Chapter 64.—A Twofold Mistake Respecting Infants.

You see how great a difference there is amongst those whom I have been opposing at such length and persistency in this work,—one of whom has written the book which contains the points I have refuted to the best of my ability. You see as I was saying, the important difference existing between such of them as maintain that infants are absolutely pure and free from all sin, whether original or actual; and those who suppose that so soon as born infants have contracted actual sins of their own, from which they need cleansing by baptism. The latter class, indeed, by examining the Scriptures, and considering the authority of the whole Church as well as the form of the sacrament itself, have clearly seen that by baptism remission of sins accrues to infants; but they are either unwilling or unable to allow that the sin which infants have is original sin. The former class, however, have clearly seen (as they easily might) that in the very nature of man, which is open to the consideration of all men, the tender age of which we speak could not possibly commit any sin whatever in its own proper conduct; but, to avoid acknowledging original sin, they assert that there is no sin at all in infants. Now in the truths which they thus severally maintain, it so happens that they first of all mutually agree with each other, and subsequently differ from us in material aspect. For if the one party concede to the other that remission of sins takes place in all infants which are baptized, whilst the other concedes to their opponents that infants (as infant nature itself in its silence loudly proclaims) have as yet contracted no sin in their own living, then both sides must agree in conceding to us, that nothing remains but original sin, which can be remitted in baptism to infants.

64. Quamobrem vides quantum jam distet inter eos, contra quos in hoc opere diu jam multumque disserui, quorum etiam unius legi librum ea continentem, quae ut potui refutavi. Inter istos ergo, ut dicere coeperam, qui omnino parvulos ab omni peccato et originali et proprio puros et liberos esse defendunt, et istos qui eos jam natos propria putant contraxisse peccata, a quibus eos credunt per Baptismum oportere purgari, quantum intersit vides. Proinde isti posteriores intuendo Scripturas, et auctoritatem totius Ecclesiae, et formam ipsius Sacramenti, bene viderunt per Baptismum in parvulis peccatorum fieri remissionem: sed originale esse , quidquid illud in eis est, vel nolunt dicere, vel non possunt. Illi autem priores in ipsa natura humana, quae ab omnibus ut consideretur in promptu est, bene viderunt, quod facile fuit, aetatem illam in sua jam vita propria nihil peccati potuisse contrahere: sed ne peccatum originale fateantur, nullum esse omnino peccatum in parvulis dicunt. In his ergo quae singula vera dicunt , prius inter se ipsi consentiant, et consequenter fiet ut a nobis nulla ex parte dissentiant. Nam si parvulis baptizatis remissionem fieri peccatorum concedant illi istis; parvulos autem, ut ipsa natura in tacitis infantibus clamat, suae vitae propriae nullum adhuc contraxisse peccatum concedant isti illis : concedent utrique nobis, nullum nisi originale restare, quod per Baptismum solvatur in parvulis.