Book I.
1. Atticus. I hear, Critobulus, that you have written that man can be without sin, if he chooses; and that the commandments of God are easy. Tell me, is it true?
Critobulus. It is true, Atticus; but our rivals do not take the words in the sense I attached to them.
A. Are they then so ambiguous as to give rise to a difference as to their meaning? I do not ask for an answer to two questions at once. You laid down two propositions; the one, that man can be without sin, if he chooses: the other, that God's commandments are easy. Although, therefore, they were uttered together, let them be discussed separately, so that, while our faith appears to be one, no strife may arise through our misunderstanding each other.
C. I said, Atticus, that man can be without sin, if he chooses; not, as some maliciously make us say, without the grace of God (the very thought is impiety), but simply that he can, if he chooses; the aid of the grace of God being presupposed.
A. Is God, then, the author of your evil works?
C. By no means. But if there is any good in me, it is brought to perfection through His impulse and assistance.
A. My question does not refer to natural constitution, but to action. For who doubts that God is the Creator of all things? I wish you would tell me this: the good you do, is it your's or God's?
C. It is mine and God's: I work and He assists.
A. How is it then that everybody thinks you do away with the grace of God, and maintain that all our actions proceed from our own will?
C. I am surprised, Atticus, at your asking me for the why and wherefore of other people's mistakes, and wanting to know what I did not write, when what I did write is perfectly clear. I said that man can be without sin, if he chooses. Did I add, without the grace of God?
A. No; but the fact that you added nothing implies your denial of the need of grace.
C. Nay, rather, the fact that I have not denied grace should be regarded as tantamount to an assertion of it. It is unjust tosuppose we deny whatever we do not assert.
A. You admit then that man can be sinless, if he chooses, but with the grace of God.
C. I not only admit it, but freely proclaim it.
A. So then he who does away with the grace of God is in error.
C. Just so. Or rather, he ought to be thought impious, seeing that all things are governed by the pleasure of God, and that we owe our existence and the faculty of individual choice and desire to the goodness of God, the Creator. For that we have free will, and according to our own choice incline to good or evil, is part of His grace who made us what we are, in His own image and likeness.
2. A. No one doubts, Critobulus, that all things depend on the judgment of Him Who is Creator of all, and that whatever we have ought to be attributed to His goodness. But I should like to know respecting this faculty, which you attribute to the grace of God, whether you reckon it as part of the gift bestowed in our creation, or suppose it energetic in our separate actions, so that we avail ourselves of its assistance continually; or is it the case that, having been once for all created and endowed with free will, we do what we choose by our own choice or strength? For I know that very many of your party refer all things to the grace of God in such a sense that they understand the power of the will to be a gift not of a particular, but of a general character, that is to say, one which is bestowed not at each separate moment, but once for all at creation.
C. It is not as you affirm; but I maintain both positions, that it is by the grace of God we were created such as we are, and also that in our several actions we are supported by His aid.
A. We are agreed, then, that in good works, besides our own power of choice, we lean on the help of God; in evil works we are prompted by the devil.
C. Quite so; there is no difference of opinion on that point.
A. They are wrong, then, who strip us of the help of God in our separate actions. The Psalmist sings: "Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain who build it. Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain;" and there are similar passages. But these men endeavour by perverse, or rather ridiculous interpretations, to twist his words to a different meaning.
3. C. Am I bound to contradict others when you have my own answer?
A. Your answer to what effect? That they are right, or wrong?
C. What necessity compels me to set my opinion against other men's?