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AND THEIR REFUTATION. 161
REFUTATION VI.
OF THE SEMIPELAGIAN HERESY.
1. The Semipelagians admit that the strength of the will of
man has been weakened by Original Sin, and, therefore, allow
that Grace is requisite to do what is right ; but they deny that
it is necessary for the beginning of Faith, or for the desire of
eternal salvation ;
for they say that as the belief of sick people in
the utility of medicine, and the wish to recover their health, are
not works for which medicine is necessary, so the commencement
of belief or call it an affection for the Faith and the desire of
eternal salvation, are not works for which Grace is necessary.
But we are bound to believe with the Catholic Church, that
every beginning of Faith, and every good desire we entertain, is
a working of Grace in us.
THE COMMENCEMENT OF FAITH AND EVERY GOOD DESIRE IS NOT FROM
OURSELVES, BUT FROM GOD.
2. First, that is clearly proved from St. Paul :
" Not
that we
are sufficient to think anything of ourselves, as of ourselves ;
our sufficiency is from God" (II. Cor. iii, 5). Thus the beginning
of believing that is, not that beginning of Faith arising from
but
the intellect, which naturally sees the truth of the Faith, but that
pious desire of Faith, which is not yet formal faith, for it is no
more than a thought, of wishing to believe, and which, as St.
Augustin says, precedes belief this good thought, according to
St. Paul, comes from God alone. Such is the explanation St.
Augustin gives
of the text :
"
Attendant hie, et verba ista per-
pendant, qui putant ex nobis esse Fidei coaptum, et ex Deo esse
Fidei supplementum. Quis enim non videt, prius esse m
cogitare