Mozley: A Treatise on the Augustinian Doctrine of

CHAP. v. of Predestination. 143
sinned, inasmuch as sin hath passed to all from one, in
whom, previous to their separate individual sins, all have
sinned in common. And on this account every sinner is
inexcusable, either by the guilt of his origin or the addi
tion of his own will, whether he knows or whether he is
ignorant; for ignorance itself is sin beyond question in
those who are unwilling to learn, and in those who are not
able is the punishment of sin. So that of both the excuse
is unjust, the damnation just What did He love
in Jacob but the free gift of His own mercy, what did He
l
hate in Esau but original sin ?
One peculiar argument for predestination drawn from
the Incarnation should be added to the general body of
statement which we meet with in S. Augustine on this
subject an argument which is remarkable as showing how
intimately the doctrine of predestination is connected with
the fundamental truths of Christianity. Original sin is
its main basis ; but an oblique proof of it is here drawn
from the assumption of the Man Jesus into unity of person
with God. 2
The most eminent instance of predestination and grace
is the Saviour Himself, the Mediator of God and man, the
Man Christ Jesus ; for by what preceding merits of its
own, either of works .or faith, did that human nature which
was in Him earn this ? Answer : How did the Man Jesus
merit to be, as assumed into unity of person with the coeternal
Word, the only begotten Son of God ? What
good in him preceded? What did he do, believe, ask,
antecedently, that he should attain to this ineffable dignity?
Was not this Man, by virtue of his assumption by the
Word, from the first moment that He was Man, the Son
of God ? Was it not as the only Son of God that, that
woman full of grace conceived him ? Was he not born
the only Son of God of the Holy Ghost and the Virgin
Mary by a singular dispensation ? Was there any fear
1
Ep. 194. c. 6. 8. acts of the will of the human soul
2
Edwards, in his book On the of Jesus Christ, necessarily holy,
Freedom of the Will, uses the same yet truly virtuous, praiseworthy,
argument in the chapter on the rewardable, &c.