Chapter 12.—What is Meant Under the Name of Fate.

Because they who affirm fate contend that not only actions and events, but, moreover, our very wills themselves depend on the position of the stars at the time in which one is conceived or born; which positions they call “constellations.” But the grace of God stands above not only all stars and all heavens, but, moreover, all angels. In a word, the assertors of fate attribute both men’s good and evil doings and fortunes to fate; but God in the ill fortunes of men follows up their merits with due retribution, while good fortunes He bestows by undeserved grace with a merciful will; doing both the one and the other not according to a temporal conjunction of stars, but according to the eternal and high counsel of His severity and goodness. We see, then, that neither belongs to fate. Here, if you answer that this very benevolence of God, by which He follows not merits, but bestows undeserved benefits with gratuitous bounty, should rather be called “fate,” when the apostle calls this “grace,” saying, “By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, but it is the gift of God; not of works, lest perchance any one should be lifted up,”115    Eph. ii. 8.—do you not consider, do you not perceive that it is not by us that fate is asserted under the name of grace, but it is rather by you that divine grace is called by the name of fate?

12. Fatum quippe qui affirmant, de siderum positione ad tempus quo concipitur quisque vel nascitur, quas constellationes vocant, non solum actus et eventa, verum etiam ipsas nostras voluntates pendere contendunt: Dei vero gratia non solum omnia sidera et omnes coelos, verum etiam omnes Angelos supergreditur. Deinde fati assertores et bona et mala hominum fato tribuunt: Deus autem in malis hominum merita eorum debita retributione persequitur, bona vero per indebitam gratiam misericordi voluntate largitur; utrumque faciens non per stellarum temporale consortium, sed per suae severitatis et bonitatis aeternum altumque consilium. Neutrum ergo pertinere videmus ad fatum. Hic si respondetis, hanc ipsam Dei benevolentiam, qua non merita sequitur, sed bona indebita gratuita bonitate largitur, fatum potius esse dicendum: cum hanc Apostolus gratiam vocet, dicens, Gratia salvi facti estis per fidem, et hoc non ex vobis, sed Dei donum est; non ex operibus, ne forte quis extollatur (Ephes. II, 8, 9); nonne attenditis, nonne perspicitis, non a nobis divinae gratiae nomine fatum asseri, sed a vobis potius divinam gratiam fati nomine nuncupari?