Emily Dickinson Lexicon

SEM-I-PE-LA'GI-AN, n.

In ecclesiastical history, the Semi pelagians are persons who retain some tincture of the doctrines of Pelagius. [See Pelogianism.] They hold that God has not by predestination dispensed his grace to one more than to another; that Christ died for all men; that the grace purchased by Christ, and necessary to salvation, is offered to all men; that man, before he receives grace, is capable of faith and holy desires; and that man being born free, capable of accepting grace, or of resisting its influences. – Encyc.