The Predestination of the Saints

‘The Predestination of the Saints’ is a book of 429 AD written by Augustine of Hippo, one of the greatest philosophers and theologians of the Church.

In this book, Augustine presents and defends the doctrine of predestination in the light of God’s redemptive and saving grace. Its objective in this work is to defend this doctrine and clarify the God’s role in the choice of elect. Despite being controversial, this issue is one of the main points discussed within the theological studies, especially among Calvinists and Arminians.

This book is divided into 20 chapters and these chapters present 43 reflections, which we separate into sections.

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The work is a response to the letters of Prospero and Hilarious

section 1

We know that the apostle said in the letter to the Philippians:

It is not painful for me to write you the same things, and it is safe for you. However, when writing to the Galatians, when he realized that he had sufficiently passed on them through the ministry of the Word, which he considered essential, he says:

As for the rest, let no one overwhelm me with more work, or as we read in many codices: from now on, let no one bother me.

Galatians 6:17

Although I confess that I am unhappy with the lack of faith in the divine words, so numerous and so clear, that they proclaim the grace of God — that it is not grace if it is granted to us according to our merits — they lack words to show my esteem for you, my dear children. Prosperous and hilarious, in view of your fraternal zeal and love in not wanting those who think otherwise to continue in error.

That’s why you want me to write even more, despite the many books and letters I’ve published on the subject.

And since I have such great appreciation for you in view of all this, I dare not say that’s what you deserve. So I’m writing to you again, and I don’t because you need more explanation, but simply because I’m using you as an intermediary to explain what I thought I did enough.

section 2

Having therefore considered his letters, it seems to me to realize that the brethren, by whom you show such pious concern, must be treated as the apostle treated those to whom he said: One trust in himself (Virginia, Aeneid, 1, II, v 309), but on the other hand, answering what the prophet said: Cursed is the man who trusts in man (Jeremiah 17:5).

In fact, they still go blindly on the question of the predestination of the saints, but if they think otherwise about it, they have everything they need to be able to obtain God’s revelation of truth for them, that is, if they persevere in the path they have taken. This is why the apostle, after saying:

If you think differently, God will reveal it to you, then declare: But whatever the point we can reach, let us keep the course (Philippians 3:15-16).

These brothers of ours, the objects of his solicitude and pious charity, came to believe with the Church of Christ that the human race is born subject to sin of the first man and that someone is freed from this evil only by the justice of the second man.

They also came to confess that the grace of God anticipates human wills and that no one is able to begin or finish a good work by their own strength.

By professing these truths, which they have attained, they are very far from the Pelagians’ error. And if they abide in them and beg Him who gives the gift of understanding and if they think differently about predestination, He will reveal the truth to them.

But let us not deny them the affection of our charity and the ministry of the Word, as He gives us to whom we beg you to tell them in this writing what is convenient and useful to them. Who knows if our God does not want to do them good for this disposition, which leads us to serve them in the charity free of Christ?

The principle of faith is also the gift of God

section 3

We must first demonstrate that the faith that makes us Christians is a gift from God, and we will, if possible, do it more briefly than we use in so many voluminous books.

But now I see that I must give an answer to those who say that the divine testimonies mentioned by us on this subject are valid only to prove that we can acquire the gift of faith by ourselves, leaving to God only his growth by virtue of the merit with which he began on our own initiative.

In this belief, we do not deviate from the phrase that Pelagius was impelled to condemn in the Council of Palestine, as the acts themselves attest: “The grace of God is given to us according to our merits.”

This doctrine argues that it is not God’s grace that begins to believe, but that it is added to us so that we believe more fully and perfectly. So we first offer God the beginning of our faith in order to receive the addition and everything else we ask Him in our faith.

section 4

But why not hear the words of the apostle who contradict this doctrine: who first gave him the gift, that he might receive in return? for all things are his, through him and to him. To Him be the glory forever! Amen! (Romans 11:35-36).

Therefore, from whom does the very beginning of our faith come, if not from him? And it must not be admitted that all things come from him, except that, but that all things are his, through him and for him.

And who will say that he who has already started to believe has no merit with the one he believes in? This would follow that it could be said that the other graces would be added as a divine retribution to those who already have merit, which would be to say that the grace of God is given to us according to our merits. To avoid condemning this proposition, he himself condemned it.

Consequently, whoever wants to avoid this reprehensible sentence must understand the truth contained in the words of the apostle, who says: For it was given to you in the name of Christ not only to believe in him, but also suffer for him (Philippians 1:29). The text reveals that both things are a gift from God, because it says that both things are granted.

He does not say, “That you may believe him more fully and perfectly,” but that you may believe in him. And he does not say that he obtained mercy to be more faithful, but to be faithful (1 Corinthians 7:25), because he knew that he had not offered God the beginning of his faith on his own initiative and had received from him later, in return, his growth. He who made him believe made him an apostle.

The beginnings of their faith are also recorded in the Scriptures and are well known through church reading. According to these data, having distanced himself from the faith he had fought against and of which he was a staunch enemy, he suddenly converted to the same faith by a special grace.

He was converted by the one to whom he was told by the prophet: Will you not give us your life again? (Psalm 84:7), that not only he who did not want to believe would come to believe of his own will, but also of the persecutor to suffer persecution in defense of the faith he was persecuting. It was granted to him by Christ not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him.

section 5

And so, showing the value of this grace, which is not granted according to merits, but is the cause of all good merits, he says: 3:5).

Let those who think that faith begins with us and their growth with God, who reflect on them.

Who doesn’t see that we must first think and then believe? Nobody believes anything unless they first think about what they should believe. Although certain thoughts precede the will to believe instantly and quickly, and this comes immediately and is almost simultaneous with thought, it is necessary that the objects of faith receive acceptance after they have been thought.

This is the case, although the act of believing is nothing more than thinking with assent. For not everyone who thinks believes, there are many who think but do not believe; But everyone who believes thinks, and thinking believes, and believes thinking.

Therefore, concerning religion and piety, of which the apostle spoke, if we are not able to think of anything by our own capacity, but our ability comes from God, therefore we are not able to believe in anything by our own strength, which is possible only by thought, but our ability, even to the beginning of faith, comes from God.

From this it follows, therefore, that no one is able to begin or complete any good work, which our brothers accept as their writings show, and that, to begin and complete every good work, our ability comes from God.

Likewise, no one is capable of himself either of starting the faith or growing in it, but our ability comes from God. For if there is no faith and no thought, we are also not able to think of anything like ourselves, but our ability comes from God.

section 6

Care must be taken, beloved brothers in the Lord, so that man does not magnify himself against God by saying that he is capable of doing what he has promised.

Was not the faith of the Gentiles promised to Abraham, and he, glorifying God, did not fully believe because he has the power to fulfill what he promised? (Romans 4:20 and 21) Therefore, he who has the power to fulfill what he promised is the author of the faith of the Gentiles.

So, if God is the author of our faith, working wonderfully in our hearts that we believe, there is some reason to fear that He will not be the author of all faith, so that man attributes to himself the beginning of faith, only to deserve to receive his increase?

Keep in mind that if the process is different and therefore the grace of God is granted to us in view of our merits, that grace will no longer be grace. In this case, in fact, it is returned as payment and is not given free of charge.

For it is due to the believer so that his faith can grow through the help of the Lord, and increased faith can be the reward of the faith initiated. It is not clear, when this is said, that this reward is imputed to believers not as a grace, but as a debt.

If man can create for himself what he did not have before and could increase what he created, I see no other reason why all the merits of the faith should not be attributed to him unless he cannot oppose more than evident testimonies that prove that the virtue of faith, from which the Piety, it is a gift from God.

Among others, this: according to the measure of the faith that God gave to each one (Romans 12:3), and this one: to the brothers, peace, love and faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ (Ephesians 6:23), and the like.

Not wanting to oppose such evident testimonies, but wanting to attribute to himself the fact of believing, man wants to make a commitment to God, arrogating for himself a part of the faith and leaving him another part. And what is more insolent: he arrogates to himself the first part and attributes the second to God, and what he says belongs to both, first and to God in the second place.

The author confesses his old mistake about grace — text of ‘confessions’

section 7

That pious and humble doctor, I refer to the Blessed Cyprian, did not think so when he said: “There is no reason to boast when nothing is ours” (Quirino, chapter 4).

And to prove this, he presented as a witness the apostle, who says: What do you have that you have not received? And if you received it, why should you be proud as if you hadn’t received it? (1 Corinthians 4:7).

Using mainly this testimony, I was also convinced of the error, when I worked on it, of thinking that the faith, which leads us to believe in God, was not a gift from God, but originated in us on our own initiative, and through it we implore the gifts of God to live soberly, just and piously in this world.

I did not believe that faith was preceded by the grace of God, so by it we would receive what we asked for correctly, but I thought we could not have faith if it were not preceded by the proclamation of the truth.

However, the acceptance of the faith was our own initiative, since we received the proclamation of the gospel, and I believed it was our merit. Some of my pamphlets, written before I was ordained a bishop, clearly reveal this error.

Among them is the one mentioned in his letters, which contains a commentary on some propositions of the letter to the Romans.

Finally, when I had revised all my works and committed this review to write, of which I had already finished two books before I had received his most extensive writings, and having arrived at the review of the said book in the first volume, I expressed myself like this: “And also discussing what God He chose in him who was not yet born, to whom he said that the elder would serve, and what he disapproved of in the same old man also unborn — to whom, although written much later, the prophetic testimony refers: Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated (Romans 9:13; Malachi 1:3)’.

