Chapter IV.--(9.) The Ninth Breviate.
IX. "The next question we shall require to be solved," says he, "is this: By what means is it brought about that man is with sin?--by the necessity of nature, or by the freedom of choice? If it is by the necessity of nature, he is blameless; if by the freedom of choice, then the question arises, from whom he has received this freedom of choice. No doubt, from God. Well, but that which God bestows is certainly good. This cannot be gainsaid. On what principle, then, is a thing proved to be good, if it is more prone to evil than to good? For it is more prone to evil than to good if by means of it man can be with sin and cannot be without sin." The answer is this: It came by the freedom of choice that man was with sin; but a penal corruption closely followed thereon, and out of the liberty produced necessity. Hence the cry of faith to God, "Lead Thou me out of my necessities." [1380] With these necessities upon us, we are either unable to understand what we want, or else (while having the wish) we are not strong enough to accomplish what we have come to understand. Now it is just liberty itself that is promised to believers by the Liberator. "If the Son," says He, "shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." [1381] For, vanquished by the sin into which it fell by its volition, nature has lost liberty. Hence another scripture says, "For of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage." [1382] Since therefore "the whole need not the physician, but only they that be sick;" [1383] so likewise it is not the free that need the Deliverer, but only the enslaved. Hence the cry of joy to Him for deliverance, "Thou hast saved my soul from the straits of necessity." [1384] For true liberty is also real health; and this would never have been lost, if the will had remained good. But because the will has sinned, the hard necessity of having sin has pursued the sinner; until his infirmity be wholly healed, and such freedom be regained, that there must needs be, on the one hand, a permanent will to live happily, and, on the other hand, a voluntary and happy necessity of living virtuously, and never sinning.
[1380] Ps. xxv. 17.
[1381] John viii. 38.
[1382] 2 Pet. ii. 19.
[1383] Matt. ix. 12.
[1384] Ps. xxxi. 7.
(10.) The Tenth Breviate.
X. "Since God made man good," he says, "and, besides making him good, further commanded him to do good, how impious it is for us to hold that man is evil, when he was neither made so, nor so commanded; and to deny him the ability of being good, although he was both made so, and commanded to act so!" Our answer here is: Since then it was not man himself, but God, who made man good; so also is it God, and not man himself, who remakes him to be good, while liberating him from the evil which he himself did upon his wishing, believing, and invoking such a deliverance. But all this is effected by the renewal day by day of the inward man, [1385] by the grace of God through our Lord Jesus Christ, with a view to the outward man's resurrection at the last day to an eternity not of punishment, but of life.
[1385] 2 Cor. iv. 16.
Chapter V.--(11.) The Eleventh Breviate.
XI. "The next question which must be put," he says, "is, in how many ways all sin is manifested? In two, if I mistake not: if either those things are done which are forbidden, or those things are not done which are commanded. Now, it is just as certain that all things which are forbidden are able to be avoided, as it is that all things which are commanded are able to be effected. For it is vain either to forbid or to enjoin that which cannot either be guarded against or accomplished. And how shall we deny the possibility of man's being without sin, when we are compelled to admit that he can as well avoid all those things which are forbidden, as do all those which are commanded?" My answer is, that in the Holy Scriptures there are many divine precepts, to mention the whole of which would be too laborious; but the Lord, who on earth consummated and abridged [1386] His word, expressly declared that the law and the prophets hung on two commandments, [1387] that we might understand that whatever else has been enjoined on us by God ends in these two commandments, and must be referred to them: "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind;" [1388] and "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." [1389] "On these two commandments," says He, "hang all the law and the prophets." [1390] Whatever, therefore, we are by God's law forbidden, and whatever we are bidden to do, we are forbidden and bidden with the direct object of fulfilling these two commandments. And perhaps the general prohibition is, "Thou shalt not covet;" [1391] and the general precept, "Thou shalt love." [1392] Accordingly the Apostle Paul, in a certain place, briefly embraced the two, expressing the prohibition in these words, "Be not conformed to this world," [1393] and the command in these, "But be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind." [1394] The former falls under the negative precept, not to covet; the latter under the positive one, to love. The one has reference to continence, the other to righteousness. The one enjoins avoidance of evil; the other, pursuit of good. By eschewing covetousness we put off the old man, and by showing love we put on the new. But no man can be continent unless God endow him with the gift; [1395] nor is God's love shed abroad in our hearts by our own selves, but by the Holy Ghost that is given to us. [1396] This, however, takes place day after day in those who advance by willing, believing, and praying, and who, "forgetting those things which are behind, reach forth unto those things which are before." [1397] For the reason why the law inculcates all these precepts is, that when a man has failed in fulfilling them, he may not be swollen with pride, and so exalt himself, but may in very weariness betake himself to grace. Thus the law fulfils its office as "schoolmaster," so terrifying the man as "to lead him to Christ," to give Him his love. [1398]
[1386] An application of Rom. ix. 28.
[1387] Matt. xxii. 40.
[1388] Matt. xxii. 37.
[1389] Matt. xxii. 39.
[1390] Matt. xxii. 40.
[1391] Ex. xx. 27.
[1392] Deut. vi. 5.
[1393] Rom. xii. 2.
[1394] Rom. xii. 2.
[1395] Wisd. viii. 21.
[1396] Rom. v. 5.
[1397] Phil. iii. 13.
[1398] Gal. iii. 24.