Letters 217.16–219.3

Since, then, by Christ's favor we are Catholic Christians: We know that those not yet born have done nothing good or evil in a life of their own, and do not come into the miseries of this life according to the merits of some earlier life, which none of them could have had as his own; but that, born according to Adam in the flesh, they contract by their first birth the contagion of the ancient death, and are not freed from the punishment of eternal death, which a just condemnation, passing from one to all, draws upon them, unless they are reborn in Christ through grace. We know that the grace of God is given neither to little children nor to adults according to our merits. We know that to adults it is given for individual acts. We know that it is not given to all human beings, and that to those to whom it is given it is given not only not according to the merits of works, but not even according to the merits of the will of those to whom it is given; which appears most clearly in little children. We know that to those to whom it is given it is given by the free mercy of God. We know that to those to whom it is not given it is not given by the just judgment of God. We know that we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may receive according to what he has done through the body, not according to what he would have done if he had lived longer, whether good or evil. We know that little children too will receive good or evil according to what they have done through the body. But they have done it not by themselves but through those by whose answering for them they are said both to renounce the devil and to believe in God. Hence they are also counted among the faithful, belonging to the Lord's saying, “He who believes and is baptized will be saved.” For this reason, to those too who do not receive this sacrament happens what follows: “But he who does not believe will be condemned.” Hence they too, as I said, if they die at that tender age, are certainly judged according to what they have done through the body, that is, in the time when they were in the body, when they believed or did not believe through the hearts and mouths of those who carried them, when they were baptized or not baptized, when they ate or did not eat the flesh of Christ, when they drank or did not drink his blood; according to these things, then, which they did through the body, not according to what they would have done if they had lived here long. We know that blessed are the dead who die in the Lord, and that whatever they would have done if they had lived a longer time does not concern them. We know that those who believe in the Lord with their own heart do so by their own will and free choice. We know that we who already believe act with right faith when we pray to God for those who refuse to believe, that they may be willing. We know that for those of them who have believed we both ought to and are accustomed to give thanks to God, rightly and truly, as for benefits.

You recognize, I think, that in what I said we know, I did not wish to mention everything that belongs to the Catholic faith, but only what concerns the question being debated between us about the grace of God: whether this grace precedes or follows the will of man, that is, to put it more plainly, whether it is given to us because we will, or whether by it God also brings it about that we will. If, then, you too, brother, hold with us these twelve propositions, which I said we know belong to the right and Catholic faith, I give thanks to God; which I would certainly not give truly, unless it were by the grace of God that you held them. And if you hold them, no dispute at all remains between you and us on this question.

For, to run through these same twelve with a brief exposition: how does grace follow the merit of the human will, when it is given even to little children, who cannot yet will or refuse this? How can the merits of the will be said to precede grace even in adults, if grace, to be true grace, is not given according to our merits? Pelagius himself so feared this Catholic proposition that he condemned without hesitation those who say that the grace of God is given according to our merits, lest he be condemned by Catholic judges. How can the grace of God be said to consist in the nature of free will, or in the law and teaching, when Pelagius himself condemned this proposition too, beyond doubt confessing that the grace of God is given for individual acts, certainly to those who already use free will?

How can it be said that all human beings would have received it, if those to whom it is not given did not reject it by their own will, because God wills all human beings to be saved, when it is not given to many little children, and very many die without it who have no contrary will; and sometimes, though the parents desire it and hurry, and the ministers too are willing and ready, it is not given because God does not will it, when the one for whom they were running so that he might receive it suddenly dies before it is given? Hence it is plain that those who resist so evident a truth do not understand at all in what sense it was said that God wills all human beings to be saved, when so many are not saved, not because they themselves do not will it but because God does not; which is shown without any obscurity in little children. But just as the saying, “All will be made alive in Christ,” though so many are punished with eternal death, was said because all who receive eternal life receive it only in Christ, so the saying, “God wills all human beings to be saved,” though he does not will so many to be saved, was said because all who are saved are not saved except by his will; and if those apostolic words can be understood in some other way, still they cannot be contrary to this most evident truth, in which we see so many not saved, though men will it, because God does not will it.

How does the human will merit that divine grace be given, if to those to whom it is given it is given by free mercy, so that it may be true grace? How are the merits of the human will weighed in this matter, since to those to whom this grace is not given, who mostly differ by no merit and no will but have one case with those to whom it is given, it is nevertheless not given by the just judgment of God (for there is no injustice with God), so that those to whom it is given may understand how freely it is given them, since it would certainly not be given them justly, because to those who have a similar case it is justly not given?

How is it not of the grace of God that there is not only the will to believe from the beginning but also to persevere to the end, since the end of this life itself is not in man's power but in God's, and God can certainly confer this benefit even on one who will not persevere, that he be snatched from the body lest wickedness change his understanding? For a man will receive good or evil only according to what he has done through the body, not according to what he would have done if he had lived longer.

