Mozley: A Treatise on the Augustinian Doctrine of

Augustinian
CHAP.
There is another evidence of the sense in which Augus
tine uses the term gift, as applied to a holy life and conduct,
in an argument in constant use with him, drawn from the
fact of prayer. We pray, he says, not only for external
good things, but for spiritual dispositions and habits ; for
virtue, holiness, obedience, both for ourselves and others.
But a request implies that we suppose the thing asked for
to be in the gift of him from whom we ask it, and that he
is able to bestow it or not, according to his will and plea
sure, otherwise there is no reason to account for our asking.
If we ask God for holiness then, and obedience, it follows
that we suppose holiness and obedience to be properly in
His gift. 1
If God so prepared and worked a good will in
a man as only to apply His law and teaching to his freewill,
and did not by a deep and occult vocation so act upon his
mind, that he complied with that law and teaching, beyond
a doubt it would be enough to expound and preach to that
man, and there would be no necessity to pray that God
would convert him or give him perseverance when con
verted. If these things are to be prayed for then, and you
cannot deny that they are to be, what remains, but that
you confess that these things are gifts ? for you must ask
God for what He gives. 2
It is evident that this argument defines an absolute
gift of holiness and obedience, for the force of the argu
ment lies in pushing the act of prayer to its extreme con
sequences ; and this is the logical consequence of prayer,
as a request for holiness and obedience from God, It is
undoubtedly of the very nature of prayer to suppose the
subject of its request to be simply in God s gift ; so far as
a thing is not in God s power to give, so far it is not the
1
Frequentationibus autem ora- a Deo non ostendit dandum esse
tionum simpliciter apparebat Dei nisi a Deo, cum poscendum ostendit
gratia quid valeret : non enim pos- a Deo. Qui enim non infertur in
cerentur de Deo quae prsecipit fieri, tentationem non discedit a Deo.
nisi ab illo donarentur, ut fierent. Ecclesia orat ut increduli credant.
De Prsed. Sanct. c. xiv. Deus ergo convertit ad Mem. Orat
Si alia documenta non essent, ut credentes perseverent : Deus ergo
dominica oratio nobis ad causam dat perseverantiam in finem. De
gratise quam defendimus sola sum- Dono Pers. c. vii.
ceret. Siquidem ut non discedamus
2
Ep. 217. ad Vitalem, n. 5.