CHAPTER X
all infants who are naturally begotten. When human nature enters the state of reconciliation, the penalty which it received before reconciliation deservedly remains. But the torments which it was going to suffer in Hell are remitted for those whom Christ has redeemed. And the Kingdom of God into which men were to have been received in due time, after their sojourn in the earthly paradise, will be given to them provided they steadfastly persevere to the end in the faith which they promise in baptism.
CHAPTER X
Some men think that they can prove from experience that free choice can do nothing, for they see many people making an enormous effort to live a good life, but who by reason of some alleged impossibility obstructing them either have no success or, after having some success, irretrievably fall back. However, the fact that some men think this way does not destroy what we have rationally demonstrated, namely, that free choice is capable of accomplishing something with the aid of grace. I think the fact that those who make this great effort either do not make any progress, or, having made some progress, fall back, is due not to an impossibility but to an obstacle--which is sometimes grave and other times easily overcome. It is very often our habit to say about what we can perform only with difficulty that it is impossible for us. But whoever considers any movement of his own will, shall see from his own situation that he can never desert uprightness of will, which he has received by grace, un less he wills something else which he cannot will at the same time he is will ing uprightness. He certainly does not do this through a lack of ability to keep uprightness--the very ability which constitutes freedom of choice. Rather he wills this other thing because he lacks the will to keep uprightness. He does not essentially lack the will for uprightness, but he lacks it because