The New Divinity Tried [pp. 278-304]

The New Divinity Tried.
any more than the reviewer, discussing the truth of these
doctrines, but merely endeavouring to correct his very un candid representations, as they appear to us.
It is further objected to the New Divinity, that it rejects
the doctrine of original sin. This the reviewer denies. What
is this doctrine? If this point be ascertained, the question
whether the objection is well founded or not, can be easily
answered. Let us advert then to the definitions of the doc trine as given in the leading Protestant Confessions. In the
Helvetic Confession, the Confessio et Expositio brevis, &c.
cap. viii. after stating that man was at first created in the
image of God, but by the fall became subject to sin, death,
and various calamities, and that all who are descended from
Adam are likle him, and exposed to all these evils, it is said,
"Sin we understand to be that native corruption of man, de rived or propagated from our first parents to us, by which we
are immersed in evil desires, averse from good, prone to all
evil," &c. "We therefore acknowledge original sin to be
in all men; we acknowledge all other sins which arise from
this," &c. The Basil Confession of 1532. We confess that
man was originally created in the image of God, &e. " but of
his own accord fell into sin, by which fall the whole human
race has become corrupt and liable to condemnation. Hence
our nature is vitiated," &c. The Gallican Confession, 1561.
"We believe that the whole race of Adam is infected with
this contagion, which we call original sin, that is, a depravity
which is propagated, and is not derived by imitation merely,
as the Pelagians supposed, all whose errors we detest. Neither do we think it necessary-to inquire, how this sin can be
propagated from one to another," &c. — The ninth article of
the Church of England states, "Original sin standeth not in
the following of Adam, (as the Pelagians do vainly talk,) but
it is the fault and corruption of every man, that naturally is
engendered of the offspring of Adam, whereby man, is very
far gone from original righteousness, and is of his own nature
inclined to evil, so that the flesh lusteth always contrary to
the Spirit." The Belgic Confession says, "We believe, that
by the disobedience of Adam, original sin has been diffused
through the whole human race, which is a corruption of the
whole nature, and a hereditary depravity, by which even infants in their mother's womb are polluted, and which, as a
root, produces every kind of sin in man, and is so foul and
execrable before God, that it suffices to the condemnation of
voL. iv. No. OII. —2 0
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