Outline.
3. The Will.
1. Predestination. Return to Outline.
Prosper of Aquitaine (c. 390-455 A.D.):
…the predestination of the saints is nothing else but the foreknowledge and the preparation of God’s grace by which He saves them without fail.
(Prosper of Aquitaine, Answers to the Extracts of the Genoese, Excerpt 8; PL, 51:197; trans. ACW, 32:63.)
Prosper of Aquitaine (c. 390-455 A.D.):
We know well that God created each and every man, and that of the whole human race some will be reprobate with the devil, others will reign with Christ. But the Creator is not to be blamed because He created those also who will fail to attain to eternal life, for He is the author of nature but not of the sin which nature has contracted.
(Prosper of Aquitaine, Answers to the Objections of the Gauls, Pt. 1, Art. 13; PL, 51:168; trans. ACW, 32:153.)
Prosper of Aquitaine (c. 390-455 A.D.):
…God in His unchanging prescience has foreknown to whom He would give to believe or whom He would give to His Son that He might lose no one of them, and that, if He foreknew this, He also foreknew by what gifts He would deign to work our salvation; that the predestination of the saints is nothing else but the foreknowledge and the preparation of God’s grace by which He saves them without fail. As to all the others who are not saved nor rescued by grace from the universal fall of the human race, let us acknowledge that it is by a just decree of God that they are not delivered. And let us learn from the misfortune of the reprobate, of whose damnation we have no right to complain, what is the guilt we ourselves have been forgiven. For there is no iniquity with God, nor does anyone under so just a judge ever perish without guilt. …When we know that some are reprobate, we should not hesitate to attribute their reprobation to their own fault, though, of course, God could have saved them in His mercy had He been pleased to do so. When we see that others are saved, we should not make bold to say that they were worthy of salvation, since of course God could have condemned them in justice had He so chosen. But the reason why He does not save all or saves some in preference to others, there is no need for us to inquire, nor is it possible for us to find out. Without considering the reason of that discrimination, it should be enough for us to know that mercy does not do away with justice, nor justice with mercy, in Him who condemns no one except in justice and saves no one except through mercy. As for the people of Tyre and Sidon, what else can we say than that they were not given to have the faith? The Lord, Truth Itself, says of them that they would have believed if they had been given to see the miracles that had been wrought in other towns which remained in unbelief. Why they were refused that gift, let our cavilers say if they can; let them explain why the Lord worked miracles before people who would not profit by them and did not work them before others who would have profited. We on our part, though we cannot fathom the reason of God’s action nor the depth of His decree, yet know for certain that what He has said is true and what He has done is right, that not only the people of Tyre and Sidon but those also of Corozain and Bethsaida could have been converted and have come from unbelief to faith had God been pleased to work this change in their hearts.
(Prosper of Aquitaine, Answers to the Extracts of the Genoese, Excerpt 8; PL, 51:197-198; trans. ACW, 32:63-64.)
Full Text. Prosper of Aquitaine (c. 390-455 A.D.):
Those who refuse to admit this show clearly that they think that faith is not a gift of God, that grace does not precede but follows free will, that God’s grace is given in answer to our merits. For if they agree to say that grace is a gift of God to man, and that man receives it only because of his faith which itself he did not receive as a gift, then faith contains a merit and what is given for it is rendered as a reward, not granted as a gift. Those who hold this view must logically say that the predestined for eternal life are they whom God foreknew would come to the faith of their own free will, that the predestination of the saints is only a recompense, that it is not God who produces faith in those who are predestined according to the decree of Him who works all things, that finally men cannot have any merits of their own if it is God that works in them everything. Of a truth, those who hold such opinions have not received the faith, or have lost the faith they had received and follow the proud error of the Pelagians: they glory in themselves, not in the Lord who worketh all in all, that is, of course, all good things, not the evil ones; and if all good things, then certainly faith also, without which no one can please God and which is the foundation of all virtues. But what sort of foundation is it if, though it is God who constructs the building and unless the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it, they yet refuse to say that the foundation is part of the building, or they wish to start themselves the building which the Lord should raise further? For then the Son of God is not for them the beginning of salvation, nor will they be established on the very cornerstone, Christ Jesus, nor do the words apply to them, The sure foundation of God standeth firm; for they construct their entire system of election on shifting sand and fleeting dust.
