Grace in the early church · Sophia Scriptura

God's unmerited help and favour, and its relation to human effort and merit. Part of Salvation.

1 Clement 30.2Clement of Rome · ca. 95–97 (range ca. 70–100) · God opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble.
2 Clement 1.7Anonymous · ca. 100–150 · God saved us out of mercy when we had no hope.
To the Philippians 1.3Polycarp of Smyrna · ca. 110–135 · Believers rejoice in the unseen Christ, knowing they are saved by grace and not by works.
Against Heresies 2.34.3Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Created things endure by God's will; eternal life is God's gift to the grateful, which the ungrateful forfeit.
Against Heresies 4.11.3Irenaeus of Lyons · ca. 180–190 · Those who saw the King present received greater grace than those who only heard of his coming, as the crowds at the entry into Jerusalem showed.
Who Is the Rich Man That Is Saved? 21.2Clement of Alexandria · ca. 190–210 · but God gives strength to the willing, withdrawing his Spirit from those who grow slack; God saves by grace those who choose, not by force.
Miscellanies 3.8.61Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · The libertines cite “you are not under law but under grace,” but Paul himself answers: “Shall we sin because we are under grace? By no means.”
Miscellanies 5.1.7Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · We are saved by grace, but not without good works and a sound will; we need grace, right teaching, and the Father's drawing; God cannot be seen clearly in this life, as Paul, Plato, and Moses say, but the pure in heart will see him; so the Savior was sent as divine teacher.
Miscellanies 5.13.83Clement of Alexandria · ca. 198–203 · Whether the Father draws the soul or free will leaps toward the good, the soul rises only by grace; Plato too said virtue comes by divine gift, and God's Wisdom rewards faith with fellowship.
Against Marcion 5.5Tertullian · 207/208 (third edition, completed later) · The greeting “grace and peace” and Paul's teaching that God made the world's wisdom foolish through the cross fit only the Creator, who was offended and foretold these things, and they require a Christ with real flesh who truly died.
On the Soul 21Tertullian · ca. 210 · Against the Valentinian three natures, the soul is one and changeable: grace and free will can turn bad trees good and make stones children of Abraham.
On First Principles 3.1.15Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · God's promise to take away the heart of stone does not remove our freedom: like a teacher with a willing pupil, or the Saviour healing the blind who come to him, God acts in those who offer themselves.
On First Principles 3.1.19Origen · ca. 220–230 (Rufinus's translation 398) · As a house, a besieged city, a harvest or a ship's safe arrival is credited to God though human labour was needed, so salvation is God's mercy completing our will and effort.
PG 12:1159 (Ps 4 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · The literal reading would make health and wealth higher than virtue and leads to crude hopes of eating and begetting after the resurrection; Origen’s own view: the unchosen good is the Lord’s power that cooperates with our building and guarding.
PG 12:1161 (Ps 4 LXX)Origen · ca. 220-254 · The good of a rational being is mixed, from our choice and God’s cooperating power, as a harvest needs both the farmer and the weather; even the perfect fall if they claim the credit, like the fallen morning star; Scripture uses “good” and “evil” loosely for pleasant and painful things.
Fragment 11 on John 1:16Origen · ca. 226-254 · On John 1:16: virtue is partly our own choice and partly God's gift; God adds his grace to what we achieve by free choice, and this is ‘grace for grace.’
Commentary on John 6.35Origen · ca. 230–248 · The Baptist explains that Christ is before him because the prophets and he received from Christ's fullness.
Commentary on John 6.36Origen · ca. 230–248 · The Father gave the law through Moses but made grace and truth come to be through Christ.
Commentary on John 20.196Origen · ca. 230–248 · Good willing is always joined by God to good working.
Commentary on John 20.389Origen · ca. 230–248 · But they did not know that grace is greater than the trespass.
Commentary on John 20.390Origen · ca. 230–248 · They could not grasp the abounding grace in Christ.
On Prayer 1.1Origen · ca. 233–234 · Things impossible for human nature, such as wisdom and knowledge of God's mind, become possible by God's grace through Christ and the Spirit.
Homily on 1 Samuel 1.5Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Origen interprets Elkanah as “possession of God”, Peninnah as conversion, and Hannah as grace: grace is wedded first by faith, but the works of conversion must be born before grace bears a son like Samuel.
Homilies on Numbers 9.2Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · God's glory appeared to Moses and Aaron only when the people rose against them, showing that persecution brings Christians God's grace and glory.
Homilies on Numbers 22.3Origen · ca. 238–250 (Rufinus's translation ca. 400–410) · Moses, told to view the promised land from the mountain before dying, is a figure of perfection; yet his death for his transgression at Zin shows that even he was under sin, and that Christ alone, who did no sin, sets us free.
Against Celsus 6.2Origen · ca. 248 · Plain Scripture has helped far more people than Plato's polished prose, because God gives power to those who preach, as Paul and the Psalms say.
Against Celsus 7.44Origen · ca. 248 · Celsus thinks God is known by the philosophers' methods; the Word says God is known by revelation and grace, and God chose the simple over proud philosophers who still worship images, while the humblest Christian rises in prayer above the world.
Commentary on Matthew, Latin Series 69Origen · ca. 244–249 (Latin translation, 4th–5th century) · God can take the capacity from one who neglects it and give it to one who multiplies it, since every virtue is nothing without God's grace; the useless servant is cast into an outer darkness that may lie outside the world.
Commentary on Romans 4.5Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · The promise rests on faith so that it may be grace, since even faith is a gift of the Spirit, and grace written in the heart is firmer than the law written on parchment; Abraham is father of all who believe, Jew and Gentile; God 'gives life to the dead' by raising souls dead in sin, and 'calls what is not' by bringing Gentiles into being through participation in him who is.
Commentary on Romans 5.2Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Origen explains how Adam is a type of Christ, similar in kind but contrary in effect, why Paul writes “many” rather than “all,” and how death reigns through upbringing as well as birth.
Commentary on Romans 5.3Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Origen shows that the gift exceeds the loss, explains over whom the righteous will reign, and argues that the present is a time of war in which Christ prepares his kingdom.
Commentary on Romans 5.6Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Origen refutes Marcion’s reading of “the law came in” by showing that sin abounded before Moses, and explains it of the law of the members that slips in under the natural law, overcome by superabounding grace.
Commentary on Romans 6.9Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Origen reads Romans 7:14–25 as Paul taking on the person of the weak, one beginning conversion whose good will is not yet matched by deeds, delivered at last by the grace of God through Christ.
Commentary on Romans 8.7Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · God has not rejected Israel, as Paul himself and the remnant, like Elijah's seven thousand, show; the 'election of grace' marks those who adorn grace with virtue, and the works Paul excludes are circumcision, sacrifices and sabbaths, not the works of righteousness, while grace must not be made void by sin.
Commentary on Romans 9.3Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Gifts such as prophecy, ministry, teaching, exhortation, giving, presiding and mercy are given by grace according to the measure of faith, which is partly our work; prophecy in Paul's sense is edifying speech that we can strive for, and each gift must be exercised without exceeding its measure.
Commentary on Romans 9.23Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · Heaping coals on an enemy's head by kindness may mean his punishment, or better, the fire of remorse that helps him repent; evil is overcome by its contrary, and Paul joins moral precepts to the gifts to show that good conduct too is a gift of God's grace.
Commentary on Romans 10.38Origen · ca. 244–246 (Rufinus's translation ca. 405–406) · The grace of the Father and of Christ is one; everything creatures have from God is grace, not debt.
On the Martyrs (Peri martyron), fragment 2Methodius of Olympus · late 3rd cent. (disputed) · Every good act begins in human will and is brought to completion by God.
Demonstration of the Gospel 2.3.46Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · As in Elijah’s day, a remnant chosen by grace remains.
Demonstration of the Gospel 2.3.56Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Paul again affirms a remnant chosen by grace.
Demonstration of the Gospel 2.3.133Eusebius of Caesarea · ca. 314–324 · Isaiah foretells that few will be left; these are the remnant chosen by grace.
Oration II Against the Arians 51Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · As adopted children call their Lord “Father” by grace, the Son calls his Father “Lord” in his humanity; and “created for the works” refers to a task given after being, as with Adam, Noah, and Moses.
Oration II Against the Arians 68Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · God could have undone the curse by a word, but what he does is chosen for what profits us; a mere command would have left grace external and humanity ever falling again.
Oration II Against the Arians 76Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · Our election, adoption, and inheritance “before the foundation of the world” were founded in the Word, so that when the world passes away our life, prepared in Christ, will endure.
Oration III Against the Arians 11Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · Likeness and unity must belong to the Son's substance, not merely to his teaching; so the grace and peace of Father and Son are one gift, as Paul's singular verb in 1 Thess 3:11 shows.
Oration III Against the Arians 13Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · Deliverance and blessing come from God alone, so the “angel” Jacob joined with God was the Word; every gift is from the Father through the Son, as light shines through its radiance.
Oration III Against the Arians 38Athanasius of Alexandria · ca. 339–346 · Ignorance, receiving, and being glorified belong to Christ's flesh; the Word bore our ignorance and received gifts as man so that grace, resting in him, might be secure for us, unlike Adam's.
Commentary on Matthew 9Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 353–355 · Matthew’s call and banquet, the question about fasting, the patches and wineskins, the ruler’s daughter and the woman with the flow of blood, the two blind men, and the mute demoniac are read as figures of grace to sinners, the law, and the nations.
Homilies on the Psalms 32.9Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-378 · On Ps 33:16–17 Basil teaches that kings, giants and horses are not saved by their strength but by God's grace, which shines most in the weak; the saints did not trust in horses, which belong to Pharaoh and Sennacherib.
Moral Rules (Moralia) 55Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-370 · The opening of Basil's fifty-fifth rule: every good thing, even endurance in suffering for Christ, is God's gift.
Moral Rules (Moralia) 57Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-370 · Rules 55 (every good is God's gift, and thanksgiving), 56 (on persevering in prayer, and how to pray) and 57 (against pride in one's good deeds), preceded in the scan by a repetition of Rule 54.
Moral Rules (Moralia) 58Basil of Caesarea · ca. 360-370 · Basil's fifty-eighth rule: God's gifts cannot be bought; they are given by measure of faith for the common good, must be given freely, and grow or are lost according to how they are used.
On the Holy Spirit 16Didymus the Blind · Greek ca. 360-390; Latin 387-391 · The one grace and love given by the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit show that the Trinity is of one substance.
Tractates on the Psalms 118.14.20Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Against those who blame their unbelief on God's withheld grace, Hilary says that perseverance is God's gift but the beginning of faith comes from our will, which God then increases.
Tractates on the Psalms 118.16.10Hilary of Poitiers · ca. 360–367 · Asking God to "deal" with him, the psalmist humbly calls himself servant and appeals to mercy, for we can only will and begin, while God's mercy helps and completes.
Commentary on Ephesians 1.2Marius Victorinus · ca. 360–363 · Grace and peace are wished for the Ephesians so that they may know God and live by his precepts, and both come from the Father through the Son, in whom all salvation lies.
Commentary on Ephesians 1.5Marius Victorinus · ca. 360–363 · God adopts souls as sons through Christ, the only true Son and the image of God, to the praise of his glory and grace.
Commentary on Ephesians 1.8Marius Victorinus · ca. 360–363 · Unlike angels and the rest of creation, which stay as they were made, souls receive the riches of grace to be raised into spirits and adopted sons through Christ, and this knowledge of Christ is all wisdom and prudence.
Commentary on Ephesians 2.7Marius Victorinus · ca. 360–363 · God raised us with Christ not for our merits but out of kindness, and we are saved by grace through faith, which alone is owed by us.
Commentary on Ephesians 2.9Marius Victorinus · ca. 360–363 · Salvation comes neither from ourselves nor from works, but is God’s gift, so that no one may boast of merit.
Commentary on Ephesians 3.7Marius Victorinus · ca. 360–363 · Paul was made minister of the gospel by God’s gift, and even his working is the grace of God’s power, so that he, the least of the saints, preaches the incomprehensible riches of Christ.
Commentary on Galatians 4.7Marius Victorinus · ca. 360–363 · Whoever calls God Father is a son and no longer a slave, and so an heir, not by works but through God’s mercy and grace.
Commentary on Galatians 5.4Marius Victorinus · ca. 360–363 · Seeking justification from the law means falling from grace, which comes from God’s goodness and not from merits, and being cut off from Christ.
Commentary on Philippians 2.12Marius Victorinus · ca. 360–363 · The Philippians must work out their salvation with fear and trembling, yet both the willing and the working are from God, so that human will and divine grace are mixed.
Commentary on Philippians 4.8Marius Victorinus · ca. 360–363 · The Philippians should think on and practice whatever is true, chaste, just, holy, lovely, and of good report, as they learned and saw in Paul, recognizing that virtue and praise are God’s gift, and the God of peace will be with them.
Oration 9.2Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · Grace must be kept as well as received; Gregory asks his father and Basil to teach him the shepherd's art, reproaches Basil for forcing his consecration, and prays for himself and his flock.
Oration 37.13Gregory of Nazianzus · ca. 362–383 · “To whom it is given” does not mean fixed natures, as some heretics teach: aptitude must be called forth by choice, yet even good willing is God's gift, so both our freedom and God's mercy are needed.
Homilies 20.4Basil of Caesarea · ca. 363-378 · All we have is received from God; Peter learned humility through his fall, the Pharisee lost his righteousness through pride; Basil sets Christ's lowliness from manger to cross before us as the pattern.
Against Parmenian the Donatist 2.20Optatus of Milevis · ca. 366–385 · No one is sinless (1 John 1:8): man wills and runs but God perfects; the Donatists, claiming perfect holiness while praying "forgive us our debts," are like the proud Pharisee of the parable.
Commentary on 1 Corinthians 15:9–10Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Paul, least by time and a former persecutor, owes everything to God's grace, which made him labour more than all.
Commentary on 2 Timothy 1:9Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · God, foreknowing sin, predestined salvation by grace and not by merit, and called unworthy men to lead his people; this hidden gift was revealed in Christ’s coming.
Commentary on Ephesians 1:1Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Paul greets the Ephesians and blesses God, who blesses believers in Christ with heavenly, eternal blessing by grace rather than merit.
Commentary on Ephesians 2:9–10Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Salvation is God's gift through faith, not from works, so all boasting is in God, who recreated us for good works.
Commentary on Romans 5:20Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · The law, given to help nature’s seeds of righteousness, in fact exposed and multiplied sin through human habit and the devil’s work; God answered with the superabundant grace of forgiveness through his Son.
