TO THE SAME VALENTINUS AND, WITH HIM, THE MONKS

1. 1. Having read your letter, Valentinus, most beloved brother, and you who serve God together with him, which your Charity sent through brother Florus and those who came to us with him, I gave thanks to God, because from the report you returned to me I came to know your peace in the Lord, your agreement in the truth, and your ardor in love. As for what the enemy contrived for the subversion of certain ones among you, God in his mercy turned even his snares, by his wonderful goodness, to the advancement of his servants, so that it availed rather to this end, that none of you were torn down for the worse, but some were built up for the better. There is therefore no need to go back over again all the points we have already set forth for you fully and sufficiently in a whole book; how you received it your reply shows. Yet do not in any way suppose that, having read it once, you could have come to know it well enough. If, then, you wish to find it most fruitful, do not be reluctant to make it most familiar by rereading it, so that you may know most carefully by what authority, and of what kind, the questions to be solved and healed there are met not by human but by divine authority, from which we must not depart if we wish to arrive where we are bound.

1. 2. But the Lord himself not only shows us what evil we are to turn away from and what good we are to do (See Ps 37:27 (36:27)) — which is all the letter of the law can do — but also helps us to turn away from evil and to do good, which no one can do without the spirit of grace; and if this is lacking, the law is present only to make us guilty and to slay us. For this reason the Apostle says, The letter kills, but the Spirit gives life (2 Cor 3:6). He, then, who uses the law lawfully (1 Tim 1:8) learns in it evil and good, and, not trusting in his own strength, takes refuge in grace, by whose help he may turn away from evil and do good. But who takes refuge in grace except when a man's steps are directed by the Lord, and he wills his way (See Ps 37:23 (36:23))?

And by this very fact, even to desire the help of grace is the beginning of grace, of which he says, And I said, Now I have begun; this is the change wrought by the right hand of the Most High (Ps 77:10 (76:11)). We must therefore confess that we have free choice both for doing evil and for doing good; but in doing evil each one is free from righteousness and a slave of sin (See Rom 6:20), while in doing good no one can be free unless he has been set free by him who said, If the Son sets you free, then you will be truly free (John 8:36). And this is not so that, once a man has been set free from the dominion of sin, he no longer needs the help of his liberator; rather it is so that, hearing from him, Without me you can do nothing (John 15:5), he too may say to him, Be my helper; do not forsake me (Ps 27:9 (26:9)). This faith, which is without doubt the true and prophetic and apostolic and catholic faith, I rejoice to have found also in our brother Florus; and so those rather are to be corrected, whom indeed I now suppose, by God's favor, to have been corrected, who did not understand him.

2. 3. For the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord must be understood as that by which alone human beings are set free from evil, and without which they do absolutely no good, whether in thinking, or in willing and loving, or in acting — not only so that, when it shows them what is to be done, they may know it, but also so that, when it grants it, they may do with love what they know. This inspiration of a good will and work the Apostle was asking for those to whom he said, Now we pray to God that you may do no evil, not that we may appear approved, but that you may do what is good (2 Cor 13:7). Who can hear this and not awaken and confess that it is from the Lord God that we turn away from evil and do good? For the Apostle does not say, We admonish, we teach, we exhort, we rebuke; rather he says, We pray to God that you may do no evil, but that you may do what is good. And yet he also spoke to them and did all those things I have mentioned: he admonished, taught, exhorted, rebuked; but he knew that all these things, which he did in the open by planting and watering, availed nothing unless the one who gives the increase in secret heard him as he prayed for them. For, as the same Teacher of the gentiles says, Neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase (1 Cor 3:7).

3. 4. Let them not deceive themselves, then, who say: Why are we commanded to do good, if it is not we who do it, but God who works in us both the willing and the doing? (See Rom 8:14) Let them rather understand that, if they are sons of God, they are led by the Spirit of God to do what is to be done; and when they have done it, let them give thanks to him by whom they are led.

For they are led so that they may act, not so that they themselves may do nothing; and to this end it is shown them what they ought to do, so that, when they do it as it ought to be done — that is, with the love and delight of righteousness — they may rejoice to have received the sweetness which the Lord gave, that their land might yield its fruit (Ps 85:12 (84:13)). But when they do not act, whether by not doing it at all or by not doing it out of love, let them pray that they may receive what they do not yet have. For what will they have that they are not going to receive? Or what do they have that they have not received? (1 Cor 4:7)

3. 5. They say: Those who are set over us ought to command us, and to pray for us that we may act; but they should not rebuke and reprove us if we have not acted. On the contrary, let all these things be done, since the apostles, the teachers of the churches, did all of them: they both commanded what should be done, and rebuked if it was not done, and prayed that it might be done. The Apostle commands when he says, Let all that you do be done with love (1 Cor 16:14).

He rebukes when he says, It is already altogether a fault in you, that you have lawsuits among yourselves. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? But you do wrong and defraud, and that to your brethren. Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not possess the kingdom of God? (1 Cor 6:7-9) Let us hear him praying too: And may the Lord, he says, make you increase and abound in love to one another and to all (1 Thess 3:12). He commands that love be had; he rebukes because love is not had; he prays that love may abound. O man, in the command recognize what you ought to have; in the rebuke recognize that by your own fault you do not have it; in the prayer recognize from whom you receive what you wish to have.

4. 6. Someone says: Why are we commanded to abstain from evils and to do good, if it is God who works in us both the willing and the doing? Let them receive this answer, by him from whom, unless it is given, that great gift is in no way to be had. Bear with me a little, my brothers — not against you, whose heart is upright with God, but against those who are wise in earthly things, or against the very thoughts of men — while I contend for the truth of heavenly and divine grace.

For this is what they say, who do not wish to be rebuked in their evil deeds by the preachers of this grace: He gave me to act; but if I do not act, it is not I who am to be rebuked, but he who is to be entreated, that he may give what he has not given — namely, that very faithful love of God and neighbor by which his commandments are kept.

Pray, then, for me, that I may receive this, and through it do from the heart, with a good will, what he commands. I would rightly be rebuked if it were by my own fault that I did not have it — that is, if I could give it to myself or take it of my own accord and did not do so, or if, when he gave it, I refused to receive it. But since the will itself is also prepared by the Lord (See Prov 8:35 (LXX)), why do you rebuke me, because you see that I am unwilling to keep his commandments, and do not rather ask him to work the willing also in me?

5. 7. To this we reply: Whoever you are who do not keep God's commandments already known to you, and do not wish to be rebuked, you are to be rebuked for this very reason, that you do not wish to be rebuked. For you do not wish your faults to be shown to you; you do not wish them to be struck, and a useful pain to be made for you by which you might seek the physician; you do not wish yourself to be shown to yourself, so that, when you see yourself deformed, you might long for the one who reforms, and beseech him not to let you remain in that ugliness.

For it is your own fault that you are evil, and a greater fault to be unwilling to be rebuked because you are evil — as though faults were to be praised, or to be held a matter of indifference, so that they are neither praised nor blamed; or as though the fear of a rebuked man, or his shame, or his pain accomplished nothing, or accomplished something other, when it goads him wholesomely, than that the good God be entreated, and out of the evil who are rebuked make good men who may be praised.

For what he who is unwilling to be rebuked wishes to be done for him — namely, that prayer be made for him — for that very reason he is to be rebuked, so that he too may act for himself. For that pain, by which he is displeased with himself when he feels the sting of rebuke, stirs him to a greater affection for prayer; so that, God showing mercy, aided by an increase of love, he may cease to do shameful and painful things, and do things to be praised and welcomed. This is the usefulness of rebuke, which is wholesomely applied, now greater, now less, according to the diversity of sins; and it is then wholesome, when the heavenly Physician looks upon it. For it profits nothing unless it brings each one to repent of his sin.

And who gives this, except the one who looked upon the apostle Peter as he denied, and made him weep (Luke 22:61-62)? Hence the apostle Paul too, after he had said that those who think differently are to be rebuked with moderation, at once added, lest perhaps God give them repentance to know the truth, and they recover themselves from the snares of the devil (2 Tim 2:25-26).

5. 8. But why do these who do not wish to be rebuked say: Only command me, and pray for me, that I may do what you command? Why do they not rather, according to their own perverse view, spurn these two things as well, and say: I do not wish either that you command me or that you pray for me? For which of men is shown to have prayed for Peter, that God might give him the repentance with which he wept that he had denied the Lord? Which of men instructed Paul in the divine commandments belonging to the Christian faith? When, therefore, he was heard preaching the Gospel and saying, For I make known to you, brethren, that the Gospel which was preached by me is not according to man; for I neither received it from man nor was I taught it, but through a revelation of Jesus Christ (Gal 1:11-12), might it have been answered to him: Why do you trouble us, that we should receive and learn from you what you yourself did not receive from man nor were taught? He who gave it to you is able to give it to us also, just as he gave it to you.

