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[2]Wis. 6:26 (Vulgate).
[3]Rom. 16:19.
[4]A later interpolation, not found in the best MSS., adds, "As no one can exist from himself, so also no one can be wise in himself save only as he is enlightened by Him of whom it is written, 'All wisdom is from God' [Ecclus. 1:1]."
[5]Job 28:28.
6A transliteration of the Greek [[epsilon]][[gamma]][[chi]][[epsilon]][[iota]][[rho]][[iota]]d[[iota]][[omicron][[nu]], literally, a handbook or manual.
[7]Cf. Gal. 5:6.
[8]Cf. I Cor. 13:10, 11.
[9]I Cor. 3:11.
[10]Already, very early in his ministry (397), Augustine had written De agone Christiano, in which he had reviewed and refuted a full score of heresies threatening the orthodox faith.
[11]The Apostles' Creed. Cf. Augustine's early essay On Faith and the Creed.
[12]Joel 2:32.
[13]Rom. 10:14.
[14]Lucan, Pharsalia, II, 15.
[15]Virgil, Aeneid, IV, 419. The context of this quotation is Dido's lament over Aeneas' prospective abandonment of her. She is saying that if she could have foreseen such a disaster, she would have been able to bear it. Augustine's criticism here is a literalistic quibble.
[16]Heb. 11:1.
[17]Sacra eloquia--a favorite phrase of Augustine's for the Bible.
[18]Rom. 8:24, 25 (Old Latin).
[19]James 2:19.
[20]One of the standard titles of early Greek philosophical treatises was [[pi]][[epsilon]][[rho]][[iota]] [[phi]][[nu]][[sigma]][[epsilon]][[omega]][[zeta]], which would translate into Latin as De rerum natura. This is, in fact, the title of Lucretius' famous poem, the greatest philosophical work written in classical Latin.
[21]This basic motif appears everywhere in Augustine's thought as the very foundation of his whole system.
[22]This section (Chs. III and IV) is the most explicit statement of a major motif which pervades the whole of Augustinian metaphysics. We see it in his earliest writings, Soliloquies, 1, 2, and De ordine, II, 7. It is obviously a part of the Neoplatonic heritage which Augustine appropriated for his Christian philosophy. The good is positive, constructive, essential; evil is privative, destructive, parasitic on the good. It has its origin, not in nature, but in the will. Cf. Confessions, Bk. VII, Chs. III, V, XII-XVI; On Continence, 14-16; On the Gospel of John, Tractate XCVIII, 7; City of God, XI, 17; XII, 7-9.
[23] Isa. 5:20.
[24]Matt. 12:35.
[25]This refers to Aristotle's well-known principle of "the excluded middle."
[26]Matt. 7:18.
[27]Cf. Matt. 12:33.
[28]Virgil, Georgios, II, 490.
[29]Ibid., 479.
[30]Sed in via pedum, non in via morum.
[31]Virgil, Eclogue, VIII, 42. The context of the passage is Damon's complaint over his faithless Nyssa; he is here remembering the first time he ever saw her--when he was twelve! Cf. Theocritus, II, 82.
[32]Cf. Matt. 5:37.
[33]Cf. Confessions, Bk. X, Ch. XXIII.
[34]Ad consentium contra mendacium, CSEL (J. Zycha, ed.), Vol. 41, pp. 469- 528; also Migne, PL, 40, c. 517-548; English translation by H.B. Jaffee in Deferrari, St. Augustine: Treatises on Various Subjects (The Fathers of the Church, New York, 1952), pp. 113-179. This had been written about a year earlier than the Enchiridion. Augustine had also written another treatise On Lying much earlier, c. 395; see De mendacio in CSEL (J. Zycha, ed.), Vol. 41, pp. 413-466; Migne, PL, 40, c. 487-518; English translation by M.S. Muldowney in Deferrari, op. cit., pp. 47-109. This summary of his position here represents no change of view whatever on this question.
