(Augustine, Enchiridion. part 6) in man, or -- what is the same thing -- in himself. 108. Now, we could not be redeemed, even through "the one Mediator between God and man, Man himself, Christ Jesus,"[235] if he were not also God. For when Adam was made -- being made an upright man -- there was no need for a mediator. Once sin, however, had widely separated the human race from God, it was necessary for a mediator, who alone was born, lived, and was put to death without sin, to reconcile us to God, and provide even for our bodies a resurrection to life eternal -- and all this in order that man's pride might be exposed and healed through God's humility. Thus it might be shown man how far he had departed from God, when by the incarnate God he is recalled to God; that man in his contumacy might be furnished an example of obedience by the God-Man; that the fount of grace might be opened up; that even the resurrection of the body -- itself promised to the redeemed -- might be previewed in the resurrection of the Redeemer himself; that the devil might be vanquished by that very nature he was rejoicing over having deceived -- all this, however, without giving man ground for glory in himself, lest pride spring up anew. And if there are other advantages accruing from so great a mystery of the Mediator, which those who profit from them can see or testify -- even if they cannot be described -- let them be added to this list. CHAPTER XXIX "The Last Things" 109. Now, for the time that intervenes between man's death and the final resurrection, there is a secret shelter for his soul, as each is worthy of rest or affliction according to what it has merited while it lived in the body. 110. There is no denying that the souls of the dead are benefited by the piety of their living friends, when the sacrifice of the Mediator is offered for the dead, or alms are given in the church. But these means benefit only those who, when they were living, have merited that such services could be of help to them. For there is a mode of life that is neither so good as not to need such helps after death nor so bad as not to gain benefit from them after death. There is, however, a good mode of life that does not need such helps, and, again, one so thoroughly bad that, when such a man departs this life, such helps avail him nothing. It is here, then, in this life, that all merit or demerit is acquired whereby a man's condition in the life hereafter is improved or worsened. Therefore, let no one hope to obtain any merit with God after he is dead that he has neglected to obtain here in this life. So, then, those means which the Church constantly uses in interceding for the dead are not opposed to that statement of the apostle when he said, "For all of us shall stand before the tribunal of Christ, so that each may receive according to what he has done in the body, whether good or evil."[236] For each man has for himself while living in the body earned the merit whereby these means can benefit him [after death]. For they do not benefit all. And yet why should they not benefit all, unless it be because of the different kinds of lives men lead in the body? Accordingly, when sacrifices, whether of the altar or of alms, are offered for the baptized dead, they are thank offerings for the very good, propitiations for the not-so-very-bad [non valde malis], and, as for the very bad -- even if they are of no help to the dead -- they are at least a sort of consolation to the living. Where they are of value, their benefit consists either in obtaining a full forgiveness or, at least, in making damnation more tolerable. 111. After the resurrection, however, when the general judgment has been held and finished, the boundary lines will be set for the two cities: the one of Christ, the other of the devil; one for the good, the other for the bad -- both including angels and men. In the one group, there will be no will to sin, in the other, no power to sin, nor any further possibility of dying. The citizens of the first commonwealth will go on living truly and happily in life eternal. The second will go on, miserable in death eternal, with no power to die to it. The condition of both societies will then be fixed and endless. But in the first city, some will outrank others in bliss, and in the second, some will have a more tolerable burden of misery than others. 