The preceding is sufficient to establish the unanimous agreement of
Catholic and Protestant creeds and confessions in maintaining the
Augustinian theory of the depraved nature of all mankind consequent on the
sin of Adam, as it has been set forth in the preceding chapters.
CHAPTER VI. MODES OF MEETING DIFFICULTIES BY THEOLOGIANS.
Having presented the Augustinian theory, as it is set forth in both
Catholic and Protestant creeds, the next object will be to verify the
statements of the preceding chapters as to the _modes of meeting
difficulties_ adopted by theologians.
The first extract will show that Augustine taught that all men had a
common nature in Adam, so that his choosing to eat the forbidden fruit was
the act of each and all human minds which were existing in or with him at
that time. And thus that it was man and not God that caused our depravity
of nature.
The extract introduced to verify the above was written to St. Jerome, who
taught that all minds commenced their first existence at or near the birth
of each. This Augustine denied, and the passage shows not only that he
taught a common nature which was ruined in Adam, but also that all
unbaptized infants go to endless punishment for the sin thus committed in
Adam ages before they were born.
Augustine’s Mode.
“How can so many thousands of souls which leave the bodies of
unbaptized infants be with any equity condemned, if they were
newly created and introduced into these bodies for no previous
sins of their own, but by the mere will of him who created them to
animate these bodies, and foreknew that each of them, for no fault
of his own, would die unbaptized? Since, then, we can not say that
God either makes souls sinful by compulsion, or punishes them when
innocent, and yet _are obliged to confess that the souls of the
little ones are condemned if they die unbaptized_, I beseech you
tell me how can this opinion be defended, by which it is believed
that souls are not all derived from that one first man, but are
newly created for each particular body?”
Thus Augustine supposed that he escaped the charge of making God the
author of sin by teaching that God created all the souls of the race _in_
Adam, so that Adam’s sin ruined the nature of himself and his posterity
all at one stroke, while it made it right and just to send all unbaptized
infants to eternal misery.
The next extract is introduced to verify the statement made as to the
Princeton mode of making man the author of his own depraved nature. This
mode is the one adopted by most theologians of the Old School Presbyterian
church. It is thus set forth by Dr. Hodge, of Princeton, in his Commentary
on Romans:
Princeton Mode.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account