Mozley: A Treatise on the Augustinian Doctrine of

CHAP. x. of Predestination. 289
ment therefore must correspond, and be the exclusion, not
from that end to which the natural, but from that end
only to which the supernatural faculties tend. But the
end of the supernatural faculties is the Divine Vision. It
is the want, then, of this vision which is the punishment
of original sin ; not the want of any good which properly
belongs to nature. In the other perfections and goods
to which nature tends upon her own principles, those con
demned for original sin will sustain no detriment. l
The want of the Divine Vision, however, being thus laid
down as the punishment of unbaptized infants, an argu-
mental obstacle arose from the quarter of the original
definition. For, according to Chrysostom, the exclusion
from the sight of Grod is the severest part of the punish
ment of the damned at ; any rate the want of that which
we wish to have cannot be without affliction, and unbap
tized infants wish to have the sight of (rod pueri vellent
DivinaJ rm visionem habere ;
otherwise their wills would be
actually perverse. It would therefore appear, that this
want or loss would be affliction to them ; and therefore,
that, if this were their punishment, their punishment
would not be the mildest of all mitissima. Nor, adds
that this
Aquinas, is it any answer to this objection to say,
exclusion does not arise from their own personal fault ; for
immunity from blame does not diminish, but increase the
pain of punishment : or, again, correct to say, that they
are happy because they do not know what they have lost ;
for the soul freed from the burden of the ^ body must
know whatever reason can discover et etiam multo
plura.
The general solution, then, of this difficulty, is, that it
is no pain to any one of well-ordered mind not to have
that to which his nature is in no way proportioned, pro
vided the want is not owing to any personal
fault of his
of some natural
own. A man regrets the disappointment
want, even though he is not to blame for it ; and the
1 In aliis autem nullum detriment suatmebunt
perfectionibus
etbonitatibus quse naturam huma- propeccato originali daninati.
nam consequuntur ex suis Lomb. 1. 2. Dist. 33. U. 1. A. 1.
principiis,