ticate itself as true at the bar of enlightened reason. The objec- tion to Realism is, tliat it inverts this order. It assumes to con- trol Scripture, instead of being controlled by it. The Bible says we are condemned for Adam's sin. Realism denies this, and says no man is or can be condemned except for his own sin.
§ 13. Original Sin.
The effects of Adam's sin upon his posterity are declared in our standards to be, (1.) The guilt of his first sin. (2.) The loss of original righteousness. (3.) The corruption of our whole nature, wliich (i. g., which corruption), is commonly called original sin. Commonly, but not always. Not unfrequentlv by original sin is meant all the subjective evil consequences of the apostasy of our first parent, and it therefore includes all three of the particulars just mentioned. The National Synod of France, therefore, con- demned the doctrine of Placseus, because he made original sin to consist of inherent, hereditary depravity, to the exclusion of the guilt of Adam's first sin.
This inherent corruption in which all men since the fall are born, is properly called original sin, (1.) Because it is truly of the nature of sin. (2.) Because it flows from our first parents as the origin of our race. (3.) Because it is the origin of all other sins ; and (4.) Because it is in its nature distinguished from actual sins.
The Nature of Original Sin.
As to the nature of this hereditary corruption, although the faith of the Church Catholic, at least of the Latin, Lutheran, and Re- formed churches, has been, in all that is essential, uniform, yet diversity of opinion has prevailed among theologians. (1.) Ac- cording to many of the Greek fathers, and in later times, of the extreme Remonstrants or Arminians, it is a physical, rather than a moral evil. Adam's physical condition wss deteriorated by his apostasy, and that deteriorated natural constitution has descended to his posterity. (2.) According to others, concupiscence, or native corruption, is such an ascendency of man's sensuous, or ani- mal nature over his higher attributes of reason and conscience, as involves a great proneness to sin, but is not itself sinfid. Some of tiie Romish theologians distinctly avow this doctrine, and some Protestants, as we have seen, maintain that this is the symbolical doctrine of the Roman Church itself. The same view has been advocated by some divines of our own age and country. (3.) Oth- ers hold a doctrine nearly allied to that just mentioned. They
*228 PART n. Cii. VIII. — sm,
speak of inherent depravity; and admit tliat it is of tlie nature of a moral corruption, but nevertheless deny that it brings guilt upon the soul, until it is exercised, assented to, and cherished. (4.) The doctrine of the Reformed and Lutheran churches upon tliis sub- ject is thus presented in their authorized Confessions: —
The " Augsburg Confession." ^ " Docent quod post lai)sum Adse omnes homines, secundum naturam propagati, nascantur cum pec- cato, hoc est, sine metu Dei, sine fiducia erga Deum, et cum con- cu])iscentia."
'' Articuli Smalcaldici." '■^ " Peccatum h^reditarium tarn profunda et tetra est corruptio naturae, ut nullius hominis ratione intelligi possit, sed ex Scripturae patefactione agnoscenda, et credenda sit."
" Foi-mula Corcordise."^ " Credendum est ... . quod sit per oniniu totalis carentia, defectus sen privatio concreatas in Paradise justitiae originalis seu imaginis Dei, ad quam homo initio in veri- tate, saiictitate atque justitia creatus fuerat, et quod simul etiam sit impotentia et inaptitudo, dSwa/jta et stupiditas, qua homo ad omnia
divina sou s{)iritualia sit jjrorsus ineptus Prnsterea, quod
ptcratum oi'iginale in humana natura non tantummodo sit ejusmodi totalis carentia, seu defectus omnium bonorum in rebus spirituali- bus ad Deum pertinentibus : sed quod sit etiam, loco imaginis Dei ann"ssa3 in hominc, intima, pessima, profundissima (instar cujusdam abyssi), inscrutabilis et ineffabilis corruptio totius naturae et omnium viriuin, imj)rimis vero superiorum et principalium animce facultatum, in mente, intellectu, corde et voluntate."
" Constat Christianos non tantum actualia delicta . . . peccata esse agnoscere et definire debere, sed etiam . . . hsereditarium mor- bum . . . inijirimis pro horribili peccato, et quidem pro i)rincipio et capito omnium peccatorum (e quo reliquas transgressiones, tan- quam e radicc nascantur . . .) omnino habendum esse." ""^
" Confessio Helvetica II." ^ " Qualis (homo Adam) factus est a lapsu, tales sunt omnes, qui ex ipso prognati sunt, peccato inquam, morti, vnriisque obnoxii calamitatibus. Peccatum autem intelligi- mus es'ic nativam illam hominis corruptionem ex primis illis nostris parentibus in nos omnes derivatam vel propagatam, qua concu- pisceiUiis pravis immersi et a bono aversi, ad omne vero malum propensi, ))leni omni nequitia, diffidentia, contemptu et odio Dei, nihil boni ex nobis ipsis facere, imo ne cogitare quidem possumus."
" Confessio Gallicana." ^ " Credimus hoc vitium (ex propaga- tione manans) esse vere peccatum."
1 I. ii. 1; Hase, IJbri Sijmbolici, p. 9. 2 m. j. 3; j(,ui p. 317.
8 I. 10, 11 ; /(/ill. p. f)40, tlie second of that number.
< I. 5; J/>i(i. p. G40, (he first of tliat number.
6 vui. ; Niemeyer, Colltciio Confestionum, p. 477. «xi.; Jbid. p. 332.