Augustine, Sermones 154-157 (Classis I, de Scripturis)

Sermon 154. On the words of the Apostle, Rom. 7, "We know that the law is spiritual; but I am carnal," etc. Against the Pelagians,

who say that a man can be without sin in this life. Preached at the Table of the holy Martyr Cyprian.

Chapter I. — 1. For what purpose the Law was given. Those of you who were present at the sermon heard yesterday's reading from the Epistle of the holy apostle Paul: the reading that was recited today follows that one. We are still occupied with that difficult and dangerous passage which, with the help of our Lord, in so far as you help me with your devout affection before Him, and according to the strength He deigns to give, we have undertaken to expound and unravel for you. Let your Charity grant me patience, so that if, because of the obscurity of the matters, I have a difficult discussion, I may at least have an easy voice. For if both are difficult, there is much labour: and would that the labour be not without cause. But so that our labour may profit, let your hearing be patient. That the Apostle does not blame the Law we made satisfactorily clear, I think, to those who were listening yesterday. For there he says: What then shall we say? The law is sin. Far from it. But I did not know sin except through the law. For I did not know concupiscence, unless the Law had said, You shall not covet. But sin, taking occasion, worked in me through the commandment all concupiscence. For without the law sin is dead; that is, it lies hidden, it does not appear. But I once lived without the law: but when the commandment came, sin revived. And I died, and the commandment which was for life (for what pertains so much to life as, You shall not covet?) was found by me to be for death. For sin, taking occasion through the commandment, deceived me, and through it killed [me]: it frightened concupiscence, it did not extinguish it; it frightened it, it did not crush it; it produced fear of punishment, not love of righteousness. Therefore, he says, the law indeed is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. Did that which is good, then, become death to me? Far from it. For the law is not death, but sin is death. What then from the occasion of the commandment? But sin, that it might appear sin: for it lay hidden when it was said to be dead: worked death for me through what is good; so that, transgression being added, it might become beyond measure a sinner or sin through the commandment; because transgression would not be added to sin if there were no commandment. For in another place the same apostle says plainly: For where there is no law, neither is there transgression (Rom. 4:15). What then? Why do we doubt that the Law was given for this purpose, that man might find himself? For when God did not forbid him from evil, man was hidden from himself: he did not find his own feeble strength until he received the law of prohibition. So he found himself; he found himself in evils. Where does he flee from himself? For wherever he flees from himself, he follows himself. And what does the knowledge of himself, once found, profit him, a knowledge which conscience wounds?

Chapter II. — 2. Whether the Apostle speaks here of himself. So in this reading too, which was recited today, he who found himself is speaking. We know, he says, that the law is spiritual; but I am carnal, sold under sin. For what I work, I do not know. For I do not do what I will; but what I hate, that I do. It is asked in this passage

with great diligence who is meant, whether it was the Apostle himself who was speaking, or whether he transferred to himself some other person, whom he might touch upon in his own person, as he said in a certain place: Now all these things I have transferred to myself and Apollo for your sakes, that you may learn in us (1 Cor. 4:6). If therefore the Apostle is speaking (which no one doubts), and when he says, Not what I will do I do; but what I hate, that I do, he is speaking not of another but of himself: what are we to understand, my brothers? Did the apostle Paul, for example, not wish to commit adultery, and yet commit adultery? Did he not wish to be avaricious, and yet was he avaricious? But which of us would dare to clothe himself with such blasphemy as to think this of the Apostle? Perhaps then it is someone else: perhaps it is you, or you, or he, or I. If therefore it is one of us, let us hear him as though [speaking] about himself, and let us correct ourselves without being angry. But if it is he himself, for perhaps it is he himself too, let us not understand what he said, Not what I will do I do; but what I hate, that I do, as though he wished to be chaste and [yet] be an adulterer; or wished to be merciful, and was cruel; or wished to be devout, and was impious. Let us not take it in this sense, For not what I will, that I do; but what I hate, that I do.

