On Rebuke and Grace

Having read your letter, Valentinus, dearest brother, and you who serve God together with him, the letter that your Charity sent through brother Florus and those who came to us with him, I gave thanks to God that from your message brought back to us I learned of your peace in the Lord, your agreement in the truth, and your ardour in love. As for what the enemy contrived among you for the overthrow of some, God in his mercy, by his wonderful goodness turning even the enemy's snares to the advancement of his servants, made it serve rather this end: that none of you was torn down to something worse, while some were built up to something better. There is therefore no need to go over again everything that we sent you, sufficiently discussed in a full book; how you received it your reply shows. Yet do not on any account think that, read once, it could become sufficiently familiar to you. If, then, you want to have it most fruitful, do not be reluctant to make it very well known by rereading it, so that you may know most thoroughly by what and what kind of questions are solved and healed there, where not human but divine authority meets us, from which we must not withdraw if we want to arrive where we are heading. Now the Lord himself not only shows us what evil we should turn away from and what good we should do, which is all that the letter of the law can do; but he also helps us to turn away from evil and do good, which no one can do without the spirit of grace; and if this is lacking, the law is present only to make men guilty and to kill them. For this reason the Apostle says, “The letter kills, but the spirit gives life.” He, then, who uses the law lawfully learns in it evil and good, and, not trusting in his own strength, takes refuge in grace, by whose gift he may turn away from evil and do good. But who takes refuge in grace except when a man's steps are directed by the Lord, and he will will his way? And so even to desire the help of grace is the beginning of grace; of which that man says, “And I said, Now I have begun; this is the change of the right hand of the Most High.” We must confess, then, that we have free choice both for doing evil and for doing good; but in doing evil each one is free from righteousness and a slave of sin, while in good no one can be free unless he has been set free by him who said, “If the Son sets you free, then you will be free indeed.” Nor is it in such a way that, once someone has been set free from the dominion of sin, he no longer needs the help of his deliverer; but rather in such a way that, hearing from him, “Without me you can do nothing,” he too says to him, “Be my helper; do not forsake me.” I rejoice that I have found this faith, which is without doubt the true and prophetic and apostolic and catholic faith, in our brother Florus as well; hence it is rather those who did not understand him who are to be corrected, and I think that by God's favour they have already been corrected.

For the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord must be understood as that by which alone men are set free from evil, and without which they do no good whatever, whether in thinking, or in willing and loving, or in acting: not only so that, by its showing, they may know what is to be done, but also so that, by its gift, they may do with love what they know. This inspiration of a good will and work the Apostle asked for those to whom he said, “Now we pray to God that you do nothing evil, not that we may appear approved, but that you may do what is good.” Who would hear this and not awake and confess that it is from the Lord God that we turn away from evil and do good? For the Apostle does not say, “We admonish, we teach, we exhort, we rebuke,” but says, “We pray to God that you do nothing evil, but that you do what is good.” And yet he also spoke to them and did all the things I have mentioned: he admonished, taught, exhorted, rebuked; but he knew that all these things that he did openly, planting and watering, were of no avail unless he who gives the increase in secret heard him praying for them. For, as the same teacher of the Gentiles says, “Neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase.” Let them not deceive themselves, then, who say, “Why are we preached to and commanded to turn away from evil and do good, if we do not do this, but God works in us to will and to work it?” But let them rather understand, if they are sons of God, that they are led by the Spirit of God to do what is to be done; and when they have done it, let them give thanks to him by whom they are led. For they are led so that they may act, not so that they themselves do nothing; and they are shown what they ought to do so that, when they do it as it ought to be done, that is, with love and delight in righteousness, they may rejoice that they have received the sweetness which the Lord gave, so that their land might yield its fruit. But when they do not act, whether by not doing it at all or by not doing it out of love, let them pray that they may receive what they do not yet have. For what will they have that they will not receive? Or what do they have that they have not received?

“Then,” they say, “let those who are over us only command us what we ought to do, and pray for us that we may do it; but let them not rebuke and reprove us if we have not done it.” On the contrary, let all be done; for the teachers of the churches, the apostles, did all: they commanded what should be done, they rebuked if it was not done, and they prayed that it might be done. The Apostle commands, saying, “Let all that you do be done with love.” He rebukes, saying, “Already it is altogether a fault in you that you have lawsuits among yourselves. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? But you yourselves do wrong and defraud, and that your brothers. Do you not know that the unrighteous will not possess the kingdom of God?” Let us hear him praying as well: “And may the Lord,” he says, “make you increase and abound in love toward one another and toward all.” He commands that love be had; he rebukes because love is not had; he prays that love may abound. O man, in the command learn what you ought to have; in the rebuke learn that it is by your own fault that you do not have it; in the prayer learn from where you may receive what you wish to have.

“How,” he says, “is it by my fault that I do not have what I have not received from him, when, unless it is given by him, there is absolutely no other source from which so great a gift may be had?” Bear with me a little, my brothers, as I contend for the truth of heavenly and divine grace, not against you, whose heart is right with God, but against those who mind earthly things, or against human thoughts themselves. For this is what they say who in their evil works do not want to be rebuked by the preachers of this grace: “Command me what I am to do; and if I do it, give thanks to God for me, who gave me to do it; but if I do not do it, I am not the one to be rebuked, but he is to be prayed to, that he may give what he has not given, namely that faithful love of God and of neighbour by which his commandments are done. Pray for me, then, that I may receive it, and through it do from the heart and with a good will what he commands. I would rightly be rebuked if I did not have it through my own fault, that is, if I could give it to myself or take it myself and did not do so, or if when he gave it I refused to receive it. But since the will itself is prepared by the Lord, why do you rebuke me because you see that I am unwilling to do his commandments, and not rather ask him to work in me even to will?”

To this we answer: You who do not do the commandments of God already known to you, and do not want to be rebuked, you must be rebuked for this very reason, that you do not want to be rebuked. For you do not want your faults to be shown to you; you do not want them to be struck, and a useful pain to come to you, so that you may seek the physician; you do not want to be shown to yourself, so that when you see yourself deformed you may long for one to reform you and beseech him not to let you remain in that ugliness. For it is your fault that you are evil, and a greater fault not to want to be rebuked because you are evil; as though faults were to be praised, or treated with indifference, so as to be neither praised nor blamed; or as though the fear of the man rebuked, or his shame, or his pain did nothing, or did anything else, when it stings to his health, than to make him ask the good One, and to make good men worthy of praise out of the evil men who are rebuked. For he who does not want to be rebuked and says, “Pray for me instead,” must be rebuked for this very reason, that he too may do for himself what he wants done for him. For that pain by which he is displeased with himself, when he feels the sting of rebuke, rouses him to a stronger longing for prayer; so that, by God's mercy, helped by an increase of love, he may cease to do shameful and grievous things and do things worthy of praise and thanks. This is the usefulness of rebuke, which is applied for healing, now greater, now less, according to the variety of sins; and it is healing when the heavenly physician looks upon the man. For it profits nothing unless he makes each one repent of his sin. And who gives this but he who looked on the apostle Peter as he denied him and made him weep? Hence the apostle Paul too, after saying that those who think otherwise must be rebuked with gentleness, at once added, “if perhaps God may give them repentance to know the truth, and they may recover themselves from the snares of the devil.” But why do these who do not want to be rebuked say, “Only command me, and pray for me that I may do what you command”? Why do they not rather, according to their own perverse sense, reject these two as well and say, “I want you neither to command me nor to pray for me”? For what man is shown to have prayed for Peter, that God might give him the repentance with which he wept that he had denied the Lord? What man instructed Paul in the divine commandments that belong to the Christian faith? When, then, he was heard preaching the gospel and saying, “For I make known to you, brothers, the gospel that was preached by me, that it is not according to man; for I did not receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but through the revelation of Jesus Christ,” might it be answered him, “Why do you trouble us, that we should receive and learn from you what you did not receive or learn from man? He who gave it to you is able to give it to us as he gave it to you”? But if they do not dare to say this, but allow the gospel to be preached to them by a man, although it can be given to a man even not through a man, let them grant also that they ought to be rebuked by those set over them, by whom Christian grace is preached; although we do not deny that God can correct whom he wills even with no man rebuking, and bring him to the healing pain of repentance by the most hidden and most powerful power of his medicine. And just as we must not cease praying for those whom we want to be corrected, even though, with no man praying for Peter, the Lord looked on him and made him weep for his sin, so rebuke must not be neglected, although God makes whom he wills to be corrected even without being rebuked. But a man profits by rebuke when he has mercy and helps, who makes whom he wills profit even without rebuke. But why these are called in this way, those in another, and others in yet another, in diverse and countless ways, so that they may be reformed, far be it from us to say that the judgment must belong to the clay rather than to the potter.

