Celestius were condemned by the censure of the two hundred and fourteen bishops assembled in the great council of Carthage," until they should acknowledge by a most open confession, that by the grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord, we are holpen not only to know but also to do righteousness at every act: so that without it we can have, think, say, do, nothing that belongeth to true and holy piety." Wherewith Pelagius being pressed, stuck not to make this profession: "Anathemat to him, who either thinketh or saith, that the grace of God, whereby Christ came into this world to save sinners, is not necessary, not only at every hour or every moment, but also at every act of ours and they who go about to take away this, are worthy to suffer everlasting punishment." Four books also did he publish in defence of free will: to which he thus referreth his adversaries for further satisfaction in this matter: "Let" them read the late work, which we were forced to set out the other day for free will; and they shall perceive how unjustly they go about to defame us with the denial of grace, who throughout the whole context almost of that work do perfectly and entirely confess both free will and grace." Yet for all this he did but equivocate in the name of grace: "under" an ambiguous : Anno Dom. 418. • Donec apertissima confessione fateantur, gratia Dei per Jesum Christum Dominum nostrum, non solum ad cognoscendam verum etiam ad faciendam justitiam, nos per actus singulos adjuvari; ita ut sine ea nihil veræ sanctæque pietatis habere, cogitare, dicere, agere valeamus. Synod. African. epist. ad Zosimum pap. apud Prosperum contra Collator. cap. 5. et Respons. ad object. 8. Gallorum: ubi addit, hanc constitutionem contra inimicos gratiæ Dei totum mundum amplexum esse. Anathema qui vel sentit vel dicit, gratiam Dei, qua Christus venit in hunc mundum peccatores salvos facere, non solum per singulas horas aut per singula momenta, sed etiam per singulos actos nostros non esse necessariam ; et qui hanc conantur auferre, pœnas sortiuntur æternas. Pelag. apud Augustin. lib. 1. de gratia Christi, contr. Pelag. et Celest. cap. 2. "Legant etiam recens meum opusculum, quod pro libero nuper arbitrio edere compulsi sumus; et agnoscent quam inique nos negatione gratiæ infamare gestierint; qui per totum pene ipsius textum operis perfecte atque integre et liberum arbitrium confitemur et gratiam. Id. ibid. cap. 41. Sub ambigua generalitate quid sentiret abscondens; gratiæ tamen vocabulo frangens invidiam, offensionemque declinans. Augustin. ibid. cap. 37. generality hiding what he thought, but by the term of grace breaking the envy, and declining the offence" which might be taken at his doctrine, as St. Augustine well observeth. For, by grace, he did not understand, as the Church did in this question, the infusion of a new quality of holiness into the soul, whereby it was regenerated, and the will of evil made good: but first the possibility of nature, that is to say, the natural freedom of will which every one hath received from God by virtue of the first creation. Against which St. Augustine thus opposeth himself: "Why" is there so much presumed of the possibility of nature? It is wounded, it is maimed, it is vexed, it is lost. It hath need of a true confession, not of a false defence." And Prosper, speaking of the state of man's free will after Adam's fall; hinc arbitrium per devia lapsum Motus inest, non error abest, manet ergo voluntas Secondly, by grace he understood the grace of doctrine and instruction, whereby the mind was informed in the truth out of the word of God. Which by Prosper is thus objected to his followers: aliuda non est vobiscum gratia quam lex, Quamque propheta monens, et quam doctrina ministri. Unto whom St. Augustine therefore saith well: "Let * Pelag. apud Augustin. de gestis contra Pelag. cap. 10. et in epist. 