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

When we say that the morality of an act is conditioned by the will, we
mean simply that the character of the act is derived from the condition of
the will. The sin is really in the condition of the will. The sin done is but
phenomenal to the real sin. In this respect all sin is essentially original; and
of the two extremes of statement, it would be more logical to assert that all
sin is in its own nature original, and no sin in proper essence actual, than to
assume that all sin is actual, and no sin original. LUTHER: 280 "Original
sin, or sin of nature, sin of person, is the real cardinal sin (Hauptsünde).
Did it not exist, no actual sin would exist. It is not a sin which is done, like
all other sins, but it is, it lives, and does all sins, and is the essential
(wesentliche) sin.”
If this estimate of the bearing of the condition of will upon the
controversy between the Church and Pelagianism be correct, it is evident
that the great question at issue is, In which of the four conditions
enumerated is the will of man now?
I. It is Pelagian to assert that the primary condition of the will of man
now is that of concreate holiness, as it was endowed in the beginning by
God. “Every man is born in the same perfection wherein Adam was before
his fall, save only the perfection of age.”
II. It is Pelagian to assert that the primary condition of the will is now
made by influences from without. "Adam endamaged...his posterity only
by his example, so far forth as they imitate him." "There is no original sin,
or corruption of human nature."
III. It is Pelagian to assert that the primary condition of the will now
is, or results from, a self-determining exercise of the will. "Man of himself
is able to resist the strongest temptations." "The well-using of free-will and
of natural powers is the cause of predestination."
IV. It is Pelagian to deny that the present condition of our will is
inherited by natural descent: "Adam by his sin endamaged only himself,"
or, to assert that though our present condition of will may be connate, yet
that this connate condition is either
280 Hauss-postilla on the Gospel for New Year.