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On Merit and the Forgiveness of Sins, and the Baptism of Infants
ST. AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO
(Book I)
IN WHICH HE REFUTES THOSE WHO MAINTAIN, THAT ADAM MUST HAVE DIED EVEN IF HE HAD NEVER SINNED; AND THAT NOTHING OF HIS SIN HAS BEEN TRANSMITTED TO HIS POSTERITY BY NATURAL DESCENT. HE ALSO SHOWS, THAT DEATH HAS NOT ACCRUED TO MAN BY ANY NECESSITY OF HIS NATURE, BUT AS THE PENALTY OF SIN; HE THEN PROCEEDS TO PROVE THAT IN ADAM'S SIN HIS ENTIRE OFFSPRING IS IMPLICATED, SHOWING THAT INFANTS ARE BAPTIZED FOR THE EXPRESS PURPOSE OF RECEIVING THE REMISSION OF ORIGINAL SIN.
1. CHAP. 1 --INTRODUCTORY, IN THE SHAPE OF AN INSCRIPTION TO HIS FRIEND MARCELLINUS.
HOWEVER absorbing and intense the anxieties and annoyances in the whirl and warmth of which we are engaged with sinful men who forsake the law of God,--even though we may well ascribe these very evils to the fault of our own sins,--I am unwilling, and, to say the truth, unable, any longer to remain a debtor, my dearest Marcellinus, to that zealous affection of yours, which only enhances my own grateful and pleasant estimate of yourself. I am under the impulse [of a twofold emotion]: on the one hand, there is that very love which makes us unchangeably one in the one hope of a change for the better; on the other hand, there is the fear of offending God in yourself, who has given you so earnest a desire; in gratifying which I shall be only serving Him who has given it to you. And so strongly has this impulse led and attracted me to solve, to the best of my humble ability, the questions which you have submitted to me in writing, that my mind has gradually admitted this inquiry to an importance transcending that of all others; [and it will now give me no rest] until I accomplish something which shall make it manifest that I have yielded, if not a sufficient, yet at any rate an obedient, compliance with your own kind wish and the desire of those to whom these questions are a source of anxiety.
CHAP. 2
[II.]--IF ADAM HAD NOT SINNED, HE WOULD NEVER HAVE DIED.
They who say that Adam was so formed that he would even without any demerit of
sin have died, not as the penalty of sin, but from the necessity of his being,
endeavor indeed to refer that passage in the law, which says: "On the day ye eat
thereof ye shall surely die," not to the death of the body, but to that death of
the soul which takes place in sin. It is the unbelievers who have died this
death, to whom the Lord pointed when He said," Let the dead bury their dead."
Now what will be their answer, when we read that God, when reproving and
sentencing the first man after his sin, said to him, "Dust thou art, and unto
dust shalt thou return?" For it was not in respect of his soul that he was
"dust," but clearly by reason of his body, and it was by the death of the
self-same body that he was destined to "return to dust." Still, although it was
by reason of his body that he was dust, and although he bare about the natural
body in which he was created, he would if he had not sinned, have been changed
into a spiritual body, and would have passed into the incorruptible state, which
is promised to the faithful and the saints, without the peril of death. And for
this issue we not only are conscious in ourselves of having an earnest desire,
but we learn it from the apostle's intimation, when he says: "For in this we
groan, longing to be clothed upon with our habitation which is from heaven; if
so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this
tabernacle do groan, being burdened; not for that we would be unclothed, but
clothed upon, that mortality may be swallowed up of life." Therefore, if Adam
had not sinned, he would not have been divested of his body, but would have been
clothed upon with immortality and incorruption, that "mortality might have been
swallowed up of life;" that is, that he might have passed from the natural body
into the spiritual body.
CHAP. 3 [III.]
-- IT IS ONE THING TO BE MORTAL, ANOTHER THING TO BE SUBJECT TO DEATH.
Nor was there any reason to fear that if he had happened to live on here longer
in his natural body, he would have been oppressed with old age, and have
gradually, by increasing age, arrived at death. For if God granted to the
clothes and the shoes of the Israelites that "they waxed not old" during so many
years, what wonder if for obedience it had been by the power of the same [God]
allowed to man, that although he had a natural and mortal body, he should have
in it a certain condition, in which he might grow full of years without
decrepitude, and, whenever God pleased, pass from mortality to immortality
without the medium of death? For even as this very flesh of ours, which we now
possess, is not therefore invulnerable, because it is not necessary that it
should be wounded; so also was his not therefore immortal, because there was no
necessity for its dying. Such a condition, whilst still in their natural and
mortal body, I suppose, was granted even to those who were translated hence
without death. For Enoch and Elijah were not reduced to the decrepitude of old
age by their long life. But yet I do not believe that they were then changed
into that spiritual kind of body, such as is promised in the resurrection, and
which the Lord was the first to receive; only they probably do not need those
aliments, which by their use minister refreshment to the body; but ever since
their translation they so live, as to enjoy such a sufficiency as was provided
during the forty days in which Elijah lived on the cruse of water and the cake,
without substantial food; or else, if there be any need of such sustenance, they
are, it may be, sustained in Paradise in some such way as Adam was, before he
brought on himself expulsion therefrom by sinning. And he, as I suppose, was
supplied with sustenance against decay from the fruit of the various trees, and
from the tree of life with security against old age.
CHAP. 4
[IV.]--EVEN BODILY DEATH IS FROM SIN.
But in addition to the passage where God in punishment said," Dust thou art,
unto dust shalt thou return," --a passage which I cannot understand how any one
can apply except to the death of the body, -- there are other testimonies
likewise, from which it most fully appears that by reason of sin the human race
has brought upon itself not spiritual death merely, but the death of the body
also. The apostle says to the Romans: "But if Christ be in you, the body is dead
because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness. If therefore
the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that
raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall quicken also your mortal bodies by
His Spirit that dwelleth in you." I think that so clear and open a sentence as
this only requires to be read, and not expounded. The body, says he, is dead,
not because of earthly frailty, as being made of the dust of the ground, but
because of sin; what more do we want? And he is most careful in his words: he
does not say "is mortal," but "dead."
CHAP. 5 --THE
WORDS, MORTALE (CAPABLE OF DYING), MORTUUM (DEAD), AND MORITURUS (DESTINED TO
DIE).
Now previous to the change into the incorruptible state which is promised in the
resurrection of the saints, the body could be mortal (capable of dying),although
not destined to die (moriturus); just as our body in its present state can, so
to speak, be capable of sickness, although not destined to be sick. For whose is
the flesh which is incapable of sickness, even if from some accident it die
before it ever is sick? In like manner was man's body then mortal; and this
mortality was to have been superseded by an eternal incorruption, if man had
persevered in righteousness, that is to say, obedience: but even what was mortal
(mortale) was not made dead (mortuum), except on account of sin. For the change
which is to come in at the resurrection is, in truth, not only not to have death
incidental to it, which has happened through sin, but neither is it to have
mortality, [or the very possibility of death,] which the natural body had before
it sinned. He does not say: "He that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall
quicken also your dead bodies" (although he had previously said," the body is
dead" ); but his words are: "He shall quicken also your mortal bodies;" so that
they are not only no longer dead, but no longer mortal [or capable of dying],
since the natural is raised spiritual, and this mortal body shall put on
immortality, and mortality shall be swallowed up in life.
CHAP. 6 -- HOW
IT IS THAT THE BODY DEAD BECAUSE OF SIN.
One wonders that anything is required clearer than the proof we have given. But
we must perhaps be content to hear this clear illustration gainsaid by the
contention, that we must understand "the dead body" here in the sense of the
passage where it is said, "Mortify your members which are upon the earth." But
it is because of righteousness and not because of sin that the body is in this
sense mortified; for it is to do the works of righteousness that we mortify our
bodies which are upon the earth. Or if they suppose that the phrase, "because of
sin," is added, not that we should understand "because sin has been committed,"
but "in order that sin may not be committed" -- as if it were said, "The body
indeed is dead, in order to prevent the commission of sin:" what then does he
mean in the next clause by adding the words, "because of righteousness," to the
statement, "The spirit is life?" For it would have been enough simply to have
adjoined "the spirit is life," to have secured that we should supply here too,
"in order to prevent the commission of sin; "so that we should thus understand
the two propositions to point to one thing -- that both "the body is dead," and
"the spirit is life," for the one common purpose of "preventing the commission
of sin." So likewise if he had merely meant to say, "because of righteousness,"
in the sense of "for the purpose of doing righteousness," the two clauses might
possibly be referred to this one purpose -- to the effect, that both "the body
is dead," and "the spirit is life," "for the purpose of doing righteousness."