I came to this reasoning and said: “God did not choose in his foreknowledge the works of each one, which he would do, but he chose the faith according to the same foreknowledge, so that, knowing in advance the one who would believe in him, he chose him to give him the Holy Spirit, and So by the practice of good works he could also obtain eternal life.’

I had not yet investigated with all the diligence, nor had I discovered what was the election of grace, of which the same apostle says: There is a remnant according to the election of grace (Romans 11:5). This is not grace if some merit precedes it, and what is granted not as grace, but as a debt, is granted as a reward for merits and is not a concession.

Consequently, what I said next: “For the same apostle says: And the same God who works all things in all (1 Corinthians 12:6), has never been said that God believes in all things in all.” And then I added: “For we believe, it is our merit, but to do good belongs to him who gives the Holy Spirit to believers.”

However, I would not have said that if I already knew that the faith itself is among the gifts of God bestowed on the same Spirit. Therefore, we do both by the assent of freedom, and yet both are granted by the Spirit of faith and charity.

For not only charity, but as it is written: love and faith from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ (Ephesians 6:23).

And also what I said a little later: “It is our will to believe, but it is his to give to those who want and believe the ability to do good through the Holy Spirit, by which grace has been poured into our hearts,” it is true, but according to the same process, or rather, both are his, Because He prepares the will, and both are ours, because they are not fulfilled without our consent.

And also what he later said: “We cannot even want to if we are not called, and when we want after being called, our will and our running are not enough, if God does not give strength to those who run and takes them where He calls them. And what I added later: Therefore, it does not depend on the one who wants, nor on the one who runs, but of God who has mercy (Romans 9:16), that we do good, is absolutely true.”

But I spoke very briefly about the vocation that occurs according to God’s plan. for this is not the vocation of all, but only of the elect.

Therefore, when I said a little later, “For as in those whom God elects, faith, and not works, gives rise to merit, so that by the gift of God the good may be done, so in those whom He condemns, unfaithfulness and impiety are the principle of demerit, so that by the same punishment the evil can be done”, these words are an expression of absolute truth.

But I didn’t say that the merit of the faith is also a gift from God, I didn’t even think that this would be a matter for investigation.

And I said elsewhere, that he may have mercy on whom he wants, and harden who he wants (Romans 9:18), and let him do evil. But mercy is granted to the preceding merit of the faith, and the hardening of the preceding iniquity.

This is undoubtedly true, but it must still be investigated whether the merit of the faith comes from the mercy of God, that is, whether this mercy favors man because he believes or favored him for him to believe. for we read what the apostle says: as one who obtained mercy to be faithful (1 Corinthians 7:25).

He does not say: Because he was faithful. Therefore, mercy is indeed granted to the faithful, but it was also granted to be faithful. And so, with all the truth, I said elsewhere in the same book: “For if it is not by works, but by the mercy of God that we are called to be faithful, and if, being faithful, it is granted to do good, this mercy should not be denied to the Gentiles”; Although it is true that I have dealt more briefly with the vocation that takes place according to God’s plan (Confessions, 1, Chapter 23).

the revision of his doctrine by the confessions

section 8

So you learn what I thought then about faith and works, even though I endeavored to honor the grace of God. Now you see that these brothers of ours embraced this opinion because they didn’t bother to progress with me in the same way they cared about reading my books.

For if we are concerned about this, we find this issue resolved according to the truth of the divine Scripture in the first of the two books that, at the beginning of my episcopate, I wrote to Simpliciano, from a happy memory, bishop of the Church of Milan, successor of the Blessed. Ambrose. Unless they don’t know them, and if so, let me make them known.

From this first of the two books I spoke first in the second of the Confessions, where I expressed myself in the following terms: ‘Of the books I composed, when I was already a bishop, which deal with several questions, the first two are dedicated to Simpliciano, prelate of the Church of Milan, who happened to be the Blessed Ambrose.

Two of the questions, taken from the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Romans, are gathered in the first book. The first emphasizes what is written: What shall we say then? Which law is sin? Not at all! For it says: Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thank God for Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 7:7-25).

In this question, the words of the apostle: The law is spiritual, but I am carnal (Romans 14), and the others where the struggle of the flesh against the Spirit is declared, I have explained in such a way, as if the human being were under the law and not liberation by grace. For I understood much later that these words could also refer to the spiritual man, which is most likely.

The second question in this first book covers the passage where it says: and not only that. Rebekah also, who conceived of one, of Isaac our father, to the passage where he says: If Lord Seba had not preserved a seed for us, we would have become like Sodom, we would have become like Gomorrah (Romans 9:10-29).

In this solution, the question was certainly elaborated by the triumph of free will, but the grace of God overcame. And this conclusion could not be reached without correctly understanding what the apostle said: For who distinguishes you? What do you have that you haven’t received? And if you received it, why would you be proud as if you had not received it? (1 Corinthians 4:7).

What the Martyr Cyprian intended to demonstrate, he completely defines with this title: “We must not boast about anything, because nothing is ours” (Confessions 1, Chapter 1).

That’s why I said above that I had confirmed this issue mainly by this apostolic testimony, when I thought differently about it. God gave me the solution when, as I said, I was writing to the simplician bishop.

Therefore, this testimony of the apostle, where he said to contain human pride: what you have that you have not received, does not allow any believer to say, ‘I have faith that I have not received.’ Every attempt at pride is thus repressed by the words of this answer.

But the following may say, ‘Although I do not have perfect faith, I nevertheless have the beginning of it, by which I first believed in Christ.’ Well then it cannot be answered: What do you have that you didn’t receive? And if you received it, why should you be proud as if you hadn’t received it? (1 Corinthians 4:7).

Gratuity also refers to faith; not only to the goods of nature

section 9

What these brothers think, namely: “When it comes to the beginning of the faith, one cannot say: What have you not received? which he intends to value, if we consider the reason why the apostle made this statement.

For he did not want anyone to boast about man, for dissensions had arisen among the Corinthian Christians to the point of saying, ‘I am of Paul!’ or “I’m from Apollo!” or “I’m from Cephas!” And therefore he came to say: God chose madness in the world to shame wisdom; And God chose the weak in the world to shame the strong; And what is vile and careless in the world, which is not, God has decided to reduce what it is to nothing, so that no creature can boast before God.

In these words we can see the apostle’s very clear intention against human pride, so that no one can boast in man and, therefore, not even in himself.

Finally, after saying, that no creature should boast before God, to show where man should boast, he immediately added: And by him you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us the wisdom of God, righteousness, sanctification and Redemption, that, as the Scripture says, “he who glorifies himself in the Lord” (1 Corinthians 12:27-31).

These words were the support to express your intention to say in rebuke: since you are still carnal.

For if there is jealousy and fights between you, are you not carnal and do not behave in a merely human way?

When someone says, “I am from Paul”, and another says, “I am from Apollo”, are you not acting in a merely human way? Who, then, is Apollo? who is paul servants, by whom you were led to the faith; Each one here according to the gifts that the Lord has given him.

I planted, Apollo watered; But it was God who made the growth. So whoever plants is nothing; Whoever waters is nothing; But it is only God who gives the growth.

Do you realize that the apostle intends nothing more, except that man is humiliated and only God is exalted? For, when referring to those who are planted or watered, he affirms that he is nothing that plants or waters, but he is the one who gives the growth, that is, God.

The same applies if one plant and the other waters; It must not depend on themselves, but on the Lord, when they say: Each of them acted according to the gifts that the Lord has given him. I planted, Apollo watered.

Persisting on the same purpose, he goes on to say, Therefore, no one seeks reasons to boast in men (1 Corinthians 5-6).

For he had said before: he who boasts, boast in the Lord. After these and a few other words that are related to these, his intention leads him to say: In all this, brothers, I made myself an example with Apollo for your love, that they may learn from us the saying: taking sides.

For who do you distinguish? What have you not received? And if you received it, why should you be proud as if you hadn’t received it? (1 Corinthians 4:6-7).

section 10

As I understand it, it would be the greatest absurdity to suppose that, in this more than evident intention of the apostle to speak against human pride to prevent one from boasting in men, but in God, he is referring to natural gifts, whether those of the perfect and perfect nature granted in the first condition, or any Traces of fallen nature.

Do men perhaps be distinguished from one another through such gifts common to all? In the above text, the apostle first said: Who distinguishes you? And then he added: What have you not received?

For one person full of pride could say to another, ‘My faith and my righteousness distinguish me’ or something like that.

Reflecting on such thoughts, the good doctor says, ‘What have you not received? And from whom you received, if not from the one who distinguishes you from the other, to whom he did not grant what he granted you?’

‘And if you received it,’ he says, ‘why do you brag like you didn’t get it?’ I ask: does not the apostle insist that everyone who boasts should boast in the Lord?

But nothing is as opposed to this sense as someone who boasts of his merits, as if he himself performed such meritorious works and not by the grace of God. I refer to the grace that distinguishes the good from the bad, not what is common to the good and the bad.

Therefore, if grace represents the attributes of nature, it makes us rational animals and distinguishes us from simple animals; If it represents the attributes of nature, which causes differences between normal and deformed men or between intelligent and retarded, and so on, that person, rebuked by the apostle, was not proud of an animal or anyone in relation to some natural gift, even if it was of value insignificant.

