But because there were no merits of their own works in those not yet born, conceived from one act of union, works which by their diversity would cause the one to be chosen, the other to be reprobated (for if there had been such, the purpose of God would surely have stood not according to God's election, but according to human works); because, therefore, there was in those brothers no diversity of a proper good or evil work, which would confer on the one the merit of election, and bring upon the other the punishment of damnation; on that account the purpose of God was according to election, because the will of the Chooser stood not from any merit of the ones to be chosen, but from the purpose of the Chooser the gratuitous distinction of the elect was made. Wherefore the Apostle, continuing, added:
Not of works, but of Him that calleth, it was said to her: The elder shall serve the younger (ibid. 12). 2. Having thus treated, so far as the Lord granted, the question of the twin brothers, the sequence of my undertaken work substituted a general inquiry concerning the little ones dying without baptism. This having been more diligently discussed and, as I judge, more evidently resolved, at length a treatise concerning grace itself—whereby all who are saved are freely anticipated—was undertaken by us with careful inquiry: whereby it became clear that grace is not given to all universally, and that to those to whom it is given, it is not given equally.
For it belongs to Him both to whom, and how much, to give it—Him who does not render it as a debt to human wills or works, but who, merciful and kind, pours it forth gratuitously into the hearts to be enlightened. And therefore to whomever He wills, and as much as He wills, He assuredly bestows it, because He is invited neither by any arising of good will, nor by the effect of any good work, before He grants grace. CHAPTER II. Nevertheless, because we know that very many, in the question of the grace of God and human free will, do not keep the distinction, but so assert the one that they strive to take away the other; or, when they hear one asserted, they think the other is being taken away; whereas the grace of true religion permits neither to be denied, but commands that order be preserved in the confession of both:
we, supported by the protection of divine grace—whereby the human will is both enlightened and governed—have taken care in this second little book so to assert both the grace of God and the free will of man, that we take away neither while we defend both; but that we may show which of these it is that has need of the other, and which one freely expends itself upon the other by the gift of goodness; which it is that ever awaits healing, and whence it draws the benefit of medicine unceasingly. For the Creator and Saviour of mortals says that they who are whole need not a physician, but they who are sick, and that He came not to call the just, but sinners to repentance (Matt. ix. 12, 13). Hence, therefore, it is recognized both what this same Physician finds in the sick, and what He Himself expends upon those to be healed.
He finds the free will of man—at least in that age which can already serve the use of reason—either altogether ignorant of its own infirmity, or puffed up by the disease of harmful thought: while, that is, either it knows not what ought to be done, or, knowing what ought to be done, it trusts to fulfil it by its own powers: and thus, either the man in ignorance embraces the disease, or he grows more sick, while he does not seek the remedy from the physician, but himself strives to apply it to himself. Whence it follows that, weighed down by the deadly disease either of ignorance or of pride, he neither seeks the physician, nor finds in himself the effect of true health.
Nor yet is free will therefore not in man, before he is healed by the work of divine conversion, because he wishes rather to obey the disease than the physician: since by that very thing, that a man obeys or does not obey, he plainly shows that free will is present in him. CHAPTER III. There is therefore free will not only in just men, but even in the impious: but in the former it is raised up and directed by the goodness of God the Redeemer; in the latter it is deserted and punished by the justice of the avenging God. And thus in these it cleaves to the truth not only by knowing but also by loving; but in those it either is ignorant of the commandment, and in its sin there is no knowledge of sin to it;
or it can to this extent know sin without the aid of God's grace, that while it presumes to be able of itself to fulfil the commandments of the divine will, it does not humbly obey the will of God, but, doing good in an evil way, rather serves its own error: while, that is, being ignorant of God's justice, and willing to establish its own, it is not subject to the justice of God (Rom. x. 3): since the end of the law is nothing but Christ, unto justice to everyone that believeth (ibid. 4). 5.
