Marriage 2.25.40

One of these statements is true; the other is false.

It is true that the person born from adultery cannot excuse the guilt of the adultery, because what the adulterers did belongs to the fault of their will; what they produced, however, deserves the praise given to fertility. If someone sows stolen wheat, the harvest that grows is not guilty. So I condemn the thief but praise the crop. I pronounce the newborn innocent on account of the good quality of the seed, as the apostle says: “God gives it a body as he wishes, and to each kind of seed its own body” (1 Corinthians 15:38). But I condemn the wrongdoer, who sinned through a perverse intention.