In Epistolas Sancti Pauli

Those things which can groan, groan because of excessive labor, since more is demanded of them than they are able. But those which have no feeling, how do they groan? Unless perhaps they groan because of our iniquities, as in the passion of the Lord the sun fled, because it could not bear to look upon the impiety of the Jews. Not only that, but we ourselves also, having the firstfruits of the spirit, we ourselves groan within ourselves, awaiting adoption. Not only the creature, which has no receptacle of the spirit, or carnal men; but we also who know the joy of the time to come, grieve that we labor here longer. Likewise in another way: not only the angels, who are more kindly disposed toward us, grieve over those who persevere in sins; but we also who have the Holy Spirit groan over such things. The redemption of our body. The resurrection of Christ is the redemption of our body. Or we await the glorification in the future resurrection of our body: that this corruptible may put on incorruption. This little chapter is obscure, says Augustine, because it does not sufficiently appear what he now calls a creature. But according to catholic teaching, a creature is called whatever God the Father made and established through his only-begotten Son, in the unity of the Holy Spirit. Therefore not only our bodies, but also our souls, that is, our spirits, are contained under the name of creature.

But it has been said thus: the creation itself will be freed from the slavery of corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God—as if we were not creation, but children of God, into the freedom of whose glory it will be freed from the slavery of creation. Likewise he says: For we know that every creature groans and travails until now. Not only that, but we ourselves also, as though we were one thing and every creature another. The whole chapter, therefore, must be considered part by part. For I reckon (he says) that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the future glory that will be revealed in us. This is manifest, for he had said above: But if you mortify the deeds of the flesh by the Spirit, you shall live. This cannot be done without trouble, for which patience is necessary. To this pertains also what he said a little before: If indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified with him. What therefore he says—For the expectation of the creature awaits the revelation of the sons of God—this, I think, is what he means: For even this very thing that grieves in us, when we mortify the deeds of the flesh—that is, when we hunger or thirst through abstinence, while we restrain the pleasure of intercourse through chastity; when the rendings of injuries and the sharp stings of insults—

we endure with patience; while, having neglected and rejected our pleasures, we labor for the fruit of our mother the Church: whatever in us suffers in this affliction and in afflictions of this kind is creation—for the body and the soul suffer, which certainly are creation—and it awaits the revelation of the children of God, that is, it awaits when that which has been called shall appear. For since the only-begotten Son of God cannot be called creation, seeing that through him all things that God made were made, we too are distinctly called creation before that evident glory; and we are distinctly called children of God, although we merit this by adoption. For he is the only-begotten Son by nature. Therefore the expectation of creation, that is, our expectation, awaits the revelation of the children of God, that is, it awaits when what has been promised may appear, when that which we now are in hope may be made manifest in reality; for we are children of God, and it has not yet appeared what we shall be. For we know that when he has appeared, we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. This is the very revelation of the children of God, which the expectation of creation now awaits. For the fact that creation awaits the revelation of another nature is because it is not that nature, but, such as it now is, it awaits when it shall be such as it is to be.

As if it were said: With the work placed before the painter, the colors made subject to him and prepared for his work, the expectation of the colors awaits the revelation and manifestation of the image: not because then there will be other colors, or they will not be colors, but only that they will then have another dignity. For the creature has been subjected to vanity: this is that "Vanity of vanities, and all is vanity. What abundance does man have in all his labor, which he labors under the sun?"—to whom it was said: "In labor you shall eat your bread"? For the creature has been subjected to vanity not willingly. Well is it added: Not willingly; for man sinned willingly, but was condemned unwillingly. And so he atones for a voluntary sin—acting against the precept of truth—but the penalty of sin is to be subjected to deceit. Therefore the creature was not subjected to vanity willingly, but on account of him who subjected it in hope, that is, on account of justice and mercy: who neither left sin unpunished, nor willed the sinner to be incurable. Because even the creature itself, that is, man himself, when the seal of the image had already been lost because of sin and only "creature" remained, thus the creature itself, that is, that which is not yet called the perfect form of sons but is only called "creature," will be freed from the slavery of corruption.

Therefore what he says, "and it itself will be freed," makes it understood that it too is as we are: that is, there is no need to despair even of those who are not yet called sons of God, because they have not yet believed, but are only creation; for they too are creation, and they will be freed from the slavery of corruption, just as we also, who are already sons of God, though it has not yet appeared what we shall be. Therefore it will be freed from the slavery of corruption into the freedom of the glory of the sons of God: that is, they themselves will be free from slaves, and glorious from the dead in the perfect life which the sons of God will have. For we know that every creature groans and grieves even until now. Every creature is counted in man: not because all the angels, and the supereminent virtues and powers, heaven, earth and sea, and all things that are in them, are in him; but because every creature is partly spiritual, partly animal, partly corporeal: as in the Gospel it says: "Preach the Gospel to every creature." And to the Colossians: "In the hope of the Gospel, which has been preached in every creature which is under heaven." So that we may consider this from lower things, corporeal creation is shown through places; but animal creation gives life to corporeal things; animal creation rules, and then rules well when it submits itself to God to be ruled. But when it transgresses his commandments, it is entangled in labors and hardships through the very things which it was able to rule.

Therefore he who lives in the body is called a carnal or animal man: carnal, because he pursues carnal things; animal, however, because he is carried along by the unbridled wantonness of his own soul, which the spirit does not rule nor restrain within the bounds of the natural order, since he himself does not submit to be ruled by God. But he who rules the soul by the spirit, and the body through the soul—which he cannot do unless he himself has the Lord as his ruler—since just as the man cannot be the head of the woman, so Christ is the head of the man, is called spiritual, because even life is now lived with some trouble; but hereafter it will suffer none. And since the highest angels live spiritually, the lowest indeed animally, but beasts and all cattle carnally, while the body does not live but is given life, every creature is in man, because he understands by the spirit, and feels by the soul, and is moved locally by the body. And so every creature groans and grieves in man: for he says not the whole but every, as if someone should say that all men who are sound of eye see the sun, but not all of them see, because they see only with their eyes. Thus every creature is in man, who both understands and lives and has a body; but the whole creature is not in him, because there are besides him both the angels, who understand and live and exist, and the cattle, which live and exist, and bodies, which merely exist: since to live is more than not to live, and to understand is more than to live without understanding.

When therefore the wretched man groans and grieves, every creature groans and grieves together. But "until now," he says, because even if there are some already in Abraham's bosom, and that thief placed in paradise on the day he believed ceased to grieve, yet until now every creature groans and grieves together, because in those who have not yet been set free, every creature exists through spirit and body and soul. "Not only," he says, does every creature groan and grieve together, "but we ourselves also." That is, not only in man do body, soul, and spirit grieve together from the hardships of the body, but we ourselves also, apart from our bodies, groan in our own selves. And well did he say: "Having the firstfruits of the spirit": that is, those whose spirit has already been offered to God as a sacrifice and has been seized by the divine fire of charity. These are the firstfruits of man, because the truth first obtains our spirit, so that through it the rest may be comprehended; or because we first received the spirit at the very coming of redemption. Therefore he already has firstfruits offered to God who says: "With the mind I serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin." And he who says: "God, to whom my discourse is in my spirit." And of whom it is said: "The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." But because he still says: "Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from the body of this death?

And still elsewhere it is said: "He will also give life to your mortal bodies," and because of his Spirit dwelling in you: it is not yet a holocaust; but it will be, when death is swallowed up in victory, when it is said to him: "Where is your contention, O death? Where is your sting, O death?" Now therefore, he says, not only every creature, that is, that which is with the body; but we ourselves who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, that is, we who are souls, because we have offered our minds, the firstfruits, to God, groan together within ourselves: that is, apart from the body, awaiting adoption, the redemption of our body: that is, so that the body itself also, receiving the benefit of the adoption of sons to which we have been called, may make manifest that we, wholly liberated, with all troubles past, are from every side sons of God. For in hope we have been saved. But hope that is seen is not hope. Then therefore there will be the reality which now is hope, when it has appeared what we shall be, like him, since we shall see him as he is. If this chapter is opened in this way, as has been treated, we shall not fall into those troubles by which very many men are compelled to say that all the angels and the sublime powers are in grief and groaning before we are fully liberated: because it has been said: "Every creature groans and grieves.

For even if they help us according to their high station, while they obey God, who deigned to send his only Son for us, yet they must be believed to do this without groaning and sorrow, lest they be thought wretched, and that Lazarus of our number be happier, who now rests in Abraham's bosom; especially since he said that the same creation, which groans together and grieves, is subject to vanity—which it is not true to believe concerning the highest and most excellent creatures of virtues and powers. Then he said that it is to be freed from the slavery of corruption, into which we cannot believe those have fallen who lead a most blessed life in the heavens. Yet nothing is to be rashly affirmed, and the divine words are to be handled again and again with pious diligence, lest perhaps, when it groans and grieves and is subject to vanity, it can be understood in some other way, so that it cannot be thought to be said of the highest angels, as long as by the Lord's command they do not aid our infirmity. But whether that exposition which we have followed, or another exposition of this chapter, is brought forward, this alone must be guarded against, that it not violate or wound the catholic faith; for I know that many vain heretics have boastfully uttered many things impiously and foolishly. For in hope we have been saved. In hope, he says, not in the reality itself is salvation hoped for, just as to the Corinthians: We walk by faith, not by sight; we believe what we shall be, yet we are not yet. But hope that is seen is not hope. For what a man sees, why does he hope for?

What is seen is not hoped for, because it is held. But if we hope for what we do not see, therefore endurance through great faith has its reward, because it hopes for what it does not see; and so we are secure, as though we had already received what we have not yet received. Through endurance we wait. Hope cannot exist without endurance. Likewise the Spirit also helps. According to the same expectation the Spirit helps the weakness of prayer, that we may pray for the things that are God's, and because of hope may ask for what is pleasing to God. Our weakness. Our prayer is weak unless it is not only helped but also inspired by the Holy Spirit. For what should we pray for? Often the things we think are advantageous are harmful; therefore they are not granted, with God providing better: as Paul asked the Lord three times. We do not know what we ought to ask for. Because now we see through a mirror, as he says to the Corinthians: If anyone thinks he knows, he has not yet known how he ought to know. But the Spirit himself intercedes for us. How does he test us so as to know, that is, to make us know; to whom it is said: He built the house, by whose command it is done; so also the Holy Spirit intercedes, that is, he made us ask for the things that are God's, by inspiring, or providing, or working in us. With groanings that cannot be uttered. He makes us groan with these mute groanings: because as much as we cannot ask with the mouth, so much do we plead with groanings. But he who searches hearts knows what the Spirit desires.

Here he called the Holy Spirit the grace of the Spirit, as in that passage: If I pray with the tongue, my spirit prays—where the kind of tongue, that is, intelligible speech, is understood. Because according to God. Because he desires heavenly and divine things. He intercedes for the saints. For holy things, not human or earthly ones. We know moreover how all things work together for good to those who love God. Whatever we have done or suffered for the sake of love, all things run together for our reward; or they work together, that is, they increase; or with God's help they are turned to prosperity, according to that saying: All things whatever you do shall prosper. To those who are according to. As he also calls us elect before the foundation of the world. The saints are called according to purpose. God's purpose is that without the works of the law or any other merits, through faith alone, he might justify the ungodly—a faith that is not from nature but is the gift of God; among other things, faith is a fruit of the Spirit. For not all who are called are called according to purpose, since many are called, few are elect. Therefore they themselves are called according to purpose who are also elect before the foundation of the world. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be made conformable to the image of his Son. He predestined that the one who by his gift was conformable in life might be conformable in glory—he who transformed the body of our lowliness to be conformable to the body of his brightness. Whence also John says: We shall be like him. That he might be the firstborn among many brothers.

Firstborn from the dead, because he has many before him. And those whom he predestined. Here predestination is understood in terms of the ages, not in terms of the men of this present time: that is, both before the law, under the law, and under grace. But whoever were saved then, were saved by the grace of God, as the Apostle says: Having the same spirit of faith. These he also called. He called men in this time to faith, because with him they were called before the world was. But they are called through the inspiration of faith, and through exhortation, and by divine operation; they are justified through baptism, glorified through the reward, whether in the present through virtue; but all these things are the gifts of God, because he says elsewhere: That he may deem you worthy of the calling of his saint. And that other passage: Who called you in the grace of God, justified freely, who works all things in all: because he himself snatched us from the power of darkness, and transferred us into the kingdom of his love: not his own, but the Son's. And those whom he called, them he also justified; and those whom he justified, them he also magnified. It is a great thing for you to be called my servant; those whom he will glorify after the resurrection. All those things have already been done: he foreknew, he predestined, he called, and he justified. For both all have already been foreknown and predestined, and many have already been called and justified. But what he says: Them he also glorified, that glory must be understood here, of which the same one says: When Christ shall have appeared, your life, then you also shall appear with him in glory.

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? If God helps us, who will harm us? If God wishes to justify us freely, who says, "It cannot be done"? He wishes to show that what we have received is great, and that no one can prevail to hinder the will of God, who does what he wills. He who did not spare even his own Son, but delivered him up for us all: how has he not also with him freely given us all things? He did not spare him by permitting him to be delivered up, so that both the freedom of choice to sin might remain to those who delivered him, and he might show us an example of patience. For what does Christ have that is dearer to him which he would deny to us, who did not spare his own Son for us? And not only was he delivered up by the Father, but by himself, as he says elsewhere: Who delivered himself up as an offering and a sweet odor to God for an odor of sweetness. Who will accuse the elect of God? Who will accuse those whom God has chosen and made to believe in him? God already proves by signs and wonders that they are righteous, against those who say: "They are not righteous except those whom the law has justified"—although at that time all things had been shut up under sin. If you pronounce this as if confirming it, how great a perversity arises? Therefore it must be pronounced as if it were said: Does God justify anyone? so that there is understood: Not God, surely, who justifies. With the understanding: Is it God who works signs and wonders through them, who has justified them freely? Who is it that condemns? As if he asks: Who is it that condemns? or will forgive?

