Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series • VOLUME 5
Augustine — Anti-Pelagian Writings
SECTION 241
Chapter 19 [XVII.]--Blessing of Matrimony.
Chapter 19 [XVII.]--Blessing of Matrimony. In matrimony, however, let these nuptial blessings be the objects of our love--offspring, fidelity, the sacramental bond. [2131] Offspring, not that it be born only, but born again; for it is born to punishment unless it be born again to life. Fidelity, not such as even unbelievers obs…
890 wordsSECTION 242Chapter 21 [XIX.]--Thus Sinners are Born of Righteous Parents, Even as Wild Olives Spring from the Olive.
Chapter 21 [XIX.]--Thus Sinners are Born of Righteous Parents, Even as Wild Olives Spring from the Olive. That, therefore, which is born of the lust of the flesh is really born of the world, and not of God; but it is born of God, when it is born again of water and of the Spirit. The guilt of this concupiscence, regeneration alo…
1,332 wordsSECTION 243Chapter 24.--Lust and Shame Come from Sin; The Law of Sin; The Shamelessness of the Cynics.
Chapter 24.--Lust and Shame Come from Sin; The Law of Sin; The Shamelessness of the Cynics. But if, in like manner, the question be asked of the concupiscence of the flesh, how it is that acts now bring shame which once were free from shame, will not her answer be, that she only began to have existence in men's members after si…
958 wordsSECTION 244Chapter 27 [XXIV.]--Through Lust Original Sin is Transmitted; Venial Sins in Married Persons; Concupiscence of the Flesh, the Daughter and Mother of Sin.
Chapter 27 [XXIV.]--Through Lust Original Sin is Transmitted; Venial Sins in Married Persons; Concupiscence of the Flesh, the Daughter and Mother of Sin. Wherefore the devil holds infants guilty who are born, not of the good by which marriage is good, but of the evil of concupiscence, which, indeed, marriage uses aright, but at…
752 wordsSECTION 245Chapter 29 [XXVI.]--How Concupiscence Remains in the Baptized in Act, When It Has Passed Away as to Its Guilt.
Chapter 29 [XXVI.]--How Concupiscence Remains in the Baptized in Act, When It Has Passed Away as to Its Guilt. In the case, then, of those persons who are born again in Christ, when they receive an entire remission of all their sins, it is of course necessary that the guilt also of the still indwelling concupiscence should be r…
776 wordsSECTION 246Chapter 31 [XXVIII.]--Who is the Man that Can Say, "It is No More I that Do It"?
Chapter 31 [XXVIII.]--Who is the Man that Can Say, "It is No More I that Do It"? A man, however, is much deceived if, while consenting to the lust of his flesh, and then both resolving in his mind to do its desires and setting about it, he supposes that he has still a right to say, "It is not I that do it," even if he hates and…
901 wordsSECTION 247Chapter 34.--How Concupiscence Made a Captive of the Apostle; What the Law of Sin Was to the Apostle.
Chapter 34.--How Concupiscence Made a Captive of the Apostle; What the Law of Sin Was to the Apostle. Then, indeed, this statement, "I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind," refers to that very concupiscence which we are now speaking of--the law of sin in our sinful flesh. But when he said, "And brin…
877 wordsSECTION 248Chapter 36.--Even Now While We Still Have Concupiscence We May Be Safe in Christ.
Chapter 36.--Even Now While We Still Have Concupiscence We May Be Safe in Christ. But the apostle pursues the subject, and says, "So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin;" [2181] which must be thus understood: "With my mind I serve the law of God," by refusing my consent to the law…
1,150 wordsSECTION 249Chapter 39 [XXXIV.]--By the Holiness of Baptism, Not Sins Only, But All Evils Whatsoever, Have to Be Removed. The Church is Not Yet Free from All Stain.
Chapter 39 [XXXIV.]--By the Holiness of Baptism, Not Sins Only, But All Evils Whatsoever, Have to Be Removed. The Church is Not Yet Free from All Stain. And thus not only all the sins, but all the ills of men of what kind soever, are in course of removal by the holiness of that Christian laver whereby Christ cleanses His Church…
1,083 wordsSECTION 250Book II. [2193]
Book II. [2193] Augustin, in this latter book, refutes sundry sentences which had been culled by some unknown author from the first of four books that Julianus had published in opposition to the former book of his treatise "On Marriage and Concupiscence;" which sentences had been forwarded to him at the instance of the Count Va…
916 wordsSECTION 251Chapter 3.--The Same Continued.