Our Physician, therefore, skilled and good, about freely to lead back the dead unto life, and to restore the sick to health—Himself the salvation of the languishing and the resurrection of the dead—took counsel with insuperable goodness in quickening and healing men, in that this same Physician made Himself medicine for us. But that the Wisdom of God might wisely fulfil the order of His healing, He first gave a precept through the law of justice, whereby the sick man might recognize his own infirmity, being about to give affection through grace, whereby the infirm man, wholesomely conscious of his own infirmity, might no longer, trusting in his own strength, swell up, but, knowing the very Fountain of life and salvation, might ask from Him the benefit of health for himself:
nor, boasting of his own justice with a proud heart, might so think himself free from disease as though he needed not the aid of healing [whence comes that word of the Pharisee: God, I give thee thanks that I am not as the rest of men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, as also is this publican (Luke xviii. 11)]; but, beholding his wounds with the humility of a contrite heart, might truly cry out: I have said, O Lord, be merciful to me; heal my soul, for I have sinned against thee (Ps. xl. 5). Nor yet would that heavenly Physician heal our infirmity by the knowledge and love of the commandment, unless He had given man free will;
but the infirmity was multiplied by the knowledge of the commandment alone, so that through grace the health of faith and love might begin to be established. By the knowledge of the commandment, therefore, man's free will is summoned to work well: not because by will alone, or by his own strength alone, man can fulfil what the law commands him, but that through the knowledge of the commandment he may become conscious to himself of his own infirmity, and demand the aid of medicinal grace. And when this is received, he can both love what is commanded, and do it, and recognize either what he can or what he cannot, and ask that he may be able, and impute to himself the misery of his infirmity, and assign the grace of health to medicinal benefits. CHAPTER IV. 6.
All these things which we have set forth above, it is fitting that we should establish by the heavenly words. Through Isaiah God speaks thus: If you be willing, and will hearken to me, you shall eat the good things of the land; but if you be not willing, nor hearken to me, the sword shall devour you (Isa. i. 19, 20). By these words in which it is said, If you be willing, and If you be not willing, the liberty of the human will is beyond doubt declared. For no one is ignorant that to will and not to will belongs to the will. What therefore is said through the prophet, If you be willing and will hearken to me, our will is addressed, whereby we ought always to will the good, and unceasingly and willingly to persist in good works.
But when the Apostle says that it is God who works in us both to will and to accomplish, according to good will (Phil. ii. 13), he shows assuredly that man's very will is both directed to willing well only by the divine gift, and is divinely aided to working well. When therefore it is enjoined upon us that we should will, it is shown what we ought to have; but because we cannot have this of ourselves, we are admonished to seek aid from Him from whom the precept is given us. Which nevertheless we cannot seek, unless God work in us also to will. For the will which is made good in us by the gift of a merciful God, is itself aided in us, that it may be able to work well.
Which will—out of the evils in which it lies before justification, and in which it fails with delight—rises up not by its own strength, but by the operation of God who goes before: and after it has risen, it cannot suffice for itself alone that it may not fall; but as it is raised up to rising by the benefit of anticipating mercy, so it is guarded unto persevering by the help of subsequent mercy. CHAPTER V. 7. The blessed David, therefore, acknowledging both the will of human choice and the power of divine grace, indeed summons us to do good; but what he commands to be done by us, he seeks from that source whence he doubts not that we can have it. Rousing therefore the human will to conversion, he terrifies it with wholesome preaching, saying:
Unless you be converted, he will brandish his sword; he hath bent his bow, and made it ready (Ps. vii. 13). But to show that the conversion which he preaches to us—which we are commanded to work—he assigns to the gift of a supernal operation, saying: O God, thou converting wilt quicken us, and thy people shall rejoice in thee (Ps. lxxxiv. 7). That each one also may have mercy on his own soul, and please God, the human will is thus admonished by the divine word: Have mercy on thy soul, pleasing God (Ecclus. xxx. 24). But because no one can have mercy on his own soul, save he who, anticipated by the mercy of God, has received that he may be merciful, the Bestower of mercy Himself, teaching, says: I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will show mercy to whom I shall show mercy (Exod.
