1. 1. Having read the little works that I recently composed for you, my dearest son Marcellinus, On the Baptism of Infants and On the Perfection of Human Righteousness, to the effect that no one seems either to have attained it or to be going to attain it in this life, except the one Mediator, who endured human things in the likeness of sinful flesh wholly without any sin, you wrote back that you were troubled because, in the latter of the two books, I said that it was possible for a man to be without sin, if his will did not fail with the help of God's aid, and yet that, apart from the one in whom all will be made alive (1 Cor 15:22), no one has been or will be in whom, while living here, this perfection existed.

For it seems absurd to you to say that something can come about of which there is no instance, since, as I believe, you do not doubt that it has never happened that a camel passed through the eye of a needle, and yet the Lord said that this too was possible for God (See Mt 19:24, 26); you may also read that twelve thousand legions of angels could have fought for Christ, so that he might not suffer (See Mt 26:53), and yet this did not happen; you may read that it could have come about that the nations were at once exterminated from the land that was being given to the children of Israel (See Deut 31:3), and yet that God willed this to happen little by little (See Judg 2:3); and countless other things may occur to us which we admit either could have come about or can come about, and yet of which we cannot point to instances that they have been done. Hence we ought not, for that reason, to deny that it is possible for a man to be without sin, just because there is no man, apart from the one who is not only man but also God by nature, in whom we might be able to show this to exist in its perfection.

2. 2. Here you might perhaps reply that the things I have mentioned, which were not done and yet could have been done, are divine works, but that for a man to be without sin pertains to the work of the man himself, and that this is the best of works, by which a full and perfect righteousness, absolute in every respect whatever, is brought about; and that therefore it is not to be believed that no one either has been or is or will be in this life who has fulfilled this work, if it can be fulfilled by a man. But you ought to consider that, although the doing of it pertains to man, this too is a divine gift, and therefore not to doubt that it is a divine work; for it is God, says the Apostle, who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure (Phil 2:13).

2. 3. Accordingly, those who say that a man lives here, or has lived, without any sin at all are not very troublesome, and they should be pressed to show, if they can, that it is so. For if anyone could teach that the testimonies of the Scriptures, by which I judge it to be settled that no man living here, although he uses free choice, is found without sin—such as, Enter not into judgment with your servant, for no one living will be justified in your sight (Ps 143:2 (142:2)), and other such texts—are to be taken otherwise than they sound, and could demonstrate that someone, or some persons, lived here without any sin, then anyone who not only did not oppose him but rather rejoiced greatly would not be driven by any mean goads of envy. Indeed, even if there is no one, nor was, nor will be—which I rather believe—perfect in such purity, and yet it is maintained and supposed that there is or was or will be, then, so far as I can judge, there is no great error, and no dangerous one, when someone is deceived through a kind of goodwill; provided, however, that one who supposes this does not suppose himself to be such a man, unless he has truly and clearly perceived himself to be such.

2. 4. But those must be resisted most sharply and most vehemently who think that without God's help the power of the human will can, by itself, either perfect righteousness or make progress by striving toward it; and who, when they begin to be pressed as to how they presume to assert that this comes about without God's aid, restrain themselves and do not dare to utter this opinion, since they see how impious and intolerable it is. But they say that these things do not come about without God's aid for this reason: that God both created man with free choice of the will and, by giving precepts, himself teaches how a man ought to live, and certainly helps in this, that by teaching he takes away ignorance, so that a man knows in his actions what he ought to avoid and what to seek, so that, entering by the free choice naturally implanted in him upon the way that has been shown, by living continently and justly and devoutly he may merit to attain to the blessed and likewise eternal life.

3. 5. But we say that the human will is helped from God to do righteousness in such a way that, besides being created with free choice, and besides the teaching by which he is instructed how he ought to live, a man receives the Holy Spirit, by which there comes about in his mind a delight in and love of that highest and unchangeable good, which is God—even now, while one walks by faith, not yet by sight (See 2 Cor 5:7)—so that, with this given to him as a kind of pledge of the freely given gift, he may catch fire to cling to the Creator and be inflamed to come to a sharing in that true light (See John 1:9), so that from him by whom he has his being it may be well with him. For free choice avails for nothing but sinning, if the way of truth is hidden; and when what ought to be done and what ought to be striven for begins to be no longer hidden, unless it is also delighted in and loved, it is not done, not undertaken, not lived out well. But that it may be loved, the love of God is poured out in our hearts, not through free choice, which rises from ourselves, but through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us (See Rom 5:5).

4. 6. Indeed, that teaching by which we receive the command to live continently and rightly is a letter that kills, unless the life-giving spirit is present. For what we read, The letter kills, but the spirit gives life (2 Cor 3:6), is not to be understood only in that one way—namely, that something written figuratively, whose literal sense is absurd, we should not take as the letter sounds, but, looking to the other thing it signifies, should nourish the inner man with spiritual understanding, since to be wise according to the flesh is death, but to be wise according to the spirit is life and peace (Rom 8:6)—as if someone should take many things written in the Song of Songs in a carnal way, not toward the fruit of luminous love, but toward the affection of lustful desire.

Therefore what the Apostle says, The letter kills, but the spirit gives life, is not to be understood in that way alone, but also in that other way, and indeed especially in it, which he states most plainly in another place: I did not know concupiscence, unless the law said: You shall not covet (Rom 7:7); and a little later he says, Taking occasion, sin deceived me through the commandment, and through it slew me (Rom 7:11). See what it means that the letter kills. And surely nothing figurative is being said, which is not to be taken according to the sound of the letter, when it says, You shall not covet; rather it is a most plain and most wholesome precept, which, if anyone fulfills it, he will have no sin at all.

For this is why the Apostle chose something general, by which he embraced all things, as though this were the voice of the law forbidding every sin, when he said, You shall not covet; for no sin is committed except by coveting. Accordingly the law that commands this is good and praiseworthy. But where the Holy Spirit does not help, breathing in a good desire in place of an evil desire—that is, pouring out love in our hearts—then, although that law is good, by forbidding it increases the evil desire, just as the rush of waters, if it does not cease to flow against an obstacle set in its way, becomes more violent, and when it has overcome the mass of the barrier, hurled down in a greater flood, rolls more violently down the slopes. For in some way the very thing that is coveted becomes more pleasant while it is forbidden. And this is what it means that sin deceives through the commandment and through it slays, when transgression too is added, which is nothing where there is no law (See Rom 4:15).

5. 7. But let us, if you please, consider that whole passage of the apostolic letter, and treat of it as the Lord may help us. For I want, if I can, to show that what the Apostle says, The letter kills, but the spirit gives life (2 Cor 3:6), was not said of figurative expressions—although there too it may fittingly be taken so—but rather of the law openly forbidding what is evil.

And when I have shown this, it will surely appear more plainly that to live well is a divine gift—not only because God gave man free choice, without which one lives neither badly nor well, nor only because he gave a precept that teaches how one ought to live (See Rom 5:5), but because, through the Holy Spirit, he pours out love in the hearts of those (See Rom 8:29-30) whom he foreknew that he might predestine them, predestined that he might call them, called that he might justify them, justified that he might glorify them.

But when this has appeared, you will see, as I think, that it is said in vain that only those things are possible without an instance which are works of God—as we mentioned concerning the passage of the camel through the eye of a needle, and whatever other things are impossible with us but easy with God—and that therefore human righteousness is not to be reckoned among these, since it ought to pertain not to God's work but to man's, and that, if its perfection is possible in this life, there is no reason why it should be believed to be without an instance.

It will therefore shine forth clearly enough that this is said in vain, once it has become clear that human righteousness itself is to be attributed to the working of God, although it does not come about without the will of man.

And therefore we cannot deny that its perfection is possible even in this life, since all things are possible to God (See Mark 10:27)—whether the things he does by his will alone, or the things he has appointed can be done by him with the cooperating wills of his creation. And by this, whatever of these he does not do is indeed without an instance among the works that have been done, but with God it has, in his power, a cause by which it could come about, and in his wisdom a reason why it has not been done; and this cause, even if it is hidden from man, let man not forget that he is man, nor on that account ascribe folly to God, because he does not fully grasp his wisdom.

5. 8. Attend, therefore, to the Apostle as he explains to the Romans and shows clearly enough that what he wrote to the Corinthians, The letter kills, but the spirit gives life (2 Cor 3:6), is rather to be taken as we said above: that the letter of the law, which teaches that one ought not to sin, kills if the life-giving spirit is lacking; for it makes sin known rather than guarded against, and therefore increased rather than diminished, because to evil desire there is added even the transgression of the law.

6. 9. Wishing, then, to commend the grace that came through Jesus Christ to all the nations, lest the Jews should exalt themselves over the other nations on account of the law they had received, after he had said that sin and death entered the human race through one man, and righteousness and eternal life through one man (See Rom 5:12, 21)—most plainly intimating that the former was Adam, the latter Christ—he says, But the law entered in, that offense might abound; but where offense abounded, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned unto death, so also grace might reign through righteousness unto eternal life, through Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom 5:20-21). Then, raising a question against himself, he says, What then shall we say? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid (Rom 6:1-2).

For he saw that what he had said could be perversely taken by perverse people—The law entered in, that offense might abound; but where offense abounded, grace abounded all the more (Rom 5:20)—as though he had said that sin is profitable because of the abundance of grace. Dispelling this, he answered, God forbid, and added, We who have died to sin, how shall we live in it? (Rom 6:2) That is: "Since grace has brought it about that we should die to sin, what else shall we do, if we live in it, but be ungrateful to grace?" For one who praises the benefit of medicine does not say that diseases and wounds, from which it heals a man, are profitable; rather, the greater the praises with which medicine is proclaimed, the more the wounds and diseases are blamed and shuddered at, from which that which is so praised sets free. So the praise and proclamation of grace is the blaming and condemnation of offenses.

For the foulness of his sickness had to be shown to man—to whom, against his own iniquity, not even the holy and good precept profited, by which iniquity was increased rather than diminished, since indeed the law entered in that offense might abound—so that, in this way convicted and confounded, he might see that he needed not only a teacher but also God as a helper, by whom his steps might be directed, that no iniquity might have dominion over him (See Ps 119:133 (118:133)), and that, by fleeing to the help of mercy, he might be healed, and thus, where offense abounded, grace might abound all the more, not by the merit of the one who sins, but by the aid of the one who comes to his help.

6. 10. Consequently the Apostle shows that this same medicine was mystically displayed in the passion and resurrection of Christ, saying, Or do you not know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him through baptism into death, so that, as Christ rose from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be so also in the likeness of his resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away, that we should no longer be slaves to sin. For he who has died is justified from sin. But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him, knowing that Christ, rising from the dead, dies now no more, and death shall no longer have dominion over him. For in that he died, he died to sin once for all; but in that he lives, he lives to God. So you too reckon yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus (Rom 6:3-11). Surely it shines forth clearly enough that by the mystery of the Lord's death and resurrection there is figured the setting of our old life and the rising of the new, and that the abolition of iniquity and the renewal of righteousness are displayed. Whence, then, comes so great a benefit to man, except through faith in Jesus Christ, and not through the letter of the law?

7. 11. This holy reflection keeps the sons of men hoping under the protection of God's wings (See Ps 36:8-11 (35:8-11)), so that they are made drunk with the abundance of his house, and he gives them to drink of the torrent of his pleasure, since with him is the fountain of life, and in his light we shall see light—he who holds out his mercy to those who know him, and his righteousness to those who are upright in heart. For he does not hold out his mercy because they know him, but also that they may know him; nor does he hold out his righteousness because they are upright in heart, but also that they may be upright in heart—the righteousness by which he justifies the ungodly (See Rom 4:5).

This reflection does not carry one off into pride, a vice that arises when someone trusts in himself and makes himself the head of his own living. By this movement one withdraws from that fountain of life, by whose draught alone righteousness is drunk—that is, the good life—and from that unchangeable light, by sharing in which the rational soul is in some way kindled, so that it too becomes a made and created light, as John was a burning and shining lamp (John 5:35), who nevertheless, acknowledging whence he shone, said, We have all received of his fullness (John 1:16): of whose, but surely of him in comparison with whom John was not a light? For that was the true light, which enlightens every man coming into this world (John 1:9).

Accordingly, when he had said in the same psalm, Hold out your mercy to those who know you, and your righteousness to those who are upright in heart, he says, Let not the foot of pride come to me, and let not the hand of sinners move me. There fell all those who work iniquity; they were driven out and could not stand (Ps 36:11-13 (35:11-13)). For by this impiety, by which each one attributes to himself what is God's, he is driven into his own darkness, which are the works of iniquity. For these things he plainly does himself, and to the fulfilling of these he is sufficient of himself. But the works of righteousness he does not do, except so far as he receives from that fountain and from that light, where there is a life lacking nothing, and where there is no change nor shadow of alteration (See Jas 1:17).

7. 12. Therefore the apostle Paul—who, since he was first called Saul (See Acts 13:9), chose this name, as it seems to me, for no other reason than to show himself small, as it were the least of the apostles (See 1 Cor 15:9)—contends strongly and sharply against the proud and arrogant and those who presume on their own works, in order to commend this grace of God; for since it appeared more evidently and more clearly in him, who, while he was doing such things, vehemently persecuting the Church of God, for which he was worthy of the utmost punishment, received mercy instead of condemnation and obtained grace instead of penalty, he rightly cries out and strives above all in its defense, nor, in a matter so profound and exceedingly hidden, does he care for the ill will of those who do not understand and twist his sound words into a perverse sense, provided only that he may unhesitatingly preach the gift of God, by which alone the sons of the promise are saved—the sons of the divine benefit, the sons of grace and mercy, the sons of the New Testament.