It must be understood: Is it Christ? And he answers: He who died for us, does he himself condemn us? Far be it. Rather, he who also rose again, and is in the blessedness of the Father. He who, as through the form of a servant, asks the Father for us, and also hears us together with the Father—will he himself accuse or condemn us? Christ Jesus who died: rather, who rose again. He so loved us that he even died for us. Who is at the right hand of God. Where he is, we too shall come; he deals according to the man, according to which he died, and was made the firstborn from the dead. Who also intercedes for us. The Arians are accustomed to say: He who intercedes is lesser. It must be answered that the Lord does not suffer forgetfulness, so that he is always reminded on behalf of those whom he himself has justified. But in this he is said to intercede, while he always shows and offers to the Father the glorified man whom he took up, as it were our pledge, as a true and eternal Priest. Through which man he is also called lesser: just as soul and body from different substance are one man, so God and man from different substance are one Christ. And therefore, since he himself is one from different substance, he himself in a certain way asks, he himself in a certain way hears for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? tribulation, or distress, or famine, or persecution, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? as it is written. The Jews wished to separate them from Christ, wishing to recall them to the keeping of the law.

After such great and glorious benefits and promises, who will give or promise us anything of such a kind that we may rightly depart from Christ, who even laid down his own soul for us? Because for your sake we are put to death all day long, we have been reckoned as sheep for slaughter. Blessed are you when they persecute you for my sake. And, he says, for your sake, not for any crime, we are put to death; and for your sake we endure death when we could repay the favor. In us especially this testimony is fulfilled, who are not even permitted to resist, following the example of the master and lord, who was led like a sheep to the slaughter. But in all these things we conquer, because of him who loved us. We bring all these tribulations to nothing because of him who so loved even us that he died for us; and when we die for his name, then especially do we triumph. For I am certain that neither death nor life. I am certain: because neither if someone threatens me with death, nor if he promises eternal life. Nor angels. Nor if he claims that an angel has been sent to him by God, as he himself says to the Galatians. Nor principalities, nor things present. Nor if in the present he confers honor. Nor things to come. Nor if he promises present goods and glory in the future. Nor power. Nor if he works miracles. Nor height. Of the kingdom of heaven, or wisdom. Nor depth. Nor the depth of knowledge, or hell. Nor any other creature will be able to separate us.

He named almost every creature, and was not content with these, and added: Even if there be another creature, it will not be able to separate us from the love of Christ. Hence it must be considered with what faith he believed in Christ, with the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. The love of Christ does not consist only in this, that someone says he loves him, but also whatever is done to his saints, he himself testifies is done to himself, saying: He who receives you receives me, etc. And John says: If you do not love your brother whom you see, how can you love the Lord whom you do not see? Indeed he willed that the love of God be shown in the brethren. For, he says, God is love, and the rest. And the Lord says: In this it will be known that you are my disciples, if you love one another. If you love me, keep my commandments. And: He who hears my words and does them, this is the one who loves me.

CHAPTER IX. I speak the truth. Some say that one who is about to say something incredible, that is, that he would wish to be anathema from Christ for Israel, first satisfies by a certain attestation. He satisfies the Jews that he does not hate them, but is greatly grieved on their account because they are unwilling to believe in Christ, who had been promised to them. In Christ I do not lie. Therefore whoever has been baptized either speaks the truth or a lie; whatever he does, he does in Christ, whose member he is.

And whoever sins in baptism, sins in Christ, as he says: But by sinning in this way against the brethren, and wounding their weak consciences, you sin against Christ. My conscience bears witness to me. He speaks the truth whose conscience bears witness, and does not convict him of lying. In the Holy Spirit. Not feignedly. Because I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart. In that I have seen them not believe God. I myself wished to be accursed from Christ for my brethren, who are my kinsmen according to the flesh. I wished it at one time, I would not wish it now. For I knew that all things were theirs, but when I came to know the truth, I who was so faithless was converted, and they are not converted. Who are Israelites, whose is the adoption as sons, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the worship, and the promises. He also reports what he passed over, so that you may know what power it was that could separate them. Whose fathers. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And from whom is Christ according to the flesh: who is God over all things. Against the Arian, the Manichaean, and Photinus, but also against Nestorius, who denies the Lord Christ according to the flesh. Blessed forever. Amen. And. Thomas says, My God, and my Lord, which he confirms, saying: Because you have seen, therefore you have believed. But not that the word of God has fallen away.

Because he had said above that he grieved that the race of Israel was excluded from the kingdom by its own fault, though all these things had been theirs, he now shows that those who do not believe are not sons of Abraham, lest he be thought to preach to all Jews and it be said: Therefore God lied to Abraham? Far be it. From here he begins to reason why, by the deep and just judgment of God, with the Jews rejected, the Gentiles were brought in. For not all who are from Israel are sons of Israel, nor are all who are the seed of Abraham his sons. If not all, yet some are those who were chosen from there and made believers; if not all who are from Israel are Israel, then conversely many who are not from Israel are Israel. The Savior says: Behold a true Israelite, in whom there is no guile. Therefore, in whom there is guile, he is not a true Israelite. But in Isaac shall your seed be called. In Isaac, then, they were also called sons of Abraham, not in Ishmael, though he too was his seed. That is, it is not those who are sons of the flesh who are sons of God, but those who are sons of the promise are reckoned in the seed; for this is the word of promise. For Ishmael was born of the slave woman according to custom, but Isaac had more than nature gave, since he was born of aged parents through the promise. So also now the promise makes Christians sons of Abraham, not the flesh and the imitation of his faith, by which he was justified and merited that in his seed all the tribes of the earth be blessed, not circumcision. According to this time I will come, and Sarah shall have a son.

Not of Hagar the bondwoman, to show that the later people is of promise, so also in Isaac. And not only she, but also Rebecca. Not only Ishmael and Isaac, who, though from one Abraham, were yet born of different mothers, were not one before the Lord, but also Jacob and Esau, who were born of Rebecca from one union, before they were born were separated from one another before God through his foreknowledge, so that the purpose of God might remain in his foreknowledge, by which he was to reject the unbelieving Jews and to grant mercy to the Gentiles without any merits. He does all this to show that before God the prerogative of race does not avail, nor does he accept anyone's person, which he wishes to confirm by these examples, which they could turn into a calumny, intending to show from these very things that no one can contradict God in what he wishes to do, if he wished to give something properly to their race, and now to choose whom he wished. Having them from one union of Isaac our father. For when they had not yet been born or done anything good or evil, so that according to election the purpose of God might remain. From one, two, which is understood as the first having brought forth twins, in that, as if something new had happened to her, terrified she questions the Lord. Not from works, but from him who calls, it was said to her: The greater shall serve the lesser.

It was not fulfilled in Jacob and Esau, but it was said as a figure of the Christian people, which was set before the older people of the Jews, just as Ephraim and Manasseh also prefigured the younger people, that is, the Christian people, who were blessed with hands changed. As it is written: Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated. This was said in Genesis. The Prophet reports that this was fulfilled not concerning them themselves, but concerning their children; and the Apostle, taking up this testimony, checked curiosity and calumny, asserting that there is no iniquity with God, but whoever does anything does it either mercifully or judicially. What then shall we say? Is there iniquity with God? Far be it. He still reasons and sets before himself, as it were, the person of one contradicting, and overcomes him with testimonies, [showing] that no one can oppose the will of the Lord, since Moses himself says: I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, that is: If I am good, why is your eye evil? Do I take away from you what I give to another? In my foreknowledge I decreed to graft the wild olive into the olive tree; what is that to you? For to Moses he says: I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will show mercy to whom I will show mercy. For whom God has mercy on, he calls and inspires to believe; and on whom he has been merciful so that he may believe, he shows mercy, that is, he makes him merciful, so that he may also do good. Hence it is evident that all good things are from God himself, who is the Savior of all, especially of the faithful. But someone says: Why him so, and another not so, and why not all equally?

Is God an accepter of persons? Acception of persons is rightly spoken of there where the one who judges, setting aside the merit of the case he is judging, favors one party against another, finding something in the person that is worthy of honor or mercy. But if someone has two debtors, and wishes to forgive one his debt and to demand it from the other, he gives to whom he wishes, but defrauds no one, nor is it to be called acception of persons when there is no iniquity. Otherwise, to those who understand little, it can seem acception of persons where the lord of the vineyard gave to the laborers who worked one hour of that day as much as to those who bore the burden of the day and the heat, making them equal in wages, when there had been so great a distance between them in labor. But what did he answer to those murmuring about this, as it were, acception of persons? Friend, I do you no injury, etc. For here all justice is, this I will, to that one I returned, to this one I gave, nor did I take anything away from you, or diminish or deny what I owed. Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish? etc. Just as therefore here there is no acception of persons, because one is honored freely in such a way that another is not defrauded of what is owed him, so when according to the purpose of God one is called and another is not called, to the one called is given a free good, of which good the very calling of the called is the beginning; to the one not called is repaid the debt of evil, since all are guilty through the one through whom sin entered into the world.

Therefore it is not of him who wills nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. He concludes the argument and brings forward the testimony concerning Pharaoh, so that we may tremble at God's judgments rather than scrutinize them, because for the most part they are hidden, yet they are never unjust, since it is true that he himself directs the course of those who run, and that without his grace no one's course obtains its effect, as Ecclesiastes says: The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong; and David: Unless the Lord builds the house, they labor in vain who build it. Therefore his help must be implored, who works all things in all. The Christian, then, ought to run, and never presume on his own strength; he ought to run and to fulfill God's commandments, but he ought to claim nothing for himself, according to that saying: He who glories, let him glory in the Lord. This is against those who presumed on their own merits and strength. For he too was running when he attempted to go into Bithynia, as we read in the Acts of the apostles. I believe that his course would have been in vain, but he was directed by the Holy Spirit to that place where his preaching would profit. For David also cried out to the Lord: Direct my steps according to your word. Without doubt our course is in vain unless our steps are directed by the Lord. For a horse also can run, but if it has no rider, unbridled and headlong it rushes forth and does not walk in the right path. So it is with us without God and his grace.

But who among men has the power to reach his own mind with such a vision that his will is moved to faith? Or who can embrace what does not delight him? Or who has it in his power either to bring about what can delight him, or to be delighted when it has come about? When, therefore, those things in which we make progress delight us, this is inspired by God, and this is provided by the grace of God, not by our own nod, or industry, or the merits of works, because it is he who grants and he who bestows that there be a movement of the will, that there be the industry of study, that there be works fervent with charity. For we are commanded to ask, that we may receive, and to seek, that we may find, and to knock, that it may be opened to us. Is not our very prayer sometimes so tepid, or rather cold, and almost nothing, indeed at times so entirely nothing, that we do not even notice this in ourselves with grief—since if we grieve even over this, we are already praying? What else is shown to us, then, except that he grants both to ask and to seek and to knock, who commands us to do these things? Therefore it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. Since we can neither will nor run unless he moves and stirs us. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: For this very purpose I raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth. Each one is punished when the measure and end of his sins is complete. Sometimes also in the present, as the Sodomites and Gomorrahites.

Pharaoh had therefore already exceeded the limit, and since he was worthy of perdition, God willed to strike fear into all by his example, and willed that his people, who were about to depart from Egypt, should recognize his power and justice, so that they might not sin in the same way, or fear their adversaries; he willed not only to free them from imminent danger by such a vengeance, but also to fortify them beforehand by the terror of his power, so that they might guard against iniquity in the future. Concerning Pharaoh, it can also be understood in this way: that he is said to have been hardened through God's mercy, because when the plague ceased at Moses' prayer, he was hardened; and although God knew that he was so hardened that he could not be converted, nevertheless he showed his goodness. For what he said, "I have raised up," means "I have brought forth," not "I have made"—just as if someone were to bring two vessels full, one with balsam and the other with dung, he brings forth the fragrance or the stench, he does not generate it. Therefore he has mercy on whom he wills, and whom he wills he hardens. He has mercy with great goodness, and he hardens with no iniquity: he has mercy by bestowing good things, he hardens by repaying what is deserved—as if he were to say: Therefore you understand it thus, that if he has mercy on whom he wills, and hardens whom he wills, it follows from your understanding that you say, "Why then are we still reproved? What he wills, we do." The Apostle perceived what was moving their carnal understanding, and he set against it the words of one contradicting him, which he would restrain by apostolic authority. For he says: "You say therefore to me: Why then does he still complain?

[Below, in the same text, the question is raised.] For who resists his will? And he answered the one who said this: O man, who are you to answer back to God? Does the thing formed say to the one who formed it, Why have you made me thus? Then, following this so great and hidden mystery, he judged how much of it ought to be revealed to men, and he revealed it, saying: But if God, willing to show his wrath and to demonstrate his power, endured with much patience the vessels of wrath, which are perfected in perdition, so that he might show the riches of his glory upon the vessels of mercy—this is the grace of God, not only a help but also a lesson. A help, namely, in the vessels of mercy; but in the vessels of wrath, a lesson. For in them he shows his wrath and demonstrates his power, because his goodness is so powerful that it uses even evil things well, and in them makes the riches of his glory abound upon the vessels of mercy; since what the justice of the punisher exacts from the vessels of wrath, the grace of the liberator forgives to the vessels of mercy: nor would the benefit that is freely granted to some appear, unless God, having condemned others from the same mass, equally guilty, by his just judgment, showed what was owed to both.

Hear also the full interpretation of this passage by the most blessed Father Augustine, for concerning Pharaoh the answer is given thus: By his earlier merits, in that he afflicted the strangers in his kingdom, he was worthy to have his heart hardened, so that he would not believe even the most manifest signs of God who commanded him. From the same mass, therefore—that is, of sinners—God brought forth both vessels of mercy, to whom he would give aid when the children of Israel pleaded with him, and vessels of wrath, by whose punishment he would instruct those others—that is, Pharaoh and his people. For although both were sinners and therefore belonged to one mass, yet those who groaned to the one God, so that he might aid them, were to be treated one way, and those others another way, on account of whose unjust burdens they had groaned. He therefore endured in much patience the vessels of wrath, which are perfected for destruction. And by that very phrase, "in much patience," he sufficiently indicated their earlier sins, in which he endured them, so as not then to avenge them, since by avenging them he was to give aid to those who were being set free—so that he might make known the riches of his glory upon the vessels of mercy, which he prepared in glory. Here perhaps, disturbed, you have returned to that question: If he has mercy on whom he wills, and hardens whom he wills, why does he still complain? Who resists his will? It is altogether so: whether you will or not, he has mercy on whom he wills, and he hardens whom he wills.

