and assuredly, that he might say this, his disciples had been scandalized at his teaching — those who afterward did not follow him. Let us not therefore say that the doctrine is grace, but let us acknowledge the grace which makes the doctrine profitable; and if this grace be lacking, we see that the doctrine even does harm. Therefore God, in order that he might foreknow in his predestination all his own future works, so disposed them that he might convert certain unbelievers to faith in himself by hearing the prayers of believers on their behalf — whence they may be refuted, and, if he is propitious to them, corrected, who think that the grace of God is the nature of free choice with which we are born, or that the grace of God is doctrine, however useful, which is preached through tongues and letters.
For we do not pray this for unbelievers, that their nature should come into being — that is, that they should be men, or that doctrine should be preached to them, which they hear to their own harm if they do not believe (and often we pray for those who, when they read or hear, refuse to believe); but we pray that their will may be corrected, that they may consent to the doctrine, that their nature may be healed. And further, that they may persevere in what they have begun to be, the faithful pray even for themselves. For it is profitable to all, or to nearly all, on account of a most salutary humility, that they should not be able to know what they are going to be. To this end it is said: Let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.
On account of the usefulness of this fear — lest, being regenerated and beginning to live godly, we should as it were be secure and think high thoughts — certain ones who are not going to persevere are, by God's permission or provision and ordering, mingled with those who are going to persevere; so that, being terrified by their fall, we may walk the straight way with fear and trembling, until we pass from this life, which is a temptation upon the earth, to another, where there will no longer be pride to be repressed, nor any wrestling against its suggestions and temptations. ... But concerning this matter — that is, why certain ones who are not going to remain in Christian holiness nevertheless receive this grace for a time and are permitted to live here until they fall,
— when they could be snatched from this life, lest malice should change their understanding, as is written in the Book of Wisdom concerning the holy man who died at an immature age — let each one inquire as best he can; and if beyond the reason which has been rendered by me he finds another probable reason not departing from the rule of right faith, let him hold it, and I with him, if it be not hidden from me. Nevertheless, in what we have attained, let us walk in it, until God reveal to us, if in anything we are otherwise minded, as we are admonished by the apostolic writings. And we have attained to those things which we most firmly know to pertain to the true and catholic faith, in which we must so walk, with him helping and showing mercy, to whom we say: Lead me, O Lord,
in your way, and I will walk in your truth — that we may in no way stray from these things. Since therefore, by the propitious Christ, we are catholic Christians: We know that those not yet born have done nothing good or evil in their own life, nor is it according to the merits of any prior life (which no individual could have as his own) that they come into the miseries of this life; but nevertheless, being born carnally according to Adam, they contract by their first birth the contagion of the ancient death, and are not freed from the punishment of eternal death — which the just condemnation, passing from one to all, draws upon them — unless they are reborn in Christ by grace. We know that the grace of God is given neither to little ones nor to grown ones according to our merits. We know that it is given to grown ones for their single acts.
We know that it is not given to all men, and that to those to whom it is given it is given not only not according to the merits of works, but not even according to the merits of the will of those to whom it is given — which appears most clearly in little children. We know that to those to whom it is given, it is given by the free mercy of God. We know that to those to whom it is not given, by the just judgment of God it is not given. We know that we shall all stand before the tribunal of Christ, that each one may receive according to the things he has done through the body, not according to the things which, if he had lived longer, he would have done, whether good or evil. We know also that little children will receive either good or evil according to the things they have done through the body.
But they have done these things not through themselves but through those by whom, answering on their behalf, they are said to renounce the devil and to believe in God. Whence also they are counted in the number of the faithful, belonging to the sentence of the Lord who says: He who believes and is baptized shall be saved. On account of which there befalls also those who do not receive this sacrament what follows: But he who does not believe shall be condemned.
Whence they themselves also, as I have said, if they die in that tender age, are surely judged according to the things which they did through the body — that is, in the time when they were in the body, when through the hearts and mouths of those bearing them they believed or did not believe, when they were baptized or not baptized, when they ate the flesh of Christ or did not eat, when they drank his blood or did not drink; according to these things, then, which they did through the body, not according to those which, if they lived here a long time, they would have done, are they judged. We know that those are happy who die in the Lord, and that whatever they would have done, had they lived a longer time, does not pertain to them.
