The teaching of the blessed Augustine on predestination in connection with the circumstances of his life and death

The teaching of Augustine on predestination, which constituted an era in Western Theology of the 5th century, and the inseparable questions with it: about original sin, grace and its relation to human freedom, also concerned the essence of Christianity, as did the questions that occupied the Church during the first 4 centuries about the Trinity of Persons, Their mutual relationship and about the Person of the God-Man. After these last questions concerning the Mysteries of the Divine, the first kind of questions relating to the state of man in Christianity were the most natural, regular, vital; and therefore they also occupied the Church in their time, as did questions regarding the Trinity, the God-Man, and so on. Let's say more. Augustine's doctrine of predestination, which constituted the ultimate goal of our questions, was important not only for his time, but also for all subsequent times, and for the present. It serves as the historical beginning of all remarkable phenomena in the field of Western dogmatics. It had a huge influence not only on Catholic, but also on Protestant Theology, not only on medieval, but also on modern times. Lutheran and Reformed theologians of the most diverse sects and shades tried to come under his banner, each trying to explain it in his own favor and justify his teaching with it (Der heilige Augustinus von Bindemann. Dritter Band 632 f.). It receives its significance for all times from its connection with the great activity, life and personality of the writer. Pelagianism, in the struggle against which it revealed itself into a most detailed system (if this name can be used to call all its particulars and details), even today finds so much sympathy and followers for itself like no other heresy. Pelagianism, with its elevation - to the point of deification - of human nature, still lives in the beliefs of the Socinians, in the convictions of rationalist theologians and secular scientific realists, who teach and act in the name of the same anthropological principle they deify, and who carry it out in all sciences following Feuerbach. Further, the very life of the Blessed One, from which the essential features of our teaching have been removed, a life full of great, multi-educational experiences, rich in natural and supernatural events, revealing in itself a mental process inexhaustible for science, has always aroused and arouses deep interest. And the rare wealth of personality, which reflected the whole of human nature with its immense perfections and horrific crimes? By studying this great personality, one can study the whole of human nature. And the very doctrine of predestination has always been and is of keen interest to everyone to whom salvation is dear. Anyone can hope to find in it the answer to his eternal mysterious destiny, an indication of whether he is predestined for salvation or destruction, and in what ways Providence leads him to the final goal of his existence. We do not say whether he will find answers to his cherished questions here, but he has the right to expect them from this promising teaching and authority. The importance of the teaching itself, the many-educational life that formed its basis, the glorious history of activity or struggle with such a remarkable heresy, which helped it develop into a comprehensive system, and finally the important nature of the influence that its historical origin had on the very spirit of the teaching - all forces us to pay special attention to both the teaching itself and its historical origin 1 . With the name of Augustine we are accustomed to connect the concept of the unconditional predestination of God, as a characteristic feature of his authorial activity, which destines some, so to speak, beloved by mercy, without any merit, to salvation, and condemns others, rejected by His goodness, despite all their efforts for good, always in vain, to destruction 2 . He could come to such a concept only under the condition of recognizing human nature as completely incapable of good, in which everything that is good in it is a gift of God’s grace alone; but in order to find out why she was so powerless for good and why condemnation weighed on her, he had to recognize her responsibility for someone else’s hereditary sin and, moreover, one that killed in her any capacity for good. And so original sin is the main link on which the entire chain of this system rests. Leaving until time a full disclosure of its main provisions, we will outline here its general main points in order to see which of these points were inspired by his own life experience, which were caused by his well-known activities, or the fight against Pelagianism. These are the general points. 1) Through the fall (lapsus) and then through the decline (labes) of human nature in our progenitor, the innate ability not to sin and not to die - instead of turning into the impossibility of sinning and dying - turned into the impossibility not to sin and not to die (posse non peccare et mori in non posse non peccare et mori). 2) Together with nature, all its properties passed to the descendants of Adam: with internal captivity, with the eternal slavery of our flesh and passions, both freedom and independence of the will, and any ability not only for a good deed, but also for a good desire, are lost. She retained the capacity for so-called civic virtue (virtus civilis). 3) Only God could save a person who had become dead to good. But in order for every person to be able to assimilate the salvation brought from heaven, this requires the inner deepest influence of Divine grace on him: anticipatory (predisposing him to the consciousness of the need for salvation, repentance and faith gratia praeparans), acting (through faith and love leading him into communion with Christ - gratia operans), promoting (helping him constantly succeed in holiness - gratia cooperans and giving him the gift of permanence donum perseverantiae). But since grace in all its forms is given to a person without any of his merits, without any assistance from him in the beginning and continuation of salvation, and since on the other hand we see that not all people are saved, this does not happen as a result of their persistence, but solely by unconditional predestination, according to which God chooses only a small part from the masses subject to condemnation (massae perditionis) for the manifestation of His mercy on it, and the majority leaves them to their fate, for the revelation of His truth on them. Whoever has been illuminated by grace is involuntarily, irresistibly drawn to salvation (gratia irresistibilis), while the rejected can never receive it. 4) These main points were subsequently joined by the resolution of questions about whether grace does not destroy freedom in the elect, why there are more vessels of wrath than vessels of mercy, whether inexorable fate is not preached under the name of irresistible grace, whether this teaching does not dispose some to arrogance and sin, and others to bitterness and despair, etc. It is clear that all these particular questions related to the essence of the matter and the most fundamental question regarding the complete disorder of human nature in Adam could not be answered by Augustine’s own life; they could only be caused by an external reaction: one can say that the general essential features (outlining 2 and B points of the stated teaching) could be written off from his life. The main formula in Augustine's teaching - that given the general and complete depravity of human nature, only those are saved who are irresistibly drawn to it by the grace of God - was inspired in him, on the one hand, by the consciousness of his immeasurable sinfulness, and on the other, by a feeling of deepest reverence and gratitude before God for his wonderful calling. Entirely imbued with feelings of humility, reverence and gratitude before the wonderful ways of his supernatural call to salvation, deeply convinced that this method of calling is the best and most perfect both for the greater glory of God and for the humble salvation of man, Augustine thinks that all people, like him, are called to salvation solely by the will of the All-good Providence, apart from their sinful will, without suspecting that his personal experience and the method of calling cannot be the measure and norm for everyone. Leaving aside for now the question of why this teaching was so strongly influenced by all the personal characteristics of his life and character, why he accepted his personal experience and method of calling as universal, we, it seems, should most thoroughly reveal the main point on which the entire teaching rests, i.e., whether in his entire life - mainly before his conversion - he saw one endless chain of errors, weaknesses and falls, and recognized the good that he only found in himself the gift of grace, and whether he believed so strongly in the vigilant watchfulness of Providence and grace over him, in the steady and irresistible direction of all the paths of his life towards salvation. The best answer to this will be given to us by his own confession, but which 1) and we will trace how through his entire life passes the consciousness of his boundless sinfulness and his complete powerlessness for good, and at the same time the conviction of his irresistible attraction to salvation by the power of grace. He finds his so-called innocent infancy full of iniquities and sins: “Weren’t such actions, he says, reproachful and innocent, such as demanding something harmful with tears, getting angry and annoyed at your elders and at your parents for not listening to infant whims, scratching and biting, trying to harm them for not fulfilling harmful demands, and crying to punish yourself for that?” But his reverent gaze, which sees in all the paths of Providence, sees that “and the baby, so early and so far removed from God, His Fatherly goodness seeks, watches over, feeds with the sweetness and joy of mother’s milk, and that even when he was a baby, according to the law of nature, predetermined by Her, the same Fatherly goodness preserved and nourished him, like his own child, that She gave him to feel, so that he He did not demand this food more than She gave him, and She gave those who fed him the desire to give him what She gave them from the abundance of Her bounties. My good, like any good, is recognized by a soul grateful and devoted to God, although it was transmitted to me by them, but it came from You and was accomplished by You; From You, my God, is all my salvation.” (1 Liber, cap. 7). In his adolescent life, sometimes in apparently insignificant circumstances and adventures, he even more clearly sees above him a strong hand and a tall muscle, leading him, unknown to himself, to his lofty goals. He was sent to school, making it a rule for him to obey the instructions of his elders and learn sciences that would eventually ensure him a happy position in society. But he did not listen to any instructions, he studied under compulsion, he was fond of games, he loved arrogant victories in competitions, he irritated his imagination with fictitious stories, he strove for spectacles, for big games. He was often punished for this by flogging him. His parents and elders, although they did not wish him harm, laughed at him when he was punished. All this extremely killed the ardent and impressionable nature, and left the most difficult feelings in her. Broken and depressed, he heard, apparently by accident, from some people about a certain great Being who, without appearing to our senses, listens to us and helps us. The boy grabs hold of Him with all his soul, asks Him for help, intercession and refuge from his misfortunes, and, calling on Him, overcomes all the difficulties of teaching and is saved from all adversity. In all these adventures and events, he professes the ways of the Most High: “You, in Whom even the hairs of our heads are numbered, turned the errors and errors of those who forced me to study and had in mind only one satisfaction to the insatiable desires of wealth and glory, in my favor, and my aversion from learning, disobedience and disobedience - according to that immutable law of Yours, that every disorder meets its corresponding punishment - You He charged me with punishment and gave me a righteous reward. Me, a little boy, and such a great sinner, before I looked for You, You were already looking for, calling, nagging and drawing me to You, drawing me through people I met by chance, these Your messengers and through visible protection in my youthful labors and sorrows: You, God, are the light of my heart, the spiritual food of my soul, the life-giving power of my mind! (1 Liber cap. 8–13). In visiting him with illness (hardening of the stomach, from which he almost died), he sees a new wonderful call to God. As soon as he began to ask for baptism with faith and repentance, he suddenly recovered: “God, my guardian and healer, exclaimed the healed man, healed me so that I could live for Him.” But baptism, due to various involuntary circumstances, was postponed: as if it was necessary for his sins to multiply, so that grace would abound in them. (1 LibeT, p. 14). Returning to his school life, Augustine bitterly complains that unreasonable teachers, who for a long time kept him focused on Homer and other examples of eloquence, with their unworthy stories about the immoral deeds of the gods, corrupted his young morality, that with immoderate praise for any difference in learning and games, they irritated his pride and envy beyond measure, that in general, by the will of people, he was placed over the abyss of wickedness... But Fatherly goodness from the heights of heaven watched over him, kept vigil over him: forgave him sinful pleasures in these vain activities and, if possible, turned his eyes away from seeing vanity, producing in the depths of his soul languor and ruin, confusion and confusion, and exciting him to seek truth and righteousness, everything sublime and graceful, not in creatures, but in Her herself. So, at least, he believed later, but when he converted, he did not know how to thank God for these mercies. Everything good in his upbringing, for example, that “he had a good memory, that he knew how to maintain grace in his speech, found pleasure in friendship, did not tolerate alienation, ignorance - he recognized everything as the gifts of a slave, which God abundantly multiplied and perfected in him, his sweetness, glory and hope” (Liber 1 p. 15-20). Starting to review his youthful life, those two years that he spent in his parents’ house, after leaving school, he sees with horror how a storm of passions (mainly carnal) arose in him, darkened his entire soul, carried it “along the rapids of lust” into the abyss of vices. His family and neighbors, with the exception of his mother, did not bother to extract him from this abyss. The Lord alone, with His severity and mercy, did not abandon him: “he dissolved all the criminal pleasures of his youth with bitter reproaches and inexplicable annoyance, and thereby forced a much rebellious soul to seek impeccable pleasures and nowhere, as in Him, is the Source of all joys and joys, and thus he, torn to pieces and scattered in parts, He united into one.” (Liber 2 pp.1–3). He also felt the irresistibly attracting and saving power of God in the influence of his pious mother on him. “Her caring exhortations to chastity, meekness, etc. “Whose words were these, Lord, Augustine cried, if not Your voice, although for a long time I did not notice and did not understand this, although her suggestions and advice seemed to me like feminine weakness.” (Liber 2, p. 4). Further, after he is removed from his parental home, the inscrutable Providence allows him a series of falls, which began with the fact that he began to steal with his comrades, stealing not out of poverty, not out of extremes, but only for the sake of the fact that it is not allowed, in order to find pleasure in the most daring theft, in the mutual community and approval of the participants in