Chapter 11 [X.]--Distinction Between Actual and Original Sin. [242]
Again, in the clause which follows, "In which all have sinned," how cautiously, rightly, and unambiguously is the statement expressed! For if you understand that sin to be meant which by one man entered into the world, "In which [sin] all have sinned," it is surely clear enough, that the sins which are peculiar to every man, which they themselves commit and which belong simply to them, mean one thing; and that the one sin, in and by which all have sinned, means another thing; since all were that one man. If, however, it be not the sin, but that one man that is understood, "In which [one man] all have sinned," what again can be plainer than even this clear statement? We read, indeed, of those being justified in Christ who believe in Him, by reason of the secret communion and inspiration of that spiritual grace which makes every one who cleaves to the Lord "one spirit" with Him, [243] although His saints also imitate His example; can I find, however, any similar statement made of those who have imitated His saints? Can any man be said to be justified in Paul or in Peter, or in any one whatever of those excellent men whose authority stands high among the people of God? We are no doubt said to be blessed in Abraham, according to the passage in which it was said to him, "In thee shall all nations be blessed" [244] --for Christ's sake, who is his seed according to the flesh; which is still more clearly expressed in the parallel passage: "In thy seed shall all nations be blessed." I do not believe that any one can find it anywhere stated in the Holy Scriptures, that a man has ever sinned or still sins "in the devil," although all wicked and impious men "imitate" him. The apostle, however, has declared concerning the first man, that "in him all have sinned;" [245] and yet there is still a contest about the propagation of sin, and men oppose to it I know not what nebulous theory of "imitation." [246]
[242] See below, Book iii. c. vii.; also in the De Nuptiis, c. v.; also Epist. 186, and Serm. 165.
[243] 1 Cor. vi. 17.
[244] Gal. iii. 8: comp. Gen. xii. 3, xviii. 18, xxii. 18.
[245] Rom. v. 12.
[246] This was the Pelagian term, expressive of their dogma that original sin stands in the following [or "imitation"] of Adam, instead of being the fault and corruption of the nature of every man who is naturally engendered of Adam's offspring; which doctrine is expressed by Augustin's word, propagatio, "propagation."
Chapter 12.--The Law Could Not Take Away Sin.
Observe also what follows. Having said, "In which all have sinned," he at once added, "For until the law, sin was in the world." [247] This means that sin could not be taken away even by the law, which entered that sin might the more abound, [248] whether it be the law of nature, under which every man when arrived at years of discretion only proceeds to add his own sins to original sin, or that very law which Moses gave to the people. "For if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law. But the Scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. [249] But sin is not imputed where there is no law." [250] Now what means the phrase "is not imputed," but "is ignored," or "is not reckoned as sin?" Although the Lord God does not Himself regard it as if it had never been, since it is written: "As many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law." [251]
[247] Rom. v. 13.
[248] Rom. v. 20.
[249] Gal. iii. 21, 22.
[250] Rom. v. 13.
[251] Rom. ii. 12.
Chapter 13 [XI.]--Meaning of the Apostle's Phrase "The Reign of Death."
"Nevertheless," says he, "death reigned from Adam even unto Moses," [252] --that is to say, from the first man even to the very law which was promulged by the divine authority, because even it was unable to abolish the reign of death. Now death must be understood "to reign," whenever the guilt of sin [253] so dominates in men that it prevents their attainment of that eternal life which is the only true life, and drags them down even to the second death which is penally eternal. This reign of death is only destroyed in any man by the Saviour's grace, which wrought even in the saints of the olden time, all of whom, though previous to the coming of Christ in the flesh, yet lived in relation to His assisting grace, not to the letter of the law, which only knew how to command, but not to help them. In the Old Testament, indeed, that was hidden (conformably to the perfectly just dispensation of the times) which is now revealed in the New Testament. Therefore "death reigned from Adam unto Moses," in all who were not assisted by the grace of Christ, that in them the kingdom of death might be destroyed, "even in those who had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression," [254] that is, who had not yet sinned of their own individual will, as Adam did, but had drawn from him original sin, "who is the figure of him that was to come," [255] because in him was constituted the form of condemnation to his future progeny, who should spring from him by natural descent; so that from one all men were born to a condemnation, from which there is no deliverance but in the Saviour's grace. I am quite aware, indeed, that several Latin copies of the Scriptures read the passage thus: "Death reigned from Adam to Moses over them who have sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression;" [256] but even this version is referred by those who so read it to the very same purport, for they understood those who have sinned in him to have sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression; so that they are created in his likeness, not only as men born of a man, but as sinners born of a sinner, dying ones of a dying one, and condemned ones to a condemned one. However, the Greek copies from which the Latin version was made, have all, without exception or nearly so, the reading which I first adduced.
[252] Rom. v. 14.
[253] Reatus peccati.
[254] Rom. v. 14.
[255] Rom. v. 14.
[256] Comp. Epist. 157, n. 19. [Some few Greek copies have come down to us (e.g. 67**) which omit the "not," but no Latin copy (unless d* be an exception), although other Latin writers (e.g. Ambrosiaster) testify to their former existence.--W.]