Letters 145.1–146.1

A most trustworthy opportunity for greeting Your Sincerity has presented itself in the honorable servants of God, our brothers Lupicinus and Concordialis, through whom Your Charity could learn everything that is going on among us even if I did not write. For I know how much you love us in Christ, since you also know how much in him you are loved by us in return; and therefore I did not doubt that you could have been saddened if you had seen without a letter from me those whom you could not fail to know had set out from us and were joined to us by such intimacy; and also because I owed you a reply. For since I received your letter, I do not know whether I am not replying now for the first time; we are bound and stretched by so many cares that I do not know even this.

We very much wish to know how things are with you, and whether the Lord has granted you some rest, as far as it is possible in this land; for if one member is glorified, all the members rejoice with it. And so it often happens that, when in the midst of our anxieties we think of some of our brothers established in however little rest, we are refreshed in no small measure, as if we too lived more quietly and peacefully in them. Yet even when troubles grow more frequent in the frailty of this life, they compel us to desire eternal rest. For this world is more dangerous when it flatters than when it troubles, and more to be guarded against when it entices us to love it than when it warns and compels us to despise it. For since all that is in it is the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the ambition of the world, the affection for earthly sweetness often insinuates itself even into those who prefer to such things what is spiritual, invisible, and eternal, and accompanies our duties with its delights. For the better the things to come are to love, the more violent the present things are to weakness. And would that those who know how to see and lament them might deserve to overcome and escape them! This the human will in no way accomplishes without the grace of God; for it should not even be called free so long as it is subject to the desires that conquer and bind it. For by what a man is overcome, to that he is also bound as a slave; and “If the Son sets you free,” says the Son of God himself, “then you will be free indeed.”

The law, then, by teaching and commanding what cannot be fulfilled without grace, shows man his weakness, so that his weakness, once shown, may seek the Savior, by whom the will, once healed, may be able to do what in its weakness it could not. The law therefore leads to faith, faith obtains a more abundant Spirit, the Spirit pours out love, love fulfills the law. That is why the law is called a tutor; under its most threatening severity, whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. But how will they call on him in whom they have not believed? Therefore, so that the letter may not kill without the Spirit, the life-giving Spirit is given to those who believe and call, and the love of God is poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us, so that what the same apostle says may come about: “Love is the fulfillment of the law.” So the law is good to one who uses it lawfully; and he uses it lawfully who, understanding why it was given, flees under its threat to liberating grace. Whoever is ungrateful to this grace, by which the ungodly is justified, and trusts in his own strength as if to fulfill the law, being ignorant of God’s righteousness and wishing to establish his own, is not subject to the righteousness of God; and so the law becomes for him not an aid to acquittal but the chain of guilt; not because the law is evil, but because sin, as it is written, works death in such people through what is good. For through the commandment one sins more gravely who through the commandment knows how evil is what he commits.

But he thinks in vain that he is a conqueror of sin who does not sin from fear of punishment; for, even if the business of evil desire is not carried out outwardly, the evil desire itself is an enemy within. And who is found innocent before God who wants what is forbidden to be done, if you take away what is feared? And so in his very will he is guilty who wants to do what is not lawful, but does not do it only because it cannot be done with impunity. For as far as it lies with him, he would rather there were no justice forbidding and punishing sins; and surely, if he would rather there were no justice, who would doubt that he would abolish it if he could? How, then, is he righteous who is such an enemy of justice that, if he were given the power, he would abolish it when it commands, so as not to endure it when it threatens or judges? He, then, is an enemy of justice who does not sin from fear of punishment; but he will be its friend if he does not sin from love of it; for then he will truly fear to sin. For he who fears hell fears not to sin but to burn; but he fears to sin who hates sin itself as he hates hell. This is the chaste fear of the Lord, enduring for ever and ever; for that fear of punishment has torment and is not in love, and perfect love casts it out.