Chapter III. — 3. The Apostle himself too not without concupiscence. But to what end? I will not to covet, and I covet. What did the Law say? You shall not covet. Man heard the Law, recognized the vice: he declared war, he found captivity. But perhaps it is some man, not the Apostle. What then do we say, my brothers? Did the Apostle have no concupiscence in his flesh which he would not wish to have, to which, though it existed, tickling, suggesting, soliciting, burning, tempting, he would nevertheless not consent? I say to Your Charity, if we believe that the Apostle had absolutely no infirmity of concupiscence against which he struggled, we believe a great deal of him: and would that it were so. For we ought not to envy the Apostles, but to imitate the Apostles. Nevertheless, dearly beloved, I hear the Apostle himself confessing that he had not yet attained to so great a perfection of righteousness as we believe there is in the Angels: the equality of which Angels we hope for, if we attain to that which we wish. For what else does the Lord promise us in the resurrection, where He says: In the resurrection of the dead they will neither marry nor take wives; for they will not begin to die, but will be equal to the Angels of God (Matt. 22:30, and Luke 20:35–36)?

4. That the Apostle speaks of his own imperfection. Someone therefore says: And you, how do you know that the apostle Paul did not yet have the righteousness and perfection of an angel? I do no injury to the Apostle; I believe no one but the Apostle; I seek no other witness; I do not listen to one who suspects, I do not heed one who praises too much. Tell me, holy Apostle, about yourself, where no one doubts that you are speaking about yourself. For where you said, Not what I will do I do; but what I hate, that I do, there are those who say that you transferred to yourself some other person, I know not whom, labouring, failing, conquered, captive. Tell me about yourself, where

no one doubts that you are speaking about yourself. 'Brothers,' says the Apostle, 'I do not consider that I myself have laid hold of it.' And what are you doing? 'But one thing: forgetting the things that are behind, stretched out towards those that are ahead, according to intention,' he says, not according to perfection; 'according to intention I pursue the prize of the upward calling of God in Christ Jesus.' Above he had already said: 'Not that I have already received, or am already perfect' (Phil. 3:12–14). Still there is contradiction, and it is said: The Apostle said these things because he had not yet arrived at immortality, not because he had not yet arrived at the perfection of righteousness. So he was already as righteous as the angels are, but not yet immortal as the angels are. So it is, they say, so it is entirely. You have just said: He was as righteous as the angels are, but not yet immortal as the angels are. Therefore he already held the perfection of righteousness, but in pursuing the upward prize he was seeking immortality.

Chapter IV. — 5. The Apostle confesses the weakness of his soul. Tell us, holy Apostle, some other, plainer passage, not where you seek immortality, but where you confess weakness. And here already there is murmuring, already there is contradiction. I seem to myself to hear the thoughts of certain people, and here it is said to me: It is true, I know what you are going to say: he confesses weakness, but of the flesh, not of the mind; he confesses weakness, but of the body, not of the soul: but in the soul there is perfect righteousness, not in the body. For who indeed does not know that the Apostle was frail in body, was mortal in body, as he says: 'We have this treasure in earthen vessels' (2 Cor. 4:7)? What then have you to do with the earthen vessel? Say something about the treasure. If he had something less, if there was anything that could be added to him towards the gold of righteousness, let us find it. Let us hear him himself, lest we be thought unjust. 'And lest by the greatness of my revelations,' the Apostle says: 'in the greatness of my revelations, lest I be exalted.' Surely here you recognize the Apostle as having a greatness of revelations, and as fearing the headlong fall of elation. So that you may know, then, that even the Apostle himself, who wished to make others whole, was still being cured: so that you may know that he himself was still being cured; if you set great store by his honour, hear what the physician applied to him against the swelling: hear not me, hear him himself. Hear him confessing, so that you may perceive him teaching. Hear: 'And lest I be exalted by the greatness of my revelations.' See, now I can say to the apostle Paul: Lest you be exalted, holy Apostle? You, lest you be exalted, must still be on guard? You, lest you be exalted, must still fear? You, lest you be exalted, must still seek a medicine for this weakness?

