Mozley: A Treatise on the Augustinian Doctrine of

Note XV. 379
dants of Adam. Tertullian, who asserts it, is at the same
time acknowledged as one of those fathers who have most
strongly asserted the doctrine of original sin and ; Scripture
itself asserts both, saying of children, that of such is the
kingdom of heaven, while at the same time it declares,
that in Adam all die. Chrysostom again denies that one
man can be responsible for another man s sin : TO [lev yap
srspov St STSpov KoKaCpaQai ov a(f)p6&pa &OKSL \6yov s^siv.
Horn. X. in Rom. But this is a simple truth of reason
which nobody can deny, and the assertion of it is quite
consistent with holding the mystery of our guilt in Adam.
All the early fathers, moreover, assert strongly the freewill
of even fallen man, his irpoaipso-^ e\vOspa, avrstrove LOV.
But this runs side by side with their assertion of his
6
captivity and corruption, as another part of the whole
truth.
The case of Clement of Alexandria is perhaps peculiar,
though too much should not be made of particular ex
pressions, like the ones just quoted,
found in him. In
combating, indeed,
the Gnostic doctrine of our evil
nature, he uses arguments which would equally tell
against the doctrine of original sin. He denies that any
one can be evil but by his own personal act : Xsyerwo-av
^/jLLV 7TOV ETTOpVSVCTSV TO pSWyOsV TTaiOlOV, Tf 7TWS VTTO TT)V
ToO ASa/z, {JTTOTTSTTTWKSV dpav TO ^sv hspy^av , Strom .
1. 3. c. 16. He describes, sin after the fall, as if it
again,
were only a repetition, and not an effect of sin at the fall :
sit yap 6 d7raTa)v avvOsv psv TVV Evai>, vvv oe Kai
rjBri
TOVS a\\ovs its dava-rov
dvOpUTTovs
v-rro^spwv.Ad
Gentes,vol. 1. p. 7. But Hagenbach is precipitate in
concluding that Clement rejects the doctrine of original
sin, properly so called, simply on the strength
of such
passages as these. History of Doctrine, v. 1. p- 173.
Augustine himself has a similar passage exactly to the one
iust quoted :
< Etiam nunc in unoquoque nostrum mh
aliud agitur, cum ad peccatum quisque
delabitur, quar
tune actum est in illis tribus, serpente, muliere, et viro.
-De Genesi contra Man. 1. 2. c. 14. Such expressio
are no more than what common sense justifies and obliges,