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Article 15: The Doctrine of Original Sin
- We believe that through the disobedience of Adam original sin is
extended to all mankind; which is a corruption of the whole nature
and a hereditary disease, wherewith even infants in their mother's
womb are infected, and which produces in man all sorts of sin, being
in him as a root thereof, and therefore is so vile and abominable
in the sight of God that it is sufficient to condemn all mankind.
Nor is it altogether abolished or wholly eradicated even by baptism;
since sin always issues forth from this woeful source, as water from
a fountain; notwithstanding it is not imputed to the children of God
unto condemnation, but by His grace and mercy is forgiven them. Not
that they should rest securely in sin, but that sense of this corruption
should make believers often to sigh, desiring to be delivered from
this body of death.
- Wherefore we reject the error of the Pelagians, who assert that sin
proceeds only from imitation.
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