indeed raised you up. But yet, if there are any whom by His grace He has predestinated to be chosen, who are not yet called, ye shall receive that grace by which you may will and be chosen; and if any obey, if ye are predestinated to be rejected, the strength to obey shall be withdrawn from you, so that you may cease to obey." Although these things may be said, they ought not so to deter us from confessing the true grace of God, — that is, the grace which is not given to us in respect of our merits, — and from confessing the predestination of the saints in accordance therewith, even as we are not deterred from confessing God's foreknowledge, although one should thus speak to the people concerning it, and say: " Whether you are now living righteously or unrighteously, you shall be such by and by as the Lord has foreknown that you will be, — either good, if He has foreknown you as good, or bad, if He has foreknown you as bad." For if on the hearing of this some should be turned to torpor and slothfulness, and from striving should go headlong to lust after their own desires, is it therefore to be counted that what has been said about the foreknowledge of God is false? If God has foreknown that they will be good, will they not be good, whatever be the depth of evil in which they are now engaged? And if He has foreknown them evil, will they not be evil, whatever goodness may now be discerned in them? There was a man in our monastery, who, when the brethren rebuked him for doing some things that ought not to be done, and for not doing some things that ought to be done, replied, " Whatever I may now be, I shall be such as God has foreknown that I shall be." And this man certainly both said what was true, and was not profited by this truth for good, but so far made way in evil as to desert the society of the monastery, and become a dog returned to his vomit; and, nevertheless, it is uncertain what he is yet to become. For the sake of souls of this kind, then, is the truth which is spoken about God's foreknowledge either to be denied or to be kept back, — at such times, for instance, when, if it is not spoken, other errors are incurred?
CHAP. 39 [XVI.] — PRAYER AND EXHORTATION.
There are some, moreover, who either do not pray at all, or pray coldly, because, from the Lord's words, they have learnt that God knows what is necessary for us before we ask it of Him. Must the truth of this declaration be given up, or shall we think that it should be erased from the gospel because of such people? Nay, since it is manifest that God has prepared some things to be given even to those who do not pray for them, such as the beginning of faith, and other things not to be given except to those who pray for them, such as perseverance even unto the end, certainly he who thinks that he has this latter from himself does not j^ray to have it. Therefore we must take care lest, while we are afraid of exhortation growing lukewarm, prayer should be stilled and arrogance stimulated.
CHAP. 40. WHEN THE TRUTH MUST BE SPOKEN, WHEN KEFr BACK.
Therefore let the truth be spoken, especially when any question impels us to declare it; and let them receive it who are able, lest, perchance, while we are silent on account of those who cannot receive it, they be not only defrauded of the truth but be taken captive by falsehood, who are able to receive the trutli whereby falsehood may be avoided. For it is easy, nay, and it is useful, that some truth should be kept back because of those who are incapable of apprehending it. For whence is that word of our Lord: " I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now "? ' And that of the apostle: " I could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal: as if unto babes in Christ I have given you to drink milk, and not meat, for hitherto ye were not able, neither yet indeetl now are ye able "? - Although, in a certain manner of speaking, it might happen that what is said should be both milk to infants and meat for grown-up persons. As " in the beginning- was the Word, and the AVord was with God, and the Word was God," ' what Christian can keep it back? Who can receive it? Or what in sound doctrine can be found more comprehensive? And yet this is not kept back either from infants or from grown-up people, nor is it hidden from infants by those who are mature. But the reason of keeping back the truth is one, the necessity of speaking the truth is another. It would be a tedious business to incjuire into or to put down all the reasons for keeping back the truth; of which, nevertheless, there is this one, — lest we should make those who do not understand worse, while wishing to make those who do understand more learned; although these latter do not become more learned when we withhold any such thing on the one hand, but also do not become worse. When, however, a truth is of such a nature that he who cannot receive it is made w-orse by our speaking it, and he who can receive it is made worse by our silence concerning it, what do we think is to be done? Must we not speak the truth, that he who can receive it may receive it. rather than keep silence, so that not only neither may receive it, but that even he who is more intelligent should himself be made worse? For if he should hear and receive it, by his means also > John xvi. 13.
* I Cor. ui. I.
J John L X.
[Chap. 41.
many might learn. For in proportion as he is more capable of learning, he is the more fitted for teaching others. The enemy of grace presses on and urges in all ways to make us believe that grace is given according to our desendngs, and thus grace is no more grace; and are we unwilling to say what we can say by the testimony of Scripture? Do we fear, forsooth, to offend by our speaking him who is not able to receive the truth? and are we not afraid lest by our silence he who can receive the truth may be involved in falsehood?
