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THE influence of this Treatise upon Christian thought has been remarkable. It is scarcely too much to say that all the principal writers on the Doctrine of Grace have derived inspiration from its pages. We find its striking sentences quoted repeatedly. It guided the expositions of S. Thomas. It was studied by Bossuet1 in preparation for his celebrated first Whitsuntide Sermon, on 2 Cor. iii. 6 the Letter killeth but the Spirit giveth life'. And nearly everything of value in that Sermon is reproduced from Augustine's Treatise. It was quoted by Fénelon2 as conclusive authority in the Jansenist controversies on Grace. Its importance in Christian morals may be seen in one of the latest works on the ethics of S. Augustine, the learned volumes of Professor Mausbach.3

Dr. Bright says of the Treatise that it is a book which, perhaps, next to the Confessions, tells us most of the thoughts of that rich profound and affectionate mind, on the soul's relation to its God.'

Augustine is universally acknowledged to be the greatest exponent of the Doctrine of Grace since

1 Works, ed. 1863. Lachat. x. 285.

2 Fénelon, Correspondence, 1827, iii. 228.

Mausbach, Die Ethik des h. Augustinus, 1909, 2 vols. * Introduction to Anti-Pelagian Treatises, xxi,

S. Paul. He was qualified for this high office alike by his extraordinary psychological insight and by his deep personal experience of human weakness and instability. It is said that a great preacher intending to deliver a panegyric on Augustine divided his subject into two parts: what Grace has done for Augustine, and what Augustine has done for Grace. The former aspect, however, proved to be inexhaustible, so that the second was never reached. But if any one desires to realize what Augustine has done for the doctrine of Grace, no better introduction can be found than the Treatise on the Spirit and the Letter. For here the great writer is at his very best. Those who desire to understand something of this momentous subject, above all, those whose function it is to give instruction on the doctrine of Grace, will not easily discover an exponent of S. Paul endowed with equal sympathy, power and penetration.

Few treatises of Augustine's are of greater permanent applicability to human life than this treatise. It is the doctrine of which above all others Augustine's wonderful psychological insight and personal moral experience enabled him to be the chief exponent. He is of all things the theologian of grace.

The reader may sometimes wish that the writer were not always so profuse, and that the richness of his thought had at times been more restrained. But the value of the treatise would be difficult to exaggerate. It is profoundly true to the facts of human nature, and to the Christian principles of spiritual development.

The false estimate of human capacity which he refutes is constantly reappearing; for the Pelagian is

nothing else than the natural man with all his blindness and self-sufficiency. So long as human nature remains what it is, it will always be essential to insist with all possible power as Augustine has done on the Christian doctrine of Grace.

THE SPIRIT AND THE LETTER

I RECENTLY sent you, dear Son Marcellinus two studies of mine, concerning the Baptism of Infants and concerning the Perfection of Man's righteousness, in which I remarked that no one seems to have attained, or to be likely to attain, in this life, to that Perfection excepting the one Mediator, Who endured experiences of things human in the likeness of the flesh of sin, yet without any sin whatsoever. After reading these studies you replied that you were disturbed by my asserting in the latter book that exemption from sin by the help of God was possible for a man if his will did not fail, yet with the exception of the One in whom all will be made alive, no one had lived or would live in whom while here on earth this Perfection could be found. It seems to you absurd to assert the possibility of a thing of which there was no example. Although I believe you would not doubt that it has never happened that a camel has passed through a needle's eye, and yet Christ said that even this is possible with God. Also you may read that twelve thousand legions of angels could have fought for Christ to prevent His suffering, and yet it never happened. You may read that it was possible for the nations to have been exterminated once for all from the land which was given to the Children of Israel, and yet God willed that it should be done by slow degrees. Indeed a thousand things we admit were possible in the past, or are possible

in the present, and yet we are unable to produce an example of their occurrence. Accordingly we ought not to deny the possibility of a man's being without sin merely because there is no man in whom we can prove it to have been realized, excepting Him who is not only human but also by nature divine.

2. Here you may perhaps reply that the instances which I have mentioned of unrealized possibilities are works of God. But for a man to be without sin belongs to the work of the man himself. Indeed the attainment of righteousness, full and perfect and complete in every way, is man's noblest work. Therefore it is not credible that there neither was nor is nor will be any instance in this life of a man who achieved this work, if it is a work within the power of man to achieve. But you ought to consider that although this achievement belongs to the work of man, yet it is also God's gift, and therefore we must not doubt that it is also God's work. For it is God who worketh in you,' says the Apostle, both to will and to work according to His good will '.1

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3. Furthermore those who assert that men are living, or have lived here on earth without any sin whatsoever, need not trouble us much by their opinion. Nay, they should be urged, if they can do it, to prove their opinion true. There is evidence in Scripture, conclusive as I believe, that no man living here, although using his freewill, is found to be without sin. For example: Enter not into judgment with Thy servant, for in Thy sight shall no

1 Phil. ii. 13.

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