On Grace and Free Will

On account of those who so proclaim and defend man's free choice that they dare to deny, and try to take away, the grace of God by which we are called to him and set free from our evil merits, and through which we acquire the good merits by which we may come to eternal life, we have already discussed much and committed it to writing, as far as the Lord has deigned to grant us. But since there are some who so defend the grace of God that they deny man's free choice, or who think that when grace is defended free choice is denied, I have taken care, compelled by mutual love, to write something to your Charity, brother Valentinus, and to the rest of you who serve God together. For it has been reported to me about you, brothers, by some who are in your community and came to us from there, through whom we have also sent these writings, that there are dissensions among you on this matter. Therefore, dearly beloved, so that the obscurity of this question may not disturb you, I urge you first to give thanks to God for what you understand; and as for whatever the effort of your mind cannot yet reach, keep peace and love among yourselves and pray to the Lord that you may understand it; and until he himself leads you to what you do not yet understand, walk where you have been able to reach. The apostle Paul urges this: when he had said that he was not yet perfect, a little later he said, “Let as many of us as are perfect be of this mind”; that is, we are perfect in such a way that we have not yet come to the perfection that is sufficient for us. And he at once added, “And if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal this also to you; nevertheless, to what we have attained, in that let us walk.” For by walking in what we have attained we shall be able to reach also what we have not yet attained, God revealing it to us if in anything we think otherwise, provided we do not abandon what he has already revealed.

Now he has revealed to us through his holy Scriptures that there is in man free choice of the will. How he has revealed it I remind you, not by human speech but by divine. First, because the divine commandments themselves would be of no use to man unless he had free choice of the will, by which, doing them, he might come to the promised rewards. For they were given so that man might have no excuse from ignorance, as the Lord says in the Gospel about the Jews: “If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin; but now they have no excuse for their sin.” What sin does he mean, if not that great one which he foreknew would be theirs when he was saying this, that is, the sin by which they were going to kill him? For they were not without any sin before Christ came to them in the flesh. Again the Apostle says: “The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of those men who hold down the truth in unrighteousness; because what is known of God is manifest in them, for God has manifested it to them. For his invisible things, from the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being understood through the things that have been made, his eternal power also and divinity, so that they are without excuse.” How does he say “without excuse,” if not with reference to the excuse that human pride usually makes: “If I had known, I would have done it; I did not do it because I did not know”? or, “If I knew, I would do it; I do not do it because I do not know”? This excuse is taken from them when a commandment is given, or the knowledge of how not to sin is made manifest. But there are people who try to excuse themselves even by blaming God himself; to them the apostle James says: “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am tempted by God.’ For God is not a tempter to evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each one is tempted by his own desire, drawn away and enticed; then desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is completed, brings forth death.” Again, to those who want to excuse themselves by blaming God himself, the book of Solomon's Proverbs answers: “The folly of a man spoils his ways, but in his heart he blames God.” And the book Ecclesiasticus says: “Do not say, ‘It was because of the Lord that I fell away,’ for you should not do what he hates. Do not say, ‘He himself led me astray,’ for he has no need of a sinful man. The Lord hates every abomination, and it is not loved by those who fear him. He himself made man from the beginning and left him in the hand of his own counsel. If you will, you will keep the commandments and good faith with what pleases him. He has set before you fire and water; stretch out your hand to whichever you will. Before man are life and death, and whatever pleases him will be given to him.” Behold, we see free choice of the human will expressed most plainly. What of the fact that in so many places God commands that all his commandments be kept and done? How does he command, if there is no free choice? What of that blessed man of whom the Psalm says that his will was in the law of the Lord? Does it not show clearly enough that a man stands firm in the law of God by his own will? Then there are so many commandments that in a way address the will itself by name, such as, “Do not be overcome by evil”; and others like it, such as, “Do not be like the horse and the mule, which have no understanding”; and, “Do not reject the counsels of your mother”; and, “Do not be wise in your own eyes”; and, “Do not faint under the discipline of the Lord”; and, “Do not neglect the law”; and, “Do not hold back from doing good to the needy”; and, “Do not devise evil against your friend”; and, “Do not give heed to a deceitful woman”; and, “He would not understand so as to do well”; and, “They would not accept discipline.” What do these and countless such things in the old books of the divine oracles show, if not free choice of the human will? In the new books too, of the Gospels and the apostles, what else is shown where it is said, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth”; and, “Do not fear those who kill the body”; and, “Whoever will come after me, let him deny himself”; and, “Peace on earth to men of good will”; and what the apostle Paul says: “Let him do what he wills; he does not sin if he marries; but he who has determined in his heart, having no necessity but having power over his own will, and has determined this in his heart, to keep his virgin, does well”? Again he says, “If I do this willingly, I have a reward”; and in another place, “Be sober, righteous, and do not sin”; and again, “That as there is a readiness of mind to will, so there may also be to perform.” And to Timothy he says, “For when they have grown wanton in Christ, they want to marry”; and elsewhere, “And all who will live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution”; and to Timothy himself, “Do not neglect the grace that is in you.” And to Philemon: “That your good deed might not be as of necessity but of free will.” He also admonishes slaves themselves to serve their masters from the heart with good will. Likewise James: “Do not err, my brothers, and do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ with partiality”; and, “Do not speak evil of one another.” Likewise John in his Epistle: “Do not love the world”; and other things of this kind. Surely where it is said, “Do not do this” and “Do not do that,” and where in the divine admonitions the work of the will is required for doing or not doing something, free choice is sufficiently demonstrated. Let no one, then, blame God in his heart; let each one blame himself when he sins. Nor, when he does something according to God, let him separate this from his own will. For when he does it willingly, then it is to be called a good work; then the reward of a good work is to be hoped for from him of whom it is said, “who will render to each according to his works.”

Those, then, who know the divine commandments are deprived of the excuse that people usually make from ignorance. But not even those who do not know the law of God will be without punishment. “For as many as have sinned without the law will also perish without the law; and as many as have sinned under the law will be judged by the law.” It does not seem to me that the Apostle said this as though he meant that those who do not know the law will suffer something worse in their sins than those who know it. For it seems worse to perish than to be judged. But since he was speaking of the Gentiles and the Jews, because the former are without the law while the latter received the law, who would dare to say that the Jews who sin under the law will not perish, when they have not believed in Christ, since it was said of them that they “will be judged by the law”? For without faith in Christ no one can be set free; and therefore they will be judged in such a way as to perish. For if the condition of those who do not know the law of God is worse than that of those who know it, how will what the Lord says in the Gospel be true: “The servant who does not know his master's will and does things worthy of stripes will be beaten with few; but the servant who knows his master's will and does things worthy of stripes will be beaten with many”? See where he shows that a man who knows sins more gravely than one who does not know. Yet one must not therefore take refuge in the darkness of ignorance, so that each may seek an excuse in it. For it is one thing not to have known, another to have been unwilling to know. For the will is blamed in him of whom it is said, “He would not understand so as to do well.” But even that ignorance which belongs not to those who are unwilling to know but to those who, as it were, simply do not know, does not excuse anyone so far that he does not burn in everlasting fire, if he did not believe because he did not hear at all what he should believe; but perhaps so far that he burns more mildly. For not without reason was it said, “Pour out your wrath on the nations that have not known you”; and what the Apostle says, “When he comes in flaming fire to take vengeance on those who do not know God.” Yet so that we may also have this very knowledge, and so that no one may say, “I did not know, I did not hear, I did not understand,” the human will is addressed when it is said, “Do not be like the horse and the mule, which have no understanding”; although he appears worse of whom it is said, “A stubborn servant will not be corrected by words; for even if he understands, he will not obey.” But when a man says, “I cannot do what is commanded, because I am overcome by my desire,” he indeed no longer has an excuse from ignorance, nor does he blame God in his heart, but recognizes his evil in himself and grieves over it; yet the Apostle says to him, “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” And certainly when someone is told, “Do not be overcome,” the choice of his will is without doubt being addressed. For to will and not to will belong to one's own will.

