A 62 ST. AUGUSTINE the works of the old sacraments, such as circumcision and the rest, does not make the sacraments which it does possess, and which are adapted to the present period, cease to be works. Nor was it a question of sacramental works when reference was made to the Law as causing a knowledge of sin, and because through it no one is justified. Therefore it is not through this law that glorying is excluded, but through the law of faith by which the righteous lives. But does not the knowledge of sin come through this (law) also, seeing that this (law) also says thou shalt not covet'? 22. What then the difference is I will briefly explain. What the law of works commands by threatening the law of faith secures by believing. The one says thou shalt not covet': the other says • When I perceived that no one could have self-control unless God gave it; and that this was the very essence of wisdom to know whose gift it was; I approached unto the Lord and besought Him.'1 That is the wisdom which is called godliness, with which the Father of lights is worshipped, from whom every good gift and every perfect gift proceeds. Now this worship consists in the sacrifice of praise and giving of thanks, so that God's worshipper does not glory in himself but in God. Accordingly, by the law of works God says, Do what I command: by the law of faith we say to God, Give what Thou commandest. Now the law commands in order to advise us what faith must do. That is to say that the person 1 Wisdom viii. 21. commanded, if unable as yet (to obey), should know what it is he must ask: and if he is forthwith able (to obey) and obediently perform it, he should know of whose gift it cometh that he is able (to obey). For we have not received the spirit of this world,' says this same unremitting preacher of grace, but the spirit which is of God, that we may know what things are given to us by God.'1 Now what is the spirit of this world, unless it is the spirit of pride?} By this their foolish heart is darkened who, knowing God, did not glorify Him as God by giving of thanks. Nor is it by any other spirit that they also are deceived who, being ignorant of God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own, are not subject to the righteousness of God. From these considerations it appears to me that he is far more a child of faith who knows from what source to expect what as yet he has not, than he who ascribes to himself whatever he has although to both of these the man is to be preferred who both has and knows from whom he has it; always provided that he does not believe himself to be what as yet he is not, lest he fall into the fault of the Pharisee, who thanked God for what he possessed, but asked for nothing further to be given him; just as if he needed nothing to increase and complete his righteousness. 2 After considering and discussing these things with such powers as the Lord has seen fit to give me, I gather that a man is not justified by commanding him to lead a good life, but by faith in Jesus Christ, that 1 1 Cor. ii. 12. 2 Luke xviii. 11-12. 1 is, not by the law of works but by the law of faith; not by the letter but by the spirit, not by the merits of human actions but by freely granted grace. 23. Now it is true the Apostle appears so to rebuke and correct those who were being advised to practise circumcision, that he calls circumcision itself by the title, the Law, as also other observances of the same Law, which, as mere shadows of the future, Christians do now reject, since they hold that which those shadows symbolically foretold. Yet he desires that Law, by which he says that no man is justified, to be understood not only of those sacraments which were the symbols of the future, but also of those works which whosoever performs lives righteously, wherein is included the command thou shalt not covet.' And in order that what I say may become yet clearer, let us look at the Decalogue itself. For Moses indeed received the Law upon the mountain, written on tables of stone by the finger of God, to give it to the people. This Law is comprised in Ten Commandments. Nothing is prescribed concerning circumcision, nor concerning animal sacrifices which are not now offered by Christians. Can anyone tell me what there is in these Ten Commandments, excepting the observance of the Sabbath, which is not to be observed by a Christian: whether it concerns the prohibition against making or worshipping idols, and any other gods beside the one true God, or concerning taking the name of God in vain, or concerning the honour to be given to parents, or concerning the avoidance of fornication, murder, theft, false witness, adultery, covetousness. Which of these Commandments would any person say that a Christian ought not to keep? Or can it by any possibility be that by the letter that killeth' the Apostle does not mean the Law written on the two tables, but that law of circumcision, and other ancient and now obsolete sacraments? But how can we so think when it contains the command, thou shalt not covet': through which command, although it is holy and just and good, sin,' says the Apostle, ' deceived me and through it killed me?' What else can this be but the letter that killeth?' 24. Although in the passage itself addressed to the Corinthians where he says, 'the letter killeth but the Spirit giveth life' he speaks more clearly, he does not desire any other letter to be understood than the Decalogue itself written on those two tables. For thus he says: Ye are an epistle of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink, but by the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but je in tables that are hearts of flesh. And such confidence have we through Christ to Godward: not that we are sufficient of ourselves, to account anything as from ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God; Who also made us sufficient as ministers of a New Covenant; not of the letter but of the spirit: for the letter killeth but the Spirit giveth life. For if the ministration of death written and engraven on stones was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look steadfastly upon the face of Moses for the glory of his face, which glory was passing away; how shall not the ministration of the Spirit be rather glorious? For if the ministration of condemnation double.. be glory, much more does the ministration of right- Much might be said concerning this passage, but perhaps another time would be more appropriate. For the present, notice how he speaks of the letter which killeth,' bringing in, as if its contrary, the life giving Spirit. Surely he calls it the ministration of death engraven in letters of stone, and the ministration of condemnation: because the law came in beside, that transgression might abound. But, on the other hand, the commandments themselves are so useful and profitable to him who does them, that unless a man does them he cannot have life. Or can it really be that the Decalogue is called 'the letter that killeth' because that one command about the Sabbath is placed therein? And is this one command so called because any person who observes that day at the present time in its literal meaning, is carnally minded, and to be carnally minded is death? And are we to regard those Nine Commandments, which are rightly to be observed literally, as not belonging to the law of works by which no man is justified, but to the law of faith by which the righteous man lives? Who can maintain the absurdity that the ministration of death engraved in letters of stone' does not refer to the Ten Commandments, but only to the one concerned with the Sabbath? For if so, where shall we place the following passages: The Law worketh wrath; for where no law is there is no transand, until the Law sin was in the gression: '2 1 2 Cor. iii. 2-9. 2 Rom. iv. 15. |