112. It is quite in vain, then, that some -- indeed very many -- yield to merely human feelings and deplore the notion of the eternal punishment of the damned and their interminable and perpetual misery. They do not believe that such things will be. Not that they would go counter to divine Scripture -- but, yielding to their own human feelings, they soften what seems harsh and give a milder emphasis to statements they believe are meant more to terrify than to express the literal truth. "God will not forget," they say, "to show mercy, nor in his anger will he shut up his mercy." This is, in fact, the text of a holy psalm.[237] But there is no doubt that it is to be interpreted to refer to those who are called "vessels of mercy,"[238] those who are freed from misery not by their own merits but through God's mercy. Even so, if they suppose that the text applies to all men, there is no ground for them further to suppose that there can be an end for those of whom it is said, "Thus these shall go into everlasting punishment."[239] Otherwise, it can as well be thought that there will also be an end to the happiness of those of whom the antithesis was said: "But the righteous into life eternal." But let them suppose, if it pleases them, that, for certain intervals of time, the punishments of the damned are somewhat mitigated. Even so, the wrath of God must be understood as still resting on them. And this is damnation -- for this anger, which is not a violent passion in the divine mind, is called "wrath" in God. Yet even in his wrath -- his wrath resting on them -- he does not "shut up his mercy." This is not to put an end to their eternal afflictions, but rather to apply or interpose some little respite in their torments. For the psalm does not say, "To put an end to his wrath," or, "_After_ his wrath," but, "_In_ his wrath." Now, if this wrath were all there is [in man's damnation], and even if it were present only in the slightest degree conceivable -- still, to be lost out of the Kingdom of God, to be an exile from the City of God, to be estranged from the life of God, to suffer loss of the great abundance of God's blessings which he has hidden for those who fear him and prepared for those who hope in him[240] -- this would be a punishment so great that, if it be eternal, no torments that we know could be compared to it, no matter how many ages they continued. 113. The eternal death of the damned -- that is, their estrangement from the life of God -- will therefore abide without end, and it will be common to them all, no matter what some people, moved by their human feelings, may wish to think about gradations of punishment, or the relief or intermission of their misery. In the same way, the eternal life of the saints will abide forever, and also be common to all of them no matter how different the grades of rank and honor in which they shine forth in their effulgent harmony. CHAPTER XXX The Principles of Christian Living: Faith and Hope 114. Thus, from our confession of _faith_, briefly summarized in the Creed (which is milk for babes when pondered at the carnal level but food for strong men when it is considered and studied spiritually), there is born the good _hope_ of the faithful, accompanied by a holy _love_.[241] But of these affirmations, all of which ought _faithfully_ to be believed, only those which have to do with _hope_ are contained in the Lord's Prayer. For "cursed is everyone," as the divine eloquence testified, "who rests his hope in man."[242] Thus, he who rests his hope in himself is bound by the bond of this curse. Therefore, we should seek from none other than the Lord God whatever it is that we hope to do well, or hope to obtain as reward for our good works. 115. Accordingly, in the Evangelist Matthew, the Lord's Prayer may be seen to contain seven petitions: three of them ask for eternal goods, the other four for temporal goods, which are, however, necessary for obtaining the eternal goods. For when we say: "Hallowed be thy name. Thy Kingdom come. Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven"[243] -- this last being wrongly interpreted by some as meaning "in body and spirit" -- these blessings will be retained forever. They begin in this life, of course; they are increased in us as we make progress, but in their perfection -- which is to be hoped for in the other life -- they will be possessed forever! But when we say: "Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil,"[244] who does not see that all these pertain to our needs in the present life? In that life eternal -- where we all hope to be -- the hallowing of God's name, his Kingdom, and his will, in our spirit and body will abide perfectly and immortally. But in this life we ask for "daily bread" because it is necessary, in the measure required by soul and body, whether we take the term in a spiritual or bodily sense, or both. And here too it is that we petition for forgiveness, where the sins are committed; here too are the temptations that allure and drive us to sinning; here, finally, the evil from which we wish to be freed. But in that other world none of these things will be found. 116. However, the Evangelist Luke, in his version of the Lord's Prayer, has brought together, not seven, but five petitions. Yet, obviously, there is no discrepancy here, but rather, in his brief way, the Evangelist has shown us how the seven petitions should be understood. Actually, God's name is even now hallowed in the spirit, but the Kingdom of God is yet to come in the resurrection of the body. Therefore, Luke was seeking to show that the third petition ["Thy will be done"] is a repetition of the first two, and makes this better understood by omitting it. He then adds three other petitions, concerning daily bread, forgiveness of sins, and avoidance of temptation.[245] However, what Matthew puts in the last place, "But deliver us from evil," Luke leaves out, in order that we might understand that it was included in what was previously said about temptation. This is, indeed, why Matthew said, "_But_ deliver us," instead of, "_And_ deliver us," as if to indicate that there is only one petition -- "Will not this, but that" -- so that anyone would realize that he is being delivered from evil in that he is not being led into temptation. CHAPTER XXXI Love 117. And now regarding _love_, which the apostle says is greater than the other two -- that is, faith and hope -- for the more richly it dwells in a man, the better the man in whom it dwells. For when we ask whether someone is a good man, we are not asking what he believes, or hopes, but what he loves. Now, beyond all doubt, he who loves aright believes and hopes rightly. Likewise, he who does not love believes in vain, even if what he believes is true; he hopes in vain, even if what he hopes for is generally agreed to pertain to true happiness, unless he believes and hopes for this: that he may through prayer obtain the gift of love. For, although it is true that he cannot hope without love, it may be that there is something without which, if he does not love it, he cannot realize the object of his hopes. An example of this would be if a man hopes for life eternal -- and who is there who does not love that? -- and yet does not love _righteousness_, without which no one comes to it. Now this is the true faith of Christ which the apostle commends: faith that works through love. And what it yet lacks in love it asks that it may receive, it seeks that it may find, and knocks that it may be opened unto it.[246] For faith achieves what the law commands [fides namque impetrat quod lex imperat]. And, without the gift of God -- that is, without the Holy Spirit, through whom love is shed abroad in our hearts -- the law may bid but it cannot aid [jubere lex poterit, non juvare]. Moreover, it can make of man a transgressor, who cannot then excuse himself by pleading ignorance. For appetite reigns where the love of God does not.[247] 118. When, in the deepest shadows of ignorance, he lives according to the flesh with no restraint of reason -- this is the primal state of man.[248] Afterward, when "through the law the knowledge of sin"[249] has come to man, and the Holy Spirit has not yet come to his aid -- so that even if he wishes to live according to the law, he is vanquished -- man sins knowingly and is brought under the spell and made the slave of sin, "for by whatever a man is vanquished, of this master he is the slave"[250]. The effect of the knowledge of the law is that sin works in man the whole round of concupiscence, which adds to the guilt of the first transgression. And thus it is that what was written is fulfilled: "The law entered in, that the offense might abound."[251] This is the _second_ state of man.