But it is to be feared that all these divine testimonies, and whatever others there are in defence of free choice (and without doubt there are very many), may be understood in such a way as to leave no place for the help and grace of God for a godly life and good conduct, to which an eternal reward is due; and that wretched man, when he lives well and acts well, or rather seems to himself to live well and act well, may dare to glory in himself, not in the Lord, and to place his hope of living rightly in himself, so that the curse of the prophet Jeremiah follows him, who says, “Cursed is the man who has his hope in man, and makes firm the flesh of his arm, and whose heart departs from the Lord.” Understand, brothers, this prophetic testimony. Because the prophet did not say, “Cursed is the man who has his hope in himself,” it might seem to someone that “Cursed is the man who has his hope in man” was said so that no one should have hope in another man, but in himself. So, to show that he had admonished man not to have hope even in himself, after he had said, “Cursed is the man who has his hope in man,” he at once added, “and makes firm the flesh of his arm.” He used “arm” for the power of acting; by the word “flesh” human frailty is to be understood. And therefore he makes firm the flesh of his arm who thinks that a frail and feeble power, that is, a human power, is sufficient for him to act well, and does not hope for help from the Lord. That is why he added, “and whose heart departs from the Lord.” Such is the Pelagian heresy, not an ancient one, but one that arose not long ago; and after it had been disputed against for a long while, at last, of necessity, the matter came even to councils of bishops, some of whose documents, though not all, I have sent you to read. Let us, then, not have our hope of acting well in man, making firm the flesh of our arm; and let our heart not depart from the Lord, but say to him, “Be my helper; do not forsake me, nor despise me, O God my Saviour.” Accordingly, dearly beloved, as we have proved by the earlier testimonies of the holy Scriptures that there is free choice of the will in man for living well and acting rightly, so let us also see what divine testimonies there are about the grace of God, without which we can do nothing good. And first I will say something about your own profession. For this fellowship in which you live in continence would not gather you together unless you despised marital pleasure. Now when the Lord was speaking of this and the disciples said, “If such is the case of a man with his wife, it is not expedient to marry,” he answered them, “Not all receive this word, but those to whom it is given.” Did not the Apostle exhort Timothy's free choice when he said, “Keep yourself continent”? And in this matter he showed the power of the will where he says, “having no necessity, but having power over his own will, to keep his virgin.” And yet “not all receive this word, but those to whom it is given.” For those to whom it is not given either do not will, or do not fulfil what they will; but those to whom it is given so will that they fulfil what they will. Therefore, that this word, which is not received by all, is received by some, is both the gift of God and free choice. About marital chastity itself too the Apostle certainly says, “Let him do what he wills; he does not sin if he marries”; and yet this too is the gift of God, as Scripture says, “By the Lord a wife is joined to a husband.” Therefore the teacher of the Gentiles, commending in his discourse both marital chastity, through which adulteries do not happen, and the more perfect continence, through which no intercourse is sought, showed that both the one and the other are the gift of God, when he wrote to the Corinthians and admonished married people not to defraud one another; for after admonishing them he added, “But I would that all men were even as I myself” (for he certainly abstained from all intercourse), and at once he added, “But each has his own gift from God, one in this way, another in that.” Do the many precepts in the law of God, that acts of sexual immorality and adulteries are not to be committed, indicate anything other than free choice? For they would not be commanded unless man had his own will by which to obey the divine precepts. And yet it is the gift of God, without which the precepts of chastity cannot be kept. Hence that man says in the book of Wisdom: “When I knew that no one can be continent unless God gives it; and this very thing was a part of wisdom, to know whose gift this was.” But so that these holy commandments of chastity are not kept, “each one is tempted by his own desire, drawn away and enticed.” If he says here, “I want to keep them, but I am overcome by my desire,” Scripture answers his free choice with what I said above: “Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.” Yet that this may be done, grace helps; and unless it helps, the law will be nothing but the power of sin. For desire is increased and receives greater strength when the law forbids, unless the Spirit of grace helps. This is what that same teacher of the Gentiles says: “The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.” See why a man says, “I want to keep the commandment of the law, but I am overcome by the power of my desire.” And when his will is addressed and told, “Do not be overcome by evil,” what does it profit him unless it is done with grace coming to his aid? The Apostle himself added this next: for when he had said, “the power of sin is the law,” he at once added, “But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Therefore the victory too by which sin is conquered is nothing other than the gift of God, who helps free choice in this contest. That is why the heavenly Teacher also says, “Watch and pray, that you may not enter into temptation.” Let each one, then, fighting against his own desire, pray that he may not enter into temptation, that is, that he may not be drawn away and enticed by it. And he does not enter into temptation if he overcomes evil desire by good will. Yet the choice of the human will is not enough unless victory is granted by the Lord to one who prays not to enter into temptation. What shows the grace of God more evidently than that what is prayed for is received? For if our Saviour had said, “Watch, that you may not enter into temptation,” he would seem only to have admonished man's will; but when he added “and pray,” he showed that God helps us not to enter into temptation. It was said to free choice, “My son, do not faint under the discipline of the Lord”; and the Lord said, “I have prayed for you, Peter, that your faith may not fail.” Man, therefore, is helped by grace, so that it is not without purpose that his will is commanded.

When God says, “Turn to me, and I will turn to you,” one of these seems to belong to our will, namely that we turn to him; but the other to his grace, namely that he too turns to us. Here the Pelagians may think they can establish their view, in which they say that grace is given according to our merits. This Pelagius himself did not dare to affirm when he was heard by bishops in the East, that is, in the province of Palestine, in which is the city of Jerusalem. For among the other things that were charged against him, this too was charged, that he said that the grace of God is given according to our merits; which is so foreign to Catholic doctrine and so hostile to the grace of Christ that, had he not anathematized this charge against him, he would himself have gone out from there anathematized. But that he anathematized it deceitfully is shown by his later books, in which he defends nothing at all but that the grace of God is given according to our merits. So they gather such passages from the Scriptures, like this one that I mentioned a little earlier, “Turn to me, and I will turn to you,” so that according to the merit of our turning to God his grace may be given, in which he too turns to us. Those who hold this do not notice that unless our very turning to God were also the gift of God, it would not be said to him, “O God of hosts, turn us”; and, “O God, you will turn and give us life”; and, “Turn us, O God of our healing”; and other such passages which it would take long to mention. For to come to Christ also, what is it but to be turned to him by believing? And yet he says, “No one can come to me unless it has been given him by my Father.” Again, what is written in the second book of Chronicles, “The Lord is with you when you are with him; and if you seek him, you will find him; but if you forsake him, he will forsake you,” indeed makes manifest the choice of the will. But those who say that the grace of God is given according to our merits take these testimonies so as to say that our merit lies in our being with God, and that his grace is given according to this merit, so that he too may be with us; again, that our merit lies in our seeking him, and that according to this merit his grace is given, so that we may find him. And what is said in the first book, “And you, Solomon my son, know God and serve him with a perfect heart and a willing soul; for the Lord searches all hearts and knows every thought of the minds; if you seek him, he will be found by you; and if you forsake him, he will cast you off for ever,” declares the choice of the will. But they place man's merit in what is said, “if you seek him,” and say that grace is given according to this merit in what is said, “he will be found by you”; and they labour with all their might to show that the grace of God is given according to our merits, that is, that grace is not grace. For to those to whom it is rendered according to merit, “the reward is not reckoned according to grace but according to debt,” as the Apostle says most plainly. There was indeed merit in the apostle Paul, but evil merit, when he persecuted the church; that is why he says, “I am not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.” Since, then, he had this evil merit, good was rendered him for evil; and so he went on to add, “But by the grace of God I am what I am.” And to show free choice too, he at once added, “and his grace in me was not in vain, but I laboured more than all of them.” For he exhorts this free choice of man in others too, to whom he says, “We beseech you not to receive the grace of God in vain.” For why does he beseech them, if they so received grace that they lost their own will? Yet so that the will itself may not be thought able to do anything good without the grace of God, when he had said, “His grace in me was not in vain, but I laboured more than all of them,” he at once added, “Yet not I, but the grace of God with me”; that is, not I alone, but the grace of God with me; and therefore neither the grace of God alone, nor he himself alone, but the grace of God with him. But that he was called from heaven and converted by so great and so effective a call was the grace of God alone; for his merits were great, but evil. Then elsewhere too he says to Timothy: “Labour with the gospel according to the power of God, who saved us and called us with his holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus.” Again, recalling his merits, but evil ones, he says: “For we ourselves also were once foolish and unbelieving, going astray, serving various desires and pleasures, living in malice and envy, detestable, hating one another.” What was due to such evil merits but punishment? But God rendering good for evil through grace, which is not given according to our merits, there came about what he then adds and says: “But when the kindness and love for mankind of our Saviour God shone forth, not by works of righteousness that we had done, but according to his mercy he saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out most richly upon us through Jesus Christ our Saviour, so that, being justified by his grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”

