Chapter 62 [XXXIII.]—No One Can Be Reconciled to God, Except by Christ.

He then proceeds thus, saying: “God so loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”223    John iii. 16. Every infant, therefore, was destined to perish, and to lose everlasting life, if through the sacrament of baptism he believed not in the only-begotten Son of God; while nevertheless, He comes not so that he may judge the world, but that the world through Him may be saved. This especially appears in the following clause, wherein He says, “He that believeth in Him is not condemned; but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only-begotten Son of God.”224    John iii. 18. In what class, then, do we place baptized infants but amongst believers, as the authority of the catholic Church everywhere asserts? They belong, therefore, among those who have believed; for this is obtained for them by virtue of the sacrament and the answer of their sponsors. And from this it follows that such as are not baptized are reckoned among those who have not believed. Now if they who are baptized are not condemned, these last, as not being baptized, are condemned. He adds, indeed: “But this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light.225    John iii. 19. Of what does He say, “Light is come into the world,” if not of His own advent? and without the sacrament of His advent, how are infants said to be in the light? And why should we not include this fact also in “men’s love of darkness,” that as they do not themselves believe, so they refuse to think that their infants ought to be baptized, although they are afraid of their incurring the death of the body? “In God,” however, he declares are the “works of him wrought, who cometh to the light,”226    John iii. 21. because he is quite aware that his justification results from no merits of his own, but from the grace of God. “For it is God,” says the apostle, “who worketh in you both to will and to do of His own good pleasure.”227    Phil. ii. 13. This then is the way in which spiritual regeneration is effected in all who come to Christ from their carnal generation. He explained it Himself, and pointed it out, when He was asked, How these things could be? He left it open to no man to settle such a question by human reasoning, lest infants should be deprived of the grace of the remission of sins. There is no other passage leading to Christ; no man can be reconciled to God, or can come to God otherwise, than through Christ.

CAPUT XXXIII.

62. Nemo potest reconciliari Deo, nisi per Christum. Deinde sic consequenter dicit: Deus sic dilexit mundum, ut Filium suum unigenitum daret; ut omnis qui credit in eum, non pereat, sed habeat vitam aeternam. Periturus erat ergo parvulus nec habiturus vitam aeternam, si per sacramentum Baptismi non crederet in unigenitum Dei Filium, dum interim sic venit ut non judicet mundum, sed ut salvetur mundus per ipsum: praesertim quia sequitur, et dicit, Qui credit in eum, non judicatur: qui autem non credit, jam judicatus est; quia non credidit in nomine unigeniti Filii Dei. Ubi ergo parvulos ponimus baptizatos, nisi inter fideles, sicut universae ubique Ecclesiae clamat auctoritas? Ergo inter eos qui crediderunt; hoc enim eis acquiritur per virtutem Sacramenti et offerentium 0146 responsionem: ac per hoc eos qui baptizati non sunt, inter eos qui non crediderunt. Porro si illi qui baptizati sunt, non judicantur; isti quia carent Baptismo, judicantur. Quod vero adjungit, Hoc est autem judicium, quia lux venit in mundum, et dilexerunt homines tenebras magis quam lucem: unde, Lux venit in mundum, nisi de suo dicit adventu, sine cujus adventus sacramento quomodo parvuli esse dicuntur in luce? Aut quomodo non et hoc in dilectione tenebrarum habent, qui quemadmodum ipsi non credunt, sic nec baptizandos suos parvulos arbitrantur, quando eis mortem corporis timent? In Deo autem dicit facta opera ejus, qui venit ad lucem; quia intelligit justificationem suam non ad sua merita, sed ad Dei gratiam pertinere. Deus est enim, inquit Apostolus, qui operatur in vobis et velle et operari, pro bona voluntate (Philipp. II, 13). Hoc modo ergo fit omnium ex carnali generatione ad Christum venientium regeneratio spiritualis. Ipse hoc aperuit, ipse monstravit, cum ab eo quaereretur quomodo possent ista fieri; nemini humanam argumentationem in hac causa liberam fecit: non alienentur parvuli a gratia remissionis peccatorum. Non aliter transitur ad Christum; nemo aliter potest Deo reconciliari et ad Deum venire, nisi per Christum.