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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 7.—The New Testament is More Ancient Than the Old; But It Was Subsequently Revealed.
Here, certainly, if we ask whether this testament, which, he says, being confirmed by God was not weakened by the law, which was made four hundred and thirty years after, is to be understood as the new or the old one, who can hesitate to answer “the new, but hidden in the prophetic shadows until the time should come wherein it should be revealed in Christ”? For if we should say the old, what will that be which genders from Mount Sinai to bondage? For there was made the law four hundred and thirty years after, by which law he asserts that this testament of the promise of Abraham could not be weakened; and he will have this which was made by Abraham to pertain rather to us, whom he will have to be children of the freewoman, not of the bondwoman, heirs by the promise, not by the law, when he says, “For if the inheritance be by the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise.”185 Gal. iii. 18. So that, because the law was made four hundred and thirty years after, it might enter that the offence might abound;186 Rom. v. 20. since by sin the pride of man presuming on his own righteousness is convinced of transgression, and where sin abounded grace much more abounded187 Rom. v. 20. by the faith of the now humble man failing in the law and taking refuge in God’s mercy. Therefore, when he had said, “For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no longer of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise,”188 Gal. iii. 18. as if it might be said to him, “Why then was the law made afterwards? “he added and said, “What then is the law?”189 Gal. iii. 19. To which interrogation he immediately replied, “It was added because of transgression, until the seed should come to which the promise was made.”190 Gal. iii. 19. This he says again, thus: “For if they who are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise is made of none effect: because the law worketh wrath: for where there is no law, there is no transgression.”191 Rom. iv. 14. What he says in the former testimony: “For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise,” this he says in the latter: “For if they who are of the law be heirs, faith is made void; and the promise is made of none effect;” sufficiently showing that to our faith (which certainly is of the new testament) belongs what God gave to Abraham by promise. And what he says in the former testimony, “What then is the law?” and answered, “It was added for the sake of transgression,” this he instantly added in the latter testimony, “For the law worketh wrath: for where there is no law, there is no transgression.”
7. Hic certe si quaeramus, utrum hoc Testamentum, quod dicit confirmatum a Deo non infirmari a lege quae post quadringentos et triginta annos facta est, utrum novum, an vetus intelligendum sit: quis respondere dubitet, Novum, sed in propheticis latebris occultatum, donec veniret tempus quo revelaretur in Christo? Nam si dixerimus, Vetus; quid erit illud a monte Sina in servitutem generans? Ibi enim facta est lex post quadringintos et triginta annos: qua lege hoc Testamentum promissionis Abrahae infirmari non posse confirmat; et hoc quod factum est ab Abraham, vult potius ad nos pertinere, quos vult esse filios liberae, non ancillae; haeredes ex promissione, non lege; cum dicit, Si enim ex lege haereditas, jam non ex promissione: Abrahae autem per promissionem donavit Deus . Ut quod facta lex est post quadringentos et triginta annos, ad hoc subintraverit, ut abundaret delictum; cum per peccatum praevaricationis convincitur hominis superbia de sua justitia praesumentis: et ubi abundavit delictum, superabundavit gratia (Rom. V, 20); per fidem jam humilis hominis in lege deficientis et ad Dei misericordiam fugientis. Ideo cum dixisset, Si enim ex lege haereditas, jam non ex promissione; Abrahae autem per promissionem donavit Deus: tanquam ei diceretur, Utquid ergo lex postea facta est? subjunxit atque ait, Quid ergo lex? Cui mox interrogationi reddidit, Praevaricationis gratia proposita est , donec veniret semen cui promissum est (Galat. III, 15-19). Hoc identidem ita dicit: Si enim qui ex lege, haeredes sunt; exinanita est fides, et evacuata est promissio. Lex enim iram operatur: ubi enim non est lex, nec praevaricatio (Rom. IV, 14, 15). Quod ait in illo testimonio, Si enim ex lege haereditas, jam non ex promissione; Abrahae autem per promissionem donavit Deus; hoc in isto ait, Si enim qui per legem, haeredes sunt; exinanita est fides, et evacuata promissio:0593 satis ostendens ad fidem nostram pertinere (quae novi utique est Testamenti) quod per promissionem donavit Deus Abrahae. Et quod ait in illo testimonio, Quid ergo lex? atque respondit, Praevaricationis gratia proposita est: hoc in isto subdidit similiter, Lex enim iram operatur: ubi enim non est lex, nec praevaricatio.