Chapter 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.”124    Luke v. 32. 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.”125    Luke xix. 9, 10. 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;126    Luke xv. 4. as it is also in the parable of the lost one among the ten silver coins.127    Luke xv. 8. Whence, as He said, “it behoved that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.”128    Luke xxiv. 46, 47. 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.”129    Mark xvi. 15, 16. 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;”130    John i. 29. 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.”131    John x. 27, 28. 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.”132    John xiv. 6.

CAPUT XXVII.

40. Congerit testimonia Scripturarum. Haec ratiocinatio tunc erit fortior cum ea quae promisi testimonia multa congessero. Jam supra posuimus: Non veni vocare justos, sed peccatores (Luc. V, 32). Item cum ad Zacchaeum esset ingressus: Hodie, 0132 inquit, salus domui huic facta est, quoniam et iste filius est Abrahae. Venit enim Filius hominis quaerere et salvare quod perierat (Luc. XIX, 9, 10). Hoc et de ove perdita et relictis nonaginta novem quaesita et inventa; hoc et de drachma quae perierat ex decem (Id. XV, 3-10). Unde oportebat, ut dicit, praedicari in nomine ejus poenitentiam et remissionem peccatorum in omnes gentes, incipientibus ab Jerusalem (Id. XXIV, 46, 47). Marcus etiam in fine Evangelii sui Dominum dixisse testatur: Euntes in mundum universum praedicate Evangelium omni creaturae. Qui crediderit et baptizatus fuerit, salvus erit: qui vero non crediderit, condemnabitur (Marc. XVI, 15, 16). Quis autem nesciat, credere esse infantibus baptizari, non credere autem, non baptizari? Ex Joannis autem Evangelio quamvis jam nonnulla posuerimus, attende etiam ista. Joannes Baptista de illo: Ecce Agnus Dei, ecce qui tollit peccata mundi (Joan. I, 29). Et ipse de se ipso: Qui de ovibus meis sunt, vocem meam audiunt; et ego novi illas, et sequuntur me; et ego vitam aeternam do illis, et non peribunt in aeternum (Id. X, 27, 28). Quia ergo de ovibus ejus non esse incipiunt parvuli, nisi per Baptismum; profecto si hoc non accipiunt, peribunt: vitam enim aeternam, quam suis dabit ovibus, non habebunt. Item alio loco: Ego sum via, veritas et vita. Nemo venit ad Patrem nisi per me (Id. XIV, 6).