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Chapter 6GratL.1.6

Ad volendum bonum gratiam omnino esse necessariam.

The Captivity of Freedom

Augustine argues that our natural willing is free in one sense yet captive in another, because true freedom to do good requires grace.

But I think this much has also been made quite clear: that this very freedom is, in a way, held captive as long as the other two freedoms are not — or at least not fully — present with it; and that our failure in this regard comes from nowhere else, as the Apostle says: so that you do not do whatever you want (Gal.✦ 5:17). Willing, then, is ours through free choice — but not also the ability to do what we will. I don't mean willing the good or willing the evil — just willing itself. For willing the good is progress; willing the evil is failure. But willing in itself is simply what either advances or falls short. Moreover, grace created it so that it might be; saving grace acts so that it might advance; and it is the will itself that casts itself down so that it falls short. So free choice makes us willing; grace makes us willing in the right way.

Ordered Affections as Virtues

Augustine explains that natural affections like fear and love become virtues only when grace orders them toward God.

Our very capacity to will comes from God himself; our capacity to will the good comes from grace. Just as there's a difference between fearing in some general sense and fearing God, and between loving in some general sense and loving God — so that fear and love, when named on their own, are simply natural affections, but when directed toward God they signify virtues — so too there's a difference between willing in some general sense and willing the good. Our natural affections are present in us by nature, as it were from ourselves; but their ordering comes from grace. And surely there is nothing else to it except what grace orders — the affections that creation gave us — so that virtues are nothing other than rightly ordered affections.

Disordered Fear and Inordinate Love

Scripture examples show how fear and love become disordered when not directed by God, and how grace reorders even the will's desires.

It is written of certain people that they trembled with fear where there was no cause for fear (Psalm✦ 13:5). There was fear, but it was disordered. The Lord wanted to put that fear in order among the disciples, when he said: Let me show you whom you ought to fear (Luke✦ 12:5); and David says: Come, children, listen to me — I will teach you the fear of the Lord (Psalm✦ 33:12). Likewise, he argued against disordered love in the one who said, I have come as a light into this world, and people loved darkness rather than light (John✦ 3:19). So the bride pleads in the Song of Songs: Set love in order within me (Song of Songs✦ 2:4). Similarly, disordered will was rebuked when they were told, You do not know what you are asking.✦ But once they were taught, they brought their distorted will back into line with what is right, when they heard, Can you drink the cup that I am about to drink?✦ (Mark 10:38.)

Christ's Submitted Will as Our Pattern

Christ teaches us to submit our will to the Father, showing that willing the good comes through grace's visitation.

He taught us to order our will by his words at the time, but afterward he taught us by his example as well: when he prayed in the anguish of his approaching passion that the cup might pass from him, he at once added in submission, "Yet not what I will, but what you will" (Matt.✦ 26:39). From God, then, we received our willing, just as we received our fearing and loving, as part of our natural condition, so that we might be creatures: but willing the good, and fearing God, and loving God — this we receive through the visitation of grace, so that we become creatures of God.

Whose Will You Belong To?

Augustine traces how the will's orientation determines whether we belong to God or to the devil, and only a good will makes us God's own.

We were created to have, in a sense, a free will of our own, yet it's through a good will that we become God's. Furthermore, the one who made us free makes us good — and makes us good so that we might become, in some measure, the beginning of his creation. Indeed, it is surely more to our advantage never to have existed at all than to remain merely our own. For those who wanted to be their own — knowing good and evil, just like gods — became not only their own, but the devil's as well. So it is free will that makes us our own; a bad will makes us the devil's; a good will makes us God's. This is what the saying refers to: 'The Lord knows those who are his' (2 Tim. 2:19). For to those who are not his, he says, 'Amen, I tell you, I do not know you' (Matt. 7:23).

Freedom, Merit, and Serving One Master

Even when enslaved to the devil, free choice remains and merit persists, but a good will is not perfect until fully subjected to God.

Since through an evil will we belong to the devil, for the time being we don't in some sense belong to God: just as when through a good will we are made God's, we at once cease to belong to the devil. No one, after all, can serve two masters (Matt. VI, 24). But whether we belong to God or to the devil, we don't in the same way cease to belong to ourselves. For in either case the freedom of choice remains, through which the ground of merit also remains: so that by merit we may either be punished as evildoers — made so by our own will, acting as free agents — or be glorified as good, since we cannot be good unless we are equally willing. To be sure, our will enslaves us to the devil, not his power; God subordinates us to his grace, not our will. Our good will — and this must be acknowledged — was created by the good God, yet it won't be perfect until it is perfectly subjected to its Creator. But far be it from us to attribute perfection to ourselves and creation only to God; for it is surely far better to be perfect than to be made, and even in the saying itself it seems wicked to attribute to God what is lesser and to ourselves what is greater.