[35]Sallust, The War with Catiline, X, 6-7.
[36]Cf. Acts 12:9.
[37]Virgil, Aeneid, X, 392.
[38]This refers to one of the first of the Cassiciacum dialogues, Contra Academicos. The gist of Augustine's refutation of skepticism is in III, 23ff. Throughout his whole career he continued to maintain this position: that certain knowledge begins with self-knowledge. Cf. Confessions, Bk. V, Ch. X, 19; see also City of God, XI, xxvii.
[39]Hab. 2:4; Rom. 1:17.
[40]A direct contrast between suspensus assenso--the watchword of the Academics--and assensio, the badge of Christian certitude.
[41]See above, VII, 90.
[42]Matt. 5:37.
[43]Matt. 6:12.
[44]Rom. 5:12.
[45]Cf. Luke 20:36.
[46]Rom. 4:17.
[47]Wis. 11:20.
[48]II Peter 2:19.
[49]John 8:36.
[50]Eph. 2:8.
[51]I Cor. 7:25.
[52]Eph. 2:8, 9.
[53]Eph. 2:10.
[54]Cf. Gal. 6:15; II Cor. 5:17.
[55]Ps. 51:10.
[56]Phil. 2:13.
[57]Rom. 9:16.
[58]Prov. 8:35 (LXX).
[59]From the days at Cassiciacum till the very end, Augustine toiled with the mystery of the primacy of God's grace and the reality of human freedom. Of two things he was unwaveringly sure, even though they involved him in a paradox and the appearance of confusion. The first is that God's grace is not only primary but also sufficient as the ground and source of human willing. And against the Pelagians and other detractors from grace, he did not hesitate to insist that grace is irresistible and inviolable. Cf. On Grace and Free Will, 99, 41-43; On the Predestination of the Saints, 19:10; On the Gift of Perseverance, 41; On the Soul and Its Origin, 16; and even the Enchiridion, XXIV, 97.
But he never drew from this deterministic emphasis the conclusion that man is unfree and everywhere roundly rejects the not illogical corollary of his theonomism, that man's will counts for little or nothing except as passive agent of God's will. He insists on responsibility on man's part in responding to the initiatives of grace. For this emphasis, which is characteristically directed to the faithful themselves, see On the Psalms, LXVIII, 7-8; On the Gospel of John, Tractate, 53:6-8; and even his severest anti-Pelagian tracts: On Grace and Free Will, 6-8, 10, 31 and On Admonition and Grace, 2-8.
[60]Ps. 58:11 (Vulgate).
[61]Ps. 23:6.
[62]Cf. Matt. 5:44.
[63]The theme that he had explored in Confessions, Bks. I-IX. See especially Bk. V, Chs. X, XIII; Bk. VII, Ch. VIII; Bk. IX, Ch. I.
[64]Cf. Ps. 90:9.
[65]Job 14:1.
[66]John 3:36.
[67]Eph. 2:3.
[68]Rom. 5:9, 10.
[69]Rom. 8:14.
[70]John 1:14.
[71]Rom. 3:20.
[72]Epistle CXXXVII, written in 412 in reply to a list of queries sent to Augustine by the proconsul of Africa.
[73]John 1:1.
[74]Phil. 2:6, 7.
[75]These metaphors for contrasting the "two natures" of Jesus Christ were favorite figures of speech in Augustine's Christological thought. Cf. On the Gospel of John, Tractate 78; On the Trinity, I, 7; II, 2; IV, 19-20; VII, 3; New Testament Sermons, 76, 14.
[76]Luke 1:28-30.
[77]John 1:14.
[78]Luke 1:35.
[79]Matt. 1:20.
[80]Rom. 1:3.
[81]Rom. 8:3.
[82]Cf. Hos. 4:8.
[83]II Cor. 5:20, 21.
[84]Virgil, Aeneid, II, 1, 20.
