In any case, the matter
is very obscure.
This work begins thus: "Great art thou, O Lord."
II. De Dono Perseverantiae, XX, 53 (A.D. 428)
Which of my shorter works has been more widely known or given
greater pleasure than the [thirteen] books of my Confessions?
And, although I published them long before the Pelagian heresy had
even begun to be, it is plain that in them I said to my God, again
and again, "Give what thou commandest and command what thou wilt."
When these words of mine were repeated in Pelagius' presence at
Rome by a certain brother of mine (an episcopal colleague), he
could not bear them and contradicted him so excitedly that they
nearly came to a quarrel. Now what, indeed, does God command,
first and foremost, except that we believe in him? This faith,
therefore, he himself gives; so that it is well said to him, "Give
what thou commandest." Moreover, in those same books, concerning
my account of my conversion when God turned me to that faith which
I was laying waste with a very wretched and wild verbal assault,[4
]do you not remember how the narration shows that I was given as a
gift to the faithful and daily tears of my mother, who had been
promised that I should not perish? I certainly declared there
that God by his grace turns men's wills to the true faith when
they are not only averse to it, but actually adverse.
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