17 



whole line, from the noble utterances of men like Kant, to the 

 refined yet negative morality of Mr. Spencer, and still on to 

 men infinitely beneath him, mere human animals, who glory 

 in their shame, the same truth meets us, that the denial to 

 man of moral Liberty of perfect freedom to choose or reject 

 either good or evil leads, of necessity, to the denial to him of 

 moral obligation. Put upon him at once the honour and the re- 

 sponsibility given him by his Creator ; then he must live like 

 an immortal being, or be condemned by his conscience if he 

 does not. Take from him this crown, he soon descends, and, in 

 inferior natures, begins to wallow without blushing in the mire. 

 It may be well to remark that the Philosophical doctrine of 

 the Freedom of the Will by no means necessitates that heresy 

 of Pelagianism, branded as false by the Universal Church, 

 which teaches that man, by his own inherent strength of Will, 

 without the aid of Divine grace, can arise and work out his 

 own salvation. No man was more diametrically opposed to 

 this heresy than Augustine, no man was its more uncom- 

 promising antagonist, yet he himself held the Philosophical 

 Doctrine of the Freedom of the Will. He says : " For who 

 is there of us would say that by the sin of the first man free- 

 will is utterly perished from mankind ? " * Archbishop Usher, 

 again, was one of the stanchest upholders of the need man 

 has of converting and renewing grace, yet he was a resolute 

 champion of the Freedom of the Will. He says : " Freedom 

 of Will we know doth as essentially belong unto a man as 

 reason itself; and he that spoileth him of that power doth in 

 effect make him a very beast." f We may hold that men are 

 morally free, that they are the fashioners of their own moral 

 character and the arbiters of their own destiny, and yet have 

 the most profound sense that until a power comes into them 

 from above, and supplements their feeble efforts by the flood- 

 tide of a Divine energy, they never can arise and work out a 

 righteous character. Where to draw the exact line between 

 the Divine and the human working it may be hard to say, and, 

 as it is of no practical importance, perhaps it is not well to 

 attempt it. It is sufficient that we remain within the broad 

 lines upon which the Church Universal is practically unani- 

 mous, of the absolute need of the entrance into man of a 

 Divine Spirit, who can refine and purify his Will, cleanse it 

 from all earthly defilement, and lift it high into the regions of 



* Quis autem nostrum dicaf, quod priori hominis peccato perierit libenim 

 p'bitrium de humano genere ? Cont. Pelag. lib. i. cap. 2. 



t Usher, Answer to a Jesuit on Free W'ill, 445 (Cambridge Ed. 1835). 

 C 



