But to this Pelagius replied, “Then there is no freedom in man.”
Augustine answered, “God does not move us as we move a stone, but rationally; he makes us will what is good, and does not force us against our will. He frees the will from its proclivity to evil, by ‘preparing grace,’ and determines it to good by ‘effecting grace.’ That some do not yield to this, is not because of their greater resistance, but because God does not choose to conquer their resistance.”
This is the point where grace passes into predestination.
The Old Church had maintained that God predestined to life those whom he foresaw would repent and obey him. His foreknowledge did not cause this to happen, but he foreknew it because it would happen. It did not take place because he foresaw it, but he foresaw it because it would take place.
Election, according to the early Fathers, was nothing arbitrary. It depended on man to be saved or lost. So taught Justin Martyr, Origen, Basil, Hilary.
Basil said, “God hardened Pharaoh's heart by his judgments, [pg 274] which were sent to show how hard it was, because he saw he would not repent.”
Origen adds, “Like a wise physician, God did not cure Pharaoh too soon, for fear of a relapse. He let him drink the cup of sin to the bottom in this life, so as to cure him more thoroughly hereafter.”
Pelagius (and Augustine at first) took the same view. They said that God foresees and permits evil, and decrees the consequence of it.
Augustine said, “God has chosen some men in Christ, not because he foresaw they would be good, but because he determined to make them so.” The reason of this choice, therefore, lay not in man, but in God's arbitrary will.
Pelagius said, “This is fatalism, under the name of grace, and is saying that God accepts the persons of men.”