Augustine of Hippo — Commentary on Scripture

1 Chronicles 11:9

In vain also do they object that what we have established from Scripture in the books of Kings and Chronicles—that when God wills the accomplishment of something which ought not to be done except by people who will it, their hearts will be inclined to will this, with God producing this inclination, who in a marvelous and ineffable way works also in us that we will—is not pertinent to the subject with which we are dealing.

PREDESTINATION OF THE SAINTS 20.42

1 Chronicles 11:9

There is no doubt that human wills cannot resist the will of God, “who has done whatsoever he pleased in heaven and on earth” and who has even “done the things that are to come.” Nor can the human will prevent him from doing what he wills, seeing that even with human wills he does what he wills, when he wills to do it.… There is the case of David, whom God with happier outcome set up over the kingdom. We read of him: “And David went on growing and increasing, and the Lord of hosts was with him.” Then, shortly thereafter, it is said, “But the spirit came on Amasai, the chief among thirty, and he said, We are yours, O David, and for you, O son of Isay; peace, peace be to you, and peace to your helpers; for your God helped you.” Could Amasai have opposed the will of God, instead of doing his will, since God, through his spirit, with which Amasai was clothed, wrought in his heart that he should so will and speak and act? In like fashion, a little later on, Scripture says, “And all these men of war, well appointed to fight, came with a perfect heart to Hebron, to make David king over all…

There is no doubt that human wills cannot resist the will of God, “who has done whatsoever he pleased in heaven and on earth” and who has even “done the things that are to come.” Nor can the human will prevent him from doing what he wills, seeing that even with human wills he does what he wills, when he wills to do it.… There is the case of David, whom God with happier outcome set up over the kingdom. We read of him: “And David went on growing and increasing, and the Lord of hosts was with him.” Then, shortly thereafter, it is said, “But the spirit came on Amasai, the chief among thirty, and he said, We are yours, O David, and for you, O son of Isay; peace, peace be to you, and peace to your helpers; for your God helped you.” Could Amasai have opposed the will of God, instead of doing his will, since God, through his spirit, with which Amasai was clothed, wrought in his heart that he should so will and speak and act? In like fashion, a little later on, Scripture says, “And all these men of war, well appointed to fight, came with a perfect heart to Hebron, to make David king over all Israel.” Obviously, it was of their own will that these men made David king; the fact is clear and undeniable. Nevertheless, it was God, who effects in human hearts whatsoever he wills, who wrought this will in them. This is why Scripture first says, “And David went on growing and increasing, and the Lord of hosts was with him.” The Lord God, therefore, who was with David, brought these men to make him king. And how did he bring them to this? Surely it was not by binding them with any material chains. Rather, he worked within them; he seized their hearts; he drew them on by means of their own wills, which he had himself created within them. When, therefore, God wills to set up kings on earth, he holds the wills of people more in his own power than they are in the power of people themselves. And if this is so, it is surely he, and no other, who makes admonitions salutary and effects amendment in the heart of one who is admonished, with the result that he is established in the heavenly kingdom.

ADMONITION AND GRACE 14.45

1 Chronicles 11:17

The observance of Lent becomes not the curbing of old passions but an opportunity for new pleasures. Take measures in advance with as much diligence as possible to prevent these attitudes from creeping on you. Let frugality be joined to fasting. As satisfying the stomach is to be censured, so stimulants of the appetite must be eliminated. It is not that certain kinds of food are to be detested but that bodily pleasure is to be checked.… And holy King David repented of having excessively desired water.

SERMON 207.2

1 Chronicles 12:17-18

“The Lord shall give the Word to them that preach good tidings, with great power.” Of you, also, I venture to make this prayer, that, in this struggle of ours, truth may prevail. For you are not seeking your own glory but Christ’s, and when you win the victory, I also shall win it if I recognize my own error, and, contrarily, you prevail when I win, “for neither ought the children to lay up for the parents, but the parents for the children.” And in the book of Paralipomenon we read that the sons of Israel went out to fight with peaceful heart, in the very midst of swords and blood shedding and the bodies of the slain, because they were thinking of the victory of peace, not their own.

LETTER 75

1 Chronicles 16:23

"O sing unto the Lord a new song; sing unto the Lord, all the earth." If all the earth sings a new song, it is thus building while it sings; the very act of singing is building, but only if it sings not the old song. The lust of the flesh sings the old song; the love of God sings the new. Hear why it is a new song: the Lord says, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another." The whole earth then sings a new song: there the house of God is built. All the earth is the house of God. If all the earth is the house of God, he who clings not to all the earth is a ruin, not a house; that old ruin whose shadow that ancient temple represented. For there what was old was destroyed, that what was new might be built up.

