On the Imputation of Adam's First Sin · §350 · Josué de la Place (Placeus)

Chapter 6: already grants nature-law; why impute to God?

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What is there in this my opinion that is not consentaneous either to Scripture or to right reason? You yourself in cap. 1, constituting the state of the question, confessed that the propagation of original vice is done by the law of nature, by which each begets one like himself: you therefore acknowledge the truth of my opinion—what is it that, not content with that, you ascribe the cause of our original vice to God considering Adam's actual sin in a certain way and imputing it to us and inflicting that vice on us? Tell me, I ask, if you can, what necessity there was why God should consider us all as one person in Adam? why he should consider Adam's first actual sin in another way than other sins? why he should impute it to us? You will doubtless be compelled, with certain others whom there is no need to name, to refer that whole thing to God's will.

Latin

Quid est in hac mea sententia quod non sit, aut Scripturae, aut rectae rationi consentaneum? Tu ipse cap. 1. constituendo statum quaestionis fassus es propagationem vitii originis fieri lege naturae, qua quisque sibi similem gignit: agnoscis igitur meae sententiae veritatem: quid est cur ea non contentus causam nostri vitii originalis Deo certo modo peccatum actuale Adami consideranti & imputanti nobis & infligenti nobis illud vitium, imputes? Dic mihi quaeso si potes, quae necessitas fuerit, cur nos omnes Deus consideraret tanquam unum hominem in Adamo? cur primum Adami peccatum actuale consideraret alio modo quam alia peccata? cur id nobis imputaret? cogeris proculdubio cum aliis quibusdam, quos nihil nominare opus est, id universum in Dei voluntatem referre.

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Josué de la Place (Placeus) on the imputation of Adam's first sin: chapters 1 to 12 and 14, and the later disputation up to its chapter on Romans 5:14, from the Latin. The rest is not yet translated.

Josué de la Place (c. 1596–1655), known in Latin as Placeus, was pastor at Nantes and from 1633 professor of theology at the Academy of Saumur, the school of Cameron and Amyraut.

On the Imputation of Adam's First Sin argues the distinctive Saumur thesis: Adam's sin reaches his posterity only mediately, through the inherited corruption — never by immediate reckoning of a sin they did not commit. Fellow Reformed theologians rejected the view, but the book remains its classic statement.

Part only: Chapters 1–12 and 14, and the disputation up to Romans 5:14

Datec. 1645–1655 AD (written after the 1645 Synod of Charenton, and read in draft by Drelincourt by 10 December 1653; printed posthumously at Saumur, 1661; Reformed / Amyraldian circle)

The English is made from the 1661 Saumur Latin of chapters 1 to 12 and 14 and part of the later disputation. No earlier English was copied.

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Translated from Latin (Saumur 1661) (Latin)
Also checked Text extract of Caput Primum (Latin)
Also checked machine-read text of the 1661 volume (Latin)

We have not yet re-checked this work against its source. We made this study translation with AI help. No scholar has yet certified it as faithful and complete. Open Latin on any section, or the Latin source link, to see the source text. It is not a critical edition.

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