Chapter 543
Against the Pelagians 407
(52.60) "How can it be," he asks, "that to any baptized person, the flesh is contrary?" So flesh can be contrary to those who have not been baptized. Let him explain this somehow, since that [same] nature he has strongly defended also exists in them. He certainly concedes that at least in the non-baptized it has been injured, even if now that wounded man, now among the baptized, has left the inn healthy, or is healthy while still in the inn where the compassionate Samaritan took him to be healed. Now if [Pelagius] will concede that in the non-baptized the flesh is contrary, let him tell us what happened to cause this, since both the flesh and the spirit alike are the creation of one and the same Creator and, since God is good, both are undoubtedly good. It must be that the injury that has been inflicted came from humanity's own will. That this defect in our nature may be healed, we need that same Savior who, as Creator, brought forth our nature. If we confess that all, both great and small, from crying infants to white-haired elders, require this Savior and that medicine of His, that is, the Word who was made flesh to dwell among us, then all controversy between us on this question will be resolved.68
Prevenient Grace
As Augustine thought through the implications of grace, he came to stress how God's grace not only works within us and imbues all our good deeds, but that that grace even anticipates those deeds. Later theologians came to refer to this as "prevenient grace," noting Augustine's appeal to Ps 58:11: "His mercy shall come before (praeveniet) me." From On Nature and Grace:
(31.35) And I would have said these things in such a way as to confess my ignorance of the profound judgment of God, why He does not immediately cure this pride which, even in doing good deeds, lies in ambush for the human spirit. It is for this cure that pious souls beg him with tears and great sighs, imploring Him to extend a hand to them in their efforts in order to conquer this pride and in some way beat it down and crush it. . . . "Reveal your way to the Lord, and hope in Him, and He will do it" (Ps 36:5)—and not as some think: that they themselves do it. For when the Psalmist said, "and He will do it," he evidently had no one else in mind other than those [like the Pelagians] who declare, "We do it," that is, we ourselves justify ourselves. We do, in fact, work, but when we work, we cooperate with God who works, for his mercy comes before us. It comes before us, however, that we may be healed, as it will also follow us so that being healed we may gain strength. It
68. Nat. et. gr. 30.34–52.60 (BA 21:306–58); my trans., based on Mourant and Collinge, FOTC 86:47–67.