Let us, then, follow true wisdom and godliness and confess that God in His unchanging prescience has foreknown to whom He would give to believe or whom He would give to His Son that He might lose no one of them, and that, if He foreknew this, He also foreknew by what gifts He would deign to work our salvation; that the predestination of the saints is nothing else but the foreknowledge and the preparation of God’s grace by which He saves them without fail. As to all the others who are not saved nor rescued by grace from the universal fall of the human race, let us acknowledge that it is by a just decree of God that they are not delivered. And let us learn from the misfortune of the reprobate, of whose damnation we have no right to complain, what is the guilt we ourselves have been forgiven. For there is no iniquity with God, nor does anyone under so just a judge ever perish without guilt. For as Augustine, our eminent doctor of grace, says in another of his works: “God renders evil for evil because He is just, and good for evil because He is good, and good for good because He is both just and good; but evil for good He never returns, because He is not unjust. He renders evil for evil, that is, punishment for guilt; good for evil, that is, grace for guilt; good for good, that is, grace for grace.” When we know that some are reprobate, we should not hesitate to attribute their reprobation to their own fault, though, of course, God could have saved them in His mercy had He been pleased to do so. When we see that others are saved, we should not make bold to say that they were worthy of salvation, since of course God could have condemned them in justice had He so chosen. But the reason why He does not save all or saves some in preference to others, there is no need for us to inquire, nor is it possible for us to find out. Without considering the reason of that discrimination, it should be enough for us to know that mercy does not do away with justice, nor justice with mercy, in Him who condemns no one except in justice and saves no one except through mercy.
As for the people of Tyre and Sidon, what else can we say than that they were not given to have the faith? The Lord, Truth Itself, says of them that they would have believed if they had been given to see the miracles that had been wrought in other towns which remained in unbelief. Why they were refused that gift, let our cavilers say if they can; let them explain why the Lord worked miracles before people who would not profit by them and did not work them before others who would have profited. We on our part, though we cannot fathom the reason of God’s action nor the depth of His decree, yet know for certain that what He has said is true and what He has done is right, that not only the people of Tyre and Sidon but those also of Corozain and Bethsaida could have been converted and have come from unbelief to faith had God been pleased to work this change in their hearts. No one can suspect of falsehood what Truth itself says: No man can come to me, unless it be given him by my Father. And: To you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. And: No one knoweth the Father but the Son and he to whom it shall please the Son to reveal Him. And: As the Father raiseth from the dead . . . so the Son also giveth life to whom He will. And: No man can say “the Lord Jesus” but by the Holy Ghost.
Instructed by these texts of Holy Scripture, let us give thanks to God, who has granted us the spirit of faith and virtue, of continence and charity, of wisdom and understanding, of counsel and fortitude, of knowledge and godliness, and of His fear. Had not He who worketh all in all given us these, we should not have any of them, we should be sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death together with them who knew not God or when they knew Him, have not glorified Him as God or given thanks, but ascribing that knowledge to their own wisdom, became fools; their hearts darkened, they became vain in their thoughts. Yet, even in that miserable state we should not be justified in complaining of this punishment nor in giving excuses for this ignorance, nor should we find any remedy for it in our fallen nature.
(Prosper of Aquitaine, Answers to the Extracts of the Genoese, Excerpt 8; PL, 51:196-198; trans. ACW, 32:62-65.)
2. Faith is a Gift. Return to Outline.
Prosper of Aquitaine (c. 390-455 A.D.):
Those who refuse to admit this show clearly that they think that faith is not a gift of God, that grace does not precede but follows free will, that God’s grace is given in answer to our merits. For if they agree to say that grace is a gift of God to man, and that man receives it only because of his faith which itself he did not receive as a gift, then faith contains a merit and what is given for it is rendered as a reward, not granted as a gift.
(Prosper of Aquitaine, Answers to the Extracts of the Genoese, Excerpt 8; PL, 51:196; trans. ACW, 32:62.)
Cf. Prosper of Aquitaine (c. 390-455 A.D.):
Is it not true that the will is prepared by the Lord? Are not whosoever are led by the Spirit of God . . . the sons of God? Is it nature that makes men different from one another, or is it not rather grace that differentiates a believer from an unbeliever? Can anyone say he has anything which he has not received, and glory in it as in his own as though he had not received it? Is there any doubt that when the gospel is preached, some people believe of their own free will, while others of their own free will refuse to believe? But since it is God who opens the hearts of the first and closes the hearts of the second, we must distinguish between what comes from His mercy and what comes from His justice.
(Prosper of Aquitaine, Answers to the Extracts of the Genoese, Excerpt 4; PL, 51:192; trans. ACW, 32:55.)
Prosper of Aquitaine (c. 390-455 A.D.):
But as to faith and works of charity and final perseverance, because these are bestowed on man through God’s grace, one must acknowledge that both they and their reward have been predestined, on the authority of St. Paul, who says: By grace are you saved through faith: and that not of yourselves, for it is the gift of God; not of works, that no man may glory. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus in good works, which God hath prepared that we should walk in them. It is, therefore, as erroneous to attribute the unbelief of the godless to God’s disposition as it is not to confess that God is the author of the faith and the righteousness of the faithful.
