Shedd maintains that sin can be predicated only — of the will, its states and acts, and only of such states of the will as are consequent upon its own previous un- biased self-determination. He does not, however, limit these responsible self-determinations to single volitions, in which the soul consciously chooses or refuses par- ticular objects—which is the superficial theory of “the | self-determining power of the will” held by the Armini- — ans—but he includes the profound original self-determina- tion of the whole inward being to evil instead of good, which antedates consciousness, which corrupted our moral nature, and which, by thus producing a corrupt nature, determined the character of all subsequent responsible moral action. Will, in this sense, by an act of self- determination to evil before consciousness, is the respon- sible guilty author of its own depravity. And this act was performed not by each one of us personally, but by our common nature, the entire genus homo, which existed as a whole in Adam. Adam he regards not as a mere receptacle, containing millions of individuals, but as the entire genus, as well as the first individual of the series into which it has been explicated. This genus has since, through Adam’s agency, become varied and manifold through its development by propagation into a series of individuals. The responsibility and guilt incurred by his apostasy, therefore, inheres necessarily in the entire nature, and is consequently propagated into, and made the personal attribute of, each individual of the series who has part with the common nature.
Although I object, for many serious reasons, to the realistic philosophy of Shedd, I believe it covers a doctrine of original sin perfectly orthodox. Any doc- trine, to be orthodox in the sense of the Reformed
FEDERAL HEADSHIP OF ADAM. 95
Churches, must include the two positions, (a) that the entire moral corruption of nature which characterizes every human soul from birth is a consequence of Adam’s act of apostasy; and (b) that it is a most just penal con- sequence of that sin, This, Shedd and all the advo- cates of his doctrine can affirm in the most literal sense, and with their whole heart. To the question wuy this great evil is brought upon all new-born souls, the answer they give is, that we, in virtue of our share in the com- mon nature, were really and numerically one with Adam, active co-agents with him in his great act of apostasy, and hence the depravity of nature in which they are born is the just punishment of our common sin. To the question How original sin is originated in the new-born soul, the answer is, that it follows by natural law from the development of the genus through genera- tion into a series of individuals.
It has within the last few years been affirmed that this realistic theory of our numerical physical oneness with Adam is an essential element of the doctrine of the Re- formed Churches as to the imputation of the guilt of his first sin to his descendants. We believe this to be utterly and transparently groundless.
(1.) The realistic philosophy did not prevail in the
schools during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries ;
CHAPTER VIL.
Realisni not the doctrine of the Re- formers.
and hence this mode of thought was as foreign to the -
general mental habits of men in that age as it is in this. It hence certainly follows that 2f this had been the doc- trine of the Reformers and their great successors, they would have explicitly stated and illustrated this point
in their writings, which it is notorious they have
not done.
(2.) The Church from the beginning has been divided on the question how the individual souls of men are pro- duced. Now the belief that souls as well as bodies are
i
CHAPTER Vit.
96 THE NATURE OF THE ATONEMENT.
produced ex traduce from their parents is consistent with — either the realistic view of our union with Adam or the - federal and representative view. President Edwards* and