A Treatise on Nature and Grace 50
50 God Commands No Impossibilities PL 44, 271
What he says, however, is true enough, “that God is as good as just, and made man such that he was quite able to live without the evil of sin, if only he had been willing.” For who does not know that man was made whole and faultless, and endowed with a free will and a free ability to lead a holy life? Our present inquiry, however, is about the man whom “the thieves” left half dead on the road, and who, being disabled and pierced through with heavy wounds, is not so able to mount up to the heights of righteousness as he was able to descend therefrom; who, moreover, if he is now in “the inn,” is in process of cure. God therefore does not command impossibilities; but in His command He counsels you both to do what you can for yourself, and to ask His aid in what you cannot do. Now, we should see whence comes the possibility, and whence the impossibility. This man says: “That proceeds not from a man’s will which he can do by nature.” I say: A man is not righteous by his will if he can be by nature. He will, however, be able to accomplish by remedial aid what he is rendered incapable of doing by his flaw.
Deus non jubet impossibilia. Verum est autem quod ait, Quod Deus tam bonus quam justus talem hominem fecerit, qui peccati malo carere sufficeret, sed si voluisset. Quis enim eum nescit sanum et inculpabilem factum, et libero arbitrio atque ad juste vivendum potestate libera constitutum? Sed nunc de illo agitur, quem semivivum latrones in via reliquerunt, qui gravibus saucius confossusque vulneribus non ita potest ad justitiae culmen ascendere, sicut potuit inde descendere: qui etiam si jam in stabulo est, adhuc curatur . Non igitur Deus impossibilia jubet: sed jubendo admonet, et facere quod possis, et petere quod non possis. Jam nunc videamus unde possit, unde non possit. Iste dicit: Voluntate non est, quod natura potest. Ego dico: Voluntate quidem non est homo justus, si natura potest: sed medicina poterit, quod vitio non potest.