De Gratia et Libero Arbitrio

What then? Is this, therefore, all that free choice doth in the matter? Is this its sole merit, to consent? Certainly it is. Not indeed that even the very act of consent, in which consisteth its entire merit, is of itself; since not so much as “to think” (which is less than to consent) “anything as of ourselves, are we of ourselves sufficient.”¹ These are not my words, but the Apostle’s, who attributeth to God, not to his own free choice, everything of good that can be, that is to say, to think, and “to will, and to do according to His good will.”² If, therefore, God worketh in us these three, that is to say, to think, and to will, and to perform, what is good according to His good will; the first, assuredly, He doth without us, the second with us, and the third by means of us. For indeed, by sending us good thoughts, He preventeth us; by also changing our evil wills He joineth us to Himself through consent; and, by supplying to our consent the opportunity³ of performance, by means of our manifest work He that worketh in us maketh Himself known outwardly.⁴ Certainly we are by no means able to prevent ourselves. But He who findeth no one that is already good, saveth no one whom He doth not prevent.⁵ The beginning of our salvation is, therefore, without doubt from God; neither is it at all by our means, nor is it with our help.⁶ But the consent of the will and the work performed, although they do not originate from us, nevertheless are not without us. Thus neither the first, in which truly we do nothing;⁷ nor the last, which unprofitable fear or damnable hypocrisy doth ofttimes extort from us;⁸ but the second only is reckoned unto us as meritorious. In fact good will alone sufficeth, the rest avail nothing, if it only be wanting, I should have said: They avail nothing to the agent, nor to the beholders.⁹ Accordingly the intention availeth for merit, the action for example; the preventing thought availeth merely to excite them both.¹⁰

Let us then beware lest, when we perceive these things to be invisibly enacted within us and with our co-operation, we attribute them either to our own will, which is weak; or to any external necessity imposed upon God, of which there is none; and not to grace alone of which He is full.¹¹ Grace it is which moveth free choice, when it soweth the seed of good thoughts; which healeth it, when it changeth the disposition;¹² which strengtheneth it, when it persuadeth it to external action;¹³ which keepeth it, so that it may not suffer failure. But grace worketh with free choice in such a manner that, while in the first instance it only preventeth it; afterwards it accompanieth it; indeed it preventeth free choice, to the very end that in the future it may co-operate with it.¹⁴ Nevertheless, what has been begun by grace alone is in such fashion performed by grace and by free choice that in co-operation, not separately; at one and the same time,¹⁵ not by turns; the result is wrought by both of them. It is not that grace doeth part and free choice doeth part; but each doeth the entire work by its individual energy.¹⁶ Free choice, in truth, doeth the entire work, and so also doth grace, but, even as the whole is done in the former (by co-operation), so is the whole done of the latter (by origination).¹⁷

We believe that it pleaseth the reader that we nowhere depart from the teaching of the Apostle; and whithersoever the argument may have wandered, we have often made use of his very words. For what else do we mean than what he saith: “ It is therefore neither of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy ”?¹⁸ Which indeed he saith, not as though any man can will or run in vain; but because he that willeth and runneth ought to glory, not in himself, but in Him from Whom he hath received the power to will and to run. In fine, he saith: “ What hast thou which thou didst not receive? ”¹⁹ Thou art created, thou art healed, thou art saved. Which of these, O man, originateth from thyself? Which of these is not impossible for free choice? Thou, who didst not exist, couldst not create thyself, nor, a sinner, couldst thou justify thyself, nor, when dead, couldst thou bring thyself again to life; so say nothing of other good things,²⁰ which are either necessary to them that must be healed, or laid up in store for them that are to be saved. What we say is sufficiently plain as concerneth the first (creation) and the last (salvation). But concerning the intervening stage (justification) also no one doubteth, save he that, “ knowing nothing of the righteousness of God, and willing to establish his own righteousness, is not subject to the righteousness of God.”²¹ What? Dost thou recognize the power of the Creator, the glory²² of the Saviour, and yet knowest not the righteousness of the Healer? “Heal me,” saith (the prophet), “and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved, for thou art my praise.”²³ He recognized the righteousness of God, by Whom he hoped no less to be delivered from misery than to be healed of sin; and therefore rightly he concluded that it was God, and not himself, that was his praise.²⁴ Wherefore David also, reiterating, saith: “Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give the glory”:²⁵ for it was from God that he was looking for both robes, that is to say, the robe of righteousness and the robe of glory.²⁶ Who is he that knoweth not the righteousness of God? He that counteth himself righteous. Who is he that counteth himself righteous? He that claimeth for himself merits from some other source than grace.²⁷ Moreover He Who made that which should be saved, also gave the means whereby it may be saved. He, I mean, Who made those to whom merits should be granted, Himself grants them. “What,” saith (the Psalmist), “shall I give back unto the Lord for all that he hath ” not “given,” but “given back unto me?”²⁸ Both that he existeth, and that he is righteous, he confesseth to be from God;²⁹ lest, by denying one or the other, he should destroy them both, losing, indeed, the means whereby he is righteous, and thus dooming that which he is.³⁰ But, so confessing, now in the last place³¹ he findeth that which in his turn he should repay: “I will receive,” he saith, “the cup of salvation.”³² The cup of salvation is the blood of the Saviour. Therefore, if there wholly lacketh thee, of thine own, anything which thou mayst repay even for the second gifts of God bestowed upon thee,³³ whence dost thou provide thyself with salvation? “I will call,” saith he, “upon the name of the Lord ”;³⁴ upon which, undoubtedly, “whosoever calleth shall be saved.”³⁵

