On the Imputation of Adam's First Sin · §52

Cap. VII: Remote cause — efficacy, blood-union, and intermediate parents

"Nor is it fair," he adds, "that we should say that cause is remote and far off, because here one must look not to spaces of years and ages, but to the efficacy of the thing." What? is an injustice that did not stick in me, but in Adam alone, dead some thousands of years before I existed, a cause equally immediate and proximate to me or to my death, as that which inheres in me most inwardly and is by the confession of all the cause of my death? Did not corruption also follow Adam's sin, and death this? corruption is therefore a nearer cause of death than the sin that stuck in Adam alone. "Nor indeed," he subjoins, "do those who say corruption is derived from Adam propose Adam on that account as a remote and distant cause of that corruption — namely, because there is for us with him a most near union by reason of blood, though not by reason of person." On the contrary they propose him as a remote and distant cause of that corruption — that is, the first, from which it flowed out to all others. Therefore that blood is here distinguished from person, and that by reason of the former, not of the latter, a most near union with Adam is said to be ours — that for my part I do not understand. For my blood differs from blood, and my nature from nature, as much as person from Adam's person: the difference of each alike is numerical, not specific. And as I drew my person, so also my nature, through all my intermediate parents from Adam. For Adam is our father not nearest but first; and I have received, or could receive, nothing from him except through my nearest parents.

Latin

Neque par est, addit, ut eam causam dicamus esse remotam et longinquam, quia hic non ad annorum et saeculorum spatia, sed ad rei efficacitatem respiciendum est. Quid? an injustitia, quae in me non haesit, sed in solo Adamo, tot annorum millibus antequam essem mortuo, causa est aeque immediata ac proxima mihi vel morti meae, ac illa quae in me haeret intime, et est omnium confessione mortis meae causa? Annon etiam peccatum Adami secuta est corruptio, et hanc mors? est igitur corruptio causa propinquior mortis quam peccatum quod in solo haesit Adamo. Neque vero, subjungit, qui corruptionem ab Adamo derivari dicunt, Adamum ideo proponunt, tanquam causam remotam et distantem corruptionis illius, nimirum, quia est nobis cum eo ratione sanguinis proxima unio, etsi non ratione personae. Immo eum proponunt, tanquam causam corruptionis illius remotam et distantem, hoc est, primam, unde ad alios omnes dimanavit. Itaque quod sanguis hic a persona distinguitur, et illius, non hujus, ratione nobis esse dicitur proxima cum Adamo unio, id equidem non intelligo. Tam enim sanguis meus a sanguine, et natura mea a natura, quam persona a persona Adami differt: differentia est utriusque pariter numerica, non specifica: Et quam personam meam, tam naturam etiam meam per omnes meos intermedios parentes ab Adamo traxi. Est enim Adamus pater noster non proximus, sed primus; nihilque ab eo nisi per proximos meos parentes, accepi, aut accipere potui.

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.