Not in our power, yet we can hinder it: Alvarez's man commanded to fly
Thesis L. These doctors also acknowledge that this motion of God, prior to and necessary for every good work, is not in a person's power, since it is given and withheld at God's good pleasure. Yet they maintain that our will has the capacity to prevent itself from receiving that motion.
From this they infer: 'If a person does not perform the act that is commanded, it will be counted against him as a fault, because by his own fault he prevented the efficacious aid from being given him, which he needed in order actually to perform the act of virtue that is commanded. It is as if God laid on someone a command to fly and, as far as lay with God, offered him wings and the help he needed to fly, and the man answered in his freedom, "Lord, I do not want to take wings or to fly": he would rightly be held guilty and a breaker of the command, even though he could not fly without wings, because by his own fault he prevented their being given him by God.'
These are the words of the same Alvarez in the book just cited, disputation 18, section 20, where he supports his teaching with Augustine's saying: 'That people are not helped by God's grace, the cause lies in themselves, not in God.'
Latin
L. Porro Doctores illi agnoscunt istam Dei motionem ad omne bonum opus praeviam & necessariam in potestate hominis non esse; quia datur & negatur ex divino beneplacito. Sed nihilominus affirmant in facultate nostrae voluntatis esse seipsam impedire ne habeat motionem illam. Unde colligunt quod, si non operetur actum, qui est in praecepto, imputabitur illi ad culpam, eo quod sua culpa se impedivit, ne daretur illi auxilium efficax, quod necessarium erat, ut actualiter operaretur actum virtutis, qui est in praecepto: sicut si Deus imponeret homini praeceptum volandi, & quantum est ex parte sua, offerret illi alas, & adjutorium necessarium ut volaret; ipse autem sua libertate responderet; Domine nec volo alas accipere nec volare; merito reputaretur reus, & transgressor praecepti, etiamsi non posset absque alis volare, quia sua culpa se impedivit, ne illi donarentur a Deo. Quae sunt verba ejusdem Alvarez libri jamjam citati disputatione decima octava num. 20. Ubi suam doctrinam confirmat Augustini dicto, Ut homines non adjuventur gratia Dei, in ipsis causa est, non in Deo.