since, that he might have that very mercy, he bestowed it who will show mercy to whom he will have been merciful. But if anyone boasts that he merited it by believing, let him know that he who has mercy bestowed upon him that he should believe, by inspiring the faith of him on whom he had mercy: that he might impart the calling to one still unbelieving. For now the believer is distinguished from the ungodly. 'For what have you,' he says, 'that you did not receive? But if you received it, why do you glory as if you had not received it?' This indeed is right; but why was this mercy withdrawn from Esau, so that he was not so called, that even, being called, faith might be inspired in him, and believing he might become merciful, that he might work well? Or is it perhaps because he was unwilling?
If therefore Jacob believed because he willed, then God did not give him faith, but he bestowed it upon himself by willing, and had something which he did not receive. Or is it because no one can believe unless he wills; yet no one wills unless he is called? but no one can bestow upon himself that he should be called: by calling, God bestows both, and faith too, because without calling no one can believe, although no one believes unwilling. 'For how shall they believe in him whom they have not heard? or how shall they hear without a preacher?' No one therefore believes who is not called, but not everyone who is called believes; for many are called, but few are chosen. Assuredly those who did not despise him who calls, but followed by believing, without doubt believed willingly. What then of that which follows?
'Therefore it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy.' Or is it because we cannot even will unless we are called: and our willing avails nothing, unless God help us to bring it to completion? It is necessary, then, to will to run. For it would not be said in vain: 'On earth peace to men of good will.' And: 'So run, that you may obtain.' Yet it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy, that we both attain what we will, and reach whither we will. Esau therefore was unwilling, and did not run; but even if he had willed and had run, he would have attained by the help of God, who would bestow upon him by calling both to will and to run, unless, the calling being despised, he became reprobate. For in one way God bestows that we may will; in another he bestows what we shall have willed.
For that we may will, he willed it to be both his and ours: his by calling, ours by following. But what we shall have willed, he alone bestows: that is, the power to act well, and always to live blessedly. Nevertheless Esau, not yet born, could neither will nor be unwilling in any of these things. Why then, being placed in the womb, was he disapproved? For we return to those difficulties, more troublesome not only by their own obscurity, but also by our now many repetitions. Why indeed was Esau reprobated not yet born, who could neither believe him who calls, nor despise the calling, nor work anything good or evil? If by the foreknowledge of his future evil will, why was not Jacob also approved by the foreknowledge of God of his future good will?
But if once you have granted that anyone could be either approved or disapproved from that which was not yet in him, but because God foreknew that it would be: he is convicted, that is, he could also be approved from works, which God foreknew would be in him, although he had not yet done anything. And it will help you nothing at all that they were not yet born, when it was said: 'The elder shall serve the younger': so as to show thereby that it was said not of works, because no one had yet worked. Those words too, if he attend to them diligently, 'Therefore it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy': the Apostle will not seem to have said this only for the reason that we attain by God's help to that which we will:
but also with that intention with which he says in another place: 'Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you both to will and to work, according to his good will.' Where he sufficiently shows that even the good will itself comes to be in us by God working it. For if it were said 'Not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy' only for this reason, that the will of man alone does not suffice for us to live rightly and justly, unless we are helped by the mercy of God: it could also be said in this manner: 'Therefore it is not of God who shows mercy, but of man who wills': because the mercy of God alone does not suffice, unless the consent of our will be added. But that is manifest, that we will in vain, unless God have mercy.
But in what sense it can be said that God has mercy in vain unless we too are willing, I do not know. For if God has mercy, we are also willing; indeed, it belongs to that very mercy that we should will. For it is God who works in us both to will and to work according to good will. For if we should ask whether a good will is a gift of God, it would be astonishing if anyone dared to deny it. But because good will does not precede the calling, but the calling precedes good will, therefore it is rightly attributed to God who calls that we will well; yet it cannot be attributed to us that we are called. It must not, then, be supposed that the words 'It is not of him that wills, nor of him that runs, but of God that shows mercy' were said because, except by his aid, we cannot obtain what we will;
but rather because, unless by his calling, we do not will at all. But if that calling is so productive of good will that every one who is called follows it, how will it be true that 'Many are called, but few are chosen'? For if this is true, and the one called consequently obeys the calling, and it lies within his own will not to obey, then it can also rightly be said: 'Therefore it is not of God that shows mercy, but of man that wills and runs,' since the mercy of him who calls does not suffice unless obedience follows the calling. Or is it perhaps that those who, called in this manner, do not perceive [others read: do not consent], might, if called in another manner, be able to bend their will to faith, and so that too be true: 'Many are called, but few are chosen'?
