Annotation CCIII

”I know that you are the children of Abraham.” — John 8:37

[Origen:] souls, coming into the world, bring with them seminal reasons.

Origen, in the beginning of the twentieth tome on John, on the occasion of this clause, teaches that souls, coming into this life, bring with them diverse seminal reasons, as well just as unjust. And he writes thus: “But SINCE from [their] morals and deeds the sons of Abraham are judged, I know not whether those who are the seed of Abraham ought to be designated, and as it were delineated, by certain reasons of seed which are scattered and sown in certain souls, as I judge. For if — just as, a reckoning being had of the body, not all men are the seed of Abraham — so from those [things] which were just now explained concerning who indeed are the seed of Abraham, it is clear that not all men come into the life of men with the same seminal reasons which are scattered and sown in their souls. But the cause of these [things] — [proceeding] from the great judgments, both such as can hardly be set forth, and such as are discerned by those who have received the sense and mind of Christ, that they may know the [things] which have been given them by God — few can comprehend: [those] who, with great diligence and care, have explained, concerning each [soul], the [things] which happen before [its] birth and in [its] birth.”