CHAP. 41. — PREDESTINATION DEFINED AS ONLY god's DISPOSING OF EVENTS IN HIS FOREKNOWL- EDGE.
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 is given according to our merits, — which is the opinion of the Pelagians; although that opinion of theirs, as I have often said already, may be read in the Proceedings of the Eastern bishops to have been condemned by the lips of Pelagius himself.' Further, those on whose account I am discoursing are only removed from the heretical perversity of the Pelagians, inasmuch as, although they will not confess that they who by God's grace are made obedient and so abide, are predestinated, they still confess, nevertheless, that this grace precedes their will to whom it is given; in such a way certainly as that grace may not be thought to be gi\en freely, as the truth declares, but rather according to the merits of a preceding will, as the Pelagian error says, in contradiction to the truth. Therefore, also, grace precedes faith; otherwise, if faith precedes grace, beyond a doubt will also precedes it, because there cannot be faith without will. But if grace precedes faith because it precedes will, certainly it precedes all obedience; it also precedes love, by which alone God is truly and pleasantly obeyed. And all these things grace works in him to whom it is given, and in whom it precedes all these things, [xvii.]
Among these benefits there remains perseverance unto the end, which is daily asked for in vain from the Lord, if the Lord by His grace does not effect it in him whose prayers He hears. See now how foreign it is from the truth to deny that perseverance even to the end of this hfe is the gift of God; since He Himself puts an end to this life when He wills, and if He puts an end before a fall that is threatening. He makes the man to persevere even unto the end. But more marvellous and more manifest to * See above, On the Proceedings of Pelagius, ch. 30.
believers is the largess of God's goodness, that this grace is given even to infants, although there is no obedience at that age to which it may be given. To whomsoever, therefore, God gives His gifts, beyond a doubt He has foreknown that He will bestow them on them, and in His foreknowledge He has prepared them for them. Therefore, those whom He predestinated, them He also called with that calling which I am not reluctant often to make mention of, of which it is said, " The gifts and calling of God are without repentance." ^ For the ordering of His future works in His foreknowledge, which cannot be deceived and changed, is absolute, and is nothing but, predestination. But, as he whom God has foreknown to be chaste, although he may regard it as uncertain, so acts as to be chaste, so he whom He has predestinated to be chaste, although he may regard that as uncertain, does not, therefore, fail to act so as to be chaste because he hears that he is to be what he will be by the gift of God. Nay, rather, his love rejoices, and he is not puffed up as if he had not received it. Not only, therefore, is he not hindered from this work by the preaching of predestination, but he is even assisted to it, so that although he glories he may glory in the Lord.
CHAP. 42. THE ADVERSARIES CANNOT DENY PRE- DESTINATION TO THOSE GIFTS OF GRACE WHICH THEY THEMSELVES ACKNOWLEDGE, AND THEIR EXHORTATIONS ARE NOT HINDERED BY THIS PREDESTINATION NEVERTHELESS.
And what I said of chastity, can be said also of faith, of piety, of love, of perseverance, and, not to enumerate single virtues, it may be said with the utmost truthfulness of all the obedience with which God is obeyed. But those who place only the beginning of faith and perseverance to the end in such wise in our power as not to regard them as God's gifts, nor to think that God works on our thoughts and wills so as that we may have and retain them, grant, nevertheless, that He gives other things, — since they are obtained from Him by the faith of the believer. Why are they not afraid that exhortation to these other things, and the preaching of these other things, should be hindered by the definition of predestination? Or, perchance, do they say that such things are not predestinated? Then they are not given by God, or He has not known that He would give them. Because, if they are both given, and He foreknew that He would give them, certainly He predestinated them. As, therefore, they themselves also exhort to chastity, charity, piety, and other things which they confess to be God's gifts, and cannot deny that they are also foreknown by Him, and 2 Rom. xi. 24.
Chap. 44.]
therefore predestinated; nor do they say that their exhortations are hindered by the preaching of God's predestination, that is, by the preaching of God's foreknowledge of those future gifts of His:.so they may see that neither are their exhortations to fiiith or to perseverance hindered, even although those very things may be said, as is the truth, to be gifts of God, and that those things are foreknown, that is, predestinated to be given; but let them rather see that by this preaching of predestination only that most pernicious error is hindered and overthrown, whereby it is said that the grace of God is given according to our deservings, so that he who glories may glory not in the Lord, but in himself.