Chapter V. — 6. A poultice for swelling given to the Apostle. What are you saying to me, he says? You too, hear what I am; and do not be high-minded, but fear. Hear how a small lamb is to enter where a ram is thus endangered. 'Lest I be exalted,' he says, 'by the greatness of my revelations, there was given to me a goad of my flesh, an angel of Satan, to buffet me.' What kind of swelling did he fear, who received a most stinging poultice? So now, then, say that there was as much righteousness in him as there is in the holy angels. Or does perhaps a holy angel in heaven also, lest he be exalted, receive a goad, an angel of Satan, by whom to be buffeted?

Far be it from us to suspect this of the holy angels. We are men; let us acknowledge the apostles as holy men: chosen vessels, but still fragile; still sojourning as pilgrims in this flesh, not yet triumphing in the heavenly homeland. Therefore, since he asked the Lord three times that this goad be taken away from him, and was not heard according to his wish because he was heard for his healing (2 Cor. 12:7–9), perhaps it is not unfitting that he himself is the one speaking where he says, But we know that the Law is spiritual; but I am carnal.

7. Every saint in this life is both carnal and spiritual. Is the Apostle carnal, then, who said to others, You who are spiritual, instruct such a one in the spirit of gentleness? Does he address others as spiritual, and is he himself carnal? But what did he say even to the spiritual themselves, since they were not yet in heavenly and angelic perfection, not yet in the security of that homeland, but were living amid the anxiety of this pilgrimage? What did he say to them? Certainly he called them spiritual: You, he says, who are spiritual, instruct such a one in the spirit of gentleness, looking to yourself, lest you too be tempted (Gal. 6:1). See: the one whom he had already called spiritual, he feared for him the frailty of temptation, by which a spiritual man could be tempted, if not from the mind, at any rate from the flesh. For he is spiritual, because he lives according to the spirit; but still, in his mortal part, he is carnal: the same man spiritual, and the same man carnal. See the spiritual man: With the mind I serve the law of God. See the carnal man: but with the flesh the law of sin. Is the same man, then, both spiritual and carnal? Plainly the same; as long as he lives here, so it is.

Chapter VI. — 8. Who is wholly carnal, who is partly or wholly spiritual. Do not wonder, whoever you are, whoever yields and consents to carnal desires, who either think them good for satisfying the fullness of lust, or at least already see them as evil in such a way that you nonetheless consent by yielding to them, and follow where they lead, and carry out the evil things they suggest: you are wholly carnal. You, you, whoever you are that are such, you are wholly carnal. But if you do indeed desire what the Law forbids when it says, You shall not covet (Exod. 20:17), yet you keep another thing which the Law likewise commands, Do not go after your desires (Sir. 18:30), then in mind you are spiritual, in flesh carnal. For it is one thing not to desire; another not to go after one's desires. Not to desire belongs to the wholly perfect; not to go after one's desires belongs to one who is fighting, wrestling, labouring. Where the fight is hot, why is victory despaired of? When will the victory be? When death shall be swallowed up in victory. For then there will be the voice of one triumphing, not the sweat of one fighting. What will that voice of one triumphing be, when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality? You see the victor; hear him exulting; await him triumphing. Then shall come to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, is your strife? Where, O death, is your sting (1 Cor. 15:55–55)? Where is it? See, it was, and it is not. Where, O death, is your strife? See the strife of death: What I will, I do not do. See the strife of death: We know that the law is spiritual; but I am carnal. If, then, the Apostle says this of himself; if I say it, I do not affirm it; if the Apostle says, We know that the law is spiritual, but I am carnal

for in mind spiritual, in body carnal: when wholly spiritual? When, The body is sown animal, it will rise again a spiritual body (1 Cor. 15:44). Now therefore, while the struggle with death is hot, what I will I do not do: in part spiritual, in part carnal; in the better part spiritual, in the lower part carnal. I am still in conflict, I have not yet conquered: it is a great thing for me not to be conquered. What I will, that I do not do; what I hate, that I do. What do you do? I desire. Even if I do not consent to desire, even if I do not go after my desires, yet I still desire: and certainly I am also in that very part.

