Mozley: A Treatise on the Augustinian Doctrine of

1 76 Augustinian
CHAP. TI.
love; for "Love is of God." This you will not reckon
among your assistances of grace, lest you should concede the
1
truth, that the very act of obedience is of that grace.
Again : Thou mentionest many things by which God
assists us, viz. by commanding, blessing, sanctifying, coerc
ing, exciting, illuminating ; and then mentionest not, by
giving love "
whereas John saith Love is of ; God," and
adds,
" Behold
what manner of love the Father hath
bestowed on us, that we should be called the sons of God." 2
Again : If among the kinds of grace you refer to you
would place love, which the Scriptures most plainly declare
to be not from ourselves but from God, and to be a gift of
God to His own sons, that love without which no one lives
piously, and with which a man cannot but live piously ;
without which no one has a good will, and with which a
man cannot but have a good will, you would then define a
true freewill, and not inflate a false one. 3
Throughout these passages the gift of love is described
as a disposition of mind necessarily productive of holy
action, and at the same time it is described as the- gift of
God without any qualification of the simple and natural
sense of that term. And, lastly, this gift
is identified ex
pressly with efficacious or irresistible grace, as that grace
was formally defined above it ; being described as a gift
with which a man cannot but live piously cum qua
nemo nisi pie vivitj which is a repetition of the language
above adjutorium cum quo aliquid jit ; donum per
quod non nisi perseverantes suntS 4
Having thus shown, what it was the object of this
chapter to show, that Augustine held the doctrine of
efficacious or irresistible
grace, I shall conclude with two
observations.
It is evident, then, in the first place, that this doc
trine is no more than a supplemental one to the doctrine
of predestination described in the preceding chapter. If
there be a Divine decree
predestinating from all eternity
antecedently to any acts of their own certain individuals
Op. Imp. 1. 3. e. 114. "
Ibid. 1. 3. c. 106. *
Op. Imp.
Pp. 163. 165.
1. 3. e. 122.