Question. But why should all the posterity, for the parents’ fault, lose all felicity and fall into all misery?
Answer. God endowed Adam with those gifts to have them or lose them for himself and for his offspring, that is, for all mankind. And it could not be otherwise, for as from an evil tree evil fruits spring, so Adam, being corrupted with sin, all who came from him must also be corrupted with that original sin. Yet we need not complain so much against our father Adam, since we ourselves, by our many and great sins, have most deservedly fallen into all miseries, death, and damnation; from which there remains no help or remedy in ourselves or in any other creature.
Scripture Reference: Matt. 7:18 and 12:33; Rom. 5:12, 14, 17; Hosea 6:7; Rom. 6:23; 2 Cor. 11:3; Eph. 5:6
Question. What hope or comfort then is left, and in whom does it remain?
Answer. God promised that the seed of the woman, who is Jesus Christ, the son of the Virgin Mary, would bruise the head of the serpent—that is, the Devil who deceived them—and so would deliver them and their posterity who believed the same. And this is what now follows in the second part of the Creed: I believe in Jesus Christ, etc.
Scripture Reference: Gen. 3:14, 15; Rom. 5:15, 16; Gal. 3:16, 19; Heb. 2:14-16