“The Apostle,” they say, “says, ‘For who makes you to differ? And what do you have that you did not receive? And if you received it, why do you glory as if you had not received it?’ Why, then, are we rebuked, reproved, censured, accused? What do we do, who have not received?” Those who say this want to appear free of blame in not obeying God, because obedience itself is certainly his gift, and it must be present in one in whom there is love, which is without doubt from God, and the Father gives it to his children. “This,” they say, “we have not received; why, then, are we rebuked, as if we could give it to ourselves and by our own choice refuse to give it?” And they do not notice that, if they are not yet regenerated, the first reason why, when they are reproached for being disobedient to God, they ought to be displeased with themselves is that God made man upright at the beginning of the human creation, and there is no iniquity with God. And therefore the first depravity, by which God is not obeyed, is from man; because, falling by his own evil will from the uprightness in which God first made him, he became depraved. Or is this depravity in man not to be rebuked because it is not peculiar to the one who is rebuked but common to all? On the contrary, what belongs to all is rebuked in each one as well. For it is not on that account no one's, because no one is free from it. These original sins are indeed called others' sins, because individuals draw them from their parents; but not without reason are they also called ours, because in that one man, as the Apostle says, all sinned. Let the condemnable origin, then, be rebuked, so that from the pain of rebuke the will to be regenerated may arise; if, that is, the one rebuked is a son of the promise, so that while the noise of rebuke sounds and lashes outwardly, God may work in him inwardly, by a hidden inspiration, even to will. But if one already regenerated and justified falls back by his own will into an evil life, he certainly cannot say, “I have not received,” because by his own free choice to evil he has lost the grace of God that he received. And if, stung by rebuke, he groans to his health and returns to similar good works, or even better ones, then indeed the usefulness of rebuke appears most plainly. But whether rebuke through a man comes from love or not, that it profits the one rebuked comes about only through God. Can such a one, still unwilling to be rebuked, say, “What have I done, who have not received?”, when it is clear that he received, and lost by his own fault what he had received? “I can,” he says, “I certainly can, when you reproach me because I have fallen back by my own will from a good life into an evil one, still say, ‘What have I done, who have not received?’ For I received the faith that works through love, but I did not receive perseverance in it to the end. Will anyone dare to say that this perseverance is not the gift of God, and that so great a good is ours in such a way that whoever has it cannot be told by the Apostle, ‘For what do you have that you did not receive?’, because he has it in such a way that he did not receive it?” To this we cannot indeed deny that perseverance in good, advancing to the end, is also a great gift of God, and is from none but him of whom it is written, “Every best gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights.” But rebuke of one who has not persevered is not on that account to be neglected, “lest perhaps God give him repentance, and he recover himself from the snares of the devil.” For the Apostle joined this sentence to the usefulness of rebuke, saying, as I mentioned above, “rebuking with gentleness those who think otherwise, if perhaps God may give them repentance.” For if we say that perseverance so praiseworthy and so happy belongs to man in such a way that it is not his from God, we first make void what the Lord says to Peter, “I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail.” For what did he ask for him but perseverance to the end? If this were from man to man, it would not have to be asked of God. Then, when the Apostle says, “Now we pray to God that you do nothing evil,” he is without doubt praying to God for their perseverance. For he does no small evil who forsakes the good, and, not persevering in good, is inclined toward the evil from which he ought to turn away. In that place too where he says, “I thank my God in every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my request with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will complete it until the day of Christ Jesus,” what else does he promise them from God's mercy but perseverance in good to the end? And again where he says, “Epaphras greets you, who is one of you, a servant of Christ Jesus, always striving for you in his prayers, that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God,” what does “that you may stand” mean but “that you may persevere”? Hence it is said of the devil, “He did not stand in the truth”: because he was there, but did not remain. For these people were certainly already standing in the faith. Nor do we pray for anything else, when we pray that he who stands may stand, than that he may persevere. Again the apostle Jude, when he says, “Now to him who is able to keep you without stumbling and to set you before the presence of his glory without blemish in rejoicing,” does he not most plainly show that it is God's gift to persevere in good to the end? For what else does he give who keeps without stumbling, so as to set them before the presence of his glory without blemish in rejoicing, but good perseverance? What is it, too, that we read in the Acts of the Apostles: “And the Gentiles, hearing this, were glad and received the word of the Lord, and as many as were ordained to eternal life believed”? Who could be ordained to eternal life except by the gift of perseverance? Since “he who perseveres to the end will be saved.” With what salvation, if not eternal? And when in the Lord's Prayer we say to God the Father, “Hallowed be your name,” what else do we say but that his name may be hallowed in us? Since this has already been done through the washing of regeneration, why is it asked daily by the faithful, unless that we may persevere in what has been done in us? For blessed Cyprian too understands it so; for, expounding the same prayer, he says: “We say, ‘Hallowed be your name,’ not because we wish for God that he be hallowed by our prayers, but because we ask of God that his name be hallowed in us. Besides, by whom is God hallowed, who himself hallows? But because he himself said, ‘Be holy, for I too am holy,’ we ask and beseech this, that we who have been hallowed in baptism may persevere in what we have begun to be.” See, the most glorious martyr holds that in these words the faithful of Christ ask daily that they may persevere in what they have begun to be. And no one doubts that whoever prays to the Lord that he may persevere in good confesses that such perseverance is his gift.

