A Treatise Concerning Man’s Perfection in Righteousness 9
9 The Ninth Breviate PL 44, 301
IX. “The next question we shall require to be solved,” says he, “is this: By what means is it brought about that man is with sin?—by the necessity of nature, or by the freedom of choice? If it is by the necessity of nature, he is blameless; if by the freedom of choice, then the question arises, from whom he has received this freedom of choice. No doubt, from God. Well, but that which God bestows is certainly good. This cannot be gainsaid. On what principle, then, is a thing proved to be good, if it is more prone to evil than to good? For it is more prone to evil than to good if by means of it man can be with sin and cannot be without sin.” The answer is this: It came by the freedom of choice that man was with sin; but a penal corruption closely followed thereon, and out of the liberty produced necessity. Hence the cry of faith to God, “Lead Thou me out of my necessities.” With these necessities upon us, we are either unable to understand what we want, or else (while having the wish) we are not strong enough to accomplish what we have come to understand. Now it is just liberty itself that is promised to believers by the Liberator. “If the Son,” says He, “shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” For, vanquished by the sin into which it fell by its volition, nature has lost liberty. Hence another scripture says, “For of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.” Since therefore “the whole need not the physician, but only they that be sick;” so likewise it is not the free that need the Deliverer, but only the enslaved. Hence the cry of joy to Him for deliverance, “Thou hast saved my soul from the straits of necessity.” For true liberty is also real health; and this would never have been lost, if the will had remained good. But because the will has sinned, the hard necessity of having sin has pursued the sinner; until his infirmity be wholly healed, and such freedom be regained, that there must needs be, on the one hand, a permanent will to live happily, and, on the other hand, a voluntary and happy necessity of living virtuously, and never sinning.
His praemissis, ea testimonia quae posuit iste cui respondemus, tanquam nos ea protulerimus, diligenter audiamus. « In Deuteronomio: « Tu autem perfectus eris coram Domino Deo tuo . Item illic: Et non erit inconsummatus in filiis Israel. Item Salvator in Evangelio: Estote perfecti, quia Pater vester qui in coelis est, perfectus est . Item Apostolus ad Corinthios secunda: De caetero, fratres, gaudete, perfecti estote . Item ad Colossenses: Corripientes omnem hominem, et docentes in omni sapientia, ut exhibeamus omnem hominem perfectum in Christo . Item ad Philippenses: Omnia facite sine murmuratione et haesitatione, ut sitis irreprehensibiles et simplices, sicut filii Dei immaculati . Item ad Ephesios: Benedictus Deus et Pater Domini nostri Jesu Christi, qui benedixit nos in omni benedictione spirituali, in coelestibus in Christo, sicut elegit nos in ipso ante mundi constitutionem, ut essemus sancti et immaculati in conspectu ejus . Item ad Colossenses: Et vos cum essetis aliquando alienati et inimici sensu in operibus malis, nunc autem reconciliati in corpore carnis ejus per mortem ejus, exhibete vos sanctos et immaculatos et irreprehensibiles . Item ad Ephesios: Ut exhiberet ipse sibi gloriosam Ecclesiam, non habentem maculam aut rugam, aut aliquid hujusmodi, ut sit sancta et immaculata . Item ad Corinthios prima: Sobrii estote et justi, et nolite peccare . Item in Epistola sancti Petri: Propter quod succincti lumbos mentis vestrae, sobrii, perfecte sperate in eam quae offertur vobis gratiam, quasi filii obedientiae, non configurati prioribus ignorantiae vestrae concupiscentiis; sed secundum eum qui vocavit vos Sanctum, et ipsi sancti in omni conversatione sitis; quia scriptum est, Sancti eritis, quia ego sanctus sum . Unde et beatus David dicit: Domine, quis habitabit in tabernaculo tuo, aut quis requiescet in monte sancto tuo? Qui ingreditur sine macula, et operatur justitiam . Et alibi: Et ero immaculatus cum eo . Et alibi: Beati immaculati in via, qui ambulant in lege Domini . Item apud Solomonem: Diligit Dominus sancta corda; accepti sunt autem illi omnes immaculati » . Horum testimoniorum aliqua currentes exhortantur, ut perfecte currant; aliqua ipsum finem commemorant, quo currendo pertendant. Ingredi autem sine macula non absurde etiam ille dicitur, non qui jam perfectus est, sed qui ad ipsam perfectionem irreprehensibiliter currit, carens criminibus damnabilibus, atque ipsa peccata venialia non negligens mundare eleemosynis. Ingressum quippe, hoc est, iter nostrum quo tendimus ad perfectionem, munda mundat oratio. Munda est autem oratio ubi veraciter dicitur, Dimitte nobis, sicut et nos dimittimus : ut dum non reprehenditur, quod non imputatur, sine reprehensione, hoc est, sine macula noster ad perfectionem cursus habeatur: in qua perfectione, cum ad eam venerimus, jam non sit omnino quod ignoscendo mundetur.