Chapter 48.—Original Sin Arose from Adam’s Depraved Will. Whence the Corrupt Will Sprang.

“If,” says he, “sin comes from the will, it is an evil will that causes sin; if it comes from nature, then nature is evil.” I at once answer, Sin does come from the will. Perhaps he wants to know, whether original sin also? I answer, most certainly original sin also. Because it, too, was engendered from the will of the first man; so that it both existed in him, and passed on to all. As for what he next proposes, “If it comes from nature, then nature is evil,” I request him to answer, if he can, to this effect: As it is manifest that all evil works spring from a corrupt will, like the fruits of a corrupt tree; so let him say whence arose the corrupt will itself—the corrupt tree which yields the corrupt fruits. If from an angel, what was the angel, but the good work of God? If from man, what was even he, but the good work of God? Nay, inasmuch as the corrupt will arose in the angel from an angel, and in man from man, what were both these, previous to the evil arising within them, but the good work of God, with a good and laudable nature? Behold, then, evil arises out of good; nor was there any other source, indeed, whence it could arise, but out of good. I call that will bad which no evil has preceded; no evil works, of course, since they only proceed from an evil will, as from a corrupt tree. Nevertheless, that the evil will arose out of good, could not be, because that good was made by the good God, but because it was created out of nothing—not out of God. What, therefore, becomes of his argument, “If nature is the work of God, it will never do for the work of the devil to permeate the work of God”? Did not the work of the devil, I ask, arise in a work of God, when it first arose in that angel who became the devil? Well, then, if evil, which was absolutely nowhere previously, could arise in a work of God, why could not evil, which had by this time found an existence somewhere, pervade the work of God; especially when the apostle uses the very expression in the passage, “And so death passed upon all men”?243    Rom. v. 12. Can it be that men are not the work of God? Sin, therefore, has passed upon all men—in other words, the devil’s work has penetrated the work of God; or putting the same meaning in another shape, The work done by a work of God has pervaded God’s work. And this is the reason why God alone has an unchangeable and almighty goodness: even before any evil came into existence He made all things good; and out of all the evils which have arisen in the good things which He has made, He works through all for good.

48. «Si peccatum,» inquit, «ex voluntate est, mala voluntas quae peccatum facit: si ex natura, mala natura.» Cito respondeo, Ex voluntate peccatum est. Quaerit forte, utrum et originale peccatum. Respondeo, Prorsus et originale peccatum: quia et hoc ex voluntate primi hominis seminatum est, ut et in illo esset, et in omnes transiret. Sed quod secutus adjunxit, «Si ex natura, mala natura:» quaero ab illo, ut, si potest, respondeat, Sicut manifestum est, ex voluntate mala tanquam ex arbore mala, fructus ejus fieri omnia opera mala; sic ipsam voluntatem malam, id est, ipsam fructuum malorum arborem malam unde dicat exortam. Si ex angelo; quid erat ipse angelus, nisi bonum opus Dei? Si ex homine; quid erat ipse homo, nisi bonum opus Dei? Imo quia voluntas mala angelo ex angelo , ex homine homini orta est; quid erant haec duo antequam in eis ista mala orirentur, nisi bonum opus Dei, et bona atque laudanda natura? Ecce ergo ex bono oritur malum, nec fuit omnino unde oriri posset, nisi ex bono: ipsam dico voluntatem malam, quam nullum praecessit malum; non opera mala, quae non sunt nisi ex voluntate mala, tanquam ex arbore mala. Nec ideo tamen ex bono potuit oriri voluntas mala quia bonum factum est a bono Deo; sed quia de nihilo factum est, non de Deo. Quid ergo est quod dicit, «Si natura opus est Dei, per opus Dei opus diaboli transire non sinitur?» Nonne opus diaboli, quando primum in angelo, qui diabolus factus est, ortum est, in opere Dei ortum est? Quapropter si malum quod omnino nusquam erat, in Dei opere oriri potuit; cur malum quod alicubi jam erat, per opus Dei transire non potuit, praesertim cum ipso verbo utatur Apostolus, dicens, Et ita in omnes homines pertransiit? Numquid homines non sunt opus Dei? Pertransiit ergo peccatum per homines, hoc est, opus diaboli per opus Dei: atque ut alio modo idipsum dicam, opus operis Dei per opus Dei . Et ideo Deus est solus immutabilis et potentissimae bonitatis: qui et antequam esset ullum malum, bona opera fecit omnia, et de malis quae in bonis ab eo factis orta sunt, bene operatur per omnia.