Further, if they do not dare to say this, but suffer the Gospel to be preached to them by a man — although it could also be given to a man without a man — let them grant too that they ought to be rebuked by those set over them, by whom Christian grace is preached; although it is not denied that God is able, even with no man rebuking, to correct whom he wills, and to lead him to the wholesome pain of repentance by the most hidden and most powerful authority of his medicine. And just as we must not cease from prayer for those whom we wish to be corrected — even though, with no man praying for Peter, the Lord looked upon him and made him weep for his sin — so rebuke is not to be neglected, even though God makes those whom he wills to be corrected even without rebuke. But a man profits by rebuke when he has mercy and helps who makes whom he wills to profit even without rebuke. But why these are called in this way, those in another, and others in yet another, by diverse and innumerable ways, that they may be reformed — far be it from us to say that this should be the judgment of the clay, but of the potter (See Rom 9:20-21).

6. 9. What have you, they say, that you did not receive? But if you also received it, why do you boast as though you had not received it? (1 Cor 4:7) Why, then, are we rebuked, reproved, blamed, accused? What do we do, who have not received? Those who say this wish to be seen as without fault in this, that they do not obey God; because obedience itself is indeed his gift, which must necessarily be in him in whom love is, which is without doubt from God (See 1 John 4:7), and the Father gives it to his sons. We are rebuked, they say, as though we could give it to ourselves, and refuse to give it by our own choice. And they do not consider that, if they are not yet regenerated, the first cause why, being reproved for being disobedient to God, they ought to be displeased with themselves, is that God made man upright from the beginning of the human creation, and there is no iniquity with God (Eccl 7:29; Rom 9:14). And so the first perversity, by which God is not obeyed, is from man; because, falling by his own evil will from the uprightness in which God first made him, he became perverse. Or is this perversity not to be rebuked in a man, because it is not proper to the one who is rebuked, but common to all?

On the contrary, let what belongs to all be rebuked also in individuals. For it is not therefore no one's, because no one is free of it. These original sins are indeed called another's, because individuals draw them from their parents; but not without cause are they called ours too, because in that one man all, as the Apostle says, sinned (Rom 5:12).

Let the damnable origin, then, be rebuked, so that from the pain of rebuke the will to regeneration may arise — if, however, the one rebuked is a son of promise, so that, while the noise of rebuke sounds and lashes outwardly, God may work the willing also within him by his hidden inspiration.

But if, already regenerated and justified, he relapses by his own will into an evil life, surely such a one cannot say, I did not receive — because he lost the grace of God he had received by his own free choice turned to evil. And if, stung by rebuke, he groans wholesomely and returns to like good works or even to better ones, then most plainly the usefulness of rebuke appears. But rebuke through a man, whether it be from love or not, nevertheless, in order to profit the one rebuked, comes about only through God.

6. 10. Or can this man too, unwilling to be rebuked, still say, Why am I blamed, who did not receive? — when it is established that he received, and by his own fault lost what he had received? It was, he says, by my own will that I relapsed; can I still say, What have I done, who did not receive? For I received the faith that works through love, but in it I did not receive perseverance to the end. Or will anyone dare to say that this perseverance is not the gift of God, and that this so great a good is so much our own that whoever has it the Apostle cannot say to him, For what have you that you did not receive? (1 Cor 4:7) — since he has it in such a way that he did not receive it?

To this we indeed cannot deny that perseverance also, advancing in good to the end, is a great gift of God, and is only from him of whom it is written, Every good endowment and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights (Jas 1:17). But not for that reason is the rebuke of him who has not persevered to be neglected, lest perhaps God give him repentance, and he recover himself from the snares of the devil.

For it was to the usefulness of rebuke that the Apostle joined this sentence, saying, as I recalled above, rebuking with moderation those who think differently, lest perhaps God give them repentance (2 Tim 2:25). For if we say that this perseverance, so praiseworthy and so blessed, is so much the man's own that it is not from God for him, we first do away with what the Lord said to Peter, I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail (Luke 22:32).

For what did he ask for him, except perseverance to the end? Which surely, if it were from man to man, would not have to be asked of God. Then, when the Apostle says, Now we pray to God that you may do no evil (2 Cor 13:7), he without doubt prays to God for perseverance for them. For he does no small evil who forsakes the good and, from what he ought to turn away, is bent toward evil, not persevering in the good.

In that place too where he says, I thank my God in all remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my supplication with joy, for your fellowship in the Gospel from the first day until now; being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Christ Jesus (Phil 1:3-6), what else does he promise them, from the mercy of God, but perseverance in good to the end?

And likewise where he says, Epaphras greets you, who is one of yourselves, a servant of Christ Jesus, always striving for you in his prayers, that you may stand perfect and fully assured in all the will of God (Col 4:12), what is that you may stand, but: that you may persevere? Hence it was said of the devil, He did not stand in the truth (John 8:44), because he was there, but did not remain. For these surely were already standing in the faith. And when we pray that he who stands may stand, we pray for nothing else but that he may persevere. So too the apostle Jude, when he says, Now to him who is able to keep you without stumbling, and to set you before the presence of his glory without blemish in rejoicing (Jude 24), does he not most plainly show that to persevere in good to the end is the gift of God?

For what else does he give, who keeps without stumbling, that he may set before the presence of his glory without blemish in rejoicing, but good perseverance? What too is that which we read in the Acts of the Apostles: And when the Gentiles heard this, they rejoiced, and received the word of the Lord, and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed (Acts 13:48)? Who could be ordained to eternal life, except by the gift of perseverance? Since he who perseveres to the end will be saved (Matt 10:22). And by what salvation, but eternal?

But when in the Lord's Prayer we say to God the Father, Hallowed be your name (Matt 6:9), what else do we say, but that his name may be hallowed in us? And since this has already been brought about through the bath of regeneration, why is it asked daily by the faithful, unless that in what has been done in us we may persevere? For blessed Cyprian too understands it thus: expounding this same prayer, he says: We say, Hallowed be your name; not that we wish for God that he be hallowed by our prayers, but that we ask of God that his name be hallowed in us. For by whom is God hallowed, who himself hallows? But because he himself said, Be holy, for I also am holy (Lev 19:2), this we seek and ask, that we who have been hallowed in Baptism may persevere in what we have begun to be Cyprian, On the Lord's Prayer 12.. Behold, the most glorious martyr holds that what the faithful of Christ daily ask in these words is that they may persevere in what they have begun to be. And, with no one doubting, whoever prays the Lord that he may persevere in good confesses that such perseverance is his gift.

7. 11. Since these things are so, we nevertheless rebuke, and justly rebuke, those who, though they lived well, did not persevere in it. For they were changed from a good to an evil life by their own will; and therefore they are worthy of rebuke; and if rebuke profits them nothing, but they persevere in their lost life until death, they are also worthy of eternal condemnation by God. Nor will they excuse themselves by saying, as they say now, so also then: Why are we condemned, since we did not receive the perseverance by which we might have remained in good, so that we should not return from good to evil?

In no way will they free themselves from just condemnation by this excuse. For if, as the truth says, no one is freed from the condemnation brought about through Adam except through faith in Jesus Christ, and yet those who can say that they did not hear the Gospel of Christ will not free themselves from this condemnation, since faith comes from hearing (Rom 10:17), how much less will those free themselves who are going to say, We did not receive perseverance? For the excuse of those who say, We did not receive a hearing, seems juster than that of those who say, We did not receive perseverance; since it can be said: Man, in what you had heard and held, you would have persevered if you had willed; but it can in no way be said: What you had not heard, you would have believed if you had willed.

7. 12. And by this very fact, both those who have not heard the Gospel, and those who, having heard it and been changed for the better, have not received perseverance, and those who, having heard the Gospel, have refused to come to Christ — that is, to believe in him, since he himself said, No one comes to me unless it has been granted him by my Father (John 6:65) — and those who, by reason of their tender age, could not even believe but could be absolved from the original guilt by the bath of regeneration alone, and who yet, not having received it, died and perished: none of these are distinguished from that lump which, it is plain, has been condemned, since all go from the one man into condemnation.

But they are distinguished not by their own merits, but through the grace of the Mediator — that is, justified freely in the blood of the second Adam. And so when we hear, For who distinguishes you? And what have you that you did not receive? But if you also received it, why do you boast as though you had not received it? (1 Cor 4:7), we ought to understand that no one can be distinguished from that mass of perdition which was made through the first Adam, except one who has this gift — whoever has it — which he received by the grace of the Savior. And this apostolic testimony is so weighty that blessed Cyprian, writing to Quirinus, placed it under that very heading in which he says, That nothing is to be boasted of, since nothing is ours Cyprian, To Quirinus 3.4..