We know that those who believe in the Lord with their own heart do so by their own will and free choice. We know that for those who are unwilling to believe, we who already believe act with right faith when we pray God that they may be willing. We know that for those of them who have come to believe, we both ought and are wont to give thanks to God, as for benefits rightly and truly received. You recognize me, I think, in these things which I have said we know: that I did not wish to mention all the things which pertain to the catholic faith, but only those which pertain to this question, which is being debated between us concerning the grace of God — whether this grace precedes or follows the will of man; that is, to speak it more plainly,
whether it is given to us because we will, or whether through it God brings about even this, that we will. If therefore you too, brother, hold with us those twelve propositions, which I have said we know to pertain to the right and catholic faith, I give thanks to God — which thanks I should assuredly not truly give, unless it were by the grace of God that you held them. And to you holding them there remains for us no contest at all about this question. For, to run through the same twelve in a brief exposition: In what way does grace follow the merit of the human will, when it is given even to little children, who cannot yet will or not will this? In what way are the merits of the will said to precede grace even in grown persons, if grace, in order to be true grace, is not given according to our merits?
This catholic proposition Pelagius himself so feared that, lest he should be condemned by catholic judges, he without hesitation condemned those who say that the grace of God is given according to our merits. In what way is the grace of God said to be in the nature of free choice, or in the law and doctrine, when Pelagius himself also condemned this proposition, doubtless confessing that the grace of God is given for single acts, precisely to those who already use free choice? In what way is it said that all men would have received it, if only those to whom it is not given did not reject it by their own will — since God wills all men to be saved?
— when it is not given to many little children, and very many die without it who have no contrary will; and sometimes, though the parents desiring and hastening, and the ministers too being willing and ready, yet by God's not willing it is not given — since suddenly, before it can be given, the child expires, for whom one was running that he might receive it? Whence it is manifest that those who resist this so evident truth do not understand at all in what manner of speech it is said that God wills all men to be saved, when so many are not saved — not because they themselves do not will, but because God does not will, which is manifested without any obscurity in little children. But just as that which is said:
All shall be made alive in Christ — when so many are punished with eternal death — is therefore said because all who receive eternal life do not receive it except in Christ; so that which is said, God wills all men to be saved — when he wills so many not to be saved — is therefore said because all who are saved are not saved except by his willing it. And if in any other way those apostolic words can be understood, yet let it be in such a way that they cannot be contrary to this most manifest truth, in which we see so many, though men will it, yet with God not willing, not saved. In what way does the human will earn that the divine grace be given, if it is given by free mercy to those to whom it is given, in order that it may be true grace?
In what way in this matter are the merits of the human will weighed, since indeed to those to whom this grace is not given — differing for the most part by no merit, no will, but having one and the same cause with those to whom it is given — by God's just judgment nevertheless it is not given (for there is no iniquity with God), so that those to whom it is given may understand how freely it is given to them, since it would justly not be given at all, seeing that to those having a similar cause it is justly not given?
In what way is not the will to believe from the beginning, and even to persevere unto the end, of the grace of God — since the end itself of this life is not in the power of man but of God, and God can certainly confer even this benefit on one who is not going to persevere, that he be snatched from the body lest malice change his understanding? For a man will not receive either good or evil except according to the things he has done through the body, not according to those which, if he had lived longer, he would have done. In what way is it said that grace is therefore not given to certain ones, but the grace of God is given to certain little children who are going to die, because he foresees their future wills, which they would have had, if they were to live?
— when, as the Apostle has defined, each one receives either good or evil according to the things he has done through the body, not according to those which he would have done, if he had been longer in the body? In what way are men judged according to their future wills, which they are said to have been going to have, if they were kept longer in the flesh, when the Scripture says: Happy are the dead who die in the Lord? Of whom without doubt there would be no sure and secure happiness, if God will judge also those things which they did not do, but were going to do, had this life been more prolonged for them. And he who is snatched away, lest malice change his understanding, receives no benefit,
— because he would also suffer punishments for that very malice which was perhaps imminent and from which he was withdrawn; nor should we rejoice over those whom we have known to have died in right faith and good life.
