The Calling of All Nations 2.27–2.37

That consent, however, is brought forth not only by the exhortation of preachers and the incentives of teaching, but also by fear; for which reason it is written, “The beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord.” However great the terrors with which this fear is brought in, it does nothing else than make the one whom it has made fearful also willing, and not only willing but also wise. Hence it is also written, “Blessed is he to whom it is given to have the fear of God.” For what is so blessed as this fear, which is the begetter and teacher of wisdom? In devotion to it the will too is devoted, and with grace as its author it advances by the same fear with which it began. When, then, this fear is put in even by a certain force of great terror, reason is not extinguished nor understanding taken away; rather that mist which pressed on the mind is scattered, so that the will, before depraved and captive, may be made right and free. Hence, just as the mind takes in nothing of virtue unless it has received a ray of the true light, so grace confers nothing on the one it calls unless it has opened in him the eyes of the will. In many, as was discussed above, the will is most ardent from its very beginning and is enriched with quick and great increases; but in many it advances slowly and hesitantly and is scarcely brought to those increases that have the firmness needed to persevere. The Lord indeed says: “No one comes to me unless the Father who sent me draws him.” But this was said so that we might know that the faith without which no one comes to Christ is had by the Father’s gift, according to what is said to the apostle Peter: “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jona, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven.” He who worked in the hearts of those to be drawn that they should believe, brought it about that they should will. For there would be nothing by which they could be drawn if they were not capable of faith and will; for those who do not believe are not drawn at all and do not come; nor do those who dissent draw near, but they draw back. Those who come, then, are led by love: for they were loved, and they loved; they were sought, and they sought; and they willed what God willed them to will.

He so gives the very willing to obey him that he does not take away, even from those who will persevere, that changeableness which is able not to will. Otherwise no one of the faithful would ever have fallen from the faith, desire would conquer no one, sadness would crush no one, anger would overthrow no one, no one’s love would grow cold, no one’s patience would be broken, and no one would neglect the grace given him. But because these things can happen, and the descent into consent to such temptations is all too easy and steep, that voice of the Lord ought never to stop sounding in the ears of the faithful in which it is said to the apostles: “Watch and pray, that you may not enter into temptation.” If he had admonished the disciples only to watch and not also to pray, he would seem to have urged on the powers of free choice alone. But when he added “and pray,” he taught clearly enough that it would be a gift from above that the storm of temptation should not overcome them even when watching. Such too is what he says: “Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has asked to sift you like wheat. But I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when at last you have turned, strengthen your brothers; and pray that you do not enter into temptation.” If, then, the faith of so great an apostle would have failed unless Christ prayed for him, there was beyond doubt in him a changeableness that could waver in temptation; and he had not yet been so made firm by the virtue of perseverance as to be exposed to no dangers. Indeed so grave a disturbance shook him even after this that, in the house of Caiaphas, terrified by the question of one maidservant, he was led, as his constancy failed, to a threefold denial of Christ, with whom he had promised to die. He, then, who then looked on the troubled heart of the apostle not with human but with divine eyes and moved him by his powerful look to abundant tears of repentance, could have conferred such firmness of mind on his chief disciple that, just as nothing deterred the Lord himself from his purpose of fulfilling his passion, so no fear would then have overcome blessed Peter. But this stability belonged only to him who alone could say truly and powerfully: “I have power to lay down my life, and I have power to take it up again.” But in other men, as long as the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh, and as long as the spirit is willing but the flesh weak, an unchangeable strength of mind cannot be found. For the perfect and secure happiness of true peace belongs not to this life but to another; in the uncertainty of the present contest, where the whole of life is a temptation and not even victory itself is safe from the pride of the one who lies in wait, the danger of changeableness is not absent. And though the divine protection gives to innumerable saints the virtue of persevering to the end, from none does it take away what fights against them from within themselves, so that in all their pursuits and efforts willing and not willing always contend within them. This conflict the same most blessed Peter suffered even at the very consummation of all his victories. For the Lord himself testifies this to him, saying: “Amen, amen, I say to you: when you were young, you girded yourself and walked where you wished; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and lead you where you do not wish. He said this to signify by what death he would glorify God.” Who, then, can doubt, who does not know, that this strongest rock, which received a share in the strength and the name of that chief rock, always had this desire, that constancy in dying for Christ might be given him? Yet the struggle against fear was so unavoidable that the man most eager for martyrdom was declared indeed to be going to win the victory of suffering, but not without the temptation of fear. Rightly, then, the Lord is entreated in the same way not only by beginners but also by advanced saints, and it is said: “Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” For to all who remain in faith and love it is given by him that they are not overcome in temptation, so that he who glories may glory in the Lord. And he ascribes that glory to the very ones to whom he imparts it; so that, though they stood by God’s help, yet, because they had in themselves that by which they could fall, it is their merit that they stood. Just as those who have believed are helped to remain in the faith, so too those who have not yet believed are helped to believe. And just as the former have it in their power to go out, so the latter have it in their power not to come. And it becomes manifest that in diverse and innumerable ways God wills all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth; but those who come are directed by God’s help, and those who do not come resist by their own obstinacy.

