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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 17.—The Difficulty of the Distinction Made in the Choice of One and the Rejection of Another.
“But why,” it is said, “in one and the same case, not only of infants, but even of twin children, is the judgment so diverse?” Is it not a similar question, “Why in a different case is the judgment the same?” Let us recall, then, those labourers in the vineyard who worked the whole day, and those who toiled one hour. Certainly the case was different as to the labour expended, and yet there was the same judgment in paying the wages. Did the murmurers in this case hear anything from the householder except, Such is my will? Certainly such was his liberality towards some, that there could be no injustice towards others. And both these classes, indeed, are among the good. Nevertheless, so far as it concerns justice and grace, it may be truly said to the guilty who is condemned, also concerning the guilty who is delivered, “Take what thine is, and go thy way;”34 Matt. xx. 14, etc. “I will give unto this one that which is not due;” “Is it not lawful for me to do what I will? is thine eye evil because I am good?” And how if he should say, “Why not to me also?” He will hear, and with reason, “Who art thou, O man, that repliest against God?”35 Rom. ix. 20. And although assuredly in the one case you see a most benignant benefactor, and in your own case a most righteous exactor, in neither case do you behold an unjust God. For although He would be righteous even if He were to punish both, he who is delivered has good ground for thankfulness, he who is condemned has no ground for finding fault.
17. «Sed cur,» inquit, «non solum in parvulorum, verum etiam in geminorum una atque eadem causa, tam diversum judicium?» Nonne similis quaestio est, cur in diversa causa idem judicium? Recolamus igitur illos operarios in vinea qui toto die laboraverunt, et eos qui hora una: nempe causa diversa est impensi laboris, et tamen idem judicium in redditione mercedis. Numquid et hic audierunt 1003 murmurantes a patrefamilias, nisi, Hoc volo? Ita quippe ejus erga alios fuit largitas, ut erga alios nulla esset iniquitas. Et isti quidem utrique in bonis sunt: verumtamen quantum ad justitiam spectat et gratiam, potest et de reo qui liberatur, recte dici reo qui damnatur , Tolle quod tuum est, et vade; huic autem volo quod non debetur donare. An non licet milii facere quod volo? An oculus tuus nequam est, quia ego bonus sum (Matth. XX, 1-15)? Hic ille si dicat, Cur non et mihi? merito audiet, O homo, tu quis es, qui respondeas Deo (Rom. IX, 20)? Quem certe in uno vestrum benignissimum largitorem, in te vero exactorem justissimum, in nullo tamen cernis injustum. Cum enim justus esset, etiamsi utrumque puniret: qui liberatur, habet unde gratias agat; qui damnatur, non habet quod reprehendat.