177. op. tom. 2. pag. 623. Vid. eund. Augustin. de grat. et lib. arbitr. cap. 13. et serm. 26. op. tom. 5. pag. 139. y Quid tantum de naturæ possibilitate præsumitur? Vulnerata, sauciata, vexata, perdita est. Vera confessione, non falsa defensione opus habet. Augustin. de natur. et grat. cap. 53. 2 Prosp. de Ingratis, cap. 27. a Id. ibid. cap. 20. Vid. eund. in epist. ad Ruffinum, non procul ab initio : et Augustin. de hæres. cap. 88. et lib. 1. de gratia Christi contr. Pelag. cap. 8, b Legant ergo et intelligant, intueantur atque fateantur, non lege atque doc them read and understand, let them behold and confess, that not by the law and doctrine sounding outwardly, but by an inward and hidden, by a wonderful and unspeakable power, God doth work in the hearts of men, not only true revelations, but good wills also." And thereupon the African fathers in the council of Carthage, enacted this canon: "Whosoever shall say, that the grace of God by Jesus Christ our Lord, doth for this cause only help us not to sin, because by it the understanding of the commandments is revealed and opened unto us, that we may know what we ought to affect, what to shun, and that by it there is not wrought in us, that we may also love and be enabled to do that which we know should be done; let him be anathema." Thirdly, under this grace he comprehended not only the external revelation by the word, but also the internal by the illumination of God's spirit. Whereupon he thus riseth up against his adversary: "We confess that this grace is, not (as thou thinkest) in the law only, but in the help of GOD also. For God doth help us by his doctrine and revelation, whilst he openeth the eyes of our hearts; whilst he sheweth us things to come, that we be not holden with things present; whilst he discovereth the snares of the devil, whilst he enlighteneth us with the manifold and unspeakable gift of trina insonante forinsecus, sed interna atque occulta, mirabili ac ineffabili potestate operari Deum in cordibus hominum, non solum veras revelationes, sed etiam bonas voluntates. Augustin. lib. 1. de gratia Christi contr. Pelag. cap. 24. c Quisquis dixerit gratiam Dei per Jesum Christum Dominum nostrum, propter hoc tantum nos adjuvare ad non peccandum, quia per ipsam nobis revelatur et aperitur intelligentia mandatorum, ut sciamus quid appetere, quid vitare debeamus; non autem per illam nobis præstari, ut quod faciendum cognoverimus, etiam facere diligamus atque valeamus: anathema sit. African. Patr. in Synod. Carthagin. can. 4. d Augustin. lib. 1. de grat. Christ. contr. Pelag. cap. 7. et 41: e Quam (gratiam) nos non, ut tu putas, in lege tantummodo, sed et in Dei esse adjutorio confitemur. Adjuvat enim nos Deus per doctrinam et revelationem suam, dum cordis nostri oculos aperit; dum nobis, ne præsentibus occupemur, futura demonstrat; dum Diaboli pandit insidias ; dum nos multiformi et ineffabali dono gratiæ cœlestis illuminat. Qui hæc dicit, gratiam tibi videtur negare? An et liberum hominis arbitrium, et Dei gratiam confitetur? Pelag. Ibid. cap. 7. his heavenly grace. He that saith these things, doth he seem unto thee to deny grace? or doth he confess, both the free will of man, and the grace of GoD too?" And yet in all this, as St. Augustine rightly noteth, he doth but "confess that grace whereby God doth shew and reveal what he ought to do; not that, whereby he doth grant and help that we may do." And therefore in other places of his writings he plainly affirmeth," that our very prayers are to be used for nothing but this, that the doctrine may be opened unto us by divine revelation; not that the mind of man may be holpen, that he may also accomplish by love and action that which he hath learned should be done." Fourthly, to these he further added the grace of remission of sins. For the Pelagians said, "thath man's nature which was made with free will, might be sufficient to enable us, that we might not sin, and that we might fulfil righteousness: and that this is the grace of God, that we were so made that we might do this by our will, and that he hath