Mozley: A Treatise on the Augustinian Doctrine of

CJTAP. v. of Predestination. 141
relatively to their qualifications for it, He predestinates
them absolutely to those qualifications ; so that, though
one part of predestination is dependent upon another, the
whole is unconditional. 1
It is indeed observable that, when S. Augustine is
charged by the Pelagians with fatalism, he does not dis
own the certainty and necessity, but only the popular
superstitions and impieties of that system. He rejects the
appeal to the stars as absurd, and distinguishes between
the operation of fate which is for good and evil alike, and
that of Divine grace which is for good only sin ; and its
punishment being referable wholly to man. But he does
not disown a Divine predestination, upon which the future
happiness and misery of mankind depend. 2
Such being S. Augustine s doctrine of predestination,
the ground on which the justice of such a doctrine is
defended has already appeared in so many of the extracts
given, that it is hardly necessary
to recur to it. Had
mankind continued in the state in which they were ori
ginally created, the consignment of any portion of them
antecedently to all action to eternal punishment, would
have been unjust. But all mankind having fallen from
that state by their sin in Adam, and become one guilty
mass, eternal punishment is antecedently due to all ; and
therefore none have any right to complain if they are
consigned antecedently to it ; while those who are spared
should thank God s gratuitous mercy.
To this mass of perdition, this apostate root, we are
referred for the defence of the justice of predestination.
4
Those who are not freed by grace, whether they have not
had the opportunity of hearing, or whether they have
heard and refused to obey, or whether they have not lived
1 Effectum prsedestinationis
con- Theol. P. 1. Quaest. 23. Art. 5.
2
siderare :
possuraus dupliciter uno Fatumquiaffirmantdesiderum
modo in particular!, et sic nihil pro- positions, ad tempus quo concipitur
hibet aliquem effectum prsedestina- quisque vel nascitur, actus et eventa
tionis esse causam alterius .... pendere contendunt : Dei vero gratia
Alio modo in communi et sic ; impos- omnia sidera progreditur . . . .
sibile est quod totus Deinde fati
prsedestinationis
assertores et bona et
effectus in communi habeat aliquam mala hominum fato tribuunt.
causam ex parte nostra. Sum. Contra Duas, Ep. 1. 2, n. 12.