ORIGINS 27 



have denounced the spiritual view that it is of 

 the moral nature. Pelagius is quoted by Augustin 

 as saying : ' * Everything good and everything evil 

 on account of which we are either laudable or 

 blameworthy, is not born with us but is done by 

 us : for we are born not fully developed, but with 

 a capacity for either conduct; and we are pro- 

 created as without virtue, so also without vice; 

 and previous to the action of our own proper will, 

 that alone is man which God has formed." (do. 

 241.) The other statement for which both of 

 these men were condemned and which, it was as- 

 sumed, was identical in import, is far from being 

 so; it was, " Adam's sin injured only himself, and 

 not the human race." The word "injure" is too 

 physical a term to cover the transmission of such 

 a spiritual fact as the guilt of sin. Again, Augus- 

 tin says ("Original Sin," 45): "A regenerate 

 man does not regenerate, but generates sons ac- 

 cording to the flesh; and thus he transmits to 

 his posterity not the condition of the regenerated 

 but only of the generated." This play upon 

 words, without any pretense of estimating the re- 

 alities behind the words, has held the Church in 

 bondage to the doctrine of the unregenerated con- 

 dition of children at birth for fourteen hundred 

 years. It sounds like holy foolery that the prac- 

 tices of parents and Churches in child-training 

 during all these centuries should be based upon 

 word-plays without meaning. What possible 

 meaning could the word regenerate have in ap- 