(Prosper of Aquitaine, Answers to the Objections of the Gauls, Pt. 1, Art. 14; PL, 51:169-170; trans. ACW, 32:155.)
Prosper of Aquitaine (c. 390-455 A.D.):
One who does not admit this, what opinion does he hold but that of the Pelagians: the faith that makes me just, I have of my own; this excellent gift by which the just man liveth, I did not receive from God’s grace, I possess it by nature? But if faith is not a gift of God, then it is senseless for the Church to pray for unbelievers that they may believe, it is enough to teach them the law, of which yet St. Paul has written: If justice be by the law, then Christ died in vain; and the same can be said of nature. It is meaningless for the Apostle to give thanks to God for those who accepted the preaching of the gospel, since, according to the Pelagians, their faith is not a gift of God but a fruit of their own will; meaningless also for him to pray for people that they may have peace and charity: the pride of heretics drives them to say not only of faith but also of peace and charity that men have these virtues of their own. But if these virtues are of human origin, what prevents one from saying that other lesser gifts came from the same source, when he is bold enough to ascribe to men the highest gifts, those without which other virtues, however many and however excellent they may be, can serve no purpose?
There is, then, no valid objection against Augustine’s statement: “Accordingly, faith both in its beginning and in its perfection is a gift of God.” The Apostle says exactly the same: By grace you are saved through faith; and not of yourselves, for it is the gift of God; not of works, that no man may glory. And: Unto you it is given for Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for Him. And again: Let us run by patience to the fight proposed to us, looking on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. These and a host of other texts of Holy Scripture show beyond any doubt that, as Augustine stated, “faith both in its beginning and in its perfection is a gift of God. No one can doubt, without contradicting the most evident texts of Holy Scripture, that this gift is bestowed on some and is not given to others.” We might be led to think that this is not so if all men did have the faith. But when it is clear that some believe and others do not, and when the Apostle says: All men have not faith, who could fail to see that the faith which was given to those who have it was not given to those who are without it?
(Prosper of Aquitaine, Answers to the Extracts of the Genoese, Excerpt 5; PL, 51:193-194; trans. ACW, 32:56-58.)
3. The Will. Return to Outline.
Prosper of Aquitaine (c. 390-455 A.D.):
God it is who draws to His Son those whom He calls; He does not compel them by force against their will, but He makes them willing from unwilling and by all sorts of ways overcomes the resistance of their unbelief. When the desire of submitting to God has been born in their hearts, those who hear Him rise up with the very will which first kept them down; they learn with the same mind which first was ignorant; they trust with the same heart which first felt diffident; they desire good with the same will which first was unwilling.
(Prosper of Aquitaine, On Grace and Free Will, Against Cassian the Lecturer, 3.1; PL, 51:222; trans. ACW, 32:77.)
Prosper of Aquitaine (c. 390-455 A.D.):
Objection: By God’s predestination men are compelled to sin and driven to death by a sort of fatal necessity.
Answer: No Christian who is a Catholic denies God’s predestination. But fatalism many, even non-Christians, reject. Sin, indeed, leads to death, but God compels no one to sin. For He hath commanded no man to do wicked. And: Thou hatest, Lord, all the workers of iniquity; thou wilt destroy all that speak a lie. Accordingly, one who preaches fatalism under cover of predestination is no less worthy of disapproval than one who censures predestination on the plea of fatalism. Fatalism as a theory is groundless and born from falsehood. But faith in predestination is based on many texts of Holy Scripture. And it is altogether wrong to attribute to predestination the evil deeds of men. Their propensity to evil does not come from God’s creation but from the sin of their first parent. And no one is freed from the punishment of this sin except by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was prepared and predestined in God’s eternal design before the creation of the world.
(Prosper of Aquitaine, Answers to the Objections of the Gauls, Pt. 1, Art. 1; PL, 51:157; trans. ACW, 32:140.)
Prosper of Aquitaine (c. 390-455 A.D.):
It is easy for the wicked to conceive an evil design, and it is beyond doubt that God’s power so keeps their evil will within certain limits that they are unable to get what they covet without God’s permission. No one ever so little instructed in religious doctrine but knows that God’s wisdom and justice make use even of the evil works they do with an evil intention to achieve His own designs and decrees, when he sees that the most merciful will of God the Father who did not spare even His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, was carried out by the wicked will of the traitor Judas and of the Jews, and when he reads in the Gospel that when Pilate said to Jesus: Speakest thou not to me? Knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and I have power to release thee? our Lord answered: Thou shouldst not have any power against me, unless it were given thee from above.
