CHAPTER XXV
4o despises what he ought not. But if it cannot be shown that, as soon as infants have a soul, some will more and others will less what they ought or ought not, then no one can prove that some children are begotten more or less just than others. But as the justice of just ancestors does not seem to mitigate the original injustice of their children, so the injustice of unjust ancestors does not seem to aggravate the original injustice of theirs. So if unjust ancestors are unable to increase the original sin of their children (either in number of sins or in their magnitude), then it seems to me that the sins of their ancestors since Adam are not included in the original sin of infants.
I do not deny that many goods and great benefits abound to the souls and to the bodies of offspring on account of the merits of their ancestors. Nor do I deny that children and grandchildren 'unto the third and fourth genera tion* (and perhaps even longer) are scourged with various tribulations in this life on account of the sins of their ancestors. And although it would take too long to introduce examples, I do not even deny that children lose goods of the soul which might have accrued to them had their parents been just. But I do maintain that original sin is present to the same extent in all infants who are conceived naturally--just as the sin of Adam, which is the cause of infants' being conceived in sin, pertains to all men equally.
CHAPTER XXV
How the Sins of Ancestors Harm the Souls of their Descendants But if the sins of ancestors ever harm the souls of their descendants, then I think it might occur in this manner: God does not impute the sins of their ancestors to them, nor does He lead them into any transgression on account of their ancestors; but God does sometimes abandon men to their own sins on account of the sins of their unjust ancestors (just as He often rescues
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4i men from sin on account of the merits of their just ancestors). For since no one is free from sin unless God sets him free, then when God does not set some one free from sin, we say that God leads him into sin; and when God does not soften a man's heart, we say that God hardens his heart. So if it is said that God punishes the sinful soul on account of the sins of unjust ancestors, then it seems more credible to think that God does this by abandoning the sinful soul (to which He owes nothing but punishment) to its own sins than to think that God does this by burdening the sinful soul with the sins of other men-tormenting it because of other men's sins rather than because of its own. So, therefore, without contradicting the fact that God visits the sins of parents upon their children (and even upon their children's souls) 'unto the third and fourth generation,' and without contradicting anything else we read in Scrip ture which seems to signify that the sins of parents harm the souls of their children, we can affirm that original sin is of the same magnitude in all men, and also that 'the son will not bear the iniquity of his father' (Ez. l8:20), and that 'each one shall bear his own burden' (Gal. 6:5), and that 'everyone will receive good or evil in accordance with what he has done in the body.'
(II Cor. 5:10) For indeed, the soul of the son does not die on account of the sin of his father, but only because of its own iniquity; and the child does not bear another's burden, but only his own; and the son does not receive good and evil in the body in accordance with his father's deeds, but only in accor dance with his own. However, on account of the sins of his unjust ancestors, the son has not been freed from his own evil deeds; and for this reason the iniquities which he bears are imputed /by Scripture/ to the sins of his ancestors.
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