^ 150. THE PELAGIAN SYSTEM. 805
of good or evil. Every act goes to form a moral state or habit ; and habit is in turn the parent of new acts. Perfect freedoiii IS one with moral necessity, in which man no longer ca/i do evil because he will not do it, and must do good because h« wiUs to do it ; in which the finite will is united with the divine in joyful obedience, and raised above the possibility of apostasy. T!ns is the blessed freedom of the children of God in the state of glory. There is, indeed, a subordinate sphere of natural virtue and civil justice, in which even fallen man retains a certain freedom of choice, and is the artificer of his own character. But as respects his relation to God, he is in a state of alienation from God, and of bondage under sin ; and from this he cannot rise by his own strength, by a bare resolution of his will, but only by a regenerating act of grace, received in humility and faith, and setting him free to practise Christian virtue. Then, when born again from above, the will of the new man co-operates with the grace of God, in the growth of the" Christian life.'
Physical death Pelagius regarded as a law of nature, which would have prevailed even without sin.'' The passages of Scripture which represent death as the consequence of sin, he refcn'ed to moral corruption or eternal damnation." Tet he conceded that Adam, if he had not sinned, might by a special privilege have been exempted from death.
11. The Fall of Adam and its Consequences.
Pelagius, destitute of all idea of the organic wholene<«s of the race or of human nature, viewed Adam merely as an isolated individual ; he gave him no representative place, and tlierefoi'c his acts no bearing beyond himself.
In his viv.Mv, the sin of the first man consisted 7n a single,
* Comp. the thorough and acute criticism of the Pelagian conception of freedoro •)y Julius Miiller, Die christliche Lehre von der Siinde, Bd. ii. p. 49 ff. (3d ed. 1849).
* Ccelestius in Manus Mercator. Common, ii. p. 133 : " Ar'.am mortalem factum, qui sive peccaret, sivo non peccarct, moriturus fuisset."
^ The words of Goa to Adam, Gen. iii. 19 : " Dust thou art, and unto dust shall thou return," Julian inicrpreted not as a curse, but as a consolation, and as an arg\iment for the natural mortality of Adam, by straining the " Dust thou art!'^ See August. Opus imperfecium contra Julian. 1. vi. cap. 27 (x. fol. 1346 sqq.).
806 THUtD PERIOD. A.D, 311- 590.
isolated act of disobedience to the divine command. Julian compares it to the insignificant oft'ence of a cliild, wlu'cli allowi itself to be misletl by some sensual bait, but afterwards repenta its fault. "• liude, inexperienced, thoughtless, having not yet learned to fear, nor seen an example of virtue," ' Adam allowed himself to be enticed by the pleasant look of the forbidden fruit, and to be determined by the persuasion of the woman. This single and excusable act of transgi-ession brought no consequences, either to the soul or the body of Adam, still less to his posterity, who all stand or fall for themselves.
There is, therefore, according to this system, no oriyinal sin, and no hereditary guilt. Pelagius merely conceded, that Adam, by his disobedience, set a lad example, which exerts a more or less injurious influence upon his posterity. In this view he condemned at the synod of Diospolis (-ilo) the assertion of Coelestius, txiat Adam's sin injured himself alone, not the human race." He was also inclined to admit an increasing corruption of mankind, tliough he ascribed it solely to the habit of evil, which grows in power tlie longer it works and the farther it spreads.^ Sin, however, is not born with man ; it is not a product of nature, but of the will.^ Man is born both without virtue and without vice, but with the capacity for either," The universality of sin must be ascribed to the power of evil example and evil custom.
' " Rudis, imperitus, incautus, sine experimento timoris, sine exemplo justitiae."
' "Adae peccatum ipsi soli obfuisse, et non generi liumano; et mfantes qui iiascuntur, in eo statu esse, in quo fuit Adam ante piievarieationem." In Augustine's De pecc. orig. c. 13 (f. 258).
^ Yj\). ad Demet. cap. 8 : " Longa consuetudo vitiorum, quaj nos infecit a parvo paulatirfKiue per multos corrupit annos, et ita postea obligates sibi et addietos tenet, ut vim quodammodo videatur habere natura." lie also savs of consuetudo, that it " aut vitia aut virtutes alit."
* Coelestius, Symb. fragm. i. : "In remissionem autem peccatoruin baptizando* infanteB non idcirco dixiiuus, ut peccatum ex traduce [or, peccatum natura;, peccatum uaturale] firmare videamur, quod longe a catholico seusu alienum est ; quia peccatum non cum homine nascitur, quod postmodum exercetur ab hominc quia non natura; delictum, sed voluntatis esse demonstratur."
' Pelagius, in the first book of the Pro libero arbitrio, cited in Augustine's De pecc. orig. cap. 13 (§ 14, tom. x. f. 258): "Omne bonum ac malum, quo vel laudabiles vel vituperabiles sumua, non nobiscum oritur, ecd ac/itar a nobis: capacel enim utriusque rei, non pleni nascimur, et ut sine virtute, ita et sine vitio pi\>crco