Johannes Marck’s Marrow of Christian Theology, Didactic-Elenctic XV

CHAPTER XV

Of the Sin of Men

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I. The next state is the state of fall, nature, and misery; to it belongs a twofold evil, of sin and of punishment: Rom. 3:23, πάντες γὰρ ἥμαρτον καὶ ὑστεροῦνται τῆς δόξης τοῦ Θεοῦ [for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God]; Rom. 5:12, “by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin”; Rom. 8:2, “for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.”

II. Sin, named with various emphatic Hebrew and Greek names, especially חטאת / ἁμαρτία [sin, missing the mark, aberration], and ἀνομία [lawlessness], and unrighteousness, is not taken here metonymically for punishment, as perhaps in Gen. 4:13, “mine iniquity is greater—

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—than I can bear,” etc.; nor for sacrifice: Lev. 5; 2 Cor. 5:21, “Him who knew no sin He made sin for us,” ὑπὲρ ἡμῶν ἁμαρτίαν ἐποίησεν [He made Him sin for us], etc.; but for the transgression of the law itself, formally considered.

III. It is defined as: man’s defection from the prescription of the divine law, wisely permitted by God for the demonstration of His glory, at once subjecting man to the guilt of death and depriving him of due comeliness.

IV. From the genus of defection, it is clear that sin is not something positive; for then it would be something good and from God Himself, since every reality necessarily has its origin from God. Nor is it something merely negative, because of its various degrees and its most just punishment. Rather, it is something privative, or the negation of required perfection.

V. Sin is defection from the divine law: 1 John 3:4, καὶ ἡ ἁμαρτία ἐστὶν ἡ ἀνομία [and sin is lawlessness]; Rom. 3:20, διὰ γὰρ νόμου ἐπίγνωσις ἁμαρτίας [for by the law is the knowledge of sin]; Rom. 4:15, οὗ γὰρ οὐκ ἔστιν νόμος, οὐδὲ παράβασις [for where no law is, there is no transgression], etc. This remains so, although injury is often done to one’s neighbor in it, order is disturbed, and the commands of superiors are despised. But simply speaking, present knowledge of the law, or a full motion of the will, is not required, as the Pelagians wish, although these aggravate sin.

VI. Sin belongs to man chiefly with respect to the soul, but also with respect to the body. It does not belong to irrational creatures, though evil often falls upon them as man’s punishment: Rom. 8:20, τῇ γὰρ ματαιότητι ἡ κτίσις ὑπετάγη, οὐχ ἑκοῦσα, ἀλλὰ διὰ τὸν ὑποτάξαντα [for the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of Him who hath subjected it], etc.

VII. The guilt of sin must also be attributed to man himself, together with Satan and the world; yet many good things draw it out only occasionally, as accidental causes—

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—even the law of God itself: Rom. 7:9–11, ἐλθούσης δὲ τῆς ἐντολῆς ἡ ἁμαρτία ἀνέζησεν, ἐγὼ δὲ ἀπέθανον· καὶ εὑρέθη μοι ἡ ἐντολὴ ἡ εἰς ζωὴν, αὕτη εἰς θάνατον [when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died; and the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death], etc. But in no way ought God to be made the cause of sin, though He truly decrees to permit it, and also efficaciously permits it.

VIII. From sin there immediately flows:

1. Guilt, or the sinner’s subjection to the penalty appointed by God: Rom. 3:19; James 2:10, “whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point,” γέγονε πάντων ἔνοχος [he is guilty of all], etc. This is rightly divided by our theologians into potential and actual guilt; but wrongly by the Papists into guilt of fault and guilt of punishment, since every punishment is founded solely in fault.

2. Stain, or the foulness of the creature and of his actions, by which dissimilitude from God and an opposite likeness to the devil is introduced: compare Rom. 3:23, “all have sinned,” καὶ ὑστεροῦνται τῆς δόξης τοῦ Θεοῦ [and come short of the glory of God]; John 8:44, “ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do,” etc.

IX. Sin is either first sin, or sin derived from the first. The first is defined as: the sin voluntarily committed by our first parents at Satan’s persuasion in the serpent, by which they violated the positive law given to them, and in it the whole moral law, by a motion of unbelief, pride, and gluttony; and subjected themselves, and at the same time all their posterity, to the divine curse.

