Глава IX

It is impossible to foresee something that will never happen 41. So, we have already shown that only in complete blindness can we say that God foresaw the future deeds of the two twins of the patriarch Isaac (who lived long and lived to old age) and because of [these deeds] he loved Jacob and hated Esau 132 . Therefore, no one has the right to say in relation to those babies who are about to die [in infancy], that God took care to allow one of them to be baptized, but did not bother to give this to the other, since He foresaw their future deeds. After all, how can you call something the future that never happened? The absurdities of heretics who speak of future things that will not happen 42. But [those who object to us] say: “In relation to those whom God takes from this life, He foresees how each of them would live if he continued to live, and therefore, if He knows that someone would live wickedly, He allows him to die without baptism. In like manner He punishes the evil deeds in that person; not the ones he did, but the ones he could have done.” So, if even those evil deeds that were not committed are punished by God, then first of all let [our opponents] notice how false their assurance is that those babies who died without baptism will not go to condemnation, because they were not baptized for the reason that if they continued to live, they would have lived badly; This means that they will undoubtedly be condemned for their bad life itself, since those evil deeds that could be committed in the future are condemned. Further, if God takes care that those receive the sacrament of baptism, in respect of whom He knows that they would live well if they continued to live, then why are they not all kept in the life that they were to adorn with good works? And why do some of those who are baptized, while living long, live badly and sometimes even come to the point of apostasy from the faith? Why, if even sins not yet committed are punished fairly, did He not expel the very first married couple of sinners, about whom God undoubtedly knew that they would sin, from paradise before this sin, so that they would not commit there what was unworthy of such a holy place? Further, what good does it do to someone who has been raptured, so that malice does not change his mind, and flattery does not deceive his soul, 133 if in justice he is also punished for what he, although he did not do, would have done if he had continued to live? Finally, why does God not rather take care of granting the washing of rebirth 134 to that dying baby, who would live badly if he continued to live, so that in this way he would be remitted in baptism for sins that he might commit in the future? After all, who would be so reckless and deny that in baptism something can be released that, as he says, can be punished without baptism? J.-P. Migne. Paris, 1845. T. 33. Col. 874–891. Places with discrepancies were verified with the publication: Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum. Vindobonae, 1911. Vo1. 57. R. 176–214. You might be interested in: