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St. Augustine
Enchiridion
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CHAPTER XVIII
141 - Faith and Works


67. There are some, indeed, who believe that those who do not abandon the name of Christ,
and who are baptized in his laver in the Church, who are not cut off from it by schism or heresy,
who may then live in sins however great, not washing them away by repentance, nor redeeming
them by alms - and who obstinately persevere in them to life's last day - even these will still be
saved, "though as by fire." They believe that such people will be punished by fire, prolonged in
proportion to their sins, but still not eternal.
But those who believe thus, and still are Catholics, are deceived, as it seems to me, by a kind
of merely human
benevolence. For the divine Scripture, when consulted, answers differently. Moreover, I have
written a book about this question, entitled Faith and Works,
142 in which, with God's help, I
have shown as best I could that, according to Holy Scripture, the faith that saves is the faith that
the apostle Paul adequately describes when he says, "For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision
avails anything, nor uncircumcision, but the faith which works through love."
143 But if faith
works evil and not good, then without doubt, according to the apostle James "it is dead in
itself."
144 He then goes on to say, "If a man says he has faith, yet has not works, can his faith
be enough to save him?"
145
Now, if the wicked man were to be saved by fire on account of his faith only, and if this is the
way the statement of the blessed Paul should be understood - "But he himself shall be saved, yet
so as by fire"
146 - then faith without works would be sufficient to salvation. But then what
the apostle James said would be false. And also false would be another statement of the
same Paul himself: "Do not err," he says; "neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor
the unmanly, nor homosexuals, nor thieves, nor the covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor
extortioners, shall inherit the Kingdom of God."
147 Now, if those who persist in such crimes
as these are nevertheless saved by their faith in Christ, would they not then be in the Kingdom of
God?

68. But, since these fully plain and most pertinent apostolic testimonies cannot be false, that
one obscure saying about those who build on "the foundation, which is Christ, not gold, silver,
and precious stones, but wood, hay, and
stubble"
148 - for it is about these it is said that they will be saved as by fire, not perishing on
account of the saving worth of their foundation - such a statement must be interpreted so
that it does not contradict these fully plain testimonies. In fact, wood and hay and stubble may
be understood, without absurdity, to signify such an attachment to those worldly things - albeit
legitimate in themselves - that one cannot suffer their loss without anguish in the soul. Now,
when such anguish "burns," and Christ still holds his place as foundation in the heart - that is, if
nothing is preferred to him and if the man whose anguish "burns" would still prefer to suffer loss
of the things he greatly loves than to lose Christ - then one is saved, "by fire." But if, in time of
testing, he should prefer to hold onto these temporal and worldly goods rather than to Christ, he
does not have him as foundation - because he has put "things" in the first place - whereas in a
building nothing comes before the
foundations.
Now, this fire, of which the apostle speaks, should be understood as one through which both
kinds of men must pass: that is, the man who builds with gold, silver, and precious stones on this
foundation and also the man who builds with wood, hay, and stubble. For, when he had spoken
of this, he added: "The fire shall try every man's work, of what sort it is. If any man's work
abides which he has built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work burns up, he
shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire."
149 Therefore the fire will test
the work, not only of the one, but of both.
The fire is a sort of trial of affliction, concerning which it is clearly written elsewhere: "The
furnace tries the potter's vessels and the trial of affliction tests righteous men."
150 This kind of
fire works in the span of this life, just as the apostle said, as it affects the two different kinds of
faithful men. There is, for example, the man who "thinks of the things of God, how he may
please God." Such a man builds on Christ the foundation, with gold, silver, and precious stones.
The other man "thinks about the things of the world, how he may please his wife"
151; that is,
he builds upon the same foundation with wood, hay, and stubble. The work of the former is not
burned up, since he has not loved those things whose loss brings anguish. But the work of the
latter is burned up, since things are not lost without anguish when they have been loved with a
possessive love. But because, in this second situation, he prefers to suffer the loss of these
things rather than losing Christ, and does not desert Christ from fear of losing such things - even
though he may grieve over his loss - "he is saved," indeed, "yet so as by fire." He "burns" with
grief, for the things he has loved and lost, but this does not subvert nor consume him, secured as
he is by the stability and the indestructibility of his foundation.

69. It is not incredible that
something like this should occur after this life, whether or not it is a matter for fruitful inquiry. It
may be discovered or remain hidden whether some of the faithful are sooner or later to be saved
by a sort of purgatorial fire, in proportion as they have loved the goods that perish, and in
proportion to their attachment to them. However, this does not apply to those of whom it was
said, "They shall not possess the Kingdom of God,"
152 unless their crimes are remitted
through due repentance. I say "due repentance" to signify that they must not be barren of
almsgiving, on which divine Scripture lays so much stress that our Lord tells us in advance that,
on the bare basis of fruitfulness in alms, he will impute merit to those on his right hand; and, on
the same basis of unfruitfulness, demerit to those on his left - when he shall say to the former,
"Come, blessed of my Father, receive the Kingdom," but to the latter, "Depart into everlasting
fire."
153





141 This chapter supplies an important clue to the date of the Enchiridion and an interesting side light on Augustine's inclination to re-use "good material." In his treatise on The Eight Questions of Dulcitius (De octo Dulcitii quaestionibus), 1: 10-13, Augustine quotes this entire chapter as a part of his answer to the question whether those who sin after baptism are ever delivered from hell. The date of the De octo is 422 or, possibly, 423; thus we have a terminus ad quem for the date of the Enchiridion. Still the best text of De octo is Migne, PL, 40, c. 147-170, and the best English translation is in Deferrari, St. Augustine: Treatises on Various Subjects (The Fathers of the Church, New York, 1952), pp. 427-466.



142 A short treatise, written in 413, in which Augustine seeks to combine the Pauline and Jacobite emphases by analyzing what kind of faith and what kind of works are _both_ essential to salvation. The best text is that of Joseph Zycha in CSEL, Vol. 41, pp. 35-97; but see also Migne, PL, 40, c. 197-230. There is an English translation by C.L. Cornish in A Library of Fathers of the Holy Catholic Church; Seventeen Short Treatises, pp. 37-84.



143 Gal. 5:6.



144 James 2:17.



145 James 2:14.



146 1 Cor. 3:15.



147 1 Cor. 6:9, 10.



148 1 Cor. 3:11, 12.



149 1 Cor. 3:11-15.



150 Ecclus. 27:5.



151 Cf. 1 Cor. 7:32, 33



152 See above, XVIII, 67.



153 Matt. 25:34, 41.





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