Mozley: A Treatise on the Augustinian Doctrine of

126 Augustinian Doctrine CHAP. v.
dently does not depend on a man s conduct in what part of
the world he is born, whether in a Christian part or a
heathen or in what state as an infant he dies, whether
;
with baptism or without it, These are arrangements of
God s providence entirely.
If such arrangements, then,
involve eternal punishment, the Divine will consigns to
such punishment antecedently to all action which is the
doctrine of A true
predestination. predestination, then,
is seen in full operation
in his theology, before we come to
the specific doctrine ; arid we have substantially at an earlier
all
stage
that can be maintained at a later.
CHAPTER V.
AUGUSTINIAN DOCTRINE OF PREDESTINATION.
FROM S. s Augustine doctrine of original sin, I to his statements on
proceed
the subject of predestination. S.
Augustine, then, held the existence of an eternal Divine
decree, separating, antecedently to any difference of desert,
one portion of the human race from another ; and ordaining
one to everlasting life and the other to everlasting misery.
This doctrine occurs frequently in many of his treatises ;
wholly pervades some, and forms the basis of his whole
teaching in the latter portion of his theological life.
will be impossible, therefore, by one or two extracts
It
to
represent duly the position which this doctrine has in his
but the following may be taken as samples of a
writings ;
general language on this subject. 1
1 The dates of the four following about so and alternates and oecilertracts
are, of the first A.D. 426, lates so long between one conclusion
of the second, A.D. 428, of the third, and another, that it is with some
A.D. 421, of the fourth, A.D. 417. difficulty that we ascertain what his
But the Liber ad Simplicianum, real conclusion is. He ends, howwritten
A.D. 394, contains substan- ever, in adopting the strong inter-
tially the same doctrine, though pretation of S. Paul : and his argubeing
written just as he was cross- ment, which is to reconcile the text,
ing the boundary line, and passing Many are called but few chosen,
from one system to another, it winds with an effectual call effectrix vo-