Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series • VOLUME 5
Augustine — Anti-Pelagian Writings
SECTION 81
Chapter 10 [V.]--He Shows that Cyprian Had Not Doubted the Original Sin of Infants.
Chapter 10 [V.]--He Shows that Cyprian Had Not Doubted the Original Sin of Infants. Accordingly, it is not without reason that the blessed Cyprian [670] carefully shows how from the very first the Church has held this as a well understood article of faith. When he was asserting the fitness of infants only just born to receive C…
1,029 wordsSECTION 82Chapter 12 [VI.]--The Universal Consensus Respecting Original Sin.
Chapter 12 [VI.]--The Universal Consensus Respecting Original Sin. And now, again, with a strange boldness in new controversy, certain persons are endeavouring to make us uncertain on a point which our forefathers used to bring forward as most certainly fixed, whenever they would solve such questions as seemed uncertain to some…
1,128 wordsSECTION 83Chapter 14.--The Opinions of All Controversialists Whatever are Not, However, Canonical Authority; Original Sin, How Another's; We Were All One Man in Adam.
Chapter 14.--The Opinions of All Controversialists Whatever are Not, However, Canonical Authority; Original Sin, How Another's; We Were All One Man in Adam. I have not quoted these words as if we might rely upon the opinions of every disputant as on canonical authority; but I have done it, that it may be seen how, from the begi…
767 wordsSECTION 84Chapter 17 [IX.]--Christians Do Not Always Beget Christian, Nor the Pure, Pure Children.
Chapter 17 [IX.]--Christians Do Not Always Beget Christian, Nor the Pure, Pure Children. With these and such like palpable arguments, should I endeavour, as I best could, to convince those persons who believed that sacraments of cleansing were superfluously applied to the children of the cleansed, how right is the judgment of b…
731 wordsSECTION 85Chapter 18 [X.]--Is the Soul Derived by Natural Propagation?
Chapter 18 [X.]--Is the Soul Derived by Natural Propagation? Well, but "if the soul is not propagated, but the flesh alone, then the latter alone has propagation of sin, and it alone deserves punishment:" this is what they think, saying "that it is unjust that the soul which is only recently produced, and that not out of Adam's…
1,564 wordsSECTION 86Chapter 21 [XII.]--The Precept About Touching the Menstruous Woman Not to Be Figuratively Understood; The Necessity of the Sacraments.
Chapter 21 [XII.]--The Precept About Touching the Menstruous Woman Not to Be Figuratively Understood; The Necessity of the Sacraments. Let no one, then, on this subject be either deceived or a deceiver. The manifest sense of Holy Scripture which we have considered, removes all obscurities. Even as death is in this our mortal bo…
1,038 wordsSECTION 87Book II. Chap. 37,
Book II. Chap. 37, On the Following Treatise, "De spiritu et littera." ------------------------ The person [709] to whom I had addressed the three books entitled De Peccatorum Meritis et Remissione, in which I carefully discussed also the baptism of infants, informed me, when acknowledging my communication, that he was much …
712 wordsSECTION 88Chapter 1 [I.] --The Occasion of Writing This Work; A Thing May Be Capable of Being Done, and Yet May Never Be Done.
Chapter 1 [I.] --The Occasion of Writing This Work; A Thing May Be Capable of Being Done, and Yet May Never Be Done. After reading the short treatises which I lately drew up for you, my beloved son Marcellinus, about the baptism of infants, and the perfection of man's righteousness,--how that no one in this life seems either to…
847 wordsSECTION 89Chapter 4.--Theirs is a Much More Serious Error, Requiring a Very Vigorous Refutation, Who Deny God's Grace to Be Necessary.
Chapter 4.--Theirs is a Much More Serious Error, Requiring a Very Vigorous Refutation, Who Deny God's Grace to Be Necessary. They, however, must be resisted with the utmost ardor and vigor who suppose that without God's help, the mere power of the human will in itself, can either perfect righteousness, or advance steadily towar…
995 wordsSECTION 90Chapter 7 [V.]--What is Proposed to Be Here Treated.