But who would impiously call the will of God unjust, when even Pharaoh himself cries out: "The Lord is just; I and my people are unjust," since this will of God cannot be unjust. For it comes from the most hidden merits, which distinguish the sinners themselves. For although on account of the general sin they have made one mass, nevertheless there is not no difference among them; because there are many sinners who by nature live moderately, whereby, although they are not yet justified, they are nevertheless made worthy of justification; and in other sinners their own vice does not precede, so that they are worthy of being blinded, having the same apostle saying elsewhere: "Because they did not approve of holding God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind." This is what he hardened Pharaoh to. But that they did not approve of holding God in their knowledge, this is what made them worthy to be given over to a reprobate mind; nevertheless it is true, because it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy, because if anyone by lighter sins, or certainly by graver and many sins, has nevertheless by great groaning and grief of repenting been made worthy of the mercy of God, it is not of himself—who, if he were left, would perish—but of God who shows mercy, who comes to the aid of his prayers and griefs. For it is a small thing to will, although even that we will, the will is prepared by the Lord; nevertheless (as I said) it is a small thing to will, unless the Lord has mercy.

But God does not show mercy to one who calls him to peace unless a will already healed has preceded it, because peace is for men of good will. And in what way can anyone even will, unless he has been admonished and called—either inwardly, where no man sees, or outwardly through spoken word or through some visible signs—so that God works even the willing itself in us? For to that supper which the Lord says in the Gospel was prepared, not all who were called wished to come, nor could those who came have come unless they had been called. Nor should those who came attribute it to themselves, because they came as called; but those who were unwilling to come should attribute it not to another but only to themselves, since when called they had it in their free power to come. Therefore the calling works the will before any merit; and for this reason, if anyone attributes to himself that he came when called, he cannot attribute to himself that he was called. But one who was called and did not come, just as he has no merit of reward for being called, so he will fall into the merit of punishment, because when called he neglected to come. Thus those two things will be: "Mercy and judgment will I sing to you, O Lord." To mercy belongs the calling; to judgment belongs the blessedness of those who came when called, and the punishment of those who were unwilling to come. Did Pharaoh then not know how much good those lands were to obtain through the coming of Joseph?

The knowledge of that deed, therefore, becomes his calling, so that, dealing mercifully with the people of Israel, he would not be ungrateful. But because he refused to obey this calling, and exercised cruelty against those to whom humanity and mercy were owed, he deserved punishment, so that his heart was hardened and he suffered such great blindness of mind that he did not believe so many and such great and so manifest signs of God, so that by his punishment—whether of obduration or of final visible submersion—the people might be instructed, so that by that affliction he might procure for himself both of hidden dullness and of manifest submersion by the merit of disobedience. But this calling, which works, whether in individual men or in peoples, and in the human race itself, through the opportunities of the times, is of another and profound ordination; to which pertains also that: I sanctified you in the womb; and when you were in your father's loins, I saw you. And, Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated, since it was said before he was born: nor can it be comprehended, except by those who love the Lord their God with their whole heart, and with their whole soul, and with their whole mind, and their neighbor as themselves. For founded in such great charity, they can now, if perhaps with the saints, comprehend the length, the breadth, and the depth. Nevertheless this must be held with most constant faith: that God does nothing unjustly, and that there is no nature that does not owe to God what it is.

Because all beauty, and comeliness, and harmony of parts is owed to God; if you have utterly pursued this and have drawn it away from things down to the very last remnants, nothing remains. Since, therefore, we have acquired merit by sinning, and, if the mercy of God be removed, nothing else is owed to sinners but eternal punishment, what does a man born of the mass of perdition mean, that he should answer God and say: "Why have you made me so?" If you wish to know these things, do not be the clay, but become a son of God through the mercy of him who gave power to become sons of God to those who believe in his name. But what you desire is not given to men, before they believe, who desire to know divine things. For the reward of knowledge is rendered to merits; but merit is acquired by believing. Yet that grace itself, which has been given through faith, was given with no merits of ours preceding it. For what merit is there of a sinner and an ungodly man? But Christ died for sinners and for the ungodly, so that we might be called to believe not by merit but by grace, and by believing might also establish merit. Sinners, therefore, are commanded to believe and are cleansed from their sins by believing.

For they do not know what they will see by living rightly; and therefore, since they cannot see unless they live rightly, and cannot live rightly unless they believe, it is manifest that one must begin from faith, so that the precepts by which believers are turned away from this world may make them pure for the world where God can be seen; only then will you rightly and not perversely hear whatever there is concerning the most hidden merits of souls and concerning the secret grace or justice of almighty God. It is he also who gives faith, so that you may believe, from whom is every good gift; for what do you have that you have not received? You say therefore to me: Why then is it still sought? For who resists his will? It is true that it is not resisted, because no Christian doubts that the will of God itself is good and just. O man, who are you, to answer God? And this is the part of one who contradicts, even if it were as you say: who were you, to answer God? You ought to be silent and to do what is commanded you; if he commands you to do good, you ought to understand that he also is good, to whom evil is not pleasing, and by whom he forbids you. Did he perhaps say: O man, what you have said is false? But he said: O man, who are you, to answer God? and the rest. Does the thing formed say to him who formed it: Why have you made me thus? Does the potter not have power over the clay?

He does not say, "because it cannot," nor "it ought not"; he wants us to be as mute before the Lord as clay is before the potter. For when we do not understand, we ought not to think evil things of God, knowing that no fault can fall in God, because his judgments are hidden, they are not unjust. From the same mass, to make one vessel indeed for honor, but another for dishonor? He speaks of that mass of a sinful people, from which we were all created in Adam. But if God, willing to show his wrath and to make known his power. The will of God is merciful and just, and wills nothing except what is good, pious, and just. He endured with much patience. He who long endured him blaspheming and afflicting his people with harsh works. Vessels of wrath fit for destruction, that he might show the riches of his glory. By filling up their sins, the vessels of wrath had been made worthy, fitted by themselves for destruction, not only through original sin but through actual sin. For wrath is not repaid except for debts, lest there be iniquity with God. And from this the vessels of mercy understand how freely mercy is bestowed upon them, because to the vessels of wrath, with whom they share a common mass and a cause of perdition, wrath is repaid as due and just, while to these mercy is forgiven as not due. In vessels of mercy, which he prepared for glory, whom he also called. Because he himself willed to have mercy on them and to make them vessels of mercy from vessels of wrath. Not only from the Jews.

If he had called them personally, he would have called only Jews; but we find that he neither spared the Jews when they sinned, nor forbade the Gentiles to be saved. But even from the Gentiles, as Hosea says, "Because even then some Egyptians had gone out with them." "I called a people not mine, my people, and her who was not beloved, beloved." Through the prophet he shows it was foretold that the Gentiles would pass over to Christ. "And she who had not obtained mercy, obtained mercy. And it shall be in the place where it was said to them: You are not my people: there they shall be called sons of the living God." To such an extent does he call whom he wills, that he would even choose impious Gentiles, and those who had never done anything good. For if he chose by merits, only Israel, who always served God, ought to have deserved this; but he saves all freely, and no one by his own merits, because as he says: "He has shut up all things under sin, that he might have mercy on all." But Isaiah cries out for Israel: "If the number of the sons of Israel be as the sand of the sea." It is for their sake, if they believe, that this is threatened against them. "The remnant shall be saved." But Isaiah shows that few of the Jews will believe, who are vessels unto honor; for the rest of the multitude are vessels unto dishonor. "A word completing and shortening in equity." According to the historical sense it is understood thus: as I shorten and finish a word, so God will quickly do that.

But according to allegory, the New Testament receives the "abbreviated word," because all things are briefly comprehended in it, as for instance: "I believe in God the Father almighty, and in his Son Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Spirit," and the rest that follow in the creed. Or that saying: "What you do not wish to be done to you, do not do to others." That is, that by the compendium of faith, through grace, he might save believers, not through countless observances with which that multitude was pressed down, burdened like slaves. For by grace the word that consummates and abbreviates has been made for us upon the earth, saying: "My yoke is sweet and my burden light." Or that saying: "You shall love God and your neighbor; on these two commandments the whole law hangs and the prophets." Because the Lord will make an abbreviated word upon the earth. The Lord contracted and abbreviated the people of Israel. And as Isaiah foretold: "Unless the Lord of hosts had left us a seed, we would have become as Sodom and been like Gomorrah." Because he did not suffer all to perish with the wicked, but from there made even a few righteous, and the seed of Abraham came, who would save those who were perishing; unless he had willed to save even a few, we would all have perished alike, but that he might fulfill what he had promised to Abraham. But why this one receives and that one does not receive, when both do not deserve to receive—whoever has received, let him measure his own strength, since he receives undeservedly, and let him not search into things stronger than himself; let it suffice for them to know that there is no iniquity with God.

What then shall we say, that the Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have attained righteousness? If it is not as we say—that it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs—how is it that the Gentiles, who never sought righteousness, found righteousness, while Israel, which always pursued righteousness, could not arrive at the law of righteousness? He answers: Because the former believed, while the latter were unwilling, but gloried in works which they did not even keep. What then do we say against these things which can be raised as objections—namely, that the Gentiles who did not pursue have attained, while Israel has not attained? But let us tremble at the judgments of God, which, as I said, are hidden; yet they are never unjust. But the righteousness which is of faith: Israel, however, pursuing the law of righteousness, did not arrive at the law of righteousness. Which the Lord gave to those who were called, that they might believe. Why? Because it was not of faith, but as it were of works. "As it were," because not truly. They stumbled. They stumble at the stone of stumbling, as it were cleverly defending the law while casting down nature and free will, just like the philosophers of the world. For a stone of stumbling. He who sees the stone—the stone is of salvation to him who does not stumble against it; but he who is blind stumbles against the stone. So too the Jews, whom their own malice blinded so that they would not recognize Christ, stumbled against him by doing him injury, in whom the believing Gentiles have attained righteousness.

Therefore Christ is called a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, because many are scandalized at his passion and his birth, as it is written: Because they were scandalized at him. And Paul himself says to the Corinthians: Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block, but to the Gentiles foolishness; but to those who are called, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Hence here too it follows: Whoever believes in him shall not be put to shame. Peter also says that for believers he is a chosen and cornerstone, but for unbelievers a stone of offense. As it is written: Behold, I lay in Zion a stone of offense and a rock of stumbling. He said this in the prophet Isaiah. And everyone who believes in him shall not be put to shame. Because he understands the power of God and the wisdom of God.

CHAPTER 10. Brothers, the will indeed of my heart and my supplication to God is made. For enemies we must pray not with the lips only, but also with the heart. For them unto salvation. For the Jews. For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God. They have a zeal for pursuing the law of God. But not according to knowledge. Unless one does all things according to the knowledge given by God, he stumbles, even if one has been made perfect. If the Jews had the knowledge of God, they would recognize that Christ did not come against the law, but according to the law, and that they cannot be justified according to the law, but God justifies freely by faith, not by the works of the law, in which they boasted. For being ignorant of the righteousness of God.

They did not know that he justifies freely by faith, and not by the works of the law, in which they boasted, saying that they had kept the law which they did not keep, and by justifying themselves through it, they do not submit themselves to the remission of sins, lest they be seen to have been sinners. For they were not compelled against their will to be unbelievers, but by refusing to believe they were not free from the charge of unbelief. And seeking to establish their own righteousness, they were not subject to the righteousness of God. That which is from the law, or which they falsely supposed to be from free will, as they are deceived by their own judgment; and while they attribute to themselves what belongs to God, they are not subject to the righteousness of God. The righteousness of the law, then, is to command what pleases God and to forbid what displeases him. In the law righteousness is to serve, and outside it to require no help from God for living rightly. But the righteousness of God is not to presume on one's own strength. The righteousness of God is spoken of, not as that by which God is just, but as that which God gives to man, so that man may be just through God. For Christ is the end of the law unto righteousness. Christ is called the end of the law, because he himself is, or in him is, all perfection. But "end" is said from completing, not from consuming, because it is one thing for bread to be finished and another for a web to be finished: the one so that it may not exist, the other so that it may be perfect. Whoever therefore believes in Christ, he fulfills the law, because all our intention ought to tend and hasten toward him, who has nothing further that he may require, because all things have been fulfilled, whatever was foretold of him in the holy Scriptures.

To every believer, Jew and Greek. Moses wrote that the man who does the righteousness which is of the law shall live in it. Moses indeed spoke of the law according to the history, but the Apostle applies it to Christ, because the law was neither in heaven nor in the abyss, and therefore he commands them always to meditate on the law, so that there they may find Christ. He shall live in it. But the righteousness which is of faith speaks thus. No one therefore of them lives, because no one does it, because in comparison with such great sins, even if there were a few who did it, they would be believed to be none. Do not say in your heart: Who shall ascend into heaven? that is, to bring Christ down: or, who shall descend into the abyss? that is, to call Christ back from the dead. But what does the Scripture say? The word is near in your mouth, and in your heart. That is, you ought not to doubt in your heart concerning either his passion, or his resurrection, or his ascension, that it was not done by himself. This is the word of faith, which we preach. This is the New Testament. Because if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. The confession of the mouth is the testimony of the heart. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness; but with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Sins past, not future. Therefore if faith suffices for righteousness, and confession for salvation, Jew and Greek are one in Christ. For the Scripture says: Everyone who believes in him shall not be confounded. Not the Jew only.

For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek. This concerns original sin or idolatry: therefore you cannot confound those whom Scripture says cannot be confounded.

(Here begins the exposition excerpted from the book of Saint Augustine, from the passage to Saint Simplician, On Jacob and Esau. Although it may seem to be out of order in this treatise, it has not been omitted for that reason, because it is necessary and complete, and for this reason it has been written here, so that with the obscurity of that passage revealed it may clearly illuminate the reader's understanding.)

