why do I presume my own judgment concerning myself, if I know that I am to be judged even concerning that very thing? Or, if those sacred books, never to be opened except in judgment, take up alike the goods and evils of our life, about to present the scrutiny of judgment in the balance: how do we recognize as abolished, without scrutiny, in this life and before death, those things which we read are to be brought forth not only after death but even after the resurrection? I have had it in my power to sin; to be freed from sin I do not have in my power. To pray is mine, to be absolved is not mine. But where I have given myself to sin, I have become the slave of the accuser, the defendant of the judge.
I can, on account of the merits sent ahead by assiduous prayers, bear hope from a good judge; but to vindicate an innocent conscience without fear before the promulgation of the sentence, I cannot. For the apostle says: 'Do not judge anything before the time, until the Lord comes, who will both illuminate the hidden things of darkness and make manifest the counsels of hearts: and then shall each one have praise from God.' Otherwise, if it is in man's power to make himself free from his sin, either Christ is not judge, or He is in vain. But you say: 'I said a man is without sin according to this sense: when the sinner has groaned, then he shall be saved—that is, then he shall begin to belong to salvation.' Yet he will not at once be without sin.
For the Lord, when He had entered the house of believing Zacchaeus, said: 'Today salvation has been made to this house.' Surely, if one believed, was the whole household at once without sin, into which then indeed, when the greater part of the house believed, the beginning of salvation entered? For David too, when he had sinned, groaned; and although he had deserved to hear that his offense was forgiven him, yet long afterward he expiated that very thing by exile and by very much reproach, so that manifestly both a penalty was rendered in the present and remission was promised for the future; and through this God granted much of mercy to the groaning sinner, that he might purge by a temporal chastisement the sin which was worthy of death. To Ananias it is said concerning Paul, as he made his complaint about the persecution with fear:
'I will show him how much he must suffer for my name,' so that, when Paul was loosed there where he had bound by persecuting Christ, soon, by suffering for Christ, afflicted unto death, he might stand glorified in the resurrection. So it comes to pass, because mercy and truth go ever before the face of God, that, if in due time a voluntary sacrifice is offered by one groaning—so that truth may be made in mercy—a sacrifice of a troubled spirit and a contrite heart, then in the end mercy may be preferred to judgment. The Lord Christ, about to come in the glory of God the Father, is both believed and hoped to judge the living and the dead, from whose face, as Scripture testifies, heaven and earth shall flee;
and there exist men who, neither on account of ignorance—not to say on account of conscience—judge themselves to be subject to the judgment that is to come, and tremble at the coming of the Lord and the illumination of His brightness, with the elements burning and the world perishing! Whom I fear to be among those of whom the Lord forewarns: 'For many shall say in that day'—men, that is, of that carnal arrogance by which they seduced men, and not so much before God as still in their own eyes just—'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in your name, and in your name done great miracles?' And then will I swear to them and say: 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of iniquity.' It is said through the prophet David in the person of Christ:
'Lord, who shall dwell in your tabernacle, or who shall rest on your holy mountain? He who walks without blemish and works justice.' This is truly to say: he who can be and is without sin. For the Lord Himself also says of Himself: 'The prince of this world comes, and finds nothing of his own in me.' For what is the devil's? Without doubt, sin. For from the beginning the devil is a liar; and against him the Lord is the mind that speaks truth in His heart and has done no guile on His tongue. A great and strong angel, as Scripture testifies, cries in heaven: 'Who is worthy to open the book and to loose its seals?'
And no one was able, neither in heaven, nor on earth, nor under the earth, to open the book, nor to look upon it; and John weeps much and mourns, because out of the whole of rational creatures no one was found worthy who might open the book, that he might see it. As John weeps, one of the elders consoles him and says: 'Do not weep, John. Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has prevailed to open the book and to loose its seals.' What, I ask, is this book, which from the hand of Him who lives forever and ever no one was able to receive, except Him who walks without blemish and works justice?
It is too little that He is without blemish, too little that He is the Lamb, unless He had also been slain, unless He had crowned the purity of His life with the testimony of His passion—having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God: nor is there doubt that these are the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and piety, the spirit of the fear of the Lord. What then is this book? As I believe, of judgment. For the Father judges no one, but has given all judgment to the Son. Alas for the grief! I am compelled to say what I shuddered to have thought.