Chapter 3.--The Same Continued. The words which he has quoted and endeavoured to refute out of my book, which I sent to you, and with which you are very well acquainted, are the following: "They are constantly affirming, in their excessive hatred of us, that we condemn marriage and that divine procedure by which God creates hum…
883 wordsSECTION 252Chapter 6.--The Same Continued.
Chapter 6.--The Same Continued. He has next adduced that passage of ours, wherein we said: "For there would have been none of this shame-producing concupiscence, which is impudently praised by impudent men, if man had not previously sinned; while as to marriage, it would still have existed, even if no man had sinned: for the pr…
802 wordsSECTION 253Chapter 8.--Augustin Refutes the Passage Adduced Above.
Chapter 8.--Augustin Refutes the Passage Adduced Above. Well, now, whoever you are that have said all this, what you say is by no means true; by no means, I repeat; you are much deceived, or you aim at deceiving others. We do not deny free will; but, even as the Truth declares, "if the Son shall make you free, then shall ye be …
1,270 wordsSECTION 254Chapter 10 [IV.]--In What Manner the Adversary's Cavils Must Be Refuted.
Chapter 10 [IV.]--In What Manner the Adversary's Cavils Must Be Refuted. Let us now look at the rest of what he has joined together in his selections. But what should be my course of proceeding? Ought I to set forth every passage of his for the purpose of answering it, or, omitting everything which the catholic faith contains, …
916 wordsSECTION 255Chapter 13.--The Pelagian Argument to Show that the Devil Has No Rights in the Fruits of Marriage.
Chapter 13.--The Pelagian Argument to Show that the Devil Has No Rights in the Fruits of Marriage. After these true and catholic statements, which are, moreover, really contained in the Holy Scriptures, although they are not adduced by him in a catholic spirit, with the earnestness of a catholic mind, he loses no time in introd…
1,399 wordsSECTION 256Chapter 16 [VI.]--It is Not of Us, But Our Sins, that the Devil is the Author.
Chapter 16 [VI.]--It is Not of Us, But Our Sins, that the Devil is the Author. He puts to us, then, another question, saying, "Whom, then, do you confess to be the author of infants? The true God?" I answer: [2232] "Yes; the true God." He then remarks, "But He did not make evil;" and again asks, "Whether we confess the devil to…
866 wordsSECTION 257Chapter 18.--The Same Continued.
Chapter 18.--The Same Continued. But now, I pray you, look a little more attentively, and observe how he contrives to find a name wherewith to cover again what he blushes to unfold. "For," says he, "Adam begot him by the power of his members, not by diversity of merits." Now I confess I do not understand what he meant by the la…
1,024 wordsSECTION 258Chapter 21 [IX.]--It is the Good God That Gives Fruitfulness, and the Devil That Corrupts the Fruit.
Chapter 21 [IX.]--It is the Good God That Gives Fruitfulness, and the Devil That Corrupts the Fruit. What, therefore, is this man's meaning, in the next passage, wherein he says concerning Noah and his sons, that "they were blessed, even as Adam and Eve were; for God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and have dominion …
794 wordsSECTION 259Chapter 23 [X.]--The Pelagians Affirm that God in the Case of Abraham and Sarah Aroused Concupiscence as a Gift from Heaven.
Chapter 23 [X.]--The Pelagians Affirm that God in the Case of Abraham and Sarah Aroused Concupiscence as a Gift from Heaven. He has much also to say, though to no purpose, concerning Abraham and Sarah, how they received a son according to the promise; and at last he mentions the word concupiscence. But he does not add the usual…
891 wordsSECTION 260Chapter 25 [XII.]--Augustin Not the Deviser of Original Sin.
Chapter 25 [XII.]--Augustin Not the Deviser of Original Sin. "This sexual connection of bodies," he says, "together with the ardour, with the pleasure, with the emission of seed, was made by God, and is praiseworthy on its own account, and is therefore to be approved; it, moreover, became sometimes even a great gift to pious me…
732 wordsSECTION 261Chapter 27.--The Pelagians Argue that God Sometimes Closes the Womb in Anger, and Opens It When Appeased.