the crime. And, God knows, Augustine confesses, how all this would have ended if the Heavenly Father had not taken pity, had not had mercy on this prodigal son and had not protected him from the many crimes of his accomplice! Be that as it may, in a gloomy comradely environment, young Augustine was a comparatively bright person who hid his good qualities from her: in the depths of his soul he was burdened by her and, drawn by a power from above, strove for undisturbed peace and a serene life (Liber 2, pp. 4–10). The next 9 years are a turbulent time of all kinds of passions and mental delusions. Voluptuousness, passion for theatrical spectacles, arrogance and other passions, which had previously raged in his soul, now knew neither number, nor measure, nor degree. His morality fell the lower, the more elevated the level of his education, the more information he acquired (at the age of 20 he had extensive information in all liberalibus artibus), the worse use he gave them in life, the further he became from the truth. He shrewdly shunned the source of truth, the Word of God: without comprehending its inner content, he considered it too simple, positive and even rude, and incomparably preferred the elegant and eloquent Hortensius (the lost work of Cicero) to him. But Cicero did not satisfy his curiosity, although he kindled in him an irresistible desire for wisdom: he was looking for a more refined wisdom that would promise him miracles. A terrible struggle of thoughts and feelings arose in him: the mind demanded knowledge, the heart sought the peace of faith. In this burning struggle, he rushes into the Manichean sect. With its imaginary sacraments, its ugly mixture of pagan philosophy with the teachings of the Gospel (its nonsense about the origin of the world from two principles, about the corporeality of God and angels, about the illusory nature of the flesh and suffering of the Savior, about the origin of the Old Testament from an evil principle, moral laws from folk customs) and its charming seductions for the mind and sensuality, this sect completed his mental errors and moral failures: he himself admitted that for his soul the fables of the pagans were a hundred times less harmful than the inventions of the Manichaeans (III Liber, cap. 3–6). But the deeper he fell, the more Ineffable Mercy remained awake over him. It dissolved his destructive, passionate pleasures with bitter and saving bile and admonished him with its righteous punishments, although these punishments, in his own consciousness, meant nothing in comparison with his grave crimes. “It taught him to artlessly teach verbal tricks (in the grammatical and rhetorical schools he opened in Carthage, and then in Tagaste) and to form good students in a good sense. It protected him from the vile spells of some soothsayer, who promised him, through the patronage of favorable spirits (daemonia), to bring him victory in public competitions in reading and singing. It sent down two miraculous signs of its vigilant guarding and protection over it. 1) The mother mourns his fall so bitterly that tears flow from her in streams and water the ground at every place of her prayer, “petitioning day and night for his conversion.” And so, in a subtle dream, an angel appears to her and says that “her son will be with her, and where she is, there he will be,” and she has already interrupted all communication with her sectarian son, eating and drinking differently with him. 2) One St. bishop, in his youth infected with Manichaeism and, after careful... studying the sect, having naturally fallen behind it, both from his own experience and from inspiration from above, said to his mother when she tearfully begged him to bring his dying son to reason: “Leave him for now, - over time he himself will see the coarseness of his delusion, which he will reject, and the vulgarity of wickedness, from which he will leave behind; Moreover, it cannot be that the child of so many tears would die.” One might think that Providence, which so miraculously prepared his conversion, deliberately allowed him to wander in the darkness of superstitions and passions, in order, through difficult experience, to give him a vivid sense that there is no truth and peace anywhere except the Source of truth and righteousness, in order to later bind him to them all the more strongly. He himself was aware of this in the gloomy languor of his soul when he first came to his senses. So he admits that the beautiful writings of Cicero did not satisfy him because he did not find in them the sweetest name of Jesus, which he received along with his mother’s milk (Lib. III, pp. 7-12). Thus, even through the darkness of delusion, the light of the highest truth shone for him and forced the yearning soul to rush to him, to look for him, although he did not suddenly allow himself to be found. Now the Lord sends some chosen people as special heralds of the salvation being prepared for him. A close acquaintance in Carthage with such a man as the experienced and elderly physician Vindician, who became his family friend and interlocutor, was a matter of special providence for him: “in the person of this old man, the Healer of soul and body visited him and deigned to heal his soul from various errors of astrology, to which he passionately indulged (Lib. IV p. 3). In Tagaste, Providence brought him together with some kind of friend (which one, not a single biography writer says), and after their one-year friendly life, the removal of the friend’s years from life, honoring him before the death of St. baptism. The sudden death and unexpected conversion of a friend had an extraordinary effect on Augustine. Considering his friend “the dearest half of his soul, believing that their souls constituted, as it were, one soul in two bodies,” Augustine suffered for several weeks, sighed, groaned, shed tears; I ran around for a long time with a tormented and tormented soul, finding peace nowhere and in nothing, neither in shows, nor in amusements, nor in activities. The fatherland itself became a burden for him and his father’s house a misfortune, because everything here reminded him of his lost friend. To get away from the shadow of his friend pursuing him, he retired from Tagaste again to Carthage. With all the tenderness and impressionability of the soul, such inconsolable grief for a friend with whom he had known for only one year was not a completely natural phenomenon: “it was an unaccountable longing not so much about the loss of someone close to his heart, but about moving away from the One who is never lost and eternally Abiding, it was a special call of a yearning soul to the One in Whom all its goodness and happiness: I know, he cried from the depths of a sorrowful soul, that he had to turn for healing and relief to You, Lord! I know, but I don’t dare, I’m afraid! But You, who pursue those who flee from You, the God of vengeance and the Source of mercy, who turns us to yourself in incomprehensible ways, You, through this sorrowful blow that dried up my heart and bones, admonished and turned me to Yourself” (Liber IV pp. 4-7). But time and the company of friends healed the grief. He devotes himself entirely to academics and teaching. Particularly captivated by the rhetorician Gierius, in order to receive an approving response from the famous rhetorician, he presented him with his essay “on the beautiful and decent.” As he himself admits, it was a pitiful experience of youthful illusions: the beautiful and decent were defined and constructed for him according to the models of the sensory world. Carried away by every wind, his soul, overwhelmed with pride, swirled here and there, like a sound floating in the air, and the light was blocked for her by a cloud, and she did not see the truth. Nevertheless, the guidance of the saving Providence was too tangible for her: “You lit my lamp, O Lord, he cried, remembering this time, You, my God, enlightened my darkness! My ability and skill, without much difficulty or even guidance, to understand everything so quickly: in the free sciences of eloquence and philosophy, in the arts of music and poetry and in mathematical measurements, and this ability to quickly and clearly convey all knowledge to others, and all my knowledge is from You, my God! My understanding and insight are Your gifts, although I did not sacrifice them to You, but withdrew with them to a distant country in order to squander Your wealth on dissolute whims and desires” (Lib. IV, pp. 14–16). The instructive and all-powerful thought of God begins, little by little, to disperse the darkness of error and, what is most surprising, through the very ones who darken it. It gave him the ability to see through all the lies and ignorance hidden behind the luxurious outfit of words in the teachings of the much-praised Faustus, the Manichaean bishop. It inspired him that in the incoherent and ignorant inventions of the entire Manichaean sect there was nothing independent, similar to the teachings of thoughtful philosophers, and thus he recoiled in his soul from the sect, although he clearly did not break off his ties with it: “You guided me the inscrutable ways of Your Providence and finally turned my gaze to my absurd delusions, bringing them to my face so that I would hate them. You made it easier for me to get out of these networks. Who else could give me salvation except Your right hand, which creates what You have created? (Liber. V, capita 1–7). Augustine sees and glorifies the entire depth of the hidden paths and the Lord’s paternal good intentions for him in the fact that he decided, at all costs, to move and moved from Carthage to Rome. Indeed, benefits and honors; what friends promised him in Rome did not interest him. Dissatisfaction with the Carthaginian students (though very willful, who brazenly burst into the school during class and, like hotheaded and frantic ones, created chaos in it with impunity), and the hope of introducing stricter discipline in the Roman school were too unimportant motives to leave Carthage, where it was so great and famous. And what did this secret flight from his beloved mother mean, who was crying, dying, chasing him, guarding his ship all night to prevent his departure - this uncontrollable, incomprehensible to him, attraction to an alien place, to alien people? He himself explains this by saying, “You, Lord. my refuge and share in the land of the living, with such a change in my location, meant my spiritual salvation: for this purpose you pushed me away from Carthage and drew me to Rome; To correct my ways, You took advantage of the changeability in my thoughts and actions with a secrecy incomprehensible to me, and you did this through people who beckoned me to something else, who thought only about earthly vanity” (lib. V p. 8). Meanwhile, soon after arriving in Rome, he fell ill and “was already on the way to his forefathers, carrying with him all his evil.” The pious mother did not know any of this, but only prayed and cried for him in the distance: and behold, “the Almighty, who never abandoned him and always did what should have been according to the predetermined order of His predestination. heard her and had mercy on him”: he suddenly recovered. This second miraculous healing of his ailments did not heal his sinful soul, although in the plans of Providence it should have prepared him for a better spiritual life. In Rome he again became acquainted with the Manichaeans and even lived with one of these chosen (electi) empty saints and deceivers. And then the doubts of skeptic philosophers began to torment his soul. The extreme skepticism into which he so quickly fell would have dealt a mortal blow to the overwhelmed soul if Providence had not saved it. This time It chose the Platonic philosopher as a saving means, which served for him as a transition from the crude sensual ideas of Manichaeism to a more spiritual and sublime way of thinking, from the predominance of imagination to the dominance of reason, from belief in two opposite principles to the concept of the One Source of life and wisdom. According to Augustine himself, “Platonic philosophy, according to God’s dispensation, kindled a wonderful fire in him and placed it at the gates of the church” (Lib. V p. 9 and 10: contra Academ. Lib. 2 p. 5). To complete his saving call, Providence calls him from Rome to Milan, to the glorious post of teacher of eloquence at the court of Emperor Valentinian, meaning that through this high appointment, arranged through the mediation of the Manichaeans, he will forever unlearn his relationship with the Manichaeans. “To the Primate Angel of the Medialan Church, St. Bishop Ambrose is commanded by the Spirit of God to bring him into the bosom of the church, and how wonderful and wise! Touched by the friendliness and goodwill of the man of God, delighted with his oratorical talent, Augustine at first paid attention only to the sweetness and pleasantness of Ambrose’s speech, and not to the subject and content, but along with the words, little by little the truth itself penetrated into the soul, so that they became closer and closer to the truth and salvation, and finally decided to remain catechumens in the Orthodox Church: “You led me to him without my consciousness; he speaks of his enlightener and mentor of salvation, so that they would lead me to You with consciousness: his eloquent lips gave me Your spiritual food, Your spiritual drink, Your oil of joy” (Lib. V, pp. 13 and 14). At this time, as his spiritual rebirth began, his mother came to him in Mediolan, and it was not by chance that she arrived. In a dream or, better yet, a prophetic vision, the Lord strengthened her in the intention of this journey, which had long been in her thoughts and desires, predicting to her a terrible storm at sea and the miraculous deliverance of her and all her companions. – Having found her son neither Manichaeans nor Christians (having become a catechumen, he wavered in his convictions for a long time and was close to indifference), his mother shed the most bitter tears and prayers for him. Remarkable is her prayer, entrusting the conversion of her son to the only good and miraculous good intentions for him: “arts,” she cried out to God, and to this widow’s son (Augustine): young man! I say to you: Arise, so that he too may come to life in soul, and You would give him to his mother, since You promised to give me him alive and whole (Lib. VI, p. 1). Assisted by St. his mother’s prayers, and even before these prayers, having stood within the fence of the church, after much torment and languor in search of the truth, all he had to do was approach the source of living water, the word of God, and drink from it. But this step was delayed by his moral ailments, which, before their final healing, flared up with the most violent and persistent flame. “Stronger than before,” he confesses, the thirst for honors, temporary benefits, and the desire for marriage began to torment me; but You, Lord, laughed at my demands for honor and profit, and were the more merciful to me, the less you allowed me to find contentment in them. How poor and wounded my soul was! But You made her feel the burning pain, so that she, leaving everything, would turn to You, the One, the sweetest of all, without Whom everything would be nothing.” It is remarkable that these holy feelings spoke from his soul when he was going to give a speech to the emperor, full of false praises, and when he saw a beggar on the road, whom, after various questions, he found much more honest and happier than himself (Lib. VI, p. 6, 11, 14). Most of all, his carnal passions removed him from the salvation prepared for him. To curb them, his mother betrothed him to a girl, and the illegitimate wife left him, leaving him with her son, who had lived with him. But since the betrothed bride was two years shy of coming of age, unbridled passion connected him with another indecent woman. But a wonderful thing! When “the fire of passions burned, his conscience tormented him, and his soul, as he himself says, was rotten, cold and desperately sick”: the image of sudden death and strange judgment, like a ghost, suddenly