.

The apostle sums up his argument by saying (v. 19), "For as by the
disobedience of one man the many were made sinners, so also by the
obedience {16} of one shall the many be made righteous" (_dikaioi
katastatesontai oi polloi_). It is evident that "the many" here
includes all that are born in the world, in contradistinction to "the
one," Adam, who was created, and from whom all have descended by
natural generation. Now, considering that righteousness and life, as
necessarily as their opposites sin and death, are related to each other
by law as antecedent and consequent, the above revelation that "all
will be made righteous" is as direct an assertion of the immortality of
all men as could possibly be made. It is, therefore, of the greatest
moment, as regards our argument, to ascertain on what grounds we are
told that all will eventually be "made righteous" through the obedience
of Jesus Christ, and what is the exact meaning of this doctrine. The
purpose of this essay will be completely fulfilled if it should be
shown that these questions admit of being satisfactorily answered. But
before attempting to do this, it is necessary to have a precise
understanding of the previous assertion that through Adam's
disobedience "the many were made sinners." This preliminary inquiry I
now proceed to enter upon.

If we adopt the view expressed in a passage already quoted (2 Esdras
iii. 21), we shall, in effect, admit that the transgression of Adam was
_the consequence_ of his "bearing a wicked heart," and that all who are
born of him sin because by _natural generation_ they {17} have received
from him the same wicked heart. According to this view it must be
supposed that "the wicked heart" is in respect to goodness a _tabula
rasa_, and that till goodness be formed in it, it is led by natural
desires to do evil. Certainly the moral phenomena exhibited by very
young children accord with this supposition; and it may reasonably be
presumed that St. Paul, in giving to the Romans, to whom he had not
personally preached, a synoptical statement of the doctrines he was
accustomed to teach, did not set before them the Scriptural account of
the introduction and prevalence of sin in any manner not intelligible
to ordinary minds from common experience.

What then are we to understand by the assertion that "through the
disobedience of one man the many were made sinners"? In answer to this
question it is to be said that the word _parak