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The Church Fathers · 412
On the Spirit and the Letter
De Spiritu et Littera
Augustine of Hippo · 354–430
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What it is
The first sustained answer to Pelagius: the law shows what to do but cannot supply the will to do it, which only grace poured into the heart provides.
Why it lasted
The book Luther read as confirming his own reading of Paul, and the opening of the Western doctrine of prevenient grace.
Scripture it works from
Where to read it
Public domain and free to read in full, though not held here. The archives below have it.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
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