Mozley: A Treatise on the Augustinian Doctrine of

CHAP. x. of Predestination. 279
sarily qualified them for it, and abandon the rest, from
whom He withheld such grace, to eternal punishment. But
this formal scheme laid down, the attentive reader of
Aquinas will next observe a certain general leaning and
bias towards a modifying interpretation of it. Having
constructed a system on the strict Augustinian basis, the
mind of the great schoolman appears to have shrunk from
the extreme results which it involved ; and without com
mitting himself to any
substantial difference from his
master, he yet uses modes of speaking suggestive of an
other view of the question than that which lie had bor
rowed from him ; and a phraseology, which is not casual,
but set and constant, insinuates a relaxation of the Augus
tinian doctrine.
And first I will make the preliminary remark, that a
difference is to be observed in the general tone of these
two great theological minds, tending more or less to affect
their respective views on this subject. Aquinas is more
of a philosopher than his master, and has greater sympa
thies with the human mind as such, with the natural
intellect, reason, and moral ideas of mankind. His vast
acquaintance with heathen philosophy opens his mind to
the valuable gifts even of unenlightened man, his deep
reflections upon himself, his knowledge of (rod, true as
far as it goes, and his advancement in virtue, under the
of reason and conscience. Nor is the deference
guidance
which he shows to heathen authority, in philosophical and
moral questions, altogether consistent with the position
which his formal theology, as an Augustinian, assigned to
unconverted human nature, which it represented as in the
depths of sin, and unable to do or to think anything good.
The perplexity, again, with respect to the existence of
evil, appears in a deeper and more sensitive form in the
mind of Aquinas than it does in that of his master. Au
but
gustine sees as a theologian an inexplicable mystery ;
Aquinas shows more of that human sentiment, with respect
to the great fact of evil in the world, 1 which has rested
utilitas electorum, bonum naturae,
1 Bradwardine has less scruple.
Ecce triplex bonum ex :
reprobis seculique ornatua. Ponatur quoque