did he know save voluntarily, nor did he pray save voluntarily; because both for knowing and for praying, the grace of Christ, preventing the ignorant and sluggish choice of man, instructed and roused it. It belongs, therefore, to the divine mercy that the free choice of man be enlightened, whereby it comes about that man both knows the things that are pleasing to God, and joins the service of his labor to the aiding grace with voluntary devotion. For the enlightening of man's choice it is said: 'My God, his mercy shall prevent me' (Ps. 58:11); for the aiding it is referred: 'Thy mercy shall follow me all the days of my life' (Ps. 22:6). Now it would not be enlightened by prevention, if it did not exist;
nor would it be aided by following, if, once enlightened, it could of itself be fit for any good thought or work. This impossibility the divine word shows, where it says: 'Which of men can know the counsel of God? or who can think what the will of God is? For the thoughts of mortals are fearful, and our foresights uncertain' (Wis. 9:13-14). For the thoughts of mortals are fearful, not with a praiseworthy fear, but with a blameworthy one, not with a good, but with an evil one. From which fear he freed us, who by his death destroyed him who had the empire of death, that is, the devil, that he might deliver those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to servitude (Heb. 2:14-15). CHAPTER XII. — 18 (again).
This servitude from which he snatched us, and the liberty which he freely conferred on us, our Redeemer plainly shows, saying: 'If you continue in my word, you shall be my disciples indeed; and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free' (John 8:31-32). And when the Jews answered that they were the seed of Abraham and had never served anyone, by his response he showed at once both the deadly condition of their servitude and the truth of the liberty which he was about to confer on his own, saying: 'Amen, amen, I say to you, whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. Now the servant abideth not in the house for ever; but the son abideth for ever.'
'If therefore the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed' (ibid. 34-36). The fearful thoughts of mortals are therefore surely those by which they serve sin, who all their life are subject to servitude. From which servitude Paul teaches that we have been freed by the grace of God, saying: 'For when you were the servants of sin, you were free from justice. What fruit therefore had you then in those things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of them is death. But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, you have your fruit unto sanctification, and the end life everlasting' (Rom. 6:20ff.). 19. Behold what the grace of God has conferred on us. It has freed the fearful, of whom Scripture says: 'The thoughts of mortals are fearful' (Wis. 9:14):
those undoubtedly subject to that fear, whose subjects the divine word thus reproves, saying: 'There have they trembled for fear, where there was no fear' (Ps. 13:5). This is the fear which the desire of the world casts down unto guilt and nourishes unto punishment. This fear holds those captives whose thoughts it keeps entangled in uncertain and unstable things. On which account he too who said, 'The thoughts of mortals are fearful,' immediately added: 'And our foresights uncertain' (Wis. 9:14). For that foresight is uncertain which is expended on uncertain things, and those things are uncertain of which a certain possession is not held. Daily we can unwillingly lose what we cannot possess for ever.
The foresights of mortals are therefore uncertain then, when the mind is held bound by the love of those things whose possession can either be taken from the unwilling possessor, or the unwilling possessor be torn away from the possession. But whence uncertain foresights are in man is shown afterward, when the Scripture says: 'For the corruptible body is a load upon the soul, and the earthly habitation presseth down the mind that museth upon many things: and hardly do we guess aright at things that are upon earth, and with labor do we find the things that are before us' (ibid. 15-16). CHAPTER XIII. — 20.
After the Scripture, then, has demonstrated to us the misery of our mortality, it afterward instills into us the grace of the divine goodness, that we may recognize whence both the gift of knowledge and the benefit of correction and healing are conferred on us. For he who asserts that the things upon earth are estimated with difficulty, and the things before us found with labor, follows on and says to God: 'But the things that are in heaven, who shall search out? And who shall know thy thought, unless thou give wisdom, and send thy Holy Spirit from above? And so the paths of them that are on earth were corrected, and
men learned the things that please thee, and were saved by wisdom' (ibid. 17-18). What does 'they learned, and were saved' mean? What does he say was conferred upon men through the Holy Spirit and through the Wisdom of God (which is assuredly Christ), except that we then learn wholesomely what we ought to do, when prevenient mercy enlightens us; and we are healed, so that what we learn under its prevention, we may do under its following? For it prevents us, while 'the Lord becomes merciful to all our iniquities' (Ps. 102:3); it follows us, while 'he heals all our diseases'; prevenient mercy prevents the free choice of man, while in one not yet rightly willing it alone works the beginning of a good will;
it follows, while it supplies help to one now willing well, that by working well he may arrive at the accomplishment of a good will. 21. Prevenient mercy, therefore, alone prepares the will of man that is to cooperate with it; but subsequent mercy aids the will that cooperates with it. And so, preventing, it freely leads out to the light the man set in darkness, not only by admonishing outwardly, but also by bestowing the grace of illumination inwardly. For the Lord enlightens the blind, making, namely, out of the unfaithful a faithful man, out of the proud a humble one, out of the harsh a gentle one, out of the fornicator a chaste one, out of the malignant a benevolent one, out of the truculent a placid one, out of a lover of the world a lover of God and neighbor, out of a plunderer of others' goods a subsequent giver of his own.
