I. ON THE PERFECTION OF MAN'S RIGHTEOUSNESS. To the holy brethren and fellow-bishops Eutropius and Paulus, Augustine. Your Charity, which is so great and so holy in you that it delights even to serve one who commands, has asked that I should respond to those which are called the definitions of Celestius. For thus was that same little document, which you gave me, entitled: 'Definitions, as it is said, of Celestius.' Which title, I believe, is not his, but of those who brought this from Sicily, where Celestius is reported not to be, but many babbling such things and, as the Apostle says, themselves erring and sending others into error. Yet that these are of his teaching, or even of certain of his associates, we too can suppose.
For neither do these brief definitions, or rather ratiocinations, differ from that man's cast of mind, which I have inspected in another work of his, of which it is established that he is the author; and not without reason do I judge that these brethren, who brought these things, heard in Sicily that he himself taught or wrote such things. But I could wish, if I were able, so to comply with your fraternal benevolence as that I too might answer as briefly. Yet unless I also recall those things to which I respond, who will be able to judge how I have responded? Nevertheless I shall try, as far as I am able — with your prayers too aiding me in the presence of the Lord's mercy — that my discourse may not run on further than is necessary.
'Before all things,' he says, 'he who denies that man can be without sin must be asked what any sin whatever is: something that can be avoided, or something that cannot be avoided. If something that cannot be avoided, it is not sin; if something that can be avoided, man can be without sin, which can be avoided. For no reason or justice suffers that even to be called sin which can in no way be avoided.' We answer that sin can be avoided, if the vitiated nature be healed by the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. For it is not sound in so far as it either does not see, through blindness, what is to be done, or does not fulfill it, through infirmity, while the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh, so that man does not the things that he would.
'Again it must be asked,' he says, 'whether sin is of the will or of necessity. If it is of necessity, it is not sin; if it is of the will, it can be avoided.' We answer as above, and, that we may be healed, we call upon Him to whom it is said in the psalm: Bring me out of my necessities. 'Again,' he says, 'it must be asked what sin is: natural or accidental. If natural, it is not sin; but if it is accidental, it can also depart; and what can depart, can be avoided; and what can be avoided, man can be without that which can be avoided.'
We answer that sin is not natural, but of nature — especially of a vitiated nature (whence we were made by nature children of wrath) — for the free choice of the will avails little toward not sinning, unless, being aided, it be healed by the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. 'Again,' he says, 'it must be asked what sin is: an act or a thing. If it is a thing, it must needs have an author; and if it is said to have an author, now another besides God will seem to be introduced as author of some thing; but if it is impious to say this, then it is necessary to confess that all sin is an act, not a thing. If, therefore, it is an act — nay rather, because it truly is an act — it can be avoided.' We answer that sin is indeed called, and is, an act, not a thing.
But in the body too, limping is by the same reasoning an act, not a substance, since the substance is the foot itself, or the body, or the man who limps with an injured foot; and yet he cannot avoid limping unless he has a healed foot. This can also happen in the inner man, but only by the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. The very defect by which a man limps is neither the foot, nor the body, nor the man, nor the limping itself — which indeed does not exist while he is not walking, though the defect that produces the limping is still present, coming into effect when he walks. Let him ask, then, what name he would impose upon this defect: whether he wishes to call it a substance, or an act, or rather an evil quality of the substance, by which a deformed act arises.
So too in the inner man the soul is the substance, robbery is the act, and avarice is the defect — that is, the quality according to which the soul is evil, even when it does nothing. Hence one may be a slave to one's avarice even while one hears, 'You shall not covet,' and reproaches oneself, and yet remains avaricious. But through faith he is renewed — that is, healed — from day to day, yet only by the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. 'Again,' he says, 'it must be asked whether a man ought to be without sin. Beyond doubt he ought. If he ought, he can; if he cannot, then neither ought he. And if a man ought not to be without sin, then he ought to be with sin; and then it will no longer be sin, if it be established that it must be held.'