To Will Is Not Yet to Accomplish

Paul's confession that he can will but cannot accomplish good shows the will's need for grace to be perfected.

The Apostle, then, perceiving by experience what came from nature and what was to be expected from grace, said: To will is present with me, but I don't find how to accomplish it (Rom.✦ VII, 18). He knew, of course, that the will was present within him through free choice. But in order to have that willing itself perfected, he knew he needed grace. For if to will evil is a certain defect of the will, then to will good is surely its progress; but for the will to be sufficient for every good we desire — that will be its perfection.

The Twofold Gift of Grace

Perfect willing requires two gifts of grace: Wisdom to turn the will toward good and Power to confirm it in the good, leading to perfect justice and glory.

So that our willing, which we have from free choice, may be perfect, we need a twofold gift of grace — namely, Wisdom, which is the turning of the will toward the good, and also full Power, which is the confirmation of that same will in the good.1 A perfect turning toward the good means this: that nothing pleases you except what is fitting or right; and a perfect confirmation in the good means this: that nothing you desire is now lacking. Then at last the will will be perfect, when it is fully good and filled with goodness. The will has, from its very beginning, a twofold goodness within itself: one is general, coming from creation alone — namely, that it could not have been created by a good God unless it was good, according to what God saw: everything he had made, and it was very good (Gen. 1:31);✦ the other is special, coming from the freedom of choice by which the will was fashioned — assuredly in the image of the one who created it.✦ And if a third goodness is added to these two — namely, a turning toward the Creator — the will will rightly be considered perfectly good: good indeed in its completeness, better in its own kind, and best in its ordering of itself. This ordering is the complete turning of the will toward God, and a willing, devoted submission of oneself, poured out entirely. To such perfect justice, indeed, glory is owed — or rather, the fullness of glory is joined to it — because these two things go so closely together that justice cannot have its perfection except in full glory, nor can the fullness of glory exist without perfect justice.

True Knowledge and Full Power

True Knowledge and full Power distinguish grace-enabled wisdom and strength from worldly or fleshly counterfeits, uniting free counsel and free approval.

It's no surprise, then, that this kind of justice can't exist without glory, since true glory is never found except in such justice. That's why it's rightly said: Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice, for they shall be satisfied (Matt.✦ 5:6). Now these are the two things we named above: true knowledge and full power — so that knowledge points to justice, and power is directed toward glory. But 'true' and 'full' are added — the one to distinguish the wisdom of the flesh, which is death (Rom. 8:6); and likewise to the wisdom of the world, which is foolishness before God (1 Cor.✦ 3:19), by which people are wise before themselves — wise, I say — so as to do evil (Jerem.✦ 4:22): the other to distinguish those of whom it is said, 'The mighty shall suffer torments mightily' (Wis. 6:7). For true knowledge or full power are never found at all unless, where there is free choice, those two things we also mentioned earlier are now joined together — namely, free counsel and free approval I would say truly, then, that only the one who is truly wise and fully powerful — who now has not only the will from free choice, but also finds in the other two the ability to carry through, since one can neither will what is evil nor lack what one desires — only that person is truly wise and fully powerful. Of these two, the one comes from the freedom of counsel, that is, true knowledge; the other from the freedom of approval, namely, full power.

No One Glorys in This Age

Augustine closes by confessing that no one in this age, not even Paul or Adam, has attained this full perfection of willing.

But who among us is such as this, and great enough, to glory in this? Or where, or when, is this actually attained? Surely not in this present age? But if anyone were of this kind, he would be greater than Paul, who confesses, saying: Yet what is complete, I do not find. Surely not Adam in paradise? But if he had possessed it, he would never have been exiled from paradise.

Read the original Latin

Sed et hoc satis aperte monstratum esse puto, quod haec ipsa tamen libertas tamdiu quodammodo captiva tenetur, quamdiu illam duae aliae libertates minime, aut minus plene comitantur; nec aliunde noster ille defectus venit, de quo Apostolus: Ut non quaecumque vultis, ait, illa faciatis (Galat. V, 17) . Velle siquidem 610 mest nobis ex libero arbitrio, non etiam posse quod volumus. Non dico velle bonum, aut velle malum: sed tantum velle. Velle etenim bonum, profectus est; velle malum defectus. Velle vero simpliciter, ipsum est quod vel proficit, vel deficit. Porro ipsum ut esset, creans gratia fecit; ut proficiat, salvans gratia facit, ut deficiat, ipsum se dejicit. Itaque liberum arbitrium nos facit volentes, gratia benevolos.

