loy terms
denoting substance (_quae verbis substantialibus utuntur_) are so
numerous." (Planck 4, 610; Luthardt, 216.) Also later on Flacius always
maintained that his doctrine was nothing but the teaching of the Bible
and of Luther. As to Scripture-proofs, he referred to passages in which
the Scriptures designate sin as "flesh," "stony heart," etc. Regarding
the teaching of Luther, he quoted statements in which he describes
original sin as "man's nature," "essence," "substantial sin," "all that
is born of father and mother," etc. (Preger 2, 318.)

However, the palpable mistake of Flacius was that he took the
substantial terms on which he based his theory in their original and
proper sense, while the Bible and Luther employ them in a figurative
meaning, as the _Formula of Concord_ carefully explains in its first
article, which decided and settled this controversy. (874, 50.) Here we
read: "Also to avoid strife about words, _aequivocationes vocabulorum_,
that is, words and expressions which are applied and used in various
meanings, should be carefully and distinctly explained, as when it is
said: God creates the nature of men, there by the term _nature_ the
essence, body, and soul of men are understood. But often the disposition
or vicious quality of a thing is called its nature, as when it is said:
It is the nature of the serpent to bite and poison. Thus Luther says
that sin and sinning are the disposition and nature of corrupt man.
Therefore original sin properly signifies the deep corruption of our
nature as it is described in the _Smalcald Articles_. But sometimes the
concrete person or the subject that is, man himself with body and soul
in which sin is and inheres, is also comprised under this term, for the
reason that man is corrupted by sin, poisoned and sinful, as when Luther
says: 'Thy birth, thy nature, and thy entire essence is sin,' that is,
sinful and unclean. Luther himself explains that by nature-sin,
person-sin, essential sin he means that not only the words, thoughts,
and works are sin, but that the entire nature, person and essence of man
are altogether corrupted from the root by original sin." (875, 51f.)

168. Context in which Statement was Made.

In making his statement concerning the substantiality of original sin,
the purpose of Flacius was to wipe out the last vestige of spiritual
powers ascribed to natural man by Strigel, and to emphasize the doctrine
of total corruption, which Strigel denied.