Thus, by the prevenient mercy of God working marvelously in the heart of man, he who was carnally lifted up in pride by temporal riches gladly becomes humble in the fear of God, poor in spirit; and he who, harsh and disobedient, formerly resisted the divine words, now meek and quiet comes to hear the word and to obey; and he who but lately, glutted with undigested perversity, belched out the cruelty of injustice, now hungering and thirsting desires the fullness of justice. So it comes about that he even mourns for the sins in which he formerly rejoiced with a deadly delight: then, ceaselessly persevering in works of mercy, he himself also obtains mercy, through which he may arrive at the crown;
and by faith working laudably through charity in the things that are holy, he acquires purity of heart for seeing God, who formerly was defiled with obscene thoughts. 22. This is 'the change of the right hand of the Most High' (Ps. 76:11), by which the human choice is enlightened; these are 'the great works of the Lord, sought out according to all his wills' (Ps. 110:2). Thus God prepares his devices in us, because he himself prepares in us what he may find in us; while 'he makes the bow of the mighty weak, and girds the weak with strength' (1 Sam. 2:4), that is, while in the men whom he freely saves he weakens the presumption of human strength, that they may recognize themselves weak, and receive the help of the divine strength.
These things God mercifully works in us, while he repays good for evil, while by prevenient mercy he gives good things to the evil, that he may preserve them in us by subsequent mercy. For when he bestows help on the justified and rightly willing, he assuredly supplies increase by his own gifts; and thus 'he confirms what he has wrought in us' (Ps. 67:26), while he does not permit the good will which he himself bestowed to grow sluggish and fail in us. CHAPTER XIV. — 23. Accordingly, according to the Apostle's precept, let us work out our salvation with fear and trembling, knowing that it is God who works in us both to will and to accomplish, according to good will (Phil. 2:12-13).
Nor let us think that the benefits of grace are so to be abused that we grow sluggish without good works. For grace assuredly departs from those whose charity grows cold. Let us therefore hear the Apostle, partaker of grace, showing us the works of grace. For he says in a certain place: 'What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?' (Rom. 6:1). And immediately he answers: 'God forbid: for we that are dead to sin, how shall we live any longer therein?' (ibid. 2). This, then, grace works in us, that being dead to sin, we may live to justice. Therefore again the same apostle says, that we should reckon ourselves indeed dead to sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus our Lord (ibid. 11).
The divine grace, therefore, in the human choice wholesomely works both death and life: death, namely, of crimes, and the life of virtues. Therefore God says: 'I will kill, and I will make to live' (Deut. 32:39). As therefore when we lived to sin, evil works followed our depraved will; so now, having received the benefit of grace, and our will thereby changed for the better, let us not live to sin, but to God. For to this end, when we were cold with the sentence of death, the vital fervor of the Holy Spirit was given to us, which we freely received, that by the grace of God we might be able both to will the good and to do the good. Therefore the Apostle bids us be 'fervent in spirit, serving the Lord' (Rom. 12:11).
We must not, then, cease from holy labor, we to whom the divine grace not only promises reward, but also lends help. And because 'every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor' (1 Cor. 3:8), it is fitting that in doing well we fail not, as much in work as in prayer (Gal. 6:9); nor let us ascribe any of these things which we do well to the powers of our own will or ability: lest we be reckoned, by the merit of pride, among those who, being ignorant of the justice of God, and wishing to establish their own, have not submitted to the justice of God (Rom. 10:3): which is assuredly the wisdom of the flesh, which is an enemy to God, and is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be (Rom. 8:7). CHAPTER XV. — 24.