Commentary on Romans 7:24–25Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · Born under sin, man is freed from the “body of death”, the whole of his sins, by grace through baptism; the freed mind serves God’s law, while the flesh, still under Adam’s sentence, remains open to the devil’s suggestions until the resurrection.
Commentary on Titus 3:4–7Ambrosiaster · ca. 366–384 · God saved us by mercy, not works, through the washing of rebirth and the Spirit poured out through Christ, who helps us do good works and so inherit the kingdom.
Letter 21.2Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome explains that the parable answers the Pharisees' complaint that Jesus ate with sinners, and sets it against the severity of the law and the mercy of the gospel.
Letter 65.9Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome explains 'Grace is poured out on your lips' of the fullness of grace in Christ's human nature.
Letter 116.20Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Augustine explains that to be 'under the law' in Paul's blameworthy sense is to try to keep God's commands by one's own strength without grace; the old rites could justify no one but were to be laid aside with honor.
Letter 132.15Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Augustine defines virtue as charity, which is never perfect in this life, so that all must pray for forgiveness; the commandments show us our need of grace.
Letter 133.6Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome insists that free will itself depends on God's continual help, so Christians must always pray and give thanks, and no one is perfect in this life.
Letter 133.8Jerome · ca. 370–419 · Jerome argues that the Pelagian formula 'without sin if he wills' makes grace superfluous, and cites Romans 7–8 on the weakness of the flesh.
Letter 140.5Jerome · ca. 370–419 · On Ps 90:1 Jerome notes that the Hebrew means 'dwelling', and teaches that man can do no good work without God's grace in each act.
Ancoratus 65.1Epiphanius of Salamis · 374 · The grace of God has appeared in Christ.
On Cain and Abel 1.27Ambrose · ca. 375-378 · No one should credit himself with his good; Paul called himself least of the apostles and taught that we have nothing we did not receive.
On Cain and Abel 1.28Ambrose · ca. 375-378 · The self-righteous are warned that Israel received the land not for its righteousness but by God's covenant; the covenant is God's perfect grace, sealed in blood and fulfilled in the gift of his Son.
Apostolic Constitutions 8.2.1Anonymous · ca. 380 · Faith itself is a gift; wonder-workers must not despise others, as Moses, Joshua, Samuel, Elijah and Daniel did not; clergy and laity depend on one another.
On the Christian Faith 5.7Ambrose · ca. 378–380 · Ambrose explains that John 17:23 does not make men equal to the Son in the Father’s love, that John 17:5 speaks with the feeling of the first man, and that the Son’s being “sent” implies no inferiority, since the lesser may send the greater.
Book of Heresies 128.9Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · High callings such as martyrdom are God's gift.
Book of Heresies 156.8Philastrius of Brescia · ca. 380s · The grace of Christ was known to the just before the law.
Canons on the Letters of Paul 25Priscillian · ca. 380–400 · Faith and salvation are of God's grace; hardening comes from sin; the Gentiles are grafted in against nature.
Second Apology of David 33Ambrose · ca. 384-397 · Christ chose sinners like David, Bathsheba, and Tamar as ancestors, to show that he came to forgive and that grace abounds over sin.
Catechetical Oration 30Gregory of Nyssa · ca. 385–390 · Sin lingers like the tail of a snake whose head is crushed; faith has not reached all because God calls all equally but leaves each person's will free.
On Jacob and the Happy Life 1.16Ambrose · ca. 386-390 · God's grace in Christ frees the one whom the law could not, so the law's commandment, though it works death, is not death to the believer.
On Jacob and the Happy Life 1.22Ambrose · ca. 386-390 · Where sin abounded through the law, grace abounded more, and Christ, who died for us, is our advocate with the Father.
Letter 27.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine introduces the bearer, his friend Romanianus, warns Paulinus not to trust his praise, and asks him to pray for his faults, since whatever is good in his books is God's.
Letter 82.20Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine explains that to be ‘under the law’ in Paul’s sense is to try to keep God’s commandments by one’s own strength without grace, and that the old rites could justify no one but were to be honourably laid aside.
Letter 137.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The eternal Word took a man and became one Christ, equal to the Father in divinity and less in humanity, bringing teaching that confirms what is true and the help of grace to overcome sin.
Letter 140.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Those who received Christ were given power to become children of God by spiritual birth; this is the grace of the New Testament, hidden in the Old.
Letter 140.62Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Love lives by the heavenly bread; its breadth is good works, its length patient endurance, its height the hope of eternal life, and its depth the hidden grace of God's will, as in Ephesians 3.
Letter 140.63Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine expounds Ephesians 3:13–19: rooted and grounded in love by God's free grace, believers grasp its breadth, length, height, and depth, until in the age to come love contemplates and praises God for ever.
Letter 140.71Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The 'righteousness of God' announced is the righteousness he gives to the saints by free grace, not their own; good works follow justification and do not precede it.
Letter 140.72Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · God's righteousness, like his salvation, is that which he gives to those he justifies and saves by grace through baptism; pride, trusting in one's own works, is its opposite.
Letter 140.74Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The soul cannot be good by its own will but only by God's free mercy; the wise virgins carry the oil of a good conscience, while the foolish depend on the praise of flatterers.
Letter 140.81Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The foolish virgins seek mercy too late; 'I do not know you' means they did not know God, for knowing God is itself his gift, as he makes us righteous, his workmanship in Christ.
Letter 140.82Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine sums up: all five questions have been answered within the sixth, on the grace of the New Testament, by which the Son of God became man so that we might become children of God.
Letter 140.84Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The wise virgins understand that continence is God's gift; the foolish, ungrateful to the giver, will remain outside unless they change before death.
Letter 140.85Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine urges Honoratus to persuade such people that every good, even love of God, is God's gift, so that they may glory in the Lord; he closes by commending reading and prayer, for the inner light is the true teacher.
Letter 144.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Even the pagan Polemo's reform by Xenocrates was God's gift, since continence comes only from God; so the Cirtans' conversion is to be credited to God, not to Augustine.
Letter 145.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine reflects that the world is more dangerous when it allures than when it troubles, and that the will is not truly free without God's grace.
Letter 145.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The law reveals human weakness and drives us to grace; the Spirit pours love into our hearts, and love fulfills the law, whereas those who trust their own strength find the law a chain.
Letter 145.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine warns against those (the Pelagians, unnamed) who claim that the will can fulfill the law without grace, which would make the Lord's Prayer pointless.
Letter 157.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The will is truly free only when healed by grace; the psalmist prays for God to direct his steps rather than boasting of free choice.
Letter 157.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · God both commands and gives continence, as the Book of Wisdom says; the law commands so that we may seek grace.
Letter 157.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Grace does not abolish free will but helps it; whatever good one has is received from God, so one should glory in the Lord and pray humbly.
Letter 157.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Those who groan to God in the words of the psalms receive superabounding grace; Paul in Romans 7 credits deliverance to grace, not free choice.
Letter 157.20Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Adam is a type of Christ by contrast, but the gift exceeds the offense: Christ's life is eternal and his redemption covers many sins.
Letter 157.29Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Whether the rich keep their wealth or sell it, salvation is God's work, not human power, and those who sell everything must also credit grace.
Letter 167.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Virtue is love of what ought to be loved; it is never full in this life, so all must pray “forgive us our debts,” and the commandments show us our need of grace.
Letter 175.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Scripture testifies to grace that frees the will, which the Pelagians in effect deny by making nature sufficient.
Letter 177.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Five African bishops write to Pope Innocent, following the councils of Carthage and Milevis, against those who trust in their own strength rather than in grace.
Letter 177.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The bishops explain that the Eastern synod acquitted Pelagius because it understood “grace” in the Catholic sense, not as mere created nature.
Letter 177.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Prayer not to be led into temptation shows that grace is more than nature, free choice, forgiveness, or law: it is help to do the commandment.
Letter 177.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Every command (understanding, wisdom, self-control, avoiding evil, doing good) is matched by a prayer for the same thing, showing that law commands and grace helps.
Letter 177.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The grace proper to Christians is not created nature but the hidden help of the Spirit by which the predestined are called, justified, and glorified.
Letter 177.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Scripture uses “grace” for the grace that justifies by faith in Christ, not for the grace of creation.
Letter 177.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Nature, the law, and the promise all existed before Christ; if they sufficed, Christ died in vain.
Letter 177.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The law was given to reveal and increase sin so that people would seek the grace of God's promises.
Letter 177.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Grace was hidden under the law like the dew in Gideon's fleece and is now manifest; those who rely on their own righteousness repeat Israel's error.
Letter 177.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The bishops ask that Pelagius be made to condemn his book, and forward through the pope a letter of Augustine to Pelagius.
Letter 181.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · It is unjust and irreligious to owe one's existence to God yet deny owing him daily grace.
Letter 181.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · We need God's help daily, whether living well or badly; free choice alone cannot overcome sin.
Letter 182.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Scripture everywhere joins God's help to free will; the council's testimonies suffice to refute Pelagius and Caelestius.
Letter 186.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine and Alypius write to Paulinus of Nola about Pelagius, whom they once loved as orthodox and now love in hope of his correction, explaining how they came to know his teaching on grace.
Letter 186.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The papal and conciliar documents show moderation toward persons but a firm suppression of the error, for grace not only forgives sins but enables both the will and the deed of righteousness.
Letter 186.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Only Christ distinguishes anyone from the mass of perdition; faith, good will and good works are all received, so works come from grace and not grace from works.
Letter 186.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Before grace no one has good merits, only sins; grace is given freely, not paid as a debt, which is why it is called grace.
Letter 186.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Faith may be said to obtain grace, but only because it obtains love, which is itself God's gift; God works all good in the elect, including their love for him.
Letter 186.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · No human merit precedes grace; grace itself merits increase and perfection, and even man's merit is God's free gift.
Letter 186.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The grace given to infants in baptism is plainly free, since it precedes any will of theirs and is even given to those who resist.
Letter 186.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Infants are born under the punishment owed to Adam's sin; God's distinguishing among them by grace is inscrutable but never unjust.
Letter 186.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Paul's point about the unborn twins is that election is of grace, which makes people worthy rather than finding them so.
Letter 186.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Paul's answer to the charge of injustice is God's word to Moses: to free anyone from the deserved mass of death is mercy, and to punish the equally guilty is not injustice.
Letter 186.25Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The number of the saints is fixed in God's foreknowledge; called according to purpose, justified and glorified, they are saved by the election of grace.
Letter 186.35Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Pelagius's statement that grace lets us fulfil commands 'more easily' implies that they can be fulfilled without grace.
Letter 186.36Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Scripture, as John of Jerusalem reminded Pelagius, says that nothing good is achieved without grace, not merely more easily; and Pelagius's 'even balance' contradicts his own concession.
Letter 186.37Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · We should pray for the Pelagians, who like the philosophers trust the will and risk making void the cross, since nature could not even keep its health without grace.
Letter 187.40Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Christ differs from the greatest saints not only by the fullness of divinity dwelling in him but by the singular union of his humanity with the Word in one person, a pure grace.
Letter 188.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine warns Juliana that the error of those who limit grace to nature and teaching and deny that love is God's gift is not small.
Letter 188.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine quotes the book written to Demetrias, which tells her that her spiritual riches can come only from herself.
Letter 188.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Saying spiritual goods are 'in' Demetrias is true, but saying they are 'from' her alone is poison; Paul teaches that the treasure is God's.
Letter 188.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Virginity is God's gift, as Paul and Christ teach; Demetrias's virginity, surpassing her mother's state, is truly theirs but not from them, like the daily bread we ask for.
Letter 188.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Demetrias should pray and give thanks, recognizing that her goods are in her but not from her alone, since God works both the will and the deed by inspiring love.
Letter 188.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Pelagius's apparent statements about grace are ambiguous, referring grace only to nature, teaching, forgiveness, or Christ's example.
Letter 188.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine challenges Juliana to find in the book any confession of grace beyond nature, teaching and forgiveness, and asks whether it is Pelagius's work and whether she has it.
Letter 190.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The law was given not to justify but to convict proud humanity of sin, so that it might seek the medicine of grace.
Letter 191.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine joyfully thanks the Roman presbyter Sixtus for his letter defending grace against the Pelagians, whose patron he had been rumoured to be.
Letter 194.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine tells Sixtus of his joy that Sixtus, once rumoured to favour the Pelagians, has anathematized them and written clearly in defence of grace.
Letter 194.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Denying that a good will needs God's help inflates rather than strengthens free choice.
Letter 194.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · If it is unjust to free one of two equally guilty, then justice would punish both; God's choice shows both justice and grace and is hidden in the depth of his wisdom.
Letter 194.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Though Pelagius anathematized the view that grace is given by merit, his followers still teach it, contrary to Romans, which teaches that grace justifies the ungodly.
Letter 194.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Even forgiveness is obtained by faith, so faith itself, the beginning of all merit, must be God's free gift.
Letter 194.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Faith, which prays, is itself given before prayer; why one believes and another does not lies in God's unsearchable but just judgment.
Letter 194.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Hardening has its merit in sin, as God simply withholds mercy, but mercy has no merit, or it would not be grace.
Letter 194.19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · When God crowns our merits he crowns his own gifts; even eternal life, given for merits, is grace because the merits themselves were given.
Letter 194.21Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Paul calls eternal life 'the grace of God' rather than wages of righteousness to exclude pride, since righteousness itself is received; we receive 'grace for grace'.
Letter 194.34Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · God's love of Jacob and hatred of Esau before birth show election by grace: he loved in Jacob his own gift and hated in Esau original sin.
Letter 196.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · The law is holy, but sin uses it to make those who rely on their own powers transgressors, so that grace may superabound.
Letter 214.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine writes to the monks of Hadrumetum, having heard that some deny free will and judgment according to works, and approves those who hold that grace helps free will.
Letter 214.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine explains that his letter to Sixtus opposed the Pelagian teaching that grace is given according to merit, since everything that distinguishes a person is received from God.
Letter 214.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine explains that good works, prayer, and faith are themselves gifts of God, so that grace precedes merit, though God will still crown good merit at the judgment.
Letter 214.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine urges the monks to believe in both free will and grace, showing from Scripture that even understanding is commanded of the will yet given by God.
Letter 215.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine shows from Proverbs 4 that Scripture both commands the will and promises that God will make its paths straight.
Letter 215.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine explains that God "knows" the right-hand ways because he made them, as good works prepared by him, while the wicked make their own left-hand ways.
Letter 215.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine concludes that relying on one's own will turns aside to the right, while abusing grace as license turns aside to the left, and asks that the monk Florus be sent to him.
