Replies on behalf of Augustine to the Objections of the Vincentians

Contents

1. 0Prosper explains that he answers sixteen slanderous headings attributed to Augustine's followers in full, rather than by a bare anathema, so that readers may see the blasphemies are not theirs.
2. 1Prosper answers that Christ's blood is the redemption of the whole world in its price and power, but its effect belongs only to those reborn by faith and the sacrament, as a cup heals only if drunk.
3. 2Prosper affirms that God wills all to be saved, as the church's prayer for all shows, while the perishing of many is their own desert and the salvation of many God's gift.
4. 3Prosper answers that God creates no one in order to perish; all sinned in Adam and are freed only by rebirth in the sacrament, and God restores his own work and punishes what he did not make.
5. 4Prosper answers that no one is created to do the devil's will; the unredeemed are the devil's captives by God's just judgment on sin, and only Christ's free grace rescues them.
6. 5Prosper answers that God, creator of nature, is not the author of sin, which is against nature; man fell by his own will and recovers freedom only through Christ's grace.
7. 6Prosper answers that God did not implant a demonic will in human beings, who, unlike demons, can still be reconciled by God's mercy.
8. 7Prosper answers that those who abandon the faith do not wish to be saved, but not by God's will, which raises the fallen and forsakes no one before being forsaken.
9. 8Prosper refers this objection to his previous answer.
10. 9Prosper notes that this objection merely repeats the two before it.
11. 10Prosper answers that God predestines no one to adultery or seduction but condemns them; what he predestined is his just judgment on each according to their deeds.
12. 11Prosper answers that God foreknows but does not predestine crimes such as incest and murder; his predestination concerns only just retribution and free grace.
13. 12Prosper answers that God's predestination makes sons of the devil sons of God, never the reverse; those who fall away fall by their own will and were not predestined.
14. 13Prosper answers that those who fall away are carried by their own choice, and that God's foreknowledge imposes no necessity to sin.
15. 14Prosper answers that there is no predestination to sin; perseverance is God's gift, falling is not from God, and why God holds one back and not another cannot be known.
16. 15Prosper answers that the fallen remain fallen by their own will, that any return in repentance is God's work, and that withholding pardon from the guilty differs from driving the innocent to crime.
17. 16Prosper answers that the Father's will is that Christ lose none given him; those who fall do so by their own will, and in praying "Your will be done" they ask for the judgment that will condemn them.