It was said not from works, but from the one who calls: Because the greater shall serve the lesser. The grace, then, belongs to the one who calls, and good works follow as belonging to the one who receives grace: not works that produce grace, but works that are produced by grace. For fire does not heat in order that it may be hot, but because it is hot. Nor does a wheel run well in order that it may be round, but because it is round. So no one does good works in order to receive grace, but because he has received it. For how can one live justly who has not been justified? How can one live holily if he has not been sanctified? Or how can he live at all who has not been justified—or, as some copies have it, made alive? But grace justifies, so that the one justified may be able to live justly. Grace is therefore first, good works second, just as he says in another place: But to the one who works, the reward is not reckoned according to grace, but according to debt.

For they did not understand that by the very fact that it is the grace of the gospel, it is not owed to works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace. In many places he often testifies to this, placing the grace of faith before works: not to destroy works, but to show that works do not precede grace but follow it; that is, so that no one should suppose that he received grace because he had worked well, but rather that he cannot work well unless through faith he has received grace. For a man begins to receive grace when he begins to believe God, moved to faith either by an inward or an outward admonition. But it matters at which points of time, or through the celebration of the sacraments, a fuller and more evident grace is poured in. But that we may speak rather of the matter at hand, these things are recalled to break and cast down the pride of men ungrateful for the grace of God, and of those who dare to boast of merits. For when they had not yet been born nor had done anything good or evil, it was said not from works but from the one who calls: Because the greater shall serve the lesser. Therefore the calling is of grace. If, then, the election is through foreknowledge, and God foreknew the faith of Jacob, how do you prove that he did not also choose him from works? If it is for this reason, that they had not yet been born and had not yet done anything good or evil, so also not one of them had yet believed; but just as foreknowledge saw that he would believe, so foreknowledge could see that he would work.

Just as one is said to be elect because of future faith, which God foreknew, so another might say that someone was elect rather on account of future works, which God nonetheless foreknew. Wherefore the Apostle shows from what source it was said, "not from works": "The elder shall serve the younger"; if it were otherwise, since they were not yet born, it was said not only not from works but from faith, because both were lacking to those not yet born. Therefore he did not wish it to be understood that the election of the younger, so that the elder should serve him, was made even by foreknowledge. For wishing to show that it was not made from works, he therefore added, saying: "For when they had not yet been born, nor had done anything good or evil." Otherwise it could be said to him, "But God already knew what each would do." For this reason it is asked from what source that election was made; because if not from works, which did not exist in those not yet born, nor from faith, because that too did not exist—from what source, then? Or should it be said that there was no election at all, since there existed no diversity in the mother's womb, either of faith, or of works, or of any merits whatsoever? But it was said: "That the purpose of God according to election might remain." And therefore we ask, because it was said; unless perhaps the sentence is to be distinguished thus: not that we understand it as though it was therefore said "not from works" but "from him who calls," "The elder shall serve the younger," so that "the purpose of God according to election might remain"; but rather that this example concerning those not yet born and not yet having done anything is to be taken as given so that no election can be understood here.

For when they had not yet been born, nor had they done anything good or evil, so that the purpose of God according to election might remain—that is, they had not yet done anything good or evil, so that on account of that action itself something might be made of the one who had done well, as though by election. Since, therefore, there was no election of one doing well, according to which the purpose of God might remain, it was said not from works but from the one who calls—that is, from him who by calling to faith justifies the ungodly by grace: "Because the greater shall serve the lesser." Therefore the purpose of God would not remain according to election, but from the purpose of the one elected—that is, it is not because God found good works in men which he might choose that the purpose of his justification remains; but because that purpose remains, namely that he justifies those who believe, therefore he finds works which he may now choose for the kingdom of those who have been taken captive. For unless there were an election, there would be no elect, nor would it rightly be said: "Who shall bring an accusation against the elect of God?" Yet election does not precede justification, but justification precedes election. For no one is chosen unless he is already separated from the one who is rejected. Hence, as for what was said, that God chose us before the foundation of the world, I do not see how it could have been said except by foreknowledge. But here, what was said—"Not from works, but from the one who calls"—was said to him: "Because the greater shall serve the lesser"; he wished this to be understood not by the election of merits, which come about after the justification of grace, but by the generosity of God's gifts, lest anyone be puffed up because of works.

For by the grace of God we have been saved, and this not from works, but it is the gift of God; not from works, lest anyone should boast. But it is asked whether even faith earns a man's justification, or whether the merits of faith precede the mercy of God, or whether faith itself is to be counted among the gifts of grace. For also in this place, when he had said, "Not from works," he did not say, "but from faith" it was said to her, "the elder shall serve the younger"; but he said, "but from the one who calls." For no one believes who is not called. But God, who is merciful, calls, bestowing this on no merits even of faith, because the merits of faith follow the calling rather than precede it. For how will they believe in him whom they have not heard? And how will they hear without a preacher? Unless, therefore, the mercy of God precedes by calling, no one can even believe, so as from this to begin to be justified and to receive the ability to do good. Therefore grace is before every merit. For indeed Christ died for the ungodly. By the one who calls, therefore, the younger receives, not by any merits of his own works, so that the elder should serve him, so that even what is written, "Jacob I loved," is God's, from the one who calls, not from Jacob who works. What then of Esau, that he serves the younger, and that it is written, "But Esau I hated"—by what evils of his own did he deserve this, when he himself had not yet been born, nor had he yet done anything good or evil, when it was said, "And the elder shall serve the younger"?

Or perhaps, just as that saying about Jacob was spoken with no merits of good action, so was Esau hateful with no merits of evil action? For if, because God foreknew his future evil works, He therefore predestined him to serve the lesser, then He also predestined Jacob to have the elder serve him because He foreknew his future good works; and then what He says, "Not from works," is already false. But if it is true that it is "not from works," and He proves this from the fact that it was said of those not yet born and not yet having done anything—whence it is also not from faith, which for those not yet born was likewise not yet present—by what merit, then, is he hated before he is born? For that God made the things He loved is no question. But if we say He made the things He hated, it is absurd, since another scripture comes to mind and says: "For you have made nothing that you hate; and you have hated none of the things you have made, or established." For by what merit was the sun made? Or what did the moon offend, that it should be so much lower than that great light? Or what did it deserve, that it should be created so much brighter than the other stars? But all things were created good, each in its own kind. For God would not say: "I loved the sun, but I hated the moon"; or: "I loved the moon, but I hated the stars"—as He said: "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated." But He loved all those things, though ordered in different degrees of excellence, since God saw that they were good when they were established by His word.

But that He hated Esau, unless by the merit of injustice, is unjust. But if we grant this, then Jacob also begins to be loved by the merit of justice. But if this is true, then what is false is that it is not by works. Or perhaps by the justice of faith? What then does "For when they were not yet born" help you, since in one not yet born there could not even be the justice of faith? And so the Apostle saw what could occur to the mind of the hearer or reader from these words, and immediately added: "What then shall we say? Is there injustice with God? Far be it." And as if teaching how it is far be it, he says: "For He says to Moses: I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will show compassion to whom I will be compassionate." By these words does he solve the question, or rather bind it more tightly? For this very thing is what most moves us: if He has mercy on whom He will have mercy, and shows compassion to whom He will be compassionate, why was this mercy lacking to Esau so that through it he too might be good, just as through it Jacob was made good? Or was it said for this reason: "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will show compassion to whom I will be compassionate," because on whomever God has had mercy so as to call him, He will have mercy on him so that he may believe; and to whomever He has been compassionate so that he may believe, He will show compassion, that is, He will make him compassionate, so that he may also do good works?

Hence we are warned that no one ought to glory and exalt himself even in the very works of mercy, as though by them, as if by his own merits, he had won God's favor; since, in order that he might have that very mercy, He provided it who will show mercy to whom He is merciful. But if anyone boasts that he merited it by believing, let him know that He provided for him that he might believe, who shows mercy by inspiring faith in the one on whom He has had mercy, so as to impart calling even to one still unbelieving. For already the faithful is distinguished from the ungodly. For what have you, he says, that you have not received? But if you have received it, why do you glory as though you had not received it? Rightly indeed is this said, but why was this mercy withheld from Esau, so that he was not so called as to have faith also inspired in him when called, and, believing, to become merciful so as to do good works? Or is it perhaps because he was unwilling? If, then, Jacob believed because he was willing, God did not give him faith, but he himself provided it for himself by willing, and he had something that he did not receive. Or is it because no one can believe unless he is willing; no one is willing unless he is called? But no one can provide for himself that he be called: by calling, God provides faith also, because without calling no one can believe, although no one believes unwillingly. For how will they believe in him whom they have not heard? Or how will they hear without a preacher? And so no one believes without being called, but not everyone who is called believes; for many are called, but few are chosen.

Certainly those who did not despise the one calling them, but followed him by believing, willed without doubt and believed. What then is the meaning of what follows? So then it is not of the one who wills, nor of the one who runs, but of God who shows mercy. Is it because we cannot even will unless we are called, and our willing is worth nothing unless God helps us to accomplish it? Therefore it is necessary both to will and to run. For it would not be said in vain: On earth peace to men of good will. And: Run in such a way that you may obtain it. Nevertheless it is not of the one who wills, nor of the one who runs, but of God who shows mercy, so that we may both attain what we will and reach where we will. Esau therefore did not will, and did not run; but even if he had willed and had run, he would have arrived by God's help, who would have granted him even to will and to run by calling him, unless by despising the calling he had become a reprobate. For God grants in one way that we will, and in another way he grants what we have willed. For that we will, he willed to be both his own work and ours: his own by calling, ours by following. But that we have willed, he alone grants: that is, to be able to act well and always to live blessedly. Yet Esau, not yet born, could will or not will none of these things. Why then, while placed in the womb, was he rejected? For one returns to those difficulties which are more troublesome not only because of their own obscurity but also because of our frequent repetition of them. For why was Esau rejected while not yet born, who could neither believe the one calling him nor despise the calling, nor do anything good or evil?

If it was by foreknowledge of his future evil will, why was Jacob also not approved by God's foreknowledge of his future good will? But if you have once conceded that anyone could be either approved or disapproved on the basis of what was not yet in him—that is, because God foreknew that it would be—then it is proven that he could also be approved on the basis of works that God foreknew would be in him, even though he had not yet done anything. And it will not help you at all that they were not yet born, when it was said, "The elder shall serve the younger," so as to show that this was said not on the basis of works, since no one had yet done anything. If one attends carefully even to those words, "So then it is not of the one who wills, nor of the one who runs, but of God who shows mercy," the Apostle will not be seen to have said this only because we attain to what we will by God's help, but also with that intention with which he says elsewhere: "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure." There he shows clearly enough that even the good will itself is made in us by God working. For if it was said for this reason alone, "It is not of the one who wills, nor of the one who runs, but of God who shows mercy," because the will of man alone is not sufficient for us to live rightly and justly unless we are helped by God's mercy, then it can also be said in this way: "So then it is not of God who shows mercy, but of man who wills," because God's mercy alone is not sufficient unless the consent of our will is added.

But that is clear: we wish in vain unless God has mercy. Yet I do not know how it can be said that God has mercy in vain unless we wish it. For if God has mercy, we also wish it; indeed, it belongs to that same mercy that we wish it. For it is God who works in us both to will and to work for good will. For if we ask whether good will is a gift of God, I would be surprised if anyone dared to deny it. But because good will does not precede the calling, but the calling precedes good will, therefore it is rightly attributed to God who calls that we will well; but it cannot be attributed to us that we are called. Therefore it should not be thought that the saying "It is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy" was said for this reason: that unless by his help we cannot attain what we will; but rather for this reason: that unless by his calling we do not will. But if this calling is so effective of good will that every called person follows it, how will it be true: "Many are called, few are chosen"? But if it is true, and the called person consequently obeys the calling, and it lies in his will not to obey, then it can rightly also be said: "Therefore it is not of God who shows mercy, but of the man who wills and runs," because the mercy of the one calling is not sufficient unless obedience follows the calling. Or perhaps those who, called in this way, do not consent can, called in another way, apply the will of faith, and that may be true: "Many are called, few are chosen"?

so that although many were called in one way, yet because not all were affected in one way, only those follow the calling who are found fit to receive it; and that saying is no less true: "So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy"—because he called in the way that was suited to those who followed the calling. To others, however, the calling indeed came, but because it was of such a kind that they could not be moved by it, nor were they fit to receive it, they can indeed be called "called," but not "elect"; and that other saying is likewise not true: "So then it is not of God who shows mercy, but of the man who wills and runs." For the effect of God's mercy cannot be within man's power, so that he shows mercy in vain if man is unwilling; because if he wills even to show mercy to those very persons, it is necessary so to call them as was suited to them, that they might be moved, and understand, and follow. True, then, is: "Many are called, few are chosen." For those are chosen who were called in a fitting manner; but those who did not accord with, nor harmonize with, the calling are not chosen, because they did not follow, although they were called. Likewise true is: "It is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy"—who even if he calls many, yet shows mercy to those whom he so calls as it is fitting they be called in order to follow. But it is false if anyone says: "So then it is not of God who shows mercy, but of the man who wills and runs"—because God shows mercy to no one in vain.

But whom he has mercy on, he calls him in such a way as he knows to be suited to him, so that he does not reject the one calling. Here someone says: Why then was Esau not called in such a way that he would be willing to obey? For we see that others are moved to believe differently by the same things demonstrated or signified; just as, for example, Simeon believed in our Lord Jesus Christ while he was still a tiny infant, recognizing him by the Spirit revealing it to him. Nathanael, at a single statement which he heard from him—"Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you"—answered: Rabbi, you are the Son of God, you are the king of Israel. Because Peter confessed this so much later, he deserved to hear that he is blessed, and that the keys of the kingdom of heaven would be given to him. When a miracle was performed in Cana of Galilee, which the Evangelist records as the beginning of signs, water turned into wine, his disciples believed in him. By speaking he invited many to faith; many believed even without the dead being raised. Even the disciples, terrified by his cross and death, wavered, and yet the thief believed at that time, when he saw him not more outstanding in works, but equal in the fellowship of the cross. Even one of the number of the disciples believed after his resurrection, not so much by living limbs as by fresh scars. Many from the number of those by whom he was crucified, who while he was alive had despised him performing miracles, believed when the disciples preached him and did such things in his name.

