 chapter 73 through 92 of the N-Curidian. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Darren L. Slider, www.logoslibrary.org. The N-Curidian by St. Augustine, chapter 73. But none of those is greater than to forgive from the heart a sin that has been committed against us. For it is a comparatively small thing to wish well to, or even to do good to, a man who has done no evil to you. It is a much higher thing, and is the result of the most exalted goodness, to love your enemy, and always to wish well to, and when you have the opportunity to do good to, the man who wishes you ill, and when he can, does you harm. This is to obey the command of God. Love your enemies, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which persecute you. But seeing that this is a frame of mind only reached by the perfect Sons of God, and that though every believer ought to strive after it, and by prayer to God and earnest struggling with himself, endeavor to bring his soul up to this standard, yet a degree of goodness so high can hardly belong to so great a multitude as we believe are heard when they use this petition. Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. In view of all this, it cannot be doubted that the implied undertaking is fulfilled of a man, though he has not yet attained to loving his enemy, yet when asked by one who has sinned against him to forgive him his sin, does forgive him from his heart. For he certainly desires to be himself forgiven when he prays as we forgive our debtors. That is, forgive us our debts when we beg forgiveness as we forgive our debtors when they beg forgiveness from us. Chapter 74 Now he who asks forgiveness of the man against whom he has sinned, being moved by his sin to ask forgiveness, cannot be counted an enemy in such a sense that it should be as difficult to love him now as it was when he was engaged in active hostility. And the man who does not from his heart forgive him who repents of his sin and asks forgiveness, need not suppose that his own sins are forgiven of God, for the truth cannot lie. And what reader or hearer of the gospel can have failed to notice that the same person who said, I am the truth, taught us also this form of prayer, and in order to impress this particular petition deeply upon our minds, said, For if he forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if he forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. The man whom the thunder of this warning does not awaken is not asleep, but dead. And yet so powerful is that voice that it can awaken even the dead. Chapter 75 But surely then those who live in gross wickedness and take no care to reform their lives and manners, and yet, amid all their crimes and vices, do not cease to give frequent alms in vain take comfort to themselves from the saying of our Lord, Give alms of such things as ye have, and behold, all things are clean unto you. For they do not understand how far this saying reaches. But that they may understand this, let them hear what he says, for we read in the gospel as follows. And as he spake a certain Pharisee besought him to dine with him, and he went in and sat down to meet. And when the Pharisees saw it, he marveled that he had not first washed before dinner. And the Lord said unto him, Now do ye Pharisees make clean the outside of the cup and the platter, but your inward part is full of ravening and wickedness. You fools did not he that made that which is without make that which is within also, but rather give alms of such things as ye have, and behold, all things are clean unto you. Are we to understand this as meaning that to the Pharisees who have not the faith of Christ all things are clean, if only they give alms in the way these men count almsgiving, even though they have never believed in Christ nor been born again of water and of the spirit. But the fact is that all are unclean who are not made clean by the faith of Christ according to the expression, purifying their hearts by faith, and that the apostle says, unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure, but even their mind and conscience is defiled. How, then, could all things be clean to the Pharisees even though they gave alms if they were not believers? And how could they be believers if they were not willing to have faith in Christ and to be born again of his grace? And yet what they heard is true, give alms of such things as ye have, and behold, all things are clean unto you. CHAPTER 76 For the man who wishes to give alms as he ought should begin with himself and give to himself first. For almsgiving is a work of mercy, and most truly, as it said, to have mercy on thy soul is pleasing to God. And for this end are we born again that we should be pleasing to God who is justly displeased with that which we brought with us when we were born. This is our first alms which we give to ourselves when, for the mercy of a pity in God, we find that we are ourselves wretched and confess the justice of his judgment by which we are made wretched, of which the Apostle says the judgment was by one to condemnation, and praise the greatness of his love, of which the same preacher of grace says God commended his love toward us in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And thus, judging truly of our own misery and loving God with the love which he has himself bestowed, we lead a holy and virtuous life. But the Pharisees, while they gave his alms the tithe of all their fruits, even the most insignificant, passed over judgment and the love of God, and so did not commence their almsgiving at home and extend their pity to themselves in the first instance. And it is in reference to this order of love that it is said, Love thy neighbor as thyself. When, then, our Lord had rebuked them because they had made themselves clean on the outside, but within were full of ravening and wickedness, he advised them in the exercise of that charity which each man owes to himself in the first instance to make clean the inward parts. But rather he says, Give alms of such things as ye have, and behold, all things are clean unto you. Then, to show what it was that he advised, and what they took no pains to do, and to show that he did not overlook or forget their almsgiving. But woe unto you, Pharisees, he says, as if he meant to say, I indeed advise you to give alms which shall make all things clean unto you. But woe unto you, for ye tithe mint and rue in all manner of herbs, as if he meant to say, I know these alms of yours, and ye need not think that I am now admonishing you in respect of such things, and pass over judgment in the love of God, and alms by which ye might have been made clean from all inward impurity, so that even the bodies which ye are now washing would have been clean to you. For this is the import of all things, both inward and outward things, as we read in another place, cleanse first that which is within that the outside may be clean also. But lest he might appear to despise the alms which they were giving out of the fruits of the earth, he says, these ought ye to have done, referring to judgment and the love of God, and not to leave the other undone, referring to the giving of the tithes. CHAPTER 77 Those then who think that they can by giving alms, however profuse, whether in money or in kind, purchase for themselves the privilege of persisting with impunity in their monstrous crimes and hideous vices, need not thus deceive themselves. For not only do they commit these sins, but they love them so much that they would like to go on forever committing them, if only they could do so with impunity. Now he who loveth iniquity hateth his own soul, and he who hateth his own soul is not merciful but cruel towards it. For in loving it according to the world, he hateth it according to God. But if he desired to give alms to it which should make all things clean unto him, he would hateth it according to the world, and loveth it according to God. Now no one gives alms unless he receive what he gives from one who is not in want of it. Therefore it is said, his mercy shall meet me. CHAPTER 78 Now what sins are trivial, and what heinous is not a matter to be decided by man's judgment, or by the judgment of God? For it is plain that the apostles themselves have given an indulgence in the case of certain sins. Take, for example, what the apostle Paul says to those who are married. Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer, and come together again that Satan tempts you not for your incontinency. Now it is possible that it might not have been considered a sin to have intercourse with a spouse, not with a view to the procreation of children, which is the great blessing of marriage, but for the sake of carnal pleasure, and to save the incontinent from being led by their weakness into the deadly sin of fornication, or adultery, or another form of uncleanness, which it is shameful even to name, and into which it is possible that they might be drawn by lust under the temptation of Satan. It is possible, I say, that this might not have been considered a sin had the apostle not added, but I speak this by permission, and not of commandment. Who then can deny that it is a sin when confessedly it is only by apostolic authority that permission is granted to those who do it? Another case of the same kind is where he says, There any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints. And shortly afterwards, if then ye have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church. I speak to your shame. Is it so that there is not a wise man among you? No, not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren. But brother goeth to law with brother, and that before the unbelievers. Now it might have been supposed in this case that it is not a sin to have a quarrel with another, that the only sin is in wishing to have it adjudicated upon outside the church, had not the apostle immediately added. Now therefore there is utterly a fault among you, because ye go to law with one another. And lest anyone should excuse himself by saying that he had a just cause, and was suffering wrong, and that he only wished the sentence of the judges to remove his wrong, the apostle immediately anticipates such thoughts and excuses, and says, Why do ye not rather take wrong? Why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded? Thus bringing us back to our Lord saying, If any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have thy cloak also. And again, of him that taketh away thy goods, ask them not again. Therefore our Lord has forbidden his followers to go to law with other men about worldly affairs. And carrying out this principle the apostle here declares that to do so is all together a fault. But when notwithstanding he grants his permission to have such cases between his brethren, decided in the church, other brethren adjudicating, and only certainly forbids them to be carried outside the church, it is manifest to hear again an indulgence as extended to the infirmities of the weak. It is in view, then, of these sins and others of the same sort, and of others again more trifling still which consist of offenses and words and thought, as the apostle James confesses, in many things we offend all, that we need to pray every day and often to the Lord saying, Forgive us our debts, and to add in truth and sincerity, as we forgive our debtors. CHAPTER 79 Again there are some sins which would be considered very trifling if the scriptures did not show that they are really very serious. For who would suppose that the man who says to his brother, Thou fool, is in danger of hellfire, did not he who is the truth say so? To the wound, however, he immediately applies the cure, giving a rule for reconciliation with one's offended brother. Therefore, if Thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee, leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way. First be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift." Again, who would suppose that it was so great a sin to observe days and months and times and years, as those do who are anxious or unwilling to begin anything on certain days or in certain months or years, because the vain doctrines of men lead them to things such times lucky or unlucky, had we not the means of estimating the greatness of the evil from the fear expressed by the apostle who says to such men, I am afraid of you lest I have bestowed upon you labor and vain. CHAPTER 80 Add to this that sins, however great and detestable they may be, are looked upon as trivial, or as not sins at all, when men get accustomed to them. And so far does this go, that such sins are not only not concealed, but are boasted of and published far and wide, and thus, as it is written, the wicked boasteth of his heart's desire and blessed the covetous whom the Lord of Horus. Iniquity of this kind is in scripture called a cry. You have an instance in the prophet Isaiah in the case of the evil vineyard. He looked for judgment, but behold oppression, for righteousness, but behold a cry. Once also the expression of Genesis, the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, because in these cities crimes were not only not punished, but were openly committed as if under the protection of the law. And so in our own times, many forms of sin, though not just the same as those of Sodom and Gomorrah, are now so openly and habitually practiced, that not only dare we not excommunicate a layman, we dare not even degrade a clergyman for the commission of them. So that when, a few years ago, I was expounding the epistle to the Galatians in commenting on that very place where the apostle says, I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed labor upon you in vain. I was compelled to exclaim, woe to the sins of men, for it is only when we are not accustomed to them that we shrink from them, when once we are accustomed to them, though the blood of the Son of God was poured out to wash them away, though they are so great that the kingdom of God is wholly shot against them. Constant familiarity leads to the toleration of them all, and habitual toleration leads to the practice of many of them, and grant, O Lord, that we may not come to practice all that we have not the power to hinder. But I shall see whether the extravagance of grief did not betray me into rationless of speech. CHAPTER 81 I shall now say this, which I have often said before in other places of my works. There are two causes that lead to sin. Either we do not yet know our duty, or we do not perform the duty that we know. The former is the sin of ignorance, the latter of weakness. Now, against these it is our duty to struggle, but we shall certainly be beaten in the fight unless we are helped by God, not only to see our duty, but also when we clearly see it, to make the love of righteousness stronger in us than the love of earthly things, the eager longing after which, or the fear of losing which, leads us with our eyes open into known sin. In the latter case we are not only sinners, for we are so even when we err through ignorance, but we are also transgressors of the law, for we leave undone what we know we ought to do, and we do what we know we ought not to do. Therefore not only ought we to pray for pardon when we have sinned, saying, Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors, but we ought to pray for guidance that we may be kept from sinning, saying, and lead us not into temptation. And we are to pray to him of whom this almost says, The Lord is my light and my salvation, my light, for he removes my ignorance, my salvation, for he takes away my infirmity. CHAPTER 82 Now even penance itself, when by the law of the church there is sufficient reason for its being gone through, is frequently evaded through infirmity, for shame is the fear of losing pleasure when the good opinion of men gives more pleasure than the righteousness which leads a man to humble himself in penitence. For the mercy of God is necessary not only when a man repents, but even to lead him to repent. How else explain what the apostle says of certain persons, if God per adventure will give them repentance? And before Peter wept bitterly, we are told by the evangelist, the Lord turned, and looked upon him. CHAPTER 83 Now the man who, not believing that sins are remitted in the church, despises this great gift of God's mercy, and persists to the last day of his life in his obstinacy of heart, is guilty of the unpardonable sin against the holy ghost, in whom Christ forgives sins. But this difficult question I have discussed as clearly as I could in a book devoted exclusively to this one point. CHAPTER 84 Now as to the resurrection of the body, not a resurrection such as some have had, who came back to life for a time and died