A Treatise on the grace of christ, and on original sin,

 1. [I.]—Introductory.

 2. [II.]—Suspicious Character of Pelagius’ Confession as to the Necessity of Grace for Every Single Act of Ours.

 3. [III.]—Grace According to the Pelagians.

 4.—Pelagius’ System of Faculties.

 5. [IV.]—Pelagius’ Own Account of the Faculties, Quoted.

 6. [V.]—Pelagius and Paul of Different Opinions.

 7. [VI.]—Pelagius Posits God’s Aid Only for Our “Capacity.”

 8.—Grace, According to the Pelagians, Consists in the Internal and Manifold Illumination of the Mind.

 [VII.] For in one passage he says: “We are supposed by very ignorant persons to do wrong in this matter to divine grace, because we say that it by no

 9. [VIII.]—The Law One Thing, Grace Another. The Utility of the Law.

 10. [IX.]—What Purpose the Law Subserves.

 11. [X.]—Pelagius’ Definition of How God Helps Us: “He Promises Us Future Glory.”

 12. [XI.]—The Same Continued: “He Reveals Wisdom.”

 13. [XII.]—Grace Causes Us to Do.

 14. [XII.]—The Righteousness Which is of God, and the Righteousness Which is of the Law.

 15. [XIV.]—He Who Has Been Taught by Grace Actually Comes to Christ.

 16. [XV.]—We Need Divine Aid in the Use of Our Powers. Illustration from Sight.

 17. [XVI.]—Does Pelagius Designedly Refrain from Openly Saying that All Good Action is from God?

 18. [XVII.]—He Discovers the Reason of Pelagius’ Hesitation So to Say.

 19. [XVIII.]—The Two Roots of Action, Love and Cupidity And Each Brings Forth Its Own Fruit.

 20. [XIX.]—How a Man Makes a Good or a Bad Tree.

 21. [XX.]—Love the Root of All Good Things Cupidity, of All Evil Ones.

 22. [XXI.]—Love is a Good Will.

 23. [XXII.]—Pelagius’ Double Dealing Concerning the Ground of the Conferrence of Grace.

 24.—Pelagius Places Free Will at the Basis of All Turning to God for Grace.

 [XXIII.] For he goes on to say: “Whosoever makes a right use of this” (that is, rightly uses his freedom of will), “does so entirely surrender himself

 25. [XXIV.]—God by His Wonderful Power Works in Our Hearts Good Dispositions of Our Will.

 26. [XXV.]—The Pelagian Grace of “Capacity” Exploded. The Scripture Teaches the Need of God’s Help in Doing, Speaking, and Thinking, Alike.

 27. [XXVI.]—What True Grace Is, and Wherefore Given. Merits Do Not Precede Grace.

 28. [XXVII.]—Pelagius Teaches that Satan May Be Resisted Without the Help of the Grace of God.

 29. [XXVIII.]—When He Speaks of God’s Help, He Means It Only to Help Us Do What Without It We Still Could Do.

 30. [XXIX.]—What Pelagius Thinks is Needful for Ease of Performance is Really Necessary for the Performance.

 31. [XXX.]—Pelagius and Cœlestius Nowhere Really Acknowledge Grace.

 32.—Why the Pelagians Deemed Prayers to Be Necessary. The Letter Which Pelagius Despatched to Pope Innocent with an Exposition of His Belief.

 33. [XXXI.]—Pelagius Professes Nothing on the Subject of Grace Which May Not Be Understood of the Law and Teaching.

 34.—Pelagius Says that Grace is Given According to Men’s Merits. The Beginning, However, of Merit is Faith And This is a Gratuitous Gift, Not a Recom

 35. [XXXII.]—Pelagius Believes that Infants Have No Sin to Be Remitted in Baptism.

 36. [XXXIII.]—Cœlestius Openly Declares Infants to Have No Original Sin.

 37. [XXXIV.]—Pelagius Nowhere Admits the Need of Divine Help for Will and Action.

 38. [XXXV.]—A Definition of the Grace of Christ by Pelagius.

 39. [XXXVI]—A Letter of Pelagius Unknown to Augustin.

 40. [XXXVII]—The Help of Grace Placed by Pelagius in the Mere Revelation of Teaching.

 41.—Restoration of Nature Understood by Pelagius as Forgiveness of Sins.

 42. [XXXVIII.]—Grace Placed by Pelagius in the Remission of Sins and the Example of Christ.

 43. [XXXIX.]—The Forgiveness of Sins and Example of Christ Held by Pelagius Enough to Save the Most Hardened Sinner.