'Or if it is absurd to say even this, then we must confess that a man ought to be without sin, and it is agreed that he owes nothing other than what he is able to do.' The answer is by the same comparison with which we already answered above. For when we see a lame man who can be healed, we rightly say: this man ought to be without lameness; and if he ought, he can. Yet he cannot do so the moment he wishes, but only when treatment has been applied and he has been healed, and the medicine has assisted his will. This happens in the inner man, as regards sin, which is as it were its lameness, through the grace of Him who came not to call the righteous but sinners; for the healthy have no need of a physician, but those who are sick.
'Again,' he says, 'it must be asked whether it has been commanded to man to be without sin. For either he cannot, and it has not been commanded; or, because it has been commanded, he can. For why should that be commanded which could not possibly be done?' The answer is that it is most wisely commanded to man that he walk with upright steps, so that, when he perceives that he cannot, he may seek the medicine which, for the inner man, is the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord, to heal the lameness of sin. 'Again,' he says, 'it must be asked whether God wills a man to be without sin. Beyond doubt He wills it, and beyond doubt He is able. For who is so mad as even to doubt that what he does not doubt God wills can be done?' The answer is:
If God did not will a man to be without sin, He would not have sent His Son, who was without sin, to heal men from their sins. This comes to pass in those who believe and make progress by the renewal of the inner man from day to day, until perfect righteousness is attained, as it were full health. 'Likewise,' he says, 'it must be asked how God wills a man to be: with sin or without sin. Beyond doubt He does not will him to be with sin. How great an impiety and blasphemy this is must be considered — that it should be said a man can be with sin, which God does not will, and be denied that he can be without sin, which God does wills;
as if God had created him for this purpose — that he might be able to be what He does not will, and be unable to be what He wills, and that he should exist rather contrary to His will than according to it.' The answer has already been given above, but I see that this must be added: that we were saved by hope; but hope that is seen is not hope, for what a man sees, why does he also hope for it? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience. Then, therefore, will there be full righteousness, when there is full health; then full health, when there is full love — for love is the fullness of the law — and then full love, when we shall see Him as He is. For there will be nothing to be added to love once faith has arrived at sight.
'Again it must be asked,' he says, 'by what a man is made sinful: by necessity of nature, or by liberty of the will. If by necessity of nature, he is free from blame; if by liberty of the will, it must be asked from whom he received that very liberty of the will. Beyond doubt, from God. But what God gave is certainly good; this cannot be denied. By what reasoning, then, is it proved good, if it is more inclined to evil than to good? For it is more inclined to evil than to good, if through it a man can be with sin and cannot be without sin.' The answer is that it was by liberty of the will that it came about that man was with sin; but now penal defectiveness, following upon it, has out of liberty made necessity.
Hence faith cries to God: 'Bring me out of my necessities.' Placed under these, we either cannot understand what we will, or, having understood, we will it yet lack the strength to fulfill it. For even liberty itself is promised to believers by the Liberator. 'If the Son,' He says, 'shall make you free, then you shall be free indeed.' For the will, conquered by the defect into which it fell, lost its natural liberty. Hence another Scripture says: 'For by whom a man is overcome, to him also is he bound as a slave.' Therefore, just as the healthy have no need of a physician but the sick, so the free have no need of a liberator but slaves — that the thanksgiving of liberty may say to Him: 'You have saved my soul out of its necessities.'
For that very health is true liberty, which would not have perished if the will had remained good. But because the will sinned, the hard necessity of having sin has followed the sinner, until the whole infirmity is healed and so great a liberty is received in which, just as the will of living blessedly must remain, so there will be also a voluntary and happy necessity of living well and never sinning. 'Accordingly,' he says, 'God made man good, and beyond making him good, He further commanded him to do good. How impious it is to confess that man is evil — which he was neither made nor commanded to be — if we deny that he can be good, which he was made and was commanded to be!' We answer:
Because, then, it was not man who made himself, but God who made man good, it is God, not man himself, who remakes him to be good — while He delivers the one who wills, believes, and calls upon Him from the evil which he himself did to himself. But this comes to pass while, by the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord, the inner man is renewed from day to day, so that the outer man may rise on the last day to eternal life, not to punishment. 'Again,' he says, 'it must be asked in how many ways every sin consists. In two, unless I am mistaken: either when those things are done which are forbidden, or when those things are not done which are commanded. Certainly all those things which are forbidden can be avoided, just as those which are commanded can be fulfilled. For in vain would that be forbidden or commanded which could neither be shunned nor fulfilled.'
