Chapter 12: Infants' peccarunt; habit not act; Pighius charge; innate sinners
Grant them that for free, says the learned man: do they still gut the force of the text? Not at all. That 'they sinned' said of infants is most true, he claims, and plainly marks some actual sin. I deny it — and many great men before me did, Calvin and Martyr among them. If I may turn the charge, it was the Pelagians who took that 'they sinned' of an actual sin. What sin has an infant committed while still in the womb, or crying in the cradle? He has sinned not by act but by habit — not actual sin but original. Original, Daubuz says, he does have, but καθ᾽ ἕξιν, subjectively, rather than ἐνεργείᾳ. In other words it is not an action but a quality, standing as a habit stands. Is it therefore less truly a sin, binding us in guilt unless forgiven? So, he adds, we die from tender years, from the fingertips; indeed we scarcely born die again — because, we confess, we have sinned; yet then we could sin only in Adam. What is denying that original vice is truly a sin enough to damn the whole race (as Article XI of the Confession says), if this is not that denial? Without noticing it, this learned man is pleading Pighius's cause. Are we not sinners in ourselves from the maternal womb — wrapped and stained in inherent sin?
Latin
Demus tamen, inquit Vir doctus, illud gratis, an eius loci vim penitus infringunt? Nequaquam certe: nam illud τὸ peccarunt in infantibus verissimum, peccatum quoddam actuale designat evidenter. Hoc nego, negaruntque ante me plurimi viri maximi, inter quos Calvinus & Martyr: ac, si me decet recriminari, de peccato actuali illud peccarunt exponebant Pelagiani. At quod quaeso peccatum peccaverit infans in matris utero latens, in cunis vagiens? Peccavit certe non actu sed habitu, non peccatum actuale sed originale. Originale quidem, inquit, habet, sed καθ᾽ ἕξιν potius subjective, quam ἐνεργείᾳ. Nimirum non est actio sed qualitas potius: sese enim habet ad modum habitus. An propterea minus vere peccatum est, nos reatu, nisi condonetur, obstringens? Ergo, addit, quod morimur a teneris annis, ab ipsis unguiculis: imo quod vix nati denascimur, ideo fit (fatemur) quia peccavimus; at peccare nisi in Adamo tunc non potuimus. Quid est negare vitium originale esse vere peccatum toti generi humano damnando (ut habet art. XI. Confessionis Fidei) sufficiens, si hoc non est? Causam profecto Pighii vir hic doctus agit imprudens. Quid enim? Annon ab ipso utero materno peccatores in nobis ipsis sumus? inhaerente peccato involuti ac contaminati?