For though many, loving their own darkness, do not receive the splendour of the truth, and many who had been enlightened grow dark again, yet the word of God remains for ever, and nothing falls away from the truth of the promise. Every day the foreknown and promised fullness of the nations comes in, and in Abraham’s seed every nation, every tribe and every tongue is blessed. For what the Father has given the Son, the Son does not lose, nor can anyone snatch from his hand what he has received. The firm foundation of God stands, and the building of the temple that is to last for ever does not totter, since the truth and mercy of God are spread over all; and what is both denied to no one and owed to no one is accomplished by him in those whom he promised. For he works all in all, but all, beyond doubt, justly and well. For all the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth. Just as he foreknew before the ages how great a multitude of men of the whole world, whether using the common gifts or helped by special aids, would yet turn aside from the way of truth and life and enter the broad way of error and death, so he always foreknew how great a number of the godly would come to eternal blessedness through the help of grace and the service of obedience; so that, none falling away from the fullness of those promised, he who could neither be deceived about their progress nor fail them in help might glorify above all those whom he chose out of all. For, as we have abundantly proved, the manifold and ineffable goodness of God has always cared and cares for the whole of mankind in such a way that none of those who perish has the excuse that the light of truth was denied him, and no one is free to glory in his own righteousness; for their own wickedness plunges the former into punishment, and God’s grace leads the latter to glory.

What we suggested at the beginning of this second book, then, we now commend again: that, when the depth and height of grace is discussed, we rely on those three most wholesome and most true definitions. One of them professes that it is eternal and proper to the divine goodness to will all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth; the second likewise proclaims that every man who is saved and comes to the knowledge of the truth is helped and ruled by God’s aid, and kept so that he remains in the faith that works through love. And the third declares with moderation and sobriety that not every reason of God’s will can be grasped, and that many causes of the divine works are withdrawn from human understanding; so that, when in times, in nations, in families, in little children, in those not yet born and in twins certain things are known to have been done variously or remarkably, we do not doubt that they belong to those things which the just and merciful God did not will to be known in this passing age. This, indeed, is to be understood as arranged for our benefit: so that, since we have been saved in hope, for which God has prepared what eye has not seen nor ear heard, nor has it entered into the heart of man, just as we steadfastly believe that what we do not yet see will be seen, so we may patiently wait for what we do not yet understand to be understood. If, then, insidious malice ceases and insolent presumption is quiet, these things having been rightly treated, as I think, no cause of contention remains, nor need we be occupied any longer with interminable questions.

For it has been worked out, as far as the Lord has helped, so as to prove that not only in the last days but in all past ages the grace of God has been present to all men, with equal providence indeed and general goodness, but in manifold working and differing measure; since, whether hiddenly or openly, he is, as the Apostle says, the Saviour of all men, especially of the faithful. This sentence, of the most subtle brevity and the most valid strength, if considered with a tranquil gaze, settles the whole controversy with which we are dealing. For by saying, “who is the Saviour of all men,” he confirmed that God’s goodness toward all men is general; and by adding, “especially of the faithful,” he showed that there is a part of the human race which, by the merit of a faith divinely inspired, is advanced by special benefits to the highest and eternal salvation. This is done without any iniquity on the part of the most just and most merciful God, whose judgment in these dispensations is not to be discussed with arrogance but praised with trembling.

