mb. Therefore it was not befitting that either Jeremias or John the
Baptist should be sanctified in the womb.

Obj. 3: Further, Job says of himself (Job 31:18): "From my infancy
mercy grew up with me; and it came out with me from [my mother's]
womb." Nevertheless we do not for this reason say that he was
sanctified in the womb. Neither therefore are we bound to say that
Jeremias and John the Baptist were sanctified in the womb.

_On the contrary,_ It is written of Jeremias (Jer. 1:5): "Before thou
camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee." And of John the
Baptist it is written (Luke 1:15): "He shall be filled with the Holy
Ghost, even from his mother's womb."

_I answer that,_ Augustine (Ep. ad Dardan.) seems to speak dubiously
of their (Jeremias' and John the Baptist's) sanctification in the
womb. For the leaping of John in the womb "might," as he says,
"signify the great truth," viz. that the woman was the mother of God,
"which was to be made known to his elders, though as yet unknown to
the infant. Hence in the Gospel it is written, not that the infant in
her womb believed, but that it 'leaped': and our eyes are witness
that not only infants leap but also cattle. But this was unwonted
because it was in the womb. And therefore, just as other miracles are
wont to be done, this was done divinely, in the infant; not humanly
by the infant. Perhaps also in this child the use of reason and will
was so far accelerated that while yet in his mother's womb he was
able to acknowledge, believe, and consent, whereas in other children
we have to wait for these things till they grow older: this again I
count as a miraculous result of the divine power."

But since it is expressly said (of John) in the Gospel that "he shall
be filled with the Holy Ghost, even from his mother's womb"; and of
Jeremias, "Before thou camest forth out of the womb, I sanctified
thee"; it seems that we must needs assert that they were sanctified
in the womb, although, while in the womb, they had not the use of
reason (which is the point discussed by Augustine); just as neither
do children enjoy the use of free will as soon as they are sanctified
by baptism.

Nor are we to believe that any others, not mentioned by Scripture,
were sanctified in the womb. For such privileges of grace, which are
bestowed on some, outside the common law, are ordered for the
salvation of others, according to 1 Cor. 12:7: "The manifestation of
the Spirit is given to eve