EXPOSITIONS OF THE PSALMS 96.2

1 Chronicles 28:9

There is a passage in the first book of the same Chronicles that declares the choice of the will: “And you, Solomon, my son, know you the God of your father and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind, for the Lord searches all hearts and understands all the imaginations of the thoughts; if you seek him, he will be found of you; but if you forsake him, he will cast you off forever.” But these people find some room for human merit in the clause “if you seek him,” and then the grace is thought to be given according to this merit in what is said in the ensuing words, “he will be found of you.” And so they labor with all their might to show that God’s grace is given according to our merits, in other words, that grace is not grace. For, as the apostle most expressly says, to them who receive reward according to merit “the recompense is not reckoned of grace but of debt.”

ON GRACE AND FREE WILL 11

1 Corinthians 1:25

There is no way that this gospel truth could have been made acceptable to some philosophers and debaters. They follow a way of life that does not stand in the truth but is only an imitation of it. They deceived themselves and others.

LETTER 120, TO CONSENTIUS

1 Corinthians 1:29

Paul’s intention is perfectly clear—to accost the pride of man, that no one should take glory in human works and that no one should glory in himself.

PREDESTINATION OF THE SAINTS 5.9

1 Corinthians 2:2

Paul said this because he was speaking to those who were unable to grasp the more sublime teachings of the divinity of Christ.

ON THE TRINITY 1.12

1 Corinthians 2:8

But if Christ had not been put to death, death would not have died. The devil was overcome by his own trophy, for the devil rejoiced when, by seducing the first man, he cast him into death. By seducing the first man, he killed him. By killing the last man, he lost the first from his snare.

THE ASCENSION 263

1 Corinthians 3:1

Paul was not speaking of their bodies but of their carnal spirits.

City of God 22.21

1 Corinthians 3:7

Since the apostles would not have accomplished anything if God had not given the increase, how much more true is this of you or me, or anyone else of our time, who fancies himself as a teacher.

LETTER 193

1 Corinthians 3:11

It should not be denied that this is the distinctive basis of the orthodox faith, just because it is shared between us and certain heretics as well. For if we think carefully about the meaning of Christ we shall see that among some of the heretics who want to be called Christians, the name of Christ is held in honor, but the reality to which the name points is not.

Enchiridion 2.5

1 Corinthians 3:13

The fire will try the quality of everyone’s work. If his work remains, he will receive his reward. If his work burns, he will lose his reward, but he himself will be saved. In this fire neither man will be lost forever, though the fire will profit the one and harm the other, being a test for both.

CITY OF GOD 21

1 Corinthians 4:7

The people who boast imagine that they are justified by their own efforts, and therefore they glory in themselves, not in the Lord.

LETTER TO VALENTINE

1 Corinthians 6:4

Therefore the apostle wished wise, holy, and faithful persons who were well established in the various places to be judges of such matters, and not persons who, in preaching, traveled about here and there.… If wise judges were lacking, he wished even the lowly and contemptible to be appointed so that the affairs of Christians might not be brought to the public eye.

On the Work of Monks 29

1 Corinthians 6:11

Paul says that they have been changed for the better, not so as to lose concupiscence altogether, a condition never realized in this life, but so as to not obey the desire to sin.

AGAINST JULIAN 16.49

1 Corinthians 7:5

According to this, if he had wished to practice continence but you had not, he would have been obliged to give in to you, and God would have given him credit for continence for not refusing intercourse out of consideration for your weakness, not his own, in order to prevent you from committing adultery. How much better would it have been for you, for whom subjection was more appropriate, to yield to his will in rendering him the debt, since God would have taken account of your intention to observe continence, which you gave up in order to save your husband from destruction.

LETTER 262, TO EUDICIA

1 Corinthians 7:5

It is not arduous and difficult for faithful married people to do for a few days what holy widows have undertaken and which holy virgins do throughout their lives. So let devotion be kindled and self-gratification be checked.

LENT 209.3

1 Corinthians 7:8

We must not understand these words to mean that widows are not unmarried because they once embraced the married state. Widows are unmarried, but not all unmarried are widows. That is why Paul makes a distinction here.

THE EXCELLENCE OF WIDOWHOOD 2