By these and similar divine testimonies it is proved that the grace of God is not given according to our merits, since we see that it has been given, and we see it given daily, not only where no good merits came before, but even where many evil merits came before. But plainly, once it has been given, our merits too begin to be good, yet through it; for if it withdraws, man falls, not raised up but cast down headlong by free choice. Therefore, even when a man has begun to have good merits, he ought not to attribute them to himself, but to God, to whom it is said in the Psalm, “Be my helper; do not forsake me.” By saying “do not forsake me,” he shows that if he is forsaken he can do nothing good of himself. Hence that man too says, “I said in my abundance, I shall never be moved.” For he had thought that the good which so abounded in him that he would not be moved was his own; but so that it might be shown to him whose that was in which he had begun to glory as if it were his own, when grace forsook him a little he was admonished and says, “Lord, in your will you gave strength to my beauty; but you turned your face from me, and I was troubled.” Therefore it is necessary for man not only that by the grace of God the ungodly should be justified, that is, from ungodly become righteous, when good things are rendered him for evil; but also, when he has already been justified by faith, that grace should walk with him and he should lean upon it, so that he does not fall. For this reason it is written in the Song of Songs about the church herself: “Who is this who comes up made white, leaning on her beloved?” For she was made white who could not be white of herself. And by whom was she made white, if not by him who says through the prophet, “Though your sins be as scarlet, I will make them white as snow”? When, then, she was made white, she deserved nothing good; but now that she has been made white she walks well, provided she leans perseveringly on him by whom she was made white. For this reason Jesus himself too, on whom she who was made white leans, said to his disciples, “Without me you can do nothing.” Let us return, then, to the apostle Paul, whom we certainly find to have obtained the grace of God, who renders good for evil, without any good merits, indeed with many evil merits; let us see what he says when his passion was now near, writing to Timothy. “For I am already being offered,” he says, “and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith.” Here he certainly recalls his good merits, so that after good merits he might obtain a crown, who after evil merits obtained grace. Then notice what follows: “There remains for me,” he says, “the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will render to me on that day.” To whom would the righteous judge render a crown, if the merciful Father had not given grace? And how would this be a crown of righteousness, unless the grace that justifies the ungodly had gone before? How would these things be rendered as due, unless that was first given freely? But when the Pelagians say that the only grace not given according to our merits is that by which a man's sins are forgiven, while that which is given at the end, that is, eternal life, is rendered for our preceding merits, they must be answered. For if they so understood our merits as to recognize that they themselves too are gifts of God, this view would not be blameworthy; but since they so proclaim human merits as to say that man has them from himself, the Apostle answers most rightly, “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?” Most truly is it said to one who thinks such things: God crowns his own gifts, not your merits, if your merits are from you yourself and not from him. For if they are such, they are evil, and God does not crown them; but if they are good, they are God's gifts; because, as the apostle James says, “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights.” Hence John too, the Lord's forerunner, says, “A man cannot receive anything unless it has been given him from heaven”: from heaven, certainly, whence the Holy Spirit also came when Jesus ascended on high, led captivity captive, and gave gifts to men. If, then, your good merits are God's gifts, God does not crown your merits as your merits, but as his gifts.

Let us therefore consider the very merits of the apostle Paul, for which he said that the righteous judge would render him the crown of righteousness, and let us see whether his merits are his own as his own, that is, acquired for him by himself, or whether they are gifts of God. “I have fought the good fight,” he says, “I have finished the course, I have kept the faith.” First, these good works would have been nothing if good thoughts had not preceded them. Notice, then, what he says about these thoughts; for writing to the Corinthians he says, “Not that we are sufficient to think anything of ourselves, as from ourselves; but our sufficiency is from God.” Next, let us examine them one by one. “I have fought the good fight,” he says. I ask by what strength he fought: whether a strength that he had from himself, or one given from above. But far be it that so great a teacher was ignorant of the law of God, whose voice is in Deuteronomy: “Do not say in your heart, ‘My strength and the might of my hand have gained me this great power’; but you shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you strength to gain power.” And what does a good fight profit unless victory follows? And who gives the victory but he of whom Paul himself says, “Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ”? And in another place, when he had cited the testimony from the Psalm, “For your sake we are put to death all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter,” he added and said, “But in all these things we more than conquer through him who loved us”: not, then, through ourselves, but through him who loved us. Next he said, “I have finished the course”; but he who said this says in another place, “So it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy.” This sentence can in no way be turned around so as to say, “It is not of God who shows mercy, but of man who wills and runs”; for whoever dares to say this plainly shows that he contradicts the Apostle. Lastly he said, “I have kept the faith”; but he who said this says elsewhere, “I obtained mercy that I might be faithful.” For he did not say, “I obtained mercy because I was faithful,” but “that I might be faithful,” showing by this that even faith itself cannot be had except by the mercy of God, and that it is the gift of God. This he teaches most plainly, saying, “By grace you have been saved through faith; and this not of yourselves, but it is the gift of God.” For they might say, “We received grace because we believed,” as if attributing faith to themselves and grace to God; for this reason the Apostle, when he had said “through faith,” said, “and this not of yourselves, but it is the gift of God.” Again, lest they should say that they had deserved such a gift by their own works, he at once added, “Not of works, lest anyone should be lifted up.” Not that he denied or emptied good works, since he says that God renders to each according to his works; but because works come from faith, not faith from works; and therefore the works of righteousness are ours from him from whom faith itself is ours, of which it is said, “The righteous lives by faith.” But men who did not understand what the same Apostle says, “We hold that a man is justified by faith without the works of the law,” thought that he was saying that faith suffices for a man even if he lives wickedly and has no good works. Far be it that the vessel of election should think so! When he had said in one place, “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision avails anything, nor uncircumcision,” he at once added, “but faith which works through love.” This is the faith that separates the faithful of God from unclean demons; for they too, as the apostle James says, “believe and tremble,” but they do not do good works. They do not, then, have that faith by which the righteous lives, that is, the faith which works through love, so that God renders eternal life to him according to his works. But because the good works themselves are also ours from God, from whom we have both faith and love, for this reason the same teacher of the Gentiles has called even eternal life itself grace.

And from this there arises no small question, which must be solved by the Lord's gift. For if eternal life is rendered to good works, as Scripture most plainly says, “For God will render to each according to his works,” how is eternal life grace, since grace is not rendered to works but given freely, as the Apostle himself says, “To him who works, the reward is not reckoned according to grace but according to debt”? And again he says, “A remnant has been saved by the election of grace”; and he at once added, “But if by grace, then no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace.” How, then, is eternal life grace, when it is received from works? Or perhaps the Apostle did not call eternal life grace? On the contrary, he said it in such a way that it cannot be denied at all; and it requires not a sharp interpreter, but only an attentive listener. For when he had said, “The wages of sin is death,” he at once added, “But the grace of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” This question, then, seems to me in no way soluble unless we understand that even our good works themselves, to which eternal life is rendered, belong to the grace of God, on account of what the Lord Jesus says, “Without me you can do nothing.” And the Apostle himself, when he had said, “By grace you have been saved through faith, and this not of yourselves, but it is the gift of God; not of works, lest anyone should be lifted up,” certainly saw that men might think this was said as though good works were not necessary for believers, but faith alone sufficed for them; and again that men might be lifted up about good works, as if they were sufficient of themselves to do them. So he at once added, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus in good works, which God prepared that we should walk in them.” What is this, that when he had commended the grace of God and said, “not of works, lest anyone should be lifted up,” he gave the reason why he said this: “For we are his workmanship,” he says, “created in Christ Jesus in good works”? How, then, “not of works, lest anyone should be lifted up”? But hear and understand: “not of works” was said in the sense of your works existing for you from yourself, but in the sense of those works in which God has fashioned you, that is, formed and created you. For he says this: “We are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus in good works”; not by that creation by which we were made human beings, but by that of which he spoke who was certainly already a man: “Create in me a clean heart, O God”; and of which the Apostle says, “If, then, there is any new creation in Christ, the old things have passed away; behold, they have become new; but all things are from God.” We are fashioned, then, that is, formed and created, in good works, which we did not prepare, but God prepared, that we should walk in them. Therefore, dearly beloved, if our good life is nothing other than the grace of God, without doubt eternal life too, which is rendered to a good life, is the grace of God; for it too is given freely, because that to which it is given was given freely. But that to which it is given is simply grace; whereas this which is given to it, since it is its reward, is grace for grace, as a wage for righteousness; so that it is true, since it is true, that God will render to each according to his works.

