληρονομίας Θεοῦ καὶ ἐπαγγελίας οὐδαμῶς ἐστιν μισθὸς καὶ αὐτὸ δὲ ὅλον χαρίς, ἐν ἐκείνῳ ἀπο|λειπομένου τοῦ ἐκεῖ μὲν μηδὲν αἴτιον γεγονέναι τοῦ ἡμᾶς ὑφεστάναι ἐνταῦθα δὲ τῷ πιστεύειν Θεῷ μόνον *** ἐν τῷ καταλόγῳ τῶν χαρισμάτων τῶν διδομένων κατὰ τὴν ἀναλογίαν τῆς πίστεως, κατείλεκται καὶ ἡ πίστις· 206 φησὶ γὰρ ὁ Παῦλος μεθ' ἕτερα· «Ἄλλῳ πίστις ἐν τῷ αὐτῷ πνεύματι». Ὁ δ' αὐτός φησι καὶ ἀλλαχοῦ ὅτι «ἀπὸ Θεοῦ ὑμῖν ἐχαρίσθη οὐ μόνον τὸ εἰς Χριστὸν πισ τεύειν ἀλλὰ καὶ τὸ ὑπὲρ αὐτοῦ πάσχειν». Οἶμαι δὲ ὅτι καὶ οἱ ἀπόστολοι ἐλλιπῆ πεισθέντες εἶναι τὴν ἐκ τοῦ ἐφ' ἡμῖν πίστιν καὶ ταύτην ὁμολογοῦντες ἤδη ἔχειν δεόμενοι δὲ τῆς κατὰ χάριν Θεοῦ φασιν τῷ Σωτῆρι· «Πρόσθες ἡμῖν πίστιν» *** εἰ καὶ ἐκ πίστεως οὖν οἱ κληρονόμοι καὶ ἡ ἐπαγγελία ἵνα κατὰ χάριν, οὐδ' αὐτὴ ἡ πίστις ἡ πρὸ τῆς χάριτος, καθ' ἣν λέγεται διὰ τοῦτο ἐκ πίστεως ἵνα κατὰ χάριν, χωρὶς χάριτος ὑφεστάναι οὐ δύναται *** διὸ πάντα τὰ περὶ τὸν | σῳζόμενον τὴν κυρίαν ἔχει ἐν χάριτι ἥντινα τρόπον θησαυροῦ εὑρίσκεσθαι νομίζω ὑπὸ τῶν, ἵν' οὕτως ὀνομάσω, εὐτυχησάντων περιπεσεῖν αὐτῷ *** ἕτερον τοῦ εὑρεῖν χάριν ἐναντίον Κυρίου τοῦ Θεοῦ καὶ τοῦ εὑρεῖν χάριν ἐνώπιον ἀνθρώπων τὸ λαβεῖν ἐνώπιόν τινος ἀπὸ Θεοῦ χάριν καθὸ λέγεται· «Καὶ ἦν Κύριος μετὰ Ἰωσὴφ | καὶ κατέχεεν αὐτοῦ ἔλεος καὶ