sist in perpetuating his species. Gen. 1:28. Every man, consequently, includes a portion of non-individualized human nature transmitted to him from his ancestors immediately, and from Adam primarily. When, and so long as, Adam and Eve were the only two individuals, the entire species was in two individuals. When, and so long as, Adam, Eve, and Cain were the only three individuals, the whole species was in three. At this present moment of time, the whole species consists of millions of individuals; namely, of the millions now living in this world together with the nonindividualized human nature in them, and the disembodied millions in the other world who include no non-individualized substance, because they "are as the angels of God," Matt. 22:30. Thus it appears that the human nature was single, entire, and undivided, only in those first two individuals in whom it was created. All individuals excepting the first two include each but a fractional part of human nature. A sin committed by a fraction is not a sin committed by the whole unity. Individual transgression is not the original transgression, or Adam's first sin.

Hence it follows, that what is strictly and purely individual in a human person must not be confounded with what is specific in him. As an individual, he sins individually; but what he does in this individual manner does not affect that portion of fallen human nature which he receives to transmit. This fractional part of the nature does not "sin in and with" the individual containing and transmitting it. He may be regenerated as an individual, but this does not regenerate that part of the human species which he includes, and which he is to individualize by generation. His children are born unregenerate. Regeneration is individual

'It is certainly an error, when Baird (Elohim, p. 356), asserts that "the blood of Cain and Abel does not now flow in any human veins; that human nature is not any longer transmitted from them; but that Seth is the father of the present population of the earth." The line of Seth was that of the church, and that of Cain, of the world as the opposite of the church. Both individuals were concerned in the propagation of the species.

only, not specific. It is founded upon an election out of an aggregate of separate individuals. Consequently, it does not sanctify that fraction of human nature which is deposited in each individual to be propagated. Neither do the individual transgressions of a natural man make the corrupt nature of his children any more corrupt. The non-individualized nature in his person remains just as it came from Adam. Nor are his individual transgressions imputable to his children; because the portion of human nature which he has received, and which he transmits, does not act with him and sin with him in his individual transgressions. It is a latent nature or principle which remains in a quiescent state, in reference to his individuality. It is inactive, as existing in him. It does not add to, or subtract from his individual power. It constitutes no part of his individuality. Not until it is individualized, and being separated from the progenitor becomes a distinct person by itself, does it begin to act out the sinful disposition originated in it when Adam fell.

It is no valid objection to the doctrine of existence in Adam, and in foregoing ancestors, that it is impossible to explain the mode. The question: "How can these things be?" as in the instance of Nicodemus, must be answered by the affirmation that it is a fact, and a mystery. It is no refutation of the doctrine, to ask how the nature exists before it is individualized or procreated, any more than it is a refutation of the doctrine of the resurrection, to ask how the invisible substance of a human body still continues to exist after death. We know the fact from Scripture; and science also confirms it by its maxim that there is no annihilation of rudimental substance in the created universe. The body of Julius Caesar is still in being, as to its fundamental invisible substance, whatever that substance may be. Resurrection, though miraculous, is not the creation of a body ex nihilo. In like manner, the elementary invisible substance of the individual Julius Caesar, both as to soul

and body, was in existence between the time of the creation of the whole human species on the sixth day, and the time of the conception of Julius Caesar. The Westminster Shorter Catechism (Q. 37) states that the bodies of believers, "being still united to Christ, do rest in their graves till the resurrection." This implies that the believer's body, as to its invisible substance, continues to exist for hundreds or thousands of years between its death and its resurrection. But this kind of existence is no more mysterious than the existence of the human nature in Adam, and its continued existence between Adam and the year 1875. In one sense, the posterity of Adam are as old as Adam; the children as old as the parents. The human nature out of which all individuals are derived was created on the sixth day, and all sustain the same relation to it so far as the time of its creation is concerned. The Seyn of all was then, though the Daseyn was not; the noumenon, though not the phenomenon, was in existence.

It is important to distinguish traits that are derived and inherited from secondary ancestors, either immediate or remote, and traits that are derived and inherited from the first ancestors. To inherit the gout from one's father, is very different from inheriting the carnal mind from Adam. Such inherited idiosyncrasies are not sinful, though they tempt to sin. A hankering for alcohol or opium may be inherited from a grandfather or father, without culpability for it; but pride, and enmity towards God are inherited from Adam, and are accompanied with a sense of guilt. To inherit a temperament, is to inherit a secondary trait. A choleric temper is not guilt. But envy and hatred are. The testimony of conscience in each case is different. These qualities inherited from secondary ancestors may run themselves out in a few generations. But original sin never runs itself out. The former are conquerable without grace; some persons overcome their hankering for alcohol and opium without regeneration. But original sin is unconquerable without regeneration.

Derivation and inheritance of sinful character is compati ble with responsibility for sinful character, provided that while it is derived and inherited at a secondary point, it is self-originated at a primary one. If sinful character be derived at both the primary and the secondary points, then responsibility is impossible. The individual man derives and inherits his sinful disposition from his immediate ancestors, but originated it in his first ancestors. He is born sinful from his father and mother, but was created holy in Adam and Eve. But if he had derived his sinfulness at both points; if sin in Adam had been derived from God; then its transmission from Adam to the posterity would not have involved any responsibility or fault. In Ps. 50:5, David mentions the fact that he was born sinful, as an aggravation of his particular act of adultery, not as an excuse for it. It evinced the depth and intensity of his wickedness. This could not be, if to be born sinful is the same thing as to be created sinful.

The difficulty in regard to existence in Adam, the first ancestor, is really no greater than the difficulty in regard to existence in the immediate ancestors. The mystery is only farther off.

CHAPTER II.

MAN'S PRIMITIVE STATE.

Augustine: City of God, XII. i.-ix. xxiii. Anselm: De Casu Diaboli, XII. Aquinas : Summa, II. xciii.-xcvii. Calvin: Institutes, I. IV. Ursinus Christian Religion, Qu. 6. Turrettin: Institutio, V. ix.-xii. Howe: Oracles, Lectures XVI.-XX. Müller: Sin, IV. iv. Edwards: Original Sin, II i; Efficacious Grace, 43-51. Hodge: Theology, II. 92-15. Strong: Theology, 262-268. Shedd: History of Doctrine, II. 54–65. Smith: Theology, 252–259.

tŷ

HOLINESS, in the order, is prior to sin. Man must be holy, before he can be sinful. "The good," says Plato (Protagoras, 344), "may become bad; but the bad does not become bad; he is always bad." Similarly, Aristotle (Categories, IX. v.) remarks that τὸ βέλτιον καὶ τό τιμιώτερον πρότερον εἶναι τῇ φύσει δοκεί. The golden age of the poets is the echo and corruption of the Biblical account of man's original state. Tacitus describes the earliest generation of men as follows: "Vetustissimi mortalium, nulla adhuc mala libidine, sine probro, scelere, eoque sine poena aut coercitationibus, agebant: neque praemiis opus erat, cum honesta suopte ingenio peterentur: et ubi nihil contra morem cuperent, nihil per metum vetabantur." Annalium, III. 26.

The Westminster statement is the common one in the Augustino-Calvinistic creeds: "God created man after his own image, in knowledge, righteousness, and holiness," S. C., 10. "God said, Let us make man in our own image. So God created man in his own image," Gen. 1: 26, 27. "God hath made man upright; but they have sought out