First, all his greeting runs thus: Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ (Rom 1:7); then, in the letter to the Romans, almost this question alone is treated, so combatively, so manifoldly, that it tires the reader's attention—but with a useful and wholesome tiring, so that it exercises rather than breaks the limbs of the inner man.

8. 13. From this come those things I mentioned above; from this it is that he charges the Jew and says that he is surnamed a Jew and yet by no means fulfills what he professes. But if you, he says, are surnamed a Jew and rest in the law and glory in God and know his will and approve the things that differ, being instructed out of the law, and are confident that you yourself are a guide of the blind, a light of those who are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of infants, having the form of knowledge and of truth in the law—you, then, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that one should not steal, do you steal? You who say that one should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you commit sacrilege? You who glory in the law, do you, through transgression of the law, dishonor God? For the name of God is blasphemed among the nations because of you (See Isa 52:5; Ezek 36:20), as it is written.

Circumcision indeed profits, if you keep the law; but if you are a transgressor of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. If, then, the uncircumcised keeps the just requirements of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision? And he who is by nature uncircumcised, fulfilling the law, shall judge you who, through the letter and circumcision, are a transgressor of the law. For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is of the heart, in the spirit, not in the letter—whose praise is not from men but from God (Rom 2:17-29).

Here he made clear in what sense he had said, you glory in God. For surely, if such a Jew truly gloried in God in the way that grace requires—which is given not by the merits of works but freely—his praise would be from God, not from men. But they gloried in God as those who alone had merited to receive his law, according to that voice of the psalm in which it is said, He has not done so to any nation, and his judgments he has not made known to them (Ps 147:20).

Yet they supposed that they fulfilled this law of God by their own righteousness, when they were rather transgressors of it. Whence it worked wrath in them (See Rom 4:15), with sin abounding, which was perpetrated by those who knew; for even whoever did what the law commanded, without the help of the spirit of grace, did it from fear of punishment, not from love of righteousness.

And by this, before God there was not in their will what appeared before men in their deed; rather, they were held guilty on this account, that God knew they would prefer to commit it, if it could be done with impunity. But he calls it the circumcision of the heart—namely, a will pure from all unlawful desire; and this comes about not by the letter teaching and threatening, but by the spirit helping and healing.

Therefore the praise of such men is not from men but from God, who by his grace bestows what they are praised for, of whom it is said, In the Lord my soul will be praised (Ps 34:2 (33:3)), and to whom it is said, My praise is with you (Ps 22:25 (21:26))—not such as those who want God to be praised because they are men, but themselves because they are righteous.

8. 14. "But we too praise God," they say, "as the author of our justification, in that he gave the law, by looking at which we may know how we ought to live"; yet they do not hear what they read: That no flesh will be justified before God by the law (Rom 3:20). For it can come about before men, but not before him who is the inspector of the heart itself and of the inmost will (See Prov 24:12), where he sees, even if one who fears the law does otherwise, what nevertheless he would prefer to do, if it were allowed. And lest anyone should think that the Apostle here said that no one is justified by that law which contains many figurative precepts in the old sacraments—whence comes that very circumcision of the flesh which infants were commanded to receive on the eighth day (See Lev 12:3)—he at once added which law he meant and said, For through the law comes the knowledge of sin. That, then, is the law of which he later says, I did not know sin except through the law. For I did not know concupiscence, unless the law said: You shall not covet (Rom 7:7). For what else is, For through the law comes the knowledge of sin?

9. 15. Here perhaps that human presumption—ignorant of God's righteousness and wishing to establish its own (See Rom 10:3)—might say that the Apostle rightly said, That by the law no one will be justified (Rom 3:20); for the law only shows what is to be done or what is to be guarded against, so that the will may fulfill what the law has shown, and thus a man is justified not by the command of the law, but by free choice. But, O man, attend to what follows. But now, he says, without the law the righteousness of God has been made manifest, attested by the law and the prophets (Rom 3:21).

Does it sound too faintly to the deaf? The righteousness, he says, of God has been made manifest. This those are ignorant of who want to establish their own (See Rom 10:3); to this they are unwilling to be subject. The righteousness, he says, of God has been made manifest—he did not say "the righteousness of man" or "the righteousness of one's own will"—the righteousness of God, not that by which God is righteous, but that with which he clothes a man when he justifies the ungodly.

This he attests through the law and the prophets; for the law and the prophets bear witness to it: the law indeed by this very fact, that by commanding and threatening and justifying no one it sufficiently shows that a man is justified by the gift of God through the help of the spirit; the prophets, because what they foretold the coming of Christ fulfilled. For from this he goes on and adds, saying, but the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ (Rom 3:22)—that is, through the faith by which one believes in Christ.

But just as this is called the faith of Christ, not that by which Christ believes, so that is called the righteousness of God, not that by which God is righteous. For both are ours; but they are called God's and Christ's for this reason, that they are given us by his bounty. The righteousness of God, then, is without the law, but not made manifest without the law. For how is it attested through the law, if it is made manifest without the law?

But the righteousness of God is without the law in this sense, that God confers it on the believer through the spirit of grace without the help of the law—that is, not helped by the law—since indeed through the law he shows a man his weakness, so that, fleeing by faith to his mercy, he may be healed.

For of his wisdom it is said that it carries the law and mercy on its tongue (See Prov 3:16)—the law, namely, by which it makes the proud guilty, but mercy, by which it justifies the humbled. The righteousness of God, then, through faith in Jesus Christ unto all who believe; for there is no distinction. For all have sinned and lack the glory of God (Rom 3:22-23), not their own glory. For what have they that they have not received (See 1 Cor 4:7)? But if they have received it, why do they glory as if they had not received it? They lack, then, the glory of God; and see what follows: justified freely by his grace (Rom 3:24). Not, then, justified by the law, not justified by their own will, but justified freely by his grace—not that this comes about without our will, but our will is shown to be weak by the law, so that grace may heal the will, and the healed will may fulfill the law, neither set under the law nor needing the law.

10. 16. For the law is not laid down for the righteous; yet it is good, if anyone uses it lawfully (1 Tim 1:8-9). These two things, as it were contrary to each other, the Apostle joins together, and warns and moves the reader to search out the question and solve it. For how is the law good, if anyone uses it lawfully, if what follows is also true: knowing this, that the law is not laid down for the righteous? For who uses the law lawfully but the righteous man? Yet it is not laid down for him, but for the unrighteous.

Or must the unrighteous man too, in order to be justified—that is, in order to become righteous—use the law lawfully, so that by it, as by a schoolmaster, he may be led to grace, through which alone he can fulfill what the law commands (See Gal 3:24)? For through grace itself he is justified freely—that is, with no preceding merits of his own works (otherwise grace is no longer grace (Rom 11:6))—since indeed it is given, not because we have done good works, but that we may be able to do them, that is, not because we have fulfilled the law, but that we may be able to fulfill the law. For he said, I came not to abolish the law, but to fulfill it (Mt 5:17); of whom it is said, We saw his glory, glory as of the Only-begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth (John 1:14).

This is the glory of which it is said, For all have sinned and lack the glory of God (Rom 3:23), and this is the grace of which he says immediately after, justified freely by his grace (Rom 3:24). The unrighteous man, then, uses the law lawfully in order to become righteous; and when he has become so, he no longer uses it as a vehicle once he has arrived—or rather, to use the comparison of the Apostle mentioned above (See Gal 3:24), as a schoolmaster once he has been instructed.

For how is the law not laid down for the righteous, if it is necessary even for the righteous—not that by it the unrighteous man may be led to justifying grace (See 1 Tim 1:8), but that the man who is now righteous may use it lawfully?

Or perhaps—indeed not perhaps, but certainly—the man who is now righteous uses the law lawfully in this way, when he imposes it for the terrifying of the unrighteous, so that, when in these too the disease of unaccustomed desire begins to be increased by the incentive of the prohibition and the heaping up of transgression, they may flee by faith to justifying grace, and, delighted by the sweetness of righteousness through the gift of the spirit, may escape the penalty of the threatening letter?

Thus these two will not be contrary, nor will they fight with each other, so that even the righteous man uses the good law lawfully, and yet the law is not laid down for the righteous; for he was not justified by it, but by the law of faith, by which he believed that there was no way for his weakness to fulfill what the law of deeds commanded, unless it were aided by divine grace.

10. 17. Therefore he says, Where, then, is your boasting? It has been excluded. By what law? Of deeds? No, but by the law of faith (Rom 3:27). Whether by "boasting" he meant the praiseworthy boasting which is in the Lord, and said it was excluded—that is, not driven off so as to depart, but brought out so as to stand forth in relief (whence certain silversmith craftsmen are called "embossers"; from this too comes that text in the Psalms, That they may be embossed who are tried with silver (Ps 68:31 (67:31)), that is, that they may stand out who are tried by the word of the Lord.

For elsewhere too it is said, The words of the Lord are chaste words, silver tried in the fire (Ps 12:7 (11:7)))—or whether he wished to mention the faulty boasting that comes from pride, namely of those who, while they seem to themselves to live righteously, boast as if they had not received (See 1 Cor 4:7), and says it was excluded not by the law of deeds but by the law of faith—that is, cast out and thrown away—because through the law of faith each one recognizes that, if he lives well in any respect, he has it by the grace of God, and that, in order to be made perfect in the love of righteousness, he will obtain this from nowhere else.

11. 18. This reflection makes one devout, because devotion is true wisdom—by devotion I mean what the Greeks call theosebeia—for it is this that is commended when it was said to man, as we read in the book of Job, Behold, devotion is wisdom (Job 28:28). Now theosebeia, if its meaning were rendered in Latin according to the origin of the word, could be called "the worship of God," which consists above all in this, that the soul not be ungrateful to him; whence, in that truest and singular sacrifice itself, we are admonished to give thanks to the Lord our God. But the soul will be ungrateful if it attributes to itself what it has from God, and especially righteousness—by whose works, as though they were its own and as though acquired for itself by itself, it is puffed up in no common way, not as from riches, or beauty of limb, or eloquence, and the other goods, whether external or of the body or of the mind, which even the wicked are wont to have, but as though wisely from those things which are properly the goods of the good. By this vice, repelled from the stability of the divine substance, even certain great men sank down to the disgrace of idolatry.

Whence the same Apostle, in the same letter in which he is a vehement defender of grace, having said that he was a debtor to Greeks and barbarians, to the wise and the foolish, and that therefore, so far as it lay with him, he was ready to preach the gospel also to those who were at Rome (See Rom 1:14), says, For I am not ashamed of the gospel; for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and to the Greek. For the righteousness of God is revealed in it from faith to faith, as it is written: But the righteous one lives by faith (Rom 1:16-17). This is the righteousness of God, which, veiled in the Old Testament, is revealed in the New (Hab 2:4); which is called the righteousness of God for this reason, that by imparting it he makes men righteous, just as salvation is the Lord's (Ps 3:9 (3:8)), by which he saves.

And this is the faith from which and unto which it is revealed—namely, from the faith of those who announce unto the faith of those who obey. By this faith in Jesus Christ—that is, the faith which Christ has bestowed on us—we believe that our living righteously is from God for us, and will be so more fully. Whence to him, with that devotion by which alone he is to be worshiped, we give thanks.

12. 19. And not without reason does the Apostle, from this point, turn to mention with detestation those who, by that vice which I mentioned above, light and puffed up and as it were lifted up through themselves over emptiness,

where they could find no rest but, broken, would burst apart, fell down into the figments of idols as into stones. For since he had commended the devotion of faith, by which, justified before God, we ought to be grateful, introducing as it were the contrary which we should detest, he says, For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all the impiety and unrighteousness of those men who hold the truth in iniquity, because what is known of God is manifest in them; for God has manifested it to them. For his invisible things, since the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood through the things that are made—his eternal power also and divinity—so that they are without excuse, because, knowing God, they did not glorify him as God or give thanks, but became vain in their thoughts. And their foolish heart was darkened; saying that they were wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into the likeness of an image of corruptible man, and of birds and of four-footed beasts and of serpents (Rom 1:18-23).

See how he did not say that they were ignorant of the truth, but that they held the truth in iniquity. And because it came to mind to ask whence the knowledge of the truth could have been theirs, to whom God had not given the law, he did not pass over in silence whence they could have it; for he said that through the visible things of creation they had come to an understanding of the invisible things of the Creator, since indeed, by truly persisting in seeking great things by their native ability, they were able to find them. Where, then, is the impiety? Because, namely, when they had known God, they did not glorify him as God or give thanks, but became vain in their thoughts (Rom 1:21). Vanity is properly the disease of those who deceive themselves, while they seem to themselves to be something when they are nothing (See Gal 6:3).

Finally, shadowing themselves with this swelling of pride—whose foot that holy singer prays may not come upon him, who said, In your light we shall see light—they turned away from that very light of unchangeable truth, and their foolish heart was darkened (Ps 36:10 (35:10)). For their heart was not wise, although they had known God, but foolish rather, because they did not glorify him as God or give thanks. For he said to man: Behold, devotion is wisdom (Job 28:28). And by this, saying that they were wise—which is to be understood as nothing other than "attributing this very thing to themselves"—they became fools (Rom 1:22).