[85]Num. 21:7 (LXX).
[86]Matt. 2:20.
[87]Ex. 32:4.
[88]Rom. 5:12.
[89]Deut. 5:9.
[90]Ezek. 18:2.
[91]Ps. 51:5.
[92]I Tim. 2:5.
[93]Matt. 3:13.
[94]Luke 3:4; Isa. 40:3.
[95]Ps. 2:7; Heb. 5:5; cf. Mark 1:9-11.
[96]Rom. 5:16.
[97]Rom. 5:18.
[98]Rom. 6:1.
[99]Rom. 5:20.
[100]Rom. 6:2.
[101]Rom. 6:3.
[102]Rom. 6:4-11.
[103]Gal. 5:24.
[104]Col. 3:1-3.
[105]Col. 3:4.
[106]John 5:29.
[107]Ps. 54:1.
[108]Cf. Matt. 25:32, 33.
[109]Ps. 43:1.
[110]Reading the classical Latin form poscebat (as in Scheel and PL) for the late form poxebat (as in Riviere and many old MSS.).
[111]Cf. Ps. 113:3.
[112]Here reading unum deum (with Rivière and PL) against deum (in Scheel).
[113]A hyperbolic expression referring to "the saints." Augustine's Scriptural backing for such an unusual phrase is Ps. 82:6 and John 10:34f. But note the firm distinction between ex diis quos facit and non factus Deus.
[114]I Cor. 6:19.
[115]I Cor. 6:15.
[116]Col. 1:18.
[117]John 2:19.
[118]II Peter 2:4 (Old Latin).
[119]Heb. 1:13.
[120]Ps. 148:2 (LXX).
[121]Co1. 1:16.
[122]Zech. 1:9.
[123]Matt. 1:20.
[124]Gen. 18:4; 19:2.
[125]Gen. 32:24.
[126]Rom. 8:31, 32.
[127]Cf. Eph. 1:10.
[128]Col. 1:19, 20.
[129]Cf. I Cor. 13:9, 12
[130]Cf. Luke 20:36.
[131]I Cor. 13:12.
[132]Cf. Luke 15:24.
[133]Rom. 8:14.
[134]I John 1:8.
[135]In actione poenitentiae; cf. Luther's similar conception of poenitentiam agite in the 95 Theses and in De poenitentia.
[136]Ps. 51:17.
[137]Ps. 38:9.
[138]II Cor. 1:22.
[139]Ecclus. 40:1 (Vulgate).
[140]I Cor. 11:31, 32.
141This chapter supplies an important clue to the date of the Enchiridion and an interesting side light on Augustine's inclination to re-use "good material." In his treatise on The Eight Questions of Dulcitius (De octo Dulcitii quaestionibus), 1: 10-13, Augustine quotes this entire chapter as a part of his answer to the question whether those who sin after baptism are ever delivered from hell. The date of the De octo is 422 or, possibly, 423; thus we have a terminus ad quem for the date of the Enchiridion. Still the best text of De octo is Migne, PL, 40, c. 147-170, and the best English translation is in Deferrari, St. Augustine: Treatises on Various Subjects (The Fathers of the Church, New York, 1952), pp. 427-466.
142A short treatise, written in 413, in which Augustine seeks to combine the Pauline and Jacobite emphases by analyzing what kind of faith and what kind of works are both essential to salvation. The best text is that of Joseph Zycha in CSEL, Vol. 41, pp. 35-97; but see also Migne, PL, 40, c. 197-230. There is an English translation by C.L. Cornish in A Library of Fathers of the Holy Catholic Church; Seventeen Short Treatises, pp. 37-84.
[143]Gal. 5:6.
[144]James 2:17.
[145]James 2:14.
[146]I Cor. 3:15.
[147]I Cor. 6:9, 10.
[148]I Cor. 3:11, 12.
[149]I Cor. 3:11-15.