'And how shall we deny that a man can be without sin, when it must be confessed that he can as much avoid all those things which are forbidden as fulfill those which are commanded?' The answer is that there are many divine precepts in the holy Scriptures, which it would be too laborious to recount all; but the Lord, who, completing and abridging the word, made it upon the earth, said that upon two precepts hang the Law and the Prophets — so that we might understand that whatever else has been divinely commanded has its end in these two and is to be referred to these two: 'You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, and with your whole soul, and with your whole mind,' and: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'
'On these two precepts,' He says, 'hangs the whole Law and the Prophets.' Whatever, therefore, we are forbidden by the law of God, and whatever we are commanded to do, we are forbidden and commanded for this end: that we may fulfill these two. And perhaps the general prohibition is 'You shall not covet,' and the general command 'You shall love.' Hence, briefly, the Apostle Paul also embraced both in a certain passage. For the prohibition is: 'Do not be conformed to this world,' and the command: 'but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.' The former pertains to not coveting, the latter to loving; the former to continence, the latter to righteousness; the former to turning away from evil, the latter to doing good. For by not coveting we are stripped of the old, and by loving we are clothed with the new.
But no one can be continent unless God grant it, and the love of God is poured out in our hearts not through ourselves, but through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. And this comes to pass from day to day in those who, by willing and believing and calling upon God, make progress and, forgetting the things that are behind, reach out toward those which are ahead. For this is why that law commanded — so that, when a man falls short in fulfilling it, he may not be puffed up and lifted up with pride, but may flee wearied to grace; and thus the law, by terrifying, may lead him, in the office of a tutor, to love Christ. 'Again it must be asked,' he says, 'in what way a man cannot be without sin: by will or by nature. If by nature, it is not sin;
but if by will, the will can most easily be changed by the will.' We answer, admonishing that it must be considered how great is this presumption, by which it is said not only that the will can — which indeed, with the help of God's grace, must not be denied — but even that the will can most easily be changed by the will; when the Apostle says: 'The flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh; for these are opposed to one another, so that you do not do the things that you will.' For he does not say, 'These are opposed to one another, so that you do not will the things you can do,' but 'so that you do not do the things that you will.'
Why, then, is the concupiscence of the flesh — which is certainly culpable and defective, and is nothing else than the desire of sin, which that same Apostle bids should not reign in our mortal body, where he sufficiently shows that there is nevertheless in our mortal body that which must not be permitted to reign — why, then, is this concupiscence not changed by that will which the Apostle sufficiently and evidently expressed when he said, 'so that you do not do the things that you will,' if the will can easily be changed by the will? Nor indeed in this way do we accuse the nature, whether of soul or of body, which God created and which is wholly good; but we say that, vitiated by its own will, it cannot be healed without the grace of God.
'Again,' he says, 'it must be asked: if a man cannot be without sin, whose fault is it — the man's own, or some other's? If the man's own, how is it the man's fault, if it is that which cannot be?' We answer that it is therefore the man's fault that he is not without sin, because it was by the man's will alone that it came about that he arrived at this necessity, which the man's will alone cannot overcome. 'Again,' he says, 'it must be asked: if the nature of man is good — which none but Marcion or Manichaeus will dare to deny — how then is it good, if it is not possible for it to be without evil? For who can doubt that every sin is evil?' We answer both that the nature of man is good, and that it can be without evil.
For this reason we cry: 'Deliver us from evil.' This is not accomplished so long as the body, which is corrupted, weighs down the soul. But this is brought about by grace through faith, so that at some time it may be said: 'Where, O death, is your strife? Where, O death, is your sting?' Now the sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law, since the law, by forbidding, increases the desire of sin, unless the Spirit pour out love, which will then be full and perfect when we shall see face to face. 'And this too,' he says, 'must be said: certainly God is just — for this cannot be denied — but God imputes to man every sin. And this too, I think, must be confessed: that neither is that a sin which shall not be imputed as sin.