Let the humble will of man, therefore, follow the preceding, and accompany the following mercy of the Redeemer: which, while it precedes us, we forget the things that are behind; while it follows, we are stretched forth unto the things that are before; and thus grace itself both directs us by granting the appetite for the former things, and, by withdrawing the remembrance of the latter, does not allow us to be slowed from the course once undertaken. The preceding grace makes us follow after 'the prize of the supernal vocation of God' (Phil. 3:14);
the following grace makes us glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience trial, and trial hope; and hope confoundeth not, because the charity of God is poured forth in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who is given to us (Rom. 5:3ff.). It makes us neither be captured, allured by lusts, nor succumb, unwilling, to adversities. Thus, by the work of the following mercy, in so far as we are made dead to the world, so far are we more and more renewed in the spirit of our mind. 25. Obedient therefore to the heavenly commandments, let a man labor with voluntary efforts as far as he is divinely aided.
But that he fails not in labor, that he runs with upright steps, that he fights well, that he keeps the faith, let him not impute to his own strength, but ascribe to the gift of grace working in him and with him. Let him devote the zeal of a good will to holy labor: which will is then good, if it doubts not that its own zeal is a gift of the divine bounty. The Apostle indeed exhorts Timothy to the virtue of this labor, saying: 'Labor as a good soldier of Christ Jesus' (2 Tim. 2:3). He also testifies that he himself labored more than all the rest, saying: 'I have labored more abundantly than all they' (1 Cor. 15:10). But to show that he had obtained both the household of faith and the virtue of laboring by the gift and help of divine grace, he likewise says:
'I who before was a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and contumelious; but I obtained mercy' (1 Tim. 1:13). And the work of that same mercy he thus shows, saying: 'Now concerning this I give counsel, as having obtained mercy of the Lord, to be faithful' (1 Cor. 7:25). Therefore, when he had said that he was not worthy to be called an apostle, because he had persecuted the Church of God, showing in himself the work of prevenient mercy, he says: 'But by the grace of God I am what I am' (1 Cor. 15:10). And to show that the gift of laboring also was conferred on him by the bounty of grace, he goes on and says: 'And his grace in me hath not been void.' Now what is 'void,' if not idle? Therefore he adds: 'But I have labored more abundantly than all they.'
'Yet not I, but the grace of God with me' (ibid.). CHAPTER XVI. — 26. That Paul, therefore, might become faithful out of unfaithful, grace alone wrought it, which converts the averted, and attributes faith to the unfaithful, when by the merit of his own unfaithfulness he did not deserve to receive faith. And thus Paul indeed believed voluntarily, voluntarily labored more abundantly than all they; but he could neither believe nor labor unless he received from above the gift of grace working in him and with him. As therefore grace prevented the unwilling and unbelieving Paul, that he might have a good will; so, Paul himself cooperating, it conferred a good will, and, having conferred it, aided that will through all things.
The labor of Paul, therefore, was fruitful for this reason, that he attributed his labor not to his own strength, but to the grace of God, by whose help he was strengthened; knowing that he would have neither the endeavors of that labor nor obtain its effect, if the help of prevenient and subsequent mercy had failed him. To the laborer, therefore, the will was not lacking, which grace ceased not to aid, having given it; and that Paul might not fail in labor, grace supplied strength to the willing man. Such a will, therefore, worthily deserved reward both for itself and for its labor: because both in itself and in its labor it recognized not its own strength, but the bounty of divine grace. Therefore, finally, all the things he could think or do in the good:
namely, that he used prosperity temperately, that he also strongly resisted adversities, he ascribed humbly and truly not to himself, but to God, by whom he was strengthened. For he says in a certain place: 'I know both how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer want. I can do all things in him who strengtheneth me' (Phil. 4:12-13). Paul, therefore, could do all things by free choice, but in him who had clothed him with strength from on high. Of this he says in a certain place: 'Wherein also I labor, striving according to his working which he worketh in me in power' (Col. 1:29). The blessed Paul, then, neither kept silent that he was prevented by mercy, that he might be faithful;
nor did he by his own merit have the grace of Christ working in him, so that he himself should not cease from holy labor. For this grace wrought in him, that he should neither become sluggish by failing, nor by pride be ungrateful to grace itself. 27. Accordingly, as in the psalm we are wholesomely admonished, let us 'serve the Lord in fear, and rejoice unto him with trembling' (Ps. 2:11), knowing that it is God who works in us both to will and to accomplish, according to good will (Phil. 2:12-13). For the greatest help and benefit of the divine grace is this: that the enlightened mind of man may ever consider both that it was prevented by gratuitous grace, and that it is unceasingly to be aided by the divine power.
