Chapter 8.—Augustin Refutes the Passage Adduced Above.

Well, now, whoever you are that have said all this, what you say is by no means true; by no means, I repeat; you are much deceived, or you aim at deceiving others. We do not deny free will; but, even as the Truth declares, “if the Son shall make you free, then shall ye be free indeed.”149    John viii. 36. It is yourselves who invidiously deny this Liberator, since you ascribe a vain liberty to yourselves in your captivity. Captives you are; for “of whom a man is overcome,” as the Scripture says, “of the same is he brought in bondage;”150    2 Pet. ii. 19. and no one except by the grace of the great Liberator is loosed from the chain of this bondage, from which no man living is free. For “by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for in him all have sinned.”151    Rom. v. 12. Thus, then, God is the Creator of those that are born in such wise that all pass from the one into condemnation, who have not the One Liberator by regeneration. For He is described as “the Potter, forming out of the same lump one vessel unto honour in His mercy, and another unto dishonour152    Rom. ix. 21. in judgment.” And so runs the Church’s canticle “mercy and judgment.”153    Ps. ci. 1. You are therefore only misleading yourself and others when you say, “If one should affirm, either that there is free will in man, or that God is the Creator of those that are born, he is at once set down as a Cœlestian and a Pelagian;”154    See The Unfinished Work, iii. 101. for the catholic faith says these things. If, however, any one says that there is a free will in man for worshipping God aright, without His assistance; and whosoever says that God is the Creator of those that are born in such wise as to deny that infants have any need of one to redeem them from the power of the devil: that is the man who is set down as a disciple of Cœlestius and Pelagius. Therefore that men have within them a free will, and that God is the Creator of those that are born, are propositions which we both allow. You are not Cœlestians and Pelagians for merely saying this. But what you do really say is this, that any man whatever has freedom enough of will for doing good without God’s help, and that infants undergo no such change as being “delivered from the power of darkness and translated into the kingdom of God;”155    Col. i. 13. and because you say so, you are Cœlestians and Pelagians. Why, then, do you hide under the covering of a common dogma for deceit, concealing your own especial delinquency which has gained for you a party-name; and why, to terrify the ignorant with a shocking term, do you say of us, “To avoid being called heretics, they turn Manicheans?”

8. Non est ita ut loqueris, quicumque ista dixisti; non est ita: multum falleris, vel fallere meditaris: non liberum negamus arbitrium; sed, Si vos Filius liberaverit, ait Veritas, tunc vere liberi eritis (Joan. VIII, 36). Hunc vos invidetis liberatorem, quibus captivis vanam tribuitis libertatem. A quo enim quis devictus est, sicut dicit Scriptura, huic servus addictus est (II Petr. II, 19): nec quisquam nisi per gratiam liberatoris isto solvitur vinculo servitutis, a quo est hominum nullus immunis. Per unum quippe hominem peccatum intravit in mundum, et per peccatum mors; et ita in omnes homines pertransiit, in quo omnes peccaverunt (Rom. V, 12). Sic est ergo Deus nascentium conditor, ut omnes ex uno eant in condemnationem, quorum non fuerit renascentium liberator. Ipse quippe dictus est figulus, ex eadem massa faciens aliud vas in honorem secundum misericordiam, aliud in contumeliam secundum judicium (Id. IX, 21): cui cantat Ecclesia, Misericordiam et judicium (Psal. C, 1). Non itaque sicut te atque alios fallens loqueris, «Si quis aut liberum in hominibus arbitrium, aut Deum esse nascentium conditorem dixerit, Coelestianus et Pelagianus vocatur:» ista quippe catholica fides dicit. Sed si quis ad colendum recte Deum, sine ipsius adjutorio dicit esse in hominibus liberum arbitrium; et quisquis ita dicit Deum nascentium conditorem, ut parvulorum 0441 neget a potestate diaboli redemptorem, ipse Pelagianus et Coelestianus vocatur. Liberum itaque in hominibus esse arbitrium, et Deum esse nascentium conditorem, utrique dicimus; non hinc estis Coelestiani et Pelagiani: liberum autem esse quemquam ad agendum bonum sine adjutorio Dei, et non erui parvulos a potestate tenebrarum, et sic transferri in regnum Dei (Coloss. I, 13), hoc vos dicitis; hinc estis Coelestiani et Pelagiani. Quid obtendis ad fallendum communis dogmatis tegmen, ut operias proprium crimen, unde vobis inditum est nomen; atque ut nefario vocabulo terreas imperitos, dicis, «Ne igitur vocentur haeretici, fiunt Manichaei?»