' Luke i. 3.
- Ambrose, O71 Luke, in the exposition of the prolo.a;ue.
- Lake ix 53. ■• Ambrose, On Luke, Book 7, ch. 27.
besought to allow a voice to be given to you by which you may confess what you believe. " For He will give, I am certain. He who gave what is first, will give also what is second." 5 He who gave belief, will also give confession.
CHAP. 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 from Him we receive that we are converted to Him in such wise as to continue, — that that which is good appears also to us to be good, and we wish for it, — that we honour God and receive Christ, — that from undevout people we are made devout and religious, — that we believe in the Trinity itself, and also confess with our voice what we believe: — certainly attribute all these things to God's grace, acknowledge them as God's gifts, and testify that tliey come to us from Him, and are not from ourselves. But will any one say that they in such wise confessed that grace of God as to venture to deny His foreknowledge, which not only learned but unlearned men also confess? Again, if they had so known that God gives these things that they were not ignorant that He foreknew that He would give them, and could not have been ignorant to whom He would give them: beyond a doubt they had known the predestination which, as preached by the apostles, we laboriously and diligently maintain against the modern heretics. Nor would it be with any manner of justice said, nevertheless, to them because they preach obedience, and fervently exhort, to the extent of the ability of each one, to its practice, " If you do not wish that the obedience to which you are stirring us up should grow cold in our heart, forbear to preach to us that grace of God by which you confess that God gives what you are exhorting us to do."
CHAP. 5 1 [XX.] — PREDESTINATION MUST BE PREACHED.
Wherefore, if both the apostles and the teachers of the Church who succeeded them and imitated them did both these things, — that is, both truly preached the grace of God which is not given according to our merits, and inculcated by wholesome precepts a pious obedience, — what is it which these people of our time think themselves rightly bound by the invincible force of truth to say, " Even if what is sn id of the predestination of God's benefits be true, yet it 5 Greg, of Nazianz. Orai. 44 in Pentecosteti.
must not be preached to the people"?' It must absolutely be preached, so that he who has ears to hear, may hear. And who has them if he has not received them from Him who says, '■ I will give them a heart to know me, and ears to hear "?^ Assuredly, he who has not received may reject; while, yet, he who receives may take and drink, may drink and live. For as piety must be preached, that, by him who has ears to hear, God may be rightly worshipped; modesty must be preached, that, by him who has ears to hear, no illicit act may be perpetrated by his fleshly nature; charity must be preached, that, by him who has ears to hear, God and his neighbours may be loved; — so also must be preached such a predestination of God's benefits that he who has ears to hear may glory, not in himself, but in the Lord.
CHAP. 52. PREVIOUS WRITINGS ANTICIPATIVELY REFUTED THE PELAGIAN HERESY.
But in respect of their saying " that it was not necessary that the hearts of so many people of little intelligence should be disquieted by the uncertainty of this kind of disputation, since the catholic faith has been defended for so many years, with no less advantage, without this defi- [ nition of predestination, as well against others j as especially against the Pelagians, in so many books that have gone before, as well of catholics and others as our own; " ^ — I much wonder that they should say this, and not observe — to say nothing of other writings in this place — that those very treatises of mine were both composed and published before the Pelagians had ' begun to appear; and that they do not see in! how many passages of those treatises I was unawares cutting down a future Pelagian heresy, by, preaching the grace by which God delivers us from evil errors and from our habits, without any preceding merits of ours, — doing this according to His gratuitous mercy. ' And this I began more fully to apprehend in that disputation which I wrote to Simplicianus, the bishop of the Church of Milan, of blessed memory, in the be- j ginning of my episcopate, when, moreover, I both perceived and asserted that the beginning of faith is God's gift.
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 commandest, and command ■ In the Letters of Prosper and Hilary, printed among Augustus's Letters^ Nos. 225 and 226.