X. This wickedness was committed by Adam and Eve, although he was not first, nor immediately, seduced by the serpent, but by the active seduction of his wife: 1 Tim. 2:14, καὶ Ἀδὰμ οὐκ ἠπατήθη, ἡ δὲ γυνὴ—

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—ἐξαπατηθεῖσα ἐν παραβάσει γέγονε [and Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression]; and Adam is set forth as the one author of propagated sin because of the covenant entered into with him: Rom. 5:12–19, “as by one man sin entered into the world,” etc.; “by the disobedience of one man many were made sinners.” Yet both sinned most grievously: Eve, insofar as she went before and moved the man; and Adam, insofar as he was the head of the woman, and the one with whom the covenant had been immediately erected.

XI. The cause of the defection in these persons was the voluntary determination of their own free choice: Eccles. 7:29, “they have sought out many inventions”; Hos. 6:7, “they, like Adam, have transgressed the covenant; there have they dealt treacherously against Me,” etc.; since man was free and could stand, and Satan only persuaded, while God seriously forbade. But from God’s decree, and from the denial of grace by which man would actually have stood, and consequently from the just withdrawal of former grace, nothing else follows than the certain perpetration of sin, which does not remove willingness.

XII. Yet the serpent persuaded the defection: a true serpent, since he is reckoned among the animals, but not a mere serpent, since he was possessed by the devil, as is clear from his speech, and from murder and lying being attributed to the devil: John 8:44, ἐκεῖνος ἀνθρωποκτόνος ἦν ἀπ᾽ ἀρχῆς, καὶ ἐν τῇ ἀληθείᾳ οὐκ ἔστηκεν [he was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth]; 2 Cor. 11:3, φοβοῦμαι δὲ μή πως, ὡς ὁ ὄφις ἐξηπάτησεν ἐν τῇ πανουργίᾳ αὐτοῦ, οὕτω φθαρῇ τὰ νοήματα ὑμῶν ἀπὸ τῆς ἁπλότητος τῆς εἰς τὸν Χριστόν [I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ].

XIII. In this temptation the following must be observed:

1. Satan assumed the form of a pleasing beast.

2. He attacked the woman alone.

3. Soon after creation.

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4. He persuaded to a lighter evil.

5. He first asked a question; then he led her to unbelief against the threats; from there he drove her, by hope of a greater good, to pride; and finally he quite plainly attributed envy to God. Some today vainly deny this last point, contrary to Moses’ express words, as though this would have been too crude for man; yet as soon as man gave heed to the temptation, he was destitute of the light of heavenly wisdom.

XIV. Eve, having been seduced, moved her husband to sin from a good affection, God restraining the eyes of both for a time, so that they would not know their misery. Therefore it is foolish to think that Adam fell from excessive affection toward his wife, knowingly and willingly, without any seduction; nor would that lessen his fault in the least.

XV. As the external act of sin was the eating of the forbidden fruit, so the internal act was unbelief against the threatening, pride and an inordinate affectation of a greater likeness with God, and finally gluttony, an excessive desire. These three seem, though almost simultaneous, to have followed one another in that order, according to the thread of the temptation. Yet the Papists wish pride to have preceded, relying on certain vain reasons, and on Paul’s passage: Rom. 5:19, διὰ τῆς παρακοῆς τοῦ ἑνὸς ἀνθρώπου [by the disobedience of one man], etc.; although by the name “disobedience” Paul does not mean the first internal act, but the whole wickedness committed.

XVI. This wickedness was grave, as committed against God, in a light matter, by an upright man, including the violation of the whole moral law, in a most abundant place—

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—and soon after creation: John 8:44, “he was a murderer from the beginning,” ἀπ᾽ ἀρχῆς [from the beginning], etc. Yet the precise day of the fall is not certain; nor should it by any means be set on the sixth day itself, since on that day all things were still very good: Gen. 1:31.

Objection 1. The devil sinned from the beginning: John 8:44.

Reply: That beginning must be understood with some breadth.

Objection 2. Adam did not remain in honor, from Ps. 49:13.

Reply: There the subject is men powerful in the world, and only stable duration is denied to them.

XVII. To the curse that followed this sin, these things in Moses pertain:

1. The shameful recognition of nakedness: Gen. 3:7.

2. Man’s terror at the voice of God: Gen. 3:8, 10.

3. The sentence pronounced: first against the serpent, verses 14–15, that is, both that animal and plainly the devil hidden beneath it: “because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life; and I will put enmity between thee and the woman,” etc.; then against the woman, verse 16, who is subjected to many pains in childbirth and to the severe dominion of the man: “multiplying I will multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be toward thy husband, and he shall rule over thee”; then against the man, verses 17–19, to whom, as representing the whole race together, is denounced a life wearisome and troublesome, and death to follow this—not as the boundary, but as the completion of punishment: “because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it, cursed is the ground for thy sake; in labor shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; and thorns and thistles shall it bring forth to thee”—

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—“and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, until thou return unto the ground, because from it thou wast taken; for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.”