Letter 216.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Valentinus asks Augustine's prayers, commends Florus to him, and asks him to instruct the monastery on its rule.
Letter 217.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine writes to Vitalis of Carthage, who held that the beginning of faith comes from our own will, arguing that this view contradicts the Church's prayers for the right faith of others.
Letter 217.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine argues from Paul's prayer and from Psalm 37:23 that the good will to believe is itself God's gift, not something that precedes it.
Letter 217.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine identifies Vitalis's view, that grace consists only in teaching to which the will freely assents, with the Pelagian position that Pelagius himself had renounced at Diospolis.
Letter 217.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine argues that if grace were only teaching applied to free will, prayer for the conversion and perseverance of others would be pointless, and that whatever must be asked of God is given by God.
Letter 217.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine argues from Colossians 1:12–13 that God frees the will from the power of darkness, so that believers come to faith by free will and yet by grace.
Letter 217.18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine argues that grace given to infants and condemned Pelagian formulas show that grace is neither given for the will's merit nor identical with nature or law.
Letter 217.23Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine argues that it is the opponents of grace who undermine free will, and that God prepares the will by hidden inspiration, not merely by teaching.
Letter 217.29Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine distinguishes Vitalis's view from full Pelagianism: Vitalis grants that grace aids believers but holds that the beginning of faith comes from ourselves, which the Church's prayers refute.
Letter 218.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Augustine tells Palatinus that prayer itself shows our need of God's help to resist temptation, and that the beginning and completion of the good life are God's gifts.
Letter 225.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Prosper describes how some at Marseilles reduce prevenient grace to the grace of creation and make the beginning of salvation lie in the natural will.
Letter 225.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Prosper reports that the Marseilles monks hold Christ died for all, reject a fixed number of the elect, and make human obedience precede grace.
Letter 225.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Prosper lists questions for Augustine: the danger of the error, grace and free choice, the relation of foreknowledge and purpose, exhortation, and the earlier fathers' view of predestination by foreknowledge.
Letter 226.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 386–430 · Hilary reports that the Gallic opponents hold that the fallen can still will to be healed and believe, and that grace then helps those who begin to will.
Homilies on Matthew 45.1John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Christ tells the disciples that to them it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom; this is a gift, but it does not take away free will, for the others are blind by their own choice, as Isaiah foretold.
Homilies on Matthew 69.2John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · The parable shows the call widened to all comers, but warns believers too: the wedding garment is a life kept clean after the grace of the call, and the man without it is cast into darkness; Chrysostom urges his hearers to adorn the soul rather than the body.
Homilies on Matthew 82.3John Chrysostom · ca. 390 · Peter’s confident contradiction was cured by being left to fall, which teaches that virtue needs both human effort and grace; as we trust Christ’s word against our reasoning, so in the Eucharist we trust “this is my body” against our senses, and must approach it with purity and fervor, since Christ himself still consecrates it and feeds us with his own flesh and blood.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 43.11.4Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Moses’ prayer to plant the people in God’s mountain points to God planting his people in virtue by grace.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 43.12.5Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · God gives the reward from mercy, not merit, as with Abraham’s faith and the parable of the labourers.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 43.12.6Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Not Moses or Joshua but God, who gives the growth, has the glory of bringing the people into the land.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 43.14.3Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Christ is Lord and God; salvation comes by God’s command and through faith, not works, lest anyone boast.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 43.25.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Paul, citing Isaiah, shows that God has not cast off his people, for a remnant is saved by grace.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 43.48.1Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Whoever is redeemed is redeemed freely by grace, not by the merit of works.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 43.48.2Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Israel did not obtain what it sought because it sought to justify itself by works; the elect, who received grace, obtained it.
Explanation of Twelve Psalms 43.68.3Ambrose · ca. 387-397 · Christ saved a remnant of Israel by grace and redeemed the gentiles; their calling brought salvation to the Jews too.
On Free Choice of the Will 3.19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 387–395 · To those who complain that they inherit ignorance and difficulty from Adam, Augustine answers that God everywhere helps those who seek; inherited weakness is called sin because it comes from the first free sin, and nature is spoken of both as created and as fallen.
Tractates on Matthew 4.2Chromatius of Aquileia · ca. 388–407 · Chromatius compares the power of salt, which prevents corruption and worms, with heavenly grace, which preserves the whole person from sin, citing the salted sacrifices.
Sermon 10.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Judaizing Christians claimed the Gospel as owed to their works, like the false mother claiming the child; but grace is given not to merits, as Paul says, and the Church holds it as a gift.
Sermon 10.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The two women also signify love and pretence within the one Church; both were harlots, since all come to grace from sin, but the child is God's gift, as God brings good out of human sin.
Sermon 13.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The righteous must serve God in fear, crediting their righteousness to him; whoever trusts in himself perishes from the just way, and to trust in another man is as ruinous as to trust in oneself.
Sermon 13.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · We work out our salvation with fear because God works in us both to will and to work; the good will itself is God's gift, and whoever was lost in himself is found only when his Maker seeks him.
Sermon 26.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Creation is common to all and was itself an unmerited gift, but the psalm’s “he made us” means that God made us his people, having chosen us before the world existed.
Sermon 26.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Pelagians, accused of arguing against grace, claimed that by defending free choice they honored grace, since God gave free choice; Augustine calls the argument glass.
Sermon 26.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The grace that matters is not creation but the grace that makes Christians; the Law could not give life, but was given to expose pride and make sin known.
Sermon 26.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The grace that saves sinners who deserved punishment is greater than the grace of creation; from the one lump of perdition God makes vessels of honor, and when one infant is baptized and another dies unbaptized we can only cry, “O the depth!”
Sermon 26.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · No one gave to God first, so that grace could be a repayment; all good comes from him, and salvation is by grace through faith, God’s gift.
Sermon 30.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The man of Rom 7 who says “I do not do what I want” has lost by willing evil the power to do good; the opponent of grace who denies this is no judge of another’s conscience.
Sermon 30.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The defender of a healthy nature shuts out the Savior; as ruin came through Adam and rebuilding through Christ, so the believer, who cannot be free of evil desire, must by grace refuse to let sin reign.
Sermon 30.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Even one who refuses consent to temptation must thank God for it rather than claim it, since God resists the proud.
Sermon 30.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ’s yoke is easy because he breathes love into us; even our coming to him is his gift, since no one comes unless the Father draws him.
Sermon 32.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The same ten commandments that oppressed the old people through fear are fulfilled by grace through love; to sing on the ten-stringed psaltery is to keep the commandments gladly.
Sermon 34.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The new song belongs to the new man and new life; everyone loves, but we can love God rightly only because he first loved us and poured out his love by the Holy Spirit.
Sermon 43.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Faith itself is a great gift received from God, for which we must give thanks rather than boast.
Sermon 67.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The incarnation is pure grace, by which the Word made one person with the man he took up; the confessing thief shows the same grace.
Sermon 71.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Those who cast out demons do so by grace, not merit: Christ binds the strong man and turns vessels of wrath into vessels of mercy, as he did with Paul.
Sermon 76.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · No one is made strong by God except one who knows his own weakness; God’s “voluntary rain” is grace, not a reward for merit.
Sermon 76.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Paul, unworthy in himself, was made great by grace; Peter could walk on the water by the Lord’s command and was rescued when he cried out in weakness.
Sermon 99.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The one who sinned little must love much too, because he owes to God’s guidance and grace the sins he did not commit, just as the great sinner owes God the forgiveness of those he did.
Sermon 100.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The man who wanted to say farewell first was unfit to look back; Christ chose whom he willed, by the election of grace, as God kept seven thousand in Elijah’s day.
Sermon 100.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Whatever good we have is God’s free grace, not our merit: sinners receive forgiveness freely, and the righteous owe their righteousness to God while ascribing their sins to themselves.
Sermon 110.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The woman bent for eighteen years signifies the same as the fig tree’s three years; she could not lift up her heart until Christ raised her, for man is good only by God’s grace, since of himself every man is a liar.
Sermon 115.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Those who claim to make themselves righteous are worse than the Pharisee, who at least thanked God; if he was rebuked for proudly giving thanks, how much more those who attack grace.
Sermon 125.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The five porches are the five books of Moses, the law, which exposed but could not heal the sick, so that the proud might recognize their sin and seek the grace of Christ, which alone frees from the law of sin.
Sermon 131.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Faith is God’s gift: the Father draws people to Christ, not by compulsion but by the sweetness of desire, and faith in the Crucified carries them over the waves of this world like a ship’s timber.
Sermon 131.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Whoever believes must not claim it for himself, since God works in us to will and to work; grace, like rain, fills the low places and leaves the proud heights dry.
Sermon 131.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Psalm 103 lists God’s benefits in order: forgiveness in baptism, the healing of weakness now, redemption from corruption at the resurrection, and finally the crown, which is given in mercy, since even our merits are God’s gifts.
Sermon 131.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The righteousness of God is the grace by which he justifies the ungodly; once hidden like the dew in Gideon’s fleece, it is now manifest throughout the world, so that those who exalt nature against it make Christ’s death vain.
Sermon 136.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Law without grace only makes sinners into transgressors, like Elisha’s staff laid on the dead boy; it shut all under sin so that the promise might be given through faith in Christ, whose Spirit gives life.
Sermon 139.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ alone is Son by nature, others by grace and adoption; therefore he alone can say, “I and the Father are one,” that is, of one nature and substance.
Sermon 142.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Pride’s swelling cannot pass the narrow gate until the cup of humility reduces it; Christ, the way and the door, loved us while we were ungodly, and in him the humble will possess all things.
Sermon 144.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Unbelief is named as the one sin because by it all other sins are held fast, the proud refusing to believe in a humble God; the Holy Spirit, God’s greatest gift, is grace, given freely after pardon, not as wages.
Sermon 145.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Law, especially “You shall not desire,” terrifies the self-reliant and shows the law of sin in their members; one who refrains from adultery only for fear of hell has not yet the love of righteousness that grace gives, by which God’s sweetness is tasted.
Sermon 145.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Love, which surpasses every gift, cannot come from ourselves; whoever claims it from himself shows that he lacks it, for God has poured it into our hearts through the Holy Spirit.
Sermon 145.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Law shows the captive his enemy but cannot free him; once he stops presuming on himself and cries, “Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me?”, grace delivers him and he tastes the Lord’s sweetness.
Sermon 151.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Paul, a veteran of this war, cried out for deliverance and was answered by the grace of God through Christ; until the resurrection we serve God’s law with the mind and feel the law of sin in the flesh without consenting to it.
Sermon 152.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Romans 8:2–3 names three laws: the law of the Spirit of life (grace and faith), the law of sin and death in our members, and the Law of Moses, a law of works that commands but cannot help and so makes sinners into transgressors.
Sermon 155.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Sinai law is holy; it was given so that weakness might be revealed and increased and the Physician sought, but written on stone it did not give the help of grace.
Sermon 156.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Law was given to reveal the disease so that the Physician would be sought; fallen nature cannot heal itself, and Christ heals freely and gives himself as reward; the Law is a tutor leading to Christ.
Sermon 156.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ is the one Mediator, God's arm stretched to fallen man; grace is medicine, not license to sin, and the faith that saves works through love, which itself is God's gift.
Sermon 156.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · God's help is not like a wind that only makes rowing easier: without it we can do nothing good, and the will that acts without it is not free but enslaved to sin.
Sermon 156.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Against those who say grace only makes good works easier, Augustine cites Christ's “Without me you can do nothing,” while insisting that believers, as living stones, must also run and follow.
Sermon 158.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · God's calling is not a reward for prior worship: we did not exist when predestined, were turned away when called, and were sinners when justified, so all is grace.
Sermon 160.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Jews sought their own righteousness by their own strength; Christ justifies the ungodly by faith, and even self-restraint is God's gift, since a sick soul cannot heal itself.
Sermon 163.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Law alone, commanding without the Spirit's help, increases desire and becomes sin's power; Christ forgave all sin, teaches prayer, and helps and crowns the one who fights.
Sermon 163.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Law shuts all under sin like railings so that we flee to grace; the promise is God's own act, given to believers, and victory over death is his gift through Christ.
Sermon 165.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · What Paul asks of the Ephesians, not to lose heart, he asks of God for them, to be strengthened by the Spirit; God gives, but the will must open to receive.
Sermon 165.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Why grace is given to one and not another is the hidden depth of the cross, God's unsearchable judgment, before which Augustine can only cry out in wonder.
Sermon 165.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Infants dying in the womb have done no good or evil, so death comes from Adam's sin; Christ's grace alone saves young and old, and why one rather than another is unsearchable, so we should simply trust God's mercy.
Sermon 168.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · God promised the Gentiles to Abraham and himself fulfils the promise, so believers are children of Abraham's faith by God's doing; even their faith is God's gift.
Sermon 168.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Peace, love, and faith are from God, as Paul's greeting says; his own conversion shows it, for Saul, raging and merciless, obtained mercy so that he might become faithful.
Sermon 168.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Against the Pelagian objection that our faith and prayer come first and earn the rest, Augustine answers that no one gives God anything first: faith itself is received, and we give God only from his own gifts.
Sermon 168.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Paul's name means “little,” and he called himself least of the apostles; he owed all he was to grace, and when he said he labored more than all, he at once added “not I, but the grace of God with me.”
Sermon 169.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · True circumcision is done by Christ the rock, risen on the eighth day, the Lord's day; justification is from grace, which goes before all merit, as God saves “for nothing.”
Sermon 169.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · “My own righteousness from the Law” is keeping the commandments from fear of punishment, which restrains desire like a frightened lion or wolf without changing it; God's righteousness is the delight in good that he alone gives.
Sermon 169.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · One must not build one's own righteousness, even from the Law, but receive it from God as a garment; Christians who disparage grace stumble over Christ more gravely than those who crucified him.
Sermon 170.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Paul's being “without complaint” refers to human judgment: one can refrain from seizing others' goods while still desiring them, and so be guilty before God; the Jews credited even their outward righteousness to themselves.
Sermon 170.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Compared with the angels' righteousness in the resurrection, where there will be no desire, present righteousness is loss and dung; whoever thinks he has fulfilled it stops on the way, and a humble sinner is better than a proud righteous man.
Sermon 174.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Adam shows what free will does without help, Christ what grace does; Christ's humanity, one nature with ours but sinless, was united to the Word with no prior merit, so we too must seek his gifts, not our merits, and be small like Zacchaeus.
Sermon 176.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · God made us and also saves us, for no one re-creates but the Creator; his grace goes before even our good will, so we should go before his anger by confessing that all good is from him and all evil from ourselves.
