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Orthodox Doctrine (Summary of Christian Divinity)
Metropolitan Platon of Moscow, tr. Pinkerton, 1814
15. Part 2, Section 15: The Consequences of the First Sin
Through the first transgression, the door to sin was opened, which, by infecting the whole human race, at last brought them into the utmost misery.
1. In the First Part, under Section xiv. we have shewn that a change must have taken place among the children of men; but the fountain out of which all this evil flowed, we knew not. Now we behold the beginning of this evil: for the Holy Scriptures, in making known the happy state in which the first man was created, are also not silent in regard to the manner in which he fell from this happiness; and this fall has brought death upon all men. The word of God clearly and powerfully confirms this. “By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned;” Rom. v. 12. The Heathens themselves, notwithstanding their great darkness, are unable to deny the general corruption of the human race; but Christians alone enjoy the peculiar privilege of pointing to the very spring from which this flood of wickedness flows.
In course of time sin became more powerful.
2. Though the first man was subdued by sin, yet the power of sin did not rage so much in him as in his posterity; because the light in which he was created was not altogether extinguished, and the affections of a good heart by the first shock were not completely overthrown. But in process of time, and as mankind began to multiply, sin became the more powerful, and injustice increased. Hence, soon after the fall, Cain imbrued his hands in the blood of his own innocent brother Abel; Gen. iv. 8. And in the progress of a few ages, wickedness increased to such a degree, that the Holy Scriptures assure us, “the earth was filled with violence; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.” Gen. vi. 11, 12.
The divine Paul agrees in this representation, and also reckons up the abominable and corrupt deeds into which the children of men had plunged themselves; Rom. i. 18. In short, in this creature, formed after the image of God, not one feature of that image was to be observed; but a certain kind of awful darkness, in which he blindly wandered through paths out of which he could not extricate himself, following only the dictates of his own irregular affections. Surely it is unnecessary, in this place, to prove how wretched and sorrowful man is in such a condition, because, to have the light of reason darkened, to be removed from virtue, consequently from God, from the most exalted good, is a state of misery, than which the mind of man cannot conceive a greater.