De Vocatione Omnium Gentium
Prosper of Aquitaine (390–463)
First published 1846
*De Vocatione Omnium Gentium* is a theological treatise devoted to the difficult relationship between divine grace, human freedom, election, and God’s will that all men should be saved. Beginning from the controversy over whether the primacy of grace abolishes free will, the work argues that grace does not destroy human volition but heals, directs, and perfects it, while every genuinely salvific good ultimately originates in God. Through sustained engagement with Scripture, it examines the meaning of universal biblical expressions concerning salvation, the distinction between general and special gifts of grace, the mysterious diversity of God’s dealings with peoples and individuals, and the gradual calling of the nations into the Church. Particular attention is given to the history of salvation, from the earliest ages and Israel’s election to the worldwide preaching of the Gospel, while repeatedly insisting that the hidden reasons for divine election and the differing times of vocation remain beyond human scrutiny. The result is a careful attempt to uphold simultaneously the universality of God’s saving goodness, the necessity and gratuity of grace, human responsibility, and reverence before the inscrutable judgments of divine providence.
Liber I: Liber Primus
Caput I: Materiam hoc libro tractandam proponit, ostenditque non recte sentire eos qui praedicatione gratiae liberum negari arbitrium contendunt
Caput II: Omni animae humanae naturaliter inesse qualemcumque voluntatem, quae aut sensualis, aut animalis, aut spiritalis est
Caput III: De voluntate sensuali
Caput IV: De voluntate animali, qua nihil supra mercedem temporalis gloriae acquiritur, etiam si dono Dei in ea sublimius sapiatur
Caput V: Omnes gentes in elementis accepisse praecepta legalia, ut inexcusabiles sint in idololatria
Quamvis enim scriptum sit quod cum dispertiret Excelsus gentes, quemadmodum dispersit filios Adam, statuit terminos gentium secundum numerum angelorum Dei, et facta est portio Domini populus eius Iacob, funiculus haereditatis eius Israel (Deut. XXXII, 8); et scriptum sit Dominum dicere ad Israel, Eritis mihi sancti, quia ego sanctus sum Dominus Deus vester, qui segregavi vos ab omnibus gentibus esse mihi (Levit. XIX, 2); et quamvis scriptum sit in libro Esther, dicente Mardochaeo, Gratias tibi, Domine, quoniam fecisti nova signa et prodigia, qualia non sunt facta in gentibus, dividens omne saeculum in sortes duas, elegisti unam tibi populi tui, relinquens aliam gentibus (Esth. XVI, iuxta LXX); et Paulus et Barnabas dicant, Et nos mortales sumus, similes vobis homines, annuntiantes vobis converti ad Deum vivum, qui fecit coelum, et terram, et mare, et omnia quae in eis sunt, qui in praeteritis generationibus dimisit omnes gentes ingredi vias suas (Act. XIV, 4); quamvis ergo haec et multa similia veritatis Scriptura pronuntiet, secundum ipsam tamen credimus, et piissime confitemur, quod numquam universitati hominum divinae providentiae cura defuerit; quae licet exceptum sibi populum specialibus ad pietatem direxerit institutis, nulli tamen nationi hominum bonitatis suae dona subtraxit: ut propheticas voces et praecepta legalia convincerentur in elementorum obsequiis ac testimoniis accepisse. Unde et inexcusabiles facti sunt, quia deos sibi Dei dona fecerunt, et quae creata erant ad utendum, venerati sunt ad colendum.