Behold now even Pelagius, who has dared to profess himself to be without blemish and sin, consequently reckons himself worthy of receiving the book and the judgment, and it is the next step that he should say of himself: 'I have power to lay down my soul and to take it up again,' and that he should prepare himself to be a consort in the throne of Christ. Wretched man, who does not rather understand that he is preparing himself to be the forerunner of Antichrist's coming, who, when he has been revealed, exalts himself above all that is called or that is worshiped as God—just like this man who now compares himself to an equality with the only Son of God.
The Lamb of God, the Son of God, in order to receive the book from the Father's hand, presents the marks of His passion, not judging the victory accomplished except in death and in resurrection; and the 'sinless' mind confirms that the perfection of an immaculate life can come to him while he eats, drinks, and sleeps! Our Lord Jesus, after the fast of forty days, the devil, tempting Him thrice and thrice overcome, left—and did not leave Him forever but for a time, about to return more fierce even to the death of the cross, to trouble Him through an apostle; and our 'impassible' one, with the temptations vanquished, to be sure (as it seems to himself) together with their author, trusts that he can no longer be tempted or troubled!
That perfect Lamb—He who not only has no sins but even takes away the sins of the world, and who has seven horns and seven eyes—does not so winnow the tempter as to keep him from returning; and this our man, mutilated, light in the forehead, one-eyed, deems no protection necessary upon his head, who presumes possibility in the flesh! Wretched man, who, according to the Gospel, would perhaps rather, if he were blind, have no sin! But perhaps, because the seven eyes are seven spirits, he boasts that he abounds in all these, and that his inner man, as it were, thrives with the heaped-up virtues of sevenfold grace—especially he who glories in the very titles of his so many dogmas.
Whence it can come to pass that by his own judgment he reckons himself filled with the spirit of wisdom, especially since he says God's commandments are easy; sufficient above all in the spirit of understanding, by which he foreknows and preaches that all sinners together with the impious are to be condemned to eternal fire; rich in the spirit of counsel, by which he advises that evil is not even to be thought; mighty in the spirit of might, by which he affirms a man can be without sin; puffed up in the spirit of knowledge, by which he hopes that, except him who has the knowledge of the law, one cannot be without sin; overflowing in the spirit of piety, by which he teaches that an enemy is to be loved as a friend—forgetting that he himself said an enemy is by no means to be trusted in any way;
honored with the spirit of the fear of God, by which, at last awakened after much drunkenness, he adds that a man can be without sin not without the help of God; and through these grades, as I think, of presumptions, he does not shrink from ascending, lifted up even to this, that he says that, after the likeness of Christ, in the perfection of his own power, full in his entirety, the Holy Spirit descended upon him and remained—although this was given to Him alone by God the Father, to whom also He gave the name which is above every name, who alone is without sin and walks without blemish, with whom abides the very ointment of sanctification.
But we run in the odor of His ointments, and meanwhile, with the Lord going before, we catch upon us the sweet breaths of life by the breathing of the vital air. But you say: 'Why do you provoke me with so great a wrong? Why do you burden me with the odium of so arrogant a word? Would I, a servant, dare compare myself to my Lord? Would I, earth and ashes, set myself beside the Word of God? Ought I, subject to death, to be called equal to the victor over death?' Well indeed, O condemned wickedness: giving testimony to God, you are humbled in words, but otherwise your meaning cries out in your pages. You say a man can be without sin; again and more often I repeat it. The man who can do this is Christ: either presume the name, or lay aside the confidence.
God granted that to one alone, and this to none but the firstborn among many brethren. So it is handed down by the catholic faith, so we hold. Truly our Lord admonished the unbelieving: 'I have come in the name of my Father, and you have not received me. Another shall come in his own name; perhaps him you will receive.' Either follow, with us sinners who believe in Him, that one without sin, the same Only-begotten; or, if you are that other, confess it. He is the Lord Jesus, who, death conquered and the devil triumphed over, ascending on high, led captivity captive, gave gifts to men; of whose fullness we all have received; as the apostle teaches: 'But to each one of us grace is given according to the measure of the giving of Christ.'
