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Augustine of Hippo, On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants
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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 63 [XXXIV.]—The Form, or Rite, of Baptism. Exorcism.
What shall I say of the actual form of this sacrament? I only wish some one of those who espouse the contrary side would bring me an infant to be baptized. What does my exorcism work in that babe, if he be not held in the devil’s family? The man who brought the infant would certainly have had to act as sponsor for him, for he could not answer for himself. How would it be possible then for him to declare that he renounced the devil, if there was no devil in him? that he was converted to God, if he had never been averted from Him? that he believed, besides other articles, in the forgiveness of sins, if no sins were attributable to him? For my own part, indeed, if I thought that his opinions were opposed to this faith, I could not permit him to bring the infant to the sacraments. Nor can I imagine with what countenance before men, or what mind before God, he can conduct himself in this. But I do not wish to say anything too severe. That a false or fallacious form of baptism should be administered to infants, in which there might be the sound and semblance of something being done, but yet no remission of sins actually ensue, has been seen by some amongst them to be as abominable and hateful a thing as it was possible to mention or conceive. Then, again, in respect of the necessity of baptism to infants, they admit that even infants stand in need of redemption,—a concession which is made in a short treatise written by one of their party,—but yet there is not found in this work any open admission of the forgiveness of a single sin. According, however, to an intimation dropped in your letter to me, they now acknowledge, as you say, that a remission of sins takes place even in infants through baptism. No wonder; for it is impossible that redemption should be understood in any other way. Their own words are these: “It is, however, not originally, but in their own actual life, after they have been born, that they have begun to have sin.”
CAPUT XXXIV.
63. Baptismi forma, seu ritus. Exorcismus. Duplex de parvulis error. Quid de ipsa forma sacramenti loquar? Vellem aliquis istorum, qui contraria sapiunt, mihi baptizandum parvulum afferret. Quid in illo agit exorcismus meus, si in familia diaboli non tenetur? Ipse certe mihi fuerat responsurus pro eodem parvulo quem gestaret, quia pro se ille respondere non posset. Quomodo ergo dicturus erat eum renuntiare diabolo, cujus in eo nihil esset? Quomodo converti ad Deum, a quo non esset aversus? credere inter caetera remissionem peccatorum, quae illi nulla tribueretur? Ego quidem si contra haec eum sentire existimarem, nec ad Sacramenta cum parvulo intrare permitterem: ipse autem in hoc qua fronte ad homines, qua mente ad Deum se ferret, ignoro; nec volo aliquid gravius dicere. Falsam igitur vel fallacem tradi parvulis Baptismatis formam in qua sonaret atque agi videretur , et tamen nulla fieret remissio peccatorum, viderunt aliqui eorum nihil exsecrabilius ac detestabilius dici posse atque sentiri. Proinde quod attinet ad Baptismum parvulorum, ut eis sit necessarius, redemptione ipsis etiam opus esse concedunt, sicut cujusdam eorum libello brevissimo continetur: qui tamen ibi remissionem alicujus peccati apertius exprimere noluit. Sicut autem mihi ipse litteris intimasti, fatentur jam, ut dicis, etiam in parvulis per Baptismum remissionem fieri peccatorum. Nec mirum: non enim redemptio alio modo posset intelligi. Non tamen originaliter,0147 inquiunt, sed in vita jam propria, posteaquam nati sunt, peccatum habere coeperunt.