That is to say, every volition that tends to lessen the general happiness, is vicious or sinful, and every violation of God’s physical, social and moral laws, has this tendency. Thus the Bible definition of _sin_ is the one accepted by theologians—_i.e._, “_sin is the transgression of law_,” without reference to the question whether the law is known or not. _True virtue_ is voluntary obedience to law, and _sin_ is the voluntary transgression of law. These definitions then are a part of the Augustinian system as much as they are of the common‐sense system. The next point of the common‐sense system taught by theologians, is that our moral power to obey God—_i.e._, power to choose according to law instead of impulse—is proportioned to our knowledge of law, and the motives of fear, hope, love and gratitude, as they are employed by God and man. This doctrine is taught by all theologians, except those who hold that the sin of Adam so ruined the human mind, that there is no power of _any_ kind to obey God, except as he gives new capacities. No quotations will be given to establish this point, because, it is believed, that no one will question it. No quotations are needed to show that the Augustinian creeds and theologians agree with the common‐sense system, in teaching that the soul is immortal—that our destiny in a future state depends on our conduct in this life—that there is to be an eternal separation of the righteous and the wicked, whose immortality will be happy or miserable according to their characters. CHAPTER XXXII. AUGUSTINIAN CREEDS AND THEOLOGIANS CONTRADICT THE COMMON‐ SENSE SYSTEM, AND THUS, ALSO, CONTRADICT THEMSELVES. The preceding chapter shows the agreement of distinguished Augustinian theologians with the leading points of the common‐sense system. We next are to notice the particulars in which these theologians and the Augustinian creeds contradict the common‐sense system, and thus, also, contradict themselves. The grand point, which involves these contradictions, is the dogma that all mankind have a _depraved nature_ consequent on the sin of Adam, which makes it certain that every voluntary act of every human mind is “sin, and only sin,” until this depravity of nature is more or less rectified by the Spirit of God. The opposite of this is the common‐sense doctrine that all men have a _perfect nature_, created by God, which is unchanged and not in any way depraved by the sin of Adam. As involved in this common‐sense view, _true virtue_ consists in the _right action_ of a perfect nature, as it now is. In opposition, Augustinianism teaches that true virtue consists in the right action of a depraved nature _after_ it has been more or less renewed by the Spirit of God.