Mozley: A Treatise on the Augustinian Doctrine of

194 Augustinian Doctrine CFAP. TH.
beneficent will ;
inasmuch as whom He hath predestinated
those He hath also called with that call of which it is said,
" The gifts and calling of Grod are without repentance."
l
Again : Wonderful indeed, very wonderful, that to some of
His own sons, whom He has regenerated and to whom He
has given faith, hope, and charity, God does not give per
severance ! that He who oftentimes pardons and adopts the
stranger s (unbeliever s) son, should withhold such a gift
but must wonder, be astonished, and
2
Again : I am speaking of those who
have not the gift of perseverance, but have turned from
from His own ! Who
amazed at this !
good to evil, and die in that declination ; let them (his
opponents) tell me why Grod did not take such persons out
of this world while they were yet unchanged ? Was it
because He could not ? or was it because He foresaw not
their future wickedness ? They cannot assert either of
these without perversity and madness. Then why did He
do so ? Let them answer this question before they deride
me, when I exclaim,
" How
unsearchable are His judg
ments, and His ways past finding out!" Either Grod
gives that gift to whom He will, or Scripture lies
Let them confess this truth at once, and why Grod gives
that gift to one and not to another, condescend without
a murmur to be ignorant with me. 3
Final perseverance, then, is, upon the Augustinian
doctrine, the true and absolute gift of Grod to certain
members of the human race ; to whom, according
to an
eternal decree, He has determined to give it : and it has
that prominent place which it has in the predestinarian
scheme, because it is that measure of Divine grace which
is sufficient for salvation. The predestinarian doctrine is
that certain persons are predestined by
Grod from all
eternity to be saved ; but Grod only saves the righteous,
and not the wicked. It must therefore be provided, in
accordance with this doctrine, that those persons shall ex
hibit as much goodness of life as is necessary for the end
to which they are ordained ; and final perseverance is this
measure of . goodness. The
gift of final perseverance, then,
1 De Dono Pers. c. xiii. De Corr. et Grat. c. viii. Ibid. c. viii.