stood before him and did not retreat from him for a minute, terrifying him and cooling the outbursts of passions: “Praise to You, Glory to You, Source of bounties! I, with my destructive passions, became more and more vile, and You, with Your persistent threats, became closer and closer to me, and Your right hand was already ready to snatch me from the mire of abominations and wash me” (Lib. VI, pp. 15 and 16). The invoking grace acted so irresistibly. God's presence on Augustine's heart when she placed him at the church gates! Since he was looking for reasonable conviction in faith, the wisdom of God once again allows him to be convinced by reasonable experience that neither pagan philosophy, nor even Christian teaching, without the special internal power of God, can lead him to salvation. From Neoplatonic philosophy, Augustine acquired fairly pure concepts about God as the Highest Mind, Power and Love, and partly about the origin of evil in the world. Delighted by this new acquisition, he noted with regret, however, that philosophy did not give him the strength to curb passions, to tame disorderly desires, that they fought in his soul the more powerfully, the more he considered them defeated with the help of science. Delving deeper into philosophy, he saw in it only ghosts of truth, which disappeared at the very moment when he thought to see the truth itself in them. “These vain people, he recalls, only sang about philosophy and said: truth, truth, but preached nothing but lies.” Turning from philosophy to the Holy Scriptures and mainly to the Gospel of John and the Epistles of Paul, he saw the entire abyss that separated and elevated them above philosophy. Especially the teaching about grace, which his confused soul so thirsted for and about which he had never heard anything in any philosophy, revealed to him the intangible superiority of Divine revelation over pagan philosophy. At the same time, “the truths of the word of God penetrated his soul with wondrous power; he reasoned, trembled and rejoiced together; The very torment and groaning of the heart that preceded this state, to which the eyes and ears of the Lord were always open, were sent down so that the greater the joy of healing from these spiritual ailments.” (Lib. VII, pp. 7 and 21). But, having fallen on the trail of truth, did he become firmly on the path of salvation? Far from it. “Now he could no longer apologize because he did not know the truth; no, he knew the truth, but, tied to the earth, he refused to fight for God and was so afraid to free himself from obstacles to the truth; and salvation, as it was necessary to fear the very obstacles.” People of advice and reason, not without the will of Providence, who tried in every possible way to speed up his conversion with their instructions, rather convince us that neither he nor they could do anything without a special miraculous calling. How attentively he listened to the simple, full of spirit and strength, convictions of Simplician, a learned man, highly experienced, who served the Lord all his life and filled with the Holy Spirit! How strongly the example given by Simplician of the rhetorician Victorinus, who from a Platonist suddenly became a Christian, affected him. His soul and heart were torn with the desire to leave everything for the Lord, so what? “This intensified desire, as he himself confesses, was not greater than the effort of a sleepy person who wants to get up, but again falls into sleep, or the effort of someone suffering from relaxation of all his limbs, who wants but cannot rise from his bed. How many times has he heard the voice: “Arise from sleep and rise from the dead and Christ will sanctify you!” And each time he painfully answered this voice: “Leave it, wait a little”: two wills, one old and the other new, that carnal, and that spiritual, quarreled among themselves and tore the soul apart (Lib. VIII, pp. 1–5). No less than Simplician, a certain Pontintian touched the sensitive soul of Augustine with his conversation about the exploits of the great hermit Anthony of Alexandria, and, by the way, about the conversion, after reading the life of the latter, of two of Augustine’s friends. This conversation brought Augustine face to face with himself: he saw the depth of his damage, all the uncleanness of his soul, he saw it, trembled and did not know where to hide from himself; in horror he tore out his hair, beat his chest and forehead, bent his knees, threw himself on the ground, all his bones screamed about uncleanness and despair. And what is he so tormented about? “I remember,” he answers, how at the beginning of my youth I asked You for purity, but I myself was afraid that You would soon hear me, because you yourself wanted to satisfy your lust more than to quench it. Twelve years since I (after reading Hortensia), decided to seek wisdom, despising all earthly happiness, and - I did nothing! I constantly told myself: “Now I’ll do it, I’ll do it!” and together with the words I set to work, but again the old worst thing reigned in my soul, and the closer I got to the time in which I intended to change my life. all the more frightened me. The whims and passions that I wanted to put an end to constantly told me: are you really leaving us from this moment forever? They stopped me from behind, pinched me and shouted at me to look back. And with what scourges (motivations) I tried to move and defeat my soul so that it would follow You! But she hesitated, refused, she was afraid, as if of death, of renouncing those habits that led to nothing else but death.” (Lib VIII, pp. 6–11). Now, when, through an extraordinary shaking of the soul, the secret hand of the Father’s love has brought down the arrogance of his mind, softened his cruelty, cooled the heat of his passions and brought him to the complete conviction that he himself is not able to overcome his habits and passions, and people themselves are not able to turn him to God - the grace of God itself produces a decisive turning point in his soul, at once transforming its entire being. The circumstances beyond the natural nature of this calling are too well known to describe in detail. We will touch on those states of mind and details that are important for our special purpose. - Having met his friend Alipy in his house, he expresses to him the terrible inner struggle of his soul, expressing it not so much in words as in an extraordinary change in his face, eyes, voice, trembling of the whole body, sobs, tears. Not finding peace anywhere, he, without knowing why, went with a friend to the garden. Meanwhile, “a terrible storm in his soul erupted more and more, agitated and scattered his thoughts, dragging them here and there; the sighs of his heart were like the gusts of a raging whirlwind or the roars of a desert lion.” So as not to prevent this storm from breaking out with all its force and “pouring out as a rain of tears,” he walked away from Alypius and threw himself to the ground under one tree. Now full freedom was given to the tears, and now they flowed like rain, like streams. Sobbing, he cried out: “How long, O Lord, is Thy wrath against me, how long? Why not now, not now, is the end of my lewdness”? And suddenly he hears a voice repeating several times: “take it, read it.” Holding back the flow of tears, looking around and making sure that it was the voice of God, ordering him to read from the Holy Scriptures. scriptures that will be revealed, he goes to the place where Alypius was sitting, takes the book of epistles that he left there before and reads the following passage that was revealed to him: do not goat-speaking and drunkenness... but put on our Lord Jesus Christ (Rom. 13:13). At these words, which sank deep into his heart, the light of faith and conviction illuminated him, and his conversion was completed once and for all. From that moment on, he completely changed his lifestyle, forever renounced marriage, honors, wealth and dedicated himself entirely to serving the One God. In his zeal for God and Christian truth, he even decided to dissolve his school of rhetoricians: since “in it the youths were taught not the law of the Lord, not peace, but vain wrangling in words and judicial abuse.” And this wondrous unexpected revolution in life, this inconsolable sadness for God, these fiery prayers for conversion and conversion itself could have been produced in him, according to his own consciousness, only by omnipotent grace: “You instantly bowed my neck under Your good yoke and under Your good burden, Christ Jesus, my Savior! And how nice it was to put an end to all the temptations and sinful pleasures that had shackled me for decades! And this is because You, the Sweetest of all pleasures, the Brightest of all light, the Highest of all honor, expelled these pleasures and Yourself dwelt in their place” (Lib. VIII, p. 12, lib. 9 p. 1 Among the preparations for baptism, which consisted of prayer, fasting, reading psalms, and conversations about faith and philosophy (preparations that lasted about six months), Augustine saw a new experience of punishing and merciful Divine providence. He fell ill with unbearable toothache, so that he could not speak, and through an inscription on a tablet he asked his friends to pray to God for him. As soon as they knelt down, praying for the healing of the sick man, his illness suddenly passed. And he recognizes this healing as a miraculous gift of God’s mercy: “You cruelly tormented me with dental disease, but you also miraculously had mercy on me, and I, rejoicing in faith, praise Your mercy” (Liber. IX, p. 4). During the baptism, new abundant streams of living water (grace) poured out on him. This is how sweetly he felt them in himself and we touchingly retell it: “I could not then get enough of the wondrous sweetness of thinking about the height of Your advice in the matter of my salvation. How many tears I shed while listening to the church songs that touched me so much! As the songs and words filled my ears, the truth poured into my heart. In the knowledge of the truth, the soul was purified, like metal in a crucible. The truth poured into my heart, the truth inflamed a feeling of reverent love, and tears flowed, and the tears were sweet to me, all my bliss was in them.” (Lib. X, p. 6). Augustine attributes both the beginning of his salvation and its entire continuation to the same grace of God that surprised him. “I am a child born of You, and You are my father, forever living in me and with me. You remain, O Lord, in my memory, You have made a bed for Yourself in my heart, You have erected a sanctuary for Yourself! Accept the song and lamentation from my humble heart, as from a fragrant censer, enjoy the stench of Your holy church (Lib. X, p. 15). You cried out and broke my deafness, You shone and enlightened my blindness, You gave me a fragrance and I breathe You; I have tasted and hungered and thirsted for You (p. 2). Continue, Lord, what You have begun, complete what I have not completed. Give me whatever you command, command whatever you want” (Lib. X, p. 4). Having learned from his bitter experience how quickly and terribly one can fall and how hard and without help from above it is impossible to rise, he vigilantly followed all spiritual movements, mercilessly condemned himself for every unclean desire and thought, saw sin in himself in everything, and with every attempt to sin he cried out to God for help, in a word he lived, constantly craving for God and eternal life: “Woe is me, Lord! Good and evil, joys and sorrows are constantly fighting in my soul, and I don’t know which side will be victorious. Woe is me, Lord! These are my wounds, and I do not hide them: You are a doctor, and I am sick, You are merciful, and I am poor.” – Were he tempted by carnal lusts, in dreams, in memories? He prostrated himself before God, saying: “Is not Your hand strong to heal all the ailments of my soul and to tame the disorderly movements of my sleep?” Did the excitement of voluptuousness and gluttony creep into him? He humbly cried out: “Have mercy on me, Lord, and turn away from me every whim of intemperance, for no one can be self-controlled unless You give it to him.” Did the innocent pleasures of hearing and sight attract him? Here too he trembled for himself and cried out: “My Sweetness and Beauty! May my ear not be delighted by any songs and sounds except Your divine hymns, and may it not admire any beauty except that which comes from You and for which my soul sighs day and night.” He was especially afraid of the temptations of love of fame, human rumor and blasphemy: “My madness, he prayed, is far from me, so that the oil of sinners will not be an anointing for my head. I don’t know how clean I am from this ulcer (love of glory) and I fear my inclinations towards this sin, which You alone weigh” (Lib. X pp. 30–37). He was so strict with himself, so boundless was his devotion to God! He was all in God, and he himself was great only in the dust before God, in everything he left to God to act, and he himself remained, as it were, a reverent spectator of what grace accomplished in him. Advancing from day to day in faith and virtue, and attributing everything solely to the glory of God, the blessed one in his subsequent life, especially in his appointment as presbyter and bishop, recognized the orders of the Higher Will, which led him, against his will, to higher goals. Let us dwell on these two significant events in his life. After baptism and a subsequent trip to Rome, he and several of his friends devoted themselves to the strictest solitude near Carthage, spending all their time in fasting, prayer, and reading the Holy Scriptures. writing and writing useful books. Once he violated his solitude and, at the call of a friend, went to neighboring Ipponia. There he goes to the church and arrives just at the time when Bishop Valery was consulting with the people about electing a worthy presbyter. Everyone's eyes involuntarily turned to Augustine. The people - (and everyone knew him in his solitude and flocked to him from everywhere for advice and instructions in both spiritual and worldly life) - by force attracted him to the bishop and he was immediately ordained a presbyter (in 391). In this wonderful interweaving of circumstances, it was impossible not to recognize the special actions of Providence, which destined for him a different higher lot. After 4 years (in 395), by the common voice of the bishops and the people, he was installed as a bishop: in the voice of the people he recognizes the voice of God, in the will of the hierarchs - the providence of the Lord! And in general, with his extraordinary holiness of life, with his fiery zeal for St. faith, with boundless love for God and neighbors, with tireless pastoral, missionary and preaching activity, with amazing scholarly diligence and rare mental gifts, the fruit of which was an immense variety of works, he was in the history of the church such a person who was erected for extraordinary purposes, to be the support and decoration of the church. His tireless struggle with the Manichaeans, Donatists and Pelagians, to which his entire life was devoted from conversion to death and which was waged with unprecedented energy and constancy, through numerous interviews, treatises and personal petitions to the authorities, the struggle was always victorious, so that his very name was a thunderstorm for heretics, this struggle alone exposes him as the great chosen one of Providence, who lived and acted under the special protection of heaven. Even the dark half of his life, when he was one of the most unfortunate sons of Roman society, when he experienced the influence of all the storms of his time - even these dark episodes of his life were a special work of Providence, amazingly preparing him to be a healer of those ailments and a comforter in those misfortunes that he experienced over himself: (because only he can dry our tears who cries with our tears; only under the condition of his bitter experience of the fall could he to sympathize and heal the infirmities and vices of his time). The feeling of his high destiny and the happy fulfillment of this destiny, under the constant shadow of grace, could not but be reflected in his view of the destiny and predestination of man in general. His lofty life, full of grace-filled peace, especially after a terrible spiritual pogrom, seemed to him to be a single miracle of grace, and so it seems to him that if his natural conditions and forces, so favorable for salvation, were completely powerless for his conversion and salvation, then in everyone called to salvation, this salvation is accomplished exclusively by miraculous grace, and in whom it does not work, who is left to his natural forces and conditions, he perishes irrevocably. After everything experienced and felt, and so touchingly and inimitably conveyed to us by this deeply believing, grateful and God-devoted soul, after such amazing signs of heavenly help and intercession, which she sees at every step of her much instructive life, from the cradle to the grave, and after such obvious experiences of steady heavenly guidance towards his conversion and moral perfection, it would be much more surprising and unnatural if he did not come to a similar view, or belief in unconditional predestination. And it is remarkable that he came to this view directly after a thorough review of his life, the fruit of which soon appeared his immortal “Confession”, and before this life analysis he adhered to another view known to us. How much his early personal experience influenced his views and way of life can be seen from the following circumstances. Knowing from experience how dangerous the seductions of the world and our own arbitrariness are, he made complete self-denial an indispensable rule of life for himself and his clergy. He accepted into the clergy only those who renounced their property and all personal acquisitions, and agreed to live in solitude and self-denial. Knowing from his own experience how dangerous voluptuousness, dress, and luxury are, he kept the simplest food for himself and the clergy, and did not allow any decorations either in clothing or in the home. The bitter experience of carnal passions inspired him with such caution in relation to the female sex that he did not allow a single woman, not even his sister, to enter his house and strictly forbade the clergy any communication with women. Here are clear facts about the irresistible influence of early life on Augustine's way of thinking and outlook. 