A Treatise concerning man’s perfection in righteousness,
Chapter II.—(1.) The First Breviate of Cœlestius.
Chapter III.—(5.) The Fifth Breviate.
Chapter IV.—(9.) The Ninth Breviate.
Chapter V.—(11.) The Eleventh Breviate.
Chapter VI.—(12.) The Twelfth Breviate.
(13.) The Thirteenth Breviate.
(14.) The Fourteenth Breviate.
Chapter VII.—(16.) The Sixteenth Breviate.
(18.) The Righteousness of This Life Comprehended in Three Parts,—Fasting, Almsgiving, and Prayer.
(19.) The Commandment of Love Shall Be Perfectly Fulfilled in the Life to Come.
Chapter IX.—(20.) Who May Be Said to Walk Without Spot Damnable and Venial Sins.
(22.) Passages to Show that God’s Commandments are Not Grievous.
(24.) To Be Without Sin, and to Be Without Blame—How Differing.
(26.) Why Job Was So Great a Sufferer.
(28.) When Our Heart May Be Said Not to Reproach Us When Good is to Be Perfected.
Chapter XII.—(29.) The Second Passage. Who May Be Said to Abstain from Every Evil Thing.
Chapter XV.—(34.) The Opposing Passages.
(35.) The Church Will Be Without Spot and Wrinkle After the Resurrection.
(36.) The Difference Between the Upright in Heart and the Clean in Heart.
Chapter XVI.—(37.) The Sixth Passage.
Chapter XIX—(40.) The Ninth Passage.
(41.) Specimens of Pelagian Exegesis.
(42.) God’s Promises Conditional. Saints of the Old Testament Were Saved by the Grace of Christ.
Chapter XI.—(23.) Passages of Scripture Which, When Objected Against Him by the Catholics, Cœlestius Endeavours to Elude by Other Passages: the First Passage.
After this he adduced the passages which are usually quoted against them. He does not attempt to explain these passages, but, by quoting what seem to be contrary ones, he has entangled the questions more tightly. “For,” says he, “there are passages of Scripture which are in opposition to those who ignorantly suppose that they are able to destroy the liberty of the will, or the possibility of not sinning, by the authority of Scripture. For,” he adds, “they are in the habit of quoting against us what holy Job said: ‘Who is pure from uncleanness? Not one; even if he be an infant of only one day upon the earth.’”96 Job xiv. 4, 5. Then he proceeds to give a sort of answer to this passage by help of other quotations; as when Job himself said: “For although I am a righteous and blameless man, I have become a subject for mockery,”97 Job xii. 4.—not understanding that a man may be called righteous, who has gone so far towards perfection in righteousness as to be very near it; and this we do not deny to have been in the power of many even in this life, when they walk in it by faith.
CAPUT XI.
23. Post haec proposuit testimonia quae contra eos dici solent: nec ea solvit, sed commemorando quasi contraria, quaestiones arctius illigavit. Ait enim: «Testimonia Scripturarum, quae e diverso ponenda sunt his qui arbitrii libertatem, vel non peccandi possibilitatem imperite existimant se Scripturarum auctoritate posse destruere. Objicere enim solent,» inquit, «quod sanctus Job dixerit, Quis mundus est a peccato? Nec infans, cujus est unius diei vita super terram» (Job XIV, 4, sec. LXX). Deinde quasi respondet huic testimonio aliis testimoniis, quod ipse Job dixerit, Justus enim vir et sine querela factus sum in derisum (Id. XII, 4, sec. LXX). Non intelligens posse dici hominem justum, qui perfectioni justitiae plurimum accessit, ita ut ei proximus fieret: quod multos etiam in hac vita potuisse, in qua ex fide vivitur, non negamus.