Chapter 11 [VI.]—The Accusation of Fate is Thrown Back Upon the Adversaries.

But is it true, O children of pride, enemies of God’s grace, new Pelagian heretics, that whoever says that all man’s good deservings are preceded by God’s grace, and that God’s grace is not given to merits, lest it should not be grace if it is not given freely but be repaid as due to those who deserve it, seems to you to assert fate? Do not you yourselves also say, whatever be your purpose, that baptism is necessary for all ages? Have you not written in this very letter of yours that opinion concerning baptism, and that concerning grace, side by side? Why did not baptism, which is given to infants, by that very juxtaposition admonish you what you ought to think concerning grace? For these are your words: “We confess that baptism is necessary for all ages, and that grace, moreover, assists the good purpose of everybody; but yet that it does not infuse the love of virtue into a reluctant one, because there is no acceptance of persons with God.” In all these words of yours, I for the meanwhile say nothing of what you have said concerning grace. But give a reason concerning baptism, why you should say that it is necessary for all ages; say why it is necessary for infants. Assuredly because it confers some good upon them; and that same something is neither small nor moderate, but of great account. For although you deny that they contract the original sin which is remitted in baptism, yet you do not deny that in that laver of regeneration they are adopted from the sons of men unto the sons of God; nay, you even preach this. Tell us, then, how the infants, whoever they are, that are baptized in Christ and have departed from the body, received so lofty a gift as this, and with what preceding merits. If you should say that they have deserved this by the piety of their parents, it will be replied to you, Why is this benefit sometimes denied to the children of pious people and given to the children of the wicked? For sometimes the offspring born from religious people, in tender age, and thus fresh from the womb, is forestalled by death before it can be washed in the laver of regeneration, and the infant born of Christ’s foes is baptized in Christ by the mercy of Christians,—the baptized mother bewails her own little one not baptized, and the chaste virgin gathers in to be baptized a foreign offspring, exposed by an unchaste mother. Here, certainly, the merits of parents are wanting, and even by your own confession the merits of the infants themselves are wanting also. For we know that you do not believe this of the human soul, that it has lived somewhere before it inhabited this earthly body, and has done something either of good or of evil for which it might deserve such difference in the flesh. What cause, then, has procured baptism for this infant, and has denied it to that? Do they have fate because they do not have merit? or is there in these things acceptance of persons with God? For you have said both,—first fate, afterwards acceptance of persons,—that, since both must be refuted, there may remain the merit which you wish to introduce against grace. Answer, then, concerning the merits of infants, why some should depart from their bodies baptized, others not baptized, and by the merits of their parents neither possess nor fail of so excellent a gift that they should become sons of God from sons of men, by no deserving of their parents, by no deservings of their own. You are silent, forsooth, and you find yourselves rather in the same position which you object to us. For if when there is no merit you say that consequently there is fate, and on this account wish the merit of man to be understood in the grace of God, lest you should be compelled to confess fate; see, you rather assert a fate in the baptism of infants, since you avow that in them there is no merit. But if, in the case of infants to be baptized, you deny that any merit at all precedes, and yet do not concede that there is a fate, why do you cry out,—when we say that the grace of God is therefore given freely, lest it should not be grace, and is not repaid as if it were due to preceding merits,—that we are assertors of fate?—not perceiving that in the justification of the wicked, as there are no merits because it is God’s grace, so that it is not fate because it is God’s grace, and so that it is not acceptance of persons because it is God’s grace.

CAPUT VI.

11. Fati criminatio retorquetur in adversarios. Itane vero, filii superbiae, inimici gratiae Dei, o novi haeretici Pelagiani, quisquis dicit, gratia Dei omnia hominis bona merita praeveniri, nec gratiam Dei meritis dari, ne non sit gratia, si non gratis datur, sed debita merentibus redditur; fatum vobis videtur asserere? Nonne etiam vos ipsi qualibet intentione necessarium Baptismum omnibus aetatibus dicitis? Nonne in hac ipsa Epistola vestra, istam de Baptismo sententiam, et de gratia juxta posuistis? Cur non vos Baptismus, qui datur infantibus, ipsa vicinitate commonuit, quid sentire de gratia debeatis? Haec enim verba sunt vestra: «Baptisma omnibus necessarium esse aetatibus confitemur: gratiam quoque adjuvare uniuscujusque bonum propositum, non tamen reluctanti studium virtutis immittere, quia personarum acceptio non est apud Deum.» In his omnibus verbis vestris de gratia quod dixistis, interim taceo: de Baptismate reddite rationem; cur illud dicatis omnibus esse aetatibus necessarium, quare sit necessarium parvulis dicite: profecto quia eis boni aliquid confert, et idem aliquid nec parvum, nec mediocre, sed magnum est. Nam etsi eos negatis attrahere quod in Baptismo remittatur originale peccatum: tamen illo regenerationis lavacro adoptari ex filiis hominum in Dei filios non negatis; imo etiam praedicatis. Dicite ergo nobis, quicumque baptizati in Christo parvuli de corpore exierunt, hoc tam sublime donum quibus praecedentibus meritis acceperunt? Si dixeritis, hoc eos parentum pietate meruisse: respondebitur vobis, Cur aliquando piorum filiis negatur hoc bonum, et filiis tribuitur impiorum? Nonnunquam enim de religiosis orta proles in tenera aetate aque ab utero recentissima praevenitur morte, antequam lavacro regenerationis abluatur; et infans natus ex inimicis Christi misericordia Christianorum baptizatur in Christo: plangit baptizata mater non baptizatum proprium; et ab impudica expositum, baptizandum casta fetum colligit alienum. Hic certe merita parentum vacant, vacant vobis fatentibus ipsorum etiam parvulorum. Scimus enim vos non hoc de anima humana credere, quod 0579 ante corpus terrenum alicubi vixerit, et aliquid operata sit vel boni vel mali, unde istam in carne diffecitur, ubi rentiam mereretur. Quae igitur causa huic parvulo Baptismum procuravit, illi negavit? An ipsi fatum habent, quia meritum non habent? aut in his st acceptio a Domino personarum? Nam utrumque dixistis, prius fatum, acceptionem postea personarum: ut quoniam utrumque refutandum est, remaneat quod vultis adversus gratiam introducere meritum. Respondete igitur de meritis parvulorum, cur alii baptizati, alii non baptizati de corporibus exeant, nec parentum meritis vel polleant vel careant tam excellenti bono, ut fiant filii Dei ex hominum filiis, nullis parentum, nullis meritis suis. Nempe reticetis; et vos ipsos potius in eo quod nobis objicitis, invenitis. Nam si ubi non est meritum, consequenter esse dicitis fatum, et ob hoc in gratia Dei meritum hominis vultis intelligi, ne fatum cogamini confiteri; ecce vos potius asseritis fatum in Baptismate parvulorum, quorum nullum esse fatemini meritum. Si autem in baptizandis parvulis, et nullum meritum omnino praecedere, et tamen fatum non esse conceditis; cur nos quando dicimus gratiam Dei propterea gratis dari, ne gratia non sit, et non tanquam debitam meritis praecedentibus reddi, fati assertores esse jactatis? non intelligentes, in justificandis impiis, sicut propterea merita non sunt, quia Dei gratia est; ita propterea non esse fatum, quia Dei gratia est; ita propterea non esse acceptionem personarum, quia Dei gratia est.