Apologetic Book

Contents

Reading pages: 1.1–14.3 · 15.1–24.7 · 25.1–33.7

1. 1.1Orosius explains why he must write.
2. 1.2He must expose the wolves in the flock.
3. 1.3God wills the error and its authors to be exposed.
4. 1.4The fathers have already written against the heresy.
5. 1.5Old heretics live again in the Pelagians.
6. 1.6Pelagius and Caelestius hiss like serpents in the church.
7. 2.1The fathers counter the heresy with Scripture and prayer.
8. 2.2The heretics themselves must be exposed.
9. 2.3Tempering the stench is not enough.
10. 2.4One builds, another destroys.
11. 2.5Pelagius as Goliath.
12. 2.6Like David fleeing Absalom, the orthodox are driven out.
13. 2.7Goliath challenges from within the church.
14. 3.1Orosius disclaims the role of David.
15. 3.2Orosius came from Jerome's Bethlehem to the synod.
16. 3.3The synod asks Orosius about Africa.
17. 3.4Caelestius was condemned at Carthage.
18. 3.5Augustine's writings against Pelagius.
19. 3.6John has Pelagius brought in.
20. 4.1Pelagius disdains Augustine; John seats him.
21. 4.2John takes Augustine's part.
22. 4.3John asks for charges against Pelagius himself.
23. 4.4Pelagius admits his teaching.
24. 4.5The doctrine was already condemned.
25. 4.6Jerome has also condemned it.
26. 5.1The orthodox refuse to be accusers.
27. 5.2John cites Abraham and Zechariah; Orosius appeals to the fathers.
28. 6.1A poor interpreter garbles the proceedings.
29. 6.2John defends Pelagius's qualification.
30. 6.3Orosius anathematizes denial of God's help.
31. 6.4The Latins ask for a Latin judgment.
32. 6.5The matter is referred to Pope Innocent.
33. 7.1John accuses Orosius of blasphemy.
34. 7.2The alleged blasphemy.
35. 7.3Orosius denies the charge.
36. 7.4John could not have understood Latin.
37. 7.5John acts as accuser, witness and judge.
38. 7.6Who was present at the session.
39. 7.7Passerius and Domnus served as interpreters.
40. 7.8No one else heard the alleged word.
41. 8.1Perhaps the interpreter erred.
42. 8.2False witnesses in Jerusalem, as against Christ and Stephen.
43. 8.3Orosius does not challenge the bishop.
44. 8.4Orosius swears his innocence.
45. 8.5Like Susanna and Naboth, the innocent are falsely accused.
46. 9.1Orosius turns to examine the question itself.
47. 9.2To deny God's power would be blasphemy.
48. 9.3Both detracted from God's power.
49. 9.4God can do all things.
50. 9.5Even pagans see God's power.
51. 9.6The Jews know of the Red Sea crossing.
52. 9.7The Jordan, Elijah and Habakkuk.
53. 9.8Lazarus and the man born blind.
54. 9.9The calming of the storm and Peter on the water.
55. 10.1Only God can do all things.
56. 10.2Paul attributes his labor to grace.
57. 10.3Grace stands between “not I” and “with me.”
58. 10.4Grace gives the will itself.
59. 10.5Father, Son and Spirit all aid man.
60. 11.1The Pelagian boast rebuked.
61. 11.2Pelagius's book of Testimonies lacked any mention of grace.
62. 11.3Silence is not affirmation.
63. 11.4Silence is not speech.
64. 11.5Pelagius's added qualification does not cohere.
65. 11.6Pelagius has no real need of God's help.
66. 11.7If it is easy for man, grace is superfluous.
67. 11.8Pelagius must choose between grace and free ability.
68. 12.1Orosius leaves the full refutation to Augustine and Jerome.
69. 12.2God, not man, preserved the three young men.
70. 12.3The healings show God's ability, not man's.
71. 12.4Pelagius presumes to forgive sins by his own power.
72. 13.1Pelagius's boast about sinning and not sinning.
73. 13.2Only baptismal grace frees from past sin.
74. 13.3All must await God's judgment.
75. 13.4Sins are judged only at the end.
76. 13.5Man can sin by himself but not free himself.
