Annotation CCLVII

”I beseech you by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” — 1 Corinthians 1:10

Whether the precepts of the divine law can be fulfilled by natural powers alone.

Chrysostom, [in] the third homily on the first [epistle] to the Corinthians, narrating this, seems to hold that many of the gentile philosophers, aided by natural reason alone, not only fulfilled the precepts of the divine law, but even transcended [them]. For thus he declares: “DID not God give a law, both written and natural? Did he not send [his] Son? Did he not work signs? Did he not promise the kingdom of heaven? Are not his precepts so light [easy], that many, by philosophical reason alone, have exceeded them?” This assertion Augustine, in the book On Heresies, chapter 88, seems to place among the first and chief errors of the Pelagians, saying: “THE PELAGIANS are enemies of the grace of God, which is poured forth in our hearts, to such a degree that they believe man can, without it, do all the divine commands.” There are [those] who judge Chrysostom’s words [to have been] uttered by hyperbole — as by one who, by the example of the diligence of the gentiles, wished to confound the sloth of Christians, and to provoke their idle minds to the execution of the evangelical law. We can also interpret these very words thus, that we say [that] the philosophers indeed [fulfilled] not all, but some, of the divine precepts, both fulfilled and even surpassed [them] — as far only as the very action of the work, and the sole external execution of the deed [is concerned]. For many Gentiles chose voluntary poverty, riches being utterly cast off; and many so kept virginity, that they preferred to be slain than to betray it. But if we consider these same works according to the internal manner of acting, and the right scope [aim] of working, which is required of us according to the rule of Christian charity: it must be denied that any of the gentiles fulfilled the precepts of the law by philosophical reason alone — much less surpassed [them]. For, as John Cassian, the disciple of John Chrysostom, writes in the thirteenth volume of the Conferences, it must by no means be believed that the philosophers attained such a chastity of mind as is required of us — to whom it is enjoined, that not

—only fornication, but not even uncleanness, be named among us. For they had a certain μερικήν [merikḗn] — that is, a little portion — of chastity; that is, an abstinence of the flesh, [such] that they restrained lust only from coition: but this internal and perfect purity of body — [that is, of] the mind — they could attain not only [not] in body, but not even in thought. Thou hast [things] alluding to this in the hundred-and-first Annotation of the fifth book.