Chapter 3 (36): 1. If It Would Have Been Possible For That Man To Sin Or Not Be
48 | THE SENTENCES, BOOK 3
TRINITY, BOOK 13. For as Augustine says, "in those things which arise in time, that is the highest grace: that man is joined to God in the unity of person." And so God could take another soul and another flesh.And certainly he could have taken flesh other than from the stock of Adam.
Hence Augustine, in On the Trinity, book 13: "God could certainly have taken from elsewhere a human form in which to be the mediator of God and men, and not from the stock of that Adam who bound humankind by his sin, just as he did not create Adam from the stock of another when he first created him. And so he was able, either in a similar way, or in any other way that pleased him, to create another by whom the conqueror of the first man might be overcome. But he judged it better to take human form through which to conquer the enemy of humankind from the very stock which had been conquered; and yet to take it from a virgin, whose conceiving was preceded by the Spirit and faith, and not by flesh and lust. Nor was there present that concupiscence of the flesh by which others are conceived who contract original sin. Holy virginity was made fruitful by belief, not by conjugal intercourse."* From these words, it is openly shown that God could have taken another human form and from another stock.
Chapter 3 (36)
1. IF IT WOULD HAVE BEEN POSSIBLE FOR THAT MAN TO SIN OR NOT BE
Gop. And so, it is not undeservedly asked whether that man might have been able to sin, or not to be God. For if he could sin, then he could be damned; if he could be damned, he could not be God; and so, if he could sin, he could not be God, because to be God and to be able to will iniquity cannot exist together. | 2. RESPONSE. Here there is need to distinguish whether we are speaking of the person or of the nature. For if we are speaking of the person, it is manifest that he could not sin, nor was he able not to be God. But if we are concerned with the nature, then we must clarify whether we are speaking of it as united to the Word, or of it as if not united to the Word and yet a being; that is, whether of it according as it was united to the Word, or of it as according to its being able to be and yet not be united to the Word.
For it is not in doubt that that soul, being united to the Word, is not able to sin; and it is also true without doubt that the same soul, if it existed and was not united to the Word, would be able to sin.
'Augustine, De Trinitate, bk 13 c19 n24.
*Ibid., bk 13 c18 n23.
'Interlinear gloss, on Ps. 5, 5.