12. 20. What need is there now to say what follows? For by this impiety those men—those men, I say, who were able to know the Creator through creation—into what they fell headlong, since God resists the proud, and where they were sunk, the rest of the letter itself teaches better (See Rom 1:26-27; Jas 4:6; 1 Pet 5:5) than is here recalled by us. For in this work we have not undertaken to expound this letter, but rather to strive, above all by its testimony, to show, as far as we can, that we are helped from God to work righteousness not in this, that God gave a law full of good and holy precepts, but in this, that our very will, without which we cannot work good, is helped and raised up by the spirit of grace imparted to us—without which help that teaching is a letter that kills, because it holds men guilty of transgression rather than justifying the ungodly. For just as, to those who knew the Creator through creation, that very knowledge profited nothing toward salvation, because, knowing God, they did not glorify him as God or give thanks, saying that they were wise (Rom 1:21), so those who through the law of God know how a man ought to live are not justified by that knowledge, because, wishing to establish their own righteousness, they were not subject to the righteousness of God (Rom 10:3).

13. 21. The law of deeds, then—that is, of works—through which that boasting is not excluded, and the law of faith, through which it is excluded: how they differ from each other is worth considering, if indeed we are able to notice and discern it. For anyone might quickly say that the law of works is in Judaism, but the law of faith in Christianity, for the reason that circumcision and the other such works are of the law, which the Christian discipline now does not keep. But how much this distinction deceives, we have for a long time now been laboring to show, and perhaps have already shown it to those keen at discerning, and especially to you and to such as you; nevertheless, since the matter is great, it is not unfitting that, in making it plain, we should dwell on it with still more and more testimonies. For he calls "law" that very law by which no one is justified, which he says entered in that offense might abound (See Rom 3:20; 5:20); yet, lest anyone unskilled should on this account find fault with it, and sacrilegiously accuse it, he defends it, saying, What then shall we say? Is the law sin? God forbid; but I did not know sin except through the law; for I did not know concupiscence, unless the law said: You shall not covet. So, taking occasion, sin worked in me, through the commandment, every concupiscence (Rom 7:7-8). He also says, The law indeed is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good; but sin, that it might appear sin, worked death in me through the good (Rom 7:12-13).

That, then, is the letter that kills (See 2 Cor 3:6), which says, You shall not covet (Rom 7:7), of which he likewise says what I recalled a little before: For through the law comes the knowledge of sin. But now, without the law, the righteousness of God has been made manifest, attested by the law and the prophets—the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ unto all who believe; for there is no distinction. For all have sinned and lack the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation through faith in his blood, to show his righteousness, on account of the passing over of former sins in the forbearance of God, to show his righteousness at this present time, that he might be just and the justifier of him who is of the faith of Jesus (Rom 3:20-26).

Then he goes on to what we are now treating: Where, then, is your boasting? It has been excluded. By what law? Of deeds? No, but by the law of faith (Rom 3:27). That law of deeds, then, is the very one that says, You shall not covet (Rom 7:7), because through it comes the knowledge of sin. I want, therefore, to know—if anyone dares to tell me—whether the law of faith does not say, You shall not covet. For if it does not say so, what is the reason why, being set under it, we should not sin securely and with impunity? For this too those supposed the Apostle to say, of whom he says, And as some say that we say—let us do evil that good may come—whose condemnation is just (Rom 3:8). But if it too says, You shall not covet, as so many gospel and apostolic precepts do not cease to attest and proclaim, why is it not also called the law of deeds? For the fact that it does not have the works of the old sacraments—namely, circumcision and the rest—does not mean that the works it has in its own sacraments, suited to this present time, are not works. Or was the question really about the works of the sacraments, when mention was made of the law for this reason, that through it comes the knowledge of sin and therefore by it no one is justified (See Rom 3:20)? Whence boasting was excluded not by it, but by the law of faith, by which the righteous one lives (See Rom 3:27; 1:17). But surely through this too there comes the knowledge of sin (See Hab 2:4), since it too says, You shall not covet?

13. 22. What, then, is the difference? I will say it briefly. What the law of deeds commands by threatening, the law of faith obtains by believing. The one says, You shall not covet (Exod 20:17); the other says, Since I knew that no one can be continent unless God grants it, and this very thing was a part of wisdom, to know whose gift this was, I went to the Lord and besought him (Wis 8:21). This is that wisdom which is called devotion, by which the Father of lights is worshiped, from whom is every best gift and every perfect gift (See Jas 1:17).

And he is worshiped by the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, so that his worshiper glories not in himself but in him (See 2 Cor 10:17). And by this, by the law of deeds God says, "Do what I command"; by the law of faith one says to God, "Give what you command."

For the law commands in order to admonish us what faith should do—that is, so that he to whom it is commanded, if he cannot yet do it, may know what to ask for; but if he can do it at once and does it obediently, he ought also to know by whose giving he can. For we have not received the spirit of this world, says that same most steadfast preacher of grace, but the Spirit who is from God, that we may know the things that have been given us by God (1 Cor 2:12).

But what is the spirit of this world but the spirit of pride, by which the foolish heart of those was darkened (See Rom 1:21) who, having known God, did not glorify him as God by giving thanks? And by no other spirit are those also deceived who, being ignorant of God's righteousness and wishing to establish their own, were not subject to the righteousness of God (Rom 10:3). Whence it seems to me that he is more a son of faith who knows from whom he may hope for what he does not yet have, than he who attributes to himself what he has.

Although to both of these is to be preferred the man who both has it and knows from whom he has it, provided, however, that he does not believe himself to be already what he is not yet, lest he fall into the vice of that Pharisee who, although he gave thanks to God for the things he had, nevertheless asked for nothing to be given him, as if he needed nothing for the increasing or perfecting of righteousness (See Luke 18:11-12). These things, then, having been considered and treated according to the strength which the Lord deigns to grant, we gather that a man is not justified by the precepts of a good life except through faith in Jesus Christ—that is, not by the law of deeds but by the law of faith, not by the letter but by the spirit, not by the merits of deeds but by freely given grace.

14. 23. Therefore, although the Apostle seems to rebuke and correct those to whom circumcision was being urged (See Rom 2:17-29) in such a way that under the name of "law" he refers to that same circumcision and the other such observances of the law—which, as shadows of what was to come, Christians now reject, holding what was figuratively promised through those shadows (See Col 2:17)—nevertheless he wants the law, by which he says no one is justified, to be understood not only in those sacraments which had figures of promise, but also in those works which whoever does, lives righteously; among which is also that, You shall not covet (Exod 20:17).

And, to make what we are saying plainer, let us look at the Decalogue itself. For surely Moses received the law to be administered to the people on the mountain, written on tablets of stone by the finger of God (See Exod 31:18; Deut 9:10). This is comprised in ten precepts (See Exod 20), where nothing is commanded about circumcision, nothing about the sacrifices of beasts, which are now not offered by Christians. In those ten precepts, then, apart from the observance of the sabbath, let it be told me what is not to be observed by a Christian—whether about not making and worshiping idols and any other gods besides the one true God, or about not taking the name of God in vain, or about giving honor to parents, or about guarding against fornications, murders, thefts, false testimonies, adulteries, coveting another's goods. Which of these would anyone say a Christian ought not to keep? Or is it perhaps not this law, which is written on those two tablets, that the Apostle calls a letter that kills, but rather that of circumcision and of the other old and now abolished sacraments? But how shall we think this, when in it is, You shall not covet, through which commandment, though holy and just and good, he says, sin deceived me and through it slew me (See Rom 7:11-12)? For what else is, The letter kills?

14. 24. Yet more evidently, in that very passage to the Corinthians where he says, The letter kills, but the spirit gives life (2 Cor 3:6), he wants no other letter to be understood than the Decalogue itself written on those two tablets. For he says thus: Since you are a letter of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on the fleshly tablets of the heart. And such confidence we have through Christ toward God—not that we are sufficient to think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, who has also made us fit ministers of the New Testament, not of the letter but of the spirit. For the letter kills, but the spirit gives life. But if the ministration of death, figured in letters on stone, came in glory, so that the children of Israel could not gaze on the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which is being done away, why shall not the ministration of the spirit be even more in glory? For if the ministration of condemnation is glory, much more shall the ministration of righteousness abound in glory (2 Cor 3:3-9). Many things can be said about these words, but perhaps more opportunely later.

But now notice which letter he says kills (See 2 Cor 3:6), against which, as it were as its contrary, he sets the life-giving spirit. That, surely, is the ministration of death figured in letters on stone, and the ministration of condemnation (See 2 Cor 3:7, 9), because the law entered in that offense might abound (See Rom 5:20). But moreover the precepts themselves are so useful and wholesome to one who does them, that unless someone does them he cannot have life.

Or is it really on account of the one precept about the sabbath placed there that the Decalogue was called a letter that kills—since whoever observes that day to this present time as the letter sounds is wise according to the flesh, and to be wise according to the flesh is death (See Rom 8:6)—and are those nine precepts, which are rightly observed as they are written, to be thought to pertain not to the law of deeds, by which no one is justified (See Rom 3:20), but to the law of faith, by which the righteous one lives (See Rom 1:17; Gal 3:11; Heb 10:38; Hab 2:4)?

Who would think so absurdly as to say that the ministration of death figured in letters on stone is named not from all ten precepts, but from the one alone that pertains to the sabbath? Where, then, do we place, The law works wrath; for where there is no law, neither is there transgression (Rom 4:15), and, Until the law, sin was in the world; but sin was not imputed, when there was no law (Rom 5:13), and that which we have now so often recalled, Through the law comes the knowledge of sin (Rom 3:20), and especially that, where he expressed more evidently what is at issue, I did not know concupiscence, unless the law said: You shall not covet (Rom 7:7)?

14. 25. Attend to this whole passage, and see whether he says anything on account of circumcision or the sabbath or any other shadowy sacrament, and does not rather say it all on this account: that the letter forbidding sin does not give life to a man, but rather kills him by increasing concupiscence and heaping up iniquity through transgression, unless grace sets free through the law of faith that is in Christ Jesus (See Rom 7:25), when love is poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us (See Rom 5:5). For when he had said, That we should serve in newness of the spirit and not in the oldness of the letter, what then shall we say? he says. Is the law sin? God forbid. But I did not know sin except through the law. For I did not know concupiscence, unless the law said: You shall not covet. But sin, taking occasion through the commandment, worked in me every concupiscence; for without the law sin was dead. And I was once alive without the law; but when the commandment came, sin revived. And I died, and the commandment, which was unto life, was found by me to be unto death. For sin, taking occasion through the commandment, deceived me and through it slew me. So the law indeed is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good. Did then that which is good become death to me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, worked death in me through the good, so that sin through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. For we know that the law is spiritual; but I am carnal, sold under sin. For what I do, I do not understand; for I do not do what I will, but I do what I hate. But if I do what I do not will, I consent to the law, that it is good. But now it is no longer I who do it, but the sin that dwells in me. For I know that good does not dwell in me, that is, in my flesh. For to will is present with me, but to accomplish the good is not. For I do not do the good that I will, but the evil that I do not will, this I do. But if I do what I do not will, it is no longer I who do it, but the sin that dwells in me. I find, then, a law for me when I will to do good, since evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God according to the inner man, but I see another law in my members fighting against the law of my mind and making me captive in the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will free me from the body of this death? The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Therefore I myself with the mind serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin (Rom 7:6-25).

14. 26. It is clear, then, that the oldness of the letter, if the newness of the spirit is lacking, makes men guilty by the knowledge of sin rather than freeing them from sin. Whence it is also written elsewhere, He who adds knowledge adds sorrow (Eccl 1:18)—not because the law itself is evil, but because it has a good commandment in the letter that shows, not in the spirit that helps.

If that commandment is done from fear of punishment, not from love of righteousness, it is done slavishly, not freely, and therefore it is not really done. For it is not a good fruit that does not rise from the root of love. But moreover, if there is faith that works through love (See Gal 5:6), one begins to delight together in the law of God according to the inner man (See Rom 7:22)—which delight is the gift not of the letter but of the spirit—even though another law in the members still fights against the law of the mind (See Rom 7:23), until the whole oldness, being changed, passes over into the newness which is increased from day to day in the inner man (See 2 Cor 4:16), the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord freeing us from the body of this death (See Rom 7:25).

15. 27. This grace lay hidden, veiled in the Old Testament, and was revealed in the gospel of Christ by a most orderly dispensation of the times, as God knows how to dispose all things. And perhaps to that very concealment of it pertains the fact that, in that Decalogue which was given on Mount Sinai (See Exod 24:12), this alone was hidden in a figurative precept, the one that pertains to the sabbath. Now the sabbath is the day of sanctification (See Exod 20:11). Nor is it without meaning that, among all the works which God made, sanctification was first mentioned there, where he rested from all his works (See Gen 2:3)—on which there is now no place to discourse. Nevertheless, what I think is enough for the matter at hand, the people was not without reason commanded to abstain on that day from all servile work (See Exod 20:10), by which sin is signified, except for this: that not to sin belongs to sanctification, that is, to the gift of God through the Holy Spirit, which alone, among the rest, was placed in the shadow of a figure in the law that was written on the two tablets of stone (See Exod 24:12), in which the Jews observe the sabbath, so that by this very thing it might be signified that it was then the time for concealing grace, which was to be revealed in the New Testament through the passion of Christ, as it were by the tearing of the veil (See Mt 27:51). For when you pass over, he says, to Christ, the veil will be taken away (2 Cor 3:16).