so that, although many are called in one and the same manner, yet because not all are affected in the same way, only those follow the calling who are found fit to receive it; and that this also be no less true: 'Therefore it is not of him that wills, nor of him that runs, but of God that shows mercy,' because he called in a manner that was suited to those who followed the calling. But to others the calling did indeed come; yet because it was of such a kind that they could not be moved by it, nor were they fit to receive it, they can be said to be called, but not chosen. And likewise it is not equally true that 'Therefore it is not of God that shows mercy, but of man that wills and runs,' since the effect of God's mercy cannot be within man's power, so that God should have mercy in vain if man be unwilling;
because if he should will to have mercy even on such men, it would be needful so to call them in the manner that was fitting for them, that we should be moved, and understand, and follow. It is therefore true: 'Many are called, but few are chosen.' For those are the chosen who were fittingly called; but those who were not in harmony with, nor complied with, the calling are the not-chosen, because they did not follow, though they were called. Likewise it is true: 'It is not of him that wills, nor of him that runs, but of God that shows mercy,' who, even though he call many, yet has mercy upon those whom he so calls that they are called in the manner fitting for them to follow. But it is false if anyone says: 'Therefore it is not of God that shows mercy, but of man that wills and runs,' because God has mercy upon no one in vain.
But him on whom he has mercy, he so calls as he knows to be fitting for him, that he may not spurn the one who calls. Here someone says: Why then was Esau not so called that he should be willing to obey? For we see that different men are moved to believe in different ways by the very same things when shown or signified: as, for example, Simeon believed in our Lord Jesus Christ while he was yet a little infant, recognizing him by the revelation of the Spirit. Nathanael, at one single saying which he heard from him, 'Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you,' answered: 'Rabbi, you are the Son of God, you are the King of Israel.' And because Peter, long afterward, confessed the same, he was counted worthy to hear that he was blessed, and that the keys of the kingdom of heaven would be given to him.
When the miracle was wrought in Cana of Galilee, which the Evangelist records as the beginning of signs, water being turned into wine, his disciples believed in him. He invited many to faith by his speaking; yet many did not believe even when the dead were raised. Terrified by his cross and death, even the disciples wavered, and yet the thief believed at that very time, when he saw him not more excellent in works, but his equal in the fellowship of the cross. One also of the number of the disciples believed after his resurrection, not so much by his living members as by his fresh scars. Many of the number of those by whom he was crucified, who while he lived had despised him as he worked miracles, believed when the disciples preached him and did such things in his name.
Since, then, one man is moved to faith in this way, another in that, and the same thing spoken in one manner moves, while spoken in another manner it does not move, and moves one man while it does not move another, who would dare to say that God lacked a manner of calling by which he might have brought even Esau's mind to that faith, and joined his will to it, in which Jacob was justified? But if there can be so great an obstinacy of the will that the aversion of the mind grows hard against all manners of calling, it is asked whether that very hardness be of divine punishment. For when God deserts a man by not calling him thus, how can he be moved to faith? For who would say that a manner by which he might be persuaded to believe was lacking even to the Almighty? But why do we inquire this, when the Apostle himself adds it?
For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: 'For this very purpose have I raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.' Now the Apostle adjoined this proof to establish what he had said above: 'Therefore it is not of him that wills, nor of him that runs, but of God that shows mercy.' As if he said: Whence do you teach this? For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: 'For this purpose have I raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth,' which certainly shows here that it is not of him that wills, nor of him that runs, but of God that shows mercy. He therefore concludes: 'Therefore he has mercy on whom he wills, and whom he wills he hardens,' since above the two were not both stated. For it was not said in the same way,
'It is not of him that wills, but of God that shows mercy,' as it was also said, 'It is not of him that wills, nor of him that runs, but of God that hardens.' From which it is given to understand that what he set below—'Therefore he has mercy on whom he wills, and whom he wills he hardens'—can so agree with the earlier statement that the hardening by God be to be unwilling to have mercy; so that nothing be inflicted by him whereby a man becomes worse, but only that whereby he might become better be withheld. But if this be done without any distinction of merits, who would not break out into that cry which the Apostle himself set as an objection: 'You will therefore say to me, Why does he yet find fault? For who resists his will?'
For the Spirit often complains of men, as appears through innumerable passages of the Scriptures, because they are unwilling to believe and to live rightly. Whence the faithful, and those who do the will of God, are said to walk without complaint, because the Scripture does not complain of them. But why does he complain, he says: 'For who resists his will,' when he has mercy on whom he wills, and whom he wills he hardens? And yet let us look at what precedes, and thence let us direct our opinion, so far as the Lord himself helps. For he says a little before: 'What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid.' Let this, then, be fixed and immovable in a mind of sober piety and steadfast faith, that there is no unrighteousness with God.