4. The execution of the sentence, seen in the ironical reproach of the greatest dissimilitude from God; in expulsion from the tree of life and from Paradise; and finally in the cherubim, with the flame of a turning sword, being stationed to keep man from access: verses 22–24, “behold, the man is become as one of Us, to know good and evil,” etc.; “now,” etc.

XVIII. In these things God also demonstrated His longsuffering, since He did not immediately and utterly destroy man; and His saving grace, especially in the punishment denounced against the serpent, which contains the Proto-Gospel: Gen. 3:15, “and I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; He shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise His heel.” Here the seed of the woman denotes Christ with His faithful members; the enmity denotes man’s calling and sanctification; and victory is ascribed to Him, but through the bruising of the heel, that is, through the meritorious sufferings of Christ and the chastisements of the faithful. The Socinians and Mennonites wrongly deny this spiritual sense.

XIX. We also piously believe that Adam and Eve, together with their godly seed, received this Proto-Gospel by faith and were thus saved; since enmity with the serpent is expressly attributed to Eve, and divine forecare ought not be presumed to have been without cause. But the argument for Eve’s faith from the words at Cain’s birth, “I have gotten a man אֶת־יְהוָה  [with/from Jehovah],” Gen. 4:1, does not seem solid; for those words are better translated “with Jehovah,” or “from Jehovah,” than in the accusative, “Jehovah,” since the name Jehovah is not in—

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—the name Cain; and Eve would have to be treated as guilty either of idolatry, if she adored him, or of impiety, if she neglected him as such.

XX. Sin arising from the first is called either original or actual. The former, which cleaves to us from our origin and is the origin of actual sins, is again called either imputed, or the guilt of Adam’s transgression; or inherent, which comes under the name of flesh, body of sin, old man, etc., and is especially considered here.

XXI. We prove the truth of this sin both from plain passages: Job 14:4, “who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one”; Ps. 51:7, “behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother warm me”; Isa. 48:8, “thou wast called a transgressor from the womb”; John 3:3, 6, τὸ γεγεννημένον ἐκ τῆς σαρκὸς σάρξ ἐστι [that which is born of the flesh is flesh]; Eph. 2:3, καὶ ἦμεν τέκνα φύσει ὀργῆς ὡς καὶ οἱ λοιποί [and were by nature children of wrath, even as others], etc.; and also from vicious acts visible in earliest age: Gen. 6:5, “every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually”; Gen. 8:21, “for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth,” etc.; and also from the evils pressing upon infants, and from the sacraments applied to them.

The Socinians object:

1. Corruption cannot be reconciled with divine creation.

Reply: God must here be regarded at once as Creator and Judge.

2. Sin can well be derived from imitation.

Reply: By no means; and in imitation a vicious proneness to evil is always presupposed.

3. Human nature is still whole today.

Reply: As to the parts constituting nature, but not as to their powers and perfection.

XXII. It is defined as: that sin by which all men—

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—naturally descended from Adam, because of his imputed transgression, are from birth destitute of original integrity and prone to the opposite evil, consequently subjected to the divine curse, and not to be delivered from it except through the blood and Spirit of Christ, and fully only in death itself.

XXIII. From its nature, this defect is sin properly so called, according to Paul: Rom. 7:7, τὴν γὰρ ἐπιθυμίαν οὐκ ᾔδειν, εἰ μὴ ὁ νόμος ἔλεγεν· οὐκ ἐπιθυμήσεις [for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet], and because of its conflict with the law, which commands that we be wholly for the glory of God.

The Papists object:

1. Concupiscence is distinguished from sin: James 1:15.

Reply: From actual and external sin.

2. Infants are called innocent and are excused from sin: Ps. 106:38; Rom. 9:11.

Reply: These places also concern actual sins.

3. There is here no act of the will.

Reply: This is not required for the nature of sin; and the act of the will here preceded in Adam and follows in adults.

XXIV. Monstrous is the opinion which makes this sin a substance; for thus God would have to be regarded as its author, and Christ would become a partaker of it.

