Ambrosiaster : IF GOD'S JUDGMENTS ARE RIGHT, WHY WERE THE CHILDREN CONSPIRED WITH THEIR PARENTS IN THE FIRE OF SODOM? — In order to bring out the greatness of the crime of the inhabitants of Sodom, God desired that the punishment should extend to the death of their children, in order to destroy even the last remnants of that guilty race. But did not God act in their interest, lest by prolonging their life they should follow the example of their fathers? For they are exempt from the pains of hell, because they have been the victims of a crime which they had not committed. Parents are charged with the double responsibility of their punishment and that of their children, because to erase the traces of their crimes, it was necessary to destroy all their posterity. Just as children rejoice in the virtues of their parents, because they are a title of glory to them, so they have no right to complain of the death that strikes them to punish the crimes of those who have them given the day. They are associated with benefits, they must be punished. In Egypt, children were also punished for the mistakes of their parents, but to bring them back to more just feelings. The other prodigies could not induce them to believe in the God represented by Moses, and to adore him; this scourge had for the end, by striking them with terror, to make them confess and expiate their hardening, and to spare them a more rigorous punishment. The crime of the parents is therefore the cause of the death of the children. However, the children have paid this debt, they will one day be the accusers of their parents, because the very blood of their children has not been able to triumph over their disloyalty. It is not therefore for the future life, but for the present life, that the children have suffered the punishment due to the crimes of their fathers. And it is not for them a slight favor to escape guilt, though not in glory. We see men, at the end of their lives, demanding the profession of the true faith, in order to obtain, if not the crown, at least their forgiveness; How then can they complain of those who, by the conduct held towards them, have neither to beg forgiveness of their faults, nor to obtain an extraordinary reward, because they have not deserved it by their labors? Compare a moment of suffering with a torture that lasts for centuries. Consider, too, that a great number of them take great pains, and, for lack of perseverance, not only lose the fruit of their labors, but are guilty of punishment. And add that it is difficult for those born of vicious parents, who have been brought up, or who have lived in the society of the wicked, to bend their souls under the yoke of divine law. See here again if God has not acted wisely towards these children. [Questions on the Old and New Testaments, PL 35, — QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ON GENESIS, Q. 29 (tr. J. Litteral, draft)