7. 13. Whoever, then, have been distinguished from that original condemnation by this bounty of divine grace, there is no doubt that the hearing of the Gospel is procured for them; and when they hear, they believe; and in the faith that works through love (Gal 5:6) they persevere to the end; and if ever they go astray, when rebuked they are amended, and some of them, even if they are not rebuked by men, return to the way they had left; and some, having received grace at whatever age, are withdrawn by a swift death from the perils of this life. For all these things are worked in them by him who made them vessels of mercy, who also chose them in his Son before the foundation of the world by the election of grace.

But if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace (Rom 11:6). For they were not so called that they should not be elect; for which reason it was said, For many are called, but few are chosen (Matt 20:16; 22:14). But because they were called according to the purpose, they are surely also elect by the election, as has been said, of grace, not of their preceding merits; for to them every merit is grace.

7. 14. Of such the Apostle says, We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him, who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified (Rom 8:28-30). Of these none perishes, because all are elect.

And they are elect because they were called according to the purpose — the purpose, however, not their own, but God's; of which he says elsewhere, In order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of his call, she was told, The elder will serve the younger (Rom 9:11-13); and elsewhere, not according to our works, he says, but according to his own purpose and grace (2 Tim 1:9).

When, therefore, we hear, And those whom he predestined he also called, we ought to recognize that they were called according to the purpose; for he began from there, saying, In everything God works for good with those who are called according to his purpose; and then he added, For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren; and after these words he subjoined, And those whom he predestined he also called. He therefore wishes us to understand those whom he called according to the purpose, lest among them some be thought called and not elect, on account of that dominical saying, Many are called, but few are chosen (Matt 20:16; 22:14).

For whoever are elect are without doubt also called; but not whoever are called are consequently elect. Those, then, are elect, as has often been said, who are called according to the purpose, who are also predestined and foreknown. If any of these perishes, God is deceived; but none of them perishes, because God is not deceived. If any of these perishes, God is overcome by a human fault; but none of them perishes, because God is overcome by nothing.

And they are elect to reign with Christ — not in the way that Judas was chosen for a work to which he was suited. For he was chosen by the one who knows how to use even the evil well, so that through his damnable work that venerable work, for the sake of which he himself had come, might be accomplished. When, therefore, we hear, Did I not choose you twelve, and one of you is a devil? (John 6:70), we ought to understand that those were chosen through mercy, this one through judgment; those to obtain his kingdom, this one to shed his blood.

7. 15. Rightly there follows the voice of those elect to the kingdom: If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also give us all things with him? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies; who is to condemn? It is Christ Jesus who died, indeed who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us (Rom 8:31-34). And how strong a gift of perseverance to the end they have received, let them go on and say: Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered. But in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom 8:35-39).

7. 16. These are signified in the letter to Timothy, where, after it had been said that Hymenaeus and Philetus were subverting the faith of some, it was at once added, But God's firm foundation stands, bearing this seal: The Lord knows those who are his (2 Tim 2:19). The faith of these, which works through love (Gal 5:6), either does not fail at all, or, if there are some whose faith fails, it is repaired before this life is ended, and, the iniquity that had intervened being blotted out, perseverance to the end is reckoned to them. But those who are not going to persevere, and who are so going to fall away from the Christian faith and manner of life that the end of this life finds them such, are without doubt not to be counted in the number of these even in the time when they live well and devoutly.

For they have not been distinguished from that mass of perdition by the foreknowledge and predestination of God; and therefore they were not called according to the purpose, and so not elect either; but they are among those called of whom it was said, Many are called, not among those of whom it was said, but few are chosen. And yet who would deny that they are elect, since they believe and are baptized and live according to God? Plainly they are called elect by those who do not know what they are going to be — not by him who knows that they do not have the perseverance which leads the elect to the blessed life, and who knows that they stand in such a way that he has foreknown them to be going to fall.

8. 17. If at this point it is asked of me why God did not give perseverance to those to whom he gave the love by which they might live as Christians, I answer that I do not know. For not arrogantly, but recognizing my own small measure, I hear the Apostle saying, O man, who are you to answer back to God? (Rom 9:20), and, O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! (Rom 11:33). So far, then, as he deigns to make his judgments manifest to us, let us give thanks; but so far as he deigns to hide them, let us not murmur against his counsel, but believe that this too is most wholesome for us.

But you, whoever you are, the enemy of his grace, who ask in this way — what do you yourself say? It is well that you do not deny that you are a Christian, and you boast that you are a Catholic. If, then, you confess that to persevere in good to the end is the gift of God, why one receives this gift and another does not, I think you are as ignorant of it as I am, and we are both here unable to penetrate the inscrutable judgments of God. Or if you say that it pertains to the free choice of man — which you defend not according to God's grace but against it — that one perseveres in good or does not persevere, not by God's giving if he perseveres, but by the human will's doing it, what will you contrive against the words of him who says, I have prayed for you, Peter, that your faith may not fail (Luke 22:32)?

Or will you dare to say that, even with Christ praying that Peter's faith should not fail, it would have failed if Peter had willed it to fail — that is, if he had been unwilling that it persevere to the end? As though Peter could in any way will anything other than what Christ had prayed that he might will. For who does not know that Peter's faith would then have perished, if the very will by which he was faithful had failed, and would have remained if that same will had remained? But because the will is prepared by the Lord (Prov 8:35 (LXX)), therefore Christ's prayer for him could not be in vain. When, then, he prayed that his faith should not fail, what else did he pray, but that he might have in his faith a most free, most strong, most invincible, most persevering will? See how, according to the grace of God, not against it, the freedom of the will is defended. For the human will does not by liberty attain grace, but rather by grace attains liberty, and a delightful perpetuity that it may persevere, and an insuperable strength.

8. 18. It is indeed a thing to marvel at, and greatly to marvel at, that to some of his sons whom he has regenerated in Christ, to whom he has given faith, hope, and love, God does not give perseverance; while to sons not his own he forgives such great crimes and, by imparting grace, makes them his sons. Who would not marvel at this? Who would not be utterly astonished at this? But that other thing too is no less marvelous, and yet true, and so manifest that not even the enemies of God's grace can find how to deny it: that certain sons of his friends — that is, of the regenerate and good faithful — departing hence as little ones without Baptism (for whom, surely, if he willed, he who has all things in his power would procure the grace of this bath), he estranges from his kingdom, to which he sends their parents; while certain sons of his enemies he makes to come into the hands of Christians, and through this bath he brings them into the kingdom from which their parents are estranged — though for those little ones there is, from their own will, no evil merit, and for these no good merit.

Surely here the judgments of God, since they are just and deep, can neither be blamed nor penetrated. Among these is that concerning perseverance, of which we are now disputing. About both, then, let us cry out, O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments! (Rom 11:33).

8. 19. Nor let us marvel that we cannot trace out his inscrutable ways. For — to say nothing of countless other things which are given to some men and not to others by the Lord God, with whom there is no respect of persons (See Rom 2:11), and which are not bestowed according to the merits of wills, such as quickness, strength, good health, and beauty of body, marvelous talents, and minds whose natures are capable of many arts, or things that come from without, such as wealth, nobility, honors, and the rest of this kind, which no one has it in his power to have except in the power of God — and not to dwell even on the Baptism of little ones (which none of these men can say, as he can of those things, does not pertain to the kingdom of God), why it is given to this little one and not to that, since both are in the power of God, and without that sacrament no one enters into the kingdom of God:

to be silent, then, about these things, or to leave them aside, let them consider those very persons of whom we are treating. For we are discussing those who do not have perseverance in goodness, but die when their good will fails from good to evil. Let them answer, if they can, why God did not then snatch them from the perils of this life, while they were living faithfully and devoutly, lest wickedness alter their understanding, and lest deceit beguile their souls (Wis 4:11). Did he not have this in his power, or did he not know their future evils? Surely neither of these can be said except most perversely and most insanely. Why, then, did he not do it? Let them answer who mock us when in such matters we cry out, How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! (Rom 11:33). For God does not fail to grant this to whom he wills, nor does that Scripture lie which says, of the death as it were untimely of a righteous man, He was snatched away, lest wickedness should alter his understanding, or guile beguile his soul (Wis 4:11).

Why, then, does God give this so great a benefit to some and not to others — God, with whom there is no iniquity nor respect of persons, and in whose power it is how long each one remains in this life, which has been called a trial upon earth (See Job 7:1)? Just as, then, they are compelled to confess that it is the gift of God for a man to end this life before he is changed from good to evil, but are ignorant why it is granted to some and not to others, so let them confess with us that perseverance in good is the gift of God, according to the Scriptures, of which I have already set down many testimonies; and why it is given to some and not to others, let them deign to be ignorant with us, without murmuring against God.

