4 Rom. xi. 33.
S Rom. ix. so.
Chap. 19.]
ON tup: predestination of the saints.
Christ knew the workl in former ages to be so full of unbelievers, that He should reasonai)ly refuse to appear, or to be preached to them, who, as He foreknew, would believe neither His words nor His miracles? For it is not incredible that all at that time were such as from His coming even to the present time we marvel that so many have been and are. And yet from the beginning of the human race, sometimes more hiddenly, sometimes more evidently, even as to Divine Providence the times seemed to be fitting, there has neither been a failure of prophecy, nor were there wanting those who believed on Him; as well from Adam to Moses, as in the people of Israel itself, which by a certain special mystery was a prophetic people; and in other nations before He had come in the flesh. For as some are mentioned in the sacred Hebrew books, as early as the time of Abraham, — neither of his fleshly race nor of the people of Israel, nor of the foreign society among the people of Israel. — who were, nevertheless, sharers in their sacrament, why may we not believe that there were others elsewhere among other people, here and there, although we do not read any mention of them in the same authorities? Thus the salvation of this religion, by which only true one true salvation is truly promised, never failed him ■ who was worthy of it; and whoever it failed was not worthy of it. And from the very beginning of the propagation of man, even to the end, the gospel is preached, to some for a reward, to some for judgment; and thus also those to whom the faith was not announced at all were foreknown as those who would not believe; and those to whom it was announced, although they were not such as would believe, are set forth as an example for the former; while those to whom it is announced who should believe, are prepared for the kingdom of heaven, and the company of the holy angels." ' CHAP. iS. — 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 more true than that Christ foreknew who should believe on Him, and at what times and places they should believe? But whether by the preaching of Christ to themselves by themselves they were to have faith, or whether they would receive it by God's gift, — that is, whether God only foreknew them, or also predestinated them, I did not at that time think it necessary to inquire or to discuss.
Therefore what I said, " that Christ willed to a])pcar to men at that time, and that His doctrine should be j^reached among them when He knew, and where He knew, that there were those who would believe on Him," may also thus be said, " That Christ willed to appear to men at that time, and that His gospel should be preached among those, whom He knew, and where He knew, that there were those who liad been elected in Himself before the foundation of the world." But since, if it were so said, it would make the reader desirous of asking about those things which now by the warning of Pelagian errors must of necessity be discussed with greater copiousness and care, it seemed to me that what at that time was sufficient should lie briefly said, leaving to one side, as I said, the tleplh of the wisdom and knowledge of God, and without prejudging other reasons, concerning which I thought that we might more fittingly argue, not then, but at some other time.
CHAP. 19 [X.] — IN WHAT RESPECTS PREDESTINA- TION AND GRACE DIFFER.
Moreover, that which I said, "That the salvation of this religion has never been lacking to him who was worthy of it, and that he to whom it was lacking was not worthy," — if it be discussed and it be asked whence any man can be worthy, there are not wanting those who say — by human will. But we say, by divine grace or predestination. Further, between grace and predestination there is only this difference, that predestination is the preparation for grace, while grace is the donation itself. \Vhen, therefore, the apostle says, " Not of works, lest any man should boast. F^or we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus in good works," ^ it is grace; but what follows — " which God hath prepared that we should walk in them " — is predestination, which cannot exist without foreknowledge, although foreknowledge may exist without predestination; because God foreknew by predestination those things which He was about to do, whence it was said, " He made those things that shall be." 3 Moreover, He is able to foreknow even those things which He does not Himself do, — as all sins whatever. Because, although there are some which are in such wise sins as that they are also the ])enalties of sins, whence it is said, " God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient," •♦ it is not in such a case the sin that is God's, but the judgment. Therefore God's predestination of good is, as I have said, the preparation of grace; which grace is the effect of that predestination. Therefore when God promised to Abraham in his seed the faith of tiie nations.
* Eph. ii. 9, 10.
3 lia. xlv. II.
* 'Rom. L 28.
