THE CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE OF ORIGINAL SIN IS NEITHER UNREASONABLE NOR
INCREDIBLE.
In order the better to understand both what has been said, and what still
remains to be said, we must touch on the subject of that original sin,
whereby the whole human race has been defiled. We have already shown,
that God, in His own good time, created the world, placing over it, as
the head of all things, man, endowed with an intellectual, immortal and
most noble soul; and that to this soul was fitted an immortal body,
obedient in all things and proportioned to the soul, which, as form,
governs its matter, the body. But, since intellectual knowledge depends
upon the senses, and senses cannot have any being save in a body composed
of fleshly elements warring against reason, the only body that befits the
soul is the human body.
Nevertheless, we believe, with good reason, that Divine Providence, which
never fails His creatures, mercifully delivered man at his creation,
from corruption, and from that repugnance to reason inherent in the
flesh; and that He so proportioned the matter of the body to its form,
the soul, that the inferior powers were subject to reason. Hence, we say
that man was, at his creation, endowed with original justice, _i.e._,
with impassibility, and subjection of body to soul, and of the sensitive
part of his nature to reason. We further hold that this original justice
would, had not Adam deliberately disobeyed God, have descended to all his
posterity. But it is most reasonable, that, if man wilfully chose to
turn aside from God, he should be deprived of original justice, of the
natural subjection of his senses to reason, and of the immortality of
his body. This was the just punishment of his sin. This deprivation of
original justice, inflicted on Adam, and transmitted by him to the whole
human race, is what we mean by original sin.
We see in man such evident proofs of the truth of this doctrine, that it
appeals strongly to our reason. The Providence of God rewards good deeds,
and punishes evil ones. When we see a penalty inflicted, we know that
some fault has preceded it. Now, we behold the human body subject to many
sufferings—to cold and heat, to hunger and thirst, to sickness and to
death. We see, moreover, that the intellectual soul is weak in reason and
in will; that it is harassed by the flesh; and, that, by reason of these
infirmities, man falls, daily, into many errors. These sufferings are
the sign of some antecedent fault. But, although the deficiences of man
seem proper to his nature, God could have supplied them all, had not man,
by his own fault, placed an obstacle in the way. Therefore, it is quite
reasonable to say, that the defects in human nature, are the outcome of
the sin of our first parent, the representative of our whole race.
The sin of Adam was at the same time both personal and common to all
nature. It was personal, in so far as it deprived Adam of original
justice. It was common, in so far as the deprivation extended to all
his posterity. From the point of view of the will of the human race,
this privation does not imply sin; but from the point of view of the
malice of Adam, this subtraction of original justice is the direct
consequence of his sin. And, as he is our head and we are his members, he
has implicated us in his guilt. The actual taking of a thing unjustly
with the hand is thieving, and is called sin: yet the sin is not in
the hand, but in the malice of him that moves the hand to steal. In
like manner our privation of original justice would not be accounted
unto us for sin, nor should we be born in sin, had we not been, by our
first parent, implicated in his sin. His malice has affected all the
members of his body, and therefore we, who are his members, are all
born in original sin. But if Adam had never been endowed with original
justice, and consequently had never lost it, we, had we been born with
the irregularity now existent in our nature, should not have been born
in sin. Ours would have been a purely natural state. For, where there is
no malice in the will, there cannot be sin. It is, therefore, the malice
of our first parent which causes the privation of original justice,
transmitted by him to the human race, to be accounted as original sin.
There is nothing unjust in the fact that all men have to suffer the
penalty due to one. Man had no natural right to original justice, in the
sense in which he has a right to the use of his limbs. Justice was a free
gift of God; and the giver has power to choose the time, and manner, of
his gift. If God gave to Adam original justice, with the understanding
that if he did not sin, both he and all his posterity should keep this
gift; but that if he did sin, both he and his descendants should be
deprived of their privilege, what ground have we for complaint? Human
nature, in its entirety, was included in Adam. Since, then, original
justice is, in no sense, our due, we could not murmur had Adam never
been graced with it. How therefore can we complain that, in consequence
of Adam’s violation of the conditions imposed upon him by God, our
nature has been deprived of this privilege? Original sin does not, as is
often thought, mean simply a wound inflicted on human nature, which has
injured it by depriving it of some good proper to it. It means, rather,
the deprivation of that state of original justice, to which human nature
has no claim. It is as unreasonable to murmur at being born in our purely
natural state, as it would be to complain that we were not sanctified in
the womb, or were not created in the enjoyment of happiness.
Man cannot attain to beatitude without the gift of supernatural grace.
Therefore, he who dies in original sin is deprived of eternal life; but
he is not, therefore and thereby, subjected to any sorrow or suffering.
Not being proportioned to beatitude, he is incapable of enjoying it.
He does not, however, suffer from the loss; because God rectifies his
will, conforming it to His own, and taking from it the desire of that
which is impossible to it. A man who has no claim to an imperial crown,
does not grieve because he is not an Emperor. Neither does such a soul
suffer any sensible pain. On the contrary, it is endowed with all
perfection proper to human nature—such as the knowledge of all natural
things, and even the contemplation, by means of creatures, of such as
are Divine. It enjoys all the happiness which human nature can enjoy.
Furthermore, God confers upon these souls certain supernatural gifts—such
as immortality, and impassibility of body—so that they are not subject
to human infirmity; nor will they ever suffer sensible pain. And,
although we believe that the abode of these souls is Limbo, the place
of their habitation signifies but little. My private opinion, (subject
to any future pronouncement of the Holy Roman Church), is, that after
the resurrection, they will dwell on the purified and glorified earth.
My reason for thus thinking is, that if the place of habitation be
proportioned to the inhabitant, souls informing immortal and impassible
bodies, and enjoying all the happiness natural to man, ought not to be
deprived of the light of the sun and of other natural advantages and
delights, in which they could have no share were they detained in a
subterranean Limbo. We may go further, and say, that such a deprivation
would not only be a diminution of happiness, but a sensible pain.
Original sin, however, although it involves, as its consequence, the loss
of the Beatific Vision, does not imply the endurance of sensible pain.
Thus, we see, that God, in His dealings with souls that pass from life
in original sin, manifests, in a peculiar manner, His justice and His
wisdom. We see also that the Christian teaching concerning original sin
is neither incredible nor unreasonable.