Faith And Foresight

An quisquam dicere audebit Deum non praescisse quibus esset daturus ut crederent, aut quos daturus esset Filio suo, ut ex eis non perderet quemquam? Quae utique si praescivit, profecto beneficia sua quibus nos dignatur liberare praescivit. Haec est praedestinatio sanctorum, nihil aliud: praescientia scilicet, et praeparatio beneficiorum Dei, quibus  certissime liberantur quicumque liberantur. Caeteri autem, ubi, nisi in massa perditionis justo divino judicio relinquuntur, ubi Tyrii relicti sunt et Sidonii, qui etiam credere potuerunt, si mira illa Christi signa vidissent: sed quoniam ut crederent non eis erat datum, etiam unde crederent est negatum. Qui isitis resistunt, hoc sentire aperissime probantur, quod fides non sit donum Dei; et quod gratia non praeveniat liberum arbitirium, sed sequatur; et quod gratia Dei secundum merita nostra detur. Nam si aliquid conferri homini per gratiam confitentur, et id non accipit nisi fides, quae accepta non est; in ipsa est meritum, cui non donum datur, sed debitum redditur. In hac sententia positi, consequenter sapiunt eos esse praedestinatos in vitam aeternam, quos per liberae voluntatis arbitrium fideles futuros praescierit Deus; ut ipsa electorum praedestinatio non sit nisi retributio: atque ita in his qui praedestinati sunt secundum propositum ejus qui universa operatur, non operetur Deus fidem; nec ulla sint hominis merita, si Deus operatur universa. Vere qui ista sentiunt, fidem non acceperunt, aut quam acceperant perdiderunt, sequendo vanissimam Pelagianorum superbiam, et in se, non in Domino, gloriando, qui operantur omnia in omnibus, bona profecto, non mala: et si omnia bona, utique et fidem, sine qua nemo potest placere, et quae est virtutum omnium fundamentum. Quale est autem, ut cum Dei sit aedificatio, et nisi Dominus aedificaverit domum, in vanum laborent qui aedificant eam; aut nolint isti fundamentum ad aedificium pertinere, aut se velint inchoare quod Dominus possit exstruere? Non erit ergo illis principium Filius Dei, non fundabuntur in ipso angulari lapide Christo Jesu, nec de eis dictum: Firmum autem fundamentum Dei stat: quia totam electionem suam solubili arenae et succiduo cineri superponunt. Agnoscamus itaque sapienter, pieque fateamur, praescisse incommutabiliter Deum quibus esset daturus ut crederent, aut quos daturus esset Filio suo, ut ex eis non perderet quemquam: et si haec praescivit, beneficia sua illum quibus nos dignatur liberare praescisse: et hanc esse praedestinationem sanctorum, praescientiam scilicet et praeparationem gratiae Dei, qua certissime liberantur. Caeteros autem quicumque non liberantur, quos a generali perditione humani generis gratia non exemit, justo noverimus judicio non exemptos: et quid nobis remissum sit, in eis discamus de quorum queri damnatione non possumus. Non est enim iniquitas apud Deum, neque quisquam sub judicio ejus innocens perit. Sicut enim hic ipse insignis gratiae praedicator alibi ait: Reddit omnino Deus et mala et malis, quoniam justus; et bona pro malis, quoniam bonus est; et bona pro bonis, quoniam justus et bonus est: tantummodo mala pro bonis non reddit, quoniam injustus non est. Reddit ergo mala pro malis, poenam pro injustitia; et reddit bona pro malis, gratiam pro injustitia;et eddit bona pro bonis, gratiam pro gratia. Cum aliqui pereunt, non dubitemus ipsorum meritis deputari quod pereunt; quos utique posset Deus misericorditer liberare, si vellet. Et cum aliqui liberantur, non audeamus definire, quod digni fuerint liberari; quos utique posset Deus juste damnare, si vellet. Quare autem non omnes, aut quare illos potius quam illos liberet, nec necessarium est quaerere, nec possible reperire; cum, omissis discretionis istius causis, scire sufficat quod nec misericordia justitiam, nec justitia auferat misericordiam apud  eum a quo nemo nisi juste damnatur, nemo nisi misericorditer liberatur. De Tyriis vero et Sidoniis quid aliud possumus dicere, quam non esse eis datum ut crederent, quos etiam credituros fuisse ipsa Veritas dicit, si talia qualia apud non credentes facta sunt virtutum signa vidissent? Quare autem hoc eis negatum fuerit, dicant, si possunt, qui calumniantur: et ostendant cur