[252] But if God regards a man with solicitude so that he then believes in God's help in fulfilling His commands, and if a man begins to be led by the Spirit of God, then the mightier power of love struggles against the power of the flesh.[253] And although there is still in man a power that fights against him -- his infirmity being not yet fully healed -- yet he [the righteous man] lives by faith and lives righteously in so far as he does not yield to evil desires, conquering them by his love of righteousness. This is the _third_ stage of the man of good hope. A final peace is in store for him who continues to go forward in this course toward perfection through steadfast piety. This will be perfected beyond this life in the repose of the spirit, and, at the last, in the resurrection of the body. Of these four different stages of man, the first is before the law, the second is under the law, the third is under grace, and the fourth is in full and perfect peace. Thus, also, the history of God's people has been ordered by successive temporal epochs, as it pleased God, who "ordered all things in measure and number and weight."[254] The first period was before the law; the second under the law, which was given through Moses; the next, under grace which was revealed through the first Advent of the Mediator."[255] This grace was not previously absent from those to whom it was to be imparted, although, in conformity to the temporal dispensations, it was veiled and hidden. For none of the righteous men of antiquity could find salvation apart from the faith of Christ. And, unless Christ had also been known to them, he could not have been prophesied to us -- sometimes openly and sometimes obscurely -- through their ministry. 119. Now, in whichever of these four "ages" -- if one can call them that -- the grace of regeneration finds a man, then and there all his past sins are forgiven him and the guilt he contracted in being born is removed by his being reborn. And so true is it that "the Spirit breatheth where he willeth"[256] that some men have never known the second "age" of slavery under the law, but begin to have divine aid directly under the new commandment. 120. Yet, before a man can receive the commandment, he must, of course, live according to the flesh. But, once he has been imbued with the sacrament of rebirth, no harm will come to him even if he then immediately depart this life -- "Wherefore on this account Christ died and rose again, that he might be the Lord of both the living and the dead."'[257] Nor will the kingdom of death have dominion over him for whom He, who was "free among the dead,"[258] died. CHAPTER XXXII The End of All the Law 121. All the divine precepts are, therefore, referred back to _love_, of which the apostle says, "Now the end of the commandment is love, out of a pure heart, and a good conscience and a faith unfeigned."[259] Thus every commandment harks back to love. For whatever one does either in fear of punishment or from some carnal impulse, so that it does not measure up to the standard of love which the Holy Spirit sheds abroad in our hearts -- whatever it is, it is not yet done as it should be, although it may seem to be. Love, in this context, of course includes both the love of God and the love of our neighbor and, indeed, "on these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets"[260] -- and, we may add, the gospel and the apostles, for from nowhere else comes the voice, "The end of the commandment is love,"[261] and, "God is love."[262] Therefore, whatsoever things God commands (and one of these is, "Thou shalt not commit adultery"[263]) and whatsoever things are not positively ordered but are strongly advised as good spiritual counsel (and one of these is, "It is a good thing for a man not to touch a woman"[264]) -- all of these imperatives are rightly obeyed only when they are measured by the standard of our love of God and our love of our neighbor in God [propter Deum]. This applies both in the present age and in the world to come. Now we love God in faith; then, at sight. For, though mortal men ourselves, we do not know the hearts of mortal men. But then "the Lord will illuminate the hidden things in the darkness and will make manifest the cogitations of the heart; and then shall each one have his praise from God"[265] -- for what will be praised and loved in a neighbor by his neighbor is just that which, lest it remain hidden, God himself will bring to light. Moreover, passion decreases as love increases[266] until love comes at last to that fullness which cannot be surpassed, "for greater love than this no one has, that a man lay down his life for his friends."