▾
Augustine of Hippo, On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants
⎗←→⎘
▾
A Treatise on the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants
Chapter 1 [I.]—Introductory, in the Shape of an Inscription to His Friend Marcellinus.
Chapter 2 [II.]—If Adam Had Not Sinned, He Would Never Have Died.
Chapter 3 [III.]—It is One Thing to Be Mortal, Another Thing to Be Subject to Death.
Chapter 4 [IV.]—Even Bodily Death is from Sin.
Chapter 6 [VI.]—How It is that the Body Dead Because of Sin.
Chapter 8 [VIII.]—Bodily Death from Adam’s Sin.
Chapter 9 [IX.]—Sin Passes on to All Men by Natural Descent, and Not Merely by Imitation.
Chapter 10.—The Analogy of Grace.
Chapter 12.—The Law Could Not Take Away Sin.
Chapter 13 [XI.]—Meaning of the Apostle’s Phrase “The Reign of Death.”
Chapter 14.—Superabundance of Grace.
Chapter 15 [XII.]—The One Sin Common to All Men.
Chapter 16 [XIII.]—How Death is by One and Life by One.
Chapter 17.—Whom Sinners Imitate.
Chapter 18.—Only Christ Justifies.
Chapter 20.—Original Sin Alone is Contracted by Natural Birth.
Chapter 22 [XVII.]—To Infants Personal Sin is Not to Be Attributed.
Chapter 24 [XIX.]—Infants Saved as Sinners.
Chapter 26 [XX.]—No One, Except He Be Baptized, Rightly Comes to the Table of the Lord.
Chapter 27.—Infants Must Feed on Christ.
Chapter 28.—Baptized Infants, of the Faithful Unbaptized, of the Lost.
Chapter 29 [XXI.]—It is an Inscrutable Mystery Why Some are Saved, and Others Not.
Chapter 30.—Why One is Baptized and Another Not, Not Otherwise Inscrutable.
Chapter 32.—The Case of Certain Idiots and Simpletons.
Chapter 33.—Christ is the Saviour and Redeemer Even of Infants.
Chapter 35.—Unless Infants are Baptized, They Remain in Darkness.
Chapter 36.—Infants Not Enlightened as Soon as They are Born.
Chapter 37.—How God Enlightens Every Person.
Chapter 38.—What “Lighteth” Means.
Chapter 39 [XXVI.]—The Conclusion Drawn, that All are Involved in Original Sin.
Chapter 40 [XXVII.]—A Collection of Scripture Testimonies. From the Gospels.
Chapter 41.—From the First Epistle of Peter.
Chapter 42.—From the First Epistle of John.
Chapter 43.—From the Epistle to the Romans.
Chapter 44.—From the Epistles to the Corinthians.
Chapter 45.—From the Epistle to the Galatians.
Chapter 46.—From the Epistle to the Ephesians.
Chapter 47.—From the Epistle to the Colossians.
Chapter 48.—From the Epistles to Timothy.
Chapter 49.—From the Epistle to Titus.
Chapter 50.—From the Epistle to the Hebrews.
Chapter 51.—From the Apocalypse.
Chapter 52.—From the Acts of the Apostles.
Chapter 53.—The Utility of the Books of the Old Testament.
Chapter 56.—No One is Reconciled to God Except Through Christ.
Chapter 58 [XXX.]—In What Respect the Pelagians Regarded Baptism as Necessary for Infants.
Chapter 59.—The Context of Their Chief Text.
Chapter 62 [XXXIII.]—No One Can Be Reconciled to God, Except by Christ.
Chapter 63 [XXXIV.]—The Form, or Rite, of Baptism. Exorcism.
Chapter 64.—A Twofold Mistake Respecting Infants.
Chapter 65 [XXXV.]—In Infants There is No Sin of Their Own Commission.
Chapter 66.—Infants’ Faults Spring from Their Sheer Ignorance.
Chapter 67 [XXXVI.]—On the Ignorance of Infants, and Whence It Arises.
Chapter 69 [XXXVIII.]—The Ignorance and the Infirmity of an Infant.
Chapter 1 [I.]—What Has Thus Far Been Dwelt On And What is to Be Treated in This Book.
Chapter 5 [V.]—The Will of Man Requires the Help of God.
Chapter 8 [VII.]—(2) Whether There is in This World a Man Without Sin.
Chapter 10 [VIII.]—Perfection, When to Be Realized.
Chapter 12 [X.]—He Reconciles Some Passages of Scripture.
Chapter 13.—A Subterfuge of the Pelagians.
Chapter 14. —Job Was Not Without Sin.
Chapter 15.—Carnal Generation Condemned on Account of Original Sin.
Chapter 18 [XIII.]—Perfect Human Righteousness is Imperfect.
Chapter 19.—Zacharias and Elisabeth, Sinners.
Chapter 20.—Paul Worthy to Be the Prince of the Apostles, and Yet a Sinner.
Chapter 21 [XIV.]—All Righteous Men Sinners.
Chapter 23 [XXI.]—Why God Prescribes What He Knows Cannot Be Observed.
