Mozley: A Treatise on the Augustinian Doctrine of

CHAP. iv. of Original Sin. 125
certain, and to which Scripture itself bore equal testimony.
It was quite true that the doctrine of original sin, did it
stand alone, withdrew from the heathen the whole founda
tion of virtue, and so represented a good heathen as im
possible. But this was only one aspect of his state ; there
was also another, in which he came before us as capable of
virtue ; and, under the check of a mystery, the plain and
natural facts of the case might be acknowledged. And the
same may be said, with respect to the heathen, on the
question of future punishment. These were truths, then,
to be held with a special understanding in accordance with
the partial premiss from which they were derived ; they
were not to be stated as absolute truths, such as are drawn
from ascertained data, like the truths of natural philosophy.
It was incorrect to deduce conclusions of the same certainty
from an incomprehensible relationship, which would be
drawn from ordinary and known ones, and to argue in the
same way from a mysterious Divine wrath, as if it were
the same affection with which we are cognisant in ourselves
and in common life. The doctrine of original sin ought
not to be understated or curtailed because it leads to ex
treme conclusions on one side of truth ; and Augustine,
who is not deterred by such results from the full statement
of it, is, so far, a more faithful interpreter of it than an
earlier school. But those who draw out this doctrine to
the full, and do not balance it by other truths, give it force
at the expense of tenableness and justice.
From the Augustinian statements relating to original
sin two inferences remain to be drawn. First, the doctrine
of original sin itself was a sufficient premiss for a doctrine
of predestination. The latter consigns a certain portion of
mankind, antecedently to actual sin, to eternal punishment;
but if antecedently they deserve such punishment, the con
signment to it is a natural consequence of such desert, and
is no injustice. But, secondly, Augustine says more than
that persons under the guilt of original sin deserve eternal
punishment; for he asserts that they are punished eter
nally. But such actual punishment is more than a premiss
for, for it is itself an instance of, predestination. It evi-