 44. [XL.]—Pelagius Once More Guards Himself Against the Necessity of Grace.

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

 46. [XLII]—Pelagius Professes to Respect the Catholic Authors.

 47. [XLIII.]—Ambrose Most Highly Praised by Pelagius.

 48. [XLIV].—Ambrose is Not in Agreement with Pelagius.

 49. [XLV.]—Ambrose Teaches with What Eye Christ Turned and Looked Upon Peter.

 50.—Ambrose Teaches that All Men Need God’s Help.

 51. [XLVI.]—Ambrose Teaches that It is God that Does for Man What Pelagius Attributes to Free Will.

 52. [XLVII.]—If Pelagius Agrees with Ambrose, Augustin Has No Controversy with Him.

 53. [XLVIII.]—In What Sense Some Men May Be Said to Live Without Sin in the Present Life.

 54. [XLIX.]—Ambrose Teaches that No One is Sinless in This World.

 55. [L.]—Ambrose Witnesses that Perfect Purity is Impossible to Human Nature.

 Book II.

 1. [I.]—Caution Needed in Attending to Pelagius’ Deliverances on Infant Baptism.

 2. [II.]—Cœlestius, on His Trial at Carthage, Refuses to Condemn His Error The Written Statement Which He Gave to Zosimus.

 3. [III.]—Part of the Proceedings of the Council of Carthage Against Cœlestius.

 [IV.] The bishop Aurelius inquired: ‘Have you, Cœlestius, taught at any time, as the deacon Paulinus has stated, that infants are at their birth in th

 4.—Cœlestius Concedes Baptism for Infants, Without Affirming Original Sin.

 5. [V.]—Cœlestius’ Book Which Was Produced in the Proceedings at Rome.

 6. [VI.]—Cœlestius the Disciple is In This Work Bolder Than His Master.

 7.—Pope Zosimus Kindly Excuses Him.

 8. [VII.]—Cœlestius Condemned by Zosimus.

 9. [VIII.]—Pelagius Deceived the Council in Palestine, But Was Unable to Deceive the Church at Rome.

 10. [IX.]—The Judgment of Innocent Respecting the Proceedings in Palestine.

 11. [X.]—How that Pelagius Deceived the Synod of Palestine.

 12. [XI.]—A Portion of the Proceedings of the Synod of Palestine in the Cause of Pelagius.

 13. [XII.]—Cœlestius the Bolder Heretic Pelagius the More Subtle.

 14. [XIII.]—He Shows That, Even After the Synod of Palestine, Pelagius Held the Same Opinions as Cœlestius on the Subject of Original Sin.

 15. [XIV.]—Pelagius by His Mendacity and Deception Stole His Acquittal from the Synod in Palestine.

 16. [XV.]—Pelagius’ Fraudulent and Crafty Excuses.

 17.—How Pelagius Deceived His Judges.

 18. [XVII.]—The Condemnation of Pelagius.

 19.—Pelagius’ Attempt to Deceive the Apostolic See He Inverts the Bearings of the Controversy.

 [XVIII.] The real objection against them is, that they refuse to confess that unbaptized infants are liable to the condemnation of the first man, and

 20.—Pelagius Provides a Refuge for His Falsehood in Ambiguous Subterfuges.

 21. [XIX.]—Pelagius Avoids the Question as to Why Baptism is Necessary for Infants.

 22. [XX.]—Another Instance of Pelagius’ Ambiguity.

 23. [XXI.]—What He Means by Our Birth to an “Uncertain” Life.

 24.—Pelagius’ Long Residence at Rome.

 25. [XXII.]—The Condemnation of Pelagius and Cœlestius.

 26. [XXIII.]—The Pelagians Maintain that Raising Questions About Original Sin Does Not Endanger the Faith.

 27. [XXIII.]—On Questions Outside the Faith—What They Are, and Instances of the Same.

 28. [XXIV.]—The Heresy of Pelagius and Cœlestius Aims at the Very Foundations of Our Faith.

 29.—The Righteous Men Who Lived in the Time of the Law Were for All that Not Under the Law, But Under Grace. The Grace of the New Testament Hidden Und

 [XXV.] Yet, notwithstanding this, although not even the law which Moses gave was able to liberate any man from the dominion of death, there were even

 30. [XXVI]—Pelagius and Cœlestius Deny that the Ancient Saints Were Saved by Christ.

 31.—Christ’s Incarnation Was of Avail to the Fathers, Even Though It Had Not Yet Happened.

