Chapter 43 [XXI.]—Conclusion.

I have said a great deal, and, perchance, I could long ago have persuaded you what I wished, and am still speaking this to such intelligent minds as if they were obtuse, to whom even what is too much is not enough. But let them pardon me, for a new question has compelled me to this. Because, although in my former little treatises I had proved by sufficiently appropriate proofs that faith also was the gift of God, there was found this ground of contradiction, viz., that those testimonies were good for this purpose, to show that the increase of faith was God’s gift, but that the beginning of faith, whereby a man first of all believes in Christ, is of the man himself, and is not the gift of God,—but that God requires this, so that when it has preceded, other gifts may follow, as it were on the ground of this merit, and these are the gifts of God; and that none of them is given freely, although in them God’s grace is declared, which is not grace except as being gratuitous. And you see how absurd all this is. Wherefore I determined, as far as I could, to set forth that this very beginning also is God’s gift. And if I have done this at a greater length than perhaps those on whose account I did it might wish, I am prepared to be reproached for it by them, so long as they nevertheless confess that, although at greater length than they wished, although with the disgust and weariness of those that understand, I have done what I have done: that is, I have taught that even the beginning of faith, as continence, patience, righteousness, piety, and the rest, concerning which there is no dispute with them, is God’s gift. Let this, therefore, be the end of this treatise, lest too great length in this one may give offence.

CAPUT XXI.

43. Multa diximus, et fortasse jam dudum potuimus persuadere quae volumus, et adhuc tam bonis ingeniis sic loquimur quasi obtusis , quibus et quod nimium est non est satis. Sed dent veniam; nova enim quaestio ad hoc nos compulit. Quia cum in prioribus opusculis nostris satis idoneis 0992 testimoniis egissemus, donum Dei esse etiam fidem: inventum est quod contradiceretur, ad hoc valere illa testimonia, ut ostendant Dei donum esse incrementum fidei; initium vero fidei quo in Christum primitus creditur, ab homine ipso esse, nec esse donum Dei, sed hoc exigere Deum, ut cum id praecesserit, caetera tanquam hoc merito consequantur quae Dei dona sunt; nec ullum eorum dari gratis , cum in eis Dei gratia, quae non nisi gratuita est, praedicetur. Quod videtis quam sit absurdum; propter quod institimus , quantum potuimus, ut etiam ipsum initium fidei donum Dei esse ostenderemus. Quod etsi diutius fecimus, quam forsitan vellent hi propter quos fecimus; hinc ab eis reprehendi parati sumus: dum tamen etsi multo diutius quam vellent, etsi cum fastidio ac taedio intelligentium, fateantur nos fecisse quod fecimus, id est, etiam initium fidei, sicut continentiam, patientiam, justitiam, pietatem, et caetera, de quibus cum his nulla contentio est, donum Dei esse docuisse. Hic ergo sit hujus voluminis terminus, ne offendat unius nimia longitudo.