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St. Augustine
Enchiridion
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CHAPTER XXV - Predestination and the Justice of God


98. Furthermore, who would be so impiously foolish as to say that God cannot turn the evil
wills of men - as he willeth, when he willeth, and where he willeth - toward the good? But,
when he acteth, he acteth through mercy; when he doth not act, it is through justice. For, "he
hath mercy on whom he willeth; and whom he willeth, he hardeneth."
205
Now when the apostle said this, he was commending grace, of which he had just spoken in
connection with the twin children in Rebecca's womb: "Before they had yet been born, or had
done anything good or bad, in order that the electing purpose of God might continue - not
through works but through the divine calling - it was said of them, 'The elder shall serve the
younger.' "
206 Accordingly, he refers to another prophetic witness, where it is written, "Jacob
I loved, but Esau have I hated."
207 Then, realizing how what he said could disturb those
whose understanding could not penetrate to this depth of grace, he adds: "What therefore shall
we say to this? Is there unrighteousness in God? God forbid!"
208 Yet it does seem unfair
that, without any merit derived from good works or bad, God should love the one and hate
the other. Now, if the apostle had wished us to understand that there were future good deeds of
the one, and evil deeds of the other - which God, of course, foreknew - he would never have
said "not of good works" but rather "of _future_ works." Thus he would have solved the
difficulty; or, rather, he would have left no difficulty to be solved. As it is, however, when he
went on to exclaim, "God forbid!" - that is, "God forbid that there should be unfairness in God"
- he proceeds immediately to add (to prove that no unfairness in God is involved here), "For he
says to Moses, 'I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will show pity to whom I
will show pity.'"
209 Now, who but a fool would think God unfair either when he imposes penal
judgment on the deserving or when he shows mercy to the undeserving? Finally, the apostle
concludes and says, "Therefore, it is not a question of him who wills nor of him who runs but of
God's showing mercy."
210
Thus, both the twins were "by nature children of wrath,"
211 not because of any works of
their own, but because they were both bound in the fetters of damnation originally forged by
Adam. But He who said, "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy," loved Jacob in
unmerited mercy, yet hated Esau with merited justice. Since this judgment [of wrath] was due
them both, the former learned from what happened to the other that the fact that he had not,
with equal merit, incurred the same penalty gave him no ground to boast of his own distinctive
merits - but, instead, that he should glory in the abundance of divine grace, because "it is not a
question of him who wills nor of him who runs, but of God's showing mercy."
212 And, indeed,
the whole visage of Scripture and, if I may speak so, the lineaments of its
countenance, are found to exhibit a mystery, most profound and salutary, to admonish all who
carefully look thereupon "that he who glories, should glory in the Lord."
213

99. Now, after the apostle had commended God's mercy in saying, "So then, there is no
question of him who wills nor of him who runs, but of God's showing mercy," next in order he
intends to speak also of his judgment - for where his mercy is not shown, it is not unfairness but
justice. For with God there is no
injustice. Thus, he immediately added, "For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, 'For this very purpose
I raised you up, that I may show through you my power, and that my name may be proclaimed in
all the earth."
214 Then, having said this, he draws a conclusion that looks both ways, that is,
toward mercy and toward judgment: "Therefore," he says, "he hath mercy on whom he willeth,
and whom he willeth he hardeneth." He showeth mercy out of his great goodness; he hardeneth
out of no unfairness at all. In this way, neither does he who is saved have a basis for glorying in
any merit of his own; nor does the man who is damned have a basis for complaining of anything
except what he has fully merited. For grace alone separates the redeemed from the lost, all
having been mingled together in the one mass of perdition, arising from a common cause which
leads back to their common origin. But if any man hears this in such a way as to say: "Why then
does he find fault? For who resists his will?"
215 - as if to make it seem that man should not
therefore be blamed for being evil _because_ God "hath mercy on whom he willeth and whom he
willeth he hardeneth" - God forbid that we should be ashamed to give the same reply as we see
the apostle giving: "O man, who are you to reply to God? Does the molded object say to the
molder, 'Why have you made me like this?' Or is not the potter master of his clay, to make from
the same mass one vessel for honorable, another for ignoble, use?"
216
There are some stupid men who think that in this part of the argument the apostle had no
answer to give; and, for lack of a reasonable rejoinder, simply rebuked the audacity of his
gainsayer. But what he said - "O man, who are you?" - has actually great weight and in an
argument like this recalls man, in a single word, to consider the limits of his capacity and, at the
same time, supplies an important explanation.
For if one does not understand these matters, who is he to talk back to God? And if one does
understand, he finds no better ground even then for talking back. For if he understands, he sees
that the whole human race was condemned in its apostate head by a divine judgment so just that
not even if a single member of the race were ever saved from it, no one could rail against God's
justice. And he also sees that those who are saved had to be saved on such terms that it would
show - by contrast with the greater number of those not saved but simply abandoned to their
wholly just damnation - what the whole mass deserved and to what end God's merited judgment
would have brought them, had not his undeserved mercy interposed. Thus every mouth of those
disposed to glory in their own merits should be stopped, so that "he that glories may glory in the
Lord."
217





205 Rom. 9:18.



206 Rom. 9:11, 12.



207 Cf. Mal. 1:2, 3 and Rom. 9:13.



208 Rom. 9:14.



209 Rom. 9:15.



210 Rom. 9:15; see above, IX, 32.



211 Eph. 2:3.



212 Rom. 9:16.



213 1 Cor. 1 :31; cf. Jer. 9:24. The _religious_ intention of Augustine's emphasis upon divine sovereignty and predestination is never so much to account for the doom of the wicked as to underscore the sheer and wonderful gratuity of salvation.



214 Rom. 9:17; cf. Ex. 9:16.



215 Rom. 9:19.



216 Rom. 9:20, 21.



217 1 Cor. 1:31.





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