And to the Romans the same teacher of the Gentiles writes: 'For I say, through the grace that is given to me, to all who are among you: not to be wise above what one ought to be wise, but to be wise unto sobriety, and to each one as God has divided the measure of faith.' Then to the Corinthians he proclaims: 'Now there are divisions of graces, but the same Spirit; and there are divisions of operations, but the same Lord; and there are divisions of ministrations, but the same God who works all in all'; and after very many enumerations of graces and virtues he adds: 'But all these one and the same Spirit works, dividing to each as He wills.'
Then by the comparison of the members in the body of man he makes manifest that the body of the Church's unity comes together, out of unequal modes of works, into one concord of perfection, proving that there is absolutely none of the members which does not need the help and connection of another, with the Lord Himself constituted as head, in whom are all the senses and the hidden treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Whence to us also He gave understanding, by which we might know what is the Word in Christ Jesus, in whom is all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; into whom, according to the testimony of John, the Holy Spirit descending and remaining upon Him declared Him to be the Lord.
And so, if no one has except him who asks of you, and no one receives except according to the division and measure, and he who has received needs another's aid to keep it: with what madness, I ask, does he promise himself out of fullness, who in his own singularity is not sufficient? Of the Lord the evangelist testifies: 'But there was the true Light, which enlightens every man coming into this world.' But the Lord says to His apostles: 'You are the light of this world.' There, in the Lord alone, is the whole light, because true; here, in all the apostles, light indeed, but from the Light which is the whole.
And since this is so in the apostles, in whose election the whole body of the Church was taken up, what can we—we, I say, and as individuals—what can we be seen to be after them, except, according to the apostle Peter, men unlearned, believing only through faith the evangelical and prophetic word, as to a lamp shining in a dark place? As if enlightened, even we ourselves are persuaded that our lamps, prepared in good works, should be burning in our hands—lamps which, wearied by manifold temptations, are imperiled always by their own failing and by another's blow. Whence too the Lord says in the Gospel: 'And if the very light which is in us is darkness: how great shall that darkness itself be?'
But I grant that this light, however small it be, should remain with unfailing vigor even to the end—that is, that it should not lose that gift which it has obtained of special grace—otherwise the fullness of light stands present in its entirety, no gloom remains: but I call gloom the darkness of folly arising from the filth of sin—what if it is a fitting reckoning, that as much as has been lacking of light, so much of gloom remains over? But further it is most difficult that the gloom should have no stumbling-block. It is necessary for a man, established in a quantity of light and in remnants of gloom, willing the good and not escaping the evil, both that help should subsist and that sin should not be lacking. But if to anyone this seems obscurely said, let him take an example from human conduct.
Two individuals have diverse gifts, one that he should be humble in silence, the other that he should be persuasive in teaching. That one, to whom silence is dear, if perhaps he be asked to render account of his faith, do you suppose he will suffer no offense in discoursing? Or if he to whom doctrine has been committed in teaching, if he be chastised for arrogance, do you suppose he assumes no deceit under humility? Or do you easily reckon that the simple man is free from scurrility, the cheerful one from glibness of word, the careful from irascibility, the patient from negligence, the meek from sloth, the learned from boastfulness, the submissive from envy—apart from that which is the general gloom of all good works, the concupiscence of vainglory?
But if this be understood piously and holily, let each one of us take up the comparison, so that he may rather condemn himself by setting another above him than justify himself by despising one lesser. So at last he will join the members to one another, especially if—with the one charity, as it were a skin surrounding the bones and the sinews joined to the needy parts—a man conscious of himself may understand that this very grace which he has is a gift not owed, and may rather glory in the Lord on account of that from which he received, than be angry on account of that which he did not receive. For we, when we were by nature children of wrath on account of our offense, were made children of mercy on account of the clemency of the Lord, worthy of nothing but condemnation.
Let us not bring against the Lord a complaint about what we have not received, but rather for what we have received let us render thanks; let us return glory to him alone, our Creator and Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ, whom God set forth as the propitiator in his own blood, that at his name every knee should bow, of things in heaven and on earth and under the earth, whom, judging in that foretold power, all flesh shall see, and to whom every tongue shall confess. Whence the Apostle also says: 'Therefore we strive, whether absent or present, to please him. For we must all be made manifest before the tribunal of Christ, that each one may receive the proper things of the body, according as he has done, whether good or evil'; and elsewhere: 'For we shall all stand before the tribunal of God.'
