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Augustine of Hippo, A Treatise On the Predestination of the Saints. — A Treatise on the Gift of Perseverance
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by Aurelius Augustin, Bishop of Hippo
Chapter 1 [I.]—Of the Nature of the Perseverance Here Discoursed of.
Chapter 3.—God is Besought for It, Because It is His Gift.
Chapter 4.—Three Leading Points of the Pelagian Doctrine.
Chapter 5.—The Second Petition in the Lord’s Prayer.
Chapter 6 [III.]—The Third Petition. How Heaven and Earth are Understood in the Lord’s Prayer.
Chapter 7 [IV.]—The Fourth Petition.
Chapter 9.—When Perseverance is Granted to a Person, He Cannot But Persevere.
Chapter 10 [VI.]—The Gift of Perseverance Can Be Obtained by Prayer.
Chapter 11.—Effect of Prayer for Perseverance.
Chapter 12.—Of His Own Will a Man Forsakes God, So that He is Deservedly Forsaken of Him.
Chapter 13 [VII.]—Temptation the Condition of Man.
Chapter 14.—It is God’s Grace Both that Man Comes to Him, and that Man Does Not Depart from Him.
Chapter 15.—Why God Willed that He Should Be Asked for that Which He Might Give Without Prayer.
Chapter 16 [VIII.]—Why is Not Grace Given According to Merit?
Chapter 18.—But Why Should One Be Punished More Than Another?
Chapter 19.—Why Does God Mingle Those Who Will Persevere with Those Who Will Not?
Chapter 20.—Ambrose on God’s Control Over Men’s Thoughts.
Chapter 21 [IX.]—Instances of the Unsearchable Judgments of God.
Chapter 25 [XI.]—God’s Ways, Both in Mercy and Judgment, Past Finding Out.
Chapter 27.—Reference to the “Retractations.”
Chapter 28 [XII.]—God’s Goodness and Righteousness Shown in All.
Chapter 30.—Augustin Claims the Right to Grow in Knowledge.
Chapter 32 [XIII.]—The Inscrutability of God’s Free Purposes.
Chapter 33.—God Gives Both Initiatory and Persevering Grace According to His Own Will.
Chapter 34 [XIV.]—The Doctrine of Predestination Not Opposed to the Advantage of Preaching.
Chapter 35.—What Predestination is.
Chapter 37.—Ears to Hear are a Willingness to Obey.
Chapter 39 [XVI]—Prayer and Exhortation.
Chapter 40.—When the Truth Must Be Spoken, When Kept Back.
Chapter 41.—Predestination Defined as Only God’s Disposing of Events in His Foreknowledge.
Chapter 43.—Further Development of the Foregoing Argument.
Chapter 44.—Exhortation to Wisdom, Though Wisdom is God’s Gift.
Chapter 45.—Exhortation to Other Gifts of God in Like Manner.
Chapter 46.—A Man Who Does Not Persevere Fails by His Own Fault.
Chapter 47.—Predestination is Sometimes Signified Under the Name of Foreknowledge.
Chapter 48 [XIX.]—Practice of Cyprian and Ambrose.
Chapter 49.—Further References to Cyprian and Ambrose.
Chapter 50.—Obedience Not Discouraged by Preaching God’s Gifts.
Chapter 51 [XX.]—Predestination Must Be Preached.
Chapter 52.—Previous Writings Anticipatively Refuted the Pelagian Heresy.
Chapter 53.—Augustin’s “Confessions.”
Chapter 54 [XXI.]—Beginning and End of Faith is of God.
Chapter 55.—Testimony of His Previous Writings and Letters.
Chapter 56.—God Gives Means as Well as End.
Chapter 57 [XXII.]—How Predestination Must Be Preached So as Not to Give Offence.
Chapter 58.—The Doctrine to Be Applied with Discrimination.
Chapter 59.—Offence to Be Avoided.
Chapter 60.—The Application to the Church in General.
Chapter 61.—Use of the Third Person Rather Than the Second.
Chapter 62.—Prayer to Be Inculcated, Nevertheless.
Chapter 63 [XXIII.]—The Testimony of the Whole Church in Her Prayers.
Chapter 64.—In What Sense the Holy Spirit Solicits for Us, Crying, Abba, Father.
Chapter 65.—The Church’s Prayers Imply the Church’s Faith.
Chapter 66 [XXIV.]—Recapitulation and Exhortation.
Chapter 67.—The Most Eminent Instance of Predestination is Christ Jesus.
Chapter 3.—God is Besought for It, Because It is His Gift.
But why is that perseverance asked for from God if it is not given by God? Is that, too, a mocking petition, when that is asked from Him which it is known that He does not give, but, though He gives it not, is in man’s power; just as that giving of thanks is a mockery, if thanks are given to God for that which He did not give nor do? But what I have said there,6 On the Predestination of the Saints, above, ch. 39. I say also here again: “Be not deceived,” says the apostle, “God is not mocked.”7 Gal. vi. 6. O man, God is a witness not only of your words, but also of your thoughts. If you ask anything in truth and faith of one who is so rich, believe that you receive from Him from whom you ask, what you ask. Abstain from honouring Him with your lips and extolling yourself over Him in your heart, by believing that you have from yourself what you are pretending to beseech from Him. Is not this perseverance, perchance, asked for from Him? He who says this is not to be rebuked by any arguments, but must be overwhelmed8 Some editions read “recalled.” with the prayers of the saints. Is there any of these who does not ask for himself from God that he may persevere in Him, when in that very prayer which is called the Lord’s—because the Lord taught it—when it is prayed by the saints, scarcely anything else is understood to be prayed for but perseverance?
3. Cur autem perseverantia ista poscitur a Deo, si non datur a Deo? An et ista irrisoria petitio est, cum id ab eo petitur quod scitur non ipsum dare, sed ipso non dante esse in hominis potestate; sicut irrisoria est etiam illa actio gratiarum, si ex hoc gratiae aguntur Deo, quod non donavit ipse, nec fecit? Sed quod ibi dixi (In libro superiore, n. 39), hoc et hic dico. Nolite errare, inquit Apostolus; Deus non irridetur (Galat. VI, 7). O homo, non verborum tuorum tantum, verum etiam cogitationum testis est Deus: si aliquid a tanto divite veraciter ac fideliter poscis; ab illo, a quo poscis, te accipere crede quod poscis. Noli eum labiis honorare, et super eum corde te extollere, credens a te ipso tibi esse, quod ab illo te fingis orare. An ab illo perseverantia ista forte non poscitur? Jam hoc qui dicit, non meis disputationibus refellendus, sed sanctorum orationibus onerandus est . An vero quisquam eorum est, qui non sibi poscat a Deo ut perseveret in eo; cum ipsa oratione quae Dominica nuncupatur, quia eam Dominus docuit, quando oratur a sanctis, nihil pene aliud quam perseverantia posci intelligatur?