Mozley: A Treatise on the Augustinian Doctrine of

CHAP. rr. of Original Sin. 1 1 9
power of choice was gone, and man was unable not only
to rise above a defective goodness, but to avoid positive
sin. He was thenceforth, prior to the operation of grace,
in a state of necessity on the side of evil, a slave to the
devil and to his own inordinate lusts.
Such a difference in the explanation of original sin
necessarily produced a corresponding difference in. the
estimation of heathen morals. Augustine and Clement
both regard the heathen character as faulty but there are
;
two distinct types of a faulty character. It is a rule in
morals, that the morality of the man must precede the
morality of the action, that some general condition must
be fulfilled in the agent s character before any particular
act can be pronounced good in him ; this morality of the
man, the fulfilment of this general condition, is the founda
tion. One type, then, of a faulty character is that of a
character good at the foundation, and only failing in de
gree ; another is that of a character bad at the foundation.
The fruits of the former are solid, as far as they go ; but
the apparently good fruits of
character are hollow, and are
a fundamentally
not real virtues.
corrupt
Such a
character may display, for example, affection to individuals,
generosity upon occasions, or courage, or industry ; but
such a foundation these are not virtues. This is the
upon
distinction between the faultiness which Clement and the
faultiness which Augustine attributes to heathen morality.
Clement allows the foundation to exist this general con
dition to be fulfilled in a degree in the heathen, because
he considers nature able in a degree to supply it; he
therefore regards heathen morality as real and solid, as
far as it goes, though imperfect. But Augustine does not
admit the power of nature to supply such a foundation in
any degree whatever ; for constituting which he requires
a certain state of mind, which he considers to be only pos
sible under grace, viz. faith, so interpreting the texts,
4 Without faith it is impossible to please Grod, and what
soever is not of faith is sin. J He therefore regards heathen
1 Sed absit ut sit in aliquo vera autem ut sit Justus vere, nisi
yivat
"
Justus enim ex fide vivit."
rirtus, nisi fuerit Justus. Absit ex fide: