Chapter 6: root propagates vice not actual-as-ours
What if I ask of you the reason why that first— for it wholly escapes me. Although you seem of your own accord, unasked, to have wished to give a reason, for you add these words: because, namely, Adam was the first man, the origin and stock, or root, of all men. I acknowledge it; from this I understand that he could, together with human nature, propagate his vice into posterity: but I deny that therefore his actual sin was ours, or ought to have been imputed to us; I deny that from that the consideration and judgment which you ascribe to God can be made out. I do not see how that actual sin of Adam, that singular action, was more our action, our sin, than his person was our person. If you see that, show it to me, I beg, and explain: I will hold great gratitude to you.
Latin
Quid si quaeram ex te rationem, cur primum illud Prorsus enim me fugit. Quanquam tu ultro nec rogatus videris reddere voluisse, addis enim haec verba, quia sc. Adam fuit primus homo, origo & stirps, seu radix omnium hominum. Agnosco, hinc intelligo potuisse una cum natura humana suum propagare vitium in posteros: at nego propterea ejus peccatum actuale nostrum fuisse, aut nobis debuisse imputari: nego inde considerationem illam & judicium, quod tu Deo tribuis, posse confici. Ego non video, quomodo peccatum illud actuale Adami, actio illa singularis magis nostra actio, nostrum peccatum fuerit, quam ejus persona fuit nostra persona. Si id vides, ostende quaeso mihi & explica: magnam tibi habebo gratiam.