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81. I shall now mention what I have often discussed
before in other places in my short treatises.(186) We
sin from two causes: either from not seeing what we
ought to do, or else from not doing what we have
already seen we ought to do. Of these two, the first
is ignorance of the evil; the second, weakness. We
must surely fight against both; but we shall as
surely be defeated unless we are divinely helped, not
only to see what we ought to do, but also, as sound
judgment increases, to make our love of righteousness
victor over our love of those things because of
which--either by desiring to possess them or by
fearing to lose them--we fall, open-eyed, into known
sin. In this latter case, we are not only
sinners--which we are even when we sin through
ignorance--but also lawbreakers: for we do not do
what we should, and we do what we know already we
should not.
Accordingly, we should pray for pardon if we have
sinned, as we do when we say, "Forgive us our debts
as we also forgive our debtors." But we should also
pray that God should guide us away from sin, and this
we do when we say, "Lead us not into temptation"--and
we should make our petitions to Him of whom it is
said in the psalm, "The Lord is my light and my
salvation"(187) ; that, as Light, he may take away
our ignorance, as Salvation, our weakness.
82. Now, penance itself is often omitted because
of weakness, even when in Church custom there is an
adequate reason why it should be performed. For shame
is the fear of displeasing men, when a man loves
their good opinion more than he regards judgment,
which would make him humble himself in penitence.
Wherefore, not only for one to repent, but also in
order that he may be enabled to do so, the mercy of
God is prerequisite. Otherwise, the apostle would not
say of some men, "In case God giveth them
repentance."(188) And, similarly, that Peter might be
enabled to weep bitterly, the Evangelist tells, "The
Lord looked at him."(189)
83. But the man who does not believe that sins are
forgiven in the Church, who despises so great a
bounty of the divine gifts and ends, and persists to
his last day in such an obstinacy of mind--that man
is guilty of the unpardonable sin against the Holy
Spirit, in whom Christ forgiveth sins.(190) I have
discussed this difficult question, as clearly as I
could, in a little book devoted exclusively to this
very point.(191) |
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186. |
For example, Contra Faust., XXII,
78; De pecc. meritis et remissione, I, xxxix, 70; ibid., II,
xxii, 26; Quaest. in Heptateuch, 4:24; De libero arbitrio,
3:18, 55; De div. quaest., 83:26; De natura et gratia, 67:81;
Contra duas ep. Pelag., I:3, 7; I:13:27. |
187. |
Ps. 27:1. |
188. |
II Tim. 2:25 (mixed text). |
189. |
Cf. Luke 22:61. |
190. |
Cf. John 20:22, 23. |
191. |
This libellus is included in
Augustine's Sermons (LXXI, PL, 38, col. 445-467), to which
Possidius gave the title De blasphemia in Spiritum Sanctum.
English translation in N-PNF, 1st Series, Vol. VI, Sermon XXI,
pp. 318-332. |
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