Since, then, one person is moved to faith in this way and another in that, and the same matter, when spoken of in one way, often moves someone, while spoken of in another way it does not move him, and moves one person but not another, who would dare to say that God lacked a way of calling by which even Esau might apply his mind to that faith and join his will to it, the faith in which Jacob was justified? But if the stubbornness of the will can be so great that the mind's aversion hardens against all ways of calling, it is asked whether that hardness itself is from divine punishment. For when God abandons someone by not calling him in such a way as he could be moved to faith, who can say that even the Almighty lacked a way by which he might be persuaded to believe? But why do we ask this, when the Apostle himself adds it? For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: For this purpose I raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth. But the Apostle added this testimony to prove what he had said above: So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. As if he were saying: How do you teach this? For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: For this purpose I raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth. Here certainly it is shown that it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. And so he concludes: Therefore he has mercy on whom he wills, and whom he wills he hardens, although above it was not both.

For it is not in the same way that it was said, "It is not of him who wills, but of God who shows mercy," as it was also said, "It is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who hardens." Hence it is given to be understood that what he placed below concerning both—"Therefore he has mercy on whom he wills, and whom he wills he hardens"—can thus accord with the preceding sentence, so that God's hardening is his willing to show mercy: so that nothing is inflicted by him whereby man is made worse, but only whereby he is made better, is not derogated. But if this happens with no distinction of merits, who would not burst out into that voice which the Apostle himself raised against himself: "You say therefore to me, Why does he still complain? For who resists his will?" For the Spirit often complains of men, as appears through innumerable passages of the Scriptures, in that they are unwilling to believe and to live rightly. Hence the faithful, and those who do the will of God, are said to conduct themselves without complaint, because the Scripture does not complain of them. But of what does he complain, he says: "For who resists his will?" when he has mercy on whom he wills, and whom he wills he hardens. And yet let us look upon the things above; and from there let us direct our judgment, insofar as the Lord himself helps. For he says a little earlier: "What then shall we say? Is there injustice with God? Far be it. Let this, then, be fixed and immovable in a mind of sober piety and steadfast faith, that there is no injustice with God.

And so let it be believed most tenaciously and most firmly that this very fact—that God has mercy on whom he wills and hardens whom he wills—is [a matter] of some hidden equity, unknowable by any human measure, which must also be observed in human affairs themselves and in earthly contracts; in these, unless we held certain imprinted traces of supernal justice, the intent of our infirmity would never be received into, nor would it gape after, the very couch and most chaste and most holy inner sanctum of spiritual precepts. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they shall be satisfied. In this dryness, therefore, of life and of the mortal condition, unless a kind of most delicate breeze of justice were sprinkled from above, we would dry up all too quickly. Wherefore, since the society of men is bound together by giving and receiving, and things are given and received whether owed or not owed, who does not see that no one can be accused of iniquity who has exacted what is owed to him, nor certainly he who has wished to forgive what is owed to him? But that this lies not in the power of those who are debtors, but in the will of him to whom it is owed. This image, or, as I said above, this trace, has been imprinted upon the affairs of men from the highest summit of equity.

All men, therefore, since, as the Apostle says, "in Adam all die," and from him the origin of the offense of God is traced down to the whole human race, are one kind of mass of sin, owing punishment to the divine and supreme justice; and whether this is exacted or forgiven, there is no injustice. But to whom it is to be exacted and to whom it is to be forgiven, those who owe it judge presumptuously. Just as those hired for that vineyard were unjustly indignant when as much was given to the others as was paid to them. And therefore the Apostle so refutes the questions of this impudence: "O man, who are you, who answers back to God?" For so he answers God, when this displeases him, that God complains of sinners—as though God compelled anyone to sin; but only that to certain ones who sin he does not bestow the mercy of his justification, and for this reason he is said to harden certain sinners, because he does not have mercy on them, not because he impels them to sin. But he does not have mercy on those whom he judges, by a most hidden equity and one far removed from human senses, ought not to be shown mercy. For "his judgments are unsearchable, and his ways past finding out." But he complains of sinners as of those whom he himself does not compel to sin; and at the same time also so that those on whom he has mercy may have this calling as well—that while God complains of sinners, they may be pricked in heart and be converted to his grace. Justly, therefore, and mercifully does he complain.

But if this troubles anyone, that no one resists his will, because he helps whom he wishes and abandons whom he wishes: since both the one whom he helps and the one whom he abandons are from the same mass of sinners, and although both deserve punishment, yet from the one it is exacted and to the other it is forgiven; if this, then, troubles anyone: Who are you, to answer God? Let this alone be held with unshaken faith, that there is no iniquity with God, who whether he forgives or exacts a debt, neither can the one from whom he exacts it rightly complain of iniquity on his part, nor ought the one to whom he forgives to glory in his own merits. For the former will not render anything except what is owed, and the latter has nothing except what he has received. For that hardening of the impious demonstrates both things: both what is to be feared, so that each one may be converted to God in piety, and how great thanks are to be given for the mercy of God, who in the punishment of others shows what he forgives to others. But if that punishment which he exacts from others is not just, he forgives nothing to those from whom he does not exact it. But since it is just, and there is no iniquity with God when he punishes, who is sufficient to give thanks to him who remits that which, if he wished to exact it, no one could rightly say he did not owe? Whom also he called: Us, he says, not only from the Jews, but also from the Gentiles; that is, vessels of mercy which he prepared for glory. For not all Jews, but some from the Jews; nor all men of the Gentiles, but some from the Gentiles.

For there is one mass of sinners and of the impious from Adam, in which Jews and Gentiles, with the grace of God removed, belong to one lump. For if the potter makes from the same lump of clay one vessel for honor and another for dishonor, it is evident that some vessels are for honor and others for dishonor from among the Jews, just as from among the Gentiles; it follows that all are understood to belong to one lump. If the number of the children of Israel, he says, be as the sand of the sea, the remnant shall be saved. The rest of the crowd, therefore, having been passed by, is destined for perdition. For the Lord, he says, will make a word that consummates and abbreviates upon the earth: that is, that by a compendium of faith he may save believers through grace, not through innumerable observances by which that multitude was pressed down in servile burden. For truly by grace he has made for us upon the earth a word that consummates and abbreviates, saying: My yoke is sweet and my burden light. Which is also said here a little later: The word is near in your mouth and in your heart: this is the word of faith which we preach: because if you confess with your mouth that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto justice; but with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

This is the word that completes and shortens, which God has made upon the earth: by which completion and shortening that thief was justified, who, with all his members fastened to the cross and having these two free—the heart and the mouth—believed in his heart unto righteousness and confessed with his mouth unto salvation, and immediately merited to hear: Today you will be with me in paradise. For his good works would have followed, if by the grace received he had lived long among men. Nor had they preceded, that he might merit that same grace, who was fastened to the cross from robbery and transferred from the cross to paradise. And as Isaiah foretold, he says: Unless the Lord of hosts had left us a seed, we would have become as Sodom, and would have been like Gomorrha. What he says here, Had left us a seed, is that there: The remnants shall become a remnant. But the rest, vessels of perdition, bear the punishment they deserve. And that not all perished as Sodom and Gomorrha, the grace of God leaving a seed did, not their merit, from which another harvest would arise throughout the whole world. This also a little later: So then, he says, and at this time the remnants have been made safe by the election of grace. But if by grace, now not from works: otherwise grace is now not grace. What then? What Israel sought, this he did not obtain, but the election obtained it, while the rest were blinded. The vessels of mercy have obtained it, the vessels of wrath have been blinded: yet from the same sprinkling.

For who will judge the works of the Lord from the same lump, one condemning and the other justifying? Free will is of very great value—indeed, it is true, but what value does it have in those sold under sin? The flesh, he says, lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, so that you do not do the things you wish. We are commanded to live rightly, with this reward set before us, that we may merit to live blessedly forever. But who can live rightly and work well, unless justified by faith? We are commanded to believe, so that, having received the gift of the Holy Spirit, we may be able to work well through love. But who can believe, unless he is touched by some calling, that is, by some testimony of things? Who has it in his power for his mind to be reached by such a vision as moves his will to faith? And who embraces anything in his mind that does not delight him? Or who has it in his power either that something which can delight him should occur, or that it should delight him when it has occurred? When, therefore, those things delight us by which we advance toward God, this is inspired and the grace of God is supplied, not by our nod and industry, nor is it obtained by the merits of works; because that there may be a movement of the will, that there may be the industry of zeal, that there may be works fervent with love, he grants it, he bestows it.

We are commanded to ask, so that we may receive; to seek, so that we may find; and to knock, so that it may be opened to us. Is not our very prayer sometimes so charming—or rather so cold and almost nothing—that we do not even notice this in ourselves with grief? For if we grieve even over this, we are already praying. What else, then, is shown to us, except that it is he who grants both to ask and to seek and to knock, who commands us to do these things? Therefore it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy, since we shall be able neither to will nor to run unless he prompts and stirs us. But if there is any election, so that we understand what was said: "The remnant were saved by the election of grace," not that the election of those who are justified may be made unto eternal life, but that those who are to be justified may be chosen—certainly this election is hidden, so that it cannot at all appear to us in that same lump, or if it appears to certain ones, I confess my weakness in this matter. For I have nothing to look upon in the choosing of men unto saving grace, if I am permitted by any thought to examine this election, except either greater or lesser sins, or both—and let us add, if you please, honorable and useful teachings. Whoever, then, has been entangled and stained by the very least sins (for who can be stained by none?), and is keen in intellect and polished in the liberal arts, seems to be chosen unto grace.

But when I have resolved this, may he who chose the weak things of the world to confound the strong, and the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, so give me faith that, beholding him and corrected by shame, I may laugh at many, and that I may be more chaste than certain sinners, and a better man of prayer than certain fishermen. Do we not observe many of our faithful walking in the way of God, who in no respect of natural ability can be compared—I will not say with certain heretics, but even with actors? Again, do we not see certain men and women of both sexes living in conjugal chastity without complaint, and yet either heretics, or pagans, or even within the true faith and the true Church so lukewarm that they are surpassed not only in patience and temperance, but even in faith, hope, and charity, by certain public women and stage-players suddenly converted? It remains, therefore, that wills are chosen; but the will itself, unless something occurs that delights and invites the mind, can in no way be moved. But that this should occur is not in a man's power. What did Saul want, except to attack, drag away, bind, and kill Christians? How rabid a will, how furious, how blind! Yet he, prostrated by a single voice from above, when such a vision occurred—by which that mind and will, its savagery broken, was turned back and corrected to faith—suddenly from a wondrous persecutor of the Gospel became a more wondrous preacher. And yet what do we say? Is there injustice with God?

He demands from whom it pleases him, he gives to whom it pleases him: he in no way demands what is not owed, in no way gives what belongs to another. Is there injustice with God? Far be it. Why, then, to this one thus, and to this one not thus? O man, who are you? If you do not pay what is owed, you have reason to rejoice; if you pay, you have no reason to complain. Let us only believe, even if we cannot grasp it, that he who made and created the whole creation, both spiritual and corporeal, disposes all things in number, and weight, and measure: but his judgments are unsearchable, and his ways past finding out. Let us say alleluia, and sing praises in song, and let us not say, What is this? or what is that? For all things were created in their own time.

(Again, from the second book; Augustine to Simplicianus.)

The devil also, wishing to harm the righteous man Job, was indeed a devil by the will to harm, but nevertheless he was asking power from the Lord God, saying: Put forth your hand, and touch his flesh, although this would be done by himself, if it were permitted: for he was asking for that very permission in this way, and he called the Lord's hand his own hand permitted by the Lord, that is, the very power which he wished to receive. To this agrees that passage in the Gospel, where the Lord said to his disciples: This night Satan has asked to sift you like wheat.

The Spirit of God is therefore called evil in this sense: he was God's minister for doing evil in Saul, which the all-powerful Judge judged him to suffer, since that spirit was not God's by the will by which he was evil; but by the creature by which he was created, and by the power which he had received not as his own but by the equity of the Lord of all, he was God's. Likewise, the wrath of man is fervent and not without torment of mind; but the wrath of God, of which it is said in the Gospel, "But the wrath of God remains upon him," while he himself remains continually in tranquility, when the creature subject to him executes vengeance with wonderful equity.

Here now, in order, he has returned to the Apostle's argument. For the same Lord is Lord of all: rich toward all who call upon him. For everyone, whoever calls upon the name of the Lord, will be saved. The one God of all, and rich in mercy, has salvation, from which he may surely give. How then will they call upon him in whom they have not believed? Or how will they believe him whom they have not heard? He asks, and afterward he himself answers: How then will they hear without a preacher? How indeed will they preach unless they are sent? Because the prophets were never sent to them. As it is written: How beautiful are the feet of those who preach peace, who preach good things! The feet of these run well and are beautiful, who announce. But the feet of those who run after the vanities of the world are ugly. But not all obey the Gospel. If not even those obeyed to whom these were sent, how do those obey who have not heard?

For Isaiah says, "Lord, who has believed our report?" "Who?" — he says this because of the difficulty. Therefore faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. The Apostle's answer says this more against the Jews, to whom Christ was promised both through the law and through the prophets, and who are unwilling to believe that he has come. And he teaches by the testimonies that follow that it is so, and that they will have no excuse. But I say: Did they not hear? Indeed, "their sound went out into all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world." He wants this testimony to be understood allegorically, of the voices of the prophets. But I say: Did Israel not know? Did Israel not know that the Gentiles were to be saved? But when they were reading the testimonies, they believed it was said of proselytes, not of the whole world. First Moses says: "I will provoke you to jealousy." Because you ought to have provided an example, so that the Gentiles might imitate you, so that, leaving behind idols, they might worship the true God: now at least imitate them, because they no longer worship idols. "By a people that is not a people." Before they believed in God, they were not a people of God. As if he were saying: those who were not a people I call mine, and they will believe in me to your irritation: so that you, to whom they ought to have been inferior, may rejoice if they are made equal to you. Just as if someone had a disobedient son, and to correct him gave half his inheritance to a servant; and afterward that son, converted, might rejoice if he deserved to receive the other half. "By a foolish people I will send you into wrath.