again, but a resurrection to eternal life, as the body of Christ himself rose again, I do not see how I can discuss the matter briefly, and at the same time give a satisfactory answer to all the questions that are ordinarily raised about it. Yet that the bodies of all men, both those who have been born and those who shall be born, both those who have died and those who shall die, shall be raised again, no Christian ought to have the shadow of a doubt. CHAPTER 85 This in the first place arises a question about abortive conceptions, which have indeed been born in the mother's womb, but not so born that they could be born again. For if we shall decide that these are to rise again, we cannot object to any conclusion that may be drawn in regard to those which are fully formed. Now who is there that is not rather disposed to think that unformed abortions perish like seeds that have never fructified, but who will dare to deny, though he may not dare to affirm, that it to resurrection every defect in the form shall be supplied, and that thus the perfection which time would have brought shall not be wanting any more than the blemishes which time did bring shall be present, so that the nature shall neither want anything suitable, and in harmony with it that length of days would have added, nor be debased by the presence of anything of an opposite kind that length of days has added, but that what is not yet complete shall be completed, just as what has been entered shall be renewed. CHAPTER 86 And therefore the following question may be very carefully inquired into and discussed by learned men, though I do not know whether it is in man's power to resolve it. At what time the infant begins to live in the womb? Whether life exists in a latent form before it manifests itself in the motions of the living being. To deny that the young who were cut out limb by limb from the womb, lest if they were left there dead the mother should die too, have never been alive, seems too audacious. Now from the time that a man begins to live, from that time it is possible for him to die, and if he die, whosoever death may overtake him, I cannot discover on what principle he can be denied an interest in the resurrection of the dead. CHAPTER 87 We are not justified in affirming even of monstrosities which are born and live, however quickly they may die, that they shall not rise again, nor that they shall rise again in their deformity, and not rather with an amended and perfected body. God forbid that the double-limbed man who was lately born in the east, of whom an account was brought by most trustworthy brethren who had seen him, an account which the presbyter Jerome of blessed memory left in writing. God forbid, I say, that we should think that at the resurrection there shall be one man with double limbs and not two distinct men, as would have been the case had twins been born. And so other birds, which, because they have either a superfluity or a defect, or because they are very much deformed or called monstrosities, shall at the resurrection be restored to the normal shape of man, and so each single soul shall possess its own body, and no body shall cohere together even though they were born in cohesion, but each separately shall possess all the members which constitute a complete human body. CHAPTER 88 What is the earthly material out of which men's mortal bodies are created to ever perish, though it may crumble into dust and ashes, or be dissolved into vapors and exhalations, though it may be transformed into the substance of other bodies, or dispersed into the elements, though it should become food for beasts or men, and be changed into their flesh, it returns at a moment of time to that human soul which animated it at the first, and which caused it to become man, and to live and grow. CHAPTER 89 And this earthly material which, when the soul leaves it, becomes a corpse, shall not at the resurrection be so restored as that the parts into which it is separated, and which under various forms and appearances become parts of other things, though they shall all return to the same body from which they were separated, must necessarily return to the same parts of the body in which they were originally situated. For otherwise to suppose that the hair recovers all that our frequent clippings and shavings have taken away from it, and the nails, all that we have so often paired off, presents to the imagination such a picture of ugliness and deformity as to make the resurrection of the body all but incredible. But just as if a statue of some soluble metal were either melted by fire, or broken into dust, or reduced to a shapeless mass, and a sculptor wished to restore it from the same quantity of metal, it would make no difference to the completeness of the work what part of the statue, any given particle of the material that was put into, as long as the restored statue contained all the material of the original one. So God, the artificer of marvelous and unspeakable power, shall with marvelous and unspeakable rapidity restore our body, using up the whole material of which it originally consisted. Nor will it affect the completeness of its restoration, whether hairs return to hairs and nails to nails, or whether the part of these that had perished be changed into flesh, and called to take its place in another part of the body, the great artist taking careful heed that nothing shall be unbecoming or out of place. CHAPTER 90 Nor does it necessarily follow that there shall be differences of stature among those who rise again, because they were of different statures during life, nor is it certain that the lean shall rise again in their former leanness, and the fat in their former fatness. But if it is part of the Creator's design that each should preserve his own peculiarities of feature, and retain a recognizable likeness to his former self, while in regard to other bodily advantages all should be equal, then the material of which each is composed may be so modified that none of it shall be lost, and that any defect may be supplied by him who can create at his will out of nothing. But if in the bodies of those who rise again there shall be a well-ordered inequality, such as there is in the voices that make up a full harmony, then the material of each man's body shall be so dealt with that it shall form a man fit for the assemblies of the angels, and one who shall bring nothing among them to jar upon their sensibilities, and assuredly nothing that is unseemly shall be there, but whatever shall be there shall be graceful and becoming, for if anything is not seemly, neither shall it be. CHAPTER 91 The bodies of the saints, then, shall rise again free from every defect, from every blemish, as from all corruption, weight, and impediment, for their ease of movement shall be as complete as their happiness. Once their bodies have been called spiritual, though undoubtedly they shall be bodies and not spirits. For just as now the body is called animate, though it is a body and not a soul, anima, so then the body shall be called spiritual, though it shall be a body, not a spirit. Hence as far as regards the corruption, which now weighs down the soul, and the vices which urge the flesh to lust against the spirit, it shall not then be flesh, but body, for there are bodies which are called celestial. Therefore it is said, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, and, as if in explanation of this, neither just corruption inherit incorruption. What the Apostle first called flesh and blood, he afterwards calls corruption, and when he first called the kingdom of God, he afterwards calls incorruption. But as far as regards the substance, even then it shall be flesh. For even after the resurrection of the body of Christ was called flesh. The Apostle, however, says, it is so in a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body. Because so perfect shall then be the harmony between flesh and spirit, the spirit keeping alive the subjugated flesh without the need of any nourishment, that no part of our nature shall be in discord with another. But as we shall be free from enemies without, so we shall not have ourselves for enemies within. CHAPTER 92 But as for those who, out of the mass of perdition, caused by the first man's sin, are not redeemed through the one mediator between God and man, they too shall rise again, each with his own