But as the passage actually stands, it declares that "the body is dead because
of sin," and "the spirit is life because of righteousness," attributing
different merits to different things--the demerit of sin to the death of the
body, and the merit of righteousness to the life of the spirit. Wherefore if, as
no one can doubt, "the spirit is life because of righteousness," that is, as the
desert, of righteousness; how ought we, or can we, understand by the statement,
"The body is dead because of sin," anything else than that the body is dead as
the desert of sin, unless indeed we try to pervert or wrest the plainest sense
of Scripture to our own arbitrary will? But besides this, additional light is
afforded by the words which follow. For it is with limitation to the present
time, when he says, that on the one hand "the body is dead because of sin,"
since, whilst the body is unrenovated by the resurrection, there remains in it
the desert of sin, that is, the necessity of dying; and on the other hand, that
"the spirit is life because of righteousness," since, notwithstanding the fact
of our being still burdened with" the body of this death," we have already by
the renewal which is begun in our inner man, new aspirations after the
righteousness of faith.
Yet, lest man in his ignorance should fail to entertain hope of the resurrection
of the body, he says that the very body which he had just declared to be "dead
because of sin "in this world, will in the next world be made alive" because of
righteousness," -- and that not only in such a way as to become alive from the
dead, but immortal from its mortality.
CHAP. 7
[VII.]--THE LIFE OF THE BODY THE OBJECT OF HOPE, THE LIFE OF THE SPIRIT BEING A
PRELUDE TO IT.
Although I am much afraid that so clear a matter may rather be obscured by
exposition, I must yet request your attention to the luminous statement of the
apostle. "But if Christ," says he, "be in you, the body indeed is dead because
of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness." Now this is said, that
men may not suppose that they derive no benefit, or but scant benefit, from the
grace of Christ, seeing that they must needs die in the body. For they are bound
to remember that, although their body still bears that desert of sin, which is
irrevocably bound to the condition of death, yet their spirit has already begun
to live because of the righteousness of faith, although it had actually become
extinct by the death, as it were, of unbelief. No small gift, therefore, he
says, must you suppose to have been conferred upon you, by the circumstance that
Christ is in you; inasmuch as in the body, which is dead because of sin, your
spirit is even now alive because of righteousness; so that therefore you should
not despair of the life even of your body. "For if the, Spirit of Him that
raised up Christ from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the
dead shall quicken also your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you."
How is it that fumes of controversy still darken so clear a light? The apostle
distinctly tells you, that although the body is dead because of sin within you,
yet even your mortal bodies shall be made alive because of righteousness,
because of which even now your spirit is life,--the whole of which process is to
be perfected by the grace of Christ, that is, by His Spirit dwelling in you: and
men still contradict! He goes on to tell us how it comes to pass that life
converts death into itself by mortifying it. "Therefore, brethren," says he, "we
are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh; for if ye live after the
flesh, ye shall die; but if ye through the spirit do mortify the deeds of the
flesh, ye shall live." What else does this mean but this: If ye live according
to death, ye shall wholly die l but if by living according to life ye mortify
death, ye shall wholly live?
CHAP. 8
[VIII.]--BODILY DEATH FROM ADAM'S SIN.
When to the like purport he says: "By man came death, by man also the
resurrection of the dead," in what other sense can the passage be understood
than of the death of the body; for having in view the mention of this, he
proceeded to speak of the resurrection of the body, and affirmed it in a most
earnest and solemn discourse In these words, addressed to the Corinthians: "By
man came death, and by man came also the resurrection of the dead; for as in
Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive," -- what other meaning
is indeed conveyed than in the verse in which he says to the Romans, "By one man
sin entered into the world, and death by sin?" Now they will have it, that the
death here meant is the death, not of the body, but of the soul, on the pretense
that another thing is spoken of to the Corinthians, where they are quite unable
to understand the death of the soul, because the subject there treated is the
resurrection of the body, which is the antithesis of the death of the body. The
reason, moreover, why only death is here mentioned as caused by man, and not sin
also, is because the point of the discourse is not about righteousness, which is
the antithesis of sin, but about the resurrection of the body, which is
contrasted with the death of the body.
CHAP. 9
[IX.]--SIN PASSES ON TO ALL MEN BY NATURAL DESCENT, AND NOT MERELY BY IMITATION.
You tell me in your letter, that they endeavor to twist into some new sense the
passage of the apostle, in which he says: "By one man sin entered into the
world, and death by sin;" yet you have not informed me what they suppose to be
the meaning of these words. But so far as I have discovered from others, they
think that the death which is here mentioned is not the death of the body, which
they will not allow Adam to have deserved by his sin, but that of the soul,
which takes place in actual sin; and that this actual sin has not been
transmitted from the first man to other persons by natural descent, but by
imitation. Hence, likewise, they refuse to believe that in infants original sin
is remitted through baptism, for they contend that no such original sin exists
at all in people by their birth. But if the apostle had wished to assert that
sin entered into the world, not by natural descent, but by imitation, he would
have mentioned as the first offender, not Adam indeed, but the devil, of whom it
is written, that "he sinneth from the beginning;" of whom also we read in the
Book of Wisdom: "Nevertheless through the devil's envy death entered into the
world." Now, forasmuch as this death came upon men from the devil, not because
they were propagated by him, but because they imitated his example, it is
immediately added: "And they that do hold of his side do imitate him."
Accordingly, the apostle, when mentioning sin and death together, which had
passed by natural descent from one upon all men, set him down as the introducer
thereof from whom the propagation of the human race took its beginning.
CHAP. 10.--THE
ANALOGY OF GRACE.
No doubt all they imitate Adam who by disobedience transgress the commandment of
God; but he is one thing as an example to those who sin because they choose; and
another thing as the progenitor of all who are born with sin. All His saints,
also, imitate Christ in the pursuit of righteousness; whence the same apostle,
whom we have already quoted, says: "Be ye imitators of me, as I am also of
Christ." But besides this imitation, His grace works within us our illumination
and justification, by that operation concerning which the same preacher of His
[name] says: "Neither is he that planteth anything, nor he that watereth, but
God that giveth the increase." For by this grace He engrafts into His body even
baptized infants, who certainly have not yet become able to imitate any one. As
therefore He, in whom all are made alive, besides offering Himself as an example
of righteousness to those who imitate Him, gives also to those who believe on
Him the hidden grace of His Spirit, which He secretly infuses even into infants;
so likewise he, in whom all die, besides being an example for imitation to those
who wilfully transgress the commandment of the Lord, depraved also in his own
person all who come of his stock by the hidden corruption of his own carnal
concupiscence. It is entirely on this account, and for no other reason, that the
apostle says: "By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, and so
passed upon all men; in which all have sinned." Now if I were to say this, they
would raise an objection, and loudly insist that I was incorrect both in
expression and sense; for they would perceive no sense in these words when
spoken by an ordinary man, except that sense which they refuse to see in the
apostle. Since, however, these are the words of him to whose authority and
doctrine they submit, they charge us with slowness of understanding, while they
endeavor to wrest to some unintelligible sense words which were written in a
clear and obvious purport. "By one man," says he, "sin entered into the world,
and death by sin." This indicates propagation, not imitation; for if imitation
were meant, he would have said, "By the devil." But as no one doubts, he refers
to that first man who is called Adam: "And so," says he, "it passed upon all
men."
CHAP. II
--DISTINCTION BETWEEN ACTUAL AND ORIGINAL SIN.
Again, in the clause which follows, "In which all have sinned," how cautiously,
rightly, and unambiguously is the statement expressed! For if yon understand
that sin to be meant which by one man entered into the world, "In which [sin]
all have sinned," it is surely clear enough, that the sins which are peculiar to
every man, which they themselves commit and which belong simply to them, mean
one thing; and that the one sin, in and by which all have sinned, means another
thing; since all were that one man. If, however, it be not the sin, but that one
man that is understood, "In which [one man] all have sinned," what again can be
plainer than even this clear statement? We read, indeed, of those being
justified in Christ who believe in Him, by reason of the secret communion and
inspiration of that spiritual grace which makes every one who cleaves to the
Lord "one spirit" with Him, although His saints also imitate His example; can I
find, however, any similar statement made of those who have imitated His saints?
Can any man be said to be justified in Paul or in Peter, or in any one whatever
of those excellent men whose authority stands high among the people of God? We
are no doubt said to be blessed in Abraham, according to the passage in which it
was said to him, "In thee shall all nations be blessed" --for Christ's sake, who
is his seed according to the flesh; which is still more clearly expressed in the
parallel passage: "In thy seed shall all nations be blessed" I do not believe
that any one can find it anywhere stated in the Holy Scriptures, that a man has
ever sinned or still sins "in the devil," although all wicked and impious men
"imitate" him. The apostle, however, has declared concerning the first man, that
"in him all have sinned;" and yet there is still a contest about the propagation
of sin, and men oppose to it I know not what nebulous theory of "imitation."
CHAP. 12.--THE
LAW COULD NOT TAKE AWAY SIN.
Observe also what follows. Having said, "In which all have stoned," he at once
added, "For until the law, sin was in the world." This means that sin could not
be taken away even by the law, which entered that sin might the more abound,
whether it be the law of nature, under which every man when arrived at years of
discretion only proceeds to add his own sins to original sin, or that very law
which Moses gave to the people. "For if there had been a law given which could
have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law. But the
Scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus
Christ might be given to them that believe. But sin is not imputed where there
is no law." Now what means the phrase "is not imputed," but "is ignored," or "is
not reckoned as sin?" Although the Lord God does not Himself regard it as if it
had never been, since it is written: "As many as have sinned without law shall
also perish without law."
