Woe unto him that says unto his father, What do you beget? or to the woman, What have you brought forth?
Read Chapter 45
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
By predestination God indeed foreknew that which he himself was going to do. Thus it was said, “He has made that which shall be.” Furthermore, [God] can foreknow even those things that he himself does not do, such as whatever sins there may be. There are certain things that are sins and at the same time punishment for sins, so that it is written, “God delivered them up to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting.” This is not the sin of God, however, but the judgment of God. - "Predestination of the Saints 10"
How do we think, except as in the way that the prophet also foretells of God, that he has done the things that are going to be? For he does not say, “Who will do the things that are going to be, but “who did the things that are going to be.” Therefore, [God] both did them and is going to do them. For neither have they been done if he did not do them, nor are they going to be done if he will not do them. Therefore, [God] did them by predestining them; he is going to do them by working. - "Tractates on the Gospel of John 68.1.2"
Conversely, the grace that descended on these was rejected and not accepted by the Jewish people. For they resisted, as I have said, the teachings of Christ.… But “I desire to refashion you,” Christ is saying, “into something better, to remodel you into something finer through a spiritual birth (meaning, of course, through water and the Spirit). But you resisted my plans without understanding.” Therefore, the prophet says, does the clay reproach the potter for not having an artisan’s hand or for not knowing how to shape what was in his hands? Or does someone who is about to be begotten put the question to his own father, “Why are you begetting?” How do you, then, who are like clay in the potter’s hands and have not knowledge at all of how your spiritual rebirth will take place, have the audacity to enter into argument? And why do you not rather understand that you should cede to the artisan and father the knowledge of how to do these things? … It is therefore necessary to give way to w...
For we, who do not know at all what the future has in store and see merely our present circumstances, misjudge what will profit us. God … sees what is to come as if it were present. These prophecies are addressed, however, to those who make themselves God’s judges. To them may also fittingly be cited those words of Scripture, “shall the clay say to the potter” and so forth.
How shall we not shun a person who legislates in opposition to the laws of God and issues decrees in opposition to the works of providence, whereas he dares not breathe a word against human laws? Therefore, leaving such exaggerations, or, to speak more truly, blasphemies, on one side, let us demonstrate the error of denying particular providence while acknowledging universal and general providence. - "On the Nature of Man 44.66"
