Blessed Augustine of Hippo

A Treatise on Nature and Grace

5th c.

Classic translation Public domain

Dogmatic & Doctrinal · English translation, 1890

Contents

• Title Page
• Extract From Augustin’s Retractations
• Note on the Following Work
• Argument
• The Occasion of Publishing This Work; What God’s Righteousness Is
• Faith in Christ Not Necessary to Salvation, If a Man Without It Can Lead a…
• Nature Was Created Sound and Whole; It Was Afterwards Corrupted by Sin
• Free Grace
• It Was a Matter of Justice That All Should Be Condemned
• The Pelagians Have Very Strong and Active Minds
• He Proceeds to Confute the Work of Pelagius; He Refrains as Yet From Mentioning…
• A Distinction Drawn by Pelagius Between the Possible and Actual
• Even They Who Were Not Able to Be Justified Are Condemned
• He Could Not Be Justified, Who Had Not Heard of the Name of Christ; Rendering…
• Grace Subtly Acknowledged by Pelagius
• In Our Discussions About Grace, We Do Not Speak of That Which Relates to the…
• The Scope and Purpose of the Law’s Threatenings; 'Perfect Wayfarers.'
• Refutation of Pelagius
• Not Everything [Of Doctrinal Truth] is Written in Scripture in So Many Words
• Pelagius Corrupts a Passage of the Apostle James by Adding a Note of…
• Explanation of This Text Continued
• Who May Be Said to Be in the Flesh
• Sins of Ignorance; To Whom Wisdom is Given by God on Their Requesting It
• What Prayer Pelagius Would Admit to Be Necessary
• Pelagius Denies That Human Nature Has Been Depraved or Corrupted by Sin
• How Our Nature Could Be Vitiated by Sin, Even Though It Be Not a Substance
• Adam Delivered by the Mercy of Christ
• Sin and the Penalty of Sin the Same
• God Forsakes Only Those Who Deserve to Be Forsaken. We Are Sufficient of…
• Christ Died of His Own Power and Choice
• Even Evils, Through God’s Mercy, Are of Use
• The Disposition of Nearly All Who Go Astray. With Some Heretics Our Business…
• A Simile to Show That God’s Grace is Necessary for Doing Any Good Work…
• Sin is Removed by Sin
• The Order and Process of Healing Our Heavenly Physician Does Not Adopt From the…
• God Forsakes Us to Some Extent That We May Not Grow Proud
• Not Every Sin is Pride. How Pride is the Commencement of Every Sin
• A Man’s Sin is His Own, But He Needs Grace for His Cure
• Why God Does Not Immediately Cure Pride Itself. The Secret and Insidious Growth…
• Pride Even in Such Things as Are Done Aright Must Be Avoided. Free Will is Not…
• Being Wholly Without Sin Does Not Put Man on an Equality With God
• We Must Not Lie, Even for the Sake of Moderation. The Praise of Humility Must…
• Pelagius Glorifies God as Creator at the Expense of God as Saviour
• Why There is a Record in Scripture of Certain Men’s Sins, Recklessness in Sin…
• Whether Holy Men Have Died Without Sin
• The Blessed Virgin Mary May Have Lived Without Sin. None of the Saints Besides…
• Why Scripture Has Not Mentioned the Sins of All
• Pelagius Argues That Abel Was Sinless
• Why Cain Has Been by Some Thought to Have Had Children by His Mother Eve. The…
• Shall We Follow Scripture, or Add to Its Declarations?
• For What Pelagius Thought That Christ is Necessary to Us
• How the Term ‘All’ Is to Be Understood
• A Man Can Be Sinless, But Only by the Help of Grace. In the Saints This…
• God Commands No Impossibilities
• State of the Question Between the Pelagians and the Catholics. Holy Men of Old…
• The Whole Discussion is About Grace
• Pelagius Distinguishes Between a Power and Its Use
• There is No Incompatibility Between Necessity and Free Will
• The Same Continued
• The Assistance of Grace in a Perfect Nature
• It Does Not Detract From God’s Almighty Power, That He is Incapable of Either…
• Even Pious and God-Fearing Men Resist Grace
• In What Sense Pelagius Attributed to God’s Grace the Capacity of Not Sinning
• Pelagius Admits ‘Contrary Flesh’ In the Unbaptized
• Paul Asserts That the Flesh is Contrary Even in the Baptized
• Concerning What Grace of God is Here Under Discussion. The Ungodly Man, When…
• Does God Create Contraries?
• Pelagius’ Admission as Regards the Unbaptized, Fatal
• 'This Body of Death,' So Called From Its Defect, Not From Its Substance
• The Works, Not the Substance, of the 'Flesh' Opposed to the 'Spirit.'
• Who May Be Said to Be Under the Law
• Despite the Devil, Man May, by God’s Help, Be Perfected
• Pelagius Puts Nature in the Place of Grace
• Whether Any Man is Without Sin in This Life
• Augustin Replies Against the Quotations Which Pelagius Had Advanced Out of the…
• Hilary. The Pure in Heart Blessed. The Doing and Perfecting of Righteousness
• He Meets Pelagius With Another Passage From Hilary
• Ambrose
• Augustin Adduces in Reply Some Other Passages of Ambrose
• John of Constantinople
• Xystus
• Jerome
• A Certain Necessity of Sinning
• Augustin Himself. Two Methods Whereby Sins, Like Diseases, Are Guarded Against
• Augustin Quotes Himself on Free Will
• How to Exhort Men to Faith, Repentance, and Advancement
• God Enjoins No Impossibility, Because All Things Are Possible and Easy to Love
• The Degrees of Love Are Also Degrees of Holiness