Mozley: A Treatise on the Augustinian Doctrine of

CHAP. YJ. Doctrine of Grace. 159
every
one that hath heard and learned of the Father
cometh, whoever hath not come hath not heard or learned
of the Father. For if he had heard or learned, he would
have come. For there is no one that hath heard or learned,
and cometh not ; but every one, as saith the truth, that
hath heard and learned of the Father cometh. l Here the
test of grace, whether it is given or not, is the effect. Tf
a man is admitted to hearing and learning, i.e. to illumi
nating grace, the effect of a new life or corning
to Christ
follows : if this effect does not follow, he has not been ad
mitted to this gTace. We do indeed sometimes use the
words hearing and learning in the sense of a man s own act
of attending to what is told him, and profiting by what is
taught him and in this sense the words would ; express
here, not the enlightening grace of (rod, but a man s own
use of that grace and therefore not the ; giving of a grace,
but a man s own use of it, would be the thing tested here
by the effect. But the obvious sense of this passage, and
the whole nature of the discussion, to which it belongs,
exclude such a meaning of the words hearing and learning
here, which mean the fact of being told and being taught, or
the act of another telling or teaching. A certain teaching
of God, tHen 2
that is to , say, a grace, is the thing of which
the bestowal is in these passages tested by the effect and to
;
this purpose Augustine criticises the common saying, that
God s mercy to us is in vain if we do not will, remarking,
I do not know how this can be said, for if God has mercy
we also will si Deus miseretur etiam volumus : God has
mercy on no man in vain nullius Deusfrustra miseretur?*
This is to adopt the test of the effect. The saying Agis si
agaris thou actest if thou art acted on 4 does the same,
its force lying in the contrast and inseparableness at the
same time of an influence on the man and an act of him.
The saying Grace gives merit, when it is given itself
gratia
dat rnerita cum donatur5^
the term merit meaning
1 DePrsed. c. viii. n. 12, 13.
2
Iste docendi modus quo per
gratiatn docet Deus.
8 De Div. QuKst. ad 1. Simp. 1.
4 Semi. 128. c. 7.
5
Ep. ad Vitalem, 217. n. 5.