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GERMANUS: To this explanation, the excellence of which we cannot
hastily disprove, it seems a difficulty that it tends to destroy free will.
For as we see that many of the heathen to whom the assistance of Divine
grace has certainly not been vouchsafed, are eminent not only in the
virtues of frugality and patience, but (which is more remarkable) in that
of chastity, how can we think that the freedom of their will is taken
captive and that these virtues are granted to them by God's gift,
especially as in following after the wisdom of this world, and in their
utter ignorance not only of God's grace but even of the existence of the
true God, as we have known Him by the course of our reading and the
teaching of others--they are said to have gained the most perfect purity of
chastity by their own efforts and exertions.
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