In the year 412 Augustine began to write against the doctrines of Pelagius, a native of Britain, who had resided for a considerable time at Rome, and ac- quired universal esteem by the purity of his man- ners, his piety, and his erudition. In the defense of his opinions Pelagius was seconded by Celestius, a man equally eminent for his talents and his virtues. Their principles were propagated rapidly, and were speedily transplanted to almost every corner of Chris- tendom. If the brief notices which have come down to us respecting their tenets, in the writings of their adversaries, be correct, they (1) denied the regenera- tion of infants in baptism and the damnation of all un- baptized infants ; (2) they denied that Adam's sin was imputed to his posterity, and went so far as to reject original sin entirely ; (3) they asserted the freedom of the will, and its capacity for good without super- natural grace. "It is not," they said, "free will if it requires the aid of God ; because every one has it within the power of his own will to do any thing, or not to do it. Our victory over sin and Satan proceeds not from the help which God affords, but is owing to our own free will. The unrestricted capability of men's own free will is amply sufficient for all these things, and therefore no necessity exists for asking of God those things which we are able of ourselves to ob-
tain ; the gifts of grace being only necessary to enable men to do that more easily and completely which yet they could do themselves though more slowly and with : greater difficulty, seeing that they are perfectly free creatures." These opinions were assailed by St. Au- gustine and St. Jerome, as well as by Orosius, a Span- ish presbyter, and they were condemned as heresies in the Council of Carthage and in that of Milevis. In his eagerness to confute these opponents, St. Augustine employed language so strong as made it susceptible of an interpretation wholly at variance with the account- ability of man. This led to farther explanations and modifications of his sentiments, which were multiplied when the Semi-Pelagians arose, who thought that the truth lay between his doctrines and those of the Pelagi- | ans. Concerning original sin, he maintained that it was ! derived from our first parents ; and he believed he had I ascertained in what the original sin conveyed by Adam | to his posterity consisted. In his sentiments, however, ' upon the latter point he was rather inconsistent, at one J time asserting that the essence of original sin was con- cupiscence, and at another expressing doubts respect- I ing his own position. This subject was bequeathed as a legacy to the schoolmen of a subsequent age, who ex- | ercised their subtle wits upon all its ramifications down to the period of the Council of Trent. On the conse- ! quences of the fall of our first parents, St. Augustine taught that by it human nature was totally corrupted, I and deprived of all inclination and ability to do good. | Before the age in which he lived, the early fathers ! held what, in the language of systematic theology, is | termed the sjmergistic system, or the needfulness of | human co-operation in the works of holiness ; but, : though the freedom of the will was not considered by j them as excluding or rendering unnecessary the grace ; of God, yet much vagueness is perceptible in the man- ner in which they express themselves. In fact, there was no scientific view as yet on these topics. Those early divines generally used the language of Scrip- ture, the fertile invention of controversial writers not having as yet displayed itself, except on the divine nature of Jesus Christ, and subsidiarj' terms and learn- ed distinctions not being then required by any great differences of opinion. But as soon as Pelagius broach- ed his errors, the attention of Christians was natural- ly turned to the investigation of the doctrine of grace. The personal experience of Augustine, coinciding with the views of the great body of the Christian Church, admitted the necessity of divine grace, or the influence of the Holy Spirit, for our obedience to the law of God. He ascribed the renovation of our moral constitution wholly to this grace, denied all co-operation of man with it for answering the end to be accomplished, and represented it as irresistible. He farther affirmed that it was given only to a certain portion of the human race, to those who showed the fruits of it in their sanc- tification, and that it secured the perseverance of all upon whom it was bestowed. His view of predesti- nation has been summed up as follows : 1. That God from all eternity decreed to create mankind boh' and good. 2. That he foresaw man, being tempted by Sa- tan, would fall into sin, if God did not hinder it ; he decreed not to hinder. 3. That out of mankind, seen fallen into sin and miseiy, he chose a certain number to raise to righteousness and to eternal life, and re- jected the rest, leaving them in their sins. 4. That for these his chosen he decreed to send his Son to re- deem them, and his Spirit to call them and sanctify them ; the rest he decreed to forsake, leaving them to Satan and themselves, and to punish them for their sins. After Augustine had thus almost newly mould- ed the science of theology, and had combined with it, as an essential part of divine truth, that the fate of men was determined by the divine decree indepen- dently of their own efforts and conduct, and that they were thus divided into the elect and reprobate, it became necessary, in order to preserve consistency,