{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/105/1050367.htm","path":"chr/ecf/105/1050367.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/105/1050367.htm","text":"Chapter XIII.\u2014(31.) The Third Passage. It is One Thing to Depart, and Another Thing to Have Departed, from All Sin. \u201cThere is None that Doeth Good,\u201d\u2014Of Whom This is to Be Understood.\nHe has likewise propounded another question, as we shall proceed to show, but has failed to solve it; nay, he has rather rendered it more difficult, by first stating the testimony that had been quoted against him: \u201cThere is none that doeth good, no, not one;\u201d 1498 and then resorting to seemingly contrary passages to show that there are persons who do good. This he succeeded, no doubt, in doing. It is, however, one thing for a man not to do good, and another thing not to be without sin, although he at the same time may do many good things. The passages, therefore, which he adduces are not really contrary to the statement that no person is without sin in this life. He does not, for his own part, explain in what sense it is declared that \u201cthere is none that doeth good, no, not one.\u201d These are his words: \u201cHoly David indeed says, \u2018Hope thou in the Lord and be doing good.\u2019\u201d 1499 But this is a precept, and not an accomplished fact; and such a precept as is never kept by those of whom it is said, \u201cThere is none that doeth good, no, not one.\u201d He adds: \u201cHoly Tobit also said, \u2018Fear not, my son, that we have to endure poverty; we shall have many blessings if we fear God, and depart from all sin, and do that which is good.\u2019\u201d 1500 Most true indeed it is, that man shall have many blessings when he shall have departed from all sin. Then no evil shall betide him; nor shall he have need of the prayer, \u201cDeliver us from evil.\u201d 1501 Although even now every man who progresses, advancing ever with an upright purpose, departs from all sin, and becomes further removed from it as he approaches nearer to the fulness and perfection of the righteous state; because even concupiscence itself, which is sin dwelling in our flesh, never ceases to diminish in those who are making progress, although it still remains in their mortal members. It is one thing, therefore, to depart from all sin,\u2014a process which is even now in operation,\u2014and another thing to have departed from all sin, which shall happen in the state of future perfection. But still, even he who has departed already from evil, and is continuing to do so, must be allowed to be a doer of good. How then is it said, in the passage which he has quoted and left unsolved, \u201cThere is none that doeth good, no, not one,\u201d unless that the Psalmist there censures some one nation, amongst whom there was not a man that did good, wishing to remain \u201cchildren of men,\u201d and not sons of God, by whose grace man becomes good, in order to do good? For we must suppose the Psalmist here to mean that \u201cgood\u201d which he describes in the context, saying, \u201cGod looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God.\u201d 1502 Such good then as this, seeking after God, there was not a man found who pursued it, no, not one; but this was in that class of men which is predestinated to destruction. 1503 It was upon such that God looked down in His foreknowledge, and passed sentence.\nOn this passage Fulgentius remarks (Ad Monimum, i. 5): \u201cIn no other sense do I suppose that passage of St. Augustin should be taken, in which he affirms that there are certain persons predestinated to destruction than in regard to their punishment, not their sin: not to the evil which they unrighteously commit, but to the punishment which they shall righteously suffer; not to the sin on account of which they either do not receive, or else lose, the benefit of the first resurrection, but to the retribution which their own personal iniquity evilly incurs, and the divine justice righteously inflicts.\u201d","title":"Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol. V: A Treatise Concer...","type":"page"}