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

they had the knowledge of an archangel, and a might as near that of God
as the creature's might can be, yet with sin, their image is that of the Devil,
and not that of God.
3. That with this loss, originated human sin.
4. That man's nature thereby became a sinful one. Adam remained in
the state to which the original or primary sin reduced him. All human
nature at the time of the Fall was embraced in Adam and Eve; they were
then the human race; they actually formed all human creatures; therefore of
necessity, when Adam and Eve fell, all human nature, then existing, fell; all
human creatures, actually existing, fell then as completely as if there had
been millions instead of two; hence the human race and human nature fell.
5. Lastly, under this thesis is asserted that original sin has continued
in the world from that hour to the present.
Why is Adam alone mentioned?
It is worthy of note that the Confession speaks of the Fall of Adam
only; Eve is not mentioned, though she was first in the transgression. Why
at least is not the phrase, "Fall of our first parents?" In this the Confession
strictly follows the line of Scripture representation: "By one man sin
entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed over upon
all men." Rom. v. 12. In the Apostle's sense, sin did not enter into the
world in Eve's transgression; nor did death enter into the world by her sin;
at most, sin and death entered her. While she was yet alone in the
transgression, sin had not yet entered the world, nor death by sin. What
had been possible for Adam, even as to the restoration of Eve, at this point,
belongs perhaps to a sphere of speculation into which it is not wise to
enter, but it is certain that the race yet stood in Adam. It was yet in his
power to save mankind. The prohibition of the fruit of the tree of
knowledge was given directly, only to Adam, and took place before the
creation of Eve, (Gen. ii. 17-21.) It bound the woman, not because God
repeated it to her, but because she was, in the nature of the case, under the
same law with her husband. After the Fall, God says to Adam: "Hast thou
eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat?"-but
to Eve, while His words imply her great guilt,