unwilling to decide the question either way. The Lutherans have generally held the doctrine of Traduc- tion, and the Reformed almost universally have main-
tained Creationism.
3. The great majority of the Reformed theologians, since they maintain that each soul is a new and imme- diate product of creation, have consequently held (a) that the only penalty inflicted by God on the new-created soul, as the wmmediate punishment of Adam’s public sin, is privative, the penal withholding of those spiritual influences upon which the moral and spiritual life of the creature depends. (6) That (as has been always held from Augustine to Edwards) sin am its origin* is not a positive entity concreated in the soul, but a privative vice, resulting necessarily from the creation of the soul into a
* Edwards on Original Sin, part iv., chap. i.
Fe Oe Re NN ie TORN eg, SE rs aN |
FEDERAL HEADSHIP ‘OF ADAM. 109
condition of justly incurred condemnation and alienation cuarzer from God. Their common declaration was, that innate ~“ corruption of nature is propagated neque per corpus, neque per animam, sed per culpam—not through the generation either of the body or of the mind, but as a righteous punishment for crime. Ursinus, in his Expli- eation of the Heidelberg Catechism, of which he was the principal author, says: “Original sin is communi- cated neither through the body nor through the soul, but through the guilt of parents; on account of which God, while he creates souls, at the same time deprives them of that original righteousness and of those gifts which he had conferred upon the parents upon this condition, that they should confer them or forfeit them for their pos- terity just as they retained or lost them for themselves.” The Reformed doctrine therefore is, that corruption of nature is the penal consequent of Adam’s sin; and that it is propagated, not on the physiological principles upon which it is the glory of the disciples of Placeeus and of the New England Theology to rely, but by the penal deprivation of the new-born soul of those influences of the Holy Spirit upon which its moral life depends.
We believe that the doctrine thus stated is substan- tiated by the following considerations :—
1. This doctrine of the Federal Representation of Adam, instead of adding anything either of mystery or of apparent severity to the undeniable facts of God’s providential dealing with the human race, is, as I have shown by comparison, more rational than any other ex- planation of these facts ever suggested by the ingenuity of man. On the hypothesis that a race of moral agents, united to an animal organization and propagated through it in successive generations, as man is, was to be created, the conceivable alternatives are—either (a) that a proba- tionary trial, such as it appears God imposes upon all
110 THK NATURE OF THE ATONEMENT.
cuarrer moral agents.as the condition of their being confirmed “in indefeasible holiness and blessedness, should in their case be absolutely forborne, and they be endowed with the highest graces without passing through the condi- tions required of all other holy creatures; or (b) that each infant should stand his own trial severally as he struggles through twilight development of his corporeal and mental nature; or (c) the probation of the entire race must be held in the person of its holy adult pro- genitor, in the fresh vigour of his perfect manhood, sur- rounded with the purity of the new-born earth. Of the propriety of the first alternative, we are utterly unable to judge. The execution of the second alternative would have certainly involved the whole race in certain ruin. It is certain, on the other hand, that the third alterna- tive was the one actually chosen by God, as the infinitely wise and benevolent, as well as righteous, Guardian of the interests of all rational spirits created in his likeness, for the benefit of the race in this case concerned. If Adam had succeeded, and we had received the excellent graces conditioned on that success, no human being would have ever doubted the surpassing wisdom and justice of the entire constitution.
2. The Biblical record unquestionably represents Adam as sustaining a public and representative position. (a.) He was named ADAM—that is, man, the man, the generic man. (6.) Everything that was commanded, or threat- ened, or promised him, related to his descendants as much as to himself personally. Thus “obedience,” ‘a cursed earth,” ‘liability to death,’ “ painful child-bear- ing,” concern us and our families as much as they con- cerned him. The Protevangelion, or promise of redemp- tion through the Seed of the woman, which was given to our first parents in immediate connection with their fall, of course is a gospel for us as well as for the original parties.
FEDERAL HEADSHIP OF ADAM. Te