Since this is so, we rebuke, and rebuke justly, those who, when they were living well, did not persevere in it. For they were changed by their own will from a good life to an evil one, and are therefore worthy of rebuke; and if rebuke does them no good, but they persevere in their ruined life until death, they are also worthy of divine condemnation for ever. Nor will they excuse themselves by saying, as they now say, “Why are we rebuked?”, so then, “Why are we condemned, since we did not receive the perseverance by which we would have remained in good, so as not to turn back from good to evil?” By no means will they free themselves from just condemnation by this excuse. For if, as the Truth says, no one is set free from the condemnation that came through Adam except through faith in Jesus Christ, and yet those will not free themselves from this condemnation who will be able to say that they did not hear the gospel of Christ, since faith comes from hearing, how much less will those free themselves who will say, “We did not receive perseverance”? For the excuse of those who say, “We did not receive the hearing,” seems more just than that of those who say, “We did not receive perseverance”; since it can be said, “Man, in what you had heard and held you would have persevered if you had willed,” whereas it can in no way be said, “What you had not heard you would have believed if you had willed.” And therefore those who have not heard the gospel; and those who, having heard it and been changed for the better, did not receive perseverance; and those who, having heard the gospel, refused to come to Christ, that is, to believe in him, since he himself said, “No one comes to me unless it has been given him by my Father”; and those who because of their infant age could not believe, but could be absolved from the original guilt only by the washing of regeneration, and, not having received it, died and perished: none of these is separated from that lump which it is clear is condemned, since all go from one into condemnation. But some are separated, not by their own merits, but by the grace of the Mediator, that is, justified freely in the blood of the second Adam. So when we hear, “For who makes you to differ? And what do you have that you did not receive? And if you received it, why do you glory as if you had not received it?”, we ought to understand that no one can be separated from that mass of perdition which came about through the first Adam except one who has this gift, whoever has it, which he received by the grace of the Saviour. This apostolic testimony is so great that blessed Cyprian, writing to Quirinus, placed it under the heading in which he says, “That we must glory in nothing, since nothing is ours.” Whoever, then, are separated from that original condemnation by this bounty of divine grace, there is no doubt that the hearing of the gospel is provided for them, and when they hear, they believe, and in the faith that works through love they persevere to the end; and if ever they go astray, they are corrected when rebuked; and some of them, even if they are not rebuked by men, return to the way they had left; and some, having received grace, at whatever age, are withdrawn from the dangers of this life by a swift death. For he works all these things in them who made them vessels of mercy, who also chose them in his Son before the foundation of the world by the election of grace. “But if by grace, then no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace.” For they are not called in such a way as not to be chosen, in respect of which it is said, “For many are called, but few chosen”; but since they are called according to his purpose, they are certainly also chosen through the election, as it is said, of grace, not of their own preceding merits, because grace is all their merit. Of such the Apostle says: “We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose; for those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers; and those whom he predestined, he also called; and those whom he called, he also justified; and those whom he justified, he also glorified.” Of these none perishes, because all are chosen. And they are chosen because they were called according to his purpose; a purpose, however, not their own but God's, of which he says elsewhere, “so that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but of him who calls, it was said, ‘The elder shall serve the younger’”; and elsewhere, “not according to our works,” he says, “but according to his own purpose and grace.” When, then, we hear, “And those whom he predestined, he also called,” we ought to recognize those called according to his purpose; since he began with this, saying, “all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose,” and then added, “for those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers”; and having said this first, he added, “And those whom he predestined, he also called.” He wants us, then, to understand those whom he called according to his purpose, so that it may not be thought that among them some are called and not chosen, because of that saying of the Lord, “Many are called, but few chosen.” For whoever are chosen are without doubt also called; but not whoever are called are consequently chosen. Those, then, are chosen, as has often been said, who are called according to his purpose, who are also predestined and foreknown. If any of these perishes, God is deceived; but none of them perishes, because God is not deceived. If any of these perishes, God is overcome by human fault; but none of them perishes, because God is overcome by nothing. They are chosen to reign with Christ; not in the way Judas was chosen, for the work for which he was fit. For he was chosen by him who knows how to use well even evil men, so that through his damnable work that venerable work for which he himself had come might be accomplished. So when we hear, “Did I not choose you twelve, and one of you is a devil?”, we ought to understand that they were chosen through mercy, he through judgment; they to obtain his kingdom, he to shed his blood. Rightly follows the voice concerning the kingdom of the elect: “If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all, how has he not with him also given us all things? Who will bring a charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies; who condemns? Christ who died, yes, rather who also rose again, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.” And as for what strong gift of perseverance to the end they have received, let them go on and say: “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, ‘For your sake we are put to death all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.’ But in all these things we more than conquer through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angel, nor principality, nor things present, nor things to come, nor power, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” These are meant in the letter to Timothy where, after it was said that Hymenaeus and Philetus were overturning the faith of some, it was at once added, “But the firm foundation of God stands, having this seal: The Lord knew those who are his.” The faith of these, which works through love, either does not fail at all, or, if there are some whose faith fails, it is restored before this life ends, and, the iniquity that had intervened being blotted out, perseverance to the end is reckoned to them. But those who are not going to persevere, and will so fall away from the Christian faith and way of life that the end of this life finds them so, are without doubt not to be counted in the number of these even at the time when they live well and godly. For they are not separated from that mass of perdition by the foreknowledge and predestination of God, and therefore are not called according to his purpose, and so not chosen either; but they are among the called of whom it is said, “many are called,” not among those of whom it is said, “but few chosen.” And yet who would deny that they are elect, when they believe and are baptized and live according to God? Plainly they are called elect by those who do not know what they will be, but not by him who knows that they do not have the perseverance that leads the elect to the blessed life, and knows that they so stand that he has foreknown they will fall.

If I am asked here why God did not give perseverance to those to whom he gave the love by which they lived as Christians, I answer that I do not know. For not arrogantly, but recognizing my small measure, I hear the Apostle saying, “O man, who are you to answer back to God?” and, “O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How inscrutable are his judgments, and his ways unsearchable!” As far, then, as he deigns to make his judgments manifest to us, let us give thanks; and as far as he deigns to hide them, let us not murmur against his counsel, but believe that this too is most wholesome for us. But you, whoever you are, enemy of his grace, who ask this, what do you yourself say? Well that you do not deny that you are a Christian and boast that you are a Catholic. If, then, you confess that it is the gift of God to persevere in good to the end, why one receives this gift and another does not receive it, I think you do not know any more than I do, and neither of us can penetrate here the inscrutable judgments of God. Or if you say that it belongs to man's free choice, which you defend not in accordance with God's grace but against it, that each perseveres in good or does not persevere, so that if he perseveres it is not by God's giving but by the human will's doing, what will you contrive against the words of him who says, “I have prayed for you, Peter, that your faith may not fail”? Will you dare to say that even with Christ praying that Peter's faith might not fail, it would have failed if Peter had willed it to fail, that is, if he had not willed it to persevere to the end? As if Peter could in any way will otherwise than Christ had prayed for him that he might will! For who does not know that Peter's faith would then have perished if the very will by which he was faithful had failed, and would remain if that same will remained? But because the will is prepared by the Lord, Christ's prayer for him could not be in vain. When, then, he prayed that his faith might not fail, what else did he pray for but that he might have in faith a most free, most strong, most invincible, most persevering will? See how the freedom of the will is defended in accordance with God's grace, not against it. For the human will does not obtain grace by freedom, but rather obtains freedom by grace, and, so that it may persevere, a delightful permanence and an unconquerable strength. It is indeed to be wondered at, and greatly wondered at, that to some of his sons whom he has regenerated in Christ, to whom he has given faith, hope, and love, God does not give perseverance, while he forgives such great crimes to the sons of others and, by imparting grace, makes them his sons. Who would not wonder at this? Who would not be utterly astonished? But this too is no less wonderful, and yet true, and so evident that not even the enemies of God's grace can find how to deny it: that some sons of his friends, that is, of regenerated and good believers, departing this life as infants without baptism, though he in whose power all things are could certainly provide for them the grace of this washing if he willed, he estranges from his kingdom, into which he sends their parents; and he causes some sons of his enemies to come into the hands of Christians, and through this washing brings them into the kingdom from which their parents are estranged; though for the infants there is no merit, evil in the former case or good in the latter, from their own will. Certainly here the judgments of God, since they are just and deep, can be neither blamed nor penetrated. Among these is also that judgment concerning perseverance which we are now discussing. Of both let us exclaim, “O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How inscrutable are his judgments!” Nor let us wonder that we cannot trace his untraceable ways. To pass over countless other things which are given to some men and not given to others by the Lord God, with whom there is no respect of persons, and which are not bestowed according to the merits of wills, such as swiftness, strength, good health, and beauty of body, wonderful talents, and natures of mind capable of many arts; or those that come from outside, such as wealth, nobility, honours, and other such things, which no one has except it be in God's power; not to dwell either on the baptism of infants (which none of these men can say, as they can of those other things, does not belong to the kingdom of God), why it is given to this infant and not given to that one, since both are in God's power and without that sacrament no one enters the kingdom of God: to pass over or leave these things, then, let them consider those very people we are dealing with. For we are discussing those who do not have perseverance in goodness, but die with their good will failing from good to evil. Let them answer, if they can, why God, when these were living faithfully and godly, did not then snatch them from the dangers of this life, “lest wickedness should change their understanding, and deceit beguile their souls.” Did he not have this in his power, or did he not know their future evils? Surely neither of these can be said except most perversely and most insanely. Why, then, did he not do it? Let those answer who mock us when in such matters we exclaim, “How inscrutable are his judgments, and his ways unsearchable!” For either God gives this to whom he wills, or else that Scripture lies which says of the seemingly untimely death of a righteous man, “He was snatched away lest wickedness should change his understanding, or deceit beguile his soul.” Why, then, does God, with whom there is no iniquity nor respect of persons, and in whose power it is how long each one remains in this life, which is called a trial upon earth, give so great a benefit to some and not to others? Just as they are compelled to confess that it is God's gift that a man should end his life before he is changed from good to evil, but do not know why it is given to some and not to others, so let them confess with us that perseverance in good is God's gift according to the Scriptures, of which I have already set out many testimonies; and why it is given to some and not to others, let them deign to be ignorant with us without murmuring against God.

