Mozley: A Treatise on the Augustinian Doctrine of

CHA.P. vii. of Final Perseverance. 191
final perseverance as being a removal for ever from temp
tation. And therefore to say that perseverance, which
consists in sustaining temptation, is as much a gift of God
as that which is caused by the occurrence of death, is only
to say, that the power of sustaining temptation is as much
a gift of God as the removal from temptation. And so
the argument is sometimes put by S. Augustine, the sub
stance being given apart from this particular form of it,
which alludes to the end of life. God is able to convert
the averse and adverse wills of men to His faith, and work
in their hearts a sustaining of all adversities and an over
coming of all temptation ; inasmuch as He is able not to
permit them to be tempted at all above that they are able ;
the resistance to temptation is pronounced to be in the
power of God to give, because the protection from tempta
tion is in His power. 1
Such an argument is, indeed, more ingenious than
sound for it does not follow that because God ;
spares some
persons on particular occasions the exercise of a certain
power ofchoice and original agency inherent in their nature,
that therefore such a power does not exist, and would not
have been called into action by another arrangement of
Providence. But the argument itself, which is all that we
are concerned with here, certainly shows the sense in which
S. Augustine uses the term gift of final perseverance. For
there can be no doubt that removal from temptation is an
absolute and free gift of God ;
it being entirely an arrange
ment of His providence what temptations we encounter in
the course of our life, and what we do not. If perseve
rance, therefore, in spite of temptation, is as much a gift
of God as the removal from temptation, it is a gift simple
and absolute. And there can be no doubt that the occur
rence of the end of life at a particular time is an arrange
ment solely of God s providence. If all perseverance,
then, is alike the gift of God, while one kind of it is said
to be constituted by the occurrence of the end of life at a
particular time, all perseverance is a gift of God simple
and absolute.
1 De Dono PITS. c. ix.