but this, that is, the ministration of the New Testament, he calls the ministration of the spirit and the ministration of righteousness, because through the gift of the Spirit we work righteousness and are freed from the condemnation of transgression. Therefore that is done away, this remains, since the terrifying pedagogue is taken away when love has succeeded fear; for where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. And that this ministration is not of our merits but of mercy, he thus says: 'Wherefore, having this ministration, according as we have obtained mercy, let us not faint, but let us cast away the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor adulterating the word of God by guile.' By this craftiness and guile he would have hypocrisy understood, whereby the proud wish to seem righteous.
Hence too in that psalm which the same Apostle cites for the testimony of this very grace: 'Blessed,' he says, 'is he to whom the Lord has not imputed sin, and in whose mouth there is no guile.' This is the confession of the humble saints, who do not boast themselves to be what they are not. And a little after: 'For we preach not ourselves,' he says, 'but Jesus Christ the Lord, and ourselves your servants through Jesus. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of His glory in the face of Christ Jesus.' This is the knowledge of His glory, by which we know that He Himself is the light by which our darkness is illumined. And I mark this very thing, how he drives it home:
But we have this treasure,' he says, 'in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us.' And a little after, when, commending the same grace more abundantly in the Lord Jesus Christ, he came to that garment of the righteousness of faith, wherewith being clothed we may not be found naked, and on account of this we groan, being burdened by mortality, desiring to be clothed upon with our habitation which is from heaven, that what is mortal may be swallowed up of life — see what he adds: 'Now He that has wrought us,' he says, 'for this very thing is God, who also has given us the earnest of the Spirit.' And after a little he brought in: 'that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.' This is that righteousness of God, not that whereby He Himself is righteous, but whereby we are made righteous by Him.
Let no Christian therefore stray from this faith, which alone is Christian; nor, when anyone has been ashamed to say that we are made righteous by ourselves, without the grace of God working this in us — because he sees that this cannot be endured by the faithful and pious when it is said — let him turn to this, that he may say that we cannot be righteous without the working of the grace of God for this reason: that God gave the law, that He instituted teaching, that He commanded good precepts. For that, without the aiding Spirit, is undoubtedly the letter that kills; but when the life-giving Spirit is present, it makes that very thing which was written within to be loved, which the law written without made to be feared. Look at this a little also in that testimony which was most excellently set forth by the prophet concerning this matter:
Behold, the days come, says the Lord, and I will consummate over the house of Israel and over the house of Judah a new testament — not according to the testament which I made with their fathers in the day when I took hold of their hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my testament, and I disregarded them, says the Lord. For this is the testament which I will ordain for the house of Israel: after those days, says the Lord, I will give my laws into their heart, and in their mind will I write them; and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people. And each shall not teach his fellow-citizen, and each his brother, saying:
Know the Lord; for all shall know me, from the least of them unto the greatest, because I will be merciful to their iniquity, and their sins will I remember no more. What shall we say to these things? Assuredly in the old books, either nowhere or scarcely, apart from this prophetic passage, is there read any mention made of the New Testament, so that it should be called altogether by that very name. For in many places it is signified and foretold to be future, but not in such a way that even the name is read expressed. Consider therefore diligently what difference between the two testaments — that is, the old and the new — God has testified to exist. When He had said:
not according to the testament which I made with their fathers in the day when I took hold of their hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt — see what He added: because they continued not in my testament. He imputes it to their own fault that they did not remain in the testament of God, lest the law, which they then received, should seem to be blameworthy. For it is the very law which Christ came not to abolish but to fulfil; yet not by that same law are the ungodly justified, but by grace; for this is what the life-giving Spirit does, without which the letter kills. For if a law had been given which could give life, righteousness would altogether be of the law. But the Scripture has concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.
