Atticus: This much you must know, that Baptism
forgives past sins, but it does not safeguard future justice, which is
preserved by labor and industry and diligence, and depends always and above all
on the mercy of God. It is our part to seek. His to grant what we ask; ours to
make a beginning, His to bring it to completion; ours to offer what we can, His
to finish what we cannot. (Jerome, Dialogue Against the Pelagians 3.1, A.D.
415, The Faith of the Early Fathers, 3 vols. [trans. William A. Jurgens;
Collegeville, Minn.: The Liturgical Press, 1979], 2:211)