Chapter 27.--The Pelagians Argue that God Sometimes Closes the Womb in Anger, and Opens It When Appeased. Carefully consider the rest of his remarks: "This likewise," says he, "is confirmed by the apostle's authority. For when the blessed Paul spoke of the resurrection of the dead, he said, "Thou fool, that which thou sowest is…
1,124 wordsSECTION 262Chapter 29.--The Same Continued. Augustin Also Asserts that God Forms Man at Birth.
Chapter 29.--The Same Continued. Augustin Also Asserts that God Forms Man at Birth. Though I have given special attention to the point, I have failed to discover what assistance he could obtain from this deceitful use of Scripture, except that he wanted to produce the apostle as a witness, and by him to prove, what we also asse…
795 wordsSECTION 263Chapter 31 [XVI.]--Why God Proceeds to Create Human Beings, Who He Knows Will Be Born in Sin.
Chapter 31 [XVI.]--Why God Proceeds to Create Human Beings, Who He Knows Will Be Born in Sin. Let us now look at those three clauses of his, than which three, he says, nothing more profane could possibly be uttered: "Either God did not make man, or else He made him for the devil; or, at any rate, the devil framed God's image, t…
817 wordsSECTION 264Chapter 33 [XVIII.]--Though God Makes Us, We Perish Unless He Re-makes Us in Christ.
Chapter 33 [XVIII.]--Though God Makes Us, We Perish Unless He Re-makes Us in Christ. From this most true and firmly-established principle of the apostolic and catholic faith the writer before us departs in company with the Pelagians. He will not have it that men are born under the dominion of the devil, lest infants be carried …
883 wordsSECTION 265Chapter 35 [XX.]--He Answers the Arguments of Julianus. What is the Natural Use of the Woman? What is the Unnatural Use?
Chapter 35 [XX.]--He Answers the Arguments of Julianus. What is the Natural Use of the Woman? What is the Unnatural Use? My answer to this challenge is, that not only the children of wedlock, but also those of adultery, are a good work in so far as they are the work of God, by whom they are created: but as concerns original sin…
884 wordsSECTION 266Chapter 37 [XXII.]--If There is No Marriage Without Cohabitation, So There is No Cohabitation Without Shame.
Chapter 37 [XXII.]--If There is No Marriage Without Cohabitation, So There is No Cohabitation Without Shame. "Show me," he says, "any bodily marriage without sexual connection." I do not show him any bodily marriage without sexual connection; but then, neither does he show me any case of sexual connection which is without shame…
819 wordsSECTION 267Chapter 40 [XXV.]--Augustin Declines the Dilemma Offered Him.
Chapter 40 [XXV.]--Augustin Declines the Dilemma Offered Him. "One of these propositions," says he, "is true, the other false." My reply is as brief as the allegation: Both are really true, neither is false. "It is true," he goes on to say, "that the sin of adultery cannot be excused by reason of the man who is born of it; inas…
1,248 wordsSECTION 268Chapter 43.--The Good Tree in the Gospel that Cannot Bring Forth Evil Fruit, Does Not Mean Marriage.
Chapter 43.--The Good Tree in the Gospel that Cannot Bring Forth Evil Fruit, Does Not Mean Marriage. What, then, does he mean by saying, "A tree is known by its fruits," on the ground of our reading that the Lord spake thus in the Gospel? Was, then, the Lord speaking of this question in these words, and not rather of men's two …
700 wordsSECTION 269Chapter 45.--Answer to This Argument: The Apostle Says We All Sinned in One.
Chapter 45.--Answer to This Argument: The Apostle Says We All Sinned in One. Now, there is an answer for him to all these questions given by the apostle, who censures neither the infant's will, which is not yet matured in him for sinning, nor marriage, which, as such, has not only its institution, but its blessing also, from Go…
1,228 wordsSECTION 270Chapter 47.--The Scriptures Repeatedly Teach Us that All Sin in One.
Chapter 47.--The Scriptures Repeatedly Teach Us that All Sin in One. Still let him ply his question: "By what means may sin be discovered in an infant?" He may find an answer in the inspired pages: "By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for in him all sinned." "Through the of…
747 wordsSECTION 271Chapter 49 [XXIX.]--In Infants Nature is of God, and the Corruption of Nature of the Devil.