Nor let it trouble us that God does not give this perseverance to some of his sons. Far be it that it should be so, if they were among those predestined and called according to his purpose, who are truly sons of the promise. For these others, when they live godly, are called sons of God; but since they are going to live ungodly and die in that same ungodliness, the foreknowledge of God does not call them sons of God. For there are sons of God who are not yet so to us, and are already so to God; of whom the evangelist John says that Jesus was to die for the nation, “and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who were scattered abroad”: which they were certainly going to become by believing, through the preaching of the gospel; and yet before this had happened they were already sons of God, written in the memory of their Father with unshaken stability. And again there are some who are called sons of God by us because of grace received, even temporarily, and yet are not so to God; of whom the same John says, “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would certainly have remained with us.” He does not say, “They went out from us, but because they did not remain with us they are no longer of us,” but he says, “They went out from us, but they were not of us”; that is, even when they seemed to be among us, they were not of us. And as though he were asked, “How do you show this?”, he says, “For if they had been of us, they would certainly have remained with us.” It is the voice of the sons of God; John speaks, placed in a foremost place among the sons of God. When, then, the sons of God say of those who did not have perseverance, “They went out from us, but they were not of us,” and add, “For if they had been of us, they would certainly have remained with us,” what else do they say but, “They were not sons even when they were in the profession and name of sons”? Not because they feigned righteousness, but because they did not remain in it. For he does not say, “For if they had been of us, they would certainly have held a true, not a feigned, righteousness with us,” but, “if they had been of us,” he says, “they would certainly have remained with us.” In good he without doubt wanted them to remain. They were, then, in good; but because they did not remain in it, that is, did not persevere to the end, they were not, he says, of us, even when they were with us; that is, they were not of the number of sons, even when they were in the faith of sons; since those who are truly sons were foreknown and predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, and were called according to his purpose so as to be chosen. For it is not the son of the promise who perishes, but the son of perdition. These, then, were of the multitude of the called, but not of the fewness of the chosen. It is not, then, to his predestined sons that God did not give perseverance; for they would have it if they were in that number of sons; and what would they have that they had not received, according to the apostolic and true statement? And therefore such sons would have been given to Christ the Son, as he himself says to the Father, “that all that you have given me may not perish, but have eternal life.” These, then, are understood to be given to Christ who are ordained to eternal life. They are those predestined and called according to his purpose, of whom none perishes. And therefore none of them ends this life changed from good to evil, since he is so ordained, and therefore given to Christ, that he may not perish but have eternal life. And again, those whom we call his enemies, or the infant sons of his enemies, whichever of them he is going to regenerate so that they end this life in the faith that works through love, are already, even before this happens, his sons in that predestination, and have been given to Christ his Son, so that they may not perish but have eternal life. Then the Saviour himself says, “If you remain in my word, you are truly my disciples.” Is Judas to be counted among these, who did not remain in his word? Are those to be counted among them of whom the Gospel speaks thus? There, when the Lord had commended his flesh to be eaten and his blood to be drunk, the evangelist says: “These things he said teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum. Many of his disciples, therefore, hearing it, said, ‘This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?’ But Jesus, knowing in himself that his disciples were murmuring at this, said to them: ‘Does this offend you? What, then, if you see the Son of Man ascending where he was before? It is the spirit that gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe.’ For Jesus knew from the beginning who were the believers, and who was to betray him; and he said, ‘This is why I told you that no one comes to me unless it has been given him by my Father.’ From this time many of his disciples went back and no longer walked with him.” Were not these too called disciples, as the Gospel speaks? And yet they were not truly disciples, because they did not remain in his word, according to what he says, “If you remain in my word, you are truly my disciples.” Because, then, they did not have perseverance, just as they were not truly disciples of Christ, so they were not truly sons of God either, even when they seemed to be and were so called. We, then, call elect, and disciples of Christ, and sons of God, those whom we see regenerated and living godly, for so they are to be called; but they truly are what they are called if they remain in that on account of which they are so called. But if they do not have perseverance, that is, do not remain in what they have begun to be, they are not truly called what they are called and are not; for they are not so with him to whom what they will be is known, that is, evil from good. For this reason the Apostle, when he had said, “We know that for those who love God all things work together for good,” knowing that some love God and do not remain in that good to the end, at once added, “for those who are called according to his purpose.” For these remain to the end in loving God; and those who stray from it for a time return, so as to carry through to the end what they began to be in good. And showing what it is to be called according to his purpose, he at once added what I have already set out above: “For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers; and those whom he predestined, he also called,” namely according to his purpose; “and those whom he called, he also justified; and those whom he justified, he also glorified.” All those things have already been done: he foreknew, predestined, called, justified; since all have already been foreknown and predestined, and many already called and justified; but what he put at the end, “he also glorified” (if indeed that glory is to be understood here of which the same apostle says, “When Christ, your life, appears, then you too will appear with him in glory”), has not yet been done. Although those two too, that is, “he called” and “he justified,” have not been done in all of whom they are said, for until the end of the world many are still to be called and justified, yet he used verbs of the past tense even of future things, as though God had already done what he has arranged from eternity to be done. Therefore the prophet Isaiah too says of him, “Who has made the things that are to be.” Whoever, then, in God's most provident arrangement, are foreknown, predestined, called, justified, glorified, I say not only those not yet reborn but even those not yet born, are already sons of God and absolutely cannot perish. These truly come to Christ, since they come in the way he himself says, “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and him who comes to me I will not cast out.” And a little later he says, “This is the will of the Father who sent me, that of all that he has given me I should lose nothing.” By him, then, is perseverance in good to the end also given; for it is given only to those who will not perish, since those who do not persevere will perish. For such as love God, God makes all things work together for good; so entirely all things that even if some of them stray and go astray, he makes this very thing profit them for good, because they return humbler and more instructed. For they learn that they ought to rejoice with trembling in the right way itself, not arrogating to themselves confidence in remaining as though from their own strength, nor saying in their abundance, “We shall never be moved.” That is why it is said to them, “Serve the Lord in fear, and rejoice to him with trembling, lest at any time the Lord be angry and you perish from the right way.” For he does not say, “and you do not come to the right way,” but, “lest you perish,” he says, “from the right way.” What does he show but that those who are already walking in the right way are warned to serve God in fear, that is, not to be high-minded but to fear? Which means: let them not be proud, but humble; hence he says elsewhere too, “Not minding high things, but consenting to the lowly”; let them rejoice to God, but with trembling, glorying in nothing, since nothing is ours, so that he who glories may glory in the Lord; lest they perish from the right way in which they have already begun to walk, while they attribute to themselves the very fact that they are in it. The Apostle too used these words where he says, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” And showing why with fear and trembling: “For it is God,” he says, “who works in you both to will and to work, for his good will.” For he did not have this fear and trembling who said in his abundance, “I shall never be moved.” But because he was a son of the promise, not of perdition, when he learned by experience what he himself was, God forsaking him a little, he says, “Lord, in your will you gave strength to my beauty; you turned your face from me, and I was troubled.” See: more instructed, and therefore humbler too, he kept to the way, now seeing and confessing that it was in his will that God had given strength to his beauty; which he had attributed to himself, presuming on himself in such abundance as God had given, not on him who had given it, when he said, “I shall never be moved.” He was troubled, then, so that he might find himself, and, thinking humbly, learn in whom hope must be placed, not only of eternal life but also of godly conduct and perseverance in this life. This could also be the voice of the apostle Peter; for he too had said in his abundance, “I will lay down my life for you,” hastily attributing to himself what was afterwards to be bestowed on him by the Lord. But the Lord turned his face from him, and he was troubled, so that, fearing to die for him, he denied him three times. But the Lord turned his face to him again and washed away his fault with tears. For what else does “He looked at him” mean, but “He turned back to him the face that he had for a little turned away from him”? He had been troubled, then; but because he learned not to trust in himself, this too profited him for good, he working it who makes all things work together for good for those who love him; because he had been called according to his purpose, so that no one could snatch him from the hand of Christ, to whom he had been given. Let no one say, then, that one who strays from the right way is not to be rebuked, but that only his return and perseverance are to be asked of the Lord: let no prudent and faithful person say this. For if he has been called according to his purpose, without doubt God makes even his being rebuked work together for his good. But whether he has been so called, since he who rebukes does not know, let him do with love what he knows must be done; for he knows that such a one must be rebuked. God will do either mercy or judgment: mercy, if the one who is rebuked has been separated from the mass of perdition by the bounty of grace, and is not among the vessels of wrath fitted for destruction but among the vessels of mercy which God has prepared for glory; but judgment, if he has been condemned among the former and has not been predestined among the latter.

Here another question arises, by no means to be despised, but to be approached and solved with the help of the Lord, in whose hand are both we and our words. For we are asked, as far as concerns this gift of God, which is to persevere in good to the end, what we think of the first man himself, who was certainly made upright without any fault. I do not ask: “If he did not have perseverance, how was he without fault, when so necessary a gift of God was lacking to him?” For this question is easily answered: he did not have perseverance because he did not persevere in that good in which he was without fault; for he began to have a fault from the time he fell; and if he began, then before he began he was certainly without fault. For it is one thing not to have a fault, and another not to remain in that goodness in which there is no fault. For by the very fact that it is not said that he was never without fault, but that he did not remain without fault, it is without doubt shown that he was without fault, he who is blamed for not remaining in that good. But this must rather be asked and treated more laboriously: how we are to answer those who say, “If in that uprightness in which he was made without fault he had perseverance, he without doubt persevered in it; and if he persevered, he certainly did not sin, nor forsake that uprightness of his and God. But that he sinned and was a deserter of the good, the truth cries out. Therefore he did not have perseverance in that good; and if he did not have it, he certainly did not receive it. For how could he both have received perseverance and not have persevered? Further, if he did not have it because he did not receive it, how did he sin by not persevering, who did not receive perseverance? For it cannot be said that he did not receive it because he was not separated from the mass of perdition by the bounty of grace; for that mass of perdition did not yet exist in the human race before he sinned, from whom the vitiated origin was drawn.” Therefore we most wholesomely confess what we most rightly believe: that God, the Lord of all things, who created all things very good, and foreknew that evil things would arise from good ones, and knew that it belonged more to his most omnipotent goodness to do good even from evil things than not to allow evil things to be, so ordered the life of angels and men as to show in it first what their free choice could do, then what the benefit of his grace and the judgment of his justice could do. Then some angels, whose prince is the one called the devil, became by free choice fugitives from the Lord God. Yet, fleeing his goodness, by which they had been blessed, they could not flee his judgment, by which they were made most wretched. But the rest, by that same free choice, stood in the truth, and deserved to know as most certain that they would never fall. For if we have been able to know from the holy Scriptures that none of the holy angels will fall any more, how much more have they themselves known it, with the truth revealed to them more sublimely! For to us a blessed life without end is promised, and equality with the angels; from this promise we are certain that when after the judgment we come to that life, we shall not fall from it. If the angels do not know this of themselves, we shall not be their equals but more blessed than they; but the Truth has promised us equality with them. It is certain, then, that they know by sight what we know by faith, namely that no holy angel will ever fall. But the devil and his angels, though they were blessed before they fell and did not know that they would fall into misery, still had something that would have been added to their blessedness if by free choice they had stood in the truth, until they received that fullness of the highest blessedness as the reward of that very remaining: that is, that through the great abundance of the love of God given by the Holy Spirit they should be utterly unable to fall any more, and should know this of themselves most certainly. This fullness of blessedness they did not have; but because they did not know their future misery, they enjoyed a blessedness that was lesser, yet a blessedness without any fault. For if they had known their future fall and eternal punishment, they certainly could not have been blessed, since the fear of so great an evil would have compelled them to be wretched already. So also he made man with free choice; and though he was ignorant of his future fall, he was nevertheless blessed because he felt that it was in his power not to die and not to become wretched. If in this upright and faultless state he had willed to remain by that same free choice, then without any experience of death and unhappiness he would have received, as the reward of this remaining, that fullness of blessedness by which the holy angels too are blessed, that is, that he could no longer fall, and would know this most certainly. For not even he could have been blessed in paradise, indeed he would not have been there, where it was not fitting to be wretched, if foreknowledge of his fall had made him wretched with fear of so great an evil. But because by free choice he forsook God, he experienced the just judgment of God, so that he was condemned with his whole stock, which, being still placed in him, had sinned with him as a whole. For as many of this stock as are set free by the grace of God are certainly set free from the condemnation by which they are already held bound. Hence, even if none were set free, no one could justly find fault with the just judgment of God. That few, then, in comparison with those who perish, but many in their own number, are set free, comes about by grace, comes about freely; thanks must be given because it comes about, lest anyone be lifted up as though by his own merits, but that every mouth may be stopped, and he who glories may glory in the Lord.

What then? Did Adam not have the grace of God? On the contrary, he had great grace, but different. He was among goods which he had received from the goodness of his Creator; for he had not acquired those goods by his own merits either, and in them he suffered no evil at all. But the saints in this life, to whom this grace of deliverance belongs, are among evils, from which they cry to God, “Deliver us from evil.” He, among those goods, did not need the death of Christ; these the blood of that Lamb absolves from guilt both inherited and their own. He had no need of that help which these implore when they say: “I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind and making me captive in the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” For in them the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh, and, labouring and endangered in such a contest, they ask that the strength to fight and conquer be given them through the grace of Christ. But he, tempted and troubled by no such strife of himself against himself, enjoyed his own peace in that place of blessedness. Therefore these, though they need a grace not more joyful for the present, yet more powerful; and what is more powerful than the only-begotten Son of God, equal to the Father and co-eternal, made man for them, and, without any sin of his own, original or personal, crucified by sinful men? Though he rose on the third day, never to die again, yet he suffered death for mortals, he who gave life to the dead, so that, redeemed by his blood, having received so great and such a pledge, they might say, “If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how has he not with him also given us all things?” God, then, took up our nature, that is, the rational soul and flesh of the man Christ, by a taking-up singularly wonderful or wonderfully singular, so that, with no preceding merits of his own righteousness, he was the Son of God from the beginning in which he began to be man, so that he and the Word, which is without beginning, were one person. For no one is so blind with ignorance of this matter and of the faith as to dare to say that, though born the son of man of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, he nevertheless deserved to be the Son of God by free choice, by living well and doing good works without sin, when the Gospel resists him and says, “The Word was made flesh.” For where was this done but in the virginal womb, where the man Christ had his beginning? Again, when the Virgin asked how what was announced to her by the angel would come about, the angel answered, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the Holy One who will be born of you will be called the Son of God.” “Therefore,” he says: not because of works, which certainly do not exist in one not yet born, but because “the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you, the Holy One who will be born of you will be called the Son of God.” That birth, surely given freely, joined man to God, flesh to the Word, in the unity of a person. Good works followed that birth; good works did not merit it. Nor was there any fear that, human nature having been taken up by God the Word in this ineffable way into unity of person, it would sin by free choice of the will, since the taking-up itself was such that the nature of man so taken up by God would admit in itself no movement of evil will. Through this Mediator God shows that he makes those whom he has redeemed by his blood good for ever thereafter from evil, he whom he so took up that he was never evil and, not having been made good from evil, was always good. This grace the first man did not have, by which he would never will to be evil; but he did have a grace in which, if he had willed to remain, he would never have been evil, and without which, even with free choice, he could not be good, but which nevertheless he could forsake by free choice. Not even him, then, did God will to be without his grace, which he left in his free choice. For free choice is sufficient for evil, but for good it is too little, unless it is helped by the omnipotent Good. If that man had not forsaken this help by free choice, he would always have been good; but he forsook it and was forsaken. For it was a help of such a kind that he could forsake it when he willed, and remain in it if he willed; not one by which it would come about that he willed. This is the first grace, which was given to the first Adam; but more powerful than this is that in the second Adam. For the first is that by which it comes about that a man has righteousness if he wills; the second, then, can do more, by which it even comes about that he wills, and wills so much, and loves with such ardour, that by the will of the spirit he overcomes the will of the flesh lusting against it. Nor was that first grace indeed small, by which even the power of free choice was shown, since he was so helped that without this help he would not remain in good, but could forsake this help if he willed. But this second grace is so much greater that it is too little for man to recover his lost freedom through it, too little, finally, that without it he can neither lay hold of the good nor remain in the good if he wills, unless it is also brought about that he wills. At that time, then, God had given man a good will; for he had made him in it, having made him upright; he had given him help without which he could not remain in it if he willed; but that he should will he left in his free choice. He could, then, remain if he willed, because the help was not lacking by which he could, and without which he could not perseveringly hold the good he willed. But because he did not will to remain, the fault is certainly his, whose merit it would have been if he had willed to remain; as the holy angels did, who, when others fell by free choice, themselves stood by that same free choice, and deserved to receive the due reward of this remaining, namely so great a fullness of blessedness that it is most certain to them that they will always remain in it. But if this help had been lacking to angel or man when they were first made, since their nature was not made such that it could remain without divine help if it willed, they would certainly not have fallen by their own fault; for the help would have been lacking without which they could not remain. But now, for those who lack such help, it is already the punishment of sin; and to those to whom it is given, it is given according to grace, not according to debt; and through Jesus Christ our Lord it is given so much more fully to those to whom it has pleased God to give it, that not only is that present without which we cannot remain even if we will, but it is so great and such that we will. For by this grace of God it comes about in us, in receiving the good and holding it perseveringly, not only that we can do what we will, but also that we will what we can. This was not so in the first man: one of these was in him, the other was not. For to receive the good he did not need grace, because he had not yet lost it; but to remain in it he needed the help of grace, without which he could not do so at all; and he had received the ability if he willed, but did not have the will to do what he could; for if he had had it, he would have persevered. For he could persevere if he willed; that he did not will came from free choice, which was then so free that it could will both well and ill. But what will be freer than free choice when it is unable to serve sin? This would have been the reward of merit for man too, as it has been for the holy angels. But now, good merit having been lost through sin, in those who are set free there has become a gift of grace what would have been the reward of merit.

