A Treatise on Nature and Grace, against Pelagius

 Chapter 1 [I.]—The Occasion of Publishing This Work What God’s Righteousness is.

 Chapter 2 [II.]—Faith in Christ Not Necessary to Salvation, If a Man Without It Can Lead a Righteous Life.

 Chapter 3 [III.]—Nature Was Created Sound and Whole It Was Afterwards Corrupted by Sin.

 Chapter 4 [IV.]—Free Grace.

 Chapter 5 [V.]—It Was a Matter of Justice that All Should Be Condemned.

 Chapter 6 [VI.]—The Pelagians Have Very Strong and Active Minds.

 Chapter 7 [VII.]—He Proceeds to Confute the Work of Pelagius He Refrains as Yet from Mentioning Pelagius’ Name.

 Chapter 8.—A Distinction Drawn by Pelagius Between the Possible and Actual.

 Chapter 9 [VIII.]—Even They Who Were Not Able to Be Justified are Condemned.

 Chapter 10 [IX.]—He Could Not Be Justified, Who Had Not Heard of the Name of Christ Rendering the Cross of Christ of None Effect.

 Chapter 11 [X.]—Grace Subtly Acknowledged by Pelagius.

 Chapter 12 [XI.]—In Our Discussions About Grace, We Do Not Speak of that Which Relates to the Constitution of Our Nature, But to Its Restoration.

 Chapter 13 [XII.]—The Scope and Purpose of the Law’s Threatenings “Perfect Wayfarers.”

 Chapter 14 [XIII.]—Refutation of Pelagius.

 Chapter 15 [XIV.]—Not Everything [of Doctrinal Truth] is Written in Scripture in So Many Words.

 Chapter 16 [XV.]—Pelagius Corrupts a Passage of the Apostle James by Adding a Note of Interrogation.

 Chapter 17 [XVI.]—Explanation of This Text Continued.

 Chapter 18 [XVII.]—Who May Be Said to Be in the Flesh.

 Chapter 19.—Sins of Ignorance To Whom Wisdom is Given by God on Their Requesting It.

 Chapter 20 [XVIII.]—What Prayer Pelagius Would Admit to Be Necessary.

 Chapter 21 [XIX.]—Pelagius Denies that Human Nature Has Been Depraved or Corrupted by Sin.

 Chapter 22 [XX.]—How Our Nature Could Be Vitiated by Sin, Even Though It Be Not a Substance.

 Chapter 23 [XXI.]—Adam Delivered by the Mercy of Christ.

 Chapter 24 [XXII.]—Sin and the Penalty of Sin the Same.

 Chapter 25 [XXIII.]—God Forsakes Only Those Who Deserve to Be Forsaken. We are Sufficient of Ourselves to Commit Sin But Not to Return to the Way of

 Chapter 26 [XXIV.]—Christ Died of His Own Power and Choice.

 Chapter 27.—Even Evils, Through God’s Mercy, are of Use.

 Chapter 28 [XXV.]—The Disposition of Nearly All Who Go Astray. With Some Heretics Our Business Ought Not to Be Disputation, But Prayer.

 Observe, indeed, how cautiously he expresses himself: “God, no doubt, applies His mercy even to this office, whenever it is necessary because man afte

 Chapter 30 [XXVII.]—Sin is Removed by Sin.

 Chapter 31.—The Order and Process of Healing Our Heavenly Physician Does Not Adopt from the Sick Patient, But Derives from Himself. What Cause the Rig

 Chapter 32 [XXVIII.]—God Forsakes Us to Some Extent that We May Not Grow Proud.

 Chapter 33 [XXIX.]—Not Every Sin is Pride. How Pride is the Commencement of Every Sin.

 Chapter 34 [XXX.]—A Man’s Sin is His Own, But He Needs Grace for His Cure.

 Chapter 35 [XXXI.]—Why God Does Not Immediately Cure Pride Itself. The Secret and Insidious Growth of Pride. Preventing and Subsequent Grace.

 Chapter 36 [XXXII.]—Pride Even in Such Things as are Done Aright Must Be Avoided. Free Will is Not Taken Away When Grace is Preached.

 Chapter 37 [XXXIII.]—Being Wholly Without Sin Does Not Put Man on an Equality with God.

 Chapter 38 [XXXIV.]—We Must Not Lie, Even for the Sake of Moderation. The Praise of Humility Must Not Be Placed to the Account of Falsehood.

 Chapter 39.—Pelagius Glorifies God as Creator at the Expense of God as Saviour.

 Chapter 40 [XXXV.]—Why There is a Record in Scripture of Certain Men’s Sins, Recklessness in Sin Accounts It to Be So Much Loss Whenever It Falls Shor

 Chapter 41.—Whether Holy Men Have Died Without Sin.

 Chapter 42 [XXXVI.]—The Blessed Virgin Mary May Have Lived Without Sin. None of the Saints Besides Her Without Sin.

 Chapter 43 [XXXVII.]—Why Scripture Has Not Mentioned the Sins of All.

 Chapter 44.—Pelagius Argues that Abel Was Sinless.

 Chapter 45 [XXXVIII.]—Why Cain Has Been by Some Thought to Have Had Children by His Mother Eve. The Sins of Righteous Men. Who Can Be Both Righteous,

 Chapter 46 [XXXIX.]—Shall We Follow Scripture, or Add to Its Declarations?

 Chapter 47 [XL.]—For What Pelagius Thought that Christ is Necessary to Us.

 Chapter 48 [XLI.]—How the Term “All” Is to Be Understood.