And let it be most tenaciously and firmly believed that this very thing—that God has mercy on whom he wills, and whom he wills he hardens, that is, on whom he wills he has mercy, and on whom he wills not he has not mercy—belongs to a certain hidden equity, unsearchable by any human measure, which is to be observed even in human and earthly transactions themselves; for unless we held certain impressed traces of the supernal justice in these, the intention of our infirmity would never take up nor aspire toward the very couch and most chaste and most holy inner sanctuary of spiritual precepts. 'Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after justice, for they shall be filled.'
In this drought, therefore, of our life and mortal condition, unless there were sprinkled from above, as it were, some most tenuous breeze of justice, we would too quickly wither. Wherefore, since human society is knit together among men by giving and receiving, and since things owed or not owed are both given and received, who does not see that no one can be convicted of injustice who exacts what is owed to him, nor certainly he who chooses to remit what is owed to him? but that this lies not within the discretion of those who are debtors, but of him to whom it is owed. This is the image, or, as I said above, the trace impressed upon the dealings of men from the loftiest height of equity. All men, then, are—since, as the Apostle says:
'In Adam all die,' from whom the origin of offense against God is drawn down upon the whole human race—one certain lump of sin, owing punishment to the divine and supreme justice; which, whether it be exacted or remitted, there is no injustice. But from whom it should be exacted and to whom remitted, the debtors judge proudly. Just as those hired for that vineyard were unjustly indignant when as much was given to others as was rendered to themselves. And therefore the Apostle so blunts the questions of this shamelessness: 'O man, who are you that answer back to God?' For he does answer back to God when this displeases him, that God complains of sinners;
as though God compelled anyone to sin, whereas he merely does not lavish the mercy of his justification upon certain sinners, and on this account is said to harden certain sinners, because he does not have mercy on them, not because he impels them to sin. But he has not mercy on those to whom, by an equity most hidden and most remote from human perceptions, he judges that mercy is not to be extended. For 'his judgments are unsearchable, and his ways past finding out.' But he complains of sinners as of those whom he himself does not compel to sin; and at the same time also so that those on whom he has mercy may have this calling too, that while God complains of sinners, they may be pricked in heart and be converted to his grace.
Justly, then, and mercifully does he complain. But if this troubles you, that no one resists his will, because to whom he wills he brings aid, and whom he wills he deserts—since both he to whom he brings aid, and he whom he deserts, are of the same lump of sinners, and, although both owe punishment, yet from one it is exacted, to the other it is remitted—if, then, this troubles you: 'You, who are you that answer back to God?' Let only this be held with unshaken faith, that there is no unrighteousness with God, who, whether he remit or exact the debt, neither can he from whom he exacts it rightly complain of his injustice, nor ought he to whom he remits it to glory in his own merits. For the one will render nothing but what is owed; and the other has nothing but what he received.
For indeed that hardening of the impious demonstrates both things: what is to be feared, so that each one may by piety be converted to God, and how great thanks are to be rendered for the mercy of God, who in the punishment of some shows what he bestows upon others. But if that which he exacts of some is not a just penalty, he bestows nothing upon the others of whom he does not exact it. But because that penalty is just, and there is no unrighteousness with God who takes vengeance, who could suffice to give thanks to him who remits this which, if he willed to exact it, no one could rightly say he did not owe? 'Whom also he called': 'Us,' he says, 'not only from among the Jews, but also from among the Gentiles'; that is, the vessels of mercy which he prepared unto glory. For not all the Jews, but of the Jews;
nor absolutely all men of the Gentiles, but of the Gentiles. For there is one lump of sinners and of the impious from Adam, in which Jews and Gentiles, apart from the grace of God, belong to one same mass. For if the potter of clay makes from the same mass one vessel unto honor, another unto dishonor, it is manifest that from among the Jews some vessels are unto honor, others unto dishonor, just as from among the Gentiles: it follows that all are understood to belong to one mass. 'If the number of the sons of Israel be,' he says, 'as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved.' The rest, therefore, of the crowd are vessels drawn out unto perdition. 'For a word consummating and abridging,' he says, 'the Lord shall make upon the earth':
that is, that by the summary of faith through grace he may save those who believe; not through the innumerable observances by which that multitude was servilely burdened and oppressed. For by grace has the word consummating and abridging done this for us upon the earth, saying: 'My yoke is easy, and my burden is light.' Which is also said a little after here: 'The word is near, in your mouth and in your heart: this is the word of faith which we preach; that if you confess with your mouth that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. For with the heart one believes unto justice, but with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.' This is the word consummating and abridging, which God made upon the earth;
by which consummation and brevity that man too was justified who, with all his limbs fastened to the cross, and having these two free, believed with the heart unto justice, and confessed with the mouth unto salvation, and forthwith was counted worthy to hear: 'Today you shall be with me in paradise.' For his good works would have followed, if, having received grace, he had lived long among men. Yet they had not preceded, so that he should merit that same grace, being fastened to the cross out of brigandage, and from the cross translated into paradise. 'And as Isaiah foretold,' he says, 'Unless the Lord of Sabaoth had left us a seed, we had become as Sodom, and been made like unto Gomorrah.' What here he says, 'had left us a seed,' is there: 'a remnant shall be saved.'