For even among the peoples of the faithful, as was shown above, the same things are not conferred on all, nor equal things, and before any weighing of human merits the measure of the divine gifts is most unequal. For if we do not dare to complain of the judgments of earthly parents when they embrace some of their children with more indulgent affection before any testing of their character and before any services of piety; if masters too have free disposal toward their servants, and no one is justly blamed who, from a household of one condition, chooses some to honour more kindly and to educate more liberally: is there any case to be made against the most benevolent fairness of the highest Father and true Lord because in his great house all things are varied with innumerable differences? And since no one has anything good that he has not given, yet not all shine with the same virtues or are enriched with the same endowment of gifts. Nor can we fit this diversity of degrees to the causes of merits, since grace is the chief cause of all good merit, and from its riches is taken whatever is found praiseworthy in each.

Just as, then, it is impious to conceive any complaint in the heart about the things the Holy Spirit works in manifold ways within the Church, so we must in no way murmur about that providence which presides over unbelievers. For the just and good arbiter is neither of unjust will nor of uncertain discrimination, so that we should think that under the immense mercy and justice of almighty God anyone perishes who ought not to perish. No part of the world is without the Gospel of Christ. And though that general calling does not cease, yet this special calling too has now been made common to all. From every nation and every condition thousands of old men, thousands of young men, thousands of little children are adopted every day; and even the arms by which the world is being worn down serve the workings of Christian grace. For how many who in the quiet of peace kept putting off receiving the sacrament of baptism has the fear of present danger driven to take refuge in the water of regeneration, and sudden threatening terror wrung from slow and lukewarm souls what quiet exhortation had long failed to persuade? Some sons of the Church, taken captive by enemies, made their masters subject to the Gospel of Christ, and those whom they served by the fortune of war they ruled by teaching the faith. And other barbarians, while serving as auxiliaries to the Romans, learned in our lands what they could not learn in their own, and returned to their homes with instruction in the Christian religion. So nothing can stop divine grace from fulfilling what it wills, while even discords lead to unity and wounds are turned into remedies, so that the Church takes increase from what she feared as a danger. To whatever outcome of human affairs, then, our inquiry turns, it will find no ages, no affairs, no comings and goings of generations free from the eternal and inscrutable judgments of God. All the conflicts of differing things, and all the causes of unlike outcomes, which we cannot trace and discern, are in that eternal knowledge known together and set apart together. And nothing there is disordered, not even concerning the qualities of the actions of things that do not yet exist. For in God there is no accidental motion, no new will, no temporal counsel, nor does his thought vary with the inequality of changeable things; but he comprehends all times and temporal things alike in an everlasting and stable gaze, and has already repaid all things to all, he who has already made the things that are to be. Hence that saying of the blessed apostle Paul writing to the Ephesians: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless in his sight in love; who predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace,” and the rest that he joins in proclaiming the same meaning, teaching that the gift and work of grace has always remained in the eternal counsel of God, and that all the sons of adoption were chosen not only at the time when, already existing, they were called, but even before the world was founded. In this election, whoever among men has not been foreknown in Christ will by no means be joined to it. For all who will come into the kingdom of God from a calling at any time were marked out in this adoption, which went before all ages. And just as no unbeliever is numbered in this lot, so none of the godly is separated from this blessing. For from the full number of the members of Christ’s body the foreknowledge of God, which cannot be deceived, loses nothing, and the total foreknown and chosen beforehand in Christ before eternal ages can be diminished by no loss, as the Apostle says, writing to Timothy: “Share in suffering for the Gospel according to the power of God, who has freed us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before eternal times.”

Against this most splendid light of unconquered truth some are wont to say, not soberly, that it is superfluous to labour to acquire the merits of good works, and vain to persist in prayers by which God is hoped to be entreated, if the election of Christian grace stands by his unchangeable purpose and nothing can happen otherwise than has been arranged by the will of the Almighty. But those who think they are raising a clever objection do not understand that the knowledge of God, which embraces past, present and future, is not held by time, and that the things that are to be done stand in his sight as much as those that are being done or have been done. Since this is most true, that power needs no delay for seeing and discerning which with a perpetual and true gaze beholds at once things created and to be created, things arisen and to arise, things done and to be done; and whatever unfolds in the universe of things through the appointed ages and is unrolled in manifold variety, it already comprehends wholly in that order which the end of this world will receive from his supreme and perfect judgment. But this eternal and ever-tranquil knowledge puts us under no necessity of sinning, nor does iniquity flow from the same source as justice. For since the good God made all things good, and evil has no nature at all, transgression arose spontaneously from free wills, which it was certainly good to make free; and changeable nature, whose soundness depended on unchangeable being, broke itself away from the highest good while it perversely delighted in its own; and now the grace of God heals this ruin,

so as to destroy the works of the devil; and they are destroyed in such a way that even those who are helped labour in their destruction, since this too is given by the one who saves. Hence the blessed Apostle says: “And not only this, but we also 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.” And the same to the Ephesians: “By grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves, for it is the gift of God; not from works, lest anyone should boast. For we are his making, created in Christ in good works, which God prepared that we should walk in them.” God, then, gives to those whom he has chosen without merits that by which they may be adorned with merits too. And it is said in vain that there is no reason for the elect to work, since they were chosen precisely in order to work. For the gifts of the virtues cannot be idle. For, as the Truth says, “To everyone who has, more will be given; but from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away.” Continence, then, is not given so that it may not fight against desires. Nor are wisdom and understanding granted to anyone so that he may not meditate day and night on the law of the Lord. What does the gift of love do, if the care of kindness is not watchful? What fruit is there of patience, if fortitude has nothing to endure? Or how is one shown to live piously in Christ who is struck by no persecution? Or is the peace that is from God and with God truly at rest, if it is not at odds with the world? Or can the love of God be had without enmity with the devil? The grace of God makes no one immune to temptation. Nor is the Christian army equipped with the protection of heavenly arms on the right and on the left so that it may fight with no enemy, since it is more praiseworthy and happier to have been unconquerable in battle than to have been untempted in idleness.

That the care for prayer is not undone by the purpose of divine election I will prove plainly by one testimony, leaving out the rest for the sake of brevity. In the book of Tobit, then, the angel Raphael says to Tobit’s son Tobias: “Remember your father’s commands, for he commanded you to take a wife from your father’s kin. And now listen to me, brother: take no account of that demon, but ask for her. And know that she will be given to you as wife this night; and when you enter the bedchamber, take some of the liver of that fish and put it on the coals, and an odour will spread, and that demon will smell it and flee and will never appear near her again. And when you begin to wish to be with her, first rise, both of you, and pray to the Lord of heaven that mercy and health may be given you. And do not fear; for she was destined for you before the ages, and you will heal her.” Though, then, what God has decreed can in no way fail to be done, yet the pursuit of prayer is not taken away, nor is the devotion of free choice relaxed by the purpose of election; since the fulfilment of God’s will has been preordained in such a way that through the labour of works, the persistence of supplications and the exercise of virtues the increases of merits come about, and those who have done good are crowned not only according to God’s purpose but also according to their own merits. For this reason the predetermination of this election has been hidden in a secret most remote from human knowledge.

And of no one before his end can it be pronounced that he will be in the glory of the elect, so that a useful fear may keep humility persevering, and he who stands may see that he does not fall; and if perhaps, overcome by some temptation, he has fallen, he may not be swallowed up by sadness nor despair of the mercy of him who lifts up all who fall and raises up all who are cast down. For while one lives in this body, no one’s correction is to be neglected, no one’s restoration despaired of. Let the holy Church, then, pray, and, giving thanks for those who have believed, ask for them a growing perseverance; and for those who are outside the faith let her ask that they may believe. Nor let her cease from her supplications if for some she has not been heard. For God, who wills all to come to the knowledge of the truth, cannot reject anyone without justice.