How can it be said that the grace of God is not given to some, and is given to some little children about to die, because he foresees their future wills, which they would have had if they had lived, when each one receives good or evil according to what he has done through the body, not according to what he would have done if he had been in the body longer, as the apostle laid down? How are human beings judged according to their future wills, which they are said to be going to have had if they had been kept longer in the flesh, when Scripture says, “Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord”? Their happiness is certainly not sure and secure if God will judge also what they did not do but would have done if this life had been longer for them; and the one who is snatched away lest wickedness change his understanding receives no benefit, because he pays the penalty even for the wickedness from which, perhaps imminent, he was withdrawn; and we should not rejoice over those whom we know to have died in right faith and good life, lest they be judged according to some crimes they would perhaps have committed if they had lived; nor should those be mourned or abhorred who ended this life in unbelief and depraved conduct, because perhaps, if they had lived, they would have repented and lived devoutly, and should be judged according to that; and the whole book on mortality of the most glorious martyr Cyprian is to be rejected and cast aside, whose whole aim is that we should know that good believers who die are to be congratulated, since they are taken away from the temptations of this life, to remain thenceforth in most blessed security. But since this is not false, and beyond doubt blessed are the dead who die in the Lord, the error is to be laughed at and abhorred by which it is thought that human beings are to be judged according to their future wills, which are not future for those who die.

How can those be said to deny the free choice of the will who confess that every human being who believes in God with his heart believes only by his own free will, when it is rather those who attack the grace of God, by which it is truly made free to choose and do good, who attack free choice? How can it be said that what the same Scripture said, “The will is prepared by the Lord,” is done through the law of God and the teaching of the Scriptures, and not rather through the hidden inspiration of the grace of God, since for those who contradict that same teaching and refuse to believe it we ask God himself, with right faith, that they may be willing?

How does God wait for the wills of human beings to go before him, so that he may give them grace, when we rightly give him thanks for those to whom, while they did not believe him and persecuted his teaching with impious will, he extended mercy beforehand, and converted them to himself with almighty ease, and made them willing from unwilling? Why do we give him thanks for this if he did not do it? Why do we magnify him the more, the more unwilling to believe were those whom we rejoice to have believed, if the human will is not changed for the better by divine grace? The apostle Paul says: “I was unknown by face to the churches of Judea that are in Christ; they only heard that he who once persecuted us now preaches the faith he once ravaged; and they magnified God in me.” Why did they magnify God, if God had not converted to himself the heart of that man by the goodness of his grace, when, as he himself confesses, he obtained mercy to be faithful in that faith which he once ravaged? And the very word he used, whom does it declare to have done so great a good, if not God? For what does “they magnified God in me” mean, if not “they proclaimed God great in me”? But how did they proclaim him great, if he himself had not done that great deed of Paul's conversion; and how had he done it, if he himself had not made him willing to believe from unwilling?

Surely it is plain from those twelve propositions, which you are not allowed to deny belong to the Catholic faith, that from all of them, and from each one of them, it follows that we confess that the wills of human beings are anticipated by the grace of God, and are rather prepared by it than that it is given because of their merit. Or if you deny that any of those twelve is true (I emphasize their number so that they may be committed to memory more easily and held more distinctly), do not mind writing back, so that I may know and answer with such ability as the Lord gives me. For I do not believe that you are a Pelagian heretic; but I do not want you to be such that anything of that error passes over to you or remains in you.

But perhaps among these twelve you will find something you think should be denied or doubted, and on which you would compel us to argue at greater length. Will you also forbid the Church to pray for unbelievers that they may be believers; for those who refuse to believe, that they may be willing to believe; for those who dissent from his law and teaching, that they may assent to his law and teaching; that God may give them what he promised through the prophet, a heart to know him and ears that hear, which those had certainly received of whom the Savior himself said, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear”? When you hear the priest of God at his altar exhorting the people to pray to God, or himself praying aloud, that he may compel the unbelieving nations to come to his faith, will you not answer, “Amen”? Or will you even argue against the soundness of this faith? Will you cry out or whisper that the most blessed Cyprian erred in this, where he teaches us to pray for the enemies of the Christian faith, that they too may be converted to it?

Finally, will you blame the apostle Paul for having such desires for the unbelieving Jews, of whom he says, “The good will of my heart and my prayer to God for them is for their salvation”? He also says to the Thessalonians, “Finally, brothers, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may run and be glorified, as it is among you, and that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men; for not all have faith.” How would the word of God run and be glorified, except by the conversion to the faith of those to whom it was preached, since to those who already believe he says, “As it is among you”? He certainly knows that this is done by him whom he wants asked to do it, as also that he may be delivered from wicked and evil men, who certainly would not believe even if they prayed; for this reason he added, “For not all have faith,” as though he said, “For not among all, even if you pray, will the word of God be glorified,” because those were to believe who were ordained to eternal life, predestined to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to himself, and chosen in him before the foundation of the world. But God makes those not yet believing believe through the prayers of believers precisely to show that he himself does it; for no one is so unskilled, so carnal, so slow of mind as not to see that God does what he commands that he be asked to do.

