On Nature and Grace 81–84

But so that my opinion on this matter may be clear enough not only to him but also to those who have not read those books of mine On Free Choice which he has read, and who perhaps read him without having read them, I must mention from those very books something which, if he held it and set it down in his writings, would leave no controversy between us on this matter. For immediately after my words which he cited, I added, and discussed as well as I could, what could have been objected, saying: “And yet certain things done even through ignorance are disapproved and judged to need correction, as we read in the divine authorities.” And then, having given examples, I spoke also of weakness, saying: “There are also things done by necessity that are to be disapproved, when a man wishes to do right and cannot. For where do those voices come from: ‘For I do not do the good that I will, but the evil that I hate, that I do’?” And, having cited other testimonies of the divine oracles to this effect: “But all these,” I said, “are the voices of men coming from that condemnation of death. For if this is not man's punishment but his nature, none of these are sins.” Then a little later: “It remains, then,” I said, “that this just punishment comes from the condemnation of man. Nor is it surprising that, either through ignorance, he does not have free choice of the will to choose what he should rightly do; or, through the resistance of carnal habit, which by the violence of mortal succession has in a way grown into him naturally, he sees what should rightly be done and wills it, and cannot fulfill it. For this is the most just punishment of sin, that each one loses what he would not use well, when he could have used it without any difficulty if he had willed; that is, that one who knowingly does not do right loses the knowledge of what is right, and one who would not do right when he could loses the ability when he wills. For there are truly these two penalties for every sinning soul, ignorance and difficulty. From ignorance, error disgraces; from difficulty, torment afflicts. But to approve false things as true, so as to err unwillingly, and, with the pain of the carnal bond resisting and torturing, to be unable to refrain from lustful works, is not the nature of man as he was established, but the punishment of man as condemned. But when we speak of a free will to do right, we speak of that in which man was made.” Then, to men who were making, as it were, a just complaint about the faults of ignorance and difficulty passed on and poured into the offspring of the first man, the answer was given: “To them,” I said, “the brief answer is that they should be quiet and stop murmuring against God. For perhaps they would complain rightly if no man were victorious over error and lust; but since he is everywhere present who in many ways, through the creation serving him as its Lord, calls the one who has turned away, teaches the one who believes, consoles the one who hopes, exhorts the one who loves, helps the one who strives, hears the one who prays, it is not counted to you as a fault that you are ignorant against your will, but that you neglect to seek what you do not know; nor that you do not bind up your wounded members, but that you despise him who wishes to heal them.” So I both exhorted, as well as I could, to right living, and did not make void the grace of God, without which human nature, now darkened and corrupted, cannot be enlightened and healed. On this the whole question with these men turns: that we may not frustrate the grace of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord by a perverse defense of nature. Of this nature I said again a little later: “We also speak of nature itself in one way when, speaking properly, we mean the nature of man in which he was first made blameless in his kind; in another, this nature in which, from the punishment of that condemned man, we are born both ignorant and subject to the flesh; in the sense in which the apostle says: ‘For we too were by nature children of wrath, like the rest.’”

If, then, we wish to rouse and kindle by Christian exhortations souls that are cold and sluggish toward right living, let us first exhort them to faith, by which they may become Christians and be made subject to his name, without whom they cannot be saved. But if they are already Christians and neglect to live rightly, let them be beaten with terrors and raised up by the praises of rewards; in such a way, certainly, that we remember to exhort them not only to good actions but also to devout prayers, and to instruct them in this soundness of doctrine: that they give thanks for it, when they have begun to live well, that they have done something without difficulty; and where they feel some difficulty, that they persist in obtaining ease from the Lord by most faithful and most persevering prayers and by ready works of mercy. As for where and when those who make progress in this way are made perfect in the fullest righteousness, I do not care very much; but wherever and whenever they become perfect, I affirm that they cannot be made perfect except by the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Certainly, when they clearly know that they have no sin, let them not say that they have sin, lest the truth not be in them, as the truth is not in those who, when they have it, say that they do not have it.

The commandments are very good, if we use them lawfully. For by the very fact that it is most firmly believed that the just and good God could not have commanded impossible things, we are admonished both what to do in easy things and what to ask for in difficult ones. For all things become easy to love, to which alone Christ's burden is light, or rather which alone is the burden that is light. According to this it was said, “And his commandments are not heavy”; so that whoever finds them heavy may consider that it could not have been said by God, “They are not heavy,” unless because there can be a disposition of heart to which they are not heavy; and let him ask for what he lacks, that he may fulfill what is commanded. And what is said to Israel in Deuteronomy, if it is understood piously, holily, spiritually, means the same thing; since certainly, when the apostle cited this testimony, “The word is near, in your mouth and in your heart” (which there reads “in your hands”, for in the heart are the spiritual hands), he says: “This is the word of faith which we preach.” Whoever, then, is turned, as is commanded there, to the Lord his God with all his heart and with all his soul will not find God's commandment heavy. For how is it heavy, since it is the commandment of love? For either one does not love, and so it is heavy; or one loves, and it cannot be heavy. And he loves if, as Israel is admonished there, he is turned to the Lord his God with all his heart and with all his soul. “A new commandment I give you,” he says, “that you love one another”; and, “He who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law”; and, “Love is the fulfilling of the law.” According to this also that saying was said: “If they had walked in good paths, they would surely have found the paths of righteousness smooth.” How then is it said, “Because of the words of your lips I have kept hard ways,” except because both are true? They are hard to fear, smooth to love.

Love begun, then, is righteousness begun; love advanced is righteousness advanced; great love is great righteousness; perfect love is perfect righteousness; but love “from a pure heart and a good conscience and faith unfeigned,” which is greatest in this life when life itself is despised for its sake. But I wonder whether it has no room to grow when it has left this mortal life. Wherever and whenever it is so full that nothing can be added to it, still it is not poured out in our hearts by the resources of nature or of will that are in us, but through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us, who both helps our weakness and works together with our health. For this is the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit be eternity and goodness forever and ever. Amen.