[267] Who, then, can explain how great the power of love will be, when there will be no passion [cupiditas] for it to restrain or overcome? For, then, the supreme state of true health [summa sanitas] will have been reached, when the struggle with death shall be no more. CHAPTER XXXIII Conclusion 122. But somewhere this book must have an end. You can see for yourself whether you should call it an Enchiridion, or use it as one. But since I have judged that your zeal in Christ ought not to be spurned and since I believe and hope for good things for you through the help of our Redeemer, and since I love you greatly as one of the members of his body, I have written this book for you -- may its usefulness match its prolixity! -- on Faith, Hope, and Love. NOTES [1] 1 Cor. 1:20. [2] Wis. 6:26 (Vulgate). [3] Rom. 16:19. [4] A later interpolation, not found in the best MSS., adds, "As no one can exist from himself, so also no one can be wise in himself save only as he is enlightened by Him of whom it is written, 'All wisdom is from God' [Ecclus. 1:1]." [5] Job 28:28. [6] A transliteration of the Greek, literally, a handbook or manual. [7] Cf. Gal. 5:6. [8] Cf. 1 Cor. 13:10, 11. [9] 1 Cor. 3:11. [10] Already, very early in his ministry (397), Augustine had written De agone Christiano, in which he had reviewed and refuted a full score of heresies threatening the orthodox faith. [11] The Apostles' Creed. Cf. Augustine's early essay On Faith and the Creed. [12] Joel 2:32. [13] Rom. 10:14. [14] Lucan, Pharsalia, II, 15. [15] Virgil, Aeneid, IV, 419. The context of this quotation is Dido's lament over Aeneas' prospective abandonment of her. She is saying that if she could have foreseen such a disaster, she would have been able to bear it. Augustine's criticism here is a literalistic quibble. [16] Heb. 11:1. [17] Sacra eloquia -- a favorite phrase of Augustine's for the Bible. [18] Rom. 8:24, 25 (Old Latin). [19] James 2:19. [20] One of the standard titles of early Greek philosophical treatises would translate into Latin as De rerum natura. This is, in fact, the title of Lucretius' famous poem, the greatest philosophical work written in classical Latin. [21] This basic motif appears everywhere in Augustine's thought as the very foundation of his whole system. [22] This section (Chs. III and IV) is the most explicit statement of a major motif which pervades the whole of Augustinian metaphysics. We see it in his earliest writings, Soliloquies, 1, 2, and De ordine, II, 7. It is obviously a part of the Neoplatonic heritage which Augustine appropriated for his Christian philosophy. The good is positive, constructive, essential; evil is privative, destructive, parasitic on the good. It has its origin, not in nature, but in the will. Cf. Confessions, Bk. VII, Chs. III, V, XII-XVI; On Continence, 14-16; On the Gospel of John, Tractate XCVIII, 7; City of God, XI, 17; XII, 7-9. [23] Isa. 5:20. [24] Matt. 12:35. [25] This refers to Aristotle's well-known principle of "the excluded middle." [26] Matt. 7:18. [27] Cf. Matt. 12:33. [28] Virgil, Georgios, II, 490. [29] Ibid., 479. [30] Sed in via pedum, non in via morum. [31] Virgil, Eclogue, VIII, 42. The context of the passage is Damon's complaint over his faithless Nyssa; he is here remembering the first time he ever saw her -- when he was twelve! Cf. Theocritus, II, 82. [32] Cf. Matt. 5:37. [33] Cf. Confessions, Bk. X, Ch. XXIII. [34] Ad consentium contra mendacium, CSEL (J. Zycha, ed.), Vol. 41, pp. 469-528; also Migne, PL, 40, c. 517-548; English translation by H.B. Jaffee in Deferrari, St. Augustine: Treatises on Various Subjects (The Fathers of the Church, New York, 1952), pp. 113-179. This had been written about a year earlier than the Enchiridion. Augustine had also written another treatise On Lying much earlier, c. 395; see De mendacio in CSEL (J. Zycha, ed.), Vol. 41, pp. 413-466; Migne, PL, 40, c. 487-518; English translation by M.S. Muldowney in Deferrari, op. cit., pp. 47-109. This summary of his position here represents no change of view whatever on this