Chapter 66.—The Pardon of
Sin Has Reference Chiefly to the Future Judgment.
Now the pardon of sin has reference
chiefly to the future judgment. For, as far as this life is
concerned, the saying of Scripture holds good: “A heavy yoke is
upon the sons of Adam, from the day that they go out of their
mother’s womb, till the day that they return to the mother of all
things.” So that we
see even infants, after baptism and regeneration, suffering from
the infliction of divers evils: and thus we are given to
understand, that all that is set forth in the sacraments of
salvation refers rather to the hope of future good, than to the
retaining or attaining of present blessings. For many sins seem in
this world to be overlooked and visited with no punishment, whose
punishment is reserved for the future (for it is not in vain that
the day when Christ shall come as Judge of quick and dead is
peculiarly named the day of judgment); just as, on the other hand, many sins are punished in this life, which nevertheless are pardoned, and shall bring down no punishment in the future life. Accordingly, in reference to certain temporal punishments, which in this life are visited upon sinners, the apostle, addressing those whose sins are blotted out, and not reserved for the final judgment, says: “For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.”