Don't get me wrong, I'm not on-board the Genevan dictator's bandwagon, nor the bandwagon of the 4th century dictator's from Hippo, for the same reasons.
I know. I'm just having fun with your posts.
Augustine has written some things which are often overlooked by his Calvinist supporters.
Have you read this from 427 AD?(He died in 430, I believe, so this is late in his life)
Sorry about all the underscores, I didn't put them there.
Chapter 1 [I.]— The Occasion and Argument of This Work.
With reference to those
persons who so preach and defend man's
free will, as boldly to deny, and endeavour to do away with, the
grace of God which calls us to Him, and delivers us from our
evil deserts, and by which we obtain the good deserts which lead to everlasting life: we have already said a good deal in discussion, and committed it to writing, so far as the Lord has vouchsafed to enable us. But since there are some
persons who so defend God's
grace as to deny man's
free will, or who suppose that
free will is denied when
grace is defended, I have determined to write somewhat on this point to your Love, my brother
Valentinus, and the rest of you, who are serving God together under the impulse of a mutual
love.
Chapter 2 [II.]— He Proves the Existence of Free Will in Man from the Precepts Addressed to Him by God.
Now He has revealed to us, through His
Holy Scriptures, that there is in a man a free choice of will. But how He has revealed this I do not recount in
human language, but in divine. There is, to begin with, the fact that God's precepts themselves would be of no use to a man unless he had free choice of will, so that by performing them he might obtain the promised rewards.
Chapter 4.— The Divine Commands Which are Most Suited to the Will Itself Illustrate Its Freedom.
What is the import of the fact that in so many passages God requires all His commandments to be kept and fulfilled? How does He make this requisition, if there is no
free will? What means the
happy man, of whom the Psalmist says that his will has been the law of the Lord? Does he not clearly enough show that a man by his own will takes his stand in the law of God?
Chapter 31 [XV.]— Free Will Has Its Function in the Heart's Conversion; But Grace Too Has Its.
Lest, however, it should be thought that men themselves in this matter do nothing by
free will, it is said in the Psalm, Harden not your hearts; and in Ezekiel himself, Cast away from you all your transgressions, which you have impiously committed against me; and make you a new heart and a new spirit; and keep all my commandments. For why will you die, O house of
Israel, says the Lord? for I have no pleasure in the death of him that dies, says the Lord God: and turn ye, and live.
Ezekiel 18:31-32 We should remember that it is He who says, Turn ye and live, to whom it is said in
prayer, Turn us again, O God. We should remember that He says, Cast away from you all your transgressions, when it is even He who justifies the ungodly. We should remember that He says, Make you a new heart and a new spirit, who also promises, I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit will I put within you.
Ezekiel 36:26 How is it, then, that He who says, Make you, also says, I will give you? Why does He command, if He is to give? Why does He give if man is to make, except it be that He gives what He commands when He helps him to
obey whom He commands? There is, however, always within us a
free will,— but it is not always good; for it is either free from righteousness when it serves
sin,— and then it is
evil,— or else it is free from
sin when it serves righteousness,— and then it is
good. But the
grace of God is always good; and by it it comes to pass that a man is of a good will, though he was before of an
evil one. By it also it comes to pass that the very good will, which has now begun to be, is enlarged, and made so great that it is able to fulfil the divine commandments which it shall wish, when it shall once firmly and perfectly wish. This is the purport of what the
Scripture says: If you will, you shall keep the commandments;
Sirach 15:15 so that the man who wills but is not able
knows that he does not yet fully will, and
prays that he may have so great a will that it may suffice for keeping the commandments. And thus, indeed, he receives assistance to perform what he is commanded.