Against these, the expressions of Hilary’s usual opinion, must be set others in which he anticipates the language of St. Augustine in the Pelagian controversy. But certain deductions must be made, before we can rightly judge the weight of his testimony on the side of original sin. Passages where he is merely amplifying the words of Scripture must be excluded, as also those which are obviously exhibitions of unguarded rhetoric. For instance such words as these, ‘Ever since the sin and unbelief of our first parent, we of later generations have had sin for the father of our body and unbelief for the mother of our soul Ib. x. 23.,’ contradicting as they do Hilary’s well-known theory of the origin of the soul, cannot be regarded as giving his deliberate belief concerning sin. Again, we must be careful not to interpret strong language concerning the body (e.g. Tr. in Ps. cxviii, Caph, 5 fin.), as though it referred to our whole complex manhood. But after all deductions a good deal of strong Augustinianism remains. In the person of Adam God created all mankind, and all are implicated in his downfall, which was not only the beginning of evil but is a continuous power Trin. iv. 21; Tr. in Ps. lxvi. 2; Comm. in Matt. xviii. 6.. Not only as a matter of experience, is no man sinless, but no man can, by any possibility, be free from sin Tr. in Ps. cxviii., He, 16.. Because of the sin of one sentence is passed upon all Tr. in Ps. lix. 4 in.; the sentence of slavery which is so deep a degradation that the victim of sin forfeits even the name of man Ib. cxlii. 6, cxviii., Iod, 2. In regard to the latter passage we must remember once more what importance Hilary attaches to names.. But Hilary not only states the doctrine; he approaches very nearly, on rare occasions, to the term ‘original sin Comm. in Matt. x. 24, originis nostræ peccata; Tr. in Ps. cxviii, Tau, 6, scit sub peccati origine et sub peccati lege se esse natum. Other passages must be cited from quotations in St. Augustine, but Förster, p. 676, has given reason for doubting Hilary’s authorship..’ It follows that nothing less than a regeneration, the free gift of God, will avail E.g. Comm. in Matt. x. 24.; and the grace by which the Christian must be maintained is also His spontaneous and unconditional gift. Faith, knowledge, Christian life, all have their origin and their maintenance from Him Tr. in Ps. cxviii., Vau, 4, Lamed, 1; cf. Nun, 20.. Such is a brief statement of Hilary’s position as a forerunner of St. Augustine. The passages cited are scattered over his writings, from the earliest to the latest, and there is no sign that the more modern view was gaining ground in his mind as his judgment ripened. He had no occasion to face the question, and was content to say whatever seemed obviously to arise from the words under discussion, or to be most profitable to his audience. His Augustinianism, if it may be called so, is but one of many instances of originality, a thought thrown out but not developed. It is a symptom of revolt against the inadequate views of older theologians; but it had more influence upon the mind of his great successor than upon his own. Dealing, as he did, with the subject in hortatory writings, hardly at all, and only incidentally, in his formal treatise on the Trinity, he preferred to regard it as a matter of morals rather than of doctrine. And the dignity of man, impressed upon him by the great Alexandrians, seemed to demand for humanity the fullest liberty.