But he was proud of some good related to the life of holiness, not attributing it to God, but to himself, and therefore deserved to hear: who distinguishes you? What do you have that you haven’t received?

Although the ability to have faith is a natural gift, is it also a natural gift to possess it? For not all have faith (2 Thessalonians 3:2), though everyone can have it.

The apostle does not say, ‘What can you have that you have not received to possess it?’ Instead, he says: What do you not have that you haven’t received? Consequently, being able to have faith, as well as being able to have charity, is typical of human nature. But having faith, as well as having charity, is proper to grace in those who believe.

Nature, which gives us the possibility of having faith, does not distinguish one human being from another, but faith distinguishes a believer from a non-believer. So when it says: Who distinguishes you? What do you have that you didn’t get? Who dares to say, ‘I have faith by my own will; therefore, I have not received it’?

Such a person contradicts this evident truth, not because believing or not believing does not depend on human free will, but because the will of the elect is prepared by the Lord (Proverbs 8). Therefore, in the field of faith, which depends on the will, the words apply: Who distinguishes you? What have you not received?

the unfathomable judgments of God and the predestination of the saints

section 11

‘Many are those who hear the word of truth, but some believe, others contradict. The former want to believe, while the latter do not.’

Who doesn’t know this fact? But since the will of the former is prepared by the Lord, which is not the case of the latter, it is necessary to distinguish what comes from his mercy and what comes from his righteousness. The apostle says: What they aspired so much, Israel did not obtain; But the elect got it.

and the others were hardened. As it is written: “God has given them a spirit of stupor, eyes not to see and ears not to hear, until today.”

David also says: Let their table become a trap, a cause of stumbling and a just reward. May your eyes be darkened so that they do not see, and that they always have their back curved.

Here is mercy and judgment; Mercy for the elect who obtained the righteousness of God; judgment for the others who were blinded. However, those who wanted, believed; Those who did not want, did not believe. Therefore, mercy and justice were verified in their own wills.

For this election is a work of grace, not of merit. A little earlier the apostle had said: So too in the present time was a remnant according to the election of grace. and if it is by grace, it is not by works; Otherwise, grace is no longer grace (Romans 11:5-10).

Therefore, it was obtained free of charge because the election was obtained. On their part, no merit preceded it that it could have been presented beforehand and the election meant a reward. She saved them at the cost of nothing.

The others were blinded and received in return, as the text makes it clear. All the ways of the Lord are grace and faithfulness (Psalm 24:10). for their ways are impenetrable (Romans 11:33). Therefore, the mercy by which he freely frees and the truth by which he justly judges is impenetrable.

Faith is the foundation of spiritual life

section 12

It is possible for someone to say: “The apostle makes a distinction between faith and works, because he says that grace does not come from works, but does not say that it does not come from faith.”

This is true, but Jesus claims that faith is the work of God and requires it to do good works. For the Jews said to him, ‘What shall we do to do the works of God?’ Jesus replied, “This is the work of God: to believe in him that he sent” (John 6:28-29).

In this sense, therefore, the apostle makes a distinction between faith and works, just as in the two Hebrew kingdoms Judah is distinguished from Israel, although Judah is Israel.

The apostle assures that man is justified by faith, and not by works (Galatians 2:16), because the first is granted first and, from it, we reach the rest, which are properly called works, through which justice is lived.

These are also the words of the apostle: by grace you are saved through faith, and this does not come from you, it is the gift of God, that is, and what he said: “By the faith that does not come from you, but is a gift from God”. It does not come from works, he says, that no one is puffed up with pride (Ephesians 2:8-9).

It is often said, ‘He deserved to believe, because he was a righteous man before he even believed.’ This can be said of Cornelius, whose alms were accepted and his prayers heard before believing in Christ (Acts 10:4), but he did not distribute alms and prayed completely devoid of faith.

For how could he invoke the one in whom he did not believe? (Romans 10:14). And if he could obtain salvation without faith in Christ, the apostle Peter would not have been sent to him as a builder to build it, for unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it work in vain (Psalm 126:1).

And they say, “Faith is our work, and everything else concerning the works of righteousness is the Lord’s,” as if faith were not part of the building, as if, I say, the building did not include the foundation. But if he includes it first of all, it is in vain that he works through preaching to build up the faith, unless the Lord builds it internally through mercy.

Therefore, all the good that Cornelius did before believing in Christ, when he believed and after believing, must be attributed to God, so that no one is puffed up with pride.

Commentary on the sentence: “Whoever listens to the teaching of the Father and learns from him, comes to me”—mystery of God’s designs

section 13

Our only Master and Lord, after having spoken the above phrase: The work of God is that you believe in the one he sent, he then said in the same speech: But I say to you, you have seen me, and yet you do not believe. Everything the Father gives me comes to me.

Who will come to me except the one who believes in me? but his coming is bestowed by the Father. This is what he says a little later: No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him; And I will raise him up on the last day.

It is written in the prophets: “And all will be taught by God. Whoever hears the teaching of the Father and learns from him comes to me” (John 6:29-45).

What does it mean: He who hears the teaching of the Father and learns from him comes to me, but: ‘There is no one who listens to the teaching of the Father and learn from him not to come to me.’

For if everyone who listens to the Father and learns from Him comes, then everyone who does not come did not hear the Father nor learned from him, for if he had heard and learned, he would come. and no one who heard and learned ceased to come: But the truth says: He who hears the teaching of the Father and learns from him comes.

This school in which the Father is heard and teaches that one can reach the Son is very strange to the bodily senses. The Son himself is also there, because he is his word, through whom he teaches, and he does not do it with the carnal ears, but with those of the heart.

The Spirit of the Father and the Son is also there, for He does not cease to teach or teach separately, for we learn that the works of Trinity are inseparable. And he is the Holy Spirit, of whom the apostle says, Having the same spirit of faith (2 Corinthians 4:13).

However, it is attributed mainly to the Father, because the only begotten is begotten by him and the Holy Spirit proceeds from him. But it would be too long to discuss this subject and, on the other hand, I believe that my work on the Trinity, which is God, consisting of fifteen books, came to his hands.

I repeat, this school in which God is heard and taught is very strange to the bodily senses. We see many coming to the Son, because we see many believing in Christ, but we do not see how and where they heard it from the Father and learned. This grace is truly secret, but who doubts it is a grace?

In fact, this grace, secretly granted to human hearts by divine generosity, is not rejected by any heart, however hard it may be. for it is granted to, above all, destroy the hardness of the heart.

Therefore, when the Father is heard inwardly and teaches us to come to the Son, He removes the heart of stone and gives us a heart of flesh, as He promised through the preaching of the prophet (Ezekiel 11:19). In this way he forms the children of the promise and the vessels of mercy that he has prepared for glory.

section 14

Why then does he not teach everyone to come to Christ, except that all those whom He teaches, He teaches by mercy, and those whom He does not teach, He does not teach for His righteousness? He shows mercy to whom He wants, and hardens who He wants.

But he shows mercy by bestowing good things, and hardens by repaying sins.

or if these words, as some preferred to understand them, refer to the one to whom the apostle says, you will then give me, that it may be understood that it was He who said, in the way He shows mercy to whom He wants, and hardens the one who He wants, and the words that follow, namely, why does he still complain? Who can indeed resist your will?, was the apostle’s answer in these terms: ‘Man! What you said is false?’

No, but in these terms: Who are you, O man, to argue with God? The work will tell the artist: ‘Why did you make me this way? The potter cannot form from his own clay, and the rest you know well.

However, in a way the Father teaches everyone to come to his son. It is not without reason that it is written in the prophets: and all will be taught by God. After alluding to this testimony, he then adds: Whoever hears the teaching of the Father and learns from him comes to me.

Just as, when referring to a single teacher of literature in the city, we say correctly: ‘He teaches everyone literature’, not because everyone receives his teaching from him, but because no one in that city learns literature except him, so we also say correctly: ‘God teaches everyone to come to Christ’, not because everyone comes, but because Nobody comes in any other way.

The reason why he does not teach everyone, the apostle declared how far enough he thought was enough, because, wishing to manifest his wrath and to make his power known, he endured with great patience the vessels of wrath ready for destruction, that the riches of his glory be known to those who are being prepared for glory (Romans 9:18-23).

Therefore, the message of the cross is folly for those who are perishing, but for us who are being saved, it is the power of God (1 Corinthians 1:18).

God teaches all these people to come to Christ, because He wants all these people to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Timothy 2:4). If He wanted to teach those for whom the message of the cross is foolishness to come to Christ, they would certainly come.

For he does not deceive nor is deceived the one who says: ‘Everyone who hears the doctrine of the Father and learns from him comes to me.’ Far from him to think that everyone who heard the doctrine and learned will not come.

section 15

Why, they ask, does he not teach everyone? If we say like this: Those whom He does not teach do not want to learn, they will answer us: and how shall we understand what is written: Will you not give us life again? (Psalm 84:7).

Or if God does not make those who do not want to be willing, why does the Church pray for persecutors according to the Lord’s precept? (Matthew 5:44).

For in this sense Cyprian understood the words we uttered: Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven (Matthew 6:10), that is, as is done in those who have already believed and are like the sky, so it is done in those who do not believe, because they are still earth.

Why, then, do we pray for those who do not want to believe, except that God can work on them at will? (Philippians 2:13).

The apostle clearly says of the Jews: “Brothers, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them is to be saved” (Romans 10:1). What does he pray for those who do not believe except that they believe? Otherwise, they would not be saved.

