114 
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 wallowwithout 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 gi’ace, 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 sufBcient 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 aiiteni nostrum dicat, quod priori homiuis peccato perierit liberum [ 
arbitrium de biimano genere ? ” Cont. Pelag. lib. i. cap. 2. | 
t Usher, Ansvmr to a Jesuit on Free-Wili , 44b (Cambridge ed. 1835). ^ 
I 
1 
