Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series • VOLUME 5
Augustine — Anti-Pelagian Writings
SECTION 441
Chapter 17 [IX.]--His Argument in His Letter Against Porphyry, as to Why the Gospel Came So Late into the World.
Chapter 17 [IX.]--His Argument in His Letter Against Porphyry, as to Why the Gospel Came So Late into the World. But that which you remember my saying in a certain small treatise of mine against Porphyry, under the title of The Time of the Christian Religion, I so said for the sake of escaping this more careful and elaborate ar…
730 wordsSECTION 442Chapter 18.--The Preceding Argument Applied to the Present Time.
Chapter 18.--The Preceding Argument Applied to the Present Time. Do you not see that my desire was, without any prejudgment of the hidden counsel of God, and of other reasons, to say what might seem sufficient about Christ's foreknowledge, to convince the unbelief of the pagans who had brought forward this question? For what is…
809 wordsSECTION 443Chapter 20.--Did God Promise the Good Works of the Nations and Not Their Faith, to Abraham?
Chapter 20.--Did God Promise the Good Works of the Nations and Not Their Faith, to Abraham? Did God, perchance, promise to Abraham in his seed the good works of the nations, so as to promise that which He Himself does, but did not promise the faith of the Gentiles, which men do for themselves; but so as to promise what He Himse…
1,007 wordsSECTION 444Chapter 23 [XII.]--Remarkable Illustrations of Grace and Predestination in Infants, and in Christ.
Chapter 23 [XII.]--Remarkable Illustrations of Grace and Predestination in Infants, and in Christ. But all this reasoning, whereby we maintain that the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord is truly grace, that is, is not given according to our merits, although it is most manifestly asserted by the witness of the divine de…
933 wordsSECTION 445Chapter 25 [XIII.]--Possibly the Baptized Infants Would Have Repented If They Had Lived, and the Unbaptized Not.
Chapter 25 [XIII.]--Possibly the Baptized Infants Would Have Repented If They Had Lived, and the Unbaptized Not. But if, perchance, they say that sins are re-remitted to penitents, and that those who die in infancy are not baptized because they are foreknown as not such as would repent if they should live, while God has forekno…
1,111 wordsSECTION 446Chapter 27.--The Book of Wisdom Obtains in the Church the Authority of Canonical Scripture.
Chapter 27.--The Book of Wisdom Obtains in the Church the Authority of Canonical Scripture. And since these things are so, the judgment of the book of Wisdom ought not to be repudiated, since for so long a course of years that book has deserved to be read in the Church of Christ from the station of the readers of the Church of …
805 wordsSECTION 447Chapter 29.--God's Dealing Does Not Depend Upon Any Contingent Merits of Men.
Chapter 29.--God's Dealing Does Not Depend Upon Any Contingent Merits of Men. And thus, unless we indulge in reckless disputation, the entire question is concluded concerning him who is taken away lest wickedness should alter his understanding. And the book of Wisdom, which for such a series of years has deserved to be read in …
798 wordsSECTION 448Chapter 31.--Christ Predestinated to Be the Son of God.
Chapter 31.--Christ Predestinated to Be the Son of God. Therefore in Him who is our Head let there appear to be the very fountain of grace, whence, according to the measure of every man, He diffuses Himself through all His members. It is by that grace that every man from the beginning of his faith becomes a Christian, by which …
919 wordsSECTION 449Chapter 33.--It is in the Power of Evil Men to Sin; But to Do This or That by Means of that Wickedness is in God's Power Alone.
Chapter 33.--It is in the Power of Evil Men to Sin; But to Do This or That by Means of that Wickedness is in God's Power Alone. Moreover, it was this that he had in view when he said, "The gifts and calling of God are without repentance." [3515] And in that saying also consider for a little what was its purport. For when he had…
1,102 wordsSECTION 450Chapter 34 [XVII.]--The Special Calling of the Elect is Not Because They Have Believed, But in Order that They May Believe.