question. [35] Sallust, The War with Catiline, X, 6-7. [36] Cf. Acts 12:9. [37] Virgil, Aeneid, X, 392. [38] This refers to one of the first of the Cassiciacum dialogues, Contra Academicos. The gist of Augustine's refutation of skepticism is in III, 23ff. Throughout his whole career he continued to maintain this position: that certain knowledge begins with self-knowledge. Cf. Confessions, Bk. V, Ch. X, 19; see also City of God, XI, xxvii. [39] Hab. 2:4; Rom. 1:17. [40] A direct contrast between suspensus assenso -- the watchword of the Academics -- and assensio, the badge of Christian certitude. [41] See above, VII, 90. [42] Matt. 5:37. [43] Matt. 6:12. [44] Rom. 5:12. [45] Cf. Luke 20:36. [46] Rom. 4:17. [47] Wis. 11:20. [48] 2 Peter 2:19. [49] John 8:36. [50] Eph. 2:8. [51] 1 Cor. 7:25. [52] Eph. 2:8, 9. [53] Eph. 2:10. [54] Cf. Gal. 6:15; I1 Cor. 5:17. [55] Ps. 51:10. [56] Phil. 2:13. [57] Rom. 9:16. [58] Prov. 8:35 (LXX). [59] From the days at Cassiciacum till the very end, Augustine toiled with the mystery of the primacy of God's grace and the reality of human freedom. Of two things he was unwaveringly sure, even though they involved him in a paradox and the appearance of confusion. The first is that God's grace is not only primary but also sufficient as the ground and source of human willing. And against the Pelagians and other detractors from grace, he did not hesitate to insist that grace is irresistible and inviolable. Cf. On Grace and Free Will, 99, 41-43; On the Predestination of the Saints, 19:10; On the Gift of Perseverance, 41; On the Soul and Its Origin, 16; and even the Enchiridion, XXIV, 97. But he never drew from this deterministic emphasis the conclusion that man is unfree and everywhere roundly rejects the not illogical corollary of his theonomism, that man's will counts for little or nothing except as passive agent of God's will. He insists on responsibility on man's part in responding to the initiatives of grace. For this emphasis, which is characteristically directed to the faithful themselves, see On the Psalms, LXVIII, 7-8; On the Gospel of John, Tractate, 53:6-8; and even his severest anti-Pelagian tracts: On Grace and Free Will, 6- 8, 10, 31 and On Admonition and Grace, 2-8. [60] Ps. 58:11 (Vulgate). [61] Ps. 23:6. [62] Cf. Matt. 5:44. [63] The theme that he had explored in Confessions, Bks. I-IX. See especially Bk. V, Chs. X, XIII; Bk. VII, Ch. VIII; Bk. IX, Ch. I. [64] Cf. Ps. 90:9. [65] Job 14:1. [66] John 3:36. [67] Eph. 2:3. [68] Rom. 5:9, 10. [69] Rom. 8:14. [70] John 1:14. [71] Rom. 3:20. [72] Epistle CXXXVII, written in 412 in reply to a list of queries sent to Augustine by the proconsul of Africa. [73] John 1:1. [74] Phil. 2:6, 7. [75] These metaphors for contrasting the "two natures" of Jesus Christ were favorite figures of speech in Augustine's Christological thought. Cf. On the Gospel of John, Tractate 78; On the Trinity, I, 7; II, 2; IV, 19-20; VII, 3; New Testament Sermons, 76, 14. [76] Luke 1:28-30. [77] John 1:14. [78] Luke 1:35. [79] Matt. 1:20. [80] Rom. 1:3. [81] Rom. 8:3. [82] Cf. Hos. 4:8. [83] I1 Cor. 5:20, 21. [84] Virgil, Aeneid, II, 1, 20. [85] Num. 21:7 (LXX). [86] Matt. 2:20. [87] Ex. 32:4. [88] Rom. 5:12. [89] Deut. 5:9. [90] Ezek. 18:2. [91] Ps. 51:5. [92] 1 Tim. 2:5. [93] Matt. 3:13. [94] Luke 3:4; Isa. 40:3. [95] Ps. 2:7; Heb. 5:5; cf. Mark 1:9-11. [96] Rom. 5:16. [97] Rom. 5:18. [98] Rom. 6:1. [99] Rom. 5:20. [100] Rom. 6:2. [101] Rom. 6:3. [102] Rom. 6:4-11. [103] Gal. 5:24. [104] Col. 3:1-3. [105] Col. 3:4. [106] John 5:29. [107] Ps. 54:1. [108] Cf. Matt. 25:32, 33. [109] Ps. 43:1. [110] Reading the classical Latin form poscebat (as in Scheel and PL) for the late form poxebat (as in Riviere and many old MSS.). [111] Cf. Ps. 113:3. [112] Here reading unum deum (with Riviere and PL) against deum (in Scheel). [113] A hyperbolic expression referring to "the saints." Augustine's Scriptural backing for such an unusual phrase is Ps. 82:6 and John 10:34f. But note the firm distinction between ex diis quos facit and non factus Deus. [114] 1 Cor. 6:19. [115] 1 Cor. 6:15. [116] Col. 1:18. [117] John 2:19. [118] 2 Peter 2:4 (Old Latin). [119] Heb. 1:13. [120] Ps. 148:2 (LXX). [121] Col. 1:16. [122] Zech. 1:9. [123] Matt. 1:20. (continued in part 7...) ---------------------------------------------------- file: /pub/resources/text/ipb-e/epl-01: agenc-06.txt .