Mozley: A Treatise on the Augustinian Doctrine of

CHAP. in. The Pelagian Controversy. 59
culties of the case some unfelt one, existing too deep in
nature for actual apprehension, and only showing itself in
its effects. Such is the inward struggle of the imperfect
moral agent described by St. Paul.
Take, again, the known power of custom over the will.
A man under the most inveterate bad habit, has on every
successive occasion the feeling of a power to do the action
opposed to it. However long and uniformly he may have
acted on the side of his habit, the very next time he has
to act he appears to himself to be able though it be no
more than naked, bare, ability still able, I say, to do what
he has never yet done. But it is evident that such an idea
of power is not to be taken as a certain exponent of the
fact. There is an idea of power, indeed, which represents
faithfully the reality, a conscious strength of purpose, which
is generally the result of moral preparation. But this is
altogether a distinct sort of conviction from that mere sense
of bare ability to do a thing which is now referred to.
The sense of freedom then in our nature, with whatever
force and vividness it may appeal to us, is not to be relied
upon absolutely, as if it represented our whole state. A
larger insight into ourselves, a general survey of facts, mo
difies the result of the impression, and does not sanction
the profession of absolute power. But the Pelagian relied
upon this sense of bare ability, as if it were an infallible
footing for the most complete conclusion, and betrayed that
want of due and circumspect distrust which never forsakes
the true philosophical mind, that knows how nature abounds
in pitfalls to catch the unwary ; and, however considerate
of, is ever jealous of, appearances. He trusted with blind
confidence a single impression and instinct, so blindly
indeed, as to put aside the plainest facts, when they inter
fered with it.
For nothing can show more strongly the reckless and
hasty faith, which the Pelagians reposed in this one impres
sion, than that they supported it against the most palpable
facts connected with nature and habit ; arguing, that sin not
being a substance, but only an act which took place and
was then over, could not by any amount of repetition affect