CHAP. 13
[XI.]--MEANING OF THE APOSTLE'S PHRASE "THE REIGN OF DEATH."
"Nevertheless," says he, "death reigned from Adam even unto Moses, --that is to
say, from the first man even to the very law which was promulgated by the divine
authority, because even it was unable to abolish the reign of death. Now death
must be understood "to reign," whenever the guilt of sin, so dominates in men
that it prevents their attainment of that eternal life which is the only true
life, and drags them down even to the second death which is penally eternal.
This reign of death is only destroyed in any man by the Savior's grace, which
wrought even in the saints of the olden time, all of whom, though previous to
the coming of Christ in the flesh, yet lived in relation to His assisting grace,
not to the letter of the law, which only knew how to command, but not to help
them. In the Old Testament, indeed, that was hidden (conformably to the
perfectly just dispensation of the times) which is now revealed in the New
Testament. Therefore "death reigned from Adam unto Moses," in all who were not
assisted by the grace of Christ, that in them the kingdom of death might be
destroyed, "even in those who had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's
transgression," that is, who had not yet sinned of their own individual will, as
Adam did, but had drawn from him original sin, "who is the figure of him that
was to come," because in him was constituted the form of condemnation to his
future progeny, who should spring from him by natural descent; so that from one
all men were born to a condemnation, from which there is no deliverance but in
the Savior's grace. I am quite aware, indeed, that several Latin copies of the
Scriptures read the passage thus: "Death reigned from Adam to Moses over them
who have sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression;" but even this
version is referred by those who so read it to the very same purport, for they
understood those who have sinned in him to have sinned after the similitude of
Adam's transgression; so that they are created in his likeness, not only as men
born of a man, but as sinners born of a sinner, dying ones of a dying one, and
condemned ones to a condemned one. However, the Greek copies from which the
Latin version was made, have all, without exception or nearly so, the reading
which I first adduced.
CHAP.
14.--SUPERABUNDANCE OF GRACE.
"But," says he, "not as the offence so also is the free gift. For if, through
the offence of one, many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by
grace, which is by One Man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many." Not many
more, that is, many more men, for there are not more persons justified than
condemned; but it runs, much more hath abounded; inasmuch as, while Adam
produced sinners from his one sin, Christ has by His grace procured free
forgiveness even for the sins which men have of their own accord added by actual
transgression to the original sin in which they were born. This he states more
clearly still in the sequel.
CHAP. 15
[XII.]--THE ONE SIN COMMON TO ALL MEN.
But observe more attentively what he says, that "through the offence of one,
many are dead." For why should it be on account of the sin of one, and not
rather on account of their own sins, if this passage is to be understood of
imitation, and not of propagation? But mark what follows: "And not as it was by
one that sinned, so is the gift; for the judgment was by one to condemnation,
but the grace is of many offences unto justification." Now let them tell us,
where there is room in these words for imitation. "By one," says he, "to
condemnation." By one what except one sin? This, indeed, he clearly implies in
the words which he adds: "But the grace is of many offences unto justification."
Why, indeed, is the judgment from one offence to condemnation, while the grace
is from many offences to justification? If original sin is a nullity, would it
not follow, that not only grace withdraws men from many offences to
justification, but judgment leads them to condemnation from many offences
likewise? For assuredly grace does not condone many offences, without judgment
in like manner having many offences to condemn. Else, if men are involved in
condemnation because of one offence, on the ground that all the offences which
are condemned were committed in imitation of that one offence; there is the same
reason why men should also be regarded as withdrawn from one offence unto
justification, inasmuch as all the offences which are remitted to the justified
were committed in imitation of that one offence. But this most certainly was not
the apostle's meaning, when he said: "The judgment, indeed, was from one offence
unto condemnation, but the grace was from many offences unto justification." We
on our side, indeed, can understand the apostle, and see that judgment is
predicated of one offence unto condemnation entirely on the ground that, even if
there were in men nothing but original sin, it would be sufficient for their
condemnation. For however much heavier will be their condemnation who have added
their own sins to the original offence (and it will be the more severe in
individual cases, in proportion to the sins of individuals); still, even that
sin alone which was originally derived unto men not only excludes from the
kingdom of God, which infants are unable to enter (as they themselves allow),
unless they have received the grace of Christ before they die, but also
alienates from salvation and everlasting life, which cannot be anything else
than the kingdom of God, to which fellowship with Christ alone introduces us.
CHAP. 16
[XIII.]--HOW DEATH IS BY ONE AND LIFE BY ONE.
And from this we gather that we have derived from Adam, in whom we all have
sinned, not all our actual sins, but only original sin; whereas from Christ, in
whom we are all justified, we obtain the remission not merely of that original
sin, but of the rest of our sins also, which we have added. Hence it runs: "Not
as by the one that sinned, so also is the free gift." For the judgment,
certainly, from one sin, if it is not remitted--and that the original sin--is
capable of drawing us into condemnation; whilst grace conducts us to
justification from the remission of many sins,--that is to say, not simply from
the original sin, but from all others also whatsoever.
CHAP. 17.--WHOM
SINNERS IMITATE.
"For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive
abundance of grace and of righteousness shall reign in life by one, even Jesus
Christ." Why did death reign on account of the sin of one, unless it was that
men were bound by the chain of death in that one man in whom all men sinned,
even though they added no sins of their own? Otherwise it was not on account of
the sin of one that death reigned through one; rather it was on account of the
manifold offences of many, [operating] through each individual sinner. For if
the reason why men have died for the transgression of another be, that they have
imitated him by following him as their predecessor in transgression, it must
even result, and that "much more," than that one died on account of the
transgression of another, whom the devil so preceded in transgression as himself
to persuade him to commit the transgression. Adam, however, used no influence to
persuade his followers; and the many who are said to have imitated him have, in
fact, either not heard of his existence at all or of his having committed any
such sin as is ascribed to him, or altogether disbelieve it. How much more
correctly, therefore, as I have already remarked, would the apostle have set
forth the devil as the author, from which "one" he would say that sin and death
had passed upon all, if he had in this passage meant to speak, not of
propagation, but of imitation? For there is much stronger reason for saying that
Adam is an imitator of the devil, since he had in him an actual instigator to
sin; if one may be an imitator even of him who has never used any such
persuasion, or of whom he is absolutely ignorant. But what is implied in the
clause, "They which receive abundance of grace and righteousness," but that the
grace of remission is given not only to that sin in which all have sinned, but
to those offences likewise which men have actually committed besides; and that
on these [men] so great a righteousness is freely bestowed, that, although Adam
gave way to him who persuaded him to sin, they do not yield even to the coercion
of the same tempter? Again, what mean the words, "Much more shall they reign in
life," when the fact is, that the reign of death drags many more down to eternal
punishment, unless we understand those to be really mentioned in both clauses,
who pass from Adam to Christ, in other words, from death to life; because in the
life eternal they shall reign without end, and thus exceed the reign of death
which has prevailed within them only temporarily and with a termination?
CHAP.18.--ONLY
CHRIST JUSTIFIES.
"Therefore as by the offence of one upon all men to condemnation, even so by the
justification of One upon all men unto justification of life." This "offence of
one," if we are bent on "imitation," can only be the devil's offence. Since,
however, it is manifestly spoken in reference to Adam and not the devil, it
follows that we have no other alternative than to understand the principle of
natural propagation, and not that of imitation, to be here implied. [xIv.] Now
when he says in reference to Christ, "By the justification of one," he has more
expressly stated our doctrine than if he were to say, "By the righteousness of
one;" inasmuch as he mentions that justification whereby Christ justifies the
ungodly, and which he did not propose as an object of imitation, for He alone is
capable of effecting this. Now it was quite competent for the apostle to say,
and to say rightly: "Be ye imitators of me, as I also am of Christ;" but he
could never say: Be ye justified by me, as I also am by Christ;--since there may
be, and indeed actually are and have been, many who were righteous and worthy of
imitation; but no one is righteous and a justifier but Christ alone. Whence it
is said: "To the man that believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his
faith is counted for righteousness." Now if any man had it in his power
confidently to declare," I justify you," it would necessarily follow that he
could also say, "Believe in me." But it has never been in the power of any of
the saints of God to say this except the Saint of saints, who said: "Ye believe
in God, believe also in me;" so that, inasmuch as it is He that justifies the
ungodly, to the man who believes in him that justifieth the ungodly his faith is
imputed for righteousness.
CHAP. 19
[xv.]--SIN IS FROM NATURAL DESCENT, AS RIGHTEOUSNESS IS FROM REGENERATION; HOW
"ALL" ARE SINNERS THROUGH ADAM, AND "ALL" ARE JUST THROUGH CHRIST.
