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Augustine of Hippo, On Rebuke and Grace
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On Rebuke and Grace, to the same Valentinus and the Monks with Him
Chapter 2.—The Catholic Faith Concerning Law, Grace, and Free Will.
Chapter 3 [II.]—What the Grace of God Through Jesus Christ is.
Chapter 4—The Children of God are Led by the Spirit of God.
Chapter 5 [III.]—Rebuke Must Not Be Neglected.
Chapter 6 [IV.]—Objections to the Use of Rebuke.
Chapter 7 [V.]—The Necessity and Advantage of Rebuke.
Chapter 8.—Further Replies to Those Who Object to Rebuke.
Chapter 10—All Perseverance is God’s Gift.
Chapter 13.—Election is of Grace, Not of Merit.
Chapter 14.—None of the Elect and Predestinated Can Perish.
Chapter 15.—Perseverance is Given to the End.
Chapter 17 [VIII.]—Why Perseverance Should Be Given to One and Not Another is Inscrutable.
Chapter 18.—Some Instances of God’s Amazing Judgments.
Chapter 19.—God’s Ways Past Finding Out.
Chapter 21.—Who May Be Understood as Given to Christ.
Chapter 22.—True Children of God are True Disciples of Christ.
Chapter 23.—Those Who are Called According to the Purpose Alone are Predestinated.
Chapter 24.—Even the Sins of the Elect are Turned by God to Their Advantage.
Chapter 25.—Therefore Rebuke is to Be Used.
Chapter 26 [X.]—Whether Adam Received the Gift of Perseverance.
Chapter 28.—The First Man Himself Also Might Have Stood by His Free Will.
Chapter 29 [XI.]—Distinction Between the Grace Given Before and After the Fall.
Chapter 30.—The Incarnation of the Word.
Chapter 32.—The Gifts of Grace Conferred on Adam in Creation.
Chapter 35.—There is a Greater Freedom Now in the Saints Than There Was Before in Adam.
Chapter 36.—God Not Only Foreknows that Men Will Be Good, But Himself Makes Them So.
Chapter 37.—To a Sound Will is Committed the Power of Persevering or of Not Persevering.
Chapter 38.—What is the Nature of the Gift of Perseverance that is Now Given to the Saints.
Chapter 39 [XIII.]—The Number of the Predestinated is Certain and Defined.
Chapter 40.—No One is Certain and Secure of His Own Predestination and Salvation.
Chapter 41.—Even in Judgment God’s Mercy Will Be Necessary to Us.
Chapter 42.—The Reprobate are to Be Punished for Merits of a Different Kind.
Chapter 43 [XIV.]—Rebuke and Grace Do Not Set Aside One Another.
Chapter 44.—In What Way God Wills All Men to Be Saved.
Chapter 47.—Another Interpretation of the Apostolic Passage, “Who Will Have All Men to Be Saved.”
Chapter 16.—Whosoever Do Not Persevere are Not Distinguished from the Mass of Perdition by Predestination.
Such as these were they who were signified to Timothy, where, when it had been said that Hymenæus and Philetus had subverted the faith of some, it is presently added, “Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord has known them that are His.”66 2 Tim. ii. 19. The faith of these, which worketh by love, either actually does not fail at all, or, if there are any whose faith fails, it is restored before their life is ended, and the iniquity which had intervened is done away, and perseverance even to the end is allotted to them. But they who are not to persevere, and who shall so fall away from Christian faith and conduct that the end of this life shall find them in that case, beyond all doubt are not to be reckoned in the number of these, even in that season wherein they are living well and piously. For they are not made to differ from that mass of perdition by the foreknowledge and predestination of God, and therefore are not called according to God’s purpose, and thus are not elected; but are called among those of whom it was said, “Many are called,” not among those of whom it was said, “But few are elected.” And yet who can deny that they are elect, since they believe and are baptized, and live according to God? Manifestly, they are called elect by those who are ignorant of what they shall be, but not by Him who knew that they would not have the perseverance which leads the elect forward into the blessed life, and knows that they so stand, as that He has foreknown that they will fall.
16. Isti significati sunt ad Timotheum, ubi cum dictum fuisset, Hymenaeum et Philetum fidem quorumdam subvertere; mox additum est, Firmum autem fundamentum Dei stat, habens signaculum hoc, Scivit Dominus qui sunt ejus (II Tim. II, 19). Horum fides, quae per dilectionem operatur, profecto aut omnino non deficit, aut si qui sunt quorum deficit, reparatur antequam vita ista finiatur, et deleta quae intercurrerat iniquitate, usque in finem perseverantia deputatur. Qui vero perseveraturi non sunt, ac sic a fide christiana et conversatione lapsuri sunt, ut tales eos vitae hujus finis inveniat; procul dubio nec illo tempore, quo bene pieque vivunt, in istorum numero computandi sunt. Non enim sunt a massa illa perditionis praescientia Dei et praedestinatione discreti; et ideo nec secundum propositum vocati, ac per hoc nec electi: sed in eis vocati, de quibus dictum est, Multi vocati; non in eis de quibus dictum est, pauci vero electi. Et tamen quis neget eos electos, cum credunt, et baptizantur, et secundum Deum vivunt? Plane dicuntur electi a nescientibus quid futuri sint, non ab illo qui eos novit non habere perseverantiam quae ad beatam vitam perducit electos, scitque illos ita stare, ut praescierit esse casuros.