Chapter 25.—God Punishes Both in Wrath and in Mercy.
Chapter 28 [XVIII.]—A Good Will Comes from God.
Chapter 29.—A Subterfuge of the Pelagians.
Chapter 31.—Grace is Given to Some Men in Mercy Is Withheld from Others in Justice and Truth.
Chapter 32.—God’s Sovereignity in His Grace.
Chapter 33.—Through Grace We Have Both the Knowledge of Good, and the Delight Which It Affords.
Chapter 35 [XXI.]—Adam and Eve Obedience Most Strongly Enjoined by God on Man.
Chapter 36 [XXII.]—Man’s State Before the Fall.
Chapter 37 [XXIII.]—The Corruption of Nature is by Sin, Its Renovation is by Christ.
Chapter 39 [XXV.]—An Objection of Pelagians.
Chapter 40.—An Argument Anticipated.
The apostle indeed says, “ Else were your children unclean now holy
Chapter 42.—Sanctification Manifold Sacrament of Catechumens.
Chapter 43 [XXVII.]—Why the Children of the Baptized Should Be Baptized.
Chapter 44.—An Objection of the Pelagians.
Chapter 49 [XXX.]—An Objection of the Pelagians.
Chapter 50 [XXXI.]—Why It is that Death Itself is Not Abolished, Along with Sin, by Baptism.
Chapter 51.—Why the Devil is Said to Hold the Power and Dominion of Death.
Chapter 52 [XXXII.]—Why Christ, After His Resurrection, Withdrew His Presence from the World.
Chapter 53 [XXXIII.]—An Objection of the Pelagians.
Chapter 54 [XXXIV.]—Why Punishment is Still Inflicted, After Sin Has Been Forgiven.
Chapter 56.—The Case of David, in Illustration.
Chapter 57 [XXXV.]—Turn to Neither Hand.
Chapter 58 [XXXVI.]—“Likeness of Sinful Flesh” Implies the Reality.
Chapter 1 [I.]—Pelagius Esteemed a Holy Man His Expositions on Saint Paul.
Chapter 2 [II.]—Pelagius’ Objection Infants Reckoned Among the Number of Believers and the Faithful.
Chapter 3.—Pelagius Makes God Unjust.
Chapter 6.—Why Pelagius Does Not Speak in His Own Person.
Chapter 7 [IV.]—Proof of Original Sin in Infants.
Chapter 8.—Jesus is the Saviour Even of Infants.
Chapter 9.—The Ambiguity of “Adam is the Figure of Him to Come.”
Chapter 10 [V.]—He Shows that Cyprian Had Not Doubted the Original Sin of Infants.
Chapter 11.—The Ancients Assumed Original Sin.
Chapter 12 [VI.]—The Universal Consensus Respecting Original Sin.
Chapter 13 [VII.]—The Error of Jovinianus Did Not Extend So Far.
Chapter 15 [VIII.]—We All Sinned Adam’s Sin.
Chapter 17 [IX.]—Christians Do Not Always Beget Christian, Nor the Pure, Pure Children.
Chapter 18 [X.]—Is the Soul Derived by Natural Propagation?
Chapter 19 [XI.]—Sin and Death in Adam, Righteousness and Life in Christ.
Chapter 20.—The Sting of Death, What?
Chapter 22 [XIII.]—We Ought to Be Anxious to Secure the Baptism of Infants.
Chapter 60 [XXXI.]—Christ, the Head and the Body; Owing to the Union of the Natures in the Person of Christ, He Both Remained in Heaven, and Walked About on Earth; How the One Christ Could Ascend to Heaven; The Head, and the Body, the One Christ.
Now when Nicodemus understood not what was being told him, he inquired of the Lord how such things could be. Let us look at what the Lord said to him in answer to his inquiry; for of course, as He deigns to answer the question, How can these things be? He will in fact tell us how spiritual regeneration can come to a man who springs from carnal generation. After noticing briefly the ignorance of one who assumed a superiority over others as a teacher, and having blamed the unbelief of all such, for not accepting His witness to the truth, He went on to inquire and wonder whether, as He had told them about earthly things and they had not believed they would believe heavenly things. He nevertheless pursues the subject, and gives an answer such as others should believe—though these refuse—to the question that he was asked, How these things can be? “No man,” says He, “hath ascended up to heaven, but He that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.”212 John iii. 13. Thus, He says, shall come the spiritual birth,—men, from being earthly, shall become heavenly; and this they can only obtain by being made members of me; so that he may ascend who descended, since no one ascends who did not descend. All, therefore, who have to be changed and raised must meet together in a union with Christ, so that the Christ who descended may ascend, reckoning His body (that is to say, His Church) as nothing else than Himself, because it is of Christ and the Church that this is most truly understood: “And they twain shall be one flesh;”213 Gen. ii. 24. concerning which very subject He expressly said Himself, “So then they are no more twain, but one flesh.”214 Mark x. 8. To ascend, therefore, they would be wholly unable, since “no man hath ascended up to heaven, but He that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.”215 John iii. 13. For although it was on earth that He was made the Son of man, yet He did not deem it unworthy of that divinity, in which, although remaining in heaven, He came down to earth, to designate it by the name of the Son of man, as He dignified His flesh with the name of Son of God: that they might not be regarded as if they were two Christs,—the one God, the other man,216 This was the error which was subsequently condemned in the heresy of Nestorius.—but one and the same God and man,—God, because “in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God;”217 John i. 1. and man, inasmuch as “the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.”218 John 1. 14. By this means—by the difference between His divinity and His humiliation—He remained in heaven as Son of God, and as Son of man walked on earth; whilst, by that unity of His person which made His two natures one Christ, He both walked as Son of God on earth, and at the same time as the very Son of man remained in heaven. Faith, therefore, in more credible things arises from the belief of such things as are more incredible. For if His divine nature, though a far more distant object, and more sublime in its incomparable diversity, had ability so to take upon itself the nature of man on our account as to become one Person, and whilst appearing as Son of man on earth in the weakness of the flesh, was able to remain all the while in heaven in the divinity which partook of the flesh, how much easier for our faith is it to suppose that other men, who are His faithful saints, become one Christ with the Man Christ, so that, when all ascend by His grace and fellowship, the one Christ Himself ascends to heaven who came down from heaven? It is in this sense that the apostle says, “As we have many members in one body, and all the members of the body, being many, are one body, so likewise is Christ.”219 1 Cor. xii. 12. He did not say, “So also is Christ’s”—meaning Christ’s body, or Christ’s members—but his words are, “So likewise is Christ,” thus calling the head and body one Christ.
