In the second article we approve their Confession, in common
with the Catholic Church, that the fault of origin is truly
sin, condemning and bringing eternal death upon those who are
not born again by baptism and the Holy Ghost. For in this
they properly condemn the Pelagians, both modern and ancient,
who have been long since condemned by the Church. But the
declaration of the article, that Original Sin is that men are
born without the fear of God and without trust in God, is to
be entirely rejected, since it is manifest to every Christian
that to be without the fear of God and without trust in God
is rather the actual guilt of an adult than the offence of a
recently-born infant, which does not possess as yet the full
use of reason, as the Lord says "Your children which had no
knowledge between good and evil," Deut 1:39. Moreover, the
declaration is also rejected whereby they call the fault of
origin concupiscence, if they mean thereby that concupiscence
is a sin that remains sin in a child even after baptism. For
the Apostolic See has already condemned two articles of
Martin Luther concerning sin remaining in a child after
baptism, and concerning the fomes of sin hindering a soul
from entering the kingdo of heaven. But if, according to the
opinion of St Augustine, they call the vice of origin
concupiscence, which in baptism ceases to be sin, this ought
to be accepted, since indeed according to the declaration of
St. Paul, we are all born children of wrath (Eph. 2:3), and
in Adam we all have sinned (Rom.5:12).


To Article III.