— lest they be judged according to certain crimes which they would perhaps have committed, had they lived; nor should those be grieved over or detested who ended this life in unbelief and lost morals — because perhaps, if they had lived, they would have done penance and lived godly, and are to be judged according to these things; and that whole book on mortality of the most glorious martyr Cyprian must be rejected and cast away, in which his whole aim is that we should know that we ought to congratulate good and faithful people when they die, since they are taken away from the temptations of this life, thereafter to abide in most blessed security.
But since this is not false, and without doubt happy are the dead who die in the Lord, the error is to be laughed at and execrated by which it is thought that men are to be judged according to their future wills — which are not the future wills of those who are being admonished. In what way are they said to deny the free choice of the will, who confess that every man, whoever believes in God with his own heart, believes only by his own free will — when rather those oppose free choice who oppose the grace of God, by which the will truly becomes free for choosing and doing good things? In what way is it said that what the same Scripture said comes about through the law of God and the doctrine of the Scriptures:
The will is prepared by the Lord — and not rather by the hidden inspiration of the grace of God, seeing that for those who, contradicting that same doctrine, are unwilling to believe it, we ask God himself with right faith that they may be willing? In what way does God wait for the wills of men, that they may forestall him, to whom he gives grace — when we give thanks to him, not undeservedly, concerning those to whom, though they did not believe him and were persecuting his doctrine with impious will, he showed mercy beforehand, and converted them to himself with a most omnipotent ease, and made them willing out of unwilling? Why do we give him thanks for this, if he himself did not do it?
Why do we magnify him so much the more, the more they were unwilling to believe whom we rejoice to have believed, if the human will is not changed for the better by divine grace? The Apostle Paul says: I was unknown by face to the churches of Judaea which are in Christ; but they only heard that he who once persecuted us now preaches the faith which he once ravaged, and they glorified God in me. Why did they glorify God, if God had not converted the heart of that man to himself by the goodness of his grace — when, as he himself confesses, he obtained mercy, that he might be faithful with that faith which he once ravaged? The very word which he used — whom does it declare to have done this so great good, but God?
For what is 'they glorified God in me' but 'in me they proclaimed God as magnificent'? And in what way did they proclaim him magnificent, if he himself had not done that great deed concerning Paul's conversion? And in what manner had he himself done it, if he had not made him, out of unwilling, willing to believe? Surely it is manifest from those twelve propositions, which you will not be permitted to deny to pertain to the catholic faith, that not only in all but even in each single one it is established that we confess the wills of men to be preceded by the grace of God, and by this rather to be prepared, than to be given on account of their merit.
But if you deny that any one of those twelve is true — whose number I therefore also commend, that they may more easily be committed to memory and more distinctly held — do not be reluctant to write back, that I may know it, and, according to the ability which the Lord shall have given me, may answer. For I do not indeed believe you to be a Pelagian heretic, but I do not want you to be such that anything of that error should pass over to you or be left in you. But among these twelve you will perhaps find something which you think must be denied or doubted, and whence you compel us to dispute more laboriously. Will you then also forbid the Church to pray for unbelievers, that they may be faithful — for those who are unwilling to believe, that they may be willing to believe;
for those who dissent from his law and doctrine, that they may consent to his law and doctrine, that God may give them what he promised through the prophet: a heart to know him, and ears that hear — which they had indeed received, of whom the Saviour himself said: He who has ears to hear, let him hear? When you hear a priest of God at his altar exhorting the people to pray to God, or himself praying with a clear voice that God would compel the unbelieving nations to come to his faith, will you not answer 'Amen'? Or will you even dispute things contrary to the soundness of this faith? Will you shout or whisper that the most blessed Cyprian erred in this, where he teaches us to pray for the enemies of the Christian faith, that they too may be converted to it?