Sermon 183.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Peter's loving confession came from the Father's revelation, not from himself; when he spoke from his own, recoiling from Christ's passion, he was called “Satan,” showing that both right faith and good life are God's gifts.
Sermon 185.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Romans 5:1–2 and Psalm 85 agree: our peace and glory come from Christ, God's gift of grace, not from any merit of ours.
Sermon 193.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Good will struggling against the law of sin must not trust its own strength but call on God's grace, which both calls us to will and enables us to do.
Sermon 203.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The twelve days between Christmas and Epiphany signify the call of all nations from the four parts of the world by the grace of the Trinity.
Sermon 215.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Mary conceived Christ by faith before she conceived him in the womb; his virginal birth was a free gift of God to sinners, not a reward for merit.
Sermon 216.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The kingdom of heaven is offered freely; the candidates are to be good soil for the word, bearing a hundredfold, sixtyfold, or thirtyfold.
Sermon 216.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · God's grace makes the candidates chosen and called; in him they will find life, light, salvation, and even the true intoxication of his delights.
Sermon 254.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · God became our debtor by promising, not because we gave him anything; the psalmist looks for something to repay and finds only that he will take the cup of salvation, receiving still more.
Sermon 254.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Every man is a liar from his own resources, as Peter was when he opposed the passion; when Peter confessed Christ truly, it was by the Father’s revelation, not from himself.
Sermon 261.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Like Paul, who said he had not yet laid hold of it, the preacher cannot point to his God with a finger, as to an idol or star, but only stretch out the mind toward him in faith.
Sermon 270.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Spirit came ten days after the fortieth day because forty (ten times four) signifies the law preached through this age, while the single ten signifies the law fulfilled by grace; the letter alone kills, the Spirit gives life.
Sermon 276.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Vincent held out only because God dwelt in him, giving both faith and the strength to suffer; the world fights Christ’s soldiers with flattery and terror, but Christ conquered it, and his Spirit spoke in the suffering martyr.
Sermon 283.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The Spirit of God makes us know his gifts and be grateful; the proud lose what they have, while the humble who thank God for little receive more, and must hope in him alone.
Sermon 284.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Paying his sermon-debt on a martyrs’ feast, Augustine teaches that the martyrs’ patience, like every good gift, comes down from God, the fountain of life and light.
Sermon 284.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The martyrs’ strength is not their own but God’s gift; whoever ascribes it to them flatters like the serpent, while the martyr credits even his suffering to God.
Sermon 284.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ on the cross gave the example of patience and healed his persecutors with his blood; Peter, failing through presumption, was restored by grace, and we can imitate fellow servants like Stephen, Marian and James.
Sermon 285.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Peter, presuming on his own strength, was left to himself and denied Christ, then was looked upon, wept, was entrusted with the sheep, and later by grace achieved the martyrdom he had promised.
Sermon 290.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Zechariah spoke in despair, Mary in inquiry; her grace and the incarnation are pure gift, and her words ‘he has filled the hungry and sent the rich away empty’ are illustrated by the Pharisee and the tax collector.
Sermon 290.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ judges the case: the tax collector went home justified, because the humble are exalted; those who claim that righteousness is in their own power are more proud than the Pharisee, who at least gave thanks.
Sermon 291.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Mary received, not merited, the incarnation of the Word in her womb, the bridal chamber of the Word and flesh; asked how, she points to the angel’s greeting, ‘full of grace’.
Sermon 297.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Paul expects the crown as owed to his fight and faith, yet that crown follows a grace not owed, by which the blasphemer and persecutor became an apostle and labored, not he but God’s grace with him.
Sermon 297.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · God renders Paul the crown owed to his merits, but those merits are God’s gifts: his victory came through Christ, his running through God’s mercy, and his faith, like his suffering, was given.
Sermon 298.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Paul rejoiced to be ‘sacrificed’, longing to be dissolved and be with Christ; he passed through narrow sufferings to the place of breadth, and the crown owed to him follows the grace, not owed, that made the persecutor an apostle.
Sermon 298.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Paul’s fight, course, and faith, for which God as just judge will render the crown, were themselves God’s gifts: victory through Christ, running by God’s mercy, faithfulness by mercy received.
Sermon 299.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · ‘Jesus’ means Savior, who came to save sinners; Paul, the ‘first’ sinner, was owed punishment but received mercy, so that no sinner should despair; now he can confidently claim the crown as owed.
Sermon 312.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · The good soul is praised in the Lord who makes it good: Cyprian's eloquence was a cup of error until Christ cleansed him, and in his letter To Donatus he gratefully recalled the darkness from which he was freed.
Sermon 312.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ, who kills and makes alive, uprooted the old Cyprian and built a new one, making him a true “Cyprian” from the “cluster of cypress” of the Song, and the fragrance of Christ, life to some and death to others.
Sermon 312.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · God turned Cyprian, once a courtroom orator, into his two-edged sword: the eloquence that adorned the demons' teachings now built up the Church and roused martyrs, and Cyprian himself conquered by dying and confessing.
Sermon 313.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Praising the martyr is praising God: Cyprian's conversion, teaching, shepherding, confession, endurance and victory are all the work of the God of whom Scripture speaks.
Sermon 313.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Martyrs are armed by God with the armor of Ephesians 6 and also helped in battle by God himself armed, as Cyprian prayed in the words of Psalm 35.
Sermon 315.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Stephen stood when he asked Jesus to receive his spirit because he was claiming a debt promised to the martyrs; like Paul, who received the unmerited grace of apostleship before claiming the crown of righteousness, he had first received what was not owed.
Sermon 315.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Christ taught from the cross the rule of praying for enemies, and Stephen, a fellow servant, followed it by God's gift; so no one may say it is too hard, for the same gift is open to all who ask.
Sermon 317.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 391-430 · Those whose eyes are too weak for the sun should look at the lamp: Christ on the cross is the lamp on its stand, and Paul and Stephen shone from it; the love of enemies is God's gift, open to all who ask.
The Lord's Sermon on the Mount 2.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 393–396 · Augustine introduces the Lord’s Prayer and explains its opening address: Israel knew God as Lord, but Christians by grace call him “Our Father,” which stirs love, confidence, reverence, and brotherhood between rich and poor.
On Continence 1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 395 · Augustine begins by showing from Scripture that continence, whether in celibacy or in marriage, is a gift of God.
On Continence 7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 395 · The law alone reveals and even strengthens concupiscence; grace gives the delight by which continence overcomes it.
On Continence 8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 395 · Paul's call not to let sin reign means refusing to obey concupiscence, which continence does under grace.
On Continence 12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 395 · Victory over sin comes not from our own strength but from grace and the Spirit of God, who gives continence.
On Continence 32Augustine of Hippo · ca. 395 · Every victory of continence is God's gift, so glory belongs to him, as the psalmist learned when he trusted in his own strength.
On Christian Doctrine 3.33Augustine of Hippo · Books 1–3 ca. 396–397; completed 426–427 · Tyconius's third rule, on the promises and the Law, is really a great question; he erred in thinking faith comes from us and not from God, as the Pelagian controversy has made clear.
Confessions 7.27Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · Reading Paul, Augustine found the truths of the Platonists together with grace, confession, and the way of Christ, which those books lack.
Confessions 9.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · Augustine praises God for freeing his will and replacing the pleasures of trifles with himself.
Confessions 10.40Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · "Give what you command, and command what you will": continence is God's gift.
Confessions 10.45Augustine of Hippo · ca. 397–401 · Augustine is free of drunkenness but not always of overeating; continence is God's gift, as Scripture shows.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 3.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine explains the two genealogies by adoption: Joseph could have had a natural father and an adoptive father, as adoption is common in Scripture and is central to the Christian faith.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 15.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine explains, from Romans 7 and 2 Corinthians 3, that the law is holy and good and that it kills only as letter without grace, while with the Spirit it is fulfilled in love.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 19.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine answers that Christ fulfilled the Mosaic law itself: the law made the proud aware of sin, and grace through the Spirit and Christ’s priestly sacrifice fulfils its righteousness.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 22.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Augustine replies that the precepts of the law are fulfilled through grace by love, and its sacramental figures are fulfilled by being removed when the truth they promised came.
Against Faustus the Manichaean 33.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 398–400 · Faustus concedes that the patriarchs may be in heaven through Christ’s mercy after release from the underworld, but holds that their lives were wicked and asks why the same is not said of gentile ancestors.
Against Secundinus the Manichaean 5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399 · Augustine distinguishes Christ as only-begotten Son by nature from Christ as firstborn among brothers who are sons of God by adoption, against a Manichaean reading of “firstborn” as eldest of consubstantial lights.
On the Trinity 4.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · Augustine explains that God had to show us both how much he loved us, lest we despair, and what kind of people he loved, sinners, lest we be proud; and he describes the Word, in whom all created things exist unchangeably as life and who is the light of rational minds.
On the Trinity 12.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · By a desire to be like God under no one, the soul falls through itself to the likeness of beasts, and it can return only by the grace of God through Christ.
On the Trinity 14.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–419 · The mind does not remember its lost happiness in paradise, which it knows only by Scripture, but it does remember God, in whose light even the ungodly see the unchangeable rules of justice.
The Harmony of the Gospels 2.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 399–400 · Even if Luke had said 'begot,' adoption can be called begetting, as believers are 'born of God' by adoption and grace, unlike the only-begotten Son.
Against the Letter of Parmenian 2.32Augustine of Hippo · ca. 400 · Against Parmenian’s claim that only a living, healthy, enlightened, clothed, clean minister can give these gifts, Augustine shows from Scripture that God alone gives life, healing, light, clothing, and cleansing, working even through bad ministers such as Judas and the Pharisees.
Commentary on Daniel 6, scholion 5Polychronius of Apamea · ca. 400-430 · Daniel's 'excellent spirit' means his superior understanding, which Polychronius also traces to divine grace.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 8.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · Augustine weighs senses of “to work and to keep”: man keeping paradise by obedience, or, preferably, God working and keeping man so that he may be just and happy.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 8.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · Man is justified and enlightened only as long as he remains turned to God, as air is bright only while light is present; we are God's handiwork, saved by grace.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 9.18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · Some causes, including grace and the manner of the woman's formation, are hidden in God and not in created things; wonders foretelling Christ were done through angels, but God alone creates and restores.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 10.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · Texts such as Isa 57:16, Ps 33:15, and Zech 12:1 fit either the propagation of souls from Adam or the creation of each soul, and may refer rather to renewal by grace.
Literal Commentary on Genesis 10.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 401–415 · Ps 104:29–30 fits either view of the soul's origin, but is better understood of grace, by which the proud are humbled and renewed by God's Spirit.
On Holy Virginity 41Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Virgins should love God more, not less, since he kept them from sins and gave them the gift of continence by grace.
On Holy Virginity 42Augustine of Hippo · 401 · Virginity is God's gift, and Scripture's prayers for obedience and repentance show that even what God commands is done only by his grace.
Canon 111 (Bruns)Anonymous · 401–424 (collection of 419) · Anathema on whoever says that grace only forgives past sins and does not also help us not to sin.
Canon 112 (Bruns)Anonymous · 401–424 (collection of 419) · Anathema on whoever says that grace only teaches us what to do and does not also give the love and power to do it.
Canon 113 (Bruns)Anonymous · 401–424 (collection of 419) · Anathema on whoever says that grace only makes obedience easier, as if the commandments could be kept without it.
Letter 29, chapter 3Innocent I, bishop of Rome · 401–417 · Innocent argues that those who owe their very existence to God cannot deny that they owe their daily goodness to his grace.
Letter 29, chapter 4Innocent I, bishop of Rome · 401–417 · Innocent argues that we need God’s help daily, whether to live better or to return from error, and that free will alone cannot resist sin.
Letter 29, chapter 6Innocent I, bishop of Rome · 401–417 · Adam, using free will heedlessly, fell beyond self-recovery; Christ restores through baptism and gives daily grace, without which we are again overcome.
Letter 29, chapter 7Innocent I, bishop of Rome · 401–417 · Innocent declares those who deny the need for divine help enemies of the catholic faith and excludes Pelagius and Caelestius from communion.
Letter 30, chapter 3Innocent I, bishop of Rome · 401–417 · Denying God’s help abolishes prayer; Adam fell by trusting his liberty, and David prays for God’s help in the Psalms.
Letter 30, chapter 4Innocent I, bishop of Rome · 401–417 · Since Scripture always joins God’s help to free will, Pelagius and Caelestius err in claiming free will suffices; grace is needed even after baptism.
Letter 31, chapter 1Innocent I, bishop of Rome · 401–417 · Innocent thanks five African bishops for their letter on grace and says that one who denies receiving anything from God leaves himself no hope.
Letter 31, chapter 5Innocent I, bishop of Rome · 401–417 · Innocent condemns the book attributed to Pelagius and calls on him to anathematize his views, so that his followers may be recalled.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 3.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · From Christ's fullness we receive first the grace of faith and forgiveness, given freely to sinners who deserved only punishment, and also truth, the fulfilment of God's promises.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 3.9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Faith is a free gift to the ungodly, and eternal life, though it seems a wage owed to faith, is itself 'grace for grace' because faith is grace.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 3.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Paul first confessed that he received mercy undeserved and then claimed the crown as owed; yet God, in crowning merits, crowns his own gifts.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 3.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The law came through Moses, a faithful servant who could not release from guilt; grace and truth came through Christ, the Emperor who grants pardon.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 3.21Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · As we love the righteous for invisible beauty, not bodily appearance, so Christians must love God freely for himself, not for temporal rewards, longing to contemplate him without hunger or weariness.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 7.21Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The fig tree signifies sin, under which Christ saw Nathanael, as he sees and seeks all sinners before they know him; so Catholics seek the Donatists because they themselves were first sought and found.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 10.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The sellers of doves are schismatic leaders who claim to give the Holy Spirit for the price of their own honor, while the Spirit is given freely as grace.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 14.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · John confessed that he was not the Christ but the bridegroom's friend, rejoicing in Christ's voice, not his own, and owing all he had to the true light.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 14.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ must increase and John decrease, signifying that man's glory must yield to God's; this was shown even in John's beheading and Christ's lifting up, and in the seasons of their births.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 14.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · John, as a man, is of the earth; whatever divine thing he speaks comes from the grace of Christ who enlightens him.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 17.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The pool signifies the Jewish people and its five porticoes the five books of Moses, which, like the law, exposed the sick but could not heal them.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 23.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Prophets and apostles are lamps lit by grace and liable to go out; Christ alone is the true light that is never extinguished.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 26.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The Jews did not hunger for the bread from heaven because they trusted their own righteousness; Christ is God's righteousness, given by grace, and to believe in him is to eat the living bread.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 26.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · No one comes to Christ unless the Father draws him, yet faith cannot be unwilling, since one believes with the heart; how, then, is one “drawn”?