16. 28. Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (2 Cor 3:17). Now this Spirit of God, by whose gift we are justified, by whom it comes about in us that not to sin is a delight—where there is liberty, just as, apart from this Spirit, to sin is a delight, where there is slavery, from whose works one must abstain, that is, must keep a spiritual sabbath—this Holy Spirit, through whom love is poured out in our hearts (See Rom 5:5), which is the fullness of the law, is also called in the gospel the finger of God (See Rom 13:10; Luke 11:20). Whence, since those tablets too were written with the finger of God (See Deut 9:10), and the finger of God is the Spirit of God, by whom we are sanctified, so that, living from faith, we may work well through love (See Gal 5:6), who would not be moved by this correspondence, and at the same time by the difference there? For fifty days are reckoned from the celebration of the Passover—which was figuratively commanded by Moses to be done by the slaying of a lamb (See Exod 12), surely in signification of the future passion of the Lord—up to the day on which Moses received the law on tablets written with the finger of God; likewise, from the slaying and resurrection of him who was led like a sheep to the slaughter (Isa 53:7), when fifty days were completed, the finger of God, that is, the Holy Spirit, filled the faithful who had been gathered into one (See Acts 2:1-4).

17. 29. In this wonderful correspondence, this certainly differs greatly: that there the people was forbidden by dreadful terror to approach the place where the law was being given (See Exod 19); but here the Holy Spirit came upon those who, awaiting the promise, had been gathered into one (See Acts 2:1); there the finger of God worked on tablets of stone, here in the hearts of men. There, then, the law was placed outwardly, that the unrighteous might be terrified; here it was given inwardly, that they might be justified. For: You shall not commit adultery, you shall not kill, you shall not covet—and if there is any other commandment (which is surely written on those tablets)—it is summed up, he says, in this saying: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love of the neighbor works no evil. But the fullness of the law is love (Rom 13:9-10).

This was written not on tablets of stone, but poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us (Rom 5:5). The law of God, then, is love. To this the prudence of the flesh is not subject; for it cannot be (See Rom 8:7); but when, for the terrifying of this prudence of the flesh, the works of love are written on tablets, it is the law of deeds and the letter that kills the transgressor; but when love itself is poured out in the heart of believers (See Rom 5:5), it is the law of faith and the spirit that gives life to the one who loves.

17. 30. See now how this distinction agrees with those apostolic words which, a little before, I mentioned for another purpose and put off to be treated more carefully. Being made manifest, he says, that you are a letter of Christ, ministered by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on the fleshly tablets of the heart (2 Cor 3:3). See how he shows that the one is written outside man, that it may terrify him from without; the other within man himself, that it may justify him from within. But he called the tablets of the heart "fleshly," not of carnal prudence, but as it were living and having feeling, in comparison with stone, which is without feeling.

And what he says a little later, that the children of Israel could not gaze to the end upon the face of Moses, and therefore he spoke to them through a veil (See 2 Cor 3:7, 13), signifies this: that the letter of the law justifies no one, but a veil is placed over the reading of the Old Testament until one passes over to Christ and the veil is taken away (See 2 Cor 3:16)—that is, until one passes over to grace and understands that from him comes our justification, by which we do what he commands. And he commands for this reason, that, failing in ourselves, we may flee to him. Therefore most vigilantly, when he had said, Such confidence we have through Christ toward God, lest this should be attributed to our own strength, he immediately commended what is at issue, saying, Not that we are sufficient to think anything as of ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God, who has also made us fit ministers of the New Testament, not of the letter but of the spirit; for the letter kills, but the spirit gives life (2 Cor 3:4-6).

18. 31. Accordingly, because the law, as he says elsewhere, was set down for the sake of transgression (Gal 3:19)—that is, that letter written outside man—he therefore calls it both the ministration of death and the ministration of condemnation (See 2 Cor 3:7, 9); 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 the one is done away, this remains, since the terrifying schoolmaster will be taken away when love has succeeded to fear; for where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (2 Cor 3:17; see Gal 3:24). But that this ministration is not from our merits but from mercy, he says thus: Therefore, having this ministration, just as we have obtained mercy, let us not be faint, but let us cast away the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor adulterating the word of God with deceit (2 Cor 4:1-2).

By this craftiness and deceit he wants the hypocrisy to be understood by which the proud want to seem righteous. Whence also, in that psalm which this same Apostle mentions for the attesting of this very grace, he says, Blessed is the man to whom the Lord has not imputed sin, nor is there deceit in his mouth (Rom 4:8; Ps 32:2 (31:2)). This is the confession of the humble saints, who do not boast themselves to be what they are not. And a little later he says, For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ the Lord, and ourselves your servants through Jesus; because God, who said that light should shine out of darkness, has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of his glory in the face of Christ Jesus (2 Cor 4:5-6). This is the knowledge of his glory, by which we know that he is the light by which our darkness is illumined (See John 1:5). And notice how he drives this home: But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us (2 Cor 4:7). And a little later, when, commending this same grace more abundantly in the Lord Jesus Christ, he comes to that garment of the righteousness of faith (See 2 Cor 5:2-4), clothed with which we may not be found naked, and on account of which we groan, weighed down by mortality, desiring to be clothed over with our habitation which is from heaven, that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life, see what he adds: But he who has wrought us for this very thing is God, he says, who has given us the pledge of the spirit (2 Cor 5:5). And a little after he brought in, That we might be the righteousness of God in him (2 Cor 5:21). This is that righteousness of God, not that by which he himself is righteous, but that by which we are made righteous by him.

19. 32. Let no Christian, then, stray from this faith, which alone is Christian; nor let anyone, when he has been ashamed to say that we are made righteous through ourselves, the grace of God not working this in us—because he sees that this cannot be borne by the faithful and devout when it is said—turn to this, that he says we cannot be righteous without the working of God's grace for this reason: that he gave the law, that he established teaching, that he commanded good precepts. For those things, without the helping spirit, are without doubt a letter that kills; but when the life-giving spirit is present, it makes that very thing, written within, to be loved, which, written outside, the law made to be feared.

19. 33. Look at this a little also in that testimony which was set forth most clearly concerning it through the prophet: Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, and I will complete over the house of Israel and over the house of Judah a new testament, not according to the testament that I made with their fathers in the day when I took their hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, because they themselves did not continue in my testament, and I disregarded them, says the Lord. For this is the testament that I will ordain for the house of Israel: after those days, says the Lord, I will give my laws into their heart, and on their mind I will write them; and I will be to them a God, and they themselves will be to me a people. And each one will no longer teach his fellow citizen, and each one his brother, saying: Know the Lord; for all will know me, from the least of them to the greatest, because I will be merciful to their iniquity, and their sins I will remember no more (Jer 31:31-34). What shall we say to these things? Surely in the old books, either nowhere or scarcely, apart from this prophetic passage, do we read mention made of a new testament, such that it should be called by that very name. For in many places this is signified and foretold as future, but not in such a way that the name itself is read expressed. Consider, therefore, carefully what difference between the two testaments—that is, the old and the new—God testified there to be.

19. 34. When he had said, Not according to the testament that I made with their fathers in the day when I took their hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, see what he added: Because they themselves did not continue in my testament (Jer 31:32). He reckons 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 blamed. For it is that very law which Christ came not to abolish but to fulfill (Mt 5:17)—yet not with the ungodly justified through that same law, but through grace; for this is what the life-giving spirit does, without which the letter kills. For if a law had been given that could give life, righteousness would indeed be from the law. But the Scripture has shut up all things under sin, that the promise, from faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe (Gal 3:21-22).

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 concupiscence has overleaped even the barriers of fear, or at least in the will alone, if the fear of punishment has overcome the sweetness of lust. For what he says, The Scripture has shut up all things under sin, that the promise, from faith in Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe, states the usefulness of that very shutting up. For to what use did it shut up, except as he says elsewhere: But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto that faith which was afterward to be revealed (Gal 3:23)? The law, then, was given that grace might be sought; grace was given that the law might be fulfilled.

For it was not by its own fault that the law was not fulfilled, but by the fault of the prudence of the flesh. And this fault had to be shown through the law and healed through grace. For what was impossible for the law, in that it was weak through the flesh, God did, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and from sin he 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 (Rom 8:3-4). Whence also in this prophetic testimony he says, I will complete over the house of Israel and over the house of Judah a new testament. What is, I will complete, but "I will fulfill," not according to the testament that I made with their fathers in the day when I took their hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt (Jer 31:31-32)?

20. 35. Therefore that was Old, because this is New. Whence, then, is that old and this new, when the same law is fulfilled through the New Testament which said in the Old, You shall not covet? Because they themselves, he says, did not continue in my testament, and I disregarded them, says the Lord (Exod 20:17). Therefore, on account of the guilt of the old man, which was by no means healed by the letter commanding and threatening, that is called the Old Testament; but this is called New on account of the newness of the spirit, which heals the new man from the vice of oldness.

Finally, attend to what follows, and see by how great a light it becomes plain—a thing which men who are confident in themselves are unwilling to behold. For this is the testament, he says, that I will ordain for the house of Israel: after those days, says the Lord, I will give my laws into their heart, and on their mind I will write them (Jer 31:33). See whence the Apostle says, what we mentioned above, Not on tablets of stone, but on the tablets of the heart, because not with ink, but with the Spirit of the living God (2 Cor 3:3). And for no other reason, I think, did the Apostle wish to mention the New Testament in that passage—for there he says, Who has also made us fit ministers of the New Testament, not of the letter but of the spirit (2 Cor 3:6)—except that he was looking to this prophecy when he said, Not on tablets of stone, but on the fleshly tablets of the heart (2 Cor 3:3), since here it is said, In their hearts I write them (Jer 31:33), where the New Testament is by name promised.

21. 36. What, then, are the laws of God written by God himself in hearts, but the very presence of the Holy Spirit, who is the finger of God (See Luke 11:20), by whose presence love is poured out in our hearts (See Rom 5:5), which is the fullness of the law and the end of the commandment (See Rom 13:10)?

For although the promises of the Old Testament are earthly (See 1 Tim 1:5)—although, apart from the sacraments which were shadows of things to come (See Col 2:17), such as circumcision and the sabbath and other observances of days and the rites concerning certain foods and the manifold ritual of sacrifices and sacred things, which were suited to the carnal oldness by the law and by a servile yoke—it contains such precepts of righteousness as we are now too commanded to observe, which are expressed especially on those two tablets without the figure of a shadowed signification, such as, You shall not commit adultery, you shall not kill, you shall not covet—and if there is any other commandment, which is summed up in this saying: You shall love your neighbor as yourself (Rom 13:9)—nevertheless, because in it, as I said, earthly and temporal promises are recited, which are goods of this corruptible flesh, although by them are figured the everlasting and heavenly things that pertain 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, an intelligible good—when it is said, Giving my laws into their mind, and on their hearts I will write them (Jer 31:33). Whence he signified that they would not dread a law terrifying from without, but would love the very righteousness of the law dwelling within.

22. 37. Then he added also the reward: And I will be to them a God, and they themselves will be to me a people (Jer 31:33). This is that which that man said to God: But for me it is good to cling to God (Ps 73:28 (72:28)). I will be, he says, to them a God, and they themselves will be to me a people (Jer 31:33). What is better than this good, what is happier than this happiness—to live for God, to live from God (See Rom 6:11), with whom is the fountain of life, and in whose light we shall see light (See Ps 36:10 (35:10))? Of this life the Lord himself says, But this is eternal life, that they may know you, the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent (John 17:3)—that is, that they may know you and Jesus Christ whom you have sent, the one true God. For this too he himself promises to those who love him, saying, He who loves me keeps my commandments; and he who loves me is loved by my Father. And I will love him and will show myself to him (John 14:21)—surely in the form of God, in which he is equal to the Father, not in the form of a servant (See Phil 2:6-7), in which he showed himself even to the ungodly.

For then will come to pass what is written, Let the ungodly one be taken away, that he may not see the brightness of the Lord (Isa 26:10), when those on the left will go into eternal fire, but the righteous into eternal life (See Mt 25:46).

This eternal life, as I mentioned, has been defined to be this, that they may know the one true God (See John 17:3). Hence John too says, Beloved, we are sons of God, and it has not yet appeared what we shall be. We know that, when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is (1 John 3:2). This likeness now begins to be reformed, so long as man is inwardly renewed from day to day (See 2 Cor 4:16) according to the image of him who created him (See Col 3:10).

23. 38. But compared to the perfection of that eminence which will then be, what is this, or how great is it? Since indeed the Apostle, applying to those ineffable things some sort of example from familiar things, compared the age of a little child to the age of a man: When I was, he says, a little child, I spoke as a little child, I was wise as a little child, I thought as a little child; but when I became a man, I put away the things that were a little child's (1 Cor 13:11). And, showing consequently why he said this, he says, We see now through a mirror in an enigma, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I shall know even as I am known (1 Cor 13:12).

