136 THEOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS 



sin has engendered in all his offspring, by reason of 

 which we are all inclined to sin and unable, apart 

 from saving grace, to turn to God and to please Him. 

 It is not so easy to come at the precise meaning of 

 certain incidental phrases. But close scrutiny enables 

 us to see that in the partly figurative phrase, "in every 

 person born into this world it deserveth God's wrath 

 and damnation," the word "it" refers to the inherited 

 defect of nature. This is what is said to displease 

 God. It is not said that new-born infants are treated 

 by God as personally guilty. That the tendency to 

 sin is not abolished at once by baptismal regeneration 

 is a fact which universal Christian experience confirms. 

 Catholic doctrine teaches that the effect of Baptism 

 is to impart the grace of Christ, the operation of which 

 is sanctifying but gradual, and dependent upon moral 

 conditions of hfelong necessity. God receives the 

 regenerate into His favour because they are in a state 

 which, if persevered in, will finally remove lust and 

 concupiscence and bring their sins to an end. Con- 

 cupiscence and lust are said to have the nature of sin 

 simply because their power in us is caused by Adam's 

 sin, and is a cause of our sin. As the Council of Trent 

 expressed it, the inherited evil propensity of our nature 

 is called sin because "it comes from sin and inclines 

 ♦to sin." ^ Much confusing controversy has occurred 

 in relation to good works. But so far as the meaning 



' "Sancta Synodus declarat, Ecclesiam Catholicam nunquam intel- 

 lexisse peccatum appellari, quod vere et proprie in renatis peccatum sit, 

 scd quia ex peccato est, et ad peccatum inclinat." Trid. Sess., V. § 5. 



