De Gratia et Libero Arbitrio

What now are we to say as regardeth the existence of freedom of pleasure in this wicked world, in which scarcely “sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof”;¹ in which “the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now,”² being indeed “made subject to vanity, not willingly”;³ where the life of man upon the earth consisteth in temptation;⁴ where even spiritual men, who “already have received the firstfruits of the Spirit, even they groan within themselves waiting for the redemption of their bodies”?⁵ Can it at all be that, under such conditions, there is any place for freedom of the kind of which we speak? For neither will innocence, nor righteousness, be found to be safe either from sin or yet from misery in a world in which the righteous man crieth out: “O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”⁶ and again: “My tears have been my meat day and night.”⁷ Where nights and days are passed in mourning, there surely is no time to spare for taking pleasure. Finally, they that would live godly in Christ themselves suffer persecution the more;⁸ for judgement beginneth at the house of God.⁹ Which also He commandeth, saying: “ Begin at them of my household.”¹⁰

But although virtue be in no place of safety in this world, perchance vice is, and in some measure enjoyeth pleasure and escapeth misery. Far from it. For they that rejoice where they have done evil, and exult in deeds of infamy, do but laugh with the wild laughter of the mad.¹¹ But no misery is more genuine than is false joy. In short, what in this world seemeth to be happiness is so far misery, that the wise man saith: “ It is better to go to the house of mourning, than to go to the house of feasting.”¹² There is certainly some pleasure in the good things of the body, namely, in eating, drinking, warming oneself, and other the like comforts or coverings of the flesh. But can it be said that even in these matters we are wholly free from misery? Bread is good, but to the hungry; drink delighteth, but the thirsty; in fact, to him that is satisfied food and drink are by no means pleasant, but distasteful. Take away hunger, and thou wilt not relish bread; take away thirst, and thou wilt decline the most limpid fountain as though it were a stagnant marsh. In like manner is it only he that is faint with heat that seeketh shade; and only he that is chilled or in the gloom troubleth himself about the sun.¹³ None of these things will be pleasing to a man unless urgent need have gone before. If the need be taken away, then the very pleasantness which seemeth to be in them is turned into loathing and disgust.¹⁴ It must be confessed, therefore, that, in this respect, everything which belongeth unto our present life, partaketh of misery; unless it be that, in the continual trials of our heavier labours, our lighter labours are, as it were, a kind of consolation, and, while perchance, as time passeth and conditions change, tedium and relief follow one upon another, the experience of the lesser labours seemeth unto us to be some reprieve from misery, so that sometimes the passage from the more painful to the less irksome toil is counted for felicity.

And yet it must be confessed that they who, at times rapt in spirit through excess of contemplation, are in some small measure able to taste the sweetness of heavenly felicity, are indeed, as often as they experience such a state, free from misery. Plainly these, as cannot be denied, even in the flesh, although but seldom and only in their raptures, enjoy freedom of pleasure, in that with Mary they “have chosen the best part, which shall not be taken away from them.”¹⁵ For they that now possess what cannot be taken away from them in truth have experience of that which is to come. But that which is to come is felicity. Moreover felicity and misery cannot exist together at the same moment. As often therefore as they partake of the former, so often do they not feel the latter. Accordingly it is only contemplatives who in this life are in any degree able to enjoy freedom of pleasure, and that but in part, in very small part, and upon the rarest occasion.¹⁶ Beyond this there are even some righteous persons who enjoy freedom of counsel, in part certainly, but in considerable part.¹⁷ For the rest, freedom of will (as hath been plainly shown above) belongeth equally to all who have the use of reason; as such, it is none the less in the evil than in the good, it is as entire in the present world as in the world to come.¹⁸