A Treatise Concerning Man’s Perfection in Righteousness 4
4 The Fourth Breviate PL 44, 295
IV. “We must ask, again,” he says, “What is sin,—an act, or a thing? If it is a thing, it must have an author; and if it be said to have an author, then another besides God will seem to be introduced as the author of a thing. But if it is impious to say this, we are driven to confess that every sin is an act, not a thing. If therefore it is an act, for this very reason, because it is an act, it can be avoided.” Our reply is, that sin no doubt is called an act, and is such, not a thing. But likewise in the body, lameness for the same reason is an act, not a thing, since it is the foot itself, or the body, or the man who walks lame because of an injured foot, that is the thing; but still the man cannot avoid the lameness, unless his foot be cured. The same change may take place in the inward man, but it is by God’s grace, through our Lord Jesus Christ. The defect itself which causes the lameness of the man is neither the foot, nor the body, nor the man, nor indeed the lameness itself; for there is of course no lameness when there is no walking, although there is nevertheless the defect which causes the lameness whenever there is an attempt to walk. Let him therefore ask, what name must be given to this defect,—would he have it called a thing, or an act, or rather a bad property in the thing, by which the deformed act comes into existence? So in the inward man the soul is the thing, theft is an act, and avarice is the defect, that is, the property by which the soul is evil, even when it does nothing in gratification of its avarice, even when it hears the prohibition, “Thou shalt not covet,” and censures itself, and yet remains avaricious. By faith, however, it receives renovation; in other words, it is healed day by day,—yet only by God’s grace through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Ratiocinatio 9. Iterum quaerendum est, inquit, per quid efficitur homo cum peccato, per naturae necessitatem, an ver arbitrii libertatem. Si per naturae necessitatem, culpa caret: si per arbitrii libertatem, quaerendum est a quo ipsam arbitrii libertatem acceperit; procul dubio a Deo. Deus autem quod dedit, certe bonum est, negari enim non potest. Qua igitur ratione bonum probatur, si magis ad malum quam ad bonum pronum est? Magis enim ad malum quam ad bonum pronum est, si homo per illud potest esse cum peccato, et non potest esse sine peccato. Respondetur, per arbitrii libertatem factum ut esset homo cum peccato; sed jam poenalis vitiositas subsecuta, ex libertate fecit necessitatem. Unde ad Deum fides clamat, De necessitatibus meis educ me . Sub quibus positi, vel non possumus quod volumus intelligere, vel quod intellexerimus, volumus, nec valemus implere. Nam et ipsa libertas credentibus a liberatore promittitur. Si vos, inquit, Filius liberaverit, tunc vere liberi eritis . Victa enim vitio in quod cecidit voluntate, caruit libertate natura. Hinc alia Scriptura dicit, A quo enim quis devictus est, huic et servus addictus est . Sicut ergo non est opus sanis medicus, sed male habentibus : ita non est opus liberis liberator, sed servis; ut ei dicat gratulatio libertatis, Salvam fecisti de necessitatibus animam meam . Ipsa enim sanitas est vera libertas, quae non perisset, si bona permansisset voluntas. Quia vero peccavit voluntas, secuta est peccantem peccatum habendi dura necessitas, donec tota sanetur infirmitas, et accipiatur tanta libertas, in qua sicut necesse est permaneat beate vivendi voluntas, ita ut sit etiam bene vivendi et nunquam peccandi voluntaria felixque necessitas.
Ratiocinatio. 10. « Proinde, » inquit, « Deus bonum hominem fecit, et praeterquam illum bonum fecit, bonum ei insuper ut faceret imperavit. Quam impium, ut confiteamur hominem malum esse, quod nec factus est, nec ei praeceptum est; et negemus eum bonum posse esse, quod factus est, et quod ei ut faceret imperatum est! » Respondemus: Quia ergo non se ipse homo, sed Deus bonum hominem fecit; Deus eum, non se ipse, ut sit bonus reficit, dum volentem, credentem, invocantem liberat a malo, quod sibi ipse fecit. Hoc autem fit, dum gratia Dei per Jesum Christum Dominum nostrum renovatur homo interior de die in diem, ut ad sempiternam, non poenam, sed vitam resurgat homo exterior in novissimo die.