Having mentioned sin and death, the one as the only cause of the other, the guilt of sin of the punishment of death, — sin deserving nothing but death, and death being due unto nothing but sin, — he declares how all men iniiversally became liable unto this punishment, or guilty of death : 'Ep' o5 m-avrsc -/i/j^aprov, — "In quo omnes peccaverunt," — " In whom all have sinned." For it relates unto the one man that sinned, in whom all sinned: which is evident from the effect thereof, inasmuch as "in him all died," 1 Cor. xv. 22; or, as it is here, on his sin " death passed on all men." And this is the evident sense of
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the words, Jt/ being put for h, which is not unusual in the Scripturd See Matt. xv. 5; Rom. iv. 18, v. 2; Phil. i. 8; Heb. ix. 17. And it is often so used by the best writers in the Greek tongue. So Hesiod, Ms-pov 5' iTt iraaiv dpiarov, — " Modus in omnibus rebus optimus." So, 'Ep' vf/j7v hriv, — "Invobis situm est;"Touro e-r' sfMol xshai, — "Hoc in me situm est." And this reading of the words is contended for by Austin against the Pelagians, rejecting their " eo quod" or " propterea." But I shall not contend about the reading of the words. It is the artifice of our adversaries to persuade men, that the force of our argument to prove from hence the imputation of the sin of Adam unto his pos- terity, doth depend solely upon this interpretation of these words, s<p' (fj, by " in whom." We shall, therefore, grant them their desire, that they are better rendered by "eo quod," " propterea," or "quatenus," — " inasmuch," " because." Only, we must say that here is a reason given why " death passed on all men," inasmuch as " all have sin- ned,"— that is, in that sin whereby death entered into the world.
It is true, death, by virtue of the original constitution of the law, is due unto every sin, whenever it is committed. But the present inquiry is, how death passed at once on all men? how they came [to be] liable and obnoxious unto it upon its first entrance by the actual sin of Adam? — which cannot be by their own actual sin; yea, the apostle, in the next verses, ajffirms that death passed on them also who never sinned actually, or as Adam did, whose sin was actual. And if the actual sins of men, in imitation of Adam's sin, were in- tended, then should men be made liable to death before they had sinned ; for death, upon its first entrance into the world, passed on all men, before any one man had actually sinned but Adam only. But that men should be liable unto death, which is nothing but the punishment of sin, when they have not sinned, is an open contradiction. For although God, by his sovereign power, might inflict death on an innocent creature, yet that an innocent creature should be guilty of death is impossible: for to be guilty of death, is to have sinned. Wherefore this expression, " Inasmuch as all have sinned," expressing the desert and guilt of death then when sin and death first entered into the world, no sin can be intended in it but the sin of Adam, and our interest therein: "Eramus enim omnes ille unus homo;" and this can be no otherwise but by the imputa- tion of the guilt of that sin unto us. For the act of Adam not being ours inherently and subjectively, we cannot be concerned in its effect but by the imputation of its guilt; for the communication of that unto us which is not inherent in us, is that which we intend by im- putation.
This is the 'zporaaig of the intended collation; which I have insisted the longer on, because the apostle lays in it the foundation of all that
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he afterwards infers and asserts in the whole comparison. And here, some say, there is an avavrarroharov in his discourse ; that is, he layeth down the proposition on the part of Adam, but doth not show what answereth to it on the contrary in Christ. And Origen gives the reason of the silence of the apostle herein, — namely, lest what is to be said therein should be abused by any unto sloth and negligence. For whereas he says u^einp, " as " (which is a note of similitude) " by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin ;" so the ccjro- doeig, or reddition, should be, " so by one righteousness entered into the world, and life by righteousness."
^ This he acknowledgeth to be the genuine filling up of the com- parison, but was not expressed by the apostle, lest men should abuse it unto negligence or security, supposing that to be done already which should be done afterward. But as this plainly contradicts and everts most of what he farther asserts in the exposition of the place, so the apostle concealed not any truth upon such considerations. And as he plainly expresseth that which is here intimated, verse 19, so he shows how foohsh and wicked any such imaginations are, as suppose that any countenance is given hereby unto any to indulge themselves in their sins.