Cap. X Ultimum Secunda: true grace not according to merits cannot stand without predestination without antecedent regard to merits — Aug. De bono pers. 23
Hence, because God’s true grace—not given according to merits—cannot stand unless predestination also is laid down without antecedent regard to merits, Augustine did not hesitate to affirm (De bono perseverantiae 23) that the Church of Christ never lacked the faith of this predestination now defended with fresh care against new heretics. As if to say: every catholic who admitted that vivifying, saving grace is given or withheld according to God’s purpose of mercy or non-mercy, even if they never named election and preterition, yet because of the knot binding the things themselves sensed the same about predestination.
Latin
Et hinc, quia vera Dei gratia, quae non datur secundum merita, haud potest consistere nisi praedestinatio etiam absque antecedaneo intuitu ad merita ponatur, non dubitavit Augustinus affirmare, Praedestinationis hujus fidem, quae contra novos haereticos nova sollicitudine nunc defenditur, nunquam Ecclesiam Christi non habuisse, De bono persever. cap. 23. quasi dixisset, Catholicos omnes qui admiserunt gratiam vivificam et salutiferam dari et non dari secundum propositum Dei miserentis aut non miserentis, etiamsi de electione et praeteritione nullum verbum fecerint, tamen propter ipsarum rerum inter se connexionem eodem etiam modo de praedestinatione sensisse.