The Literal Meaning of Genesis
tism. Now, if the bond of sin which is loosed in them is a bond of the flesh only and not also of the soul, one could rightly ask what harm they would suffer if they went forth from the body at that early age without baptism. For if this sacrament is for the good of their bodies and not of their souls, they ought to be baptized even when dead. But since the universal Church holds to the custom of rushing to the sacrament with living infants to provide for them, fearing that when they die nothing can be done to help them, there is only one explanation, namely, each child is Adam in body and soul, and therefore the grace of Christ is necessary for him. At that age the infant in his own person has done no good or evil,3° and thus his soul is perfectly innocent if it has not descended from Adam. Consequently, it will be an extraordinary achievement if the person who holds that the soul has not descended from Adam's soul is able to show how the soul of an infant can be justly condemned if it goes forth from the body without baptism!*°
CHAPTER 12
The cause of carnal desire is not in the flesh alone but also in the soul.
20. The testimony of Scripture is certainly true when it says, The desires of the flesh are against the spirit, and those of the spirit against the flesh.+1 Nevertheless, | am convinced that no one, learned or ignorant, questions the fact that the flesh can have no desires without the soul. Consequently, the cause of carnal concupiscence is not in the soul alone, much less in the flesh alone.
It comes from both sources: from the soul, because without it no pleasure is felt; from the flesh, because without it carnal pleasure is not felt. Hence, when St. Paul speaks of the desires of the flesh against the spirit, he undoubtedly means the carnal pleasure which the spirit experiences from the flesh and with the flesh as opposed to the pleasure which the spirit alone experiences.
It is the spirit alone indeed, if I am not mistaken, that has a