Perhaps you ask whether we have read “grace for grace” in the sacred books. But you have the Gospel according to John, most clear with so great a light, where John the Baptist says of the Lord Christ, “And from his fullness we have received, and grace for grace.” From his fullness, then, we have received according to our small measure, as it were our portions, so that we may live well, as God has apportioned the measure of faith; because each has his own gift from God, one in this way, another in that; and this is grace. But beyond this we shall also receive grace for grace, when eternal life is rendered to us, of which the Apostle said, “But the grace of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord,” after he had first said, “The wages of sin is death.” Rightly “wages,” because eternal death is rendered as a debt to diabolical service. Here, though he could have said, and said rightly, “But the wages of righteousness is eternal life,” he preferred to say, “But the grace of God is eternal life,” so that we might understand from this that God leads us to eternal life not for our merits but for his own compassion. Of this a man says to his own soul in the Psalm: “who crowns you with compassion and mercy.” Is not a crown rendered to good works? But because he works the good works themselves in the good, he of whom it is said, “For it is God who works in you both to will and to work, for his good will,” the Psalm therefore said, “He crowns you with compassion and mercy”: because by his compassion we do the good works to which the crown is rendered. For because he said, “For it is God who works in you both to will and to work, for his good will,” he is not therefore to be thought to have taken away free choice. If that were so, he would not have said just before, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” For when they are commanded to work, their free choice is addressed; but “with fear and trembling” for this reason, lest by attributing to themselves that they work well they should be lifted up about good works as their own. As though, then, the Apostle had been asked, “Why did you say, ‘with fear and trembling’?”, he gave the reason for these words, saying, “For it is God who works in you.” For if you fear and tremble, you are not lifted up about your good works as your own, because it is God who works in you.

Therefore, brothers, you ought indeed by free choice not to do evil and to do good; for this is what the law of God commands us in the holy books, whether old or new. But let us read, and with the Lord's help understand, the Apostle when he says, “For by the law no flesh will be justified before him; for through the law comes the knowledge of sin.” He said “knowledge,” not “destruction.” But when a man knows sin, unless grace helps him to avoid what he knows, without doubt the law works wrath. This the Apostle himself says in another place; these are his own words: “The law works wrath.” He said this because the wrath of God is greater on the transgressor who through the law knows sin and yet does it; such a man is indeed a transgressor of the law, as he also says in another place, “For where there is no law, neither is there transgression.” For this reason he says elsewhere too, “that we may serve in newness of spirit, and not in oldness of the letter,” wishing the oldness of the letter to be understood as the law; and the newness of the spirit, what is it but grace? And lest he should be thought to have accused or found fault with the law, he at once set a question before himself and said, “What then shall we say? Is the law sin? Far from it.” Then he added, “But I did not know sin except through the law”; this is what he had said, “Through the law comes the knowledge of sin.” “For I would not have known desire,” he says, “if the law had not said, ‘You shall not desire.’ But sin, taking occasion, worked in me through the commandment every kind of desire; for without the law sin was dead. And I was once alive without the law; but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died; and the commandment which was for life was found to be for death to me. For sin, taking occasion through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. So the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good. Did that which is good, then, become death to me? Far from it. But sin, that it might be shown to be sin, worked death in me through what is good, so that sin might become sinful beyond measure through the commandment.” And to the Galatians he says: “But knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ, we too have believed in Christ Jesus, that we may be justified by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh will be justified.”

What is it, then, that the utterly vain and utterly perverse Pelagians say, that the law is the grace of God by which we are helped not to sin? What is it that these wretched men say, who without any doubt contradict so great an Apostle? He says that sin received strength against man through the law, and that through the commandment, though holy and just and good, it nevertheless kills him and works death through what is good, from which he would not be set free unless the spirit gave life to him whom the letter had killed, as he says in another place, “The letter kills, but the spirit gives life.” And these unteachable men, blind against the light of God and deaf against the voice of God, say that the killing letter gives life, and contradict the life-giving spirit. Therefore, brothers, to admonish you rather with the words of the Apostle himself: we are debtors not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. “For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the flesh, you will live.” I have said this to deter your free choice from evil by the apostolic words, and to exhort it to good; yet you ought not on that account to glory in man, that is, in yourselves, and not in the Lord, when you do not live according to the flesh but by the spirit put to death the deeds of the flesh. For lest those to whom he said this should be lifted up, thinking that they could do these great good works by their own spirit and not by God's, for this reason, when he had said, “But if by the spirit you put to death the deeds of the flesh, you will live,” he at once added, “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.” When, then, you put to death the deeds of the flesh by the spirit so that you may live, glorify him, praise him, give thanks to him, by whose Spirit you are led so that you may be able to do these things, so that you may show that you are sons of God. “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.”

As many, then, as are led by their own spirit, relying on their own strength, with the help of the law alone and without the help of grace, are not sons of God. Such are those of whom the same apostle says that, “being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and wishing to establish their own, they have not submitted to the righteousness of God.” He said this of the Jews, who, presuming on themselves, rejected grace, and therefore did not believe in Christ. He says that they wished to establish their own righteousness, which is the righteousness from the law: not because the law was established by them, but because they had established their own righteousness in the law which is from God, when they believed that they could fulfil that law by their own strength; “being ignorant of the righteousness of God,” not the righteousness by which God is righteous, but the righteousness that man has from God. And so that you may know that he called their righteousness the one which is from the law, and God's righteousness the one which man has from God, hear what he says in another place, when he was speaking of Christ: “For whose sake,” he says, “I have not only believed all things to be loss, but have counted them as dung, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, which is from God.” What does “not having my own righteousness, which is from the law” mean, when the law itself was not his but God's, unless that he called the righteousness his own, although it was from the law, because he thought that by his own will he could fulfil the law without the help of grace, which is through faith in Christ? Therefore, when he had said, “not having my own righteousness, which is from the law,” he went on to add, “but that which is through faith in Christ, which is from God.” This they did not know, of whom he says, “being ignorant of the righteousness of God,” that is, the righteousness which is from God (for this is given not by the killing letter but by the life-giving spirit); “and wishing to establish their own,” which he himself called the righteousness from the law when he said, “not having my own righteousness, which is from the law”: they “have not submitted to the righteousness of God,” that is, they have not submitted to the grace of God. For they were under the law, not under grace; and therefore sin had dominion over them, from which man is not set free by the law, but by grace. This is why he says elsewhere, “For sin shall not have dominion over you; for you are not under the law, but under grace”: not because the law is evil, but because those are under it whom it makes guilty by commanding, not by helping. For grace helps each one to be a doer of the law; without this grace, one who is placed under the law will be only a hearer of the law. To such, then, he says, “You who are justified by the law have fallen from grace.”

Who is so deaf to the apostolic words, who so foolish, or rather so mad, not knowing what he says, as to dare to say that the law is grace, when he who knew what he was saying cries out, “You who are justified by the law have fallen from grace”? But if the law is not grace, because it is not the law but grace that can help us to fulfil the law, will nature then be grace? For the Pelagians have dared to say this too: that grace is the nature in which we were created so as to have a rational mind by which we can understand, being made in the image of God, so that we may have dominion over the fish of the sea and the birds of the sky and all the cattle that creep upon the earth. But this is not the grace which the Apostle commends through faith in Jesus Christ. For it is certain that we share this nature even with the ungodly and unbelievers; but grace through faith in Jesus Christ belongs only to those whose is the faith itself. “For not all have faith.” Then, just as he says most truly to those who, wishing to be justified in the law, have fallen from grace, “If righteousness is from the law, then Christ died in vain,” so it is most truly said also to those who think that the grace which the faith of Christ commends and receives is nature: “If righteousness is from nature, then Christ died in vain.” For the law was already here, and it did not justify; nature too was already here, and it did not justify. Therefore Christ did not die in vain, so that both the law might be fulfilled through him who said, “I did not come to destroy the law but to fulfil it,” and nature, lost through Adam, might be repaired through him who said that he had come “to seek and to save what was lost”; in whom, as one to come, the ancient fathers too who loved God had believed. They also say that the grace of God which was given through faith in Jesus Christ, which is neither the law nor nature, avails only for this, that past sins may be forgiven, not that future ones may be avoided or opposing ones overcome. But if this were true, then in the Lord's Prayer, after saying, “Forgive us our debts, as we also forgive our debtors,” we would certainly not add, “and lead us not into temptation.” For the former we say so that sins may be forgiven; the latter so that they may be guarded against or overcome; and we would by no means ask this of the Father who is in heaven if we could accomplish it by the strength of the human will. I remind your Charity, and strongly urge you, to read carefully the book of blessed Cyprian which he wrote on the Lord's Prayer, and, as far as the Lord helps you, to understand it and commit it to memory. There you will see how he so addresses the free choice of those whom he builds up by his written discourse as nevertheless to show that what we are commanded in the law to fulfil must be asked for in prayer. This he would certainly do in vain if the human will were sufficient to do those things without divine help.