Tractates on the Gospel of John 26.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The Father draws not by force but by delight: as the poet says each is drawn by his own pleasure, so the lover of truth and righteousness is drawn to Christ.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 26.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The Father draws by teaching within, as the prophets said all would be taught by God; preachers only plant and water from outside.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 27.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Some did not understand because they did not believe; faith, which joins us to Christ, is itself a gift of the Father, so the believer must not be proud.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 34.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · We must do what Christ commanded, follow him, before claiming his promise; many have done what the rich young man refused, with the Lord loosing their fetters.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 49.22Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The stone on Lazarus’s tomb signifies the law that weighs on the guilty; to remove it is to preach grace.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 49.23Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Raising one four days dead shows the glory of God, as grace abounds where sin abounded.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 53.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Free choice must not be defended so as to make prayer for grace needless, nor denied so as to excuse sin; both faith and its power are God's gifts.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 53.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Those who deny their need of divine help cannot believe in Christ, and so remain blinded and hardened.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 81.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Against those who claim to be righteous of themselves, Augustine insists that no branch bears fruit unless it abides in the vine.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 81.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Without Christ no fruit at all can be borne; a branch that does not abide in the vine is fit only for the fire.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 82.1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The Father is glorified when we bear fruit, because our good works are his grace and the glory belongs to him, not to us.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 82.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Our good works come from love, and our love from being loved first; Christ's words show the grace of the mediator, not an equality of nature.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 82.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Keeping the commandments shows, but does not produce, our abiding in Christ's love; his love comes first and enables us to keep them.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 82.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The Father's love for the Son as man is grace, by which human nature, with no prior merits, was taken into the person of the only-begotten Son.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 85.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · There are two fears and two servitudes: servile fear, which love casts out, and chaste fear, which endures; Christ's friends know that the Lord makes them righteous.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 86.2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ chose us not because he foresaw our faith or works but by grace, which does not find merits but produces them.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 87.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Out of the mass lost in Adam, God by free grace makes vessels of mercy, the world reconciled, whom the world of the lost hates.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 102.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · God's love comes first: our love for God is his gift, poured out by the Spirit of Father and Son.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 105.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ says he has accomplished the work "given" him, showing grace, and speaks of his passion as done because he foreknew it certainly.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 111.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · The condemned world justly does not know God, while the reconciled world knows him by grace through Christ, the fountain of grace.
Tractates on the Gospel of John 115.4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 406–420 · Christ was born in time to bear witness to the truth, and those who are 'of the truth' hear him because grace has given them to believe, not by prior merit.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 1.17Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Death reigned through Adam's one offense because all were bound in him; if imitation were meant, the devil, not Adam, would be named; those who pass to Christ receive grace for all their sins and will reign forever.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 1.29Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Only grace frees from God's wrath; why it is given to one and not another is hidden but never unjust, as Paul's cry in Romans 11:33 shows.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 1.31Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · The theory that souls sinned in a prior heavenly life does not explain why a virtuous person may never hear the gospel while a wicked one hears, believes, and is saved.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 1.43Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Texts from Romans on justification by grace, Christ's death for the ungodly, the struggle of Romans 7, and the likeness of sinful flesh show that all are born needing grace.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 1.46Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Texts from Ephesians: all were by nature children of wrath, saved by grace, reconciled through the cross, and sealed by the Spirit for redemption.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 1.62Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · John 3:16–21 shows that baptized infants belong among believers who are not judged, while the unbaptized are among those already judged; regeneration comes only through Christ.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 2.5Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · God does not help us sin but helps us do good and even to turn to him, so that every command of his becomes a prayer: “Give what you command.”
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 2.6Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Even the Pharisee thanked God for his righteousness; those who think righteousness comes from themselves are worse, though our will must also strive, since God helps only those who make an effort, in ways known to him alone.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 2.7Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Augustine divides the question into four and answers the first: by God's grace and free choice, itself God's gift, a man can be without sin in this life.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 2.17Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · God's praise of Job as blameless and righteous does not mean he was sinless; it could be said also of the man of Romans 7, who still needs deliverance by grace.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 2.26Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · To the third question, why no one is sinless though it is possible, Augustine answers: because people do not will it, through ignorance or lack of delight in the good, which only grace can remedy.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 2.27Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Pride is the cause of all human vices; its remedy is the humility of God in Christ, whose union with the Word came from grace, not merit, teaching us that knowing and delighting in good are God's gifts.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 2.28Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Augustine can find no good in our will that does not come from God, and warns against defending grace in a way that abolishes free choice, or free choice in a way that denies grace.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 2.30Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Free choice is a natural good that can be misused, but good will itself, which loves righteousness, comes only from God; otherwise what is ours would be better than what is his.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 2.31Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Turning away from God is ours, turning to him is God's gift; that he gives it to some is mercy, that he withholds it from others is truth, the two joined throughout Scripture.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 2.33Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · Grace opens what was hidden and makes the good delightful; pride and its penal consequence make obedience hard, and God heals even saints slowly so that they remain humble and give him thanks.
On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins 2.37Augustine of Hippo · 411–412 · The law of concupiscence passed from Adam and Eve to their descendants like toil and the pains of childbirth; those reborn in Christ are given power to resist it and crucify the flesh.
On the Spirit and the Letter 5Augustine of Hippo · 412 · Augustine's position: beyond free will and teaching, the Holy Spirit gives delight in and love of God, without which the will cannot do good.
On the Spirit and the Letter 9Augustine of Hippo · 412 · Paul's teaching that the law came in to increase the offense shows humanity its sickness so that it will seek God as helper, not only as teacher.
On the Spirit and the Letter 12Augustine of Hippo · 412 · Paul, himself a persecutor who received grace, defends God's grace above all, especially in Romans.
On the Spirit and the Letter 13Augustine of Hippo · 412 · Paul's rebuke of the Jew who boasts in the law shows that true circumcision is of the heart, given by the Spirit, and praise comes from God, not from works done out of fear.
On the Spirit and the Letter 15Augustine of Hippo · 412 · The righteousness of God revealed in Rom 3:21–24 is not God's own righteousness but the righteousness he gives, freely by grace through faith, healing the will to fulfill the law.
On the Spirit and the Letter 16Augustine of Hippo · 412 · Augustine reconciles “the law is good if used lawfully” with “the law is not laid down for the righteous”: the law leads the unrighteous to grace, and the righteous use it to frighten others toward grace.
On the Spirit and the Letter 20Augustine of Hippo · 412 · Augustine restates his aim: God helps us to righteousness not merely by giving the law but by the Spirit of grace, without which knowledge of the law, like pagan knowledge of God, does not save.
On the Spirit and the Letter 31Augustine of Hippo · 412 · Paul calls the law the ministry of death and the gospel the ministry of the Spirit and righteousness; he preaches grace received by mercy, and “the righteousness of God” is the righteousness God gives.
On the Spirit and the Letter 32Augustine of Hippo · 412 · Grace is not merely the giving of the law and teaching; without the Spirit these kill, but the Spirit writes within what is loved.
On the Spirit and the Letter 34Augustine of Hippo · 412 · The old covenant failed through Israel's fault, not the law's; the law was given so that grace might be sought, and grace so that the law might be fulfilled.
On the Spirit and the Letter 45Augustine of Hippo · 412 · “The doers of the law will be justified” means that justification makes people doers of the law, or that they will be counted righteous; it does not mean justification by works.
On the Spirit and the Letter 47Augustine of Hippo · 412 · Doing the law “by nature” means nature restored by grace, which rewrites in the heart the law that sin had erased.
On the Spirit and the Letter 52Augustine of Hippo · 412 · Grace does not abolish free will but establishes it, by healing the will so that it freely loves righteousness; Augustine traces the chain from law to faith, grace, health, freedom, love, and obedience.
On the Spirit and the Letter 62Augustine of Hippo · 412 · Augustine recalls Marcellinus's question and his own earlier statement, and gathers examples of things possible to God that have never happened.
On the Spirit and the Letter 63Augustine of Hippo · 412 · Righteous living is also God's work in us, as faith that moves mountains is; perfect righteousness would be possible with sufficient knowledge and delight, which depend on God's judgment and healing.
On the Spirit and the Letter 66Augustine of Hippo · 412 · No one in this life is without sin unless helped by the Spirit of grace; God could make someone perfect here, and why he does not lies hidden in his unsearchable judgments.
City of God 10.22Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine teaches that the saints overcome demons by prayer to God, and that purification from sin comes only by grace through Christ the Mediator.
City of God 10.29Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine urges the Platonists, who glimpse the Trinity and even confess grace, to accept the incarnation, virgin birth, and bodily resurrection of Christ, rejected only out of pride.
City of God 12.9Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · The good angels' good will was made by God with them, by grace; the fallen either received less grace or the good were helped further; both angels and saints form one city of God, whose human part begins from one man.
City of God 14.26Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · In paradise Adam and Eve would have begotten children by a calm act of will without lust or loss of the woman's integrity; God, foreseeing sin, still created them, to fill his city's predestined number by grace from the condemned mass.
City of God 15.1Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Augustine begins the history of the two cities, noting that Cain, citizen of the earthly city, was born before Abel, the pilgrim citizen of the city of God.
City of God 15.2Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Using Paul's allegory of Hagar and Sarah, Augustine explains that part of the earthly city served as an image of the heavenly city.
City of God 15.3Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Isaac, born of barren Sarah through God's promise, signifies the children of grace, who are given what nature could not provide.
City of God 17.4Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · Hannah's song (1 Sam 2:1–10) goes beyond thanks for Samuel: it prophesies the Church, the humbling of the proud, Christ's death and resurrection, his ascension and judgment, and the new priesthood.
City of God 21.15Augustine of Hippo · 413–426 · The trials of this life teach that all the grace of the New Testament looks to the world to come; the present war of spirit against flesh is better than surrender to vice.
On the Good of Widowhood 20Augustine of Hippo · ca. 414 · Turning to exhortation, Augustine urges the widow to thank God for her continence as his gift, as the liturgy's “Lift up your hearts … Let us give thanks” teaches.
On the Good of Widowhood 21Augustine of Hippo · ca. 414 · Against “enemies of the grace of Christ” who make prayer needless, Augustine argues that continence, like wisdom, is God's gift, to be asked for in prayer, though the will must consent.
On the Good of Widowhood 22Augustine of Hippo · ca. 414 · Exhortation works only because God acts within the will; the widows will gain more from their prayers than from Augustine's words.
Commentary on Jeremiah 1.14Jerome · ca. 414-419 · God recalls Israel's youthful love in the wilderness as a betrothal, which he credits to his mercy, not her merit.
Commentary on Jeremiah 2.41Jerome · ca. 414-419 · From the Exodus on Israel went backward, not forward, so that the grace of the gospel was needed.
Commentary on Jeremiah 3.22Jerome · ca. 414-419 · Against those who teach fixed natures, Jerome shows that sin is learned, not natural, and that God's grace in Christ can change what habit has made almost a second nature, so no one may boast of his own virtue.
Commentary on Jeremiah 4.3Jerome · ca. 414-419 · Jerome opens Book 4 by attacking the revived heresy of impassibility and sinlessness, then expounds the potter's house (Jer 18:1–13) as teaching both free choice and the primacy of grace.
Commentary on Jeremiah 4.27Jerome · ca. 414-419 · The poor in spirit, delivered by God's grace rather than their own merit, praise him for rescue from the wicked (Jer 20:13).
Commentary on Jeremiah 5.5Jerome · ca. 414-419 · Jeremiah preached daily for twenty-three years without being heard; his constant repetition shows, against the Pelagians, that we always need God's renewed help (Jer 25:3).
Commentary on Jeremiah 6.20Jerome · ca. 414-419 · Ephraim's lament shows that even repentance requires God first to turn us; he strikes his thigh in shame for the sins of his youth and, having repented, shows God to others (Jer 31:18–19).
Commentary on Jeremiah 6.50Jerome · ca. 414-419 · The promises of return, one heart, an everlasting covenant, and God's fear placed in the heart were not fulfilled after the exile, since Israel was conquered again and again, but in Christ and the believing remnant; the buying of fields figures the church's spiritual possessions (Jer 32:37–44).
On Nature and Grace 3Augustine of Hippo · 415 · Augustine teaches that human nature was created good but is now weakened by original sin and needs Christ as its physician.
On Nature and Grace 5Augustine of Hippo · 415 · Augustine teaches that all humanity deserves condemnation, so that those saved are vessels of God's mercy, not of their own merit.
On Nature and Grace 6Augustine of Hippo · 415 · Augustine warns that arguments making grace unnecessary for infants or adults are clever but empty the cross of Christ.
On Nature and Grace 11Augustine of Hippo · 415 · Augustine reports Pelagius' reply that admitting a sinless life is possible “by the grace of God” still confirms his thesis, and insists only that Pelagius confess that without grace no one can be without sin.
On Nature and Grace 16Augustine of Hippo · 415 · Augustine rejects Pelagius' reading of James 3:8 as a rebuke, and teaches that no man can tame the tongue without the help of God's grace, which must be sought in prayer.
On Nature and Grace 17Augustine of Hippo · 415 · Augustine argues from James 3 that the wisdom which tames the tongue comes down from above and must be asked of God in faith, so that the law commands and faith obtains.
On Nature and Grace 18Augustine of Hippo · 415 · Augustine sets aside Romans 8:7–8 as irrelevant and asks whether those who live by the Spirit do so by God's grace or by their own natural ability, since love is poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit.
On Nature and Grace 25Augustine of Hippo · 415 · Augustine teaches that free choice sufficed for man to fall into sin, but only Christ's grace can heal and give life for his return to righteousness.
On Nature and Grace 29Augustine of Hippo · 415 · Augustine argues that God's grace is needed not only to heal past sin but continually to keep the justified from sinning, as the healthy eye still needs light.
On Nature and Grace 31Augustine of Hippo · 415 · Augustine explains that God heals in his own order, leaving Paul his thorn to guard against pride, and that we work out salvation with fear because God works in us.
On Nature and Grace 35Augustine of Hippo · 415 · Augustine confesses he does not know why God does not quickly heal pride, and teaches that God's mercy both goes before and follows us, so that we work together with him as he works.
On Nature and Grace 36Augustine of Hippo · 415 · Augustine teaches that God himself shows, gives, and leads us in the righteous way, so that we must walk it in fear and trust in him, which does not remove the will but proclaims grace.
