Whether Original Sin Is Equally in All?
Objection 1: It would seem that original sin is not equally in all.
Because original sin is inordinate concupiscence, as stated above
(A. 3). Now all are not equally prone to acts of concupiscence.
Therefore original sin is not equally in all.
Obj. 2: Further, original sin is an inordinate disposition of the
soul, just as sickness is an inordinate disposition of the body. But
sickness is subject to degrees. Therefore original sin is subject to
degrees.
Obj. 3: Further, Augustine says (De Nup. et Concep. i, 23) that "lust
transmits original sin to the child." But the act of generation may
be more lustful in one than in another. Therefore original sin may be
greater in one than in another.
_On the contrary,_ Original sin is the sin of nature, as stated above
(Q. 81, A. 1). But nature is equally in all. Therefore original sin
is too.
_I answer that,_ There are two things in original sin: one is the
privation of original justice; the other is the relation of this
privation to the sin of our first parent, from whom it is transmitted
to man through his corrupt origin. As to the first, original sin has
no degrees, since the gift of original justice is taken away
entirely; and privations that remove something entirely, such as
death and darkness, cannot be more or less, as stated above (Q. 73,
A. 2). In like manner, neither is this possible, as to the second:
since all are related equally to the first principle of our corrupt
origin, from which principle original sin takes the nature of guilt;
for relations cannot be more or less. Consequently it is evident that
original sin cannot be more in one than in another.
Reply Obj. 1: Through the bond of original justice being broken,
which held together all the powers of the soul in a certain order,
each power of the soul tends to its own proper movement, and the more
impetuously, as it is stronger. Now it happens that some of the
soul's powers are stronger in one man than in another, on account of
the different bodily temperaments. Consequently if one man is more
prone than another to acts of concupiscence, this is not due to
original sin, because the bond of original justice is equally broken
in all, and the lower parts of the soul are, in all, left to
themselves equally; but it is due to the various dispositions of the
powers, as stated.
Reply Obj. 2: Sickness of the body, even sickness of the same
species, has not an equal cause in all; for instance if a fever be
caused by corruption of the bile, the corruption may be greater or
less, and nearer to, or further from a vital principle. But the cause
of original sin is equal to all, so that there is no comparison.
Reply Obj. 3: It is not the actual lust that transmits original sin:
for, supposing God were to grant to a man to feel no inordinate lust
in the act of generation, he would still transmit original sin; we
must understand this to be habitual lust, whereby the sensitive
appetite is not kept subject to reason by the bonds of original
justice. This lust is equally in all.
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