Mozley: A Treatise on the Augustinian Doctrine of

224 Augustinian Doctrine CHAP. vm.
subordination to another power ; and a will with such a
negatived power over itself is not an original but an in
strumental co-operator with the Divine will.
One passage, however, has attracted remarkable atten
tion, in consequence of one particular phrase, contained
in it, appearing at first to involve very decidedly the posi
tion of a self-determining will : If it be said that we must
"
beware of interpreting the text, What hast thou which
"
thou hast not received ? of the believing will, and assert
ing, because this proceeds from a freewill which was a
Divine gift at our creation, that therefore it is itself a
Divine gift,
lest we attribute to God the authorship of sin
as well I ; say, that a believing will is not to be attributed
to God solely because it proceeds from freewill, but because
it depends upon the Divine persuasion, either external or
internal ; though it belongs to the individual s will to agree
with or dissent from this persuasion. God s mercy always
anticipates us, and He works in man the will to believe ;
but to assent to or dissent from the Divine will belongs to
the individual will. Nor does this at all contradict the
text,
" What
hast thou which thou hast not received ?
but rather confirms it. The soul cannot receive these
gifts without consenting ; because, what it has and what
it receives is from God : to have and receive belongs to a
possessor and receiver. He then decides why this Divine
persuasion, to which this assent of the will is necessary, is
effectual with some, and not with others, and decides it by
a reference to the inscrutable will of God. 1
1
Si autem respondetur, caven- secus, per evangelicas exhortationes
dum esse ne quisquam Deo tribu- . . sive intresecus, ubinemohabetin
endum putet peccatum, quod admit- potestate quid ei veniat, in mentem,
titur per liberum arbitrium, si in eo sed consentire vel dissentlre propriee
"
quod dicitur, Quid habes quod non voluntatisest. His ergo modi squando
accepisti ?
"
propterea etiam voluntas Deus agit cum anima rationali, ut ei
qua credimus dono Dei tribuitur, credat (neque enim credere potest
quia de libero existit arbitrio, quod quodlibet libero arbitrio si nulla sit
cum crearemur accepimus attendat suasio vel vocatio cui ; credat) profecto
et non
yideat, ideo, quia ex libero et ipsum velle credere Deus opearbitrio
est, quod nobis naturaliter ratur inhomine, etin omnibus miseconcreatum
est verum ; etiam quod ricordia ejus prsevenit nos : consen-
visorum suasionibus agit Deus, ut tire autem vocationi Dei, vel ab ea
velimus et ut credamus, sive extrin- dissentire, sicut dixi, proprice volun-
"