Ex ipso nobis est velle, ex ipsa bonum velle. Quemadmodum namque aliud est timere simpliciter, aliud timere Deum; et aliud amare simpliciter, aliud est amare Deum: quippe timere et amare, simpliciter quidem prolata, affectiones; cum additamento autem virtutes, significant: ita quoque aliud est velle, aliud velle bonum.

Simplices namque affectiones insunt naturaliter nobis, tanquam ex nobis: additamenta ex gratia. Nec aliud profecto est, nisi quod gratia ordinat, quas donavit creatio: ut nil aliud sint virtutes nisi ordinatae affectiones. Scriptum est de quibusdam, quod illic trepidassent timore, ubi non erat timor (Psal. XIII, 5) . Timor fuit, sed inordinatus. Ordinare illum volebat Dominus in discipulis, cum diceret: Ostendam vobis quem timere debeatis (Luc. XII, 5) ; et David: Venite, ait, filii, audite me, timorem Domini docebo vos (Psal. XXXIII, 12) .

Item de amore inordinato arguebat homines qui dicebat: Ego lux veni in hunc mundum; et dilexerunt homines magis tenebras, quam lucem (Joan. III, 19) . Idcirco postulat sponsa in Canticis, dicens: Ordinate in me charitatem (Cant. II, 4) . Similiter quoque de inordinata voluntate arguebantur, quibus dicebatur: Nescitis quid petatis. Sed ad lineam rectitudinis edocti sunt distortam reducere voluntatem, cum audierunt: Potestis bibere calicem, quem ego bibiturus sum? (Marc. X, 38.)

Et tunc quidem verbo, sed postmodum etiam exemplo voluntatem ordinare docebat, cum orans instante passione ut transferretur ab eo calix, statim subjiceret: Verumtamen non quod ego volo, sed quod tu vis (Matth. XXVI, 39) . A Deo igitur velle, quomodo et timere, quomodo et amare, accepimus in conditione naturae, ut essemus aliqua creatura: velle autem bonum, quomodo et timere Deum, quomodo et amare Deum, accipimus in visitatione gratiae, ut simus Dei creatura.

Creati quippe quodammodo nostri in liberam voluntatem, quasi Dei efficimur per bonam voluntatem. Porro bonam facit, qui liberam fecit; et ad hoc bonam, ut simus initium aliquod creaturae ejus: quoniam expedit profecto nobis magis omnino non fuisse, quam nostros permanere. Nam, qui voluerunt sui esse, utique sicut dii, scientes bonum et malum; facti sunt, non tantum jam sui, sed et diaboli. Itaque libera voluntas nos facit nostros; mala, diaboli; bona, Dei. Ad hoc pertinet quod dicitur: Novit Dominus qui sunt ejus (II Tim. II, 19) . Nam illis qui ejus non sunt, Amen dico vobis, inquit, nescio vos (Matth. XXV, 12) .

Cum ergo per malam voluntatem sumus diaboli, quodammodo interim non sumus Dei: sicut cum per bonam voluntatem efficimur Dei, desinimus jam esse diaboli. Nemo siquidem potest duobus dominis servire (Id. VI, 24) . Caeterum sive Dei sumus, sive diaboli; non tamen similiter desinimus esse et nostri. Manet quippe utrobique libertas arbitrii, per quam maneat et causa meriti: quatenus merito vel puniamur mali, quod tanquam liberi ex propria voluntate efficimur: vel glorificemur boni, quod nisi aeque voluntarii esse non possumus. Sane diabolo nostra nos mancipat voluntas, non ipsius potestas: Deo subjicit ejus gratia, non nostra voluntas. Nostra quippe voluntas bona (quod fatendum est) a bono Deo creata, perfecta tamen non erit, quousque suo Creatori perfecte subjecta sit. Absit autem, ut ipsi sui ipsius perfectionem, Deo autem tantum creationem tribuamus; cum longe nimirum melius sit esse perfectam, quam factam: et dictu ipso nefas videatur, Deo quod minus, nobis quod excellentius sit attribuere.

Sentiens denique Apostolus quid ex natura esset, quid ex gratia exspectaret, aiebat: 611 Velle adjacet mihi, perficere non invenio (Rom. VII, 18) . Sciebat profecto, velle quidem sibi inesse ex libero arbitrio. sed ut ipsum velle perfectum haberet, gratiam se habere necessariam. Si enim velle malum, defectus quidam est voluntatis; utique bonum velle, profectus ejusdem erit: sufficere vero ad omne quod volumus bonum, ipsius perfectio.