Now if it is imitation only that makes men sinners through Adam, why does not
imitation likewise alone make men righteous through Christ? "For," he says, "as
by the offence of one upon all men to condemnation; even so by the justification
of one upon all men unto justification of life." [On the theory of imitation],
then, the "one" and the "one," here, must not be regarded as Adam and Christ,
but Adam and Abel. For although many sinners have preceded us in the time of
this present life, and have been imitated in their sin by those who have sinned
at a later date, yet they will have it, that only Adam is mentioned as he in
whom all have sinned by imitation, since he was the first of men who sinned. And
on the same principle, Abel ought certainly to have been mentioned, as he "in
which one" all likewise are justified by imitation, inasmuch as he was himself
the first man who lived justly. If, however, it be thought necessary to take
into the account some critical period having relation to the beginning of the
New Testament, and Christ be taken as the leader of the righteous and the object
of their imitation, then Judas, who betrayed Him, ought to be set down as the
leader of the class of sinners.
Moreover, if
Christ alone is He in whom all men are justified, on the ground that it is not
simply the imitation of His example which makes men just, but His grace which
regenerates men by the Spirit, then also Adam is the only one in whom all have
sinned, on the ground that it is not the mere following of his evil example that
makes men sinners, but the penalty which generates through the flesh. Hence the
terms "all men" and "all men." For not they who are generated through Adam are
actually the very same as those who are regenerated through Christ; but yet the
language of the apostle is strictly correct, because as none partakes of carnal
generation except through Adam, so no one shares in the spiritual except through
Christ. For if any could be generated in the flesh, yet not by Adam; and if in
like manner any could be generated in the Spirit, and not by Christ; clearly
"all" could not be spoken of either in the one class or in the other. But these
"all" the apostle afterwards describes as "many;" for obviously, under certain
circumstances, the "all" may be but a few. The carnal generation, however,
embraces "many," and the spiritual generation also includes "many;" although the
"many" of the spiritual are less numerous than the "many" of the carnal.
But as the one embraces all men whatever, so the other includes all righteous
men; because as in the former case none can be a man without the carnal
generation, so in the other class no one can be a righteous man without the
spiritual generation; in both instances, therefore, there are" many:" "For as by
the disobedience of one man many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one
shall many be made righteous."
CHAP.
20.--ORIGINAL SIN ALONE IS CONTRACTED BY NATURAL BIRTH.
"Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound." This addition to
original sin men now made of their own willfulness,
not through Adam; but even this is done away and remedied by Christ, because
"where sin abounded, grace did much more abound; that as sin hath reigned unto
death " --even that sin which men have not derived from Adam, but have added of
their own will--"even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal
life." Them is, however, other righteousness apart from Christ, as there are
other sins apart from Adam. Therefore, after saying, "As sin hath reigned unto
death," be did not add in the same clause "by one," or "by Adam," because he had
already spoken of that sin which was abounding when the law entered, and which,
of course, was not original sin, but the sin of man's own willful
commission. But after he has said: "Even so might grace also reign through
righteousness unto eternal life," he at once adds, "through Jesus Christ our
Lord;" because, whilst by the generation of the flesh only that sin is
contracted which is original; yet by the regeneration of the Spirit there is
effected the remission not of original sin only, but also of the sins of man's
own voluntary and actual commission.
CHAP. 21
[XVI.]--UNBAPTIZED INFANTS DAMNED, BUT MOST LIGHTLY; THE PENALTY OF ADAM'S SIN,
THE GRACE OF HIS BODY LOST.
It may therefore be correctly affirmed, that such infants as quit the body
without being baptized will be involved in the mildest condemnation of all. That
person, therefore, greatly deceives both himself and others, who teaches that
they will not be involved in condemnation; whereas the apostle says: "Judgment
from one offence to condemnation," and again a little after: "By the offence of
one upon all persons to condemnation." When, indeed, Adam sinned by not obeying
God, then his body--although it was a natural and mortal body--lost the grace
whereby it used in every part of it to be obedient to the soul. Then there arose
in men affections common to the brutes which are productive of shame, and which
made man ashamed of his own nakedness. Then also, by a certain disease which was
conceived in men from a suddenly injected and pestilential corruption, it was
brought about that they lost that stability of life in which they were created,
and, by reason of the mutations which they experienced in the stages of life,
issued at last in death. However many were the years they lived in their
subsequent life, yet they began to die on the day when they received the law of
death, because they kept verging towards old age. For that possesses not even a
moment's stability, but glides away without intermission, which by constant
change perceptibly advances to an end which does not produce perfection, but
utter exhaustion. Thus, then, was fulfilled what God had spoken: "In the day
that ye eat thereof, ye shall surely die." As a consequence, then, of this
disobedience of the flesh and this law of sin and death, whoever is born of the
flesh has need of spiritual regeneration--not only that he may reach the kingdom
of God, but also that he may be freed from the damnation of sin. Hence men are
on the one hand born in the flesh liable to sin and death from the first Adam,
and on the other hand are born again in baptism associated with the
righteousness and eternal life of the second Adam; even as it is written in the
book of Ecclesiasticus: "Of the woman came the beginning of sin, and through her
we all die." Now whether it be said of the woman or of Adam, both statements
pertain to the first man; since (as we know) the woman is of the man, and the
two are one flesh. Whence also it is written: "And they twain shall be one
flesh; wherefore," the Lord says, "they are no more twain, but one flesh."
CHAP. 22
[XVII.]--TO INFANTS PERSONAL SIN IS NOT TO BE ATTRIBUTED.
They, therefore, who say that the reason why infants are baptized, is, that they
may have the remission of the sin which they have themselves committed in their
life, not what they have derived from Adam, may be refuted without much
difficulty. For whenever these persons shall have reflected within themselves a
little, uninfluenced by any polemical spirit, on the absurdity of their
statement, how unworthy it is, in fact, of serious discussion, they will at once
change their opinion. But if they will not do this, we shall not so completely
despair of men's common sense, as to have any fears that they will induce others
to adopt their views. They are themselves driven to adopt their opinion, if I am
not mistaken, by their prejudice for some other theory; and it is because they
feel themselves obliged to allow that sins are remitted to the baptized, and are
unwilling to allow that the sin was derived from Adam which they admit to be
remitted to infants, that they have been obliged to charge infancy itself with
actual sin; as if by bringing this charge against infancy a man could become the
more secure himself, when accused and unable to answer his assailant! However,
let us, as I suggested, pass by such opponents as these; indeed, we require
neither words nor quotations of Scripture to prove the sinlessness of infants,
so far as their conduct in life is concerned; this life they spend, such is the
recency of their birth, within their very selves, since it escapes the
cognizance of human perception, which has no data or support whereon to sustain
any controversy on the subject.
CHAP. 23
[XVIII.]--HE REFUTES THOSE WHO ALLEGE THAT INFANTS ARE BAPTIZED NOT FOR THE
REMISSION OF SINS, BUT FOR THE OBTAINING OF THE KINGDOM OF HEAVEN.
But those persons raise a question, and appear to adduce an argument deserving
of consideration and discussion, who say that new-born infants receive baptism
not for the remission of sin, but that, since their procreation is not
spiritual, they may be created in Christ, and become partakers of the kingdom of
heaven, and by the same means children and heirs of God, and joint-heirs with
Christ. And yet, when you ask them, whether those that are not baptized, and are
not made joint-heirs with Christ and par-takers of the kingdom of heaven, have
at any rate the blessing of eternal life in the resurrection of the dead, they
are extremely perplexed, and find no way out of their difficulty. For what
Christian is there who would allow it to be said, that any one could attain to
eternal salvation without being born again in Christ,-- [a result] which He
meant to be effected through baptism, at the very time when such a sacrament was
purposely instituted for regenerating in the hope of eternal salvation? Whence
the apostle says: "Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but
according to His mercy He saved us by the layer of regeneration." This
salvation, however, he says, consists in hope, while we live here below, where
he says, "For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope; for what
a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then
do we with patience wait for it." Who then could be so bold as to affirm, that
without the regeneration of which the apostle speaks, infants could attain to
eternal salvation, as if Christ died not for them? For "Christ died for the
ungodly." As for them, however, who (as is manifest) never did an ungodly act in
all their own life, if also they are not bound by any bond of sin in their
original nature, how did He die for them, who died for the ungodly? If they were
hurt by no malady of original sin, how is it they are carried to the Physician
Christ, for the express purpose of receiving the sacrament of eternal salvation,
by the pious anxiety of those who run to Him?
Why rather is it not said to them in the Church: Take hence these innocents: "they that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick;"--Christ "came not to call the righteous, but sinners?" There never has been heard, there never is heard, there never will be heard in the Church, such a fiction concerning Christ.
CHAP. 24
[xix]--INFANTS SAVED AS SINNERS.
