Chapter 22 [XV.]—A Summary Recapitulation of the Errors of Victor.
What these particular errors are, I have, to the best of my ability, already explained. But I will run over them again with a brief recapitulation. One is, “That God did not make the soul out of nothing, but out of His own self.” A
second
is, that “just as God who gives is Himself ever existent, so is He ever giving souls through infinite time.” The
third
is, that “the soul lost some merit by the flesh, which it had had previous to the flesh.” The
fourth
is, that “the soul by means of the flesh recovers its ancient condition, and is born again through the very same flesh by which it had deserved to be polluted.” The
fifth
is, that “the soul deserved to be sinful, previous to any sin.” The
sixth
is, that “infants which are forestalled by death before they are baptized, may yet attain to forgiveness of their original sins.” The
seventh
is, that “they whom the Lord has predestinated to be baptized may be taken
away from his predestination, or die before that has been accomplished in them which the Almighty has predestined.” The
eighth
is, that “it is of infants who are fore-stalled by death, before they are born again in Christ, that the Scripture says, ‘Speedily was he taken away, lest wickedness should alter his understanding,’” with the remainder of the passage to the same effect in the Book of Wisdom. The
ninth
is, that “there are outside the kingdom of God some of those mansions
which the Lord said were in His Father’s house.” The
tenth
is, that “the sacrifice of Christians ought to be offered in behalf of those who have departed out of the body without being baptized.” The
eleventh
is, that “some of those persons who have departed this life without the baptism of Christ do not in the meanwhile go into the kingdom, but into paradise; afterwards, however, in the resurrection of the dead, they attain even to the blessedness of the kingdom of heaven.”