Chapter 43.—Further Development of the Foregoing Argument.

And in order that I may more openly unfold this for the sake of those who are somewhat slow of apprehension, let those who are endowed with an intelligence that flies in advance bear with my delay. The Apostle James says, “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not, and it shall be given him.”105    Jas. i. 5. It is written also in the Proverbs of Solomon, “Because theLord giveth wisdom.”106    Prov. ii. 6. And of continency it is read in the book of Wisdom, whose authority has been used by great and learned men who have commented upon the divine utterances long before us; there, therefore, it is read, “When I knew that no one can be continent unless God gives it, and that this was of wisdom, to know whose gift this was.”107    Wisd. viii. 21. Therefore these are God’s gifts,—that is, to say nothing of others, wisdom and continency. Let those also acquiesce: for they are not Pelagians, to contend against such a manifest truth as this with hard and heretical perversity. “But,” say they, “that these things are given to us of God is obtained by faith, which has its beginning from us;” and both to begin to have this faith, and to abide in it even to the end, they contend is our own doing, as if we received it not from the Lord. This, beyond a doubt, is in contradiction to the apostle when he says, “For what hast thou that thou hast not received?”108    1 Cor. iv. 7. It is in contradiction also to the saying of the martyr Cyprian, “That we must boast in nothing, since nothing is our own.”109    Cyprian, Testimonies, iii. 4; see The Ante-Nicene Fathers, v. 528. When we have said this, and many other things which it is wearisome to repeat, and have shown that both the commencement of faith and perseverance to the end are gifts of God; and that it is impossible that God should not foreknow any of His future gifts, as well what should be given as to whom they should be given; and that thus those whom He delivers and crowns are predestinated by Him; they think it well to reply, “that the assertion of predestination is opposed to the advantage of preaching, for the reason that when this is heard no one can be stirred up by the incentives of rebuke.” When they say this, “they are unwilling that it should be declared to men, that coming to the faith and abiding in the faith are God’s gifts, lest despair rather than encouragement should appear to be suggested, inasmuch as they who hear think that it is uncertain to human ignorance on whom God bestows, or on whom He does not bestow, these gifts.” Why, then, do they themselves also preach with us that wisdom and continency are God’s gifts? But if, when these things are declared to be God’s gifts, there is no hindrance of the exhortation with which we exhort men to be wise and continent; what is after all the reason for their thinking that the exhortation is hindered wherewith we exhort men to come to the faith, and to abide in it to the end, if these also are said to be God’s gifts, as is proved by the Scriptures, which are His witnesses?

43. Quod ut apertius propter tardiusculos explicemus, remorationem meam ferant, quibus ingenio praevolare donatum est. Dicit apostolus Jacobus, Si quis vestrum indiget sapientia, postulet a Deo, qui dat omnibus affluenter, et non improperat; et dabitur ei (Jacobi I, 5). Scriptum est et in Proverbiis Salomonis, Quoniam Dominus dat sapientiam (Prov. II, 6). Et de continentia legitur in libro Sapientiae, cujus auctoritate usi sunt magni et docti viri, qui longe 1020 ante nos eloquia divina tractarunt: ibi ergo legitur, Cum scirem quia nemo esse potest continens, nisi Deus det; et hoc ipsum erat sapientiae, scire cujus esset hoc donum (Sap. VIII, 21). Haec ergo Dei dona sunt, id est, ut de aliis taceam, sapientia et continentia. Acquiescunt et isti: neque enim Pelagiani sunt, ut adversus istam perspicuam veritatem dura et haeretica perversitate contendant. «Sed haec,» inquiunt, «ut a Deo dentur nobis, fides impetrat, quae incipit a nobis:» quam fidem et incipere habere, et in ea usque in finem permanere, tanquam id non a Domino accipiamus, nostrum esse contendunt. Hic procul dubio contradicitur Apostolo dicenti, Quid enim habes quod non accepisti (I Cor. IV, 7)? Contradicitur et martyri Cypriano dicenti, «In nullo gloriandum, quando nostrum nihil sit» (Ad Quirinum, lib. 3, cap. 4). Cum haec, et alia multa quae piget repetere, dixerimus; atque ostenderimus, et initium fidei, et usque in finem perseverantiam, Dei dona esse; nec ulla sua futura dona, et quae danda essent, et quibus danda essent, Deum non praescire potuisse; ac per hoc praedestinatos ab illo esse, quos liberat et coronat: respondendum putant, «praedestinationis definitionem utilitati praedicationis adversam, eo quod hac audita, nemo possit correptionis stimulis excitari.» Haec dicentes nolunt «hominibus praedicari dona Dei esse, ut veniatur ad fidem, et permaneatur in fide, ne plus desperatio quam exhortatio videatur afferri, dum cogitant qui audiunt, incertum esse humanae ignorantiae cui largiatur Deus, cui non largiatur haec dona.» Cur ergo et ipsi nobiscum praedicant, dona Dei esse sapientiam et continentiam? Quod si haec cum Dei dona esse praedicantur, non impeditur hortatio qua homines hortamur esse sapientes et continentes; quae tandem causa est ut existiment impediri exhortationem, qua exhortamur homines venire ad fidem, et in ea permanere usque in finem, si et haec dona Dei esse dicantur, quod Scripturis ejus testibus comprobatur?