Mozley: A Treatise on the Augustinian Doctrine of

60 The Pelagian Controversy. CHAP. m.
this power and impair
1
freewill but that a man after ; any
amount and duration of sin, had as much freewill as ever.
The reason was that, as I have just stated, the sense of bare
ability continues in spite of any length of habit; on which
sense the Pelagian absolutely relied. But this was not a
reasonable, but a fanatical 2 doctrine of freewill ; a gross
delusion, belonging to that class and rank of absurd ideas
upon which corrupt and fantastic sects arise ; forsaking the
broad, inclusive ground of truth for some narrow conceit,
some one notion to which everything gives way, and which,
losing by such exclusiveness all its original share of truth,
becomes a shadow and a lie. This was a departure from the
first principles of morals, as attaching no consequences
within the soul itself to moral evil, which is thus repre
sented as passing off, and leaving no trace behind. The
moral being incurred, indeed, the external consequence of
liability to punishment, but was not in himself impaired by
sin ; remaining the same as before. But it is the internal
consequences of sin, which fasten the idea of sin, as being
such, upon us, and make us regard it as the real evil it
is. Take away these consequences, and sin is little more
than a shadow which just rests a moment on the soul, and
is then gone. It ceases to be a serious thing, it ceases to
1
Liberum arbitrium et post gius ap. Aug. De Nat. et Grat. n.
peccata tarn plenum est quam fuit 21. Materiam peccati esse vindicante
peccata. Julian ap. Op. Imp. tarn, si ad hoc peccator infirmatus
1.1. c. 91. Nos dicimus peccato est ut plura peccaret. n. 24.
hominis non naturae 2 statum mutari It was perhaps an ironical charge
sed meriti qualitatem, id est et in against the Pelagians that they held
peccato hanc esse liberi arbitrii na- etiam parvulos propria per liberum
turam, per quam potest a peccato arbitrium habere . . .
peccata.
desinere, quae fuit in eo ut posset a Ecce inquiunt, Esau et Jacob intra
justitia deviare. c. 96. Primo de viscera materna luctantur, et, dum
eo disputandum est quod per pecca- nascuntur, alter supplantatur ab altum
debilitata dieitur et immutata tero, atque in pede prsecedentismanu.
natura. Unde ante omnia quseren- consequent! s ettenentis inventa, perdum
puto quid sit peccatum, sub- severans quodammodo lucta convinstantia
aliqua, an omnino substantia citur. Quomodo ergo in infantibus
carens nomen, quo non res, non exis- hsec agentibus, nullum est vel ad
tentia, non corpus aliquid, sed per- bonum vel ad malum proprise volunperam
facti actus exprimitnr. Credo tatis arbitrium, unde prsemia sive
ita est. Et si ita est quomodo potuit supplicia meritis prsecedentibus subhumanam
debilitare vel mutare nasequantur.
Ep. 186. n. 13.
turam quod substaiitia caret. Pela-