Therefore, they who are possessed of true wisdom confess a threefold operation, not indeed of free choice (as the agent), but of Divine grace in, or concerning, free choice. The first is creation; the second, reformation; the third, consummation. For first we were created in Christ unto freedom of will;³⁶ secondly, we were reformed through Christ unto the spirit of freedom;³⁷ lastly, we are to be consummated together with Christ unto the state of eternal life:³⁸ inasmuch as that which did not exist needed to be created in Him who existed;³⁹ the deformed to be reformed by means of the Form Himself;⁴⁰ it needed that the members should not be made perfect save only in union with the Head. Which last result will then indeed be brought to completion when “ we shall all attain unto a perfect man, unto the measure of age of the fulness of Christ;⁴¹ when Christ appearing, who is our life, we also shall appear with Him in glory.”⁴² Seeing then that the consummation hath to be wrought concerning us, or even in us, though not by us; whereas the creation hath been wrought also without us; that alone, which on account of our free consent is in a certain manner wrought with us, namely, our reformation, will be reckoned unto us as meritorious. This consisteth of our fasts, our vigils, our continence, our works of mercy, and the rest of our virtuous practices, by means of which it is plainly evident that “our inward man is renewed from day to day”:⁴³ while the mind,⁴⁴ bowed under worldly cares, little by little riseth again from depths to heights, and the affection, languishing in fleshly lusts, gradually gaineth strength for spiritual love; and the memory, fouled by the infamy of ancient deeds, now clothed in the white robe of good works, daily groweth joyous.⁴⁵ For it is in these three things that interior renewal consisteth; that is to say, in rectitude of mind, in purity of affection, and in the remembrance of good works by means of which memory shineth ever fairer in the consciousness of well-doing.

But, seeing that it is certain that these things are wrought in us by the Spirit,⁴⁶ they are the gifts of God: yet, because they are accompanied by the consent of our will, they are our merits. “ For,” saith He, “ it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father that speaketh in you,”⁴⁷ and the Apostle asketh: “ Do ye seek a proof of Him that speaketh in me, even Christ? ”⁴⁸ If, therefore, Christ, or the Holy Spirit, speaketh in Paul, doth He not also in the same way work in him? “ For I do not speak,” saith he, “ of the things which God doth not work through me.”⁴⁹ What then? If both the words and the works are not Paul’s, but God’s, Who speaketh in Paul or worketh through Paul; wherefore, in such case, are the merits Paul’s? Wherefore is it that he so confidently affirmed: “ I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give to me at that day ”?⁵⁰ Was it, perchance, that he was assured that the crown was laid up for him, because it was through him that those deeds were done? But many good things are done by means of the wicked, whether angels or men; yet they are not reckoned unto them as meritorious.⁵¹ Or was it rather because they were done with him, that is to say, with his good will?⁵² “For,” saith he, “if I preach the gospel unwillingly, a stewardship hath been entrusted to me, but if willingly, I have whereof to glory.”⁵³

Moreover, if not so much as the very will, on which dependeth all merit, is from Paul himself; on what ground doth he speak of the crown, which he believeth to be laid up for him, as a crown of righteousness?⁵⁴ Is it because whatsoever is even freely promised is yet asked for justly and as a matter of due?⁵⁵ Finally he saith: “I know Whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have intrusted unto Him.”⁵⁶ The promise of God he calls his deposit; and because he believed Him that promised, he asketh for the fulfilment of the promise. What was indeed promised in mercy is yet due in justice. Thus it is a crown of righteousness that Paul expecteth; but of God’s righteousness; not of his own. It is forsooth just that God should pay what He oweth; but it is what He hath promised that He oweth. This then is the righteousness upon which the Apostle presumeth, namely, God’s fulfilment of His promise; lest, if, disdaining this righteousness, he would establish his own, he be not subject to the righteousness of God;⁵⁷ when it was all the while God’s will that he should be partaker of His righteousness, in order that He might also make him meritorious of a crown. For He constituted him partaker of His righteousness, and meritorious of a crown, when He deigned to take him as His fellow-worker⁵⁸ in the works as a reward for which the crown of righteousness was laid up. Further He made him His fellow-worker, when He made him His willing worker,⁵⁹ that is to say, consentient with His will. Accordingly the will is held to be God’s aid; the aid it gives is held to be meritorious. If then, in such a case, the will is from God, so also is the merit. Nor is there any doubt but that both to will, and to perform according to the good will, are from God.⁶⁰ God therefore is the author of merit, who both applieth the will to the work, and supplieth to the will the fulfilment of the work.⁶¹ Besides, what are called our merits may be properly described as seed-plots of hope, incentives to love, tokens of a hidden predestination, foretastes of future felicity, the way by which we reach the kingdom, not the moving cause of our kingship. In a word, not them whom He found righteous, but them whom He made righteous, did God also magnify.⁶²