**Justin Martyr (circa 100 – 165 AD) **
‘We have learned from the prophets, and we hold it to be true, that punishments, chastisements, and rewards are rendered according to the merit of each man’s actions. Otherwise, if all things happen by fate, then nothing is in our own power. For if it be predestined that one man be good and another man evil, then the first is not deserving of praise or the other to be blamed. Unless humans have the power of avoiding evil and choosing good by free choice, they are not accountable for their actions-whatever they may be… For neither would a man be worthy of reward or praise if he did not of himself choose the good, but was merely created for that end. Likewise, if a man were evil, he would not deserve punishment, since he was not evil of himself, being unable to do anything else than what he was made for.’ (Justin Martyr, First Apology, chapter 43)
‘But lest some suppose, from what has been said by us, that we say that whatever happens, happens by a fatal necessity, because it is foretold as known beforehand, this too we explain. We have learned from the prophets, and we hold it to be true, that punishments, and chastisements, and good rewards, are rendered according to the merit of each man’s actions. Since if it be not so, but all things happen by fate, neither is anything at all in our own power. For if it be fated that this man, e.g., be good, and this other evil, neither is the former meritorious nor the latter to be blamed. And again, unless the human race have the power of avoiding evil and choosing good by free choice, they are not accountable for their actions, of whatever kind they be. But that it is by free choice they both walk uprightly and stumble, we thus demonstrate. We see the same man making a transition to opposite things. Now, if it had been fated that he were to be either good or bad, he could never have been capable of both the opposites, nor of so many transitions. But not even would some be good and others bad, since we thus make fate the cause of evil, and exhibit her as acting in opposition to herself; or that which has been already stated would seem to be true, that neither virtue nor vice is anything, but that things are only reckoned good or evil by opinion; which, as the true word shows, is the greatest impiety and wickedness. But this we assert is inevitable fate, that they who choose the good have worthy rewards, and they who choose the opposite have their merited awards. For not like other things, as trees and quadrupeds, which cannot act by choice, did God make man: for neither would he be worthy of reward or praise did he not of himself choose the good, but were created for this end; nor, if he were evil, would he be worthy of punishment, not being evil of himself, but being able to be nothing else than what he was made.’ (Justin Martyr, First Apology, chapter XLIII)
‘For God, wishing both angels and men, who were endowed with free-will, and at their own disposal, to do whatever He had strengthened each to do, made them so, that if they chose the things acceptable to Himself, He would keep them free from death and from punishment; but that if they did evil, He would punish each as He sees fit.’ (Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho, chapter 88)
**Tatian (110 – 172 AD) **
‘The Logos…before the creation of men, was the Framer of angels. And each of these two orders of creatures was made free to act as it pleased, not having the nature of good, which again is with God alone, but is brought to perfection in men through their freedom of choice, in order that the bad man may be justly punished…but the just man be deservedly praised…Such is the constitution of things in reference to angels and men.’ Also, …our free-will has destroyed us…Nothing evil has been created by God; we ourselves have manifested wickedness.’ (Tatian, Address to the Greeks)
**Athenagoras (177 AD) **
‘Just as with men, who have freedom of choice as to both virtue and vice, so it is among the angels…Some free agents, you will observe, such as they were created by God, continued in those things for which God had made and over which he had ordained them; but some outraged both the constitution of their nature and the government entrusted to them.’ (A Plea for the Christians 24)
**Irenaeus (130 – 202 AD) **
‘For He who makes the chaff and He who makes the wheat are not different persons, but one and the same, who judges them, that is, separates them. But the wheat and the chaff, being inanimate and irrational, have been made such by nature. But man, being endowed with reason, and in this respect like to God, having been made free in his will, and with power over himself, is himself the cause to himself, that sometimes he becomes wheat, and sometimes chaff. (Against Heresies, book 4, chapter 4, 3)
In the previous books I have set forth the causes for which God permitted these things to be made, and have pointed out that all such have been created for the benefit of that human nature which is saved, ripening for immortality that which is [possessed] of its own free will and its own power, and preparing and rendering it more adapted for eternal subjection to God.’ (Irenaeus, Against Heresies, book 5, chapter 29)
Tertullian (160 – 220 AD)
‘…it is not the part of good and solid faith to refer all things to the will of God…as to make us fail to understand that there is something within our power.’ (Tertullian,Exhortation on Chastity, 2)
‘I find, then, that man was constituted free by God. He was master of his own will and power…Man is free, with a will either for obedience or resistance.’ (Tertullian, 207 AD, 3.300, 301)
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Clement of Alexandria (153 – 217 AD)**
‘So in no respect is God the author of evil. But since free choice and inclination originate sins…punishments are rightly inflicted.’ (Stromata 1:17 )
‘This was the law from the first, that virtue should be the object of voluntary choice.’ ( Stromata 7:2)
‘A man by himself working and toiling at freedom from sinful desires achieves nothing. But if he plainly shows himself to be very eager and earnest about this, he attains it by the addition of the power of God. God works together with willing souls. But if the person abandons his eagerness, the spirit from God is also restrained. To save the unwilling is the act of one using compulsion; but to save the willing, that of one showing grace.’ (Salvation of the Rich Man chap. 21)
‘Neither praise nor condemnation, neither rewards nor punishments, are right if the soul does not have the power of choice and avoidance, if evil is involuntary.’ (Miscellanies bk. 1, chap. 17)
We…have believed and are saved by voluntary choice.(Clement of Alexandria, 195 AD, 2.217)
To obey or not to obey is in our own power, provided we do not have the excuse of ignorance. (Clement of Alexandria, 195 AD, 2.353)
Origen (185 – 255 AD)
In response to a claim (much like the Calvinist doctrine of God’s exhaustive sovereignty) that ‘whatever happens in the universe, whether it be the work of God, of angels [or] of other demons…is regulated by the law of the Most High God,’ Origen says:
‘This is…incorrect; for we cannot say that transgressors follow the law of God when they transgress; and Scripture declares that it is not only wicked men who are transgressors, but also wicked demons and wicked angels…When we say that ‘the providence of God regulates all things,’ we utter a great truth if we attribute to that providence nothing but what is just and right. But if we ascribe to the providence of God all things whatsoever, however unjust they may be, then it is no longer true that the providence of God regulates all things.’ (Against Celsus 7:68.)
