CHAPTER VII
something and not for nothing^ However; God does not punish brute creatures, in whom justice ought not to be> for their lack of justice (i.e., on account of nothing); for there is nothing that He should demand of them; nor is there anything which the harmonious order of the universe requires. Thus when God punishes a man for sin (which is the absence of justice and hence is nothing);
He does not at all punish him on account of nothing. And since it is true that God does not punish a man unless there is something on account of which He should punish him., then it is false that God punishes a man for nothing.
CHAPTER VII
How the Seed of Man Is Said To Be Unclean and To Be Conceived in Sin; Even Though There Is Ho Sin in It I think the following things; which we have already discussed; are clear:
(l) that sin and injustice are nothing; (2) that they exist only in a rational will; and (3) that only the will can properly be called unjust. So it seems to follow either that at the very moment of his conception an infant has a rational soul (without which he cannot have a rational will); or else that at the moment of his conception he has no original sin. But no sensible person thinks that an infant has a rational soul at the very moment of his conception.
For from such a view it would follow that whenever the human seed miscarried during the period between conception and the time it attained a human form
/humanam figuram/; the human soul in that seed would be condemned; since it would not have been reconciled to God in Christ. But such a conclusion is utterly absurd. And so the supposition that an infant has a rational soul at the very moment of his conception must be given up.
But if the infant does not have sin at the moment of his conception; then why does Job say to God: 'Who can make a man clean from an unclean seed except
l4 Thou alone?' (Joh l4:4) And how is David's statement true when he says: 'I was begotten in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me'? (Ps. 51:5)
Thus, insofar as I am able I shall inquire how infants are said to be conceived in iniquity and sin, and to be conceived from unclean seed even though there is no sin in them at the moment of their conception.
Now Holy Scripture often asserts that something is already the case, not because it really is already the case, but because it is certain that it is going to happen. Thus, with respect to the forbidden tree, God said to Adam:
'In the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die.' (Gen. 2:17) But this did not mean that on that day Adam's body would actually die, but only that on that day it would become necessary for Adam to be going to die. And Paul also speaks concerning the necessity of dying someday: 'But if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is alive because of justi fication.' (Rom. 8:10) But this was not spoken to those whose bodies were already dead, but to those whose bodies were going to die on account of sin, since 'Through one man sin entered into the world, and through sin_death,'
(Rom. 5:12) Thus when Adam sinned, we all sinned in him--not because we sinned before we even existed, but because we were going to be born from Adam and because it was thus necessary that we would sin as soon as we existed. For 'through one man's disobedience, many men were made sinners.' (Rom. 5:19)
In the same way, man can be understood to be conceived in iniquity and sin, and from unclean seed--not because there is actually any iniquity, sin, or uncleanness in the seed itself, but because from that seed and its concep tion there occurs the necessity that man will have the uncleanness of sin
(uncleanness is sin and iniquity) just as soon as he has a rational soul. For if an infant is begotten by means of a corrupt concupiscence, there is no more
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