And let no one suppose that infants ought to be brought to baptism, on the
ground that, as they are not sinners, so they are not righteous; how then do
some remind us that the Lord commends this tender age as meritorious; saying,
"Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not, for of such is
the kingdom of heaven?" For if this ["of such"] is not said because of likeness
in humility (since humility makes children), but because of the laudable life of
children, then of course infants must be righteous persons; otherwise, it could
not be correctly said, "Of such is the kingdom of heaven," for heaven can only
belong to the righteous. But perhaps, after all, it is not a right opinion of
the meaning of the Lord's words, to make Him Commend the life of infants when He
says, "Of such is the kingdom of heaven;" inasmuch as that may be, their true
sense, which makes Christ adduce the tender age of infancy as a likeness of
humility. Even so, however, perhaps we must revert to the tenet which I
mentioned just now, that infants ought to be baptized, because, although they
are not sinners, they are yet not righteous.
But when He had said: "I came not to call the righteous," as if responding to this, Whom, then, didst Thou come to call? immediately He goes on to say:"- but sinners to repentance." Therefore it follows, that, however righteous they may be, if also they are not sinners, He came not to call them, who said of Himself: "I came not to call the righteous, but sinners." They therefore seem, not vainly only, but even wickedly to rush to the baptism of Him who does not invite them,--an opinion which God forbid that we should entertain, He calls them, then, as a Physician who is not needed for those that are whole, but for those that are sick; and who came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Now, inasmuch as infants are not held bound by any sins of their own actual life, it is the guilt of original sin which is healed in them by the grace of Him who saves them by the layer of regeneration.
CHAP.
25.--INFANTS ARE DESCRIBED AS BELIEVERS AND AS PENITENTS. SINS ALONE SEPARATE
BETWEEN GOD AND MEN.
Some one will say: How then are mere infants called to repentance? How can such
as they repent of anything? The answer to this is: If they must not be called
penitents because they have not the sense of repenting, neither must they be
called believers, because they likewise have not the sense of believing. But if
they are rightly called believers, because they in a certain sense profess faith
by the words of their parents, why are they not also held to be before that
penitents when they are shown to renounce the devil and this world by the
profession again of the same parents? The whole of this is done in hope, in the
strength of the sacrament and of the divine grace which the Lord has bestowed
upon the Church. But yet who knows not that the baptized infant fails to be
benefited from what he received as a little child, if on coming to years of
reason he fails to believe and to abstain from unlawful desires? If, however,
the infant departs from the present life after he has received baptism, the
guilt in which he was involved by original sin being done away, he shall be made
perfect in that light of truth, which, remaining unchangeable for evermore,
illumines the justified in the presence of their Creator. For sins alone
separate between men and God; and these are done away by Christ's grace, through
whom, as Mediator, we are reconciled, when He justifies the ungodly.
CHAP. 26
[XX.]--NO ONE, EXCEPT HE BE BAPTIZED, RIGHTLY COMES TO THE TABLE OF THE LORD.
Now they take alarm from the statement of the Lord, when He says, "Except a man
be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God;" because in His own explanation
of the passage He affirms "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he
cannot enter into the kingdom of God." And so they try to ascribe to unbaptized
infants, by the merit of their innocence, the gift of salvation and eternal
life, but at the same time, owing to their being unbaptized, to exclude them
from the kingdom of heaven. But how novel and astonishing is such an assumption,
as if there could possibly be salvation and eternal life without heirship with
Christ, without the kingdom of heaven! Of course they have their refuge, whither
to escape and hide themselves, because the Lord does not say, Except a man be
born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot have life, but--"he cannot enter into
the kingdom of God." If indeed He had said the other, there could have risen not
a moment's doubt. Well, then, let us remove the doubt; let us now listen to the
Lord, and not to men's notions and conjectures; let us, I say, hear what the
Lord says--not indeed concerning the sacrament of the layer, but concerning the
sacrament of His own holy table, to which none but a baptized person has a right
to approach: "Except ye eat my flesh and drink my blood, ye shall have no life
in you." What do we want more? What answer to this can be adduced, unless it be
by that obstinacy.
CHAP.
27.--INFANTS MUST FEED ON CHRIST.
Will, however, any man be so bold as to say that this statement has no relation
to infants, and that they can have life in them without partaking of His body
and blood--on the ground that He does not say, Except one eat, but "Except ye
eat;" as if He were addressing those who were able to hear and to understand,
which of course infants cannot do? But he who says this is inattentive; because,
unless all are embraced in the statement, that without the body and the blood of
the Son of man men cannot have life, it is to no purpose that even the elder age
is solicitous of it. For if you attend to the mere words, and not to the
meaning, of the Lord as He speaks, this passage may very well seem to have been
spoken merely, to the people whom He happened at the moment to be addressing;
because He does not say, Except one eat; but Except ye eat. What also becomes of
the statement which He makes in the same context on this very point: "The bread
that I will give is my flesh, for the life of the world?" For, it is according
to this statement, that we find that sacrament pertains also to us, who were not
m existence at the time the Lord spoke these words; for we cannot possibly say
that we do not belong to "the world," for the life of which Christ gave His
flesh. Who indeed can doubt that in the term world all persons are indicated who
enter the world by being born? For, as He says in another passage, "The children
of this world beget and are begotten." From all this it follows, that even for
the life of infants was His flesh given, which He gave for the life of the
world; and that even they will not have life if they eat not the flesh of the
Son of man.
CHAP.
28.--BAPTIZED INFANTS, OF THE FAITHFUL; UNBAPTIZED, OF THE LOST.
Hence also that other statement: "The Father loveth the Son, and hath given all
things into His hand. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life; while
he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth
on him." Now in which of these classes must we place infants--amongst those who
believe on the Son, or amongst those who believe not the Son? In neither, say
some, because, as they are not yet able to believe, so must they not be deemed
unbelievers. This, however, the rule of the Church does not indicate, for it
joins baptized infants to the number of the faithful. Now if they who are
baptized are, by virtue of the excellence and administration of so great a
sacrament, nevertheless reckoned in the number of the faithful, although by
their own heart and mouth they do not literally perform what appertains to the
action of faith and confession; surely they who have lacked the sacrament must
be classed amongst those who do not believe on the Son, and therefore, if they
shall depart this life without this grace, they will have to encounter what is
written concerning such--they shall not have life, but the wrath of God abideth
on them. Whence could this result to those who clearly have no sins of their
own, if they are not held to be obnoxious to original sin?
CHAP. 29
[XXI.]--IT IS AN INSCRUTABLE MYSTERY WHY SOME ARE SAVED, AND OTHERS NOT.
Now there is much significance in that He does not say, "The wrath of God shall
come upon him," but "abideth on him." For from this wrath (in which we are all
involved under sin, and of which the apostle says, "For we too were once by
nature the children of wrath, even as others " nothing delivers us but the grace
of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. The reason why this grace comes upon one
man and not on another may be hidden, but it cannot be unjust. For "is there
unrighteousness with God? God forbid." But we must first bend our necks to the
authority of the Holy Scriptures, in order that we may each arrive at knowledge
and understanding through faith. For it is not said in vain, "Thy judgments are
a great deep." The profundity of this deep" the apostle, as if with a feeling of
dread, notices in that exclamation: "O the depth of the riches both of the
wisdom and the knowledge of God!" He had indeed previously pointed out the
meaning of this marvelous depth, when he said: "For God hath concluded them all
in unbelief, that He might have mercy upon all." Then struck, as it were, with a
horrible fear of this deep: "O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and
the knowledge of God! how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past
finding out! For who hath known the mind of the Lord? or who hath been His
counselor? or who hath first given to Him, and it shall be recompensed unto him
again? For of Him, and through Him, and in Him, are all things: to whom be glory
for ever. Amen." How utterly insignificant, then, is our faculty for discussing
the justice of God's judgments, and for the consideration of His gratuitous
grace, which, as men have no prevenient merits for deserving it, cannot be
partial or unrighteous, and which does not disturb us when it is bestowed upon
unworthy men, as much as when it is denied to those who are equally unworthy!
CHAP. 30.--WHY
ONE IS BAPTIZED AND ANOTHER NOT, NOT OTHERWISE INSCRUTABLE.
Now those very persons, who think it unjust that infants which depart this life
without the grace of Christ should be deprived not only of the kingdom of God,
into which they themselves admit that none but such as are regenerated through
baptism can enter, but also of eternal life and salvation,--when they ask how it
can be just that one man should be freed from original sin and another not,
although the condition of both of them is the same, might answer their own
question, in accordance with their own opinion of how it can be so frequently
just and right that one should have baptism administered to him whereby to enter
into the kingdom of God, and another not be so favored, although the case of
both is alike. For if the question disturbs him, why, of the two persons, who
are both equally sinners by nature, the one is loosed from that bond, on whom
baptism is conferred, and the other is not released, on whom such grace is not
bestowed; why is he not similarly disturbed by the fact that of two persons,
innocent by nature, one receives baptism, whereby he is able to enter into the
kingdom of God, and the other does not receive it, so that he is incapable of
approaching the kingdom of God? Now in both cases one recurs to the apostle's
outburst of wonder " O the depth of the riches!"