On Nature and Grace 39Augustine of Hippo · 415 · Augustine argues that praising nature as healthy rejects the Savior, and that God's mercy is needed not only to pardon past sins but to help us avoid future ones.
On Nature and Grace 47Augustine of Hippo · 415 · Augustine argues that if nature and free choice sufficed to know and do the good, Christ would have died in vain, and applies Galatians 5:4 to those who seek to be justified by nature.
On Nature and Grace 49Augustine of Hippo · 415 · Augustine does not dispute whether perfect love of God is possible, provided it is confessed to come only from a will healed and helped by grace.
On Nature and Grace 51Augustine of Hippo · 415 · Augustine states the one real issue: no one could ever be without sin except by the grace of God through Christ crucified, by faith in whom the righteous of old were also healed.
On Nature and Grace 58Augustine of Hippo · 415 · Augustine answers Pelagius' claim that the ability not to sin is inseparably implanted in nature by citing Galatians 5:17 and Romans 7, which show men unable to do the good they will.
On Nature and Grace 59Augustine of Hippo · 415 · Augustine shows that Pelagius calls the possibility of not sinning “grace” only because God created nature with it, and answers from Romans 7:18 that the will can be present while the ability is lost.
On Nature and Grace 62Augustine of Hippo · 415 · Augustine insists that the grace in question is not that of creation but that of salvation through Christ, for which the faithful pray, and notes that Pelagius has now revealed his view.
On Nature and Grace 63Augustine of Hippo · 415 · Augustine answers Pelagius' argument that two good things, flesh and spirit, cannot be contrary, pointing to heat and cold and teaching that the flesh's opposition is a fault requiring medicinal grace.
On Nature and Grace 64Augustine of Hippo · 415 · Augustine turns Pelagius' reasoning against him: if the flesh is contrary to the unbaptized, his argument that two goods cannot conflict fails, and human nature needs Christ as physician.
On Nature and Grace 65Augustine of Hippo · 415 · Augustine argues from Romans 7 that the one crying “Who will deliver me?” seeks not only pardon for past sins but strength for the future, and must not be forbidden to beg Christ's mercy.
On Nature and Grace 69Augustine of Hippo · 415 · Augustine asks why Pelagius, who calls the created possibility of not sinning “grace”, never says that nature is healed or helped by the grace of Christ in answer to prayer.
On Nature and Grace 75Augustine of Hippo · 415 · Augustine cites more of Ambrose's commentary on Luke to show that he taught that the will is prepared by God and that no one is spotless from birth, but only by the grace of Christ.
On Nature and Grace 76Augustine of Hippo · 415 · Augustine accepts John Chrysostom's statements that sin is an evil act from free choice, but insists the question concerns the grace by which fallen nature is healed.
On Nature and Grace 77Augustine of Hippo · 415 · Augustine interprets the sayings Pelagius attributed to the martyr Xystus as teaching that likeness to God and sonship come through the love poured out by the Holy Spirit, a power received by grace.
On Nature and Grace 79Augustine of Hippo · 415 · Augustine teaches that love is poured out by the Holy Spirit given by the ascended Christ, and that the necessity of sinning, which comes from nature's faults, is removed by grace in answer to prayer.
On Nature and Grace 84Augustine of Hippo · 415 · Augustine concludes that righteousness grows with love, which at every stage is poured into our hearts not by nature or will but by the Holy Spirit, the grace of God through Christ.
On Patience 12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 415 · True patience is not from the powers of free will, as some proudly hold, but is God's gift to the poor in spirit.
On Patience 15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 415 · Since God is love, the love of God cannot be had without God; it is through him, not ourselves, that the saints conquer in persecution.
On Patience 17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 415 · Election is by grace, which precedes all merit and even faith; the apostles were chosen out of the world not because they were righteous but to be made righteous.
On Patience 18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 415 · The righteous of the Old Testament were also justified by faith in the Christ to come and by prevenient mercy; God's choice and love always come first.
On Patience 22Augustine of Hippo · ca. 415 · Love of God, and so true patience, can only be given by God; Scripture calls patience his gift.
On Patience 24Augustine of Hippo · ca. 415 · Augustine asks whether the patience of a schismatic who suffers for the truth he retains is God's gift, since both answers seem to raise difficulties.
On Man's Perfection in Righteousness 1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 415 · Augustine begins to answer the Definitions ascribed to Caelestius: sin can be avoided only if damaged nature is healed by grace.
On Man's Perfection in Righteousness 3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 415 · Sin is not natural, but damaged nature cannot avoid sin by choice alone without healing grace.
On Man's Perfection in Righteousness 4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 415 · Sin is an act, but like limping it comes from a defect that only healing, by grace, can remove.
On Man's Perfection in Righteousness 6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 415 · God commands sinlessness so that man, seeing he cannot achieve it, will seek the medicine of grace.
On Man's Perfection in Righteousness 12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 415 · The will cannot “very easily” change itself, since Paul says the flesh opposes the spirit so that we do not do what we will; nature, good in itself, needs grace to be healed.
On Man's Perfection in Righteousness 16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 415 · Augustine grants that man can be without sin, but asks when and through whom: not in this life, where all must pray “forgive us,” and not by himself, or Christ died in vain.
On Man's Perfection in Righteousness 21Augustine of Hippo · ca. 415 · The commandments are light only to love, which is poured in by the Holy Spirit; Scripture calls them not burdensome so that those who find them heavy will pray for that gift.
On Man's Perfection in Righteousness 22Augustine of Hippo · ca. 415 · The texts calling the commandments light show that they are light to love, which the Spirit pours in, not to human will alone.
On Man's Perfection in Righteousness 30Augustine of Hippo · ca. 415 · Men are truthful only in God, not in themselves; the saints of Revelation are without lie because they confessed their sin and were forgiven.
On Man's Perfection in Righteousness 40Augustine of Hippo · ca. 415 · Caelestius answers Rom 9:16 with texts on free choice, but by doing so he argues against the mercy we pray for in the Lord's Prayer.
On Man's Perfection in Righteousness 41Augustine of Hippo · ca. 415 · None of Caelestius's texts on choice excludes grace: even marriage, voluntary goodness, choosing life, and willing the commandments depend on God, who gives faith.
On Man's Perfection in Righteousness 42Augustine of Hippo · ca. 415 · The conditional promises of the law were given to humble the proud and lead them to grace; the righteous of old too were saved by Christ, the one mediator.
On Man's Perfection in Righteousness 43Augustine of Hippo · ca. 415 · Caelestius says man can avoid sin if God wills, avoiding “if God helps”; Augustine insists that the Spirit's help heals us progressively until we see God.
Apologetic Book 6.3Orosius · ca. 415–416 · Orosius anathematizes denial of God's help.
Apologetic Book 10.2Orosius · ca. 415–416 · Paul attributes his labor to grace.
Apologetic Book 10.3Orosius · ca. 415–416 · Grace stands between “not I” and “with me.”
Apologetic Book 10.4Orosius · ca. 415–416 · Grace gives the will itself.
Apologetic Book 11.2Orosius · ca. 415–416 · Pelagius's book of Testimonies lacked any mention of grace.
Apologetic Book 11.7Orosius · ca. 415–416 · If it is easy for man, grace is superfluous.
Apologetic Book 11.8Orosius · ca. 415–416 · Pelagius must choose between grace and free ability.
Apologetic Book 18.5Orosius · ca. 415–416 · Grace is a gift, not a debt.
Apologetic Book 19.4Orosius · ca. 415–416 · Grace is continual, not only natural endowment.
Apologetic Book 21.1Orosius · ca. 415–416 · Now the special grace given to the church.
Apologetic Book 21.2Orosius · ca. 415–416 · Paul on grace given in Christ.
Apologetic Book 21.3Orosius · ca. 415–416 · Peter on the grace foretold by the prophets.
Apologetic Book 30.10Orosius · ca. 415–416 · No saint bore the law; all were saved by grace.
Apologetic Book 32.12Orosius · ca. 415–416 · Grace is sufficient.
On the Proceedings of Pelagius 3Augustine of Hippo · 417 · Augustine distinguishes helps without which a thing cannot be done from helps that are useful but not necessary, and asks which kind knowledge of the law is.
On the Proceedings of Pelagius 16Augustine of Hippo · 417 · The sixth charge: Pelagius affirms that a man can be without sin if he wishes, disowns flattering passages to a widow, and anathematizes their authors “as fools, not as heretics.”
On the Proceedings of Pelagius 20Augustine of Hippo · 417 · The grace Pelagius names is ambiguous; the grace Scripture teaches is not nature or knowledge of the law, but the Spirit's help that frees from the body of death (Rom 7).
On the Proceedings of Pelagius 21Augustine of Hippo · 417 · Paul in Romans 7 had free choice and knowledge of the law but lacked the strength to do good, so he asked for grace.
On the Proceedings of Pelagius 22Augustine of Hippo · 417 · Augustine fears Pelagius's “grace” means only created free choice, as his book On Nature said, and notes that the book's claim that Abel never sinned conflicts with his answer at the synod.
On the Proceedings of Pelagius 30Augustine of Hippo · 417 · Pelagius anathematized Caelestius's propositions that grace is not given for individual acts and is given according to merit, so these stand condemned by the synod.
On the Proceedings of Pelagius 31Augustine of Hippo · 417 · By anathematizing these propositions, Pelagius has in effect confessed a grace given by the Holy Spirit for each act, distinct from nature and law.
On the Proceedings of Pelagius 33Augustine of Hippo · 417 · Pelagius's phrase that God gives graces to the worthy troubles Augustine, because grace by definition is given freely to the unworthy, not paid as a debt.
On the Proceedings of Pelagius 34Augustine of Hippo · 417 · Faith itself, the beginning of every good work, is not merited but given by God's prevenient mercy.
On the Proceedings of Pelagius 35Augustine of Hippo · 417 · Paul's crown is paid to his merits, but those merits are themselves God's gifts: victory, running, and keeping the faith are all by grace.
On the Proceedings of Pelagius 36Augustine of Hippo · 417 · Paul himself says he was unworthy to be an apostle because he persecuted the church, and that he is what he is by grace, which labored in him.
On the Proceedings of Pelagius 39Augustine of Hippo · 417 · Pelagius's commentary on Romans treats Rom 9:16 as an objection Paul refutes, so his silent assent to John obliges him to disown or correct it; John's remarks about the absent accusers do not prejudice them.
On the Proceedings of Pelagius 47Augustine of Hippo · 417 · Pelagius's book On Nature, given to Augustine by Timasius and James, showed that he meant by grace only created nature; his anathema on all who “ever held” such views condemns his own former disciples.
On the Proceedings of Pelagius 55Augustine of Hippo · 417 · The boast about “ease” contradicts Pelagius's own talk of labor and omits grace; the synod left open whether sinlessness is attainable in this life or only in the resurrection.
On the Proceedings of Pelagius 61Augustine of Hippo · 417 · Augustine summarizes the new heresy: it denies God's help in individual acts, calling grace only created nature, the law, and forgiveness of past sins.
On the Proceedings of Pelagius 62Augustine of Hippo · 417 · Recapitulation: the points the bishops approved were approved only in Pelagius's explained senses, which leave the heresy itself condemned.
On the Proceedings of Pelagius 65Augustine of Hippo · 417 · Recapitulation of all the propositions Pelagius anathematized, which the synod thus condemned as contrary to the church's faith.
On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 1.2Augustine of Hippo · 418 · Pelagius's anathema against denying the need of grace for every act sounds orthodox but can be read to mean only the memory of forgiven sins or Christ's example.
On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 1.3Augustine of Hippo · 418 · Despite condemning these views at the synod, Pelagius in his books still places grace in nature, free choice, or law and teaching, not in God's inward help.
On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 1.4Augustine of Hippo · 418 · Pelagius distinguishes capacity, will, and action, and holds that grace helps only the God-given capacity, not the will or the action.
On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 1.6Augustine of Hippo · 418 · Paul's words 'God works in you both to will and to work' contradict Pelagius's claim that grace helps only the capacity, not the willing and doing.
On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 1.8Augustine of Hippo · 418 · Pelagius's fuller description of grace (revelation, opening the eyes of the heart, warning of the devil's snares) still amounts to law and teaching.
On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 1.9Augustine of Hippo · 418 · The law shows what to do but cannot enable it; it drives the proud to grace, and the righteousness of God is given, not commanded.
On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 1.10Augustine of Hippo · 418 · No one fulfills the law through the law, only through the love poured in by the Spirit; Pelagius disguises his view of grace as law and teaching by changing his terms.
On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 1.11Augustine of Hippo · 418 · Pelagius explains 'God works in you to will' as God's promises and exhortations; Augustine insists on a grace that makes people actually believe, love, and be persuaded.
On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 1.12Augustine of Hippo · 418 · Even Paul, given great revelations, needed the 'angel of Satan' to curb his pride, because his love was not yet perfect; revelation alone is not grace.
On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 1.13Augustine of Hippo · 418 · Power is made perfect in weakness of mind as well as flesh; grace leads the predestined not only to know and believe the good but to do and love it.
On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 1.14Augustine of Hippo · 418 · If grace is teaching, it is God's inward teaching that imparts love, so that those taught by God do what they learn; the righteousness 'from God' is given, not commanded.
On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 1.15Augustine of Hippo · 418 · Christ's words 'everyone who has learned comes to me' show that God's teaching by grace produces the actual willing and coming, not just the capacity to come.
On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 1.16Augustine of Hippo · 418 · Against Pelagius's example that seeing well or badly is our own, the prayer 'Turn away my eyes from vanity' shows that God helps the will.
On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 1.22Augustine of Hippo · 418 · Love, which is the good will itself, is from God according to John, so the good will cannot be from ourselves.
On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 1.23Augustine of Hippo · 418 · Pelagius's book to a consecrated virgin teaches that grace is merited by doing God's will, which contradicts his condemnation of that view at the Palestinian synod.
On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 1.24Augustine of Hippo · 418 · Pelagius says that running to God and becoming one spirit with him is done by free choice alone, and that grace follows as a reward; Augustine answers that grace so earned would not be grace.
On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 1.25Augustine of Hippo · 418 · God turned the angry heart of the Persian king in Esther to gentleness without any prior merit, showing that he works good wills inwardly.
On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 1.26Augustine of Hippo · 418 · Scripture attributes to God not only our ability but our actual good willing, doing, speaking, and thinking, as Paul's prayers and Christ's words show.
On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 1.27Augustine of Hippo · 418 · Pelagius should confess that love itself is God's gift, given before any merit, and that without grace no good can be done at all, not merely done less easily.
