"The doctrine of man's nature was worked out by the
practical Western, or Latin, part of the early church as the doctrine of
Christ's nature was by the speculative Eastern, or Greek, part. The general belief
at first was in the inherited or Adamic corruption (not guilt) of man, and his
ability to cooperate with the Holy Spirit in regeneration. Pelagius, a British
monk, precipitated discussion by asserting, about 405 that man inherited
nothing from Adam, neither original guilt, which was impossible, nor innate
corruption, nor physical ;consequences, as pain and death, which were in the
world before Adam. Every man was born free and unbiased. Augustine in 412
maintained that man inherited not only inborn corruption, but guilt; that he
was helpless. Augustinianism first gained the complete ascendancy, and
Pelagianism never had any considerable footing. But Augustinianism gradually
softened into Semi Pelagianism, which was very much the original doctrine of
inherited corruption and the power of cooperation. This has remained the
doctrine of the Roman Church, as fixed by the Council of Trent after the
Reformation...
" The three views were revived at or after the
Reformation. Calvin (1536) revived Augustinianism, Socinus (about 1590),
Pelagianism, and Arminius (1589), Semi Pelagianism. Calvin was followed by most
Protestants of his century,—Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Baptists, etc.
—Socinus by' the early Unitarians, and Arminius practically by the Church of
England (the Romanists being already of the same mind), and formally by the
Methodists in the eighteenth century. Since then Calvinism has largely died away
and Arminianism now has decidedly the supremacy.
"Pure Pelagianism is made impossible by the facts of
habit and heredity. No one would maintain that we come into the world without
bias or corruption, amounting often to serious crippling, if not to
helplessness. But that men are guilty of what they did not originate and can not
help, and deserve God's wrath and extreme penalty, is a doctrine which shows no
sign of return. That there is original or hereditary misfortune or moral
disease, is more clearly seen, but original or hereditary sin is an obsolete
phrase. That infants are guilty and under divine wrath and punishment, as
Augustine and Calvin taught, is a doctrine that no one now can be found to own,
scarcely to remember. "
table of contents
