t The writer here uses "sin" in an aml)iguous sense Strictly speakiiiir sin is simply an art of transgression (I John iii, 4) ; i)ut this inqjlies sinfulness, whi'ch is a moral disposition, — En.
sumus non nobiscum oritur sed agitur a nobis." Julian, who was the ablest and most systematic defender of Pe- lagianism, thus defines what sin is, and whence it arises, according to his theory : " Constat esse peccatum. Quae- rimus quid sit ; utrum corpus aliquod sit quod ex multis compositum videatur an singulare quiddam, sicut unura aliquod elementum vel per cogitationem a reliquorum communione purgatum. Porro niliil horum est. (^uid est igitur? Appetitus libenv voluntatis quern prohibet justitia; vel ut definitlone utanuir priore : Voluntas fa- ciendi quod justitia vetat, et unde liberum est abstinere." Again Julian says, " If it is aske(i. Whence arises the first sinful will in man ? I answer, A motu animi cogente nullo."
What is the true relation of man to God? Is he in the condition of one who needs redemption, who needa a divine power to act upon him. so as to raise him mor- ally and spiritually from misery and ruin? This is the prominent question in the controversy as conducted be- tween Pelagius and Augustine. The former asserted that human nature has continued in all its spiritual and moral capacities to be the same as it was when it ema- nated originally from the Creator — that till men indi- vidually, by the exercise of free will, chose that which was evil, they continued in the same sinless, innocent condition in which Adam was before he sinned. The Pelagians did not deny that Adam's sin did affect his posterit)^, but they hehl that it was only by setting them a bad example. Augustine held that a sinful nat- ure had descended from Adam to all his posterity, and that, as a consequence, they were all under the bondage of evil, from which a divine power was needed to rescue them. Men come, said the Pelagians, into the world in a state of primitive purity. It has no taint of corruption about it, so that men may live on through a long life^ nay, have so lived — in a state of perfect holiness, such as Abel, Isaac, and Jacob, etc. Yet the influence of ex- ample they regarded as such that in general man was deteriorated, yea, that that deterioration was going on and continually increasing. Such deterioration they looked upon, however, as only accidental, and as not es- sentially and necessarily belonging to man. Man they regarded as possessing perfect power to resist this dete- riorating influence if he so willed it, and to grow up by the natural development of the faculties in the posses- sion of which he was created into the character of per- fect innocence before God. In order to this develop- ment there needed no divine power or influence what- ever.
On the subject of rp-ace, the Pelagians altogether de- nied that there was need for, or that God did at all ex- ercise, any power upon man so as to determine the bent of his will. Maintaining the theory of the freedom of the will we have already described, they admitted no divine influence that conflicted with it. Tiiey did, in- deed, speak of "grace" as bestowed upon man, but by the word they did not mean the "gratia prajveniens" or " preparans," the divine influences going before and producing by an irresistible power the first motions of the soul towards goodness, but onlv the outward reve- lation made by God to man in the Scriptures, and also those moral and spiritual powers bestowed iijion him at his creation. The idea of a divine power influencing man's inner nature, and bending his will, and determin- ing the action of his mind, they altogether rejected. There was in the Pelagian sj'stem no jilace at all for the doctrine of a divine life being imparted to man through the redemption of Christ, and by the power of his Holy Spirit. They did not, indeed, deny to Christ the title of Kedemptor, but the idea they attached to that word was simply that of one who, by his teaching and his life, gave a perfect example — "exacta justitiae norma" — which, by our giving heed to it, will ennoble and elevate our nature to a position higher than that originally belonging to it by creation. As Adam gave a bad example to his posterity, so Clirist gave a good example, and in this consists his excellence as the Re-
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demptor of man. Christ, by his whole life on earth, and by his sufferings and death, and by the communi- cation he made as the Teacher sent from God, supplied valuable motives which ought to induce men to greater efforts to resist temptation, and to imitate his example in a holy life ; and beyond this there was in their sys- tem no room for anything else for the Redeemer to do.
V. Literature. — Voss, Hist. Controversiarum Pelugia- norum (Lugd. Batav. 1G1«, 4to) ; Noris, I/ist.Pelar/. (Lo- van, 1702, fol.) ; Tillemout, iifemoires Eccles.; Schrockh, Kirchenr/eschichte, vol. xiv ; Neander, Kirchenycschichte, vol. ii; Schonemann, Bibl. Patrum Latinorum, vol. ii; Biihr, Geschichte tier rdm. Literatur, suppl. vol. pt. ii; Versuch eiiier pragm, Darstellung des Augustinismus mid Pelagianismus nach Hirer geschichllichen Entwicke- luiig, by G. F. Wiggers, professor of theology (Rostock, Hamburg, 1833). The lirst part of this work was first pub- lished in 1821. It was translated into English by Prof. Emerson, of Andover, and published in 1840. The sec- ond part deals with the semi-Pelagian controversy down to the time of the second Synod of Orange. Worter, Der Pelagianismus nach seiiiem Ursprunge und seiner Lehre, {ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des Dogmas von der Gnade und Freiheit), (Freiburg, 18G6), is properly the second volume of the author's History of Pelagianism, the first of which was published a few j'cars previously under the title of Geschichte der christlichen Lehre iiher das Verhdltniss von Gnade und Freiheit bis auf Aiigus- tinus. See also Theological Essays from the Princeton Rev. first series; Brit, and For. Evang. Rev. 18G7; Cunningham, Historical Theology (Edinb. 1864), vol. i ; Shedd, Jlist. of Christian Doctrine ; Hagenbach, Hist. of Doctrines. (M. G. E.)