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Augustine of Hippo, A Treatise Against Two Letters of the Pelagians. — Book I
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by aurelius augustin, bishop of hippo
Chapter 1.—Introduction: Address to Boniface.
Chapter 2.—Why Heretical Writings Must Be Answered.
Chapter 3.—Why He Addresses His Book to Boniface.
Chapter 5.—Free Choice Did Not Perish With Adam ’s Sin. What Freedom Did Perish.
Chapter 6 [III.]—Grace is Not Given According to Merits.
Chapter 7.—He Concludes that He Does Not Deprive the Wicked of Free Will.
Chapter 8 [IV.]—The Pelagians Demolish Free Will.
Chapter 9 [V.]—Another Calumny of Julian,—That “It is Said that Marriage is Not Appointed by God.”
Chapter 10—The Third Calumny,—The Assertion that Conjugal Intercourse is Condemned.
Chapter 11 [VI.]—The Purpose of the Pelagians in Praising the Innocence of Conjugal Intercourse.
Chapter 15 [IX.]—He Sins in Will Who is Only Deterred from Sinning by Fear.
Chapter 16.—How Sin Died, and How It Revived.
Chapter 17 [X.]—“The Law is Spiritual, But I Am Carnal,” To Be Understood of Paul.
Chapter 18.—How the Apostle Said that He Did the Evil that He Would Not.
Chapter 19.—What It is to Accomplish What is Good.
Chapter 20.—In Me, that Is, in My Flesh.
Chapter 21.—No Condemnation in Christ Jesus.
Chapter 22.—Why the Passage Referred to Must Be Understood of a Man Established Under Grace.
Chapter 23 [XI.]—What It is to Be Delivered from the Body of This Death.
Chapter 25 [XII.]—The Sixth Calumny,—That Augustin Asserts that Even Christ Was Not Free from Sins.
Chapter 27.—In What Sense Lust is Called Sin in the Regenerate.
Chapter 28 [XIV.]—Many Without Crime, None Without Sin.
Chapter 30.—Secondly, of Marriage.
Chapter 31.—Thirdly, of Conjugal Intercourse.
Chapter 32 [XVI.]—The Aprons Which Adam and Eve Wore.
Chapter 33.—The Shame of Nakedness.
Chapter 34 [XVII.]—Whether There Could Be Sensual Appetite in Paradise Before the Fall.
Chapter 37 [XIX.]—The Beginning of a Good Will is the Gift of Grace.
Chapter 38 [XX.]—The Power of God’s Grace is Proved.
Chapter 39 [XXI.]—Julian’s Fifth Objection Concerning the Saints of the Old Testament.
Chapter 41 [XXIII.]—The Seventh Objection, of the Effect of Baptism.
Chapter 42 [XXIV.]—He Rebuts the Conclusion of Julian’s Letter.
Chapter 1.—Introduction The Pelagians Impeach Catholics as Manicheans.
Chapter 3.—How Far the Manicheans and Pelagians are Joined in Error How Far They are Separated.
Chapter 4.—The Two Contrary Errors.
Chapter 5 [III.]—The Calumny of the Pelagians Against the Clergy of the Roman Church.
Chapter 6 [IV.]—What Was Done in the Case of Cœlestius and Zosimus.
Chapter 7.—He Suggests a Dilemma to Cœlestius.
Chapter 8.—The Catholic Faith Concerning Infants.
Chapter 9 [V.]—He Replies to the Calumnies of the Pelagians.
Chapter 10.—Why the Pelagians Falsely Accuse Catholics of Maintaining Fate Under the Name of Grace.
Chapter 11 [VI.]—The Accusation of Fate is Thrown Back Upon the Adversaries.
Chapter 12.—What is Meant Under the Name of Fate.
Chapter 13 [VII.]—He Repels the Calumny Concerning the Acceptance of Persons.
Chapter 14.—He Illustrates His Argument by an Example.
Chapter 15.—The Apostle Meets the Question by Leaving It Unsolved.
Chapter 18.—The Desire of Good is God’s Gift.
Chapter 19 [IX.]—He Interprets the Scriptures Which the Pelagians Make Ill Use of.
Chapter 20.—God’s Agency is Needful Even in Man’s Doings.
Chapter 21.—Man Does No Good Thing Which God Does Not Cause Him to Do.
Chapter 22 [X.]—According to Whose Purpose the Elect are Called.
Chapter 23.—Nothing is Commanded to Man Which is Not Given by God.
Chapter 2 [II.]—The Misrepresentation of the Pelagians Concerning the Use of the Old Law.
Chapter 3.—Scriptural Confirmation of the Catholic Doctrine.
Chapter 4 [III.]—Misrepresentation Concerning the Effect of Baptism.
Chapter 5.—Baptism Puts Away All Sins, But It Does Not at Once Heal All Infirmities.
Chapter 6 [IV.]—The Calumny Concerning the Old Testament and the Righteous Men of Old.
Chapter 7.—The New Testament is More Ancient Than the Old But It Was Subsequently Revealed.
