Tiresias: The Ancient Mediterranean Religions Source Database

1513

Augustine, De Peccatorum Meritis Et Remissione Et De Baptismo Parvulorum, 1.31

nan Perhaps, however, the now exploded and rejected opinion must be resumed, that souls which once sinned in their heavenly abode, descend by stages and degrees to bodies suited to their deserts, and, as a penalty for their previous life, are more or less tormented by corporeal chastisements. To this opinion Holy Scripture indeed presents a most manifest contradiction; for when recommending divine grace, it says: For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of Him that calls, it was said, The elder shall serve the younger. Romans 9:11-12 And yet they who entertain such an opinion are actually unable to escape the perplexities of this question, but, embarrassed and straitened by them, are compelled to exclaim like others, O the depth! For whence does it come to pass that a person shall from his earliest boyhood show greater moderation, mental excellence, and temperance, and shall to a great extent conquer lust, shall hate avarice, detest luxury, and rise to a greater eminence and aptitude in the other virtues, and yet live in such a place as to be unable to hear the grace of Christ preached?- for how shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? Or how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? Romans 10:14 While another man, although of a slow mind, addicted to lust, and covered with disgrace and crime, shall be so directed as to hear, and believe, and be baptized, and be taken away - or, if permitted to remain longer here, lead the rest of his life in a manner that shall bring him praise? Now where did these two persons acquire such diverse deserts, - I do not say, that the one should believe and the other not believe, for that is a matter for a man's own will; but that the one should hear in order to believe, and that the other should not hear, for this is not within man's power? Where, I say, did they acquire diverse deserts? If they had indeed passed any part of their life in heaven, so as to be thrust down, or to sink down, to this world, and to tenant such bodily receptacles as are congruous to their own former life, then of course that man ought to be supposed to have led the better life previous to his present mortal body, who did not much deserve to be burdened with it, so as both to have a good disposition, and to be importuned by milder desires which he could easily overcome; and yet he did not deserve to have that grace preached to him whereby alone he could be delivered from the ruin of the second death. Whereas the other, who was hampered with a grosser body, as a penalty - so they suppose - for worse deserts, and was accordingly possessed of obtuser affections, while he was in the violent ardour of his lust succumbing to the snares of the flesh, and by his wicked life aggravating his former sins, which had brought him to such a pass, by a still more abandoned course of earthly pleasures - either heard upon the cross, Today shall you be with me in paradise, Luke 23:43 or else joined himself to some apostle, by whose preaching he became a changed man, and was saved by the washing of regeneration - so that where sin once abounded, grace did much more abound. I am at a loss to know what answer they can give to this who wish to maintain God's righteousness by human conjectures, and, knowing nothing of the depths of grace, have woven webs of improbable fable.

Intertexts (texts cited often on the same page as the searched text):