But the rest, the vessels of perdition, undergo their due punishment. And that not all perished like Sodom and Gomorrah, this was not their merit, but the grace of God who left them a seed, whence another harvest might spring up throughout the whole world. This too a little after: 'So then,' he says, 'even at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace. And if by grace, then it is no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace.' What then? What Israel sought, this it has not obtained; but the election has obtained it, and the rest were blinded. The vessels of mercy have obtained it; the vessels of wrath were blinded: yet from the same mass.
For who shall discuss the works of the Lord, who from the same mass condemns one and justifies another? Free choice of the will avails much: nay, this is indeed true, but among those sold under sin, what does it avail? 'The flesh,' he says, 'lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, so that you do not do the things that you would.' It is commanded that we live rightly, with this reward set before us, that we may merit to live blessedly in eternity. But who can live rightly and work well, unless justified by faith? It is commanded that we believe, so that, having received the gift of the Holy Spirit, we may through love be able to work well. But who can believe, unless he be touched by some calling, that is, by some testimony of things?
Who has it in his power that his mind be touched by such a vision as would move his will to faith? And who embraces in his soul anything that does not delight him? Or who has it in his power that there should even present itself something able to delight him, or that it should delight him when it presents itself? When, therefore, those things delight us by which we advance toward God, this is inspired, and the grace of God is furnished, not procured by our own nod and industry, or by the merit of works; for that there be a movement of the will, that there be industry of zeal, that there be works fervent with charity, he grants, he lavishes. We are bidden to ask, that we may receive; to seek, that we may find; and to knock, that it may be opened to us;
Is not our very prayer sometimes so listless, or rather cold and almost nothing, that we do not even advert to this in ourselves with sorrow? For if we even grieve at this, we are already praying. What else, then, is shown to us, except that both to ask, and to seek, and to knock is granted by him who bids that we do these things? 'Therefore it is not of him that wills, nor of him that runs, but of God that shows mercy,' since we can neither will nor run except by his admonishing and rousing us. But if some election takes place, so that we should understand what was said,
'A remnant was saved according to the election of grace'—not that there is an election of the already justified unto eternal life, but that those be chosen who are to be justified—surely this election is so hidden that in the same mass it cannot at all appear to us; or, if it appears to certain persons, I in this matter confess my own weakness. For I have nothing to look upon in choosing men unto saving grace, if I am permitted by some thought to submit this election to examination, except either greater talents, or lesser sins, or both—let us add too, if you please, honest and useful learning.
Whoever, then, shall be ensnared and stained with the fewest sins (for who can be with none?), and keen in talent, and polished with liberal arts, seems to be one to be chosen unto grace. But when I have determined this, he who chose the weak things of the world to confound the strong, and the foolish things of the world to confound the wise, so confounds me, that, gazing upon him and corrected by shame, I laugh at myself for deriding many, and preferring men more chaste than certain sinners, and orators before certain fishermen. Do we not notice many of our faithful walking in the way of God who are in no respect to be compared in talent—I will not say to certain heretics, but even to actors?
Likewise, do we not see certain men of either sex living without complaint in conjugal chastity, and yet either heretics, or pagans, or even so lukewarm in the true faith and true Church, that we marvel to see them surpassed—by harlots and stage-players suddenly converted—not only in patience and temperance, but even in faith, hope, and charity? It remains, therefore, that the wills are chosen; but the will itself can in no way be moved unless something present itself which delights and invites the mind. But that this should present itself is not in man's power. What did Saul will but to invade, drag off, bind, slay Christians? How rabid a will, how furious, how blind!
Yet he, prostrated by one voice from above, when there presented itself such a vision as would, with his savagery broken, turn back and correct that mind and will unto faith, was suddenly, out of a marvelous persecutor of the Gospel, made a still more marvelous preacher of it. And yet what do we say? Is there unrighteousness with God, who exacts from whom it pleases him, and gives to whom it pleases him—who by no means exacts what is not owed, by no means gives what is another's? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid. Yet why to this man thus, and to that man not thus? O man, who are you? If you do not render the debt, you have cause to rejoice; if you render it, you have no cause to complain. Let us only believe,
even though we are not able to comprehend it, since he who made and founded the whole creation, both spiritual and corporeal, disposes all things in number, and weight, and measure; but his judgments are unsearchable, and his ways past finding out. Let us say Alleluia, and together sing the song, and let us not say: Why this? or, Why here? For all things were created in their own time.