body, but only to be punished with the devil and his angels. Now what do they shall rise again with all their diseases and deformities of body, bringing with them the diseased and deformed limbs which they possessed here? CHAPTER 2 For we need not weary ourselves speculating about their health or their beauty, which are matters uncertain when their eternal damnation is a matter of certainty. Nor need we inquire in what sense their body shall be incorruptible if it be susceptible of pain, or in what sense corruptible if it be free from the possibility of death. For there is no true life except where there is happiness in life and no true incorruption except where health is unbroken by any pain. When, however, the unhappy are not permitted to die, then, if I may so speak, death itself dies not. And where pain without intermission afflicts the soul and never comes to an end, corruption itself is not completed. This is called in Holy Scripture the Second Death. END OF CHAPTERS 73 THROUGH 92 DARREN L. SLIDER, Ft. Tx. on April 14, 2007. CHAPTERS 93 THROUGH 110 CHAPTER 93 And neither the first death, which takes place when the soul is compelled to leave the body, nor the second death, which takes place when the soul is not permitted to leave the suffering body, would have been inflicted on man had no one sinned. And, of course, the mildest punishment of all will fall upon those who have added no actual sin to the original sin they brought with them. And as for the rest who have added such actual sins, the punishment of each will be the more tolerable in the next world, according as his iniquity has been less in this world. CHAPTER 94 Thus when reprobate angels and men are left to endure everlasting punishment the saints shall know more fully the benefits they have received by grace. Then, in contemplation of the actual facts, they shall see more clearly the meaning of the expression in the Psalms, I will sing of mercy and judgment, for it is only of unmerited mercy that any is redeemed, and only in well-merited judgment that any is condemned. CHAPTER 95 Then shall be made clear much that is now dark. For example, one of two infants whose cases seem in all respects alike, one is by the mercy of God chosen to himself, and the other is by his justice abandoned, wherein the one who is chosen may recognize what was of justice due to himself had not mercy intervened. Why, of these two, the one should have been chosen rather than the other, is to us an insoluble problem. And again, why miracles were not wrought in the presence of men who would have repented at the working of the miracles while they were wrought in the presence of others who, it was known, would not repent. For our Lord says most distinctly, Woe unto thee, Corazin, woe unto thee, Bethsaida, for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done entire in Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. And assuredly there was no injustice in gods not willing that they should be saved, though they could have been saved had he so willed it. Then shall be seen in the clearest light of wisdom what with the pious is now a faith, though it is not yet a matter of certain knowledge, how sure, how unchangeable, and how effectual is the will of God, how many things he can do which he does not will to do, though willing nothing which he cannot perform, and how true is the song of the psalmist, but our God is in the heavens, he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. And this certainly is not true if God has ever willed anything that he hath not performed, and still worse if it was the will of man that hindered the omnipotent from doing what he pleased. Nothing therefore happens but by the will of the omnipotent he hath permitting it to be done, or himself doing it. CHAPTER 96 Nor can we doubt that God does well even in the permission of what is evil, for he permits it only in the justice of his judgment, and surely all that is just is good. Although therefore evil insofar as it is evil is not a good, yet the fact that evil as well as good exists is a good, for if it were not a good that evil should exist, its existence would not be permitted by the omnipotent good, who without doubt can as easily refuse to permit what he does not wish as bring about what he does wish. And if we do not believe this the very first sentence of our creed is endangered wherein we profess to believe in God the Father Almighty, for he is not truly cold Almighty if he cannot do whatsoever he pleases, or if the power of his Almighty will is hindered by the will of any creature whatsoever. CHAPTER 97 Hence we must inquire in what senses said of God what the apostle has most truly said, Who will have all men to be saved? For as a matter of fact not all, nor even a majority are saved, so that it would seem that what God wills is not done, man's will interfering with and hindering the will of God. When we ask the reason why all men are not saved the ordinary answer is because men themselves are not willing. This indeed cannot be said of infants, for it is not in their power, either to will or not to will. But if we could attribute to their will the childish movements they make at baptism, when they make all the resistance they can, we should say that even they are not willing to be saved. Our Lord says plainly, however, in the gospel, when upgrading the impious city, how often would I have gathered thy children together even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not. As if the will of God had been overcome by the will of men, and when the weakest stood in the way with their want of will the will of the strongest could not be carried out. And where is that omnipotence which hath done all that it pleased on earth and in heaven if God willed to gather together the children of Jerusalem and did not accomplish it? Or rather Jerusalem was not willing that her children should be gathered together. But even though she was unwilling, he gathered together as many of her children as he wished. For he does not will some things and do them and will others and do them not, but he hath done all that he pleased in heaven and in earth. CHAPTER 98 And moreover, who will be so foolish and blasphemous as to say that God cannot change the evil wills of men, whichever, and wheresoever he chooses, and direct them to what is good. But when he does this he does it of mercy. When he does it not it is of justice that he does it not. For he hath mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. And when the apostle said this he was illustrating the grace of God in connection with which he had just spoken of the twins and a womb of Rebecca, who being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth, it was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger. And in reference to this matter he quotes another prophetic testimony, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. But perceiving how what he had said might affect those who could not penetrate by their understanding the depth of this grace, what shall we say then, he says, Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. For it seems unjust that in the absence of any merit or demerit from good or evil works God should love the one and hate the other. Now if the apostle had wished us to understand that there were future good works of the one and evil works of the other, which of course God foreknew, he would never have said not of works, but of future works, and in that way would have solved the difficulty, or rather there would have then been no difficulty to solve. As it is, however, after answering God forbid, that is, God forbid that there should be unrighteousness with God, he goes on to prove that there is no unrighteousness in God's doing this, and says, For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. Now who but a fool would think that God was unrighteous, either in inflicting penal justice on those who had earned it, or in extending mercy to the unworthy? Then he draws his conclusion. So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runeth, but of God that showeth mercy. Thus both the twins were born children of wrath, not on account of any works of their own, but because they were bound in the fetters of that original condemnation which came through Adam. But he who said, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, loved Jacob of his undeserved grace, and hated Esau of his deserved judgment. And as this judgment was due to both the former learned from the case of the latter that the fact of the same punishment not falling upon himself gave him no room to glory in any merit of his own, but only in the riches of the divine grace, because it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runeth, but of God that showeth mercy. And indeed the whole face, and if I may use the expression, every lineament of the countenance of Scripture conveys by a very profound analogy this wholesome warning to every one who looks carefully into it, that he who glories should glory in the Lord. CHAPTER 99 Now after commending the mercy of God, saying, So it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runeth, but of God that showeth mercy, that he might commend his justice also, for the man who does not obtain mercy finds not iniquity, but justice there being no iniquity with God, he immediately adds, For the Scripture sayeth unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. And then he draws a conclusion that applies to both, that is, both to his mercy and his justice. Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. He hath mercy of his great goodness he hardeneth without any injustice, so that neither can he that is pardoned glory in any merit of his own, nor he that is condemned complain of anything but his own demerit. For it is grace alone that separates the redeemed from the lost, all having been involved in one common perdition through their common origin. Now if anyone, on hearing this, should say, Why doth he yet find fault? for who hath resisted his will? As if a man ought not to be blamed for being bad, because God hath mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth, God forbid that we should be ashamed to answer as we see the apostle answered. Nay, but, O man, who art thou that replyest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it? Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor? Now some foolish people think that in this place the apostle had no answer to give, and for want of a reason to render rebuke the presumption of his interrogator. But there is great weight in the saying, Nay, but, O man, who art thou? And in such a matter as this it suggests to a man in a single word the limits of his capacity, and at the same time does in reality convey an important reason. For if a man does not understand these matters, who is he that he should reply against God? And if he does understand them he finds no further room for reply. For then he perceives that the whole human race was condemned in its rebellious head by a divine judgment so just that if not a single member of the race had been redeemed no one could justly have questioned the justice of God. And that it was right that those who are redeemed should be redeemed in such a way as to show, by the greater number who are unredeemed and left in their just condemnation, what the whole race deserved, and whether the deserved judgment of God would lead even the redeemed, did not his undeserved mercy interpose, so that every mouth might be stopped of those who wish to glory in their own merits, and that he the Gloriath might glory in the Lord. CHAPTER 100 These are the great works of the Lord sought out according to all his pleasure, and so wisely sought out that when the intelligent creation both angelic and human sinned, doing not his will but their own, he used the very will of the creature which was working in opposition to the Creator's will as an instrument for carrying out his will, the supremely good thus turning to good account even what is evil, to the condemnation of those whom in his justice he is predestined to punishment, and to the salvation of those whom in his mercy he is predestined to grace. For, as far as relates to their own consciousness, these creatures did what God wished not to be done. But in view of God's omnipotence they could or no wise effect their purpose. For in the very fact that they acted in opposition to his will his will concerning them was fulfilled. And hence it is that the works of the Lord are great, sought out according to all his pleasure, because in a way unspeakably strange and wonderful even what is done in opposition to his will does not defeat his will. For it would not be done did he not permit it, and of course his permission is not unwilling but willing, nor would a good being permit evil to be done only that in his omnipotence he can turn evil into good. CHAPTER 101 Sometimes, however, a man in the goodness of his will desires something that God does not desire even though God's will is also good, nay, much more fully and more surely good, for his will never can be evil. For example, if a good son is anxious that his father should live when it is God's good will that he should die. Again, it is possible for a man with evil will to desire what God wills in his goodness. For example, if a bad son wishes his father to die when this is also the will of God. It is plain that the former wishes what God does not wish and that the latter wishes what God does wish, and yet the filial love of the former is more in harmony with the good will of God, though its desire is different from God's than the want of filial affection of the latter, though its desire is the same as God's. So necessary is it in determining whether a man's desire is one to be approved or disapproved to consider what it is proper for man and what it is proper for God to desire, and what is in each case the real motive of the will. For God accomplishes some of his purposes, which of course are all good, through the evil desires of wicked men. For example, it was through the wicked designs of the Jews working out the good purpose of the Father that Christ was slain, and this event was so truly good that when the Apostle Peter expressed his unwillingness that it should take place, he was designated Satan by him who had come to be slain. How good seemed the intentions of the pious believers who were unwilling that Paul should go up to Jerusalem lest the evils which Agabus had foretold should there befall him. And yet it was God's purpose that he should suffer these evils for preaching the faith of Christ, and thereby become a witness for Christ. And this purpose of his, which was good, God did not fulfill through the good counsels of the Christians, but through the evil counsels of the Jews, so that those who opposed his purpose were more truly his servants than those who were the willing instruments of its accomplishment. Chapter 102. But however strong may be the purposes either of angels or of men, whether of good or bad, whether these purposes fall in with the will of God or run counter to it, the will of the Omnipotent is never defeated, and his will never can be evil, because even when it inflicts evil it is just, and what is just is certainly not evil. The Omnipotent God, then, whether in mercy, he pityeth whom he will, or in judgment hardeneth whom he will, is never unjust in what he does, never does anything except of his own free will, and never wills anything that he does not perform. Chapter 103. Accordingly, when we hear and read in Scripture that he will have all men to be saved, although we know well that all men are not saved, we are not on that account to restrict the Omnipotence of God, but are rather to understand the Scripture, who will have all men to be saved, is meaning that no man is saved unless God wills his salvation. Not that there is no man whose salvation he does not will, but that no man is saved apart from his will, and that therefore we should pray him to will our salvation, because if he will it it must necessarily be accomplished. And it was of prayer to God that the apostle was speaking when he used this expression. And on the same principle we interpret the expression in the Gospel, the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. Not that there is no man who is not enlightened, but that no man is enlightened except by him. Or it is said, who will have all men to be saved, not that there is no man whose salvation he does not will, for how then explain the fact that he was unwilling to work miracles in the presence of some who, he said, would have repented if he had worked them. But that we are to understand by all men, the human race and all its varieties of rank and