[150]Ecclus. 27:5.
[151]Cf. I Cor. 7:32, 33
[152]See above, XVIII, 67.
[153]Matt. 25:34, 41.
[154]Ecclus. 15:20.
[155]John 3:5.
[156]Matt. 6:9-12.
[157]Cf. Luke 11 :41.
[158]This is a close approximation of the medieval lists of "The Seven Works of Mercy." Cf. J.T. McNeill, A History of the Cure of Souls, pp. 155, 161. (Harper & Brothers, 1951, New York.)
[159]Matt. 5:44.
[160]John 14:6.
[161]Matt. 6:14, 15.
[162]Luke 11:37-41.
[163]Acts 15:9.
[164]Titus 1:15.
[165]Ecclus. 30:24 (Vulgate).
[166]Rom. 5:16.
[167]Rom. 5:8.
[168]Luke 10:27.
[169]Luke 11:42.
[170]Matt. 23:26.
[171]Ps. 10:6 (Vulgate).
[172]Ps. 58:11 (Vulgate); cf. Ps. 59:10 (R.S.V.).
[173]I Cor. 7:5 (mixed text).
[174]I Cor. 6:1.
[175]I Cor. 6:4-6.
[176]I Cor. 6:7a.
[177]I Cor. 6:7b.
[178]Matt. 5:40.
[179]Luke 6:30.
[180]James 3:2 (Vulgate).
[181]Matt. 5:22, 23.
[182]Gal. 4:11 (Vulgate).
[183]Ps. 10:3 (Vulgate).
[184]Isa. 5:7 (LXX).
[185]Gen. 18:20 (Vulgate with one change).
[186]For example, Contra Faust., XXII, 78; De pecc. meritis et remissione, I, xxxix, 70; ibid., II, xxii, 26; Quaest. in Heptateuch, 4:24; De libero arbitrio, 3:18, 55; De div. quaest., 83:26; De natura et gratia, 67:81; Contra duas ep. Pelag., I:3, 7; I:13:27.
[187]Ps. 27:1.
[188]II Tim. 2:25 (mixed text).
[189]Cf. Luke 22:61.
[190]Cf. John 20:22, 23.
[191]This libellus is included in Augustine's Sermons (LXXI, PL, 38, col. 445-467), to which Possidius gave the title De blasphemia in Spiritum Sanctum. English translation in N-PNF, 1st Series, Vol. VI, Sermon XXI, pp. 318-332.
[192]Sicut semina quae concepta non fuerint.
[193]Jerome, Epistle to Vitalis, Ep. LXXII, 2; PL, 22, 674. Augustine also refers to similar phenomena in The City of God, XVI. viii, 2.
[194]Gal. 5:17.
[195]I Cor. 15:40.
[196]I Cor. 15:50.
[197]I Cor. 15:44.
[198]Rev. 2:11; 20:6, 14.
[199]Ps. 100:1 (Vulgate); cf. Ps. 101:1 (R.S.V.).
[200]Matt. 11:21.
[201]This is one of the rare instances in which a textual variant in Augustine's text affects a basic issue in the interpretation of his doctrine. All but one of the major old editions, up to and including Migne, here read: Nec utique deus injuste noluit salvos fiere eum possent salvi esse SI VELLENT (if they willed it). This would mean the attribution of a decisive role in human salvation to the human will and would thus stand out in bold relief from his general stress in the rest of the Enchiridion and elsewhere on the primacy and even irresistibility of grace. The Jansenist edition of Augustine, by Arnauld in 1648, read SI VELLET (if He willed it) and the reading became the subject of acrimonious controversy between the Jansenists and the Molinists. The Maurist edition reads si vellet, on the strength of much additional MS. evidence that had not been available up to that time. In modern times, the si vellet reading has come to have the overwhelming support of the critical editors, although Rivière still reads si vellent. Cf. Scheel, 76-77 (See Bibl.); Rivière, 402-403; J.=G. Krabinger, S. Aurelii Augustini Enchiridion (Tübingen, 1861 ), p. 116; Faure-Passaglia, S. Aurelii Augustini Enchiridion (Naples, 1847), p. 178; and H. Hurter, Sanctorum Patrum opuscula selecta (Innsbruck, 1895), p. 123.
