It is not necessary that the conscious motive to the act should be positively sinful, it may be only morally indifferent, because the absence of right affections and omissions of duty are sins.
Ability to fulfill the requirements of the law is not necessary to constitute the non-fulfilment sin. — See Chap. XVIII., question 25.
7. What appears from the history of the Fall to have been the precise nature of the first sin of Adam ?
It appears from the record (Gen. iii., 1-6) that the initial motives influencing our first parents, in their first transgression, were in themselves considered morally indifferent. These were, 1st, natural appetite for the attractive fruit. 2d. Natural de- sire for knowledge. 3d. The persuasive power of Satan upon Eve, including the known influence of a superior mind and will. 4th. The persuasive power of both Satan and Eve upon Adam. Their dreadful sin appears to have been essentially, 1st, unbelief, they virtually made God a liar. 2d. Deliberate disobedience, the}r set up their will as a law in place of his.
8. How far ivas God concerned in the occurrence of that sin ?
The inexplicable mystery of the origin of moral evil is two- fold.
1st. How could sin, the essence of which is want of conformity to God's will, find place in the creation and under the providen- tial administration of an infinitely wise, holy, and powerful God ! This we can not answer.
2d. How could the first sin originate in the will of a creature created with a holy disposition. — See next question.
This mystery, however, in both its parts concerns first and chiefly the apostacy of the Devil and his angels, which was the true origin of sin in the universe, and concerning the facts con-
236 sin.
ditioning which we are not informed. The apostacy of Adam evidently is dependent upon the other.
Concerning the relation sustained by God to the sin of Adam all we know is, 1st, God created Adam holy, with all natural powers necessary for accountable agency. 2d. He rightfully with- held from him, during his probation, any higher supernatural in- fluence necessary to render him infallible. 3d. He neither caused nor approved Adam's sin. 4th. He sovereignly decreed to per- mit him to sin, thus determining that he should sin as he did.
9. How is it conceivable that sin should originate in the will of a creature created with a positively holy disposition ?
The difficulty is to reconcile understandingly the fact that sin did so originate,
1st. With the known constitution of the human will. If the volitions are as the prevalent affections and desires, and if the affections and desires excited by outward occasions are good or evil, according to the permanent moral state of the will, how could a sinful volition originate in a holy will ?
2d. With universal experience. As it is impossible that a sinful desire or volition should originate in the holy will of God, or in the holy will of saints and angels, or that a truly holy affec- tion or volition should originate in the depraved wills of fallen men without supernatural regeneration (Luke vi., 43-45), how could a sinful volition originate in the holy will of Adam ?
That Adam was created with a holy yet fallible will, and that he did fall are facts established by divine testimony. We must believe them, although we can not rationally explain them. This is for us impossible, 1st, because there remains an inscrut- able element in the human will, adopt whichever theory of it we may.
2d. Because all our reasoning must be based upon conscious- ness, and no other man ever had in his consciousness the experi- ence of Adam. The origin of our sinful volitions is plain enough. But we lack some of the data necessary to explain his case.
In the way of approximation, however, we may observe, 1st, it is unsound to reason from the independent will of the infinite God to the dependent will of the creature.
2d. The infallibility of saints and angels is not inherent, but
ADAM'S si>-. 237
rlnraeed ■;: ya ::"::; :: Gol. They are nit in a
ilin, Adam "as — Lis will was fr-?e. but no: co?i- /?r?a
red will it man a nit iripitr b:Iv afec- an 1 v liti ms, l : ause the presence of a positiv dy b ly prin- ciple is necessary tc institute them holy. Ear. on the other 1: •-: .'." in :h ' 11 :: Adam many ] rluei-
morally indifferent, v. .either g: nl : 1
becoming sinful a" .It :f the cintril itAaaoa a'
the:: induA nee in way- tirliidden by : -a y., admiration and appetite for the unit, and lesire for ledge The sin commenced the moment that, under the lasion : Satan, these two motives wei 1: upon
a. a 1 thus all :w -1 :: 1 -: ime - ; reva- q the -a: toenail :- i:r God's
anthority. and fear : his ta:
4th A lam, although endowed with a holy disposition, was assaults of temptation, -sailed through the morally indifferent princi- superior intelligence and chai - whom, in the highest sense, the irigin it ail sin mast be
10. "■" -
1st. In the natural relation which Adam sustained to God as