circumstances, kings, subjects, noble, plebeian, high, low, learned and unlearned, the sound and body, the feeble, the clever, the dull, the foolish, the rich, the poor, and those of middling circumstances, males, females, infants, boys, youths, young, middle-aged and old men, of every tongue, of every fashion, of all arts, of all professions, with all the innumerable differences of will and conscience, and whatever else there is that makes a distinction among men. For which of all these classes is there out of which God does not will that men should be saved in all nations through his only begotten Son, our Lord, and therefore does save them, for the omnipotent cannot will in vain whatsoever he may will. Now the apostle had enjoined that prayer should be made for all men, and especially added, for kings and for all that are in authority, who might be supposed in the pride and pomp of worldly station to shrink from the humility of the Christian faith. Then saying, for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God, our Savior, that is, that prayer should be made for such as these, he immediately adds as if to remove any ground of despair, who will have all men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. God then in his great condescension has judged it good to grant to the prayers of the humble the salvation of the exalted, and assuredly we have many examples of this. Our Lord too makes use of the same mode of speech in the Gospel when he says to the Pharisees, he tithe mint and rue and every herb. For the Pharisees did not tithe what belonged to others, nor all the herbs of all the inhabitants of other lands. As then in this place we must understand by every herb, every kind of herb. So in the former passage we may understand by all men every sort of man. And we may interpret it in any other way we please, so long as we are not compelled to believe that the omnipotent God has willed anything to be done which was not done. For setting aside all ambiguities, if he hath done all that he pleased in heaven and in earth as the psalmist sings of him, he certainly did not will to do anything that he hath not done. Chapter 104 Wherefore God would have been willing to preserve even the first man in that state of salvation in which he was created, and after he had begotten sons to remove him at a fit time without the intervention of death to a better place, where he should have been not only free from sin, but free even from the desire of sinning, if he had foreseen that man would have the steadfast will to persist in the state of innocence in which he was created. But as he foresaw that man would make a bad use of his free will, that is, would sin, God arranged his own designs rather with a view to do good to man even in his sinfulness, that thus the good will of the omnipotent might not be made void by the evil will of man, but might be fulfilled in spite of it. Chapter 105 Now it was expedient that man should be at first so created as to have it in his power both to will what was right and to will what was wrong, not without reward if he willed the former, and not without punishment if he willed the latter. But in the future life it shall not be in his power to will evil, and yet this will constitute no restriction on the freedom of his will. On the contrary, his will shall be much freer when it shall be wholly impossible for him to be the slave of sin. We should never think of blaming the will, or saying that it was no will, or that it was not to be called free when we so desire happiness that not only do we shrink from misery but find it utterly impossible to do otherwise. As then the soul even now finds it impossible to desire unhappiness, so in future it shall be wholly impossible for it to desire sin. But God's arrangement was not to be broken, according to which he willed to show how good is a rational being who is able even to refrain from sin, and yet how much better is one who cannot sin at all. Just as that was an inferior sort of immortality, and yet it was immortality, when it was possible for man to avoid death, although there is reserved for the future a more perfect immortality when it shall be impossible for man to die. CHAPTER 106 The former immortality man lost through the exercise of his free will, the latter he shall obtain through grace, whereas if he had not sinned he should have obtained it by dessert. Even in that case, however, there could have been no merit without grace, because although the mere exercise of man's free will was sufficient to bring in sin, his free will would not have sufficed for his maintenance in righteousness unless God had assisted it by imparting a portion of his unchangeable goodness. Just as it is in man's power to die whenever he will, for not to speak of other means, anyone can put an end to himself by simple abstinence from food. But the mere will cannot preserve life in the absence of food and the other means of life. So man in paradise was able, of his mere will, simply by abandoning righteousness to destroy himself. But to have maintained a life of righteousness would have been too much for his will unless it had been sustained by the Creator's power. After the fall, however, a more abundant exercise of God's mercy was required, because the will itself had to be freed from the bondage in which it was held by sin and death. And the will owes its freedom in no degree to itself, but solely to the grace of God which comes by faith in Jesus Christ, so that the very will through which we accept all the other gifts of God which lead us on to his eternal gift is itself prepared of the Lord as the scripture says. Chapter 107 Wherefore even eternal life itself which is surely the reward of good works the apostle calls the gift of God. For the wages of sin, he says, is death. But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Wages, stipendium, is paid as a recompense for military service. It is not a gift. Therefore he says, the wages of sin is death, to show that death was not inflicted undeservedly, but as the new recompense of sin. But a gift, unless it is wholly unearned, is not a gift at all. We are to understand, then, that man's good deserts are themselves the gift of God, so that when these obtain the recompense of eternal life, it is simply grace given for grace. Man, therefore, was thus made upright that, though unable to remain in his uprightness without divine help, he could of his own mere will depart from it. And whichever of these courses he had chosen, God's will would have been done either by him or concerning him. Therefore, as he chose to do his own will rather than God's, the will of God has fulfilled concerning him. For God, out of one of the same heap of perdition which constitutes the race of man, makes one vessel to honor, another to dishonor, to honor in mercy, to dishonor in judgment, that no one may glory in man, and consequently not in himself. CHAPTER 108 For we could not be redeemed even through the one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, if he were not also God. Now when Adam was created, he, being a righteous man, had no need of a mediator. But when sin had placed a wide gulf between God and the human race, it was expedient that a mediator, who alone of the human race was born, lived and died without sin, should reconcile us to God, and procure even for our bodies a resurrection to eternal life, in order that the pride of man might be exposed and cured through the humility of God. The man might be shown how far he had departed from God when God became incarnate to bring him back. That an example might be set to disobedient man in the life of obedience of the God-man. That the fountain of grace might be opened by the only begotten taking upon himself the form of a servant, a form which had no antecedent merit. That an earnest of that resurrection of the body which is promised to the redeemed might be given in the resurrection of the redeemer. That the devil might be subdued by the same nature which it was his boast to have deceived, and yet man not glorified, lest pride should again spring up. And, in fine, with a view to all the advantages which the thoughtful can perceive and describe, or perceive without being able to describe, as flowing from the transcendent mystery of the person of the mediator. CHAPTER 109 During the time moreover which intervenes between a man's death and the final resurrection, the soul dwells in a hidden retreat where it enjoys rest or suffers affliction just in proportion to the merit it has earned by the life which it led on earth. CHAPTER 110 Nor can it be denied that the souls of the dead are benefitted by the piety of their living friends who offer the sacrifice of the mediator or give alms in the church on their behalf. But these services are of advantage only to those who during their lives have earned such merit that services of this kind can help them. For there is a manner of life which is neither so good as not to require these services after death, nor so bad that such services are of no avail after death. There is, on the other hand, a kind of life so good as not to require them, and again, one so bad that when life is over they render no help. Therefore it is in this life that all the merit or demerit is acquired which can either relieve or aggravate a man's sufferings after this life. No one then need hope that after he is dead he shall obtain merit with God which he has neglected to secure here. And accordingly it is plain that the services which the church celebrates for the dead are in no way opposed to the apostles' words. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that everyone may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. For the merit which renders such services as I speak of profitable to a man is earned while he lives in the body. It is not to everyone that these services are profitable. And why are they not profitable to all, except because of the different kinds of lives that men lead in the body? When, then, sacrifices either of the altar or of alms are offered on behalf of all the baptized dead, they are thank-offerings for the very good, they are propitiatory offerings for the not very bad, and in the case of the very bad, even though they do not assist the dead, they are a species of consolation to the living. And where they are profitable their benefit consists either in obtaining a full remission of sins or at least in making the condemnation more tolerable. CHAPTERS 111 THROUGH 122 OF THE ENCORIDIAN THE ENCORIDIAN BY SAID AUGUSTEEN CHAPTER 111 After the resurrection, however, when the final universal judgment has been completed, there shall be two kingdoms each with its own distinct boundaries, the one Christ's, the other of the devil's, the one consisting of the good, the other of the bad, both, however, consisting of angels and men. The former shall have no will, the latter no power to sin, and neither shall have any power to choose death, but the former shall live truly and happily in eternal life, and the latter shall drag a miserable existence in eternal death without the power of dying, for the life and the death shall both be without end. But among the former there shall be degrees of happiness, one being more preeminently happy than another, and among the latter there shall be degrees of misery, one being more endureably miserable than another. CHAPTER 112 It is in vain, then, that some, indeed very many, make moan over the eternal punishment and perpetual, unintermitted torments of the lost, and say they do not believe it shall be so. Not indeed that they directly oppose themselves to holy scripture, but at the suggestion of their own feelings they soften down everything that seems hard and give a milder turn to statements which they think are rather designed to terrify than to be received as literally true. For hath God, they say, forgotten to be gracious? Hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies? Now they read this in one of the holy Psalms, but without doubt we are to understand it as spoken of those who are elsewhere called the vessels of mercy, because even they are freed from misery not on account of any merit of their own, but solely through the pity of God. Or if the men we speak of insist that this passage applies to all mankind, there is no reason why they should therefore suppose that there will be an end to the punishment of those of whom it is said, these shall go away into everlasting punishment, for this shall end in the same manner and at the same time as the happiness of those of whom it is said, but the righteous unto life eternal. But let them suppose, if the thought gives them pleasure, that the pains of the damned are at certain intervals in some degree assuaged, for even in this case the wrath of God, that is, their condemnation, for it is this and not any disturbed feeling in the mind of God that is called his wrath, abideth upon them, that is, his wrath, though it still remains, does not shut up his tender mercies, though his tender mercies are exhibited not in putting an end to their eternal punishment, but in mitigating or in granting them a respite from their torments, for the Psalm does not say to put an end to his anger, or when his anger is passed by, but in his anger. Now if this anger stood alone, or if it existed in the smallest conceivable degree, yet to be lost out of the kingdom of God, to be in exile from the city of God, to be alienated from the life of God, to have no share in that grace, goodness, which God hath laid up for them that fear him, and hath wrought out for them that trust in him, would be a punishment so great, that supposing it to be eternal, no torments that we know of, continued through as many ages as man's imagination can conceive, could be compared with it. This perpetual death of the wicked, then, that is, their alienation from the life of God shall abide forever, and shall be common to them all, whatever men, prompted by their human affections, may conjecture as to a variety of punishments, or as to a mitigation, or intermission of their woes, just as the eternal life of the saints shall abide forever, and shall be common to them all, whatever grades of rank and honor there may be among those who shine with an harmonious effulgence. Out of this confession of faith, which is briefly comprehended in the creed, and which, carnally understood, is milk for babes, but spiritually apprehended and studied, is meat for strong men, springs the good hope of believers, and this is accompanied by a holy love. But of these matters, all of which are true objects of faith, those only pertain to hope, which are embraced in the Lord's prayer. For, cursed is the man that trusts in man, is the testimony of holy writ, and consequently this curse attaches also to the man who trusts in himself. Therefore, except from God the Lord, we ought to ask for nothing, either that we hope to do well, or hope to obtain as a reward of our good works. CHAPTER 115 Accordingly, in the Gospel according to Matthew, the Lord's prayer seems to embrace seven petitions, three of which ask for eternal blessings, and the remaining four for temporal. These latter, however, being necessary antecedents to the attainment of the eternal. For when we say, Hallow would be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven, which some have interpreted not unfairly in body as well as in spirit, we ask for blessings that are to be enjoyed forever, which are indeed begun in this world, and grow in us as we grow in grace, but in their perfect state, which is to be looked for in another life, shall be a possession for evermore. But when we say, Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, who does not see that we ask for blessings that have reference to the wants of this present life. In that eternal life, where we hope to live forever, the hallowing of God's name and his kingdom, and his will and our spirit and body, shall be brought to perfection, and shall endure to everlasting. But our daily bread is so called, because there is here constant need for as much nourishment as the spirit and the flesh demand, whether we understand the expression spiritually, or carnally, or in both senses. It is here too that we need the forgiveness that we ask, for it is here that we commit the sins. Here are the temptations which allure or drive us into sin. Here in a word is the evil from which we desire deliverance, but in that other world there shall be none of these things. CHAPTER 116 But the evangelist Luke, in his version of the Lord's prayer, embraces not seven, but five petitions. Not of course that there is any discrepancy between the two evangelists, but that Luke indicates by his very brevity the mode in which the seven petitions of Matthew are to be understood. For God's