Accordingly, God governs light and darkness. Darkness is not without guilt because God makes use of it for a good purpose and disposes that even the works of darkness should result in the good of the sons of light, allowing the wickedness of men bent on doing them harm to the exact extent that He knows it will be helpful to chastise or to test His saints. And so, even when they go against God’s will, they yet fulfil that very will.
(Prosper of Aquitaine, Answers to the Extracts of the Genoese, Excerpt 7; PL, 51:195-196; trans. ACW, 32:60-61.)
4. Particular Redemption. Return to Outline.
Prosper of Aquitaine (c. 390-455 A.D.):
…one who is not crucified in Christ cannot be saved by the cross of Christ; and he who is not a member of the Body of Christ is not crucified in Christ. And he is not a member of the Body of Christ who does not put on Christ through water and the Holy Spirit. For Christ in the weakness of our flesh underwent the common lot of death, that we by virtue of His death be made partakers of His resurrection.
Accordingly, though it is right to say that the Saviour was crucified for the redemption of the entire world, because He truly took our human nature and because all men were lost in the first man, yet it may also be said that He was crucified only for those who were to profit by His death. For St. John the Evangelist says: Jesus should die for the nation, and not only for the nation, but to gather together in one the children of God that were dispersed. He came unto His own, and His own received Him not. But as many as received Him, He gave them power to be made sons of God, to them who are born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. Their condition, therefore, is different from that of men counted among those of whom he said: The world knew Him not.
(Prosper of Aquitaine, Answers to the Objections of the Gauls, Pt. 1, Art. 9; PL, 51:165; trans. ACW, 32:150.)
Prosper of Aquitaine (c. 390-455 A.D.):
Therefore, insofar as it concerns the magnitude and power of the price—and as it pertains to the one cause of the human race—the blood of Christ is the redemption of the whole world; but those who pass through this age without the faith of Christ and without the sacrament of regeneration are alien to redemption. Therefore, since—on account of the one nature of all and the one cause of all, truly assumed by our Lord—all are rightly said to be redeemed, and yet not all have been drawn out from captivity, the property of redemption is without doubt in the possession of those from whom the prince of this world has been sent out, and who are now no longer vessels of the devil, but are members of Christ. Whose death was not so bestowed upon the human race that even those who were not to be regenerated would belong to his redemption, but in such a way that what was accomplished as a single example for all should be celebrated through a singular sacrament in individuals. For the cup of immortality, which is composed of our infirmity and divine power, indeed contains within itself that which benefits all; but if it is not drunk, no healing is wrought.
[Quod ergo ad magnitudinem et potentiam pretii, et quod ad unam pertinet causam generis humani, sanguis Christi redemptio est totius mundi. Sed qui hoc saeculum sine fide Christi et sine regenerationis sacramento pertranseunt, redemptionis alieni sunt. Cum itaque propter unam omnium naturam, et unam omnium causam a Domino nostro in veritate susceptam, recte omnes dicantur redempti, et tamen non omnes a captivitate sint eruti; redemptionis proprietas haud dubie penes illos est, de quibus princeps mundi missus est foras, et jam non vasa diaboli, sed membra sunt Christi. Cujus mors non ita impensa est humano generi, ut ad redemptionem ejus etiam qui regenerandi non erant pertinerint; sed ita, ut quod per unicum exemplum gestum est pro universis, per singulare sacramentum celebraretur in singulis. Poculum quippe immortalitatis, quod confectum est de infirmita e nostra et virtute divina, habet quidem in se ut omnibus prosit; sed si non bibitur, non medetur.]
(S. Prosperi Aquitani, Pro Augustino Responsiones ad Capitula Objectionum Vincentianarum, Liber Responsionum, Capitulum Primum; PL, 51:177-179. Cf. ACW, 32:164—I have not used the ACW translation as the Roman Catholic Jesuit translator has taken too many interpretative liberties with Prosper’s original wording here.)
Cf. Prosper of Aquitaine (c. 390-455 A.D.):
It is true, therefore, that God takes care of all men and that there is no one to whom either the preaching of the gospel or the commandments of the law or the voice of nature does not transmit God’s call. The unbelief of some we must ascribe to men themselves, and the faith of others we must proclaim to be a gift of God, without whose grace no one comes to grace.
(Prosper of Aquitaine, Answers to the Objections of the Gauls, Pt. 1, Art. 8; PL, 51:164; trans. ACW, 32:148.)
καὶ αὐτός ἐστιν πρὸ πάντων καὶ τὰ πάντα ἐν αὐτῷ συνέστηκεν ~ Soli Deo Gloria
No comments:
Post a Comment