On the Imputation of Adam's First Sin · §436 · Josué de la Place (Placeus)

Chapter 8: binds posterity when existing, not before

Click or tap any sentence to jump there. The side buttons skip a paragraph.

I concede freely, however, that it would have bound Adam's posterity at the time they existed; but that at the time they did not exist they were then bound to observe it I can in no way concede. Nature's own law, from which no one can be exempted, does not bind to obedience except those who are in the natural order, and as long as they remain in the natural order. Who have not yet entered into the World are not yet held to observe laws laid down for those who are in the World. The Israelites once received the law in the desert for themselves and their posterity; who would believe that at that time, while they were wandering in the same desert, David, or the Virgin Mary, already then owed to observe that law? Or that therefore the sins of those who first received the law were to be imputed to all posterity even to the consummation of the ages?

Latin

Concedo tamen libenter futurum fuisse ut obligaret posteros Adami quo tempore fuissent, at quo tempore non fuissent, eos tunc ad id observandum fuisse obligatos nullo modo concedere possum. Ipsa naturae lex a qua nemo eximi potest, non obligat ad obedientiam, nisi eos, qui sunt in rerum natura, & quamdiu sunt in rerum natura. Qui nondum sunt in Mundum ingressi, nondum tenentur observare leges latas iis qui sunt in Mundo. Acceperant Israelitae olim legem in deserto pro se & posteris; quis credat eo tempore, quo peregrinabantur in eodem deserto, Davidem, aut Mariam Virginem debuisse iam tunc legem illam observare? aut propterea eorum qui primi legem acceperunt, peccata fuisse posteris imputanda omnibus ad saeculorum usque consummationem?

Report a mistake in this passage

About this text

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.

Printed text used

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.

Report a mistake