Each person hates sin as much as he loves righteousness, and this he cannot do with the law terrifying him through the letter, but only with the Spirit healing him through grace. Then what the apostle urges comes about: “I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh; for just as you presented your members to serve uncleanness and iniquity for iniquity, so now present your members to serve righteousness for sanctification.” For what does “as that, so this” mean, except: just as no fear compelled you to sin, but the lust and pleasure of sin itself, so let not dread of punishment drive you to live righteously, but let delight in righteousness and love of it lead you? And this, as it seems to me, is a righteousness not yet perfect, but in a certain way grown up. For he would not have said beforehand without reason, “I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh,” unless there had been something more to say, if they had already been able to bear it. For more service is owed to righteousness than men usually give to sin. For bodily punishment, though not from the will, at least calls one back from the deed of sin; and hardly anyone would openly commit a deed in which he gains an unlawful and unclean pleasure if it were certain that torments of punishment would follow at once. But righteousness is to be so loved that not even bodily punishments should restrain us from its works, and that even in the hands of cruel enemies our works may shine before men, so that those whom they can please may glorify our Father who is in heaven.

Hence that most courageous lover of righteousness cries out: “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or the sword? As it is written: For your sake we are put to death all day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter. But in all these things we more than conquer through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angel, nor principality, nor things present, nor things to come, nor power, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” See how he does not say loosely, “Who will separate us from Christ?” but, showing by what we cleave to Christ, says, “Who will separate us from the love of Christ?” It is by love, then, that we cleave to Christ, not by fear of punishment. Then, having listed the things that seem to have violence yet do not have the strength to separate, he concluded by calling the same love the love of God which he had called the love of Christ. And what is “from the love of Christ” but “from the love of righteousness”? For of him it was said: “Who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, let him who boasts boast in the Lord.” Just as, then, he is most wicked whom not even bodily punishments deter from the unclean works of sordid pleasure, so he is most righteous who is not called back by the terror of bodily punishments from the holy works of most luminous love.

This love of God, which must be held in constant thought, is poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us, so that he who boasts may boast in the Lord. When, therefore, we feel that we are poor and needy of this love, by which the law is most truly fulfilled, we ought not to demand its riches from our own poverty, but to ask, seek, and knock in prayer, so that he with whom is the fountain of life may give us to be drunk with the abundance of his house and to drink of the torrent of his pleasure. Flooded and refreshed by it, we shall not only not be swallowed up by sadness, but we shall even glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces patience, patience proven character, proven character hope, and hope does not put to shame; not because we can do this by ourselves, but because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

It has pleased me to speak with you at least by letter about these things, which I could not when you were present; and this not on your account, since you do not set your mind on high things but agree with the lowly, but on account of certain people who claim too much for the human will, thinking that, once the law is given, the will can suffice for itself to fulfill it, aided by no grace of holy inspiration beyond the teaching of the law. By their arguments the wretched and needy weakness of men is persuaded that we need not even pray that we may not enter into temptation; not that they dare to say this openly, but this follows from their opinion, whether they like it or not. For why are we told, “Watch and pray, that you may not enter into temptation”? Why also, in keeping with this exhortation, when he taught us to pray, did he command us to say, “Lead us not into temptation,” if this is not fulfilled by the help of divine grace, but lies wholly in the choice of the human will? What more? Greet the brothers who are with you, and pray for us, that we may be saved according to that salvation of which it is said: “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick; I came not to call the righteous but sinners.” Pray for us, then, that we may be righteous, which a man cannot be unless he knows and wills it; and whoever wills it fully will be so at once; but this very thing will not be in him unless he is healed and helped by the grace of the Spirit so that he can.

I thank you very much that you have been so kind as to cheer me with your letter and to assure me of your well-being. May the Lord repay you with good things, by which you may always be good and live for ever with him who is eternal, my lord most beloved and most longed-for brother. As for me, although I do not recognize in myself the praises of me which the letter of Your Kindness contains, I cannot be ungrateful for your goodwill toward my insignificance; at the same time I urge you rather to pray for me, that I may be made by the Lord such as you already think me to be. [And in another hand:] Mindful of us, may you please the Lord in safety, my lord most beloved and most longed-for brother.