On the Imputation of Adam's First Sin · §207

Man. Post. Cap. III: Laudo — Adam actuale & personale; Ezekiel; in ipso vs in nobis

I praise first what you wrote near the end of chapter 2: Adam's sin, the spring of every evil, was actual and PERSONAL in him, yet it infected nature; and all are infected by it because they come from him in nature's order, and so on. Tell me, please: if that sin was personal in Adam, by what right is the very same numerical act that was in him imputed to us all?

In chapter 1 you say God, in Ezekiel's words "the son shall not bear the father's iniquity," speaks only of outward, actual sins, and that such personal sins regard the person alone. Here you affirm Adam's sin was actual and personal. Who would not conclude that it therefore regarded Adam's person only, and that his children ought not to bear it?

What do those words "in him" mean either? Are they set against "in his posterity," or "in us"? In us Adam's sin is not personal; it is common to the whole human race (Christ alone excepted). In us it is nothing but that hereditary vice with which we are all born infected, and which is imputed to everyone unless Christ has forgiven it.

Latin

Laudo in primis quae scripsisti non procul a fine Cap. 2. peccatum illud Adami omnium malorum scaturigo, actuale & PERSONALE fuit in ipso, sed infecit naturam: & omnes homines eo inficiuntur, quia sunt ab eo secundum ordinem naturae &c. Dic mihi, amabo te, si peccatum illud personale fuit in Adamo, quo jure illud idem numero quod in Adamo fuit nobis omnibus imputetur? Tu Cap. 1. dicis Deum in verbis illis Ezechielis, filius non feret iniquitatem Patris, loqui tantum de peccatis externis & actualibus, & cum ejusmodi peccata sint personalia, personam tantum spectare. Jam autem tu affirmas hoc loco peccatum illud Adami fuisse actuale & personale. Quis non inde concludat ergo peccatum illud tantum Adami personam spectabat, nec illud ferre filii ejus debent? Quid sibi etiam volunt illa verba in ipso? opponuntur ne his in ejus posteris, vel in nobis? certe in nobis peccatum Adami non est personale, sed totius generis humani, (uno excepto Christo) commune: sed in nobis nihil aliud est quam haereditarium illud vitium, quo omnes infecti nascimur, quodque omnibus, nisi condonatum fuerit per Christum, imputatur.

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.