Page:Balthasar Hübmaier.djvu/264

 much better. Adam, says our author, was created pure, and entirely free in the choice of good and evil, but when he sinned he lost this freedom, not only for himself, but for all his descendants. But fully to understand what this implies, we need to distinguish a threefold will: the will of the body, the will of the soul, the will of the spirit. The body became by Adam's sin corrupted, so that it can do nothing but sin. The soul also participated in this fall: it became so wounded and sick that it cannot of itself choose the good and resist the evil. The spirit participated in the effects of the fall, since it is a prisoner in the corrupted body, but it did not participate in the offence of Adam, for it did not yield to the sin of disobedience. In his catechism, where this question is of necessity more briefly discussed, there is a summary of his fundamental doctrine regarding human nature that is admirable in its point and clearness:

"To sum up then: God made us free in body, soul and spirit. This freedom and goodness became, by the disobedience of Adam, captive in the spirit, wounded in the soul, and corrupted in the body. Hence, we are conceived and born in sin, children of wrath. If we are to become again free in spirit, sound in soul, uninjured