Mozley: A Treatise on the Augustinian Doctrine of

34-O
Note VII.
must be a voluntary act, and no other thing can be volun
unto all. . . .
tary but the transgression of Adam imputed
The opinion of Catarinus was expressed by a political con
ceit of a bargain made by one for his
posterity, which, being
transgressed, they are all undoubtedly bound. PauVs
History of Council of Trent (Brent), pp. 165. 168.
NOTE VII. p. 33.
JEREMY TAYLOR S argument on original sin is directed
throughout against the received and Catholic interpreta
tion of that sin, as involving desert of eternal punishment,
which he rejects as being opposed to our natural idea of
justice. Was it just in Grod to damn all mankind to the
eternal pains of hell for Adam s sin committed before they
had any being, or could consent to it or know of it ? If it
could be just, then anything in the world can be just ; and
it is no matter who is innocent, or who is criminal, directly
or by choice, since they may turn devils in their mother s
bellies ; and it matters not whether there be any laws or
no, since it is all one that there be no laws, and that we
do not know whether there be or no ; and it matters not
whether there be any judicial proofs, for we may as well be
damned without judgment, as be guilty without action.
Vol. ix. p. 332. And truly, my Lord, to say that for
Adam s sin it is just in Grod to condemn infants to the
eternal flames of hell, and to say that concupiscence or
natural inclinations before they pass into any act would
bring eternal condemnation from Grod s presence into the
eternal portion of devils, are two such horrid propositions,
that if any church in the world should expressly affirm
them, I, for my part, should think it unlawful to commu
nicate with her in the defence or profession of either, and
to think it would be the greatest temptation in the world
to make men not to love Grod, of whom men so easily speak
such horrid things. p. 373. Is hell so easy a pain,
or are the souls of children of so cheap, so contemptible
throw them into hell ?
,-a price, that Grod should so easily
r<pd s goodness, which pardons many sins that we could