5o8 [Chap. 20.
saying, " I have established thee a father of many nations," ' whence the apostle says, "Therefore it is of flxith, that the promise, according to grace, might be established to all the seed,"- He promised not from the power of our will, but from His own predestination. For He prom.ised what He Himself would do, not what men would do. Because, although men do those good things which pertain to God's worship. He Himself makes them to do what He has commanded; it is not they that cause Him to do what He has promised. Otherwise the fulfilment of God's promises would not be in the power of God, but in that of men; and thus what was promised by God to Abraham would be given to Abraham by men themselves. Abraham, however, did not beUeve thus, but " he believed, giving glory to God, that what He promised He is able also todo."^ He does not say, "to foretell" — he does not say, " to foreknow; " for He can foretell and foreknow the doings of strangers also; but he says, " He is able also to do; " and thus he is speaking not of the doings of others, but of His own.
CHAP. 20. — DTD 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 Himself does, did He foreknow that men would effect that faith? The apostle, indeed, does not speak thus, because God promised children to Abraham, who should follow the footsteps of his faith, as he very plainly says. But if He promised the works, and not the faith of the Gentiles, certainly since they are not good works unless they are of faith (for " the righteous lives of faith," ■♦ and, " Whatsoever is not of faith is sin," 5 and, " Without faith it is impossible to please"^ ), it is nevertheless in man's power that God should fulfil what He has promised. For unless man should do what without the gift of God pertains to man, he will not cause God to give, — that is, unless man have faith of himself. God does not fulfil what He has promised, that works of righteousness should be given by God. And thus that God should be able to fulfil His promises is not in God's power, but in man's. And if truth and piety do not forbid our believing this, let us believe with Abraham, that what He has promised He is able also to perform. But He promised children to Abraham; and this men cannot be unless they have faith, therefore He gives faith also.
' Gen. xvii. 5. « Hab. ii. 4.
2 Rom. iv. 16. S Rom. xiv. 2j 3 Rom. iv. 21. f> Heb. xi. 6.
CHAP. 21. rr IS TO BE WONDERED AT THAT ] MEN SHOULD RATHER TRUST TO THEIR OWN WEAKNESS THAN TO GOD'S STRENGTH.
Certainly, when the apostle says, " Therefore it is of faith that the promise may be sure according to grace," ^ I marvel that men would rather entrust themselves to their own weakness, than to the strength of God's promise, lint sayest thou, God's \v\\\ concerning myself is to me uncertain? What then? Is thine own will concerning thyself certain to thee? and dost thou not fear, — " Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall "?7 Since, then, both are uncertain, why does not man commit his faith, hope, and love to the stronger will, rather than to the weaker?
CHAP. 22. — god's PROMISE IS SURE.
" But," say they, " when it is said, ' If thou believest, thou shalt be saved,' one of these ' things is required; the other is offered. What is required is in man's power; what is offered is in God's." ^ Why are not both in God's, as well what He commands as what He offers? For He is asked to give what He commands. Believers ask that their faith may be increased; they ask on behalf of those who do not believe, that faith may be given to them; therefore both in its increase and in its beginnings, faith is the gift of God. But it is said thus: "If thou believest, thou shalt be saved," in the same way that it is said, " If by the Spirit ye shall mortify the deeds of the flesh, ye shall live." ^ For in this case also, of these two things one is required, the other is offered. It is said, " If by the Spirit ye shall mortify the deeds of the flesh, ye shall live." Therefore, that we mortify the deeds of the flesh is required, but tliat we may live is off"ered. Is it, then, fitting for us to say, that to mortify the deeds of the flesh is not a gift of God, and not to confess it to be a gift of God, because we hear it required of us, with the offer of life as a reward if we shall do it? Away with this l)eing approved by the partakers and champions of grace! This is the condemnable error of the Pelagians, whose moutlis the apostle immediately stopped when he added, " For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God; " "" lest we should believe that we mortify the deeds of the flesh, not by God's Spirit, but by our own. And of this Spirit of God, moreover, he was speaking in that place where he says, " But all these worketh that one and the self-same Spirit, dividing unto every man what is his own, as He will; " " and among all these things, as you know, he also 7 I Cor. X. 12.
* See Hilary's Letter in Augustin's Letters, 226, ch. 2.
