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

deviating from the will of God in burning, though it surrounds and
consumes the body of Huss. All the deviation from God's will, and all the
sin, is in the will of devils and men, which has brought the martyr to the
stake. Whatever is not in accordance with His will, has in it the essence of
sin. But not only conscious sins, but that condition of nature also in which
they originate, is the result, not of God's will, but of the abuse of the will of
the creature. Whatever exists of which God cannot be said to be the
author, is sinful. But God is not the author either of the fall of Satan, the
temptation and lapse of Adam, the corruption of his nature, or of the
consequent defect of righteousness, and the evil desire inherited in human
nature. Hence all of these have in them the essence of sin.
We ask, is the moral condition in which man is born in conformity
with the will of God, or in conflict with it? If it be in conformity with it, it is
not depravity--it is a good thing. If it is a deviation from it, it is not
depravity merely, but truly sin. There is no logical consistency at any point
between the extremest Pelagianism and the strictest adhesion to the faith of
the Church on this point.
Not only, however, is original sin essentially sin, but it is such
preeminently. It might be questioned whether a seed is essentially
vegetable, because in it, undeveloped, none of the. obvious distinctive
characteristics of vegetation meet the eye; so that a grain of mustard-seed
might be mistaken for a grain of sand, and a skilful imitation of an acorn
actually be regarded as an acorn. But the answer could be truly made that
not only is the seed vegetable in its essence, but preeminently so, as it is
the necessary presupposition to all other vegetable existence; enfolds in it
all vegetable capacity; determines all vegetable character. The nature of its
potencies makes the vegetable world.
And thus in the infant the dim traces of moral character can be easily
overlooked. Sceptical sciolism may maintain that there is nothing
discernible in an infant which marks it, any more than a kitten or a lamb, as
a personal and moral agent; nevertheless, it has a moral nature, which is to
reveal itself in moral character. That moral nature is marked by a defect
and