Therefore we must consider carefully and attentively how these pairs differ from each other: to be able not to sin, and not to be able to sin; to be able not to die, and not to be able to die; to be able not to forsake the good, and not to be able to forsake the good. For the first man was able not to sin, was able not to die, was able not to forsake the good. Shall we say, “He was not able to sin,” who had such free choice? Or, “He was not able to die,” to whom it was said, “If you sin, you shall surely die”? Or, “He was not able to forsake the good,” when he did forsake it by sinning, and therefore died? The first freedom of the will, then, was to be able not to sin; the last will be much greater, not to be able to sin. The first immortality was to be able not to die; the last will be much greater, not to be able to die. The first was the power of perseverance, to be able not to forsake the good; the last will be the happiness of perseverance, not to be able to forsake the good. Because the last goods will be preferable and better, were those first ones therefore nothing or small? Likewise the helps themselves must be distinguished. One kind is the help without which something does not come about, another the help by which something comes about. For without food we cannot live, and yet when food is present it does not bring it about that one who has willed to die lives. The help of food, then, is one without which it does not come about that we live, not one by which it comes about. But blessedness, which a man does not have, makes him blessed at once when it has been given. For it is a help not only without which it does not come about, but also by which that comes about for which it is given. Therefore this help is both one by which it comes about and one without which it does not come about; because if blessedness is given to a man he at once becomes blessed, and if it is never given he never will be. But food does not of itself bring it about that a man lives; yet without it he cannot live. To the first man, then, who in that good in which he had been made upright had received the ability not to sin, the ability not to die, the ability not to forsake that very good, there was given a help to perseverance, not by which it would come about that he persevered, but without which he could not persevere by free choice. But now to the saints predestined to the kingdom of God by the grace of God there is given not such a help to perseverance, but such that perseverance itself is given them; not only so that without this gift they cannot be persevering, but also so that through this gift they are nothing but persevering. For he not only said, “Without me you can do nothing,” but also said, “You did not choose me, but I chose you, and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain.” By these words he showed that he had given them not only righteousness but also perseverance in it. For when Christ so appoints them that they go and bear fruit and their fruit remains, who would dare to say, “It will not remain”? Who would dare to say, “Perhaps it will not remain”? “For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance”; but the calling of those who are called according to his purpose. Since Christ intercedes for these, that their faith may not fail, without doubt it will not fail to the end; and therefore it will persevere to the end, and the end of this life will find it only remaining. For a greater freedom is necessary against so many and so great temptations, which did not exist in paradise, a freedom fortified and strengthened by the gift of perseverance, so that this world may be overcome with all its loves, terrors, and errors: the martyrdoms of the saints have taught this. Then he, with no one terrifying him, and moreover using free choice against the command of a God who warned him with terror, did not stand in such happiness, in such ease of not sinning; but these, with the world, I do not say terrifying them, but raging so that they should not stand, stood in the faith; while he saw the present goods he was going to leave, and these did not see the future goods they were going to receive. Whence this, but by the gift of him from whom they obtained mercy to be faithful, from whom they received the spirit not of fear, by which they would yield to their persecutors, but of power and love and self-control, by which they overcame all threats, all allurements, all tortures? To him, then, a free will without any sin was given, with which he was created, and he made it serve sin; but the will of these, when it had been the slave of sin, was set free by him who said, “If the Son sets you free, then you will be free indeed.” And they receive through this grace so great a freedom that, although as long as they live here they fight against the lusts of sins, and some steal upon them, for which they say daily, “Forgive us our debts,” yet they no longer serve the sin that is unto death, of which the apostle John says, “There is a sin unto death; I do not say that he should pray for it.” About this sin, since it is not specified, many different opinions are possible; but I say that this sin is to forsake, until death, the faith that works through love. To this sin they no longer serve, not free by their first condition, as he was, but set free by the grace of God through the second Adam, and by this deliverance having free choice by which to serve God, not by which to be taken captive by the devil. For having been set free from sin they have become slaves of righteousness, in which they will stand to the end, he giving them perseverance who foreknew them, and predestined, and called according to his purpose, and justified, and glorified; since he has already made even the future things that he promised concerning them; and Abraham believed him when he promised, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. For he gave glory to God, most fully believing, as it is written, “that what he had promised he was able also to do.” He himself, then, makes them good so that they do good. For he did not promise them to Abraham because he foreknew that they would be good of themselves. For if that were so, what he promised would be not his own but theirs. But Abraham did not believe so; rather, “he was not weak in faith, giving glory to God, and most fully believing that what he had promised he was able also to do.” He does not say, “What he foreknew he was able to promise,” or, “What he foretold he was able to show,” or, “What he promised he was able to foreknow,” but, “What he had promised he was able also to do.” He himself, then, makes them persevere in good who makes them good. But those who fall and perish were not in the number of the predestined. Although, then, the Apostle was speaking of all the regenerate who live godly when he said, “Who are you to judge another's servant? To his own master he stands or falls,” yet he at once looked to the predestined and said, “But he will stand”; and lest they should claim this for themselves, he says, “for God is able to make him stand.” He himself, then, gives perseverance, who is able to make those who stand stand most perseveringly, or to restore those who have fallen; for the Lord raises up those who are crushed. That the first man, then, did not receive this gift of God, that is, perseverance in good, but that persevering or not persevering was left to his choice, his will, which had been established without any sin, had such strength, and nothing in him resisted him from himself by concupiscence, that the choice of persevering was fittingly entrusted to so great a goodness and so great an ease of living well: God indeed foreknowing what he would do unjustly; foreknowing, yet not forcing him to it; but at the same time knowing what he himself would justly do concerning him. But now, after that great freedom was lost by the merit of sin, the weakness that remained had to be helped by even greater gifts. For it pleased God, in order most fully to extinguish the pride of human presumption, “that no flesh should glory before him,” that is, no man. And of what should flesh not glory before him, if not of its merits? Which it could indeed have had, but lost; and by that through which it could have them, by that it lost them, that is, by free choice; so that nothing remains for those to be set free but the grace of the deliverer. So no flesh glories before him. For the unrighteous do not glory, since they have nothing to glory of; nor the righteous, since they have it from him, and have no glory of their own but him, to whom they say, “My glory, and the lifter of my head.” And therefore what is written belongs to every man, “that no flesh should glory before him”; but to the righteous belongs this: “He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.” For the Apostle shows this most plainly, who, when he had said, “that no flesh should glory before him,” at once added, lest the saints should think they had been left without glory, “But of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption; so that, as it is written, ‘He who glories, let him glory in the Lord.’” Hence it is that in this place of miseries, where human life is a trial upon earth, power is made perfect in weakness: what power, but that he who glories should glory in the Lord? And therefore not even of perseverance in good did God want his saints to glory in their own strength, but in him; who gives them not only such a help as he gave the first man, without which they cannot persevere if they will, but also works in them to will; so that, since they will not persevere unless they both can and will, both the ability and the will to persevere may be given them by the bounty of divine grace. For their will is so kindled by the Holy Spirit that they can because they so will, and so will because God works that they will. For if, in such weakness of this life (in which weakness, however, power had to be made perfect to repress pride), their own will were left to them, so that they would remain in the help of God without which they could not persevere, if they willed, and God did not work in them that they willed, among so many and so great temptations the will itself would give way through its weakness, and therefore they could not persevere, because, failing through weakness, they would not will, or would not will so firmly, through the weakness of the will, that they could. Help was given, then, to the weakness of the human will, so that it might be moved by divine grace without turning aside and without being overcome, and therefore, though weak, it might not fail nor be overcome by any adversity. So it came about that the weak and feeble will of man persevered by the power of God in a good still small; while the strong and sound will of the first man, having the strength of free choice, did not persevere in a greater good; although the help of God was not lacking without which he could not persevere if he willed, yet it was not such that God worked in him that he willed. To the strongest, indeed, he left and permitted to do what he willed; for the weak he reserved that by his gift they should most invincibly will what is good and most invincibly refuse to forsake it. When Christ says, then, “I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail,” let us understand that it was said to one who is built upon the rock. And so the man of God, not only because he obtained mercy to be faithful, but also because faith itself does not fail, “he who glories, let him glory in the Lord.”