A foolish nation, which did not have the law of God, or was not a nation, because they were dead in sins through idolatry, as it says concerning the unbeliever: "He is already judged." But Isaiah is bold and says. He is bold because he does not fear the people of the Jews. "I was found by those not seeking me." The nations who were not seeking God, whose law they did not even have by which they might seek him. "I appeared openly to those who were not asking me." The nations were not asking God, but idols and astrologers. But to Israel he says. He who felt so well concerning the nations—behold what he says concerning the Jews. Therefore it was foretold not only that the nations were to be chosen, but also that the unbelieving from Israel were to be rejected. By allegory the stretching out of the hands signifies the cross. "All day long I stretched out my hands to a people not believing and contradicting." All the time showing wonders, and not even so did you believe how great is the piety of God: as in the manner of a nurse who wishes a little child to progress so as to walk, who does not yet walk, she stretches out her hands so that he may come to her; and while he desires to reach her, he learns to walk. So God by his benefits always provoked the Jews to worship him, but they remained in their own lameness.

CHAPTER XL. I say therefore: Has God cast off his people? Because he had humbled them sufficiently, now, as a good teacher, and lest he seem rather to provoke them to anger while he challenges them, he as it were consoles them. By no means. He has not so cast them off as not to receive them still, if they believe by the gift of the Lord. For I also am an Israelite. If he had utterly cast off all of them, he would certainly not have drawn me either; but if even, so to speak, no other of them had believed except me, the promise of God which he spoke to Abraham would have been fulfilled in me—not to mention that so many thousands of them believed by his gift. Of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. Not from the proselytes. God has not cast off his people whom he foreknew. Whom he foreknew: that is, predestined to be saved; because many of that same people believed by the gift of the grace of Christ; for with him future things are already done. Without doubt, therefore, he foreknew; and because he foreknew, he predestined; but to predestine is to have arranged what he himself was going to do. Or do you not know what the Scripture says in Elijah? Where it is written concerning Elijah. How does he intercede with God against Israel? Lord, they have killed your prophets; they have dug down your altars; and I am left alone, and they seek my life. He says this lest the Gentiles grow proud again, because many of them believed, but few of those, in comparison with the multitude of the Gentiles. But what is said to him in the divine answer? The prophets knew that which was said to them.

For if they had known all things, we would rather be called divine. The king also said to Jeremiah, If there is a word of God in you. I have left for myself seven thousand men. If such a great prophet lay hidden, how many do you think can lie hidden who are to be saved? Note that he did not say, They have been left: but, I have left for myself. Who have not bent their knees before Baal. Just as God is denied by evil works, so also an idol is adored. For not only does he serve it who sacrifices to it, as he says of avarice, which is the service of idols. So therefore also at this time the remnant has been made saved according to the election of grace. Just as therefore then not all perished, so also now some are saved: the time of election is now: otherwise, he who believes now will then receive the reward. But if by grace, not from works. Between grace and predestination this is the difference, that predestination is the preparation of grace: but grace is already the gift itself. What the Apostle says: For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus in good works: it is grace. But what follows: Which God has prepared that we should walk in them, is predestination. And lest they should say: Under Elijah these were righteous, but these are sinners: how then does he call them elect? He added: Grace made them to be believers, therefore they are saved freely. For grace is so called because it is given freely, with no preceding merits. For there precedes, not a debt, but a gratuitous grace, so that through it good works may be done.

Lest, if good works preceded, grace should be rendered as if for works, and so grace would no longer be grace. But whoever says that the grace of God is preceded by the merit of men's good works, and that the grace of God is given on account of merits, is a Pelagian; for it is not grace if it is not given freely; if it is repaid as a debt to the deserving—which be far from us. Because God precedes and goes before us, not we God. In many places he often testifies to this, placing the grace of faith before works: not to destroy works, but to show that works do not precede grace but follow it: that is, so that no one should think he received grace for the reason that he worked well, but that he cannot work well unless through faith he has received grace. Otherwise grace is not grace. But if anything of man precedes by which he is saved, then it is no longer free. But grace, as he said, is so called because it is given with no preceding merits, and because it freely forgives sins. What then? That which Israel sought, he did not obtain. All Israel therefore did not obtain it, because he sought it not from God, but thought himself justified by the sabbath alone and circumcision, while he despised the other commandments: so when the vessels of mercy obtained righteousness, the vessels of wrath were blinded. But the election obtained it. The election, the faithful people, which obtained mercy, which God chose. I, he says, chose you: not you me. God knew who are his.

And that: He chose us in him before the foundation of the world. This is that election by which he chose those whom he willed in Christ before the foundation of the world, that they might be holy. But the rest were blinded, as it is written. They were blinded through unbelief, as it is written: Unless you believe, you will not understand. He gave them a spirit of compunction, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear. And there the prophet was speaking of the unbelieving and the sinful. God gave them this: that is, God handed them over into their own desire; to hand over is to abandon. A spirit of compunction, which they wanted, God gave them: because they were always unbelieving toward the words of God, and distrustful, and therefore by the judgment of God they were justly abandoned: so too now Christians who doubt concerning the resurrection, and the reward, and hell, have a spirit of compunction infused by the devil. And to this very day. Until they are converted to God: as he treats of the veil of the flesh in [the letter] to the Corinthians: When they have turned to God, the veil will be taken away. And David said: Let their table become a snare, and a trap, and a stumbling block, and a recompense to them. This he says of those who gave the Savior vinegar and gall to drink: and yet Peter says to them: And now, brothers, I know that you did this through ignorance: repent therefore, and let each one of you be baptized. And Paul himself shortly after: And they also, if they do not remain in unbelief, will be grafted in.

Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see: and bend their back always. As long as they are such. I say then, Have they so stumbled, that they should fall? God forbid. That is, that they should fall forever? God forbid. Yet they can, although they have fallen by their own will, be enlightened and rise again by the grace of God. But by their offense salvation has come to the Gentiles, that they may emulate them. He loved them so much that for their salvation the Gentiles were saved: so that they, seeing the Gentiles called to the kingdom of God, might both be confounded and be converted. But if their offense is the riches of the world. If their offense profited you so much that it made you equal to them, how much more, if many of them, or all, were willing to believe, could they profit you for doctrine? The offense of the Jews enriched the Gentiles, so that without the labor of the law they might become co-heirs and members of the same body, as he himself recalls in Ephesians. And their diminution is the riches of the Gentiles: how much more their fullness! If a few of them believing profited you so much, how much more if very many had believed! For I speak to you Gentiles. You who have believed from among the Gentiles. He wishes to show that through them he greatly seeks the salvation of the Jews. As long as I am the Apostle of the Gentiles. As long as I am in the body. I will honor my ministry. I will make illustrious, I will honor my ministry, if I gain not only the Gentiles, to whom I was sent, but also the Jews by my example. If by any means I may provoke to emulation my flesh.

Here he calls the Jews his own flesh, since he came from that people. If by any means I may so present myself that they may emulate me and desire to be such. And I will save some of them, because they desire all, or some, that it may be fulfilled, The remnant shall be saved. For if the loss of them is the reconciliation of the world. He repeats what he had said, What is the assumption, except life from the dead? Whence the assumption of the Gentiles, except from their death? From the dead Jews the apostles were a life for the assumption of the Gentiles. And if the firstfruits is holy, so also the lump. A few believing are holy: and all, if they believe, can become so. If the stream is good, so also the fountain. And if the root is holy, so also the branches. The root of the patriarchs, that is, of the first and the last, who believed in him, are holy. And if some of the branches are broken off. Who refused to believe in Christ. But you. They were not broken off for this reason, that you might be grafted in: but you were grafted in for this reason, because they were broken off. When you were a wild olive, you were grafted into them. An olive indeed, but uncultivated, wild, from a people without the law and the promises. It is against nature that a wild olive be grafted into an olive: but with God's power all things are possible: nor does the creature contradict the Creator. And you have been made a partaker of the root and of the fatness of the olive. Of the root, of the Fathers; of the fatness, of Christ. Do not boast against the branches. Do not rejoice that they were broken off. But if you boast, you do not bear the root, but the root bears you. If you boast, you will hear this, that they do not stand through you, but you through them.

Neither did you provide life to them, but they to you. You say therefore: The branches were broken off, so that I might be grafted in. Well said: because of unbelief they were broken off. But you stand by faith. You say therefore that they were broken off so that you might be grafted in. Let us see whether it was for this reason: but they were broken off because of unbelief, while you were grafted in by faith, freely, with no merits of your own; do not think that he accepted your person and cast them out without cause. Do not be proud, but weep. Do not be proud against them, but rather grieve and pray for them. For if God did not spare the natural branches, perhaps he will not spare you either. If he did not spare them, because those who are from the seed of Abraham were unbelieving, neither will he spare you, if you are found unbelieving in anything; for you were a wild olive. Unbelief is not of one kind: every sin descends from that infidelity, as is shown in the Scriptures: Because they did not believe the words of God, even though they, being sinners, believed God. Consider therefore the goodness and severity of God. Against those who assert one God to be just and another good; and against those who deny that God takes vengeance on sinners. Toward those who have fallen, severity; toward you, the goodness of God. Because both they were justified, and he had mercy on you mercifully and kindly, and with no merits of yours; whence all presumption ought utterly to cease. If you persevere in goodness. In the faith, which was conferred on you through his goodness. Otherwise you too will be cut off.

And you, if you have been unbelieving, will feel severity; and they will feel goodness, if I have believed. But even they, if they do not remain in unbelief, will be grafted in. If however they persist in faithlessness, they will not be grafted in. He shows that they can return by the gift of God. For God is able to graft them in again. Among men indeed it is impossible to make dry shoots firm again; but with God all things are possible. For if you were cut out of the wild olive tree, which already long ago in your fathers, who forgot the natural law, degenerated from nature, and even through successive generations the habit of sinning persisted by growing, so that they were bitter as if by nature—not only through original sin, but also through actual sin. And contrary to nature you were grafted into the good olive tree, how much more will these be grafted into their own olive tree according to nature? It is contrary to nature, as has been said, to graft the wild olive onto the olive tree, because the root is usually more in accord with the branch than the branch with the root. For I do not want you to be ignorant, brothers—and this so that the Gentiles might not be proud against them—of this mystery. This secret. So that you may not be wise in your own eyes. So that you may not say according to your carnal wisdom: God chose us by our merits, but rejected them; and in order to choose us, he therefore repelled them. Because blindness happened in part in Israel. In these blindness happened, because they did not believe; whom also Jacob's lameness prefigured. Until the fullness of the Gentiles should enter in, and so all Israel should be saved.

When the fullness of the Gentiles has believed, then at the end of the age the Jews who are found to be going to believe are reckoned in this way. The fullness of the Gentiles is the multitude of believers from every kind—not absolutely all the nations, according to the figure of synecdoche. As it is written in the prophet Isaiah: He will come from Zion, who will deliver and turn away impieties from Jacob. Which before no one was able to do. And this is the testament to them from me. The new testament, which Jeremiah promises. When I have taken away their sins. So that, cleansed through baptism, they may receive the new testament. According to the Gospel indeed, enemies for your sake. Enemies, because I have made you equal to them, and because I preach to you, they forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles. What is this, According to the Gospel enemies for your sake, except that their enmity, by which they killed Christ, profits the Gospel? And he shows that this came about by God's disposition, who knows how to use even evils well: because the persecution of the Jews served the Gospel. He permitted such things to be done by them as were necessary for the Gospel. But according to election, most beloved, for the sake of the fathers. But if they believe, they are most beloved. Likewise in another way: those who have been chosen from there by predestination love through grace; those who have been left in their own error exercise enmities for the sake of the Gospel; whom also Jacob, limping, prefigured. For the gifts and the calling of God are without repentance. That is, they are stably fixed without change.

Those who belong to this calling are all taught by God, and they cannot say, "I believed so that he might call me thus," because the Lord does not repent of having promised to the seed of Abraham. And in another sense: faith has been given for the grace of Christ without any preceding merit or reward. God's repenting means his changing, as we read: "It repents me that I made Saul king," or that passage: "The Lord has sworn, and he will not repent," and the rest: that is, this priesthood will not be changed as the priesthood of the Jews was changed; so here too the gifts and the calling of God are without repentance: that is, those whom he predestined, he also called. Because God will not change the sentence of his calling; but those whom he chose in his foreknowledge before the foundation of the world, to them he will say: "Come, you blessed of my Father," and the rest. For you also were once unbelieving toward God, when they were still believing. But now you have obtained mercy because of their unbelief—not by your own merit. So these also now have not believed, in your mercy. The mercy of the Gentiles is Christ, so that they too may obtain mercy. They did not believe at that time, so that they too might be justified not by works but by mercy, as you were, whenever they believe. For God has shut up all things in unbelief.

Those whom he found in unbelief—that is, all the Jews and the Gentiles—these he shut up, because formerly the Jews were sinners but not faithless; but after they did not believe in Christ, they are equal to the Gentiles, and so all need mercy and obtain it. That he might have mercy on all. He did this in order that he might have mercy on all, in that he found all equally unbelieving. O the depth of the riches of wisdom. He praises, therefore, the wisdom of God, who waited so long according to his foreknowledge until all equally needed mercy, so that no one might have anything of which to boast, that he was justified by works—works which he did not even do. But no one understood this by the just judgment of God; therefore the Apostle, marveling at so great a depth—that with no preceding merits of mind the Gentiles were brought in, and with much faithlessness preceding the Jews were left behind—exclaims: O the depth! And if the Apostle says this, how much more ought we to say it, and not to dispute the judgments of God, but to flee to this testimony as to a harbor, and to hold fast to it as to a most powerful anchor! And of the knowledge of God: how incomprehensible are his judgments, and how unsearchable his ways! It must be considered that the knowledge of God is placed before all riches. For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor? Who is put for "how difficult it is." Or: because he first gave to him, and it will be repaid to him? Who first did anything good without God, so that he might not glorify God's mercy, but boast that he received it by his own merit?

