To Florus 2.144

You write: ‘He said “all” come through Adam to condemnation and “all” through Jesus Christ to justification of life. Certainly Christ does not transfer to life all those who die in Adam. He said “all” in both places because, just as no one comes to death without Adam, so no one comes to life without Christ. It is like what we say about a teacher of letters if he is the only one in a town: “This man teaches everyone here their letters.” Not everyone learns, but no one learns except from him. Those he had called “all” he afterward called “many,” yet signified the same people by “all” and “many”: “For just as through one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so through one man’s obedience many will be made righteous” (Romans 5:19). Let him still ask through what sin is found in an infant. The holy pages answer him: “Through one man sin entered the world”’ (Romans 5:12; Augustine, Marriage and Desire 2.46–47). We indeed confess that the apostle’s pages are holy, for this reason alone: in agreement with reason, devotion, and faith, they teach us to believe in God’s inviolable justice, to defend his works as good and honorable, and to maintain the moderation, wisdom, and justice of his commands.