Глава II

God's grace helps human decision 3. After all, when [some] believe that their free decision will be taken away from them, if they do not recognize that man has good will itself without the help of God, they do not understand at all that [thus] they do not affirm the human decision, but puff it up, so that it rises in emptiness (per inania feratur), and is not based on the Lord, as on a stable stone, for the will is prepared from the Lord 6 . The condemned is given deserved punishment, the freed is given undeserved grace. 4. And when they believe that they will have to believe that God looks at faces, if they admit that He, without any previous merits, has mercy on whomever He wants, 7 whom He favors, He calls, and whom He wills, He makes him a believer, then they hardly take into account, [thinking so], that the condemned is given a deserved punishment, and the freed [is given] undeserved grace, so that the first cannot complain that he received something undeserved, and the second is not he has to boast as if he deserved it. Therefore, rather, there is no partiality here, 8 because the same mixture (massa), [subject to] condemnation and wrath, embraces [in itself] everyone, so that the liberated one learns from the unliberated one what punishment would have been due to him if grace had not come to his aid. And if grace, then it is clear that it is not rewarded for some merit, but is bestowed according to the goodness given as a gift (gratuita bonitate). Why do some of the condemned mixture still get rid of 5. “But it is unfair,” they say, “to deliver one [of those] in the same evil state and punish the other.” However, wouldn't it be fair to punish both? Who will deny this? So, let us give thanks to the Savior when we see Him not rewarding us with what, as we recognize in the condemnation of those like us, was also due to us. After all, if every person were delivered, then it would certainly remain hidden what [punishment] is justly due for sin, and if no one were delivered, then it would not be revealed how much grace bestows. But let us better use the words of the apostle in this most difficult question: God, wanting to show wrath and demonstrate His power, with much patience spared the vessels of wrath, ready for destruction, in order to at the same time show the riches of His glory over the vessels of mercy 9. And the product cannot say to Him: “Why did you do this to me?” - since He has the power to make from the same mixture (ex eadem massa) one vessel for honor, and another for reproach 10. After all, where this whole mixture is entirely deservedly condemned, justice renders the due reproach, and grace bestows undeserved honor, not due to the predominance of merit, not due to the necessity of fate, not due to a successful coincidence of circumstances, but according to the abyss of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God 11 . And the apostle does not open this abyss, but is amazed at its hiddenness, exclaiming: Oh, the abyss of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How incomprehensible are His judgments and unsearchable are His ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who was His adviser? Or who gave Him in advance that He should repay? For all things are from Him, through Him and in Him; To him be glory forever and ever. Amen 12. J.-P. Migne. Paris, 1845. T. 33. Col. 874–891. Places with discrepancies were verified with the publication: Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum. Vindobonae, 1911. Vo1. 57. R. 176–214. Proverbs 8 (according to LXX). In Synod, trans. this thought is missing: Because whoever finds me has found life, and will receive grace from the Lord. In Church Slav. Translation: And the will of the Lord is prepared. Compare: Acts 10:34; Rom 2:11; Eph 6:9; Col 3:25; 1 Peter 1:17. You might be interested in: