28. [XXIV.]—The Heresy of Pelagius and Cœlestius Aims at the Very Foundations of Our Faith.

This is, however, in the matter of the two men by one of whom we are sold under sin,174    Rom. vii. 14. by the other redeemed from sins—by the one have been precipitated into death, by the other are liberated unto life; the former of whom has ruined us in himself, by doing his own will instead of His who created him; the latter has saved us in Himself, by not doing His own will, but the will of Him who sent Him:175    John iv. 34, v. 30. and it is in what concerns these two men that the Christian faith properly consists. For “there is one God, and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;”176    1 Tim. ii. 5. since “there is none other name under heaven given to men, whereby we must be saved;”177    Acts iv. 12. and “in Him hath God defined unto all men their faith, in that He hath raised Him from the dead.”178    Acts xvii. 31. Now without this faith, that is to say, without a belief in the one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; without faith, I say, in His resurrection by which God has given assurance to all men and which no man could of course truly believe were it not for His incarnation and death; without faith, therefore, in the incarnation and death and resurrection of Christ, the Christian verity unhesitatingly declares that the ancient saints could not possibly have been cleansed from sin so as to have become holy, and justified by the grace of God. And this is true both of the saints who are mentioned in Holy Scripture, and of those also who are not indeed mentioned therein, but must yet be supposed to have existed,—either before the deluge, or in the interval between that event and the giving of the law, or in the period of the law itself,—not merely among the children of Israel, as the prophets, but even outside that nation, as for instance Job. For it was by the self-same faith in the one Mediator that the hearts of these, too, were cleansed, and there also was “shed abroad in them the love of God by the Holy Ghost,”179    Rom. v. 5. “who bloweth where He listeth,”180    John iii. 8. not following men’s merits, but even producing these very merits Himself. For the grace of God will in no wise exist unless it be wholly free.

CAPUT XXIV.

28. Sed in causa duorum hominum, quorum per unum venumdati sumus sub peccato, per alterum redimimur a peccatis; per unum praecipitati sumus in mortem, per alterum liberamur ad vitam; quorum ille nos in se perdidit, faciendo voluntatem suam, non ejus a quo factus est; iste nos in se salvos fecit, non faciendo voluntatem suam, sed ejus a quo missus est (Joan. IV, 34, et V, 30): in horum ergo duorum hominum causa proprie fides christiana consistit. Unus est enim Deus, et unus mediator Dei et hominum homo Christus Jesus (I Tim. II, 5). Quoniam non est aliud nomen sub coelo datum hominibus, in quo oporteat nos salvos fieri (Act. IV, 12): et in illo definivit Deus fidem omnibus, suscitans illum a mortuis (Id. XVII, 31). Itaque sine ista fide, hoc est, sine fide unius mediatoris Dei et hominum hominis Christi Jesu; sine fide, inquam, resurrectionis ejus, quam Deus omnibus definivit, quae utique sine incarnatione ejus ac morte non potest veraciter credi: sine fide ergo incarnationis et mortis et resurrectionis Christi, nec antiquos justos, ut justi essent, a peccatis potuisse mundari, et Dei gratia justificari, veritas 0399 christiana non debitat: sive in eis justis quos sancta Scriptura commemorat, sive in eis justis quos quidem illa non commemorat, sed tamen fuisse credendi sunt, vel ante diluvium, vel inde usque ad legem datam, vel ipsius legis tempore, non solum in filiis Israel, sicut fuerunt Prophetae, sed etiam extra eumdem populum, sicut fuit Job. Et ipsorum enim corda eadem mundabantur mediatoris fide, et diffundebatur in eis charitas per Spiritum sanctum (Rom. V, 5), qui ubi vult spirat (Joan. III, 8), non merita sequens, sed etiam ipsa merita faciens. Non enim Dei gratia gratia erit ullo modo, nisi gratuita fuerit omni modo.