be most unjust for God to love Jacob and hate Esau before the
children were born, and that the only true interpretation of the
matter was the theory that Jacob was being rewarded for the good deeds
of past lives, while Esau was being punished for his misdeeds in past
incarnations.

And not only Origen takes this stand, but Jerome also, for the latter
says: "If we examine the case of Esau we may find he was condemned
because of his ancient sins in a worse course of life." (_Jerome's
letter to Avitus_.) Origen says:

"It is found not to be unrighteous that even in womb Jacob
supplanted his brother, if we feel that he was worthily
beloved by God, according to the deserts of his previous
life, so as to deserve to be preferred before his brother."

Origen adds, "This must be carefully applied to the case of all other
creatures, because, as we formerly remarked, the righteousness of the
Creator ought to appear in everything." And again, "The inequality of
circumstances preserves the justice of a retribution according to
merit."

Annie Besant (to whom we are indebted for a number of these
quotations), says, concerning this position of Origen:

"Thus we find this doctrine made the defense of the justice
of God. If a soul can be made good, then to make a soul evil
is to a God of justice and love impossible. It cannot be
done. There is no justification for it, and the moment you
recognize that men are born criminal, you are either forced
into the blasphemous position that a perfect and loving God
creates a ruined soul and then punishes it for being what He
has made it, or else that He is dealing with growing,
developing creatures whom He is training for ultimate
blessedness, and if in any life a man is born wicked and
evil, it is because he has done amiss and must reap in
sorrow the results of evil in order that he may learn wisdom
and turn to good."

Origen also considers the story of Pharaoh, of whom the Biblical
writers say that "his heart was hardened by God." Origen declares that
the hardening of the heart was caused by God so that Pharaoh would
more readily learn the effect of evil, so that in his future
incarnations he might profit by his bitter experience. He says:

"Sometimes it does not lead to good results for a man to be
cured too quickly, especially if the disease, being shut up
in the inner parts of the body