Grace and Free Will
CHAPTER 27.
GRACE EFFECTS THE FULFILMENT OF THE LAW, THE DELIVERANCE OF NATURE, AND THE SUPPRESSION OF SIN’S DOMINION
It has, however, been demonstrated that instead of really maintaining free will, they have only inflated a theory of it which, having no stability, has fallen to the ground. Neither the knowledge of God’s law, nor nature, nor the mere remission of sins, is that grace which is given to us through our Lord Jesus Christ; but it is this very grace which accomplishes the fulfilment of the law, and the liberation of nature, and the removal of the dominion of sin. Being therefore convicted on these points, they resort to another expedient, and endeavour to show in some way or other that the grace of God is given to us according to our merits. For they say: “Granted that it is not given to us according to the merits of good works, inasmuch as it is through [grace] that we do any good thing; still, it is given to us according to the merits of a good will; for,” they say, “the good will of him who prays precedes his prayer, even as the will of the believer preceded his faith; so that according to these merits, the grace of God who hears, follows.”