Chapter VII.—(16.) The Sixteenth Breviate.

XVI. After all these disputations, their author introduces himself in person as arguing with another, and represents himself as under examination, and as being addressed by his examiner: “Show me the man who is without sin.” He answers: “I show you one who is able to be without sin.” His examiner then says to him: “And who is he?” He answers: “You are the man.” “But if,” he adds, “you were to say, ‘I, at any rate, cannot be without sin,’ then you must answer me, ‘Whose fault is that?’ If you then were to say, ‘My own fault,’ you must be further asked, ‘And how is it your fault, if you cannot be without sin?’” He again represents himself as under examination, and thus accosted: “Are you yourself without sin, who say that a man can be without sin?” And he answers: “Whose fault is it that I am not without sin? But if,” continues he, “he had said in reply, ‘The fault is your own;’ then the answer would be, ‘How my fault, when I am unable to be without sin?’” Now our answer to all this running argument is, that no controversy ought to have been raised between them about such words as these; because he nowhere ventures to affirm that a man (either any one else, or himself) is without sin, but he merely said in reply that he can be,—a position which we do not ourselves deny. Only the question arises, when can he, and through whom can he? If at the present time, then by no faithful soul which is enclosed within the body of this death must this prayer be offered, or such words as these be spoken, “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors,”43    Matt. vi. 12. since in holy baptism all past debts have been already forgiven. But whoever tries to persuade us that such a prayer is not proper for faithful members of Christ, does in fact acknowledge nothing else than that he is not himself a Christian. If, again, it is through himself that a man is able to live without sin, then did Christ die in vain. But “Christ is not dead in vain.” No man, therefore, can be without sin, even if he wish it, unless he be assisted by the grace of God through our Lord Jesus Christ. And that this perfection may be attained, there is even now a training carried on in growing [Christians,] and there will be by all means a completion made, after the conflict with death is spent, and love, which is now cherished by the operation of faith and hope, shall be perfected in the fruition of sight and possession.

CAPUT VII.

Ratiocinatio 16. Post haec ille qui ista conscripsit, introducit personam suam quasi cum altero disputantem, et facit se interrogari, et quasi ab interrogante sibi dici: Da mihi hominem sine peccato. Et respondet: Do tibi qui esse possit. Et rursus ab interrogante dicitur ei: Quis est? Et respondet: Ipse tu, Quod si dixeris, inquit, Ego esse non possum: respondendum est, Cujus culpa est? Quod si dixeris, Mea: dicendum est, Et quomodo tua est, si esse non potes ? Iterum facit se interrogari et dici sibi: Tu ipse sine peccato es, qui dicis hominem sine peccato esse posse? Et respondet: Quod non sum sine peccato, cujus culpa est? Quod si dixerit, inquit, Tua est: respondendum est, Quomodo mea, si esse non possum? Nos respondemus, nullum cum eis de his verbis esse debere conflictum: quia non est ausus dicere hominem esse sine 0299 peccato, vel aliquem, vel se ipsum, sed tantummodo esse posse, respondit; quod neque nos negamus. Quando autem possit, et per quem possit, hoc quaeritur. Si enim modo est, non omni animae fideli positae in corpore mortis hujus orandum est, et dicendum, Dimitte nobis debita nostra: cum jam in sancto Baptismo universa fuerint dimissa praeterita. Quisquis autem membris fidelibus Christi hoc non esse orandum, persuadere conatur, nihil aliud quam se ipsum christianum non esse profitetur. Porro si per se ipsum potest homo esse sine peccato, ergo Christus gratis mortuus est (Galat. II, 21). Non autem gratis Christus mortuus est: non igitur potest homo esse sine peccato, etiam si velit, nisi adjuvetur gratia Dei per Jesum Christum Dominum nostrum. Quod ut perficiatur, et nunc in proficientibus agitur, et omni modo implebitur, contentione mortis absumpta, et charitate quae credendo et sperando nutritur, videndo et obtinendo perfecta.