9. 20. Nor let it move us that God does not give this perseverance to some of his sons. For far be it that it should be so, if they were among those predestined and called according to the purpose, who are truly sons of promise. For these, when they live devoutly, are called sons of God; but because they are going to live impiously and to die in that same impiety, the foreknowledge of God does not call them sons of God.

For there are sons of God who are not yet so to us, and are already so to God; of whom the evangelist John says, that Jesus was to die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad (John 11:51-52) — which surely they were going to be by believing, through the preaching of the Gospel; and yet, before it was done, they were already sons of God, written with unshaken stability in the memorial of their Father.

And there are again certain ones who are called sons of God by us on account of grace received even temporarily, and yet are not so to God; of whom the same John says, They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us (1 John 2:19). He does not say: They went out from us, but because they did not remain with us, they are now not of us; rather he says, They went out from us, but they were not of us — that is: Even when they seemed to be among us, they were not of us.

And as though it were said to him, How do you show this?, For if they had been of us, he says, they would have continued with us. It is the voice of the sons of God: John speaks, set in a foremost place among the sons of God. When, therefore, the sons of God say of those who did not have perseverance, They went out from us, but they were not of us, and add, For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us, what else do they say, but: They were not sons, even when they were in the profession and name of sons? Not because they feigned righteousness, but because they did not continue in it.

For he does not say: For if they had been of us, they would surely have held with us a true, not a feigned, righteousness; but, if they had been of us, he says, they would have continued with us. He wished them, without doubt, to continue in good. They were therefore in good; but because they did not continue in it — that is, did not persevere to the end — they were not, he says, of us, even when they were with us; that is, they were not of the number of the sons, even when they were in the faith of the sons; since those who are truly sons are foreknown and predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, and were called according to the purpose that they might be elect. For the son of promise does not perish, but the son of perdition (See John 17:12).

. . . nor are they called according to the purpose.

9. 21. These, then, were of the multitude of the called; but of the few who are elect they were not. God therefore did not fail to give perseverance to his predestined sons: for they would have it if they were in that number of sons; and what would they have that they had not received (See 1 Cor 4:7), according to the apostolic and true saying? And by this such sons would have been given to the Son, Christ, just as he himself says to the Father, That of all that you have given me I should lose nothing, but that it should have eternal life (John 6:39; see 3:15).

These, then, are understood to be given to Christ, who are ordained to eternal life. These are the predestined and called according to the purpose, of whom none perishes. And so none of them, changed from good to evil, ends this life; because he is so ordained, and therefore given to Christ, that he should not perish, but have eternal life. And again, those whom we call his enemies, or the little sons of his enemies — whomever of them he is going to regenerate in such a way that they end this life in that faith which works through love (See Gal 5:6) — even before this comes about, are already, in that predestination, his sons, and have been given to Christ his Son, that they should not perish, but have eternal life.

9. 22. Finally, the Savior himself says, If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples (John 8:31). Is Judas to be counted among these, who did not continue in his word? Are those to be counted among these of whom the Gospel speaks thus, where the Lord, after he had commended the eating of his flesh and the drinking of his blood, the evangelist says, This he said in the synagogue, as he taught at Capernaum. Many of his disciples, when they heard it, said, This is a hard saying; who can listen to it? But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples murmured at it, said to them, Do you take offense at this? Then what if you were to see the Son of man ascending where he was before? It is the spirit that gives life, the flesh is of no avail; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe. For Jesus knew from the first who those were that did not believe, and who it was that should betray him. And he said, This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by my Father. After this many of his disciples drew back and no longer walked with him (John 6:59-66)?

Were these too not called disciples, as the Gospel says? And yet they were not truly disciples, because they did not continue in his word, according to what he says, If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples. Because, then, they did not have perseverance, just as they were not truly disciples of Christ, so neither were they truly sons of God, even when they seemed to be and were so called.

We therefore call them both elect, and disciples of Christ, and sons of God, because they are so to be called whom we see, regenerated, living devoutly; but they are then truly what they are called, if they continue in that on account of which they are so called. But if they do not have perseverance — that is, do not continue in what they have begun to be — they are not truly called what they are called and are not: for before him to whom it is known what they are going to be — that is, evil out of good — they are not this.

9. 23. For this reason the Apostle, when he had said, We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him, knowing that some love God and do not continue in that good to the end, at once added, who are called according to his purpose (Rom 8:28). For these continue in their love of God to the end; and those who for a time deviate from it return, so as to bring to the end what they have begun to be in good. And, showing what it is to be called according to the purpose, he at once added the words I have already set down above, For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren; and those whom he predestined he also called — namely, according to the purpose — and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified (Rom 8:29-30). All those things have already been done: he foreknew, he predestined, he called, he justified; for all have already been foreknown and predestined, and many have already been called and justified;

but what he placed at the end, he also glorified (if indeed that glory is to be understood here of which he himself says, When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory (Col 3:4)) — that has not yet been done. Although those two also, that is, he called and justified, have not been done in all of whom they are said: for until the end of the age many are still to be called and justified; and yet he used words of past time about things even still to come, as though God had already done what he has already arranged from eternity to be done. Therefore the prophet Isaiah too says of him, He who made the things that are to come (Isa 45:11 (LXX)). Whoever, then, in God's most provident arrangement have been foreknown, predestined, called, justified, glorified — I do not say even those not yet reborn, but even those not yet born — are already sons of God, and can in no way perish.

These truly come to Christ; for they come in the way he himself describes: All that the Father gives me will come to me, and him who comes to me I will not cast out (John 6:37). And a little later, This is the will of him who sent me, the Father, he says, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me (John 6:39). By him, then, is also given perseverance in good to the end; for it is given only to those who will not perish, since those who do not persevere will perish.

9. 24. For such, who love him, God works all things for good — so utterly all things that, even if any of them deviate and go astray, he makes even this very thing profit them for good, because they return more humble and more instructed. For they learn in the just way itself that they ought to rejoice with trembling, not arrogating to themselves, as it were on the strength of their own power, a confidence of remaining, nor saying in their abundance, We shall never be moved (See Ps 30:7 (29:7)). For which reason it is said to them, Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling, lest at any time the Lord be angry, and you perish from the just way (Ps 2:11-12).

For he does not say: And you do not come to the just way; but, lest you perish, he says, from the just way; showing what, except that those are admonished who already walk in the just way, to serve God in fear — that is, not to be high-minded, but to fear (See Rom 11:20)? Which means: Let them not be proud, but be humble; whence elsewhere too he says, Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly (Rom 12:16): let them rejoice in God, but with trembling; boasting in nothing, since nothing is ours, so that he who boasts may boast in the Lord (See Jer 9:23-24; 1 Cor 1:31; 2 Cor 10:17): lest they perish from the just way in which they have already begun to walk, while they ascribe to themselves the very fact that they are in it.

The Apostle used these words too, where he says, Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. And showing why with fear and trembling, For God is at work in you, he says, both to will and to work, for his good pleasure (Phil 2:12-13). For he did not have this fear and trembling who said in his abundance, I shall never be moved (Ps 30:7 (29:7)). But because he was a son of promise, not of perdition, having experienced, when God deserted him a little, what he himself was, Lord, he says, by your favor you had established strength for my beauty; you turned away your face from me, and I was troubled (Ps 30:8 (29:8)).

Behold, more instructed, and for this reason more humble too, he held to the way, now seeing and confessing that by his favor God had established strength for his beauty: which, ascribing it to himself and presuming about himself in such abundance as God had bestowed — not about him who had bestowed it — he had said, I shall never be moved. He was therefore troubled, that he might find himself, and, humbly wise, might learn in whom hope was to be placed, not only of eternal life, but also, in this life, of a devout manner of living and of perseverance.

This could also be the voice of the apostle Peter: for he too had said in his abundance, I will lay down my life for you (John 13:37), attributing to himself in haste what was afterward to be bestowed on him by the Lord. But the Lord turned his face away from him, and he was troubled, so that, fearing to die for him, he denied him three times. But again the Lord turned his face back to him, and he washed away his fault with tears. For what else is he looked upon him (Luke 22:61), but: he recalled to him the face which he had turned a little away from him?

He had therefore been troubled; but because he learned not to trust in himself, even this profited him for good, by the working of him who works all things for good with those who love him (Rom 8:28); because he was called according to the purpose, so that no one could snatch him from the hand of Christ, to whom he had been given.

9. 25. Let no one, then, say that one who goes astray from the just way is not to be rebuked, but that return and perseverance are to be sought from the Lord for him alone; let no prudent and faithful person say this. For if this man was called according to the purpose, then without doubt God works for his good even the fact that he is rebuked.

