To Florus 3.51

Here is our reply. Then admit that the other proposition, which carries equal weight, also holds: parents’ righteous deeds benefit and sanctify their children, and fail to benefit only those who, once older, have worn away their inborn righteousness by their own crimes. God denied both propositions, explaining and repeatedly emphasizing each through the example of the other. Since you see that his denial opposes your reasoning and insist that it is false concerning infants, refute both its parts by the condition of newborn children. When you do so, you will commit two evils together: you will attack God’s pronouncement, and you will assert that a righteous person is born from a righteous person and a criminal from a criminal.