Chapter 36.—God Chose the Righteous; Not Those Whom He Foresaw as Being of Themselves, But Those Whom He Predestinated for the Purpose of Making So.

“Therefore,” says the Pelagian, “He foreknew who would be holy and immaculate by the choice of free will, and on that account elected them before the foundation of the world in that same foreknowledge of His in which He foreknew that they would be such. Therefore He elected them,” says he, “before they existed, predestinating them to be children whom He foreknew to be holy and immaculate. Certainly He did not make them so; nor did He foresee that He would make them so, but that they would be so.” Let us, then, look into the words of the apostle and see whether He chose us before the foundation of the world because we were going to be holy and immaculate, or in order that we might be so. “Blessed,” says he, “be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us in all spiritual blessing in the heavens in Christ; even as He hath chosen us in Himself before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and unspotted.” 118    Eph. i. 3. Not, then, because we were to be so, but that we might be so. Assuredly it is certain,—assuredly it is manifest. Certainly we were to be such for the reason that He has chosen us, predestinating us to be such by His grace. Therefore “He blessed us with spiritual blessing in the heavens in Christ Jesus, even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and immaculate in His sight, in order that we might not in so great a benefit of grace glory concerning the good pleasure of our will. “In which,” says he, “He hath shown us favour in His beloved Son,”—in which, certainly, His own will, He hath shown us favour. Thus, it is said, He hath shown us grace by grace, even as it is said, He has made us righteous by righteousness. “In whom,” he says, “we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace, which has abounded to us in all wisdom and prudence; that he might show to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure.” In this mystery of His will, He placed the riches of His grace, according to His good pleasure, not according to ours, which could not possibly be good unless He Himself, according to His own good pleasure, should aid it to become so. But when he had said, “According to His good pleasure,” he added, “which He purposed in Him,” that is, in His beloved Son, “in the dispensation of the fulness of times to restore all things in Christ, which are in heaven, and which are in earth, in Him: in whom also we too have obtained a lot, being predestinated according to His purpose who worketh all things according to the counsel of His will; that we should be to the praise of His glory.”

36. «Praesciebat ergo», ait Pelagianus, «qui futuri essent sancti et immaculati per liberae voluntatis arbitrium: et ideo eos ante mundi constitutionem in ipsa sua praescientia, qua tales futuros esse praescivit, elegit. Elegit ergo,» inquit, «antequam essent, praedestinans filios, quos futuros sanctos immaculatosque praescivit: utique ipse non fecit, nec se facturum, sed illos futuros esse praevidit.» Intueamur ergo verba Apostoli, atque videamus utrum propterea nos elegerit ante mundi constitutionem, quia sancti et immaculati futuri eramus, an ut essemus. Benedictus, inquit, Deus et Pater Domini nostri Jesu Christi, qui nos benedixit in omni benedictione spirituali in coelestibus in Christo: sicut elegit nos in ipso ante mundi constitutionem, ut essemus sancti et immaculati. Non ergo quia futuri eramus, sed ut essemus. Nempe certum est, nempe manifestum est: ideo quippe tales eramus futuri, quia elegit ipse, praedestinans ut tales per gratiam ejus essemus. Ita ergo nos benedixit benedictione spirituali in coelestibus in Christo Jesu, sicut elegit nos in ipso ante mundi constitutionem, ut essemus sancti et immaculati in conspectu ejus, in charitate praedestinans nos in adoptionem filiorum per Jesum Christum in ipsum. Deinde quid adjungat, attendite: secundum placitum, inquit, voluntatis suae; ne in tanto beneficio gratiae de placito gloriaremur voluntatis nostrae. In qua gratificavit nos, inquit, in dilecto Filio suo: in qua utique voluntate sua gratificavit nos. Sic dictum est gratificavit a gratia, sicut justificavit dicitur a justitia. In quo habemus, inquit, redemptionem per sanguinem ipsius, remissionem peccatorum secundum divitias gratiae ejus, quae abundavit in nos in omni sapientia et prudentia, ut ostenderet nobis mysterium voluntatis suae, secundum bonam voluntatem suam. In hoc mysterio voluntatis suae posuit divitias gratiae suae, secundum bonam voluntatem suam, non secundum nostram: quae bona esse non posset, nisi ipse secundum bonam voluntatem suam, ut bona fieret, subveniret. Cum autem dixisset, Secundum bonam voluntatem suam; subjecit, quam proposuit in illo, id est, in dilecto Filio suo, in dispensatione plenitudinis temporum instaurare omnia in Christo, quae in coelis sunt, et quae in terris in ipso: in quo etiam et sortem consecuti sumus, praedestinati secundum propositum, qui universa operatur secundum consilium voluntatis suae, ut simus in laudem gloriae ejus.