I am speaking of those who are predestined to the kingdom of God, whose number is so certain that no one is added to them or taken from them; not of those who, when he had announced and spoken, “were multiplied beyond number.” For these can be called called, but not chosen, because they are not called according to his purpose. That the number of the elect is certain, neither to be increased nor diminished, John the Baptist too indicates when he says, “Bear fruit worthy of repentance, and do not say among yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as father’; for God is able from these stones to raise up children to Abraham,” so as to show that these are to be cut off if they do not bear fruit in such a way that the number promised to Abraham will not be lacking; yet it is said more plainly in the Apocalypse, “Hold fast what you have, lest another take your crown.” For if another is not going to receive it unless this one loses it, the number is certain. But that these things are said even to saints who will persevere, as if it were uncertain whether they will persevere, they ought to hear in no other way than this: it is good for them not to be high-minded, but to fear. For who, out of the multitude of believers, as long as one lives in this mortality, may presume that he is in the number of the predestined? For it is necessary that this be hidden in this place, where pride must be so guarded against that even so great an apostle was buffeted by an angel of Satan lest he be lifted up. Hence it was said to the apostles, “If you remain in me,” by him who certainly knew that they would remain. And through the prophet, “If you are willing and listen to me,” though he knew in whom he would work even to will. And many similar things are said. For because of the usefulness of this secret, lest anyone be lifted up, but that all, even those who run well, may fear, while it is hidden who will arrive: because of the usefulness of this secret, then, it must be believed that some of the sons of perdition, not having received the gift of perseverance to the end, begin to live in the faith that works through love, and live faithfully and righteously for some time, and afterwards fall, and are not taken from this life before this happens to them. If this had happened to none of them, men would have that most wholesome fear, by which the fault of pride is suppressed, only until they reached the grace of Christ by which one lives godly, and from then on they would be secure that they would never fall from him. Such presumption is not good in this place of temptations, where there is such weakness that security could breed pride. In the end this too will be; but then, what already is in the angels will also be in men, when there can be no pride at all. The number of the saints, then, predestined by the grace of God to the kingdom of God, with perseverance to the end also given them, will be brought there whole, and there, most whole, will be kept for ever most blessed, the mercy of their Saviour cleaving to them, whether when they are converted, or when they fight, or when they are crowned. For holy Scripture testifies that God's mercy will be necessary to them even then, where a holy man says to his soul of the Lord his God, “who crowns you with compassion and mercy.” The apostle James also says, “Judgment without mercy to him who has shown no mercy”; where he shows that even in that judgment in which the righteous are crowned and the unrighteous condemned, some are to be judged with mercy, others without mercy. That is why the mother of the Maccabees also says to her son, “that in that mercy I may receive you with your brothers.” For when the righteous king, as it is written, sits on his throne, no evil will stand against him. Who will glory that he has a chaste heart? Or who will glory that he is clean from sin? And therefore even there the mercy of God is necessary, by which he is made blessed to whom the Lord has not imputed sin. But then mercy itself will also be bestowed by just judgment according to the merits of good works. For when it is said, “Judgment without mercy to him who has shown no mercy,” it is shown that in those in whom good works of mercy are found, judgment takes place with mercy; and therefore that mercy itself is rendered to the merits of good works. It is not so now, when his mercy goes before a man, not only with no good works, but with many evil works preceding, so that he may be set free from evils, both those he has done and those he would have done unless he were governed by the grace of God, and those he would have suffered for ever unless he were rescued from the power of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of the Son of God's love. Yet, since eternal life itself, which it is certain is rendered as due to good works, is called by so great an apostle the grace of God, although grace is not rendered to works but given freely, it must be confessed without any doubt that eternal life is called grace because it is rendered to merits which grace has conferred on man. For what is read in the Gospel, “grace for grace,” is rightly understood of it, that is, for those merits which grace conferred. But those who do not belong to this number of the predestined, whom the grace of God brings to the kingdom, whether they do not yet have any free choice of their own will, or with a choice of will truly free because set free by that very grace: those, then, who do not belong to this most certain and most happy number are most justly judged according to their merits. For either they lie under the sin which they drew by origin through their generation, and depart hence with that hereditary debt, which has not been remitted by regeneration; or by free choice they have added others besides: a choice, I say, free, but not set free; free from righteousness, but the slave of sin, by which they are rolled about through various harmful desires, some more, some less, but all evil, and to be judged with different punishments according to that very difference. Or they receive the grace of God, but they are temporary and do not persevere; they forsake and are forsaken. For they have been left to their free choice, not having received the gift of perseverance, by the just and hidden judgment of God.

