Cap. II: Faustus — initiative, progress, election from foresight merits
On that prior effort and labor Faustus writes (1.12): just as the prodigal's flight from a pious father's eyes is his own crime, so his return to the father's embrace — deliberating and rising by the good planted in him — is his own devotion. Chapter 17: the Lord invites the willing, draws the desiring, raises the striving. The last chapter: he waits for the will of the one to be cleansed. On progress and perseverance by free choice's powers — not by any special gift flowing from the predestination decree — he reasons (2.5): human salvation is set not in the Maker's predestination, but in the working of the one who serves the Giver of grace. Chapter 12: a person's state can turn this way or that not by God's constitution, but by liberty of choice. At last he openly teaches election from foresight of such good will and working of ours, not from any prior decree of God (2.2): God's foresight begins from the matter of human acts. A little later: to foresee is one thing, to predestine another. Foresight knows beforehand what is to be done; then predestination marks out what is to be repaid. That foresights merits; this preordains rewards. Foresight belongs to power, predestination to justice. Unless foresight has searched, predestination decides nothing. In these words he does not draw merits from the grace of predestination — he draws predestination from foresight merits.
Latin
De praevio conatu & labore scribit Faustus lib. 1. cap. 12. Sicut sui criminis est, quod filius prodigus longe pii parentis fugit oculos, ita suae est devotionis, quod per insitum sibi bonum deliberans & assurgens, ad paternos recurrit amplexus. Et cap. 17. Dominus invitat volentem, attrahit desiderantem, erigit adnitentem. Et cap. ult. Voluntatem ejus qui est purgandus, exspectat. De progressu & perseverantia per vires liberi arbitrii, non per donum aliquod speciale manans a decreto praedestinationis, sic philosophatur, Lib. 2. sect. 5. Salutem hominis non in praedestinatione Factoris, sed in operatione famulantis largitor gratiae collocavit. Et Cap. 12. Status hominis in diversa, non pro constitutione Dei, sed pro arbitrii libertate potest versari. Denique electionem nostram ex praescientia hujusmodi bonae voluntatis & operationis nostrae, non ex Dei decreto aliquo antecedente, aperte docet lib. 2. sect. 2. Praescientia Dei de materia humanorum actuum sumit exordium. Et paulo post, Aliud est praescire, aliud praedestinare. Praescientia gerenda praenoscit, postmodum praedestinatio retribuenda describit. Illa praevidet merita, haec praeordinat praemia. Praescientia ad potentiam, praedestinatio ad justitiam pertinet. Nisi praescientia exploraverit, praedestinatio nihil decernit. Hisce verbis non a gratia praedestinationis arcessit merita, sed a praevisis meritis praedestinationem.