§ 151. thf: pelagian system coxtinued. SlO
fk, his opponent: "Would tliat Pelagius miglit confess tliat gi'A e which not merely promises ns the excellence of future gloi Y, but also brings forth in us the faith and hope of it ; a grac?, which not merely admonishes to all good, but also from within inclines us thereto; not merely reveals wisdom, but also inspires us with the love of wisdom." * This superficial Cionception of grace is inevitable, with the Pelagian conception of sin. If human nature is uncorrupted, and the natural will (competent to all good, we need no Redeemer to create in us a new will and a new life, but merely an improver and ennobler ; and salvation is essentially the work of man. The Pelagian system has really no place for the ideas of redemption, atonement, regeneration, and new creation. It substitutes for them our own moral effort to iJerfect our natural powers, and the mere addition of the grace of God as a valuable aid and support. It was only by a happy inconsistency, that Pelagius and his adherents traditionally held to the church doctrines of the Trinit}^ and the person of Christ. Logically their system led to a rationalistic Christolog}'.^ ;
Pelagianism is a fundamental anthropological heresy,:, denying man's ne^d of redemption, and answering to the Ebionistic Christology, which rejects the divinity of Christ- It is the opposite of Manichaeism, which denies man's capahility of redemption, and which corresponds to the Gnostic denial of the true humanity of Christ.'
' De gratia Christi, c. 10 (torn. x. f. 235).
» Wiggers, 1. c. vol. i. p. 45'7, judges similarly. Also Neander, in bis Dogmen- ^eschichte, Bd. i. p. 384: 'The Pelagian principles would logically have led to rationalistic views, to an entire rejection of the supernatural clement, and to the belief that mankind needs only to develop itself from within itself, without the revelation and self-impartation of God, in order to attain the good. But they do not develop their first principles so consistently as this, and what Biblical elements •./hey incorporate with their system are unquestionably not taken in merely by way of accommodation, but through the persuasion that a supernatural revelation is necessary, in order to realize the destiny of mankind." Comp. Cunningham, Hist. Theology, i. p. 329: "Modern Sociniaus and Rationalists are the only consistent Pelagians. When men reject what Pelagius rejected, they are bound in consistency to reject everything that is peculiar and distinctive in the Christian system as a remedial scheme."
• Comp. Augustine, Contra duaa Epist. Pelagianorum, 1. iu c. 2, where he d&
816 THIRD PERIOD. A.D. 313-590.
§152. The Augustinian System: The Primitive Stato of Man, and Free Will.
Augustine (354-430) liad already in bia Confessions, in the year 400, ten years before tlie commencement of tlie Pelagian controversy, set forth liis deep and rich experiences of human sin and divine grace. This classical autobiography, which every theological student should read, is of universal application, and in it every Christian may bewail his own wanderings, despair of himself, thi'ow himself unconditionally into the arms of God, and lay hold upon unmerited grace.' Augustine had in his own life passed through all the earlier stages of the history of the church, and had overcome in theory and iu practice the heresy of Mauichseism, before its opposite, Pelagianism, appeared. By his theological refutation of this latter heresy, and by Ins clear development of the Biblical anthropology, he has won the noblest and most lasting renown. As in the events recorded in his Confessions he gives views of tlie evangelical doctrines of sin and of grace, so in the doctrines of his anti-Pelagian writings he sets forth his personal experience. He teaches nothing which he has not felt. In him the philosopher and the living Christian are everywhere fused. His loftiest metaphysical speculation passes unconsciously into adoration. Tlie living aroma of personal experience imparts to his views a double interest, and an irresistible attraction for all earnest minds.*
scribes Manichaeism and Pelagianism at length as the two opposite extremes, and opposes to them the Catholic doctrine.
' An ingenious but somewhat far-fetched parallel is drawn by Dr. Kleinert between Augustine and F.aust, as two antipodal representatives of mankind, in a brochure: Augustin und Goethe's Faust, Benin, 1806. A more obvious compariso!i is that of the Confessions of Augustine with the Confessions of Rousseau, and with Goetlie's Wahrheit und Dichtung.
' Dr. Baur, in his posthumous Vorlesungen iibcr die Dogmengeschichte, published by his son (1866, Bd. i, P. ii. p. 26), makes the fine remark respecting him: " With Augustine himself everything lies in the individuality of his nature, as it was shaped by the course of his life, by his experiences and circumstances." He should have added, however, that in so magnificent a personality as Augustine's, thai which is most individual is also tlie most universal, and tho mosit subjective is thf most objective.