Let men, then, allow themselves to be rebuked when they sin, and let them not argue from rebuke against grace, nor from grace against rebuke; for just punishment is due to sin, and just rebuke belongs to it, which is applied as medicine even if the health of the sick man is uncertain: so that if the one rebuked belongs to the number of the predestined, rebuke may be a wholesome medicine to him; but if he does not belong, rebuke may be a penal torment to him. Under this uncertainty, then, it must be applied out of love, since its outcome is unknown; and for him to whom it is applied we must pray that he may be healed. But when men through rebuke either come or return to the way of righteousness, who works salvation in their hearts but he who, whoever plants and waters, and whoever works in the fields or among the shrubs, gives the increase, God, whom, when he wills to save, no human choice resists? For to will or not to will is in the power of the one who wills or does not will in such a way that it does not hinder the divine will nor overcome his power. For even concerning those who do what he does not will, he himself does what he wills. And what is written, that he “wills all men to be saved,” though not all are saved, can be understood in many ways, some of which we have mentioned in other works of ours; but here I will say one. It is said, “He wills all men to be saved,” in such a way that all the predestined are to be understood, because every kind of men is among them. Just as it was said to the Pharisees, “You tithe every herb,” where nothing is to be understood but every herb they had; for they did not tithe every herb in the whole world. According to this manner of speaking it is said, “As I too please all men in all things.” Did he who said this please even his many persecutors? But he pleased every kind of men that the church of Christ was gathering, whether those already placed within it or those to be brought into it. There is, then, no doubt that human wills cannot resist the will of God, who has done whatever he willed in heaven and on earth, and who has even made the things that are to be, so as to prevent him from doing what he wills; since even concerning the very wills of men he does what he wills, when he wills. Unless perhaps (to mention a few out of many) when God willed to give the kingdom to Saul, it was so in the power of the Israelites to submit to that man or not to submit, which was certainly placed in their will, that they were able even to resist God. Yet he did this only through the wills of those men themselves, without doubt having the most omnipotent power of inclining human hearts where he pleased. For thus it is written: “And Samuel sent the people away, and each went to his own place; and Saul went to his house in Gibeah; and there went with Saul the mighty men whose hearts the Lord had touched. And the pestilent men said, ‘How shall this man save us?’ And they despised him and brought him no gifts.” Will anyone say that any of those whose hearts the Lord touched so that they went with him would not have gone with Saul, or that any of the pestilent men, whose hearts he did not touch so that they did this, went? Again, of David, whom the Lord established in the kingdom with more prosperous success, we read thus: “And David went on advancing and growing great, and the Lord was with him.” When this had been said first, a little later it is said: “And the Spirit clothed Amasai, the chief of the thirty, and he said: We are yours, O David, and will be with you, son of Jesse. Peace, peace to you, and peace to your helpers, for God has helped you.” Could this man oppose the will of God, and not rather do the will of him who worked in his heart through his Spirit, with whom he was clothed, that he should will, say, and do this? Again a little later the same Scripture says: “All these men of war, setting the battle in array with a peaceable heart, came to Hebron to make David king over all Israel.” Certainly these made David king by their own will. Who does not see this? Who would deny it? For they did not do it without heart or without good will, they who did it with a peaceable heart; and yet he did this in them who works in the hearts of men whatever he wills. That is why Scripture put first, “And David went on advancing and growing great, and the Lord almighty was with him.” And therefore the Lord almighty, who was with him, led these to make him king. And how did he lead them? Did he bind them with any bodily chains? He acted within, held their hearts, moved their hearts, and drew them by their own wills, which he himself worked in them. If, then, when God wills to set up kings on earth, he has the wills of men more in his power than they themselves have their own, who else makes rebuke wholesome and correction take place in the heart of the one rebuked, so that he may be established in the heavenly kingdom?

Let the brothers who are subject, then, be rebuked by those set over them with rebukes coming from love, differing according to the difference of faults, either milder or severer. For even that which is called condemnation, which the bishop's judgment imposes, than which there is no greater punishment in the church, can, if God wills, turn out and profit as a most wholesome rebuke. For we do not know what may happen on the following day; nor is anyone to be despaired of before the end of this life; nor can God be contradicted, so that he may not look on him and give repentance, and, accepting the sacrifice of a troubled spirit and a contrite heart, absolve him from the guilt of a condemnation however just, and himself not condemn the condemned man. Yet pastoral necessity requires, lest dread contagions creep through many, that the diseased sheep be separated from the healthy; perhaps to be healed by that very separation by him to whom nothing is impossible. For since we do not know who belongs to the number of the predestined and who does not, we ought to be so moved by the affection of love as to will all to be saved. This indeed comes about when we try to bring each one, as they come our way and we are able to do it with them, to this: that, being justified by faith, they may have peace with God; which the Apostle too was preaching when he said, “We are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were exhorting through us; we beseech you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God.” For what is it to be reconciled to him but to have peace with him? On account of this peace the Lord Jesus himself also said to his disciples: “Into whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace to this house’; and if a son of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him; but if not, it will return to you.” When those of whom it was foretold, “How beautiful are the feet of those who announce peace, who announce good things!”, preach this peace, each one begins to be a son of peace to us when he has obeyed and believed this gospel, and, justified by faith, has begun to have peace with God; but according to the predestination of God he was already a son of peace. For it is not said, “Upon whom your peace rests, he will become a son of peace,” but, “If a son of peace is there,” he says, “your peace will rest upon that house.” Already, then, before this peace was announced to him, a son of peace was there, as he who knew and foreknew him, not the evangelist but God, knew. It belongs to us, then, who do not know who is a son of peace or is not, to make no exception and to make no distinction, but to will all to be saved to whom we preach this peace. Nor need we fear that we shall lose it if the one to whom we preach is not a son of peace, without our knowing it; for it will return to us, that is, this preaching will profit us and not him; but if the peace preached rests upon him, it will profit both us and him. Since, then, God commands us, who do not know who will be saved, to will all to whom we preach this peace to be saved, and he himself works this in us by pouring out this love in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us, it can also be understood in this way that God wills all men to be saved: because he makes us will it; just as he sent the Spirit of his Son crying, “Abba, Father,” that is, making us cry. For of that same Spirit he says in another place, “We have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, in whom we cry, Abba, Father.” We, then, cry; but he is said to cry who brings it about that we cry. If, then, Scripture rightly said that the Spirit cries, by whom it is brought about that we cry, it rightly says too that God wills, by whom it is brought about that we will. And therefore, since in rebuking too we ought to aim at nothing else than that there be no departing from this peace which is with God, or that one who had departed may return to it, let us do what we do without despair. If the one we rebuke is a son of peace, our peace will rest upon him; but if not, it will return to us. Although, then, even while the faith of some is being overturned, the firm foundation of God stands, since the Lord knew those who are his, we ought not on that account to be lazy and negligent in rebuking those who are to be rebuked. For not in vain was it said, “Evil conversations corrupt good morals,” and, “The weak brother for whom Christ died will perish through your knowledge.” Let us not argue against these precepts and this wholesome fear by saying, “Let evil conversations corrupt good morals, and let the weak man perish: what is that to us? The firm foundation of God stands, and no one perishes but the son of perdition.”

Far be it from us to prattle such things and believe that we should be secure in this negligence. For it is true that no one perishes but the son of perdition; but God says through the prophet Ezekiel, “He indeed dies in his sin, but his blood I will require at the hand of the watchman.” Therefore, as far as concerns us, who cannot distinguish the predestined from those not predestined, and for this reason ought to will all to be saved, a severe rebuke must be applied by us as medicine to all, lest they perish or lest they destroy others; but it is God's part to make it useful to those whom he himself foreknew and predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son. For if sometimes we do not rebuke for fear that someone may perish from it, why do we not also rebuke for fear that someone may perish the more from not being rebuked? For we do not bear greater bowels of love than the blessed Apostle, who says: “Rebuke the unruly, comfort the fainthearted, support the weak, be patient toward all; see that no one renders evil for evil to anyone.” Here it is to be understood that evil is rather rendered for evil if one who ought to be rebuked is not rebuked, but neglected through wicked dissimulation. He also says: “Rebuke those who sin before all, so that the rest may have fear.” This is to be taken of those sins that are not hidden, lest he be thought to have spoken against the Lord's saying. For he says: “If your brother sins against you, rebuke him between you and him alone.” Yet he too carries the severity of rebuke so far as to say, “If he does not listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector.” And who loved the weak more than he who became weak for all, and was crucified for all out of that very weakness? Since this is so, neither does grace forbid rebuke, nor does rebuke deny grace; and therefore righteousness is to be commanded in such a way that grace, by which what is commanded may be done, is asked of God in faithful prayer; and both are to be done in such a way that just rebuke is not neglected. But let all these things be done with love; since love neither commits sin, and covers a multitude of sins.