The apostle Paul said that he too would stand before the tribunal of God and would, with the rest, render account for the proper things of the body according as he had done; yet Pelagius, on the contrary, confidently dares to say: 'Quickly I bring to completion the whole perfection in the flesh, so that from the judge's goodness I hope for nothing.' The righteous, on that day, hearing the glories of their own works from the judge, will nevertheless still, as though unaware, ask: 'Lord, when did we see you and do these things for you?' And this man, our most expert in the law, recognizes on what day, at what hour, in what moment he will enter the final seat, beyond which there is no other of fullest sanctity! Or perhaps he protests and says:
'Truly,' he says, 'these reproaches of madness, not to say of pride, would be cast upon me, if I said that a man could be without sin apart from any helper; but in fact I affirm the help of God, to whom nothing is difficult. Or do you perhaps deny the help of God?' I grant for a little while your slander, so that, while I seem to expose in myself what I wish to convict in you, we may at the same time be found, I more cleansed in my own defense, and you more manifest in your own confusion. This is ever my faithful and undoubted opinion: that God bestows his help not only within his own body, which is the Church, to which by special
on account of believers' faith bestows the gifts of his grace), but also supplies it to all the nations in this world, on account of his long-suffering and eternal clemency toward himself; not — as you assert together with your disciple Caelestius, whose hidden nature of impious doctrines has already been crushed at the African synod — that one grace is granted generally to all merely in natural good and in free will, but that he ministers it particularly every day, through seasons, through days, through moments, through instants, both to all and to each. For Scripture says: 'Who makes his sun rise upon the good and the evil.' But you perhaps answer: 'Nature, well composed, keeps its own order, and by this God, the elemental courses being once established, brings it about thence, because he made it.'
What, then, do you think of that part of the sentence which follows: 'He gives rain upon the just and the unjust'? Surely he who gives, gives when he wills and where he wills, either by dispensing an established ordinance or by pouring out his own bounty. And lest, according to the madness of your impiety, you contrive to empty this also of meaning, hear the prophet bearing witness to this truth: 'He who calls the waters of the sea and pours them out upon the face of the earth, the Lord is his name.' But what shall I say of the true hope of the human race, since 'every one who plows, plows in hope'? But to hope is not a matter of one's own capacity, but of another's bounty.
And when someone has sown, and the tiller has hidden the scattered seed in the bosom of the earth, he has nothing further to do except to lift up his eyes to heaven, and to pray — not to the earth to which he entrusted the seed, but to God in whom he believed — that he may make his labors fruitful by the early or the late rain. And to enjoy a spiritual testimony even for common uses: 'Neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but God who gives the increase.' How greatly, then, I rejoice in the help of God, measure by this: that I prove it to be ministered, particle by particle, even to the nations; so that it might be manifest to us whom we ought to guard against to the end, and whom we ought to invoke without ceasing. The Devil is questioned by the Lord: 'Whence do you come?' And he answered:
'Going about the earth and traversing the things that are under heaven, I am present.' I ask you: is this care of the devil one of good will or of evil? You must needs confess: wholly of evil. For this, and his subsequent demand, shows it. This manifestation of the devil took place in the time of Job, that is, in the time of Moses. Surely then there was no Judaea, no Jerusalem, no Church throughout the world. As yet all the Gentile world had no knowledge of God, and yet already the devil, going about the earth, was traversing all things that are under heaven, and was borne, with the unceasing diligence of his malice, to seduce and destroy the human race.
And so, when you see that against men who were ignorant such great wickedness of the devil pressed down to destroy them, do you believe that no grace of God was at hand to guard them? Or do you perhaps think it was said in vain: 'The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof, the world and all who dwell therein'? But indeed, that you may more manifestly prove that the help of God is present both for all things and for each one — behold, the devil himself, while he bears witness about the whole, is questioned about one: 'Have you considered,' says God, 'my servant Job, that there is none like him upon the earth?' The Lord knows each one particularly; the devil knows too — the one by the power of nature, the other by the labor of malice; the one to tempt, the other to approve. Job, while the adversary contradicts, is praised by the Creator.