Chapter 7 [V.]--What is Proposed to Be Here Treated. We will, however, consider, if you please, the whole of this passage of the apostle and thoroughly handle it, as the Lord shall enable us. For I want, if possible, to prove that the apostle's words, "The letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life," do not refer to figurative …
1,047 wordsSECTION 91Chapter 10.--Christ the True Healer.
Chapter 10.--Christ the True Healer. Accordingly, the apostle shows that the same medicine was mystically set forth in the passion and resurrection of Christ, when he says, "Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him by baptism into death; t…
750 wordsSECTION 92Chapter 12.--Paul, Whence So Called; Bravely Contends for Grace.
Chapter 12.--Paul, Whence So Called; Bravely Contends for Grace. Accordingly Paul, who, although he was formerly called Saul, [745] chose this new designation, for no other reason, as it seems to me, than because he would show himself little, [746] --the "least of the apostles," [747] --contends with much courage and earnestnes…
977 wordsSECTION 93Chapter 14.--In What Respect the Pelagians Acknowledge God as the Author of Our Justification.
Chapter 14.--In What Respect the Pelagians Acknowledge God as the Author of Our Justification. "But," say they, "we do praise God as the Author of our righteousness, in that He gave the law, by the teaching of which we have learned how we ought to live." But they give no heed to what they read: "By the law there shall no flesh …
952 wordsSECTION 94Chapter 16 [X.]--How the Law Was Not Made for a Righteous Man.
Chapter 16 [X.]--How the Law Was Not Made for a Righteous Man. Because "for a righteous man the law was not made;" [765] and yet "the law is good, if a man use it lawfully." [766] Now by connecting together these two seemingly contrary statements, the apostle warns and urges his reader to sift the question and solve it too. For…
959 wordsSECTION 95Chapter 18 [XI.]--Piety is Wisdom; That is Called the Righteousness of God, Which He Produces.
Chapter 18 [XI.]--Piety is Wisdom; That is Called the Righteousness of God, Which He Produces. Now, this meditation makes a man godly, and this godliness is true wisdom. By godliness I mean that which the Greeks designate theosebeia,--that very virtue which is commended to man in the passage of Job, where it is said to him, "Be…
1,146 wordsSECTION 96Chapter 20.--The Law Without Grace.
Chapter 20.--The Law Without Grace. Now why need I speak of what follows? For why it was that by this their impiety those men--I mean those who could have known the Creator through the creature--fell (since "God resisteth the proud" [791] ) and whither they plunged, is better shown in the sequel of this epistle than we can here…
1,060 wordsSECTION 97Chapter 22.--No Man Justified by Works.
Chapter 22.--No Man Justified by Works. What the difference between them is, I will briefly explain. What the law of works enjoins by menace, that the law of faith secures by faith. The one says, "Thou shalt not covet;" [802] the other says, "When I perceived that nobody could be continent, except God gave it to him; and that t…
952 wordsSECTION 98Chapter 24.--The Passage in Corinthians.
Chapter 24.--The Passage in Corinthians. In the passage where he speaks to the Corinthians about the letter that kills, and the spirit that gives life, he expresses himself more clearly, but he does not mean even there any other "letter" to be understood than the Decalogue itself, which was written on the two tables. For these …
1,115 wordsSECTION 99Chapter 26.--No Fruit Good Except It Grow from the Root of Love.
Chapter 26.--No Fruit Good Except It Grow from the Root of Love. It is evident, then, that the oldness of the letter, in the absence of the newness of the spirit, instead of freeing us from sin, rather makes us guilty by the knowledge of sin. Whence it is written in another part of Scripture, "He that increaseth knowledge, incr…
830 wordsSECTION 100Chapter 29 [XVII.]--A Comparison of the Law of Moses and of the New Law.
Chapter 29 [XVII.]--A Comparison of the Law of Moses and of the New Law. Now, amidst this admirable correspondence, there is at least this very considerable diversity in the cases, in that the people in the earlier instance were deterred by a horrible dread from approaching the place where the law was given; whereas in the othe…
1,262 wordsSECTION 101Chapter 32 [XIX.]--The Christian Faith Touching the Assistance of Grace.
