III. What are the effects of the first sin?

The effects of the first sin are:
1. Exposure to death, and the privation and destruction of the image of God in our first parents.
2. Original sin in their posterity, which includes exposures to eternal death, and a depravity and aversion of our whole nature to God.
3. All actual sins, which proceed from original sin; for that which is the cause of a cause, is also the cause of the effect. . The first sin is the cause of original sin, and this of actual sins.
4. All the various evils which are inflicted upon men as punishments for sin.

The first sin, therefore, is the cause of all other sins, and of the punishments which are inflicted upon the children of men. But whether it is in accordance with the justice of God to punish posterity for the sins of their parents, will be hereafter explained, when we come to treat the subject of original sin.