A treatise of original sin ... proving that it is

SECT. II.

Christ (we heard) had this peculiar prerogative alone to be the holy one, the contrary in the Text is true of every one born in a natural way; To every mother, we may say, that unholy thing which shall be born of thee, shall be called the child of the Devil, for it is by nature the child of wrath, only it may seem difficult to give the reason why he is exempted; for seeing he is a man ejusdem speciei of the same nature with us, and though he had his humane nature in an extraordinary manner by the over-shadowing of the Holy Ghost, yet that doth not hinder but he is a man as well as we are: Even as Adam was made a man after a different manner from his posterity, they by generation but he by wonderful production out of the earth in respect of his body, yet we are men of the same kind with him; seeing then Christ was a man though he had a different original from us, will not that necessarily involve him in Adam's sin? And if it be said that the power of the Holy Ghost sanctified that corpulent mass of which Christs body did consist, that may happily free him from original inherent sin, but how can it from original imputed sin? Must not Christ be said to sin in Adam though he had no inherent defilement because he was a man? yea the Scripture doth not only make him a man, but calleth him the seed of David and of Abraham, that he came out of their loins, and which is more, Luke reckoning the genealogy of Christ by his humane nature doth carry it up to Adam making him the son of Adam, and if the son of Adam how could he not but sin in Adam by imputation, though he had none by inhesion. This consideration hath so much strength, that Bellarmine though he is laborious to prove that the Virgin Mary was exempted from original inherent sin, that she had an immaculate conception, yet be confesseth she had original imputed sin that she sinned in Adam, because she was in Adam.

CHrist (we heard) had this peculiar prerogative alone to be the holy one, the contrary in the Text is true of every one born in a natural way; To every mother, we may say, that unholy thing which shall be born of thee, shall be called the child of the Devil, for it is by nature the child of wrath, only it may seem difficult to give the reason why he is exempted; for seeing he is a man ejusdem speciei of the same nature with us, and though he had his humane nature in an extraordinary manner by the over-shadowing of the Holy Ghost, yet that doth not hinder but he is a man as well as we are: Even as Adam was made a man after a different manner from his posterity, they by generation but he by wonderfull production out of the earth in respect of his body, yet we are men of the same kind with him; seeing then Christ was a man though he had a different original from us, will not that necessarily involve him in Adam's sinne? And if it be said that the power of the Holy Ghost sanctified that corpulent mass of which Christs body did consist, that may happily free him from original inherent sinne, but how can it from original imputed sinne? Must not Christ be said to sinne in Adam though he had no inherent defilement because he was a man? yea the Scripture doth not only make him a man, but calleth him the seed of David and of Abraham, that he came out of their loynes, and which is more, Luke reckoning the genealogy of Christ by his humane nature doth carry it up to Adam making him the son of Adam, and if the son of Adam how could he not but sinne in Adam by imputation, though he had none by inhesion. This consideration hath so much strength, that Bellarmine though he is laborious to prove that the Virgin Mary was exempted from original inherent sinne, that she had an immaculate conception, yet be confesseth she had original imputed sinne that she sinned in Adam, because she was in Adam.