24. 39. Accordingly, through this prophet too, whose testimony we are treating, this is added, so that in it consists the reward, in it the end, in it the perfection of happiness, 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 themselves will be to me a people, he immediately added, And each one will no longer teach his fellow citizen, and each one his brother, saying: Know the Lord; for all will know me, from the least of them to the greatest (Jer 31:33-34). 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 recalled from that prophecy. Why, then, does each one still say to his fellow citizen and to his brother, Know the Lord? Or is it perhaps not said, since the gospel is being preached, and its very preaching is this, that it be said everywhere? For whence does the Apostle say that he is a teacher of the nations (See 1 Tim 2:7), except because that 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 (Rom 10:14)? Since, then, this preaching now grows frequent everywhere, how is it the time of the New Testament, of which the prophet said, And each one will no longer teach his fellow citizen, and each one his brother, saying: Know the Lord; for all will know me, from the least of them to the greatest (Jer 31:34)—except because, by promising, he joined to it the eternal reward of that same New Testament, that is, the most blessed contemplation of God himself?

24. 40. What, then, is all, from the least of them to the greatest, 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 that is the promise by which it was said to him, In Isaac shall your seed be called. For it is not those who are the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are reckoned as the seed. For this is the word of the promise: At this time I will come, and Sarah shall have a son. And not only this, but Rebecca also, having conceived by one act from our father Isaac. For when the children were not yet born, nor had done anything good or evil—that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not from works but from him who calls—it was said to her that the elder shall serve the younger (Rom 9:7-13).

This is the house of Israel, or the house of Judah on account of Christ, who came from the tribe of Judah—the house of the children 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 and another do it, which would no longer be to promise, but to foretell.

Therefore, not from works, but from him who calls (Rom 9:12), lest it be theirs, not God's; lest the reward be reckoned not according to grace but according to debt (See Rom 4:4), and thus grace be no longer grace (See Rom 11:6)—of which the vehement defender and champion is the least of the apostles, who labored more than all of them, yet not he, but the grace of God with him (See 1 Cor 15:9-10). For all, he says, will know me (Jer 31:34). All: the house of Israel and the house of Judah.

For not all who are of Israel are themselves Israel, but all to whom it is said in the psalm, For the morning support—that is, for the new light, namely of the New Testament—all the seed of Jacob, magnify him; let all the seed of Israel fear him (Ps 22:1, 23 (21:1, 24)).

The whole seed altogether, absolutely all the seed of those promised and called (See Rom 8:28)—but of those who are called according to the purpose. For whom he predestined, them he also called; and whom he called, them he also justified; and whom he justified, them he also glorified (Rom 8:30). Therefore from faith, that according to grace the promise might be firm for all the seed—not only for that which is from the law (that is, which comes from the Old Testament to the New), but also for that which is from the faith (Rom 4:16)—not having the law set before it, but from the faith of Abraham, that is, imitators of the faith of Abraham—who is the father of us all, as it is written, that I have set you as a father of many nations (Rom 4:17). All these, then—predestined, called, justified, glorified—will know God by the grace of the New Testament, from the least of them to the greatest.

24. 41. Therefore, just as the law of deeds, written on tablets of stone, and its reward, that land of promise which the carnal house of Israel received when it had been freed from Egypt, pertains to the Old Testament, so the law of faith, written in hearts, and its reward, the vision of contemplation which the spiritual house of Israel, freed from this world, will receive, pertains to the New Testament. Then will come to pass what the Apostle says: Whether prophecies, they will be done away; whether tongues, they will cease; whether knowledge, it will be done away (1 Cor 13:8)—namely, that knowledge of little children, in which one lives here, which is in part, through a mirror in an enigma (See 1 Cor 13:9, 12).

For on account of this prophecy is necessary, while the future still succeeds the past; on account of this tongues, that is, the multiplicity of significations, since from one thing and another, one thing and another is brought to mind to him who does not yet contemplate with a most purified mind the eternal light of clear truth. But when that which is perfect has come (1 Cor 13:10), and all this which is in part has been done away (See 1 Cor 13:8-9), then the Word, who appeared to the flesh by the flesh he assumed, will show himself to those who love him; then will be eternal life, that we may know the one true God (See John 17:3); then we shall be like him (See 1 John 3:2), since then we shall know even as we are known (See 1 Cor 13:12); then each one will no longer teach his fellow citizen or his brother, saying: Know the Lord; for all will know him from the least of them to the greatest (Jer 31:34; see Heb 8:11).

This can be understood in many ways: either because there too each of the saints differs from another in glory, as star from star (See 1 Cor 15:41)—and it makes no difference to the matter whether it is said from the least to the greatest, as it was said, or whether it were said from the greatest to the least; which likewise makes no difference, even if we understood the lesser to be those who were able only to believe, but the greater those who were also able to understand, so far as is possible in this life, the incorporeal and unchangeable light—or because he wished the lesser to be understood as those who came later in time, and the greater as those earlier in time (for all will receive the promised contemplation of God together, since those too provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect without us (See Heb 11:40), and therefore those who as it were came first are found to be the lesser, because they were less delayed, as is said in that gospel parable by the denarius which those who came later to the vineyard receive first (See Mt 20:8-12))—or in whatever other way, which perhaps escapes me at present, the lesser and greater are to be taken.

25. 42. Yet attend as carefully as you can to this, which with such effort I am trying to show: that when the prophet promised the New Testament, not according to the testament that was earlier made for the people of Israel freed from Egypt, he said nothing about a change of sacrifices or of any sacraments whatever—although that too would without doubt follow, as we see that it did follow, which the same prophetic Scripture attests in many other places—but commended only this difference, that God would give 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 on tablets of stone, but on the fleshly tablets of the heart (2 Cor 3:3)), and that the everlasting reward of this justification would be not the land from which the Amorites and the Hittites and the other nations that are mentioned there (See Josh 12) were driven out, but God himself, to whom it is good to cling (See Ps 73:28 (72:28)), so that the good of God which they love may be God himself whom they love, between whom and men nothing separates but sins (See Isa 59:2), which are forgiven only through this same grace.

Whence, when he had said, For all will know me, from the least of them to the greatest, he soon added, Because I will be merciful to their iniquity, and their sins I will remember no more (Jer 31:34). By the law of deeds, then, the Lord says, You shall not covet (Exod 20:17); by the law of faith the Lord says, Without me you can do nothing (John 15:5); for he was speaking of good works, that is, of the fruits of the branches (See John 15:1-5).

Since, then, this difference between the Old and New Testament appears—that the law there is written on tablets, here in hearts, so that what there terrifies from without here delights within, and there one becomes a transgressor through the killing letter, here a lover through the life-giving spirit—it is not to be said that God helps us to work righteousness, and works in us both to will and to work for his good pleasure (See Phil 2:13), because by the precepts of righteousness he sounds upon our senses from without, but because within he gives the increase by pouring out love in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us (See 1 Cor 3:7; Rom 5:5).

26. 43. But we must see how the Apostle says, For when the gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature the things of the law, these, not having the law, are a law to themselves, who show the work of the law written in their hearts (Rom 2:14-15), lest there should seem to be no sure difference of the New Testament—that the Lord promised to write his laws in the hearts of his people—since indeed the gentiles have this by nature. This question, then, which has arisen no small one, must be treated.

For someone will say: "If God distinguishes the New Testament from the Old by this, 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 do by nature the things of the law—as though they were already 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 which nature has already granted to these?"

26. 44. Or did the Apostle perhaps mention as having the law written in their hearts those gentiles who belong to the New Testament? For we must look at where he comes to this from. First, commending the gospel, he says, For it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and to the Greek. For the righteousness of God is revealed in it from faith to faith, as it is written: But the righteous one lives by faith (Rom 1:16-17).

Then he speaks of those ungodly men to whom, on account of pride, not even the knowledge of God profited, because they did not glorify him as God or give thanks (See Rom 1:21). Thence he passes to those who judge and do such things as they condemn—surely on account of the Jews, who gloried in the law of God, although he does not yet name them expressly—and therefore he says, Wrath and indignation, tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man who works evil, of the Jew first and of the Greek; but glory and honor and peace to everyone who works good, to the Jew first and to the Greek. For there is no respect of persons with God. For whoever sinned without the law will perish without the law; and whoever sinned in the law will be judged by the law. For not the hearers of the law are righteous before God, but the doers of the law will be justified (Rom 2:8-13).

To these words he joins what is at issue, and says, For when the gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature the things of the law (Rom 2:14), and the rest which I have already mentioned above. Accordingly he seems here to have signified, under the name of gentiles, none other than those whom above he signified by the name of Greek, when he said, To the Jew first and to the Greek. Moreover, if the gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and to the Greek (Rom 1:16), and wrath and indignation, tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man who works evil, of the Jew first and of the Greek, but glory and honor and peace to everyone who works good, to the Jew first and to the Greek (Rom 2:8-10);

but this Greek was signified under the name of gentiles who do by nature the things of the law and who have the work of the law written in their hearts, then surely those gentiles belong to the gospel in whose hearts the law is written; for to them, when they believe, the gospel is the power of God unto salvation. But to what gentiles, set outside the grace of the gospel, would he promise glory, honor, and peace for working well? 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 has believed—will have salvation alike in the gospel. For there is no distinction, as he later says: For all have sinned and lack the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace (Rom 3:22-24). But how would he say that a Greek doer of the law is justified without the grace of the Savior?

26. 45. For he would not contradict himself, in what he says, The doers of the law will be justified (Rom 2:13)—as though they were justified through works, not through grace—when he says that a man is justified freely through faith without the works of the law (See Rom 3:24, 28), and wishes nothing else to be understood in his saying freely than that works do not precede justification. For elsewhere he plainly says, If by grace, then not from works; otherwise grace is no longer grace (Rom 11:6). But the doers of the law will be justified is to be so understood that we may know that they are not otherwise doers of the law unless they are justified, so that justification does not come to the doers, but rather justification precedes the doers.

For what else is "justified" but "made righteous"—namely, by him who justifies the ungodly (See Rom 3:24; 4:5), so that from ungodly one becomes righteous? For if we were to speak in such a way as to say "men will be freed," this surely would be understood to mean that freedom comes to those who were already men; but if we said "men will be created," it would surely not be understood that those are created who were already men, but that by that very creation they are made men. So, if it had been said "the doers of the law will be honored," we would rightly take it to mean nothing but that honor comes to those who were already doers of the law;

but when it is said the doers of the law will be justified, what else is said but "the righteous will be made righteous"? For the doers of the law are surely righteous.

And by this it is just as if it were said "the doers of the law will be created"—not because they were such, but that they may be such—so that thus 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 surely they will be justified is said as if it were said "they will be held righteous," "they will be reckoned righteous," as it was said of a certain man, But he, wishing to justify himself (Luke 10:29), that is, that he might be held and reckoned righteous.

Whence we say in one sense, "God sanctifies his saints," but in another, Hallowed be your name (Mt 6:9); for the former because he himself makes those holy who were not holy, but the latter that what is always holy in itself may be held holy also by men, that is, may be feared in a holy way.

26. 46. If, then, in mentioning the gentiles who do by nature the things of the law and who have the work of the law written in their hearts (See Rom 2:14-15), he wished those to be understood who believe in Christ—because they do not, like the Jews, come to faith with the law sent before them—there is no reason why we should try to distinguish them from those to whom the Lord, promising the New Testament through the prophet, said that he would write his laws in their hearts (See Jer 31:33);

because they too, through the grafting which he says was granted to the wild olive, belong to the same olive tree, that is, to the same people of God (See Rom 11:24); and this apostolic testimony agrees rather with the prophetic, so that to belong to the New Testament is to have the law of God written not on tablets but in hearts—that is, to embrace the righteousness of the law with the inmost affection, where faith works through love (See Gal 5:6)—because God justifies the gentiles from faith, which the Scripture, foreseeing, foretold to Abraham, saying, In your seed all the nations will be blessed (Gen 22:18), so that through this grace of the promise the wild olive might be grafted into the olive, and the believing gentiles might become sons of Abraham in the seed of Abraham, which is Christ (See Gal 3:8, 16), following the faith of him who, not having received the law on tablets and not yet having circumcision itself, believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness (Gen 15:6; Rom 4:3).

And thus this which the Apostle said of such gentiles, that they have the work of the law written in their hearts (See Rom 2:15), will be such as that to the Corinthians, Not on tablets of stone, but on the fleshly tablets of the heart (2 Cor 3:3). For thus they become of the house of Israel, when their uncircumcision is reckoned for circumcision, in that they show the righteousness of the law not by the cutting of the flesh, but keep it by the love of the heart, since if the uncircumcised keeps the just requirements of the law, shall not his uncircumcision, he says, be reckoned for circumcision (Rom 2:26)? And therefore in the house of the true Israel, in whom there is no deceit (See John 1:47), they are partakers of the New Testament, because God gives laws into their mind and writes them in their hearts with his finger (See Jer 31:33; Heb 10:16), the Holy Spirit, by whom there love is poured out (Rom 5:5), which is the fullness of the law (Rom 13:10).

27. 47. Nor let it trouble you that he said they do the things of the law by nature, not by the Spirit of God, not by faith, not by grace. For this is what the spirit of grace does: it restores in us the image of God, in which we were made by nature. For vice is against nature, and grace surely heals it, on account of which it is said to God, Have mercy on me; heal my soul, for I have sinned against you (Ps 41:5 (40:5)). Accordingly, men do by nature the things of the law; for those who do not do this, do not do it by their own vice.