Chap. 24.]
named faith. As, therefore, although it is the gift of God to mortify the deeds of the flesh, yet it is required of us, and life is set before us as a reward; so also faith is the gift of God, although when it is said, " If thou believest, thou shalt be saved," faith is required of us, and salvation is proposed to us as a reward. For these things are both commanded us, and are shown to be God's gifts, in order that we may understand both that we do them, and tliat God makes us to do them, as He most plainly says by the prophet Ezekiel. For what is plainer than when He says, " I will cause you to do "? ' Give heed to that passage of Scripture, and you will see that God jiromises that He will make them to do those things which He commands to be done. He truly is not silent as to the merits but as to the evil deeds, of those to whom He shows that He is returning good for evil, by the very fact that He causeth them thenceforth to have good works, in causing them to do the divine commands.
CHAP. 23 [xn.] REM.ARKABLE 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 trul}' grace, that is, is not given according to our merits, although it is most manifestly asserted by the witness of the divine declarations, yet, among tliose who think that they are withheld from all zeal for piety unless they can attribute to themselves something, which they first give that it may be recompensed to them again, involves somewhat of a difficulty in respect of the condition of grown-up people, who are already exercising the choice of will. But when we come to the case of infants, and to the Mediator between God and man Himself, the man Christ Jesus, there is wanting all assertion of human merits that precede the grace of God, because the former are not distinguished from others by any preceding good merits that they should belong to the Deliverer of men; any more than He Himself, being Himself a man, was made the Deliverer of men by virtue of any precedent human merits.
CHAP. 24. — THAT NO ONE IS JUDGED ACCORDING TO WHAT HE WOULD HAVE DONE IF HE HAD LIVED LONGER.
For who can hear that infants, baptized in the condition of mere infancy, are said to depart from this life by reason of their future merits, and that others not baptized are said to die in the same age because their future merits are foreknown, — but as evil; so that God rewards ' Ezek. xxxvi. 27.
or condemns in them not their good or evil life, but no life at all?^ The apostle, indeed, fixed a limit which man's incautious suspicion, to speak gently, ought not to transgress, for he says, " W^e shall all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ; that every one may receive according to the things which he has done by means of the body, whether it be good or evil." J " Has done," he said; and he did not add, " or would have done." But I know not whence this thought should have entered the minds of such men, that infants' future merits (which shall not be) should be punished or honoured. But why is it said that a man is to be judged according to those things which he has done by means of the body, when many things are done by the mind alone, and not by the body, nor by any member of the body; and for the most part things of such importance, that a most righteous punishment would be due to such thoughts, such as, — to say nothing of others, — that "The fool hath said in his heart there is no God "? ■* What, then, is the meaning of, " According to those things that he hath done by means of the body," except according to those things which he has done during that time in which he was in the body, so that we may understand "by means of the body " as meaning " throughout the season of bodily life "? But after the body, no one will be in the body except at the last resurrection, — not for the purpose of establishing any claims of merit, but for the sake of receiving recompenses for good merits, and enduring punishments for evil merits. But in this intermediate period between the putting off and the taking again of the body, the souls are either tormented or they are in repose, according to those things which they have done during the period of the bodily life. And to this period of the bodily life moreover pertains, what the Pelagians deny, but Christ's Church confesses, original sin; and according to whether tliis is by God's grace loosed, or by God's judgment not loosed, when infants die, they pass, on the one handi by the merit of regeneration from evil to good, or on the other, by the merit of their origin from evil to evil. The catholic faith acknowledges this, and even some heretics, without any contradiction, agree to this. But in the height of wonder and astonishment I am unable to discover whence men, whose intelligence your letters show to be by no means contemptible, could entertain the opinion that any one should be judged not according to the merits that he had as long as he was in the body, but according to the merits which he would have had if he had lived longer in the body; and I should not dare to believe that there were such men, if I could venture to disbelieve you.
:h.
5IO [Chap. 25.
But I hope that God will interpose, so that when they are admonished they may at once perceive, that if those sins which, as is said, would have been, can rightly be punished by God's judgment in those who are not baptized, they may also be rightly remitted by God's grace in those who are baptized. For whoever says that future sins can only be punished by God's judgment, but cannot be pardoned by God's mercy, ought to consider how great a wrong he is doing to God and His grace; as if future sin could be foreknown, and could not be foregone.' And if this is absurd, it is the greater reason that help should be afforded to those who would be sinners if they lived longer, when they die in early life, by means of that laver wherein sins are washed away.