name is hallowed in the spirit, and God's kingdom shall come in the resurrection of the body. Luke therefore, intending to show that the third petition is a sort of repetition of the first two, has chosen to indicate that by omitting the third petition all together. Then he adds three others, one for daily bread, another for pardon of sin, another for immunity from temptation. And what Matthew puts is the last petition, but deliver us from evil Luke has omitted to show us that it is embraced in the previous petition about temptation. Matthew indeed himself says, but deliver, not and deliver, as if to show that the petitions are virtually one. Do not this, but this. So that every man is to understand that he is being delivered from evil in the very fact of his not being led into temptation. CHAPTER 117 And now as to love which the apostle declares to be greater than the other two graces, that is, than faith and hope, the greater the measure in which it dwells than a man, the better is the man in whom it dwells. For when there is a question as to whether a man is good, one does not ask what he believes, or what he hopes, but what he loves. For the man who loves a right no doubt believes and hopes a right, whereas the man who has not love believes in vain, even though his beliefs are true, and hopes in vain, even though the objects of his hope are a real part of true happiness, unless indeed he believes in hopes for this, that he may obtain by prayer the blessing of love. For although it is not possible to hope without love, it may yet happen that a man does not love that which is necessary to the attainment of his hope. As for example, if he hopes for eternal life, and who is there that does not desire this, and yet does not love righteousness without which no one can attain to eternal life. Now this is the true faith of Christ which the apostle speaks of which worketh by love, and if there is anything that it does not yet embrace in its love, asks that it may receive, seeks that it may find, and knocks that it may be opened unto it, for faith obtains through prayer that which the law commands. For without the gift of God, that is, without the Holy Spirit, through whom love is shed abroad in our hearts, the law can command, but it cannot assist. And moreover it makes a man a transgressor, for he can no longer excuse himself on the plea of ignorance. Now carnal lust reigns where there is not the love of God. CHAPTER 118 When sunk in the darkest depths of ignorance, man lives according to the flesh, undisturbed by any struggle of reason or conscience. This is his first state. Afterwards, when through the law has come the knowledge of sin, and the Spirit of God has not yet interposed his aid, man, striving to live according to the law, is thwarted in his efforts, and falls into conscious sin, and so, being overcome of sin, becomes its slave, for of whom a man is overcome of the same as he brought in bondage. And thus the effect produced by the knowledge of the commandment is this, that sin worketh in man all manner of concupiscence, and he is involved in the additional guilt of willful transgression, and that is fulfilled which is written, the law entered that the offense might abound. This is man's second state. But if God has regard to him, and inspires him with faith in God's help, and the Spirit of God begins to work in him, then the mightier power of love strives against the power of the flesh. Yet although there is still in the man's own nature a power that fights against him, for his disease is not completely cured, yet he lives the life of the just by faith, and lives in righteousness so far as he does not yield to evil lust, but conquers it by the love of holiness. This is the third state of a man of good hope, and he who by steadfast piety advances in this course shall attain at last a peace, that peace which, after this life is over, shall be perfected in the repose of the Spirit, and finally in the resurrection of the body. Of these four different stages the first is before the law, the second is under the law, the third is under grace, and the fourth is in full and perfect peace. Thus too has the history of God's people been ordered according to his pleasure, who disposes all things in number and measure and weight. For the church existed at first before the law, then under the law which was given by Moses, then under grace which was first made manifest in the coming of the Mediator. Not indeed that this grace was absent previously, but in harmony with the arrangements of the time it was veiled and hidden. For none, even of the just men of old could find salvation apart from the faith of Christ. Nor unless he had been known to them could their ministry have been used to convey prophecies concerning him to us, some more plain, and some more obscure. Chapter 119 Now in whichever of these four stages, as we may call them, the grace of regeneration finds any particular man, all his past sins are there and then pardoned, and the guilt which he contracted in his birth is removed in his new birth. And so true is it that the wind bloweth where it listeth that some have never known the second stage, that of slavery under the law, but have received the divine assistance as soon as they received the commandment. Chapter 120 But before a man can receive the commandment, it is necessary that he should live according to the flesh. But if once he has received the grace of regeneration, death shall not injure him, even if he should forthwith depart from this life. For to this end Christ both died and rose and revived, that he might be lured both of the dead and the living. Nor shall death retain dominion over him for whom Christ freely died. Chapter 121 All the commandments of God, then, are embraced in love, of which the apostle says, Now the end of the commandment is charity, out of a pure heart, and of a good conscience, and of faith unfaigned. Thus the end of every commandment is charity, that is, every commandment has love for its aim. But whatever is done, either through fear of punishment, or from some other carnal motive, and has not for its principle that love which the Spirit of God sheds abroad in the heart, is not done as it ought to be done, however it may appear to man. For this love embraces both the love of God and the love of our neighbor, and on these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets, we may add the gospel and the apostles. For it is from these that we hear this voice, the end of the commandment is charity, and God is love. Wherefore all God's commandments, one of which is, thou shalt not commit adultery, and all those precepts which are not commandments, but special counsels, one of which is, it is good for a man not to touch a woman, are rightly carried out only when the motive principle of action is the love of God and the love of our neighbor in God. And this applies both to the present and the future life. We love God now by faith, then we shall love him through sight. Now we love even our neighbor by faith, for we who are ourselves mortal know not the hearts of mortal men. But in the future life the Lord both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness, and will make manifest the counsels of the hearts, and then shall every man have praise of God. For every man shall love and praise in his neighbor the virtue which, that it may not be hid, the Lord himself shall bring to light. Moreover lust diminishes as love grows, till the latter grows to such a height that it can grow no higher here. For greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Who then can tell how great love shall be in the future world, when there shall be no lust for it to restrain and conquer? For that will be the perfection of health, when there shall be no struggle with death. CHAPTER 122 But now there must be an end at last to this volume. And it is for yourself to judge, whether you should call it a handbook, or should use it as such. I, however, thinking that your zeal in Christ ought not to be despised, and believing and hoping all good of you, and dependence on our Redeemer's help, and loving you very much as one of the members of his body, have, to the best of my ability, written this book for you on faith, hope, and love. May its value be equal to its length. END OF THE ENCORIDION by ST. AUGUSTEAN by Darren L. Slider, Fort Worth, Texas, on April 16, 2007