But when they have been refuted, shown to be not defenders of free choice but men who puff it up and cast it down headlong, because that grace which is given through Jesus Christ our Lord is neither the knowledge of the divine law, nor nature, nor only the forgiveness of sins, but itself brings it about that the law is fulfilled, that nature is set free, that sin does not have dominion: when, then, they have been refuted on these points, they turn to this, trying in whatever way they can to show that the grace of God is given according to our merits. For they say: “Even if it is not given according to the merits of good works, because it is through grace that people work well, yet it is given according to the merits of a good will; for the good will of one who prays goes before,” they say, “and before that went the will of one who believes, so that according to these merits the grace of God who hears may follow.” I have already discussed above the will of one who believes, showing that it belongs to grace to such an extent that the Apostle did not say, “I obtained mercy because I was faithful,” but said, “I obtained mercy that I might be faithful.” There are other testimonies too, among them what he says, “Think soberly, as God has apportioned to each the measure of faith”; and what I have already mentioned, “By grace you have been saved through faith, and this not of yourselves, but it is the gift of God”; and what he wrote to the Ephesians, “Peace to the brothers, and love with faith, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ”; and where he says, “For to you it has been given for Christ's sake not only to believe in him, but also to suffer for him.” Both, then, belong to the grace of God, both the faith of those who believe and the endurance of those who suffer, because he said that both were given. And especially where he says, “Having the same spirit of faith.” For he does not say “knowledge of faith,” but “spirit of faith”; and he said this so that we might understand that faith is granted even when it is not asked for, so that other things may be granted to it when it asks. “For how shall they call on him,” he says, “in whom they have not believed?” Therefore the spirit of grace brings it about that we have faith, so that through faith we may obtain by praying that we can do what we are commanded. For this reason the Apostle himself constantly puts faith before the law, since we cannot do what the law commands unless through faith, by asking, we obtain that we may be able to do it. For if faith belongs only to free choice and is not given by God, why do we pray for those who will not believe, that they may believe? We would do this altogether in vain unless we believed most rightly that almighty God can turn to believing even wills that are perverse and opposed to faith. Man's free choice is indeed appealed to where it is said, “Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.” But unless God could also take away hardness of heart, he would not say through the prophet, “I will take away from them the heart of stone, and give them a heart of flesh.” That this was foretold of the New Testament the Apostle shows clearly enough when he says, “You are our letter, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on fleshly tablets of the heart.” Let us not think this was said so that those who ought to live spiritually should live carnally; but since stone, to which the hard heart is compared, is without feeling, to what should the understanding heart be compared but to feeling flesh? For thus it is said through the prophet Ezekiel: “And I will give them,” he says, “another heart, and I will give them a new spirit; and I will pluck out the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, so that they may walk in my precepts and keep my ordinances and do them; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God, says the Lord.” Can we, then, without utter absurdity say that a good merit of a good will went before in a man, so that the heart of stone might be plucked out of him, since the heart of stone itself signifies nothing but a most hard will, wholly inflexible against God? For where a good will goes before, there is certainly no longer a heart of stone. For in another place too, through the same prophet, God shows most plainly that he does these things not on account of any good merits of theirs, but for his name's sake, where he says: “I do this, house of Israel, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations into which you went; and I will sanctify my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst; and the nations shall know that I am the Lord, says Adonai the Lord, when I am sanctified in you before their eyes. And I will take you from the nations, and gather you from all lands, and bring you into your own land; and I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be cleansed from all your uncleannesses and from all your idols, and I will cleanse you; and I will give you a new heart, and put a new spirit within you; and the heart of stone shall be taken from your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh, and put my Spirit within you; and I will make you walk in my ordinances, and keep my judgments and do them.” Who is so blind that he does not see, who so stony that he does not feel, that this grace is not given according to the merits of a good will, when the Lord says and testifies, “I do this, house of Israel, but for the sake of my holy name”? For why did he say, “I do this, but for the sake of my holy name,” unless so that they should not think it was done on account of their good merits, as the Pelagians do not blush to say? And he shows not only that no good merits of theirs went before, but that evil merits did, by saying, “but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations.” Who does not see that it is a dreadful evil to profane the holy name of the Lord? And yet, “for the sake of my very name,” he says, “which you have profaned, I will make you good, not for your sake”; “and I will sanctify,” he says, “my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst.” He says that he sanctifies his name, which he had called holy just before. This, then, is what we pray for in the Lord's Prayer, saying, “Hallowed be your name”: that what is without doubt always holy in itself may be hallowed among men. Then follows: “And all the nations shall know that I am the Lord, says Adonai the Lord, when I am sanctified in you.” Though, then, he is always holy, he is nevertheless sanctified in those to whom he grants his grace, by taking away from them the heart of stone through which they profaned the name of the Lord.

But lest it be thought that men themselves do nothing there by free choice, it is said in the psalm, “Do not harden your hearts.” And through Ezekiel himself: “Cast away from you all your ungodlinesses which you have ungodly committed against me, and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit, and keep all my commandments. Why will you die, house of Israel, says the Lord? For I do not will the death of him who dies, says Adonai the Lord; turn, and live.” Let us remember that he says, “turn, and live,” to whom it is said, “Turn us, O God.” Let us remember that he says, “Cast away from you all your ungodlinesses,” though it is he who justifies the ungodly. Let us remember that he himself says, “Make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit,” who says, “I will give you a new heart, and put a new spirit within you.” How, then, does he who says, “Make yourselves,” say, “I will give you”? Why does he command, if he himself is going to give? Why does he give, if man is going to make it? Is it not because he gives what he commands, when he helps the one he commands to do it? Now there is always in us a free will, but it is not always good. For either it is free from righteousness, when it serves sin, and then it is evil; or it is free from sin, when it serves righteousness, and then it is good. But the grace of God is always good, and through it it comes about that a man is of good will who before was of evil will. Through it also it comes about that the good will itself, which has already begun to be, is increased and becomes so great that it can fulfil the divine commandments that it wills, when it wills strongly and perfectly. For this is the point of what is written, “If you will, you will keep the commandments”: that the man who has willed and has not been able may recognize that he does not yet will fully, and may pray to have so great a will as is sufficient to fulfil the commandments. For thus he is helped to do what is commanded. For then it is useful to will, when we are able; and then it is useful to be able, when we will. For what does it profit if we will what we cannot, or do not will what we can?

The Pelagians think they know something great when they say, “God would not command what he knew could not be done by man.” Who does not know this? But he commands some things that we cannot do so that we may know what we ought to ask of him. For this is faith, which by praying obtains what the law commands. Indeed, the very man who said, “If you will, you will keep the commandments,” says a little later in the same book of Ecclesiasticus, “Who will set a guard on my mouth, and a shrewd seal upon my lips, lest I fall by it and my tongue destroy me?” He had certainly already received the commandments: “Keep your tongue from evil, and let your lips not speak deceit.” Since, then, what he said is true, “If you will, you will keep the commandments,” why does he ask that a guard be given to his mouth, like him who says in the Psalm, “Set a guard, O Lord, on my mouth”? Why are God's commandment and his own will not enough for him, since, if he wills, he will keep the commandments? How many commandments of God there are against pride! He already knows them; if he wills, he will keep them. Why, then, does he say a little later, “O Lord, Father and God of my life, do not give me a haughty look”? The law had already said to him, “You shall not desire”: let him will, then, and do what he is commanded, since, if he wills, he will keep the commandments. Why does he go on to say, “Turn away desire from me”? How much God has commanded against lust! Let him do it, since, if he wills, he will keep the commandments. Why is it that he cries to God, “Let not the craving of the belly and sexual intercourse take hold of me”? If we said this to him in person, he would answer us most rightly and say: “From this prayer of mine, in which I ask these things of God, understand how I said, ‘If you will, you will keep the commandments.’ For it is certain that we keep the commandments if we will; but because the will is prepared by the Lord, we must ask of him that we may will as much as is sufficient for us to act by willing.” It is certain that we will when we will; but he brings it about that we will the good, he of whom it is said, as I quoted a little earlier, “The will is prepared by the Lord”; of whom it is said, “The steps of a man are directed by the Lord, and he will will his way”; of whom it is said, “For it is God who works in you even to will.” It is certain that we act when we act; but he brings it about that we act, by supplying most effective strength to the will, he who said, “I will make you walk in my ordinances, and keep my judgments and do them.” When he says, “I will make you do them,” what else does he say but, “I will take away from you the heart of stone, from which you did not do them, and I will give you a heart of flesh, from which you will do them”? And what is this but, “I will take away the hard heart, from which you did not do them, and I will give an obedient heart, from which you will do them”? He brings it about that we act, to whom a man says, “Set a guard, O Lord, on my mouth.” For this is to say, “Make me set a guard on my mouth”; a benefit of God which he had already obtained who said, “I have set a guard on my mouth.”

He, then, who wills to do God's commandment and cannot, already has a good will, but one still small and weak; he will be able when he has a great and strong one. For when the martyrs did those great commandments, they certainly did them with a great will, that is, with great love; of which love the Lord himself says, “Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” Hence the Apostle too says, “For he who loves his neighbour has fulfilled the law. For ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ ‘You shall not murder,’ ‘You shall not steal,’ ‘You shall not desire,’ and any other commandment there is, is summed up in this word: ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself.’ Love does no evil to a neighbour; therefore love is the fullness of the law.” The apostle Peter did not yet have this love when out of fear he denied the Lord three times. “For there is no fear in love,” as John the evangelist says in his Epistle, “but perfect love casts out fear.” And yet, though small and imperfect, it was not lacking when he said to the Lord, “I will lay down my life for you”; for he thought he could do what he felt he willed. And who had begun to give this love, though small, but he who prepares the will, and by cooperating brings to completion what he begins by operating? For he who, completing, cooperates with those who will, is the one who, beginning, works that we may will. This is why the Apostle says, “I am confident that he who works a good work in you will complete it until the day of Christ Jesus.” So that we may will, then, he works without us; but when we will, and will so as to act, he cooperates with us; yet without him, either working that we may will or cooperating when we will, we can do nothing toward the good works of godliness. Of his working that we may will it is said, “For it is God who works in you even to will.” And of his cooperating when we already will and by willing act: “We know,” he says, “that for those who love God all things work together for good.” What does “all things” mean, if not also those terrible and cruel sufferings? For that burden of Christ, which is heavy to weakness, is made light to love. For the Lord said that his burden is light to such as Peter was when he suffered for Christ, not such as he was when he denied Christ. Commending this love, that is, a will burning most ardently with divine love, the Apostle says: “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 angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, 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.” And in another place he says: “And I show you a still more excellent way. If I speak with the tongues of men and of angels but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophecy, and know all mysteries, and if I have all faith so as to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And if I distribute all my goods to the poor, and if I hand over my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. Love is magnanimous, love is kind; love does not envy, does not act wrongly, is not puffed up, is not unseemly, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil, does not rejoice over iniquity but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things; love never fails.” And a little later: “There remain,” he says, “faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love. Pursue love.” Again he says to the Galatians: “For you were called to freedom, brothers; only do not give your freedom as an occasion for the flesh, but through love serve one another. For the whole law is fulfilled in one word, in this: you shall love your neighbour as yourself.” This is what he says to the Romans, “He who loves another has fulfilled the law.” Again he says to the Colossians: “But above all these things, love, which is the bond of perfection.” And to Timothy: “The end of the commandment,” he says, “is love”; and adding what kind of love: “from a pure heart,” he says, “and a good conscience and faith unfeigned.” And when he says to the Corinthians, “Let all that you do be done with love,” he shows clearly enough that even rebukes, which those who are rebuked feel to be harsh and bitter, must be given with love. Hence elsewhere, when he had said, “Rebuke the unruly, comfort the fainthearted, support the weak, be patient toward all,” he at once added, “See that no one renders evil for evil to anyone.” So even when the unruly are rebuked, not evil for evil but rather good is rendered. And what works all these things but love? And the apostle Peter: “Above all,” he says, “having constant love for one another, because love covers a multitude of sins.” The apostle James also says: “If indeed you fulfil the royal law, according to the Scriptures, ‘You shall love your neighbour as yourself,’ you do well.” Likewise the apostle John: “He who loves his brother,” he says, “abides in the light.” And in another place: “He who is not righteous is not of God, nor is he who does not love his brother; for this is the message that we heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.” And again elsewhere: “This,” he says, “is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and love one another.” And again: “This commandment,” he says, “we have from him, that he who loves God love his brother also.” And a little later: “By this,” he says, “we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and do his commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments; and his commandments are not burdensome.” And in the second Epistle it is written: “Not as though I were writing you a new commandment, but the one we have had from the beginning, that we love one another.” The Lord Jesus himself also says that the whole Law and the Prophets depend on the two commandments of love of God and love of neighbour. Of these two commandments it is written in the Gospel according to Mark: “And one of the scribes, who had heard them disputing, came up, and seeing that he had answered them well, asked him which was the first commandment of all. Jesus answered him: The first commandment of all is, Hear, O Israel, the Lord your God is one God; and, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind: this is the first commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbour as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.” He also says in the Gospel according to John: “A new commandment I give you, that you love one another as I have loved you, that you too love one another. By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

All these precepts of love, that is, of charity, which are so many and so great that whatever a man thinks he does well, if it is done without love, is in no way done well: these precepts of love would be given to men in vain if they did not have free choice of the will. But since they are given through the law, both old and new (though in the new came the grace that was promised in the old; and the law without grace is the letter that kills, but in grace is the spirit that gives life), from where does the love of God and of neighbour come in men, if not from God himself? For if it is not from God but from men, the Pelagians have won; but if it is from God, we have defeated the Pelagians. Let the apostle John, then, sit as judge between us and say to us: “Beloved, let us love one another.” When at these words of John they begin to lift themselves up and say, “Why is this commanded to us, unless because we have from ourselves the ability to love one another?”, the same John at once follows, confounding them and saying, “for love is from God.” Not, then, from us, but from God. Why, then, was it said, “Let us love one another, for love is from God,” unless because free choice was admonished by the precept to seek the gift of God? It would indeed be admonished altogether without fruit unless it first received something of love, so as to seek to have added to it that by which it might fulfil what was commanded. When it is said, “Let us love one another,” it is law; when it is said, “for love is from God,” it is grace. For the wisdom of God carries law and mercy on her tongue. Hence it is written in the Psalm: “For he who gave the law will give the blessing.” Let no one deceive you, then, my brothers: we would not love God unless he first loved us. The same John shows this most plainly and says, “Let us love, because he first loved us.” Grace makes us lovers of the law; but the law itself without grace makes only transgressors. And what the Lord says to his disciples, “You did not choose me, but I chose you,” indicates nothing else to us. For if we loved first, so that by this merit he might love us, then we chose him first, so that we might deserve to be chosen by him. But he who is the truth says otherwise, and most plainly contradicts this vanity of men: “You did not choose me,” he says. If, then, you did not choose, without doubt you did not love either; for how would they choose one whom they did not love? “But I,” he says, “chose you.” Did they not themselves afterwards choose him, and prefer him to all the goods of this world? But because they were chosen, they chose; they were not chosen because they chose. There would be no merit in men choosing, unless the grace of God choosing them went before them. Hence the apostle Paul too, blessing the Thessalonians, says, “May the Lord make you increase and abound in love toward one another and toward all.” He who had given the law that we should love one another gave this blessing that we might love one another. Then in another place to the same people, because without doubt in some of them there already was what he had wished for them: “We ought always to give thanks to God for you, brothers,” he says, “as is fitting, because your faith grows exceedingly, and the love of each one of you toward one another abounds.” He said this lest perhaps they should be lifted up about so great a good, which they had from God, as if they had it from themselves. Since, then, “your faith grows exceedingly,” he says, “and the love of each one of you toward one another abounds, we ought to give thanks to God for you,” not to praise you as if you had this from yourselves. And to Timothy he says: “For God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and self-control.” In this testimony of the Apostle we must certainly take care not to think that we have not received the spirit of the fear of God, which without doubt is a great gift of God, of which the prophet Isaiah says: “The spirit of wisdom and understanding shall rest upon him, the spirit of counsel and fortitude, the spirit of knowledge and godliness, the spirit of the fear of the Lord.” It is not the fear by which Peter denied Christ, but the spirit of that fear we have received of which Christ himself says: “Fear him who has power to destroy both soul and body in hell; yes, I tell you, fear him.” He said this so that we should not deny him with that fear by which Peter was troubled. For he wished this fear to be taken from us when he had said just before, “Do not fear those who kill the body and after that have nothing more that they can do.” Of this fear we have not received the spirit, but of power and love and self-control. Of this Spirit the same apostle says to the Romans: “We glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation works patience, patience proof, proof hope; and hope does not put to shame, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” Not through ourselves, then, but through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us, it comes about by that very love, which he shows to be God's gift, that tribulation does not take away patience but rather works it. To the Ephesians also he says, “Peace to the brothers, and love with faith.” Great goods! But let him say from where: “From God the Father,” he says, “and the Lord Jesus Christ.” Therefore these great goods are nothing but God's gifts.

