Cap. 6 Arg. 5: Special mercy—Prosper against Faustus; Augustine on giving and withholding
Second, our view makes conspicuous what Scripture presses so hard: God's free and special mercy in giving certain people both the light of the Gospel and saving grace. Prosper puts it well: "There is a certain part of the human race that is brought on to eternal salvation by special benefits" (De vocatione gentium 2.31). Those who think Christ's death has this effect—that God offers the means of saving grace to all, yet leaves it to each person's own choice whether to obey or resist the grace offered, so that if they raise no obstacle they receive grace, and if they raise one they are stripped of it—plainly cancel that special mercy. On their view God showed Jacob or Peter no special mercy he did not show Esau and Judas; Jacob and Peter merely applied to themselves by some special act what Esau and Judas neglected to apply. Faustus of Riez taught that openly (De libero arbitrio 1.10), denying any special divine dispensation for the salvation of certain people—a lesson he learned from Pelagius, as Prosper shows (Carmen de ingratis 10). Augustine speaks otherwise: "The Lord gives to whom he wills, because he is merciful; and he does not give to whom he does not will, that he may make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy" (De bono perseverantiae 12).
Latin
Secundo, ex nostra sententia conspicua fit illa, quam Scripturae adeo urgent, gratuita & specialis Dei misericordia in quibusdam hominibus donandis tam luce Evangelii quam gratia salutifera. De qua apposite Prosper, Est quaedam pars generis humani, quae specialibus beneficiis ad aeternam salutem provehitur, De vocat. Gent. lib. 2. cap. 31. Hanc specialem misericordiam plane tollunt, qui Christi morte hoc actum arbitrantur, ut Deus media gratiae salutiferae omnibus offerat, proprio autem arbitrio singulorum relinquat parere an resistere velint gratiae oblatae, ita ut, si obicem non ponant, gratia donentur, si ponant, gratia priventur. Nam ex horum sententia Deus non exseruit specialem aliquam misericordiam erga Jacobum aut Petrum, quam non exseruit erga Esauum & Judam; sed Jacobus & Petrus speciali quadam operatione sibi applicarunt, quod Esavus & Judas applicare neglexerunt. Hoc aperte docuit Faustus Rhegiensis, De lib. arbitr. lib. 1. cap. 10. qui specialem dispensationem Dei circa certorum hominum salutem negavit: quod a Pelagio didicit, ut videre est apud Prosperum, Carm. de ingratis, cap. 10. Sed aliter Augustinus, Dominus dat quibus vult, quoniam misericors est; & non dat quibus non vult, ut notus faciat divitias gloriae suae in vasa misericordiae, De bono persever. cap. 12.