Chapter 8.—All Righteous Men Before and After Abraham are Children of the Promise and of Grace.
Chapter 9.—Who are the Children of the Old Covenant.
Chapter 10.—The Old Law Also Given by God.
Chapter 11.—Distinction Between the Children of the Old and of the New Testaments.
Chapter 12.—The Old Testament is Properly One Thing—The Old Instrument Another.
Chapter 13.—Why One of the Covenants is Called Old, the Other New.
Chapter 14 [V.]—Calumny Concerning the Righteousness of the Prophets and Apostles.
Chapter 15.—The Perfection of Apostles and Prophets.
Chapter 16 [VI.]—Misrepresentation Concerning Sin in Christ.
Chapter 17 [VII.]—Their Calumny About the Fulfilment of Precepts in the Life to Come.
Chapter 18.—Perfection of Righteousness and Full Security Was Not Even in Paul in This Life.
Chapter 19.—In What Sense the Righteousness of Man in This Life is Said to Be Perfect.
Chapter 20.—Why the Righteousness Which is of the Law is Valued Slightly by Paul.
Chapter 21.—That Righteousness is Never Perfected in This Life.
Chapter 22.—Nature of Human Righteousness and Perfection.
Chapter 23.—There is No True Righteousness Without the Faith of the Grace of Christ.
Chapter 24 [VIII.]—There are Three Principal Heads in the Pelagian Heresy.
Chapter 1 [I.]—The Subterfuges of the Pelagians are Five.
Chapter 2 [II.]—The Praise of the Creature.
Chapter 4 [IV.]—Pelagians and Manicheans on the Praise of the Creature.
Chapter 5.—What is the Special Advantage in the Pelagian Opinions?
Chapter 6.—Not Death Alone, But Sin Also Has Passed into Us by Means of Adam.
Chapter 7.—What is the Meaning of “In Whom All Have Sinned”?
Chapter 8.—Death Passed Upon All by Sin.
Chapter 9 [V.]—Of the Praise of Marriage.
Chapter 10.—Of the Praise of the Law.
Chapter 11.—The Pelagians Understand that the Law Itself is God’s Grace.
Chapter 12 [VI.]—Of the Praise of Free Will.
Chapter 13.—God’s Purposes are Effects of Grace.
Chapter 14.—The Testimonies of Scripture in Favour of Grace.
Chapter 15.—From Such Scriptures Grace is Proved to Be Gratuitous and Effectual.
Chapter 16.—Why God Makes of Some Sheep, Others Not.
Chapter 17 [VII.]—Of the Praise of the Saints.
Chapter 18.—The Opinion of the Saints Themselves About Themselves.
Chapter 19.—The Craft of the Pelagians.
Chapter 20 [VIII.]—The Testimonies of the Ancients Against the Pelagians.
Chapter 21.—Pelagius, in Imitation of Cyprian, Wrote a Book of Testimonies.
Chapter 22.—Further References to Cyprian.
Chapter 23.—Further References to Cyprian.
Chapter 24.—The Dilemma Proposed to the Pelagians.
Chapter 25 [IX.]—Cyprian’s Testimonies Concerning God’s Grace.
Chapter 26.—Further Appeals to Cyprian’s Teaching.
Chapter 27 [X.]—Cyprian’s Testimonies Concerning the Imperfection of Our Own Righteousness.
Chapter 28.—Cyprian’s Orthodoxy Undoubted.
Chapter 30.—The Testimonies of Ambrose Concerning God’s Grace.
Chapter 31.—The Testimonies of Ambrose on the Imperfection of Present Righteousness.
Chapter 32 [XII.]—The Pelagian’s Heresy Arose Long After Ambrose.
Chapter 33.—Opposition of the Manichean and Catholic Dogmas.
Chapter 34.—The Calling Together of a Synod Not Always Necessary to the Condemnation of Heresies.
Chapter 13 [VIII.]—The Fifth Calumny,—That It is Said that Paul and the Rest of the Apostles Were Polluted by Lust.