Chapter 34 [XVII.]--The Special Calling of the Elect is Not Because They Have Believed, But in Order that They May Believe. Let us, then, understand the calling whereby they become elected,--not those who are elected because they have believed, but who are elected that they may believe. For the Lord Himself also sufficiently ex…
916 wordsSECTION 451Chapter 36.--God Chose the Righteous; Not Those Whom He Foresaw as Being of Themselves, But Those Whom He Predestinated for the Purpose of Making So.
Chapter 36.--God Chose the Righteous; Not Those Whom He Foresaw as Being of Themselves, But Those Whom He Predestinated for the Purpose of Making So. "Therefore," says the Pelagian, "He foreknew who would be holy and immaculate by the choice of free will, and on that account elected them before the foundation of the world in th…
870 wordsSECTION 452Chapter 38 [XIX.]--What is the View of the Pelagians, and What of the Semi-Pelagians, Concerning Predestination.
Chapter 38 [XIX.]--What is the View of the Pelagians, and What of the Semi-Pelagians, Concerning Predestination. But these brethren of ours, about whom and on whose behalf we are now discoursing, say, perhaps, that the Pelagians are refuted by this apostolical testimony in which it is said that we are chosen in Christ and prede…
934 wordsSECTION 453Chapter 40 [XX.]--Apostolic Testimony to the Beginning of Faith Being God's Gift.
Chapter 40 [XX.]--Apostolic Testimony to the Beginning of Faith Being God's Gift. Moreover, we are admonished that the beginning of men's faith is God's gift, since the apostle signifies this when, in the Epistle to the Colossians, he says, "Continue in prayer, and watch in the same in giving of thanks. Withal praying also for …
748 wordsSECTION 454Chapter 42.--Old Testament Testimonies.
Chapter 42.--Old Testament Testimonies. Therefore also it is in vain that objectors have alleged, that what we have proved by Scripture testimony from the books of Kings and Chronicles is not pertinent to the subject of which we are discoursing: [3549] such, for instance, as that when God wills that to be done which ought only …
1,503 wordsSECTION 455Chapter 1 [I.]--Of the Nature of the Perseverance Here Discoursed of.
Chapter 1 [I.]--Of the Nature of the Perseverance Here Discoursed of. I Have now to consider the subject of perseverance with greater care; for in the former book also I said some things on this subject when I was discussing the beginning of faith. I assert, therefore, that the perseverance by which we persevere in Christ even …
909 wordsSECTION 456Chapter 3.--God is Besought for It, Because It is His Gift.
Chapter 3.--God is Besought for It, Because It is His Gift. But why is that perseverance asked for from God if it is not given by God? Is that, too, a mocking petition, when that is asked from Him which it is known that He does not give, but, though He gives it not, is in man's power; just as that giving of thanks is a mockery,…
914 wordsSECTION 457Chapter 5.--The Second Petition in the Lord's Prayer.
Chapter 5.--The Second Petition in the Lord's Prayer. What, when we say, "Thy kingdom come," do we ask else, but that that should also come to us which we do not doubt will come to all saints? And therefore here also, what do they who are already holy pray for, save that they may persevere in that holiness which has been given …
775 wordsSECTION 458Chapter 8 [V.]--The Fifth Petition. It is an Error of the Pelagians that the Righteous are Free from Sin.
Chapter 8 [V.]--The Fifth Petition. It is an Error of the Pelagians that the Righteous are Free from Sin. In the fifth sentence of the prayer we say, "Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors," [3572] in which petition alone perseverance is not found to be asked for. For the sins which we ask to be forgiven us are p…
874 wordsSECTION 459Chapter 11.--Effect of Prayer for Perseverance.
Chapter 11.--Effect of Prayer for Perseverance. But, lest perchance it be said that perseverance even to the end is not indeed lost when it has once been given,--that is, when a man has persevered unto the end,--but that it is lost, in some sense, when a man by contumacy so acts that he is not able to attain to it; just as we s…
856 wordsSECTION 460Chapter 13 [VII.]--Temptation the Condition of Man.
Chapter 13 [VII.]--Temptation the Condition of Man. If, then, there were no other proofs, this Lord's Prayer alone would be sufficient for us on behalf of the grace which I am defending; because it leaves us nothing wherein we may, as it were, glory as in our own, since it shows that our not departing from God is not given exce…
807 wordsSECTION 461Chapter 16 [VIII.]--Why is Not Grace Given According to Merit?