xxxiii. 19). Therefore the blessed David also says: My God, his mercy shall go before me (Ps. lviii. 11). And because no one can please God, unless God work in him that which pleases before Himself, it is manifestly set down in the Epistle which is written to the Hebrews. For there it is said: Now the God of peace, who brought again from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep, in the blood of the everlasting testament, our Lord Jesus Christ, fit you in all goodness, that you may do his will, doing in you that which is well pleasing before him (Heb. xiii. 20, 21). 8. To God, therefore, we are not pleasing unless we will;
but from Him it is granted to us that we should will, from whom, unless the will of man be sent that it may be good, it either always seeks evil or never rightly seeks good; and thus, while in good things it keeps not the right order, it in no way pleases God, the true and the good. To God, therefore, we are not pleasing except in a good will; but that we may please Him, He Himself fits us in all good. His will also, when we do it, we do it willing; but that we may do it, He Himself works in us that which is well pleasing before Him. For David says: To do thy will, O my God, I have willed (Ps. xxxix. 9). But to the very doing of that will he asks the aid of spiritual grace, whereby he may be taught to know, and directed to do. Whence also in another place he thus prays:
Teach me to do thy will, for thou art my God (Ps. cxlii. 10); and immediately he added: Thy good spirit shall lead me into the right way (ibid.). Likewise Isaiah enjoins, saying: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return to the Lord (Isa. lv. 7). Paul the apostle also exhorts that we be renewed in the spirit of our mind, and put on the new man, who according to God is created in justice and holiness of truth (Eph. iv. 23, 24). CHAPTER VI. 9. Nevertheless, lest our conversion or renewal be assigned to human choice, holy Jeremiah begs both for us from the Lord in these words: Convert us to thee, and we shall be converted;
renew our days, as from the beginning (Lam. v. 21). Again the Psalmist says: Open thy mouth, and I will fill it (Ps. lxxx. 11). Where we understand the mouth of the heart to be signified, not of the body. Of which mouth he says in another place: When the Lord brought back the captivity of Sion, we became like men comforted. Then was our mouth filled with joy (Ps. cxxv. 1, 2). And yet, lest anyone proudly assign to himself the opening of his mouth, the book of the Acts of the Apostles shows that the mouth of the human heart is opened by the bounty of the divine gift, to receive the word of Christian preaching. For there it is written concerning a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple: Whose heart the Lord opened to attend to those things which were said by Paul (Acts xvi. 14).
Again it is written, that wisdom opened the mouth of the dumb, and made the tongues of infants eloquent (Wis. x. 21). For it opened the mouth of the dumb, that the unbelieving might believe; and it made the tongues of infants eloquent, that they might preach what they had believed. Whence not without reason does Paul ascribe his belief and his speech to the gift of the Holy Spirit, saying: But having the same spirit of faith, as it is written, I believed, for which cause I have spoken; we also believe, for which cause we also speak (2 Cor. iv. 13). Willingly does a man believe, and willingly does he speak; but the will of man cannot have this of itself, unless God grant it: because, that the unbeliever may believe, Wisdom opens the mouth of the dumb;
and that the believer may speak, it makes the tongues of infants eloquent. 10. The precepts, therefore, whereby through the prophets and apostles we are admonished what we ought to seek and what to avoid, address our will, that we may willingly serve the Lord's commands. But since the prophets and apostles themselves, who filled with the Holy Spirit lived holily and taught holy things, never ceased from asking for divine help (for to fulfil what God commanded, they sought aid from Him); without doubt, just as they did not deny that free will of the will is present in man, so they testified that it, without the help of the grace of God, is insufficient and powerless for those things which are holy, not only for the doing but also for the thinking of them.
Whence the holy Apostle, showing in man the free choice of the will, exhorts the Philippians with saving precepts to the thinking and the doing of those things which are holy and just, saying: Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever modest, whatsoever holy, whatsoever just, whatsoever of good fame, if there be any virtue, if any praise, think on these things which you have learned, and received, and heard, and seen in me. These do ye, and the God of peace shall be with you (Phil. iv. 8, 9). Does he not both command that they think and that they do the things which are holy, and yet plainly show whence the faculty both of thinking and of doing is bestowed on us? Concerning thinking, indeed, he says:
'Not that we are sufficient to think anything of ourselves, as of ourselves' (2 Cor. 3:5). What does he mean by 'of ourselves,' except from the free choice of the will? Whence, then, is it, if it is not of ourselves? 'But our sufficiency,' he says, 'is from God' (ibid.). And for action too he proclaims that we are led by the Spirit of God, saying: 'For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God' (Rom. 8:14). CHAPTER VII. — This, then, is the difference between the letter that commands and the spirit that gives life, that is, between the law and grace: for the law assembles, but grace converts the will of man. That we may will the good, the law cries out, but grace bestows; there the divine justice strikes terror into the will of man, here mercy pours in charity.
