On the Imputation of Adam's First Sin · §54 · Josué de la Place (Placeus)

Chapter 7: Quarta ratio — Apostle's scope and the safeguard that all have sinned

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

The fourth reason follows. The Apostle's scope will not allow them to be turned that way; for the Apostle began at verse 12 (Romans 5:12) to institute a comparison between Christ and Adam in such a manner as to affirm that through one man sin entered, and through sin death, so that death spread abroad upon all men. But because it could seem strange that there was so great force and efficacy in one man's one sin that it should sentence the whole multitude of men to death, lest anyone should suspect anything unworthy of God, he adds that this ought not to seem strange, since all have sinned. As therefore Adam fell into death because he sinned, so also all alike fall into death because all have sinned.

Latin

Sequitur ratio quarta. Scopus Apostoli non patitur ut ita vertantur; coepit enim Apostolus vers. 12. comparationem inter Christum & Adamum instituere eo modo, ut affirmaret per unum hominem peccatum introiisse, & per peccatum mortem, adeo ut mors in omnes homines pervagata sit. Quia vero mirum videri potuit, tantam fuisse in unius hominis uno peccato vim atque efficacitatem, ut totam hominum multitudinem morti addiceret, ne quis indigne quicquam de Deo suspicaretur, addit, id mirum videri non debere, cum omnes peccaverint. Ut igitur Adam in mortem incidit, quia peccavit; sic & omnes pariter in mortem incidunt, quia omnes peccaverunt.

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