Chapter 49 [XXIX.]--In Infants Nature is of God, and the Corruption of Nature of the Devil. "In a single man rightly is the intention blamed and the origin praised; because there must be two things to admit of contraries: in an infant, however, there is but one thing, nature only; because will has no existence in his case. Now …
1,141 wordsSECTION 272Chapter 51.--To Call Those that Teach Original Sin Manicheans is to Accuse Ambrose, Cyprian, and the Whole Church.
Chapter 51.--To Call Those that Teach Original Sin Manicheans is to Accuse Ambrose, Cyprian, and the Whole Church. What, moreover, shall I say of those commentators on the divine Scriptures who have flourished in the catholic Church? They have never tried to pervert these testimonies to an alien sense, because they were firmly …
705 wordsSECTION 273Chapter 53 [XXXI.]--Concupiscence Need Not Have Been Necessary for Fruitfulness.
Chapter 53 [XXXI.]--Concupiscence Need Not Have Been Necessary for Fruitfulness. He says: "Therefore that marriage which might have been without concupiscence, without bodily motion, without necessity for sexual organs--to use your own statement--is pronounced by you to be laudable; whereas such marriages as are now enacted are…
1,040 wordsSECTION 274Chapter 55 [XXXIII.]--Lust is a Disease; The Word "Passion" In the Ecclesiastical Sense.
Chapter 55 [XXXIII.]--Lust is a Disease; The Word "Passion" In the Ecclesiastical Sense. He then passes on from those who are united in marriage to those who are born of it. It is in relation to these that we have to encounter the most laborious discussions with the new heretics in connection with our subject. Impelled by some …
1,102 wordsSECTION 275Chapter 57 [XXXIV.]--The Great Sin of the First Man.
Chapter 57 [XXXIV.]--The Great Sin of the First Man. Now observe what follows, as he goes on to say: "If, before sin, God created a source from which men should be born, but the devil a source from which parents were disturbed, then beyond a doubt holiness must be ascribed to those that are born, and guilt to those that produce…
1,432 wordsSECTION 276Chapter 60.--Let Not the Pelagians Indulge Themselves in a Cruel Defence of Infants.
Chapter 60.--Let Not the Pelagians Indulge Themselves in a Cruel Defence of Infants. As I said, however, let him entertain what views he likes of this lust; let him proclaim it as he pleases, praise it as much as he chooses (and he pleases much, as several of his extracts show), that the Pelagians may gratify themselves, if not…
1,614 wordsSECTION 277Book I. [2343]
Book I. [2343] Addressed to Renatus, the Monk. On receiving from Renatus the two books of Vincentius Victor, who disapproved of Augustin's opinion touching the nature of the soul, and of his hesitation in respect of its origin, Augustin points out how the young objector, in his self-conceit in aiming to decide on so abstruse a…
836 wordsSECTION 278Chapter 3 [III]--The Eloquence of Vincentius, Its Dangers and Its Tolerableness.
Chapter 3 [III]--The Eloquence of Vincentius, Its Dangers and Its Tolerableness. For he has an eloquence by which he is able to explain what he thinks. He must, therefore, be dealt with accordingly; and we must hope that he may entertain right sentiments, and that he may not turn useless things into objects of desire; that he m…
828 wordsSECTION 279Chapter 5 [V.]--Another of Victor's Errors, that the Soul is Corporeal.
Chapter 5 [V.]--Another of Victor's Errors, that the Soul is Corporeal. But as regards his contention, "that the soul is not spirit, but body," what else can he mean to make out, than that we are composed, not of soul and body, but of two or even three bodies? For inasmuch as he says that we consist of spirit, soul and body, an…
862 wordsSECTION 280Chapter 8 [VIII.]--Victor's Erroneous Opinion, that the Soul Deserved to Become Sinful.
Chapter 8 [VIII.]--Victor's Erroneous Opinion, that the Soul Deserved to Become Sinful. Vainly supposing, then, that he was able to solve this question from the foreknowledge of God, he keeps floundering on, and says: "If the soul deserved to be sinful which could not have been sinful, yet neither did it remain in sin, because,…
1,199 wordsSource & rights
Historical text source: Christian Classics Ethereal Library. The downloaded text itself records Public Domain.