For if the faith of those who believe precedes the grace of God, the faith of those for whom it is asked to believe precedes the grace of God? The answer is: when it is asked for those who do not believe, that is, who do not have faith, it is for faith to be given to them.

Christ said, ‘No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.’ These words are clarified by what he said later.

For after he spoke a little later about his flesh being eaten and his blood being drunk, some of the disciples said, ‘This is a harsh word! Who can hear?’

Realizing that his disciples were murmuring about it, Jesus said to them, ‘Does this offend them?’ And a little later he said, ‘The words I said to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you who don’t believe it.’

And the evangelist adds: Jesus knew from the beginning who were those who did not believe and who was what would betray him. And he said, “That is why I told you that no one can come to me unless given to him by the Father” (John 6:44-65).

Therefore, being attracted by the Father to Christ and listening to the Father and learning from Him to come to Christ is the same as receiving from the Father the gift of believing in Christ.

For he made no distinction between those who hear the gospel and those who do not hear him, but between those who believe and those who do not believe, the one who said: No one can come to me unless he is bestowed by the Father.

section 16

Thus, both initial and perfect faith are gifts from God. And whoever does not want to contradict the evident testimonies of the Holy Scriptures must not doubt that this gift is granted to some and not to others.

The reason why it is not granted to everyone should not disturb anyone who believes that we all incur condemnation by a man, a very just condemnation, so that no reproach against God would be just, even if no one obtained deliverance.

So it is evident that it is a great grace that many are freed; they perceive in those who are not freed what was due to them. Consequently, he who boasts must boast in the Lord, and not in his own merits, who he well knows are equal to those of the condemned.

The reason why the latter is freed instead of the former is that their judgments are unfathomable and their ways inscrutable (Romans 11:33).

It would be better to hear and say in this regard: Who are you, O man, to argue with God? (Romans 9:20), than dare to say, as if we knew, why he who cannot wish for any injustice wanted it to remain hidden.

the author reassumes teachings developed briefly in another work

section 17

You will remember what I said in the little work written against Porphyry under the title: The Time of the Christian Religion.

I made these statements with the purpose of omitting a more diligent and laborious dissertation, without, however, failing to indicate the true meaning of grace, because I did not want to explain in that work what could be explained in other circumstances or by other authors.

Among other things, in answer to the question that was asked of me: “Why did Christ come into the world after so many centuries?” I declared the following:

Since they are not opposed to Christ because not all follow their doctrine—for they themselves realize that one cannot legitimately argue in this way, neither against the wisdom of philosophers nor against the divinity of their gods—which they will answer if, safeguarding the depth of wisdom and knowledge of God, in which perhaps a more secret divine design is hidden, and without prejudice to other reasons that can be investigated by those who understand, let us tell you only this, for the sake of brevity in the discussion of this matter: that Christ wished to appear to men and to announce his doctrine to them Only when he knew that there were those who would believe him?

For in the times and places where his gospel was preached, he knew by his foreknowledge that there would be as many men in his preaching as there would be in the days of his bodily presence, though not all, but many of them did not want to believe in him, although he had raised many of the dead.

Now, there are also many who, despite the fulfillment of the prophets’ predictions about him with such evidence, still do not want to believe and prefer to resist with human cunning instead of surrendering to the divine authority so clear, so evident, so sublime and so sublimely manifested, while human intelligence is reveals so weak and limited to conform to divine truth.

Why would it be strange if Christ, who knew the state of the world in primitive times so full of infidels, did not want to reveal himself or be announced to them, since he knew by his foreknowledge that they would not believe through preaching or miracles? And it is not surprising that everyone was unfaithful, when we see that, from his coming until today, there have been and still many unbelievers.

However, since the beginning of the human race, sometimes more hidden and sometimes more openly, as it seemed to God to accommodate times, he never allowed prophets to be lacking, nor those who believed in him.

And this happened before he was embodied in the very people of Israel, who by a singular mystery was a prophetic nation, and also in other peoples.

And since some are remembered in the Hebrew holy books, even since the time of Abraham, but were not born out of his lineage or the people of Israel, nor from any group added to the people of Israel, who nevertheless participated in this mystery of faith in Christ, why not believe that there were other believers among other peoples, here and there, although they are not mentioned in the aforementioned books?

Thus, the saving power of this religion, the only true one, by which true salvation is truly promised, never failed anyone worthy of it, and if anyone failed, it was because it was not worthy.

And it is preached to some for a reward, and to others for the manifestation of righteousness, from the beginning of the human generation to its end.

Therefore, those to whom he was not preached, he knew by his foreknowledge that they would not believe, and to those to whom he was preached, knowing that they would not believe, these are revealed as examples for others.

But those to whom it is preached, because they will believe, are those whom God prepares for the kingdom of heaven and the company of holy angels.”

section 18

Do you think that, without prejudice to the hidden designs of God and other causes, I wanted to say all this about Christ’s foreknowledge, because it seemed to me that it would be enough to convince the unbelievers who asked me this question? What is truer than the fact that Christ knew in advance who, when and where would those who would believe in him be?

But I did not consider it necessary to investigate and discuss at that moment if, after the Christ was announced to them, they had faith on their own or received it from God as a gift, that is, if that faith had been the object of God’s foreknowledge alone or if God had predestined them.

Therefore, what I said: “That Christ wished to appear to men and proclaim His doctrine to them only when He knew and where He knew there were those who would believe in Him,” it can also be said in this way: “That Christ wished to appear to men and proclaim His doctrine to them when He knew and where He knew that there were those who had been chosen in him before the creation of the world” (Ephesians 1:4).

But because if I had made these statements, I would have drawn the reader’s attention to the investigation of the teachings that it is now necessary to discuss more at a time and in more detail because of the censorship of the Pelagian error, it seemed to me that I should then briefly do what was sufficient, safeguarding, as I said, the depth of wisdom and knowledge of God and without prejudice to other causes.

Considering these causes, I thought I should speak not at that moment, but at another more opportune moment.

The difference between grace and predestination

section 19

In relation to what I said before: “The saving power of this religion has never failed anyone worthy of it, and if anyone has failed, it is because it was not worthy”, if someone argues and investigates the reason why someone is worthy, there is no lack of those who say it is by human will.

We, however, say that it is by divine grace or predestination. However, between grace and predestination there is only this difference: predestination is the preparation for grace, while grace is the effective granting of predestination.

So what the apostle says: “Not of works, that no one can be proud, for we are his creatures, created in Christ Jesus for good works,” means grace.

What follows: “Who God has prepared for us to walk in them” (Ephesians 2:9-10), indicates predestination, which does not exist without foreknowledge, while foreknowledge can occur without predestination.

By predestination, God foresaw what He would do, and that is why it is said: “He made things come (Isaiah 45).”

He has the power to predict even what he does not do, like any sins, though there are sins that are punishment for sins, as it is written: God has given them to a mind that he could not judge, to do what is not good (Romans 1:28); In this there is no sin from God, but the righteousness of God.

Therefore, the predestination of God, which is the practice of good, is, as I said, a preparation for grace, but grace is the effect of predestination itself.

Therefore, when God promised Abraham the faith of many peoples on his descendants, saying, “And you shall be the father of many nations” (Genesis 17:4-5), which led the apostle to say, “The inheritance is by faith, that it may be free and that the promise may be guaranteed to all descendants”, he did not make the promise by virtue of the power of our will, but because of his predestination.

He promised, therefore, not what men would do, but what He would do. For even though men do good in worshiping God, He makes them do what He has commanded, and it does not depend on them if He does what He has promised.

Otherwise, the fulfillment of God’s promise would depend on the power of men and not on that of God, and what was promised by the Lord they would yield to Abraham. It was not in this sense that Abraham believed, but believed, giving glory to God, convinced that he is able to fulfill what he promised (Romans 4:16-21).

It does not say: “predict”, but “to know for prescience”. For he is also able to predict and predict the actions of others, but he says: He is able to fulfill, which means: not works that are strange to him, but his own.

section 20

God promised Abraham the good works of the Gentiles in his descendants, thus promising what he himself does? He did not promise him the faith of the Gentiles, which is the work of men, but to promise what he does, he has not had the vision of the faith that would be the work of men?

This is not the thought of the apostle, for God promised Abraham children who would follow his steps in the faith; That’s what he clearly says.

But if he promised the works of the Gentiles and not the faith, it was undoubtedly because there are no good works but by faith, as it is written: ‘The righteous will live by faith’ (Habakkuk 2:4), and: ‘All things that do not proceed from good faith is a sin’ (Romans 14, 23), and: ‘Without faith it is impossible to please God’ (Hebrews 11:6); However, the fulfillment of what God promised depends on human power.

This is because if man does not do without the grace of God what depends on his power, God will not do so for his gift. In other words, if man does not have faith by himself, God will not fulfill what he has promised, so that the works of righteousness are God’s works. Therefore, the fact that God fulfills His promises does not depend on God, but on man.

But if truth and piety do not prevent faith, let us believe with Abraham that God is able to fulfill what he promised. But God promised children to Abraham, who cannot be children if they do not have faith. Therefore, God also grants faith.

Faith and salvation are gifts from God as they are amortification of the flesh and eternal life.

section 21

If the apostle says: The inheritance comes from the faith, that it may be gratuitous and the promise is safe, I am very surprised that men prefer to trust their weakness than in the firmness of God’s promise.

