Cap. 6 Arg. 8 after Secundo: Pelagian-mode digression—vivifying grace offered to all, given by human will
But the marrow of Pelagianism sits in the mode they invent for how God administers vivifying grace and how people take it. So we will set out what the Pelagian party claims and what the orthodox Fathers settle, with witnesses from both. The Pelagians hold that from Christ’s death and merit vivifying, regenerating grace flows to everyone from God’s mercy in such a way that being vivified and regenerated—or not—depends first on the human will that embraces or spurns the grace. Their view comes to this: saving grace is offered to all from sheer mercy in Christ, yet given to no one by absolute good pleasure. Ask why this person received Christ’s saving grace and that one did not, and they answer: the one willed to take what was offered; the other would not. Let them speak for themselves. Vitalis of Carthage, in Augustine Epistle 107, holds that grace follows the human will and is therefore given because people willed it. The Massilian leftovers of Pelagian heresy, in Prosper to Augustine, say that as far as God goes eternal life is prepared for all, but as far as free choice goes it is seized by those who freely believed God and received helps of grace by the merit of that belief. Pelagius himself, in Augustine, says people who use free choice well merit the Lord’s grace; others who have free choice by which they could come to faith and deserve God’s grace, by misusing their liberty, lack grace and run into damnation. Faustus of Riez: from God’s goodness that a person is called; from his own will that he promptly obeys.
Latin
Sed quia ipsa medulla Pelagianismi sita est in modo, secundum quem fingunt gratiam vivificantem a Deo hominibus administrari, et ab hominibus acceptari, quid ea de re Pelagiana factio asserat, quid orthodoxi Patres statuant, productis in medium utrorumque testimoniis ostendemus. Ad Pelagianos quod attinet, a Christi morte meritoque gratiam vivificam et regenerantem sic ad omnes homines ex Dei misericordia dimanare statuunt, ut hoc ipsum vivificari et regenerari, sive non-vivificari et regenerari, primario dependeat ex voluntate humana gratiam amplexante aut adspernante. Huc igitur redit istorum sententia, Gratiam salutiferam ex pura Dei misericordia in Christo offerri omnibus, ex absoluto autem beneplacito dari nemini. Si autem quaeratur in particulari, cur huic data est gratia Christi salvivifica? cur illi non est data? respondent, Quia ille oblatam voluit accipere, iste noluit. Sed loquantur ipsi. Vitalis Carthaginensis apud Augustinum, Epist. 107. tuetur gratiam subsequi hominis voluntatem, et ideo hominibus dari, quia voluerunt. Reliquiae Pelagianae haereseos, id est, Massilienses, apud Prosperum in Epistol. ad Augustin. Quantum ad Deum pertinet, omnibus paratam vitam aeternam aiunt: quantum autem ad arbitrii libertatem, ab his eam apprehendi qui Deo sponte crediderint, et auxilium gratiae merito credulitatis acceperint. Pelagius ipse apud Augustinum dicit, Homines bene utentes libero arbitrio mereri Domini gratiam: alios autem habentes liberum arbitrium, per quod ad fidem venire possent et Dei gratiam promereri, male utendo libertate sua, gratia carere, et damnationem incurrere. Faustus Rhegiensis, De Dei bonitate, quod homo vocatur; de propria voluntate, quod promptus obsequitur.