Mozley: A Treatise on the Augustinian Doctrine of

CHAP. x. of Predestination. 275
the mode in which they are formed, and not at all in the
nature or matter of the habits themselves ; the same state
and disposition
of mind being formed in the one case by
time, custom, successive acts, and in the other by Divine
power producing it, without the aid of these previous
steps. All habits, as such, then, whatever be their subject
matter, or rank, come alike under both these modes of
formation : an ordinary moral habit, such as honesty or
temperance, is as much a subject of infusion as a spiritual
one, such as faith or charity and a ; spiritual habit, such
as faith or charity, is as much a subject of acquisition, as
a common moral one of temperance or honesty. Infusion
and acquisition apply alike to both. A habit of faith is
acquired by acts of faith, and a habit of love by acts of
and the natural or Aristotelian law of the formation
love ;
of habits, is as true of spiritual as of common moral habits.
Again, the commonest moral dispositions are as capable,
as spiritual ones, of being imparted in the other way, /..
and we see them so imparted often
without previous acts ;
at birth. But Aquinas artificially appropriates infusion
to spiritual virtues, acquisition to moral ones; 1 as if the
former were never acquired by acts, and the latter never
but by them. It depends on the dispensation under which
a is person individually placed,
in what way he obtains
either spiritual or moral habits whether both are the
;
simple growth of time and acts in him, or whether he
obtains both in the more immediate way : though we must
not so divide the two modes of formation of character as to
forget that both may go on together in the same person,
and that mankind are all more or less under both systems.
Another cause of confusion was the technical and quaint
division of these habits, followed by the artificial subordi
nation of one division to another, the attempt being to
construct them into one harmonious machinery for the
building up of the human soul, one set, at the point
where its power failed, being taken up, and its action car
ried on by another. The Theological virtues, Faith, Hope,
and Charity, were infused habits. But though, their
1 He admits natural moral virtue in a limited way. p. 291.
T 2