But someone will say, ‘I am not sure of God’s will for me.’ what can I say? You are not even sure of your own will for yourself, and you do not fear what is written: He who thinks he is standing, be careful not to fall (1 Corinthians 10:12). If both wills are uncertain, why not a man rest his faith, hope and charity in the firmest rather than the weakest?

section 22

They will answer: “But when it is said, ‘If you believe, you will be saved’ (Romans 10:9), one of the two things is required, the other is offered. What is required depends on man, what is offered is in the power of God.”

Why not say that both are in the power of God, what is required and what is offered? for what is ordained is asked to be granted. Those who have faith pray for their faith to increase; They pray for those who do not believe, that faith may be granted to them.

Therefore, both in its growth and in its beginning, faith is a gift from God. It is written: ‘If you believe, you will be saved,’ just as it is said: ‘If you make the works of the flesh die by the Spirit, you will live’.

In this passage, too, one of the two things is required and the other is offered. The text says: ‘If by the Spirit you make the works of the flesh die, you will live. Therefore, the mortification of the works of the flesh is required and life is offered to us.

It seems correct to say that mortifying the works of the flesh is not a gift from God and that we do not confess that it is a gift from God because we know that it is a demand in exchange for the reward offered for eternal life if we do them?

May God forbid this opinion to please those who participate in the true doctrine of grace and defend it.

This is a reprehensible error of the Pelagians, to whom the apostle is silent when he says: “All who are guided by the Spirit of God are children of God (Romans 8:13-14), which prevents us from believing that the mortification of our flesh is not a gift of God, but a capacity of our spirit.

He referred to the same Spirit of God when he said: “But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each his gifts as he wants (1 Corinthians 12:11).”

In the content of this “all these things”, he also mentioned faith, as you know. Therefore, just as, although it is of God, mortifying the works of the flesh is a requirement to achieve the promised reward of eternal life, so also faith, although it is an indispensable condition to achieve the promised reward of salvation, when it is said: If you believe, you will be saved.

Consequently, both things are God’s precepts and gifts, so we understand that we do them and God makes us do them, as the prophet Ezekiel says clearly. For nothing is clearer than the phrase: And I will make you do (my laws) (Ezekiel 36:27).

Pay attention to this passage of Scripture and you will realize that God promises to do what He commands to be done.

And there he certainly mentions the merits and not the demerits of those to whom he reveals that he will repay good for evil, for he makes them do good works afterwards, making them fulfill his commandments.

There is no justification for future merits

section 23

All the arguments we use to defend that the grace of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord, is indeed grace, that is, that it is not given to us on account of our merits, although it is clearly confirmed by the testimonies of the divine Scriptures, present difficulties for those who are of legal age and have the use of of reason.

If they do not attribute to themselves something they offer to God first to receive reward, they consider themselves limited in every exercise of piety.

But when it comes to children and the mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus (1 Timothy 2:5), every statement on merits before God’s grace is unfounded.

For children are not distinguished from one another in relation to previous merits to belong to the liberator of men, nor did He become the liberator of men for any human merit, being also a human being.

section 24

Who will then have ears to tolerate the claim that children leave this life already baptized in childhood because of their future merits, and that children die at this age without being baptized because of their future demerits, when there is no place for reward or condemnation of the part of God, since there is still no life of virtues or sins?

The apostle set a limit, which—to put it more delicately—man’s hasty conjecture cannot exceed. He says: We all must appear publicly before the court of Christ, that each one will receive things done during his life in the body, whether good or bad (2 Corinthians 5:10).

He says: They did, and does not add, ‘Or they would have done.’ But I don’t know how such men could think of future merits on the part of children, merits that will not exist and that deserve punishment or reward.

and why it is written that man will be judged by what he does with his body, if often actions are performed only by soul And not by the body or any of its members, and are often such important actions that they are worthy of a very just punishment only in thought, as is the case, not to mention others, when the fool says in his heart, ‘There is no God’? (Psalm 13:1).

What then means what he did during his life in the body, if not ‘what did he do during the time he lived in the body’, so that ‘in the body’ meant the time of the body? After the death of the body, no one will be in the body, except in the last resurrection, no longer to earn merits, but to receive the reward for merits and punishments atoning for demerits.

In the interval between deposition and reception of the body, souls are tormented or rested, according to what they did while they were in the body.

This period of permanence in the body also concerns what the Pelagians deny, but the Church of Christ confesses, namely, original sin.

Whether this sin is redeemed by the grace of God or not redeemed by a judgment of God, when children die, they pass from evils to good things through the merits of regeneration, or pass from the evils of this life to the evils of the next by the merits of the origin. This is what the Catholic faith teaches and what some heretics accept without any opposition.

But that someone should be judged not according to the merits acquired during his life in the body, but according to the merits he would have if he had lived a long life, full of admiration and amazement, I cannot find the basis for this opinion of people who, as his letters reveal, are endowed with unusual intelligence.

I wouldn’t dare believe such an opinion if I didn’t consider it greater audacity not to believe your information.

But I trust that the Lord will help them so that, when admonished, they soon realize that what they are called future sins, if they can be punished by the judgment of God in relation to the unbaptized, can also be forgiven by the grace of God in relation to the baptized.

For whoever says that only future sins can be punished by the judgment of God, but cannot be forgiven by the mercy of God, he must consider what a serious offense he is doing to God and his grace. This supposes that God may have foreknowledge of a future sin, but cannot forgive him.

If this is absurd, it is even greater to say that God should help futures sinners who die in childhood through baptism, which erases sins, if they have had a long life.

the remission of sins by baptism is not an effect of the prediction of future merits

section 25

It is possible that they say that sins are forgiven for those who do penance. Therefore, those who die in childhood without baptism are not forgiven because God predicts that if they did, they would not do penance, while those who leave this life already baptized are forgiven, because God knows in their foreknowledge that they would do penance if they lived.

Let them consider and realize that, if that were so, God would punish us not only original sin, but also their personal sins, if they lived, and, with regard to the baptized, not only original sin would be redeemed, but also future personal sins would be forgiven, if they lived.

This is because they could not sin until they reached the age of understanding, but there would be a prediction that some would do penance and others would not, and therefore some would leave this life baptized and others without baptism.

If the Pelagians said this, since they deny original sin, they would not strive to find for the children a place of happiness outside the kingdom of God, especially because they must be convinced that they cannot obtain eternal life because they have not eaten the flesh and drink the blood of Christ (John 6:54).

Furthermore, the baptism bestowed on those without sin is invalid. They may say that there is no original sin, but that children who die in childhood are baptized or not baptized according to their future merits, if they lived, and, according to those same merits, either receive the body and blood of Christ, without whom they cannot obtain life. eternal.

Furthermore, they would say that they are baptized with the royal remission of sins, although they have no sin inherited from Adam, for they are forgiven the sins by which God predicts that they would do penance. Thus, they would easily advance and prove their thesis by which they deny original sin and affirm the granting of God’s grace by virtue of our merits.

But as future human merits, which will never exist, are undoubtedly null and void, this is very easy to understand, and therefore not even the Pelagians came to say it, much less our brothers should have said it.

It is not easy to describe the displeasure that it causes me to see that the Pelagians consider a false and absurd doctrine, while these brothers do not consider it thus, who, by Catholic authority, condemn with us the error of heretics.

There is no judgment for future merits: Commentary on the text of wisdom 4:11

section 26

Saint Cyprian wrote a book entitled “Mortality”, praised by almost all who dedicate themselves to the ecclesiastical sciences, in which he states that death is not only not useless, but truly useful for the faithful, as it frees man from the danger of sinning and gives him certainty not to sin.

But what would be the value of that certainty if he was punished for future sins he did not commit? The saint, however, proves with excellent and abundant arguments that in this world there is no lack of dangers of sinning, but they will not remain after this life.

And he quotes as a testimony the words of the Book of Wisdom: He was taken so that malice would not change his mind (Wisdom 4:11).

This argument, which I have also presented, was not accepted by our brothers, as you said, because it was taken from a non-canonical book, as if, in addition to the authority of this book, the doctrine we wanted to teach was not clear enough.

What Christian would dare to deny that the righteous will be at rest (Wisdom 4:7) when taken by death? What orthodox faith person would think differently from someone who claims this?

Likewise, if anyone said that a righteous person, violating the holiness in which he persevered for a long time and dying in impiety, in which he lived not for a year, but for a day, would not incur the punishments due to the reprobate, and that his merits past them would be of no use to him (Ezekiel 18:24), which believer would oppose this evident truth?

Furthermore, if we were asked if this righteous man died practicing justice, if he would incur the punishments due to the condemned or find rest, would we not answer without hesitation that he would be at rest?

This is the reason why someone, whoever, said: He was taken so that malice would not change his mind. Someone said this referring to the dangers of this life and not according to the foreknowledge of God, who foresaw what would happen and not what would not happen.

He meant that God would grant him an early death to avoid the insecurity of temptations and not because he would sin who would not remain subject to temptation.

Regarding this life, we read in the book of Job: The life of man on earth is a war (Job 7:1). But why does he grant some who are freed from the dangers of this life, when they are on the path of righteousness, and other righteous people are kept in the same dangers at a more advanced age until they fall from the state of righteousness? Who knew the mind of the Lord? (Romans 11:34).

However, this can be understood as referring to those righteous people who, living with piety and good habits until the maturity of old age and until the last day of their lives, should not boast in their merits, but in the Lord.

