4. The doctrine in question contradicts the faith of the Clmrch Universal. A (Hstinction mnst be made between the i'nith of the Church and the s])ecuhitions (or even the doctrines) of theo- loirians. These are often divergent. The former is determined by tile Scriptures and the inward teacln'ngs of the Spirit; the hitter are greatly modified by the current philosophy of the age in which those theologians lived, and by the idiosyncrasies of their own minds. During the Middle Ages, for example, tlie speculations of the sclioohnen and the faith of tlie Church, had very little in com- mon. The faith of the Church is to be f )und in its creeds, prayers, and forms of devotion generally. In all these, through every age, the Church has shown that she regards all men as burdened witii original sin, as belonging to a polluted and guilty race, polluted and guilty from the first moment of existence. It cannot be said that the Church believed original sin to be due to the agency of each iiidividual man, or to the act of generic humanity. These are tliounhts foivign to the minds of common believers. The convic- tion therefore must liave existed in the Church always and every- where that guilt may be present which does not attach to the vol- untary agency of the guilty. Infiints have always been baptized for the remission of sin, and men have ever been regarded by the Church as born in sin.
5. The explanation given of the undeniable fact of innate pollu- tion and guilt, by those who admit the fact, and yet maintain that this original sin is referrible to our own agency, is altogether unsat- isfactory. That explanation is that we acted thousands of years before we existed, that is, that the substance which constitutes our individual souls, committed, in the person of Adam, the sin of dis- obeying God in paradise. This explanation of course presupposes the fact to be explained. The fact remains whatever becomes of the explanation. Men are born in a state of guilt and pollution. All that follows from the rejection of the explanation is, that sin may exist, which is not referrible to the voluntary agency of those in whom it inheres. This consequence is far easier of admission, in the judgment of the vast m^'ority of men, than the doctrine that we are personally chargeable with eating the forbidden fruit as our own act.
6. The Bible in everywhere teaching that men are born in sin, that they come into the world the children of wrath, does thereby teach that there can be, and that there is sin (pollution and guilt) which is inherited and derived, which is inherent and innate, and therefore not referrible to our own agency. As the Scriptures no
192 PART 11. Ch. Vm. — sin.
where teach that we actually sinned before we existed, they assert the fact which enters into the common faith of the Church, that guilt attaches to all sin however that sin originates.
§ 8. The Effects of Adam's Sin upon his Posterity.
That the sin of Adam injured not himself only but also all de- scending from him by ordinary generation, is part of the faith of tlie whole Christian world. The nature and extent of the evil thus entailed upon his race, and the ground or reason of the de- scendants of Adam, being involved in the evil consequences of his transgression, have ever been matter of diversity and discussion. As to both of these points the common Augustinian doctrine is briefly stated in the Symbols of our Church. According to our standards, " the sinfulness of that estate whereinto man fell consists in the guilt of Adam's first sin, the want of original righteousness, and the corruption of his whole nature, which is commonly called original sin, together with all actual transgressions which proceed from it." This corruption of nature is in the Confession of Faith declared to be " both in itself and in all motions thereof, truly and pr<)|terlv sin." And in virtue of this original corruption men are "utrt'rly indisposed, disabled, and made opposite to all good, and wholly inclined to all evil." As to the ground of these evils, we are taught that " the covenant being made with Adam not only for himself, but for his posterity, all mankind descending from him by ordinary genei-ation, sinned in him, and fell with him in his first transgression." Or, as it is expressed in the Confession, " Our first parents, being the root of all mankind, the guilt of their sin was imputed, and the same death in sin and corrupted nature were con- veved to all their posterity, descending from them by ordinary gen- eration."
In this view of the relation of mankind to Adam, and of the consequences of his apostasy, the three leading subjects included, are the imputation of Adam's first sin ; the corruption of nature derived from him ; and the inability of fallen man to any spiritual
good.
§ 9. Immediate Imputation.
It being admitted that the race of man participates in the evil consequences of the fall of our first parent, that fact is accounted for on different theories.
1. That which is adopted by Protestants generally, as well Lutherans as Reformed, and also by the great body of the Latin Church is, that in virtue of the union, federal and natural, between