§ 157. AUGUSTINE 8 DOCTKINE OF KEDEEMING OKACE. 843
Christ transforming men froTYi within. It produces first tha negative effect of forgiveness of sins, removing the hindrance to communion with God ; then the positive communication ol a new principle of life. The two are combined in the idea of justification, which, as we have already remarked, Augustine holds, not in the Protestant sense of declaring righteous once for all, but in the Catholic sense of gradually mahing righteous ; thus substantially identifying it with sanctitication.' Yet, as he refers this whole process to divine grace, to tha exclusion of all human merit, he stands on essentially Evangelical ground." As we inherit from the first Adam our sinful and mortal life, so the second Adam implants in us, from God, and in God, the germ of a sinless and immortal life. Positive grace operates, therefore, not merely from without upon our intelligence by instruction and admonition, as Pelagius taught, but also in the centre of our personality, imparting to the will the power to do the good which the instruction teaches, and to imitate the example of Christ.' Hence he frequently calls it the inspiration of a good will, or of love, which is the fulfilling of the law." " Him that wills not, grace comes to meet, that he may will ; him that wills, she follows up, that he may not will in vain."* Faith itself is an efi*ect of grace; indeed, its first and fundamental effect, which provides for all others, and manifests itself in love. He had formerly held faith to be a work of man (as, in fact, though not exclusively, the capacity
' De spiritu et lilera, c. 26 (torn. x. f. 109): "Quid est enim aliud, justificati, quam justi facti, ab illo scilicet qui justificat impium, ut ex impio fiat Justus ? " Retract, ii. 33 : " Justificamur gratia Dei, hoc est, justi efficimur."
■ Comp. De gratia et libero arbitrio, c. 8 (§ 19), and many other places, where he ascribes fides, caritas, omnia bona open, and vita aeterna to the free, unmerited grace of God.
'■" " Non lege atque doctrina insonante forinsecus, sed interna et occulta, mirabil ac ineffabili potestate operatur Deus in cordibus hominum non solum veras rerela tlones, sed bonas etiam voluntates." De grat. Christi, cap. 24 (x. f. 24).
* De corrept. et grat. cap. 2 (x. 751): "Inspiratio bonse voluntatis atqw operis." Without this grace men can " nullum prorsus sive cogitando, sive volendm et amando, sive agendo facere bonum." Elsewhere he calls it also "iaspiratlc dilectionis " and " caritatis." C. duas epist. PeL iv., and De gratia Christi, 39.
* "Nolentem praevenit, ut velit; volentem subsequitur, ne frustra Telit." Enchir. c. 32.
SJr6 THIRD PERIOD. A.D. 311-590.
of faith, or receptivity for the divine, may be said to be) ; but he was afterwards led, particularly by the words of Paul in 1 Cor, iv. 7 : " What hast thou, that thou hast not received ? " to change his view,* In a word, grace is the breath and blood of the now man ; from it proceeds all that is truly good and divine, and without it we can do nothing acceptable to God.
From this fundamental CDnception of grace arise the several properties which Augustine ascribes to it in opposition to Pel agin s :
First, it is absolutely necessary to Christian virtue ; not merely auxiliary, but indispensable, to its existence. It is necessary "for every good act, for every good thought, for every good word of man at every moment." Without it the Christian life can neither begin, proceed, nor be consummated. It was necessary even under the old dispensation, which contained the gospel in the form of promise. The saints before Christ lived of His grace by anticipation. " They stood," says Augustine, "not under the terrifying, convicting, punishing law, but under that grace which fills the heart with joy in what is good, which heals it, and makes it free."*
It is, moreover, unmerited. Gratia would be no gratia if it were not grattdta^ gratis data.^ As man without grace car do nothing good, he is, of course, incapable o'i deserving grace; for, to deserve grace, he must do something good. " What merits could we have, while as yet we did not love God? Tliat the love with which we should love might be created, we have been loved, while as yet we had not that love. I^ever should we have found strength to love God, except as we received such a love from Him who had loved us before, and because He had loved us before. And, without such a love,
Comp. Retract, i. c. 23 ; De dono peiseverantiac, c. 20, and De praedest, c 2.
' "Erant taiuen ct legis tempore homines Dei, non sub lege terrcnte. convin- «ent«, puniente, sed sub gratia delectante, sanante, liberaiite." De grat. Christi et de peccato origin. 1. ii. c. 25 (§ 29).
= Comp. De gestis Pelagii, § 33 (x 210); De pecc. orig. § 28 (x. 265): "Non Dei gratia erit ullo modo, nisi gratuita fuerit omni modo." In many other passages he says: gratia gratis datur; gratia praecedit b(na opera; gratia praecedit merita ; grj.tia indignis datur.