Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series I/Volume V/Concerning Man's Perfection in Righteousness/Chapter 14

(13.) The Thirteenth Breviate.

XIII. “The next question we have to ask,” says he, “is this: If man cannot be without sin, whose fault is it,—man&#8217;s own, or some one&#8217;s else? If man&#8217;s own, in what way is it his fault if he is not that which he is unable to be?” We reply, that it is man&#8217;s fault that he is not without sin on this account, because it has by man&#8217;s sole will come to pass that he has come into such a necessity as cannot be overcome by man&#8217;s sole will.