(22.) Passages to Show that God’s Commandments are Not Grievous.

He afterwards adduces those passages which represent God as recommending His own commandments as not grievous: let us now attend to their testimony. “Because,” says he, “God’s commandments are not only not impossible, but they are not even grievous. In Deuteronomy: ‘The Lord thy God will again turn and rejoice over thee for good, as He rejoiced over thy fathers, if ye shall hearken to the voice of the Lord your God, to keep His commandments, and His ordinances, and His judgments, written in the book of this law; if thou turn to the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul. For this command, which I give thee this day, is not grievous, neither is it far from thee: it is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, Who will ascend into heaven, and obtain it for us, that we may hear and do it? neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who will cross over the sea, and obtain it for us, that we may hear and do it? The word is nigh thee, in thy mouth, and in thine heart, and in thine hands to do it.’89    Deut. xxx. 9–14. In the Gospel likewise the Lord says: ‘Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.’90    Matt. xi. 28–30. So also in the Epistle of Saint John it is written: ‘This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments: and His commandments are not grievous.’”91    1 John v. 3. On hearing these testimonies out of the law, and the gospel, and the epistles, let us be built up unto that grace which those persons do not understand, who, “being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and wishing to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.”92    Rom. x. 3. For, if they understand not the passage of Deuteronomy in the sense that the Apostle Paul quoted it,—that “with the heart men believe unto righteousness, and with their mouth make confession unto salvation;”93    Rom. x. 10. since “they that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick,”94    Matt. ix. 12.—they certainly ought (by that very passage of the Apostle John which he quoted last to this effect: “This is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not grievous”95    1 John v. 3.) to be admonished that God’s commandment is not grievous to the love of God, which is shed abroad in our hearts only by the Holy Ghost, not by the determination of man’s will by attributing to which more than they ought, they are ignorant of God’s righteousness. This love, however, shall then be made perfect, when all fear of punishment shall be cut off.

22. Audiamus ergo et in his testimoniis quae deinde posuit, Deum sua praecepta non gravia commendantem. «Quod Dei mandata,» inquit, «non modo impossibilia non sint, verum ne gravia quidem. In Deuteronomio: Et convertetur Dominus Deus tuus epulari in te super bonis, sicut epulatus est super patres tuos, si audieritis vocem Domini Dei vestri, custodire et facere omnia mandata ejus, et justitias, et judicia quae scripta sunt in libro legis hujus: si conversus fueris ad Dominum Deum tuum ex toto corde tuo, et ex tota anima tua. Quia mandatum hoc, quod ego mando tibi hodie, non est grave, neque a te longe est. Non est in coelo, ut dicas, Quis ascendet in coelum et accipiet illud nobis, et audientes faciemus? Non est trans mare, ut dicas, Quis transfretabit mare et accipiet illud nobis, et audientes faciemus? Juxta te est enim verbum in ore tuo, in corde, et in manibus tuis facere illud (Deut. XXX, 9-14). Item Dominus in Evangelio: Venite ad me, omnes qui laboratis et onerati estis, et ego vos requiescere faciam. Tollite jugum meum super vos, et discite a me quia mitis sum et humilis corde; et invenietis requiem animabus vestris: jugum enim meum suave est, et onus meum leve est (Matth. XI, 28-30). Item in Epistola sancti Joannis: Haec est charitas Dei, ut mandata ejus observemus, et mandata ejus gravia non sunt» (I Joan. V, 3). His auditis legitimis et evangelicis et apostolicis testimoniis aedificemur ad gratiam, quam non intelligunt, qui ignorantes Dei justitiam et suam volentes constituere, justitiae Dei non sunt subjecti. Si enim non intelligunt ex Deuteronomio, quemadmodum apostolus Paulus commemoraverit, ut corde credatur ad justitiam, ore autem confessio fiat ad salutem (Rom. X, 3, 10); quia non est opus sanis medicus, sed male habentibus (Matth. IX, 12): isto certe Joannis apostoli testimonio, quod ad istam sententiam ultimum posuit, ubi ait, Haec est charitas Dei, ut mandata ejus servemus, et mandata ejus gravia non sunt, debent utique commoneri, 0304 charitati Dei non esse grave mandatum Dei; quae nonnisi per Spiritum sanctum diffunditur in cordibus nostris, non per arbitrium humanae voluntatis; cui plus dando quam oportet, ignorant justitiam Dei: quae tamen charitas tunc perfecta erit, cum poenalis timor omnis abscesserit.