77. 13.6Christ alone judges.
78. 14.1Repentance begins salvation but does not make one sinless.
79. 14.2David was forgiven yet punished.
80. 14.3Paul's sufferings; mercy over judgment.
81. 15.1Some do not fear the coming judgment.
82. 15.2The self-righteous will be rejected.
83. 15.3Only the sinless dwells on God's mountain: Christ.
84. 15.4Christ alone is without sin.
85. 15.5No one is worthy to open the book.
86. 15.6Only the Lion of Judah can open it.
87. 15.7The book is the book of judgment, given to the Son.
88. 16.1Pelagius's claim makes him rival Christ.
89. 16.2Pelagius as forerunner of Antichrist.
90. 16.3Christ won through suffering; Pelagius claims it at ease.
91. 16.4Christ was tempted again; Pelagius claims to be beyond temptation.
92. 16.5Pelagius has no horns and few eyes, yet presumes much.
93. 16.6Pelagius claims the sevenfold Spirit.
94. 16.7Pelagius's claims mocked: wisdom and understanding.
95. 16.8Counsel, strength, and knowledge.
96. 16.9Piety and fear of God.
97. 16.10Pelagius as if the Spirit rested on him as on Christ.
98. 16.11Only Christ has the fullness; we run after his fragrance.
99. 17.1Pelagius protests his humility.
100. 17.2His words are humble, his writings proud.
101. 17.3Only Christ is sinless.
102. 17.4Follow Christ or confess to being the other.
103. 17.5Grace is given by measure from Christ's fullness.
104. 17.6Each receives a measure of faith.
105. 17.7Gifts are distributed by the Spirit.
106. 17.8The church as a body of mutually dependent members.
107. 17.9The fullness dwells in Christ.
108. 17.10No one has the fullness alone.
109. 17.11Christ is the true light; the apostles reflect it.
110. 17.12We have only the lamp of the prophetic word.
111. 17.13Our lamps are fragile.
112. 18.1What light lacks, darkness fills.
113. 18.2Man needs help and still sins.
114. 18.3Each gift has its weakness.
115. 18.4Every virtue borders a vice.
116. 18.5Grace is a gift, not a debt.
117. 18.6Children of wrath made children of mercy.
118. 18.7All must appear before Christ's judgment seat.
119. 18.8Pelagius does not need the judge's mercy.
120. 18.9The righteous are humble; Pelagius is sure.
121. 19.1Pelagius insists he affirms God's help.
122. 19.2Orosius takes up the challenge.
123. 19.3God's help reaches the church and all nations.
124. 19.4Grace is continual, not only natural endowment.
125. 19.5God gives rain when and where he wills.
126. 19.6The farmer plows in hope of God's gift.
127. 19.7God gives the growth.
128. 19.8God's help is everywhere.
129. 20.1The devil roams the earth.
130. 20.2The devil worked before there was any church.
131. 20.3God guarded men even then.
132. 20.4God asks about Job.
133. 20.5Even the devil admits God protected Job.
134. 20.6God limits the devil's power over Job.
135. 20.7God shields the weak from the devil.
136. 21.1Now the special grace given to the church.
137. 21.2Paul on grace given in Christ.
138. 21.3Peter on the grace foretold by the prophets.
139. 21.4Turning to Job as a man “without crime.”
140. 21.5The Pelagian appeal to Job and Zechariah.
141. 21.6“Without crime” is not “without sin.”
142. 21.7Paul uses “without crime” of ordinary believers.
143. 21.8The Corinthians are both blameless and at fault.
144. 21.9Scripture speaks according to human judgment.
145. 21.10Such praise is not God's final verdict.
146. 22.1Job's trial confounded the devil.
147. 22.2God humbles Job after his trial.
148. 22.3God's questions to Job.
149. 22.4Job confesses he is nothing.
150. 22.5Zechariah too was rebuked.
151. 22.6“Blameless” is an example, not perfection.
152. 23.1“Spotless in the way” means orthodox in faith.
153. 23.2Spotless faith in the Trinity.
154. 23.3Abraham's spotlessness is faith.
155. 23.4David prays to be cleansed of hidden faults.
156. 23.5Peter is both praised and rebuked.