By which vice the law of God was blotted out of their hearts; and by this, when the vice is healed and it is written there, they do the things of the law by nature—not because grace was denied through nature, but rather because nature was repaired through grace. For through one man sin entered into the world, and through sin death, and so it passed upon all men, in whom all have sinned (Rom 5:12). And therefore, because there is no distinction, they lack the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace (See Rom 3:22-24). By which grace, in the inner man renewed, righteousness is written, which guilt had blotted out; and this is mercy upon the human race through Jesus Christ our Lord. For there is one God, and one mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus (1 Tim 2:5).

27. 48. But if these who do by nature the things of the law are not yet to be reckoned in the number of those whom the grace of Christ justifies, but rather in the number of those of whom, even though ungodly and not truly and justly worshiping the true God, we nevertheless read or know or have heard certain deeds which, according to the rule of righteousness, we not only cannot blame but even rightly and deservedly praise—although, if it be examined with what end they are done, they are scarcely found to merit the praise or defense due to righteousness—

28. 48. nevertheless, because the image of God in the human soul has not been so worn away by the corruption of earthly affections that no extreme outlines, as it were, remain in it—whence it may rightly be said that even in the very ungodliness of his life a man does or perceives something of the law, if this is what is meant by saying that the gentiles who do not have the law, that is, the law of God, do by nature the things of the law, and that men of this kind are a law to themselves and have the work of the law written in their hearts (See Rom 2:14-15), that is, what was impressed there through the image of God when they were created has not been blotted out in every way—even so that difference will not be disturbed by which the New Testament differs from the Old, in that through the New the law of God is written in the heart of the faithful, which through the Old was written on tablets.

For that is written there through renewal which was not blotted out in every way through oldness. For just as the image of God itself is renewed in the mind of believers through the New Testament—which ungodliness had not utterly abolished, for there surely remained that without which the soul of man cannot be a rational soul—so too the law of God there, not blotted out in every part through unrighteousness, is surely written, renewed through grace.

Nor could the law written on tablets effect this inscription, which is justification, in the Jews, but only transgression. For they too were men, and that force of nature was in them by which a rational animal both perceives and does something lawful; but devotion, which transfers one into another life, blessed and eternal, has an immaculate law that converts souls (Ps 19:8 (18:8)), so that they may be renewed from that light, and that there may come to be in them, The light of your countenance is sealed upon us, O Lord (Ps 4:7 (4:6)). Whence, having turned away, they deserved to grow dim; but they cannot be renewed except by Christian grace, that is, except by the intercession of the Mediator. For there is one God, and one mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a redemption for all (1 Tim 2:5).

But if those of whom we are speaking, who in the way of which we have said enough above do by nature the things of the law, are strangers to his grace, what will their excusing thoughts profit them on the day when God will judge the hidden things of men (See Rom 2:14-16), except perhaps that they may be punished more mildly? For just as certain venial sins, without which this life is not led, do not bar the righteous man from eternal life, so some good works, without which the life of any most wicked man is hardly found, profit the ungodly nothing toward eternal salvation. Nevertheless, just as in the kingdom of God the saints differ in glory as star from star (1 Cor 15:41), so too in the condemnation of everlasting punishment it will be more tolerable for Sodom than for another city (See Luke 10:12), and some will be sons of Gehenna twice as much as others (See Mt 23:15). Thus neither will that be of no account in the judgment of God, that in damnable ungodliness itself one sinned more or less than another.

28. 49. What, then, did the Apostle wish to effect from this, when, checking the boasting of the Jews, having said, Not the hearers of the law are righteous before God, but the doers of the law will be justified (Rom 2:13), he immediately added concerning those who, not having the law, do by nature the things of the law (Rom 2:14),

if those are not to be understood who belong to the grace of the Mediator, but rather those who, while they do not worship the true God with true devotion, nevertheless have certain good works in an ungodly life? Or did he perhaps believe that by this very thing was to be proved what he had said above, that there is no respect of persons with God, and what he said afterward, that God is not the God of the Jews only but also of the gentiles (See Rom 3:29)—namely, that however small the works of the law, naturally implanted, would not be found in those who did not receive the law, except from the remnants of the image of God, which he does not despise when they believe in him with whom there is no respect of persons (See Col 3:25)?

But whichever of these be taken, it is established that the grace of God was promised to the New Testament even through the prophet, and that this same grace was defined in this, that the laws of God should be written in the hearts of men (See Jer 31:33), and that they should come to that knowledge of God where each one will no longer teach his fellow citizen or his brother, saying: Know God; for all will know him from the least of them to the greatest (Jer 31:34). This is the gift of the Holy Spirit, by which love is poured out in our hearts (See Rom 5:5)—not just any love, but the love of God from a pure heart and a good conscience and faith unfeigned (See 1 Tim 1:5), from which the righteous man, living in this pilgrimage, is led also to the vision, after the mirror and the enigma and whatever was in part, so that he may know face to face, even as he is known (1 Cor 13:12). For he asked one thing of the Lord, and this he seeks, that he may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of his life, to this end, that he may contemplate the delight of the Lord (See Ps 27:4 (26:4)).

29. 50. Let no one, then, glory in what he seems to have, as if he had not received it (See 1 Cor 4:7), or think for this reason that he has received it, because the letter appeared from without, either to be read or sounded forth to be heard. For if righteousness is through the law, then Christ died in vain (Gal 2:21). But moreover, if he did not die in vain, he ascended on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men (Ps 68:19 (67:19); Eph 4:8). From him whoever has, has; but whoever denies that he has from him either does not have, or what he has will be taken away from him (See Luke 8:18; 19:26). For there is one God, who justifies circumcision from faith and uncircumcision through faith (Rom 3:30);

which was said not to mark any difference, as though from faith were one thing and through faith another, but for variety of expression. For in another place, when he spoke of the gentiles, that is, of uncircumcision, he says, The Scripture, foreseeing that God justifies the gentiles from faith (Gal 3:8). And likewise, when he spoke of circumcision, from which he himself was, he says, We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners from the gentiles, knowing that a man is not justified from the works of the law but through faith in Jesus Christ, we too have believed in Christ Jesus (Gal 2:15-16).

See, he said that both uncircumcision is justified from faith and circumcision through faith, provided, however, that circumcision holds the righteousness of faith. For thus the gentiles, who did not follow after righteousness, attained righteousness—the righteousness, however, which is from faith (obtaining it from God, not presuming on it from themselves); but Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, did not arrive at the law. Why? Because not from faith, but as it were from works (Rom 9:30-32)—that is, as though working it through themselves, not believing that God works in them. For it is God who works in us both to will and to work for his good pleasure (Phil 2:13).

And by this they stumbled on the stone of stumbling (Rom 9:32). For what he meant by saying, Because not from faith, but as it were from works, he expounded most plainly, saying, For, being ignorant of God's righteousness and wishing to establish their own, they were not subject to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law, unto righteousness for everyone who believes (Rom 10:3-4).

And do we still doubt what the works of the law are by which a man is not justified, if he has believed them to be as it were his own without the help and gift of God, which is from faith in Jesus Christ? And do we suspect circumcision and the other such things, because of these sacraments too certain such things are read in other places? But here surely they did not want to establish circumcision as their own righteousness, since God established it too by commanding it.

Nor can this be understood of those works of which the Lord says to them, You reject the commandment of God, that you may establish your traditions (Mt 15:3; Mark 7:9), because, he says, Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, did not arrive at the law (Rom 9:31); he did not say "pursuing their own traditions," that is, "following after them." This alone, then, is the difference: that they attributed to themselves that very You shall not covet (Exod 20:17) and the other holy and just commandments.

And that a man may be able to do these things, God works in man through faith in Jesus Christ, who is the end unto righteousness for everyone who believes (See Rom 7:12)—that is, in whom each one, incorporated through the spirit and made a member of him, can, with him giving the increase from within, work righteousness (See 1 Cor 3:7). Of whose works he himself also said that without me you can do nothing (John 15:5).

29. 51. For this reason indeed the righteousness of the law is set forth, that whoever does it shall live in it (See Lev 18:5): so that when each one has recognized his own weakness, he may attain it—not by his own strength nor by the letter of the law itself, which cannot be done, but by faith reconciling the justifier—and may do it and live in it. For the work which whoever does shall live in it is done only by one who is justified. But justification is obtained from faith, of which it is written, Do not say in your heart: Who will ascend into heaven? that is, to bring Christ down; or: Who will descend into the abyss? that is, to bring Christ back from the dead. But what does it say? The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart. This is, he says, the word of faith which we preach, that if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved (Rom 10:6-9).

Righteous insofar as saved. For by this faith we believe that God will also raise us from the dead: for now in the spirit, that in the newness of his grace we may live temperately and justly and devoutly in this age (See Titus 2:12); afterward also in our flesh, which is to rise again to immortality, which the merit of the spirit obtains for it, the spirit going before it in a resurrection suited to itself, that is, in justification. For we were buried together with Christ through baptism into death, so that, as Christ rose from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life (Rom 6:4). By faith in Jesus Christ, then, we obtain salvation—both as much as is begun for us in fact, and as much as is awaited in hope as yet to be perfected. For everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved (Joel 2:32; Rom 10:13; Acts 2:21). How great is the abundance, says the psalm, of your sweetness, O Lord, which you have hidden for those who fear you, but have perfected for those who hope in you (Ps 31:20 (30:20))!

From the law we fear God; from faith we hope in God. But from those who fear punishment grace is hidden. Under which fear the soul labors; and when it has not overcome evil desire, and that fear has not, as a stern guardian, departed, let it flee by faith to the mercy of God, that he may give what he commands, and, by the sweetness of grace breathed in through the Holy Spirit, may make what he commands more delightful than what hinders is delightful. Thus the great abundance of his sweetness—that is, the law of faith, his love written in hearts and poured out—is perfected for those who hope in him, so that the healed soul may work good not from fear of punishment, but from love of righteousness (See Rom 5:5).

30. 52. Do we, then, abolish free choice through grace? God forbid; rather, we establish free choice. For just as the law is not abolished through faith (See Rom 3:31), so free choice is not abolished through grace, but established. For the law is not fulfilled except by free choice. But through the law comes the knowledge of sin, through faith the obtaining of grace against sin, through grace the healing of the soul from the vice of sin (See Rom 3:20), through the soul's healing the freedom of choice, through free choice the love of righteousness, through the love of righteousness the working of the law. And by this, just as the law is not abolished but established through faith, because faith obtains the grace by which the law may be fulfilled, so free choice is not abolished through grace, but established, because grace heals the will, that righteousness may be freely loved.

All these things, which I have linked together as in a chain, have their own voices in the holy Scriptures. The law says, You shall not covet (Exod 20:17); faith says, Heal my soul, for I have sinned against you (Ps 41:5 (40:5)); grace says, Behold, you have been made well; now sin no more, lest something worse befall you (John 5:14); health says, O Lord my God, I cried out to you, and you healed me (Ps 30:3 (29:3)); free choice says, Willingly I will sacrifice to you (Ps 54:8 (53:8)); the love of righteousness says, The unrighteous told me of delights, but not like your law, O Lord (Ps 119:85 (118:85)). Why, then, do wretched men dare to be proud either of free choice, before they are freed, or of their own strength, if they have already been freed? Nor do they notice that in the very name of free choice freedom surely sounds; but where the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (2 Cor 3:17). If, then, they are slaves of sin, why do they boast of free choice? For by whatever a man is overcome, to this he is also bound as a slave (2 Pet 2:19; see John 8:34). But if they have been freed, why do they boast as of their own work, and glory as if they had not received it (See 1 Cor 4:7)? Or are they so free that they do not even wish to have him as Lord who says to them, Without me you can do nothing (John 15:5), and, If the Son frees you, then you will be truly free (John 8:36)?

31. 53. Someone will ask whether faith itself, in which the beginning of salvation, or of this connection toward salvation which I have mentioned, seems to be, is set within our own power. We shall see this more easily if first we examine somewhat more carefully what power is. For since these two things, to will and to be able, are distinct—whence neither does one who wills at once have the ability, nor does one who is able at once will, because, as we sometimes will what we cannot, so too we sometimes can what we do not will—it is clear enough, and even resounds in the very words, that "will" (voluntas) took its name from willing (velle), and "power" (potestas) from being able (posse). Wherefore, just as one who wills has a will, so one who is able has the power. But that something may be done by the power, the will must be present.

For no one is usually said to have done something by power, if he did it unwillingly. Although, if we attend more subtly, even what someone is compelled to do unwillingly, if he does it, he does by will; but because he would prefer something else, he is therefore said to do it unwillingly, that is, not willing it. For he is compelled by some evil to do, while willing, what he does because, willing to avoid or remove that evil from himself, he does what he is compelled to do.

For if the will is so great that he would rather not do this than not suffer that, then without doubt he resists the one compelling him and does not do it. And by this, if he does it, he does it not indeed with a full and free will, but nevertheless he does it only by will; and because the effect follows that will, we cannot say that power was lacking to the doer.

