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

274? OP ORIGINAL SIN.what tliey conceive original sin to consist. In this they havefollowed the example of the Council of Trent. Dens definesit simply to be disobedience.* Bailly cites the opinions whichhave been held on this question by various sects, and moreespecially the doctrine of the Standards of the PresbyterianChurch, which make " the sinfulness of that estate whereintoman fell" to consist " in the guilt of Adanfs first sin, thewant of original righteousness, and the corruption of hiswhole nature, which is commonly called original sin ;"" andthough he condemns all these opinions, he offers no definitionof his own, but takes farewell of the subject with someobservations on its abstruseness, and the inutility of pryingtoo curiously into the qualities of things.-f- We know of nowriter of authority in the Roman Catholic Church, since thedays of Bellarmine atleast, who has spoken so frankly outon the doctrine of the Fall as the present occupant of thechair of theology in the University at Rome. We shallstatethe opinions of M. Perrone as clearly and accuratelyas we are able ; and this will put the reader in possessionof the Roman Catholic doctrine on this important subject.M. Perrone, in his published prelections, teaches that thefirst man was exalted to a supernatural state by the sanctifyinggrace of his Creator ; that this integrity or holiness ofnaturewas not due to man, but was a gift freely conferredon him by the divine bounty ;so that God, had he pleased,might have created man without these endowments.Accordingly,man, by his sin,says M. Perrone, lost only thosesuperadded gifts which flowed from the liberality of God ;or, what isthe same thing, man by his sin reduced himselfto that state in which he would actuallv have been createdhad not God added other gifts, both for this life and for theother.|* Theol. Petri Dens, torn. i. p. 332,—Tractatus de Peccatis.+ Theol. Moral. Ludovico Bailly, torn. i. p. 302,—"In c[uo posita sitpeccati originalis essentia 1" Dublin, 1828.+ We give M. Perrone's own words. " Jam vero juxta doctrinam Catholicamsuperius vindicatani, turn elevatio primi homiuis ad statum super-