CAPUT XXXI.
0144
60. Christus caput et corpus. Christus ob personae unitatem et in coelo manebat, et in terra deambulabat. Unus Christus quomodo ascendat in coelum. Caput et corpus unus Christus. Cum ergo Nicodemus ea quae dicebantur non intelligeret, quaesivit a Domino quomodo possent ista fieri. Videamus quid Dominus ad hoc respondeat. Profecto enim si ad interrogata respondere dignabitur, Quomodo possunt ista fieri? hoc dicturus est, quomodo possit fieri regeneratio spiritualis venientis hominis ex generatione carnali. Notata itaque paululum ejus imperitia, qui se caeteris de magisterio praeferebat, et omnium talium incredulitate reprehensa, quod testimonium non acciperent veritatis; addidit etiam, se illis terrena dixisse, nec eos credidisse, quaerens vel admirans quomodo essent coelestia credituri. Sequitur tamen et respondet, quod alii credent , si illi non credunt, ad illud quod interrogatus est, quomodo possint ista fieri: Nemo, inquit, ascendit in coelum, nisi qui de coelo descendit, Filius hominis, qui est in coelo. Sic, inquit, fiet generatio spiritualis, ut sint coelestes homines ex terrenis; quod adipisci non poterunt, nisi membra mea efficiantur, ut ipse ascendat qui descendit; quia nemo ascendit, nisi qui descendit. Nisi ergo in unitatem Christi omnes mutandi levandique concurrant, ut Christus qui descendit ipse ascendat, non aliud deputans corpus suum, id est, Ecclesiam suam, quam se ipsum; quia de Christo et Ecclesia verius intelligitur, Erunt duo in carne una (Gen. II, 24); de qua re ipse dixit, Itaque jam non duo, sed una caro (Marc. X, 8): ascendere omnino non poterunt; quia nemo ascendit in coelum, nisi qui de coelo descendit, Filius hominis, qui est in coelo. Quamvis enim in terra factus sit filius hominis, divinitatem tamen suam qua in coelo manens descendit ad terram, non indignam censuit nomine filii hominis, sicut carnem suam dignatus est nomine filii Dei, ne quasi duo Christi ista accipiantur , unus Deus, et alter homo: sed unus atque idem Deus et homo; Deus, quia in principio erat Verbum, et Verbum erat apud Deum, et Deus erat Verbum; homo, quia Verbum caro factum est, et habitavit in nobis (Joan. I, 1, 14). Ac per hoc per distantiam divinitatis et infirmitatis filius Dei manebat in coelo, filius hominis ambulabat in terra: per unitatem vero personae, qua utraque substantia unus Christus est, et filius Dei ambulabat in terra, et idem ipse filius hominis manebat in coelo. Fit ergo credibiliorum fides ex incredibilioribus creditis. Si enim divina substantia longe distantior atque incomparabili diversitate sublimior, potuit propter nos ita suscipere humanam substantiam, ut una persona fieret, ac sic filius hominis qui erat in terra per carnis infirmitatem, idem ipse esset in coelo per participatam carni divinitatem: quanto credibilius alii homines 0145 sancti et fideles ejus fiunt cum homine Christo unus Christus, ut omnibus per ejus hanc gratiam societatemque ascendentibus, ipse unus Christus ascendat in coelum, qui de coelo descendit? Sic et Apostolus ait: Sicut in uno corpore multa membra habemus, omnia autem membra corporis cum sint multa, unum est corpus; ita et Christus (I Cor. XII, 12). Non dixit, Ita et Christi, id est, corpus Christi, vel membra Christi: sed, ita et Christus; unum Christum appellans caput et corpus.