Via Patrum

On the Imputation of Adam's First Sin · §112

Cap. X: Adjungo alteram — Garissoles on why only Adam's blot runs

I add, he says, a second reason. For unless you take refuge in imputation, and in one that depends on God's will and just judgment, it is scarcely possible to give a suitable account why the blot of original sin has run from the beginning into all Adam's natural sons and is to keep flowing to the end of the age — or why the first parent's corruption descends by propagation into the whole offspring rather than the sins of the remaining parents, to whom we owe our birth no less than to Adam, and whom we even touch more nearly. For if it is nature's own law that the corrupt generate the corrupt, as lepers are generated from lepers, how is it that parents who foul themselves with varied sins do not always transmit those stains of their sins into their children? Why does disobedient Adam generate sons rebellious toward God and stubborn by nature, while idolatrous Ahaz does not generate a Hezekiah like himself? Or why do adulterers, drunkards, and robbers not always bring forth children plunging into the same vices? Or why is so ancient a vice propagated, while more recent ones — and ones that do not stand so far from us in time — are not? Or why, finally, is corruption sprouting from the first sin sown into posterity, while what could have been heaped up from Adam's following sins is not derived to later generations? Reject the doctrine of imputation, and the water will stick; turn wherever you will, you will not give a suitable reason for that difference. Set the doctrine of imputation, and you will have a sure cause of that diversity ready to hand. The discrimination proceeds from this: that God willed the first parent's guilt to pass to all by imputation, and did not will the guilt of other parents to be transmitted that way. Theologians acknowledge that as the true, solid, and unique cause of the matter, and so on.

Latin

Adjungo, inquit, alteram. Etenim nisi ad imputationem confugias, eamque a Dei voluntate, justoque judicio dependentem, vix est, ut idonea ratio reddi possit, quare labes originalis peccati in naturales omnes Adami filios ab initio decurrerit, & usque ad saeculi finem dimanatura sit: sive, quare corruptio primi parentis, propagatione descendat in totam sobolem, potius quam peccata reliquorum parentum, quibus ortum nostrum non minus quam Adamo debemus, imo quos propinquius attingimus. Nam si ea est ipsius naturae lex, ut corrupti corruptos generent, sicut leprosi generantur a leprosis, unde fit, ut parentes, qui peccatis variis sese commaculant, inquinamenta illa peccatorum suorum non semper transmittant in liberos? Cur Adamus inobediens filios generat rebelles Deo, & natura contumaces? Et Achas idololatra non generat Ezechiam sibi similem? Aut cur adulteri, ebriosi, praedones, non semper progignunt filios in eadem vitia praecipites? Aut cur vitium tam vetus propagetur, non propagantur recentiora, & quae tanto temporis spatio non distant a nobis? Aut cur denique corruptio ex primo peccato sobolescens seminatur, & quae ex sequentibus Adami peccatis cumulari potuit, non derivatur in posteros? Doctrinam imputationis rejice, haerebit aqua, nec, quoquo te vertas, idoneam redditurus es eius differentiae rationem. Doctrinam imputationis pone, erit tibi certa causa illius diversitatis prae manibus; Nimirum discrimen inde procedit, quod primi parentis culpam voluit Deus in omnes imputatione transire: aliorum parentum ita transmitti non voluit. Eam veram & solidam & unicam ejus rei causam agnoscunt Theologi &c.

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. 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.