Chapter 5 [III.]—True Grace is the Gift of the Holy Ghost, Which Kindles in the Soul the Joy and Love of Goodness.

We, however, on our side affirm that the human will is so divinely aided in the pursuit of righteousness, that (in addition to man’s being created with a free-will, and in addition to the teaching by which he is instructed how he ought to live) he receives the Holy Ghost, by whom there is formed in his mind a delight in, and a love of, that supreme and unchangeable good which is God, even now while he is still “walking by faith” and not yet “by sight;” 9    2 Cor. v. 7. in order that by this gift to him of the earnest, as it were, of the free gift, he may conceive an ardent desire to cleave to his Maker, and may burn to enter upon the participation in that true light, that it may go well with him from Him to whom he owes his existence. A man’s free-will, indeed, avails for nothing except to sin, if he knows not the way of truth; and even after his duty and his proper aim shall begin to become known to him, unless he also take delight in and feel a love for it, he neither does his duty, nor sets about it, nor lives rightly. Now, in order that such a course may engage our affections, God’s “love is shed abroad in our hearts,” not through the free-will which arises from ourselves, but “through the Holy Ghost, which is given to us.”10    Rom. v. 5.

CAPUT III.

5. Gratia vera donum Spiritus sancti, quo fit in animo delectatio et dilectio boni. Nos autem dicimus humanam voluntatem sic divinitus adjuvari ad faciendam justitiam, ut praeter quod creatus est homo cum libero arbitrio voluntatis, praeterque doctrinam qua ei praecipitur quemadmodum vivere debeat, accipiat Spiritum sanctum, quo fiat in animo ejus delectatio dilectioque summi illius atque incommutabilis boni quod Deus est, etiam nunc cum adhuc per fidem ambulatur, nondum per speciem (II Cor. V, 7): ut hac sibi velut arrha data gratuiti muneris inardescat inhaerere Creatori, atque inflammetur accedere ad participationem illius veri luminis; ut ex illo ei bene sit, a quo habet ut sit. Nam neque liberum arbitrium quidquam nisi ad peccandum valet, si lateat veritatis via: et cum id quod agendum et quo nitendum est coeperit non latere, nisi etiam delectet et ametur, non agitur, non suscipitur, non bene vivitur. Ut autem diligatur, charitas Dei diffunditur in cordibus nostris, non per arbitrium liberum quod surgit ex nobis, sed per Spiritum sanctum qui datus est nobis (Rom. V, 5).