His goodness is the reason we exist and live, not only that we believe, because in all things we are preceded by his mercy. And let us know that when we do anything good, we have already received it from him to whom no one has given first. For from him and through him. From him not only was every creature made out of nothing, but from him is every good thing, as James says: Every best gift is from him. And in him it is heard. In him it is concluded: he is to be glorified by us. All glory to him forever. Amen. If all things, then also faith.

CHAPTER XII. I beseech you therefore, brothers. The beginning of the argument: Because he had spoken of the mind of the Lord, now he teaches what sort of people they ought to be, and with what sort of character, by the help of God, they ought to show themselves, so that they may deserve to have the mind of the Lord. Through the mercy of God, by which you have been saved; for they had nothing greater. That you present your bodies. How much more your souls? not rams and goats, which nevertheless were offered alive and without blemish. A living victim. Alien to every death of sins. Holy. Pure and chaste; for, he says, sanctify yourselves from women. Pleasing to God. Not to men only. Your reasonable service. All things are to be done wisely, because even if someone is perfect, and the knowledge of God is absent from him, he will be reckoned as nothing. And do not be conformed to this world. Do not again be like the sons of the world, you who have been made sons of God. But be reformed in the newness of your mind.

Renew your understanding by the gift of God, by which the body is governed and all the members are directed. And so the body will be renewed; and when you have done this, then you will be able to know the will of God and his understanding. That you may know what the will of God is. For this is revealed only to a new understanding, to those reborn through grace. Good, and well-pleasing, and perfect. Good, better, and best. For I say through the grace that has been given to me. I do not speak by my own understanding, but the grace of Christ speaks in me, as if forbidding me to be wise otherwise than the divine law commands. To all who are among you. To the priests and teachers, whose example the rest should follow. Not to be wise more than one ought to be wise, but to be wise unto sobriety. He is more wise who inquires into those things that the law does not say, as Solomon says: Do not seek things too high for you. To each one as God has divided. It should be noted that he calls the Holy Spirit God, whom he says divides gifts to each one at Corinth as he wills. The measure of faith. For just as we have many members in one body. That we may recognize that even faith itself is given to us by God. But all the members do not have the same function. The eye cannot hear, nor the ear see. So we, many, are one body in Christ. He exhorts to unity and peace: one person cannot have everything, lest he be puffed up if he needs nothing from anyone. Therefore do not be saddened because one does not have what he has seen another have. But each one is members of one another.

Let us show to one another what we have, so that by showing to one another what we have, charity may be confirmed more and more. Having gifts, however, differing according to the grace that has been given to us. Hear the gifts, and be silent about merits. It is the gift of the New Testament, which is not from ourselves; to all who believe the future glory is promised. But already in the present, for those reborn, the Lord, with grace distributing, lavishes differences of virtues. Whether prophecy: according to the measure of faith. Of faith, not of the law: but of that faith which works through love; but that love is poured in through the Holy Spirit. Or even that true prophecy which is according to faith. Whether ministry, in ministering. Priestly. Whether he who teaches, in doctrine: he who exhorts, in exhorting. He who teaches is greater than he who exhorts: for even the ignorant can exhort according to their strength; but to teach belongs to one who is to teach. Up to this point, the gifts. From here he now teaches, as is fitting, that we may make good use of the gifts. He who gives, in simplicity. To all simply, that is, with a pure heart, it ought to be given: for he who receives a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet's reward. He who presides, in solicitude. Of the church, or of the brethren. He who shows mercy. Mercy is to be shown especially toward the sick, although it is general. in cheerfulness. For God loves a cheerful giver: without doubt he hates the sorrowful one. Love without pretense.

Whoever is false in charity does injury to God, who is charity. For it is a great fraud if you mix lead with gold; how much more grievously do you, as far as in you lies, corrupt the heavenly good by the evil of simulation? There ought to be total purity in a Christian, as it says, God is light. And in a Christian there ought to be serenity of mind. It is the part of slaves to tremble in the present and to disparage in the absence; and that saying, Let us not love in word, but in deed and in truth, so that, if it is necessary, we may even die. Hating evil—whether evil work or the evil acts of men. Cleaving to good. As it is: Turn away from evil, and do good; for root out evil, that you may sow good. In the charity of brotherhood. As though born from one womb, so love one another. Mutually kind. As it is, Esteeming one another higher. Anticipating one another in honor. Above all it must always be held that you always consider yourself lesser than all, and thus humility and patience will be preserved: because whatever you suffer from a greater one, you are content. Not slothful in solicitude. Not only should he who has charge of the solicitude of the Church be diligent and eager, but you also ought to be solicitous for one another concerning your progress and your life. Fervent in spirit. Then we are fervent in spirit if we flee from carnal acts: because the Lord suffers nausea at the lukewarm. Serving the Lord. Not the world, nor vices, but the Redeemer. Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, instant in prayer. Because of the joy of the hope to come, be patient in tribulation.

Count it all joy," he says, "when you fall into various temptations." Blessing at all times—in prosperity and in adversity. "Communicating with the needs of the saints." Remember by what works the saints have obeyed God, and be partakers with them, and minister to those who have despised all their own possessions for Christ, so that your abundance may supply their want, and their abundance may be the supply of your want. "Pursuing hospitality," as Lot also compelled his guests even against their will. And as it says: "Do not forget hospitality, for by this some have pleased God, having received angels as guests," and the rest of the testimonies. "Bless those who persecute you; bless, and do not curse." Lest we should think that both can be done, not only must we not curse in return, but we must even bless, as the apostle Peter says: "Not rendering evil for evil, or curse for curse, but on the contrary blessing." "Rejoice with those who rejoice." But now this is done perversely by those who weep when others rejoice: if anyone is praised, we envy him; if anyone falls, we rejoice; if a member is cut off from the body, we grieve that one member has been severed from our body. "Weep with those who weep." The Lord is moved to weeping by the tears of Mary, giving us an example—not for Lazarus, nor for the unbelief of the Jews, because it was not then for the first time that they did not believe his signs, as some think. "Weep with those who weep": it is to be understood that we ought to do so.

For if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it. Being of the same mind toward one another. That just as for your own need, so also for your brother's need, you may yield with perfect charity. Not minding high things. He minds high things proudly who does not reserve his own injury. But consenting to the humble. To the humble, that is, to humility. Do not be wise in your own eyes. Do not glory in human wisdom, but be foolish in this world, so that you may be wise, as it is written: Blessed is the man whom you instruct, O Lord, and whom you teach out of your law. Repaying no one evil for evil. It is human wisdom if you seek how to repay someone. For it is foolishness in the world, if someone strikes your cheek, to offer him the other also. But if you are of such great patience and kindness, you will be approved not only before God but also among men. Providing good things not only before God but also before all men. Only take care that you do not do this so as to please not God and man, but only men. If it is possible, as far as it lies in you, having peace with all men. Whether it lies in you that it can be done, what is yours, you are to have peace both with friends and with enemies, and say with the prophet: With those who hated peace I was peaceable. Therefore we ought to do no evil to anyone out of injury, nor harm anyone, but rather, on the contrary, to desire their salvation and their conversion to the Lord.

So that good may be possible, let the reward belong to the will's light; but so that it may not be possible, let the blame belong to another's dissension. But you, with the prophet, declare: With those who hated peace I was peaceable. You fulfill this in this way, when you desire what is useful and salutary for your enemies, because from a vow of this kind the fruit remains with the one who desires it, even if the affection is neglected on the other side. Not defending yourselves, dearly beloved. That is, do not defend your own parties with words, do not prepare contentions and hatreds; but rather overcome the fury of the raging by yielding. For to have fled the onslaught of another's malice is to have overcome it: in this way you either soften importunate animosity by reason, or turn it aside by humility. But give place to wrath. Either flee, or allow yourselves to be harmed. For it is written: Vengeance is mine. I will avenge your injury as if it were my own, since whoever touches you touches the apple of my eye; and whoever causes one of these little ones to stumble, and the rest. I will repay, says the Lord. According to the historical sense, he promises them the hope of vengeance, so that even in this way he may provoke them to patience and mercy: they would not deny that which God denies to no one. But if your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him drink. That is, so that you may confound evil by kindness, and chastise the ungrateful by grace. For in doing this, you will heap coals of fire upon his head.

So that, when he has understood that coals are being heaped up for him through your mercy, which is not owed to him, he may afterward be converted and love whom he formerly hated. For it is not mercy if you do it for this reason, that something worse may befall him—you who have been commanded to pray for an enemy. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. In offenses or movements of minds, that one is said to have conquered who has drawn another over to his own side, as a heretic or a pagan. If therefore he has received from you a return of evil, he has conquered you, and by his own vice he has subjected you to a likeness of his passion. But if through your patience you have made him cease from anger or injury, you have conquered, and you have triumphed from sin to salvation by gaining your neighbor.

CHAPTER XIII. Let every soul be subject to the higher powers. This is a case against those who thought that Christian liberty ought to be used in such a way that they paid honor to no one or rendered tribute to no one; to whom he speaks thus, in order to humble them. But it can also be understood of ecclesiastical powers, that we be humble toward priests. Let it be subject to the higher powers—ecclesiastical, or of the world. For there is no power except from God. But the powers that exist have been ordained by God. Therefore whoever resists the power resists the ordinance of God.

He does not want a Christian to be proud, lest he suffer not for Christ but for pride, as it says elsewhere: "See how carefully you walk, redeeming the time, because the days are evil"; as that man also redeemed the time when he said, "Optime Felix: you are not just for this reason, for it is given to him according to his desire"; because Solomon says, "For power has been given to you by God: but when you were ministers of his kingdom, you did not judge rightly." For he will be appointed to judge you justly, and so that you may fear, and even thus not sin. How then did the prophet say, "Because they have reigned, and not through me"? Through money, and more, through ambitions, they reigned. But those who resist acquire condemnation for themselves. Because they are condemned through their own pride. For rulers are not a terror to good work, as he says of the heretic, since he is condemned by his own judgment. But to evil. The evil man fears; the good man, however, does not fear to die for justice. Do you want not to fear the power? Do good, and you will have praise from it. The condemnation of the evil is the praise of the good; for by nature all know both that innocence is worthy of reward and that malice is worthy of punishment. Do good, and you will have praise from it. And if not from it, nevertheless from it. For either you act justly, and a just power will praise you; or, even if an unjust power condemns you as one acting justly, the just God will crown you. And therefore you, hold to justice, you, live well. And whether it condemns or absolves, you will have praise from it.

For he is God's minister to you for good. But if you do evil, fear. For he is anxious for you. For he does not bear the sword without cause. The sword of the spirit, which Peter bore, and Paul himself, and it has an office against you if you have sinned. This is spiritually. For he is God's minister, an avenger in wrath on him who does evil. Therefore you must be subject of necessity. As in the case of Ananias and Sapphira, and Simon Magus: because God wishes to correct sinners. Not only because of wrath, but also because of conscience. Not only lest he be angry, but also because he knows that honor is owed even by the righteous to the rulers of your people, who can even rise up without cause, but also lest you be condemned for the conscience of sin. For this reason you also pay tribute. Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's: for whoever has the means to pay tribute, how can he not be subject in those things which have been established for him by God? This also concerns priests. For they are God's ministers, serving for this very purpose. The worker is worthy of his wage: so that even thus they might believe, lest Christ seem to have taught pride more; while in punishing sinners they are proved to minister to God. Render to all their dues: to whom tribute, tribute. Incline your ear to the poor man, and render your debt: even almsgiving is called a debt. To whom toll, toll. Our toll is that we give to those who pass by, or that we bestow on those who sit by the road and are in need. But toll is so called from carrying.

To whom fear, fear; to whom honor, honor. How then, before God, should you not fear another? But thus, he says, conduct yourself, that you fear no one: for the fear of God expels human fear. Owe no one anything, except to love one another. This alone ought to remain: the debt of love, which is always necessary. For he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. A neighbor, according to the Lord's saying, is every man who needs mercy. For you shall not commit adultery; you shall not kill; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness; you shall not covet; and if there is any other commandment, it is summed up in this word. You shall love the Lord your God perfectly, on account of idolatry, and your neighbor as yourself, on account of injustice. For injustice is born from this, that we love ourselves more than others. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Love does no evil to a neighbor. All the law and the prophets are contained in this word: for as you do not wish evil to be done to you, so you wish good to be done to you. The fullness of the law, therefore, is love. The completion of the law: because even not to do good is evil. And knowing this, that the time is at hand. Therefore you ought not always to be little ones and infants, as he says to the Hebrews. He enumerates, or recapitulates. He has put "hour" for "time." Now it is time for us to rise from sleep. Let us rise from the sleep of sloth and ignorance. For now the knowledge of God shines forth. For now our salvation is nearer.

While the knowledge of God draws near, nourishment draws near, and perfect understanding draws near to salvation, and one becomes stronger by believing. Which, when we have believed. When we first believed. The night has passed, and the day has drawn near. He compares ignorance to the night, but knowledge to the day. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Since we cast off ignorance, let us at the same time cast off the works of ignorance, and let us put on the armor of knowledge, that is, good works. He who does evil hates the light; but he who does the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be made manifest, because they have been done in God. Let us walk honestly, as in the day. Knowing that we are always seen by the eyes of God. Every sin is committed more freely at night; but in the day one cannot sin freely, because of fear and shame. Not in reveling. Reveling is the gathering of a banquet. We therefore do not have such revelings from the Apostle, but spiritual ones. When you come together, he says, each of you has a psalm, and the rest. And in drunkenness, not in beds and impurities, not in strife and jealousy. Take heed to yourselves, lest perhaps your hearts be weighed down with drunkenness, and the other testimonies concerning drunkenness. Impurity follows drunkenness: for drunkenness is the material of luxury. But even if these things have not been, and there has been zeal and envy, James proves that you ought not to glory in this, saying: Do not glory and be liars against the truth, and the rest.

