The Goodness of the Unborn

The blessed ones receive this life from that source, which is clearly shown by the words: 'He who believes in me has eternal life' (John 6:47), and 'This is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Him whom you sent, Jesus Christ' (John 17:3). The promise of piety does not possess this life alone—that is, to live blessed here, to live here in the practical and contemplative life—but it also receives this life as the whole receives a part, just as the 'through a mirror' receives the 'face to face' (1 Cor 13:12), if something is eternal or if something is long-lasting.

But another life does not receive this temporal life; I say this to those who think it is only this. For they said, 'hoping in this life alone', 'let us eat and drink' (Luke 12:19). And even if something is received in this way, it is not the long-lasting life. They go 'to the lake of fire' (Matt 25:41) and 'have a great penalty of fire' (Matt 25:46), where they have become part of the lot of death, clearly giving judgments against this life. And his soul will not be filled with goodness, and even a burial did not happen to him.

As it has happened, he says, 'wealth and possessions and glory'; he is not immersed in these. Just as he who loves wants to have even more silver and other things, so also he who wants to live luxuriously. For he does not wish to face deaths this: whoever is glorified as wise having 'falsely named' 'knowledge', still wants to be more greatly glorified. If he lives according to 'falsely named knowledge', he wished to always have it thus. And even a burial did not happen to him.

He says that 'he lived many years of descent'. A thousand years happened, filled with all things pleasant, he misses nothing; and often without burial he is cast away. 'Better the corpse than this', in which nothing pleasant existed; nor did the shroud have wealth, nor possessions, nor was he glorified, and it is better than this, because he has not experienced any of these at all. This is applied to the literal sense. But as an ascent, this is that he has become wealthy in many of those things, yet he did not find the reputation that describes the former life. He says, therefore: 'From the house of your God I will destroy the carved images and the bronze; I will set your burial as a place'. Some say thus...

Again, he says, 'I will set your burial as a carving,' and not 'I will destroy' these things. And when it is profitable for your soul, you set your burial as a theme. For he baptizes and buries together with the destroyed ones. Indeed, after 'I will set your burial,' he says, 'Judah, keep your feasts.' Therefore, in a feast, one strives for prayers.

He of old, being filled with carving and casting in a tomb, was cast so as to be 'buried with Christ' (Rom 6:4). Therefore, he has called to make it a feast, to do what is necessary; for a feast is nothing other than doing what is required, but we add to it this or that toil. Toward the upward leading, then, it is this: he strove much and grew rich, as if living in vanity with a false opinion, not knowing with clarity, being filled up, 'and there was no burial for him.'

The miscarriage spoke something good for him, that he came in vanity and walks in darkness (Isa 53:9). According to the spoken word concerning the one who grew rich in all possessions, of whom nothing of the abundance remains—not moving, not still, not a glory, not a dignity—and if, having died, he is found outside all these, 'it is a good thing the miscarriage for this one,' which is the one who has not been fully tested by this life.

And toward such an upward leading, it should be taken thus, as it was also said previously regarding the little: 'it was good for him, if he had not been born.' Therefore, it is good for those more blessed, those who are still leading lives and those who have died, who have not yet been born. Because he came in vanity and walks in darkness (Isa 53:9).

Other people, when they are well-born and well-reared, having used the things given to them badly, had this vanity; but the miscarriage had even its very birth in vanity; it was conceived not that it might live, not that it might become a fetus, but that the womb might immediately perish, immediately as the conception occurred. In darkness, therefore, again, he did not come to men; he was not known, that 'in vanity he came and in darkness he walks' (Isa 53:9). He did nothing, nor thought, nor knew anything of human things. And because of this, as he came with ignorance and through not having experienced these things, so again he walks. Much is there concerning which the word is, and it is sought by many who are unclear as to whether, if the conceptions occur, in order that...