FathersVia Patrum

On the Imputation of Adam's First Sin · §323

Man. Post. Cap. VI: PLAC corpus reatus / infants death — Confessio tip

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Finally, how do that imputed sin and native corruption make as it were one body of guilt, if the latter is properly the penalty of the former? For guilt precedes penalty; and the imputed sin that so makes us guilty that we are worthy of that corruption and eternal death—its guilt does not seem a halved guilt, but perfect and whole. And if they compose one body of guilt, either the Apostle in Romans 5 understood that whole guilt—and so we are condemned through Adam in another mode than we are justified through Christ, which the learned man everywhere denies—or he understood only half that guilt's part, which I think no one has said. The last question it seemed good to defer to its own place, which will soon occur. You go on asking: What reason, you say, can be assigned why little ones who have not yet sinned actually should die, whether in their mothers' womb, or in being born, or right after birth, unless this—that Adam's sin, through which death pervaded all men, is imputed to them? I ask on the contrary: what reason can be assigned why Adam's actual sin, committed so long before they began to be, should be imputed unto death to little ones who have not yet attained the use of reason? Meanwhile I satisfy your question: I assign the reason—the vice inherent in them from conception. I call as witness the Confession of Faith, Article XI.

Latin

Denique, quomodo imputatum illud peccatum & corruptio nativa faciunt unum veluti corpus reatus, si haec illius est poena proprie dicta? Antecedit enim reatus poenam; & qui adeo reos facit imputatum peccatum, ut simus illa corruptione & morte aeterna digni, eius reatus non dimidiatus videtur reatus, sed perfectus & integer. Quod si unum componunt corpus reatus, vel eum reatum integrum intellexit Apostolus Rom. 5. atque ita alio modo condemnamur per Adamum, quam justificamur per Christum, quod passim negat vir doctus, vel intellexit dimidiam tantum illius reatus partem, id quod, opinor, nemo dixerit. Ultimam quaestionem visum est differre in suum, qui mox occurret, proprium locum. Pergis quaerendo; Quae enim, inquis, ratio assignari potest, cur parvuli, qui nondum peccarunt actualiter, moriantur, vel in utero matrum, vel nascendo, vel statim post nativitatem, nisi haec, quod peccatum Adami, per quod mors pervasit in omnes homines, illis imputetur? Ego contra quaero, qua ratio assignari possit, cur parvulis peccatum actuale Adami, tanto antequam esse inciperent admissum, nondum usum rationis assecutis imputetur ad mortem? Interim tuae quaestioni satisfacio: assigno rationem, vitium illis inhaerens a conceptione. Testem laudo Confessionem Fidei Art. XI.

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.