8 results
1. New Testament, James, 1.5-1.6 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE) 1.5. But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach; and it will be given to him. 1.6. But let him ask in faith, without any doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven by the wind and tossed.
2. New Testament, Romans, 3.23, 5.5, 5.12-5.21 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE) 3.23. for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God; 5.5. and hope doesn't disappoint us, because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. 5.12. Therefore, as sin entered into the world through one man, and death through sin; and so death passed to all men, because all sinned. 5.13. For until the law, sin was in the world; but sin is not charged when there is no law. 5.14. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those whose sins weren't like Adam's disobedience, who is a foreshadowing of him who was to come. 5.15. But the free gift isn't like the trespass. For if by the trespass of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God, and the gift by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many. 5.16. The gift is not as through one who sinned: for the judgment came by one to condemnation, but the free gift came of many trespasses to justification. 5.17. For if by the trespass of the one, death reigned through the one; so much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ. 5.18. So then as through one trespass, all men were condemned; even so through one act of righteousness, all men were justified to life. 5.19. For as through the one man's disobedience many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one will many be made righteous. 5.20. The law came in besides, that the trespass might abound; but where sin abounded, grace did abound more exceedingly; 5.21. that as sin reigned in death, even so might grace reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
3. New Testament, John, 3.5 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE) 3.5. Jesus answered, "Most assuredly I tell you, unless one is born of water and spirit, he can't enter into the Kingdom of God!
4. New Testament, Matthew, 20.1-20.16 (1st cent. CE - 1st cent. CE) 20.1. For the Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who was the master of a household, who went out early in the morning to hire laborers for his vineyard. 20.2. When he had agreed with the laborers for a denarius a day, he sent them into his vineyard. 20.3. He went out about the third hour, and saw others standing idle in the marketplace. 20.4. To them he said, 'You also go into the vineyard, and whatever is right I will give you.' So they went their way. 20.5. Again he went out about the sixth and the ninth hour, and did likewise. 20.6. About the eleventh hour he went out, and found others standing idle. He said to them, 'Why do you stand here all day idle?' 20.7. They said to him, 'Because no one has hired us.' "He said to them, 'You also go into the vineyard, and you will receive whatever is right.' 20.8. When evening had come, the lord of the vineyard said to his steward, 'Call the laborers and pay them their wages, beginning from the last to the first.' 20.9. When those who were hired at about the eleventh hour came, they each received a denarius. 20.10. When the first came, they supposed that they would receive more; and they likewise each received a denarius. 20.11. When they received it, they murmured against the master of the household 20.12. saying, 'These last have spent one hour, and you have made them equal to us, who have borne the burden of the day and the scorching heat!' 20.13. But he answered one of them, 'Friend, I am doing you no wrong. Didn't you agree with me for a denarius? 20.14. Take that which is yours, and go your way. It is my desire to give to this last just as much as to you. 20.15. Isn't it lawful for me to do what I want to with what I own? Or is your eye evil, because I am good?' 20.16. So the last will be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few are chosen.
5. Augustine, De Natura Et Gratia Ad Timasium Et Jacobum Contra Pelagium, 5, 4 (4th cent. CE - 5th cent. CE)
6. Augustine, De Nuptiis Et Concupiscentia, 1.24 (4th cent. CE - 5th cent. CE)
7. Augustine, De Peccatorum Meritis Et Remissione Et De Baptismo Parvulorum, 1.21-1.22, 1.24-1.25, 1.27, 1.29-1.30, 1.34, 2.5, 2.9, 2.11, 2.32 (4th cent. CE - 5th cent. CE) 1.22. They, therefore, who say that the reason why infants are baptized, is, that they may have the remission of the sin which they have themselves committed in their life, not what they have derived from Adam, may be refuted without much difficulty. For whenever these persons shall have reflected within themselves a little, uninfluenced by any polemical spirit, on the absurdity of their statement, how unworthy it is, in fact, of serious discussion, they will at once change their opinion. But if they will not do this, we shall not so completely despair of men's common sense, as to have any fears that they will induce others to adopt their views. They are themselves driven to adopt their opinion, if I am not mistaken, by their prejudice for some other theory; and it is because they feel themselves obliged to allow that sins are remitted to the baptized, and are unwilling to allow that the sin was derived from Adam which they admit to be remitted to infants, that they have been obliged to charge infancy itself with actual sin; as if by bringing this charge against infancy a man could become the more secure himself, when accused and unable to answer his assailant! However, let us, as I suggested, pass by such opponents as these; indeed, we require neither words nor quotations of Scripture to prove the sinlessness of infants, so far as their conduct in life is concerned; this life they spend, such is the recency of their birth, within their very selves, since it escapes the cognizance of human perception, which has no data or support whereon to sustain any controversy on the subject.
8. Augustine, De Spiritu Et Littera, 59 (4th cent. CE - 5th cent. CE)

Subjects of this text:

subject	book bibliographic info
augustine	Cheuk-Yin Yam, Trinity and Grace in Augustine (2019) 411
augustines works, c. du. ep. pel.	Wilson, Augustine's Conversion from Traditional Free Choice to "Non-free Free Will": A Comprehensive Methodology (2018) 188
augustines works, leg. adv.	Wilson, Augustine's Conversion from Traditional Free Choice to "Non-free Free Will": A Comprehensive Methodology (2018) 188
augustines works, nat. grat.	Wilson, Augustine's Conversion from Traditional Free Choice to "Non-free Free Will": A Comprehensive Methodology (2018) 188
augustines works, nat. orig.	Wilson, Augustine's Conversion from Traditional Free Choice to "Non-free Free Will": A Comprehensive Methodology (2018) 188
augustines works, nupt. et conc.	Wilson, Augustine's Conversion from Traditional Free Choice to "Non-free Free Will": A Comprehensive Methodology (2018) 188
augustines works, pecc. merit.	Wilson, Augustine's Conversion from Traditional Free Choice to "Non-free Free Will": A Comprehensive Methodology (2018) 162, 188
augustines works, spir. et litt.	Wilson, Augustine's Conversion from Traditional Free Choice to "Non-free Free Will": A Comprehensive Methodology (2018) 188
baptism, water baptism	Wilson, Augustine's Conversion from Traditional Free Choice to "Non-free Free Will": A Comprehensive Methodology (2018) 188
baptism	Cheuk-Yin Yam, Trinity and Grace in Augustine (2019) 411
basilides	Wilson, Augustine's Conversion from Traditional Free Choice to "Non-free Free Will": A Comprehensive Methodology (2018) 188
cicero	Wilson, Augustine's Conversion from Traditional Free Choice to "Non-free Free Will": A Comprehensive Methodology (2018) 188
damnation, eternal	Wilson, Augustine's Conversion from Traditional Free Choice to "Non-free Free Will": A Comprehensive Methodology (2018) 162, 188
determinism	Wilson, Augustine's Conversion from Traditional Free Choice to "Non-free Free Will": A Comprehensive Methodology (2018) 162
dupied	Wilson, Augustine's Conversion from Traditional Free Choice to "Non-free Free Will": A Comprehensive Methodology (2018) 162, 188
evil will, stoic non-free free will	Wilson, Augustine's Conversion from Traditional Free Choice to "Non-free Free Will": A Comprehensive Methodology (2018) 188
evil will	Wilson, Augustine's Conversion from Traditional Free Choice to "Non-free Free Will": A Comprehensive Methodology (2018) 188
faith/belief, as gods gift	Wilson, Augustine's Conversion from Traditional Free Choice to "Non-free Free Will": A Comprehensive Methodology (2018) 162, 188
faith/belief, initial faith	Wilson, Augustine's Conversion from Traditional Free Choice to "Non-free Free Will": A Comprehensive Methodology (2018) 162, 188
faith/belief	Wilson, Augustine's Conversion from Traditional Free Choice to "Non-free Free Will": A Comprehensive Methodology (2018) 162, 188
free choice/free will	Wilson, Augustine's Conversion from Traditional Free Choice to "Non-free Free Will": A Comprehensive Methodology (2018) 188
grace, discriminatory grace/salvation	Wilson, Augustine's Conversion from Traditional Free Choice to "Non-free Free Will": A Comprehensive Methodology (2018) 162, 188
grace	Wilson, Augustine's Conversion from Traditional Free Choice to "Non-free Free Will": A Comprehensive Methodology (2018) 162, 188
holy spirit	Wilson, Augustine's Conversion from Traditional Free Choice to "Non-free Free Will": A Comprehensive Methodology (2018) 162
interior homo, inner man	Cheuk-Yin Yam, Trinity and Grace in Augustine (2019) 411
liberum arbitrium	Cheuk-Yin Yam, Trinity and Grace in Augustine (2019) 411; Wilson, Augustine's Conversion from Traditional Free Choice to "Non-free Free Will": A Comprehensive Methodology (2018) 188
liberum arbitrium liberatum	Wilson, Augustine's Conversion from Traditional Free Choice to "Non-free Free Will": A Comprehensive Methodology (2018) 188
manichaeism	Wilson, Augustine's Conversion from Traditional Free Choice to "Non-free Free Will": A Comprehensive Methodology (2018) 188
marcellinus	Cheuk-Yin Yam, Trinity and Grace in Augustine (2019) 411
mistranslations	Wilson, Augustine's Conversion from Traditional Free Choice to "Non-free Free Will": A Comprehensive Methodology (2018) 188
original sin, augustinian	Wilson, Augustine's Conversion from Traditional Free Choice to "Non-free Free Will": A Comprehensive Methodology (2018) 188
original sin, inherited/original guilt	Wilson, Augustine's Conversion from Traditional Free Choice to "Non-free Free Will": A Comprehensive Methodology (2018) 162, 188
original sin	Wilson, Augustine's Conversion from Traditional Free Choice to "Non-free Free Will": A Comprehensive Methodology (2018) 162, 188
paedobaptism, a type of nt circumcision	Wilson, Augustine's Conversion from Traditional Free Choice to "Non-free Free Will": A Comprehensive Methodology (2018) 188
paedobaptism	Wilson, Augustine's Conversion from Traditional Free Choice to "Non-free Free Will": A Comprehensive Methodology (2018) 162
pelagians/pelagianism	Wilson, Augustine's Conversion from Traditional Free Choice to "Non-free Free Will": A Comprehensive Methodology (2018) 162, 188
praeceptum'	Cheuk-Yin Yam, Trinity and Grace in Augustine (2019) 411
predetermination	Wilson, Augustine's Conversion from Traditional Free Choice to "Non-free Free Will": A Comprehensive Methodology (2018) 162, 188
proof texts	Wilson, Augustine's Conversion from Traditional Free Choice to "Non-free Free Will": A Comprehensive Methodology (2018) 162
providence, stoic type	Wilson, Augustine's Conversion from Traditional Free Choice to "Non-free Free Will": A Comprehensive Methodology (2018) 162
providence of god	Wilson, Augustine's Conversion from Traditional Free Choice to "Non-free Free Will": A Comprehensive Methodology (2018) 162
reatus	Wilson, Augustine's Conversion from Traditional Free Choice to "Non-free Free Will": A Comprehensive Methodology (2018) 162
salvation, discriminatory salvation/grace	Wilson, Augustine's Conversion from Traditional Free Choice to "Non-free Free Will": A Comprehensive Methodology (2018) 162, 188
salvation	Wilson, Augustine's Conversion from Traditional Free Choice to "Non-free Free Will": A Comprehensive Methodology (2018) 162, 188
sin, adams sin/fall	Wilson, Augustine's Conversion from Traditional Free Choice to "Non-free Free Will": A Comprehensive Methodology (2018) 162
the will	Wilson, Augustine's Conversion from Traditional Free Choice to "Non-free Free Will": A Comprehensive Methodology (2018) 162, 188
theodicy	Wilson, Augustine's Conversion from Traditional Free Choice to "Non-free Free Will": A Comprehensive Methodology (2018) 188