157. 23.6Peter sinned out of love.
158. 24.1Even David prayed for cleansing.
159. 24.2David was not allowed to build the temple.
160. 24.3Pelagius demands what God never did.
161. 24.4Nothing new under the sun.
162. 24.5David and Solomon chosen for the temple.
163. 24.6Neither David nor Solomon was sinless.
164. 24.7God alone is true.
165. 25.1Pelagius hopes for what David and Solomon lacked.
166. 25.2The correction is a new patch on an old garment.
167. 25.3Orosius returns to Christ, the head.
168. 25.4Christ set forth as propitiation.
169. 25.5Christ the mediator and the Word.
170. 25.6The sinless Word made flesh.
171. 25.7Christ creates, redeems, and judges.
172. 26.1God gave free will with a law.
173. 26.2Freedom is meant for chosen service.
174. 26.3God's power is joined to reason and order.
175. 26.4God chastises without overturning nature.
176. 26.5The fall and original sin.
177. 27.1One man's sin brought death to all.
178. 27.2God's not doing something does not mean inability.
179. 27.3Orosius calls on Peter and Paul.
180. 27.4Peter on the hope of salvation.
181. 27.5Paul on predestination and the fullness of times.
182. 28.1Pelagius will not wait for God's time.
183. 28.2Not even Moses was made sinless before the time.
184. 28.3Everything has its time.
185. 28.4God will judge in his time.
186. 28.5Wait for God's order, as Christ did.
187. 28.6Christ could but would not.
188. 28.7Christ drinks the cup.
189. 28.8Even Antichrist comes in his time.
190. 28.9The days shortened for the elect.
191. 28.10Pelagius demands assent to the unprecedented.
192. 28.11Pelagius twists the orthodox position.
193. 28.12Even the demons know the appointed time.
194. 28.13If demons still have time, so is Pelagius still tempted.
195. 29.1Pelagius's indecorous Letter to Demetrias.
196. 29.2Orosius blames Pelagius's ghostwriters.
197. 29.3Pelagius accuses the catholics of calling nature evil.
198. 29.4Anathema to anyone who calls God's creation evil.
199. 29.5Human nature is weak, not evil.
200. 29.6The saints confess weakness.
201. 29.7Jeremiah, Habakkuk, and David confess.
202. 29.8The apostles confess.
203. 29.9All flesh is grass.
204. 30.1Pelagius resists all these testimonies.
205. 30.2Pelagius's charge against those who plead weakness.
206. 30.3Pelagius misrepresents the church.
207. 30.4The church's true teaching.
208. 30.5The unforgiving servant.
209. 30.6Pelagius is like Laodicea.
210. 30.7Pelagius is not Peter.
211. 30.8Peter: the yoke no one could bear.
212. 30.9Peter's verdict reverses Pelagius's.
213. 30.10No saint bore the law; all were saved by grace.
214. 31.1Pelagius rebukes those whom Peter defends.
215. 31.2Pelagius's bodily bulk mocked.
216. 31.3The narrow way; Augustine's judgment.
217. 31.4The great commandments.
218. 31.5Does Pelagius keep the first commandment perfectly?
219. 31.6Does he never flatter the great?
220. 31.7Does he love all Christians as himself?
221. 31.8Receive the kingdom like an infant.
222. 31.9The infant asks and receives.
223. 32.1Orosius gives his own view.
224. 32.2Complaining of weakness is itself a sin.
225. 32.3Glory in weakness.
226. 32.4When weak, then strong.
227. 32.5Weakness prays always.
228. 32.6God does more than we ask.
229. 32.7Sinlessness belongs to the hidden future glory.
230. 32.8Sinlessness is a future gift.
231. 32.9Victory over sin comes at the resurrection.
232. 32.10Perfection belongs to the resurrection.
233. 32.11Let him show perfection, not claim it.
234. 32.12Grace is sufficient.
235. 33.1Free will offers itself as soil to God.
236. 33.2Our part is prayer and devotion.
237. 33.3The vine and the branches.
238. 33.4Adam out of paradise; the thief into it.
239. 33.5Sinlessness awaits paradise.
240. 33.6Orosius concludes.
241. 33.7Hate the heresy, not the heretic.