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sider them as the utterance of the man convinced, and that by the Spirit of God, of sin and of righteousness, on the way to, but not yet arrived at, the blessed freedom of the spirit in Christ Jesus, seeing it afar off, and struggling toward, though not grasping it as yet.

Nor does Augustine himself fail distinctly to observe that while he is escaping from one danger, he is, by the new interpretation which he is introducing here, running into another. If that which he left might seem to play into the hands of the Pelagians, ascribing too much to the natural powers of man, did not that which he now favoured, and which his influence caused to be received without a question in the Western Church for more than a thousand years, ascribe too little to the regenerate man? did it not set the standard of his obedience too low? He is quite aware that this charge might be brought against it, and is very earnest in vindicating his exposition of the words* from all antinomian abuse; in giving all care lest the evil of men should turn that which in itself was healthful food into poison. It is plain that to such abuse it would be much more exposed according to his later exposition than according to that of the earlier Church, though of course this in itself would not be sufficient reason to reject it.

For instance, in regard of the words which the easiest

* Difficilis et periculosus locus, as in one place he calls it. (Serm. 154. c. 1; cf. Serm. 151, c. 1.)

Serm. 151. c. 1: Ne homines male sumentes salubrem cibum, vertant in venenum.

yield themselves to such an abuse, which might be and have been the most eagerly seized by the false-hearted, who are looking in Christ's Gospel not for strength to deliver them from sin, but excuses for remaining in sin— I mean the apostle's concluding words, "So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin;" (vii. 25 ;) he continually urges that all this impotence for good whereof the regenerate man here or elsewhere complains, has solely to do with the interior region of his heart and his inability to bring the thoughts and desires of his heart into a perfect conformity to the will of God, and has nothing at all to do with the exterior sphere of his acts.* It is one thing concupiscere, another post concupiscentias ire. So long as we bear about this body we shall not altogether be delivered from the first; for the promise is not even to those who walk in the Spirit, "Ye shall not have the lust of the flesh;" but it is most truly, "Ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.”

* De Nupt. et Concup. 1. 2. c. 31: Quod sic intelligendum est, mente servio legi Dei, non consentiendo legi peccati, carne autem servio legi peccati, habendo desideria peccati, quibus etsi non consentio, nondum tamen penitus careo. See the four preceding chapters, which have all an important bearing on this subject. Cf. Enarr, in Ps. LXXV. 3. Thus too on the confession of the apostle, (for he naturally rejects altogether the unworthy evasion that St. Paul is speaking of another, not of himself,) "The good that I would I do not; but the evil which I would not that I do," (ver. 19,) he asks (Serm. 154): Itane Apostolus Paulus nolebat facere adulterium, et faciebat adulterium? nolebat esse avarus, et erat avarus? Cf. Con. duas Ep. Pel. 1. 1. c. 10. § 18.

(Gal. v. 16.) And he distinguishes between the inhabitatio peccati, over which the faithful man still mourns, and the regnum peccati, which in him has been destroyed. (Rom. vi. 12.) The Canaanite will dwell in the land, but he is under tribute.† The Christian soldier is not here complaining of defeat, but that which he grudges is to be always at war, always in a conflict, even though in Christ Jesus he is evermore a conqueror therein.‡

Augustine brings into closest connexion with this passage in the Romans, and gives a right interpretation of, those other words of the same apostle, so often misapplied in his own time, and so often misapplied still, "The letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life," (2 Cor. iii. 6,) which are often taken as though "the letter" meant the letter of Scripture, which profited nothing, which might often even be so misused as to "kill," at any rate would not make alive, unless the inner spiritual meaning, or "the spirit," were discovered and drawn out. This assertion, which of course has its truth,—indeed Augustine tells us that, used in this sense, the passage was one of his great teacher

* Ep. 196. c. 2.

See an important passage for his teaching on all this subject, Exp. Ep. ad Gal. v. 17, 18. He draws a distinction perhaps verbally hardly to be justified, but of which the intention is plain: Aliud est peccare, aliud habere peccatum.

Thus in affecting words (Serm. 151. c. 8): Nolo semper vincere; sed volo aliquando ad pacem venire. And again, on the present conflict with indwelling sin: Quamdiu vitiis repugnatur, plena pax non est, quia et illa quæ resistunt periculoso debellantur prælio, et illa quæ victa sunt nondum securo triumphantur otio, sed adhuc solicito premuntur imperio.

Ambrose's favourite sayings,*-has yet nothing to do with what the apostle is stating in these words; and the fact of this explanation having both in old times and new acquired so great a currency is a striking example of the tendency to isolate statements of Scripture, and to interpret them independently of the context which can alone rightly explain them. "The letter" here, according to all the necessities of the context, is the law, called “the letter” because written on tables of stone; the whole dispensation, commanding and threatening, yet not quickening, of the Old Testament. This, as the apostle in harmony with all his other teaching declares, "killeth," not merely negatively, in that it does not make alive, but positively; for, as Augustine admirably brings out, the true parallel and interpretation of the words is to be found in those other words of the apostle, "I was alive without the law once, &c. ;" while "the spirit" here is that dispensation of the Spirit of which he speaks Rom. viii. 1—11, as that in which, and in which only, resides the power of making men alive unto God.†

*Conf. 1. 6. c. 4.

† De Spir. et Litt. c. 4: Doctrina quippe illa, quâ mandatum accipimus continenter recteque vivendi, littera est occidens, nisi adsit vivificans spiritus. Neque enim solo illo modo intelligendum est quod legimus, Littera occidit, spiritus autem vivificat; ut aliquid figurate scriptum, cujus est absurda proprietas, non accipiamus sicut littera sonat, sed aliud quod significat intuentes interiorem hominem spiritali intelligentiâ nutriamus; sed etiam illo, eoque vel maxime, quo apertissime alio loco dicit, Concupiscentiam nesciebam, nisi lex diceret: Non concupisces. And c. 5: Volo demonstrare illud quod ait apostolus: Littera occidit, spiritus autem vivificat, non de

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figuratis locutionibus dictum, quamvis et illinc congruenter accipiatur, sed potius de lege aperte quod est malum prohibente; and c. 19: Lex enim sine adjuvante Spiritu procul dubio est littera occidens; cum vero adest vivificans Spiritus, hoc ipsum intus conscriptum facit diligi, quod foris scriptum lex faciebat timeri. Yet he is not himself uniformly true to the right explanation, clearly as he has stated it here, for see De Doctr. Christ. 1. 3. c. 5.

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