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162 THE HISTORY OF HERESIES,
quam credere ? Nullus quippe credit aliquid, nisi prius crediderit
esse credendum. Quamvis enim rapte, quamvis celerrime
credendi voluntatem quaadam cogitationes antevolent, moxque ilia
ita sequatur, ut quasi conjunctissima comitetur ; necesse est tamen,
ut omnia quse credentur, praaveniente cogitatione credantur.......
Quod ergo pertinet ad religionem et pietatem (de qua loquebatur
ex nobis-
Apostolus), si non sumus idonei cogitare aliquid quasi
metipsis, sed sufficientia nostra ex Deo est ; profecto non sumus
idonei credere aliquid quasi ex nobismetipsis, quod sine cogitatione
non possumus, sed sufficientia nostra, qua credere incipiamus, ex
Deo est" (1).
3. It is proved, secondly, by another text of St. Paul, in
Avhich he shows the reason of our proposition. He says :
"
For
who distinguished thee ? or what hast thou that thou hast not
received"
(I. Cor. iv, 7). If the beginning of that good will,
which disposes us to receive the Faith from God, or any other
gift of Grace, came from ourselves, that would distinguish us
from others who had not this commencement of a wish for eternal
life. But St. Paul says, that all that we have, in which is com
prised every first desire of Faith or salvation, is received from
God: "What hast thou that thou hast not received?" St.
Augustin was of opinion, for a time, that Faith in God was not
from God, but from ourselves, and that by that we obtain after
wards from God the Grace to lead a good life ; but this text of
the Apostle chiefly induced him to retract this sentiment after
wards, as he himself confesses (2) :
"Quo praacipue testimonio
etiam ipse convictus sum, cum similiter errarem : putans Fidem,
qua in Deum credimus, non esse donum Dei, sed a nobis esse in
nobis, et per illam nos impetrare Dei dona, quibus temperanter et
juste, et pie vivamus in hoc saaculo."
4. That is confirmed by what the Apostle says in another
place : For by Grace you are saved, through faith, and that
not of yourselves, for it is the gift of God. Not of works that
no man may glory" (Ephes. ii, 8, 9). St. Augustin (3) says that
Pelagius himself, to escape condemnation from the Synod of
Palestine, condemned (though only apparently) the proposition,
"
that Grace is given to us
according to our merits." Hence,
o
, c, 3.
dePraed - s - S. c. 2. (3) St. Aug. ibid, c. 1.