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On Nature and Grace

Blessed Augustine, NPNF I.5

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Extract from Augustin’s Retractations
The Occasion of Publishing This Work; What God’s Righteousness is
Faith in Christ Not Necessary to Salvation, If a Man Without It Can Lead a Righteous Life
Nature Was Created Sound and Whole; It Was Afterwards Corrupted by Sin
4. Free Grace
5. It Was a Matter of Justice that All Should Be Condemned
6. The Pelagians Have Very Strong and Active Minds
He Proceeds to Confute the Work of Pelagius; He Refrains as Yet from Mentioning Pelagius’…
A Distinction Drawn by Pelagius Between the Possible and Actual
9. Even They Who Were Not Able to Be Justified are Condemned
He Could Not Be Justified, Who Had Not Heard of the Name of Christ; Rendering the Cross…
11. Grace Subtly Acknowledged by Pelagius
In Our Discussions About Grace, We Do Not Speak of that Which Relates to the Constitution…
The Scope and Purpose of the Law’s Threatenings; “Perfect Wayfarers.”
14. Refutation of Pelagius
Not Everything [of Doctrinal Truth] is Written in Scripture in So Many Words
Pelagius Corrupts a Passage of the Apostle James by Adding a Note of Interrogation
17. Explanation of This Text Continued
18. Who May Be Said to Be in the Flesh
Sins of Ignorance; To Whom Wisdom is Given by God on Their Requesting It
20. What Prayer Pelagius Would Admit to Be Necessary
Pelagius Denies that Human Nature Has Been Depraved or Corrupted by Sin
How Our Nature Could Be Vitiated by Sin, Even Though It Be Not a Substance
23. Adam Delivered by the Mercy of Christ
24. Sin and the Penalty of Sin the Same
God Forsakes Only Those Who Deserve to Be Forsaken. We are Sufficient of Ourselves to…
26. Christ Died of His Own Power and Choice
27. Even Evils, Through God’s Mercy, are of Use
The Disposition of Nearly All Who Go Astray. With Some Heretics Our Business Ought Not to…
A Simile to Show that God’s Grace is Necessary for Doing Any Good Work Whatever. God…
30. Sin is Removed by Sin
The Order and Process of Healing Our Heavenly Physician Does Not Adopt from the Sick…
32. God Forsakes Us to Some Extent that We May Not Grow Proud
Not Every Sin is Pride. How Pride is the Commencement of Every Sin
34. A Man’s Sin is His Own, But He Needs Grace for His Cure
Why God Does Not Immediately Cure Pride Itself. The Secret and Insidious Growth of Pride.…
Pride Even in Such Things as are Done Aright Must Be Avoided. Free Will is Not Taken Away…
Being Wholly Without Sin Does Not Put Man on an Equality with God
We Must Not Lie, Even for the Sake of Moderation. The Praise of Humility Must Not Be…
Pelagius Glorifies God as Creator at the Expense of God as Saviour
Why There is a Record in Scripture of Certain Men’s Sins, Recklessness in Sin Accounts It…
41. Whether Holy Men Have Died Without Sin
The Blessed Virgin Mary May Have Lived Without Sin. None of the Saints Besides Her…
43. Why Scripture Has Not Mentioned the Sins of All
44. Pelagius Argues that Abel Was Sinless
Why Cain Has Been by Some Thought to Have Had Children by His Mother Eve. The Sins of…
46. Shall We Follow Scripture, or Add to Its Declarations?
47. For What Pelagius Thought that Christ is Necessary to Us
48. How the Term “All” Is to Be Understood
A Man Can Be Sinless, But Only by the Help of Grace. In the Saints This Possibility…
50. God Commands No Impossibilities
State of the Question Between the Pelagians and the Catholics. Holy Men of Old Saved by…
52. The Whole Discussion is About Grace
53. Pelagius Distinguishes Between a Power and Its Use
54. There is No Incompatibility Between Necessity and Free Will
55. The Same Continued
56. The Assistance of Grace in a Perfect Nature
It Does Not Detract from God’s Almighty Power, that He is Incapable of Either Sinning, or…
58. Even Pious and God-Fearing Men Resist Grace
In What Sense Pelagius Attributed to God’s Grace the Capacity of Not Sinning
60. Pelagius Admits “Contrary Flesh” In the Unbaptized
Paul Asserts that the Flesh is Contrary Even in the Baptized
Concerning What Grace of God is Here Under Discussion. The Ungodly Man, When Dying, is…
63. Does God Create Contraries?
64. Pelagius’ Admission as Regards the Unbaptized, Fatal
“This Body of Death,” So Called from Its Defect, Not from Its Substance
The Works, Not the Substance, of the “Flesh” Opposed to the “Spirit.”
67. Who May Be Said to Be Under the Law
68. Despite the Devil, Man May, by God’s Help, Be Perfected
69. Pelagius Puts Nature in the Place of Grace
70. Whether Any Man is Without Sin in This Life
Augustin Replies Against the Quotations Which Pelagius Had Advanced Out of the Catholic…
Hilary. The Pure in Heart Blessed. The Doing and Perfecting of Righteousness
73. He Meets Pelagius with Another Passage from Hilary
74. Ambrose
75. Augustin Adduces in Reply Some Other Passages of Ambrose
76. John of Constantinople
77. Xystus
78. Jerome
79. A Certain Necessity of Sinning
Augustin Himself. Two Methods Whereby Sins, Like Diseases, are Guarded Against
81. Augustin Quotes Himself on Free Will
82. How to Exhort Men to Faith, Repentance, and Advancement
God Enjoins No Impossibility, Because All Things are Possible and Easy to Love
84. The Degrees of Love are Also Degrees of Holiness