Chapter 32 [XIX.]--The Christian Faith Touching the Assistance of Grace. Let no Christian then stray from this faith, which alone is the Christian one; nor let any one, when he has been made to feel ashamed to say that we become righteous through our own selves, without the grace of God working this in us,--because he sees, whe…
956 wordsSECTION 102Chapter 35 [XX.]--The Old Law; The New Law.
Chapter 35 [XX.]--The Old Law; The New Law. The one was therefore old, because the other is new. But whence comes it that one is old and the other new, when the same law, which said in the Old Testament, "Thou shalt not covet," [860] is fulfilled by the New Testament? "Because," says the prophet, "they continued not in my coven…
1,073 wordsSECTION 103Chapter 38 [XXIII.]--The Re-Formation Which is Now Being Effected, Compared with the Perfection of the Life to Come.
Chapter 38 [XXIII.]--The Re-Formation Which is Now Being Effected, Compared with the Perfection of the Life to Come. But what is this change, and how great, in comparison with the perfect eminence which is then to be realized? The apostle applies some sort of illustration, derived from well-known things, to these indescribable …
1,126 wordsSECTION 104Chapter 41.--The Law Written in the Heart, and the Reward of the Eternal Contemplation of God, Belong to the New Covenant; Who Among the Saints are the Least and the Greatest.
Chapter 41.--The Law Written in the Heart, and the Reward of the Eternal Contemplation of God, Belong to the New Covenant; Who Among the Saints are the Least and the Greatest. As then the law of works, which was written on the tables of stone, and its reward, the land of promise, which the house of the carnal Israel after their…
1,363 wordsSECTION 105Chapter 44.--The Answer Is, that the Passage Must Be Understood of the Faithful of the New Covenant.
Chapter 44.--The Answer Is, that the Passage Must Be Understood of the Faithful of the New Covenant. Has the apostle perhaps mentioned those Gentiles as having the law written in their hearts who belong to the new testament? We must look at the previous context. First, then, referring to the gospel, he says, "It is the power of…
1,225 wordsSECTION 106Chapter 46.--How the Passage of the Law Agrees with that of the Prophet.
Chapter 46.--How the Passage of the Law Agrees with that of the Prophet. If therefore the apostle, when he mentioned that the Gentiles do by nature the things contained in the law, and have the work of the law written in their hearts, [935] intended those to be understood who believed in Christ,--who do not come to the faith li…
830 wordsSECTION 107Chapter 48.--The Image of God is Not Wholly Blotted Out in These Unbelievers; Venial Sins.
Chapter 48.--The Image of God is Not Wholly Blotted Out in These Unbelievers; Venial Sins. According to some, however, they who do by nature the things contained in the law must not be regarded as yet in the number of those whom Christ's grace justifies, but rather as among those some of whose actions (although they are those o…
847 wordsSECTION 108Chapter 49.--The Grace Promised by the Prophet for the New Covenant.
Chapter 49.--The Grace Promised by the Prophet for the New Covenant. What then could the apostle have meant to imply by,--after checking the boasting of the Jews, by telling them that "not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified," [963] --immediately afterwards speaking of them "w…
1,307 wordsSECTION 109Chapter 51.--Faith the Ground of All Righteousness.
Chapter 51.--Faith the Ground of All Righteousness. The righteousness of the law is proposed in these terms,--that whosoever shall do it shall live in it; and the purpose is, that when each has discovered his own weakness, he may not by his own strength, nor by the letter of the law (which cannot be done), but by faith, concili…
1,031 wordsSECTION 110Chapter 53 [XXXI.]--Volition and Ability.
Chapter 53 [XXXI.]--Volition and Ability. Some one will ask whether the faith itself, in which seems to be the beginning either of salvation, or of that series leading to salvation which I have just mentioned, is placed in our power. We shall see more easily, if we first examine with some care what "our power" means. Since, the…
1,215 wordsSECTION 111Chapter 55 [XXXII.]--What Faith is Laudable.
