To Florus · §1.95

To Florus 1.95

This grace, then, which in baptism not only forgives sins but along with that gift of pardon also advances, adopts, and consecrates us, changes what the guilty deserve. It does not create free choice, which we receive when we are created and use when we acquire the power to distinguish good and evil. We therefore do not deny that countless forms of divine help assist a good will. But this does not mean that these forms of help construct a freedom of choice that had been destroyed, or that at some time freedom is excluded and a necessity of either good or evil is thought to lie upon anyone. Rather, every help cooperates with free choice.

Latin source witness