Mozley: A Treatise on the Augustinian Doctrine of

CHAP. vi. Doctrine of Grace. 175
itself. And being such a gift, it is described as a free gift ;
not half given by God, half attained by man, or given in
proportion to our natural striving after it. For why it is
given to one more than another he treats as a mystery, or
a question belonging to the secret counsels of God ; whereas,
on the latter supposition there would have been no diffi
culty to account for. Moreover, the is
gift described
throughout as preceding and producing action, and not
following it.
Again :
( The appetite for good is from God the ; most
high, unchangeable good ; which appetite is love, of which
" Love is of God." Not that its beginning is
John saith,
of us, and its perfecting of God, but that the whole of love
is from God. For God avert such madness as to make
ourselves prior in His gifts and Him posterior ; seeing, it
is said,
" Thou
preventest him with the blessings of sweet
ness." For what can be meant here but that appetite for
good of which we speak. For good begins to be desired
as soon as it begins to be sweet. But when good is done
through fear of punishment, and not through love, good is
not done well. It is done in the act, but not in the heart,
when a man would not do it if he could refuse with im
punity. The blessing of sweetness is therefore given as
a grace whereby that which is commanded delights us, and
is desired and loved. 1
Again : If grace co-operates with
a previously existing good will, and does not prevent and
produce that "
will, how is it truly said that God worketh
in us to and that the will is will," prepared by the Lord,
" and that Love is of God," love which alone wills beatific
2
: When the love of God is shed abroad
Again
good ?
in our hearts, not that love is meant with which He loves
us, but that love by which He makes us lovers of Him ;
as the righteousness of God is that by which He makes
us righteous of free grace, and the salvation of God that
by which He saves us, and the faith of Jesus Christ that
3
by which He makes us believers.
1
2
Contra Duas, Ep.
Op. Imp.
1. I.e. 95.
1. 2. c. riii.
Again : God alone gives
8 De Spirit, et Lit. c. xxxii.