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Augustine of Hippo, A Treatise On Grace And Free Will
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Two letters written by Augustin to Valentinus and the monks of Adrumetum,
On Grace and Free Will, to Valentinus and the Monks with Him
Chapter 1 [I.]—The Occasion and Argument of This Work.
Chapter 4.—The Divine Commands Which are Most Suited to the Will Itself Illustrate Its Freedom.
Chapter 7.—Grace is Necessary Along with Free Will to Lead a Good Life.
Chapter 8.—Conjugal Chastity is Itself the Gift of God.
Chapter 9.—Entering into Temptation. Prayer is a Proof of Grace.
Chapter 10 [V.]—Free Will and God’s Grace are Simultaneously Commended.
Chapter 11.—Other Passages of Scripture Which the Pelagians Abuse.
Chapter 12.—He Proves Out of St. Paul that Grace is Not Given According to Men’s Merits.
Chapter 13 [VI.]—The Grace of God is Not Given According to Merit, But Itself Makes All Good Desert.
Chapter 14.—Paul First Received Grace that He Might Win the Crown.
Chapter 16 [VII.]—Paul Fought, But God Gave the Victory: He Ran, But God Showed Mercy.
Chapter 17.—The Faith that He Kept Was the Free Gift of God.
Chapter 18.—Faith Without Good Works is Not Sufficient for Salvation.
Chapter 19 [VIII.]—How is Eternal Life Both a Reward for Service and a Free Gift of Grace?
Chapter 21 [IX.]—Eternal Life is “Grace for Grace.”
Chapter 23 [XI.]—The Pelagians Maintain that the Law is the Grace of God Which Helps Us Not to Sin.
Chapter 28.—Faith is the Gift of God.
Chapter 29.—God is Able to Convert Opposing Wills, and to Take Away from the Heart Its Hardness.
Chapter 31 [XV.]—Free Will Has Its Function in the Heart’s Conversion But Grace Too Has Its.
Chapter 32 [XVI.]—In What Sense It is Rightly Said That, If We Like, We May Keep God’s Commandments.
Chapter 34.—The Apostle’s Eulogy of Love. Correction to Be Administered with Love.
Chapter 35.—Commendations of Love.
Chapter 36.—Love Commended by Our Lord Himself.
Chapter 37 [XVIII.]—The Love Which Fulfils the Commandments is Not of Ourselves, But of God.
Chapter 39.—The Spirit of Fear a Great Gift of God.
Chapter 42 [XXI]—God Does Whatsoever He Wills in the Hearts of Even Wicked Men.
Chapter 43.—God Operates on Men’s Hearts to Incline Their Wills Whithersoever He Pleases.
Chapter 44 [XXII.]—Gratuitous Grace Exemplified in Infants.
Chapter 46 [XXIV.]—Understanding and Wisdom Must Be Sought from God.
Chapter 14.—Paul First Received Grace that He Might Win the Crown.
Let us return now to the Apostle Paul, who, as we have found, obtained God’s grace, who recompenses good for evil, without any good merits of his own, but rather with many evil merits. Let us see what he says when his final sufferings were approaching, writing to Timothy: “I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight; I have finished my course; I have kept the faith.”119 2 Tim. iv. 6, 7. He enumerates these as, of course, now his good merits; so that, as after his evil merits he obtained grace, so now, after his good merits, he might receive the crown. Observe, therefore, what follows: “There is henceforth laid up for me,” he says, “a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give me at that day.”120 2 Tim. iv. 8. Now, to whom should the righteous Judge award the crown, except to him on whom the merciful Father had bestowed grace? And how could the crown be one “of righteousness,” unless the grace had preceded which “justifieth the ungodly”? How, moreover, could these things now be awarded as of debt, unless the other had been before given as a free gift?
14. Ergo redeamus ad apostolum Paulum, quem certe invenimus sine ullis meritis bonis, imo cum multis meritis malis, Dei gratiam consecutum reddentis bona pro malis: videamus quid dicat sua jam propinquante passione, scribens ad Timotheum. Ego enim jam immolor, inquit, et tempus resolutionis meae instat. Bonum certamen certavi, cursum consummavi, fidem servavi. Ista utique jam merita sua bona commemorat; ut post bona merita consequatur coronam, qui post merita mala consecutus est gratiam. Denique attendite quid sequatur: Superest, inquit, mihi corona justitiae, quam reddet mihi Dominus in illa die justus judex (II Tim. IV, 6-8). Cui redderet coronam justus judex, si non donasset gratiam misericors pater? Et quomodo esset ista corona justitiae, nisi praecessisset gratia quae justificat impium? Quomodo ista debita redderetur, nisi prius illa gratuita donaretur?