Chapter 17 [VIII.]—Why Perseverance Should Be Given to One and Not Another is Inscrutable.

Here, if I am asked why God should not have given them perseverance to whom He gave that love by which they might live Christianly, I answer that I do not know. For I do not speak arrogantly, but with acknowledgment of my small measure, when I hear the apostle saying, “O man, who art thou that repliest against God?”67    Rom. ix. 20. and, “O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways untraceable!”68    Rom. xi. 33. So far, therefore, as He condescends to manifest His judgments to us, let us give thanks; but so far as He thinks fit to conceal them, let us not murmur against His counsel, but believe that this also is the most wholesome for us. But whoever you are that are hostile to His grace, and thus ask, what do you yourself say? it is well that you do not deny yourself to be a Christian and boast of being a catholic. If, therefore, you confess that to persevere to the end in good is God’s gift, I think that equally with me you are ignorant why one man should receive this gift and another should not receive it; and in this case we are both unable to penetrate the unsearchable judgments of God. Or if you say that it pertains to man’s free will—which you defend, not in accordance with God’s grace, but in opposition to it—that any one should persevere in good, or should not persevere, and it is not by the gift of God if he persevere, but by the performance of human will, why will you strive against the words of Him who says, “I have prayed for thee, Peter, that thy faith fail not”?69    Luke xxii. 32. Will you dare to say that even when Christ prayed that Peter’s faith might not fail, it would still have failed if Peter had willed it to fail; that is, if he had been unwilling that it should continue even to the end? As if Peter could in any measure will otherwise than Christ had asked for him that he might will. For who does not know that Peter’s faith would then have perished if that will by which he was faithful should fail, and that it would have continued if that same will should abide? But because “the will is prepared by the Lord,”70    Prov. viii. 35. therefore Christ’s petition on his behalf could not be a vain petition. When, then, He prayed that his faith should not fail, what was it that he asked for, but that in his faith he should have a most free, strong, invincible, persevering will! Behold to what an extent the freedom of the will is defended in accordance with the grace of God, not in opposition to it; because the human will does not attain grace by freedom, but rather attains freedom by grace, and a delightful constancy, and an insuperable fortitude that it may persevere.

CAPUT VIII.

17. Hic si a me quaeratur, cur eis Deus perseverantiam non dederit, quibus eam qua 0926 christiane viverent, dilectionem dedit; me ignorare respondeo. Non enim arroganter, sed agnoscens modulum meum, audio dicentem Apostolum, O homo, tu quis es qui respondeas Deo (Rom. IX, 20)? et, O altitudo divitiarum sapientiae et scientiae Dei! quam inscrutabilia sunt judicia ejus, et investigabiles viae ejus (Id. XI, 33)! Quantum itaque nobis judicia sua manifestare dignatur, gratias agamus: quantum vero abscondere, non adversus ejus consilium murmuremus, sed hoc quoque nobis saluberrimum esse credamus. Tu autem quisquis inimicus ejus gratiae sic interrogas, ipse quid dicis? Bene, quod te non negas esse christianum, et catholicum jactas. Si ergo confiteris, donum Dei esse perseverare in bono usque in finem; cur hoc donum ille accipiat, ille non accipiat, puto quod mecum pariter nescis, et ambo hic inscrutabilia judicia Dei penetrare non possumus. Aut si ad liberum arbitrium hominis, quod non secundum Dei gratiam, sed contra eam defendis, pertinere dicis ut perseveret in bono quisque, vel non perseveret, non Deo donante si perseveret, sed humana voluntate faciente; quid moliturus es contra verba dicentis, Rogavi pro te, Petre, ne deficiat fides tua (Luc. XXII, 32)? An audebis dicere etiam rogante Christo ne deficeret fides Petri, defecturam fuisse si Petrus eam deficere voluisset, hoc est, si eam usque in finem perseverare noluisset? quasi aliud Petrus ullo modo vellet, quam pro illo Christus rogasset ut vellet. Nam quis ignorat, tunc fuisse perituram fidem Petri, si ea qua fidelis erat , voluntas ipsa deficeret; et permansuram, si eadem voluntas maneret? Sed quia praeparatur voluntas a Domino (Prov. VIII, sec. LXX); ideo pro illo Christi non posset esse inanis oratio. Quando rogavit ergo ne fides ejus deficeret, quid aliud rogavit, nisi ut haberet in fide liberrimam, fortissimam, invictissimam, perseverantissimam voluntatem? Ecce quemadmodum secundum gratiam Dei, non contra eam, libertas defenditur voluntatis. Voluntas quippe humana non libertate consequitur gratiam, sed gratia potius libertatem, et ut perseveret delectabilem perpetuitatem, et insuperabilem fortitudinem.