“But this will, which is free in evil things because it takes pleasure in evil, is not free in good things, for the reason that it has not been made free. Nor can a man will any good thing unless he is aided by Him who cannot will evil,— that is, by the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord. For
everything which is not of faith is sin. And thus the good will which withdraws itself from sin is faithful, because the just lives by faith. And it pertains to faith to believe in Christ. And no man can believe in Christ— that is, come to Him— unless it be given to him. No man, therefore, can have a righteous will, unless, with no foregoing merits, he has received the true, that is, the gratuitous grace from above” (St. Augustine,
[III]Against Two Letters of the Pelagians).
“It must be understood, therefore, that the righteousness of the law is not fulfilled according to the righteousness which is in the law or of the law, that is, according to the righteousness of man, but according to the righteousness which is in the Spirit of grace, therefore according to the righteousness of God, that is, which man has from God. Which may be thus more clearly and briefly stated: That the righteousness of the law is not fulfilled when the law commands, and man as it were of his own strength obeys; but when the Spirit aids, and man’s free will,
but freed by the grace of God, performs” (St. Augustine,
[VII]Against Two Letters of the Pelagians).
“The free will taken captive does not avail, except for sin; but for righteousness, unless divinely set free and aided, it does not avail. And thus, also, all the saints, whether from that ancient Abel to John the Baptist, or from the apostles themselves up to this time, and henceforth even to the end of the world, are to be praised in the Lord, not in themselves. Because the voice, even of those earlier ones, is,
In the Lord shall my soul be praised. And the voice of the later ones is,
By the grace of God I am what I am. And to all belongs,
That he that glories may glory in the Lord” (St. Augustine,
[VIII]Against Two Letters of the Pelagians).
“But those who do not belong to this number of the predestinated, whom— whether that they have not yet any free choice of their will, or with a choice of will truly free, because freed by grace itself— the grace of God brings to His kingdom,— those, then, who do not belong to that most certain and blessed number, are most righteously judged according to their deservings. For either they lie under the sin which they have inherited by original generation, and depart hence with that inherited debt which is not put away by regeneration, or by their free will have added other sins besides; their will, I say,
free, but not
freed,— free from righteousness, but enslaved to sin, by which they are tossed about by various mischievous lusts, some more evil, some less, but all evil; and they must be adjudged to diverse punishments, according to that very diversity. Or they receive the grace of God, but they are only for a season, and do not persevere; they forsake and are forsaken. For by their free will, as they have not received the gift of perseverance, they are sent away by the righteous and hidden judgment of God” (St. Augustine,
On Rebuke and Grace).
“This is the reason why he said to you, ‘Turn not aside to the right hand, nor to the left;’ in other words, do not uphold free will in such wise as to attribute good works to it without the grace of God, nor so defend and maintain grace as if, by reason of it, you may love evil works in security and safety,–which may God’s grace itself avert from you!” (St. Augustine,
Letter 215).
“He proceeds to say: ‘As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can you, except ye abide in me.’ A great encomium on grace, my brethren,— one that will instruct the souls of the humble, and stop the mouths of the proud. Let those now answer it, if they dare, who, ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. Let the self-complacent answer it, who think they have no need of God for the performance of good works. Fight they not against such a truth, those men of corrupt mind, reprobate concerning the faith, whose reply is only full of impious talk, when they say: It is of God that we have our existence as men, but it is of ourselves that we are righteous? What is it you say, you who deceive yourselves, and, instead of establishing freewill, cast it headlong down from the heights of its self-elevation through the empty regions of presumption into the depths of an ocean grave? Why, your assertion that man of himself works righteousness,
that is the height of your self-elation. But the Truth contradicts you, and declares, The branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine. Away with you now over your giddy precipices, and, without a spot whereon to take your stand, vapor away at your windy talk. These are the empty regions of your presumption. But look well at what is tracking your steps, and, if you have any sense remaining, let your hair stand on end. For whoever imagines that he is bearing fruit of himself is not in the vine, and he that is not in the vine is not in Christ, and he that is not in Christ is not a Christian. Such are the ocean depths into which you have plunged” (St. Augustine,
The Gospel of John, Tractate 53).
we agree as to what the end result will be. bc of what we know is true.
Unfortunately, too many Catholics unwittingly fall into the error of Arminianism when talking about predestination and free will.