On the Imputation of Adam's First Sin · §117

Cap. X: Justice, conjunction, unknown covenant — stop before Theologorum

Someone may say justice itself required God to will the imputation of that first sin rather than of other sins. Then why, I ask, was that cause never produced? Why call God's will the unique cause of the matter? And how — while we for now only answer — will anyone prove that justice required it? Flee to our conjunction with Adam, and was that bond stronger at his first sin than later, or stronger with him than with parents nearer to us? Flee to some unknown covenant whose terms were that, if he sinned, his first sin would be charged to all his posterity under those two penalties — inherent sin and eternal death — and that covenant must be proved from Scripture, which cannot be done at all. Above all we must beware of ascribing to God anything Scripture does not give Him, especially anything that clouds His virtues; for that cannot fail to be a grave sin.

Latin

Sed fortasse exigebat justitia, ut Deus vellet primum illud peccatum imputare potius quam alia peccata? Cur ergo, inquam, hanc causam non attulit? cur dixit illius rei unicam esse causam, Dei voluntatem? Aut quomodo probabitur (nos enim nunc quidem respondentium partes tuemur) id justitiam exegisse? Si confugias ad conjunctionem quae nobis cum Adamo intercedit, ea ne major fuit cum primum peccaret quam postea, aut cum eo, quam cum propinquioribus nostris parentibus? Si ad nescio quoddam foedus, cujus haec fuerit conditio, ut si peccaret, primum eius peccatum omnibus eius posteris ad duas istas poenas imputaretur, peccatum inhaerens & mortem aeternam, probandum erit illud foedus e Scriptura; id quod est prorsus impossibile. Cavendum est autem nobis quam diligentissime ne quid praeter Scripturam Deo tribuamus, praesertim ejusmodi, quod virtutes eius obscuret; id enim non potest non grave peccatum esse.

About this text

New English, free to read. Open any section below.

English follows the locked 1661 Saumur Latin of Capita I–XIV partial through Man. Post. Caput IX (eph-ho / eph-ho pantes) before eph-ho / eph-ho pantes, reconstructed from IA PDF page images with Vision OCR and pdftotext as check. No modern English was copied. Cap. IX deepen+ remain.

Catalogue & scope

IA deimputationepri00lapl. Densify: Capita I–XII + Caput XIV + Man. Post. Cap. II–VI through Cap. X Rom. 5:14 tip. Not whole Disputatio; Cap. X Rom. 5:14+ / ~494 pp Disputatio remain.

Witnesses

This is an AI-assisted study translation. Source fidelity and completeness have not been independently certified. Open Latin on each section (or the Latin source witness link) for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.