On Man's Perfection in Righteousness

(40) The Ninth Passage

“This passage, too,” says he, “is quoted by them: 'It is not of him that wills, nor of him that runs, but of God that shows mercy.'” And he observes that the answer to be given to them is derived from the same apostle's words in another passage: “Let him do what he will.” And he adds another passage from the Epistle to Philemon, where, speaking of Onesimus, [St. Paul says]: “'Whom I would have retained with me, that in your stead he might have ministered unto me in the bonds of the gospel. But without your mind would I do nothing; that your benefit should not be as it were of necessity, but willingly.' Likewise, in Deuteronomy: 'Life and death has He set before you, and good and evil:...choose life, that you may live.' So in the book of Solomon: 'God from the beginning made man, and left him in the hand of His counsel; and He added for him commandments and precepts: if you will— to perform acceptable faithfulness for the time to come, they shall save you. He has set fire and water before you: stretch forth your hand unto whether you will. Before man are good and evil, and life and death; poverty and honour are from the Lord God.' So again in Isaiah we read: 'If you be willing, and hearken unto me, you shall eat the good of the land; but if you be not willing, and hearken not to me, the sword shall devour you: for the mouth of the Lord has spoken this.'” Now with all their efforts of disguise they here betray their purpose; for they plainly attempt to controvert the grace and mercy of God, which we desire to obtain whenever we offer the prayer, “Your will be done in earth as it is in heaven;” or again this, “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” For indeed why do we present such petitions in earnest supplication, if the result is of him that wills, and him that runs, but not of God that shows mercy? Not that the result is without our will, but that our will does not accomplish the result, unless it receive the divine assistance. Now the wholesomeness of faith is this, that it makes us “seek, that we may find; ask, that we may receive; and knock, that it may be opened to us.” Whereas the man who gainsays it, does really shut the door of God's mercy against himself. I am unwilling to say more touching so important a matter, because I do better in committing it to the groans of the faithful, than to words of my own.

(41) Specimens of Pelagian Exegesis

But I beg of you to see what kind of objection, after all, he makes, that to him who “wills and runs” there is no necessity for God's mercy, which actually anticipates him in order that he may run—because, forsooth, the apostle says concerning a certain person, “Let him do what he will,” — in the matter, as I suppose, which he goes on to treat, when he says, “He sins not, let him marry!” As if indeed it should be regarded as a great matter to be willing to marry, when the subject is a laboured discussion concerning the assistance of God's grace, or that it is of any great advantage to will it, unless God's providence, which governs all things, joins together the man and the woman. Or, in the case of the apostle's writing to Philemon, that “his kindness should not be as it were of necessity, but voluntary,”— as if any good act could indeed be voluntary otherwise than by God's “working in us both to will and to do of His own good pleasure.” Or, when the Scripture says in Deuteronomy, “Life and death has He set before man and good and evil,” and admonishes him “to choose life;” as if, forsooth, this very admonition did not come from God's mercy, or as if there were any advantage in choosing life, unless God inspired love to make such a choice, and gave the possession of it when chosen, concerning which it is said: “For anger is in His indignation, and in His pleasure is life.”

Or again, because it is said, “The commandments, if you will, shall save you,” — as if a man ought not to thank God, because he has a will to keep the commandments, since, if he wholly lacked the light of truth, it would not be possible for him to possess such a will. “Fire and water being set before him, a man stretches forth his hand towards which he pleases;” and yet higher is He who calls man to his higher vocation than any thought on man's own part, inasmuch as the beginning of correction of the heart lies in faith, even as it is written, “You shall come, and pass on from the beginning of faith.” Every one makes his choice of good, “according as God has dealt to every man the measure of faith;” and as the Prince of faith says, “No man can come to me, except the Father which has sent me draw him.” And that He spoke this in reference to the faith which believes in Him, He subsequently explains with sufficient clearness, when He says: “The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life; yet there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should betray Him. And He said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father.”

(42) God's Promises Conditional. Saints of the Old Testament Were Saved by the Grace of Christ

He, however, thought he had discovered a great support for his cause in the prophet Isaiah; because by him God said: “If you be willing, and hearken unto me, you shall eat the good of the land; but if you be not willing, and hearken not to me, the sword shall devour you: for the mouth of the Lord has spoken this.” As if the entire law were not full of conditions of this sort; or as if its commandments had been given to proud men for any other reason than that “the law was added because of transgression, until the seed should come to whom the promise was made.” “It entered, therefore, that the offense might abound; but where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.” In other words, That man might receive commandments, trusting as he did in his own resources, and that, failing in these and becoming a transgressor, he might ask for a deliverer and a saviour; and that the fear of the law might humble him, and bring him, as a schoolmaster, to faith and grace. Thus “their weaknesses being multiplied, they hastened after;” and in order to heal them, Christ in due season came. In His grace even righteous men of old believed, and by the same grace were they helped; so that with joy did they receive a foreknowledge of Him, and some of them even foretold His coming—whether they were found among the people of Israel themselves, as Moses, and Joshua the son of Nun, and Samuel, and David, and other such; or outside that people, as Job; or previous to that people, as Abraham, and Noah, and all others who are either mentioned or not in Holy Scripture. “For there is but one God, and one Mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus,” without whose grace nobody is delivered from condemnation, whether he has derived that condemnation from him in whom all men sinned, or has afterwards aggravated it by his own iniquities.