Mozley: A Treatise on the Augustinian Doctrine of

CHAP. iv. of Original Sin. 101
involve a discussion of some length and difficulty, to which
I shall devote this chapter.
The language in which the primitive Church expresses
this doctrine distinctly asserts two things. The early
fathers, in the first place, clearly held that the sin of
Adam did not stop with itself; they speak of the race and
not of the individual only, with reference to it ; and the
universal terms of man, mankind, the soul, leave no
doubt as to their belief that human nature was in some
way or other affected 1
by that sin. Secondly, when we
examine what this universal consequence was, we find
that it is called apostacy, captivity, corruption, and death. 3
These are metaphorical expressions, indeed, and convey
no precise and accurate meaning, but they plainly signify
something more than a privation of higher good, and
something more than a mere tendency to positive evil.
This tendency existed before the fall, and no mere increase
of it could have brought it up to the natural meaning of
these terms ; which must therefore be taken to signify
positive moral evil, and to indicate, as the doctrine of the
early fathers, the positive sinfulness of the whole human
race in consequence of the sin of Adam, that is to say, the
doctrine of original sin.
But as Scripture reveals this consequence of the sin of
Adam, so natural reason certifies, on the other hand, that
nobody can sin but by his own personal act, and that one
1 Justin Martyr : Tb yevos rStv irettra TOV Kara fyvaiv. Horn. Deus
avOpdwdsv 6 anb TOV ASayu. virb Odva- non Auctor Mali, s. 6.
TOV *tal ir\avt}v TT\V TOV o<f>ios
eireir- Of the same generic sort are the
Tiijcet. Dial, cum Tryph. c. 88.
Irenseus: Hominem (the race) abexpressions,
TJ irpwTi) yfvfffis (Justin.
Apol. 1. 61.), fi sorberi magno ceto. Adv. Hoer. 3.
22.
Tatian : irTfpwffis jap rr)s tyvxns
rb TTt/eOjua rb re\f lov, Zirep airopptyaffa
ira\aia y4i/e<ris (Ta-
tian, contra Grsec. c. 11.).
2 Dominabatur nobis apostasia.
Irenseus, Adv. Hoer. 5. 1 ,
Quos in eadem captivitate (Adam)
8et TTfV apapTiav eVrrj &o-irep vfoffffbs,
Kal xajuaiirer^s e^eVcro. Ad Grsec.
generavit. 3. 34.
Per priorem generationem mortem
c. 20. hsereditavimus. 5. 1.
Athanasius : H I^UY^ airoffTao-a Vitium originis. Naturae cor-
TTJJ irpbs TO Ka\k 6ewpias. Contra ruptio. Tertullian, De Anima, c. 41.
Gentes, 4. Nativitatis sordes. Origen, Horn.
Basil: E*caKe607j f) 4/ux^ ira.pa.Tpa.- 14. in Luc.