into this world,
and by sin death, and so death passed unto all men, in whom all have
sinned."(331) And elsewhere he tells us that "we were by nature children
of wrath."(332)

"Who," says Job, "can make him clean that is conceived of unclean seed,"
or, as the Septuagint version expresses it: "There is no one free from
stain, not even though his life be of one day."(333) As an infant one day
old cannot commit an actual sin, the _stain_ must come from the original
offense of Adam. "Behold," says David, "I was conceived in iniquities, and
in sins did my mother conceive me."(334) The Scripture also tells us that
Jeremiah and John the Baptist were sanctified before their birth, or
purified from sin, and, of course, at that period of their existence they
were incapable of actual sin. They were cleansed, therefore, from the
original taint.

These passages clearly show that we have all inherited the transgression
of our first parents, and that we are born enemies of God. And it is
equally plain that these texts apply to every member of the human
family--to the infant of a day old as well as to the adult.

Indeed, even without the light of Holy Scripture, we have only to look
into ourselves to be convinced that our nature has undergone a rude shock.
How else can we account for the miseries and infirmities of our bodies,
the blindness of our understanding, the perversity of our will--inclined
always to evil rather than to good--the violence of our passions, which are
constantly waging war in our hearts? How well does the Catholic doctrine
explain this abnormal state. Hence, Paschal truly says that man is a
greater mystery to himself without original sin than is the mystery
itself.

The Church, however, declares that the Blessed Virgin Mary was exempted
from the stain of original sin by the merits of our Savior Jesus Christ;
and that, consequently, she was never for an instant subject to the
dominion of Satan.

This is what is meant by the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception.

But God, in passing sentence of condemnation on Adam, consoled him by the
promise of a Redeemer to come. "I will put enmities," saith the Lord,
"between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed; she shall crush
thy head."(335) Jesus, the seed of Mary, is the chosen one who was
destined to crush the head of the infernal serpent. And "when the fulness
of time was come God sent His Son, made of a woman, ... that He might
redeem them that were unde