apud eos Dominus mirabilia, quibus profutura non erant, fecerit, et apud eos quibus erant profutura non fecerit. Nos etiam si rationem facti, et profunditatem judicii ejus penetrare non possumus, manifestissime tamen scimus, et verum esse quod dixit, et justum esse quod fecit; et non solum Tyrios et Sidonios, sed etiam Corozain et Bethsaida potuisse converti, et fideles ex infidelibus fieri, si hoc in eis Dominus voluisset operari. Neque enim ulli falsum videri potest quod Veritas ait: Nemo potest venire ad me, nisi fuerit ei datum a Patre meo; et: Vobis datum est nosse mysterium regni coelorum, illis autem non est datum; et, Nemo novit Filium, nisi Pater, neque Patrem quis novit, nisi Filius, et cui voluerit Filius revelare; et, Sicut Pater vivificat mortuous, ita et Filius quos vult vivificat: et, Nemo potest dicere Dominum Jesum, nisi in Spiritu sancto. His divinarum vocum auctoritatibus eruditi gratias agamus Deo, qui dedit nobis spiritum fidei et virtutis, continentiae et charitatis, sapientiae et intellectus, consilii et fortitudinis, scientiae et pietatis, ac timoris sui. Quae bona si non dedisset nobis, qui omnia operatur in omnibus, prorsus non haberemus in nobis: et cum his, qui non cognoverunt Dominum, aut cum cognovissent, non sicut Deum glorificaverunt, aut gratias egerunt, sed hoc ipsum suae sapientiae, deputantes stulti facti, et obscurato corde evanureunt in cogitationibus suis; cum his, inquam, sederemus in tenebris et in umbra mortis, nec querelam habentes de poena, nec excusationem de ignorantia, nec praesidium de natura. Sanctus Prosperus Aquitanus, Pro Augustino Responsiones, Excerptum Octavum Source: Migne PL 51.196b-198c

But who will dare say that God has not foreseen to whom it shall be given to believe, or those who shall be given to His Son, that from them none will be lost? 1 And if He has foreseen, undoubtedly He has foreseen we whom he has deigned to liberate by his goodness. This is the predestination of the saints, nothing else, for obviously the foresight and preparation of the blessings of God will certainly liberate whom they will. But the rest, where are they, but left in the mass of the damned by the just and divine judgment, where Tyre and Sidon are left who were able to believe if they had seen the wondrous signs of Christ, 2 but because it was not given to them that they believe, so indeed that they believe was denied to them.' 3 He who opposes these things is most openly proved to think that faith is not a gift from God, and that grace does not come before free will, but follows it, and that the grace of God is given according to our merits. For if they admit that something is conveyed to a man by grace and he does not receive it unless with faith, which has not been received, in this is merit, which is thus not a gift given, but a debt fulfilled. Being placed in this understanding, it follows they think that those who are predestined to eternal life are those who by the judgement of their own free will God foresees as being faithful in the future, and so this predestination of the elect is nothing but a reward, but among those who will have men predestined according to the proposal of Him who does everything, God does not work faith, nor are there any merits of a man, if God does everything. Truly they who think these things, have not received the faith, or what they have received they have ruined, on which follows the utterly vain pride of the Pelagians, who glory in themselves, not in the Lord, He who works all things in everything, 4 good things, certainly, and not evil things, and if everything which is good, then faith, without which no one can be pleasing, 5 and which is the foundation of all the virtues. What is this but that there is a building of the Lord, and unless the Lord shall build the house, in vain they labour who build it? 6 Or that they are unwilling that it be the foundation of the building, or they wish themselves to begin what the Lord is able to build up? Therefore the Son of God will not be their beginning, nor shall there be established in them the corner stone of Jesus Christ, nor of them was it said, 'For the foundation of God stands firm.' 7 Let us wisely