given us the help of his law and commandments, and that he doth pardon the sins past to those that are converted unto him: that in these things only the grace of God was to be acknowledged, and not in the help given unto all our singular actions." And so "they said, that that grace of God which is given by the f Hinc itaque apparet, hanc eum gratiam confiteri, qua demonstrat et revelat Deus quid agere debeamus, non qua donat atque adjuvat ut agamus: cum ad hoc potius valeat legis agnitio, si gratiæ desit opitulatio, ut fiat mandati prævaricatio. August. lib. 1. de grat. Christ. contr. Pelag. cap. 8. Ipsas quoque orationes (ut in scriptis suis apertissime affirmat) ad nihil aliud adhibendas opinatur, nisi ut nobis doctrina etiam divina revelatione aperiatur; non ut adjuvetur mens hominis, ut id, quod faciendum esse didicerit, etiam dilectione et actione perficiat. Id. ibid. cap. 41. h Ut non peccemus, impleamusque justitiam, posse sufficere naturam humanam quæ condita est cum libero arbitrio: eamque esse Dei gratiam, quia sic conditi sumus, ut hoc voluntate possimus; et quod adjutorium legis mandatorumque suorum dedit; et quod ad se conversis peccata præterita ignoscit: in his solis esse Dei gratiam deputandam, non in adjutorio nostrorum actuum singulorum. Id. de gestis contra Pelagium, cap. 35. i Dicunt gratiam dei quæ data est per fidem Jesu Christi, quæ neque lex est neque natura, ad hoc tantum valere, ut peccata præterita dimittantur, non ut futura vitentur, vel repugnantia superentur. Id. de gratia et libero arbitrio, cap. 13. Vid. ejusd. lib. 1. de grat. Christi contra Pelag. cap. 2. faith of Jesus Christ, which is neither law nor nature, is effectual only to this, that sins past may be remitted, not that sins to come may be avoided, or when they make resistance may be vanquished." Whereupon St. Augustine thus encountereth Julian the Pelagian heretic: "Thou*, according to your custom, which descendeth from your error, dost not acknowledge grace, but in the remission of sins; that now from henceforth a man himself by his free will may make himself righteous. But so saith not the Church, which all crieth that which it hath learned from a good Master: Lead us not into temptation." Lastly, this was the common doctrine of the Pelagians', and accounted to be one of the principal blasphemies of that sect, that they held "the grace of God to be given according to men's merits." Which was "so" abhorring from the Catholic doctrine, and opposite to the grace of Christ," that when it was objected to Pelagius in the Diospolitan synod, held in Palæstina by the bishops of the east, he durst not avow it, but was forced to accurse it, lest otherwise he should have been accursed himself. "But that he deceitfully cursed it, the books written by him afterwards do shew, wherein he defendeth nothing else, but that the grace of God is given according to our merits;" which Prosper treading in St. Augustine's steps, doth thus express: Tu vestro more, qui de vestro descendit errore, non agnoscis gratiam, nisi in dimissione peccatorum, ut jam de cætero per liberum arbitrium ipse homo seipsum fabricet justum. Sed non hoc dicit Ecclesia, quæ clamat tota, quod didicit a Magistro bono: Ne nos inferas in tentationem. August. op. imperf. contra Julian. lib. 2. cap. 227. op, tom. 10. pag. 1047. 1 Id. de dono perseverant. cap. 2. et 20. de gratia et lib. arbitr. cap. 5. de hæresib. cap. 88. &c. m Ex his una est blasphemia, nequissimum et subtilissimum germen aliarum, qua dicunt, gratiam Dei secundum merita hominum dari. Prosper, in epist. de grat. et lib. arbitr. ad Ruffinum. n Quod sic alienum est a Catholica doctrina, et inimicum gratiæ Christi; ut nisi hoc objectum sibi anathematizasset, ipse inde anathematizatus exisset. Sed fallaciter eum anathematizasse posteriores ejus indicant libri; in quibus omnino nihil aliud defendit, quam gratiam Dei secundum merita nostra dari. August. de grat. et lib. arbitr. cap. 5. op. tom. 10. pag. 723. VOL. III. M M |