On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 1.28Augustine of Hippo · 418 · Pelagius's word 'more easily' betrays his view that the devil can be resisted even without the Holy Spirit.
On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 1.34Augustine of Hippo · 418 · Pelagius says the grace of the Lord is merited by the good use of free choice; Augustine answers that faith itself, the beginning of all merit, is God's free gift.
On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 1.43Augustine of Hippo · 418 · Pelagius explains Romans 7 as spoken by one under the law, freed by forgiveness in baptism and by imitating Christ's example, which shows he places grace in example rather than inward help.
On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 1.45Augustine of Hippo · 418 · In his four books On Free Choice Pelagius speaks of grace only ambiguously, as law, teaching, revelation, and Christ's example, never as help for the will and action.
On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 1.51Augustine of Hippo · 418 · Ambrose's saying that 'God calls whom he deigns and makes religious whom he wills' contradicts Pelagius's claim that turning to God is done by free choice alone.
On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 2.28Augustine of Hippo · 418 · The Christian faith rests on the two men, Adam and Christ; even the righteous of old, including Job, were justified only by faith in the one mediator's incarnation, death, and resurrection.
On the Grace of Christ and On Original Sin 2.29Augustine of Hippo · 418 · Even under the law the righteous were saved by grace through the same faith in Christ that they expressed in the Psalms and prophets; that grace was hidden then and is revealed now.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 1.33Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Delight in God's law according to the inner man is a gift of grace, and true freedom lies in delighting willingly in it.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.20Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Scripture speaks of seed cursed from the beginning and of children of wrath by nature, which shows a fault in human nature inherited from Adam.
On Marriage and Concupiscence 2.46Augustine of Hippo · ca. 419–421 · Augustine expounds Rom 5:13–19: one sin brought condemnation to all, and grace in Christ abounds to forgive both it and all other sins.
The Institutes 12.9John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · Pride is escaped by attributing every advance in virtue to God's grace, as Scripture repeatedly teaches.
The Institutes 12.10John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · No human effort can reach perfection without God's mercy, since every good gift comes from above.
The Institutes 12.11John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · The penitent thief, David's forgiveness, and our calling show that salvation and perfection are God's gift, not earned by our labour.
The Institutes 12.13John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · The fathers teach that no one is cleansed from the vices unless he knows that his own effort cannot suffice and that purity is God's gift.
The Institutes 12.14John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · Perfection requires both human effort and God's grace; grace is given to those who labour, and God awaits even the first occasion of good will.
The Institutes 12.16John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · Even our efforts toward perfection depend on God's help, so we must not let pride empty them.
The Institutes 12.17John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · Since even Christ in his humanity said he did nothing of himself, we must confess our need of God's help in every step, praying with the Psalms.
The Institutes 12.18John Cassian · ca. 419–426 · We must thank God not only for creation, free will, baptism, and the law, but for his daily grace that protects, enlightens, draws, and redirects our will.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 1.5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine answers that free choice was not lost by Adam's sin, but the freedom to live righteously was, and it is restored only by grace.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 1.6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine argues from Scripture that believing in Christ, and so receiving him, is itself a gift of God's grace.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 1.7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine explains that people are not forced to sin but sin by their own will, and that a good will comes only by unmerited grace.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 1.8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine recalls that Pelagius at the Palestinian synod condemned the view that grace is given according to merit, yet later taught it.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 1.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine explains that Paul could be outwardly blameless under the law while inwardly sinful, as his own words to the Ephesians and Titus show.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 1.36Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine answers Julian that God does not compel the will, but that God's grace helps a man even to will the good.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 1.37Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine argues from Paul's conversion and John 6:44 that grace does not merely help a good will already present but first makes the unwilling willing.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 1.38Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine proves from Chronicles, Ezekiel, and the story of Esther that God works directly on human wills.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 2.10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine shows that the Pelagians call his doctrine 'fate' because he denies that grace is given according to merit, a view Pelagius himself condemned in Palestine.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 2.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine argues from infant baptism, where no merit can be claimed, that unmerited grace is neither fate nor respect of persons.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 2.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine explains how grace differs from astrological fate and turns the charge back on the Pelagians.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 2.13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine uses the parable of the workers in the vineyard to show that God's free choice to call some is not respect of persons, since no one is wronged.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 2.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine imagines twins of a prostitute, one baptized and one not, to show that only God's grace or just wrath can explain their different fates.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 2.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine explains that Paul, in Romans 9, leaves the mystery of God's choice unresolved, and that grace alone distinguishes the saved from the lump of perdition, not foreseen works.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 2.17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine turns to the Pelagian claim that the desire for good begins from man himself, noting Pelagius's view that grace only makes the good easier.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 2.18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine argues from John 15:5, Philippians 1:6, and 2 Corinthians 3:5 that even the beginning of the desire for good comes from God.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 2.19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine interprets 'it belongs to man to prepare the heart' as meaning that man prepares his heart with God's help, not without it.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 2.20Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine shows from Scripture that even when man opens his mouth or prepares his will, he does so with God's help.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 2.21Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine argues that the desire for good is love, which is wholly from God, whose mercy both goes before and follows us.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 2.22Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine argues that 'called according to purpose' refers to God's purpose, not man's, and that even a good purpose and zeal for virtue begin from grace.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 2.23Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine concludes Book 2: every command of God is matched by his gift, and the change from evil to good both begins and ends by grace.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 3.3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine shows from Paul that the law revealed and increased transgression, and that only those who receive the Spirit of grace are children of the free woman.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 4.11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine argues that the Pelagians reduce grace to knowledge of the law, whereas true grace is the inspiration of love, as the story of Elisha's staff illustrates.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 4.12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine accepts Isaiah 1:19–20 as proof of free choice against the Manichees but insists that the good will itself is prepared by God.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 4.14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine lists Scriptures the Pelagians ignore, above all Ezekiel 36, where God says he acts not for Israel's merits but for his own name's sake.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 4.15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine argues from Ezekiel 36 and Psalm 95 that God himself makes people good and sets their wills free, so that no merit precedes his grace.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 4.16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine leaves unsolved why God makes some his sheep and not others, but insists that there is no injustice with God, since wrath is due and mercy is free.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 4.25Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine quotes Cyprian on the Lord's Prayer, the Testimonies, and On Patience to show that Cyprian ascribed every good to God's grace.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 4.26Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine argues from Cyprian that even avoiding grave sin and converting persecutors depend on grace sought in prayer, without denying free choice.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 4.30Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine cites Ambrose to show that even the beginning of good thoughts and prayer comes from God's grace, and that the law alone cannot convert the heart.
Against Two Letters of the Pelagians 4.33Augustine of Hippo · ca. 420–421 · Augustine shows that Catholic teachers praise all five goods, unlike the Manichees, yet affirm original sin, prevenient grace, and the saints' need of forgiveness.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 30Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · Fallen man cannot be restored by his works or his free choice, which he lost in sinning; true freedom to do good comes only when the Son sets him free by grace.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 31Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · Faith too is God's gift, and good works follow from his grace, which makes us not men, as at creation, but good men.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 32Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · Even the good will is God's gift: “not of him who wills but of God who shows mercy” means the whole is given to God, whose mercy goes before the unwilling and follows the willing.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 36Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · The union of a human nature with the Son, with no prior merit, shows the free grace by which we too are justified; Mary was full of grace to be the Lord's mother, Christ full of grace and truth.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 40Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · Christ's birth from the Spirit, not as his son, signifies the grace by which his humanity was united to the Word from its first moment without prior merit, so that it could admit no sin.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 98Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · God turns evil wills to good by mercy or leaves them by judgment; Jacob and Esau, equally under condemnation, show election by free grace, not by foreseen works.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 99Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · God has mercy by goodness and hardens without injustice; Paul's “O man, who are you?” is a real answer, since the whole race was justly condemned and the freeing of some is undeserved mercy.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 106Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · Even before the fall man needed grace to persevere in righteousness; after it, free choice itself must be freed from sin by grace through faith in Christ.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 107Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · Eternal life, though the reward of good works, is grace, since good merits are themselves God's gifts; Adam chose his own will, and God's will was done concerning him.
Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope, and Love) 118Augustine of Hippo · ca. 421–423 · The four stages of human life (before the Law, under the Law, under grace, in perfect peace) correspond to the history of God's people; even the righteous of old were saved only through faith in Christ.
On Grace and Free Will 1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 426 · Augustine writes to Valentinus and the monks of Hadrumetum, who are divided over grace and free choice, urging thanks for what they understand and prayer for what they do not.
On Grace and Free Will 4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 426 · Lest free choice be so defended that grace is excluded, Augustine shows that continence, marital chastity, and victory over desire are both God's gifts and acts of the will, obtained by prayer.
On Grace and Free Will 5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 426 · Against the Pelagian claim that grace follows the merit of turning to God, Augustine shows that conversion itself is God's gift, and that Paul received grace for evil merits.
On Grace and Free Will 6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 426 · Good merits follow grace and depend on it; even eternal life, the crown of righteousness, is God crowning his own gifts.
On Grace and Free Will 8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 426 · Eternal life is both a reward for good works and grace, because the good works themselves are God's grace; it is “grace for grace”.
On Grace and Free Will 9Augustine of Hippo · ca. 426 · “Grace for grace” (John 1:16): the grace of a good life is rewarded with the grace of eternal life, for God works in us both to will and to work, without removing free choice.
On Grace and Free Will 12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 426 · Those who rely on the law without grace seek their own righteousness, not the righteousness that man receives from God through faith in Christ.
On Grace and Free Will 13Augustine of Hippo · ca. 426 · Grace is neither the law nor human nature, nor merely the forgiveness of past sins; the Lord's Prayer and Cyprian's treatise on it show that we must pray for help to avoid and overcome sin.
On Grace and Free Will 14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 426 · Against the claim that grace is given for the merit of a good will, Augustine shows that faith itself is God's gift and that God, as Ezekiel says, takes away the heart of stone for his name's sake, not for prior merits.
On Grace and Free Will 15Augustine of Hippo · ca. 426 · God commands what he gives and gives what he commands; the will is always free but good only by grace, which also strengthens a weak good will so that it can keep the commandments.
On Grace and Free Will 16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 426 · God commands things we cannot do so that we may ask for them; Ecclesiasticus itself, after “If you will, you will keep the commandments”, prays for help, for God prepares the will and makes us act.
On Grace and Free Will 17Augustine of Hippo · ca. 426 · A weak good will becomes strong through love, which God begins by working and completes by cooperating; Augustine gathers the scriptural commendations of love.
On Grace and Free Will 18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 426 · Love is commanded to free choice, yet it is from God: we love because he first loved us, and the disciples chose Christ because they were chosen, not chosen because they chose.
On Grace and Free Will 21Augustine of Hippo · ca. 426 · Scripture shows that God works in men's hearts to incline their wills where he wills, to good by mercy or to evil by just judgment on prior merits; how much more does he work good in the hearts of his elect.
On Grace and Free Will 22Augustine of Hippo · ca. 426 · Infants receive grace in baptism with no prior merit, even struggling against it, while some children of believers die unbaptized; this rests on God's inscrutable judgments.
Retractations 1.22Augustine of Hippo · 426-427 · Reviewing his Exposition of Some Propositions from Romans, Augustine says Rom 7 can also describe the apostle himself under grace, and withdraws his statement that God chose people for their foreseen faith, since faith itself is God's gift.
Retractations 1.23Augustine of Hippo · 426-427 · Reviewing his Exposition of Galatians, Augustine explains “wholly God” of the risen Christ, refines his punctuation of Gal 3:19, and applies Gal 5:17 also to those under grace.
Retractations 1.25Augustine of Hippo · 426-427 · Augustine lists the titles of his Eighty-Three Different Questions, noting which are not his own, and corrects several statements, among them on the image of God, the thief on the cross, and the mercy that precedes the will.
Retractations 2.1Augustine of Hippo · 426-427 · Reviewing his two books to Simplicianus, Augustine says that in explaining Rom 9 he labored for free choice “but the grace of God conquered,” and notes that he now reads Rom 7 as possibly describing a spiritual man.
Retractations 2.31Augustine of Hippo · 426-427 · Augustine describes his answers to six questions against the pagans and explains that being “worthy” of salvation depends on God's calling, not one's own merits.
Retractations 2.66Augustine of Hippo · 426-427 · Augustine notes his book On Grace and Free Choice, written for the monks of Hadrumetum.
The Conferences 3.10John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Outward possessions belong to another; our true possessions are our vices, and renouncing them leads to the third renunciation and to the promised land of purity of heart, which God alone shows, so that both the beginning and the completion of salvation are his gift.
The Conferences 3.12John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Paphnutius answers that between God's call and God's completion lies our response, yet no one reaches perfection without God's continual help, as the Psalms show, since free will is weak and falls unless God upholds it.
The Conferences 3.15John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Even David asked God for understanding, and Paul teaches that God works in us both to will and to accomplish; our effort is needed, but without God's help we cannot even strive effectively.
The Conferences 3.16John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · The apostles asked God even for faith, and Christ prayed that Peter's faith would not fail; without Christ we can do nothing, and every good gift comes from above.
The Conferences 3.19John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · The beginning of a good will and the perfection of virtue are God's gifts, while our part is to respond earnestly or slackly; Deuteronomy's conquest, the healing of the blind men, and the ten lepers illustrate the distinction.
The Conferences 3.22John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Paphnutius answers that the same psalm shows both human freedom and God's prior call and help, and dismisses the visitors humbled, realizing they have barely begun the renunciations.
The Conferences 4.5John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Grace alone works what is good in us; when it withdraws, effort cannot restore the former state, yet it also visits the negligent and unworthy to rouse them.
The Conferences 5.14John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Each monk should find his dominant vice and fight it first with fasting, prayer, and tears, relying on God, then move to the next, like a beast-fighter who kills the strongest first.
The Conferences 5.15John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Victory over the vices must not make us proud, for, as Deuteronomy says, it is God who drives out the nations; our triumphs are due to his help, not to our own strength or free will.
The Conferences 7.2John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · After long prayer, Serenus received from an angel in a vision the removal of all bodily sexual stirring; Cassian and Germanus visit him in Lent and complain about their wandering thoughts.
The Conferences 12.4John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Ascetic labors are necessary but cannot by their own merit produce lasting chastity, which is God’s gift; the monk must desire it passionately, credit it to God’s protection, and guard it by humble prayer.
The Conferences 12.16John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · The key victory is to hope for chastity from God and not oneself; Chaeremon sums up perfect chastity as freedom from lust awake and from deceiving dreams asleep, and sends them to rest.
