Mozley: A Treatise on the Augustinian Doctrine of

CHAP. vr. Doctrine of Grace. 153
only the proficiency of the power, but the affection of the
will, and the effect of action is included. l
The grace, then, to which Augustine gives the name
or description of adjutorium voluntatis et actionisj wo
find, on examining his own account and explanation of it,
to be endowed with the effect of action ; to be a grace,
not only given in order that such and such actions may be
done, but also causing those actions to be done in fact.
But
actionis
such a phrase as adjutorium
is obviously a very imperfect
voluntatis et
and awkward
not of
description of irresistible grace ; being, in fact,
itself any description of it at all, but depending entirely
on the definition to which it is opposed and on the context
generally, for its meaning. Indeed, hitherto, Augustine
appears rather feeling his way toward some clear and exact
definition of the grace for which he is arguing, than really
as a whole has one evident
defining if. His language
meaning ; but it is only as a whole that it has : it efiects
its object by large, varied, and diffuse statement and ex
planation ; but in aiming at point it altogether fails, and
cannot concentrate itself in definition. As his doctrine of
grace, however, obtains a more familiar hold of his- mind,
and perpetual controversy multiplies thought and language
about it, and the subject by being turned over repeatedly
is seen in every aspect, his ideas become more exact and
his choice of terms greater ; and out of the accumulation
of statements he is at last able to fix on one to serve as a,
complete definition of this grace.
In the book De Correptione et Gratia he draws a
clear distinction between two different kinds of grace,
which he calls respectively an assistance without which a
thing cannot be done, and an assistance by which a thing
is done (adjutorium sine quo aliquid nonfit, and adju
torium quo aliquid fit). He first draws a strong dis
tinction between the wants of man before and man after
the fall, and then gives this as the corresponding distinction
in the nature of the grace by which these respective wants
are supplied. Man even beifore the fall, upright and per-
1 De Grat. Christi, c. xiv.