 Chapter 49 [XLII.]—A Man Can Be Sinless, But Only by the Help of Grace. In the Saints This Possibility Advances and Keeps Pace with the Realization.

 Chapter 50 [XLIII.]—God Commands No Impossibilities.

 Chapter 51 [XLIV.]—State of the Question Between the Pelagians and the Catholics. Holy Men of Old Saved by the Self-Same Faith in Christ Which We Exer

 Chapter 52.—The Whole Discussion is About Grace.

 Chapter 53 [XLV.]—Pelagius Distinguishes Between a Power and Its Use.

 Chapter 54 [XLVI.]—There is No Incompatibility Between Necessity and Free Will.

 Chapter 55 [XLVII.]—The Same Continued.

 Chapter 56 [XLVIII.]—The Assistance of Grace in a Perfect Nature.

 Chapter 57 [XLIX.]—It Does Not Detract from God’s Almighty Power, that He is Incapable of Either Sinning, or Dying, or Destroying Himself.

 Chapter 58 [L.]—Even Pious and God-Fearing Men Resist Grace.

 Chapter 59 [LI.]—In What Sense Pelagius Attributed to God’s Grace the Capacity of Not Sinning.

 Chapter 60 [LII.]—Pelagius Admits “Contrary Flesh” In the Unbaptized.

 Chapter 61 [LIII.]—Paul Asserts that the Flesh is Contrary Even in the Baptized.

 Chapter 62.—Concerning What Grace of God is Here Under Discussion. The Ungodly Man, When Dying, is Not Delivered from Concupiscence.

 Chapter 63 [LIV.]—Does God Create Contraries?

 Chapter 64.—Pelagius’ Admission as Regards the Unbaptized, Fatal.

 Chapter 65 [LV.]—“This Body of Death,” So Called from Its Defect, Not from Its Substance.

 Chapter 66.—The Works, Not the Substance, of the “Flesh” Opposed to the “Spirit.”

 Chapter 67 [LVII.]—Who May Be Said to Be Under the Law.

 Chapter 68 [LVIII.]—Despite the Devil, Man May, by God’s Help, Be Perfected.

 Chapter 69 [LIX.]—Pelagius Puts Nature in the Place of Grace.

 Chapter 70 [LX.]—Whether Any Man is Without Sin in This Life.

 Chapter 71 [LXI.]—Augustin Replies Against the Quotations Which Pelagius Had Advanced Out of the Catholic Writers. Lactantius.

 Chapter 72 [LXI.]—Hilary. The Pure in Heart Blessed. The Doing and Perfecting of Righteousness.

 Chapter 73.—He Meets Pelagius with Another Passage from Hilary.

 Chapter 74 [LXIII.]—Ambrose.

 Chapter 75.—Augustin Adduces in Reply Some Other Passages of Ambrose.

 Chapter 76 [LXIV.]—John of Constantinople.

 Chapter 77.—Xystus.

 Chapter 78 [LXV.]—Jerome.

 Chapter 79 [LXVI.]—A Certain Necessity of Sinning.

 Chapter 80 [LXVII.]—Augustin Himself. Two Methods Whereby Sins, Like Diseases, are Guarded Against.

 Chapter 81.—Augustin Quotes Himself on Free Will.

 Chapter 82 [LXVIII.]—How to Exhort Men to Faith, Repentance, and Advancement.

 Chapter 83 [LXIX.]—God Enjoins No Impossibility, Because All Things are Possible and Easy to Love.

 Chapter 84 [LXX.]—The Degrees of Love are Also Degrees of Holiness.

Chapter 26 [XXIV.]—Christ Died of His Own Power and Choice.

As to his statement, indeed, that “the Lord was able to die without sin;” His being born also was of the ability of His mercy, not the demand of His nature: so, likewise, did He undergo death of His own power; and this is our price which He paid to redeem us from death. Now, this truth their contention labours hard to make of none effect; for human nature is maintained by them to be such, that with free will it wants no such ransom in order to be translated from the power of darkness and of him who has the power of death,72    Heb. ii. 14. into the kingdom of Christ the Lord.73    Col. i. 13. And yet, when the Lord drew near His passion, He said, “Behold, the prince of this world cometh and shall find nothing in me,”74    John xiv. 30.—and therefore no sin, of course, on account of which he might exercise dominion over Him, so as to destroy Him. “But,” added He, “that the world may know that I do the will of my Father, arise, let us go hence;”75    John xiv. 31. as much as to say, I am going to die, not through the necessity of sin, but in voluntariness of obedience.

CAPUT XXIV.

26. Christus mortuus potestate. Etiam mala Dei misericordia prosunt. Quod vero Dominum dicit sine peccato mori potuisse: illi etiam nasci, potestas misericordiae, non conditio naturae fuit; sic etiam mortuus est potestate; et hoc est pretium nostrum, quo nos a morte redimeret. Et hoc istorum disputatio evacuare contendit, cum ab eis ita natura humana defenditur, ut possit liberum arbitrium isto pretio non egere, ut a potestate tenebrarum et praepositi mortis in regnum Christi Domini transferantur. Et tamen quando Dominus ad passionem perrexit, Ecce, inquit, veniet princeps hujus mundi, et in me nihil inveniet : et utique nihil peccati, unde praepositus mortis jure suo ageret, ut perimeret. Sed ut sciant omnes, inquit, quia voluntatem Patris mei facio, surgite, eamus hinc (Joan. XIV, 30, 31): id est, quia non morior necessitate peccati, sed obedientiae voluntate.