Annotatio CXXXII

”And the spirit of the Lord came upon Saul.” — 1 Kings [1 Samuel] 11:6

Augustine, in the book of Questions to Simplician, question 1, expounding these things, seemed to attribute to free will more than is fair,¹ when he said: “Although it be in each one’s power what he wishes, yet it is not in each one’s power what he can do to anyone, or suffer from anyone.” This opinion Augustine himself, revising [it] in book 2 of the Retractations, chapter 1, [says]: “This,” he says, “was said by us because we do not say that a thing is in [our] power except what we do when we will [it], where first and chiefly is that very willing itself. For without any interval of time the will itself is present, when we will; but this power too — of living well — we receive from above, when the will is prepared by the Lord.”