Mozley: A Treatise on the Augustinian Doctrine of

Augustinian
CHAP. YI.
a co-eternal substance with the Deity. The timidity or
fastidiousness of philosophy
thus weakened essentially the
but the Bible sustains it
great idea of God s omnipotence ;
in a remarkable way upon this head. Exemplifying the
rule, that the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and
the weakness of God is stronger than men, Scripture puts
forward prominently, and as a fundamental truth, that
very idea which appeared thus monstrous and untenable to
the viz.
philosopher,
that God is the true Creator of the
world, and made substance out of nothing.
This difference between the Bible and ancient philo
sophy is specially important as regards one division of the
creation, viz. the world invisible. Philosophy did not
speak of the intelligent soul as being a created substance,
but rather as being an emanation of the Divine mind ;
thus making it part of the Deity Himself, and forestalling
the peculiar subjection which it derives from creation. But
the Bible teaches that the intelligent soul is a created
substance, as truly as matter is. The subjection which
belongs to the creature thus attaches to the soul in the
the susceptibility to and need of in
system of the Bible ;
fluence, the capacity for being moulded and controlled by
that Being by whom it was originally made, and depen
dence upon this moulding and controlling Power. The
Divine power in Scripture thus extends from the first act
of creating the substance of the soul to the kindred one of
creating it morally ; of forming and fashioning the inner
man, inspiring holy acts, imparting holy dispositions, and
confirming and sustaining them afterwards. This absolute
dominion over men and irresistible power over their hearts
is illustrated by the similitude of a potter, who makes what
he pleases of his clay ; now forming it and then breaking
it, now preserving it and then rejecting it. 1 The New
Testament both interprets and sustains the language of
the Old ; appealing to this similitude and describing re
newed hearts as a Divine creation. Shall the thing formed
hast Thou made me
say to Him that formed it, why
2 thus ? If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. 3
1
Isaiah, xxix. 16 ; xlv. 9 ; Ixiv.
8 ; Jeremiah, xviii. 6.
2 Rom. ix. 20."
3 2 Cor. v. 17.