Chapter 50.—Obedience Not Discouraged by Preaching God’s Gifts.

Such doctors, and so great as these, when they say that there is nothing of which we may boast as if of our own which God has not given us, and that our very heart and our thoughts are not in our own power; and when they give the whole to God, and confess that from Him we receive that we are converted to Him in such wise as to continue,—that that which is good appears also to us to be good, and we wish for it,—that we honour God and receive Christ,—that from undevout people we are made devout and religious,—that we believe in the Trinity itself, and also confess with our voice what we believe:—certainly attribute all these things to God’s grace, acknowledge them as God’s gifts, and testify that they come to us from Him, and are not from ourselves. But will any one say that they in such wise confessed that grace of God as to venture to deny His foreknowledge, which not only learned but unlearned men also confess? Again, if they had so known that God gives these things that they were not ignorant that He foreknew that He would give them, and could not have been ignorant to whom He would give them: beyond a doubt they had known the predestination which, as preached by the apostles, we laboriously and diligently maintain against the modern heretics. Nor would it be with any manner of justice said, nevertheless, to them because they preach obedience, and fervently exhort, to the extent of the ability of each one, to its practice, “If you do not wish that the obedience to which you are stirring us up should grow cold in our heart, forbear to preach to us that grace of God by which you confess that God gives what you are exhorting us to do.”

50. Isti tales tantique doctores dicentes non esse aliquid, de quo tanquam de nostro, quod nobis Deus non dederit, gloriemur; nec ipsum cor nostrum et cogitationes nostras in potestate nostra esse; et totum dantes Deo, atque ab ipso nos accipere confitentes, ut permansuri convertamur ad eum; ut id quod bonum est, nobis quoque videatur bonum, et velimus illud, ut honoremus Deum, et recipiamus Christum, ut ex indevotis efficiamur devoti et religiosi, ut in ipsam Trinitatem credamus, et confiteamur etiam voce quod credimus: haec utique gratiae Dei tribuunt, Dei munera agnoscunt, ab ipso nobis, non a nobis esse testantur. Numquid autem quisquam eos dicturus est, ita confessos istam Dei gratiam, ut auderent negare ejus praescientiam, quam non solum docti, sed indocti etiam confitentur? Porro si haec ita Deum noverant dare, ut non ignorarent eum daturum se esse praescisse, et quibus daturus esset non potuisse nescire; procul dubio noverant praedestinationem, quam per Apostolos praedicatam contra novos haereticos operosius diligentiusque defendimus: nec tamen eis obedientiam praedicantibus, et ad eam sicut quisque poterat ferventer hortantibus, ullo modo recte diceretur, Si non vultis obedientiam, ad quam nos accenditis, in nostro corde frigescere, nolite nobis istam Dei gratiam praedicare, qua Deum dare fatemini, quae ut nos faciamus hortamini.