Again, let me be informed, why out of the body of baptized infants themselves, one is taken away, so that his understanding undergoes no change from a wicked life, and the other survives, destined to become an impious man? Suppose both were carried off, would not both enter the kingdom of heaven? And yet there is no unrighteousness with God. How is it that no one is moved, no one is driven to the expression of wonder amidst such depths, by the circumstance that some children are vexed by the unclean spirit, while others experience no such pollution, and others again, as Jeremiah, are sanctified even in their mother's womb; whereas all men, if there is original sin, are equally guilty; or else equally innocent if there is original sin? Whence this great diversity, except in the fact that God's judgments are unsearchable, and His ways past finding out?
CHAP. 31
[XXII.]--HE REFUTES THOSE WHO SUPPOSE THAT SOULS, ON ACCOUNT OF SINS COMMITTED
IN ANOTHER STATE, ARE THRUST INTO BODIES SUITED TO THEIR MERITS, IN WHICH THEY
ARE MORE OR LESS TORMENTED.
Perhaps, however, the now exploded and rejected opinion must be resumed, that
souls which once sinned in their heavenly abode, descend by stages and degrees
to bodies suited to their deserts, and, as a penalty for their previous life,
are more or less tormented by corporeal chastisements. To this opinion Holy
Scripture indeed presents a most manifest contradiction; for when recommending
divine grace, it says: "For the children being not yet born, neither having done
any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not
of works, but of Him that calleth, it was said, The elder shall serve the
younger." And yet they who entertain such an opinion are actually unable to
escape the perplexities of this question, but, embarrassed and straitened by
them, are compelled to exclaim like others, "O the depth!" For whence does it
come to pass that a person shall from his earliest boyhood show greater
moderation, mental excellence, and temperance, and shall to a great extent
conquer lust, shall hate avarice, detest luxury, and rise to a greater eminence
and aptitude in the other virtues, and yet live in such a place as to be unable
to hear the grace of Christ preached?--for "how shall they call on Him in whom
they have not believed? or how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not
heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?" 'While another man, although
of a slow mind, addicted to lust, and covered with disgrace and crime, shall be
so directed as to hear, and believe, and be baptized, and be taken away,--or, if
permitted to remain longer here, lead the rest of his life in a manner that
shall bring him praise? Now where did these two persons acquire such diverse
deserts,--I do not say, that the one should believe and the other not believe,
for that is a matter for a man's own will; but that the one should hear in order
to believe, and that the other should not hear, for this is not within man's
power? Where, I say, did they acquire diverse deserts? If they had indeed passed
any part of their life in heaven, so as to be thrust down, or to sink down, to
this world, and to tenant such bodily receptacles as are congruous to their own
former life, then of course that man ought to be supposed to have led the better
life previous to his present mortal body, who did not much deserve to be
burdened with it, so as both to have a good disposition, and to be importuned by
milder desires which he could easily overcome; and yet he did not deserve to
have that grace preached to him whereby alone he could be delivered from the
ruin of the second death. Whereas the other, who was hampered with a grosser
body, as a penalty--so they suppose--for worse deserts, and was accordingly
possessed of obtuser affections, whilst he was in the violent ardor of his lust
succumbing to the snares of the flesh, and by his wicked life aggravating his
former sins, which had brought him to such a pass, by a still more abandoned
course of earthly pleasures,--either heard upon the cross, "To-day shalt thou be
with me in paradise," or else joined himself to some apostle, by whose preaching
he became a changed man, and was saved by the washing of regeneration,--so that
where sin once abounded, grace did much more abound. I am at a loss to know what
answer they can give to this who wish to maintain God's righteousness by human
conjectures, and, knowing nothing of the depths of grace, have woven webs of
improbable fable.
CHAP. 32.--THE
CASE OF CERTAIN IDIOTS AND SIMPLETONS.
Now a good deal may be said of men's strange vocations,--either such as we have
read about, or have experienced ourselves,--which go to overthrow the opinion of
those persons who think that, previous to the possession of their bodies, men's
souls passed through certain lives peculiar to themselves, in which they must
come to this, and experience in the present life either good or evil, according
to the difference of their individual deserts. My anxiety, however, to bring
this work to an end does not permit me to dwell longer on these topics. But on
one point, which among many I have found to be a very strange one, I will not be
silent. If we follow those persons who suppose that souls are oppressed with
earthly bodies in a greater or a less degree of grossness, according to the
deserts of the life which had been passed in celestial bodies previous to the
assumption of the present one, who would not affirm that those had sinned
previous to this life with an especial amount of enormity, who deserve so to
lose all mental light, that they are born with faculties akin to brute
animals,--who are (I will not say most slow in intellect, for this is very
commonly said of others also, but) so silly as to make a show of their fatuity
for the amusement of clever people, even with idiotic gestures? and whom the
vulgar call, by a name, derived from the Greek, Moriones? And yet there was once
a certain person of this class, who was so Christian, that although he was
patient to the degree of strange folly with any amount of injury to himself, he
was yet so impatient of any insult to the name of Christ, or, in his own person,
to the religion with which he was imbued, that he could never refrain, whenever
his gay and clever audience proceeded to blaspheme the sacred name, as they
sometimes would in order to provoke his patience, from pelting them with stones;
and on these occasions he would show no favor even to persons of rank. Well,
now, such persons are predestinated and brought into being, as I suppose, in
order that those who are able should understand that God's grace and the Spirit,
"which bloweth where it listeth," does not pass over any kind of capacity in the
sons of mercy, nor in like manner does it pass over any kind of capacity in the
children of Gehenna, so that "he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord."
They, however, who affirm that souls severally receive different earthly bodies,
more or less gross according to the merits of their former life, and that their
abilities as men vary according to the self-same merits, so that some minds are
sharper and others more obtuse, and that the grace of God is also dispensed for
the liberation of men from their sins according to the deserts of their former
existence:--what will they have to say about this man? How will they be able to
attribute to him a previous life of so disgraceful a character that he deserved
to be born an idiot, and at the same time of so highly meritorious a character
as to entitle him to a preference in the award of the grace of Christ over many
men of the acutest intellect?
CHAP.
33.--CHRIST IS THE SAVIOR AND REDEEMER EVEN OF INFANTS.
Let us therefore give in and yield our assent to the authority of Holy
Scripture, which knows not how either to be deceived or to deceive; and as we do
not believe that men as yet unborn have done any good or evil for raising a
difference in their moral deserts, so let us by no means doubt that all men are
under sin, which came into the world by one man and has passed through unto all
men; and from which nothing frees us but the grace of God through our Lord Jesus
Christ. [XXIII.] His remedial advent is needed by those that are sick, not by
the whole: for He came not to call the righteous, but sinners; and into His
kingdom shall enter no one that is not born again of water and the Spirit; nor
shall any one attain salvation and eternal life except in His kingdom,--since
the man who believes not in the Son, and eats not His flesh, shall not have
life, but the wrath of God remains upon him. Now from this sin, from this
sickness, from this wrath of God (of which by nature they are children who have
original sin, even if they have none of their own on account of their youth),
none delivers them, except the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the
world; except the Physician, who came not for the sake of the sound, but of the
sick; except the Savior, concerning whom it was said to the human race: "Unto
you there is born this day a Savior;" except the Redeemer, by whose blood our
debt is blotted out. For who would dare to say that Christ is not the Savior and
Redeemer of infants? But from what does He save them, if there is no malady of
original sin within them? From what does He redeem them, if through their origin
from the first man they are not sold under sin? Let there be then no eternal
salvation promised to infants out of our own opinion, without Christ's baptism;
for none is promised in that Holy Scripture which is to be preferred to all
human authority and opinion.
CHAP. 34
[XXIV.]--BAPTISM IS CALLED SALVATION, AND THE EUCHARIST, LIFE, BY THE CHRISTIANS
OF CARTHAGE.
The Christians of Carthage have an excellent name for the sacraments, when they
say that baptism is nothing else than "salvation," and the sacrament of the body
of Christ nothing else than "life." Whence, however, was this derived, but from
that primitive, as I suppose, and apostolic tradition, by which the Churches of
Christ maintain it to be an inherent principle, that without baptism and
partaking of the supper of the Lord it is impossible for any man to attain
either to the kingdom of God or to salvation and everlasting life? So much also
does Scripture testify, according to the words which we already quoted. For
wherein does their opinion, who designate baptism by the term salvation, differ
from what is written: "He saved us by the washing of regeneration?" or from
Peter's statement: "The like figure where-unto even baptism doth also now save
us?" And what else do they say who call the sacrament of the Lord's Supper life,
than that which is written: "I am the living bread which came down from heaven;"
and "The bread that I shall give is my flesh, for the life of the world;" and
"Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye shall have
no life in you?" If, therefore, as so many and such divine witnesses agree,
neither salvation nor eternal life can be hoped for by any man without baptism
and the Lord's body and blood, it is vain to promise these blessings to infants
without them. Moreover, if it be only sins that separate man from salvation and
eternal life, there is nothing else in infants which these sacraments can be the
means of removing, but the guilt of sin,--respecting which guilty nature it is
written, that "no one is clean, not even if his life be only that of a day."