And thus it will come to pass that, humbling himself fittingly before God the giver and keeper of all good things, a man both renders thanks without ceasing and does not cease to pray. Let him give thanks, because he was forestalled that, being turned away, he might be converted; that, being blind, he might be enlightened; that, being an unbeliever, he might receive faith. And let him pray that, being sick, he may be healed, and that, being weak, he may be strengthened by the help of grace. Therefore let him ask with his whole will, that he may receive; let him seek, that he may find; let him knock, that it may be opened to him (cf. Matt. 7:7); which he will by no means do if he has not the will to receive, to find, and to enter. Yet neither, in that as one asking he receives, as one seeking he finds, as one knocking he enters in, let him assign to his own strength the office of asking, seeking, and knocking;
because, although a man asks, knocks, and seeks voluntarily, he will never as one asking be able to receive, as one seeking to find, as one knocking to enter, unless he has first received a holy will. For certain men, as Saint James says, ask and do not receive, because they ask amiss, that they may consume it in their own lusts (James 4:3); and concerning certain seekers Wisdom says: 'The wicked shall seek me, and shall not find me.' Therefore neither do those asking receive, nor do these seeking find, because they bear a will given over to earthly delights, nor is there in them the wisdom that descends from above, but earthly, sensual, devilish (James 3:15). But that a man may ask and seek that supreme and unchangeable good,
the will is prepared and given by the Lord: and when this has been granted, the very beginning of asking, seeking, and knocking rises up from the heart of man by God's operation. For it is written: 'With all watchfulness keep thy heart; for out of it the issues of life proceed' (Prov. 4:23). CHAPTER XVII. — 28. Now we keep our heart if He keeps us to whom it is said: 'Preserve me, O Lord, for I have hoped in Thee' (Ps. 15:1). Hence it is that the Only-begotten God Himself, having taken on the lowliness of the flesh, having compassion on our infirmities, deigned to entreat the Father on our behalf, saying: 'Father, keep them in Thy name, whom Thou hast given Me' (John 17:11); and again: 'I pray not that Thou take them out of the world, but that Thou keep them from evil' (ibid., 15).
By no means does a man keep his heart with fitting guardianship unless that heart itself be kept by God's keeping. For 'unless the Lord keep the city, they watch in vain that keep it' (Ps. 126:1). On this account the Apostle Paul desires the divine keeping to be present in our hearts, saying: 'The peace of God, which surpasseth all understanding, keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus our Lord' (Phil. 4:7). And though God says to us through Jeremiah: 'Keep your souls' (Jer. 17:21), the blessed David, recognizing that he could not accomplish this of himself, begs the divine keeping for his soul, saying: 'Keep my soul, and deliver me' (Ps. 24:20). He again says:
'Thou, O Lord, wilt keep us and preserve us from this generation for ever' (Ps. 11:8). And desiring the divine, unfailing keeping for each of the faithful, he says: 'The Lord keepeth thee from all evil; may the Lord keep thy soul' (Ps. 120:5). And that we might know the keeping of divine grace to be perpetually necessary for us, he goes on and says: 'May the Lord keep thy coming in and thy going out, from henceforth now and for ever' (ibid., 8). To this grace of God unceasingly keeping us refers what is said in the same psalm (v. 4): 'Behold, He that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.'
Just as, therefore, we receive all good things — among which we also count the will — only by God's bounty, so we keep all that we receive only by God's keeping. For whatever be the good gifts of life in a man, they are then kept by Him if a good will perseveres in him. But that very will, by whose goodness the other goods are rightly possessed and duly kept, then perseveres good and just in a man if divine grace, keeping it, does not forsake it. For just as one can have nothing of good thought in himself unless it becomes good by the aid of grace, so for keeping what he receives he can by no means suffice by his own power, unless He who freely makes it good preserves it by the help of His grace.
