{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/105/1050680.htm","path":"chr/ecf/105/1050680.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/105/1050680.htm","text":"Chapter 8 [VIII.]\u2014Victor\u2019s Erroneous Opinion, that the Soul Deserved to Become Sinful.\nVainly supposing, then, that he was able to solve this question from the foreknowledge of God, he keeps floundering on, and says: \u201cIf the soul deserved to be sinful which could not have been sinful, yet neither did it remain in sin, because, as prefigured in Christ, it was not bound to be in sin, even as it was unable to be.\u201d Now what can he mean when he says, \u201cwhich could not have been sinful,\u201d or \u201cwas unable to be in sin,\u201d except, as I suppose, this, if it did not come into the flesh? For, of course, it could not have been sinful through original sin, or have been at all involved in original sin, except through the flesh, if it is not derived from the parent. We see it, then, liberated from sin through grace, but we do not see how it deserved to be involved in sin. What, then, is the meaning of these words of his, \u201cIf the soul deserved to be sinful, yet neither did it remain in sin\u201d? For if I were to ask him, why it did not remain in sin, he would very properly answer, Because the grace of Christ delivered it therefrom. Since, then, he tells us how it came to pass that an infant\u2019s soul was liberated from its sinfulness, let him further tell us how it happened that it deserved to be sinful.","title":"Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol. V: A Treatise on the...","type":"page"}