He says, “They say that even the Apostle Paul, even all the apostles, were always polluted by immoderate lust.” What man, however profane he may be, would dare to say this? But doubtless this man thus misrepresents because they contend that what the apostle said, “I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing, for to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not,”31 Rom. vii. 18. and other such things, he said not of himself, but that he introduced the person of somebody else, I know not who, who was suffering these things. Wherefore that passage in his epistle must be carefully considered and investigated, that their error may not lurk in any obscurity of his. Although, therefore, the apostle is here arguing broadly, and with great and lasting conflict maintaining grace against those who were boasting in the law, yet we do come upon a few matters which pertain to the matter in hand. On which subject he says: “Because by the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight. For by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God by the faith of Jesus Christ unto all them that believe. For there is no difference. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”32 Rom. iii. 20. And again: “Where is boasting? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No; but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the works of the law.”33 Rom. iii. 27. And again: “For the promise that he should be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but by the righteousness of faith. For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect. Because the law worketh wrath, for where no law is, there is no transgression.”34 Rom. iv. 13, etc. And in another place: “Moreover, the law entered that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded grace did much more abound.”35 Rom. v. 20. In still another place: “For sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye are not under law, but under grace.”36 Rom. vi. 14. And again in another place: “Know ye not, brethren (for I speak to them that know the law), that the law hath dominion over a man so long as he liveth? For the woman which is under a husband is joined to her husband by the law so long as he liveth; but if her husband be dead, she is freed from the law of her husband.”37 Rom. vii. 1, 2. And a little after: “Therefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ, that ye should belong to another, who has risen from the dead that we should bring forth fruit unto God. For when we were in the flesh the passions of sins which are by the law did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death, but now we are delivered from the law of death in which we were held, so that we may serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.”38 Rom. vii. 4 ff. With these and such like testimonies that teacher of the Gentiles showed with sufficient evidence that the law could not take away sin, but rather increased it, and that grace takes it away; since the law knew how to command, to which command weakness gives way, while grace knows to assist, whereby love is infused.39 On the Spirit and the Letter, 6. And lest any one, on account of these testimonies, should reproach the law, and contend that it is evil, the apostle, seeing what might occur to those who ill understand it, himself proposed to himself the same question. “What shall we say, then?” said he. “Is the law sin? Far from it. But I did not know sin except by the law.”40 Rom. vii. 7. He had already said before, “For by the law is the knowledge of sin.” It is not, therefore, the taking away, but the knowledge of sin.
CAPUT VIII.
13. Quinta calumnia, Paulum et caeteros Apostolos libidine pollutos fuisse dici.---Apostolum etiam Paulum, inquit, vel omnes apostolos dicunt semper immoderata libidine fuisse pollutos. Quis hoc vel profanus audeat dicere? Sed nimirum iste propterea sic calumniatur , quia contendunt id quod dixit Apostolus, Scio quia non habitat in me, hoc est in carne mea, bonum; velle enim adjacet mihi, perficere autem bonum non invenio (Rom. VII, 18); et caetera talia, non eum dixisse de se ipso, sed nescio cujus alterius, qui illa pateretur, induxisse personam: propter quod locus ipse in ejus Epistola diligenter considerandus est et scrutandus, ne in ejus aliqua obscuritate delitescat error istorum. Quamvis ergo latius hinc Apostolus disputet, et magno diuturnoque conflictu gratiam defendens adversus eos qui gloriabantur in lege; tamen ad rem pertinentia pauca contingimus. Unde ait: Quia non justificabitur ex lege omnis caro coram illo. Per legem enim cognitio peccati. Nunc autem sine lege justitia Dei manifestata est, testificata per Legem et Prophetas: justitia autem Dei per fidem Jesu Christi, in omnes qui credunt. Non est enim distinctio. Omnes enim peccaverunt, et egent gloria Dei; justificati gratis per gratiam ipsius, per redemptionem quae est in Christo Jesu. Et iterum: Ubi est gloriatio ? Exclusa est. Per quam legem? factorum? Non, sed per legem fidei. Arbitramur enim justificari hominem per fidem sine operibus legis (Id. III, 20-28). Et iterum: Non enim per legem promissio Abrahae aut semini ejus , ut haeres esset mundi, sed per justitiam fidei. Si enim qui per legem, haeredes sunt; exinanita est fides, et evacuata 0557est promissio. Lex enim iram operatur. Ubi enim non est lex, nec praevaricatio (Rom. IV, 13-15). Et alio loco: Lex autem subintravit, ut abundaret delictum: ubi autem abundavit delictum, superabundavit gratia (Id. V, 20). Item alio loco: Peccatum enim vobis non dominabitur, non enim estis sub lege, sed sub gratia (Id. VI, 14). Itemque alio loco: An ignoratis, fratres, (scientibus enim legem loquor), quia lex dominatur homini in quantum tempus vivit? Mulier enim sub viro, viro marito juncta est legi: si autem mortuus fuerit vir ejus, evacuata est a lege viri. Et paulo post: Itaque, fratres mei, et vos mortui estis legi per corpus Christi, ut sitis alterius, qui ex mortuis resurrexit, ut fructificemus Deo. Cum enim essemus in carne, passiones peccatorum, quae per legem sunt, operabantur in membris nostris, ut fructum ferrent morti: nunc vero evacuati sumus a lege mortis, in qua detinebamur, ita ut serviamus in novitate spiritus, et non in vetustate litterae. His atque hujusmodi contestationibus Doctor ille Gentium satis evidenter ostendit, legem non potuisse auferre, sed potius auxisse peccatum, quod auferat gratia: quoniam lex jubere novit, cui succumbit infirmitas; gratia juvare, qua infunditur charitas. Ne quis enim propter haec testimonia vituperet legem, et malam esse contendat, vidit Apostolus male intelligentibus quid posset occurrere, et eamdem sibi ipse proposuit quaestionem: Quid ergo dicemus, inquit? Lex peccatum est? Absit: sed peccatum non cognovi nisi per legem. Hoc jam superius dixerat, Per legem enim cognitio peccati. Non ergo ablatio , sed cognitio.