Objection 1. It comes under substantial names: flesh, body, man, etc.

Reply: All those are then taken metaphorically or metonymically.

Objection 2. The heart itself is vitiated.

Reply: Yet the vice is not therefore the heart itself.

Objection 3. Sinful vices come from this.

Reply: The material element of actions, which must be distinguished from the formal element of sin, alone is real; and that comes from human nature.

XXV. The privation in which this sin consists—

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—is conceived and expressed partly negatively, partly positively: by lack of primeval rectitude, and by proneness to the opposite evil. This corruption, or defection of nature from primeval integrity, removes wisdom, holiness, and true tranquility; and sets up foolishness, malice, and terror: Rom. 7:7, ἁμαρτίαν οὐκ ἔγνων εἰ μὴ διὰ νόμου· οὐκ ἐπιθυμήσεις [I had not known sin but by the law: Thou shalt not covet], etc.; Eph. 4:18, ἐσκοτισμένοι τῇ διανοίᾳ ὄντες, ἀπηλλοτριωμένοι τῆς ζωῆς τοῦ Θεοῦ, διὰ τὴν ἄγνοιαν τὴν οὖσαν ἐν αὐτοῖς, διὰ τὴν πώρωσιν τῆς καρδίας αὐτῶν [having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart], etc.

XXVI. This corruption is so natural to man now that he cannot emerge by his own powers, or will any good truly pleasing to God. Impotence is expressly named here: Rom. 6:6, τὸ σῶμα τῆς ἁμαρτίας [the body of sin]; Rom. 8:7, “the mind of the flesh,” etc.; and various similar passages prove it: Jer. 13:23, “can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots?”; Ezek. 16:6, “and I saw thee polluted in thine own blood,” etc.; Rom. 7:17, οὐκέτι ἐγὼ κατεργάζομαι αὐτό, ἀλλ᾽ ἡ οἰκοῦσα ἐν ἐμοὶ ἁμαρτία [now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me]; Eph. 2:1, 10, καὶ ὑμᾶς ὄντας νεκροὺς τοῖς παραπτώμασι καὶ ταῖς ἁμαρτίαις [and you, being dead in trespasses and sins], etc.; and God works every good in us: John 6:44, “no man can come to Me, except the Father which hath sent Me draw him”; 1 Cor. 4:7, “who maketh thee to differ? and what hast thou that thou didst not receive? now if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory as though thou hadst not received it?”; Phil. 2:13, “for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure,” etc.

Thus man’s will, in the general sense, is called free, but in the moral sense a slave. All the Pelagians and Semi-Pelagians vainly oppose this here, and—

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—object:

1. Free choice is everywhere attributed to men: Deut. 30:15, 19.

Reply: That does not infer powers for choosing either, but only willingness toward one or the other; and the matter also concerns Israelites, not men destitute of all grace.

2. God vainly commands man to do good and rebukes him for evil.

Reply: By no means, since thus man’s duty and fault are declared by God, either for conviction or for conversion.

3. Good is attributed to men themselves, even to the unregenerate: Rom. 2:14–15, “the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law”; Rom. 7:14–16, ὃ γὰρ θέλω, τοῦτο οὐ πράσσω· ἀλλ᾽ ὃ μισῶ, τοῦτο ποιῶ [for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I], etc.

Reply: This is rightly attributed to the godly, because the grace of God works in them. Civil good, however—not spiritual good, nor that which is truly pleasing to God—belongs to the ungodly; while in the last passage Paul speaks of himself as already regenerate.

4. In this way God would be unjust in His commands, and man excusable in his sins.

Reply: This by no means follows, because man’s impotence is culpable and voluntarily contracted, by which God does not lose His right.

XXVII. This corruption extends through the whole man, since the body serves sin in executing and fostering it: Rom. 6:19, παρεστήσατε τὰ μέλη ὑμῶν δοῦλα τῇ ἀκαθαρσίᾳ καὶ τῇ ἀνομίᾳ εἰς τὴν ἀνομίαν [ye yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity], etc.; and the soul, as to the will, is turned away from God, and as to the intellect, is blinded: 1 Cor. 2:14, ψυχικὸς δὲ ἄνθρωπος οὐ δέχεται τὰ τοῦ πνεύματος τοῦ Θεοῦ· μωρία γὰρ αὐτῷ ἐστι, καὶ οὐ δύναται γνῶναι, ὅτι πνευματικῶς ἀνακρίνεται [but the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned]; Eph. 4:18, “darkened in mind, alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them,” etc. Hence he needs the illumination of the Spirit: Ps. 119:18, “open Thou mine eyes”—

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—etc.; Eph. 1:17–18, ἵνα ὁ Θεὸς... δῴη ὑμῖν πνεῦμα σοφίας καὶ ἀποκαλύψεως... πεφωτισμένους τοὺς ὀφθαλμοὺς τῆς διανοίας ὑμῶν [that God may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation... the eyes of your understanding being enlightened], etc. And this corruption of the intellect is just as insuperable to the natural man as the malice of the will.

XXVIII. Hence fall many modern philosophical opinions, by which our intellect is exempted from all error; all things clearly and distinctly perceived by us are said to be true; power to avoid every error is attributed to man; and therefore also the power of knowing every truth and falsehood. These theses can never be freed from Pelagianism, and are altogether rashly asserted by Pelagian arguments.

XXIX. Especially to be rejected is the notion that man’s conscience is altogether unable to deceive or be deceived in its dictates, even if we grant that, in κοιναῖς ἐννοίαις [common notions], in truths legitimately drawn from Scripture, and in the knowledge of one’s own actions while they are present, etc., it is not deceived. For that general thesis can never be reconciled with Scripture, which mentions a deceitful heart, an idolatrous conscience, and a seared conscience: Jer. 17:9, “the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?”; 1 Cor. 8:7, concerning “conscience of the idol,” συνείδησις... εἰδώλου [conscience... of an idol], etc.; 1 Tim. 4:2, ψευδολόγων κεκαυτηριασμένων τὴν ἰδίαν συνείδησιν [speaking lies, having their own conscience seared], etc. Nor can it be reconciled with daily experience, which teaches that man’s conscience errs both in the knowledge of things to be done and of actions already done. Here to slip into an empty λογομαχία [strife about words] over the name is foolish and unworthy of learned men.

Objection 1. Conscience is the lamp of the Lord: Prov. 20:27.

Reply: So the soul is called—

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—all-knowing; yet conscience is not therefore infallible, since a lamp does not show all things fully.

Objection 2. Conscience is from God.

Reply: So also are the will and the whole soul; and God must be considered at once as Creator and Judge.

Objection 3. Conscience is a witness and judge in the name of God.

Reply: Therefore it does not always rightly perform its office.

Objection 4. Thus no certainty of conscience can be given.

Reply: Although it is sometimes deceived, it is not therefore always deceived in everything, just like the human senses.

Objection 5. The very name “conscience” implies knowledge.

Reply: It does not follow that every act of knowing attains the truth infallibly; and by the same reasoning memory and every sense could be called infallible, because a man does not rightly remember, or see, etc., when and so far as he errs.

XXX. Every man is corrupted by this sin: Job 14:4, “who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one”; John 3:5–6, “except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God; that which is born of the flesh is flesh,” etc.; except Christ: Luke 1:35, τὸ γεννώμενον ἐκ σοῦ ἅγιον [that holy thing which shall be born of thee]; Heb. 4:15, πεπειρασμένον κατὰ πάντα καθ᾽ ὁμοιότητα χωρὶς ἁμαρτίας [tempted in all things according to likeness, yet without sin], etc. Mary is not excepted, since Scripture nowhere excepts her; indeed, it attributes actual faults to her: Luke 1:34, πῶς ἔσται τοῦτο, ἐπεὶ ἄνδρα οὐ γινώσκω [how shall this be, seeing I know not a man?]; John 2:3–4, “they have no wine,” etc.; “what have I to do with thee, woman? mine hour is not yet come”; Matt. 12:46–48, “who is My mother? and who are My brethren?” etc.; and her ordinary and natural generation stands against it.

Many Papists object:

1. That she is called full of grace: Luke 1:28.

Reply: Not in order to denote—

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—that [i.e., that Mary is exempt from original sin] is the word κεχαριτωμένην [highly favored], but [to signify] the greatest degree of divine favor; nor does grace overturn a nature previously corrupted in all the saints.

2. That Christ’s honor requires this.

Reply: By no means, since He willed to be born from sinners, and indeed had to be, so that He might satisfy for us.

3. That otherwise Christ also would be subject to this sin.

Reply: In the same way, the purity of Mary’s parents could be constructed all the way back to Adam; and the grace of the Holy Ghost intervened in Christ alone: Luke 1:35, “The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee,” etc.

XXXI. The cause of this corruption is the guilt of Adam imputed to his posterity: 1 Cor. 15:22, “as in Adam all die”; and Rom. 5:12, 19, “as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, in whom all sinned,” etc.; “as by the disobedience of one man many were constituted sinners,” etc. There, among other phrases, it is said that all sinned in one, and that many were constituted sinners by the disobedience of one, just as by Christ’s obedience they are constituted righteous. This imputation is most just, since Adam was the parent of all, compare Exod. 20:5, “visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children,” etc.; and besides, he represented all covenantally.

XXXII. All Socinians and Pelagians deny that imputation, and object:

1. The justice of God, which does not permit it: Gen. 18:26.

Reply: This is gratuitously asserted, because of the bond of blood and covenant between Adam and us.

2. God’s contrary declared will: Ezek. 18:4, 20, “the soul that sinneth, it shall die; the son shall not—

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—bear the iniquity of the father,” etc.

Reply: This speaks of personal sins and of special indulgence.

3. The act of Adam’s sin was singular and long past.

Reply: Yet the common guilt and the liability flowing from it remain.

4. Infants are innocent.

Reply: Only from proper and actual sins.

XXXIII. This corruption is further propagated by natural generation: Job 14:4, “who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? not one”; Ps. 51:7, “behold, I was formed in iniquity, and in sin did my mother warm me”; John 3:6, “that which is born of the flesh is flesh,” etc.; since no one gives to another what he does not have himself. If this matter is to be explained further, we must not recur to the traduction of the soul, nor attribute the vice to the body alone, nor derive every propagation of guilt from the father; but God must be considered in the creation of the soul as Judge, depriving it of integrity because of Adam’s wickedness, and the body as more corrupting a soul already deprived. And since believers are sanctified only in part, and generation is a natural action, therefore their children also are born corrupt.

XXXIV. The punishment of this corruption is death and curse: Rom. 3:19, ἵνα πᾶν στόμα φραγῇ καὶ ὑπόδικος γένηται πᾶς ὁ κόσμος τῷ Θεῷ [that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God]; Rom. 6:23, τὰ γὰρ ὀψώνια τῆς ἁμαρτίας θάνατος [for the wages of sin is death]; Eph. 2:3, καὶ ἤμεν τέκνα φύσει ὀργῆς ὡς καὶ οἱ λοιποί [and were by nature children of wrath, even as others], etc.; even if this is aggravated by actual sins. The Papists deny this, having devised the infernal limbo of infants; and the Remonstrants, likewise inventing only a punishment of loss.

Objection 1. Sin, when it is finished, brings forth death: James 1:15.

Reply: Concupiscence is not thereby excluded.

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Objection 2. No one is punished in court except for actual crimes.

Reply: In the divine court, which is more penetrating and severe, one is punished also for proneness to them. Hence the death of Christ also had to intervene for the expiation of original sin: 1 John 1:7, “the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin.”

XXXV. This sin remains in man until death: Rom. 7:17–19, “now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me,” etc.; Gal. 5:17, “for the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh,” ταῦτα γὰρ ἀντίκειται ἀλλήλοις, ἵνα μὴ ἃ θέλητε ταῦτα ποιῆτε [for these are contrary the one to the other, so that ye cannot do the things that ye would]; Heb. 12:23, καὶ πνεύμασι δικαίων τετελειωμένων [and to the spirits of just men made perfect], etc.; although its dominion ceases in calling: Rom. 6:17, “thanks be to God, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine into which ye were delivered.”

Various perfectionists object:

1. Paul removes sin from himself: Rom. 6:17–18.

Reply: This is said of Paul’s regenerate part, and of actual sins.

2. There is no condemnation to believers: Rom. 8:1.

Reply: Yet there are still many damnable things in them.

3. Sins are taken away through baptism.

Reply: The removal of original sin is only successive with respect to its stain.

XXXVI. Actual sin follows. It is so called because of its relation to our actions, and it appears in Scripture under various proper and improper names. It is defined as: the defection of rational actions from the prescription of the divine law, proceeding from original corruption of nature, and subjecting man to a heavier guilt of death.

XXXVII. It is called defection because this sin is formal; and rational actions are such, whether formally or efficiently, as are directed by reason.