CHAP. 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 reremitted 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 foreknown that those who are baptized and die in infancy would have repented if they had lived, let them observe and see that if it be so it is not in this case original sins which are punished in infants that die without baptism, but what would have been the sins of each one had he lived; and also in baptized infants, that it is not original sins that are washed away, but their own future sins if they should live, since they could not sin except in more mature age; but that some were foreseen as such as would repent, and others as such as would not repent, therefore some were baptized, and others departed from this life without baptism. If the Pelagians should dare to say this, by their denial of original sin they would thus be relieved of the necessity of seeking, on behalf of infants outside of the kingdom of God, for some place of I know not what happiness of their own; especially since they are convinced that they cannot have eternal life because they have not eaten the flesh nor dnmk the blood of Christ; and because in them who have no sin at all, baptism, which is given for the remission of sins, is falsified. For they would go on to say that there is no original sin, but that those who as infants are released are either baptized or not baptized according to their future merits if they should live, and that according to their future merits they either receive or do not receive the body and blood of Christ, without which they absolutely cannot have life; and are baptized for the true remission of sins although they derived no sins from Adam, because the sins are remitted unto them concern- • Prcenosci possit, nee possit ignosei. • ing which God foreknew that they would repent, j Thus with the greatest ease they would plead I and would win their cause, in which they deny that there is any original sin, and contend that the grace of God is only given according to our merits. But that the future merits of men, which j merits will never come into existence, are beyond all doubt no merits at all, it is certainly most easy to see: for this reason even the Pelagians j were not able to say this; and much rather I these ought not to say it. For it cannot be said I with what pain I find that they who with us on catholic authority condemn the error of those \ heretics, have not seen this, which the Pelagians : themselves have seen to be most false and absurd.
'chap. 26 [XIV.] REFERENCE TO CYPRIAN'S TREATISE " ON THE MORTALITY."
Cyprian wrote a work On the Mortality^ known with approval to many and almost all who love ecclesiastical literature, wherein he says that death is not only not disadvantageous to believers, but that it is even found to be advantageous, because it withdraws men from the risks of sinning, and establishes them in a security of not sinning. But wherein is the advantage of this, if even future sins which have not been committed are punished? Yet he argues most copiously and well that the risks of sinning are not wanting in this life, and that they do not continue after this life is done; where also he adduces that testimony from the book of Wisdom: " He was taken away, lest wickedness should alter his understanding." ^ And this was also adduced by me, though you said that those brethren of yours had rejected it on the ground of its not having been brought forward from a canonical book; as if, even setting aside the attestation of this book, the thing itself were not clear which I wished to be taught therefrom. For what Christian would dare to deny that the righteous man, if he should be prematurely laid hold of by death, will be in repose? Let who will, say this, and what man of sound faith will think that he can withstand it? Moreover, if he should say that the righteous man, if he should depart from his righteousness in which he has long lived, and should die in that impiety after having lived in it, I say not a year, but one day, will go hence into the punishment due to the wicked, his righteousness having no power in the future to avail him, — will any believer contradict thii evident truth? Further, if we are asked whether, if he had died then at the time that he was righteous, he would have incurred punishment or repose, shall we hesitate to answer, repose? This is the whole reason why it is said, — who- 2 Cyprian, Works in The Ante-Nicene Fathers, vol. v. p. 469.
3 ^Visd. iv. n.
Chap. 28.]
ever says it, — " He was taken away, lest wickedness should alter his understanding." For it was said in reference to the risks of this life, not with reference to the foreknowledge of God, who foreknew that which was to be, not that which was not to be — that is, that He would bestow on him an untimely death in order that he might be withdrawn from tke uncertainty of temptations; not that he would sin, since he was not to remain in temptation. Because, concerning this life, we read in the book of Job, " Is not the life of man upon earth a temptation? " ' But why it should be granted to some to be taken away from the perils of this life while they are righteous, while others who are j righteous until they fall from righteousness are kept in the same risks in a more lengthened life, — who has known the mind of the Lord? And yet it is permitted to be understood from this, that even those righteous people who maintain good and pious characters, even to the maturity of old age and to the last day of this life, must not glory in their own merits, but in the Lord, since He who took away the righteous man from the shortness of life, lest wickedness should alter his understanding. Himself guards the righteous man in any length of life, that wickedness may not alter his understanding. But why He should have kept the righteous man here to fall, when He might have withdrawn him before, — His judgments, although absolutely righteous, are yet unsearchable.