2 Baruch ii. 31.
3 The Epistle of Hilary in Augustin's Letters, aa6, ch. 8.
what Thou wiliest." •* Which words of mine, Pelagius at Rome, when they were mentioned in his presence by a certain brother and fellowbishop of mine, could not bear; and contradicting somewhat too excitedly, nearly came to a quarrel with him who had mentioned them. P)Ut what, indeed, does God primarily and chiefly command, but that we believe on Him? And this, therefore. He Himself gives, if it is well said to Him, " Give what Thou commandest." And, moreover, in those same books, in respect of what I have related concerning my conversion, when God converted me to that faith which, with a most miserable and raging talkativeness, I was destroying, do you not remember that it was so narrated how I showed that I was granted to the faithful and daily tears of my mother, that I should not perish? 5 Where certainly I declared that God by His grace converted to the true faith the wills of men, which were not only averse to it, but even adverse to it. Further, in what manner I besought God concerning my growth in perseverance, you know, and you are able to review if you wish it. Therefore, that all the gifts of God which in that work I either asked for or praised, were foreknown by God that He would give, and that He could never be ignorant of the persons to whom He would give them, who can dare, I will not say to deny, but even to doubt? 'I'his is the manifest and assured predestination of the saints, which subsequently necessity compelled me more carefully and laboriously to defend wh'en I was already disputing against the Pelagians. For I learnt that each special heresy introduced its own peculiar questions into the Church — against which the sacred Scripture miaht be more carefullv defended than if no such necessity compelled their defence..An(i what compelled those passages of Scripture in which predestination is commended to be defended more abundantly and clearly by that labour of mine, than the fact that the Pelagians say that God's grace is given according to our merits; for what else is this than an absolute denial of grace?
CHAP. 54 [XXI.] — BEGINNING AND END OF FAITH IS OF GOD.
Therefore that this opinion, which is unpleasing to God, and hostile to those gratuitous benefits of God whereby we are delivered, may be destroyed, I maintain that both the beginning of faith and the perseverance therein, even to the end, are, according to the Scriptures — of which I have already quoted many — God's gifts. Because if we say that the beginning of faith is of ourselves, so that by it we deserve to receive 5 Con/essions, Book iii. chs. 11 and 12, Book ix. ch. 8.
[Chap.
J3- Other gifts of God, the Pelagians conclude that God's grace is given according to our merits. And this the catholic faith held in such dread, that Pelagius himself, in fear of condemnation, condemned it. And, moreover, if we say that our perseverance is of ourselves, not of God, they answer that we have the beginning of our faith of ourselves in such wise as the end, thus arguing that we have that beginning of ourselves much more, if of ourselves we have the continuance unto the end, since to perfect is much greater than to begin; and thus repeatedly they conclude that the grace of God is given accordmg to our merits. But if both are God's gifts, and God foreknew that He would give these His gifts (and who can deny this?), predestination must be preached, — that God's true grace, that is, the grace which is not given according to our merits, may be maintained with insuperable defence.
CHAP. 55. — TESTIMON\' OF HIS PREVIOUS WRIT- INGS AND LETTERS.
And, indeed, in that treatise of which the title is. Of Rebuke and Grace, ^ which could not suffice for all my lovers, I think that I have so established that it is the gift of God also to persevere to the end, as I have either never before or almost never so expressly and evidently maintained this in writing, unless my memory deceives me. But I have now said this in a way in which no one before me has said it. Certainly the blessed Cyprian, in the Lord's Prayer, as I have already shown, so explained our petitions as to say that in its very first petition we were asking for perseverance, asserting that we pray for it when we say, " Hallowed be Thy name," ^ although we have been already hallowed in baptism, — so that we may persevere in that which we have begun to be. Let those, however, to whom, in their love for me, I ought not to be ungrateful, who profess that they '.nnbrace, over and above that which comes into the argument, all my views, as you write, — let those, I say, see whether, in the latter portions of the first book of those two which I wrote in the beginning of my episcopate, before the appearance of the Pelagian heresy, to Simplicianus, the bishop of Milan, ^ there remained anything whereby it might be called in question that God's grace is not given according to our merits; and whether I have not there sufficiently argued that even the beginning of faith is God's gift; and whether from what is there said it does not by consequence result, although it is not expressed, that even perseverance to the end is not given, except by Him who has predestinated us to His kingdom and glory. Then, did not I many years j ago publish that letter whicli I had already written to the holy Paulinus,'* bishop of Nola, against ; the Pelagians, which they have lately begun to contradict? Let them also look into that letter which 1 sent to Sixtus, the presbyter of the ' Roman Church, 5 when we contended in a very sharp conflict against the Pelagians, and they will find it such as is that one to Paulinus. Whence they may gather that the same sort of things were already said and written several years ago against the Pelagian heresy, and that it is to be wondered at that these should now displease them; although I should wish that no one would so embrace all my views as to follow me, except in those things in which he should see me not to have erred. For I am now writing treatises in which I have undertaken to retract my smaller works, for the purpose of demonstrating that even I myself have not in all things followed myself; but I think that, with God's mercy, I have written progressively, and not begun from perfection; since, indeed, I speak more arrogantly than truly, if even now I say that I have at length in this age of mine arrived at perfection, without any error in what I write. But the difference is in the extent and the subject of an error, and in the facility with which any one corrects it, or the pertinacity with which one endeavours to defend his error. Certainly there is good hope of that man whom the last day of this life shall find so progressing I that whatever was wanting to his progress may J be added to him, and that he should be adjudged rather to need perfecting than punishment.
