Chapter 24.—That No One is Judged According to What He Would Have Done If He Had Lived Longer.

For who can hear that infants, baptized in the condition of mere infancy, are said to depart from this life by reason of their future merits, and that others not baptized are said to die in the same age because their future merits are foreknown,—but as evil; so that God rewards or condemns in them not their good or evil life, but no life at all?88    See Prosper’s Letter in Augustin’s Letters, 225, ch. 5. The apostle, indeed, fixed a limit which man’s incautious suspicion, to speak gently, ought not to transgress, for he says, “We shall all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ; that every one may receive according to the things which he has done by means of the body, whether it be good or evil.”89    2 Cor. v. 10. “Has done,” he said; and he did not add, “or would have done.” But I know not whence this thought should have entered the minds of such men, that infants’ future merits (which shall not be) should be punished or honoured. But why is it said that a man is to be judged according to those things which he has done by means of the body, when many things are done by the mind alone, and not by the body, nor by any member of the body; and for the most part things of such importance, that a most righteous punishment would be due to such thought, such as,—to say nothing of others,—that “The fool hath said in his heart there is no God”?90    Ps. xiv. 1. What, then, is the meaning of, “According to those things that he hath done by means of the body,” except according to those things which he has done during that time in which he was in the body, so that we may understand “by means of the body” as meaning “throughout the season of bodily life”? But after the body, no one will be in the body except at the last resurrection,—not for the purpose of establishing any claims of merit, but for the sake of receiving recompenses for good merits, and enduring punishments for evil merits. But in this intermediate period between the putting off and the taking again of the body, the souls are either tormented or they are in repose, according to those things which they have done during the period of the bodily life. And to this period of the bodily life moreover pertains, what the Pelagians deny, but Christ’s Church confesses, original sin; and according to whether this is by God’s grace loosed, or by God’s judgment not loosed, when infants die, they pass, on the one hand, by the merit of regeneration from evil to good, or on the other, by the merit of their origin from evil to evil. The catholic faith acknowledges this, and even some heretics, without any contradiction, agree to this. But in the height of wonder and astonishment I am unable to discover whence men, whose intelligence your letters show to be by no means contemptible, could entertain the opinion that any one should be judged not according to the merits that he had as long as he was in the body, but according to the merits which he would have had if he had lived longer in the body; and I should not dare to believe that there were such men, if I could venture to disbelieve you. But I hope that God will interpose, so that when they are admonished they may at once perceive, that if those sins which, as is said, would have been, can rightly be punished by God’s judgment in those who are not baptized, they may alo be rightly remitted by God’s grace in those who are baptized. For whoever says that future sins can only be punished by God’s judgment, but cannot be pardoned by God’s mercy, ought to consider how great a wrong he is doing to God and His grace; as if future sin could be foreknown, and could not be foregone.91    Prænosci possit, nec possit ignosci. And if this is absurd, it is the greater reason that help should be afforded to those who would be sinners if they lived longer, when they die in early life, by means of that laver wherein sins are washed away.

24. Quis enim audiat, quod dicuntur parvuli pro suis futuris meritis in ipsa infantili aetate baptizati exire de hac vita; et ideo alii non baptizati in eadem aetate mori, quia et ipsorum praescita sunt merita futura, sed mala; non eorum vitam bonam vel malam Deo remunerante vel damnante , sed nullam (Supra in Epistola Prosperi, n. 5, col. 951-952)? Apostolus quidem limitem fixit, quem transgredi non debeat hominis, ut mitius loquar, incauta suspicio. Ait enim, Omnes astabimus ante tribunal Christi, ut referat unusquisque secundum ea quae per corpus gessit, sive bonum, sive malum (II Cor. V, 10): gessit, inquit; non adjunxit, Vel gesturus fuit. Sed unde hoc talibus viris in mentem venerit nescio, ut futura quae non sunt futura, puniantur, aut honorentur merita parvulorum. Cur autem dictum est, secundum ea qua per corpus gessit hominem judicandum, cum gerantur multa solo animo, non per corpus, nec per ullum corporis membrum; et plerumque tam magna, ut talibus cogitationibus poena justissima debeatur: sicuti est, ut alia taceam, quod dixit insipiens in corde suo, Non est Deus (Psal. XIII, 1)? Quid est ergo, secundum ea quae per corpus gessit; nisi, Secundum ea quae gessit eo tempore quo in corpore fuit, ut per corpus intelligamus, Per corporis tempus? Post corpus autem nemo erit in corpore, nisi resurrectione novissima; non ad ulla merita comparanda, sed ad recipienda pro bonis meritis praemia, pro malis luenda supplicia. Hoc autem medio tempore inter depositionem 0978 et receptionem corporis, secundum ea quae gesserunt per corporis tempus, sive cruciantur animae, sive requiescunt. Ad quod tempus corporis pertinet etiam quod Pelagiani negant, sed Christi Ecclesia confitetur, originale peccatum: quo sive soluto per Dei gratiam, sive per Dei judicium non soluto, cum moriuntur infantes, aut merito regenerationis transeunt ex malis ad bona, aut merito originis transeunt ex malis ad mala. Hoc catholica fides novit: in hoc etiam nonnulli haeretici sine ulla contradictione consentiunt. Judicari autem quemquam non secundum merita quae habuit quamdiu fuit in corpore, sed secundum merita quae fuerat habiturus si diutius vixisset in corpore, unde opinari potuerint homines, quorum ingenia non esse contemptibilia vestrae indicant litterae, mirans et stupens reperire non possum: nec credere auderem, nisi vobis non credere non auderem. Sed spero adfuturum Deum, ut commoniti cito videant, ea quae dicuntur futura fuisse peccata, si per Dei judicium in non baptizatis possunt jure puniri, etiam per Dei gratiam baptizatis posse dimitti. Quicumque enim dicit, puniri tantum posse Deo judicante futura peccata, dimitti autem Deo miserante non posse, cogitare debet quantam Deo faciat gratiaeque ejus injuriam; quasi futurum peccatum praenosci possit, nec possit ingosci. Quod si absurdum est; magis ergo futuris, si diu viverent, peccatoribus, cum in parva aetate moriuntur, lavacro quo peccata diluuntur, debuit subvenire.