Will you finally blame the Apostle Paul for having such vows for unbelieving Jews? Of whom he says: The good will indeed of my heart, and my prayer to God for them, is unto salvation. He who also says to the Thessalonians: For the rest, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may run and be glorified, as also among you, that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men; for the faith is not of all. In what way would the word of God run and be glorified, except by those to whom it was preached being converted to the faith — since to those already believing he says: As also among you? He surely knows that this is done by him whom he wishes to be asked to do it, even that he may be delivered from wicked and evil men.
who assuredly, even with those men praying, were not going to believe. On account of which he added: For the faith is not of all — as if he said, 'For not among all, even though you pray, will the word of God be glorified,' because those surely were going to believe who had been ordained to eternal life, predestined unto the adoption of sons through Jesus Christ in himself, and chosen in him before the foundation of the world. But God therefore, through the prayers of believers, makes those not yet believing to believe, that he may show that he himself does it; for no one is so unskilled, so carnal, so dull of understanding, as not to see that God does what he commands himself to be asked to do.
These and other divine testimonies, which it would be long to recount, show that God by his grace takes away the heart of stone from unbelievers, and forestalls in men the merits of good wills, so that the will is prepared by preceding grace, not that grace is given because of a preceding merit of the will. This too the giving of thanks indicates, as does prayer: prayer for unbelievers, thanksgiving for believers. For he who is to be prayed to that he may do it, to him thanks are to be rendered when he has done it. Whence the same Apostle says to the Ephesians: For this cause I also, having heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and toward all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you. But we are speaking now of the very beginnings, when men,
— who were turned away and hostile, are converted to God, and begin to will what they did not will, and to have the faith which they did not have. That this may come about in them, prayer is made for them, although it is not made by them; for how shall they call upon him in whom they have not believed? But when what is prayed for has come about, to him who did it thanks are given both for them and by them. But concerning the prayers of the already faithful, which they make both for themselves and for other faithful, that they may advance in what they have begun to be, and concerning the giving of thanks because they do advance, I do not think there need be any contest with you; that conflict against the Pelagians is common to you and to us.
For they attribute all things pertaining to the faithful and godly life of men so entirely to the free choice of the will, that they think these are to be had of ourselves, not to be sought from the Lord. But you, if the things I hear about you are true, do not want the beginning of faith — where there is also the beginning of a good, that is, a godly will — to be the gift of God, but you contend that we have it of ourselves, that we may begin to believe; yet the other goods of a religious life you agree that God gives through his grace to those already asking, seeking, knocking from faith. Nor do you attend to the fact that God is therefore prayed to for unbelievers, that they may believe, precisely because God gives even faith; and that therefore thanks are given to God for those who have believed, precisely because he gives even faith.
Wherefore, that I may at length conclude this discourse to you: if you deny that we ought to pray that those who are unwilling to believe may be willing to believe; if you deny that thanks are to be given to God because those who were unwilling to believe have willed to believe — then you must be dealt with otherwise, so that you may not err thus; or, if you persist in erring, that you may not send others into error. But if — as I rather believe of you — you feel and consent that we ought and are wont to pray God for those unwilling to believe, that they may be willing to believe, and for those who oppose and contradict his law and doctrine, that they may yield to it and follow it:
if you feel and consent that we ought and are wont also to give thanks to God for such persons, because, being converted to his faith and doctrine, they become willing out of unwilling — then you must without doubt confess that the wills of men are forestalled by the grace of God, and that God brings it about that men should will the good which they did not will; he who is prayed to that he may do it, and to whom we know it to be right and just to give thanks when he has done it. May the Lord give you understanding in all things, my lord and brother. CCXVIII. To his most beloved and most longed-for son Palatinus, Augustine. Your manner of life, stronger and more fruitful toward the Lord our God, has brought us great joy. For you have chosen instruction from your youth, that you may find wisdom even unto grey hairs.
The senses of a man, then, are grey hairs, and the age of old age is a spotless life — which may the Lord grant you as you ask, seek, and knock, he who knows how to give good gifts to his sons. For although you abound in exhorters and exhortations to the way of salvation and eternal glory — especially that very grace of Christ, which has spoken to you so wholesomely in your heart — nevertheless we too, out of the duty of the love which we owe you, bring some exhortation in this our return of greeting, by which we may rouse you not as though sluggish or sleeping, but may urge and spur you on as you run. It behooves you to be wise, my son, that you may persevere, since you have been wise, that you might choose. Let this very thing be part of your wisdom: to know whose gift this is.
