Chapter 10 [V.]—Free Will and God’s Grace are Simultaneously Commended.

When God says, “Turn ye unto me, and I will turn unto you,”97    Zech. i. 3. one of these clauses—that which invites our return to God—evidently belongs to our will; while the other, which promises His return to us, belongs to His grace. Here, possibly, the Pelagians think they have a justification for their opinion which they so prominently advance, that God’s grace is given according to our merits. In the East, indeed, that is to say, in the province of Palestine, in which is the city of Jerusalem, Pelagius, when examined in person by the bishop, 98    See On the Proceedings of Pelagius, above, ch. xiv. (30–37). did not venture to affirm this. For it happened that among the objections which were brought up against him, this in particular was objected, that he maintained that the grace of God was given according to our merits,—an opinion which was so diverse from catholic doctrine, and so hostile to the grace of Christ, that unless he had anathematized it, as laid to his charge, he himself must have been anathematized on its account. He pronounced, indeed, the required anathema upon the dogma, but how insincerely his later books plainly show; for in them he maintains absolutely no other opinion than that the grace of God is given according to our merits. Such passages do they collect out of the Scriptures,—like the one which I just now quoted, “Turn ye unto me, and I will turn unto you,”—as if it were owing to the merit of our turning to God that His grace were given us, wherein He Himself even turns unto us. Now the persons who hold this opinion fail to observe that, unless our turning to God were itself God’s gift, it would not be said to Him in prayer, “Turn us again, O God of hosts;”99    Ps. lxxx. 7. and, “Thou, O God, wilt turn and quicken us;”100    Ps. lxxxv. 6. and again, “Turn us, O God of our salvation,”101    Ps. lxxxv. 4.—with other passages of similar import, too numerous to mention here. For, with respect to our coming unto Christ, what else does it mean than our being turned to Him by believing? And yet He says: “No man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father.”102    John vi. 65.

CAPUT V.

10. Cum dicit Deus, Convertimini ad me, et convertar ad vos (Zach. I, 3): unum horum videtur esse nostrae voluntatis, id est, ut convertamur ad eum; alterum vero ipsius gratiae, id est, ut etiam ipse convertatur ad nos. Ubi possunt putare Pelagiani suam obtinere sententiam, qua dicunt, gratiam Dei secundum merita nostra dari. Quod quidem in Oriente, hoc est, in provincia Palaestina, in qua est civitas Jerusalem, cum ipse Pelagius ab episcopis audiretur, affirmare non ausus est. Nam inter caetera quae illi objecta sunt, et hoc objectum est, quod diceret, gratiam Dei secundum merita nostra dari: quod sic alienum est a catholica doctrina et inimicum gratiae Christi, ut nisi hoc objectum sibi anathemasset 0888 , ipse inde anathematus exisset . Sed fallaciter eum anathemasse, posteriores ejus indicant libri in quibus omnino nihil aliud defendit, quam gratiam Dei secundum merita nostra dari. Talia ergo de Scripturis colligunt, quale est hoc unum quod paulo ante dixi, Convertimini ad me, et convertar ad vos; ut secundum meritum conversionis nostrae ad Deum, detur gratia ejus, in qua ad nos et ipse convertitur. Nec attendunt qui hoc sentiunt, quia nisi donum Dei esset etiam ipsa ad Deum nostra conversio, non ei diceretur, Deus virtutum, converte nos (Psal. LXXIX, 8); et, Deus, tu convertens vivificabis nos; et, Converte nos, Deus sanitatum nostrarum (Psal. LXXXIV, 7, 5); et hujusmodi alia, quae commemorare longum est. Nam et venire ad Christum, quid est aliud nisi ad eum credendo converti? Et tamen ait: Nemo potest venire ad me, nisi datum fuerit ei a Patre meo (Joan. VI, 66).