While almost all of the works in this vault use Victorian translations, due to the English translations of this letter being in copyright, it was machine-translated (by Claude, 2026) from the public-domain Latin. It has not been checked by a human translator.
To Sixtus, presbyter of Rome (A.D. 418)
To my lord most beloved in the Lord of lords, my holy brother and fellow-presbyter Sixtus, Augustine sends greeting in the Lord.
Chapter 1
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In the letter which I sent by our dearest brother Albinus the acolyte, I promised that I would send a longer one by our holy brother and fellow-presbyter Firmus, who brought us the letter of your Sincerity, full of the sincerity of your faith, which gave us a joy greater than we are able to express. For I must confess to your Charity that we were exceedingly sad when rumour was spreading it abroad that you favoured the enemies of Christian grace. But so that this sadness might be wiped from our hearts, first the same rumour did not keep silent that you had been the first to pronounce anathema upon them before a great crowd of people; then, after the letter of the Apostolic See about their condemnation had been sent to Africa, your letter to the venerable old man Aurelius followed, which, though it was short, yet showed plainly enough your vigour against their error. But now that, in your letter, you have set out more openly and more fully what you think about that dogma and against it, so that the very faith of the Roman Church spoke with us — the Church to which above all the blessed apostle Paul spoke much, and in many ways, of the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord — not only has every cloud of sadness fled from our hearts, but so great a light of gladness has shone in upon them that that grief and fear seemed to have done nothing in us except to make the joys that followed burn the more brightly.
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And so, dearest brother, although we do not see you with the eyes of the flesh, yet in spirit, in the faith of Christ, in the grace of Christ, in the members of Christ, we hold you, embrace you, kiss you. And now that the most holy and most faithful bearer of our mutual conversations is returning from us to you — whom you wished to be among us not only the carrier of your letter but also the narrator and witness of what has been done — we pay our debt of a reply, and talk with you somewhat longer, urging you to press on with teaching those whom, as far as we have learned, you have pressed hard enough with fear. For there are some who think that the impieties which have been most justly condemned may still be defended quite freely; and there are some who creep secretly into houses, and do not cease to sow in secret what they are now afraid to cry aloud in the open; and there are some who have fallen altogether silent, held down by great fear, but still keep in their hearts what they no longer dare to utter with their lips — who may yet be very well known to the brethren from their earlier defence of that very dogma. Accordingly, some must be restrained with greater severity, others tracked down with greater watchfulness, and others dealt with more gently indeed, but taught no less diligently; so that, if there is no fear that they will destroy others, they may still not be neglected, lest they perish themselves.
Chapter 2
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For when they think that their free will is taken from them if they agree that a man cannot have even a good will itself without the help of God, they do not understand that they are not strengthening human will but puffing it up, so that it is carried away through empty space instead of being set upon the Lord as upon a firm rock. For “the will is prepared by the Lord.”
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And when they suppose that they would be believing God to be a respecter of persons if they believed that without any preceding merits “He has mercy on whom He will,” and calls those whom He deigns to call, and makes devout whom He will, they pay too little attention to this: that the punishment is paid which is due to the condemned, and the grace is given which is not due to the one set free; so that neither may the one complain that he is undeserving, nor the other boast that he is deserving; and that there is rather no respect of persons at all where one and the same mass of condemnation and offence involves all, so that the one who is set free may learn from the one who is not set free that punishment would have befitted him too, had not grace come to his aid. And if it is grace, it is certainly not paid for any merits, but given of free goodness.
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“But it is unjust,” they say, “that in one and the same evil case this one should be set free and that one punished.” Then it is just, is it not, that both should be punished? Who would deny it? Let us then give thanks to the Saviour, when we see that there has not been paid to us what we know, from the condemnation of those like us, was due to us also. For if both were set free, it would be hidden what is due to sin by justice; and if neither, what grace bestows. So, in this most difficult question, let us rather use the words of the apostle: “God, willing to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with much long-suffering the vessels of wrath fitted for destruction; and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy.” The thing formed cannot say to Him, “Why have You made me thus?” since He has power “from the same lump to make one vessel unto honour and another unto dishonour.” And since that whole lump has been deservedly condemned, justice pays the dishonour that is due, and grace gives the honour that is not due — not by any privilege of merit, not by the necessity of fate, not by the rashness of fortune, but by the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God. This the apostle does not open, but wonders at it as a thing shut up, crying out: “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out! For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been His counsellor? Or who has first given to Him, and it shall be recompensed to him again? For of Him, and through Him, and in Him, are all things: to Him be glory for ever and ever. Amen.”