■GOD GIVES MEANS AS WELL AS END.
' On Rebuke and Grace, ch. lo. 3 Two books to Simplicianus.
Matt. vi. 9.
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 Him! since love is of Him,^ as they have said whom He made not only His\ great lovers, but also His great preachers. And what is more ungrateful than to deny the grace of God itself, by saying that it is given to us according to our merits? And this the catholic faith shuddered at in the Pelagians, and this it objected to Pelagius himself as a capital crime; and this Pelagius himself condemned, not indeed from love of God's truth, but yet for fear of his own condemnation. But whoever as a faithful catholic is horrified to say that the grace of God is given according to our merits, let him not withdraw faith itself from God's grace, whereby he obtained mercy that he should be faithful; and thus let him attribute also perseverance to the * Letter to Paulinus, i68.
* I John iv. 7.
5 Letter to Sisctus, 194.
Chap. 6i.]
ON THE GIFT OF PERSKVKRAXCE.
end to God's grace, whereby he obtains the ' letter, and which I have above introduced: mercy which he daily asks for, not to be led into " The definite determination of God's will contemptation. But between the beginning of faith cerning predestination is of such a kind that and the perfection of perseverance there are those some of you from unbelief shall receive the will means whereby we live righteously, which they to obey, and come to the faith." Wliat need is themselves are agreed in regarding as given by there for saying, " Some of you"? I-'ur if we God to us at the prayer of faith. And all these; speak to God's Church, if we speak to Ijciievcrs, things — the beginning of faith, to wit, and His why do we say that " some of them " had come other gifts even to the end — God foreknew that to the faith, and seem to do a wrong to the rest. He would bestow on His called. It is a matter, '. when we may more fittingly say the definite detherefore, of too excessive contentiousness to termination of the will of God concerning precontradict predestination, or to doubt concern- 1 destination is of such a kind that from unbelief you shall receive the will to obey, and come to the faith, and shall receive perseverance, and abide to the end?
CHAP. 59. OFFENCE TO BE AVOIDED.
Neither is what follows by any means to be said, — that is, " But others of you who abide in ing predestination.
CHAP. 5 7 [XXII.] HOW PREDESTINATION MUST BE PREACHED SO AS NOT TO GIVE OFFENCE.
And yet this doctrine must not be preached to congregations in such a way as to seem to an unskilled multitude, or a people of slower understanding, to be in some measure confuted by 1 the delight of sins have not yet arisen, because that very preaching of it. Just as even the fore- 1 the aid of pitying grace has not yet lifted you knowledge of God, which certainly men cannot up; " when it may be and ought to be well and deny, seems to be refuted if it be said to them, conveniendy said, " But if any of you are still " Whether you run or sleep, you shall be that ' delaying in the delightfiilness of damnable sins, which He who cannot be deceived has foreknown lay hold of the most wholesome discipline; and you to be." And it is the part of a deceitful or yet when you have done this be not lifted up, as an unskilled physician so to compound even a if by your own works, nor boast as if you had useful medicament, that it either does no good ' not received this. For it is God who worketh or does harm. But it must be said, "So run ' in you both to will and to do for His good will,' that you may lay hold; ' and thus by your very and your steps are directed by the Lord, so that running you may know yourselves to be fore- you choose His way.^ But of your own good known as those who should run lawfully: " and in whatever other manner the foreknowledge of God may be so preached, that the slothfulness of man may be repulsed.
CHAP. 58. — THE DOCTRINE TO BE APPLIED WITH DISCRIMINATION.
and righteous course, learn carefully that it is attributable to the predestination of divine grace."
