The-papacy-its-history-dogmas-genius-and-prospects-wylie

—DECREE OF TRENT. 273piscence dwells in all men, and in true Christians among therest ; but it also decided that concupiscence, which is a certaincommotion and impulse of the mind, urging to the desireof pleasures which it does not actually enjoy," is not sin.On this part of the subject the council decreed as follows :" Whoever shall affirm that this sin of Adam ....can be taken away, either by the strength of human nature,or by any other means than by the merit of our Lord JesusChrist, the one Mediator, ... or shall deny that themerit of Jesus Christ is applied both to adults and infantsby the sacrament of baptism, administered according to therites of the Church, let him be accursed."* And again,— " Whoever shall deny that the guilt of original sin is remittedby the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, bestowed inbaptism, or shall affirm that that wherein sin truly and properlyconsists is not wholly rooted up, but is only cut down,or not imputed, let him be accursed."-}*The doctrine of the Fall must necessarily be a fundamentalone in every system of theology :it formed the starting pointin those meagre systems which existed in the pagan world.But it is not enough that we give it a place in our schemeof truth;—it must be rightly and fully understood, otherwiseall will be wrong in our system of religion. Should we fallinto the mistake of supposing that the injury sustained byman when he fell was less than it really is, we will, in thesame proportion, underrate the extent to which he must bedependent upon the atonement of Christ, and overestimatethe extent to which he is able to help himself. It may beseen, then, that an error here will vitiate our whole scheme,and may lead to fatal consequences.It becomes important,therefore, to state accurately, though succinctly, the opinionsheld by modern writers in the Church of Home on the doctrinesof the Fall and Divine Grace. The authors of thosesystems of theology which are used as text-books in thetraining of the priesthood have not very distinctly stated in* Can, et Dec. Concilii Tridentini, p. 19. t Idem, p. 20.X