{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/105/1050944.htm","path":"chr/ecf/105/1050944.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/105/1050944.htm","text":"Chapter 10 [V.]\u2014Free Will and God\u2019s Grace are Simultaneously Commended.\nWhen God says, \u201cTurn ye unto me, and I will turn unto you,\u201d 3011 one of these clauses\u2014that which invites our return to God\u2014evidently belongs to our will; while the other, which promises His return to us, belongs to His grace. Here, possibly, the Pelagians think they have a justification for their opinion which they so prominently advance, that God\u2019s grace is given according to our merits. In the East, indeed, that is to say, in the province of Palestine, in which is the city of Jerusalem, Pelagius, when examined in person by the bishop, 3012 did not venture to affirm this. For it happened that among the objections which were brought up against him, this in particular was objected, that he maintained that the grace of God was given according to our merits,\u2014an opinion which was so diverse from catholic doctrine, and so hostile to the grace of Christ, that unless he had anathematized it, as laid to his charge, he himself must have been anathematized on its account. He pronounced, indeed, the required anathema upon the dogma, but how insincerely his later books plainly show; for in them he maintains absolutely no other opinion than that the grace of God is given according to our merits. Such passages do they collect out of the Scriptures,\u2014like the one which I just now quoted, \u201cTurn ye unto me, and I will turn unto you,\u201d\u2014as if it were owing to the merit of our turning to God that His grace were given us, wherein He Himself even turns unto us. Now the persons who hold this opinion fail to observe that, unless our turning to God were itself God\u2019s gift, it would not be said to Him in prayer, \u201cTurn us again, O God of hosts;\u201d 3013 and, \u201cThou, O God, wilt turn and quicken us;\u201d 3014 and again, \u201cTurn us, O God of our salvation,\u201d 3015 \u2014with other passages of similar import, too numerous to mention here. For, with respect to our coming unto Christ, what else does it mean than our being turned to Him by believing? And yet He says: \u201cNo man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father.\u201d 3016\nSee On the Proceedings of Pelagius, above, ch. xiv. (30\u201337).\n448:3013 448:3014 448:3015 448:3016","title":"Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol. V: A Treatise on Gra...","type":"page"}