however, can make so bold, on arriving far enough, to say: "Then shall I know even as also I am known," 5 as to think that they who shall see God will have no greater love towards Him than they have who now believe in Him? or that the one ought to be compared to the

in yourselves as a grain of mustard-seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, "Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and it shall be done, and nothing shall be impossible to you." Observe how He said " to you," not " to Me" or "to the Father;" and yet it is certain that no man does such a thing without God's gift and opera-other, as if they were very near to each other? tion. See how an instance of perfect righteousness is unexampled among men, and yet is not impossible. For it might be achieved if there were only applied so much of will as suffices for so great a thing. There would, however, be so much will, if there were hidden from us none of those conditions which pertain to righteousness; and at the same time these so delighted our mind, that whatever hindrance of pleasure or pain might else occur, this delight in holiness would prevail over every rival affection. And that this is not realized, is not owing to any intrinsic impossibility, but to God's judicial act. For who can be ignorant, that what he should know is not in man's power; nor does it follow that what he has discovered to be a desirable object is actually desired, unless he also feel a delight in that object, commensurate with its claims on his affection? For this belongs to health of soul.

Now, if love increases just in proportion as our
knowledge of its object becomes more intimate,
of course we ought to believe that there is as
much wanting now to the fulfilment of righteous-
ness as there is defective in our love of it. A
thing may indeed be known or believed, and yet
not loved; but it is an impossibility that a thing
can be loved which is neither known nor be-
lieved. But if the saints, in the exercise of their
faith, could arrive at that great love, than which
(as the Lord Himself testified) no greater can
possibly be exhibited in the present life,
to lay down their lives for the faith, or for their
brethren, then after their pilgrimage here, in
which their walk is by "faith," when they shall
have reached the "sight" of that final happi-
ness 7 which we hope for, though as yet we see
it not, and wait for in patience, then undoubt-
edly love itself shall be not only greater than
that which we here experience, but far higher
than all which we ask or think;9 and yet it

even

CHAP. 64 [XXXVI.] - WHEN THE COMMANDMENT cannot be possibly more than " with all our heart,

TO LOVE IS FULFILLED.

But somebody will perhaps think that we lack nothing for the knowledge of righteousness, since the Lord, when He summarily and briefly expounded His word on earth, informed us that the whole law and the prophets depend on two commandments; nor was He silent as to what these were, but declared them in the plainest words: "Thou shalt love," said He, "the Lord thy God, with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind;" and "Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself."3 What is more surely true than that, if these be fulfilled, all righteousness is fulfilled? But the man who sets his mind on this truth must also carefully attend to another, in how many things we all of us offend, while we suppose that what we do is pleasant, or, at all events, not unpleasing, to God whom we love; and afterwards, having (through His inspired word, or else by being warned in some clear and certain way) learned what is not pleasing to Him, we pray to Him that He would forgive us on our repentance. The life of man is full of examples of this. But whence comes it that we fall short of knowing what is pleasing to Him, if it be not that He is to that extent unknown to us? "For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face."s Who,

and with all our soul, and with all our mind."
For there remains in us nothing which can be
added to the whole; since, if anything did
remain, there would not be the whole. There-
fore the first commandment about righteousness,
which bids us love the Lord with all our heart,
and soul, and mind 10 (the next to which is, that
we love our neighbour as ourselves), we shall
completely fulfil in that life when we shall see
face to face.5 But even now this commandment
is enjoined upon us, that we may be reminded
what we ought by faith to require, and what
we should in our hope look forward to, and,
" forgetting the things which are behind, reach
forth to the things which are before." "1
thus, as it appears to me, that man has made a
far advance, even in the present life, in the
righteousness which is to be perfected hereafter,
who has discovered by this very advance how
very far removed he is from the completion of
righteousness.

CHAP. 65.

And

IN WHAT SENSE A SINLESS RIGHTEOUSNESS IN THIS LIFE CAN BE ASSERTED.

Forasmuch, however, as an inferior righteousness may be said to be competent to this life, whereby the just man lives by faith 12 although absent from the Lord, and, therefore, walking

by faith and not yet by sight,'-it may be while living by faith, no need to say: "Forwithout absurdity said, no doubt, in respect of give us our debts, as we forgive our debtit, that it is free from sin; for it ought not to be ors?"7 And do they prove this to be wrong attributed to it as a fault, that it is not as yet which is written, "In Thy sight shall no man sufficient for so great a love to God as is due to living be justified?" and this: "If we say that the final, complete, and perfect condition thereof. we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the It is one thing to fail at present in attaining to truth is not in us?"9 and, "There is no man the fulness of love, and another thing to be that sinneth not; " 10 and again, "There is not on swayed by no lust. A man ought therefore to the earth a righteous man, who doeth good and abstain from every unlawful desire, although he sinneth not "" (for both these statements are loves God now far less than it is possible to love expressed in a general future sense, "sinneth Him when He becomes an object of sight; just not," "will not sin,”. – not in the past time, “ has as in matters connected with the bodily senses, not sinned") ?—and all other places of this the eye can receive no pleasure from any kind purport contained in the Holy Scripture? Since, of darkness, although it may be unable to look however, these passages cannot possibly be with a firm sight amidst refulgent light. Only false, it plainly follows, to my mind, that whatlet us see to it that we so constitute the soul of ever be the quality or extent of the righteousness man in this corruptible body, that, although it which we may definitely ascribe to the present has not yet swallowed up and consumed the life, there is not a man living in it who is absomotions of earthly lust in that super-eminent lutely free from all sin; and that it is necessary perfection of the love of God, it nevertheless, for every one to give, that it may be given to in that inferior righteousness to which we have him; "2 and to forgive, that it may be forgiven referred, gives no consent to the aforesaid lust him; 13 and whatever righteousness he has, not for the purpose of effecting any unlawful thing. to presume that he has it of himself, but from In respect, therefore, of that immortal life, the the grace of God, who justifies him, and still to commandment is even now applicable: "Thou go on hungering and thirsting for righteousness 14 shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, from Him who is the living bread,'5 and with and with all thy soul, and with all thy might;' "2 whom is the fountain of life; 16 who works in His but in reference to the present life the following: saints, whilst labouring amidst temptation in this "Let not sin reign in your mortal body, that ye life, their justification in such manner that He should obey it in the lusts thereof."3 To the may still have somewhat to impart to them one, again, belongs, "Thou shalt not covet;"4 liberally when they ask, and something mercito the other, "Thou shalt not go after thy lusts."5 fully to forgive them when they confess. To the one it appertains to seek for nothing more than to continue in its perfect state; to the other it belongs actively to do the duty committed to it, and to hope as its reward for the perfection of the future life, so that in the one the just man may live forevermore in the sight of that happiness which in this life was his object of desire; in the other, he may live by that faith whereon rests his desire for the ultimate blessedness as its certain end. (These things being so, it will be sin in the man who lives by faith ever to consent to an unlawful delight, by committing not only frightful deeds and crimes, but even trifling faults; sinful, if he lend an ear to a word that ought not to be listened to, or a tongue to a phrase which should not be uttered; sinful, if he entertains a thought in his heart in such a way as to wish that an evil pleasure were a lawful one, although known to be unlawful by the commandment, for this amounts to a consent to sin, which would certainly be carried out in act, unless fear of punishment deterred.) 6 Have such just men,

CHAP. 66. ALTHOUGH PERFECT RIGHTEOUSNESS
BE NOT FOUND HERE ON EARTH, IT IS STILL NOT
IMPOSSIBLE.

But let objectors find, if they can, any man,
while living under the weight of this corruption,
in whom God has no longer anything to forgive;
unless nevertheless they acknowledge that such
an individual has been aided in the attainment
of his good character not merely by the teaching
of the law which God gave, but also by the in-
fusion of the Spirit of grace - they will incur the
charge of ungodliness itself, not of this or that
particular sin. Of course they are not at all able
to discover such a man, if they receive in a be-
coming manner the testimony of the divine writ-
ings. Still, for all that, it must not by any means
be said that the possibility is lacking to God
whereby the will of man can be so assisted, that
there can be accomplished in every respect even
now in a man, not that righteousness only which
is of faith," but that also in accordance with
which we shall by and by have to live for ever in
the
very vision of God. For if he should now

wish even that this corruptible in any particular of Satan to buffet him, lest he should be exalted man should put on incorruption,' and to com- above measure, it was said, when he besought mand him so to live among mortal men (not des- God for its removal once, twice, nay thrice: tined himself to die) that his old nature should “ 'My grace is sufficient for thee; for my strength be wholly and entirely withdrawn, and there is made perfect in weakness." There is, thereshould be no law in his members warring against fore, in the hidden depths of God's judgments, the law of his mind,2 - moreover, that he should a certain reason why every mouth even of the discover God to be everywhere present, as the righteous should be shut in its own praise, and saints shall hereafter know and behold Him, only opened for the praise of God. But what who will madly venture to affirm that this is im- this certain reason is, who can search, who inpossible? Men, however, ask why He does not vestigate, who know? So "unsearchable are do this; but they who raise the question consider His judgments, and His ways past finding out! not duly the fact that they are human. I am For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or quite certain that, as nothing is impossible with who hath been his counsellor? or who hath first God,3 so also there is no iniquity with Him.4 given to Him, and it shall be recompensed unto Equally sure am I that He resists the proud, and him again? For of Him, and through Him, and gives grace to the humble.5 I know also that to to Him, are all things; to whom be glory for ever. him who had a thorn in the flesh, the messenger Amen." 7 3 Luke i. 37.

I 1 Cor. xv. 53. 4 Rom. ix. 14.

2 Rom. vii. 23.

5 Jas. iv. 6.

6 2 Cor. xii. 7-9.

7 Rom. xi. 33-36.

A TREATISE ON NATURE AND GRACE.

EXTRACT FROM AUGUSTIN'S "RETRACTATIONS,”

BOOK II. CHAP. 42,

ON THE FOLLOWING TREATISE,

"DE NATURA ET GRATIA."