Chapter 58.—Adam’s Sin is Derived from Him to Every One Who is Born Even of Regenerate Parents; The Example of the Olive Tree and the Wild Olive.

But this sin, which changed man for the worse in paradise, because it is far greater than we can form any judgment of, is contracted by every one at his birth, and is remitted only in the regenerate; and this derangement is such as to be derived even from parents who have been regenerated, and in whom the sin is remitted and covered, to the condemnation of the children born of them, unless these, who were bound by their first and carnal birth, are absolved by their second and spiritual birth. Of this wonderful fact the Creator has produced a wonderful example in the cases of the olive and the wild olive trees, in which, from the seed not only of the wild olive, but even of the good olive, nothing but a wild olive springs. Wherefore, although even in persons whose natural birth is followed by regeneration through grace, there exists this carnal concupiscence which contends against the law of the mind, yet, seeing that it is remitted in the remission of sins, it is no longer accounted to them as sin, nor is it in any degree hurtful, unless consent is yielded to its motions for unlawful deeds. Their offspring, however, being begotten not of spiritual concupiscence, but of carnal, like a wild olive of our race from the good olive, derives guilt from them by natural birth to such a degree that it cannot be liberated from that pest except by being born again. How is it, then, that this man affirms that we ascribe holiness to those who are born, and guilt to their parents? when the truth rather shows that even if there has been holiness in the parents, original sin is inherent in their children, which is abolished in them only if they are born again.

58. Hoc autem peccatum, quod ipsum hominem in paradiso in pejus mutavit, quia multo est grandius quam judicare nos possumus, ab omni nascente trahitur, nec nisi in renascente remittitur; ita ut etiam de parentibus jam renatis, in quibus remissum atque tectum est, trahatur in reatum nascentium filiorum, nisi et ipsos, quos prima carnalis nativitas obligavit, secunda spiritualis absolvat. Cujus rei mirabilis, mirabile Creator in oliva et oleastro produxit exemplum, ubi non solum ex oleastri, verum etiam ex olivae semine nonnisi oleaster exoritur. Quapropter quamvis et in hominibus natura generatis, gratia regeneratis, sit ista carnalis concupiscentia repugnans legi mentis: tamen quia remissa est in remissione peccatorum, non jam illis in peccatum reputatur, nec nocet aliquid, nisi ejus motibus ad illicita consentiatur. Proles vero eorum, quia non per spiritualem, sed per carnalem concupiscentiam seminatur, velut ex illa oliva quidam nostri generis oleaster, sic inde reatum nascendo trahit, ut nisi renascendo liberari ab illa peste non possit. Quomodo ergo affirmat iste nos adscribere sanctitatem nascentibus, et culpam generantibus; cum potius veritas monstret, etsi fuerit sanctitas in generantibus, originalem culpam inesse nascentibus, quae non aboleatur nisi in renascentibus?