For he who snatched the righteous from the youth, so that evil would not change his way of thinking, protects him at all stages of his life, so that evil would not pervert his heart.

But the reason why he kept the righteous who was about to fall alive and whom he could have snatched from this life before he fell, obeys the most righteous, but impenetrable designs of God.

section 27

If all this is true, the sentence of the Book of Wisdom should not be rejected, whose words deserved to be proclaimed in the Church of Christ for so many years with the approval of those who, in the same Church, have read it, and be heard with the veneration due to divine authority by both the bishops and the faithful laymen considered inferior, such as penitents and catechumens.

Trusting in the treatises on the divine Scriptures that preceded us, if I were to undertake the defense of this sentence that with extraordinary diligence and extension we are obliged to defend against the new error of the Pelagians, namely, that the grace of God is granted to us not according to our merits.

But it is granted freely to those who are granted—for it does not depend on the one who wants or runs, but of God, who has mercy, and is not granted to those who are not granted by a just divine judgment, for there is no injustice on the part of God—if I were to undertake, I repeat, The defense of this doctrine, without a doubt these brothers, for whose cause we are writing, would have been satisfied, as you indicated in your letters.

But why consult the writings of those who, before the emergence of this heresy, did not need to get into this difficult question in search of a solution? They would have done so if they had been forced to respond to such difficulties. Therefore, they played briefly, in passing, and in some parts of their writings about their views on the grace of God.

They elaborated on the issues they discussed against the enemies of the Church and about exhortations to practice certain virtues, through which they serve the living and true God to achieve eternal life and true happiness.

The abundance of prayers shows the value they gave to God’s grace, for they would not ask God to fulfill what He commands if He did not grant them the power to fulfill it.

section 28

But those who wish to learn from the statements of the treatise writers must place this same book before all the authors, where we read: “He was taken so that malice would not change his way of thinking. Presenting it as a testimony, they believed they were defending divine witness.

‘It is certainly known that the most blessed Cyprian, exalting the advantage of premature death, maintains that those who have finished this life in which one can sin are freed from the danger of sinning. Christ, sure of the Lord’s promises when he is called to Christ? Why don’t you rejoice in getting rid of the devil?’

And he says elsewhere, ‘Children are freed from the dangers of the lascivious age.’

And in another: “Why do we not hurry and run to contemplate our homeland and greet our relatives? A large number of parents, brothers and beloved children await us there;

With these and other similar phrases, dictated by the splendid light of the Catholic faith, that doctor clearly attests that one should fear the dangers of sin and temptations until the moment of leaving this body; After that, no one will experience these difficulties. And even if he didn’t attest, would any Christian have any doubts about this truth?

So why, I ask, would it not be truly advantageous for a fallen man who ends this life miserably, still a sinner and destined for punishment due to sins, if he were snatched from this place of temptations by death before succumbing to sin?

section 29

If it is not a hasty task, the question referring to the one taken can be considered closed, so that malice does not change its way of thinking.

and more. The Book of Wisdom, which has been read in the Church of Christ for so many years and in which this phrase is found, should not be despised because it contradicts those who are deceived of human merits and oppose the manifest grace of God.

This grace is especially noticeable in children, who, as some come to the end of their already baptized lives and others do not, clearly reveal mercy and judgment, certainly free mercy and undoubtedly just judgment.

For if men were judged according to the merits of their lives, which they had not because they were surprised by death, but would have lived, it would be of no use to him who was taken so that malice would not change his heart, and those who die after they have fallen would have no advantage if had died before. But no Christian can entertain this opinion.

Therefore, our brothers, who fight the pernicious Pelagian error in favor of the Catholic faith, must not favor this opinion of heretics, who leads them to believe that the grace of God is granted to us according to our merits, to the point of trying — which is not lawful for them — Demolishing the sentence endowed with complete and sustained truth long ago by Christianity: it was taken so that malice would not change its way of thinking.

On the other hand, they must not build what we would judge—I say not worthy of belief, but not even imagined by anyone—that is, that everyone who dies is judged according to what he would do if he had more life span.

Thus, it is evident that what we say is irrefutable: that the grace of God is not granted to us according to our merits, so that talented men who contradict this truth are obliged to say that those errors must be repudiated by all ears and intelligences.

Jesus Christ, perfect example of predestination

section 30

The clearest example of predestination and grace is the Savior himself, the very mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus. So that he may be, by what former merits, by faith or good works, his human nature has acquired such a mission?

I ask you to answer me: How did this human nature, assumed by the coeternal verb with the Father in the unity of the person, deserve to be the only begotten Son of God?

Did any merit precede this union? What has he done before, who did he believe in, what did he ask for to achieve this ineffable superiority? Was it not by the action and assumption of the Word that the same humanity, from which its existence originated, began to be the only Son of God? Did that woman, full of grace, not conceive of the only Son of God?

Not the only Son of God was born of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, not by the lust of the flesh, but by a singular grace of God?

Was there any possibility that this man, through the use of free will, could have sinned over time? Was his will not free, and even freer, for it was more impossible for him to be dominated by sin?

Then human nature, and therefore ours, received in it these singularly admirable gifts, and others, if it can be said to be theirs, without any previous merit. Let the man now answer his God, if he dares, and say, ‘Why not me?’

And if he hears, ‘Who are you, O man, to argue with God?’ (Romans 9:20), let him not be ashamed, but increase his presumption and say, ‘What do I hear: Who are you, O man? yeah?’

by grace he is what he is and so perfect; Why is grace different if nature is common to him and me? With God there is certainly no meaning of persons (Colossians 3:25). What man, I don’t say Christian, but crazy, could utter such foolish words?

section 31

Let us see, therefore, in him who is our head, the very source of grace, from which it is spread by all members according to the measure of each one.

By this grace, every man becomes a Christian from the moment of his faith; Through it, man became Christ from the beginning. Man is reborn from the same Spirit from which he was born; We receive the forgiveness of sins by the same Spirit by which He was delivered from all sin.

There is no doubt that God foresaw in his foreknowledge the existence of these wonderful works. This, then, is the predestination of the saints, who shone with intense splendor in the Holy of Holies. And who can deny it among those who really understand the words of truth?

For we learn that the Lord of glory itself, when it became man, the Son of God, was predestined.

The Doctor of the Gentiles proclaims at the beginning of his letters: Paul, the servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, chosen for the gospel of God, whom he had already chosen through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures, and which concerns his son, born of the seed of David The flesh, established as the Son of God by His resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of Holiness (Romans 1:1-4).

Therefore, Jesus was predestined, that he, who would be the son of David by the flesh, was, however, the Son of God in power by the Spirit of holiness, since he was born of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary.

This is the singular assumption of human nature in an ineffable way by the Word of God, so that Jesus Christ could be called in truth and properly the Son of God and the Son of man at the same time; The Son of Man because of the assumed human nature and the Son of God because of the only begotten God who took it.

Thus, the object of our faith rests on the Trinity and not on the Divine Quaternity.

This sublime and highest assumption of human nature was predestined in such a way that no one else could have it lifted so high, just as the deity found no more humble way of stripping himself than by taking on human nature with all the consequences of the weakness of the flesh. and even death on the cross.

Therefore, just as he, the only one, was predestined to be our head, many are predestined to be members of his body. In view of this, let the human merits that ceased to exist in Adam to shut up, and let the grace of God reign, who reigns through Jesus Christ, our Lord, the only Son of God, the only Lord.

Whoever finds in our head merits prior to his singular generation, who asks in us, his members, for the merits that precede regeneration so often repeated. For the generation in human nature was not reciprocated, but granted, so that, exempt from all subjection to sin, he could be born of the Spirit and the virgin.

Our rebirth of the water and the Spirit is not a reward for some merit, but it is granted free of charge. And if it was the faith that led us to the bath of regeneration, we should not think that we gave God something and received a healthy regeneration in return.

For he who made for us the Christ in whom we believe made us believe in Christ, and he who made man Christ the prince and finisher of faith in Christ in the minds of men is the author of the principle and perfection of faith in Christ. This is what he is called, as you know, in the letter to the Hebrews (Hebrews 12:2).

Among the Jews, some were called and elect, others, only called

section 32

God calls many of his children as predestined to make them members of his only predestined son, not by the vocation with which those who did not want to come to the banquet of marriage were called (Luke 14:16-20), nor by the vocation with whom they were called Jews, for whom Christ crucified is a scandal, nor by the calling to the heathen, for whom the crucified is madness, but he calls the predestined with the vocation that the apostle distinguished when he said that he preached to the Jews and Greeks that Christ is the power and the wisdom of God.

He expressly says: For those who are called (1 Corinthians 1:23-24), to distinguish them from those who are not called, taking into account that there is a sure call to those who are called according to His plan, whom He knew beforehand and also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son (Romans 8:28-29).

Specifying this vocation, he says: Not depending on works, but on the one who calls, he was told, “The eldest shall serve the youngest” (Romans 9:12-13). He said, ‘Not of works, but of believing?’ On the contrary, he completely denied man, in order to deliver him completely to God. For he said: but from him who calls, not with any vocation, but with the vocation that leads someone to believe.

section 33

The apostle also considered this vocation when he said: The gifts and the call of God are without repentance. Consider for a moment what this text is.

After having said, I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, brothers, that ye do not consider yourself wise—the hardening has struck a part of Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has entered, and so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: ‘The deliverer will come out of Zion and will remove the wickedness of Jacob; and this is my covenant with them when I take away their sins.’

