ing drowned in evil concupiscence, and clean turned away from God, but prone to all evil, full of all wickedness, distrust, contempt, and hatred of God, can do no good of ourselves—no, not so much as think any (Matt. xii. 34, 35).
And, what is more, even as we do grow in years, so by wicked thoughts, words, and deeds, committed against the law of God, we bring forth corrupt fruits, worthy of an evil tree: in which respect we, through our own desert, being subject to the wrath of God, are in danger of just punishment; so that we had all been cast away from God, had not Christ, the Deliverer, brought us back again.
By death, therefore, we understand not only bodily death, which is once to be suffered of us all for our sins, but also everlasting punishments due to our corruption and to our sins. For the Apostle says, ‘We were dead in trespasses and sins, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others; but God, who is rich in mercy, even when we were dead in sins, quickened us together with Christ’ (Eph. ii. 1-5). Again, ‘As by one man sin entered into the world, and by sin, death, and so death passed upon all men, forasmuch as all men have sinned,’ etc. (Rom. v. 12).
We therefore acknowledge that original sin is in all men; we acknowledge that all other sins which spring therefrom are both called and are indeed sins, by what name soever they may be termed, whether mortal or venial, or also that which is called sin against the Holy Spirit, which is never forgiven.
We also confess that sins are not equal (John v. 16, 17), although they spring from the same fountain of corruption and unbelief, but that some are more grievous than others (Mark iii. 28, 29); even as the Lord has said, ‘It shall be easier for Sodom’ than for the city that despises the word of the Gospel (Matt. x. 15). We therefore condemn all those that have taught things contrary to these; but especially Pelagius, and all the Pelagians, together with the Jovinianists, who, with the Stoics, count all sins equal. We in this matter agree fully with St. Augustine, who produced and maintained his sayings out of the Holy Scriptures. Moreover, we condemn Florinus and Blastus (against whom also Irenæus wrote), and all those who make God the author of sin; seeing it expressly written, ‘Thou art not a God that loveth wickedness; thou hatest all them that work iniquity, and wilt destroy all that
