Against the Pelagians

Book 1 › Chapter 2

Book I

³¹ Your next point is that “the kingdom of heaven is promised even in the Old Testament,” and you adduce evidence from the Apocrypha, although it is clear that the kingdom of heaven was first preached under the Gospel by John the Baptist, and our Lord and Saviour, and the Apostles. Read the Gospels. John the Baptist cries in the desert, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand”; and concerning the Saviour it is written, “From that time He began to preach and to say, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” And again, “Jesus went round about the towns and villages, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the kingdom of God.” And He commanded His Apostles to “go and preach, saying, the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” But you call us Manichæans because we prefer the Gospel to the law, and say that in the latter we have the shadow, in the former, the substance, and you do not see that your foolishness goes hand in hand with impudence. It is one thing to condemn the law, as Manichæus did; it is another to prefer the Gospel to the law, for this is in accordance with apostolic teaching. In the law the servants of the Lord speak, in the Gospel the Lord Himself; in the former are the promises, in the latter their fulfilment; there are the beginnings, here is perfection; in the law the foundations of works are laid; in the Gospel the edifice is crowned with the top-stone of faith and grace. I have mentioned this to show the character of the teaching given by our distinguished professor.

32. The hundredth heading runs thus: “A man can be without sin, and easily keep the commandments of God if he chooses,” as to which enough has already been said. And although he professes to imitate, or rather complete the work of the blessed martyr Cyprian in the treatise which the latter wrote to Quirinus, he does not perceive that he has said just the opposite in the work under discussion. Cyprian, in the fifty-fourth heading of the third book, lays it down that no one is free from stain and without sin, and he immediately gives proofs, among them the passage in Job, “Who is cleansed from uncleanness? Not he who has lived but one day upon the earth.” And in the fifty-first Psalm, “Behold I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.” And in the Epistle of John, “If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.” You, on the other hand, maintain that “A man can be without sin,” and that you may give your words the semblance of truth, you immediately add, “And easily keep the commandments of God, if he chooses,” and yet they have been seldom or never kept by any one. Now, if they were easy, they ought to have been kept by all. But if, to concede you a point, at rare intervals some one may be found able to keep them, it is clear that what is rare is difficult. And by way of supplementing this and displaying the greatness of your own virtues (we are to believe, forsooth, that you bring forth the sentiment out of the treasure of a good conscience), you have a heading to the effect that: “We ought not to commit even light offenses.” And for fear some one might think you had not explained in the work the meaning of light, you add that, “We must not even think an evil thought,” forgetting the words, “Who understands his offenses? Clear thou me from hidden faults, and keep back your servant from presumptuous sins, O Lord.” You should have known that the Church admits even failures through ignorance and sins of mere thought to be offenses; so much so that she bids sacrifices be offered for errors, and the high priest who makes intercession for the whole people previously offers victims for himself. Now, if he were not himself righteous, he would never be commanded to offer for others. Nor, again, would he offer for himself if he were free from sins of ignorance. If I were to attempt to show that error and ignorance is sin, I must roam at large over the wide fields of Scripture.

33. C. Pray have you not read that “He who looks upon a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart?” It seems that not only are the look and the allurements to vice reckoned as sin, but whatever it be to which we give assent. For either we can avoid an evil thought, and consequently may be free from sin; or, if we cannot avoid it, that is not reckoned as sin which cannot be avoided.

A. Your argument is ingenious, but you do not see that it goes against Holy Scripture, which declares that even ignorance is not without sin. Hence it was that Job offered sacrifices for his sons, lest, perchance, they had unwittingly sinned in thought. And if, when one is cutting wood, the axe-head flies from the handle and kills a man, the owner is commanded to go to one of the cities of refuge and stay there until the high priest dies; that is to say, until he is redeemed by the Saviour's blood, either in the baptistery, or in penitence which is a copy of the grace of baptism, through the ineffable mercy of the Saviour, who would not have any one perish, nor delights in the death of sinners, but would rather that they should be converted and live.

C. It is surely strange justice to hold me guilty of a sin of error of which my conscience does not accuse itself. I am not aware that I have sinned, and am I to pay the penalty for an offense of which I am ignorant? What more can I do, if I sin voluntarily?

A. Do you expect me to explain the purposes and plans of God? The Book of Wisdom gives an answer to your foolish question: “Look not into things above you, and search not things too mighty for you.” And elsewhere, “Make not yourself overwise, and argue not more than is fitting.” And in the same place, “In wisdom and simplicity of heart seek God.” You will perhaps deny the authority of this book; listen then to the Apostle blowing the Gospel trumpet: “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past tracing out! For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counsellor?” Your questions are such as he elsewhere describes: “But foolish and ignorant questioning avoid, knowing that they gender strifes.” And in Ecclesiastes (a book concerning which there can be no doubt) we read, “I said, I will be wise, but it was far from me. That which is exceeding deep, who can find it out?” You ask me to tell you why the potter makes one vessel to honour, another to dishonour, and will not be satisfied with Paul, who replies on behalf of his Lord, “O man, who are you that repliest against God?”

The remainder of this book is occupied by a series of quotations from the Old Testament, designed to show that it is not only the outer and conscious act which is reckoned sinful, but the opposition to the Divine will, which is often implicit and half-conscious. Occasionally, also, the speaker shows how the texts quoted enforce the argument which he has before used, that men may be spoken of as righteous in a general sense, yet by no means free from sins of thought or desire, if not of act.

The passages quoted are:

Gen. viii. 21. I will not curse the ground....for the mind of man is set on evil from his youth.

xvii. 17, 18:12. Abraham and Sarah laughing at the promise.

xxxvii. 35. Jacob's excessive grief.

Exodus 21:12, 13. The guilt of one who slays another unawares.

Leviticus 4:2, 27. Offerings for sins of ignorance.

v. 3. Offerings for ceremonial uncleanness.

ix. 1. Offerings for Aaron at his consecration.

xii. 6. Offerings for women after childbirth.

xiv. 1, 6, 16:6, 12:7. Offerings for the leper.

xv. 31, 16:2, 5. Offerings for the people on the day of atonement.

xxii. 14. Eating the hallowed things ignorantly; compared with 1 Corinthians 11:27, 28, of careless participation in Sacrament.

Numbers vi. 1. Offerings for the Nazarite.

xiv. 7, 7:28, 29. Offerings for imploring God's Mercy.

xxviii. 15, 22, 29:5, 5:11, 17. Offerings at the feast.

Numbers xxxv. 13. The cities of refuge provided for manslayers.

Deuteronomy 9:6, 18:13. Israel warned not to boast of righteousness.

xviii. 9-12, 5:14, 15. Perfection used only of avoiding idolatry.

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Source: Against the Pelagians (New Advent)