But whether he has been so called, since the one who rebukes does not know, let him do with love what he knows is to be done: for he knows that such a one is to be rebuked, God being about to work either mercy or judgment — mercy indeed, if the one rebuked has been distinguished from the mass of perdition by the bounty of grace, and is not among the vessels of wrath that are made for perdition, but among the vessels of mercy which God has prepared for glory (See Rom 9:22-23); but judgment, if among those he is condemned, and among these he is not predestined.

10. 26. Here another question arises, by no means to be despised, but to be undertaken and solved with the help of the Lord, in whose hand are both we and our words (See Wis 7:16). For it is asked of us, as concerns this gift of God which is to persevere in good to the end, what we are to think about the first man himself, who was surely made upright without any fault. I do not say: If he did not have perseverance, how was he without fault, when so necessary a gift of God was lacking to him? For this question is easily answered: that he did not have perseverance, because he did not persevere in that good in which he was without fault; for he began to have a fault from the moment he fell; and if he began, then before he began he was surely without fault. For it is one thing not to have a fault, and another not to remain in that goodness in which there is no fault. For by the very fact that he is not said never to have been without fault, but is said not to have remained without fault, it is without doubt shown that he was without fault, in which good he is blamed for not having remained.

But this must rather be asked, and treated more laboriously: how we are to answer those who say: If the first man was made with free choice, and received the help without which he could not remain in good if he willed, but by which he was not made to will — if he had perseverance, without doubt he persevered in it; and if he persevered, then surely he did not sin, nor did he forsake that uprightness of his and God. But that he sinned, and was a deserter of the good, the truth cries out. Therefore he did not have perseverance in that good; and if he did not have it, then surely he did not receive it. For how could he both have received perseverance and not have persevered? Moreover, if he did not have it because he did not receive it, what did he sin in not persevering, who did not receive perseverance? For it cannot be said that he did not receive it because he was not distinguished from the mass of perdition by the bounty of grace. For there was not yet in the human race that mass of perdition before he sinned, from which the corrupted origin was drawn.

10. 27. Therefore we most wholesomely confess what we most rightly believe, that God, the Lord of all things, who created all things very good, and foreknew that evils would arise out of goods, and knew that it belonged more to his most almighty goodness to do well even out of evils than not to allow evils to be, so ordered the life of angels and of men that in it he might first show what their free choice could do, and then what the benefit of his grace and the judgment of his justice could do. And so certain angels, whose prince is he who is called the devil, became, through free choice, fugitives from the Lord God. Yet, fleeing his goodness, by which they had been blessed, they could not escape his judgment, by which they were made most wretched. But the rest, through the same free choice, stood fast in the truth, and merited to know, with the fullest certainty, that they would never fall.

For if we have been able to know from the holy Scriptures that no holy angels are now going to fall, how much more did they themselves know this, by the truth more sublimely revealed to them? For to us a blessed life without end has been promised, and equality with the angels (See Matt 22:30): from which promise we are certain that, when we come to that life after the judgment, we will not fall from it; and if the angels do not know this about themselves, we will be not equal, but more blessed.

But the truth has promised us equality with them. It is certain, therefore, that they know by sight what we know by faith — namely, that no fall of any holy angel is now going to occur. But the devil and his angels, although they were blessed before they fell, and did not know that they were going to fall into misery, yet there was still something that would be added to their blessedness, if through free choice they had stood fast in the truth, until they should receive that fullness of supreme blessedness as the reward of their very perseverance — that is, so that, by the great abundance of the love of God given through the Holy Spirit, they could no longer fall at all, and would know this about themselves most certainly. This fullness of blessedness they did not have; but because they did not know their future misery, they were enjoying a blessedness — lesser indeed, yet still a blessedness — without any fault. For if they had known their future fall and eternal punishment, they surely could not have been blessed, since the fear of so great an evil would have compelled them to be wretched even then.

. . . and the judgment of justice in man.

10. 28. So too he made man with free choice, and, though ignorant of his future fall, yet blessed, because he perceived that it was in his own power both not to die and not to become wretched. In which upright and faultless state, if he had willed to remain through that same free choice, surely, without any experience of death and unhappiness, he would have received, as the merit of this perseverance, that fullness of blessedness by which the holy angels too are blessed — that is, so that he could fall no further, and would know this most certainly. For he himself could not have been blessed even in paradise — indeed, he would not have been there, where it would not be fitting to be wretched — if the foreknowledge of his fall had made him wretched by the fear of so great an evil.

But because through free choice he forsook God, he experienced the just judgment of God, so that he was condemned together with his whole stock, which, still set in him, had all sinned with him. For as many of this stock as are set free by the grace of God are surely set free from the condemnation by which they are already held bound.

Hence, even if no one were set free, no one would justly reproach the just judgment of God. That, then, a few in comparison with those who perish — but in their own number many — are set free, comes about by grace, comes about freely; thanks are to be given because it comes about, lest anyone be lifted up as if on his own merits, but that every mouth may be stopped (Rom 3:19), and he who boasts may boast in the Lord.

11. 29. What, then? Did Adam not have the grace of God? On the contrary, he had a great grace, but one unlike ours. He was among the goods which he had received from the goodness of his Creator; for he had not procured those goods by his own merits, in which he suffered no evil at all. But the saints in this life, to whom this grace of liberation pertains, are among evils, out of which they cry to God, Deliver us from evil (Matt 6:13). He, among those goods, had no need of the death of Christ; the blood of that Lamb absolves these from guilt both inherited and their own.

He had no need of the help which these implore when they say, I see another law in my members, at war with the law of my mind, and making me captive to the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord (Rom 7:23-25). For in them the flesh lusts against the spirit (See Gal 5:17), and the spirit against the flesh, and, laboring and imperiled in such a struggle, they ask that strength to fight and to conquer be given them through the grace of Christ. But he, tried and disturbed by no such strife of himself against himself, was enjoying his own peace with himself in that place of blessedness.

11. 30. Accordingly, even if for the time these do not now need a more joyful grace, yet they need a more powerful one: and what is more powerful than the only-begotten Son of God, equal to the Father and coeternal, made man for them, and crucified by sinful men without any sin of his own, whether original or proper? Who, although he rose on the third day, never to die again, yet bore death for mortals, he who granted life to the dead, so that those redeemed by his blood, having received so great and such a pledge, might say, If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also give us all things with him? (Rom 8:31-32).

God therefore took up our nature — that is, the rational soul and the flesh of the man Christ — by an assumption singularly wonderful, or wonderfully singular, so that, with no preceding merits of his righteousness, the Son of God was, from the beginning at which he began to be man, such that he himself and the Word, which is without beginning, were one person. For no one is so blind with ignorance of this matter and of the faith as to dare to say that, although the son of man was born of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, yet by free choice, by living well and by doing good works without sin, he merited to be the Son of God — the Gospel resisting and saying, The Word was made flesh (John 1:14). For where was this done, except in the virginal womb, whence was the beginning of the man Christ?

And likewise, when the Virgin asked how that which was announced to her by the angel would come about, the angel answered, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the holy one to be born of you will be called the Son of God (Luke 1:35). Therefore, he says: not because of works, which surely are none for one not yet born; but therefore, because the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; the holy one to be born of you will be called the Son of God.

That nativity, surely gratuitous, joined man to God in the unity of person, flesh to the Word. Good works followed that nativity; good works did not merit it. For there was no reason to fear that, the human nature having been taken up by the Word, God, into the unity of person in this ineffable way, it might sin through the free choice of the will, since the assumption itself was such that the nature of man, so taken up by God, would admit in itself no movement of an evil will. Through this Mediator God shows that those whom he has redeemed by his blood he makes, out of evil, thereafter good for eternity — the one whom he so took up that he was never evil, nor, made out of evil, was he always good.

11. 31. The first man did not have that grace by which he would never will to be evil; but he surely had a grace in which, if he had willed to remain, he would never be evil, and without which, even with free choice, he could not be good, yet which he could forsake through free choice. God therefore did not will even him to be without his grace, which he left in his free choice. For free choice suffices for evil, but is too little for good unless it is helped by the omnipotent Good. If that man had not forsaken this help through free choice, he would always be good; but he forsook it, and was forsaken. For the help was such that he could forsake it when he willed, and could remain in it if he willed — not such that it brought it about that he willed. This is the first grace, which was given to the first Adam; but more powerful than this is the grace in the second Adam. For the first is that by which it comes about that man has righteousness if he wills; the second, then, can do more, by which it even comes about that he wills, and so wills, and with so great an ardor loves, that he overcomes by the will of the spirit the will of the flesh that desires contrary things.

Nor was that first grace a small thing, by which the power of free choice was also shown, since he was so helped that without this help he would not remain in good, but could forsake this help if he willed. But this latter grace is so much greater that it is too little for a man, through it, to repair his lost freedom; too little, in short, that without it he can neither lay hold of the good nor remain in the good if he wills, unless it is also brought about that he wills.