2) In order to better understand the dependence of Augustine’s doctrine of predestination on personal characteristics of life and character, one must keep in mind the following. Systems in general, as Ritter puts it, bear the more or less vivid imprint of the personality of their authors: personal characteristics of character, feelings, inclinations and habits are vividly reflected in their theories, directing their research to those predominantly subjects that suit their taste and mood, and giving tone and direction to the main views of the theories. In particular, people who have deeply studied human nature, who have endured an intense struggle between the law of the mind and the law existing in the soul, in painful exhaustion from this struggle, are usually inclined to recognize themselves as unconditional slaves, and the grace that saved them as an omnipotent irresistible force; in fear and trembling for their desperate past, in gratitude and reverence for their wonderful salvation, they see in themselves only weaknesses, falls and complete powerlessness for good, and in God the immeasurable fullness of grace and strength, poured out on them undeservedly, without their will and participation. Such are the examples of Tertullian and Cyprian. In Augustine's system of grace and predestination, to the development of which almost his entire life was devoted after his conversion, and which constitutes the pearl of his works, his great spirit was expressed, with all the richness of his inner life. But this life, as we have seen, is a continuous change on the one hand of doubts, delusions, stumblings and falls. Those who led him to the consciousness of his complete powerlessness for good, and on the other - signs of heavenly help and intercession, saving him from the abyss when he least expected salvation, and, as if with an armed hand, taking him from his iniquities and placing him - completely renewed and recreated - at the foot of the cross. And so he makes a significant personal experience the measure of all human nature: he attributes the prevailing feeling of his own powerlessness in good to everyone, he applies the supernatural method of his calling to everyone, and thus the main view of his system is formed that if anyone is saved, then - without any personal complicity - since he is incapable of such participation, but only through the irresistible attraction of grace. But the whole question is why does he base his teaching on his personal experience and accept an individual experience as universal? There are many other reasons for this. It is known that the richer a person is naturally gifted, the more independent he is in mental work, the more he is guided by his own life experience: the theories of talented minds acquire authority for society because they are not chimerical, not dreamy, but are the fruit of their long life experience. Augustine's personality was the most rare and highly talented: in it, as we have seen, all human nature was reflected with all its perfections and shortcomings; in studying her, he studied the whole person. That is why most of his truths, expressed on the basis of personal experience, turned out to be universal truths; in this practical origin and justification of his truths lies the secret of the charm he has produced on modern and distant posterity. This means that in this case, he could safely rely on his personal experience, as on the generally accepted norm of universal human experience. Let us say more: in resolving such a burning issue as the relationship of grace to the free will of man and his predestination to salvation or destruction, not to rely on the personal experience of his life would not be worthy of such a great personality - this would mean abandoning that great role and universal authority, which, as can be seen from Simplician’s letters to him, was recognized for him by the general church consciousness at that time. Moreover, the strict consistency that he observed both in life and in thinking should have led him to complete trust in his experience. It is known that what he taught, he did, and what he did, he taught to others: according to Huber’s remark, he did not teach anything that he had not experienced in himself. He never retreated from the beginning once accepted and did not stop with fear of any extreme conclusions that necessarily flowed from the accepted beginning. Hence, if through long-term experience he reached the point of recognizing the powerlessness of human nature in its aspirations for holiness, if once and for all he realized that only omnipotent grace gives it triumph over evil: then, with his characteristic consistency, he could never deviate from these basic views, no matter what extreme conclusions they led to, and they naturally led to the recognition of unconditional predestination. He had to rely all the more boldly on his personal experience this time because he did not see any guiding experiments or theories before him. The question he raised was completely new. The so-called synergism, under the image of which the Eastern Fathers of the Church represented the relationship of grace to the free will of man, was rather vague and was hardly known to him, and Monorgenism (the single action of grace), which the Western Fathers adhered to, was even more confusing: in order to remain on a real basis in such a vital question as our question, without going into the dreams of fantasy, Augustine had to be guided by his personal life experience, especially since this experience was so rich instructive lessons. Finally, this experience could dictate this teaching to him all the more confidently because it found confirmation and support in contemporary social life. In his time, the life of Christians was far from being as impeccable as in centuries of persecution. He himself says that many are looking for Jesus only so that He will help them in earthly affairs, that those crimes that were so rare in apostolic times were now not considered sins, that vices have penetrated where they were least expected, in the circle of monks who renounced the world only in dress and name, and not at all in deed. Augustine explains this decline in morality primarily by the impoverishment of extraordinary talents and, consequently, by the absence of that excess of grace that irresistibly attracted people to salvation during the times of martyrdom. And Augustine’s contemporaries themselves, weakened in virtue, constantly complained about the powerlessness of human nature for good and about the impoverishment of this kind of grace. Thus, contemporary social life and the voice of public consciousness supported Augustine in the doctrine instilled in him by life about the complete deadness of man to goodness and his salvation through the irresistible attraction of grace. In this case, he was involuntarily encouraged to teach based on the inspiration of his personal experience, to teach and at the same time not quite correctly understand this experience and accept it as universal: the excess of feeling that constituted a distinctive feature of his life and character and, in particular, his passion for the feeling of reverence and gratitude before God. As Pressanza noted, no theologian put more heart into his system than Blessed Augustine; The flame of animation possessed no one else as much as him. But what was the direction of this fiery animated feeling? It is recognized by all that Augustine was the successor of the fiery practical spirit of Tertullian and belonged to those apologists who, zealous for the greatness of the glory of God, believed that the more human thought and activity are narrowed and suppressed, the more willingly they are placed at the disposal of the unconditional grace and power of God, the more will the glory of God be established. He did not know how to live half-heartedly, to beware of hobbies, but he gave himself entirely to life and feeling, and just as in the first period of his life (before his conversion) he passionately loved the world with its pleasures, so throughout his subsequent life he passionately loved God. From this fiery feeling, with an equally fiery imagination, comes the extreme views on grace and predestination: to the world and to himself, who lived according to the spirit of the world, he assimilates only evil, evil incorrigible and insurmountable by his own strength, and to God and the grace predetermining salvation he attributes all the good in his life and, in order to further exalt the infinitely loved and glorified grace to them, he attributes this goodness to her to such an extent that she seems to accomplish this goodness in us without ourselves, involuntarily and irresistibly attracting us to goodness. Only due to the promptings of an infinitely grateful feeling before her, he, as we saw in his biography, sees the direct and abundant action of grace in such actions and adventures of life that were performed according to natural forces and laws, finds miracles where they do not actually exist, recognizes the work of miraculous grace such abstinence from sin and the performance of such good deeds, which, obviously, were the result of his own efforts, although were accomplished not without the assistance of grace. In a word, in order to give great praise to God, our ardent zealot recognizes himself as a desperate sinner, completely dead and incapable of good, and bows before the irresistible attraction of the grace that predestined him to salvation. To jealously guard the greatness of the glory of God and preach the insurmountability of saving predestination, he felt all the more excited and obliged because from everywhere, from all the heretics with whom he waged a stubborn struggle, he saw direct or indirect encroachments to diminish and insult the greatness of the glory and grace of God. The Pelagians, out of proud trust in the free will of man, ignored and belittled the meaning of grace. The Manichaeans, with their teaching that another nature, or an evil inclination, sins in man, which the good inclination, or the Divine cannot defeat and itself, as it were, remains defeated by it, were the most daring opponents of the glory of God and the power of grace. The Donatists, considering the fallen dead and forever lost to salvation, openly or covertly spewed blasphemy against grace, recognizing it as powerless to restore the fallen. These evil attempts to diminish the greatness of the glory and grace of God too excited Augustine’s fiery zeal for God and grace: in those writings on grace (written from 387 to 395), in which he does not enter into open polemics with the enemies of grace, he is already an ascetic for a great cause, already stands in the inspiration of the struggle, fully armed as a champion for what is right, a matter trampled upon by enemies. Love and hatred, love for the glory and grace of God humiliated by enemies, indignation for evil intentions seethe and worry continuously. His dialectic is a purely military weapon; his abrupt, energetic language is an expression of deep spiritual movement, his eloquence is the most fiery and passionate. And, although this passion is an ardent, full of enthusiasm and boundless love for a holy cause, but, like passion, it could not help but lead him to hobbies and extremes in his views on the matter: his already fiery zeal for the exaltation of the desecrated glory and grace of God now flared up to the point that, to exalt it, he gives everything to grace and nothing to man; in a fit of enthusiasm, he hastens to proclaim that grace, so boldly trampled and insulted, is, on the contrary, strong and omnipotent, that it saves everyone it finds necessary, without any of their complicity. These are the general and essential points of his system that Augustine could reach through his life experience, guided by his personal feelings and the indicated character traits. That his own experience did not tell him anything else in this case is clear from his response to Similician, written in 397. 10 years before the Pelagian disputes, almost simultaneously with the Confession, and revealing the same general thoughts about predestination that we found in Confession 3. Thus, on the basis of Augustine’s own life, only the grain, the root of the teaching in question grew, but it grew, branched out, developed in all particulars and details on the basis of his polemical activity. But, unfortunately, not entirely correct at its core, grain and root, as it developed, it became more and more crooked and distorted; the reason for this was the immoderate heat and violent passion, so inevitable for such a passionate personality and in such a stubborn struggle 4. Before we clarify all these exaggerations and extremes in Augustine’s views, we will try to reveal how this polemic contributed to the revelation of the independent convictions that had previously formed in him and the development of some new aspects of the teaching. 