He immediately added these words that require careful understanding: As for the gospel, they are enemies for your sake; But as for the election, they are loved for the sake of their parents (Romans 11:25-29).

Which means: As for the Gospel, they are enemies because of you, but that their enmity, which led them to kill the Christ, undoubtedly favored the Gospel, as we know?

And it shows that this happens through the disposition of God, who knows how to use the wicked for good, not because the vessels of wrath are advantageous for him, but because, by using them for good, he favors the vessels of mercy.

He did not mean this clearly when he said: As for the gospel, are they enemies because of you?

Therefore, it is in the power of the wicked to sin, but when they sin, it is not in their power to do this or that for their wickedness, but in the power of God, who divides the darkness and disposes them so that they do their will with what they do against their will.

We read in the Acts of the Apostles that the apostles, after being freed by the Jews, gathered with their own people, and having revealed to them what the priests and elders had said to them, all cried out in one voice to the LORD, saying, Master, you have done the heaven, the earth, the sea and all that is in them.

You spoke by the Holy Spirit through the mouth of your servant David our Father: “Why this arrogance among the nations, these vain plans among the peoples? anointed.” — Yes, truly, they “gathered” in this city against your holy servant Jesus, “whom you anointed” Herod and Pontius Pilate, with “the Gentiles” and “the peoples” of Israel, to do all that you had predetermined in your power. and wisdom (Acts 4:24-28).

This is why the apostle said: As for the gospel, they are enemies because of you. for what God’s hand and plan predestined for Jewish enemies to do was proportional to what was necessary for the gospel for our sake.

And what does the following mean: as for the election, are they loved because of their parents? Does this mean that those enemies who perished in their hatred and who, belonging to the same people and being adversaries of Christ, still perish, are they chosen and loved? Not at all. Who is so crazy as to make that statement?

But if both things are contrary, that is, to be enemies and to be loved by God, although they cannot coexist in the same people, they can, however, coexist in the same Jewish people and in the same race as Israel, for some Israelites as perdition, for others as a blessing. He clarified this meaning when he said earlier: What they aspire to so much, Israel has not obtained; But the elect got it. and the others were hardened (Romans 11:7).

In both cases, it is the same people of Israel. Therefore, when we hear: ‘Israel did not obtain it’, or ‘they were hardened’, it refers to the ‘enemies for their sake’; But when we hear: ‘But the elect have obtained it’, we understand ‘those chosen because of their parents’. These parents benefited from these promises: the promises were assured to Abraham and his descendants (Galatians 3:16).

In this way, the wild olive tree of the heathen is grafted onto this olive tree (Romans 11:17). But the election to which it refers is according to grace and not according to the debt, because a remnant was constituted according to the election of grace (Romans 11:51).

This election was achieved, while the rest remained hardened. According to this election, the Israelites were loved because of their parents. They were not called according to the call to which the gospel refers: many are called (Matthew 20:16), but according to the one by which the elect are called.

Hence also here, after saying: As for the election, they are loved because of their parents, he then adds: The gifts and the call of God are without repentance, that is, they are irrevocable. Those included in this call are all taught by God and none of them can say, “I believed that I could be called”, because God’s mercy goes before him, and he is called that he may believe.

All those taught by God come to the Son, who clearly said: He who hears the Father’s teaching and learns from him comes to me (John 6:45).

None of them perish, because of all that the Father has given him, none will be lost (John 6:39). Therefore everyone who comes from the Father will never perish, so he who perishes will not come from the Father. Therefore it is written: They came from us, but were not ours. If they had been one of us, they would have remained with us (1 John 2:19).

The vocation of the elect

section 34

Let’s try to understand the vocation of the elect, who are not elected because they believed, but are elected so that they may believe. The Lord himself reveals the existence of this kind of vocation when he says: You did not choose me, but I chose you (John 15:16).

For if they were elected because they believed, they would have chosen it beforehand for believing in him and, therefore, worthy of being elected. However, he who says: You have not chosen me to avoid this interpretation.

There is no doubt that they too chose him when they believed him. That is why He said: You did not choose me, but I chose you, not because they did not choose Him to be chosen, but because He chose them to choose Him.

For mercy came before (Psalm 53:11) According to grace, not according to debt. Therefore, He took them out of the world while living in the world, but they were already chosen in themselves before the creation of the world.

This is the unchanging truth of the predestination of grace. For what did the apostle mean: in him he chose us before the foundation of the world? (Ephesians 1:4).

For if it is indeed written that God knew in advance those who would believe, and not that He would make you believe, the Son speaks against this foreknowledge when he says: You did not choose me, but I chose you. This would imply that God knew beforehand that they would choose Him to deserve to be chosen by Him.

Consequently, they were chosen before the creation of the world through predestination, in which God knew in advance all his future works, but they are taken from the world with the call with which God fulfilled what He had predestined.

For those whom he predestined, he also called with the call according to his purpose. Those whom he predestined, he called and not others; those whom he called, he justified and not others; Those whom He called, He predestined, He justified and glorified (Romans 8:30) and not others, in order to achieve that endless end.

Therefore, God chose the believers, but that they would be believers, and not because they were already. The apostle James says: Did not God choose the poor in the world’s goods to be rich in the faith and heirs of the kingdom he promised to those who love him? (James 2:5).

Therefore, in choosing, he makes them rich in the faith, as well as heirs of the kingdom. For it is well said that God chose in those who believe what he chose them for, to carry out him in them.

I ask: Whoever hears the Lord, who says: It was not you who chose me, but I who chose you will dare to say that men have faith to be chosen, when the truth is that they are chosen to believe?

Unless they go against the sentence of the truth and say that those to whom He said: You did not choose me, but I who chose you chose Christ.

election is a means to holiness and not the effect of holiness

section 35

The apostle says: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly regions in Christ.

He chose us in him before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. He predestined us to be adopted children through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will, for the praise and glory of His grace, with which He bestowed us on the Beloved.

And through his blood we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace, which he poured out upon us, having given us all wisdom and understanding, and made us known the mystery of his will, according to the purpose he had chosen to fulfill his purpose. in order to bring time to its fullness: so that he could gather all things in Christ, things in heaven and things on earth.

In him, predestined by the decision of the one who works all things according to the counsel of his will, we were made his inheritance, in order to serve for his praise and glory (Ephesians 1:3-12).

Who, I ask, when I listen carefully and understanding this testimony, will dare to doubt the truth so evident that we defend?

God chose His members in Christ before the creation of the world; But how could I choose them if they did not exist, except for predestining them? Therefore, He chose us, who predestined.

Would he choose the wicked and the defective? For if asked who he chose, whether these or the holy and immaculate, the one who asks about the answer to give will not immediately decide in favor of the holy and immaculate?

section 36

The Pelagians argue: “God knew beforehand those who would be sanctified and remain without sin through the use of his freedom.

Therefore, he chose them before they existed, he predestinated as his children those whom he knew in his foreknowledge that they would be holy and blameless. But it was not he who made them holy and blameless, nor would he do so, but he only predicted that they would be.”

Let’s consider the apostle’s words and see if he chose us before the creation of the world because we would be holy and blameless or for us to be. He says: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ.

In it, he chose us before the foundation of the world, so that we would be holy and blameless. Therefore, not because we wanted to be, but so that we could be.

This is certain and evident: we would be holy and blameless because He chose us, predestining us to be so by His grace.

Therefore, He blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenly places in Christ. In him he chose us before the foundation of the world, so that we might be holy and blameless before him in love—he predestined us to be his adopted children through Jesus Christ.

Pay attention to what he then adds: according to the decision of his will, so that in such a sublime gift of grace we do not boast as if it were the work of our own will. And he continues: with which he graced us in the beloved, that is, he graced us of his own will. As He said, He graced by grace, so it is said, He justified for justice.

And he continues: And through his blood we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace, which he poured out upon us, giving us all wisdom and prudence, making us know the mystery of his will, according to his own good pleasure, and not according to our will, which could not be good unless he helped it according to his own good pleasure.

For after saying, according to his own good pleasure, he added, that he had the pleasure of receiving in his beloved Son, that he might bring time to his fullness, that he might gather all things in Christ, whether in heaven or on earth. In him, having been predestined by the decision of the one who works all things according to the advice of his will, we were made his inheritance, so that we could serve for his praise and glory.

section 37

It would be too long to insist on every word. But you can undoubtedly see how clearly the apostolic testimony defends the grace of God, this grace against which human merits are raised, as if the man first gave something to receive something in return.

Therefore, God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world, predestining us to be his adopted children, not because we would be holy and blameless for our merits, but He chose us and predestined to be like that.

He acted according to his own good pleasure, that no one should boast in his own will, but in the will of God. He acted according to the riches of his grace, according to his good pleasure that he proposed to perform in his beloved Son, in whom we were made heirs, having been predestined according to the good pleasure, and not ours, of him who works all things to work in us will (Philippians 2:13).

But he works according to the advice of his will, in order to serve – but for his praise and glory.

That is why we say that no one should look for reasons to boast in men (1 Corinthians 3:21), and therefore not in himself, but he who boasts, boasts in the Lord (1 Corinthians 1:31), that we may serve His praise and glory.

He works according to the decision of his will that we serve for his praise and glory, as holy and blameless, for whom he has called us, having predestined us before the foundation of the world.