11. 32. Then, therefore, God had given man a good will: for in that he had made him who made him upright; he had given the help without which he could not remain in it if he willed; but that he should will it, he left in his free choice. He could therefore remain if he willed: because the help was not lacking by which he could, and without which he could not perseveringly hold the good that he willed. But because he was unwilling to remain, surely it is his fault, just as it would have been his merit if he had willed to remain — as the holy angels did, who, while others fell through free choice, themselves stood through that same free choice, and merited to receive the due reward of this perseverance, namely so great a fullness of blessedness that they have the fullest certainty that they will always remain in it. But if this help had been lacking either to angel or to man when they were first made — since the nature made was not such that it could remain if it willed without divine help — surely they would not have fallen by their own fault: for the help would have been lacking, without which they could not remain.

But now, for those to whom such help is lacking, it is already the penalty of sin; while for those to whom it is given, it is given according to grace, not according to debt; and it is given so much more abundantly through Jesus Christ our Lord, to those to whom it has pleased God to give it, that not only is there present that without which we cannot remain even if we will, but it is also so great and such that we will. For it comes about in us, through this grace of God, in the receiving and perseveringly holding of good, that we not only can do what we will, but also will what we can.

This was not the case in the first man: for of these two, the one was in him, the other was not. For in order to receive the good he did not need grace, because he had not yet lost it; but in order to remain in it he needed the help of grace, without which he could in no way do so; and he had received the power, if he willed, but he did not have the willing of what he could; for if he had had it, he would have persevered. For he could persevere if he willed; but that he was unwilling came from free choice, which then was so free that it could will both good and evil.

But what will be freer than free choice, when it cannot be a slave to sin — which would have been the reward of merit for man too, as it has been made for the holy angels? But now, the good merit having been lost through sin, in those who are set free that has been made a gift of grace which would have been the reward of merit.

12. 33. For this reason we must look diligently and watchfully at how these pairs differ from each other: to be able not to sin (posse non peccare) and to be unable to sin (non posse peccare); to be able not to die and to be unable to die; to be able not to forsake the good and to be unable to forsake the good. For the first man was able not to sin, was able not to die, was able not to forsake the good. Are we going to say: He was unable to sin, who had such free choice? Or: He was unable to die, to whom it was said, If you sin, you will die the death (Gen 2:17)? Or: He was unable to forsake the good, when he did forsake it by sinning, and therefore died? The first freedom of the will, then, was to be able not to sin; the last will be much greater, to be unable to sin. The first immortality was to be able not to die; the last will be much greater, to be unable to die. The first was the power of perseverance, to be able not to forsake the good; the last will be the felicity of perseverance, to be unable to forsake the good. Is it that, because the last goods will be more excellent and better, those first goods were therefore either nothing or small?

12. 34. Likewise the helps themselves must be distinguished. One is a help without which a thing does not come about (adiutorium sine quo non), and another is a help by which a thing comes about (adiutorium quo). For without food we cannot live, and yet, when food is present, it does not bring it about that one who wishes to die should live. The help of food, then, is one without which we do not live, not one by which we live. But blessedness, which a man does not have — when it is given, he at once becomes blessed. For it is a help not only without which the thing does not come about, but also by which it comes about, for the sake of which it is given. Wherefore this help is both that by which a thing comes about and that without which it does not come about: because if blessedness is given to a man, he at once becomes blessed; and if it is never given, he will never be blessed. But food does not consequently bring it about that a man lives; and yet without it he cannot live.

And so to the first man, who, in the good in which he had been made upright, had received the power to be able not to sin, to be able not to die, to be able not to forsake that very good, the help of perseverance was given — not such that it would bring it about that he persevered, but such that without it he could not persevere through free choice. But now, to the saints predestined to the kingdom of God by the grace of God, not such a help of perseverance is given, but such that perseverance itself is bestowed on them: not only so that without this gift they cannot be persevering, but also so that through this gift they are nothing other than persevering. For he not only said, Without me you can do nothing, but also said, You did not choose me, but I chose you, and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should abide (John 15:5, 16).

By which words he showed that he gave them not only righteousness, but also perseverance in it. For since Christ so appoints them that they should go, and bear fruit, and that their fruit should abide, who would dare to say, It will not abide? Who would dare to say, Perhaps it will not abide? For the gifts and the call of God are without repentance (Rom 11:29) — but the call of those who are called according to the purpose. For these, then, with Christ interceding that their faith may not fail, it will without doubt not fail to the end; and by this it will persevere to the end, and the end of this life will not find it except abiding.

12. 35. For a greater freedom is necessary against so many and so great temptations, which were not in paradise — a freedom fortified and strengthened by the gift of perseverance, so that this world, with all its loves, terrors, and errors, may be overcome: this the martyrdoms of the saints have taught.

In the end, that man, with no one terrifying him, and moreover against the command of God who terrified him (See Gen 2:17), having used free choice, did not stand fast in so great a felicity, in so great an ease of not sinning; but these, I do not say with the world terrifying them, but raging that they should not stand fast, stood fast in the faith; whereas he saw the present goods that he was going to leave, while these did not see the future goods that they were going to receive.

Whence is this, but by the gift of him from whom they obtained mercy to be faithful (1 Cor 7:25), from whom they received a spirit not of fear, by which they would yield to their persecutors, but of power and love and self-control (2 Tim 1:7), by which they might overcome all things threatening, all things enticing, all things tormenting?

To him, then, without any sin, free will was given, with which he was created, and he made it a slave to sin; but the will of these, since it had been a slave of sin, was set free by him who said, If the Son sets you free, then you will be truly free (John 8:36). And they receive through this grace so great a freedom that, although, as long as they live here, they fight against the desires of sins, and some of these creep upon them, on account of which they say daily, Forgive us our debts (Matt 6:12), yet they no longer serve the sin that is unto death,

of which the apostle John says, There is a sin unto death; I do not say that one should pray for that (1 John 5:16). About this sin (since it is not expressed) many and diverse things can be thought; but I say that this is the sin: to forsake, until death, the faith that works through love. This sin they no longer serve, not free by the first condition, as he was; but set free by the grace of God through the second Adam, and, by this liberation, having free choice by which they serve God, not by which they are taken captive by the devil.

For, set free from sin, they have become slaves of righteousness (Rom 6:18), in which they will stand to the end, he granting them perseverance who foreknew them, and predestined them, and called them according to the purpose, and justified them, and glorified them (See Rom 8:28-30); since those things which he promised concerning them he has already even done: in whom, as he promised, Abraham believed, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. For he gave glory to God, being fully convinced, as it is written, that what he had promised he was able also to do (Rom 4:3, 19-21).

12. 36. He himself, then, makes them good, that they may do good. For he did not promise them to Abraham because he foreknew that they would be good of themselves. For if it is so, then what he promised is not his, but theirs. But Abraham did not so believe; rather, he was not weakened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what he had promised he was able also to do (Rom 4:3, 19-21). He does not say: What he foreknew, he is able to promise; or: What he foretold, he is able to show; or: What he promised, he is able to foreknow; but, what he promised, he is able also to do.

He himself, therefore, makes them persevere in good, who makes them good. But those who fall and perish were not in the number of the predestined. Although, then, the Apostle was speaking of all the regenerate and those who live devoutly when he said, Who are you to judge another's servant? It is before his own master that he stands or falls, yet he at once looked to the predestined, and said, And he will stand; and, lest they arrogate this to themselves, For God is able, he says, to make him stand (Rom 14:4). He himself, then, gives perseverance, who is able to make those who stand to stand most perseveringly, or to restore those who have fallen: for the Lord raises up those who are bowed down (Ps 146:8 (145:8)).

12. 37. So that the first man should not receive this gift of God — that is, perseverance in good — but should have it left to his own choice to persevere or not to persevere, his will had such powers, having been established without any sin, and nothing in him resisted by way of concupiscence, that the choice of persevering was worthily committed to so great a goodness and so great an ease of living well: God indeed foreknowing what he would unjustly do; yet foreknowing, not compelling him to it; but knowing at the same time what he himself would justly do with him. But now, after that great freedom was lost through the merit of sin, the weakness that remained has to be helped by even greater gifts.

For it pleased God, that he might above all extinguish the pride of human presumption, that no flesh should boast before him — that is, no man. But whence would flesh boast before him, except of its own merits? Which indeed it could have had, but lost; and that by which it could have had them, by that it lost them — that is, by free choice: on account of which nothing remains for those to be set free but the grace of him who sets them free.

