To Florus 3.48
Yet, not content to explain this alone, he brings in another argument from the works of mercy to confirm this justice. He declares that past errors do not harm even the very people who sinned voluntarily, if they turn to repentance and reform. ‘If the wicked person turns away from the iniquities he committed and keeps my commands, none of the offenses he committed shall be remembered. Through the justice he has practiced he shall surely live’ (Ezekiel 18:21–22). That is: Since my merciful purpose is to forgive even people’s own sins when they reform, how could I charge newborn children with someone else’s? Or could things be so arranged that innocence is guilty before me when it is created, although it has power with me when it is recovered after having been interrupted?
Latin
Verum non hoc solum explanasse contentus aliud quoque ad confirmationem iustitiae huius a misericordiae operibus admovet argumentum et pronuntiat illis ipsis personis, quae sponte peccaverunt, si ad paenitentiam emendationemque confugerint, errores praeteritos non nocere. Iniquus - inquit - si convertat se ab iniquitatibus suis, quas fecit, et custodiat mandata mea, omnia delicta eius, quaecumque fecit, non erunt in memoria; in sua iustitia, quam fecit, vita vivet [n64] . Id est cum in hoc sim proposito clementiae, ut etiam propria indulgeam peccata correctis, qui potest fieri, ut imputem aliena nascentibus? Aut sinunt res, ut sit apud me rea innocentia, cum conditur, apud quem est efficax, si vel interpolata repetatur?