From this promise, that is, from the benefit of God, the law itself is fulfilled, without which promise it makes transgressors — either even to the effect of an evil deed, if the flame of coveting overleap even the barriers of fear, or at least in the will alone, if the fear of punishment overcome the sweetness of lust. For as to what he says: 'the Scripture concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe,' the usefulness of that very concluding is stated. For 'concluded' — to what use, unless as he says elsewhere: 'But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto that faith which was afterward revealed'? The law therefore was given, that grace might be sought; grace was given, that the law might be fulfilled.
For the law was not unfulfilled by its own fault, but by the fault of the prudence of the flesh; which fault was to be demonstrated by the law, to be healed by grace. For 'what was impossible to the law, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and of sin condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the spirit.' Hence in this prophetic testimony also: 'I will consummate,' He says, 'over the house of Israel and over the house of Judah a new testament.' What is 'I will consummate' but 'I will fulfil'? 'Not according to the testament which I made with their fathers in the day when I took hold of their hand, to lead them out of the land of Egypt?'
Therefore that was old, because this is new. Whence then is that old, this new, since the same law is fulfilled through the New Testament, which said in the Old: Thou shalt not covet? 'Because they,' He says, 'continued not in my testament, and I disregarded them, says the Lord.' Therefore, on account of the guilt of the old man, which was by no means healed by the letter commanding and threatening, that testament is called old; but this new, on account of the newness of the spirit, which heals the new man from the fault of oldness. Finally, attend to what follows, and see with how great a light it becomes clear — that which men trusting in themselves are unwilling to behold. 'For this is the testament,' He says, 'which I will ordain for the house of Israel:'
'After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my laws into their heart, and in their mind will I write them.' Behold the source from which the Apostle spoke, as we mentioned above: 'not in tablets of stone, but in the tablets of the heart'; for it was 'not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God.' Nor for any other reason, I think, did the Apostle wish to make mention of the New Testament in that place — for there indeed he says, 'who also hath made us fit ministers of the New Testament, not of the letter, but of the Spirit' — except that he had this prophecy in view, when he said 'not in tablets of stone, but in the tablets of the heart.' For here it is said, 'In their hearts I will write them,' where the New Testament is expressly promised by name.
What then are the laws of God, written by God himself in hearts, if not the very presence of the Holy Spirit, who is the finger of God, by whose presence charity is poured abroad in our hearts — charity which is the fullness of the law and the end of the commandment?
For since the promises of the Old Testament are earthly — although (setting aside the sacraments, which were shadows of things to come, such as circumcision and the Sabbath and other observances of days, and the ceremonies concerning certain foods, and the manifold rite of sacrifices and holy things, which suited the carnal antiquity under a servile yoke of law) it contains such precepts of righteousness as we too are now bidden to observe, which are chiefly expressed in those two tablets without any figure of shadowed meaning, such as: 'Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not covet,' and whatever other commandment there is, which is summed up in this saying:
'Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself' — yet, because in it, as I have said, earthly and temporal promises are recited, which are the goods of this corruptible flesh, although by them are figured everlasting and heavenly things pertaining to the New Testament; now the good of the heart itself is promised, the good of the mind, the good of the spirit — that is, the intelligible good, when it is said: 'Giving my laws into their mind, and in their hearts will I write them.' By which he signified that they would not dread a law terrifying from without, but would love the very righteousness of the law dwelling within. Then he added also the reward: 'And I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people.' This is that which that man said to God: 'But it is good for me to cleave to God.'
'I will be,' he says, 'to them a God, and they shall be to me a people.' What is better than this good, what happier than this happiness — to live for God, to live from God, with whom is the fountain of life, and in whose light we shall see light? Of this life the Lord himself says: 'And this is life eternal, that they may know thee the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent' — that is, thee and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent as the one true God. For this too he himself promises to those who love him, saying: 'He that loveth me keepeth my commandments; and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will show myself to him' — assuredly in the form of God, in which he is equal to the Father, not in the form of a servant, in which he showed himself even to the ungodly. For then shall come to pass that which is written:
'Let the ungodly be taken away, that he may not see the glory of the Lord,' when those on the left shall go into eternal fire, but the righteous into life eternal. This eternal life, as I have mentioned, is defined to be this: that they may know the one true God. Hence John too says: 'Beloved, we are sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be. We know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.' This likeness now begins to be reformed, so long as the inward man is renewed from day to day according to the image of him who created him. But compared with the perfection of that eminence which shall then be, what and how great is this?