Through the former the will receives the spirit of bondage in fear; through the latter it receives the spirit of the adoption of sons, in whom we cry: 'Abba, Father.' This free will of ours, therefore, has in itself by nature such a quality that it can of its own accord desire either good or evil; but it desires the good by advancing, and evil by falling away. Now to fall away, it can suffice for itself alone; but to advance, it always needs the help of the divine mercy. For unless it is raised up by prevenient grace, it in no way rises, because 'the Lord lifteth up those who are cast down' (Ps. 145:8); unless it is aided by that same grace leading it, it in no way runs, because it is written of God: 'He led me by the paths of justice for his name's sake' (Ps. 22:3); and to him it is said:
'O Lord, lead me in thy justice, because of my enemies' (Ps. 5:9). Unless it is brought through by protecting grace, it in no way arrives; for holy David says: 'Send forth thy light and thy truth: they have led me and brought me unto thy holy mountain, and into thy tabernacles' (Ps. 42:3). Nor, having spurned evils, will the human will be able either to choose the good things that lead to life, or to love them, unless it has received from God the grace of discernment and of charity. For among the spiritual gifts blessed Paul included discernment, saying:
'To one indeed, by the Spirit, is given the word of wisdom; to another, the word of knowledge, according to the same Spirit; to another, faith in the same Spirit; to another, the grace of healings in one Spirit; to another, the working of miracles; to another, prophecy; to another, the discerning of spirits' (1 Cor. 12:8-10). But of what things is the discerning of spirits granted by the spiritual bounty, if not of good things and evil? So that, namely, being enlightened and helped by the grace of the Holy Spirit, we may both know and be able to preserve the gifts of the Holy Spirit with fear and trembling, and to repel the suggestions of the devil's malice by a wholesome discernment. This the blessed apostle John commands us to observe, saying:
'Dearly beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits if they be of God' (1 John 4:1). CHAPTER VIII. — Now that we may know what things are given to us by God, it is not the spirit of the world that works in us, but the Spirit of God; that is, not the spirit which man has that he may be born into the world, but the one he has received that he may be born again unto God. This the Apostle plainly teaches, saying: 'Now we have received not the spirit of this world, but the Spirit that is of God; that we may know the things that are given us from God' (1 Cor. 2:12); and not only that we may know, but also that we may understand it to be of the divine gift, the Apostle attests, writing thus to Timothy: 'Understand what I say' (2 Tim. 2:7). By which word he certainly appeals to the human choice to understand;
which, unless man possessed it, he could in no way understand the things that are said. But to show whence understanding is given to the human choice, after he had said, 'Understand what I say,' he immediately added: 'For the Lord will give thee understanding in all things' (ibid.). Most holy David, too, in order to learn the commandments of God, asks understanding of God for himself, saying: 'Thy hands have made me and formed me: give me understanding, that I may learn thy commandments' (Ps. 118:73). Proverbs also testifies that 'the Lord giveth wisdom, and out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding' (Prov. 2:6). And the apostle James commands that if any man lack wisdom, let him ask of God, 'who giveth to all abundantly, and upbraideth not' (James
1:5). And to show that the very will to ask is also given by God, he added: 'But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering' (ibid. 6). And that God cannot be invoked without faith, Paul, showing this, says: 'How then shall they call upon him in whom they have not believed?' (Rom. 10:14). Since therefore no one invokes before he believes, nor does anyone believe in God unless he has received faith, it is certain that he who enlightens us so that we may believe is the same who rouses us to ask for wisdom. CHAPTER IX. — Man, then, wills the good by his will, does the good by his will, but without the gift and help of God he can never will or do the good.
He is indeed summoned to know, and admonished to act, because he always has the free choice of the will; but he cannot have holy knowledge unless he has received it from above as a gift of grace from the Father of lights, 'from whom is every best gift and every perfect gift' (James 1:17); and, knowing, either he does not do what he already knows must be done, or, while he strives to ascribe to himself the things he does, he is weighed down by the burden of his own pride. And I said 'holy knowledge' above, because there is a knowledge that is not holy, namely that which puffs up a man, which does not have the charity that builds up. By such knowledge, 'some, knowing God, have not glorified him as God, nor given thanks.'
'If any man think that he knoweth anything by this knowledge, he hath not yet known as he ought to know' (1 Cor. 8:2). 14. Therefore, for living well the knowledge of a precept never suffices for anyone, unless love be the guardian of the commandment; and that he may love, he loves only by his own will. And so the love of God and of neighbor is thus enjoined upon each of us in the words of the law: 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with thy whole heart, and with thy whole soul, and with thy whole mind; and thy neighbor as thyself' (Matt. 22:37-38). On these two commandments our Saviour says the whole law and the prophets depend. But that we may love God with our whole heart, we do not have that love itself from our own heart, but we have it from God.