These and other divine testimonies, which it would take long to recount, show that God by his grace takes away from unbelievers the heart of stone and anticipates in human beings the merits of good wills, so that the will is prepared by preceding grace, not that grace is given for the preceding merit of the will. Thanksgiving shows this as well as prayer: prayer for unbelievers, thanksgiving for believers. For thanks must be rendered, when he has done it, to the one who must be asked to do it. Hence the same apostle says to the Ephesians: “For this reason I too, having heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, do not cease to give thanks for you.”

But we are now speaking of the very beginnings, when people who were turned away and opposed are converted to God and begin to will what they did not will, and to have the faith they did not have. That this may happen in them, prayer is made for them, although it is not made by them; for how will they call on him in whom they have not believed? But when what is prayed for has been done, thanks are given to him who did it, both for them and by them. As for the prayers of those who already believe, which they make both for themselves and for other believers, that they may make progress in what they have begun to be, and the thanksgivings because they make progress, I do not think I need to contend with you; this is a contest common to you and us against the Pelagians. For they attribute everything belonging to the faithful and devout life of human beings to the free choice of the will in such a way as to think that it is to be had from ourselves, not asked of the Lord. But you, if what I hear of you is true, do not want the beginning of faith, where there is also the beginning of a good, that is, a devout, will, to be a gift of God, but contend that we have it from ourselves to begin to believe; while you agree that God by his grace gives the other goods of the religious life to those who, already from faith, ask, seek, and knock. And you do not consider that prayer is made to God for unbelievers that they may believe precisely because God gives faith too; and that thanks are given to God for those who have believed precisely because he gives faith too.

Therefore, to conclude at last this discourse to you: if you deny that prayer should be made that those who refuse to believe may be willing to believe, if you deny that thanks should be given to God because those who refused to believe have become willing to believe, you must be dealt with otherwise, so that you may not err in this way, or, if you persist in erring, that you may not lead others into error. But if, as I rather believe of you, you hold and agree that we ought to pray to God, and are accustomed to pray, for those who refuse to believe, that they may be willing to believe, and for those who oppose and contradict his law and teaching, that they may yield to it and follow it; if you hold and agree that we ought also to give thanks to God, and are accustomed to give them, for such people, because, converted to his faith and teaching, they become willing from unwilling; then you must confess without hesitation that the wills of human beings are anticipated by the grace of God, and that God, who is asked to do it, and to whom we know it is worthy and just to give thanks when he has done it, makes human beings will the good that they did not will. May the Lord give you understanding in all things, my lord brother.

Your stronger and more fruitful turning to the Lord our God has brought us great joy. For you have chosen instruction from your youth, so that you may find wisdom even to grey hairs. For understanding is a man's grey hair, and a spotless life is the age of old age. May the Lord grant you this as you ask, seek, and knock, he who knows how to give good gifts to his children. For although you have plenty of exhorters and exhortations to the way of salvation and of eternal glory, above all the very grace of Christ, which has spoken so wholesomely to you in your heart, still we too, from the duty of love that we owe you, bring some exhortation in this return of your greeting, by which we do not rouse you as sluggish or asleep, but challenge and spur you on as you run.

You must be wise, son, so as to persevere, since you were wise so as to choose. Let it be part of your wisdom to know whose gift this is. “Reveal your way to the Lord and hope in him, and he will do it, and he will bring forth your righteousness like the light and your judgment like the noonday.” “He will make your paths straight and lead your journeys forward in peace.” Just as you despised what you hoped for in the world, so as not to glory in the abundance of riches, which you had begun to desire after the manner of the children of this age, so now, in taking up the Lord's yoke and his burden, do not trust in your own strength, and the yoke will be easy and the burden light. For in the psalm both those who trust in their own strength and those who glory in the abundance of their riches are equally condemned. So you no longer had the glory of riches, but very wisely despised what you desired to have. Beware lest trust in your own strength creep upon you; for you are a man, and cursed is everyone who puts his hope in man. But trust plainly in your God with your whole heart, and he will be your strength, in which you may trust devoutly and gratefully, and to whom you may say humbly and faithfully, “I will love you, Lord, my strength”; because the very love of God, which, being perfect, casts out fear, is poured into our hearts not by our own powers, that is, human ones, but, as the apostle says, by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