According to this decision of his will, the call of the elect is made, for which all things work together for good, because they have been called according to their purpose, and the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.

refutes objections and reaffirms that even the initial faith is the gift of God

section 38

But these brothers of ours, of whom we are speaking here and in whose name we are writing, can say that the Pelagians are refuted by this apostolic testimony that affirms our election in Christ before the creation of the world, that we may be holy and blameless in His presence in love.

But they have this reasoning: ‘Having accepted by the use of freedom the precepts that make us holy and blameless in His presence in love, since God foresaw this future, He chose us in Christ before the creation of the world.’

But the apostle does not say that he chose us and predestined because he knew in advance that we would be holy and blameless, but that we could be so by the election of his grace, with which he graced us in the beloved.

Therefore, by predestining us, he knew by prescience his work, by which he makes us holy and blameless. Consequently, with this testimony the Pelagian error is legitimately refuted.

They, however, respond: “But we affirm that God had prior knowledge of our initial faith, and therefore chose and predestined us before the foundation of the world, that we might also be holy and blameless by His grace and work.”

But listen to what is stated in this testimony: In him, we were predestined by the decision of the one who works all things.

He who works all things also works in us the principle of faith. nor does the faith itself precede the call of which it is written: The gifts and the call of God are without repentance (Romans 11:29), and of which it was said: It does not depend on works, but on the one who calls (Romans 9:12), for it could be said: “But of who believes”; Nor precedes the election announced by the Lord when he said: You did not choose me, but I chose you.

We do not believe because He chose us, but He chose us to believe, lest we say that we choose Him first and stop saying—which is not lawful—the words: You did not choose me, but I chose you (John 15:16).

We are called to believe, not because we believe, and with the vocation, which is irrevocable, what is necessary for us to believe is accomplished and perfected. There is no need to repeat what we said on this subject.

section 39

Finally, following this testimony, the apostle gives thanks to God for those who believed, not because the gospel was preached to them, but because they believed.

He says, In him you too, having heard the word of truth—the gospel of your salvation—and having believed in it, they were sealed with the promised Spirit, the Holy Spirit, which is the guarantee of our inheritance for the redemption of the people that He has acquired for His own praise and glory.

For this reason I too, having heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints, do not cease to give thanks to God for you (Ephesians 1:13-16).

The faith of the Ephesians was new and recent after the gospel was preached to them, and having heard of that faith, the apostle gives thanks to God for them. If he were to thank a man for a favor, judging that the favor had not been granted or recognized, it would be more ironic than grateful.

Don’t be fooled; God does not let himself be mocked (Galatians 6:7), for the initial faith is also a gift from God, otherwise the apostle’s thanksgiving would be considered false and fallacious.

Why do we say this? It is clearly not a beginning of faith in the Thessalonians who deserve thanksgiving from the apostle when he says: For this reason, we always give thanks to God, because you have received the word that we preach to you, not as a human word, but as is truly the Word of God, who is working in You, those who believe? (1 Thessalonians 2:13).

Why give thanks to God? for it is vain and useless to thank someone if he did him no favors. But because in this case it is not vain and useless, God certainly did the work for which he is grateful, that is, having heard the apostle’s ears hear the word of God, they received it not as a human word, but as is truly the divine word.

Therefore, God works in human hearts with the calling according to his design, of which we speak so much, that they may not hear the gospel in vain, but when he hears it, turn it and believe it, receiving it not as a human word, but as it truly is: the word of God.

God is the Lord of human wills

section 40

The apostle warns that the beginning of faith is also a gift from God, which is why he meant in his letter to the Colossians: Persevere in prayer, watch with thanksgiving, also praying for us at the same time, that God will open a door to the word for us, to We speak of the mystery of Christ, for which I am a prisoner, that I may speak as I should (Colossians 4:2-4).

And as the door opens to the word, if not opening the meaning of the listener to believe and, given the beginning of the faith, accept what is announced and explained to build the doctrine of salvation, and it does not happen that, closed in the heart by infidelity, it disapproves or rejects the that is preached.

The words he addresses to the Corinthians are in the same direction: meanwhile, I will remain in Ephesus, because a wide door has been opened with many perspectives, and the adversaries are many (1 Corinthians 16:8-9).

What other interpretation can be given, besides that after he preached the Gospel for the first time there, many believed, but many began to oppose that same faith, according to the words of the Lord: No one can come to me unless it is bestowed by my Father (John 6:65), E: It was granted to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but not to them (Matthew 13:11).

The door was opened to those to whom it was granted, but there are many adversaries to whom it was not granted.

section 41

In the same way, addressing them in his second letter, he says: Then I came to Trôade to preach the gospel of Christ, and although the Lord had opened a great door for me, I had no peace of mind, because I did not find Titus my brother.

So I said goodbye to them and went to Macedonia. To whom did he say goodbye, if not to those who believed, in whose hearts a door had been opened for the evangelizer? Consider what he added: Thank God, who through Christ always carries us in his triumph and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of his knowledge.

For we are, through God, the gentle aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing; For some, the aroma of death that leads to death, for others, the aroma of life that leads to life.

This is why the firm and undefeated defender of grace gives thanks; This is why he gives thanks: because the apostles are, through God, the soft scent of Christ, both for those who are saved by grace and for those who perish by the judgment of God. But in order to prevent those who have little understanding of this subject from being outraged by this statement, he himself warns them as he continues, saying: And who would be worthy of such a mission? (2 Corinthians 2:12-16).

But let us return to the opening of the door, a symbol of the beginning of faith in the listeners. What does it mean: also praying for us at the same time so that God would open a door to the word for us, if not a very clear demonstration that the very beginning of faith is a gift from God?

for no one would beg God through prayer if he did not believe that the granting of the present came from him. This gift of heavenly grace had descended on the merchant of purple, to whom, as the Scripture says in the Acts of the Apostles: The Lord opened his heart to her to adhere to Paul’s words (Acts 16:14).

It was so called for there to be faith, because God acts as he desires in human hearts, helping or judging, with the purpose of carrying out through them what he predestined to be accomplished in his power and wisdom (Acts 4:28).

section 42

They also stated in vain that what we prove by the testimony of the Scriptures in the books of kings and chronicles, that when God wants to accomplish something that is necessary and has the voluntary cooperation of men, He inclines their hearts to consent to His will, inclining them for the one who also works in us to desire A wonderful and ineffable form has nothing to do with the subject in question.

What does this statement mean but say nothing and still contradict? Unless, by giving that opinion, they have given you some reason that you preferred to keep silent in your letters. But I don’t know what that reason would be.

It is perhaps because we show that God acted in the hearts of men and guided the wills of those who wanted to make Saul or David king?

Do you think, therefore, that these examples have nothing to do with the subject because temporarily reigning in this world is not the same as reigning eternally with God?

Do you think God bows hearts when it comes to earthly oars, but doesn’t incline the wills of those He wants when it comes to reaching the eternal kingdom?

But I think the following words were spoken with reference to the kingdom of heaven and not to an earthly kingdom: Incline my heart to your precepts (Psalm 118:36); Or: The steps of a man are commanded by the Lord, and his way is pleasing to him (Psalm 36:23); or: The Lord is the one who determines the will (Proverbs 8); Or: The Lord our God be with us, as he was with our parents, not abandoning us or turning us away from him.

but he inclines our hearts to walk in all his ways (1 Kings 8:57-58); Or: I will give you a (new) heart, and they will understand; ears, and they will hear; Or: And I will give you one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them (Ezekiel 11:19).

Listen also: And I will put my heart among you, and I will make you walk into my statutes, and keep my laws, and you will (Ezekiel 36:27). Also listen: The steps of man are directed by the Lord; But who can know their own destiny? (Proverbs 20:24).

Keep on hearing: Every path of man seems right to him, but the Lord weighs hearts (Proverbs 21:2); and also: And all who were destined for eternal life believed (Acts 13:48).

Listen to these testimonies and others that I have not mentioned, which demonstrate that God prepares and converts the wills of men also to the kingdom of heaven and eternal life.

Understand how absurd it is to believe that God acts on human wills to establish temporal orders and that men themselves govern their wills when it comes to conquering the kingdom of heaven.

Conclusion

section 43

We discussed this at length and perhaps we have already managed to convince people of what we wanted to say; We speak both for enlightened minds and for rude minds, for whom not even what is too much is enough.

But forgive me, for this new question forced us to do so. As we have proved in previous pamphlets with very reliable testimonies that even faith is a gift from God, we find opponents of this teaching, who claim that the testimonies are powerful enough to prove that growth in faith is a gift from God.

However, they say that the beginning of faith, by which one comes to believe in Christ, depends on the human being and is not a gift from God. God demands it in advance so that by its merit he can reach the other things that are gifts from God.

None of these are gratuitous concessions, although they admit the existence of God’s grace in them, which is always gratuitous. You see the absurdity of this doctrine, and so we insist, as far as we can, in showing that the very beginning of faith is a gift from God.

If we have done so more extensively than what we have written, we resign ourselves to being rebuked by them, as long as they confess that we have achieved our purpose, although we have been more verbose than we wished, causing annoyance and boredom to the smart.

This means that they recognize that we teach that the beginning of faith is also a divine gift, as well as continence, patience, justice, piety and other virtues, over which there is no dispute with them.

I consider this book completed, avoiding annoying readers with such a diffuse treatise on a single subject.

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Diego Pereira do Nascimento

Pastor at Igreja Presbiteriana Renovada

Diego is a renewed Presbyterian pastor, missionary, and theologian. He is the creator and director of teologico.club.

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