Indeed the Apostle, applying to those ineffable things some example from familiar matters, compared childhood with the age of manhood: 'When I was a child,' he says, 'I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I became a man, I put away the things of a child.' And showing accordingly why he said this: 'We see now,' he says, 'through a glass darkly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then shall I know even as also I am known.' Accordingly, also through this prophet whose testimony we are treating, this is added, that in it should stand the reward, in it the end, in it the perfection of felicity, in it the sum of the blessed and eternal life. For when he had said:
'And I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people,' he straightway added: 'And they shall not teach every man his fellow-citizen, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for all shall know me, from the least even to the greatest of them.' Now surely it is already the time of the New Testament, of which the promise was made through the prophet by these words which we have cited from that prophecy. Why then does he still say, every man to his fellow-citizen and to his brother, 'Know the Lord'? Or is it perhaps not said, when the Gospel is preached and that very thing is its preaching, so that this is everywhere proclaimed? For whence does the Apostle call himself the teacher of the Gentiles, except because this comes to pass which he himself says: 'How shall they call upon him in whom they have not believed?'
'Or how shall they believe him whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?' Since therefore this preaching now everywhere grows frequent, how is it the time of the New Testament, of which the prophet said: 'And every man shall not teach his fellow-citizen and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for all shall know me, from the least even to the greatest of them,' unless because, in promising it, he joined the eternal reward of that same New Testament, that is, the most blessed contemplation of God himself? What then is 'all, from the least even to the greatest of them,' but all who belong spiritually to the house of Israel and to the house of Judah — that is, to the sons of Isaac, to the seed of Abraham? For this is the promise, by which it was said to him:
'In Isaac shall thy seed be called.' For 'they that are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.' And the word of promise is this: 'At this time will I come, and Sarah shall have a son.' And not only so, but Rebecca also, having conceived by one bed, even by Isaac our father. For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth, it was said to her, 'The elder shall serve the younger.' This is the house of Israel, or the house of Judah on account of Christ, who came of the tribe of Judah — the house of the sons of the promise, that is, not of their own works, but of the benefit of God. For God promises what he himself does;
for he does not himself promise while another performs — which would then be not to promise but to foretell; therefore, 'not of works, but of him that calleth,' lest it be of themselves, not of God; lest the reward be reckoned not according to grace, but according to debt, and thus grace be no longer grace — of which the least of the apostles is the vehement defender and champion, who 'laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God with me.' 'For all,' he says, 'shall acknowledge me,' 'all': the house of Israel and the house of Judah. 'For not all they that are of Israel, these are Israel,' but all to whom it is said in the psalm 'For the morning aid,' that is, for the new light, namely of the New Testament: 'All ye the seed of Jacob, magnify him; let all the seed of Israel fear him.'
'The whole seed' — utterly all the seed of those promised and called, but of those who are called according to the purpose. 'For whom he did predestinate, them he also called; and whom he called, them he also justified; and whom he justified, them he also glorified.' Therefore it is 'of faith, that according to grace the promise might be sure to all the seed' — not to that only which is of the law, that is, which comes from the Old Testament to the New, but also to that which is of faith — not having the law set before it, but of the faith of Abraham, that is, to the imitators of the faith of Abraham — 'who is the father of us all, as it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations.'