[202]Cf. Ps. 113:11 (a mixed text; composed inexactly from Ps. 115:3 and Ps. 135:6; an interesting instance of Augustine's sense of liberty with the texts of Scripture. Here he is doubtless quoting from memory).
[203]I Tim. 2:4.
[204]Matt. 23:37.
[205]Rom. 9:18.
[206]Rom. 9:11, 12.
[207]Cf. Mal. 1:2, 3 and Rom. 9:13.
[208]Rom. 9:14.
[209]Rom. 9:15.
[210]Rom. 9:15; see above, IX, 32.
[211]Eph. 2:3.
[212]Rom. 9:16.
[213]I Cor. 1 :31; cf. Jer. 9:24. The religious intention of Augustine's emphasis upon divine sovereignty and predestination is never so much to account for the doom of the wicked as to underscore the sheer and wonderful gratuity of salvation.
[214]Rom. 9:17; cf. Ex. 9:16.
[215]Rom. 9:19.
[216]Rom. 9:20, 21.
[217]I Cor. 1:31.
[218]Ps. 110:2 (Vulgate).
[219]Matt. 16:23.
[220]Acts 21:10-12.
[221]I Tim. 2:4.
[222]John 1:9.
[223]I Tim. 2:1.
[224]I Tim. 2:2.
[225]I Tim. 2:3.
[226]I Tim. 2:4.
[227]Luke 11:42.
[228]Ps. 135:6.
[229]Another example of Augustine's wordplay. Man's original capacities included both the power not to sin and the power to sin (posse non peccare et posse peccare). In Adam's original sin, man lost the posse non peccare (the power not to sin) and retained the posse peccare (the power to sin)--which he continues to exercise. In the fulfillment of grace, man will have the posse peccare taken away and receive the highest of all, the power not to be able to sin, non posse peccare. Cf. On Correction and Grace XXXIII.
[230]Again, a wordplay between posset non mori and non possit mori.
[231]Prov. 8:35 (LXX).
[232]Rom. 6:23.
[233]Cf. John 1:16.
[234]Rom. 9:21.
[235]I Tim. 2:5 (mixed text).
[236]Rom. 14:10; II Cor. 5:10.
[237]Cf. Ps. 77:9.
[238]Rom. 9:23.
[239]Matt. 25:46.
[240]Cf. Ps. 31:19.
241Note the artificial return to the triadic scheme of the treatise: faith, hope, and love.
[242]Jer. 17:5.
[243]Matt. 6:9, 10.
[244]Matt. 6:11-13.
[245]Luke 11:2-4.
[246]Matt. 7:7.
[247]Another wordplay on cupiditas and caritas.
[248]An interesting resemblance here to Freud's description of the Id, the primal core of our unconscious life.
[249]Rom. 3:20.
[250]II Peter 2:19.
[251]Rom. 5:20.
[252]Compare the psychological notion of the effect of external moral pressures and their power to arouse guilt feelings, as in Freud's notion of "superego."
[253]Gal. 5:17.
[254]Wis. 11:21 (Vulgate).
[255]Cf. John 1:17.
[256]John 3:8.
[257]Rom. 14:9.
[258]Cf. Ps. 88:5.
[259]ITim. 1:5.
[260]Matt. 22:40.
[261]1Tim. 1:5.
[262]I John 4:16.
[263]Ex. 20:14; Matt. 5:27; etc.
[264]I Cor. 7:1.
[265]I Cor. 4:5.
[266]Minuitur autem cupiditas caritate crescente.
[267]John 15:23.