elder sort to all those also, which, by living ill, they have added to what they brought with them by birth." Enchirid. c. 43.
St. Augustine's theory, namely, of Predestination, did not involve the doctrine of the indefectibility of grace: this he explicitly and fully states, (de Corrept. et Grat. §. 20.) "Nor let that move us, that God does not give that perseverance to some of His sons. Far be it that it should be so, if they were of those predestinated and called according to His purpose, who are truly the sons of the promise. But they, while they live piously, are called sons of God; but because they are about to live impiously and to die in that impiety, the foreknowledge of God does not call them sons of God. For there are some, who are by us called sons of God, on account of their having admitted grace, if but for a time; but they are not so in God's sight; of whom John says, 'they went out from us, for they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us'—they were not sons, even when they had the profession and name of sons, not as if their righteousness were feigned, but because they remained not in it For he does not say, 'for if they had been of us, they would have maintained a real, not a feigned, righteousness with us,' but 'would have remained with us.' Doubtless what he wished them to remain in was good. They were then in it: but because they remained not in it, i.e., did not persevere to the end, they were not of the number of sons, even when they were in the faith of sons." The very title "deserter," with which St. Augustine often says (e. g. in Ps. 39, 1. de Symbolo §. 15.) that Baptism brands those who neglect to profit by it, or destroy its efficacy by schism, attests his belief that they once had its grace.
In like manner his disciple and defender, Prosper of Aquitaine, who, in some respects, carried his theory of Predestination further than his master, yet says explicitly upon this point, (Prosper ad object. Gallor. c. 2.) "He who denies that one who has relapsed, after Baptism, to infidelity and a wicked life, was freed from sin, thinks as falsely as he who asserts that he will not be condemned to eternal death. If any one recede from Christ, and ends this life, alienated from grace, what doth he but fall into perdition? yet, he doth not fall back into that which was remitted, nor will he be condemned in original sin; but for his last sins, he will receive that death, which was due to him for those, which were forgiven him." And, again, (pro Augustin. ad Capitul. Gall. Obj. 70 "Of the regenerated in Christ Jesus, that some, abandoning the faith and a holy life, apostatize from God, and finish an impious life in aversion of Him, is, alas! proved, by many examples." And this dreadful truth furnished St. Augustine with matter of solemn warning to others, whom yet he held to have been regenerated. Hence, also, it happens, "that having fallen and abandoned themselves to