The Conferences 13.3John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Chaeremon answers that the farmer’s own example shows that effort achieves nothing without God, who sends rain, gives strength, and averts disaster; the beginning of good actions and thoughts is from God, and it is ours to follow his grace or resist it.
The Conferences 13.6John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Chaeremon argues that nothing concerning salvation, least of all chastity and its ascetic means, can be accomplished without God’s help, which gives both the desire and the power and opportunity to carry it out.
The Conferences 13.8John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Like a lover spurned by an unfaithful woman, God persists in seeking our salvation; his providence goes before us, and he strengthens every beginning of good will, whether he planted it or it sprang from our own effort.
The Conferences 13.9John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Scripture speaks both of human choice and of God’s initiative, so both grace and free will are declared: a person can sometimes by nature begin to desire the good, but always needs God’s help to accomplish it.
The Conferences 13.10John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Chaeremon sets pairs of Scripture texts side by side, each affirming human free will and at the same time its weakness and need of God.
The Conferences 13.11John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Chaeremon poses the question whether God’s mercy follows our good will or precedes it; Scripture gives examples of both, so grace and free will, though they seem opposed, must both be held according to the church’s faith.
The Conferences 13.12John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · God did not make man incapable of good: the knowledge of good survived the fall, the seeds of virtue are implanted by nature, and David’s good intention was his own; yet they need God’s help to grow, and Scripture shows God and man each anticipating, inviting, and seeking the other.
The Conferences 13.13John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Grace cooperates with the will, sometimes waiting for some effort from it, yet remains free, since slight efforts receive an immeasurable reward; David’s sin and confession were his own, his pardon was God’s gift, and Paul’s labors were his yet done by grace with him.
The Conferences 13.16John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Chaeremon rejects the view that grace is given according to merit and all depends on free will; grace often exceeds human faith, as in the healings of the official’s son, the paralytic, the man at the pool, and the lame man at the temple.
The Conferences 13.17John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · God saves in countless unsearchable ways, sometimes compelling the unwilling, sometimes helping the willing, sometimes inspiring the first desire; no one can fathom these ways, and God’s love surpasses even a mother’s.
The Conferences 13.18John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Chaeremon concludes that God works all in all, inspiring good will, enabling good works, and granting perseverance, yet without destroying free will; how both are true is beyond human reason and must be held by faith.
The Conferences 21.33John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · Under grace, love of God excludes sin; under the law, marriage, tithing, and retaliation leave room for lust, avarice, and anger, whereas grace uproots these by virginity, total renunciation, and love of enemies.
The Conferences 21.34John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · To be under grace is to fulfil Christ’s counsels; those who neither keep the law nor follow the Gospel but use grace as license are under a double dominion of sin.
The Conferences 23.17John Cassian · ca. 426–429 · The saints confess themselves sinners, as Isaiah did after seeing God, yet hope for salvation by grace; his words “we sinned … and we shall be saved” answer the objection that if no one is sinless no one can be saved.
Chapter 2Prosper of Aquitaine · ca. 426-428 · The Pelagians reduce grace to outward teaching and exhortation and so make it a reward of merit, which is no grace.
Chapter 4Prosper of Aquitaine · ca. 426-428 · The critics fear open debate against Augustine's writings; Prosper hopes God's grace will yet win them, though their virtues are misused when credited to nature or prior merit.
Chapter 5Prosper of Aquitaine · ca. 426-428 · Against the critics' use of Matt 11:28, Prosper cites texts showing that free choice obeys God's call only when grace has created the will to believe.
Chapter 6Prosper of Aquitaine · ca. 426-428 · Cornelius's piety before baptism was itself the work of grace; conversion to God is from God, not from us.
Chapter 7Prosper of Aquitaine · ca. 426-428 · Man, dead and blind in Adam, receives life, light and righteousness freely from Christ; without faith there is no true righteousness.
Chapter 8Prosper of Aquitaine · ca. 426-428 · God first loved and sought lost man; faith working through love is God's gift, and without love even great virtues profit nothing.
Chapter 13Prosper of Aquitaine · ca. 426-428 · On 1 Tim 2:4: the different fates of baptized and unbaptized infants show salvation is not by merit; the reason is hidden in God, but none perish undeservedly and none is saved by merit.
Chapter 17Prosper of Aquitaine · ca. 426-428 · Grace does not abolish free choice but converts and heals it; man is evil of himself and good through God, who gives the will, the deed and perseverance.
Chapter 18Prosper of Aquitaine · ca. 426-428 · Prosper rejects the charge that Augustine teaches fate or two natures: all humanity is one mass fallen in Adam and restored only by grace; he urges Rufinus to read Augustine himself.
On Rebuke and Grace 1Augustine of Hippo · ca. 427 · Augustine thanks Valentinus for news of peace at Hadrumetum, urges rereading his book On Grace and Free Will, and states that free choice in doing good depends on being set free and helped by Christ.
On Rebuke and Grace 2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 427 · Grace not only shows what is good but enables us to do it with love; Paul admonished and rebuked, yet prayed for his hearers, knowing God gives the increase.
On Rebuke and Grace 4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 427 · Augustine states the objection of those who refuse rebuke: if love is God's gift, the one who lacks it should be prayed for, not rebuked.
On Rebuke and Grace 7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 427 · Those who fall away are justly rebuked and condemned; the predestined, called according to God's purpose and separated from the mass of perdition by grace, persevere to the end and none of them perishes, while those who will not persevere were never among the elect.
On Rebuke and Grace 11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 427 · Adam had a grace “without which” he could not persevere, left to his free choice; the saints receive through Christ a more powerful grace “by which” they actually will and persevere; Christ's own humanity was taken up into union with the Word by grace, not merit.
On Rebuke and Grace 12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 427 · Augustine distinguishes Adam's ability not to sin from the final inability to sin, and the help without which from the help by which; the predestined saints receive perseverance itself, so that their weak wills, moved by grace, persevere where Adam's strong will did not.
On the Predestination of the Saints 2Augustine of Hippo · ca. 428/429 · Against those who hold that the beginning of faith is ours and only its increase God's, Augustine argues that faith from its beginning is God's gift, since we cannot even think anything of ourselves.
On the Predestination of the Saints 3Augustine of Hippo · ca. 428/429 · Augustine admits that before his episcopate he held that the beginning of faith was ours, and quotes his Retractations correcting his earlier Exposition of Propositions from Romans.
On the Predestination of the Saints 4Augustine of Hippo · ca. 428/429 · Augustine shows that he corrected his view in the first book To Simplician, written early in his episcopate, quoting his Retractations; 1 Cor 4:7 excludes claiming even the beginning of faith as one's own.
On the Predestination of the Saints 5Augustine of Hippo · ca. 428/429 · 1 Cor 4:7 cannot refer to natural gifts common to all, since Paul speaks of what distinguishes one person from another; the capacity for faith is natural, but having faith is grace, for in the elect the will is prepared by the Lord.
On the Predestination of the Saints 6Augustine of Hippo · ca. 428/429 · That some will to believe and others do not is itself a matter of God's mercy and judgment: the will is prepared in the elect by grace, while the rest are justly blinded.
On the Predestination of the Saints 7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 428/429 · Faith itself is the work of God (John 6:29) and his gift (Eph 2:8); even Cornelius's good works before he believed in Christ are to be credited to God.
On the Predestination of the Saints 8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 428/429 · Coming to Christ is believing, and is given by the Father's inward teaching; God teaches all who come, out of mercy, and those he does not teach are not taught by judgment; faith, begun and completed, is God's gift, given to some and not others by his just and hidden judgment.
On the Predestination of the Saints 10Augustine of Hippo · ca. 428/429 · Predestination is the preparation of grace and grace its effect; God's promise to Abraham of the faith of the nations was a promise of what God himself would do, so faith too is his gift.
On the Predestination of the Saints 11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 428/429 · Faith, like putting to death the deeds of the flesh, is both required of us and God's gift; it is safer to entrust oneself to God's firm promise than to one's own uncertain will.
On the Predestination of the Saints 18Augustine of Hippo · ca. 428/429 · Eph 1:3–11 shows that God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world not because he foresaw that we would be holy, but so that we might be holy, according to the good pleasure of his will.
On the Predestination of the Saints 20Augustine of Hippo · ca. 428/429 · Paul's prayers for an “open door” and the opening of Lydia's heart show that the beginning of faith is God's gift; God inclines human wills not only for earthly kingdoms but for the kingdom of heaven.
On the Predestination of the Saints 21Augustine of Hippo · ca. 428/429 · Augustine closes the first book, explaining that its length was required by the new claim that the beginning of faith is man's own, and restating that even the beginning of faith is God's gift.
On the Gift of Perseverance 7Augustine of Hippo · ca. 428/429 · The Lord's Prayer alone proves the cause of grace: since Adam's fall both coming to God and not departing from him are God's work, which the church acknowledges in its daily prayers for unbelievers and believers.
On the Gift of Perseverance 8Augustine of Hippo · ca. 428/429 · Grace is not given by merit because God is merciful, nor to all because he is judge; why he chooses one rather than another Augustine does not know; God mixes some who will not persevere among the saints to keep them humble; with Ambrose, our heart and thoughts are not in our power.
On the Gift of Perseverance 11Augustine of Hippo · ca. 428/429 · God helps infants he chose and not some adults who would have believed; mercy and judgment are both unsearchable but just; the case of infants is a valid example for adults; Augustine explains that in On Free Choice he left questions open against the Manichaeans, quoting his Retractations.
On the Gift of Perseverance 12Augustine of Hippo · ca. 428/429 · Grace is given by God's good pleasure, not by merit, as infants show: whether one infant is baptized and another not is neither fate nor chance nor parents' negligence but God's hidden judgment; Augustine answers the use of his early On Free Choice against him.
On the Gift of Perseverance 14Augustine of Hippo · ca. 428/429 · Predestination, the foreknowledge and preparation of God's benefits, does not hinder preaching: Paul, Christ, and Cyprian both taught predestination and exhorted; those given “ears to hear” obey, while the rest are left in the mass of perdition, as Tyre and Sidon and the unbelieving Jews show.
On the Gift of Perseverance 16Augustine of Hippo · ca. 428/429 · Truth may sometimes be withheld from the incapable, but predestination must be preached where its denial leads the capable into error; grace anticipates the will and therefore faith, obedience, and love.
On the Gift of Perseverance 19Augustine of Hippo · ca. 428/429 · Writers who speak of foreknowledge in the calling of the elect may be understood of predestination; Cyprian, Ambrose, and Gregory of Nazianzus taught that faith, the will, and confession are God's gifts, yet did not cease to exhort and rebuke.
On the Gift of Perseverance 20Augustine of Hippo · ca. 428/429 · Predestination must be preached to those with ears to hear, like godliness, chastity, and love; Augustine's earlier writings, To Simplician and the Confessions (“Give what you command”), already taught grace and the gift of faith before Pelagianism arose.
On the Gift of Perseverance 23Augustine of Hippo · ca. 428/429 · The church's constant prayers for the conversion of unbelievers and the perseverance of believers show that it has always believed in grace and predestination; even prayer itself is the Spirit's gift.
On the Gift of Perseverance 24Augustine of Hippo · ca. 428/429 · Augustine concludes that both the beginning of faith and perseverance are God's gifts, urges prayer rather than dispute, and presents Christ, whose humanity was united to the Word without prior merit, as the supreme example of predestination; he invites correction.
Objection and reply 8Prosper of Aquitaine · ca. 431-432 · Why God has not called all in every age is hidden, yet God wills all to be saved in the sense that the promised fullness of the nations, predestined in Christ, will be saved; faith is God's gift, as the African bishops taught.
Objection and reply 14Prosper of Aquitaine · ca. 431-432 · Unbelief is not predestined but foreknown; predestination concerns only good things, the faith, works and perseverance that grace gives.
Chapter 1Prosper of Aquitaine · ca. 432-433 · Prosper complains that respected churchmen are attacking Augustine's defense of grace twenty years after the Pelagians were condemned, and invites them to state their improved doctrine.
Chapter 2Prosper of Aquitaine · ca. 432-433 · Prosper introduces Cassian's Conference 13, praises its opening definition that every good thought begins from God, and shows that its ninth chapter contradicts it by letting some come to grace by their own free will.
Chapter 3Prosper of Aquitaine · ca. 432-433 · Prosper argues that Cassian's middle position, granting grace to some and self-started good will to others, implies that grace is given according to merit and contradicts his own first definition.
Chapter 4Prosper of Aquitaine · ca. 432-433 · Prosper rejects Cassian's claim that the desire for health comes from man and the cure from God, arguing that even the first desire to be healed is God's gift, and explains Rom 7:18 as the voice of one already under grace.
Chapter 7Prosper of Aquitaine · ca. 432-433 · Prosper answers Cassian's examples of Paul and Matthew against Zacchaeus and the thief, arguing that God draws everyone who comes to Christ, by many different means.
Chapter 8Prosper of Aquitaine · ca. 432-433 · Prosper answers Cassian's appeal to 'the rule of the church's faith' with a chain of biblical texts showing that faith and every good will are gifts of grace, which does not abolish the will but makes it good.
Chapter 12Prosper of Aquitaine · ca. 432-433 · Prosper rejects Cassian's argument that David's wish to build the temple was a good thought from man alone, arguing that every good will, though man's own, is inspired by God.
Chapter 15Prosper of Aquitaine · ca. 432-433 · Prosper argues against Cassian that Job endured his sufferings by the help of God's Spirit, citing Job's own confession of his Redeemer, and links Cassian's view to the thesis condemned by the Council of Carthage.
Chapter 18Prosper of Aquitaine · ca. 432-433 · Prosper rejects Cassian's division of the faithful into those saved by grace and those merely helped after starting by their own will, and affirms that grace makes the will free for good in all.
Chapter 19Prosper of Aquitaine · ca. 432-433 · Prosper sums up Cassian's twelve definitions on grace and free choice, accepting only the first as catholic and briefly refuting each of the others.
Chapter 20Prosper of Aquitaine · ca. 432-433 · Prosper states as theses the doctrine he finds implied in Cassian's definitions: Adam's soul was not injured, the seeds of virtue remain, and part of the church is justified by free choice.
Part 1, chapter 31Quodvultdeus of Carthage · ca. 445-450 · Joseph’s free gifts of grain, his special love for Benjamin, the hidden cup, and his self-disclosure figure Christ’s free grace, Paul the least apostle bearing Christ’s marks, and Christ revealing the Father to his brothers.