To Florus 2.161

This is plainly false. Sinners under the law deserved punishment, and before the law righteousness and faith were not deprived of their reward’s fruits. Clearly, then, the glory of that promise belongs not to flesh cut with a blade, but to minds distinguished by uprightness. What follows is a thunderbolt against inherited transmission: ‘For the law,’ he says, ‘produces wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there transgression’ (Romans 4:15). Persuade us, then, that a law was given to those conceived in the womb, that a law can be given to newborn children, so that it may convict them of transgression. We, however, believe with the apostle—whom we defend as having meant nothing contrary to reason—that there is no transgression at an age when law could not exist, because ‘where there is no law, neither is there transgression.’ This law produces wrath not through its own fault but through the wickedness of those who prefer sins to virtues.