Mozley: A Treatise on the Augustinian Doctrine of

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The Pelagian Controversy.
CHAP, m.
summarily attributed to duplicity rather than a real in
disposition to advance beyond his original statements,
though his disciple Celestius had been bolder. But the
assertion of such a freewill as Pelagius asserted was m
itself a denial of the fall, and therefore necessarily carried
him, whatever his direct intention at first was, to the
express denial of that doctrine. And thus the question
assumed that shape in which it has come down to us in
the Pelagian controversy.
II. With this introduction, then, I come to my second
head, and shall endeavour to state in succession, and with
such explanation as may be necessary, the main positions
and arguments involved in that controversy ; and which
may be conveniently placed under three general heads
the power of the will, the nature of virtue and vice, and
the Divine justice.
1. The first and most obvious argument against the
doctrine of the corruption of human nature, was contained
in that power of the will which has been just now described.
Here nature seemed to bear testimony to its own com
petency, and the doctrine of its corruption to be contra
dicted by a plain fact ; for we are conscious of freewill,
power of choice, and self-determination. The Pelagians
appealed to these instinctive convictions, and pointed out
their contrariety to the doctrine of a captive and corrupted
nature. Nor was their argument unsound had they been
content to direct it against an absolute doctrine of human
corruption and captivity. But they pressed it too far and
lay more weight upon it than it could bear. They fancied
themselves in possession of the whole ground because they
had this sense of freedom on their side. But S. Augustine
could appeal, on the other side, to a representation of
human nature, which carried with it its own evidence, and
met a response in the human heart To will is present
with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not.
For the good that I would I do not, but the evil which
I would not that I do. ... I see a law in my members,
warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me