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Objection 1: It would seem that the sin of the first parent is not
transmitted, by the way of origin, to all men. Because death is a
punishment consequent upon original sin. But not all those, who are
born of the seed of Adam, will die: since those who will be still
living at the coming of our Lord, will never die, as, seemingly,
may be gathered from 1 Thess. 4:14: "We who are alive . . .
unto the coming of the Lord, shall not prevent them who have slept."
Therefore they do not contract original sin.
Objection 2: Further, no one gives another what he has not
himself. Now a man who has been baptized has not original sin.
Therefore he does not transmit it to his children.
Objection 3: Further, the gift of Christ is greater than the sin
of Adam, as the Apostle declares (Rm. 5:15, seqq). But the
gift of Christ is not transmitted to all men: neither, therefore, is
the sin of Adam.
On the contrary, The Apostle says (Rm. 5:12): "Death
passed upon all men in whom all have sinned."
I answer that, According to the Catholic Faith we must firmly
believe that, Christ alone excepted, all men descended from Adam
contract original sin from him; else all would not need redemption
which is through Christ; and this is erroneous. The reason for this
may be gathered from what has been stated (Article 1), viz. that
original sin, in virtue of the sin of our first parent, is transmitted
to his posterity, just as, from the soul's will, actual sin is
transmitted to the members of the body, through their being moved by
the will. Now it is evident that actual sin can be transmitted to all
such members as have an inborn aptitude to be moved by the will.
Therefore original sin is transmitted to all those who are moved by
Adam by the movement of generation.
Reply to Objection 1: It is held with greater probability and more
commonly that all those that are alive at the coming of our Lord, will
die, and rise again shortly, as we shall state more fully in the TP
(XP, Question 78, Article 1, Objection 1). If,
however, it be true, as others hold, that they will never die, (an
opinion which Jerome mentions among others in a letter to Minerius,
on the Resurrection of the Body---Ep. cxix), then we must say
in reply to the objection, that although they are not to die, the debt
of death is none the less in them, and that the punishment of death
will be remitted by God, since He can also forgive the punishment due
for actual sins.
Reply to Objection 1: Original sin is taken away by Baptism as to
the guilt, in so far as the soul recovers grace as regards the mind.
Nevertheless original sin remains in its effect as regards the
"fomes," which is the disorder of the lower parts of the soul and of
the body itself, in respect of which, and not of the mind, man
exercises his power of generation. Consequently those who are baptized
transmit original sin: since they do not beget as being renewed in
Baptism, but as still retaining something of the oldness of the first
sin.
Reply to Objection 3: Just as Adam's sin is transmitted to all
who are born of Adam corporally, so is the grace of Christ
transmitted to all that are begotten of Him spiritually, by faith and
Baptism: and this, not only unto the removal of sin of their first
parent, but also unto the removal of actual sins, and the obtaining of
glory.
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