The Conservative Reformation and Its Theology - Saint Mary ...

to good, but simply his repressive external power, and the meaning is, that
the sinful will consummates itself in sinful act, wherever it is not repressed
by the Providence of God. Quenstedt embodies the faith of our Church,
when he says emphatically: "God is in no respect whatever the efficient
cause of sin as such, neither in part, nor in the whole; neither directly, nor
indirectly; neither per se, nor by accident; neither in the species of Adam's
fall, nor in the genus of sin of any kind. In no respect is God the cause or
author of sin, or can be called such. See Ps. v. 5, ib. xlv. 12, Zach. viii. 17, 1
John i. 5, James i. 13-17. But, whatever there is of want of conformity with
the law, aÓnomi÷a, that is to be ascribed to the free will of the creature itself,
acting of its own accord. See further, Hosea xiii. 9, Matt. xxiii. 37."
In regard to these passages, which speak of a hardening on the part
of God, such as Exod. vii. 3, John vii. 10, Rom. ix. 18, Hollazius says:
"God does not harden men causally, or effectively, by sending hardness
into the hearts of men, but (judicialiter,) judicially, permissively, and
desertively."
The standing sophism against just views of original sin is that
nothing is sin except it be voluntary; and that nothing is voluntary, unless it
be done with a distinct consciousness and purpose of the will. But, over
against this, the Scriptures and sound logic teach, that to a true conception
of what is voluntary, i. e. is of, or pertains to the will, belongs the state of
the will previous to any act. Before there can be a voluntary act, there must
be a state of the will which conditions that act. Original sin, therefore, is
voluntary sin on this broader and more Scriptural conception of what is
voluntary. The New England theology, in our country, has laid special
stress upon the false conception of what is voluntary. The Apology of the
Augsburg Confession says: "The adversaries (i. e. Pelagianizing
Romanists,) contend that nothing is sin except it be voluntary. These
expressions may hold good among philosophers, in judging of civil
morals, but they have nothing to do with the judgment of God." Hollazius
says: "The element of the voluntary does not enter into a definition of sin,
generically considered. A sin is said to be voluntary,