But it is no wonder if the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness does not comprehend it. In John the light says, “See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called sons of God, and so we are.” And in the Pelagians the darkness says, “Our love is from ourselves.” If they had true love, that is, Christian love, they would also know where they had it from; as the Apostle knew, who said, “But we have received not the spirit of this world, but the Spirit which is from God, that we may know the things that have been given us by God.” John says, “God is love”; and the Pelagians say that they have even God himself not from God but from themselves; and while they confess that the knowledge of the law is ours from God, they want love to be from ourselves. Nor do they hear the Apostle saying, “Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.” What is more foolish, indeed what is more insane and more foreign to the very holiness of love, than to confess that knowledge, which without love puffs up, is from God, and that love, which makes it impossible for knowledge to puff up, is from us? Again, since the Apostle speaks of “the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge,” what is madder than to think that knowledge, which must be subordinate to love, is from God, while love, which surpasses knowledge, is from men? But true faith and sound doctrine say that both are from God, for it is written, “From his face come knowledge and understanding”; it is written, “Love is from God.” And we read of “the Spirit of knowledge and godliness”; we read of “the Spirit of power and love and self-control.” But love is a greater gift than knowledge; for when knowledge is in a man, love is necessary so that he may not be puffed up; but “love does not envy, does not act wrongly, is not puffed up.”

I think I have argued enough against those who vehemently attack the grace of God, by which the human will is not taken away but changed from evil to good, and helped when it has become good; and argued in such a way that it is not so much I as the divine Scripture itself that has spoken with you, by the clearest testimonies of the truth. This divine Scripture, if carefully examined, shows that not only the good wills of men, which he himself makes from evil ones and, once made good by him, directs to good acts and to eternal life, but also those which follow the creatures of this world, are so in God's power that he makes them incline where he wills and when he wills, either to bestow benefits on some or to inflict punishments on others, as he himself judges, by a judgment most hidden indeed, but without any doubt most just. For we find that some sins are also punishments of other sins: such are the vessels of wrath, which the Apostle says were fitted for destruction; such is the hardening of Pharaoh, the reason for which is also stated, to show the power of God in him; such is the flight of the Israelites from the face of the enemy from the city of Ai: for fear arose in their minds so that they fled, and this was done so that sin might be punished, and in the way in which it ought to be punished. Hence the Lord says to Joshua the son of Nun, “The sons of Israel will not be able to stand before the face of their enemies.” What does “will not be able to stand” mean? Why did they not stand by free choice, but fled with their will thrown into confusion by fear, unless because God has dominion even over the wills of men, and, when angry, turns into terror whom he wills? Did not the enemies of the Israelites fight by their own will against the people of God whom Joshua the son of Nun was leading? And yet Scripture says that it came about by the Lord that their hearts were strengthened to go out to war against Israel, so that they might be destroyed. Did not that wicked man, the Benjamite, curse King David by his own will? And yet what does David say, full of true, deep, and godly wisdom? What does he say to the one who wanted to strike down the man who was cursing? “What have I to do with you,” he says, “you sons of Zeruiah? Let him alone and let him curse; for the Lord has told him to curse David. And who shall say to him, ‘Why have you done so?’” Then the divine Scripture, commending the king's full statement by repeating it as from another beginning, says: “And David said to Abishai and to all his servants: Behold, my son, who came forth from my body, seeks my life; and how much more now this Benjamite? Let him alone, let him curse, for the Lord has told him, so that the Lord may look on my humiliation and repay me good for his cursing this day.” What wise man will understand how the Lord told this man to curse David? For he did not tell him by commanding, in which case obedience would be praised; but because, by his own just and hidden judgment, he inclined to this sin the man's will, which was evil by its own fault, therefore it is said, “the Lord told him.” For if he had obeyed God's command, he would deserve praise rather than punishment, whereas we know that he was later punished for this sin. Nor is the reason kept silent why the Lord told him in this way to curse David, that is, sent or let loose his evil heart into this sin: “so that the Lord may see my humiliation,” he says, “and repay me good for his cursing this day.” See how it is proved that God uses even the hearts of the wicked for the praise and help of the good. So he used Judas when he betrayed Christ; so he used the Jews when they crucified Christ. And how great the goods he thereby bestowed on the peoples who would believe! He uses even the devil himself, who is most wicked, but uses him most well, to exercise and test the faith and godliness of the good; not for his own sake, who knows all things before they happen, but for ours, for whom it was necessary that we be dealt with in this way. Did not Absalom by his own will choose the counsel that was harmful to him? And yet he did so because the Lord had heard his father praying that this might happen. That is why Scripture says: “And the Lord commanded that the good counsel of Ahithophel be defeated, so that the Lord might bring all evils upon Absalom.” It called it good counsel because it served his cause for the time: it was in his favour against his father, against whom he had rebelled, so that he could have crushed him, had not the Lord defeated the counsel that Ahithophel had given, by acting in Absalom's heart so that he rejected such counsel and chose another that was not to his advantage.