CHAP. 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, who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him." ' It is written also in the Proverbs of Solomon, " Because the Lord giveth wisdom." ^ And of continency it is read in the book of Wisdom, whose authority has been used by great and learned men who have commented upon the divine utterances long before us; there, therefore, it is read, " When I knew that no one can be continent unless God gives it, and that this was of wisdom, to know whose gift thisw^as." ^ Therefore these are God's gifts, — that is, to say nothing of others, wisdom and continency. Let those also acquiesce: for they are not Pelagians, to contend against such a manifest truth as this with hard and heretical perversity. " But," say they, " that these things are given to us of God is obtained by faith, which has its beginning from us; " and both to begin to have this faith, and to abide in it even to the end, they contend is our own doing, as if we received it not from the Lord. This, beyond a doubt, is in contradiction to the apostle when he says, " For what hast thou that thou hast not received?"'* It is in contradiction also to the saying of the martyr Cyprian, " That we must boast in nothing, since nothing is our own." 5 When we have said this, and many other things which it is wearisome to repeat, and have shown that both the commencement of faith and perseverance to the end are gifts of God; and that it is impossible that God should not foreknow any of His future gifts, as 2 Prov. ii. 6.
^ Wisd. viii. 21.
' Jas. i. 5.
* I Cor. iv. 7.
5 Cyprian, Testimonies, iii. 4; see The Ante-Nicene Fathers, ▼. 52S.
well what should be given as to whom they should be given; and that thus those whom He delivers and crowns are predestinated by Him; they think it well to reply, " that the assertion of predestination is opposetl to the advantage of preaching, for the reason that when this is heard no one can be stirred up by the incentives of rebuke." When they say tliis, " they are unwilling that it should be declared to men. that coming to the faith and abiding in the faith are God's gifts, lest despair rather than encouragement should appear to be suggested, inasmuch as they who hear think that it is uncertain to human ignorance on whom God bestows, or on whom He does not bestow, these gifts." Why, then, do they themselves also preach with us that wisdom and continency are God's gifts? But if, when these things are declared to be God's gifts, there is no hindrance of the exhortation with which we exhort men to be wise and continent; what is after all the reason for their thinking that the exhortation is hindered wherewith we exhort men to come to the faith, and to abide in it to the end, if these also are said to be God's gifts, as is proved by the Scriptures, which are His witnesses?
CHAP. 44. — EXHORTATION TO WISDOM, THOUGH wisDOAi IS god's gift.
Now, to say nothing more of continency, and to argue in this place of wisdom alone, certainly the Apostle James above mentioned says, " But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, modest, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, inestimable, without simulation."^ Do you not see, I beseech you, how this wisdom descends from the Father of Light§^ laden with many and great benefits? Because, as the same apostle says, " Every excellent gift and every perfect gift is from aljove, and comes down from the Father of Lights."*^ \\"hy, then — to set aside other matters — do we rebuke the impure and contentious, to whom we nevertheless preach that the gift of God is wisdom, pure and peaceable; and are not afraid that they should be influenced, by the uncertainty of the divine will, to find in this preaching more of despair than of exhortation; and that they should not be stirred up by the incentives of rebuke rather against us than against themselves, because we rebuke them for not having those things which we ourselves say are not produced by human will, but are given by the divine liberality? Finally, why did the preaching of this grace not deter the.Apostle James from rebuking restless souls, and saying, " If ye have bitter envying, and contentions are in your hearts, glory not, and be not liars against the truth. Tiiis is not 6 Jas. lii. 17.
[Chap. 45.
the wisdom that cometh down from above, but is earthly, animal, devilish; for where envying and contention are, there are inconstancy and every evil work "? ' As, therefore, the restless are to be rebuked, both by the testimony of the divine declarations, and by those very impulses of ours which they have in common with ourselves; and is it no argument against this rebuke that we declare the peaceful wisdom, whereby the contentions are corrected and healed, to be the gift of God; unbelievers are in such wise to be rebuked, as those who do not abide in the faith, without any hindrance to that rebuke from the preaching of God's grace, although that preaching commends that very grace and the continuance in it as the gifts of God. Because, although wisdom is obtained from faith, even as James himself, when he had said, " If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all liberally and upbraideth not, and it shall be given," ' immediately added, " But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering: " it is not, nevertheless, because faith is given before it is asked for by him to whom it is given, that it must therefore i be said not to be the gift of God, but to be of ourselves, because it is given to us without our asking for it! For the apostle very plainly says,; " Peace be to the brethren, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." 3 From whom, therefore, are peace and love, from Him also is faith; wherefore, from Him we ask not only that it may be increased to those that possess it, but also that it may be given to those \ that possess it not.