For if, yielding to the one compelling, he willed to do it and could not, we would say that the will was present to him, though extorted, but that the power was lacking. But when he did not do it for this reason, that he did not will to, there was surely power, but the will was lacking, so long as, resisting the one compelling, he did not do it. Hence it is that even those who compel or who persuade are wont to say, "What you have in your power, why do you not do it, that you may be free of this evil?" And those who are altogether unable to do what they are compelled to do, because they are believed able, are wont to answer in excuse and say, "I would do it, if it were in my power." What, then, do we seek further, since indeed we call this power, where the capacity of doing lies near the will? Whence each one is said to have that in his power which, if he wills, he does; if he does not will, he does not do.

31. 54. Now attend to that which we set out to examine, whether faith is in our power. For we are now speaking of that faith which we exercise when we believe something, not of that which we give when we promise something; for that too is called faith. But we say in one sense, "He did not keep faith with me," in another, "He did not have faith in me." For the one is "He did not believe what I said," the other "He did not do what he said." According to this faith, by which we believe, we are faithful to God; but according to that, by which what is promised is done, even God himself is faithful to us. For this the Apostle says: God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able (1 Cor 10:13).

We ask, then, about that faith, whether it is in our power, by which we believe God, or believe in God. For from this it is written, Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness; and, To him who believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned as righteousness (Gen 15:6; Rom 4:3, 5). See now whether anyone believes, if he does not will to, or does not believe, if he wills to. But if this is absurd—for what is it to believe but to consent that what is said is true? and consent is surely the act of one who wills—then surely faith is in our power. But, as the Apostle says, There is no power except from God (Rom 13:1). What reason, then, is there why it should not be said to us about this too: For what have you that you have not received? (1 Cor 4:7)

For God gave even that we should believe. But nowhere do we read in the holy Scriptures, "There is no will except from God." And rightly is it not written, because it is not true; otherwise God is—far be it!—the author even of sins, if there is no will except from him, since an evil will is already by itself a sin, even if the effect is lacking, that is, even if it does not have the power. But when an evil will receives the power to fulfill what it intends, this comes from the judgment of God, with whom there is no iniquity (See Rom 9:14).

For he punishes even in this way, and not unjustly because secretly. But for the rest, the unrighteous man does not know that he is being punished, except when, against his will, he has felt by manifest suffering how great is the evil that he committed by his will. This is what the Apostle says of certain men: God handed them over to the desires of their heart, that they might do the things that are not fitting (Rom 1:24). Hence the Lord also says to Pilate, You would have no power over me, unless it had been given you from above (John 19:11).

But when power is given, necessity is surely not imposed. Whence, when David had received the power to kill Saul, he preferred to spare rather than to strike (See 1 Sam 24:4-7). Whence we understand that the wicked receive power for the condemnation of their evil will, but the good for the proving of their good will.

32. 55. Since, then, faith is in our power, because each one believes when he wills, and, when he believes, believes willingly, it must next be asked, or rather recalled, what faith the Apostle commends with such great striving. For it is not good to believe just anything; for whence is that, Brothers, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirit that is from God (1 John 4:1)? Nor is what is said in praise of love, It believes all things (1 Cor 13:7), to be so taken that we should disparage anyone's love if he did not at once believe what he heard.

What of the fact that the same love admonishes us not easily to believe any evil thing of a brother, and, when such a thing is said, judges that it rather pertains to itself not to believe it? Finally, that very love, which believes all things, does not believe every spirit; and by this it indeed believes all things, but believes God, because it was not said, "It believes everyone." To no one, therefore, is it doubtful that the faith commended by the Apostle is that by which God is believed.

32. 56. But there is still something to be distinguished, since those too who are under the law and try to do their own righteousness from fear of punishment, and therefore do not do the righteousness of God (See Rom 6:14)—because love does it, to which nothing is pleasing but what is permitted, not fear, which is compelled to have in the deed what is permitted, while it has something else in the will by which it would prefer, if it could be, that what is not permitted were permitted—they too, then, believe God; for if they did not believe at all, they would surely not dread the penalty of the law.

But the Apostle does not commend this faith, he who says, For you have not received a spirit of slavery again unto fear, but you have received a spirit of the adoption of sons, in whom we cry: Abba, Father (Rom 8:15). That fear, then, is servile; and therefore in it, although the Lord is believed, righteousness is nevertheless not loved, but condemnation is feared. But the sons cry, Abba, Father—of which two words, one is from circumcision, the other from uncircumcision, the Jew first and the Greek, since there is one God, who justifies circumcision from faith and uncircumcision through faith (Rom 3:30). But when they cry, they ask for something; and what do they ask but that for which they hunger and thirst? And what is this but what is said of them: Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied (Mt 5:6)?

Hither, then, let those who are under the law pass over, that from slaves they may become sons—yet not so as to cease to be slaves, but so that, as sons, they may freely serve the Lord and Father, because this too they have received; for that Only-begotten gave power to become sons of God to those who believe in his name (John 1:12); and he admonished them to ask, to seek, to knock, that they might receive and find and have it opened to them (See Mt 7:7), adding a rebuke and saying, If you, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father, who is in heaven, give good things to those who ask him (Mt 7:11)!

Since, then, the power of sin, the law, has inflamed the sting of death (See 1 Cor 15:56), so that sin, taking occasion through the commandment, works every concupiscence (See Rom 7:8), from whom is continence to be sought but from him who knows how to give good gifts to his children? Or does the fool perhaps not know that no one can be continent unless God grants it (See Wis 8:21)? That he may know this, then, he needs wisdom itself. Why, therefore, does he not hear the Spirit of his Father speaking through the Apostle of Christ, or Christ himself, who says in his gospel, Ask, and you will receive (Mt 7:7; Luke 11:9)? Speaking also in his apostle and saying, If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all abundantly and does not reproach, and it will be given him; but let him ask in faith, hesitating in nothing (Jas 1:5-6)?

This is the faith from which the righteous one lives (See Rom 1:17); this is the faith by which one believes in him who justifies the ungodly (See Rom 4:5); this is the faith through which boasting is excluded (See Rom 3:27)—whether so that the boasting by which we are puffed up in ourselves may depart, or so that the boasting by which we glory in the Lord may stand forth (See 1 Cor 1:31); this is the faith by which is obtained the bounty of the spirit, of which it is said, For we, through the spirit, from faith, await the hope of righteousness (Gal 5:5). Where indeed it can still be asked whether he meant the hope of righteousness which righteousness hopes for, or by which righteousness itself is hoped for, since the righteous man, living from faith, surely hopes for eternal life (See Rom 1:17); and likewise faith, hungering and thirsting for righteousness, by the renewal of the inner man from day to day (See Mt 5:6; 2 Cor 4:16) makes progress in it, and hopes to be satisfied in it in eternal life, where will come to pass what is said in the psalm concerning God: Who satisfies your desire with good things (Ps 103:5 (102:5)).

This is the faith by which they are saved to whom it is said, By grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves, but it is the gift of God—not from works, lest perhaps anyone be lifted up; for we are his handiwork, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared that we should walk in them (Eph 2:8-10). Finally, this is the faith that works through love (See Gal 5:6), not through fear—not by dreading punishment, but by loving righteousness. Whence, then, is this love, that is, the charity through which faith works, except from where faith itself obtained it? For it would not be in us, however much it is in us, unless it were poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us (See Rom 5:5).

For it is called the love of God, and said to be poured out in our hearts, not that by which he himself loves us, but that by which he makes us his lovers—just as the righteousness of God is that by which we are made righteous by his gift (See Rom 3:24), and the salvation of the Lord that by which he makes us safe (See Ps 3:9 (3:8)), and the faith of Jesus Christ that by which he makes us faithful (Gal 2:16). This is the righteousness of God, which he not only teaches through the precept of the law, but also gives through the gift of the spirit.

33. 57. But it follows to ask a little whether that will by which we believe is itself also a gift of God, or is exercised from that free choice naturally implanted in us. For if we say that it is not a gift of God, it is to be feared lest we think we have found something which we could answer to the Apostle when he rebukes us and says, For what have you that you have not received? But if you have received it, why do you glory as if you had not received it (1 Cor 4:7)? Behold, we have the will to believe, which we did not receive; behold where we glory in what we did not receive. But if we say that even a will of this kind is nothing but a gift of God, again it is to be feared lest unbelievers and the ungodly seem not without reason to excuse themselves, as it were justly, for not having believed, because God was unwilling to give them this will. For that which is said, For it is God who works in us both to will and to work for his good pleasure (Phil 2:13), already belongs to the grace which faith obtains, so that the good works of man may be possible, which faith works through love, which is poured out in the heart through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us (See Gal 5:6; Rom 5:5). But we believe in order to obtain this grace, and surely we believe by will; of this it is asked whence it is in us. If from nature, why not in all, since God is the one creator of all? If from a gift of God, why too not in all, since he wills all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (See 1 Tim 2:4)?

33. 58. Let us, then, say this first, and see whether it satisfies this question: that free choice, naturally attributed by the Creator to the rational soul, is that middle power which can either be directed toward faith or inclined toward unbelief; and therefore neither can a man be said to have this will, by which he believes God, which he has not received, since indeed, when God calls, it rises from the free choice which it received naturally when it was created. But God wills all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (See 1 Tim 2:4)—yet not in such a way that he takes from them free choice, by using which well or badly they are most justly judged.

And when this is so, unbelievers indeed act against the will of God when they do not believe his gospel, yet they do not thereby overcome it, but rather defraud themselves of the great and highest good and entangle themselves in penal evils, about to experience in their punishments the power of him whose mercy in his gifts they despised. Thus the will of God is always unconquered; but it would be conquered if it did not find what to do with the despisers, or if they could in any way escape what he has appointed for such men. For one who says, for example, "I will that all these my servants work in the vineyard, and after their labor rest and feast, in such a way that whoever of them is unwilling to do this shall always grind at the mill"—whoever despises this seems indeed to act against the will of his master, but then he will conquer it only if, despising the mill too, he escapes it, which can in no way come about under the power of God. Whence it is written, God has spoken once—that is, unchangeably, although it can also be understood of the one Word. Then, adding what he spoke unchangeably, he says, These two things I have heard, that power belongs to God, and to you, O Lord, mercy, who will render to each one according to his works (Ps 62:12-13 (61:12-13)). He, therefore, will be guilty unto condemnation under his power who despises his mercy unto believing. But whoever has believed, and has committed himself to him to be absolved from all his sins and healed from all his vices and kindled and illumined by his warmth and light, will have from his grace good works, by which even according to the body he may be redeemed from the corruption of death, be crowned, and be satisfied with good things not temporal but eternal, beyond what we ask or understand (See Eph 3:20).

33. 59. This order the psalm kept, where it is said, Bless the Lord, O my soul, and do not forget all his retributions; who is merciful to all your iniquities, who heals all your infirmities, who redeems your life from corruption, who crowns you in pity and mercy, who satisfies your desire with good things (Ps 103:2-5 (102:2-5)). And lest perhaps the deformity of this oldness, that is, of mortality, should despair of these so great goods, Your youth, he says, will be renewed like the eagle's (Ps 103:5 (102:5))—as though he said, "These things which you have heard pertain to the new man and to the New Testament."

Recall with me these very things a little, I beseech you, and look with delight on the praise of the mercy, that is, of the grace of God. Bless, he says, O my soul, the Lord, and do not forget all his retributions (Ps 103:2 (102:2))—not "attributions," but retributions, because he repays good for evil. Who is merciful to all your iniquities: this is done in the sacrament of baptism. Who heals all your infirmities (Ps 103:3 (102:3)): this is done in this life of the faithful man, while the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh, so that we do not do the things we will (See Gal 5:17), while another law in the members fights against the law of the mind, while to will is present, but to accomplish the good is not (See Rom 7:23, 18); which infirmities of oldness, if we make progress with persevering intention, are healed from day to day by the increasing newness, from faith, which works through love (See Gal 5:6). Who redeems your life from corruption (Ps 103:4 (102:4)): this comes about in the last resurrection of the dead. Who crowns you in pity and mercy (Ps 103:4 (102:4)): this comes about in the judgment, where, when the just king has sat upon his throne to render to each one according to his works, who will boast that he has a chaste heart? or who will boast that he is clean from sin (See Prov 20:8-9; Mt 16:27)?

Therefore it was necessary there to mention the pity and mercy of the Lord, where now debts could so seem to be exacted and merits rendered that there would be no place for mercy. He crowns, then, in pity and mercy, but even so according to works (See Ps 62:13 (61:13)). For he will be set apart at the right hand to whom it will be said, I was hungry, and you gave me to eat (Mt 25:35), since judgment is without mercy, but to him who has not done mercy (Jas 2:13); but blessed are the merciful, for of them he will have mercy (Mt 5:7). But now, when those on the left have gone into eternal burning (See Mt 25:46), but the righteous into eternal life—because this is, he says, eternal life, that they may know you, the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent (John 17:3)—in that knowledge, that vision, that contemplation, the desire of the soul will be satisfied with good things (See Ps 103:5 (102:5)).

For this alone is enough for it; beyond it has nothing to desire, to gape after, to seek. For he burned with the desire of this satisfaction who said to the Lord Christ, Show us the Father, and it is enough for us. To whom it was answered, He who has seen me has seen the Father also, because this is eternal life, that they may know you, the one true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent (John 14:8-9). But if he who saw the Son also saw the Father, then surely he who sees the Father and the Son also sees the Holy Spirit of the Father and the Son. Thus we neither take away free choice, and our soul blesses the Lord (See Ps 103:2 (102:2)), not forgetting all his retributions; nor, ignorant of God's righteousness, will it wish to establish its own (See Rom 10:3), but it believes in him who justifies the ungodly and lives from faith (See Rom 1:17; 4:5), until it is led to the vision, namely by faith which works through love (See Gal 5:6). Which love is poured out in our hearts neither through the sufficiency of our own will nor through the letter of the law, but through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us (See Rom 5:5).