But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh. Whoever says he abides in Christ ought to walk just as he walked: let Christ alone be seen in us, not the old man. In desires. Solomon says: Do not go after your own lusts, and again: If you give your soul its desire, it will make you a joy to your enemies. By no means is what the flesh desires to be done.

CHAPTER XIV. But him that is weak in the faith. From here he begins to discuss among those who had believed in Christ, because some of them were perfect in faith, others still less firm. And those who were perfect even ate meats offered to idols, if someone set them before them, equally with the rest of the food without distinction. But others hesitated and avoided them as unclean, and to these it is said that they should eat vegetables. Yet some think this chapter was spoken concerning those who had believed from among the Jews and the Gentiles, because those who had believed from among the Jews still thought, as it were, according to the law, that certain meats were unclean and certain days holier, such as the sabbath or the new moons: to them, as to the weak, it is commanded to eat vegetables, which are eaten indifferently by all. Those who were stronger in faith, that is, those who had believed from the Gentiles, believed that all meats and all days were equal: to them it is said that they should esteem nothing common through him, except to him who has believed it common, as he adds below: I know and am confident in the Lord, that nothing is common through him, and the rest.

Take up. Receive, or endure. He rebukes obliquely those who thought themselves strong, so that they would eat meat. Not in disputings of thoughts. Do not judge according to your own thoughts, whom the law does not judge. For another believes he may devour all things. He, of course, is older, or has already subdued the flesh, or has such faith that he cannot be moved to lust or sin. But he who is weak, let him eat vegetables. Weak, according to God, either in youth, or in bodily heat, or in faith. Let not him who eats despise him who does not eat. And let not him who does not eat judge him who eats. Those who did not eat had rivalry among themselves; they judged those who ate as though carnal, and those others mocked them as though willing to die quickly, and as weak, who would eat of things sacrificed to idols. For God has taken him up. In like manner also you. Who are you who judge another's servant? As holy James says: He who judges his brother judges the law, of course, and shows himself wiser than the law. He stands or falls to his own lord. Whether he lives or dies, because both that one abstains for God's sake, and this one eats for the Lord's sake. But he shall stand: for God is able to make him stand. Concerning those whom the king's vegetables made to appear better than those who ate from the king's table, he can also do these things: to stand longer in the body, or to fast, or to abstain from meats. For one judges day between day: another judges every day.

The Jews could not judge one day against another, because no law was laid down concerning fasting, but each one does as he can or wishes; yet he who fasts more has a greater reward. Let each one abound in his own understanding. In such a matter, at any rate, let each one do as he thinks best, or as he is able, or as the body's health permits. He who regards the day, regards it to the Lord. And he who eats, eats to the Lord. He regards the day to the Lord who fasts for God's sake, or who abstains in pursuit of wisdom. For he gives thanks to God. And he who does not eat, does not eat to the Lord, and gives thanks to God. He preaches the Gospel, through which thanks may be given to the Lord; because he eats for God's sake, so that he may have the strength to build up the body of Christ: not for gluttony, nor for luxury. For none of us lives to himself, and none dies to himself. Through his example many are saved and give thanks to God. For he who gives thanks with his voice does so alone, but he who gives thanks by his deed makes many do so. For whether we live, we live to the Lord; or whether we die, we die to the Lord. The one who does all things for God's sake is called [so]; but we, on the contrary, either live to ourselves or die to men. Whether therefore we live or die, we are the Lord's. For to this end Christ died and rose again, that he might be Lord both of the living and of the dead. The coming of God will both find the living and raise the dead. Nothing, therefore, stands in the way, whether he finds you living or raises you up, so long as you are righteous. But you, why do you judge your brother?

By what authority? As if he does not eat for God's sake, but for his belly's. Or do you despise your brother? As if he abstains for the sake of men. For we shall all stand. Then the Lord will judge concerning these things—what, and how, we have done. At the tribunal of God. Do not doubt that Christ is God, who is to judge. For it is written: As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. The Scripture proves that all will render account to God alone. Therefore each one of us shall render account for himself to God. Not for another, nor will a man render account to men for himself concerning those things about which the law is silent. For if one who sees another sinning keeps silent, he shall render account for him. I have set you as a watchman to the house of Israel, it is said to the prophet. Therefore let us no longer judge one another. It is enough that up to now you have done this in ignorance. But rather judge this, that you do not place a stumbling block or scandal before your brother. From here he enters subtly into the matter of abstinence, and says that they should not eat such things, although they are strong, lest the younger by their example, or the weaker, eat and be offended or scandalized. I know and am confident in the Lord Jesus that nothing is common. Lest they should say, "The things God created you call common": I do not say this in order that I might think anything to be common. Through him. Through Christ all things have been made clean; for whatever is not excepted from the foods of the Jews was common. Except to him who thinks something to be common, to him it is common. In his own conscience.

For if your brother is grieved because of food. He did not say "because of fasting," whether you compel him to eat or provoke him by your example, so that he eats unwillingly what he cannot bear. You are no longer walking according to love. You no longer love your neighbor as yourself, if you do not regard his ruin as your own. Do not destroy with your food the one for whom Christ died. He did not say "with your abstinence." Therefore let our name not be blasphemed. But it is blasphemed if contentions arise over foods. For the kingdom of God is not food and drink. We are not justified by food; and he did not say "fasting and sobriety," but "food and drink." But righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. But through fasting it is more easily acquired. Where righteousness is, as if one ought to love one's neighbor, there also is peace; and where peace is, there also is joy, because where there is dissension, there is sadness. For he who serves Christ in this pleases God and is approved by men. No one can doubt that he is holy. Therefore let us pursue the things that are of peace. That we not judge one another. And let us mutually guard the things that are of edification. Edification is abstinence; for food, even if it does not destroy a brother, does not edify. Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. A man whom God made. All things indeed are clean. He repeats this, lest he seem to condemn a creature. But it is evil for the man. That which is itself clean becomes evil for him who eats through stumbling. Another's, not his own. It is good not to eat meat, and not to drink wine.

He explains what it is by which the weak person is offended. Neither in that in which your brother is offended, or is caused to stumble. In whatever food or drink another is caused to stumble, it is not to be received. Or is weak. In faith. Wine and women make wise men apostatize. You have faith, keep it to yourself; have it before God. If in this you think yourself faithful, so eat that no weak person sees you—which cannot be done, nor ought it to be, that one who is shut in should eat. Blessed is he who does not judge himself in what he approves. He who does not consider in what he approves himself to be weak, but fears that another may perish. But he who discerns, if he has made it clear, is condemned. If he considers what he has said, he judges; this he calls "discerns," for judgment comes from discernment, and discernment from judgment—indeed, it is the very same thing. Because not from faith. Not from the faith which works through love. But everything that is not from faith is sin. Whatever does not build up is not from faith, and therefore it is sin.

CHAPTER XV. But we who are stronger ought to bear the weaknesses of the weak. If you are truly strong, then act as I became weak to the weak, so that I might gain the weak. And let us not please ourselves. Let not ourselves, but our neighbors, be praised, because the Lord scatters the bones of those who please themselves; just as I please all people in all things, not seeking what is useful for me, but what is useful for many, so that they may be saved. Let each of you please his neighbor. For he cannot build up the one whom he has not pleased by his example, because those who are destroyed by examples cannot be built up by words. For good, for edification. For even Christ did not please himself. He shows the manner of pleasing, lest we please for empty glory; and at the same time, when he says, for good edification, he shows that the other kind is evil. Whoever will be a disciple of Christ does not seek his own interest, just as he himself even died for the salvation of others and endured the most bitter reproaches of those saying: Ah, you who destroy the temple; and: If he is the Son of God, let him come down from the cross and free himself, and the rest. But as it is written: The reproaches of those who reproached you have fallen upon me. Whatever reproaches are cast upon the saints for God's sake are cast upon God, as it says: While it is said to me daily, Where is your God? Or, whoever despises you despises me. For whatever things were written, were written for our instruction.

Nothing, therefore, has been written without cause—whether the punishments of sinners, or the merits of the righteous, or the trials of the righteous. For they were known both to God and to themselves, but it is so that we may imitate them in all things that their deeds are recorded. That through patience. That we too, for the edification of the brethren, if it be necessary, should likewise endure these things. And through consolation. Consolation is for our patience, if we know that the Lord and the saints have suffered those whom we suffer, as it says: Do not marvel if the world hates you. Let us have hope from the Scriptures. Through the consolation of the Scriptures we await the hope to come with patience, as it is written: Great peace have they who love your law, and there is no stumbling block for them. They therefore cannot despair, or be moved from the faith, who make use of consolation. But may the God of patience and consolation grant you. Not of impatience, nor of dissension, but of patience and consolation, even to the consummation, because without him we are nothing; for from him is my patience. To be of the same mind one toward another according to Jesus Christ. That each one should so seek the salvation of the other as his own, that he may persevere unanimously in the faith. That with one mind and one mouth you may glorify God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Then is God truly honored, if he is praised with one mind and a concordant voice. If two or three shall be gathered together in my name, and the rest. Therefore receive one another, as Christ also received you, to the honor of God.

Bear one another's burdens, and so you will fulfill the law of Christ. If he bore our infirmities and took up us who were impious, because he was God, how much more ought we to bear with one another, who are alike! For I say Christ Jesus. Again he brings Jews and Gentiles to unity. I agree with you that Christ came to you, first promised to you through the prophets, and that the Gentiles were called because of God's mercy; now, however, you have been made one body through the death of Christ. That he was a minister of circumcision, for the truth of God. For he had not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his soul as a redemption for many. To confirm the promises of the fathers. Because Christ had been promised to them, as he himself says: I have not come except to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. But the Gentiles, on account of mercy, to honor God. Because the Gentiles are not equal to grace; to be rendered, according as God granted them free mercy; or on account of Israel the Gentiles were called by mercy, so that they might emulate them. As it is written, therefore I will confess to you among the Gentiles, O Lord, and I will sing to your name. He shows that greater thanks are to be given to God by the Gentiles: for to whom more is forgiven, he loves more: and he takes away the arrogance of the Jews, while he likewise teaches that the salvation of the Gentiles was foretold, although they themselves never heard it. In them Christ confesses that they obtained mercy, because they too are in his body. And again he says.

Rejoice, you nations, with his people. And likewise: Praise the Lord, all you nations, and magnify him, all you peoples. Because you have been called to salvation together with them. And again Isaiah says: The root of Jesse will be. Whose son is David, from whose seed is Mary, from whom Christ was born; and that which is fitting for this place is also: The leader will not fail from the thighs of Judah: against the Jews, because Christ truly came, in whom all the nations have believed. And he who will rise to rule the nations; in him the nations will hope. Lest they should say, it was said of the proselytes. But may the God of hope fill you with all joy. In whom we all hope. Every spiritual joy ought to be for the faithful in the hope of what is to come. And peace in believing, so that you may abound. The joy of all, where there is peace: but there is no joy where there is dissension, but rather sadness. In hope, in the power of the Holy Spirit. The consolation of the hope of the saints are the powers of the Holy Spirit. But I am certain, my brothers, even I myself concerning you. A good teacher provokes to progress by praising, so that those who are not such as they are thought to be may blush. Just as you yourselves also are full of love. Lest he should seem to have reproved them as contentious, and dissenting, and foolish, he at the same time shows that Christians ought always to admonish one another. Filled with all knowledge, so that you are able to admonish one another. Both of the Old and of the New Testament. But I have written to you more boldly, brothers, in part. Nay rather, for that reason I had more confidence in writing, because I know that you, as prudent people, quickly accept the reason.

Show the wise man, and he will love you, as it were bringing these things back to your memory, knowing how wise you are. Wise even in nods. On account of the grace that was given to me by God—not on account of human gifts, nor so that I might be praised by you, but so that I might fulfill my office, that I may be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles. Recall to him those servants who once were fugitives—you. Sanctifying the Gospel of God, soon showing by example what is holy, since I minister with such great fear; who, although they despise human things, preach it as divine; and so it comes about that a holy thing seems not to be holy, if it is not made holy. Whence it is said: Sanctify the fast, that is, make it holy or show it holy. That the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable and sanctified in the Holy Spirit—that by my example the Gentiles may be made a sacrifice acceptable to God, not sanctified or received by fire, but by the Holy Spirit, as it is written: For he sat upon the apostles as fire. I have therefore glory in Christ Jesus. Whoever glories, let him glory in the Lord. To God. Although there is infamy among men. For I do not dare to speak of any of those things which Christ has not accomplished through me for the obedience of the Gentiles. I do not dare to say that I have done these things by my own power, and that Christ has not worked all things through me, so as to take away from us the reproach. In word and deed, in the power of signs and wonders. He himself was speaking through me, and he himself was performing signs, working mighty deeds. In the power of the Holy Spirit—this he was saying not of works, but of the mighty deeds and signs that were being done.

So that from Jerusalem and in a circuit as far as Illyricum I have fully preached the Gospel of Christ. He “fully preaches” the Gospel when even the Gentiles believe; thus the sufferings of Christ are fulfilled in Paul, when he suffers at the hands of the Gentiles, and in every place the Gospel of Christ is spread abroad. But if I preached this Gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build upon another man’s foundation. Not everyone who builds upon another man’s foundation builds badly, for he can build gold. Here he censures the false apostles, who always went to those who already believed, and never to the Gentiles, because they could not [supply: perform miracles or anything of the kind]; and he shows that he himself labored perfectly, since he both laid the foundation and built upon it. But as it is written, To whom it was not announced concerning him. He shows his own labor foretold beforehand. They shall see, and those who have not heard of him shall understand. Christ is seen in the apostles through miracles, as the Father in Christ, who says: Or believe for the works’ sake, that the Father is in me, and I in the Father. For which cause I was also hindered very much from coming to you. But now having no more place in these regions. He explains that which he had said at the beginning of the epistle: But I was hindered. Having a desire, however, to come to you. It must be noted that even a good desire. For many years already past. What necessity was there that he should be detained for many years? When I shall begin to set out for Spain. He had indeed promised, but by God’s dispensation he did not go.