1) Let us consider how, during this polemic, the first main point of the doctrine of predestination was established and revealed - namely, that original sin destroyed in human nature all capacity not only for a good deed, but also for their good desire, so that the most omnipotent grace of God leaves some of the elect unconditionally, irresistibly attracted to salvation, leaving the rest to their own fate. The reason and motivation for the proclamation of this extreme opinion was given by the British monk, his former friend, Palagius. A man with a superficial view of things, far advanced in self-knowledge, an ascetic without a struggle with external storms and obstacles, without strong passions, without distant ascetic ideals and, moreover, by his very national and personal character, arrogant and arrogant, Pelagius did not believe in the power of sin over man, did not notice any traces of disorder in human nature. Hence, treating sin too easily and condescendingly, recognizing it not as something essential, substantial, but as a simple concept that does not actually exist, but remains only in memory and deprives a person of the consciousness of truth, Pelagius argued that original sin could not even produce any change or weakening in human nature. “And what is the importance of this original sin,” Pelagius asks Augustine? Eating from the forbidden fruit is a greater sin than the killing of an innocent and holy person. Abel, committed with fratricidal hatred, or the sin of the Sodomites against the customs of hospitality and the laws of nature, or the sacrifice of innocent virgins and youths to the devil, contrary to the terrible prohibitions of the law, or your sin and the sin of your Manes? The whole harm of Adam’s sin was that it set an unkind example for posterity to follow; but there is no evil without good: perhaps Adam’s sin was deliberately allowed by Providence in order to protect man from arrogance and self-love.” In outbursts of sacred indignation and offended moral feeling, Augustine responds to Pelagius: “You have forgotten that all these terrible crimes are the fruit of the first sin! You do not see that his greatness is revealed from the greatness of the punishment that weighs on his descendants, according to the sentence of the righteous Judge; You don’t notice that, by trying so hard to weaken the significance of original sin, you are daringly reproaching God for the extreme injustice of punishment! And what could be more unreasonable than the thought that Adam’s sin protects a person from arrogance! It arose from the motives and goals of arrogance, and not a single sin occurs without arrogance, and therefore arrogance cannot be driven out by arrogance. Wake up, brother, from your sleep and daydreaming, come to your senses in your arrogance and blasphemy. If Adam set only the first example of sin - and then, strictly speaking, not the first - the devil sinned in advance, then why, after such a long time, did the Son of God become incarnate and suffer for him? If all sinners imitate Adam, since he was the first sinner, then all righteous people should imitate Abel, since he was the first righteous man: why then would the Son of God come to earth, suffer and die? What then would be the purpose of the church with all its sacraments and saving institutions? (Pelagius in Mapius Mercator Commonitor super nomine Coelestii, p. 2; sermo Augustini 294). The above excerpt from Augustine’s energetic polemics is enough to see to what extent the enemy’s teaching seemed to him blasphemous and anti-Christian. Therefore, it is not surprising that, prompted by his pious feelings, so ardently zealous for the glory of God and the church, and in the heat of refuting the decorated apology for Adam’s sin, he could significantly exaggerate the significance and consequences of the latter. Here is his very teaching: “in an innocent state, the will of man was completely turned and disposed towards good, was a free servant of God and had complete freedom to remain good and not know evil; in a damaged state, it was completely betrayed to evil, became an involuntary slave of sin and has the freedom only to sin. Before the loss of free will to love God, when she had complete freedom to abstain from sin, sin was only a whim that could easily not be allowed: with the loss of this freedom, as a punishment for sin, a severe necessity appeared in man to constantly have sin, and this necessity will continue until, through the Son of God, there appears a voluntary and blessed necessity to never sin, and this ability not to sin and this unconditional predestination to salvation bestowed only on a chosen few” (De perfectione justit. homin. 4). This is Augustine's teaching about the corruption of human nature by ancestral sin and this is the path that brought him to the last extreme and passion. 2) The opinion that follows from this, as a consequence, is Augustine’s opinion about man’s complete incapacity for either a good deed or a good position, and in turn, the opinion that follows from this consequence that all good in chosen people is accomplished without their participation by the omnipotent grace of God, leaving others to their natural corruption - this opinion is developed and justified in the same oppositional way, although its germs lay in his own life. - Arrogant with his righteousness, highly imagining the power of his will, Pelagius taught: a) that the freedom of the human will, which owes its origin to the will of God, is beyond any dependence on it in its manifestation, that at every moment it can move with equal ease both from good to evil and from evil to good, without leaving its indifferent position in relation to them, i.e. evil does not stick, does not stick to her. (Opus imperfect. 1, 91–96), b) Her sinful shortcomings could not introduce poison into the original forces, they are nothing more than a cloud in which light is refracted without becoming darkness, an external ligature that must be separated from the noble metal of the soul, natural stains, a natural consequence of the limitations of our nature, and by no means a hereditary evil (Epist. ad Demetriadem). And where could people have it? God also creates the soul of each person as he created the soul of Adam, and since one flesh comes from parents, then the flesh deserves punishment (for ancestral sin), and the soul appears into the world in the same innocent state in which Adam was before the fall. If a person sins more and more with age, if, according to history, all of humanity has fallen into greater and greater evil, then the concepts of imitation and habit are sufficient to explain these sad phenomena (although habit can have less of a place in Pelageya’s system) (Epist. ad Demet. p. 15). Moreover, all these sad manifestations of evil are just an accident, c) On the other hand, there were people who, thanks to the development of the forces of their moral nature, lived to the end in complete sinlessness. Why is grace here, what is predestination? It is up to us, only ourselves, to predetermine ourselves to bliss or destruction (August. de natura et gratia 42–44). – Augustine follows the enemy’s trail steadily, but, unfortunately, not always to the direct and true goal, a) The blow at the first point was dealt directly and truly to the enemy. Armed against the opinion of Pelagius that the will of a person, from prolonged experiences of evil or good, does not acquire any disposition towards either one or the other, Augustine rightly notes: “who, from the most ordinary phenomena that are repeated daily in the life of each of us, does not know that a certain feeling from frequent repetition becomes a disposition of spirit and, having passed through the psychological stages of inclination and habit, turns into passion, and little by little a person is brought into moral necessity to take a certain path and impossibility of keeping up with him.” But then I leave calm and moderation to our polemicist. Trying to stay as far as possible from the enemy and fearing to meet with him in proud views, which would be a desecration for his pious and humble feelings, Augustine unintentionally goes as far in the opposite direction as he avoided the enemy, b) Rebelling against the opinion that free will does not tolerate anything from sins and that they do not corrupt the strength of the soul in the least, Augustine teaches: “in man, in the present state, there is freedom only to sin, because sin cannot be served without a certain freedom; people are free from righteousness by their own free will, and they become free from sin only by the grace of God, that is, people have become completely incapable not only of doing good, but also of desiring good.” (De corruptione et gratia 1, 3). Augustine, as Pressanza beautifully remarks, “imagines humanity as worthy of eternal death, thrown into the grave, laying a tombstone and making a desolate inscription: “without God, without hope.” Only the Creator himself can revive and resurrect him. As for the Pelagian opinion that Adam’s sin cannot be hereditary, since the soul of each person is created by God himself, not from the soul of his parents (non ex traduce), then, contrasting the theory of creationism with the theory of traducianism, Augustine quite correctly notes: “since in Adam, before he sinned, we were all present, as in a tree or a root, then naturally infection and corruption spread from him to all of us.” But having set himself the task of repelling the enemy with the most sharp contrast of conclusions, Augustine again goes to extremes: “just as a good and an evil tree cannot grow from the same root, he teaches in his books about grace and hereditary sin, so equally good and evil grow from completely different roots: from the evil nature of the human will only incorrigible evil is born, and good is born exclusively from God 5 . As proof of hereditary corruption and complete moral corruption, Augustine points to countless disasters and disorders in our lives: “Where does this continuous struggle of chastity against the lust of the flesh come from, where does the painful release from the burden of our poor mothers, with all their groans, cries and cries come from? What is the reason for a baby to be born not with a smile of joy, but with crying and screaming? Why does he begin to smile so late and even later, stuttering and lisping, begins to speak, learns under the rod and with tears? Add to this countless diseases, demonic attacks, uprising of the elements, bitten by animals and hence the innumerable torment and torment! And the grief of orphans over the loss of those close to their hearts! It would be impossible to list all the suffering and disorder that fills our lives. If we recognize such troubles and disorder as a natural consequence of the limitations of our nature and do not believe that a disorder has occurred in human nature since the time of ancestral sin, then these troubles and disorder must be allowed in paradise. But if someone painted such a gloomy picture of paradise, then no one would recognize it as paradise, no one in this picture would recognize the unintentional mistake of the painter, but the malicious work of a scoffer and blasphemer. There is nothing to say, Augustine wittily concludes, the Pelagian paradise is good. Isn’t this the kind of paradise we can expect in the future life?” c) Finally, contrary to the proud assertion of the Pelagians that they can achieve complete sinlessness on their own and therefore it is up to them to predestine themselves to salvation or destruction, Augustine, referring to the words of the Apostle: I do not what I want, I see another law in my deeds..., says that with the exception of the Blessed Virgin Mary (?), not a single righteous person is free from the power of sin over him. But then a new objection was heard from the hostile camp, drawing him into a heated debate: “Although my flesh rebels against the spirit, Julian objected, I do not indulge it, and I do not even deign to indulge it in thought.” Deeply indignant at such arrogance, Augustine confronts him with the following: “Our job is to vigilantly monitor the desires of the flesh, to vigorously engage in battle with them, to curb, weaken and destroy them. Feeling constantly oppressed and depressed, without God’s help we would not only not be able to win, but also fight. We would be completely exhausted, fall and perish, if not for the help and intercession of the One who calls to us: come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Sermo 156). But even here Augustine met with controversy. Pelagius assured: “I myself come to Him of my own free will.” Augustine, having sent him a well-deserved reproach for pride and arrogance, refutes it with the words of the Savior: no one will come to Me unless the Father who sent me attracts him. And in general, the more Pelagius, out of proud trust in the powers of man, tried to exalt the power of the will and reject the need for grace, the more the humility and piety of Augustine tried to humiliate, weaken and destroy the power of the will and its ability for good, in order to glorify and exalt divine grace all the more. Deeply respecting him and reverently before his pious feelings and holy intentions, we must, however, notice in the words of Pressanza that if, when, then in the present case, “responding to the daring denial of grace by Pelagius, Augustine could not maintain the calm of spirit, to a certain extent necessary for a reasoning theologian. His heart began to boil with such indignation against human pride that he did not stop in pursuing it until he had destroyed not only pride, but also man himself before God and His unconditional grace.” 3) Now Augustine has entered the very sanctuary of the mysteries of predestination, or, to put it more clearly, he has reached the very central point of his system: from the complete incapacity of man for good, which he so happily, apparently, defended and proved, the idea flowed of itself that only unconditional grace brings about salvation in the elect without themselves, leaving the rest to their natural destruction. But in order to establish itself at this central point, it was necessary to withstand new fierce attacks by opponents. In turn, these latter were prepared by all their previous tactics. From their false teaching about sin and free will naturally flowed the false doctrine about redemption and grace, eliminating any thought about predestination. Since, according to their concept, sin is an accidental phenomenon, free will has not suffered at all from it and the soul is strong to heal itself from this illness, then, for its complete destruction, there is no need for internal radical means, divine hidden powers given to us in redemption and rebirth, but rather external supernatural revelation and external support on occasion. The ancient law, according to their teaching, had the goal of giving a person a clear consciousness of his duty, restoring purity and innocence to him by pointing out various promises and threats, and not arousing a sense of sinfulness, a consciousness of powerlessness to achieve good, and thereby preparing him for Christ. And from Christ himself they expected a new, more perfect teaching than in the Old Testament, a new, most perfect example of power, and the most important and essential thing in redemption, the high priestly ministry of Jesus Christ, was ignored. Grace of St. The Spirit was not recognized as essential in the matter of salvation, although they admitted that with it it is easier to achieve the goal. But what could she give them? Nothing higher than the strictly moral life that many achieved in the Old Testament, guided by internal or external law. They did not at all allow the internal gift of Divine powers, even to life and piety, the internal communication of the highest unearthly life, the deepest action of grace on consciousness and will, fearing otherwise to destroy free will and accepting only grace “teaching, instructing and enlightening through external revelation” (Epist. ad Demetriad. p. 3. 6. 