Ante-Nicene Fathers/Volume IV/Commodianus/The Instructions of Commodianus/Chapter 52

LI.&#8212;Of Infants.

The enemy has suddenly come flooding us over with war; and before they could flee, he has seized upon the helpless children.&#160; They cannot be reproached, although they are seen to be taken captive; nor, indeed, do I excuse them.&#160; Perhaps they have deserved it on account of the faults of their parents; therefore God has given them up.&#160; However, I exhort the adults that they run to arms, and that they should be born again, as it were, to their Mother from the womb.&#160; Let them avoid a law that is terrible, and always bloody, impious, intractable, living with the life of the beasts; for when another war by chance should be to be waged, he who should be able to conquer or even rightly to know how to beware.