And if there is some sin which cannot be avoided, how is God called just, if He is believed to impute to someone that which cannot be avoided?' We answer that it was cried out long ago against the proud: 'Blessed is he to whom the Lord will not impute sin.' For He does not impute it to those who faithfully say to Him: 'Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors.' And He justly does not impute it, because it is just, as He says: 'With what measure you have measured, it shall be measured back to you.' Now there is sin whenever either the love which ought to be is not present, or is less than it ought to be — whether this could be avoided by the will or not; for if it can, the present will does it; but if it cannot, the past will did it;
and yet it can be avoided, not when the proud will is praised, but when the humble will is assisted. After these things, the one who wrote them introduces his own person, as if disputing with another, and represents himself being questioned and, as it were, being told by his questioner: 'Do you grant me a man without sin?' And he answers: 'I grant you one who could be.' And again the questioner says to him: 'Who is he?' And he answers: 'You yourself.' 'But if you should say,' he says, 'I cannot be, the answer must be: whose fault is it? And if he should say: mine, it must be said: and how is it yours, if you cannot be?' Again he represents himself being questioned and being told: 'Are you yourself without sin, who say that a man can be without sin?' And he answers:
'That I am not without sin — whose fault is it? But if he should say,' he says, 'it is yours, the answer must be: how is it mine, if I cannot be?' We answer that there ought to be no dispute with them over these words, since he did not dare to say that a man is without sin — whether anyone else or he himself — but only answered that a man can be without sin, which we too do not deny. But when he can, and through whom he can — this is the question. For if it is possible now, then it need not be prayed and said by every faithful soul placed in the body of this death: 'Forgive us our debts,' since in holy baptism all past debts have already been forgiven.
But whoever attempts to persuade the faithful members of Christ that this ought not to be prayed, professes nothing else than that he himself is not a Christian. Furthermore, if a man can be without sin through himself, then Christ died in vain. But Christ did not die in vain; therefore a man cannot be without sin, even if he wills it, unless he be helped by the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. And that this may be accomplished, it is even now being brought about in those who make progress, and it will be fulfilled in every way when the strife of death has been consumed, and love — which is nourished by believing and hoping — has been perfected by seeing and possessing. He next undertakes to argue his intent by divine testimonies. Let us more diligently attend to what sort of thing this is.
'These are the testimonies,' he says, 'by which it is proved that it has been commanded to man to be without sin.' To this we answer: the question is not whether it has been commanded — which is very manifest — but this very thing, that what is agreed to have been commanded, whether it can be fulfilled in the body of this death, where the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh, so that we do not do the things that we will. From this body of this death, not everyone who ends this life is delivered, but he who in this life has received grace, and who has taken care not to receive it in vain by good works.
For it is one thing to depart from this body, which the last day of this life compels all men to do, but another thing to be delivered from the body of this death, which the grace of God alone, through Jesus Christ our Lord, bestows upon His holy and faithful ones. But after this life the perfecting reward is rendered, yet only to those by whom, in this life, the merit of that same reward is acquired. For no one will arrive at the fullness of righteousness when he has departed hence, unless while he is here he has run to it by hungering and thirsting; for blessed indeed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled. So long, therefore, as we walk by faith and not by sight, being pilgrims away from the Lord — whence it is said:
'The just lives by faith' — this is our righteousness in this very pilgrimage: that toward that perfection and fullness of righteousness, where in the vision of His beauty love will already be full and perfect, we now strain by the uprightness and perfection of this very course — chastising our body and bringing it into subjection, giving alms in bestowing benefits and remitting the sins that are committed against us, doing so cheerfully and from the heart, and persevering unceasingly in prayers, and doing these things in sound doctrine, by which right faith, firm hope, and pure love are built up. This is now our righteousness, by which we run, hungering and thirsting, toward the perfection and fullness of righteousness, that we may afterward be filled with it.