Whence also that exclamation of the Psalmist: "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity;
and in sin did my mother conceive me!" This is either said in the person of our
common humanity, or if of himself only David speaks, it does not imply that he
was born of fornication, but in lawful wedlock. We therefore ought not to doubt
that even for infants yet to be baptized was that precious blood shed, which
previous to its actual effusion was so given, and applied in the sacrament, that
it was said, "This is my blood, which shall be shed for many for the remission
of sins." Now they who will not allow that they are under sin, deny that there
is any liberation. For what is there that men are liberated from, if they are
held to be bound by no bondage of sin?
CHAP.
35.--UNLESS INFANTS ARE BAPTIZED, THEY REMAIN IN DARKNESS.
"I am come," says Christ, "a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on
me should not abide in darkness." Now what does this passage show us, but that
every person is in darkness who does not believe on Him, and that it is by
believing on Him that he escapes from this permanent state of darkness? What do
we understand by the darkness but sin? And whatever else it may embrace in its
meaning, at any rate he who believes not in Christ will "abide in
darkness,"--which, of course, is a penal state, not, as the darkness of the
night, necessary for the refreshment of living beings. [XXV.] So that infants,
unless they pass into the number of believers through the sacrament which was
divinely instituted for this purpose, will undoubtedly remain in this darkness.
CHAP.
36.--INFANTS NOT ENLIGHTENED AS SOON AS THEY ARE BORN.
Some, however, understand that as soon as children are born they are
enlightened; and they derive this opinion from the passage: "That was the true
Light, which lighteth every one that cometh into the world." Well, if this be
the case, it is quite astonishing how it can be that those who are thus
enlightened by the only-begotten Son, who was in the beginning the Word with
God, and [Himself] God, are not admitted into the kingdom of God, nor are heirs
of God and joint-heirs with Christ. For that such an inheritance is not bestowed
upon them except through baptism, even they who hold the opinion in question do
acknowledge. Then, again, if they are (though already illuminated) thus unfit
for entrance into the kingdom of God, they at all events ought gladly to receive
the baptism, by which they are fitted for it; but, strange to say, we see how
reluctant infants are to submit to baptism, resisting even with strong crying.
And this ignorance of theirs we think lightly of at their time of life, so that
we fully administer the sacraments, which we know to be serviceable to them,
even although they struggle against them. And why, too, does the apostle say,
"Be not children in understanding," if their minds have been already enlightened
with that true Light, which is the Word of God?
CHAP. 37.--HOW
GOD ENLIGHTENS EVERY PERSON.
That statement, therefore, which occurs in the gospel, "That was the true Light,
which lighteth every one that cometh into the world," has this meaning, that no
man is illuminated except with that Light of the truth, which is God; so that no
person must think that he is enlightened by him whom he listens to as a learner,
although that instructor happen to be--I will not say, any great man--but even
an angel himself. For the word of truth is applied to man externally by the
ministry of a bodily voice, but yet "neither is he that planteth any thing,
neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase." Man indeed hears
the speaker, be he man or angel, but in order that he may perceive and know that
what is said is true, his mind is internally besprinkled with that light which
remains for ever, and which shines even in darkness. But just as the sun is not
seen by the blind, though they are clothed as it were with its rays, so is the
light of truth not understood by the darkness of folly.
CHAP. 38.--WHAT
"LIGHTETH" MEANS.
But why, after saying, "which lighteth every man," should he add, "that cometh
into the world," --the clause which has suggested the opinion that He enlightens
the minds of newlyborn babes while the birth of their bodies from their mother's
womb is still a recent thing? The words, no doubt, are so placed in the Greek,
that they may be understood to express that the light itself "cometh into the
world." If, nevertheless, the clause must be taken as expressing the man who
cometh into this world, I suppose that it is either a simple phrase, like many
others one finds in the Scriptures, which may be removed without impairing the
general sense; or else, if it is to be regarded as a distinctive addition, it
was perhaps inserted in order to distinguish spiritual illumination from that
bodily one which enlightens the eyes of the flesh either by means of the
luminaries of the sky, or by the lights of ordinary fire. So that he mentioned
the inner man as coming into the world, because the outward man is of a
corporeal nature, just as this world itself; as if he said, "Which lighteth
every man that cometh into the body," in accordance with that which is written:
"I obtained a good spirit, and I came in a body undefiled." Or again, the
passage, "Which lighteth every one that cometh into the world,"--if it was added
for the sake of expressing some distinction,--might perhaps mean: Which lighteth
every inner man, because the inner man, when he becomes truly wise, is
enlightened only by Him who is the true Light. Or, once more, if the intention
was to designate reason herself, which causes the human soul to be called
rational (and this reason, although as yet quiet and as it were asleep, for all
that lies hidden in infants, innate and, so to speak, implanted), by the term
illumination, as if it were the creation of an inner eye, then it cannot be
denied that it is made when the soul is created; and there is no absurdity in
supposing this to take place when the human being comes into the world. But yet,
although his eye is now created, he himself must needs remain in darkness, if he
does not believe in Him who said: "I am come a Light into the world, that
whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness." And that this takes
place in the case of infants, through the sacrament of baptism, is not doubted
by mother Church, which uses for them the heart and mouth of a mother, that they
may be imbued with the sacred mysteries, seeing that they cannot as yet with
their own heart "believe unto righteousness," nor with their own mouth make
"confession unto salvation." There is not indeed a man among the faithful, who
would hesitate to call such infants believers merely from the circumstance that
such a designation is derived from the act of believing; for although incapable
of such an act themselves, yet others are sponsors for them in the sacraments.
CHAP. 39
[XXVI.]--THE CONCLUSION DRAWN, THAT ALL ARE INVOLVED IN ORIGINAL SIN.
It would be tedious, were we fully to discuss, at similar length, every
testimony bearing on the question. I suppose it will be the more convenient
course simply to collect the passages together which may turn up, or such as
shall seem sufficient for manifesting the truth, that the Lord Jesus Christ came
in the flesh, and, in the form of a servant, became obedient even to the death
of the cross, for no-other reason than, by this dispensation of His most
merciful grace, to give life to all those to whom, as engrafted members of His
body, He becomes Head for laying hold upon the kingdom of heaven: to save, free,
redeem, and enlighten them,--who had aforetime been involved in the death,
infirmities, servitude, captivity, and darkness of sin, under the dominion of
the devil, the author of sin: and thus to become the Mediator between God and
man, by whom (after the enmity of our ungodly condition had been terminated by
His gracious help) we might be reconciled to God unto eternal life, having been
rescued from the eternal death which threatened such as us. When this shall have
been made clear by more than sufficient evidence, it will follow that those
persons cannot be concerned with that dispensation of Christ which is executed
by His humiliation, who have no need of life, and salvation, and deliverance,
and redemption, and illumination. And inasmuch as to this belongs baptism, in
which we are buried with Christ, in order to be incorporated into Him as His
members (that is, as those who believe in Him): it of course follows that
baptism is unnecessary for them, who have no need of the benefit of that
forgiveness and reconciliation which is acquired through a Mediator. Now, seeing
that they admit the necessity of baptizing infants,--finding themselves unable
to contravene that authority of the universal Church, which has been
unquestionably handed down by the Lord and His apostles,--they cannot avoid the
further concession, that infants require the same benefits of the Mediator, in
order that, being washed by the sacrament and charity of the faithful, and
thereby incorporated into the body of Christ, which is the Church, they may be
reconciled to God, and so live in Him, and be saved, and delivered, and
redeemed, and enlightened. But from what, if not from death, and the vices, and
guilt, and thraldom, and darkness of sin? And, inasmuch as they do not commit
any sin in the tender age of infancy by their actual transgression, original sin
only is left.
CHAP. 40
[XXVII.]--A COLLECTION OF SCRIPTURE TESTIMONIES. FROM THE GOSPELS.
This reasoning will carry more weight, after I have collected the mass of
Scripture testimonies which I have undertaken to adduce. We have already quoted:
"I came not to call the righteous, but sinners." To the same purport [the Lord]
says, on entering the home of Zaccheus: "To-day is salvation come to this house,
forsomuch as he also is a son of Abraham; for the Son of man is come to seek and
to save that which was lost." The same truth is declared in the parable of the
lost sheep and the ninety and nine which were left until the missing one was
sought and found; as it is also in the parable of the lost one among the ten
silver coins? Whence, as He said, "it behoved that repentance and remission of
sins should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem."
Mark likewise, at the end of his Gospel, tells us how that the Lord said: "Go ye
into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth,
and is baptized, shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned."
Now, who can be unaware that, in the case of infants, being baptized is to
believe, and not being baptized is not to believe? From the Gospel of John we
have already adduced some passages. However, I must also request your attention
to the following: John Baptist says of Christ, "Behold the Lamb of God, Behold
Him which taketh away the sin of the world;" and He too says of Himself, "My
sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: and I give unto them
eternal life; and they shall never perish." Now, inasmuch as infants are only
able to become His sheep by baptism, it must needs come to pass that they perish
if they are not baptized, because they will not have that eternal life which He
gives to His sheep. So in another passage He says: "I am the way, the truth, and
the life; no man cometh unto the Father, but by me."