Ut ergo velle nostrum, quod ex libero arbitrio habemus, perfectum habeamus; duplici gratiae munere indigemus, et vero videlicet Sapere, quod est voluntatis ad bonum conversio; et pleno etiam Posse, quod est ejusdem in bono confirmatio. Porro perfecta conversio est ad bonum, ut nil libeat nisi quod deceat vel liceat; perfecta in bono confirmatio, ut nil desit jam quod libeat. Tunc demum perfecta erit voluntas, cum plene fuerit bona, et bene plena. Habet siquidem duplex in se bonum ab initio sui: unum quidem generale ex sola creatione, quod a bono scilicet Deo non potuit creari nisi bona, secundum quod vidit Deus cuncta quae fecerat, et erant valde bona (Gen. I, 31) ; alterum speciale ex libertate arbitrii, in qua ad imaginem utique ipsius qui creavit, est condita. Quod si duobus his bonis accedat et tertium, conversio scilicet ad Creatorem; reputabitur non immerito perfecte bona: bona nimirum in universitate, melior in suo genere, optima in sui ordinatione. Est autem ordinatio, omnimoda conversio voluntatis ad Deum, et ex tota se voluntaria devotaque subjectio. Huic vero tam per fectae justitiae debetur, imo jungitur gloriae plenitudo: quia sic se comitantur duo ista, ut nec justitiae possit haberi perfectio, nisi in plena gloria; nec gloriae plenitudo, absque perfecta justitia.

Merito denique talis justitia non erit sine gloria, cum gloria vera non sit, nisi de tali justitia. Unde recte dicitur: Beati qui esuriunt et sitiunt justitiam, quoniam ipsi saturabuntur (Matth. V, 6) .

Haec autem sunt illa duo quae supra nominavimus, verum Sapere, et plenum Posse: ut Sapere ad justitiam, Posse referatur ad gloriam. Sed Verum et Plenum addita sunt, alterum ad distinctionem sapientiae carnis, quae mors est (Rom. VIII, 6) ; itemque sapientiae mundi, quae stultitia apud Deum (I Cor. III, 19) , qua et sapientes apud semetipsos sunt homines, sapientes, inquam, ut faciant malo (Jerem. IV, 22) : alterum ad illorum differentiam, de quibus dicitur: Potentes potenter tormenta patientur (Sap. VI, 7) . Nam verum Sapere, aut plenum Posse omnino non inveniuntur, nisi ubi libero arbitrio jam illa duo conjuncta sunt, quae item superius memoravimus, liberum videlicet consilium, liberumque complacitum. Solum profecto dixerim vere sapientem, pleneque potentem, cui jam non tantum velle adjacet ex libero arbitrio, sed ex reliquis quoque duobus invenit et perficere; dum nec velle valeat quod malum sit, nec carere quod velit: quorum alterum est ex libertate consilii, id est verum Sapere; alterum ex libertate complaciti, scilicet plenum Posse.

Sed quis talis est ac tantus in hominibus, qui in hoc glorietur? Aut ubi, aut quando istud obtinetur? Nunquidnam in hoc saeculo? Sed si quis esset hujusmodi, major esset Paulo, qui confitetur dicens: Perficere autem non invenio. Nunquid Adam in paradiso? Sed si habuisset, nunquam exsulasset a paradiso.

Scripture echoes

  1. ↩Gal.5.17 — For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh; these are opposed to each other, so that you may not do the things you wish.
  2. ↩Ps.13.5 — But I trust in your steadfast love; my heart rejoices in your salvation.
  3. ↩Luke.12.5 — But I will show you whom to fear: fear the one who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him.
  4. ↩Ps.33.12 — Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people whom he has chosen as his heritage.
  5. ↩John.3.19 — And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and the people loved the darkness rather than the light, for their deeds were evil.
  6. ↩Song.2.4 — He brought me to the house of wine, and his banner over me is love.
  7. ↩Mark.10.38 — But Jesus said to them, "You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am being baptized?"
  8. ↩Mark.10.38 — But Jesus said to them, "You do not know what you are asking. Are you able to drink the cup that I drink, or to be baptized with the baptism with which I am being baptized?"
  9. ↩Matt.26.39 — And going forward a little, he fell on his face, praying and saying, 'My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.'
  10. ↩Rom.7.18 — For I know that good does not dwell in me—that is, in my flesh. For the willing is present with me, but the working out of the good is not.
  11. ↩Gen.1.31 — And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.
  12. ↩Gen.1.26-Gen.1.27 — Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, according to our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." Gen.1.27 — So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
  13. ↩Matt.5.6 — Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
  14. ↩1Cor.3.19 — For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, 'He catches the wise in their craftiness.'
  15. ↩Jer.9.23 — Thus says the LORD: Let not the wise boast in their wisdom, let not the strong boast in their strength, let not the wealthy boast in their riches. But let the one who boasts boast in this: understanding and knowing me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these I delight, declares the LORD.

Notes

  1. 1 ↩Sapere and Posse are capitalized in the source and personified as quasi-graces; rendered as 'Wisdom' and 'Power' to preserve that elevation without archaism.

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