45. [XLI.]—To What Purpose Pelagius Thought Prayers Ought to Be Offered.

“Let them also read,” says he, “my recent little treatise which we were obliged to publish a short while ago in defence of free will, and let them acknowledge how unfair is their determination to disparage us for a denial of grace, when we throughout almost the whole work acknowledge fully and sincerely both free will and grace.” There are four books in this treatise, all of which I read, marking such passages as required consideration, and which I proposed to discuss: these I examined as well as I was able, before we came to that epistle of his which was sent to Rome. But even in these four books, that which he seems to regard as the grace which helps us to turn aside from evil and to do good, he describes in such a manner as to keep to his old ambiguity of language, and thus have it in his power so to explain to his followers, that they may suppose the assistance which is rendered by grace, for the purpose of helping our natural capacity, consists of nothing else than the law and the teaching. Thus our very prayers (as, indeed, he most plainly affirms in his writings) are of no other use, in his opinion, than to procure for us the explanation of the teaching by a divine revelation, not to procure help for the mind of man to perfect by love and action what it has learned should be done. The fact is, he does not in the least relinquish that very manifest dogma of his system in which he sets forth those three things, capacity, volition, action; maintaining that only the first of these, the capacity, is favoured with the constant assistance of divine help, but supposing that the volition and the action stand in no need of God’s assistance. Moreover, the very help which he says assists our natural capacity, he places in the law and teaching. This teaching, he allows, is revealed or explained to us by the Holy Ghost, on which account it is that he concedes the necessity of prayer. But still this assistance of law and teaching he supposes to have existed even in the days of the prophets; whereas the help of grace, which is properly so called, he will have to lie simply in the example of Christ. But this example, you can plainly see, pertains after all to “teaching,”—even that which is preached to us as the gospel. The general result, then, is the pointing out, as it were, of a road to us by which we are bound to walk, by the powers of our free will, and needing no assistance from any one else, may suffice to ourselves not to faint or fail on the way. And even as to the discovery of the road itself, he contends that nature alone is competent for it; only the discovery will be more easily effected if grace renders assistance.

CAPUT XLI.

45. «Legant,» inquit, «etiam recens meum opusculum, quod pro Libero nuper Arbitrio edere compulsi sumus; et agnoscent quam inique nos negatione gratiae infamare gestierint, qui per totum pene ipsius textum operis perfecte atque integre et liberum arbitrium confitemur et gratiam.» Quatuor sunt libri operis hujus, et hos legi, et ex illis sumpsi quae tractanda et discutienda proposui, et ut potui pertractavi, antequam ad ejus has litteras, quae Romam missae sunt, veniremus. Sed in his etiam quatuor libris quaecumque pro gratia videtur dicere, qua juvamur ut declinemus a malo bonumque faciamus, ita dicit, ut nullo modo a verborum ambiguitate discedat, quam discipulis sic possit exponere, ut nullum auxilium gratiae credant, qua naturae possibilitas adjuvetur, nisi in lege atque doctrina: ita ut ipsas 0381 quoque orationes, ut in scriptis suis apertissime affirmat, ad nihil aliud adhibendas opinetur, nisi ut nobis doctrina etiam divina revelatione aperiatur, non ut adjuvetur mens hominis, ut id quod faciendum esse didicerit, etiam dilectione et actione perficiat. Ab illo enim suo manifestissimo dogmate non recedit omnino, ubi tria illa constituit, possibilitatem, voluntatem, actionem: et solam possibilitatem dicit divino adjuvari semper auxilio; voluntatem autem et actionem nullo Dei adjutorio existimat indigere. Ipsum vero auxilium, quo possibilitatem naturalem perhibet adjuvari, in lege constituit atque doctrina, quam nobis fatetur etiam sancto Spiritu revelari, propter quod et orandum esse concedit. Sed hoc adjutorium legis atque doctrinae etiam propheticis fuisse temporibus: adjutorium autem gratiae, quae proprie gratia nuncupatur, in Christi esse arbitratur exemplo; quod nihilominus ad doctrinam pertinere perspicitis, quae nobis evangelica praedicatur: ut videlicet tanquam via demonstrata, qua ambulare debeamus, jam viribus liberi arbitrii, adjutorio nullo alterius indigentes, sufficiamus nobis, ne deficiamus in via; quamvis et ipsam viam contendat etiam sola inveniri posse natura, sed facilius, si adjuvet gratia.