Mozley: A Treatise on the Augustinian Doctrine of

c O The Pelagian Controversy. CHAP. JIT.
more than a truism; nature in
comprehending,
this sense
of the word, all the moral power, from whatever quarter,
of which a man is possessed, grace
included. Again, the
Pelagian, in his explanations of grace and its operations,
certainly dwells most commonly on the outward helps which
revelation and Providence afford to man in the path of
obedience. But while he is so far open to the charge of
his opponent, it does not appear that he limits the idea
of grace, either to nature in the sense of the powers with
which man was originally endowed at his creation, or to
the outward he]ps of the Divine law. On the contrary, he
includes in it those internal Divine impulses and spiritual
assistances commonly denoted by the word. 1 This is the
natural interpretation of his language ; nor is there any
thing in his argument, as a controversialist, to require the
exclusion of such grace. The Pelagian maintained the
power of the human will ; but if he admitted the need of
the Divine assistance at all to it, as he did in the shape of
the created affections, and general endowments of our
nature, there was no reason why he should limit such assist
ance to that creative one. The distinction of prior and
posterior, grace creative and grace assisting the creature
already made, was of no importance in this respect. There
was no difference, again, in principle between inward and
outward grace ; and any one who acknowledged Divine
assistance, by means of instruction, warning, and exhorta
tion addressed to us from without, would have no difficulty
in acknowledging it in the shape of spiritual incitement
and illumination carried on within. The clue, then, to the
solution of the Pelagian s apparently contradictory lan
guage respecting grace, is rather to be found in the logical
necessity there was for an unassisted act of the human
will, in accepting and using Divine assistance. Admitting
Divine grace to be wanted, but regarding the use of it as
efficitur procul dubio negas . . . Natura et Gratia, n. 11.
Sive per gratiam, sive per adjutorium,
siye per misericordiam, et
*
Sanctificando, coercendo, pro-
vocando, illuminando. Op. Imp. 1.
quicquid illud est per quod esse homo 3. c. 1 06. Bum nos multiformi et
sine peccato potest, confitetur, quisquis
rem ipsam confitetur. De
ineffaLili dono gratiae ccelestis illu-
minat. De Grat. Christi, c 7.