now began to disturb that unity of the spirit, and bond of peace, in which the faith of our ancestors had hitherto been held.

The father of the separatists was a native of Wales, who bore the real surname of Morgan, a word signifying an inhabitant of the sea-coast, and hence exchanged, after the manner of the times, for the correspondent Greek appellative of Pelagius. His history may be comprized in a few words. He was a monk of Banchor, endowed with much sense and learning, and is treated with respect by his opponent, Augustine, who calls him á pious man, and a Christian of no vulgar rank. He lived a long time at Rome, where he was received into the best society; but, on the sacking of that city by Alaric, A. D. 410, he passed over into Africa, and assisted at the celebrated conference held in the same year at Carthage, betwixt the Catholics and Donatists. A discovery of his heterodox principles, however, disappointed his hopes of being admitted amongst the Carthaginian presbyters, and accordingly, taking, leave of this région, he travelled into Egypt, and at last settled at Jerusalem; from whence he never returned to his native country. Happy for that country, had his opinions died along with him; but these remained, in a commentary on St. Paul's writings, a confession of faith, and several letters, all still extant, together with a book on free-will, which is lost, to spread

corruption and bitter animosity, throughout the church in which he had been nurtured. As it is natural for the inhabitants of any nation to examine with attention, and even with some partiality, speculations advanced by their fellow-countrymen of eminence, it will readily be supposed that the errors of Pelagius would find an easy entrance into Britain. In fact, while that heresiarch procured adherents, by his personal activity, in Italy, Africa, and the East; was patronised by John, bishop of Jerusalem, from the resemblance of his doctrines to those of Origen; and was even acquitted at Diospolis by a synod of fourteen bishops;-Celestius, a Scotsman, Agricola, and several others, were employed in disseminating his creed of selfrighteousness throughout his native country.

The orthodox clergy of Britain, unable to cope with these antagonists, solicited and received assistance from Lupus and Germanus, the Gallic bishops of Auxerre and Troyes. A public disputation was held at St. Albans, before an immense concourse of people, betwixt these missionaries and the apostles of Pelagianism: "where on the one side," says Fuller," was faith; on the other, presumption; here meekness, there pride; here Christ, and there Pelagius." The result of such a contest was what might have been predicted. A vain parade of inconclusive declamation being answered by solid argument derived from Scripture, reason, and the writings of the

early fathers, the presumptuous heretics were driven from the field. The same two prelates, not long afterwards, appeared in a military capacity, commanding the Britons in an engagement with the Picts, at a place called Maes Garmon, in Flintshire; where they are said, in the superstitious annals of the times, to have gained a bloodless victory, by terrifying the enemy with shouts of Hallelujah. It is indeed not improbable, that an unintelligible word, loudly uttered by a multitude of armed men, may have spread a panic throughout the opposing army, without the intervention of a miracle. Hardly had these victorious disputants and warriors returned into their own country, when their baffled antagonists resumed the labour of promulgating the new heresy; and the Britons, still incompetent to defend their convictions, once more supplicated assistance from their former able and successful champions. In compliance with this request, the Bishop of Auxerre returned: and hence he has been thus addressed by a poet :

Tuque O! cui toto discretos orbe Britannos

Bis penetrare datum, bis intima cernere magni
Monstra maris, &c.

Heresy was now a second time overcome, principally by the reasonings of this learned prelate, though, in part, by his influence with the secular power, which, for the present, effectually terminated the controversy, by banishing the chief Pe

lagians from the island. The orthodox faith, retrieved in this manner, immediately before the arrival of the Saxons, continued for a long time uncorrupted: not suffering from the adoption of a liturgy, introduced by the two Gallican ecclesiastics, as the doctrines contained in that form of service were entirely free from the superstitious errors, which had now begun to creep into the Romish ritual *.

VIII. The doctrines of Pelagius may be compendiously exhibited in the following nine propositions :

1. The death of Adam was not the consequence o of his transgression: he was naturally mortal, and would have died had he continued innocent.

2. His sin affected only himself; and not any of his descendants.

3. Children are born innocent, exactly in the condition of Adam before the fall.

4. Baptism does not deliver from sin; but merely adopts the baptized person into the kingdom of God.

5. The resurrection of men does not follow from that of Christ.

6. The law qualified men for the kingdom of heaven, and was founded on equal promises with the Gospel.

7. Men may be virtuous in most cases, by the

* For the difference of opinion betwixt the churches, see Collier, lib. i. cent. 5. 48, 49, 50.

h

freedom of their own will, and the exertion of their natural strength, unaided by the grace of God.

8. When the grace of God is bestowed, it is given according to merit.

9. Rich men must part with all their posses

sions.

Of these opinions let us treat in order. We shall find that no very profound reflection, or intimate acquaintance with Scripture, is requisite to detect their fallacy.

1. That Adam was not naturally mortal, is evident from the very terms of the trial on which he was placed: "In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die;"-Gen. ii. or, in other words, (since Adam is known to have lived several hundred years after his trespass), in that day shalt thou become liable to death:-and that his death was the result and punishment of his transgression, appears from Romans, v. 12:

Wherefore, by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin."

2, 3. In replying to the second and third doctrines of the Pelagian heresy, which, for the sake of convenience, may be thrown together, we shall endeavour to prove the three following propositions: viz.

1st, In consequence of the fall of Adam, his posterity are all born with a taint of hereditary evil.