All these, then — predestined, called, justified, glorified — shall know God by the grace of the New Testament, from the least even to the greatest of them. As therefore the law of works, written on tablets of stone, and its reward, that land of promise which the carnal house of Israel received when it was delivered out of Egypt, pertains to the Old Testament, so the law of faith, written in hearts, and its reward, the vision of contemplation, to which the spiritual house of Israel, delivered from this world, pertains, belongs to the New Testament. Then shall come to pass what the Apostle says:
'Whether there be prophecies, they shall be done away; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall be done away' — that knowledge, namely, of little ones, in which one lives here, which is in part, through a glass darkly. For on account of this, prophecies are necessary to things past, when things future still succeed to things past; on account of this, tongues, that is, the manifold variety of significations, when one thing after another is intimated by one thing after another to him who does not yet contemplate with a most purified mind the eternal light of transparent truth. But when that which is perfect is come, and all this which is in part has been done away, then the Word, which having taken flesh appeared to the flesh, shall show himself to those who love him; then shall be life eternal, that we may know the one true God;
then shall we be like him, for then shall we know even as also we are known; then shall every man not teach his fellow-citizen or his brother, saying, Know the Lord; for all shall know him, from the least even to the greatest of them. This can be understood in many ways: either because there too each of the saints, as star differs from star in glory, shall differ — nor does it at all matter to the point whether it be said 'from the least even to the greatest,' as it is said, or whether it be said 'from the greatest even to the least';
which likewise makes no difference, even if we understand by 'the least' those who were able only to believe, but by 'the greatest' those who were able also to understand — so far as is possible in this life — the incorporeal and unchangeable light; or unless he meant 'the least' to be understood as those later in time, but 'the greatest' as those earlier in time. For all at once shall receive the promised contemplation of God, since 'they also provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect'; and therefore the lesser are found as it were the first, because they were kept waiting less — as is said by way of similitude in that Gospel penny, which those who came later to the vineyard receive first — or in whatever other way, which perhaps here for the present escapes notice, the lesser and the greater are to be taken.
Yet this, as far as you can, mark diligently — that which with so great effort I am striving to show: that when the prophet promised the New Testament not according to the testament which was formerly made with the people of Israel delivered out of Egypt, he said nothing of any change of sacrifices or of any sacraments whatever, although this without doubt was to follow, as we see it did follow, which the same prophetic Scripture attests in many other places; but he commended only this distinction, that God would put his laws into the mind of those who should belong to this testament, and would write them in their hearts — whence the Apostle took 'not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God, not in tablets of stone, but in the fleshly tablets of the heart' — and that the everlasting reward of this justification should be, not the land from which the Amorites and Hittites and other nations there mentioned were driven out, but God himself, to cleave to whom is good; so that the good of God, which they love, should be God himself whom they love — between whom and men nothing separates but sins, which are remitted only through that same grace.
Whence, when he had said, 'For all shall know me, from the least even to the greatest of them,' he immediately added: 'For I will be merciful to their iniquity, and their sins will I remember no more.' By the law of works, therefore, the Lord says, 'Thou shalt not covet'; by the law of faith the Lord says, 'Without me ye can do nothing.' For he was speaking of good works, that is, of the fruits of the branches.
Since, then, this distinction between the Old and New Testament appears — that there the law is written on tablets, here in hearts, so that what there terrifies from without, here delights from within, and there one becomes a transgressor through the letter that killeth, here a lover through the spirit that giveth life — it is not therefore to be said that God helps us to work righteousness and works in us both to will and to work for his good pleasure, because he sounds the precepts of righteousness from without upon our senses, but because he gives increase from within by pouring charity abroad in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who is given to us. But we must see how the Apostle says:
'For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves, who show the work of the law written in their hearts' — lest there seem to be no sure distinction of the New Testament, whereby the Lord promised that he would write his laws in the hearts of his people, seeing that the Gentiles have this by nature. This question, therefore, which has arisen and is no small one, must be handled. For someone will say: 'If God herein distinguishes the New Testament from the Old,
in that in the Old he wrote his law on tablets, but in the New he wrote it in hearts, by what are the faithful of the New Testament distinguished from the Gentiles, who have the work of the law written in their hearts, by which they naturally do the things of the law — as being now superior to that old people, which received the law on tablets, and prior to the new people, to whom this is granted through the New Testament, since nature has already granted it to these?' Or perhaps the Apostle mentioned those Gentiles as having the law written in their hearts who belong to the New Testament? For to this end we must consider whence he came to this. First, commending the Gospel, he says: 'For it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.'