CHAP. 41.--FROM
THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.
See with what earnestness the apostles declare this doctrine, when they received
it. Peter, in his first Epistle, says: "Blessed be the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, according to His abundant mercy, who hath regenerated us unto
the hope of eternal life, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, to an inheritance
immortal, and undefiled, flourishing, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept
by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the
last time." And a little afterwards he adds: "May ye be found unto the praise
and honor of Jesus Christ: of whom ye were ignorant; but in whom I ye believe,
though now ye see Him not; and in whom also ye shall rejoice, when ye shall see
Him, with joy unspeakable and full of glory: receiving the end of your faith,
even the salvation of your souls." Again, in another place he says: "But ye are
a chosen general on, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people; that
ye should show forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into
His marvelous light." Once more he says: "Christ hath once suffered for our
sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God:" and, after
mentioning the fact of eight persons having been saved in Noah's ark, he adds:
"And by the like figure baptism saveth you." Now infants are strangers to this
salvation and light, and will remain in perdition and darkness, unless they are
joined to the people of God by adoption, holding to Christ who suffered the just
for the unjust, to bring them unto God.
CHAP. 42.--FROM
THE FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN.
Moreover, from John's Epistle I meet with the following words, which seem
indispensable to the solution of this question: "But it," says he, "we walk in
the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the
blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin." To the like import he
says, in another place: "If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is
greater: for this is the witness of God, which is greater because He hath
testified of His Son. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in
himself: he that believeth not God hath made Him a liar; because he believed not
in the testimony that God testified of His Son. And this is the testimony, that
God hath given to us eternal life; and this life is in His Son. He that hath the
Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life." It seems,
then, that it is not only the kingdom of heaven, but life also, which infants
are not to have, if they have not the Son, whom they can only have by His
baptism. So again he says: "For this cause the Son of God was manifested, that
He might destroy the works of the devil." Therefore infants will have no
interest in the manifestation of the Son of God, if He do not in them destroy
the works of the devil.
CHAP. 43. --FROM
THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS.
Let me now request your attention to the testimony of the Apostle Paul on this
subject. And quotations from him may of course be made more abundantly, because
he wrote more epistles, and because it fell to him to recommend the grace of God
with especial earnestness, in opposition to those who gloried in their works,
and who, ignorant of God's righteousness, and wishing to establish their own,
submitted not to the righteousness of God. In his Epistle to the Romans he
writes: "The righteousness of God is upon all them that believe; for there is no
difference; since all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; being
justified freely by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus;
whom God hath set forth as a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare
His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the
forbearance of God; to declare, I say, at this time His righteousness; that He
might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus." Then in
another passage he says: "To him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of
grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that
justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Even as David
also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness
without works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose
sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth no sin." And then
after no long interval he observes: "Now, it was not written for his sake alone,
that it was imputed to him; but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we
believe on Him that raised up Jesus Christ our Lord from the dealt; who was
delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification." Then a
little after he writes: "For when we were yet without strength, in due time
Christ died for the ungodly." in another passage he says: "We know that the law
is spiritual; but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do I know not:
for what I would, that I do not; but what I hate, that I do. If then I do that
which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Now then, it is no
more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me (that is,
in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing; for to will is present with me; but how to
perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not; but
the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no
more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law, that, when I
would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after
the inward man: but I see another law in my members warring against the law of
my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my
members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this
death? The grace of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord." Let them, who can, say
that men are not born in the body of this death, that so they may be able to
affirm that they have no need of God's grace through Jesus Christ in order to be
delivered from the body of this death. Therefore he adds, a few verses
afterwards: "For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the
flesh, God, sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin,
condemned sin in the flesh." Let them say, who dare, that Christ must have been
born in the likeness of sinful flesh, if we were not born in sinful flesh.
CHAP. 44.--FROM
THE EPISTLES TO THE CORINTHIANS.
Likewise to the Corinthians he says: "For I delivered to you first of all that
which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the
Scriptures." Again, in his Second Epistle to these Corinthians: "For the love of
Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if One died for all, then
all died: and for all did Christ die, that they which live should no longer live
unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and rose again. Wherefore,
henceforth know we no man after the flesh; yea, though we have known Christ
after the flesh, yet from henceforth know we Him so no more. Therefore if any
man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all
things are become new. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to
Himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given unto us the minis try of reconciliation.
To what effect? That God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not
imputing their trespasses unto them, and putting on us the ministry of
reconciliation. Now then are we ambassadors for Christ, as though God did
beseech you by us; we pray you in Christ's stead, to be reconciled to God. For
He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might become the
righteousness of God in Him. We then, as workers together with Him, beseech you
also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain. (For He saith, I have heard
thee in an acceptable time, and in the day of salvation have I succored thee:
behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.)" Now,
if infants are not embraced within this reconciliation and salvation, who wants
them for the baptism of Christ? But if they are embraced, then are they reckoned
as among the dead for whom He died; nor can they be possibly reconciled and
saved by Him, unless He remit and impute not unto them their sins.
CHAP. 45.--FROM
THE EPISTLE TO THE GALATIANS.
Likewise to the Galatians the apostle writes: "Grace be to you, and peace, from
God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins,
that He might deliver us from this present evil world." While in another passage
he says to them: "The law was added because of transgressions, until the seed
should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the
hand of a mediator. Now a mediator belongs not to one party; but God is one. Is
the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a
law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by
the law. But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by
faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe."
CHAP. 46.--FROM THE EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS.
To the Ephesians he addresses words of the same import: "And you when ye were
dead in trespasses and sins; wherein in time past ye walked according to the
course of this world according to the prince of the power of the air the spirit
of him that now worketh in the children of disobedience; among whom also we all
had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the
desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath,
even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He
loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with
Christ; by whose grace ye are saved."' Again, a little afterwards, he says: "By
grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of
God: not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are His workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we
should walk in them." And again, after a short interval: "At that time ye were
without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from
the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: but now,
in Christ Jesus, ye who were sometimes far off are made nigh by the blood of
Christ. For He is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the
middle wall of partition between us; having abolished in His flesh the enmity,
even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in Himself of
twain one new man, so making peace; and that He might reconcile both unto God in
one body by the cross, having in Himself slain the enmity; and He came and
preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh. For
through Him we both have access by, one Spirit unto the Father." Then in another
passage he thus writes: "As the truth is in Jesus: that ye put off, concerning
the former conversation, the old man, which is corrupt according to the
deceitful lusts; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on
the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." And
again: "Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of
redemption."
CHAP. 47.--FROM
THE EPISTLE TO THE COLOSSIANS.
To the Colossians he addresses these words: "Giving thanks unto the Father,
which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in
light: who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us
into the kingdom of His dear Son; in whom we have redemption in the remission of
our sins." And again he says: "And ye are complete in Him, which is the head of
all principality and power: in whom also ye are circumcised with the
circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the flesh by the
circumcision of Christ; buried with Him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen
with Him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised Him from the
dead. And you, when ye were dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your
flesh, hath He quickened together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses;
blotting out the handwriting of the decree that was against us, which was
contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross; and putting
the flesh off Him, He made a show of principalities and powers, confidently
triumphing over them in Himself."
CHAP. 48.--FROM
THE EPISTLES TO TIMOTHY.
And then to Timothy he says: "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all
acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am
chief. Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ
might show forth all long-suffering, for a pattern to them which should
hereafter believe on Him to life everlasting." He also says: "For there is one
God and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; who gave Himself
a ransom for all." In his second Epistle to the same Timothy, he says: "Be not
thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner: but
be thou a fellow-laborer for the gospel, according to the power of God; who hath
saved us, and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but
according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began; but is now manifested by the coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who hath abolished death, and bath brought life and immortality to light
through the gospel."
CHAP. 49.--FROM
THE EPISTLE TO TITUS.
Then again he writes to Titus as follows: "Looking for that blessed hope, and
the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ; who gave
himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto
Himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works." And to the like effect in
another passage: "But after that the kindness and love of God our Savior toward
man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to
His mercy He saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy
Ghost; which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior; that,
being justified by His grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of
eternal life."
CHAP. 50.--FROM
THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS.
Although the authority of the Epistle to the Hebrews is doubted by some,
nevertheless, as I find it sometimes thought by persons, who oppose our opinion
touching the baptism of infants, to contain evidence in favor of their own
views, we shall notice the pointed testimony it bears in our behalf; and I quote
it the more confidently, because of the authority of the Eastern Churches, which
expressly place it amongst the canonical Scriptures. In its very exordium one
thus reads: "God, who at sundry times, and in divers manners, spake in time past
unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken to us by His
Son, whom He hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also He made the worlds;
who, being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person, and
upholding all things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our
sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high." And by and by the
writer says: "For if the word spoken by angels was steadfast, and every
transgression and