A Treatise Concerning Man’s Perfection in Righteousness 5
5 The Fifth Breviate PL 44, 296
V. “We must again,” he says, “inquire whether a man ought to be without sin. Beyond doubt he ought. If he ought, he is able; if he is not able, then he ought not. Now if a man ought not to be without sin, it follows that he ought to be with sin,—and then it ceases to be sin at all, if it is determined that it is owed. Or if it is absurd to say this, we are obliged to confess that man ought to be without sin; and it is clear that his obligation is not more than his ability.” We frame our answer with the same illustration that we employed in our previous reply. When we see a lame man who has the opportunity of being cured of his lameness, we of course have a right to say: “That man ought not to be lame; and if he ought, he is able.” And yet whenever he wishes he is not immediately able; but only after he has been cured by the application of the remedy, and the medicine has assisted his will. The same thing takes place in the inward man in relation to sin which is its lameness, by the grace of Him who “came not to call the righteous, but sinners;” since “the whole need not the physician, but only they that be sick.”
Ratiocinatio 11. « Iterum, » ait, « quaerendum est, quot modis constet omne peccatum: duobus, ni fallor; si aut illa fiant quae prohibentur, aut illa non fiant quae jubentur. Tam certe omnia illa quae prohibita sunt, vitari possunt quam quae praecepta sunt perfici. Nam frustra aut prohiberetur aut juberetur, quod vel caveri vel impleri non posset. Et quomodo negabimus posse esse hominem sine peccato, cum confiteri necesse sit, eum tam omnia illa quae vetantur posse cavere, quam quae imperatur efficere? » Respondetur multa esse in Scripturis sanctis divina praecepta, quae omnia commemorare nimis operosum est: sed Dominus qui verbum consummans et brevians fecit super terram , in duobus praeceptis dixit Legem Prophetasque pendere; ut intelligeremus, quidquid aliud divinitus praeceptum est in his duobus habere finem, et ad haec duo esse referendum Diliges Dominum Deum tuum ex toto corde tuo, et ex tota anima tua, et ex tota mente tua; et Diliges proximum tuum tanquam te ipsum. In his, inquit, duobus praeceptis tota Lex pendet et Prophetae . Quidquid ergo Dei lege prohibemur, et quidquid jubemur facere, ad hoc prohibemur et jubemur, ut duo ista compleamus. Et forte generalis prohibitio est, Non concupisces ; et generalis jussio, Diliges . Unde breviter et apostolus Paulus quodam loco utrumque complexus est. Prohibitio enim est, Nolite conformari huic saeculo: jussio autem, Sed reformamini in novitate mentis vestrae . Illud pertinet ad non concupiscere; hoc, ad diligere; illud ad continentiam; hoc ad justitiam; illud ad declinandum a malo; hoc, ad faciendum bonum. Non concupiscendo enim vetustate exspoliamur, et novitate induimur diligendo. Sed nec quisquam potest continens esse, nisi Deus det , et charitas Dei diffunditur in cordibus nostris, non per nos ipsos, sed per Spiritum sanctum qui datus est nobis . Hoc autem fit de die in diem in iis qui volendo et credendo et invocando proficiunt, et praeterita obliviscentes in ea quae ante sunt extenduntur . Ad hoc enim lex ista praecipit, ut cum in his implendis homo defecerit, non se extollat superbia tumidus, sed ad gratiam confugiat fatigatus; ac sic eum lex terrendo, ad Christum diligendum paedagogi perducat officio.