To Florus 2.40

Let us consider the third point, too, so that your generosity may be seen in your readiness to agree. ‘Nor does the apostle accuse the parents, insofar as they are parents, lawfully and legitimately joined to one another to produce children’ (Augustine, Marriage and Desire 2.45). Weigh what you have said: the apostle does not accuse the parents insofar as they are parents. He therefore declares that, insofar as they are parents, they cannot bear fruit for the devil, and that nothing coming from them insofar as they are parents belongs to the devil. Children, however, belong to parents precisely insofar as they are parents. Children are therefore proved neither guilty, nor under the devil’s kingdom, nor liable to accusation by the devil. To make our point clear by repetition: the union of the sexes contributes to offspring insofar as the married people become parents. If, however, they choose to behave more wantonly with one another, or stray into unlawful adulterous intercourse, that cannot concern their children, who are born from the power of seed, not from the obscenity of vices.