On the Predestination of the Saints — Book II

St. Augustine of Hippo

1. 0. Greeting
2. 1. [I.]— Of the Nature of the Perseverance Here Discoursed of.
3. 2. [II.]— Faith is the Beginning of a Christian Man. Martyrdom for Christ's Sake is His Best Ending.
4. 3. — God is Besought for It, Because It is His Gift.
5. 4. — Three Leading Points of the Pelagian Doctrine.
6. 5. — The Second Petition in the Lord's Prayer.
7. 6. [III.]— The Third Petition. How Heaven and Earth are Understood in the Lord's Prayer.
8. 7. [IV.]— The Fourth Petition.
9. 8. [V.]— The Fifth Petition. It is an Error of the Pelagians that the Righteous are Free from Sin.
10. 9. — When Perseverance is Granted to a Person, He Cannot But Persevere.
11. 10. [VI.]— The Gift of Perseverance Can Be Obtained by Prayer.
12. 11. — Effect of Prayer for Perseverance.
13. 12. — Of His Own Will a Man Forsakes God, So that He is Deservedly Forsaken of Him.
14. 13. [VII.]— Temptation the Condition of Man.
15. 14. — It is God's Grace Both that Man Comes to Him, and that Man Does Not Depart from Him.
16. 15. — Why God Willed that He Should Be Asked for that Which He Might Give Without Prayer.
17. 16. [VIII.]— Why is Not Grace Given According to Merit?
18. 17. — The Difficulty of the Distinction Made in the Choice of One and the Rejection of Another.
19. 18. — But Why Should One Be Punished More Than Another?
20. 19. — Why Does God Mingle Those Who Will Persevere with Those Who Will Not?
21. 20. — Ambrose on God's Control Over Men's Thoughts.
22. 21. [IX.]— Instances of the Unsearchable Judgments of God.
23. 22. — It is an Absurdity to Say that the Dead Will Be Judged for Sins Which They Would Have Committed If They Had Lived.
24. 23. — Why for the People of Tyre and Sidon, Who Would Have Believed, the Miracles Were Not Done Which Were Done in Other Places Which Did Not Believe.
25. 24. [X.]— It May Be Objected that The People of Tyre and Sidon Might, If They Had Heard, Have Believed, and Have Subsequently Lapsed from Their Faith.
26. 25. [XI.]— God's Ways, Both in Mercy and Judgment, Past Finding Out.
27. 26. — The Manicheans Do Not Receive All the Books of the Old Testament, and of the New Only Those that They Choose.
28. 27. — Reference to the Retractations.
29. 28. [XII.]— God's Goodness and Righteousness Shown in All.
30. 29. — God's True Grace Could Be Defended Even If There Were No Original Sin, as Pelagius Maintains.
31. 30. — Augustine Claims the Right to Grow in Knowledge.
32. 31. — Infants are Not Judged According to that Which They are Foreknown as Likely to Do If They Should Live.
33. 32. [XIII.]— The Inscrutability of God's Free Purposes.
34. 33. — God Gives Both Initiatory and Persevering Grace According to His Own Will.
35. 34. [XIV.]— The Doctrine of Predestination Not Opposed to the Advantage of Preaching.
36. 35. — What Predestination is.
37. 36. — The Preaching of the Gospel and the Preaching of Predestination the Two Parts of One Message.
38. 37. — Ears to Hear are a Willingness to Obey.
39. 38. [XV.]— Against the Preaching of Predestination the Same Objections May Be Alleged as Against Predestination.
40. 39. [XVI]— Prayer and Exhortation.
41. 40. — When the Truth Must Be Spoken, When Kept Back.
42. 41. — Predestination Defined as Only God's Disposing of Events in His Foreknowledge.
43. 42. — The Adversaries Cannot Deny Predestination to Those Gifts of Grace Which They Themselves Acknowledge, and Their Exhortations are Not Hindered by This Predestination Nevertheless.
44. 43. — Further Development of the Foregoing Argument.
45. 44. — Exhortation to Wisdom, Though Wisdom is God's Gift.
46. 45. — Exhortation to Other Gifts of God in Like Manner.
47. 46. — A Man Who Does Not Persevere Fails by His Own Fault.
48. 47. — Predestination is Sometimes Signified Under the Name of Foreknowledge.
49. 48. [XIX.]— Practice of Cyprian and Ambrose.
50. 49. — Further References to Cyprian and Ambrose.
51. 50. — Obedience Not Discouraged by Preaching God's Gifts.
52. 51. [XX.]— Predestination Must Be Preached.
53. 52. — Previous Writings Anticipatively Refuted the Pelagian Heresy.
54. 53. — Augustine's Confessions.
55. 54. [XXI.]— Beginning and End of Faith is of God.
56. 55. — Testimony of His Previous Writings and Letters.
57. 56. — God Gives Means as Well as End.
58. 57. [XXII.]— How Predestination Must Be Preached So as Not to Give Offence.
59. 58. — The Doctrine to Be Applied with Discrimination.
60. 59. — Offence to Be Avoided.
61. 60. — The Application to the Church in General.
62. 61. — Use of the Third Person Rather Than the Second.
63. 62. — Prayer to Be Inculcated, Nevertheless.
64. 63. [XXIII.]— The Testimony of the Whole Church in Her Prayers.
65. 64. — In What Sense the Holy Spirit Solicits for Us, Crying, Abba, Father.
66. 65. — The Church's Prayers Imply the Church's Faith.
67. 66. [XXIV.]— Recapitulation and Exhortation.
68. 67. — The Most Eminent Instance of Predestination is Christ Jesus.
69. 68. — Conclusion.

In the first part of the book he proves that the perseverance by which a man perseveres in Christ to the end is God's gift; for that it is a mockery to ask of God that which is not believed to be given by God. Moreover, that in the Lord's prayer scarcely anything is asked for but perseverance, according to the exposition of the martyr Cyprian, by which exposition the enemies to this grace were convicted before they were born. He teaches that the grace of perseverance is not given according to the merits of the receivers, but to some it is given by God's mercy; to others it is not given, by His righteous judgment. That it is inscrutable why, of adults, one rather than another should be called; just as, moreover, of two infants it is inscrutable why the one should be taken, the other left. But that it is still more inscrutable why, of two pious persons, to one it should be given to persevere, to the other it should not be given; but that this is most certain, that the former is of the predestinated, the latter is not. He observes that the mystery of predestination is set forth in our Lord's words concerning the people of Tyre and Sidon, who would have repented if the same miracles had been done among them which had been done in Chorazin. He shows that the case of infants is of force to confirm the truth of predestination and grace in older people; and he answers the passage of his third book on free will, unsoundly alleged on this point by his adversaries. Subsequently, in the second part of this work, he rebuts what they say — to wit, that the definition of predestination is opposed to the usefulness of exhortation and rebuke. He asserts, on the other hand, that it is advantageous to preach predestination, so that man may not glory in himself, but in the Lord. As to the objections, how ever, which they make against predestination, he shows that the same objections may be twisted in no unlike manner either against God's foreknowledge or against that grace which they all agree to be necessary for other good things (with the exception of the beginning of faith and the completion of perseverance). For that the predestination of the saints is nothing else than God's foreknowledge and preparation for His benefits, by which whoever are delivered are most certainly delivered. But he bids that predestination should be preached in a harmonious manner, and not in such a way as to seem to an unskilful multitude as if it were disproved by its very preaching. Lastly, he commends to us Jesus Christ, as placed before our eyes, as the most eminent instance of predestination.