[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;103    John i. 29. except the Physician, who came not for the sake of the sound, but of the sick; except the Saviour, concerning whom it was said to the human race: “Unto you there is born this day a Saviour;”104    Luke ii. 11. except the Redeemer, by whose blood our debt is blotted out. For who would dare to say that Christ is not the Saviour 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.

CAPUT XXIII.

Christus etiam infantium salvator et redemptor. Cujus medicinalis adventus non est opus sanis, sed aegrotantibus; quia non venit vocare justos, sed peccatores: in cujus regnum non intrabit nisi qui renatus fuerit ex aqua et spiritu, nec praeter regnum ejus salutem ac vitam possidebit aeternam. Quoniam qui non manducaverit carnem ejus, et qui incredulus est Filio, non habebit vitam, sed ira Dei manet super eum. Ab hoc peccato, ab hac aegritudine, ab hac ira Dei, cujus naturaliter filii sunt, qui etiam si per aetatem non habent proprium, trahunt tamen originale peccatum, non liberat nisi Agnus Dei qui tollit peccata mundi (Joan. I, 29), nonnisi Medicus qui non venit propter sanos, sed propter aegrotos, nonnisi Salvator, de quo dictum est generi humano, Natus est vobis hodie Salvator (Luc. II, 11): nonnisi Redemptor, cujus sanguine deletur debitum nostrum. Nam quis audeat dicere, non esse Christum infantium salvatorem nec redemptorem? Unde autem salvos facit, si nulla in eis est originalis aegritudo peccati? Unde redimit, si non sunt per originem primi hominis venumdati sub peccato? Nulla igitur ex nostro arbitrio, praeter Baptismum Christi, salus aeterna promittatur infantibus, quam non promittit Scriptura divina, humanis omnibus ingeniis praeferenda.