Thus, then, no flesh boasts before him. For the unrighteous do not boast, who have no ground for it; nor the righteous, because they have from him the ground for it, and have no glory of their own but him, to whom they say, my glory, and the one who lifts up my head (Ps 3:3 (3:4)). And by this it pertains to every man, what is written, That no flesh should boast before him. But to the righteous pertains that other word, Let him who boasts boast in the Lord (1 Cor 1:29, 31). For the Apostle shows this most plainly, who, after he had said, That no flesh should boast before him, lest the saints should think themselves left without glory, at once added, But from him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption; so that, as it is written, Let him who boasts boast in the Lord (1 Cor 1:30-31). Hence it is that in this place of miseries, where human life upon earth is a trial (See Job 7:1), power is made perfect in weakness (2 Cor 12:9): which power, except that he who boasts may boast in the Lord?

12. 38. And by this God willed his saints to boast, even concerning perseverance in good itself, not in their own strength, but in him: who gives them not only such a help as he gave the first man, without which they cannot persevere if they will, but also works in them the willing: so that, since they will not persevere unless they both can and will, both the possibility and the will of persevering are bestowed on them by the bounty of divine grace. For their will is so kindled by the Holy Spirit that they can, because they so will; and they so will, because God works that they will.

For if, in so great a weakness of this life (in which weakness, nevertheless, power had to be made perfect, in order to repress elation), their own will were left to them, so that they might remain in the help of God without which they could not persevere, if they willed — and God did not work in them that they should will — their will itself would, amid so many and so great temptations, succumb through its weakness, and therefore they could not persevere, because, failing through weakness, they would either not will it, or not will it, through the weakness of the will, so strongly as they could.

Help was therefore brought to the weakness of the human will, so that it might be moved by divine grace undeviatingly and insuperably; and therefore, though weak, it would still not fail, nor be overcome by any adversity. Thus it came about that the will of man, invalid and feeble, perseveres in a good still small through the power of God: whereas the will of the first man, strong and sound, did not persevere in a more ample good, having the power of free choice, although the help of God, without which he could not persevere if he willed, would not be lacking — yet not such a help by which God would work in him that he should will.

For to the very strong one he let go and permitted him to do what he willed; for the weak he reserved this, that, by his own gift, they should most invincibly will what is good, and should most invincibly be unwilling to forsake it. When, therefore, Christ says, I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail (Luke 22:32), let us understand that it was said to one who is built upon the rock (See Matt 16:18). And so the man of God, not only because he obtained mercy to be faithful, but also because that faith itself does not fail — let him who boasts boast in the Lord (1 Cor 1:31).

13. 39. I say these things of those who are predestined to the kingdom of God, whose number is so certain that none is either added to them or taken from them: not of those who, when he had announced and spoken, were multiplied beyond number (Ps 40:5 (39:6)). For these can be called the called, but not the elect, because they are not called according to the purpose. That the number of the elect is certain, neither to be increased nor diminished, John the Baptist also signifies, where he says, Bear fruit therefore worthy of repentance; and do not presume to say to yourselves, We have Abraham as our father; for God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham (Matt 3:8-9) — to show that these are to be cut off in such a way, if they do not bear fruit, that the number which was promised to Abraham should not be lacking. Yet it is said more plainly in the Apocalypse, Hold fast what you have, that no one may seize your crown (Rev 3:11). For if another is not going to receive it unless this one loses it, the number is certain.

13. 40. But that these things are said even to saints who are going to persevere, as though it were held uncertain whether they would persevere, those for whom it is expedient not to be high-minded, but to fear (See Rom 11:20), ought not to hear them otherwise. For who, of the multitude of the faithful, as long as he lives in this mortality, may presume that he is in the number of the predestined? For it is necessary that this be hidden in this place, where elation is so to be guarded against that even so great an Apostle, lest he be lifted up, was buffeted by an angel of Satan (See 2 Cor 12:7).

Hence it was said to the apostles, If you abide in me (John 15:7) — said by him who surely knew that they would abide. And through the Prophet, If you are willing and hear me (Isa 1:19) — though he himself knew in whom he would work the willing also (Phil 2:13). And many like things are said.

For on account of the usefulness of this secret — lest perhaps anyone be lifted up, but that all, even those who run well, may fear, while it is hidden who will arrive — on account, then, of the usefulness of this secret, it must be believed that some of the sons of perdition, not having received the gift of persevering to the end, begin to live in the faith that works through love, and for a time live faithfully and righteously, and afterward fall, and are not taken from this life before this befalls them. If this had befallen none of them, men would have that most wholesome fear, by which the vice of elation is held down, only until they came to the grace of Christ by which one lives devoutly, thereafter secure that they would never fall from it.

Which presumption is not expedient in this place of temptations, where the weakness is so great that security can engender pride. In the end, this too will be; but then, what is already in the angels will be in men also, when there can be no pride. The number of the saints, therefore, predestined by the grace of God to the kingdom of God, perseverance even to the end having been bestowed on them, will be brought there whole, and there will be kept most whole, now without end most blessed, the mercy of their Savior clinging to them, whether when they are converted, or when they do battle, or when they are crowned.

. . . because the mercy of God is necessary even to the predestined.

13. 41. For that the mercy of God is necessary to them even then, holy Scripture testifies, where the holy one says to his soul concerning the Lord his God, who crowns you with compassion and mercy (Ps 103:4 (102:4)). The apostle James also says, Judgment without mercy to him who has shown no mercy (Jas 2:13) — where he shows that even in that judgment, in which the righteous are crowned and the unrighteous condemned, some are to be judged with mercy, others without mercy. For which reason the mother of the Maccabees too says to her son, that in that compassion I may receive you with your brothers (2 Macc 7:29). For when a righteous king, as it is written, shall sit on the throne, nothing evil will withstand before him. Who will boast that he has a chaste heart? Or who will boast that he is clean from sin? (Prov 20:8-9 (LXX)). And by this even there the mercy of God is necessary, by which one becomes blessed, to whom the Lord has not imputed sin (Ps 32:2 (31:2)).

But then, for the merits of good works, by a just judgment that mercy itself will be bestowed. For when it is said, Judgment without mercy to him who has shown no mercy, it is made clear that in those in whom good works of mercy are found, judgment comes with mercy; and by this that mercy itself too is rendered to the merits of good works.

It is not so now, when his mercy goes before a man — not only with no good works, but even with many evil works preceding — so that he is set free from the evils both that he has done, and that he would have done had he not been governed by the grace of God, and that he would have suffered for eternity had he not been rescued from the power of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of the Son of God's love (See Col 1:13).

Nevertheless, because eternal life itself too, which it is certain is rendered as a debt to good works, is called by so great an Apostle the grace of God (Rom 6:23) — though grace is not rendered to works, but given freely — it must be confessed, without any doubt, that eternal life is therefore called grace, because it is rendered to those merits which grace conferred on man. For rightly is that understood which is read in the Gospel, Grace for grace (See John 1:16) — that is, for those merits which grace conferred.

13. 42. But those who do not belong to this number of the predestined — whom the grace of God leads to the kingdom, whether not yet having any free choice of their own will, or with a choice of will, and therefore truly free, because freed through that very grace — these, then, who do not belong to that most certain and most blessed number, are most justly judged according to their merits. For either they lie under the sin which they drew originally by generation, and depart hence with that hereditary debt which has not been remitted by regeneration; or through free choice they have added still others besides — free choice, I say, but not freed: free as regards righteousness, but a slave of sin, by which they are tossed about through various harmful desires, some more, some less, but all evil, and to be judged with diverse punishments according to that very diversity. Or they receive the grace of God, but are temporary, and do not persevere; they forsake and are forsaken. For they are left to free choice, the gift of perseverance not having been received, by the just and hidden judgment of God.
Let men suffer themselves to be rebuked, and let those who rebuke apply love.

14. 43. Let men, therefore, suffer themselves to be rebuked when they sin, and let them not argue, from rebuke itself, against grace, nor, from grace, against rebuke; because both a just penalty is due to sins, and to that penalty pertains the just rebuke which is applied medicinally, even if the recovery of the sick man is uncertain: so that, if the one rebuked belongs to the number of the predestined, the rebuke may be for him a wholesome medicine; but if he does not belong, the rebuke may be for him a penal torment.

Under this uncertainty, then, it is to be applied out of love, since its outcome is unknown; and for the one to whom it is applied, prayer must be made that he may be healed. But when men, through rebuke, either come or return to the way of righteousness, who works salvation in their hearts, except he who, whoever plants and whoever waters, and whoever works in the fields or among the young trees, gives the increase, God (See 1 Cor 3:6-7); whom, when he wills to save, no man's choice resists? For to will or not to will is in the power of the one willing or not willing in such a way that it does not impede the divine will, nor overcome its power. For even of those who do what he does not will, he himself does what he wills.