CH.'VP. 45. — EXHORTATION TO OTHER GIFTS OF GOD IN LIKE MANNER. j Nor do those on whose account I am saying these tilings, 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 begmning of faith, and perseverance in it even to the end. This certainly they ought to do, in such a way as only to exhort unbelievers to believe, and believers to; continue to believe. But those things which with us they do not deny to be God's gifts, so as that with us they demolish the error of the Pelagians, such as modesty, continence, patience, and other virtues that pertain to a holy life, and are obtained by faith from the Lord, they ought to show as needing to be prayed for, and to pray for only, either for themselves or others; but they ought not to exhort any one to strive after them and retain them. But when they exhort to these things, according to their ability, and confess that men ought to be exhorted, — cer- ' Jas. iii. 14.
Jas. i. 5.
3 Eph. vi. 23, tainly they show plainly enough that exhortations are not hindered by that preaching, whether they are exhortations to faith or to perseverance to the end, because we also preach that such things are God's gifts, and are not given by any man to himself, but are given by God.
CHAP. 46. — A MAN WHO DOES NOT PERSEVERE FAILS BY HIS OWN FAULT.
But it is said, " It is by his own fault that any one deserts the faith, when he yields and consents to the temptation which is the cause of his desertion of the faith." Who denies it? But because of this, perseverance in the faith is not to be said not to be a gift of God. For it is this that a man daily asks for when he says, " Lead us not into temptation; " •* and if he is lieard, it is this that he receives. And thus as he daily asks for perseverance, he assuredly places the hope of his perseverance not in himself, but in God, I, however, am loth to exaggerate the case with my words, but I rather leave it to them to consider, and see what it is of which they have persuaded themselves — to wit, " that by the preaching of predestination, more of despair than of exhortation is impressed upon the hearers." For this is to say that a man then despairs of his salvation when he has learned to place his hope not in himself, but in God, although the prophet cries, " Cursed is he who has his hope in man," 5 CHAP, 47, — PREDESTINATION IS SOMETIMES SIG- NIFIED UNDER THE NAME OF FOREKNOWLEDGE.
These gifts, therefore, of God, which are given to the elect who are called according to God's purpose, among which gifts is both the beginning of belief and perseverance in the faith to the termination of this life, as I have proved by such a concurrent testimony of reasons and authorities, — these gifts of God, I say, if there is no such predestination as I am maintaining, are not foreknown by God. But they are foreknown. This, therefore, is the predestination which I maintain, [xviii.] Consequently sometimes the same predestination is signified also under the name of foreknowledge; as says the apostle, " God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew," '' Here, when he says, " He foreknew," the sense is not rightly understood except as " He predestinated," as is shown by the context of the passage itself. For he was speaking of the remnant of the Jews which were saved, while the rest perished. For above he had said that the prophet had declared to Israel, " All day long I have stretched forth my hands to an unbeheving and a gainsaying people." 7 And as if it were answered, What, then, has be- * Matt. vi. 13.
7 Rom. X. 31 et teq.
S Jer. xvii, 5, 6 Rom. xi. 2.
Chap. 49.]
come of the promises of God to Israel? he added in continuation, " I say, then, has God cast away His people? God forbid! for I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of lienjamin." Then he added the words which I am now treating: " God hath not cast away His people whom He foreknew." And in order to show that the remnant had been left by God's grace, not by any merits of their works, he went on to add, " Know ye not what the Scripture saith in Elias, in what way he makcth intercession with God against Israel?"' and the rest. " But what," says he, " saith the answer of God unto him? ' I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee before Baal.' "^ For He says not, "There are left to me," or " They have reserved themselves to me," but, " I have reserved to myself."
" Even so, then, at this present time also there is made a remnant by the election of grace. And if of grace, then it is no more by works; otherwise grace is no more grace." And connecting this with what I have above quoted, "What then? " 3 and in answer to this inquiry, he says, '• Israel hath not obtained that which he was seeking for, but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded." Therefore, in the election, and in this remnant which were made so by the election of grace, he wished to be understood the people which God did not reject, because He foreknew them. This is that election by which He elected those, whom He willed, in Christ before the foundation of the world, that they should be holy and without spot in His sight, in love, predestinating them unto the adoption of sons. No one, therefore, who understands these things is permitted to doubt that, when the apostle says, " God hath not cast away His people whom He foreknew," He intended to signify predestination. For He foreknew the remnant which He should make so according to the election of grace. That is, therefore, He predestinated them; for without doubt He foreknew if He predestinated; but to have predestinated is to have foreknown that which He should do.