Chapter VII. — 9. The same man at once carnal and spiritual. For it is not I in the mind, and another in the flesh. But what? Therefore I myself; for I am in the mind, I am in the flesh. For there are not two contrary natures, but out of both one man: because there is one God, by Whom man was made. Therefore I myself, I myself, with the mind serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. With the mind I do not consent to the law of sin: but yet I would not wish that there were any law of sin in my members. Since therefore I would not wish it, and yet it is there, what I will I do not do: because I desire, and I do not will it, what I will I do not do; but what I hate, that I do. What do I hate? To desire. I hate to desire, and yet I do it with the flesh, not with the mind: What I hate, that I do.

10. Consenting with the law. — But if what I do not will, that I do, I consent to the law, that it is good. What is this, If what I do not will, that I do, I consent to the Law, that it is good? You would consent to the law if you did what it willed: you do what the law hates, how do you consent to the law? Exactly so, If what I do not will, this I do, I consent to the law, that it is good. How? Because the law commands, You shall not desire. What do I will? Not to desire? By willing what the law wills, I consent to the law, that it is good. If the law said, You shall not desire, and I willed to desire, I would not consent to the law, and I would stand utterly apart from it through that perversity of will. For when the law says, You shall not desire, and I will to desire, I do not consent to the law of God. What now? What do you say, O law? You shall not desire. And I do not will to desire, and I do not will it; what you do not will, I do not will: therefore I consent, because what you do not will, I do not will. My weakness does not fulfil the law: but my will praises the Law. Therefore if what I do not will, this I do, I consent to the law because I do not will what it does not will, not because I do what I do not will. For the very doing is to desire, not to consent to desire: lest anyone should now seek in the Apostle an example of sinning for himself, and give a bad example. What I will I do not do. For what does the law say? You shall not desire. And I do not will to desire, and yet I desire; although I do not give assent to my desire, although I do not go after it. For I resist, I turn away my mind, I withhold the weapons, I restrain the members; and yet there comes about in me what I do not will. What the law does not will, I do not will along with the law; what it does not will, I do not will: therefore I consent to the law.

Chapter VIII. — 11. Not to know sin. But since I am in the flesh, I am in the mind; but I am more in the mind than in the flesh. For since I am in the mind, I am in that which rules: for the mind rules, the flesh is ruled: and I am more in that by which I rule than in that in which I am ruled. Since therefore I am more in the mind: But now it is no longer I who do it. But now, what is it?

But now, already redeemed, I who was formerly sold under sin, having now received the grace of the Saviour, so that in mind I delight in the law of God, it is not I that do it, but the sin that dwells in me. For I know that there does not dwell in me. Again, then, "in me": hear what follows, that is, in my flesh, good. For to will is present with me. I know. What do you know? That there does not dwell in me, that is, in my flesh, good. A while ago you had said, What I do, I do not know. If you do not know, how do you know? Now you say, I do not know; now you say, I know: how I am to understand it, I do not know. Or is this what I understand? For where he says, What I do, I do not know, he said "I do not know", meaning I do not approve, I do not accept, it does not please me, I do not consent, I do not praise. For Christ too will "not know" those to whom He is going to say, I do not know you (Matt. 7:23). Indeed I understand this as well, For what I do, I do not know: because what I do not do, I do not know. For it is not I that do it, but that sin which dwells in me. Therefore I do not know: because it is not I that do it, just as it was said of the Lord, Him Who had not known sin (2 Cor. 5:21). What is "had not known"? Did He then not know what He rebuked? Did He not know what He punished? If then He did not know what He punished, He punished unjustly. But because He punished justly, He knew what He punished. And yet He had not known sin, because He had not committed sin. For what I do, I do not know: for I do not do what I will; but what I hate, that I do. But if I do what I do not will, I consent to the law, that it is good. But now, grace having already been received, it is not I that do it: the mind is free, the flesh captive. It is not I that do it, but that sin which dwells in me. For I know that there does not dwell in me, that is, in my flesh, good.

