§ 153. THE AUGUSrmiAN SYSTEM CONTINUED. 823
state. This possibility became reality. Why it should have been realized, is incompreheusible ; since evil never has, like good, a sufficient reason. It is irrationality itself. Augiistina fixes an immense gulf bet%yeeu the primitive state and the state of sin. But when thought has accomplished this adventurous leaj), it finds his system coherent throughout.
Adam did not fall without temptation from another. That angel, who, in his pride, had turned away from God to himself, tempted man, who, standing yet in his integrity, provoked his envy. He first approached the woman, the weaker and the more credulous. The essence of the sin of Adam cofx-i sisted not in the eating of the fruit; for this was in itself] neither wrong fior harmful; but in disobedience to the command of God. " Obedience was enjoined by that commandment, as the virtue which, in the rational creature, is, as it were, the mother and guardian of all virtues." The principle, the root of sin, was pride, self-seeking, the craving of the will to forsake its author, and become its own. This pride preceded the outward act. Our first parents were sinful in heart, before they had yet fallen into open disobedience. " For man never yet proceeded to an evil work, unless incited to it by an evil will," This pride even preceded the temptation of the serpent, "If man had not previously begun to take pleasure in himself, the serpent could have had no hold upon him."
The fall of Adam appears the greater, and the more worthy of punishment, if we consider, first, the height he occupied, the divine image in which he was created ; then, the simplicity of the commandment, and ease of obeying it, in the abundanca of all manner of fruits in paradise; and finally, the sanction of the most terrible punishment from his Creator and greatest Benefactor.
Tiius Augustine goes behind the appearance to the substance; below the surface to the deeper truth. He does not stop with the outward act, but looks chiefly at the disposition which lies at its root.
II, The Consequences of the primal sin, both for Adam and for his posterity, are, in Augustine's view, comprehensive and
826 THIRD PERIOD. A.D. 311-590.
terrible in proportion to the licinousness of the sir. itself. And all these eonsequences are at the same time pnnisliincnts from tlie righteous God, who has, by one and the same law, joineO reward with obedience and penalty with sin. Tliey are all comprehended under death^ in its widest sense ; as Paul says : "The wages of sin is death;" and in Gen. ii. IT we are to understand by the threatened death, all evil both to body and to soul.
Augustine particularizes the consequences of sin under seven heads; the first four being negative, the others positive:
1. Loss of the freedom of choice,^ which consisted in a positive inclination and love to the good, with tlie implied possibility of sin. In place of this freedom has come the hard necessity of sinning, bondage to evil. "The will, which, aided by grace, would have become a source of good, became to Adam, in his apostasy from God, a source of evil."
2. Obstruction of knowledge. Man was originally able to learn everything easily, without labor, and to understand everything aright. But now the mind is beclouded, and knowledge can be acquired and imparted only in the sweat of the face.
3. Loss of the grace of God, whicli enabled man to pei'form the good which his freedom willed, and to persevere therein. By not willing, man forfeited his ability, and now, though lie would do good, he cannot.
4. Loss of paradise. The earth now lies under the curse of God : it brings forth thorns and thistles, and in the sweat of his face man must eat his bread.
5. Concupiscence, i. e., not sensuousness in itself, but the preponderance of the sensuous, the lusting of the flesh against the spirit. Thus God punishes sin with sin — a proposition which Julian considered blasphemy. Originally the body was as joyfully obedient to the spirit, as maii to God. There was but one will in exercise. By the fall this beautiful harmony has been broken, and that antagonism has arisen wlilcli Paul
' Of course not in indifferent thirgs of ordinary life, in wliich the greatest sinner is free to choose, but in reference t< the great religious decision for or against Go< and divine tluugs.