Chapter 16 [VIII.]--Why is Not Grace Given According to Merit? But "why," says one, "is not the grace of God given according to men's merits?" I answer, Because God is merciful. "Why, then," it is asked, "is it not given to all?" And here I reply, Because God is a Judge. [3592] And thus grace is given by Him freely; and by His …
936 wordsSECTION 462Chapter 20.--Ambrose on God's Control Over Men's Thoughts.
Chapter 20.--Ambrose on God's Control Over Men's Thoughts. And when Ambrose said this, he was speaking in that treatise which he wrote concerning Flight from the World, wherein he taught that this world was to be fled not by the body, but by the heart, which he argued could not be done except by God's help. For he says: "We hea…
786 wordsSECTION 463Chapter 22.--It is an Absurdity to Say that the Dead Will Be Judged for Sins Which They Would Have Committed If They Had Lived.
Chapter 22.--It is an Absurdity to Say that the Dead Will Be Judged for Sins Which They Would Have Committed If They Had Lived. For not to say how possible it may be for God to convert the wills of men averse and opposed to His faith, and to operate on their hearts so that they yield to no adversities, and are overcome by no te…
1,113 wordsSECTION 464Chapter 24 [X.]--It May Be Objected that The People of Tyre and Sidon Might, If They Had Heard, Have Believed, and Have Subsequently Lapsed from Their Faith.
Chapter 24 [X.]--It May Be Objected that The People of Tyre and Sidon Might, If They Had Heard, Have Believed, and Have Subsequently Lapsed from Their Faith. A certain catholic disputant of no mean reputation so expounded this passage of the gospel as to say, that the Lord foreknew that the Tyrians and Sidonians would have afte…
1,076 wordsSECTION 465Chapter 26.--The Manicheans Do Not Receive All the Books of the Old Testament, and of the New Only Those that They Choose.
Chapter 26.--The Manicheans Do Not Receive All the Books of the Old Testament, and of the New Only Those that They Choose. But wherefore is "the case of infants not allowed," as you write, "to be alleged as an example for their elders," by men who do not hesitate to affirm against the Pelagians that there is original sin, which…
1,023 wordsSECTION 466Chapter 28 [XII.]--God's Goodness and Righteousness Shown in All.
Chapter 28 [XII.]--God's Goodness and Righteousness Shown in All. It is therefore settled that God's grace is not given according to the deserts of the recipients, but according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise and glory of His own grace; so that he who glorieth may by no means glory in himself, but in the Lord, …
1,000 wordsSECTION 467Chapter 31.--Infants are Not Judged According to that Which They are Foreknown as Likely to Do If They Should Live.
Chapter 31.--Infants are Not Judged According to that Which They are Foreknown as Likely to Do If They Should Live. For you see, beloved, how absurd it is, and how foreign from soundness of faith and sincerity of truth, for us to say that infants, when they die, should be judged according to those things which they are foreknow…
862 wordsSECTION 468Chapter 33.--God Gives Both Initiatory and Persevering Grace According to His Own Will.
Chapter 33.--God Gives Both Initiatory and Persevering Grace According to His Own Will. From all which it is shown with sufficient clearness that the grace of God, which both begins a man's faith and which enables it to persevere unto the end, is not given according to our merits, but is given according to His own most secret a…
717 wordsSECTION 469Chapter 34 [XIV.]--The Doctrine of Predestination Not Opposed to the Advantage of Preaching.
Chapter 34 [XIV.]--The Doctrine of Predestination Not Opposed to the Advantage of Preaching. But they say that the "definition of predestination is opposed to the advantage of preaching," [3637] --as if, indeed, it were opposed to the preaching of the apostle! Did not that teacher of the heathen so often, in faith and truth, bo…
985 wordsSECTION 470Chapter 36.--The Preaching of the Gospel and the Preaching of Predestination the Two Parts of One Message.