14. 44. And what is written, that he wills all men to be saved (1 Tim 2:4), and yet not all are saved, can be understood in many ways, of which we have mentioned some in other works of ours; but here I will say one. It is so said, He wills all men to be saved, that all the predestined are to be understood; because every kind of men is among them. Just as it was said to the Pharisees, You tithe every herb (Luke 11:42) — where nothing is to be understood but every herb that they had; for they did not tithe every herb that was in the whole world. According to this manner of speaking it was said, Just as I too please all men in all things (1 Cor 10:33). For did he who said this please even so many of his persecutors? But he pleased every kind of men, which the Church of Christ was gathering, whether those already placed within it, or those to be brought into it.

14. 45. It is therefore not to be doubted that the wills of men cannot resist the will of God, who in heaven and on earth has done whatever he willed (See Ps 135:6 (134:6)), and who has even made the things that are to come (See Isa 45:11 (LXX)), so as to keep him from doing what he wills: since even concerning the wills of men themselves, he does what he wills, when he wills. Unless perhaps (to mention some out of many) when God willed to give the kingdom to Saul, it was in the power of the Israelites to subject themselves to that man, or not to subject themselves — which surely was placed in their will — in such a way that they were able even to resist God.

Yet he did this only through the wills of those men themselves, without doubt having the most almighty power of inclining the hearts of men wherever it pleased him. For so it is written, And Samuel dismissed the people, and each one went to his own place; and Saul went to his house in Gibeah; and there went with Saul mighty men whose hearts the Lord had touched. But worthless men said, How can this man save us? And they despised him, and brought him no gifts (1 Sam 10:25-27). Will anyone say that any of those whose hearts the Lord touched, that they should go with Saul, was not going to go with him; or that any of the worthless men, whose hearts he did not touch that they should do this, went?

Likewise of David, whom the Lord established in the kingdom with more prosperous success, it is so read, And David went on and grew great, and the Lord was with him (1 Chr 11:9). When this had been set down beforehand, a little later it was said, And the Spirit clothed Amasai, chief of the thirty, and he said, We are yours, O David, and with you, son of Jesse. Peace, peace to you, and peace to your helpers, for your God has helped you (1 Chr 12:18). Could this man oppose the will of God, and not rather do his will, who worked in his heart, through his Spirit with which he was clothed, that he should will, say, and do this?

Likewise a little later the same Scripture says, All these men of war, drawing up the line of battle with a peaceful heart, came to Hebron, to make David king over all Israel (1 Chr 12:38). By their own will, surely, these made David king. Who does not see it? Who would deny this? For they did not do what they did with a peaceful heart otherwise than from the heart, or otherwise than from a good will; and yet he worked this in them who works in the hearts of men whatever he wills. For which reason Scripture set down beforehand, And David went on and grew great, and the Lord almighty was with him. And by this the Lord almighty, who was with him, led these to make him king. And how did he lead them? Did he bind them with any bodily chains? He worked within, he held the hearts, he moved the hearts, and drew them by their own wills, which he himself worked in them. If, then, when God wills to establish kings on earth, he has the wills of men more in his power than they themselves have their own, who else brings it about that rebuke is wholesome, and that in the heart of the one rebuked correction takes place, so that he is established in the heavenly kingdom?

15. 46. Let subject brothers, then, be rebuked by those set over them, with rebukes coming from love, diverse — whether lesser or greater — according to the diversity of faults. For even that which is named condemnation, which the episcopal judgment pronounces, than which penalty there is none greater in the Church, can, if God wills, turn and profit into a most wholesome rebuke. For we do not know what may happen the next day; nor is anyone to be despaired of before the end of this life; nor can God be gainsaid, so that he should not look upon a man and give repentance, and, the sacrifice of a troubled spirit and a contrite heart having been accepted, absolve him from the guilt of however just a condemnation, and himself not condemn the condemned.

Nevertheless, pastoral necessity requires that the diseased sheep be separated from the healthy, lest the dire contagion creep through more of them — perhaps to be healed by that very separation, by him to whom nothing is impossible. For, not knowing who belongs to the number of the predestined and who does not, we ought to be so affected with the affection of love that we wish all to be saved. This indeed comes about when we try to bring each individual, as we meet with those with whom we can do this, to be justified by faith and have peace with God (See Rom 5:1): which the Apostle too preached, when he said, So we are ambassadors for Christ, God as it were making his appeal through us; we beseech you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God (2 Cor 5:20). For what is it to be reconciled to him, but to have peace with him? On account of which peace the Lord Jesus himself too said to his disciples, Whatever house you enter, first say, Peace to this house; and if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him; but if not, it will return to you (Luke 10:5-6).

When those of whom it was foretold, How beautiful are the feet of those who announce peace, who announce good things! (Isa 52:7), evangelize this peace, each one indeed begins to us to be a son of peace when he has obeyed and believed this Gospel, and, justified by faith, has begun to have peace with God; but according to the predestination of God, he was already a son of peace. For it was not said: Upon whomever your peace shall rest, he will become a son of peace; but, If a son of peace is there, he says, your peace will rest upon that house. Already, then, even before this peace was announced to him, the son of peace was there, as not the evangelist, but God, knew and foreknew him.

To us, therefore, who do not know who is a son of peace and who is not, it pertains to make no exception and to distinguish no one, but to wish all to be saved to whom we preach this peace. For there is no need to fear that we will lose it, if the one to whom we preach is not a son of peace, we being ignorant of it: for it will return to us — that is, this preaching will profit us, not him as well; but if the peace preached rests upon him, it will profit both us and him.

15. 47. Because, then, we who do not know who will be saved are commanded by God to wish all to be saved to whom we preach this peace, and he himself works this in us, by pouring out this love in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (See Rom 5:5), it can also be understood in this way that God wills all men to be saved, since he makes us will it: just as he sent the Spirit of his Son crying, Abba, Father (Gal 4:6) — that is, making us cry. For concerning that same Spirit he says in another place, We have received the Spirit of adoption of sons, in whom we cry, Abba, Father (Rom 8:15). We, then, cry; but he is said to cry who brings it about that we cry. If, then, Scripture rightly called the Spirit crying, by whom it is brought about that we cry, it rightly also calls God willing, by whom it is brought about that we will. And by this, because in rebuking too we ought to do nothing else but bring it about that one does not withdraw from this peace which is with God, or that one who had withdrawn returns to it, let us do without despair what we do. If the one we rebuke is a son of peace, our peace will rest upon him; but if not, it will return to us.

15. 48. Although, then, even while the faith of some is being subverted, God's firm foundation stands, since the Lord knows those who are his (2 Tim 2:19), yet not for that reason ought we to be lazy and negligent in rebuking those who are to be rebuked. For it was not said in vain, Bad company corrupts good morals (1 Cor 15:33); and, The weak one will perish in your knowledge, the brother for whom Christ died (1 Cor 8:11). Let us not argue against these precepts and this wholesome terror, saying: What is it to us? God's firm foundation stands, and no one perishes but the son of perdition.

16. 48. Far be it that, prattling these things, we should believe that we ought to be secure in this negligence. For it is true that no one perishes but the son of perdition; but God says through the prophet Ezekiel, He indeed will die in his sin, but his blood I will require from the hand of the watchman (Ezek 3:18).

16. 49. Accordingly, as far as it pertains to us, who are unable to distinguish the predestined from the non-predestined, and on this account ought to wish all to be saved, a medicinally severe rebuke must be applied by us to all, lest they perish, or lest they ruin others; but it is God's to make it useful to those whom he himself foreknew and predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son (Rom 8:29). For if at times, out of fear, we do not rebuke, lest someone perish thereby, why do we not also, out of fear, rebuke, lest someone perish the more thereby?

For we do not bear deeper bowels of love than the blessed Apostle, who says, Rebuke the idle, comfort the fainthearted, support the weak, be patient with all; see that none of you renders evil for evil to anyone (1 Thess 5:14-15). Here it is to be understood that evil is then rather rendered for evil, if the one to be rebuked is not rebuked, but is neglected with a perverse disregard. He also says, Rebuke those who sin in the presence of all, that the rest may have fear (1 Tim 5:20). This is to be taken of those sins which are not hidden, lest he be thought to have spoken against the Lord's saying. For the Lord says, If your brother sins against you, rebuke him between you and him alone (Matt 18:15). Yet he too carries the severity of rebuke so far as to say, If he will not even hear the Church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector (Matt 18:17). And who loved the weak more than he who was made weak for all, and for all was crucified out of that very weakness? Since these things are so, neither does grace forbid rebuke, nor does rebuke deny grace; and therefore righteousness is so to be enjoined that the grace by which what is enjoined may be done is sought from God in faithful prayer; and both of these are so to be done that neither is just rebuke neglected. But let all these things be done with love: since love does not commit sin, and covers a multitude of sins (1 Pet 4:8).