Augustine of Hippo: Selected Writings (continued)
INTRODUCTION
that the hidden merits of certain people brought them the gift of faith. At last in the Zo Simplicianus** he clearly taught that doing good works must be preceded by grace. Although not denying his former statement that free choice is indispensable for any moral action, he affirmed that free choice is not sufficient to act justly. Assuredly, free choice can be used to pray to God for the grace needed, but this prayer is itself inspired by grace so that the prayer becomes efficacious. The prayer is a declaration that one wants to do what God has commanded but that one is expecting help from the one who has commanded. The grace given allows one both to pray and to love efficaciously, for the "God who made us without ourselves will not save us without ourselves."'>° So God does not constrain us to believe or to do good works; he invites us in a way that disposes us to consent without compelling us. Augustine speaks of the will as 'prepared by the Lord" to consent.
Triadic Schema of Freedom To assess the depth of Augustinian spirituality is to undertake a study of St. Paul's influence on Augustine's view of human freedom. Commenting on Romans 5:12—13, he learned from Paul that there are three progressive stages in the present life of human beings. The first stage is man's natural birth in a carnal condition since Adam's sin. This stage is before the Law and consists in the ignorance of one's sin and the abandonment to sensual pleasures. The second stage is under the Law when a man knows that what he does is evil but the weight of habit inhibits him from doing otherwise, and as yet there is no assistance from faith. The third stage is the stage of Grace, when "we confide ourselves absolutely to our Liberator, attributing nothing to our merits. Surrendering ourselves affectionately to His Mercy we do not let ourselves be overcome by the delights of bad habits drawing us into sin. Still tempted by their allure, we do not, however, yield to them.">®
Then there is the state of man after death, when "there is absolutely nothing in man which resists the Spirit but all is
54. Augustine, Jo Simplicianus, on Various Questions, 1.1.14; 11.2.2; 1.2.3 (hereafter To Simpl.).
55. Augustine, Sermon, 169.11.13. 56. To Simpl. 66.3.