Hence the Lord in the Gospel, when He had said: 'Do not do your righteousness before men, to be seen by them' — lest we measure this course of ours by the end of human glory — did not, in expounding that righteousness, pursue anything but these three: fasting, almsgiving, and prayers; by fasting signifying, namely, the whole chastisement of the body; by almsgiving all benevolence and beneficence, whether of giving or of pardoning; and by prayer intimating all the rules of holy desire:
so that — since in the chastisement of the body that concupiscence is bridled which ought not to be bridled but ought not to exist at all, and will not exist in that perfection of righteousness where there will be no sin whatever, and which often, even in the use of things allowed and permitted, exerts its immoderation — and since in that very beneficence itself, by which the just man cares for his neighbor, certain things are done which harm when they were thought to profit, and sometimes through weakness, either when the needs of others are insufficiently met, or when what is expended of kindness and labor profits them little, weariness creeps in, by which is darkened that cheerfulness in which God loves the giver, and it creeps in the more, the less anyone has advanced, and the less, the more he has advanced — considering these things and things of this kind, we rightly say in prayer:
'Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors' — provided, however, that we do what we say, so that either enemies themselves are also loved, or, if anyone still a little child in Christ does not yet do this, he may nevertheless, from the depth of his heart, pardon the one who repents of the sin he committed against him and seeks forgiveness, if he wishes his heavenly Father to hear his prayer. In this prayer, if we are unwilling to be contentious, a sufficient mirror is set before us, in which may be beheld the life of the just, who live by faith and run perfectly, although they are not without sin. Whence they say: 'Forgive us,' because they have not yet arrived at the goal toward which one runs. Hence the Apostle says: 'Not that I have already attained, or am already perfect.'
'Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but this one thing I do: forgetting the things that are behind, and reaching out to the things that are before, I follow, according to my aim, toward the palm of the supernal calling of God in Christ Jesus. As many of us, therefore, as are perfect, let us be thus minded' — that is: as many as run perfectly, let us be thus minded, that we are not yet perfect, so that we may be perfected there whither we still run perfectly; so that, when that which is perfect has come, that which is in part may be destroyed — that is, may no longer be in part but in whole; because to faith and hope the very reality will succeed, no longer that which is believed and hoped, but that which is seen and held; but love, which is greater than these three, will not be taken away, but increased and fulfilled, having beheld what it believed and obtained what it hoped.
In this fullness of love that precept will be fulfilled: 'You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, and with your whole soul, and with your whole mind.' For as long as there is still something of carnal concupiscence which must be bridled by continence, God is not in every way loved with the whole soul. For the flesh does not lust without the soul, although the flesh is said to lust, because the soul lusts carnally. Then will the just man be without any sin whatever, because there will be no law in his members warring against the law of his mind, but he will altogether love God with his whole heart, whole soul, and whole mind — which is the first and greatest precept. Why, then, should this perfection not be commanded to man, although no one has it in this life?
For one does not run rightly if one does not know whither one must run. And how could it be known, if it were shown by no precepts? So then, let us so run that we may lay hold. For all who run rightly will lay hold — not as in the theatrical contest, where indeed all run, but one receives the palm. Let us run by believing, hoping, desiring; let us run by chastising the body, and by cheerfully and from the heart giving alms in good things and pardoning evils, and by praying that the strength of those who run may be assisted; and so let us hear the precepts of perfection, lest we neglect to run to the fullness of love. These things being premised, let us diligently hear those testimonies which this man to whom we are replying has set down, as if we ourselves had brought them forward. 'In Deuteronomy:
'You, however, shall be perfect before the Lord your God'; likewise there: 'And there shall not be one uncompleted among the sons of Israel'; likewise the Savior in the Gospel: 'Be perfect, because your Father who is in heaven is perfect'; likewise the Apostle in Second Corinthians: 'For the rest, brethren, rejoice, be perfect'; likewise to the Colossians: 'admonishing every man and teaching in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ'; likewise to the Philippians: 'Do all things without murmuring and hesitation, that you may be blameless and simple, as the immaculate sons of God'; likewise to the Ephesians:
'Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and immaculate in His sight'; likewise to the Colossians: 'And you, when at one time you were estranged and enemies in mind by evil works, yet now reconciled in the body of His flesh through His death, present yourselves holy and immaculate and blameless'; likewise to the Ephesians: 'that He might present to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it should be holy and immaculate'; likewise in First Corinthians: 'Be sober and just, and do not sin'; likewise in the epistle of Saint Peter: