The cause of original sin (peccatum originale) is not God, who in His just wrath condemns and punishes this sin, Eph. 2, 3, but a) the devil (causa remota), who seduced our first parents, Gen. 3, 1 fl. ; John 8, 44; 2 Cor. 11, 3; and b) our first parents themselves (causa propin.qua), who allowed themselves to be misled,. Rom. 5, 12; 1 Tim. 2, 14. Hollaz writes: "Our first parents are the proximate cause of the original blemish, from whose impure nature the original stain has flowed into our hearts. Everything follows the seeds of its own nature. No black crow ever produces a white dove, nor does a ferocious lion beget a gentle lamb; and no man polluted with inborn sin ever begets a holy child." Doctr. Theol., p. 239.