Chapter 27.358    See below, in ch. 33: also De Naturâ et Gratiâ, 29–32; and De Corrept. et Gratia, 10.—The Divine Remedy for Pride.

You cannot therefore attribute to God the cause of any human fault. For of all human offences, the cause is pride. For the conviction and removal of this a great remedy comes from heaven. God in mercy humbles Himself, descends from above, and displays to man, lifted up by pride, pure and manifest grace in very manhood, which He took upon Himself out of vast love for those who partake of it. For, not even did even this One, so conjoined to the Word of God that by that conjunction he became at once the one Son of God and the same One the one Son of man, act by the antecedent merits of His own will. It behoved Him, without doubt, to be one; had there been two, or three, or more, if this could have been done, it would not have come from the pure and simple gift of God, but from man’s free will and choice.359    [Augustin appears to say, in this obscure passage, that had there been two persons, instead of two natures only, in our blessed Lord’s person, then no doubt salvation would have been due partly to a human cause.—W.] This, then, is especially commended to us; this, so far as I dare to think, is the divine lesson especially taught and learned in those treasures of wisdom and knowledge which are hidden in Christ. Every one of us, therefore, now knows, now does not know—now rejoices, now does not rejoice—to begin, continue, and complete our good work, in order that he may know that it is due not to his own will, but to the gift of God, that he either knows or rejoices; and thus he is cured of vanity which elated him, and knows how truly it is said not of this earth of ours, but spiritually, “The Lord will give kindness and sweet grace, and our land shall yield her fruit.”360    Ps. lxxxv. 12. A good work, moreover, affords greater delight, in proportion as God is more and more loved as the highest unchangeable Good, and as the Author of all good things of every kind whatever. And that God may be loved, “His love is shed abroad in our hearts,” not by ourselves, but “by the Holy Ghost that is given unto us.”361    Rom. v. 5.

0168 27. Nullius proinde culpae humanae in Deum referas causam. Vitiorum namque omnium humanorum causa superbia est. Ad hanc convincendam atque auferendam talis medicina coelitus venit: ad elatum hominem per superbiam, Deus humilis descendit per misericordiam, gratiam claram manifestamque commendans in ipso homine, quem tanta prae participibus suis charitate suscepit. Neque enim et ipse ita Verbo Dei conjunctus, ut ipsa conjunctione unus filius Dei et idem ipse unus filius hominis fieret, praecedentibus suae voluntatis meritis fecit. Unum quippe illum esse oportebat: essent autem et duo, et tres, et plures, si hoc fieri posset, non per Dei proprium donum, sed per hominis liberum arbitrium. Hoc ergo praecipue commendatur, hoc in sapientiae atque scientiae thesauris in Christo absconditis, quantum existimare audeo, praecipue docetur et discitur. Ideo quisque nostrum bonum opus suscipere, agere, implere, nunc scit, nunc nescit, nunc delectatur, nunc non delectatur, ut noverit non suae facultatis, sed divini muneris esse vel quod scit, vel quod delectatur: ac sic ab elationis vanitate sanetur, et sciat quam vere non de terra ista, sed spiritualiter dictum sit, Dominus dabit suavitatem, et terra nostra dabit fructum suum (Psal. LXXXIV, 13). Tanto autem magis delectat opus bonum, quanto magis diligitur Deus summum atque incommutabile bonum, et auctor qualiumcumque bonorum omnium. Ut autem diligatur Deus, charitas ejus diffusa est in cordibus nostris, non per nos, sed per Spiritum sanctum qui datus est nobis (Rom. V, 5).