The sublime instructor of the Church weighed what he ought to say for himself: 'Through one man,' he says, 'sin entered into the world, and through sin death; and so it passed through into all men.' He had now named death and sin; what need was there that, in that which he said passed through, he should separate death from the fellowship of sin, so as pointedly to show that into this world indeed sin entered through one man, and through sin death; but into all men not sin passed over, but death—death, namely, inflicted by the severity of judgment, the avenger of transgression, pursuing not the seeds of bodies, but the vices of conduct—unless because he took care to commend and to fortify it beforehand, lest he should be thought to have lent any support to your doctrine? Augustine:
In that passage indeed, where it is said: 'Through one man sin entered into the world, and through sin death; and so it passed through into all men,' whether sin, or death, or both are said to have passed through into all men, seems ambiguous; but which of these it is, the thing itself so plainly demonstrates. For if sin had not passed through, not every man would be born with the law of sin which is in the members; if death had not passed through, not all men, as far as pertains to this condition of mortals, would die. But as to what the Apostle says: 'In whom all sinned'; 'in whom' is understood as nothing but 'in Adam,' in whom he says they also die; because it was not just that punishment should pass over without guilt.
Whithersoever you turn, in no way will you overthrow the foundations of the catholic faith; especially since you also contradict yourself, who now say that not sin but death passed over; whereas above you said that the Apostle therefore urged not two men but one, that he might teach sin to have passed over by imitation, not by generation. Sin therefore passed over together with death; what is it that you now say, that not sin but death passed over? How great a distance there is between you and Paul. 64. Julian: Consider, then, how great a distance there is between you and Paul. He says: 'Through one man'; you: 'Through two,' that is, through generation. He declares that in the first man there were both sin and death, but that to posterity death alone passed over;
you, on the contrary, assert that both sin and destruction ran on to all. Augustine: It has already been answered: let those who wish reread what we have said above, lest we superfluously repeat the same things over and over again. Shamelessly you lurk under the shadow of Paul. 65. Julian: Shamelessly, then, you lurk under the shadow of his name, since you say things too diverse and contrary. For he indicts the work of men, you the work of God; he the pursuits of the wicked, you the innocence and life of the newborn; he the will of men, you nature. Augustine: To all these things answer has been made above; whence he now derides you who remembers it; but he who does not remember, if he rereads those things, will surely, when he has derided these vain sayings of yours, grieve for you. Eternal death entered into the world with sin. 66. Julian:
Therefore, according to the Apostle, through one man sin entered into this world, and through sin death, since the world beheld him both guilty and destined to the condemnation of perpetual death. But into all men death passed through, because one form of judgment comprehended the transgressors of every remaining age as well; which death, nevertheless, is not permitted to rage against any saints or any innocent ones, but invades those whom it has seen to have emulated transgression. Augustine: You say this which was objected to your heresiarch Pelagius in the episcopal judgment in Palestine, namely that Adam was so made that, whether he sinned or did not sin, he would die. For this death, by which we all die, of which it is said:
'From a woman was made the beginning of sin, and on account of her we all die,' you are unwilling to have made its transit into all originally from sin, lest you be compelled to confess that sin too passed over originally at the same time; for you perceive how unjust it is that punishment should pass over without desert. Nevertheless, so catholic is that which you strive to assail, that unless he to whom, as I said, it was objected had condemned it, he would surely have gone forth condemned from that judgment. Therefore both this death, by which the spirit is separated from the body, and that which is called the second, by which the spirit shall be tormented together with the body, as far as pertains to the desert of the human race, passed through into all men;
but the grace of God, through Him who came that by dying He might take away the kingdom of death, by that resurrection whose example went before in Him, did not suffer death to reign. This the catholic faith holds, this the judges hold whom Pelagius dreaded, this the heretics do not hold whom Pelagius sowed.