CHAP. 27. — THE BOOK OF ^VISDOM 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 Christ, and to be heard by all Christians, from bishops downwards, even to the lowest lay believers, penitents, and catechumens, with the veneration paid to divine authority. For assuredly, if, from those who have been before me in commenting on the divine Scriptures, ' I should bring forward a defence of this judgment, which we are now called upon to defend more carefully and copiously than usual against /the new error of the Pelagians, — that is, that' God's grace is not given according to our merits, and that it is given freely to whom it is given, because it is neither of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy; but that by righteous judgment it is not given to whom it is not given, because there is ' no unrighteousness with God; — if, therefore, 1 1 I ' Job vii. I. I ' Job vii. I. I should put forth a defence of this opinion from catholic commentators on the divine oracles who have i)receded us, assuredly these brethren for whose sake I am now discoursing would actjuiesce, for this you have intimated in your letters. \\'hat need is there, then, for us to look into the writings of those who, before this heresy sprang up, had no necessity to be conversant in a question so difficult of solution as this, which beyond a doubt they would have done if they had been compelled to answer such things? \\'hence it arose that they touched upon what they thought of God's grace briefly in some passages of their writings, and cursorily; but on those matters which they argued against the enemies of the Church, and in exhortations to ever)' virtue by which to serve the living and true God for the purpose of attaining eternal life and true happiness, they dwelt at length. But the grace of God, what it could do, shows itself artlessly by its frequent mention in prayers; for what God commands to be done would not be asked for from God, unless it could be given by Him that it should be done.
But if any wish to be instructed in the opinions of those who have handled the subject, it behoves them to prefer to all commentators the book of Wisdom, where it is read, " He was taken away, that wickedness should not alter his understanding; " because illustrious commentators, even in the times nearest to the apostles, preferred it to themselves, seeing that when they made use of it for a testimony, they believed that they were making use of nothing but a divine testimony; and certainly it appears that the most blessed Cyprian, in order to commend the advantage of an earlier death, contended that those who end this life, wherein sin is possible, are taken away from the risks of sins. In the same treatise, among other things, he says, " Why, when }'OU are about to be with Christ, and are secure of the divine promise, do you not embrace being called to Christ, and rejoice that you are free from the devil? " - And in another place he says, " Boys escape the peril of their unstable age." ^ And again, in another place, he says, " Why do we not hasten and run, that we may see our country, that we may hail our relatives? A great number of those who are dear to us are expecting us there, — a dense and abundant crowd of parents, brethren, sons, are longing for us; already secure of their own safety, but still anxious about our salvation." ^ By these and such like sentiments, that teacher sufficiently and plainly testifies, in the clearest ' Cypriao, On the Mortality, as above.
\ [Chap. 29.
light of the cathoHc faith, that perils of sin and trials are to be feared even until the putting off of this body, but that afterwards no one shall suffer any such things. And even if he did not "testify thus, when could any manner of Christian be In doubt on this matter? How, then, should it not have been of advantage to a man who has lapsed, and who finishes his life wretchedly in that same state of lapse, and passes into the punishment due to such as he, — how, I say, should it not have been of the greatest and highest advantage to such an one to be snatched by death from this sphere of temptations before his fall?
CHAP. 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 ^^'isdom, which for such a series of years has deserved to be read in Christ's Church, and in which this is read, ought not to suffer injustice because it withstands those who are mistaken on behalf of men's merits, so as to come in opposition to the most manifest grace of God: and this grace chiefly appears in infants, and while some of these baptized, and some not baptized, come to the end of this life, they sufficiently point to God's mercy and His judgment, — His mere}', indeed, gratuitous. His judgment, of| debt. For if men should be judged according ' to the merits of their life, which merits they have been prevented by death from actually having, but would have had if they had lived, it would be of no advantage to him who is taken away lest wickedness should alter his understanding;!