34. 60. This discussion, if it suffices to solve that question, let it suffice. But if it is answered that we must beware lest anyone think that the sin committed through free choice is to be attributed to God—if, in that which is said, What have you that you have not received? (1 Cor 4:7), the will by which we believe is for that reason also attributed to the gift of God, because it arises from free choice, which we received when we were created—let him attend and see that this will is to be attributed to the divine gift not only because it is from the free choice that was created in us by nature, but also because God acts by the persuasions of things seen, that we may will and that we may believe—whether outwardly, through the exhortations of the gospel, where even the commandments of the law do something, if they admonish a man of his weakness to this end, that he may flee by believing to justifying grace, or inwardly, where no one has in his power what comes into his mind, but to consent or to dissent is the act of his own will.

When, then, God acts in these ways with the rational soul, that it may believe in him—for it cannot believe anything whatever by free choice, if there is no persuasion or calling which it should believe—surely God works in man even the very willing to believe (See Phil 2:13), and in all things his mercy goes before us (See Ps 59:11 (58:11)); but to consent to God's calling, or to dissent from it, as I said, is the act of one's own will. And this fact not only does not weaken what was said, For what have you that you have not received? (1 Cor 4:7), but even confirms it. For the soul cannot receive and have the gifts of which it hears this, except by consenting; and by this, what it has and what it receives is God's, but to receive and to have is surely the act of the one receiving and having.

Now if anyone presses us to search into that depth, why it is so persuaded to one that he is persuaded, but to another not so, only two things occur to me which it pleases me to answer for the present: O the depth of the riches (Rom 11:33), and, Is there iniquity with God (Rom 9:14)? If this answer displeases anyone, let him seek more learned men, but let him beware lest he find presumptuous ones.

35. 61. Let us, then, at last conclude the book; whether by its great prolixity we have accomplished anything I do not know—not with you, whose faith I know, but with the minds of those for whose sake you wished me to write, who prefer to keep defending their own opinion rather than—not against ours, but, to speak more mildly and not to say against his who spoke in his apostles, at least against the so great apostle Paul—not one saying, but so vehement, so intent and vigilant a striving—to hear him beseeching them through the mercy of God and saying, through the grace of God which was given him (See Rom 12:1, 3), Not to be wise beyond what one ought to be wise, but to be wise unto temperance, to each one as God has apportioned the measure of faith (Rom 12:3).

35. 62. But notice what you proposed to me and what we have accomplished by so long a work of this discussion. It certainly moved you how it could be said to be possible for a man to be without sin, if his will did not fail, with the help of God's aid, although no one of such perfect righteousness has been or is or will be in this life. For I set out this very thing in those books written for you earlier: "If it be asked of me," I said, "whether a man can be without sin in this life, I will confess that he can, through the grace of God and his free choice—not doubting that free choice itself also belongs to the grace of God, that is, to the gifts of God, not only that it may exist but that it may be good, that is, may be turned to doing the commandments of the Lord; and that thus the grace of God not only shows what is to be done, but also helps, that what it has shown may be able to be done" (De pecc. merit. 2.6.7). But it seemed absurd to you that a thing which can come about should be without an instance. Hence arose the question of this book; and by this it pertained to us to show that something can come about although an instance is lacking. Hence, from the gospel and from the law, we set down certain things at the beginning of this discourse, such as the passage of the camel through the eye of a needle (Mt 19:24), and the twelve thousand legions of angels who could, if he willed, have fought for Christ (Mt 26:53), and those nations which God says he could have exterminated at once from before the face of his people (See Deut 31:3; Judg 2:3)—all of which were not done.

To these may be added also those things which are read in the book of Wisdom—how many new torments God could bring forth against the ungodly, with creation serving him at his nod (See Wis 16:24)—which, however, he did not bring forth; and there is also that mountain which faith would move into the sea (See Mark 11:23), which, however, we nowhere read or have heard was ever done. For whoever says that any of these things is impossible for God, you see how foolish he is and how he speaks against faith in his Scripture. Many other things of this kind can occur to one reading or thinking, which we cannot deny to be possible for God, although an instance of them is lacking.

35. 63. But because it can be said that those are divine works, but that to live justly pertains to our works, I undertook to show that this too is a divine work; and I have done this in this book, more wordily perhaps than is enough; but against the enemies of the grace of God I seem to myself to have said even too little, and nothing delights me to say so much as where both his Scripture most fully supports me, and the point is that he who glories may glory in the Lord (See 2 Cor 10:17), and that in all things we may give thanks to the Lord our God, having our heart on high, whence, from the Father of lights, is every best gift and every perfect gift (Jas 1:17).

For if it is not a work of God for this reason, that it is done through us, or because we do it by his giving, then neither is it a work of God that a mountain be moved into the sea, because the Lord said it could come about through the faith of men, and attributed this to their own work, saying, If you have faith in you like a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain: Be lifted up and cast into the sea, and it will be done, and nothing will be impossible for you (Mt 17:19; Luke 17:6; Mark 11:23).

Surely he said for you, not "for me" or "for the Father"; and yet a man in no way does this except by his giving and working. See how perfect righteousness in men is without an instance, and yet is not impossible. For it would come about, if so great a will were applied as suffices for so great a thing. But it would be so great if nothing of the things that pertain to righteousness were hidden from us, and if they so delighted the mind that whatever else of pleasure or of pain stands in the way, that delight would overcome it; and that this is not so pertains not to impossibility, but to the judgment of God.

For who does not know that it is not in a man's power what he knows, nor does it follow that what has been known as to be desired is desired, unless it delights as much as it ought to be loved? But this belongs to the health of the soul.

36. 64. But perhaps someone may think that nothing is lacking to us for the knowledge of righteousness, because the Lord, completing and shortening the word upon the earth (See Isa 10:23; Rom 9:28), said that on two precepts the whole law and the prophets hang, and did not pass over them in silence, but promised them in most skillful words. You shall love, he says, the Lord your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole mind; and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself (Mt 22:37, 39). What is truer than that, with these fulfilled, righteousness is altogether fulfilled?

Nevertheless, whoever attends to this, let him also attend to how in many things we all offend (See Jas 3:2), while we think that what we do pleases, or does not displease, the God whom we love; and afterward, admonished through his Scripture or by sure and clear reasoning, when we have learned that it does not please him, we ask by repenting that he may pardon. Human life is full of such instances. But whence do we less know what pleases him, except because he himself is less known to us? For we see now through a mirror in an enigma, but then face to face (1 Cor 13:12). But who would dare to think, when it has come to that which he says, That I may know even as I am known, that the love of God in those who contemplate him will be as great as it now is in the faithful, or that this is in any way to be compared to that as something near it?

Moreover, if the greater the knowledge, the greater will be the love, then surely it is to be believed that, as much as is now lacking to love, so much is lacking to righteousness to be perfected. For something can be known or believed and yet not loved; but what is neither known nor believed cannot be loved. But if, by believing, the saints could attain to so great a love—than which the Lord himself testified that there can be none greater in this life—that they laid down their soul for the faith or for the brethren (See John 15:13), then, when from this pilgrimage, in which one now walks by faith (See 2 Cor 5:7), it will have come to the vision which, not yet seen, we hope for and through patience await (See Rom 8:25), without doubt that very love will be not only above what we have here, but far above what we ask or understand (See Eph 3:20); nor for that reason, however, will it be able to be more than with the whole heart, with the whole soul, with the whole mind (See Mt 22:37, 39). For there does not remain in us anything that can be added to the whole, because if anything will remain, that will not be the whole.

Accordingly this first precept of righteousness, by which we are commanded to love God with our whole heart and with our whole soul and with our whole mind—to which the other, about loving the neighbor, is consequent—we shall fulfill in that life, when we shall see face to face (See 1 Cor 13:12). But it has been commanded us even now for this reason, that we might be admonished what to ask for by faith, whither to send our hope ahead, and, forgetting the things that are behind, to what lies ahead we ought to extend ourselves (See Phil 3:13). And by this, so far as it seems to me, in that righteousness which is to be perfected, that man has made much progress in this life who has learned by making progress how far he is from the perfection of righteousness.

36. 65. But if there can be said to be a certain lesser righteousness suited to this life, by which the righteous one lives from faith (See Rom 1:17; Gal 3:11), although a pilgrim from the Lord and therefore walking by faith, not yet by sight, it is not absurd to say that to this too it pertains not to sin (See 2 Cor 5:6-7). For if so great a love of God as is due to that full and perfect knowledge cannot yet be, it is not on that account to be reckoned a fault. For it is one thing not yet to attain the whole of love, another to follow after no cupidity. Wherefore a man ought, although he loves God far less than he can when he is seen, nevertheless to desire nothing unlawful—just as also, in those things that lie near the senses of the body, the eye can take delight in no darkness, although it cannot be fixed upon the most dazzling light. But see, let us now suppose such a human soul in this corruptible body that, although it has not yet, by that most surpassing perfection of the love of God (See 1 John 4:16), absorbed and consumed all the motions of earthly lust, nevertheless, in this lesser righteousness, it consents to that same lust by no inclination toward doing anything unlawful; so that to that already immortal life pertains, You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart and with your whole soul and with your whole strength (Deut 6:5); but to this, Let not sin reign in your mortal body, to obey its desires (Rom 6:12); to that, You shall not covet (Exod 20:17); to this, Do not go after your concupiscences (Sir 18:30); to that, to seek nothing more than to persist in that perfection; to this, to have in the deed what it does, and to hope for the perfection of that as a reward, so that through the former the righteous one may live without end in the vision which he desired in the latter, but through the latter the righteous one may live from faith (See Rom 1:17), in which he desires the former with a sure end.

These things being established, it will be a sin for one living from faith to consent at any time to some unlawful delight—not only in perpetrating those horrible crimes and shameful deeds, but also in these lighter ones, such as lending his ear to some voice that should not be heard, or his tongue to something that should not be said, or thinking something in his very heart in such a way that he would prefer that what wrongly delights, and is known through the precept to be unlawful, were lawful; for this too is a consent to sin, which would surely come about if punishment did not terrify.

Do not such righteous men, living from faith, have need to say, Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors (Mt 6:12)? And do they not prove false what is written, No one living will be justified in your sight (Ps 143:2 (142:2))? and that, If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us (1 John 1:8)? and that, For there is no man who will not sin (1 Kgs 8:46)? and that, For there is no righteous man on earth who will do good and will not sin (Sir 7:21)—for both of these testimonies speak not of the past, that is, "has sinned," but of the future, that is, will sin—and whatever else the holy Scripture mentions to this effect?

But since these things cannot be false, I see this to be the consequence: that whatever or however great a righteousness we may be able to define in this life, there is no one of men in it who has no sin at all, and that it is necessary for every man to give that it may be given to him, to forgive that it may be forgiven him (See Luke 6:37-38), and, if he has any righteousness, not to presume that it is his own from himself, but from the grace of the justifying God; and yet still to hunger and thirst for righteousness from him (See Mt 5:6) who is the living bread (See John 6:51) and with whom is the fountain of life (See Ps 36:10 (35:10)), who so works justification in his saints, laboring in the temptation of this life, that nevertheless there is both what he may bountifully add to those who can, and what he may clemently pardon to those who confess.

36. 66. But let these men find, if they can, someone living under the burden of this corruption who no longer has anything he must pardon—unless indeed, when they confess that he was helped to be such not by the teaching of the law given, but also by the spirit of grace infused, they incur the charge not of just any sin, but of impiety itself. To be sure, although they cannot at all find such a man, if they take those divine testimonies fittingly, nevertheless it is in no way to be said that God lacks the possibility by which the human will may be so helped that not only this righteousness, which is from faith (See Rom 10:6), may be perfected in every part in man now, but also that according to which one is afterward to live forever in the very contemplation of him.

Since indeed, if he should now will in anyone that even this corruptible should put on incorruption (See 1 Cor 15:53), and should command him here, among men about to die, to live, himself by no means about to die, so that, the whole oldness being utterly consumed, no law in his members should fight against the law of the mind (See Rom 7:23), and he should know God, everywhere present, as the saints are afterward to know him—who, being mad, would dare to affirm that he cannot? But why he does not do it, men ask, and those who ask do not notice that they are men.

I know that, as there is no impossibility, so there is no iniquity with God (See Rom 9:14); and I know that he resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble (See Jas 4:6); and I know that to him to whom, lest he be lifted up, a thorn of the flesh had been given (See 2 Cor 12:7), an angel of Satan to buffet him, when he besought once and again and a third time, it was said, My grace is sufficient for you; for power is made perfect in weakness (2 Cor 12:9). There is, then, something in the hidden and deep place of the judgments of God, so that even every mouth of the righteous may be stopped in their own praise, and may be opened only in the praise of God (See Rom 3:19).

But who could search out this something, who could trace it, who could know it? So unsearchable are his judgments and untraceable his ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor? Or who has first given to him, and it shall be repaid him? For from him and through him and in him are all things; to him be glory forever and ever. Amen (Rom 11:33-36).