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But since these are not found in infants not yet born or newly born, these too are exempt from actual sins, according to Rom. 5:14, τοὺς μὴ ἁμαρτήσαντας ἐπὶ τῷ ὁμοιώματι τῆς παραβάσεως Ἀδὰμ [those who had not sinned after the likeness of Adam’s transgression]; and Rom. 9:11, μήπω γὰρ γεννηθέντων μηδὲ πραξάντων τι ἀγαθὸν ἢ κακόν [for the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil].

Objection 1. Many places attribute sin to infants: Ps. 51:7; Isa. 48:8, etc.

Reply: Those are to be understood of original, not actual, sin.

Objection 2. Other places say that all thoughts are evil from youth: Gen. 6:5; 8:21.

Reply: These therefore do not attribute thoughts to infants from nativity.

Objection 3. Corrupt flesh always lusts: Gal. 5:17.

Reply: In adults, who are indeed furnished with the use of reason.

XXXVIII. Actual sins proceed from original sin: James 1:15, ἡ ἐπιθυμία συλλαβοῦσα τίκτει ἁμαρτίαν [lust, when it hath conceived, bringeth forth sin]; and they produce one another, first: Rom. 1:23–24, “wherefore God also gave them up to the lusts of their hearts,” etc.; 2 Tim. 3:13, πονηροὶ δὲ ἄνθρωποι καὶ γόητες προκόψουσιν ἐπὶ τὸ χεῖρον, πλανῶντες καὶ πλανώμενοι [but evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived], etc.; and then they produce heavier punishment.

Here, however, one must avoid:

1. Stoicism, which makes all sins equal, contrary to Matt. 5:22, “but I say unto you, that whosoever is angry with his brother without cause shall be in danger of the judgment; and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council; but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire”; Matt. 7:3, τί δὲ βλέπεις τὸ κάρφος τὸ ἐν τῷ ὀφθαλμῷ τοῦ ἀδελφοῦ σου, τὴν δὲ ἐν τῷ σῷ ὀφθαλμῷ δοκὸν οὐ κατανοεῖς; [why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?]; and contrary to the various degrees of punishment: Matt. 11:22, 24, “it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and—

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—Sidon in the day of judgment than for you,” etc.; “it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for thee,” etc.; Luke 12:47–48, ἐκεῖνος δὲ ὁ δοῦλος ὁ γνοὺς τὸ θέλημα τοῦ κυρίου ἑαυτοῦ, καὶ μὴ προετοιμάσας μηδὲ ποιήσας πρὸς τὸ θέλημα αὐτοῦ δαρήσεται πολλάς· ὁ δὲ μὴ γνοὺς, ποιήσας δὲ ἄξια πληγῶν, δαρήσεται ὀλίγας [that servant which knew his lord’s will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes; but he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few], etc.

Sins are unequal with respect to the person sinning, the species of sin, degree, manner, end, place, time, etc. Yet it is never lawful to choose a sin because it is less than another; for thus it becomes greatest.

2. Papism, which makes some sin venial by its own nature, contrary to Deut. 27:26, “cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them”; Rom. 6:23, τὰ ὀψώνια τῆς ἁμαρτίας θάνατος [the wages of sin is death], etc.; and contrary to the wounding of infinite majesty, which is in every sin as such.

Objection 1. Not all sins are worthy of Gehenna: Matt. 5:22.

Reply: Literally, the text speaks of bodily burning in the valley of Hinnom, and emblematically of the highest degree of infernal punishment.

Objection 2. Some sins are like a mote: Matt. 7:3.

Reply: Even that hinders a man’s sight, and it is called so only comparatively.

Objection 3. A certain sin is not unto death: 1 John 5:16.

Reply: Namely, through the grace of God in Christ.

XXXIX. Actual sin is:

α. Either of omission or commission, and this latter is the more grievous;

β. Either per se or by accident, where the work in itself is good;

γ. Either of the heart, mouth, or deed;

δ. Either spiritual or carnal;

ε. Either against God, against neighbor, or against ourselves;

ζ. Either from contumacy: Num. 15:30, “the soul that doeth ought presumptuously,” or from infirmity: Rom.—

