Blessed Augustine of Hippo

A Treatise on the Predestination of the Saints

5th c.

Classic translation Public domain

Dogmatic & Doctrinal · English translation, 1890

Contents

• Title Page
• Book I
• Introduction
• Introduction (ii)
• To What Extent the Massilians Withdraw From the Pelagians
• Even the Beginning of Faith is of God’s Gift
• Continuation of the Preceding
• To Believe is to Think With Assent
• Presumption and Arrogance to Be Avoided
• Augustin Confesses That He Had Formerly Been in Error Concerning the Grace of…
• What Augustin Wrote to Simplicianus, the Successor of Ambrose, Bishop of Milan
• The Purpose of the Apostle in These Words
• It is God’s Grace Which Specially Distinguishes One Man From Another
• That Some Men Are Elected is of God’s Mercy
• Why the Apostle Said That We Are Justified by Faith and Not by Works
• The Effect of Divine Grace
• Why the Father Does Not Teach All That They May Come to Christ
• It is Believers That Are Taught of God
• Why the Gift of Faith is Not Given to All
• His Argument in His Letter Against Porphyry, as to Why the Gospel Came So Late…
• The Preceding Argument Applied to the Present Time
• In What Respects Predestination and Grace Differ
• Did God Promise the Good Works of the Nations and Not Their Faith, to Abraham?
• It is to Be Wondered at That Men Should Rather Trust to Their Own Weakness Than…
• God’s Promise is Sure
• Remarkable Illustrations of Grace and Predestination in Infants, and in Christ
• That No One is Judged According to What He Would Have Done If He Had Lived…
• Possibly the Baptized Infants Would Have Repented If They Had Lived, and the…
• Reference to Cyprian’s Treatise 'On the Mortality.'
• The Book of Wisdom Obtains in the Church the Authority of Canonical Scripture
• Cyprian’s Treatise 'On the Mortality.'
• God’s Dealing Does Not Depend Upon Any Contingent Merits of Men
• The Most Illustrious Instance of Predestination is Christ Jesus
• Christ Predestinated to Be the Son of God
• The Twofold Calling
• It is in the Power of Evil Men to Sin; But to Do This or That by Means of That…
• The Special Calling of the Elect is Not Because They Have Believed, But in…
• Election is for the Purpose of Holiness
• God Chose the Righteous; Not Those Whom He Foresaw as Being of Themselves, But…
• We Were Elected and Predestinated, Not Because We Were Going to Be Holy, But in…
• What is the View of the Pelagians, and What of the Semi-Pelagians, Concerning…
• The Beginning of Faith is God’s Gift
• Apostolic Testimony to the Beginning of Faith Being God’s Gift
• Further Apostolic Testimonies
• Old Testament Testimonies
• Conclusion
• A Treatise on the Gift of Perseverance.
• Title Page (i)
• Introduction (ii, 2)
• Of the Nature of the Perseverance Here Discoursed Of
• Faith is the Beginning of a Christian Man. Martyrdom for Christ’s Sake is His…
• God is Besought for It, Because It is His Gift
• Three Leading Points of the Pelagian Doctrine
• The Second Petition in the Lord’s Prayer
• The Third Petition. How Heaven and Earth Are Understood in the Lord’s Prayer
• The Fourth Petition
• The Fifth Petition. It is an Error of the Pelagians That the Righteous Are Free…
• When Perseverance is Granted to a Person, He Cannot But Persevere
• The Gift of Perseverance Can Be Obtained by Prayer
• Effect of Prayer for Perseverance
• Of His Own Will a Man Forsakes God, So That He is Deservedly Forsaken of Him
• Temptation the Condition of Man
• It is God’s Grace Both That Man Comes to Him, and That Man Does Not Depart From…
• Why God Willed That He Should Be Asked for That Which He Might Give Without…
• Why is Not Grace Given According to Merit?
• The Difficulty of the Distinction Made in the Choice of One and the Rejection…
• But Why Should One Be Punished More Than Another?
• Why Does God Mingle Those Who Will Persevere With Those Who Will Not?
• Ambrose on God’s Control Over Men’s Thoughts
• Instances of the Unsearchable Judgments of God
• It is an Absurdity to Say That the Dead Will Be Judged for Sins Which They…
• Why for the People of Tyre and Sidon, Who Would Have Believed, the Miracles…
• It May Be Objected That The People of Tyre and Sidon Might, If They Had Heard…
• God’s Ways, Both in Mercy and Judgment, Past Finding Out
• The Manicheans Do Not Receive All the Books of the Old Testament, and of the…
• Reference to the 'Retractations.'
• God’s Goodness and Righteousness Shown in All
• God’s True Grace Could Be Defended Even If There Were No Original Sin, as…
• Augustin Claims the Right to Grow in Knowledge
• Infants Are Not Judged According to That Which They Are Foreknown as Likely to…
• The Inscrutability of God’s Free Purposes
• God Gives Both Initiatory and Persevering Grace According to His Own Will
• The Doctrine of Predestination Not Opposed to the Advantage of Preaching
• What Predestination Is
• The Preaching of the Gospel and the Preaching of Predestination the Two Parts…
• Ears to Hear Are a Willingness to Obey
• Against the Preaching of Predestination the Same Objections May Be Alleged as…
• Prayer and Exhortation
• When the Truth Must Be Spoken, When Kept Back
• Predestination Defined as Only God’s Disposing of Events in His Foreknowledge
• The Adversaries Cannot Deny Predestination to Those Gifts of Grace Which They…
• Further Development of the Foregoing Argument
• Exhortation to Wisdom, Though Wisdom is God’s Gift
• Exhortation to Other Gifts of God in Like Manner
• A Man Who Does Not Persevere Fails by His Own Fault
• Predestination is Sometimes Signified Under the Name of Foreknowledge
• Practice of Cyprian and Ambrose
• Further References to Cyprian and Ambrose
• Obedience Not Discouraged by Preaching God’s Gifts
• Predestination Must Be Preached
• Previous Writings Anticipatively Refuted the Pelagian Heresy
• Augustin’s 'Confessions.'
• Beginning and End of Faith is of God
• Testimony of His Previous Writings and Letters
• God Gives Means as Well as End
• How Predestination Must Be Preached So as Not to Give Offence
• The Doctrine to Be Applied With Discrimination
• Offence to Be Avoided
• The Application to the Church in General
• Use of the Third Person Rather Than the Second
• Prayer to Be Inculcated, Nevertheless
• The Testimony of the Whole Church in Her Prayers
• In What Sense the Holy Spirit Solicits for Us, Crying, Abba, Father
• The Church’s Prayers Imply the Church’s Faith
• Recapitulation and Exhortation
• The Most Eminent Instance of Predestination is Christ Jesus
• Conclusion (lxx)