The Lord wishes to judge the work of man, which he himself works in him; but indeed even the devil confesses concerning the help. For he says: 'Have you not fenced about the things that are outside his house and within his house?' When the enemy demanded his servant, God despoils him through temptation, but does not strip him bare; he takes away substance and gives grace: 'Behold,' he says, 'all that he has I give into your hand, but do not touch him himself.' This is too little. The envious one rages, attempts to bring in death, but on the contrary is moved by the dispensation of God; grace is not taken away; the prey is permitted to the plunderer that was demanded, and again a guardian is set over his own prey. For it is said to him: 'Behold, I deliver him to you; only preserve his life.'
Let no one from this suppose that the devil labors only to seduce the soul in the body, unless he were also to tear it from the very body, if the protection of the merciful God did not fortify the wounded and weak man, and did not always meet, in opposition, all the attempts of his snares. You have, as I think, even among the nations a sufficient proof of cooperating grace; receive also a manifest indication of that special gift which he bestows as peculiar to the Church and to his own body. The apostle Paul writes to the Corinthians: 'I give thanks to my God always for you, for the grace of God which is given you in Christ Jesus:'
'because in everything you are made rich in him, in all utterance and in all knowledge, even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you: so that you come short in no grace.' And again: 'Being justified therefore by faith, let us have peace toward God through our Lord Jesus Christ: through whom we have access by faith into this grace, by which we stand and glory.' Whence the apostle Peter also admonishes, saying: 'Receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of souls. Of which salvation the prophets sought and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace of God that should come unto us.' From which it is most evidently declared that to no man is the help of God lacking, especially since both the seducer is at hand and weakness is within.
The slander of the blind accuser is confounded and emptied, who says: 'Perhaps you deny the help of God?' But since we have made mention of Job, and in the testimony above it was reviewed with the Lord saying 'a man without crime, a true worshiper of God, abstaining from all evil' — for it is very often asserted by us, to prove that a man can be without sin because there has been one, that is, because Job too was called by the testimony of God a man without crime and truthful, and Zacharias is shown in the Gospel to be proved without complaint — : the Lord said of Job 'a man without crime'; did he say 'without sin'? For a thought conceives sin, but only an act displays a crime.
To be also without complaint is ascribed to the recognition and judgment of those for whom it is ready at hand to behold meekness in the face, but not to know the wars of the heart. Whence Paul also confidently commands, saying: 'For a bishop must be without crime'; and elsewhere he gives a general testimony to the Corinthians and asserts: 'So that you lack in no grace, awaiting the revelation of our Lord Jesus Christ: who will also confirm you to the end without crime.' Behold, those whom Paul by his testimony confirms to be without crime to the end, soon, in the same epistle, he rebukes, writing: 'Now indeed there is utterly a fault in you, that you have lawsuits among yourselves.'
Under one heading and concerning the same persons, behold 'without crime,' behold 'a fault': whence he declares that one is not at once to be asserted to be without fault whom you see named as without crime. For the Lord Jesus also said: 'John came neither eating nor drinking.' And again it is written: 'His food was locusts and wild honey.' Is John, on the one account, to be believed not to have eaten, or the Lord to have deceived, on the other? But on the contrary the truth is in both, because John took something for the substance of fleshly food, and again the Lord truly said of John that he ate neither with the rest nor what the rest ate — proving that he and the holy Scriptures often, with the knowledge of God hidden, make manifest the judgments of men.
Wherefore it is to be reverently understood that, as often as Scripture mentions both 'just' and 'without complaint,' it is said according to the capacity of the time and according to the judgments of men, not according to that final indication of God, to whom the conscience of all is subject and the tongue of all shall confess. Finally, clearly understand that the justification of Job and the permission of his sufferings into the flesh, by the provident counsel of God, wrought the confounding of the arrogant devil; so that, while the man is praised for the honor of the Creator, with the Lord himself approving, the angel, declining the mark of infidelity, might be punished.
But again, lest he should inflict a more grievous blow upon his servant while healing him, and through care for the flesh inflict a wound on the soul — that is, lest blessed Job, having overcome so great a temptation, with all things doubled and restored, lifted up into pride, should fall into the judgment of the devil — he is admonished from his own hidden things, that even if outwardly he were praised for righteousness, yet inwardly he should know himself to be subject to him by whom he was guarded. For the Lord says to him: 'Who is this that hides counsel from me, keeping words in his heart, and thinks he is hidden from me? Gird your loins like a man. I will question you, and you answer me. Where were you when I founded the earth? Tell me, if you know knowledge.'