Who would not tremble at these divine judgments, by which God does in the hearts even of evil men whatever he wills, yet rendering to them according to their merits? Rehoboam the son of Solomon rejected the wholesome counsel of the elders, which they had given him not to deal harshly with the people, and preferred to follow the words of his contemporaries, answering threateningly those to whom he ought to have answered gently. Where did this come from, if not from his own will? But as a result the ten tribes of Israel withdrew from him and set up another king for themselves, Jeroboam, so that the will of an angry God might be done, which he had also foretold would come to pass. For what does Scripture say? “And the king did not listen to the people, for the turn of events was from the Lord, that he might establish his word which he had spoken by the hand of Ahijah the Shilonite concerning Jeroboam the son of Nebat.” Clearly this came about through the will of man in such a way that the turn was nevertheless from the Lord. Read the books of Chronicles, and you will find written in the second book: “And the Lord stirred up against Jehoram the spirit of the Philistines and of the Arabs who bordered on the Ethiopians; and they went up into the land of Judah and ravaged it, and took all the property that was found in the king's house.” Here it is shown that God stirs up enemies to lay waste the lands that he judges deserving of such punishment. Yet did the Philistines and Arabs come to ravage the land of Judah without their own will, or did they come by their own will in such a way that it is written falsely that the Lord stirred up their spirit to do this? On the contrary, both are true: they came by their own will, and yet the Lord stirred up their spirit. It can also be said this way: the Lord stirred up their spirit, and yet they came by their own will. For the Almighty works in the hearts of men even the movement of their will, so as to do through them what he himself has willed to do through them, he who knows no way of willing anything unjustly. What is it that the man of God said to King Amaziah: “Let not the army of Israel go with you, for the Lord is not with Israel, with all the sons of Ephraim; for if you think you will prevail with them, God will put you to flight before your enemies; for God has power either to help or to put to flight”? How does the power of God help some in war by giving them confidence and put others to flight by sending fear upon them, unless because he who has done whatever he willed in heaven and on earth works also in the hearts of men? We read what Joash king of Israel said when he sent a messenger to King Amaziah, who wanted to fight with him. For after some other things he said: “Now stay at home. Why do you provoke trouble, so that you fall, you and Judah with you?” Then Scripture added: “But Amaziah did not listen; for it was from God that he should be delivered into their hands, because they had sought the gods of Edom.” See how God, wishing to punish the sin of idolatry, worked this in the heart of the one with whom he was certainly justly angry, that he should not listen to wholesome advice, but despising it should go to war, where he fell with his army. Through the prophet Ezekiel God says, “And if the prophet goes astray and speaks, I the Lord have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand against him and destroy him from the midst of my people Israel.” In the book of Esther it is written (she was a woman of the people of Israel who in the land of captivity had become the wife of the foreign king Ahasuerus): in her book, then, it is written that when she had to intercede for her people, whom the king had ordered to be slaughtered wherever they were in his kingdom, she prayed to the Lord; for great necessity compelled her to dare to go in to him against the king's order and against her own rank. And see what Scripture says: “And he looked at her like a bull in the onrush of his indignation, and the queen was afraid, and her colour changed as she fainted, and she bowed herself upon the head of her maid who went before her; and God turned him, and changed his indignation into gentleness.” It is written also in the Proverbs of Solomon: “Like a rush of water, so is the king's heart in the hand of God; wherever he wills, he will turn it.” And in the hundred and fourth psalm it is said of the Egyptians what God did to them: “And he turned their heart to hate his people, to deal deceitfully with his servants.” See also what is written in the apostolic letters; in the Epistle of the apostle Paul to the Romans: “Therefore God gave them up to the desires of their heart, to uncleanness.” Again a little later: “For this reason God gave them up to shameful passions.” Again a little later: “As they did not see fit to have God in their knowledge, God gave them up to a reprobate mind, to do what is not fitting.” And in the second Epistle to the Thessalonians he says of some: “Because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved, therefore God will send them a working of error, that they may believe a lie, so that all may be judged who did not believe the truth but consented to iniquity.” By these and similar testimonies of the divine oracles, which it would take too long to mention all of, it is shown clearly enough, I think, that God works in the hearts of men to incline their wills wherever he wills, whether to good things according to his mercy or to evil things according to their merits, by his judgment, sometimes open, sometimes hidden, but always just. For it ought to be fixed and immovable in your hearts that there is no iniquity with God. And therefore, when you read in the writings of truth that men are deceived by God, or that their hearts are dulled or hardened, do not doubt that their evil merits went before, so that they suffered these things justly; lest you run into that proverb of Solomon, “The folly of a man spoils his ways, but in his heart he blames God.” But grace is not given according to men's merits; otherwise grace is no longer grace; for it is called grace because it is given gratis. If, then, he is able, whether through angels good or evil, or in any other way, to work even in the hearts of the wicked according to their merits, whose wickedness he did not make, but which was either drawn by origin from Adam or grew through their own will, what wonder is it if through the Holy Spirit he works good in the hearts of his elect, he who has worked so that those very hearts should become good from evil?

But let men imagine whatever good merits they think come before, so that they may be justified by the grace of God, not understanding, when they say this, that they are saying nothing else than that they deny grace. But, as I said, let them imagine what they will about adults; about little children, certainly, the Pelagians find nothing to answer. Children have no will at all in receiving grace, whose merit they could say went before; and moreover we even see them struggling against it with tears when they are baptized and receive the divine sacraments, which would be imputed to them as a great sin of ungodliness if they already used free choice; and yet grace takes hold even of those who struggle against it, most plainly with no good merit going before; otherwise grace would no longer be grace. And sometimes this grace is bestowed on the children of unbelievers, when by the hidden providence of God they come in some way into the hands of godly people; and sometimes the children of believers do not obtain it, some obstacle arising so that help cannot be brought to them in their danger. These things happen through the hidden providence of God, whose judgments are inscrutable and his ways unsearchable. Consider what the Apostle said before he said this. For he was dealing with Jews and Gentiles when he wrote to the Romans, that is, to Gentiles, and he says: “For just as you once did not believe God, but have now obtained mercy through their unbelief, so they too have now not believed, through the mercy shown to you, that they too may obtain mercy; for God has shut up all in unbelief, that he may have mercy on all.” And when he had considered what he had said, marvelling at the certain truth but great depth of his statement, how God shut up all in unbelief that he might have mercy on all, as if doing evil so that good might come, he at once cried out and said: “O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How inscrutable are his judgments, and his ways unsearchable!” For perverse men, not considering these inscrutable judgments and unsearchable ways, quick to find fault and unfit to understand, thought and kept boasting that the Apostle was saying, “Let us do evil, that good may come.” Far be it that the Apostle should say this! But men who did not understand thought this was being said when they heard what the Apostle said: “The law came in, that the offence might abound; but where the offence abounded, grace superabounded.” But grace certainly does this, that those who have done evil now do good; not that they should persevere in evil and think that good is rendered to them. So they ought not to say, “Let us do evil, that good may come,” but, “We have done evil, and good has come; let us now do good, so that in the world to come we may receive good for good, we who in this world receive good for evil.” That is why it is written in the Psalm, “Of mercy and judgment I will sing to you, O Lord.” So first the Son of Man did not come into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him: this is for mercy's sake; but afterwards he will come for judgment, to judge the living and the dead. Yet even in this time salvation itself does not take place without judgment, though a hidden one; therefore he says, “For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind.”

Refer it, then, to the hidden judgments of God when you see, in one and the same case, which all little children have, drawing hereditary evil from Adam, that help is brought to this one so that he is baptized, while help is not brought to that one, so that he dies in that very bondage; that this one, after baptism, is left in this life, whom God foreknew would be ungodly, while that one, after baptism, is snatched from this life, “lest wickedness should change his understanding.” And do not in these cases ascribe injustice or folly to God, with whom is the fountain of righteousness and wisdom; but, as I urged you from the beginning of this discourse, walk in what you have attained, and God will reveal this also to you, if not in this life, certainly in the other; for there is nothing hidden that will not be revealed. When, then, you hear the Lord saying, “I the Lord have deceived that prophet,” and what the Apostle says, “He has mercy on whom he will, and whom he will he hardens,” believe that in the one whom he permits to be deceived or hardened his evil merits went before; but in the one on whom he has mercy, acknowledge faithfully and without doubting the grace of God, who renders not evil for evil but good for evil. Nor should you on this account take free choice away from Pharaoh, because in many places God says, “I have hardened Pharaoh,” or, “I have hardened,” or, “I will harden Pharaoh's heart.” For it does not follow that Pharaoh himself did not harden his own heart. For this too is read of him, when the dog-fly was taken away from the Egyptians, as Scripture says: “And Pharaoh made his heart heavy at this time also, and would not let the people go.” And so both God hardened by just judgment, and Pharaoh himself by free choice. Be certain, then, that your labour will not be in vain if, advancing in your good purpose, you persevere to the end. For God, who now does not render to those whom he sets free according to their works, will then render to each according to his works. God will certainly render evil for evil, because he is just; and good for evil, because he is good; and good for good, because he is good and just; only evil for good he will not render, because he is not unjust. He will render, then, evil for evil, punishment for unrighteousness; and he will render good for evil, grace for unrighteousness; and he will render good for good, grace for grace.

Read this book again and again, and if you understand it, give thanks to God; but where you do not understand, pray that you may understand; for the Lord will give you understanding. Remember that it is written: “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and does not reproach, and it will be given him.” This is the wisdom that comes down from above, as the apostle James himself says. But reject from yourselves, and pray that there may not be in you, that wisdom which he condemned when he said: “But if you have bitter zeal, and there are quarrels among you, this is not the wisdom that comes down from above, but earthly, unspiritual, devilish. For where there is zeal and contention, there is instability and every evil work. But the wisdom that is from above is first chaste, then peaceable, modest, easily persuaded, full of mercy and good fruits, beyond price, without pretence.” What good, then, will he not have who has asked for and obtained this wisdom from the Lord? And from this understand grace; for if this wisdom were from ourselves, it would not be from above, nor would it have to be asked of God himself who created us. Brothers, pray for us too, that we may live soberly and godly and righteously in this world, awaiting that blessed hope and the appearing of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, to whom be honour and glory and dominion with the Father and the Holy Spirit for ever and ever. Amen.