CHAPTER XVIII 140
FAITH AND WORKS
67. There are some, indeed, who believe that those who do not abandon
the name of Christ, and who are baptized in his laver in the Church,
who are not cut off from it by schism or heresy, who may then live in
sins however great, not washing them away by repentance, nor redeeming
them by alms--and who obstinately persevere in them to life's last
day--even these will still be saved, "though as by fire." They believe
that such people will be punished by fire, prolonged in proportion to
their sins, but still not eternal.
But those who believe thus, and still are Catholics, are deceived, as
it seems to me, by a kind of merely human benevolence. For the divine
Scripture, when consulted, answers differently. Moreover, I have
written a book about this question, entitled Faith and Works,141 in
which, with God's help, I have shown as best I could that, according
to Holy Scripture, the faith that saves is the faith that the apostle
Paul adequately describes when he says, "For in Christ Jesus neither
circumcision avails anything, nor uncircumcision, but the faith which
works through love."142 But if faith works evil and not good, then
without doubt, according to the apostle James "it is dead in
itself."143 He then goes on to say, "If a man says he has faith, yet
has not works, can his faith be enough to save him?"144
Now, if the wicked man were to be saved by fire on account of his
faith only, and if this is the way the statement of the blessed Paul
should be understood--"But he himself shall be saved, yet so as by
fire"145 --then faith without works would be sufficient to salvation.
But then what the apostle James said would be false. And also false
would be another statement of the same Paul himself: "Do not err," he
says; "neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor the
unmanly, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor
drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the Kingdom
of God."146 Now, if those who persist in such crimes as these are
nevertheless saved by their faith in Christ, would they not then be in
the Kingdom of God?
68. But, since these fully plain and most pertinent apostolic
testimonies cannot be false, that one obscure saying about those who
build on "the foundation, which is Christ, not gold, silver, and
precious stones, but wood, hay, and stubble"147 --for it is about
these it is said that they will be saved as by fire, not perishing on
account of the saving worth of their foundation--such a statement must
be interpreted so that it does not contradict these fully plain
testimonies.
In fact, wood and hay and stubble may be understood, without
absurdity, to signify such an attachment to those worldly things--
albeit legitimate in themselves--that one cannot suffer their loss
without anguish in the soul. Now, when such anguish "burns," and
Christ still holds his place as foundation in the heart--that is, if
nothing is preferred to him and if the man whose anguish "burns" would
still prefer to suffer loss of the things he greatly loves than to
lose Christ--then one is saved, "by fire." But if, in time of testing,
he should prefer to hold onto these temporal and worldly goods rather
than to Christ, he does not have him as foundation--because he has put
"things" in the first place--whereas in a building nothing comes
before the foundations.
Now, this fire, of which the apostle speaks, should be understood as
one through which both kinds of men must pass: that is, the man who
builds with gold, silver, and precious stones on this foundation and
also the man who builds with wood, hay, and stubble. For, when he had
spoken of this, he added: "The fire shall try every man's work, of
what sort it is. If any man's work abides which he has built
thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work burns up, he
shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by
fire."148 Therefore the fire will test the work, not only of the one,
but of both.
The fire is a sort of trial of affliction, concerning which it is
clearly written elsewhere: "The furnace tries the potter's vessels and
the trial of affliction tests righteous men."149 This kind of fire
works in the span of this life, just as the apostle said, as it
affects the two different kinds of faithful men. There is, for
example, the man who "thinks of the things of God, how he may please
God." Such a man builds on Christ the foundation, with gold, silver,
and precious stones. The other man "thinks about the things of the
world, how he may please his wife"150 ; that is, he builds upon the
same foundation with wood, hay, and stubble. The work of the former is
not burned up, since he has not loved those things whose loss brings
anguish. But the work of the latter is burned up, since things are not
lost without anguish when they have been loved with a possessive love.
But because, in this second situation, he prefers to suffer the loss
of these things rather than losing Christ, and does not desert Christ
from fear of losing such things--even though he may grieve over his
loss--"he is saved," indeed, "yet so as by fire." He "burns" with
grief, for the things he has loved and lost, but this does not subvert
nor consume him, secured as he is by the stability and the
indestructibility of his foundation.
69. It is not incredible that something like this should occur after
this life, whether or not it is a matter for fruitful inquiry. It may
be discovered or remain hidden whether some of the faithful are sooner
or later to be saved by a sort of purgatorial fire, in proportion as
they have loved the goods that perish, and in proportion to their
attachment to them. However, this does not apply to those of whom it
was said, "They shall not possess the Kingdom of God,"151 unless
their crimes are remitted through due repentance. I say "due
repentance" to signify that they must not be barren of almsgiving, on
which divine Scripture lays so much stress that our Lord tells us in
advance that, on the bare basis of fruitfulness in alms, he will
impute merit to those on his right hand; and, on the same basis of
unfruitfulness, demerit to those on his left--when he shall say to the
former, "Come, blessed of my Father, receive the Kingdom," but to the
latter, "Depart into everlasting fire."152
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140 This chapter supplies an important clue to the date of the
Enchiridion and an interesting side light on Augustine's
inclination to re-use "good material." In his treatise on The Eight
Questions of Dulcitius (De octo Dulcitii quaestionibus), 1: 10-13,
Augustine quotes this entire chapter as a part of his answer to the
question whether those who sin after baptism are ever delivered
from hell. The date of the De octo is 422 or, possibly, 423; thus
we have a terminus ad quem for the date of the Enchiridion. Still
the best text of De octo is Migne, PL, 40, c. 147-170, and the best
English translation is in Deferrari, St. Augustine: Treatises on
Various Subjects (The Fathers of the Church, New York, 1952), pp.
427-466.
141 A short treatise, written in 413, in which Augustine seeks to
combine the Pauline and Jacobite emphases by analyzing what kind of
faith and what kind of works are both essential to salvation. The
best text is that of Joseph Zycha in CSEL, Vol. 41, pp. 35-97; but
see also Migne, PL, 40, c. 197-230. There is an English translation
by C.L. Cornish in A Library of Fathers of the Holy Catholic
Church; Seventeen Short Treatises, pp. 37-84.
142 Gal. 5:6.
143 James 2:17.
144 James 2:14.
145 I Cor. 3:15.
146 I Cor. 6:9, 10.
147 I Cor. 3:11, 12.
148 I Cor. 3:11-15.
149 Ecclus. 27:5.
150 Cf. I Cor. 7:32, 33
151 See above, XVIII, 67.
152 Matt. 25:34, 41.