
Enchiridion On Faith, Hope and Love by Saint Augustine
CHAPTER XXIV
THE SOLUTION
TO PRESENT SPIRITUAL ENIGMAS
TO BE AWAITED IN THE LIFE
OF THE WORLD TO COME
94.
And thus it will be that while the reprobated angels and men go on in
their
eternal punishment, the saints will go on learning more fully the
blessings
which
grace has bestowed upon them. Then, through the actual realities of
their
experience,
they will see more clearly the meaning of what is written in The
Psalms:
"I
will sing to thee of mercy and judgment, O Lord"199--since
no one is set free save
by
unmerited mercy and no one is damned save by a merited condemnation.
95.
Then what is now hidden will not be hidden: when one of two infants
is
taken
up by God's mercy and the other abandoned through God's judgment--and
when
the chosen one knows what would have been his just deserts in
judgment--
why
was the one chosen rather than the other, when the condition of the
two was
the
same? Or again, why were miracles not wrought in the presence of
certain
people
who would have repented in the face of miraculous works, while
miracles
were
wrought in the presence of those who were not about to believe. For
our Lord
saith
most plainly: "Woe to you, Chorazin; woe to you, Bethsaida. For
if in Tyre and
Sidon
had been wrought the miracles done in your midst, they would have
repented
long
ago in sackcloth and ashes."200
Now, obviously, God did not act unjustly in not
willing
their salvation, even though they could have been saved, if he willed
it so.201
Then,
in the clearest light of wisdom, will be seen what now the pious hold
by
faith,
not yet grasping it in clear understanding--how certain, immutable,
and
effectual
is the will of God, how there are things he can do but doth not will
to do,
yet
willeth nothing he cannot do, and how true is what is sung in the
psalm: "But
our
God is above in heaven; in heaven and on earth he hath done all
things
whatsoever
that he would."202
This obviously is not true, if there is anything
that he
willed
to do and did not do, or, what were worse, if he did not do something
because
199Ps.
100:1 (Vulgate); cf. Ps. 101:1 (R.S.V.).
200Matt.
11:21.
201This
is one of the rare instances in which a textual variant in
Augustine's text affects a basic
issue
in the interpretation of his doctrine. All but one of the major old
editions, up to and including
Migne,
here read: Nec utique deus injuste noluit salvos fiere eum possent
salvi esse SI VELLENT (if
they
willed it). This would mean the attribution of a decisive role in
human salvation to the human
will
and would thus stand out in bold relief from his general stress in
the rest of the Enchiridion and
elsewhere
on the primacy and even irresistibility of grace. The Jansenist
edition of Augustine, by
Arnauld
in 1648, read SI VELLET (if He willed it) and the
reading became the subject of acrimonious
controversy
between the Jansenists and the Molinists. The Maurist edition reads
si vellet, on the
strength
of much additional MS. evidence that had not been available up to
that time. In modern
times,
the si vellet reading has come to have the overwhelming
support of the critical editors,
although
Rivière still reads si vellent. Cf. Scheel, 76-77 (See
Bibl.); Rivière, 402-403; J.=G. Krabinger,
S.
Aurelii Augustini Enchiridion (Tübingen, 1861 ), p. 116;
Faure-Passaglia, S. Aurelii Augustini
Enchiridion
(Naples, 1847), p. 178; and H. Hurter, Sanctorum Patrum
opuscula selecta (Innsbruck,
1895),
p. 123.
202Cf.
Ps. 113:11 (a mixed text; composed inexactly from Ps. 115:3 and Ps.
135:6; an interesting
instance
of Augustine's sense of liberty with the texts of Scripture. Here he
is doubtless quoting from
memory).
man's
will prevented him, the Omnipotent, from doing what he willed.
Nothing,
therefore,
happens unless the Omnipotent wills it to happen. He either allows it
to
happen
or he actually causes it to happen.
96.
Nor should we doubt that God doth well, even when he alloweth
whatever
happens
ill to happen. For he alloweth it only through a just judgment--and
surely
all
that is just is good. Therefore, although evil, in so far as it is
evil, is not good,
still
it is a good thing that not only good things exist but evil as well.
For if it were
not
good that evil things exist, they would certainly not be allowed to
exist by the
Omnipotent
Good, for whom it is undoubtedly as easy not to allow to exist what
he
does
not will, as it is for him to do what he does will.
Unless
we believe this, the very beginning of our Confession of Faith is
imperiled--the
sentence in which we profess to believe in God the Father Almighty.
For
he is called Almighty for no other reason than that he can do
whatsoever he
willeth
and because the efficacy of his omnipotent will is not impeded by the
will of
any
creature.
97.
Accordingly, we must now inquire about the meaning of what was said
most
truly by the apostle concerning God, "Who willeth that all men
should be
saved."203
For since not all--not even a majority--are
saved, it would indeed appear
that
the fact that what God willeth to happen does not happen is due to an
embargo
on
God's will by the human will.
Now,
when we ask for the reason why not all are saved, the customary
answer
is: "Because they themselves have not willed it." But this
cannot be said of
infants,
who have not yet come to the power of willing or not willing. For, if
we could
attribute
to their wills the infant squirmings they make at baptism, when they
resist
as hard as they can, we would then have to say that they were saved
against
their
will. But the Lord's language is clearer when, in the Gospel, he
reproveth the
unrighteous
city: "How often," he saith, "would I have gathered
your children
together,
as a hen gathers her chicks, and you would not."204
This sounds as if God's
will
had been overcome by human wills and as if the weakest, by not
willing,
impeded
the Most Powerful so that he could not do what he willed. And where
is
that
omnipotence by which "whatsoever he willed in heaven and on
earth, he has
done,"
if he willed to gather the children of Jerusalem together, and did
not do so?
Or,
is it not rather the case that, although Jerusalem did not will that
her children
be
gathered together by him, yet, despite her unwillingness, God did
indeed gather
together
those children of hers whom he would? It is not that "in heaven
and on
earth"
he hath willed and done some things, and willed other things and not
done
them.
Instead, "all things whatsoever he willed, he hath done."
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