9. [VIII.]—The Law One Thing, Grace Another. The Utility of the Law.

Hence, then, it is clear that he acknowledges that grace whereby God points out and reveals to us what we are bound to do; but not that whereby He endows and assists us to act, since the knowledge of the law, unless it be accompanied by the assistance of grace, rather avails for producing the transgression of the commandment. “Where there is no law,” says the apostle, “there is no transgression;”9    Rom. iv. 15. and again: “I had not known lust except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.”10    Rom. vii. 7. Therefore so far are the law and grace from being the same thing, that the law is not only unprofitable, but it is absolutely prejudicial, unless grace assists it; and the utility of the law may be shown by this, that it obliges all whom it proves guilty of transgression to betake themselves to grace for deliverance and help to overcome their evil lusts. For it rather commands than assists; it discovers disease, but does not heal it; nay, the malady that is not healed is rather aggravated by it, so that the cure of grace is more earnestly and anxiously sought for, inasmuch as “The letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.”11    2 Cor. iii. 6. “For if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law.”12    Gal. iii. 21. To what extent, however, the law gives assistance, the apostle informs us when he says immediately afterwards: “The Scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.”13    Gal. iii. 22. Wherefore, says the apostle, “the law was our schoolmaster in Christ Jesus.”14    Gal. iii. 24. Now this very thing is serviceable to proud men, to be more firmly and manifestly “concluded under sin,” so that none may pre-sumptuously endeavour to accomplish their justification by means of free will as if by their own resources; but rather “that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Because by the deeds of 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.”15    Rom. iii. 19–21. How then manifested without the law, if witnessed by the law? For this very reason the phrase is not, “manifested without the law,” but “the righteousness without the law,” because it is “the righteousness of God;” that is, the righteousness which we have not from the law, but from God,—not the righteousness, indeed, which by reason of His commanding it, causes us fear through our knowledge of it; but rather the righteousness which by reason of His bestowing it, is held fast and maintained by us through our loving it,—“so that he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.”16    1 Cor. i. 31.

CAPUT VIII.

9. Hinc itaque apparet, hanc eum gratiam confiteri, qua demonstrat et revelat Deus quid agere debeamus; non qua donat atque adjuvat ut agamus: cum ad hoc potius valeat legis agnitio, si gratie desit opitulatio, ut fiat mandati praevaricatio. Ubi enim non est lex, ait Apostolus, nec praevaricatio (Rom. IV, 15): et, Concupiscentiam nesciebam, nisi lex diceret, Non concupisces (Id. VII, 7). Ac per hoc, usque adeo aliud est lex, aliud est gratia, ut lex non solum nihil prosit, verum etiam plurimum obsit, nisi adjuvet gratia; 0365 et haec ostendatur legis utilitas, quoniam quos facit praevaricationis reos, cogit confugere ad gratiam liberandos, et ut concupiscentias malas superent adjuvandos. Jubet enim magis quam juvat; docet morbum esse, non sanat; imo ab ea potius quod non sanatur augetur, ut attentius et sollicitius gratiae medicina quaeratur. Quia littera occidit, Spiritus autem vivificat (II Cor. III, 6). Si enim data esset lex quae posset vivificare , omnino ex lege esset justitia. In quantum tamen etiam lex adjuvet, adjungit et dicit: Sed conclusit Scriptura omnia sub peccato, ut promissio ex fide Jesu Christi daretur credentibus. Itaque lex, inquit, poedagogus noster fuit in Christo Jesu (Galat. III, 21, 22, 24). Hoc ipsum ergo superbis est utile, sub peccato arctius manifestiusque concludi, ne ad faciendam justitiam de liberi arbitrii, quasi propriis viribus praesumatur; sed omne os obstruatur, et reus fiat omnis mundus Deo, 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 (Rom. III, 19-21). Quomodo ergo sine lege manifestata, si per legem testificata? Non itaque sine lege manifestata, sed sine lege justitia, quia justitia Dei est, id est, quae nobis non ex lege sit, sed ex Deo: non quae illo imperante cognoscendo timeatur, sed quae illo donante diligendo teneatur, ut et qui gloriatur in Domino glorietur (I Cor. I, 31).