Testimonia

{"author":null,"backreferences":[{"context_html":"<p>Neither are we to suppose that because sin shall have no\r\npower to delight them, free will must be withdrawn. It will,\r\non the contrary, be all the more truly free, because set free\r\nfrom delight in sinning to take unfailing delight in not sinning.\r\nFor the first freedom of will which man received when he was\r\ncreated upright consisted in an ability not to sin, but also in\r\nan ability to sin; whereas this last freedom of will shall be\r\nsuperior, inasmuch as it shall not be able to sin. This, indeed,\r\nshall not be a natural ability, but the gift of God. For it is\r\none thing to be God, another thing to be a partaker of God.\r\nGod by nature cannot sin, but the partaker of God receives\r\nthis inability from God. And in this divine gift there was to\r\nbe observed this gradation, that man should first receive a free\r\nwill by which he was able not to sin, and at last a free will by\r\nwhich he was not able to sin,—the former being adapted to the\r\nacquiring of merit, the latter to the enjoying of the reward.<a id=\"FNanchor_1052_1052\"></a><a class=\"fnanchor pginternal\" href=\"#Footnote_1052_1052\">[1052]</a>\r\nBut the nature thus constituted, having sinned when it had\r\nthe ability to do so, it is by a more abundant grace that it is\r\ndelivered so as to reach that freedom in which it cannot sin.\r\nFor as the first immortality which Adam lost by sinning consisted\r\nin his being able not to die, while the last shall consist\r\nin his not being able to die; so the first free will consisted in\r\nhis being able not to sin, the last in his not being able to sin.\r\nAnd thus piety and justice shall be as indefeasible as happiness.\r\nFor certainly by sinning we lost both piety and happiness;\r\nbut when we lost happiness, we did not lose the love of\r\nit. Are we to say that God Himself is not free because He\r\ncannot sin? In that city, then, there shall be free will, one\r\nin all the citizens, and indivisible in each, delivered from all\r\nill, Filled with all good, enjoying indefeasibly the delights of\r\neternal joys, oblivious of sins, oblivious of sufferings, and yet<span class=\"pagenum\"><a id=\"Page_543\">[Pg 543]</a></span>\r\nnot so oblivious of its deliverance as to be ungrateful to its\r\nDeliverer.</p>","headings":["THE CITY OF GOD.","BOOK TWENTY-SECOND.","ARGUMENT."],"marker_anchor":null,"paragraph_id":"pg45305-paragraph-850"}],"canonical_references":[],"date_end":null,"date_start":null,"deduplication_fingerprint":"63a84be9bf6ab00254215b3e9ab5226b762141cb8b31b3077340ada0bf641b15","edition_title":"The City of God, Volume II","edition_translators":["Marcus Dods","George Wilson (Books XVII-XVIII)"],"edition_year":1871,"explicit_reference_candidates":[],"headings":[],"id":"pg45305-Footnote_1052_1052","license_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/policy/license.html","public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"original-editor-translator-note","review_required":["work and recension attribution","original-work chronology","Bible reference numbering and citation kind","English edition rights and attribution"],"review_status":"needs_review","rights_evidence":"Provider catalog reports public domain in the USA. Original transcription title leaves state T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1871; printed translator allocation retained. Gutenberg credits Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries without an exact scan identifier. Full provider license preserved with acquired original; republication and per-work metadata remain unreviewed.","source_anchor":"Footnote_1052_1052","source_ebook":45305,"source_html":"<div class=\"footnote\">\n<p><a id=\"Footnote_1052_1052\"></a><a class=\"pginternal\" href=\"#FNanchor_1052_1052\"><span class=\"label\">[1052]</span></a> Or, the former to a state of probation, the latter to a state of reward.</p></div>","source_sha256":"7e0ced9e70512f3cf050b53c9d548e36b70d468d875153869f95d8aff5bbb530","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/45305/pg45305-images.html#Footnote_1052_1052","text_sha256":"e53781cc7b1ca6aa186a02f655252add390bc3b0921b56d8c9b702474b35f748","verified":false,"work_id":null}

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