 32. [XXVII.]—He Shows by the Example of Abraham that the Ancient Saints Believed in the Incarnation of Christ.

 33. [XVIII.]—How Christ is Our Mediator.

 34. [XXIX.]—No Man Ever Saved Save by Christ.

 35. [XXX.]—Why the Circumcision of Infants Was Enjoined Under Pain of So Great a Punishment.

 36. [XXXI]—The Platonists’ Opinion About the Existence of the Soul Previous to the Body Rejected.

 37. [XXXII.]—In What Sense Christ is Called “Sin.”

 38. [XXXIII.]—Original Sin Does Not Render Marriage Evil.

 39. [XXXIV.]—Three Things Good and Laudable in Matrimony.

 40. [XXXV.]—Marriage Existed Before Sin Was Committed. How God’s Blessing Operated in Our First Parents.

 41. [XXXVI.]—Lust and Travail Come from Sin. Whence Our Members Became a Cause of Shame.

 42. [XXXVII.]—The Evil of Lust Ought Not to Be Ascribed to Marriage. The Three Good Results of the Nuptial Ordinance: Offspring, Chastity, and the Sac

 43. [XXXVIII.]—Human Offspring, Even Previous to Birth, Under Condemnation at the Very Root. Uses of Matrimony Undertaken for Mere Pleasure Not Withou

 44. [XXXIX.]—Even the Children of the Regenerate Born in Sin. The Effect of Baptism.

 [XL.] And thus there is a whole and perfect cleansing, in the self-same baptismal laver, not only of all the sins remitted now in our baptism, which m

 45.—Man’s Deliverance Suited to the Character of His Captivity.

 46.—Difficulty of Believing Original Sin. Man’s Vice is a Beast’s Nature.

 47. [XLI.]—Sentences from Ambrose in Favour of Original Sin.

 48.—Pelagius Rightly Condemned and Really Opposed by Ambrose.

A Treatise on the grace of christ, and on original sin,

by aurelius augustin, bishop of hippo;

In Two Books,

written against pelagius and cœlestius in the year a.d. 418.

Book I.

On the Grace of Christ.

Wherein he shows that Pelagius is disingenuous in his confession of grace, inasmuch as he places grace either in nature and free will, or in law and teaching; and, moreover, asserts that it is merely the “possibility” (as he calls it) of will and action, and not the will and action itself, which is assisted by divine grace; and that this assisting grace, too, is given by God according to men’s merits; whilst he further thinks that they are so assisted for the sole purpose of being able the more easily to fulfil the commandments. Augustin examines those passages of his writings in which he boasted that he had bestowed express commendation on the grace of God, and points out how they can be interpreted as referring to law and teaching,—in other words, to the divine revelation and the example of Christ which are alike included in “the teaching,”—or else to the remission of sins; nor do they afford any evidence whatever that Pelagius really acknowledged Christian grace, in the sense of help rendered for the performance of right action to natural faculty and instruction, by the inspiration of a most glowing and luminous love; and he concludes with a request that Pelagius would seriously listen to Ambrose, whom he is so very fond of quoting, in his excellent eulogy in commendation of the grace of God.

S. AURELII AUGUSTINI HIPPONENSIS EPISCOPI DE GRATIA CHRISTI ET DE PECCATO ORIGINALI CONTRA PELAGIUM ET COELESTIUM Libri duo .

LIBER PRIMUS. DE GRATIA CHRISTI.

Pelagium gratiae confessione fucum facere ostendit: quippe qui gratiam vel in natura et libero arbitrio ponat, vel in lege atque doctrina: qui praeterea divina gratia solam voluntatis et actionis possibilitatem ut vocat, non ipsam voluntatem et actionem adjuvari dicat; et illam insuper adjuvantem gratiam a Deo secundum merita hominum dari, atque ad id solum juvare eos putet, ut praecepta facilius possint implere. Expendit Augustinus loca opusculorum ipsius, quibus ille Dei gratiam diserte a se commendatam jactabat; et haec de lege ac doctrina, seu de divina revelatione ac de Christi exemplo, quae ad doctrinam aeque revocantur, aut de peccatorum remissione interpretari posse demonstrat, nec apparere omnino, an vere christianam gratiam, id est, adjutorium bene agendi adjunctum naturae atque doctrinae per inspirationem flagrantissimae et luminosissimae charitatis agnoscat Pelagius: qui postremo Ambrosium, tantopere ab ipso laudatum, praeclara quaedam in commendationem divinae gratiae dicentem audire jubetur.