Watch, then, and pray, that you may not enter into temptation. For prayer itself reminds you that you need the help of your Lord, so that you do not place in yourself the hope of living well. For you no longer pray to receive the riches and honors of the present age or anything of human vanity, but that you may not enter into temptation. If a man could provide this for himself by willing, it would certainly not be asked for by praying. So, if the will were enough for us not to enter into temptation, we would not pray; yet if the will were lacking, we could not even pray. Let the will, then, be present, so that we will; but let us pray that we may be able to do what we have willed, when by his gift we have become rightly wise. And since you have already begun this good, you have reason to give thanks. For what do you have that you did not receive? And if you received it, beware of boasting as though you had not received it, that is, as though you could have had it from yourself. But knowing from whom you received it, ask him to bring it to completion, by whom it was given you to begin it. So work out your salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you both to will and to accomplish, for his good will; since the will is prepared by the Lord, and by him the steps of a man are directed, and he will will his way. This holy thought will keep you, so that your wisdom may be godliness, that is, that you may be good from God and not ungrateful to the grace of Christ.

Your parents long for you, rejoicing faithfully in the better hope that you have begun to have in the Lord. And we desire to have you, whether absent or present in body, in the one Spirit through whom love is poured into our hearts, so that, wherever our flesh may be, our soul may in no way be separated. We received most gratefully the haircloth garments that you sent, in which you were the first to remind us of practicing and keeping humility in prayers.

Our son Leporius, who had been rightly and fittingly rebuked by Your Holiness for the presumption of his error, came to us after he was driven out from there, and we received him, wholesomely shaken, to be corrected and healed. For just as you obeyed the apostle in rebuking the restless, so we obeyed him in comforting the faint-hearted and supporting the weak. For since the man had been overtaken in a fault, and that no small one, and concerning the only-begotten Son of God, who in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and when the fullness of time came, the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, he held some things that were not right and thought what was not true, denying that God was made man, lest, namely, an unworthy change or corruption should follow for the divine substance, by which he is equal to the Father; and not seeing that he was introducing a fourth person into the Trinity, which is entirely foreign to the soundness of the faith and the truth of the Catholic creed, we instructed him as best we could, with the Lord's help, in a spirit of gentleness; especially since, when he saw this, the chosen vessel added, “Looking to yourself, lest you too be tempted,” so that some should not rejoice that they had reached such spiritual progress as to think, though human, that they could no longer be tempted; and he added a wholesome and peaceable precept, that we bear one another's burdens, since so we shall fulfil the law of Christ; for whoever thinks he is something, when he is nothing, deceives himself, dearest and honorable brothers.

Yet we could perhaps by no means have accomplished his correction, had you not first condemned what was faulty in him. So the same Lord and our physician, using his vessels and ministers, who said, “I will strike and I will heal,” struck the swollen man through you and healed the suffering man through us; the same steward and provider of his house destroyed through you what was badly built, and built through us what was to be built; the same diligent farmer of his estate rooted out through you what was barren and harmful, and planted through us what was useful and fruitful. So let us give the glory not to ourselves but to his mercy, in whose hand are both we and our words. And just as our humility has praised your ministry in the case of our son mentioned above, so may Your Holiness also rejoice at our ministry. Receive, then, with a fatherly and brotherly heart, him who has been corrected by us with merciful gentleness, as we received him rebuked by you with merciful severity. For though one thing was done through you and another through us, one love did both, each necessary for a brother's salvation. So one God did it, since God is love.

Accordingly, just as he was received by us in person, so let him be received by you through his letter, which we thought should also be signed in our own hand, testifying that it is his. For when admonished he readily saw that God was made man, because the Word was made flesh and the Word was God; and the apostle taught that this was done not by losing what he was but by taking what he was not; for he emptied himself, not losing the form of God but taking the form of a servant. For this is what he feared when he would not confess that God was born of a woman, that God was crucified and suffered other human things: that the divinity might be believed to be changed in the man or corrupted by mixture with the man. It was a devout fear but an incautious error: devoutly he saw that the divinity cannot be changed, but incautiously he presumed that the Son of Man could be separated from the Son of God, so that one is one and the other another, and that either one of them is not Christ or there are two Christs. But after he recognized that the Word of God, that is, the only-begotten Son of God, was so made the son of man that neither was changed into the other, but, each remaining in its own substance, God so suffered human things in the man that he kept the divine things intact in himself, he confessed without any fear Christ as God and man, and feared more the addition of a fourth person in the Trinity than that loss of substance in the divinity. We have no doubt that Your Love will gladly receive this correction of his and make it known to those to whom his error was a scandal; for those too who came to us with him were corrected and healed with him, as is set down in their signatures, made in our presence. It remains for you, glad at a brother's salvation, to be good enough to gladden us in turn with a reply from Your Blessedness. We wish you, dearest and honorable brothers, good health in the Lord, and that you remember us.