'For the charity of God is poured forth in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, who is given to us' (Rom. 5:5). And that we may love one another, God bestows charity upon us. For the blessed John says: 'Dearly beloved, let us love one another: for charity is of God; and every one that loveth his brother is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not, knoweth not God: for God is charity' (1 John 4:7-8). 15. Since therefore it is clear from the divine oracles that God is charity, it is assuredly manifest that no one can have God unless God himself has given himself to man. In this, then, is our free choice made fit for loving God and neighbor, in that charity is divinely given to it.
For without charity neither can God be loved nor neighbor. But that God may be loved, he himself gives himself: because God is charity, and we love God only by charity. Unless therefore we receive God, we are not able to love God. Fire and water, life and death, have also been set before man, that he may stretch out his hand to whichever he wills by the free choice of the will (Sir. 15:17-18): for if free will be lacking, the hand is not stretched out to anything; yet man never stretches that same hand toward life, unless God has held it by his gratuitous goodness. On which account it is said to him by the prophet: 'Thou hast held my right hand, and by thy will thou hast led me' (Ps. 72:24).
In another place too he says that this very right hand of ours is saved by the divine protection. For he says: 'The Lord keepeth thee, the Lord is thy protection upon thy right hand' (Ps. 120:5). Again he prays that the Lord may direct the works of our hands, an enlightenment being granted upon us. Therefore he says: 'Let the brightness of the Lord our God be upon us, and direct thou the works of our hands over us' (Ps. 89:17). CHAPTER X. — 16.
By these and suchlike testimonies, with which both the New and the Old Testament are filled, man's choice is shown to be such that whether for beginning the things that are good it can do nothing unless divine grace first prevents it, or for completing them it can in no way suffice for itself unless the very grace by which it is prevented continually helps it. Nor yet, because it needs help, must it therefore be said not to exist; nor, because it exists, ought it therefore to be believed capable of sufficing for itself for the beginning or the progress of the good. Accordingly, if the soul approach the divine words humble and meek (which it can then do, if the gift of humility and gentleness be divinely conferred upon it), the veil being taken away by which the more inward
and higher understanding is covered, wisdom and knowledge are granted to a contrite and humbled heart. For it is written that 'the Lord giveth wisdom, and out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding' (Prov. 2:6). 17. Since therefore there is no precept which God has not given to man for this purpose, that it may profit him who works voluntarily and humbly; and since the good will is begun only by faith, and perfected by charity;
and since true faith and charity are gifts of the divine will, which unless man voluntarily accepted them as given to him, would neither be in man nor profit him (for to this end God prepares the will of man, that there may be one into whom he may pour the gift of faith and charity), therefore it must be confessed to be true, as we are taught by the holy oracles, that man is saved by the mercy of God alone, because it is written: 'Save me in thy mercy' (Ps. 30:17); and that a man endowed with reason then comes to everlasting salvation, if he has run and labored by his own will. For not in vain does the Apostle say: 'So run that you may obtain' (1 Cor. 9:24); and: 'Every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor' (1 Cor. 3:8); and:
'Labor as a good soldier of Christ Jesus' (2 Tim. 2:3); and in another place: 'Therefore, brethren, be steadfast and immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord' (1 Cor. 15:58). Yet for this labor a certain man in the book of Wisdom asks help for himself, saying from his whole heart: 'God of our fathers, and Lord of mercy, who hast made all things by thy word, and by thy wisdom hast established man, that he should have dominion over the creature that was made by thee, and order the world in equity and justice, and execute judgment with an upright soul: give me wisdom, that sitteth by thy throne' (Wis. 9:1ff.); and a little after:
'Send her out of thy holy heavens, and from the throne of thy majesty, that she may be with me and labor with me, that I may know what is acceptable before thee. For she knoweth all things, and understandeth, and shall lead me soberly in my works, and shall preserve me by her power, and my works shall be acceptable' (ibid. 10). CHAPTER XI. — 18. But lest anyone should suppose that even this very affection of prayer, by which he asked wisdom for himself, was not divinely infused, a little above he says that he knew he could not otherwise be continent unless God gave it (Wis. 8:21); and yet he says that this very thing, to know whose gift this was, is wisdom. Whence therefore he was instructed to know, thence he was roused to pray. Nor yet