ace is to be found, and I challenge the
Calvinist of the present day to produce an author prior to Augustine
who maintained what are now called Calvinistic opinions" (Preface
VII.)

The extracts which he gives from the writings of the Fathers are so
many and extended that we can only give a few. Clement of Rome, a
contemporary of the apostles, says: "Let us look stedfastly at the
blood of Christ, and see how precious His blood is in the sight of
God, which, being shed for our salvation, has obtained the grace of
repentance for all the world" (p. 288). Justin Martyr, who lived
about the middle of the second century, says, "But lest anyone
should imagine that I am asserting things that happen according to
the necessity of fate, because I have said that things are
foreknown, I proceed to refute that opinion also. That punishments
and chastisements and good rewards are given according to the worth
of the actions of every one, having learnt it from the prophets, we
declare to be true; since if it were not so, but all things happen
according to fate, nothing would be in our own power; for if it were
decreed by fate that one should be good and another bad, no praise
would be due to the former, nor blame to the other; and, again, if
mankind had not the power of free-will to avoid what is disgraceful
and to choose what is good, they would not be responsible for their
actions" (Tom., p. 292). Irenaeus, who lived near the end of the
second century, says, "The expression 'How often would I have
gathered thy children together, and ye would not' (Matt. xxiii. 37),
manifested the ancient law of human liberty, because God made man
free from the beginning, having his own power as he had also his own
soul to use the sentence of God voluntarily, and not by compulsion
from God. For there is no force with God, but a good intention is
always with Him. And therefore He gives good counsel to all. But He
has placed the power of choice in man, in that those who should obey
might justly possess good, given indeed by God, but preserved by
ourselves" (Tom., p. 304). Tertullian (A.D. 200), "Therefore, though
we have learned from the commands of God both what He wills and what
He forbids, yet we have a will and power to choose either, as it is
written, 'Behold I have set before you good and evil, for you have
tasted of the tree of knowledge'" (Tom., p. 320). Origen (A.D. 230)
says, "We have frequently shown, in all our disputations, that the
nature