Chapter 36.--The Preaching of the Gospel and the Preaching of Predestination the Two Parts of One Message. Therefore, by the preaching of predestination, the preaching of a persevering and progressive faith is not to be hindered; and thus they may hear what is necessary to whom it is given that they should obey. For how shall t…
1,005 wordsSECTION 471Chapter 38 [XV.]--Against the Preaching of Predestination the Same Objections May Be Alleged as Against Predestination.
Chapter 38 [XV.]--Against the Preaching of Predestination the Same Objections May Be Alleged as Against Predestination. But they say, as you write: "That no one can be aroused by the incentives of rebuke if it be said in the assembly of the Church to the multitude of hearers: The definite meaning of God's will concerning predes…
1,236 wordsSECTION 472Chapter 41.--Predestination Defined as Only God's Disposing of Events in His Foreknowledge.
Chapter 41.--Predestination Defined as Only God's Disposing of Events in His Foreknowledge. For either predestination must be preached, in the way and degree in which the Holy Scripture plainly declares it, so that in the predestinated the gifts and calling of God may be without repentance; or it must be avowed that God's grace…
976 wordsSECTION 473Chapter 43.--Further Development of the Foregoing Argument.
Chapter 43.--Further Development of the Foregoing Argument. And in order that I may more openly unfold this for the sake of those who are somewhat slow of apprehension, let those who are endowed with an intelligence that flies in advance bear with my delay. The Apostle James says, "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God,…
1,147 wordsSECTION 474Chapter 45.--Exhortation to Other Gifts of God in Like Manner.
Chapter 45.--Exhortation to Other Gifts of God in Like Manner. Nor do those on whose account I am saying these things, who cry out that exhortation is checked by the preaching of predestination and grace, exhort to those gifts alone which they contend are not given by God, but are from ourselves, such as are the beginning of fa…
1,066 wordsSECTION 475Chapter 48 [XIX.]--Practice of Cyprian and Ambrose.
Chapter 48 [XIX.]--Practice of Cyprian and Ambrose. What, then, hinders us, when we read of God's foreknowledge in some commentators on God's word, and they are treating of the calling of the elect, from understanding the same predestination? For they would perchance have rather used in this matter this word which, moreover, is…
1,116 wordsSECTION 476Chapter 50.--Obedience Not Discouraged by Preaching God's Gifts.
Chapter 50.--Obedience Not Discouraged by Preaching God's Gifts. Such doctors, and so great as these, when they say that there is nothing of which we may boast as if of our own which God has not given us, and that our very heart and our thoughts are not in our own power; and when they give the whole to God, and confess that fro…
812 wordsSECTION 477Chapter 53.--Augustin's "Confessions."
Chapter 53.--Augustin's "Confessions." And which of my smaller works has been able to be more generally and more agreeably known than the books of my Confessions? And although I published them before the Pelagian heresy had come into existence, certainly in them I said to my God, and said it frequently, "Give what Thou commande…
1,314 wordsSECTION 478Chapter 56.--God Gives Means as Well as End.
Chapter 56.--God Gives Means as Well as End. Wherefore if I am unwilling to appear ungrateful to men who have loved me, because some advantage of my labour has attained to them before they loved me, how much rather am I unwilling to be ungrateful to God, whom we should not love unless He had first loved us and made us to love H…
794 wordsSECTION 479Chapter 59.--Offence to Be Avoided.
Chapter 59.--Offence to Be Avoided. Neither is what follows by any means to be said,--that is, "But others of you who abide in the delight of sins have not yet arisen, because the aid of pitying grace has not yet lifted you up;" when it may be and ought to be well and conveniently said, "But if any of you are still delaying in …
775 wordsSECTION 480Chapter 62.--Prayer to Be Inculcated, Nevertheless.
Chapter 62.--Prayer to Be Inculcated, Nevertheless. But I do not think that manner which I have said should be adopted in the preaching of predestination ought to be sufficient for him who speaks to the congregation, except he adds this, or something of this kind, saying, "You, therefore, ought also to hope for that perseveranc…
888 wordsSource & rights
Historical text source: Christian Classics Ethereal Library. The downloaded text itself records Public Domain.