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Augustine of Hippo, A Treatise On the Predestination of the Saints
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A Treatise on the Predestination of the Saints,
Chapter 3 [II.]—Even the Beginning of Faith is of God’s Gift.
Chapter 4.—Continuation of the Preceding.
Chapter 5.—To Believe is to Think with Assent.
Chapter 6.—Presumption and Arrogance to Be Avoided.
Chapter 7 [III.]—Augustin Confesses that He Had Formerly Been in Error Concerning the Grace of God.
Chapter 8 [IV.]—What Augustin Wrote to Simplicianus, the Successor of Ambrose, Bishop of Milan.
Chapter 9 [V.]—The Purpose of the Apostle in These Words.
Chapter 10.—It is God’s Grace Which Specially Distinguishes One Man from Another.
Chapter 11 [VI.]—That Some Men are Elected is of God’s Mercy.
Chapter 12 [VII.]—Why the Apostle Said that We are Justified by Faith and Not by Works.
Chapter 13 [VIII.]—The Effect of Divine Grace.
Chapter 14.—Why the Father Does Not Teach All that They May Come to Christ.
Chapter 15.—It is Believers that are Taught of God.
Chapter 16.—Why the Gift of Faith is Not Given to All.
Chapter 18.—The Preceding Argument Applied to the Present Time.
Chapter 19 [X]—In What Respects Predestination and Grace Differ.
Chapter 20.—Did God Promise the Good Works of the Nations and Not Their Faith, to Abraham?
Chapter 22.—God’s Promise is Sure.
Chapter 23 [XII.]—Remarkable Illustrations of Grace and Predestination in Infants, and in Christ.
Chapter 24.—That No One is Judged According to What He Would Have Done If He Had Lived Longer.
Chapter 26 [XIV]—Reference to Cyprian’s Treatise “On the Mortality.”
Chapter 27.—The Book of Wisdom Obtains in the Church the Authority of Canonical Scripture.
Chapter 28.—Cyprian’s Treatise “On the Mortality.”
Chapter 29.—God’s Dealing Does Not Depend Upon Any Contingent Merits of Men.
Chapter 30 [XV.]—The Most Illustrious Instance of Predestination is Christ Jesus.
Chapter 31.—Christ Predestinated to Be the Son of God.
Chapter 32 [XVI.]—The Twofold Calling.
Chapter 35 [XVIII.]—Election is for the Purpose of Holiness.
Chapter 39—The Beginning of Faith is God’s Gift.
Chapter 40 [XX.]—Apostolic Testimony to the Beginning of Faith Being God’s Gift.
Chapter 41.—Further Apostolic Testimonies.
Chapter 23 [XII.]—Remarkable Illustrations of Grace and Predestination in Infants, and in Christ.
But all this reasoning, whereby we maintain that the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord is truly grace, that is, is not given according to our merits, although it is most manifestly asserted by the witness of the divine declarations, yet, among those who think that they are withheld from all zeal for piety unless they can attribute to themselves something, which they first give that it may be recompensed to them again, involves somewhat of a difficulty in respect of the condition of grown-up people, who are already exercising the choice of will. But when we come to the case of infants, and to the Mediator between God and man Himself, the man Christ Jesus, there is wanting all assertion of human merits that precede the grace of God, because the former are not distinguished from others by any preceding good merits that they should belong to the Deliverer of men; any more than He Himself being Himself a man, was made the Deliverer of men by virtue of any precedent human merits.
CAPUT XII.
23. Sed omnis haec ratio, qua defendimus gratiam Dei per Jesum Christum Dominum nostrum, vere esse gratiam, id est, non secundum merita nostra dari, quamvis evidentissime divinorum eloquiorum testimoniis asseratur; tamen apud eos, qui nisi aliquid sibi assignent, quod priores dent ut retribuatur eis ab omni studio pietatis reprimi se putant, laborat aliquantum in aetate majorum jam utentium voluntatis arbitrio: sed ubi venitur ad parvulos, et ad ipsum Mediatorem Dei et hominum, hominem Christum Jesum (I Tim. II, 5), omnis deficit praecedentium gratiam Dei humanorum assertio meritorum: quia nec illi ullis bonis praecedentibus meritis discernuntur a caeteris, ut pertineant ad liberatorem hominum; nec ille ullis humanis praecedentibus meritis, cum et ipse sit homo, liberator factus est hominum.