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Augustine of Hippo, A Treatise On Grace And Free Will
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Two letters written by Augustin to Valentinus and the monks of Adrumetum,
On Grace and Free Will, to Valentinus and the Monks with Him
Chapter 1 [I.]—The Occasion and Argument of This Work.
Chapter 4.—The Divine Commands Which are Most Suited to the Will Itself Illustrate Its Freedom.
Chapter 7.—Grace is Necessary Along with Free Will to Lead a Good Life.
Chapter 8.—Conjugal Chastity is Itself the Gift of God.
Chapter 9.—Entering into Temptation. Prayer is a Proof of Grace.
Chapter 10 [V.]—Free Will and God’s Grace are Simultaneously Commended.
Chapter 11.—Other Passages of Scripture Which the Pelagians Abuse.
Chapter 12.—He Proves Out of St. Paul that Grace is Not Given According to Men’s Merits.
Chapter 13 [VI.]—The Grace of God is Not Given According to Merit, But Itself Makes All Good Desert.
Chapter 14.—Paul First Received Grace that He Might Win the Crown.
Chapter 16 [VII.]—Paul Fought, But God Gave the Victory: He Ran, But God Showed Mercy.
Chapter 17.—The Faith that He Kept Was the Free Gift of God.
Chapter 18.—Faith Without Good Works is Not Sufficient for Salvation.
Chapter 19 [VIII.]—How is Eternal Life Both a Reward for Service and a Free Gift of Grace?
Chapter 21 [IX.]—Eternal Life is “Grace for Grace.”
Chapter 23 [XI.]—The Pelagians Maintain that the Law is the Grace of God Which Helps Us Not to Sin.
Chapter 28.—Faith is the Gift of God.
Chapter 29.—God is Able to Convert Opposing Wills, and to Take Away from the Heart Its Hardness.
Chapter 31 [XV.]—Free Will Has Its Function in the Heart’s Conversion But Grace Too Has Its.
Chapter 32 [XVI.]—In What Sense It is Rightly Said That, If We Like, We May Keep God’s Commandments.
Chapter 34.—The Apostle’s Eulogy of Love. Correction to Be Administered with Love.
Chapter 35.—Commendations of Love.
Chapter 36.—Love Commended by Our Lord Himself.
Chapter 37 [XVIII.]—The Love Which Fulfils the Commandments is Not of Ourselves, But of God.
Chapter 39.—The Spirit of Fear a Great Gift of God.
Chapter 42 [XXI]—God Does Whatsoever He Wills in the Hearts of Even Wicked Men.
Chapter 43.—God Operates on Men’s Hearts to Incline Their Wills Whithersoever He Pleases.
Chapter 44 [XXII.]—Gratuitous Grace Exemplified in Infants.
Chapter 46 [XXIV.]—Understanding and Wisdom Must Be Sought from God.
Chapter 18.—Faith Without Good Works is Not Sufficient for Salvation.
Unintelligent persons, however, with regard to the apostle’s statement: “We conclude that a man is justified by faith without the works of the law,”137 Rom. iii. 28. have thought him to mean that faith suffices to a man, even if he lead a bad life, and has no good works. Impossible is it that such a character should be deemed “a vessel of election” by the apostle, who, after declaring that “in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision,”138 Gal. v. 6. adds at once, “but faith which worketh by love.” It is such faith which severs God’s faithful from unclean demons,—for even these “believe and tremble,”139 Jas. ii. 19. as the Apostle James says; but they do not do well. Therefore they possess not the faith by which the just man lives,—the faith which works by love in such wise, that God recompenses it according to its works with eternal life. But inasmuch as we have even our good works from God, from whom likewise comes our faith and our love, therefore the selfsame great teacher of the Gentiles has designated “eternal life” itself as His gracious “gift.”140 Rom. vi. 23.
18. Homines autem non intelligentes, quod ait ipse Apostolus, Arbitramur justificari hominem per fidem sine operibus legis (Rom. III, 28); putaverunt eum dicere sufficere homini fidem, etiamsi male vivat et bona opera non habeat. Quod absit ut sentiret Vas electionis: qui cum dixisset quodam loco, In Christo enim Jesu neque circumcisio aliquid valet, neque praeputium; mox addidit, sed fides quae per dilectionem operatur (Galat. V, 6). Ipsa est fides quae fideles Dei separat ab immundis daemonibus: nam et ipsi, sicut dicit apostolus Jacobus, credunt et contremiscunt (Jacobi II, 19); sed non bene operatur. Non ergo habent istam fidem ex qua justus vivit, id est, quae per dilectionem operatur, ut reddat ei Deus vitam aeternam secundum opera ejus. Sed quia et ipsa bona opera nobis ex Deo sunt, a quo nobis et fides est, et dilectio, propterea idem ipse Doctor Gentium, etiam ipsam vitam aeternam gratiam nuncupavit.