Fathers

On the Imputation of Adam's First Sin · §48

Cap. VII: Tertia ratio — certain inhering cause versus remote imputed cause

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Third reason. The place does not demand that it be so rendered: for since there is a certain cause why the Apostle said that death pervaded into all men, namely because all sinned (Romans 5:12), what need is there to flee to an uncertain and remote cause, and that against the natural force of the words? He answers four things: but because he had not perceived the force of the argument, he improvises (ἀποσχεδιάζει). The Apostle said that death pervaded into all men: the cause without doubt is because all sinned. But which sin ought to be understood is the question. Some want habitual sin inhering in all to be understood; others Adam's actual sin imputed to all in the order of nature before they are vicious. Habitual inhering sin propagated from Adam into all is a certain cause — that is, confessed by all the orthodox. For concerning that vice — that it exists and is a cause of death, being truly sin and truly making us liable to death — there is no controversy among us. That is confirmed by the common confession of faith in the clearest and most express words. But concerning Adam's actual sin — whether it is imputed before corruption, and whether that imputation is the cause why death has pervaded into all — the matter is not certain and liquid: for that is what is now controverted among us. Again, the vice inhering in each of us is a nearer cause of our death than Adam's first actual sin which is said to be imputed to us — not only earlier in the order of nature than we were corrupted, but even by some thousands of years before we began to be and to live. Therefore when those two causes are compared with each other, that is certain because not controverted, this uncertain because controverted; that is proximate in the same subject with its effect — that is, with death — this remote because in another subject, from us not only by the order of generating nature but also by time very remote, and between which and death a nearer cause is interposed, namely corruption. Now, I think, Reader, you yourself understand through yourself the learned man's aberrant responses. For since it is certain and in no way controverted among us that there inheres in all a sin that merits death and on account of which all die, why concerning that sin do we not take the Apostle's words in which the cause of the death of all men is contained — "all sinned"? Why, that sin being set aside as if it were none, do we flee to another imputed sin, which both is controverted and is remoter from that effect — especially when the Apostle's words and the situ of the words resist?

Latin

Tertia ratio. Locus non postulat ut ita vertatur: cum enim causa certa sit, cur Apostolus dixerit, mortem in omnes homines pervasisse, nempe quia omnes peccaverunt, quid opus est confugere ad causam incertam et remotam, idque contra verborum vim naturalem? Respondet quatuor: sed, quia vim argumenti non perceperat, ἀποσχεδιάζει. Dixit Apostolus, mortem in omnes homines pervasisse: causa sine dubio est quia omnes peccaverunt. Sed quod peccatum intelligi debeat quaeritur. Alii peccatum intelligi volunt habituale omnibus inhaerens, alii peccatum actuale Adami omnibus ordine naturae priusquam vitiosi sint imputatum. Peccatum habituale inhaerens ab Adamo in omnes propagatum causa est certa, hoc est, confessa ab omnibus orthodoxis. De eo enim vitio quin sit, et causa sit mortis; quippe vere peccatum, vere reos mortis nos efficiens, nulla est inter nos controversia. Id enim est communi confessione fidei verbis clarissimis et disertissimis confirmatum. De peccato vero actuali Adami, an ante corruptionem imputetur, et an illa imputatio sit causa cur in omnes mors pervaserit, res certa non est et liquida: id enim est quod nunc inter nos controvertitur. Rursus vitium unicuique nostrum inhaerens causa est mortis nostrae propinquior, quam primum Adami peccatum actuale, quod nobis imputatum dicitur, non modo prius ordine natura quam essemus corrupti, sed etiam aliquot annorum millibus antequam esse et vivere incepissemus. Itaque cum duae illae causae inter se conferuntur, illa est certa, quia non controversa, haec incerta, quia controversa: illa est proxima in eodem cum suo effectu, hoc est, morte, subjecto, haec remota, quia in alio subjecto, a nobis non modo natura generantis ordine, sed tempore etiam valde remota, ac inter quam et mortem interposita est causa propinquior, nimirum corruptio. Jam, opinor, Lector, aberrant viri docti responsiones ipse per te intelligis. Cum enim certum sit ac nullo modo inter nos controversum, omnibus inhaerere peccatum quod meretur mortem, et ob quod omnes moriuntur, cur de eo peccato verba Apostoli, quibus causa mortis omnium hominum continetur, omnes peccaverunt, non accipimus? Cur eo peccato, quasi nullum esset, insuper habito, confugimus ad aliud imputatum, quod et controvertitur, et ab illo effectu est remotius, praesertim verbis Apostoli et verborum situ repugnantibus?

About this text

Josue de la Place (Placeus) — Capita I–XIV partial of De imputatione primi peccati Adami from the 1661 Saumur Latin, through Man. Post. Caput X (GAR.1–3 Rom. 5.13 tip) / before PLAC on reatus-only. Honest partial; Cap. X Rom. 5:14+ / ~494 pp Disputatio remain.

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.