CHAP. 48 [XIX.] — PRACTICE OF CYPRIAN AND AMBROSE.
Wiat, 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 better understood, and which is not inconsistent with, nay, is in accordance with, the truth which is declared concerning the predesti- ' Rom. xi. 4 ct seg.
Rom. xi. 5.
3 Rom. xi. 7.
nation of grace. This I know, that no one has been able to dispute, except erroneously, against that predestination which I am maintaining in accordance with the Holy Scriptures. Vet I think that they who ask for the opinions of commentators on this matter ought to be satisfied with men so holy and so laudably celebrated everywhere in the faith and Christian doctrine as Cyprian and Ambrose, of whom I have given such clear testimonies; and that for both doctrines — that is, that they should both believe absolutely and preach everywhere that the grace of God is gratuitous, as we must believe and declare it to be; and that they should not think that preaching opposed to the preaching whereby we exhort the indolent or rebuke the evil; because these celebrated men also, although they were preaching God's grace in such a manner as that one of them said, " That we must boast in nothing, because nothing is our own; '' •♦ and the other, " Our heart and our thoughts are not in our own power; " s yet ceased not to exhort and rebuke, in order that the divine commands might be obeyed. Neither were they afraid of its being said to them, "Why do you exhort us, and why do you rebuke us, if no good thing that we have is from us, and if our hearts are not in our own power?" These holy men could by no means fear that such things should be said to them, since they were of the mind to understand that it is given to very few to receive the teaching of salvation through God Himself, or through the angels of heaven, without any human preaching to them; but that it is given to many to believe in God through human agency. Yet, in whatever manner the word of God is spoken to man, beyond a dovibt for man to hear it in such a way as to obey it, is God's gift.
CH.'VP. 49. FURTHER REFERENCES TO CTPRLAN AND AMBROSE.
WTierefore, the above-mentioned most excellent commentators on the divine declarations both preached the true grace of God as it ought to be preached, — that is, as a grace jireceded by no human deservings, — and urgently exhorted to the doing of the divine commandments, that they who might have the gift of obedience should hear what commands they ought to obey. For if any merits of ours precede grace, certainly it is the merit of some deed, or word, or thought, wherein also is understood a good will itself. But he very brietly summed up the kinds of all deservings who said, " We must glory in nothing, because nothing is our own." And he who says, " Our heart and our * Cyprian, Testimonies, iii. 4, as above.
5 Ambrose, On FliglU Jrom the World, ch. i.
[Chap. 50.
thoughts are not in our own power," did not pass over acts and words also, for there is no act or word of man which does not proceed from the heart and the thought. But what more could that most glorious martyr and most luminous doctor Cyprian say concerning this matter, than when he impressed upon us that it behoves us to pray, in the Lord's Prayer, even for the adversaries of the Christian faith, showing what he thought of the beginning of the faith, that it also is God's gift, and pointing out that the Church of Christ prays daily for perseverance unto the end, because none but God gives that perseverance to those who have persevered? Moreover, the blessed Ambrose, when he was expounding the passage where the Evangelist Luke says, " It seemed good to me also," ' says, " What he declares to have seemed good to himself cannot have seemed good to him alone. For not alone by human will did it seem good, but.as it pleased Him who speaks in me, Christ, who effects that that which is good may also.seem good to us: for whom He has mercy on He also calls. And therefore he who follows Christ may answer, when he is asked why he wished to become a Christian, * It seemed good to me also.' And when he says this, he does not deny that it seemed good to God; for the j will of men is prepared by God. For it is ' God's grace that God should be honoured by the ' saint." - Moreover, in the same work, — that j )s, in the exposition of the same Gospel, when j he had come to that place where the Samaritans! would not receive the Lord when His face was j as going to Jerusalem, — he says, " Learn at the same time that He would not be received by; those who were not converted in simpleness of j mind. For if He had been willing, He would, have made them devout who were undevout.: And why they would not receive Him, the evan- ■ gelist himself mentioned, saying, ' Because His face was as of one going towards Jerusalem.' ^ | But the disciples earnestly desired to be received; into Samaria. But God calls those whom He makes worthy, and makes religious whom He, will." •♦ What more evident, what more mani- 1 lest do we ask from commentators on God's word, if we are pleased to hear from them what is clear in the Scriptures? But to these two, who ought to be enough, let us add also a third, the holy Gregory, who testifies that it is the gift of God both to believe in God and to confess what we believe, saying, " I beg of you confess the Trinity of one godhead; but if ye wish otherwise, say that it is of one nature, and God will be besought that a voice shall be given to you by the Holy Spirit;" that is, God will be