7). True, they attributed to grace the gift of forgiveness of sins and the distribution of rewards in heaven, but they recognized these gifts as not undeserved by man. “Children, according to the teachings of the Pelagians, are justified because they are innocent, and only the recognition of their innocence belongs to grace. Adult sinful people are justified because they themselves began their correction, they themselves turned to a strictly moral life, they themselves believed in Christ. Grace, rewarding them for this, only forgets their past sins, but does not give them the strength to avoid them in the future. What power do grace and predestination have over me, concludes Julian? What I want, that is what I determine myself to do, and gracious predestination has nothing to do with it” (August. de gratia Christi 31 et Epist. ad Demetr.) Our polemicist reflects all these attacks and objections and in the place of victory erects a new building (teaching), not at all similar to the one overthrown, but, unfortunately, shaky, exaggerated. Pelagius arrogantly asserted: “I fell of my own free will, I will rise of my own, I myself will be saved by natural force”: Augustine humbly replied: “poor human nature! By your own will, you inflicted wounds, illnesses and death on yourself: with your own power, can you heal wounds, heal illnesses and rise from the dead? You could not resist (fell to death) in an innocent state: will you yourself rise in a damaged state? For this you need the all-vivifying power of the divine Physician.” Pelagius states: “God can heal and save everything; if through sin the free will has weakened and become weak, then it is in the power of God to restore free will again and give it the strength to save itself even in its weakness, because His power is made perfect in weakness.” “Indeed, Augustine refutes, the power of God has the power to heal and save everything, but God does not act according to the rule that the subject and weak would like to prescribe to Him; His will in this case is that “there is no other name by which we must be saved, except the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.” If in the Old Testament there were righteous people before the flood, whether during the time of the law, whether among the people of God, or outside it, then they were saved by faith in the One Great Mediator between God and man; this Faith was poured into them through the Holy Spirit, who breathes where he wants, and is given not according to merit, not for faith, but produces merit and faith: grace shone for them and saved them through internal and external law. And if, in the words of the Apostle, justification were achieved through the law, then Christ died in vain, and if, I add to these words, justification were achieved through natural force, then Christ died in vain (Das Wert von der Natur und von der Gnade 478; die Bücher von der Gnade Christi und von der Erbsünde, p. 514 von Bindemann). But just as in Christ human nature was taken into personal unity with the Divine, and Christ was born sinless not for any of its exploits or previous merits, but by the gift of abundant grace: so man is reborn and saved only by the gift of grace and from the same Holy Spirit, from whom Christ was born sinless. As for the faith required of us at baptism, He who made Christ worthy for us to believe in Him miraculously produces faith in Him; God, who made Christ the Author and Finisher of our salvation, produces in us the beginning and perfection of faith in Jesus: this is precisely the mystery of predestination, that He should be the mysterious head, and we his mysterious members. Further, without love there is nothing good; but love is from God. Why, they ask, are we commanded to love one another when love comes from God? Only to remind free will that it must seek this gift in God, and this reminder would be completely unnecessary for it if it had love within itself before. Meanwhile, blinded and bitter opponents of grace claim that knowledge is given to us from God, and love exclusively from us. They do not understand the words of the Apostle: knowledge boasts, but love creates. What could be more unreasonable than the thought that arrogant knowledge is from God, and creative love is from ourselves? Love, or, according to the Apostle, faith, promoted by love and good deeds, distinguishes those who believe in God from the spirits of evil, who also believe, but do not have active love. But demons do not have true love and faith because they are forever abandoned by grace: and people also would not have true love if Divine grace did not give it. And so faith, love and all godly life, both at the beginning and origin, and in further development and improvement, are exclusively dependent on God. And - is there even a shadow of truth in the opinion of more compliant opponents that the beginning of salvation, or faith, belongs exclusively to man, and the rest is in the matter of salvation to God and grace? Or is it better to think that the beginning of faith depends on us, and its improvement on grace? Since faith is the main stronghold on which the economy of salvation is based, the above opinions, especially the first, express an arrogant claim to seize first place for oneself in the matter of salvation, and to give God second place. At the same time, in both opinions, grace is made dependent on a person’s merits and, therefore, grace in its true sense is abolished, and finally, here it is as if a controversial agreement is being made with God, leaving one, the most important part of salvation for man, and leaving the other, a secondary one, to God. No, everyone, says the Truth, who listens to the Father and learns from Him, comes to Me, and whomever the Father teaches and instructs (and of course through the Son, as his eternal Word, and through the Spirit of faith and grace), from him He takes away a heart of stone and gives a heart of flesh, and - always without any merit on his part, without his prior knowledge and even desire: here on the new fleshly tablets of the heart grace writes what destined the unconditional predestination fulfills what It prepares” (according to Bindeman I). Christ, von der Prädestination der Heiligen, s. 605–607). In order to better show the complete suffering of man in the matter of salvation from beginning to end, Augustine gives the following analogy: “in children, when receiving grace, not only is there no action of the will that could be looked upon as merit, but they also cry and resist when they are baptized and when the Divine sacraments are taught to them: all people in general are in the same suffering position when grace accomplishes salvation in them and for them. But where will they ask, is there a difference between people, why are some saved and others perish? We will understand this if we lift the veil of eternity and see the endless predestination by which the number of the elect, destined to take the place of the fallen Angels, has been established from eternity. And just as many children die without baptism, without grace, although there was no action of the will in them that would prevent the acceptance of grace: so many adults do not receive grace, not because they rejected it by their own will, but because the grace of God is not predetermined for everyone, and if God wants all people to be saved, then only for all those whom He has predestined for salvation. And this is according to the righteous judgment of God: in some He reveals the greatness of the All-merciful Father, and in others the greatness of the Righteous Judge; He forgives the ancestral debt of some, and tortures others.” This is how far Augustine went in his opposition to Pelagianism. He could not go further, because there was nothing left in the person that he would not take from him. There is no need to dwell on what carried him so far, how his humble and pious feeling was outraged by the new arrogance with which his enemies ascribed to man the power of self-recreation, considered grace unnecessary and, at best, not superfluous for salvation, did not recognize the redemptive merits in Christ, the omnipotence and goodness of grace (which among them only recognizes the innocence of man, gives him what he deserves, takes from her their own efforts), humiliated the Christian saints (they deliberately equated the Old Testament righteous people and even preferred them to Christian ascetics). Every word they say is an intentional or unintentional reproach against God, every thought is an obvious or secret undermining of the entire economy of our salvation. And the close connection of their teaching with pagan morality, a connection that they may not have suspected, but which is amazingly obvious? Cicero says: “Who thanks the gods for being virtuous? They thank Jupiter for wealth, honors, health, but not for the fact that we are fair, wise and temperate.” Pelagius teaches in exactly the same way: “God made me a man, and I made myself righteous; if I want, I will be righteous; I don’t want to, I won’t be like that.” And why all these misconceptions, arrogance and blasphemy? Because too much is attributed to man, his natural strengths and merits. In order to defend the morals of grace and the church, which were brazenly trampled by enemies, in order to protect the so cruelly insulted glory and greatness of God, our passionate zealot for the glory and grace of God was revealed to a new inevitable impulse to completely destroy man with his merits and participation in the work of salvation and leave everything in this great work to the grace and glory of God, or, which is the same, to preach unconditional predestination. He himself perfectly explains his motives that led him to not entirely true goals. “The Savior,” he says in one sermon (Sermo 30), first of all teaches us humility: learn from Me, for I am meek... He says: I do not teach you that you can acquire Divine rights and perfections equal to Me, but so that you never have in yourself anything similar to that daring thought that you are equal to God. I teach you humility, self-abasement, self-destruction: with such humility alone will you find rest for your souls 6.” Those who think, Augustine adds, that they themselves can be saved, imagine themselves to be as strong as God himself, they even think, at the instigation of the devil, that they are gods, a terrible thought, a demonic desire! And we, if through our own efforts we attribute at least particles of good, then at least in part we will not be alien to this terrible thought and demonic desire. No, in order not to have anything demonic in ourselves, but to be closer to the example of humility indicated to us by the Savior and the grace promised for following him, we must attribute everything that is good in us to the One from whom it comes - everything to Him, and nothing to us. May His boundless predestination reign over us, may He lead us wherever and however He wants! What most horrified and worried Augustine’s holy zeal and then contributed to his sad enthusiasm for the doctrine of predestination was the fact that, according to the system of his opponents, the appearance on earth of the Son of God was not only not recognized as urgently necessary, but directly or indirectly the path was paved for the denial of the miraculous character in the matter of redemption, and in the Redeemer himself - the Divine dignity. In fact, why, from the Pelagian point of view, would the Son of God come to earth? To proclaim a new, most perfect teaching. But this matter can be entrusted to a mere mortal, vesting him with the authority of a prophet, even greater than Moses himself. Then, to indicate in your life the highest example of selflessness? But what is this example for when it is beyond human strength, and divine powers are not given to him! Wouldn’t it be better to point out in a simple person this example of perfect sinlessness, especially since from the Pelagian point of view this example is possible. Not to mention the fact that the necessity of the death of the God-Man, as an innocent and most holy atoning sacrifice, was openly rejected by them. All these hidden and perhaps unintentional ideas, which undermined the very foundations of the economy of our salvation, were very clearly seen by the deeply insightful mind of Augustine, he saw much more clearly than those who conceived them themselves, he also saw what they may not have suspected, namely, that others, having seized on their principles and more consistently developed them, would reach the point where they recognize in Jesus Christ a simple man and in his wonderful work of redemption - only a human work, as later Socinians and rationalists did. Therefore, it is not surprising that, in fear of such terrifying conclusions of his opponents, he hurried to get as far away from them as possible, countering them with the sharpest opposite conclusions, speaking to them from afar and in the most irreconcilable tone: the more they undermined the wonderful work of redemption, the more impudently they rejected the omnipotent power of the Redeemer and the Spirit of grace sent down by Him, both in relation to the salvation of all mankind and each separately, the more he tried to exalt and magnify this Divine power and strength, until finally he gave Her everything in the matter of our salvation, leaving nothing to man, and neither bowed before Unconditional Predestination. In conclusion of the analysis of the reasons hidden in the discussed polemic, which caused involuntary extremes and exaggerations in the teaching revealed with the help of it, it is not superfluous to point out the external history of this polemic. The entire history of this 20-year struggle, starting from the first condemnation of heresy at the Council of Carthage in 412 to its final overthrow at the 3rd Ecumenical Council in 431, is a continuous series of searches, deceit, deception, violence, rudeness, malice and bitterness on the part of heretics. One had to be not human so that, having endured such an unworthy struggle, one would not lose the limits of calm and, going so far in pursuit of the enemy, in the heat of passion would not harm the interests of one’s own teaching. Let us remember the insidious evasion of the Pelagian party from the conciliar condemnation in Jerusalem, where, after its disgrace in Carthage, it sought refuge and where it was pursued by Orosius and Jerome the Blessed. Let us remember: an insult to the priest in absentia. the person of Augustine, inflicted on him at the council by Pelagius and the latter's patron John, Bishop of Jerusalem, chairman of the council - further, the low ingratiation of justification through the publication of Augustine's private letter to Pelagius and the cunning selection of excerpts from the indictment of the latter by the Gallic bishops Heros and Lazarus - dishonest solicitation of protection through an ambiguous justification from all provisions of the accusation, an justification that, under the Orthodox expressions hid non-Orthodox concepts and was helped by the art of the advocate of untruth and the short-sightedness of the apologists of truth, and finally, bought at the price of renunciation of many extreme opinions of Celestius, the recognition of Pelagius as a member of the true universal church... Who, in the place of Augustine, would not lose calm, would not get carried away and fall into extremes? But the long, indignant St. jealousy of his procedure Pelagian disputes are far from over. What was it like for him to see that Pelagius and Celestius, condemned at the councils of Carthage (in 416, out of 68 bishops presided over by Aurelius) and Milevid (in the same 416) of 59 bishops under the chairmanship of Silvanus), and finally, strictly denounced by Pope Innocent (in three letters of 417), with their ambiguous confessions full of omissions and secrecy, detailed disclosure of Orthodox views on completely indisputable subjects and vague unclear presentation of controversial subjects, not only managed to justify themselves before Pope Zosima, (a man without a thorough theological education), but also instilled in him suspicion of the complicity of Augustine and the North African bishops, partly in the Manichaean teaching (regarding their teaching that those who are not partakers of grace cannot escape sin), partly in the Jovinian one (regarding their supposed teaching that the predestined cannot sin by their very nature), and thereby prompted the pope to send an accusatory letter to all North African bishops “for the fact that all these cunning and useless questions that they do not create, but destroy, stem from the fact that they (bishops) abuse their gifts and eloquence, wanting to know more than what is contained in Scripture.” This reproach was so offensive that it was necessary to convene two new councils in Carthage (both in 418, 1st of 214 bishops, 2nd of 200). Excommunicated from the Church at the last council, and deprived of civil rights by the civil authorities, the Pelagians, even after that, did not cease to worry and excite our fighter. Their bishops in Italy and North Africa again demanded a