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164 THE HISTORY OF HERESIES,
OBJECTIONS ANSWERED.
6. The Semipelagians object, first, some passages of the
Scripture, from which it would appear that a good will and the
beginning of good works are attributed to us, and the perfection
of them only to God. In the first book of Kings (vii, 3), we
read: "Prepare your hearts for the Lord;" and in St. Luke
(iii, 4) :
paths."
"
Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make straight his
" Be converted to me
We also see in Zacchary :
and I will be converted to you ;"
and St. Paul speaks even plainer
" For to will is present with
to the Romans (vii, 18), for he : says
me ; but to accomplish that which is I good find not." It would
appear also, from the Acts of the Apostles (xvii, 7), that the
Faith which Cornelius received was to be attributed to his
prayers. To these and to similar texts we answer, that the
prevening (preveniens) internal Grace of the Holy
Ghost is not
excluded by them, but they suppose it, and we are exhorted to
correspond to this Grace, to remove the impediments to the
greater graces, which God has prepared
pond to him. Thus when the Scripture says,
for those who corres
"
Prepare your
hearts," "Be converted to me," &c., it does not attribute to our
free will the beginning of Faith or of conversion, without pre
venting or prevening Grace (gratia preveniens), but admonishes
us to correspond to it, and teaches us that this preventing Grace
leaves us at liberty either to choose or reject what is good for
us. Thus, on the other hand, when the Scripture says,
will is prepared by the Lord," and when we say,
"
Convert us,
God our Saviour" (Psalms, Ixxxiv, 5), we are admonished that
Grace prepares us to do what is good, but does not deprive us of
liberty, if we refuse to do so. This is precisely
of Trent says :
" The
what the Council
" Cum dicitur : Convertimini ad me, et ego con-
vertar advos, libertatis nostra3 admonemur. Cum respondemus :
Converte nos Domine, et convertemur, Dei nos gratia praeveniri
confitemur." The same answer applies to that text of St. Paul :