On the Imputation of Adam's First Sin · §412

Man. Post. Cap. VII: Objection 6 — King principal/subjects; Adam alone

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Sixth. A King does not wage war on his neighbors by his own hand alone: he orders, and subjects carry out; he is the principal cause, they the instrumental—and even those who never take the field remain bound, as subjects, to obey him and to shield and aid him with their strength. Adam is not like that King. He sinned by himself. He laid that command of sin on himself, not on us; he alone executed what he had commanded himself and finished it in deed. No one among his posterity joined that action, nor lent mind or hand. So the scheme of principal and instrumental causes fails here: we did not lend ourselves to him as members, organs, subjects, or servants for committing that crime. He alone, as he then stood among the things that were, committed it through himself, and none of posterity stood with him at it. War is the shared work of King and subjects and is done by the kingdom's body; Adam's actual sin—as you yourself speak—was of one person only.

Latin

Sexto, Rex bellum infert vicinae genti non per se solum, sed per subditos. Ipse imperat, subditi exequuntur. Ipse est causa principalis, subditi instrumentalis: ac illi ipsi, qui bello se non immiscent, subditi tenentur parere Regi, eumque pro viribus tueri & juvare. Adamus vero peccavit solus, ipse sibi, non nobis peccatum illud suum imperavit; ipse solus quod sibi imperavit, mandavit executioni, & opere perfecit. Posterorum nemo actioni illi interfuit, aut mentem manumve admovit suam. Non igitur ipse causa principalis fuit illius peccati, posteri causae instrumentales. Non ad committendum illud peccatum nos ei ut membra, ut organa, ut subditi, vel famuli accommodavimus, sed ipse solus, ut tunc extabat in rerum natura, ita peccatum illud per se ipsum commisit, nec posterorum quisquam illi adfuit. Bellum est commune Regis & subditorum opus, fitque a corpore regni: peccatum actuale Adami, ut tu ipse loqueris, unius personae fuit.

About this text

Josue de la Place (Placeus) — Capita I–XIV partial of De imputatione primi peccati Adami from the 1661 Saumur Latin, through Man. Post. Caput X (GAR.1–3 Rom. 5.13 tip) / before PLAC on reatus-only. Honest partial; Cap. X Rom. 5:14+ / ~494 pp Disputatio remain.

English follows the locked 1661 Saumur Latin of Capita I–XIV partial through Man. Post. Caput IX (eph-ho / eph-ho pantes) before eph-ho / eph-ho pantes, reconstructed from IA PDF page images with Vision OCR and pdftotext as check. No modern English was copied. Cap. IX deepen+ remain.

Catalogue & scope

IA deimputationepri00lapl. Densify: Capita I–XII + Caput XIV + Man. Post. Cap. II–VI through Cap. X Rom. 5:14 tip. Not whole Disputatio; Cap. X Rom. 5:14+ / ~494 pp Disputatio remain.

Witnesses

This is an AI-assisted study translation. Source fidelity and completeness have not been independently certified. Open Latin on each section (or the Latin source witness link) for the source text. This is not a complete critical edition.