Chapter 30.—The Testimonies of Ambrose Concerning God’s Grace.

The Pelagians say that merit begins from man by free will, to which God repays the subsequent aid of grace. Let the venerable Ambrose here also refute them, when he says, in his exposition of the prophet Isaiah, “that human care without divine help is powerless for healing, and needs a divine helper.” Also, in the treatise which is inscribed, “On the Avoidance of the World,”367    Work cited, ch. 1. he says: “Our discourse is frequent on the avoidance of this world; and I wish that our disposition were as cautious and careful as our discourse is easy. But what is worse, the enticement of earthly lusts frequently creeps in, and the flowing forth of vanities takes hold of the mind, so that the very thing that you desire to avoid you think upon, and turn over in your mind; and this it is difficult for a man to beware of, but to get rid of it is impossible. Finally, that that is rather a matter to be wished than to be accomplished the prophet testifies when he says, ‘Incline my heart unto thy testimonies, and not to avarice.’368    Ps. cxix. 36. For our heart and our thoughts are not in our power, seeing that they are suddenly forced forth and confuse the mind and the soul and draw them in other directions from those which you have proposed for them;—they recall to things of time, they suggest worldly things, they obtrude voluptuous thoughts, they inweave seducing thoughts, and, in the very season in which we are proposing to lift up our mind, vain thoughts are intruded upon us, and we are cast down for the most part to things of earth; and who is so happy as always to rise upwards in his heart? And how can this be done without the divine help? Absolutely in no manner. Finally, of old Scripture says the same thing, ‘Blessed is the man whose help is of Thee, O Lord; in his heart is going up.’”369    Ps. lxxxiv. 5 [LXX.]. What can be said more openly and more sufficiently? But lest the Pelagians perchance should answer that, in that very point in which divine help is asked for, man’s merit precedes, saying that that very thing is merit, that by his prayer he is desiring that divine grace should come to his assistance, let them give heed to what the same holy man says in his exposition of Isaiah. He says: “And to pray God is a spiritual grace; for no man says that Jesus is the Lord, except in the Holy Spirit.”370    1 Cor. xii. 13. Whence also, expounding the Gospel according to Luke,371    Commentary on Luke, lib. ii. ch. 3, p. 84. he says: “You see certainly that everywhere the power of the Lord cooperates with human desires, so that no man can build without the Lord, no man can undertake anything without the Lord.” Because such a man as Ambrose says this, and commends God’s grace, as it is fitting for a son of promise to do, with grateful piety, does he therefore destroy free will? Or does he mean grace to be understood as the Pelagians in their different discourses will have to appear nothing but law—so that, for instance, God may be believed to help us not to do what we may know, but to know what we may do? If they think that such a man of God as this is of this mind, let them hear what he has said about the law itself. In the book “On the Avoidance of the World,” he says: “The law could stop the mouth of all men; it could not convert their mind.”372    Ch. 15. In another place also, in the same treatise, he says: “The law condemns the deed; it does not take away its wickedness.”373    Ch. 39. Let them see that this faithful and catholic man agrees with the apostle who says, “Now we know that what things soever the law says, it says to those who are under the law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Because by the law no flesh shall be justified in His sight.”374    Rom. iii. 19, 20. For from that apostolic opinion Ambrose took and wrote these things.

30. Pelagiani dicunt ab homine incipere meritum per liberum arbitrium, cui Deus subsequens gratiae retribuat adjumentum. Etiam hic eos refellat venerandus Ambrosius, dicens in Expositione Isaiae prophetae: «Quia humana cura sine divina ope imbecilla est ad medendum, Deum auxiliatorem requirit.» Item in libro qui inscribitur, de Fuga saeculi (Cap. 1): «Frequens nobis,» inquit, «de effugiendo saeculo isto est sermo; atque utinam quam facilis sermo, tam cautus et sollicitus affectus . Sed quod pejus est, frequenter irrepit terrenarum illecebra cupiditatum, et vanitatum, offusio mentem occupat, ut quod studeas vitare, hoc cogites animoque volvas. Quod cavere difficile est homini, exuere autem impossibile. Denique voti magis eam esse rem, quam effectus, testatur propheta dicendo, Declina cor meum in testimonia tua, et non in avaritiam (Psal. CXVIII, 36). Non enim in potestate nostra sunt cor nostrum et nostrae cogitationes, quae improviso offusae mentem animumque confundunt, atque alio trahunt quam tu proposueris: ad saecularia revocant, mundana inserunt, voluptaria ingerunt, illecebrosa intexunt; ipsoque in tempore, quo elevare mentem paramus, insertis inanibus cogitationibus ad terrena plerumque dejicimur. Quis autem tam beatus, qui in corde suo semper ascendat? Sed hoc sine auxilio divino qui fieri potest? Nullo profecto modo. Denique supra eadem Scriptura dicit: Beatus vir cujus est auxilium ejus abs te, Domine; ascensus in corde ejus» (Psal. LXXXIII, 6). Quid apertius et sufficientius dici potest? Sed ne Pelagiani forte respondeant, eo ipso quo divinum auxilium poscitur , praecedere hominis meritum; idipsum meritum esse dicentes, quia orando fit dignus cui gratia divina subveniat: attendant quid idem vir sanctus dicat in Expositione Isaiae. «Et orare Deum,» inquit, «gratia spiritualis est. Nemo enim dicit Dominum Jesum, nisi in Spiritu sancto» (I Cor. XII, 3). Unde et exponens Evangelium 0634 secundum Lucam: «Vides utique,» inquit, «quia ubique Domini virtus studiis cooperatur humanis, ut nemo possit aedificare sine Domino, nemo custodire sine Domino, nemo quidquam incipere sine Domino» (Lib. 2 in cap. 3 Lucae, n. 84, de Jesu baptizato). Numquid quoniam haec dicit vir tantus Ambrosius, et gratiam Dei, sicut filio promissionis congruit, grata pietate commendat, ideo destruit liberum arbitrium? aut eam vult intelligi gratiam, quam diversis locutionibus Pelagiani nolunt nisi legem videri, ut videlicet non ad faciendum quod cognoverimus, sed ad cognoscendum quid faciamus, nos Deus adjuvare credatur? Si hoc istum hominem Dei sapere existimant, quid de ipsa lege dixerit, audiant. In libro de Fuga saeculi: «Lex,» inquit, «os omnium potuit obstruere, non potuit mentem convertere» (Cap. 3). Item alio loco in eodem libro: «Lex,» inquit, «factum damnat, non aufert malitiam» (Cap. 7). Videant fidelem et catholicum virum Apostolo consentire dicenti, Scimus autem quia quaecumque lex loquitur, his qui in lege sunt loquitur, ut omne os obstruatur, et reus fiat omnis mundus Deo; quia non justificabitur ex lege omnis caro coram illo (Rom. III, 19 et 20). Ex eo enim apostolico sensu illa sumpsit et scripsit Ambrosius.