'For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, The just shall live by faith.' Then he speaks of those ungodly men to whom, on account of their pride, not even the knowledge of God profited, because they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful. Thence he passes to those who judge and do such things as they condemn — doubtless on account of the Jews, who gloried in the law of God, although as yet he does not name them expressly — and therein says: 'Wrath and indignation, tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that worketh evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Greek; but glory and honour and peace to every one that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For there is no respect of persons with God.'
'For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law; and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law. For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.' To these words he subjoins the matter here in hand, and says: 'For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things of the law,' and the rest which I have already cited above. Accordingly, he does not seem here to have signified others under the name of Gentiles than those whom above he signified by the name of Greek, when he said, 'to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.' Further, if the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth,
to the Jew first and also to the Greek, and 'wrath and indignation, tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man that worketh evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Greek; but glory and honour and peace to every one that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek' — and this Greek, signified under the name of Gentiles, is one of those who naturally do the things of the law and who have the work of the law written in their hearts — then assuredly those Gentiles belong to the Gospel who have the law written in their hearts; for to them believing the power of God is unto salvation. But to what Gentiles doing good would he promise glory, honour, and peace, if they were set outside the grace of the Gospel?
For because there is no respect of persons with God, and not the hearers of the law but the doers are justified, therefore whether Jew or Greek — that is, whoever of the Gentiles shall have believed — shall alike have salvation in the Gospel; for there is no distinction, as he afterwards says: 'For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace.' But on what ground would he say that the Greek doer of the law is justified without the grace of the Saviour? For neither would he contradict himself, in that he says:
'the doers of the law shall be justified,' as though they were justified by works, not by grace, when he says that man is justified freely by faith without the works of the law, and wills nothing else to be understood in that he says 'freely' than that works do not precede justification. For elsewhere he plainly says: 'If by grace, then not of works; otherwise grace is no more grace.' But 'the doers of the law shall be justified' is so to be understood that we may know they are not otherwise doers of the law unless they be justified — so that justification does not accrue to the doers, but justification precedes the doers. For what else is 'justified' than 'made just,' namely by him who justifies the ungodly, that of ungodly he may become just?
For if we were to speak in this way, saying 'men shall be freed,' this would surely be understood to mean that deliverance accrues to those who are already men; but if we were to say 'men shall be created,' surely it would not be understood that those are created who were already men, but that by that very creation they become men. So, if it had been said 'the doers of the law shall be honoured,' we should rightly take it to mean only that honour accrues to those who are already doers of the law; but when it is said 'the doers of the law shall be justified,' what else is said than 'the just shall be justified'? For the doers of the law are assuredly just.
And by this it amounts to the same as if it were said 'the doers of the law shall be created' — not because they were, but that they may be — so that even the Jews, hearers of the law, might understand that they need the grace of the Justifier in order to be able to be doers. Or at least it is said 'they shall be justified' as if it were said 'they shall be held just,' 'they shall be reckoned just,' as it is said of a certain man: 'But he, wishing to justify himself' — that is, that he might be held and reckoned just. Whence in one way we say 'God sanctifies his saints,' but in another 'Hallowed be thy name';
for the former is because he himself makes those to be holy who were not holy, but the latter is that what is always holy in itself may be held holy also by men, that is, may be feared with holy fear. If therefore, in mentioning the Gentiles who by nature do the things of the law