Reveal your way to the Lord and hope in him, and he himself will act, and will bring forth your righteousness as light and your judgment as the noonday. He himself will make your courses straight and bring forth your journeys in peace. Just as you have spurned what you were hoping for in the world, lest you should glory in the abundance of riches which, after the manner of the sons of this age, you had begun to covet, so now, for the taking up of the Lord's yoke and his burden, do not trust in your own strength; and that yoke will be gentle and that burden light. For alike are they reproved in the psalm, both those who trust in their own strength and those who glory in the abundance of their riches. Therefore you no longer had the glory of riches, but the glory which you were desiring to have, you most prudently despised.
Take care lest it creep upon you to trust in your own strength; for you are a man, and cursed is everyone who puts his hope in man. But rather trust in your God with your whole heart, and He Himself shall be your strength, in whom you may trust piously and gratefully, to whom you may say humbly and faithfully: 'I will love Thee, O Lord, my strength.' For the very charity of God, which being perfect casts out fear, is poured into our hearts not through our own powers, that is, human ones, but, as the Apostle says, through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. Watch therefore and pray, lest you enter into temptation. For that very prayer admonishes you that you have need of the help of your Lord, that you may not set your hope of living well in yourself.
For you pray now not that you may receive riches and honours of the present age, nor any human vanity, but that you may not enter into temptation. And surely, if a man could of himself grant this by willing it, it would not be sought by praying. Wherefore, that we might not enter into temptation, if the will sufficed, we should not pray; yet if that will were lacking, neither could we pray. Let it therefore be present, that we may will; but let us pray that we may be able to accomplish what we have willed, when by His gift we have rightly understood. And since you have already received this good, there is cause for which you should give thanks. For what have you that you did not receive? And if you did receive it, take care lest you glory as though you had not received it — that is, as though you could have had it of yourself, whereas you know from whom you received it.
Ask Him to perfect it, from whom it was given that it should be begun. Therefore work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who works in you both to will and to accomplish according to His good will, since the will is prepared by the Lord, and by Him the steps of a man are directed and He wills his way. This holy meditation will preserve you, that your wisdom may be piety — that is, that you may be good by God's doing, and not ungrateful for the grace of Christ. Your parents long for you, faithfully rejoicing together over the better hope which you have begun to have in the Lord. And we desire to have you, whether absent in body or present, in one spirit, through which charity is poured out in our hearts, so that, wherever our flesh may be,
our soul can in no way be separated from you. Most gratefully have we received the haircloth garments which you sent, wherein you yourself were the first to admonish us concerning the frequent practice and keeping of humility in prayer. LETTER 219. To their most beloved and honourable lords, brothers, and fellow-priests Proculus and Cillenius, Aurelius, Augustine, Florentius, and Secundus, bishops, greeting in the Lord. Our son Leporius, rightly and fittingly rebuked before your Holiness for the presumption of his error, when he had come to us after being driven out from there, we received to be corrected and healed, being salutarily disturbed. For as you obeyed the Apostle in rebuking the unruly, so also we, in comforting the fainthearted and receiving the weak.
For when the man had been overtaken in some fault, and that no small one, concerning the only-begotten Son of God — who was in the beginning the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, but when the fullness of time came, the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us — he had held certain wrong opinions and did not think truly, denying that God was made man, lest, forsooth, of the divine substance, whereby He is equal to the Father, some unworthy change or corruption should follow; and not seeing that he was introducing a fourth person into the Trinity, which is utterly foreign to the soundness of the faith and the truth of the catholic creed. Him, as we were able, with the Lord's help, we instructed in the spirit of gentleness, especially because, when he saw this, the vessel of election added:
'Considering yourself, lest you also be tempted' — lest certain men should so rejoice at having reached spiritual advancement that they would think they could no longer be tempted, as though they were not men; and he added the salutary and peaceable sentence, that we should bear one another's burdens, for so we shall fulfil the law of Christ; for he who thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, deceives himself, most beloved and honourable brothers. This his amendment, however, we could perhaps by no means have accomplished, had you not first condemned what had been faulty in him. Therefore the same Lord and our Physician, using His own vessels and ministers, He who said, 'I will smite and I will heal,' through you smote him in his swelling, through us healed him in his grief;