Sin And Freedom

Caput XI Objectio: Quod per potentiam Deus homines ad peccata compellat. Responsio: Nullus catholicorum dixit aut dicit, quod Deus homines pie recteque viventes, per potentiam in peccata compellat, et innocentiae humanae potestas divina vim faciat, ut eam a proposito bonae conversationis excutiat. Non sunt Dei opera ista, sed diaboli; cujus gaudium est ruina sanctorum: sed allevat Dominus omnes qui corrunt, et erigit omnes elisos; quibus dat poenitentiam, ut resipiscant a diaboli laqueis, a quo captivi tenebantur ad ipsius voluntatem. Cum vero aliquos a Deo aut traditos suis, aut obduratos legimus aut relictos; magnis peccatis suis hoc ipsos meruisse profitemur: quia talia eorum crimina praecesserunt, ut ipsi sibi poenas debuerint, quae eis etiam supplicium verterent in reatum. Atque ita nec de judicio Dei querimur, quo deserit meritos deseri; et misericordiae ejus gratis agimus, qua liberat non meritos liberari. Sanctus Prosperus Aquitanus, Pro Augustino Responsiones ad Capitula Calumiatum Gallorum, Caput XI Source: Migne PL 51.166c-167a

Chapter 11 Objection: God by His power may drive men to sin. Response: No one who is Catholic has said or does say that God by His power drives men who live piously and uprightly to sin, and makes the Divine power so strong against human innocence that He cuts it off from the state of good conduct. The works of God are not so, but they are of the devil, whose joy is the ruin of the holy. But rather God lifts up those who fall and He helps to stand all who have been cast down, 1 giving to them penitence that they be more aware of the snares of the devil by which he held them in darkness at his pleasure. 2 And when we read that they have been handed over to their desires by God 3 or made obdurate, we reckon that it is on account of their own grave sins that they merited this, because having done such evil, the penance that they should have performed, they turned in their guilt to punishment. Thus we do not dispute the judgement of God, by which He forsakes those who deserve to be abandoned, but we give thanks for His mercy by which he liberates those not worthy to be freed. Saint Prosper of Aquitaine, Answers For Augustine Against the Chapters of the Fault Finding Gauls, Chapter 11 1 Psalm 144.14 2 2 Tim 2.25-26 3 Rom 1.24