council (plenaria synodus), considering the order of the uneducated (simplices), as they put it, southern bishops, unnecessary. The most intolerable of them all was Julian, Bishop of Eklan in Anulia, a man who was as talented, learned and strict in life as he was proud, rude, capable of driving anyone out of patience and causing him to sadly get carried away in the heat of an argument. He called his much more gifted opponent, Blessed Augustine, with the words amentissimus et bardissimus, the defender of the teachings of the mob (dogma populare), and himself the most learned Pelagian, having on his side: reason, learning, strength and freedom. And indeed, he found himself an accomplice and supporter in the powerful Patriarch of Constantinople Nestorius. True, this patronage served as a new stigma and, so to speak, a signal for the death sentence for Pelagianism, we mean its joint condemnation with Nestorianism at the 3rd Ecumenical Council - but the Blessed One did not live to see this joyful triumph. A brief outline of this endless struggle is enough to judge how much St. suffered. his soul from all the machinations of malice and deceit, how deeply they outraged St. and a fiery zeal for the truth, which animated him with such ectusiasm. Let us add here the passionate concentration of his character, which at every period of his life directed all the forces of his spirit to one object, to one activity, which brought inexorable mercilessness to his attacks and in which concession to the enemy was incomprehensible to him. Thanks to this passion, he, on many other occasions, proclaimed principles absolutely opposite to those that he disputed, sometimes sacrificing for this purpose the most dear truths. Thus, when he, with all the passion of a polemicist, arms himself against Manichaean dualism by revealing the dogma of monotheism, the difference in hypostases in him is closed by the doctrine of the One God, manifested only in three different relationships. It is not surprising that in this case, pursuing his opponents step by step, ultimately destroying everything he finds among them, he puts up a completely new banner, proclaiming, not without harm to the truth, completely opposite principles. They recognize man himself as the creator of his salvation and bliss, attribute everything to him and nothing to God: he denies man any participation in the accomplishment of his salvation, leaves everything to God and nothing to man. They do not want to know any predestination over themselves: he bows before Unconditional Predestination. 4) We have seen how, as a result of polemics with Pelagianism, Augustine’s doctrine of predestination developed in its particulars and details, which we have come to call a system; we also tried to penetrate into the reasons for the extremes and exaggerations that crept into it. Now it remains for us to consider several issues, without which the considered system would not be complete and complete. These questions were raised after the system had already been promulgated, at different times, by different persons: his friends and enemies, the Adrumetian and Gallic monks, the Semi-Pelagians and partly the Pelagians. The solution to these issues, although strictly consistent with the general principles and plan of the teaching, did not represent any system. Both the questions and the answers to them have to be found in his various works, and therefore putting them in order is no less difficult than collecting the essential parts of the system itself, for which it was necessary to rummage through his numerous works (for us, in the summary sketches of them made by Bindemann). These questions can be divided mainly, A., into dogmatic and B., partly moral. A., First question: how to reconcile human freedom with the irresistible action of grace in the doctrine of predestination? This question was raised by the Adrumetian monks, who presented to Augustine that, according to his teaching, they do not need the duty of self-government, because grace will already save them if it has chosen them, and if it has rejected them, then their labors are all the more in vain. Blessed Augustine felt the justice of the remark and began to repeat often in sermons and treatises that unconditional grace does not violate human freedom. Private monks posed the question: why does God command us this or that deed when He Himself gives it to man, and why does He appear to give this or that virtue when we ourselves must do it? Augustine, noting that the question of the relationship of grace to the free will of man is beyond our understanding. answers: “God gives us such a good deed that He pre-commands, and He helps those whom He commands to fulfill the commandment.” Further, based on the words of the Apostle: God works in us to will, and also: I know that He who began a good work in you will complete it until the day of the Lord Jesus Christ, Augustine teaches: “God works to will good without us, but when we want and in such a way that we actually fulfill the will of good, then He works with us” (Die Schrift von der Gratia und dem freien Willen. 582). Although in both cases grace acts irresistibly, especially in the first, when it produces in us the desire for good without us, it always acts in accordance with our rational being, or in accordance with the laws of human life. Therefore, its influence, carried out so easily, naturally and imperceptibly, never responds in feelings with violence; The divine will, which at first does not expect the will of man, and then goes hand in hand with it, imperceptibly for him becomes, as it were, his personal will. Thus, unconditional grace not only does not suppress human freedom, but to the extent that the human will is imbued with the Divine will, to the extent that its actions proceed from the Divine will, it is so free: otherwise it would be a slave of sin, and its will (arbitrium), as choosing only evil, would not be free. So, free will is saved in Augustine’s doctrine of predestination, and grace remains irresistible (Opus imperfect. 1, 94). The solution to this difficult question provided the key to understanding another question, which was formulated as follows: “Sacrificing free will in favor of grace, Augustine, under the name of unconditional grace, does not he preach blind fate?” This question was raised by the Pelagian bishops, and they condemned that God, when distributing grace, is partial. To this reproach, Augustine replies: “those who recognize fate not so much in deeds and events, but also in our very will, want to place our very will in exclusive dependence on the stars and heavenly bodies: but the grace of God is higher not only than the stars, but also the Angels themselves; she controls the destinies of all heaven and earth.” Further, fatalists, both good and evil, produce everything from fate, accidents: but God, in predestination of some to destruction and others to salvation, does not act by chance, but according to His eternal and high advice of justice and goodness. Finally, having shown how rash and impudent the reproach of partiality thrown by enemies at the very God of truth, Augustine points to the fate of Jacob and Esau predetermined by God: in his opinion, the predestination of the elder brother to be the slave of the younger, made by God even before their birth, before they could do good or evil, was not a matter of fate and did not happen as a result of foresight, not according to their merits in the future, but solely by mercy (love) in relation to to Jacob and justice (hatred), in relation to Esau (Die vier Bücher gegen zwei Briefe der Pelagianer, 544 f). Further questions, proposed from various sides, were of this kind: if all people, by nature, are in the same relationship to Divine truth and mercy, then why does God reveal His mercy in some, and truth in others, and is predestination fair in relation to the vessels of wrath? Augustine refuses to answer the first of these two questions, humbly confessing that he must rest on a reverent recognition of both Divine truth and the unsearchableness of God’s ways. In relation to individuals separately, he continues, God's predestination is decidedly incomprehensible. Children of pious parents, dying without baptism, do not receive the kingdom of heaven: on the contrary, children of wicked parents achieve it. People who have stood on the path of salvation for a long time, at the very entrance to heaven, before death become treacherous apostates: others, on the contrary, having spent most of their lives dissolutely, turn to God in the last hours of life and receive bliss. The apostle dies the death of a traitor; and the thief dies the death of a righteous man. In all these particular cases, Augustine sees with trepidation only one thing, that the ways of God are unsearchable and that no flesh dares to boast before God. In relation to all humanity, God's predestination seems to him somewhat clearer, precisely to the extent that God's mercy is united with truth and goodness is balanced by truth in its revelation to the whole mass of people (Die Gnadenwahl 629 and 630). As for the second question, whether predestination is valid in relation to the vessels of wrath, Augustine answers it without the slightest hesitation. “As punishment for sin, let them move from sin to sin, finally reaching the point of blindness and bitterness, let the Almighty resist all their undertakings, let them strike them with internal punishments and external blows of fate (as He punished Judas, the crucifiers and the devil), in order to strengthen the faith and piety of the good, but He always deals with them according to righteous judgment, partly open, partly hidden. According to God's justice, we must all be subjected to eternal punishment: can those who, instead of grace, received the right (punishment) complain of non-pardon? And who can deserve, demand the grace of pardon? Grace would not be grace if it were deserved. (Die Schrift von der Gnade und dem freien Willen, f. 586). This justice will be revealed to us in all its clarity at the worldwide disgrace, at the Last Judgment: there you will not ask about merit, but you will find only what is worthy of punishment. You demand proof, but I tremble before the abyss of mystery, you seek foundations, but I want to believe - before me stands a predestination deep, boundless, like an ocean” (Die praedestinatin, f. 422). As if continuing to develop the previous question, the semi-Pelagian pariah asked the following particular questions: does predestination act justly when it takes many from this life not when they are in a state of grace and salvation, but when, due to human weakness, they fall from it, or when it condemns to destruction: many generations and peoples who have never heard such news about salvation, and many young children who were not worthy to receive baptism and therefore the promises of sons grace? The inventors themselves tried to resolve these questions: “God did not grant grace to many in its entirety and did not even find them at all with his grace of election because he foresaw well that they would either resist grace or reject it altogether; and therefore one day He will judge them not only for what they did, but also for what they would have done if they had lived longer.” Augustine, agreeing that God calls a person to Himself from this life at the best moment for him, although often we cannot understand what this best consists of, notes, however, in the words of the Apostle, that everyone will be judged in the future life only for what he has done with the body. and not for what he would have done if his life had been lengthened (the Apostle does not have the last words), and then he teaches that although many are called, but few are chosen, yet not as few as it seems at first; He wants to understand the so-called particularism of Divine election as broadly as possible. He expands the usual position that participation in the Divine election is granted both for faith in the past and the Promised Messiah to the bold assumption that among the pagans in the sphere of promise there existed the kingdom of God and there were many chosen ones of His eternal predestination. If, according to history, during the time of Abraham, among other nations there were admirers of the One True God, highly glorified for their righteousness (for example. Job of Austria), then why could there not be worshipers of the True God among other peoples in these and other times? Christ at all times among all historical peoples was preached, either openly or covertly, as God wanted in accordance with the spirit of the times. Moreover, the saving power of the Old Testament religion, through which grace called people of all times and peoples, was not sufficient for those who were unworthy of it. Finally, to those to whom the gospel of salvation could not be preached in this life, it will be preached in the future life. We are amazed at the power of mind and the words of many pagan rhetoricians, poets, philosophers, and even more so at those bright, highly moral ideas that shine through the luxurious veils of myths and images, and sometimes develop into harmonious systems of sublime morality. We highly honor the way of life of many glorious men of antiquity, learned politicians and private people. Despite religious errors, serving more creatures than the Creator, their life represents examples of many virtues: abstinence, moderation, introspection, chastity, justice, fidelity to the word, selfless family and patriotic love, which would be an honor and adornment to our morals. Are these righteous pagans, together with the righteous people of God, not liberated by the Savior from hell when He descended there preaching salvation, and are they not caught up by Him among the elect, the predestined? We can say with confidence that, like them, everyone who is dying and will die, not having the physical opportunity to hear the Gospel of the Kingdom of God here - whether they be children, adults, entire generations and nations - will hear it in another life from the same Christ the Savior, who once preached it in hell, and, if they are destined to be among the elect, predestined, to receive remission of sins and the grace of salvation. If in this way the predetermining grace of many, left by it in this life, will be found there, beyond the grave, then is it possible to narrow the sphere of the predestined and cast a shadow on the justice of God, as those who do not recognize predestination do? Let the rejected be greater than the predestined, but boundless thanksgiving and praise to the Lord is that from all those worthy of condemnation He chooses at least some for the glory of bliss, whether here or there, it doesn’t matter! This is how Augustine concludes his reasoning, adding to it the opinion of how faith in the possibility of calling in a future life can be accepted without prejudice to the active desire for expansion. The Gospels on Earth among Unbelievers (Die Gnalewahl 624–631 f.). B) These are the most important dogmatic points that complemented Augustine’s system of predestination. Of the moral ones, it is enough to point out one or two. The Adrumetian monks pointed out to Augustine the practical conclusion they had drawn from his teaching, that sinners cannot be reproached for being sinners, because they cannot help but be sinners if they do not belong to the elect, that they need neither to be admonished nor punished, but to pray a lot for them, that the doctrine of unconditional predestination will give the outcast food for despair, and inspire pride in the elect self-confidence, predisposing to sin. The refutation of these, as well as many other objections, is not quite strong: because with all logical consistency they followed from his teaching; in order to reject them, it was necessary to reject the very foundation on which they rested - to abandon many extreme tendencies. In rebuff to the objections now raised, Augustine could only answer the following: can’t the same thing be said about Divine foreknowledge? And - he pointed out examples of how one dissolute monk repeated about himself: “no matter what I am now, but over