But that man is assured of the profit of a good will who so vigilantly and carefully keeps what he receives from God, that he asks for the aid of the divine keeping by frequency of prayer and by zeal for good work. Let him so give, that while help is granted to him as he prays, he who labours may not be deprived of the reward of good work. 29. Nevertheless God will grant both the perseverance of praying and of doing what is good to those whom He has predestined unto life. For 'every best gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights' (James 1:17): He who, having eternal foreknowledge of His own works, prepared by the unchangeable counsel of His disposition not only what He would give, but also what He would repay.
Therefore He fulfils what has been disposed in no other way than as He disposed it should be fulfilled. Because just as the ordering of the divine disposition always held it, so the order of things runs in the divine works: in which 'all His ways are mercy and truth' (Ps. 24:10); of which the one bestows good things on the wicked, the other repays fit things to the good and the wicked; the one justly crowns and justly condemns, the other justifies by gratuitous goodness. For whoever receives justice by preventing grace, arrives at the crown only by the same grace following after.
If our brethren, God helping, perceive these things according to sound doctrine, they will never attempt by their disputations so to defend the weak power of the human will that they be convicted of holding views opposed to the grace of God: since rather all who desire to become partakers of eternal life ought to be shaped by, and to cleave to, the divinely inspired opinions of the holy Fathers, who were so enlightened by the gift of divine grace that they undoubtingly affirmed that in man's will no good thought arises save what is infused by the benefit of preventing grace; that nothing is increased for the better save what is strengthened by the aid of subsequent grace;
that nothing good is consummated by man save what is perfected by the same grace working and helping. CHAPTER XVIII. — 30. This doctrine, therefore, handed down to the Churches by the apostolic institutions of the catholic Fathers, remains without any doubt; a doctrine which the Greek and Latin pontiffs, confirmed by the infusion of the Holy Spirit, always held with one and indissoluble consent. In it the blessed Augustine, endued with power from on high, laboured more abundantly than all of them; yet not he, but the grace of God with him (1 Cor. 15:10). For by his ministry the Lord furnished His faithful with fuller instruction in this matter.
Indeed, while he himself was still constituted in the body, the Pelagian heresy rebelled against the grace of God with deadly presumptions. Nor was the unconquered kindness of the merciful God wanting, which girded its soldier the more strongly with the arms of spiritual grace, the more fiercely the devil incited against that same grace the vessels of wrath. Accordingly the aforesaid renowned pontiff of God, Augustine, holding grace itself as a tower of strength, and thence shattering all the contrivances of the hostile bands by the power of heavenly aid, not only himself triumphed, bearing off a perfect victory over the enemy, but also showed to those who came after the manner of contending and conquering, whenever the vanquished depravity should strive by a renewed presumption to raise its unspeakable head.
For having the mind of Christ, he distinguished both the offices and the merits of the grace of God and of the human will, always subjecting the human to the divine, and truly teaching that both the gift of justification is granted to man by God and gratuitously, and the beginning of a good will, and the full effect of glorification. Let everyone who desires to attain eternal salvation read him, humbly praying to the merciful God that, reading, he may receive that same Spirit of understanding which Augustine received in order to write; and that he may obtain that same grace of illumination in order to learn, which Augustine attained in order to teach. 31.
But we marvel, not without great sadness, at these brethren of ours, who, being ignorant of the grace of God — so far as can be understood — strive to make it void, and have found for themselves this ineptitude of a comparison, by which they say that the gift of God's grace is as if someone should lend money, having received a suitable pledge, which unless he keeps, he cannot receive back his debt. But whoever refers this comparison to God, without doubt either attempts to deceive, or is deceived. For our God, in the parable He set forth (Luke 19:13), said that the kingdom of heaven is like a householder man who, setting out, committed money to his servants to be multiplied by fitting trade.
Yet there He shows Himself to have given the money in such a way that He said He had received no pledge. Nay rather, the blessed Paul, bearing Christ speaking in himself, from whom he knew the money to have been given to us, testifies that from Him also the grace of the pledge was granted. For he says: 'We that are in this tabernacle groan, being burdened; because we would not be unclothed, but clothed over, that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. Now He that maketh us for this very thing is God, who hath given us the pledge of the Spirit' (2 Cor. 5:4-5). Writing also to the Ephesians, he intimates the same pledge in these words: 'You were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the pledge of our inheritance' (Eph. 1:13-14).