Mozley: A Treatise on the Augustinian Doctrine of

T54 Augitstinian CHAP. vi.
feet being as he was, and possessed of freewill, stood in
need of grace to enable him to act aright ; nor could he
do anything acceptable to Grod by his own natural strength.
But as an upright being and possessed of freewill he only
stood in need of assisting grace, he was strong enough to
have the ultimate choice of good and evil thrown upon
him, and only wanted grace to advance and aid the choice
when made. So great a burden might be placed upon him,
because he was able to bear it, and was no penalty, but the
sign of strength and perfection. To man, then, before
the fall an assistance without which a thing is not done
was given ; that is to say, an assistance which he could not
do without, but which did not effect anything unless he
added the exercise of his own original choice to it, that
which is commonly called
assisting grace. But at the fall
this whole state of things ceased. The fall deprived man
of freewill, and inclined his nature irresistibly to evil. In
this state he was too weak to bear the ultimate choice of
good and evil being thrown upon him, and must perish if
it was. The grace, therefore, which is given to man after
the fall is not the assistance without which a thing is not
done, but that with which a thing is done ; that is to
say, an assistance, upon which being given, the effect of a
renewed heart and renewed will follows certainly.
A grace
is now given him suited to an entirely impotent nature,
wholly controlling choice and action, and leading irre
sistibly to good.
Augustine explains at length the difference between
these two kinds of grace, and" the reason for it: Adam
was in the midst of good which be had received from the
goodness of his Creator ; but the saints in this life are in
the midst of evil, out
"
Deliver us from evil."
the death of Christ ;
of which they cry aloud to Grod,
He amidst that good needed not
them from guilt, hereditary and per
sonal, the blood of that Lamb absolveth. He had not need
of that "
assistance which they implore, saying, I see an
other law in my members warring against the law of my
mind, and
bringing me into
captivity to the law of sin
which is in my members." In them the flesh lusteth against