35. Since the churches in the Christian world, both the Roman Catholic Church and those separated from it, which are named after their leaders, Luther, Melancthon, and Calvin, derive all sin from Adam and his transgression, it is permissible to subjoin here something about the sources whence sins are inherited; for these sources are as many as there are fathers and mothers in the world. That inclinations, aptitudes, and propensities to evils are derived from these, is manifest in light from the testimonies of experience, and also from the assent of reason. Who does not know, from the collective suffrages of experience, that there is a general likeness of minds, and hence of manners and countenances, from parents in the children and children's children, even to a certain posterity? Who cannot thence infer that original sins are from them? The notion suggested to everyone, when he looks at the countenances and manners of brothers and relatives in families, causes him to know and acknowledge this. [2] What reason, then, is there for deducing the origin of all evils from Adam and his seed? Is there not equal reason for deducing it from parents? Does not the seed of these similarly propagate itself? To deduce from Adam's seed alone the allurements from which and according to which the spiritual forms of the minds of all men in the universe exist, would be like deriving birds of every wing from one egg, also beasts of every nature from one seed, and trees of every kind of fruit from one root. Is there not an infinite variety of men? one like a sheep, another like a wolf? one like a kid, another like a panther? one like a tamed carriage horse before a carriage, another like an untamable wild ass before it? one like a playful calf, another like a voracious tiger? and so on. Whence has each his peculiar disposition but from his father and his mother? Why then from Adam? by whom nevertheless is described in a representative type the first church of this earth, as has been already shown? Would not this be like deriving from one stock deeply hidden in the earth a plantation of trees of every kind and use, and from a single plant shrubs of every degree of value? Would that not also be like deriving light from the darkness of the ages and of histories, and like unravelling the thread of a knot that cannot he untied? Why not rather from Noah, "who walked with God" (Gen. 6:9), and "whom God blessed" (Gen. 9:1), and from whom alone, surviving with his three children, "the whole earth was overspread"? (Gen. 9:19.) Would not the hereditary qualities of the generations from Adam be extirpated, as if drowned by a flood? [3] But, my friend, I will open the true source of sins. Every evil is conceived of the Devil as a father, and is born of atheistical faith as a mother; and on the other hand, every good is conceived of the Lord as a father, and is born of saving faith in Him as a mother. The generations of all goods in their infinite varieties among men are from no other origin than from the marriage of the Lord and the church; and, on the contrary, the generations of all evils among them in their varieties, are from no other origin than from the interaction of the Devil with a profane congregation. Who does not know, or may not know, that a man must be regenerated by the Lord, that is, created anew, and that so far as this is effected so far he is in goods? Hence this follows: that so far as a man is unwilling to be generated anew or created anew, so far he takes up and retains the evils implanted in him from his parents. This is what lies concealed in the first precept of the Decalogue: