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St. Augustine
Enchiridion
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CHAPTER XXII - The Two Causes of Sin


81. I shall now mention what I have often discussed before in other places in my short
treatises.
186 We sin from two causes: either from not seeing what we ought to do, or else
from not doing what we have already seen we ought to do. Of these two, the first is ignorance
of the evil; the second, weakness.
We must surely fight against both; but we shall as surely be defeated unless we are divinely
helped, not only to see what we ought to do, but also, as sound judgment increases, to make our
love of righteousness victor over our love of those things because of which - either by desiring
to possess them or by fearing to lose them - we fall, open-eyed, into known sin. In this latter
case, we are not only sinners - which we are even when we sin through ignorance - but also
lawbreakers: for we do not do what we should, and we do what we know already we should not.
Accordingly, we should pray for pardon if we have sinned, as we do when we say, "Forgive
us our debts as we also forgive our debtors." But we should also pray that God should guide us
away from sin, and this we do when we say, "Lead us not into
temptation" - and we should make our petitions to Him of whom it is said in the psalm, "The
Lord is my light and my
salvation"
187; that, as Light, he may take away our ignorance, as Salvation, our weakness.

82. Now, penance itself is often omitted because of weakness, even when in Church custom
there is an adequate reason why it should be performed. For shame is the fear of displeasing
men, when a man loves their good opinion more than he regards judgment, which would make
him humble himself in penitence. Wherefore, not only for one to repent, but also in order that he
may be enabled to do so, the mercy of God is prerequisite. Otherwise, the apostle would not say
of some men, "In case God giveth them repentance."
188 And, similarly, that Peter might be
enabled to weep bitterly, the Evangelist tells, "The Lord looked at him."
189

83. But the man who does not believe that sins are forgiven in the Church, who despises so
great a bounty of the divine gifts and ends, and persists to his last day in such an obstinacy of
mind - that man is guilty of the unpardonable sin against the Holy Spirit, in whom Christ
forgiveth sins.
190 I have discussed this difficult question, as clearly as I could, in a little book
devoted exclusively to this very point.
191





186 For example, Contra Faust., XXII, 78; De pecc. meritis et remissione, I, xxxix, 70; ibid., II, xxii, 26; Quaest. in Heptateuch, 4:24; De libero arbitrio, 3:18, 55; De div. quaest., 83:26; De natura et gratia, 67:81; Contra duas ep. Pelag., I:3, 7; I:13:27.



187 Ps. 27:1.



188 2 Tim. 2:25 (mixed text).



189 Cf. Luke 22:61.



190 Cf. John 20:22, 23.



191 This libellus is included in Augustine's Sermons (LXXI, PL, 38, col. 445-467), to which Possidius gave the title De blasphemia in Spiritum Sanctum. English translation in N-PNF, 1st Series, Vol. VI, Sermon XXI, pp. 318-332.





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