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On the Gift of Perseverance

Blessed Augustine, NPNF I.5

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1. Of the Nature of the Perseverance Here Discoursed of
Faith is the Beginning of a Christian Man. Martyrdom for Christ’s Sake is His Best Ending
3. God is Besought for It, Because It is His Gift
4. Three Leading Points of the Pelagian Doctrine
5. The Second Petition in the Lord’s Prayer
The Third Petition. How Heaven and Earth are Understood in the Lord’s Prayer
7. The Fourth Petition
The Fifth Petition. It is an Error of the Pelagians that the Righteous are Free from Sin
When Perseverance is Granted to a Person, He Cannot But Persevere
10. The Gift of Perseverance Can Be Obtained by Prayer
11. Effect of Prayer for Perseverance
Of His Own Will a Man Forsakes God, So that He is Deservedly Forsaken of Him
13. Temptation the Condition of Man
It is God’s Grace Both that Man Comes to Him, and that Man Does Not Depart from Him
Why God Willed that He Should Be Asked for that Which He Might Give Without Prayer
16. Why is Not Grace Given According to Merit?
The Difficulty of the Distinction Made in the Choice of One and the Rejection of Another
18. But Why Should One Be Punished More Than Another?
Why Does God Mingle Those Who Will Persevere with Those Who Will Not?
20. Ambrose on God’s Control Over Men’s Thoughts
21. Instances of the Unsearchable Judgments of God
It is an Absurdity to Say that the Dead Will Be Judged for Sins Which They Would Have…
Why for the People of Tyre and Sidon, Who Would Have Believed, the Miracles Were Not Done…
It May Be Objected that the People of Tyre and Sidon Might, If They Had Heard, Have…
25. God’s Ways, Both in Mercy and Judgment, Past Finding Out
The Manicheans Do Not Receive All the Books of the Old Testament, and of the New Only…
27. Reference to the “Retractations.”
28. God’s Goodness and Righteousness Shown in All
God’s True Grace Could Be Defended Even If There Were No Original Sin, as Pelagius…
30. Augustin Claims the Right to Grow in Knowledge
Infants are Not Judged According to that Which They are Foreknown as Likely to Do If They…
32. The Inscrutability of God’s Free Purposes
God Gives Both Initiatory and Persevering Grace According to His Own Will
The Doctrine of Predestination Not Opposed to the Advantage of Preaching
35. What Predestination is
The Preaching of the Gospel and the Preaching of Predestination the Two Parts of One…
37. Ears to Hear are a Willingness to Obey
Against the Preaching of Predestination the Same Objections May Be Alleged as Against…
39. Prayer and Exhortation
40. When the Truth Must Be Spoken, When Kept Back
Predestination Defined as Only God’s Disposing of Events in His Foreknowledge
The Adversaries Cannot Deny Predestination to Those Gifts of Grace Which They Themselves…
43. Further Development of the Foregoing Argument
44. Exhortation to Wisdom, Though Wisdom is God’s Gift
45. Exhortation to Other Gifts of God in Like Manner
46. A Man Who Does Not Persevere Fails by His Own Fault
Predestination is Sometimes Signified Under the Name of Foreknowledge
48. Practice of Cyprian and Ambrose
49. Further References to Cyprian and Ambrose
50. Obedience Not Discouraged by Preaching God’s Gifts
51. Predestination Must Be Preached
Previous Writings Anticipatively Refuted the Pelagian Heresy
53. Augustin’s “Confessions.”
54. Beginning and End of Faith is of God
55. Testimony of His Previous Writings and Letters
56. God Gives Means as Well as End
How Predestination Must Be Preached So as Not to Give Offence
58. The Doctrine to Be Applied with Discrimination
59. Offence to Be Avoided
60. The Application to the Church in General
61. Use of the Third Person Rather Than the Second
62. Prayer to Be Inculcated, Nevertheless
63. The Testimony of the Whole Church in Her Prayers
In What Sense the Holy Spirit Solicits for Us, Crying, Abba, Father
65. The Church’s Prayers Imply the Church’s Faith
66. Recapitulation and Exhortation
67. The Most Eminent Instance of Predestination is Christ Jesus
68. Conclusion