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—7:15, ὃ γὰρ κατεργάζομαι, οὐ γινώσκω· οὐ γὰρ ὃ θέλω τοῦτο πράσσω, ἀλλ᾽ ὃ μισῶ τοῦτο ποιῶ [for what I do I know not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I]; or from ignorance, whether of right or of fact: 1 Tim. 1:13, τὸν ὄντα πρότερον βλάσφημον καὶ διώκτην καὶ ὑβριστήν· ἀλλ᾽ ἠλεήθην, ὅτι ἀγνοῶν ἐποίησα ἐν ἀπιστίᾳ [who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief];

or manifest or hidden: Ps. 19:13, “who can understand his errors? cleanse Thou me from secret faults”;

or crying or not crying: Gen. 4:10, “the voice of thy brother’s blood crieth unto Me from the ground”;

or reigning, to which the unregenerate man voluntarily subjects himself: Ps. 19:14, “keep back Thy servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me”;

or not reigning, which the regenerate man resists by the grace of the Spirit: Rom. 6:12, 14, μὴ οὖν βασιλευέτω ἡ ἁμαρτία ἐν τῷ ὑμῶν σώματι εἰς τὸ ὑπακούειν αὐτῇ ἐν ταῖς ἐπιθυμίαις αὐτοῦ [let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof], etc.; ἁμαρτία γὰρ ὑμῶν οὐ κυριεύσει [for sin shall not have dominion over you], etc.

XL. Actual sin is chiefly either remissible or irremissible; the latter is commonly called the sin against the Holy Ghost, from Matt. 12:31–32, “all sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit shall not be forgiven unto men; and whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him; but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come”; 1 John 5:16, “if any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and He shall give him life for them that sin not unto death; there is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it.” This sin does not consist simply in extraordinary blasphemy against the gifts of the Spirit, which was not irremissible in all, nor is always present; nor should six species of it be constituted with the Scholastics. Rather, the Lord considered it one sin distinct from all others.

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It is more rightly defined as: the malicious rejection of evangelical truth inwardly known by illumination, whether of the whole or of some necessary part, producing blasphemy, persecution, and impenitence; and therefore plainly irremissible.

XLI. This sin concerns the truth of the Gospel, which the Spirit teaches, according to Heb. 6:4–6: “those who were once enlightened, tasted of the heavenly gift, were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come”; Heb. 10:26, 29, μετὰ τὸ λαβεῖν τὴν ἐπίγνωσιν τῆς ἀληθείας [after receiving the knowledge of the truth], etc.; τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ Θεοῦ καταπατήσας, καὶ τὸ αἷμα τῆς διαθήκης κοινὸν ἡγησάμενος, ἐν ᾧ ἡγιάσθη, καὶ τὸ πνεῦμα τῆς χάριτος ἐνυβρίσας [hath trodden under foot the Son of God, and hath counted the blood of the covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and hath done despite unto the Spirit of grace], etc. The truth is here recognized through internal illumination of the Spirit, which the Spirit works: 1 John 5:6, τὸ πνεῦμά ἐστι τὸ μαρτυροῦν, ὅτι τὸ πνεῦμά ἐστιν ἡ ἀλήθεια [the Spirit is He that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth]. Hence this sin is not to be attributed to the angels, to fallen Adam, to Paul, etc.

XLII. The act of this sin is rejection, whether external profession preceded it or not, as in many Pharisees.

XLIII. Finally, the principle of it is not infirmity, such as was seen in Peter, but malice and hatred, as the phrases indicate: falling away, sinning willfully, trampling underfoot, etc. This hatred can be reconciled well with knowledge, because the will follows only the practical, final, and comparative judgment of the intellect.

XLIV. As this sin is demonstrated by blasphemy and persecution, so it admits no repentance: Heb. 6:4, 6, ἀδύνατον—

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—καὶ παραπεσόντας πάλιν ἀνακαινίζειν εἰς μετάνοιαν [it is impossible, if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance], etc.; and it is plainly irremissible, according to Christ’s word: Matt. 12:32, οὐκ ἀφεθήσεται αὐτῷ, οὔτε ἐν τούτῳ τῷ αἰῶνι, οὔτε ἐν τῷ μέλλοντι [it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come]; and John’s saying: 1 John 5:16, ἔστιν ἁμαρτία πρὸς θάνατον [there is a sin unto death], etc. This flows from God’s purpose and from the nature of this sin, in which the one known means of salvation is held in hatred.

XLV. It cannot be known with certainty, by the ordinary gifts of the Spirit, who are guilty of this sin; for neither the illumination of the Spirit nor the mind of men is fully inspected. Hence John’s saying, 1 John 5:16, οὐ περὶ ἐκείνης λέγω ἵνα ἐρωτήσῃ [I do not say that he shall pray for it], pertains chiefly to those times in which this knowledge was granted by extraordinary gifts; besides, John speaks of the sin, and not of a person certainly known to be guilty of it.

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