time, in spite of everything, fate will lead me to be what God foresaw for me,” or: how many, in the confidence that God, before any petition, knows our needs, do not pray or pray to God without zeal! Should we keep silent about the truth for the sake of such people and not encourage them to do good deeds? Of course, our exhortations, punishments, as well as prayers, will be in vain if the grace of God does not warn those being instructed, but who can deny that the apparently lost one whom we exhort is predestined to salvation, and that we are appointed to be the instruments of his conversion? On the contrary, in the spirit of love we should always assume this and do our best, leaving the rest to God. With prudent meekness, we must inspire confidence in those who believe in Christ that they are all predestined to be his chosen people, but since no one can be sure of eternal life before the end of earthly life, which is full of temptations, then everyone must ask God for the gift of permanence, or perfection, and thus work out their salvation with joy and trembling. Meanwhile, whoever does not believe in predestination, who thinks in himself and from himself to have the gift of constancy, he in arrogance does not want to pray and entrust himself to God. But why shouldn’t everyone, even a desperate sinner, trust more in the immutability of God’s promise than in their own weakness? You say: “God’s will for me is unknown to me,” but is your own will for you known to you? Can you predict your destiny in advance? But since both are unknown to you, why don’t you trust your faith, love and hope to the One who is incomparably stronger, more faithful and more powerful than you? Finally, for the encouragement and consolation of the uncalled, it remains to be said that we must pray and supplicate for them, so that they too may become partakers of grace, for God, who fulfills everything that He has foreseen, wants us to pray for our enemies, so that they will be shown mercy through our prayers, and so that we and they will be completely convinced that He imparts faith to unbelievers and makes those who do not want salvation want them” (Die Gnadewahl f. 621–629; die Schrift von der Praedestination der Heiligen f. Here are the most important parts of Augustine's doctrine of predestination. These are the main ways of its development, as organic, vital, passing through long-term polemical activity, as the beginning of its origin in the writer’s own personality and life is alive and vital. Why is this living connection of teaching with the life and work of the author important and instructive? It is known that blessed Augustine, gifted by nature with rare talents of mind and heart, and with the help of the writings of Aristotle, developed a deep systematic understanding in himself, and on the works of Plato, cultivated in himself a necessary and sublime feeling, in his immortal doctrine of predestination (understood in the broadest sense, as the totality of those numerous writings from which we have extracted essential parts of the teaching, not excluding in part the 12 books Confession), deeply imprinted both of these qualities, rarely combined in one person, that is, deep scholastic reason and a living, fiery and tender feeling. In the entire system, especially in the disclosure of private issues related to it, we saw how difficult it is to follow all the subtle combinations of thoughts, the cunning constructions of thoughts of the subtle mind; Nothing can ever be said against the correctness of his conclusions, if only their very beginnings are correct. So strict are his conclusions, such is the strength of his philosophical mind! As for feelings, in the confession, which served as the main basis for his teaching about predestination, and in the teaching itself, we saw in what delights of love, in fiery feelings of gratitude, humility and reverence he poured out before God: in every word he breathes sincere, deep piety, he speaks everywhere in the language of the heart. But along with these high virtues, it was impossible not to notice some shortcomings: in vain we would look in him for theological thoroughness of scholarship and originality - instead we will find philosophical originality and wit; one would look in vain for sublime, deep ideas - they are replaced by logical rigor; Let’s not even talk about the extremes and exaggerations known to us, rejected by Orthodox Church teaching. And - all these advantages and disadvantages are explained by the living organic connection between the teaching and the life and work of the writer. The very fact that this teaching, like most of his major works, was aimed at satisfying the scientific needs of his time and in its development was subordinate to the philosophizing mindset and direction of the mind, and depended on other personal characteristics of his mind and character - and this circumstance determined its advantages and disadvantages, which should have been an important and instructive lesson for others. What are these needs of science to serve which his activity was called, and what are these features of his mind and character? – Having won the victory over paganism, Christianity had to oppose it not only with a new cult, but also with a new teaching, it had to show the world that it could not only do without pagan philosophy, but also create its own independent philosophy. Augustine took upon himself the fulfillment of this great task. He was a remarkable phenomenon in the history of philosophy. It represented a transition from ancient philosophy to new; but it was not so much his philosophical education as his own life and deep introspection that made him a philosopher. By the way, he is known as a profound psychologist, but he is a psychologist not by training, but by introspection and experience: his whole life, as someone put it, is living psychology. As an independent philosopher, accustomed to be critical of the best philosophical systems: skeptics, Neoplatonists, etc., who loved to test everything with his personal considerations, his own experience and life, he also freely treated Christian dogma: he was ready to turn it into a philosophical system and, if not prescribe principles for it, then subject them (ready-made principles) to his own strict analysis, comparing them with his own experienced life. In his mind, each dogma was laid out as a philosophical system, religious conviction was embodied in a dialectical structure, the most mysterious belief was clothed in the beautiful form of lyrical inspiration and metaphysical mysticism, the harmonious state of which is possible only in him alone. With his characteristic passion and ardor, he loved to introduce this philosophical harmony into already established dogmas. Moreover, he had to give such a character to the new, almost untouched dogma of predestination. And indeed, his teaching about unconditional predestination, which suppresses and, so to speak, blurs the personality of a person, is completely true to the metaphysical theory he developed, on the basis of personal experience, which consists in the fact that he looked at everything that exists as a single metaphysical whole, in which the personality is subordinated, enslaved to the whole, a particular phenomenon - to the general law. As a philosophical work, this teaching was an ideal of perfection for its time: it is not for nothing that it is given such an honorable place in the histories of philosophy. This is how it was understood by the best educated society of that time. Since it, together with its main metaphysical theory, answered vital scientific needs and inspired people of science with joyful hope for the creation of an independent Christian philosophy, for which it laid a solid foundation, and since it itself, with all its mystery, breathed with life, from which it was mainly taken: then by the majority of contemporaries, especially in the West, it was accepted with delight: especially since in terms of its scientific merits it was completely worthy the already famous name of Augustine. But, according to the common fate of all philosophical theories, it provoked storms of doubt and controversy, and fell into inevitable errors and exaggerations. Of course, no one will treat these shortcomings strictly: especially since this is a new experience, the first timid attempts to create an independent philosophy, and they are redeemed by the high motives and goals of the essay. They presented and present a wise lesson for the future: they showed that even for the most powerful talents, philosophy and life represent too slippery ground for building theological science on them, that the latter can and should use them as aids, but not as leaders, that it has a special criterion and Source of truth, that for Christian dogmatics, generally speaking, it is too unsafe to rely entirely on philosophy, even the most well-intentioned, vital and richly practical. This is the important and instructive significance of the doctrine of predestination, determined by its close connection both with the writer’s own life, the personal characteristics of his mind and character, and with the requirements of contemporary scientific activity. This teaching, as we have repeatedly noted, has a deep vital basis in the personal life of the writer, it is the fruit of his sincere deepest piety, it is, so to speak, a confession of his confession - this living monument of his piety, it is a song of praise to the Divine for his wonderful calling. All these qualities, worthy of a true exemplary Christian, constitute the best aspects of the teaching, its true decoration, and in them lies the secret of the charm it has produced on modern and distant generations. But these are all his oratorical advantages; in dogmatic and logical terms, these are also his weaknesses, because from his passion for feeling, beyond what was proper, his mistakes and exaggerations occurred. Here is hidden a new, significant lesson, firstly, that dogmatic teaching should not be the result of a feeling, even the most pious and ardent, nor should it be a conclusion from any significant moral events in life, but, however, in its revelation it can and should be imbued with feeling, be its source and inspirer and the basis for moral conclusions: under this only condition it can be a worthy imitation of the best qualities in the teaching of our famous writer, to make a similar impression on pious hearts and to avoid his involuntary extremes. Especially his Catholic and Protestant admirers would do well to take advantage of this useful lesson in order to warm dry, deadening dogmatism with a living pious feeling. They can read to themselves another important lesson and warning in his deeply felt and vital teaching. If such a highly talented and moral person, from whose pen came creations with undoubted signs of anointing, or inspiration from above, fell into errors and delusions precisely because she relied too much on her personal feelings and subjectivism, and, sometimes feeling the breath of the Spirit of God in him, thought to find in him a firm guarantee of truth in the revelation of the most mysterious dogmas: then can those simple ones be insured against errors? mortal and uncalled teachers, who in their subjective feeling, always open to the influence of the Spirit of God on him, imagine to find a reliable criterion and guiding principle of truth, supposedly authorizing them to be judges and legislators of every true teaching in the church, in addition to the universal voice of the church? Those who like to hide behind his illustrious name and be guided by his principles, should not take advantage and come to their senses of the sad experiences of his life and teaching? Should we finally talk about a well-known very important result that naturally follows from the fact that Augustine’s twenty-year struggle against heresy, waged by him in the most worthy and well-intentioned manner, but with his own, let’s say, very strong forces, without the help and support in the universal reason of the church, did not lead to the desired goal - i.e., although it overthrew the enemies, it carried away the winner himself, weakened him? This means that private individual forces, no matter how strong, well-intentioned and active they are, no matter how energetic and worthy the struggle they wage against the enemies of truth, are too insufficient for a solid foundation and development of dogmatic truths. This means that heresies contribute to the comprehensive revelation of truth only when it has a firm foothold in the general church consciousness and, above all, in Divine revelation. This impartial and instructive conclusion could be applied with particular benefit by those medieval and modern (rationalist) thinkers who consider it possible to prove every mysterious dogma from reason, who are inclined to see in any attacks from all sorts of hostile camps only a happy opportunity to reveal the disputed truth in a diversified way, but who in fact contrast reaction with reaction, extremes of objection with extremes of refutation. The sources and aids for analyzing this subject were: Libri confessionum Augustini (the first 12 books), der heilige Augustinus, dargestellt von Bindemann and partly the articles: Life and works of Blessed. Augustine (Kyiv 1855) Pelagianism of the priest. P. Lebedeva (Orthodox Review 1866. Vol. II and III. We do not mention his original view of predestination, which he soon and forever abandoned as imperfect, but which, however, was much closer to the Orthodox. This view attributed to the human will the importance of not a formal, but an active factor in the matter of salvation, with undoubted independence and self-activity assimilating and revealing what grace imparted to him: “everything is from God, meanwhile, it cannot be said that we are sleeping, doing nothing, desiring nothing: without our will the truth of God cannot be in us” (Sermones 158, 169, 176, 193).…………. In this answer, Augustine complains about the deadness of human nature to goodness and the examples of the wonderful calling in faith of Simeon the God-Receiver, Nathanael, Peter, the disciples present at the wedding in Cana of Galilee and many others prove that faith is produced in people by omnipotent grace alone. “In the elect,” Augustine continues, it acts irresistibly, although in accordance with their rational being, so that they cannot disobey it. She leaves others to deserved corruption.” (Bindemann's review of Diversarum quaestionum ad Symplicianum. Theil.II, s.419–421). Finding no reason to trust some historians, as if Augustine’s doctrine of predestination owes its origin and direction exclusively to his polemics with Pelagianism, we must, however, admit that, in turn, Augustine’s teaching gave rise to his opponent to many extremes and exaggerations: they excited each other, worried and carried each other into a hopeless situation; but both of them firmly relied on their own lives in the basic heterogeneous principles of their teachings. The whole mistake here was that in the fallen state of man, just like in the state of fallen spirits, he recognizes the complete opposite of the innocent state: he does not want to admit that in the damaged state of man, the possibility of good, as a remnant of the perfections of God-like nature, is more alive and strong than how alive and strong the possibility of evil was in the innocent state, because evil, not like good, is given to us not in nature, but with nature. The analogy Augustine gives here is interesting. If water pours onto high, rocky places, it splashes to the side without overtaking them; if it pours into low, deep places, then it all flows and stands in them: the proud, who think to be saved without the help of grace (a stone is thrown at Pelaginus), are those steep cliffs that, no matter how much life-giving streams of grace are poured on them, always remain dry, without moisture, without life, and those who humble themselves to the point of complete self-destruction before God are those; low-lying fertile valleys, which are abundantly filled with living water pouring out on them from the heights of heaven. (Sermo 30).