60. THE APPLICATION TO THE CHURCH IN GENERAL.
Moreover, what follows where it is said, " But yet if any of you are not yet called, whom by Now, therefore, the definite determination of' his grace He has predestinated to be called, you shall receive that grace whereby you shall will to be, and be, elected," is said more hardly than it could be said if we consider that we are speaking not to men in general, but to the Church of Christ. For why is it not rather said thus: " And if any of you are not yet called, let us pray for them that they may be called. For perchance they are so predestinated as to be granted to our prayers, and to receive that grace God's will concerning predestination is of such a kind that some from unbelief receive the will to obey, and are converted to the faith or persevere in the faith, while others who abide in the delight of damnable sins, even if they have been predestinated, have not yet arisen, because the aid of pitying grace has not yet lifted them up. For if any are not yet called whom by His grace He has predestinated to be elected, they ^, ■ - •,, j 1 11 i.-a will receive that grace whereby they may will to | whereby they may will, and be made elected. be elected, and may be so; and if any obey, but For God, who fulfilled all that He predestinated, have not been predestinated to His kingdom has willed us also to pray for the enemies of the and glory, they are for a season, and will not faith, that we might hence understand that He abide in the same obedience to the end. Al- Himself also gives to the unbelievers the gitt of though, then, these things are true, yet they faith, and makes willing men out of those that must not be so said to the multitude of hearers were unwilling, as that the address may be applied to themselves also, and those words of those people may be said to them which you have set down in your ' I Cor. ix. 24.
CHAP 61. — tjsE OF THE THIRD PERSON RATHER THAN THE SECOND.
But now I mar\-el if any weak brother among 2 Phil. i. 13.
i Ps. zxxvii. 33.
[Chap. 62.
the Christian congregation can hear in any way ' with i)atience what is connected witli these words, when it is said to them, " And if any of you obey, if you are predestinated to be rejected, the power of obeying will be withdrawn from you, that you may cease to obey." For what does saying this seem, except to curse, or in a certain way to predict evils? But if, however, it is desirable or necessary to say anything concerning those who do not persevere, why is it not rather at least said in such a way as was a little while ago said by me, — first of all, so that this should be said, not of them who hear in the congregation, but about others to them; that is, that it should not be said, " If any of you obey, if you are predestinated to be rejected," but, " If any obey," and the rest, using the third person of the verb, not the second? For it is not to be said to be desirable, but abominable, and it is excessively harsh and hateful to fiy as it were into the face of an audience with abuse, when he who speaks to them says, " And if there are any of you who obey, and are predestinated to be rejected, the power of obedience shall be withdrawn from you, that you may cease to obey." For what is wanting to the doctrine if it IS thus expressed: " But if any obey, and are not predestinated to His kingdom and glory, they are only for a season, and shall not continue in that obedience unto the end"? Is not the same thing said both more truly and more fittingly, so that we may seem not as it were to be desiring so much for them, as to relate of others the evil which they hate, and think does not belong to them, by hoping and praying for better things? But in that manner in which they think that it must be said, the same judgment may be pronounced almost in also of God's foreknowledge, they cannot deny, so as to say you obey, if you are foreknown to be rejected you shall cease to obey." Doubtless this is very true, assuredly it is; but it is very monstrous, very inconsiderate, and very unsuitable, not by Its false declaration, but by its declaration not wholesomely applied to the health of human infirmity.
CHAP. 62. PRAYER TO BE INCULCATED, NEVER- THELESS.
But I do not think that 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 perseverance in obedience from the Father of Lights, from whom cometh down every excellent gift and every perfect gift,' and to ' Jas. i. 17.
doing the same words which certainly " And if any of ask for it in your daily prayers; and in this ought to trust that you are not aliens from the predestination of His people, because it is He Himself who bestows even the power of doing this. And far be it from you to despair of yourselves, because you are bidden to have your hope in Him, not in yourselves. For cursed is every one who has hope in man; ^ and it is good rather to trust in the Lord than to trust in man, because blessed are all they that put their trust in Him.^ Holding this hope, serve the Lord in fear, and rejoice unto Him with trembling.^ Because no one can be certain of the life eternal which God who does not lie has promised to the children of promise before the times of eternity, — no one, unless that life of his, which is a state of trial upon the earth, is completed. 5 But He will make us to persevere in Himself unto the end of that life, since we daily say to Him, * Lead us not into temptation.' " '' VVhen these things and things of this kind are said, whether to few Christians or to the multitude of the Church, why do we fear to preach the predestination of the saints and the true grace of God, — that is, the grace which is not given according to our merits, — as the Holy Scripture declares it? Or, indeed, must it be feared that a man should then despair of himself when his hope is shown to be placed in God, and should not rather despair of himself if he should, in his excess of pride and unhappiness, place it in himself?
CHAP. 6;^ [XXIII.J THE TESTIMONY OF THE WHOLE CHURCH IN HER PRAYERS.
And I wish that those who are slow and weak of heart, who cannot, or cannot as yet, understand the Scriptures or the explanations of them, would so hear or not hear our arguments in this question as to consider more carefully their prayers, which the Church has always used and will use, even from its beginnings until this age shall be completed. For of this matter, which I am now compelled not only to mention, but even to protect and defend against these new heretics, the Church has never been silent in its prayers, although in its discourses it has not thought that it need be put forth, as there was no adversary compelling it. For when was not prayer made in the Church for unbelievers and its opponents that they should believe? When has any believer had a friend, a neighbour, a wife, who did not believe, and has not asked on their behalf from the Lord for a mind obedient to the Christian faith? And who has there ever been who has not prayed for himself that he might abide in the Lord? And who has dared, not only with his * Jas. xvii. 5. 5 Job vii. I.
3 Ps. cxviii. 8. <> Matt. vi. 13, * Ps.
Chap. 66.]
voice, but even in thouglit, to blame the priest who invokes the Lord on behah" of beUevers, if at any time he has said, " Give to them, O Lord, perseverance in Thee to die end! " and has not rather responded, over such a benediction of his, as well with confessing lips as believing heart, "Amen"? Since in the Lord's Prayer itself the believers do not pray for anything else, especially when they say that petition, " Lead us not into temptation," save that they may persevere in holy olicdience. As, therefore, the Church has both been born and grows and has grown in these prayers, so it has been born and grows and has grown in this faith, by which faith it is believed that God's grace is not given according to the merits of the receivers. For, certainly, the Church would not pray that faith should be given to unbelievers, unless it believed that God converts to Himself both the averse and adverse wills of men. Nor would the Church pray that it might persevere in the faith of Christ, not deceived nor overcome by the temptations of the world, unless it believed that the Lord has our heart in His power, in such wise as that the good which we do not hold save by our own will, we nevertheless do not hold except He worketh in us to will also. For if the Church indeed asks these things from Him, but thinks that the same things are given to itself by itself, it makes use of prayers which are not true, but perfunctory, — which be far from us! For who truly groans, desiring to receive what he prays for from the Lord, if he thinks that he receives it from himself, and not from the Lord?
CHAP. 64. IN WHAT SENSE THE HOLY SPIRIT SOLICITS FOR US, CRYING, ABBA, FATHER.
And this especially since "we know not what to pray for as we ought," says the apostle, " but the Spirit Himself maketh intercession for us with groanings that cannot be uttered; and He that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because He maketh intercession for the saints according to God." ' What is " the Spirit Himself maketh intercession," but, " causes to make intercession," " with groanings that cannot be uttered," but " truthful," since the Spirit is truth? For He it is of whom the apostle says in another place, " God hath sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, " crying, Abba, Father! " ^ And here what is the meaning of " crying," but " making to cry," by that figure of speech whereby we call a day that makes people glad, a glad day? And this he makes plain elsewhere when he says, " For you have not received the Spirit of bondage again in fear, but you have received the Spirit of the ' Rom. iii. 26.
2 GaL iv. 6.
adoption of sons, in whom we cry, Abba, Father." 3 He tliere said, " crying," but here, " in whom we cry; " opening uj), that is to say, the meaning with whia-h he said " crying," — that is, as I have already explained, "causing to cry," when we understand that this is also itself the gift of God, that with a true heart and spiritually we cry to God. Let them, therefore, observe how they are mistaken who think that our seeking, asking, knocking is of ourselves, and is not given to us; and say that this is the case because grace is preceded by our merits; that it follows them when we ask and receive, and seek and find, and it is opened to us when we knock. And they will not understand that this is also of the divine gift, that we j^ray; that is, that we ask, seek, and knock. For we have received the spirit of adoption of sons, in which we en,', Abba, Father. And this the blessed Ambrose also said.'* For he says, "To pray to God also is the work of spiritual grace, as it is written, No one says, Jesus is the Lord, but in the Holy Spirit."
CHAP. 65. — THE church's PRAYERS IMPLY THE church's faith.