A Treatise Concerning Man’s Perfection in Righteousness 1
1 The First Breviate of Cœlestius PL 44, 291
I. “First of all,” says he, “he must be asked who denies man’s ability to live without sin, what every sort of sin is,—is it such as can be avoided? or is it unavoidable? If it is unavoidable, then it is not sin; if it can be avoided, then a man can live without the sin which can be avoided. No reason or justice permits us to designate as sin what cannot in any way be avoided.” Our answer to this is, that sin can be avoided, if our corrupted nature be healed by God’s grace, through our Lord Jesus Christ. For, in so far as it is not sound, in so far does it either through blindness fail to see, or through weakness fail to accomplish, that which it ought to do; “for the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh,” so that a man does not do the things which he would.
Charitas vestra, quae in vobis tanta est, et tam sancta, ut etiam jubenti servire delectet, petivit ut definitionibus quae dicuntur Coelestii esse, respondeam. Sic enim praenotata est eadem chartula quam dedistis, Definitiones, ut dicitur, Coelestii: quae praenotatio credo, quod non illius, sed eorum sit qui hoc attulerunt de Sicilia, ubi Coelestius non esse perhibetur, sed multi talia garrientes, et, sicut ait Apostolus, ipsi errantes, et alios in errorem mittentes . Ex illius tamen haec esse doctrina, vel etiam quorumdam sociorum ejus, et nos possumus arbitrari. Nam neque istae breves definitiones, vel potius ratiocinationes, ab illius abhorrent ingenio; quod in opere alio ejus inspexi, cujus eum esse constat auctorem: et non frustra istos fratres qui haec attulerunt, in Sicilia existimo audisse, quod ipse docuerit ista vel scripserit. Vellem autem, si possem, ita obtemperare vestrae fraternae benevolentiae, ut etiam ego tam breviter responderem. Sed nisi et illa commemorem quibus respondeo, quis poterit quemadmodum responderim judicare? Conabor tamen, quantum valuero, adjuvantibus me apud Domini misericordiam etiam orationibus vestris, ut non ultra quam necesse est meus sermo procurrat.