acknowledge and piously confess that God incomprehensibly foresees those to whom it shall be given to believe, or those who shall be given to His Son, that one from them not perish, and if He has foreseen this, He has foreseen us whom he has deigned to liberate by His goodness, and this is the predestination of the saints, the foresight and preparation of the blessings of God which will certainly liberate. And the others who are not liberated, who are not drawn out of the general ruin of the human race by grace, are not exempt from just judgement, and what to us is forgiven, in them we will learn, the damnation of whom we are not able to lament. For it is not iniquitous to God, 8 nor shall anyone innocent perish under His judgement. Since as the same preacher of manifest grace says elsewhere:'Certainly God returns evil for evil because He is just, and good for evil, because He is good, and good for good, because he is just and good; only evil for good He does not return, because that is unjust. Thus he returns evil for evil, punishment for injustice, and He returns good for evil, grace for unrighteousness, and He returns good for good, grace on grace.' 9 When some perish we should not scruple to think they it is because of their merits they perish, whom the merciful God is able to liberate should He so wish. And when others are liberated, we should not dare pronounce that they were worthy to be liberated, those whom God is able to rightly damn if He so wishes. Now why does He not liberate everyone, or why those ones and not those others, it is not necessary to enquire, or possible to find out. When we do not have knowledge of the causes, it is enough to know that neither mercy removes justice, nor justice mercy, with Him who damns no one but rightly and liberates none but mercifully. And now, concerning Tyre and Sidon what else can we say but that it was not given them to believe who indeed would have believed, as the Truth said, if they had seen such signs of power that were done among those who did not believe? Why was it denied to them, let them say, if they are able, who dispute, and let them show why the Lord performed his wonders among those who would not profit by them, and among those who would have profited He did not. Certainly we are not able to give reasons and to plumb the depths of His judgement. However, we do most manifestly know that it is true what He said and right what He did, and not only Tyre and Sidon but even Chorazin and Bethsaida would have been converted, being made faithful from unfaithfulness, if the Lord had wished to do such things among them. For to none can it seem false what the Truth said: 'No one is able to come to Me, unless it is given to him by the Father.' 10 And: 'It is given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom, but to them it is not given.' 11 And: 'No one knows the Son but the Father, nor the Father but the Son, and him to whom the Son wishes to reveal him.' 12 And: 'As the Father enlivens the dead, so the Son enlivens whom He wishes.' 13 And: 'No one is able to call Jesus Lord unless in the Holy Spirit.' 14 For the authority of these Divine voices the learned give thanks to God, He who gives to us the spirit of faith and virtue, of continence and charity, of wisdom and understanding, of prudence and fortitude, of knowledge and piety, and fear of Him. Which goods, if He has not given them to us, who works everything in everything, we certainly do not possess. And then with those who have not known the Lord, and when they have been aware, have not glorified Him, or given thanks, but by their own wisdom are adjudged to have been made fools, and in the darkness of heart pass away in their thoughts; 15 with those, I say, we sit in darkness and the shadow of death, not having arguments against punishment, nor excuses on account of ignorance, nor defence because of nature. Saint Prosper of Aquitaine, Answers For Augustine, The Eighth Excerpt 1 Jn 17.9 2 Mt 11.21 3 Aug, Predestination of the Saints 14.35 4 1 Cor 12.6 5 Hebr 11.6 6 Ps 126.1 7 2 Tim 2.19 8 2 Par 19.7 9 Aug On Grace And Free Will 23 10 Jn 6.66 11 Mt 13.10-11 12 Mt 11.27 13 Jn 5.21 14 1 Cor 12.3 15 Rom 1.21