§ 154. THE AUGUSTINIAN SYSTEM CONTINUED. 82€
day than he whose life was longer. And he who iiies more time to reach death, does not therefore go slower, but only makes a longer journey,"
7. The most important consequence of the fall of Adam ia original sin and hereditary guilt in his whole posterity ; and as this was also one of the chief points of controversy, it must be exhibited at length.
§ 154. The Augustinian System : Original Sin, and thA Origin of tJie Human Soul.
Original sin,^ according to Augustine, is the native bent of • the soul towards evil, with which all the posterity of Adam — excepting Christ, who was conceived by the Holy Ghost and born of a pure Virgin — come into the world, and out of which all actual sins of necessity proceed. It appears principally in concupiscence, or the war of the flesh against the spirit. Sin is not merely an individual act, but also a condition, a status and habitus, which continues, by procreation, from generation to generation. Original sin results necessarily, as has been already remarked, from the generic and representative character of Adam, in whom human nature itself, and so, potentially, all who should inherit that nature, fell.'^ The corruption of the root communicates itself to the trunk and the branches. But where sin is, there is always guilt and ill-desert in the eyes of a righteous God. The whole race, through the fall of its progenitor, has become a massa perdiUonis. This, of course, still admits different degrees both of sinfulness and of guilt.
Original sin and guilt are propagated by natural genera-
* Peccatum originale, vitium hereditarium.
^ De peccatorum meritis et remissione, 1. iii. c. 7 (§ 14, torn. x. f. VS): "la Adam omnes tunc peccavcrunt, quando in ejus natura ilia insita vi, qua eos gignore polerat, adhuc omnes ille unus fuerunt." De corrept. et gratia, § 28 (x. f. 765) : *' Quia vero [Adam] per liberum arbitrium Deum deseruit, justum judicium Dei expertus est, ut cum tota sua stirpe, quae in illo adhuc posita tota cum illo pecca verat, damnaretur." This view easily fell in with Augustine's Platonico-Aristoteli;in realism, which regarded the general conceptions as the original types of individual things. But the root of it lay deeper in his Christian consciousness ami profouL^ conviction of the all-pervading power of sin.
ft 30 TIIIKD PEKIOI). A.D. 311-590.
tion. The generic cliaracter planted in Adam nnfolds itself in a succession of individuals, who organically grow cue out of another. As sin, however, is not merely a thing of the bcidy, but primarily and essentially of the spirit, the question arises, on which of the current theories as to the origin and jpropiujation of souls Augustine based his view.
This metaphysical ])roblem enters theology in connection ■with the doctrine of original sin; this, therefore, is the place to say wdiat is needful upon it.' The Gnostic and pantheistic emanation-theory had long since been universally rejected aa heretical. But three other views had found advocates in the church :
1. The Traducian' or Ge7ieratio7i-theovy teaches that the soul originates with the body from the act of procreation, and therefore through human agency. It is countenanced by several passages of Scrij^ture, such as Gen. v. 3 ; Ps. li. 5 ; Rom. V. 12 ; 1 Cor. xv. 22 ; Eph. ii. 3 ; it is decidedly suitable to the doctrine of original sin ; and hence, since Tertullian, it has been adopted by most "Western theologians in support and explanation of that doctrine.^
2. The Creatio7i-i\iGorj ascribes each individual soul to a direct creative act of God, and supposes it to be united witli
* "La premiere difficulte est," says Leibnitz in the Theodicee, Partie 1.86, " comment Tame a pu etre infectee du peche originel, qui est la racine des p6eh63 actuels, sans qu'il y ait eu de I'injustice en Dieu a I'y exposer."
' From tradux, propagator. The author of this theory is Tertullian, De anima, c. 27 (Opera, ed. Fr. Oehler, tom. ii. p. 599 sqq.) : " Immo simul ambas [animam et corpus] et concipi ct confici et perfici dieimus, sicut et prorai, nee ullum intervenire momentum in conceptu quo locus ordinetur. . . . Igitur ex iino homine tota hffic aniraarum redundantia." Cap. 36 (p. 617): " Aninia in utero seminata pariter cum came paiiter cum ipsa sortitur." Comp. c. 19 (anima velut surculus quidara ex matrice Adam in propaginem dcducta) ; De resuiT. carnis, c. 45 ; Adv. Valentin. c. 25 (tradux aniinae). Witlj Tertullian this theory was connected with a materializing view of the soul.
' Jerome says of the maxima pars occidentalium, that they teach : " Ut quomodo corpus ex corpore, sic anima nascatur ex anima, et simili cum brutis animalibus conditione subsistat." Ep. 78 ad Marcell. Leo the Great declared it even *o be catholica fides, that every man " iu corporis ct animae substantiam formari intra materna viscera." Ep. 15 ad Turrib. Similarly among the Oriental fathers, Theodoret, Fab. hsEr. v. 9 : ^ (icK\7iaia toIj deiois inidotxivn \6yoti, — Ktyfi t^j* (^"X"!' rvvSrjfiiovpyi^obai r^ aufnari.