On the Imputation of Adam's First Sin · §353 · Josué de la Place (Placeus)

Chapter 6: God's just judgment means punishment, not mere permission

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when the Theologians teach that one must not simply stick here in man's natural propagation, but that minds must be lifted higher to God's singular will and dispensation and his just judgment, what do we think they understand by the name of just judgment, if not that work of God by which he inflicts some punishment from the reason of vindicative justice—which Scripture calls the judgment of God against men, Ezek. 11:9? But what of the learned man? He acknowledges God's just judgment here because nothing is done, I know not whether with God unwilling, but with God wisely and justly permitting. Is that so? And does God's just judgment, when Scripture at Rom. 2:5, 2 Thess. 1:5, Rev. 16:7, 19:2 uses it, designate nothing but God's knowledge, wisdom, or permission? On the contrary, it designates God's judgment which either inflicts penalties according to desert or distributes rewards from the reason of that justice which is called δικαιοκρισία: as also in Rev. 19:2 God's just judgments are said to be constituted in this—that he condemned that great harlot who corrupted the earth with her fornication and avenged the blood of his servants from her hand.

Latin

GAR. Etenim cum docent Theologi, non esse hic simpliciter haerendum in naturali hominis propagatione, sed altius attollendos animos ad singularem voluntatem atque dispensationem Dei, & justum ipsius judicium, quid putamus justi judicii nomine ipsos intelligere; quam opus illud Dei, quo poenam aliquam ex ratione justitiae vindicatricis irrogat, quod Scriptura vocat judicium Dei contra homines Ezech. 11. 9. Quid autem vir doctus? Justum Dei judicium hic agnoscit, quia nihil fiat, nescio vel invito Deo, sed sapienter & juste permittente. Itane? Et justum judicium Dei cum Scriptura Rom. 2. 5. 2. Thess. 1. 5. Apoc. XVI. 7. XIX. 2. nihil aliud designat, quam cognitionem, sapientiam, aut permissionem Dei? Imo vero judicium Dei designat, quod vel poenas pro merito irrogat, vel praemia distribuit ex ratione justitiae illius, quae δικαιοκρισία dicitur: prout & Apoc. XIX. 2. justa Dei judicia in eo constituta dicuntur, quod meretricem illam magnam, quae corrupit terram scortatione sua, damnavit & vindicavit sanguinem servorum suorum ex manu eius.

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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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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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