Cap. 6 Arg. 8 Fathers reply: Augustine—conversion hangs on God preparing the will, not excited assent
The holy orthodox Fathers speak far otherwise. They taught that vivifying, regenerating, converting grace for the soul itself is not given or withheld by the contingent yes or no of free choice, but by God’s free and absolute will, which does or does not choose to take away the mad hardness of the human heart. Augustine comes first. He always held that, once the work of human redemption was finished on the cross, some people have grace because God by special mercy worked in them so that they received it; others lack it because God would not, by pitying them, soften their rebellious hardness. Fine is Retractations 1.10: When I said all people can turn themselves to keep God’s commands if they will, let the Pelagians not take that as spoken on their side. It is wholly true that all can do this if they will; but the will is prepared by the Lord, and is so enlarged by the gift of charity that they can. From those words it is plain that conversion of the human will to God does not hang on this condition—If the will, once excited, chooses to obey—but that its very willing and its very ability hang on a preparation of God and an infusion of charity. The same Augustine, Epistle 107: How can one say everyone would have received grace if those to whom it is not given had not refused it by their own will, when it is not given to many infants who have no contrary will? A little later: How are merits of human will weighed here, when those to whom that grace is not given have a like case with those to whom it is given, and yet by God’s just judgment it is not given?
Latin
At longe aliter sancti et orthodoxi Patres, qui gratiam vivificantem, regenerantem et convertentem ipsam animam non ad contingentem assensum dissensumque liberi arbitrii dari aut non dari docuerunt, sed pro gratuita et absoluta Dei voluntate humani cordis insanam duritiem tollere volentis aut nolentis. Prodeat primo Augustinus, qui semper pertendit, posito opere humanae redemtionis in cruce peracto, quosdam homines habere gratiam, quia Deus speciali misericordia in eis hoc egit ut eam acciperent; quosdam non habere, quia Deus noluit miserendo illorum rebellem duritiem emollire. Praeclarum est illud Retract. lib. 1. cap. 10. Quod dixi omnes homines posse se convertere ad Dei praecepta implenda, si velint, non existiment Pelagiani secundum eos esse dictum. Verum est enim omnino omnes homines hoc posse si velint; sed praeparatur voluntas a Domino, et tantum augetur munere charitatis, ut possint. Ex quibus verbis liquet, conversionem humanae voluntatis ad Deum non pendere ex conditione hac, Si ipsa excitata velit parere; sed ipsum Velle ejus et ipsum posse pendere ex praeparatione quadam Dei, et infusione charitatis. Idem Augustinus, Epist. 107. Quomodo dicitur omnes homines gratiam fuisse accepturos, si non illi quibus non donatur eam sua voluntate respuerent, cum multis non detur parvulis, qui non habent contrariam voluntatem? Paucis interjectis, Quomodo in hac re merita pensantur voluntatis humanae, quandoquidem illis quibus gratia ista non datur, similem cum eis quibus datur habentibus causam, justo tamen judicio Dei non datur?