On the Imputation of Adam's First Sin · §189

Man. Post. Cap. II §XIX: Placeus — Matt 23 / Luke 11 / Calvin on Abel cognatio

As for the complaint that Scripture nowhere uses 'imputation of sin' in this sense: that need not unsettle us. The wording 'impute / be imputed' of sin is scarce in Scripture, and may never appear except with a negation. Kind Reader, look instead at the equivalent phrasing our Lord Jesus Christ himself used (Matthew 23:34): he sends prophets, wise men, and scribes; some will be killed and crucified, some scourged in the synagogues and hunted from city to city, so that all the righteous blood shed on earth comes upon that generation—from righteous Abel to Zechariah son of Barachiah, murdered between temple and altar. Luke puts the same point (Luke 11:50): that generation must answer for every prophet's blood shed since the world's foundation. Those words plainly signify sin's imputation. Calvin comments: Abel was not slain by the Jews, yet Christ charges them with his death because a kinship of impiety bound them to Cain. The vice that sticks in us does more still—it sets between us and sinning Adam not a loose kinship of sin but blood-relation. Our inhering vice is Adam's sin under the form of habit poured into us, like plague or poison by natural contagion. Why then may it not be said to be imputed to us for that vice's sake? Ask whether the learned man is striking at me here—or at the Lord himself.

Latin

Caeterum quod ait in Scriptura nullibi ostendi posse imputationem peccati eo sensu usurpatam, conturbare nos non debet: nam phrasis imputare vel imputari peccatum admodum rara est in Scriptura, nec forte nisi cum negatione adjuncta uspiam occurrit. Considera autem, humanissime Lector, quo sensu phrasis aequipollens ab ipso Domino nostro Jesu Christo usurpata fuerit Matth. 23.34. Propterea ecce ego mitto ad vos Prophetas & sapientes, & scribas, & ex ipsis quosdam trucidabitis & crucifigetis, & ex ipsis aliquos flagellabitis in Synagogis vestris, & persequemini ex urbe in urbem, ut veniat super vos omnis sanguis justus effusus super terram, a sanguine Abel justi usque ad sanguinem Zachariae filii Barachiae, quem occidistis inter templum & altare: hoc est, exponente Luca cap. XI. 50. ut a gente ista requiratur sanguis omnium Prophetarum effusus a jacto mundi fundamento. Quin enim illis verbis significata fuerit imputatio peccati negari nequit. Itaque sic in verba illa commentatus est Calvinus, Tametsi Abel non a Judaeis occisus est, ejus tamen necem ipsis imputat Christus, quia inter ipsos & Cain quaedam erat impietatis cognatio. Facit autem vitiositas inhaerens, ut nobis cum Adamo peccante non qualiscunque cognatio peccati, sed consanguinitas intersit. Imo vitium nostrum inhaerens nihil aliud est quam peccatum Adami secundum habitum in nos propagatum, vel instar pestis aut veneni naturali contagio diffusum. Quid est igitur, cur ob illud vitium nobis imputari dici non possit? Vide ergo, Lector, an me potius hoc loco quam ipsum Dominum, Vir Doctus impugnet.

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.