Chapter 55 [XXXII.]--What Faith is Laudable. Since faith, then, is in our power, inasmuch as every one believes when he likes, and, when he believes, believes voluntarily; our next inquiry, which we must conduct with care, is, What faith it is which the apostle commends with so much earnestness? For indiscriminate faith is not …
1,359 wordsSECTION 112Chapter 57 [XXXIII.]--Whence Comes the Will to Believe?
Chapter 57 [XXXIII.]--Whence Comes the Will to Believe? But it remains for us briefly to inquire, Whether the will by which we believe be itself the gift of God, or whether it arise from that free will which is naturally implanted in us? If we say that it is not the gift of God, we must then incur the fear of supposing that we …
890 wordsSECTION 113Chapter 59.--Mercy and Pity in the Judgment of God.
Chapter 59.--Mercy and Pity in the Judgment of God. This is the order observed in the psalm, where it is said: "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His recompenses; who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with loving-kindness and tend…
840 wordsSECTION 114Chapter 60 [XXXIV.]--The Will to Believe is from God.
Chapter 60 [XXXIV.]--The Will to Believe is from God. Let this discussion suffice, if it satisfactorily meets the question we had to solve. It may be, however, objected in reply, that we must take heed lest some one should suppose that the sin would have to be imputed to God which is committed by free will, if in the passage wh…
1,227 wordsSECTION 115Chapter 63.--An Objection.
Chapter 63.--An Objection. But inasmuch as it may be said that the instances which I have been quoting are divine works, whereas to live righteously is a work that belongs to ourselves, I undertook to show that even this too is a divine work. This I have done in the present book, with perhaps a fuller statement than is necessar…
1,208 wordsSECTION 116Chapter 65.--In What Sense a Sinless Righteousness in This Life Can Be Asserted.
Chapter 65.--In What Sense a Sinless Righteousness in This Life Can Be Asserted. Forasmuch, however, as an inferior righteousness may be said to be competent to this life, whereby the just man lives by faith [1096] although absent from the Lord, and, therefore, walking by faith and not yet by sight, [1097] --it may be without a…
945 wordsSECTION 117Chapter 66.--Although Perfect Righteousness Be Not Found Here on Earth, It is Still Not Impossible.
Chapter 66.--Although Perfect Righteousness Be Not Found Here on Earth, It is Still Not Impossible. But let objectors find, if they can, any man, while living under the weight of this corruption, in whom God has no longer anything to forgive; unless nevertheless they acknowledge that such an individual has been aided in the att…
1,655 wordsSECTION 118Chapter 1 [I.]--The Occasion of Publishing This Work; What God's Righteousness is.
Chapter 1 [I.]--The Occasion of Publishing This Work; What God's Righteousness is. The book which you sent to me, my beloved sons, Timasius and Jacobus, I have read through hastily, but not indifferently, omitting only the few points which are plain enough to everybody; and I saw in it a man inflamed with most ardent zeal again…
865 wordsSECTION 119Chapter 3 [III.]--Nature Was Created Sound and Whole; It Was Afterwards Corrupted by Sin.
Chapter 3 [III.]--Nature Was Created Sound and Whole; It Was Afterwards Corrupted by Sin. Man's nature, indeed, was created at first faultless and without any sin; but that nature of man in which every one is born from Adam, now wants the Physician, because it is not sound. All good qualities, no doubt, which it still possesses…
835 wordsSECTION 120Chapter 8.--A Distinction Drawn by Pelagius Between the Possible and Actual.
Chapter 8.--A Distinction Drawn by Pelagius Between the Possible and Actual. For he first of all makes a distinction: "It is one thing," says he, "to inquire whether a thing can be, which has respect to its possibility only; and another thing, whether or not it is." This distinction, nobody doubts, is true enough; for it follow…
704 wordsSource & rights
Historical text source: Christian Classics Ethereal Library. The downloaded text itself records Public Domain.