On the Imputation of Adam's First Sin · §89 · Josué de la Place (Placeus)

Chapter 8: Adam – Christ opposition; major false for mediate view

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From this he thinks he can draw a double argument. First from the force of the opposition: we are constituted sinners in Adam by the same reason we are constituted righteous in Christ; but in Christ we are constituted righteous by the imputation of his righteousness; therefore in Adam we are constituted sinners by the imputation of his sin. Even though the conclusion does not harm those of us who acknowledge mediate imputation, the major premise is false. On the very point in dispute the greatest men marked a difference, as our earlier replies already showed. For we were constituted sinners by inhering sin propagated into us that deserves death; we were not constituted righteous by inhering righteousness that deserves life.

Latin

Hinc duplex argumentum se posse putat colligere: primum ex vi oppositionis. Eadem ratione constituimur peccatores in Adamo, qua justi constituimur in Christo. Atqui in Christo justi constituimur per justitiae ipsius imputationem. Ergo & peccatores in Adamo per peccati ipsius imputationem. Etsi nobis conclusio non nocet imputationem mediatam agnoscentibus, tamen major propositio falsa est. In eo enim ipso, de quo agitur, discrimen observatum est à viris maximis, uti patuit ex superioribus nostris responsionibus. Constituti enim sumus peccatores propagato in nos peccato inhaerente quod meretur mortem, non sumus constituti justi justitia inhaerente quae mereatur vitam.

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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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