Chapter IX. — 12. To fulfil the law perfectly in this life is not granted to the saints.— For to will is present with me, but to accomplish the good is not present. To will is present, to accomplish is not present. He did not say "to do", but "to accomplish". For it is not that you do nothing. Concupiscence rebels, and you do not consent; another man's wife delights you, and you do not assent, you turn your mind away, you enter into the inner chamber of the mind. You see concupiscence clamouring outside, you pronounce sentence against it, cleansing your conscience. I do not will it, you say, I do not do it. Suppose that it delights: I do not do it, I have that in which I may delight. For I delight in the law of God according to the inner man. Why do you riot out of your flesh? Why do you riotously suggest foolish delights, temporal and fleeting, vain, harmful, and tell them to me like a chatterer? The unjust have told me of delights. From there comes this concupiscence too. It tells me of delights, but not as Thy law, O Lord (Ps. 118:85). For I delight in the law of God: not of myself, but of the grace of God. You, concupiscence, riot in the flesh; you do not subject the mind to yourself. In God I will hope; I will not fear what the flesh may do to me (Ps. 55:5). Me, me: that is, while the mind does not consent, the flesh riots. In God, he says, I will hope; I will not fear what the flesh may do to me. As not another's, so not my own. Does he then who does these things within himself do nothing? He does much: great is what he does, but yet he does not accomplish. For what is it to accomplish? O death, where is your strife? Therefore, To will is present with me, but to accomplish the good is not.

13. The same argument is treated. — For it is not what

I will, the good, that I do; but the evil that I do not will, this I do. And he repeats, But if I do what I do not will, that is, if I covet, it is no longer I who do it, but the sin that dwells in me. I find, then, the law to be for me, when I will to do good. I find the law good; the law is good, the law is something good. How do I prove it? Because I will to fulfil it. I find, then, the law to be for me, when I will to do good; because evil lies close at hand for me. And this too is mine. For it is not that the flesh is not mine, or that the flesh is of another substance, or the flesh from another principle, or that the soul is from God and the flesh from the race of darkness. Far be it! Sickness fights against health. Half-alive he lies on the road (Luke 10:30); he is still being cured; all his sicknesses are being healed (Ps. 102:3). Not what I will do I do; but what I hate, that I do. But if I do what I do not will, I find then the law to be for me, when I will to do good, because evil lies close at hand for me. What evil?

Chapter X. 14. The same argument is treated. For I delight in the law of God according to the inner man. I see another law in my members, fighting against the law of my mind, and leading me captive in the law of sin, which is in my members: captive, but by the flesh; captive, but in part. For the mind fights back, and delights in the law of God. So indeed we ought to understand it, if the Apostle is speaking of himself. Now then, if the mind does not consent to sin as it tickles, suggests, coaxes; if the mind does not consent, because it has other delights of its own within, in no way to be compared with the delights of the flesh: if then it does not consent, and there is in me something dead and something alive, death still contends, but the living mind does not consent. Is not that very death in you? Does not that which is dead belong to you? There is still a struggle for you. What, moreover, is to be hoped for from this?

15. The same argument is treated. Wretched man that I am: if not in mind, yet in the flesh a wretched man. For he is not a man in the mind and not a man in the flesh. For who ever held his own flesh in hatred (Eph. 5:29)? Wretched man that I am, who will free me from the body of this death? What is this, brothers? As if he wishes to be without the body. Why do you hurry? If your aim is only this, that you be without the body, death will come at some time, and the last day, when it arrives, will without doubt free you from this body of death. Why is it that you groan as if over something great? Why is it that you say, Who will free me? You speak as a mortal, you speak as one about to die. The separation of the mind from the flesh will come at some time: because of the shortness of life it is never far off; because of daily mishaps you do not know when it will be. So whether you hurry or delay, all human life is short: why do you groan as if over something great, and say, Who will free me from the body of this death?

Chapter XI. 16. In the resurrection the just alone are freed from the body of death. And he adds: The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. For will not the pagans, who do not have the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord, die? Will they not at some time, on their last day, be released from the flesh? Will they not on that day be freed from the body of this death? You, why is it that as if over something great