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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 27.358 See below, in ch. 33: also De Naturâ et Gratiâ, 29–32; and De Corrept. et Gratia, 10.—The Divine Remedy for Pride.
You cannot therefore attribute to God the cause of any human fault. For of all human offences, the cause is pride. For the conviction and removal of this a great remedy comes from heaven. God in mercy humbles Himself, descends from above, and displays to man, lifted up by pride, pure and manifest grace in very manhood, which He took upon Himself out of vast love for those who partake of it. For, not even did even this One, so conjoined to the Word of God that by that conjunction he became at once the one Son of God and the same One the one Son of man, act by the antecedent merits of His own will. It behoved Him, without doubt, to be one; had there been two, or three, or more, if this could have been done, it would not have come from the pure and simple gift of God, but from man’s free will and choice.359 [Augustin appears to say, in this obscure passage, that had there been two persons, instead of two natures only, in our blessed Lord’s person, then no doubt salvation would have been due partly to a human cause.—W.] This, then, is especially commended to us; this, so far as I dare to think, is the divine lesson especially taught and learned in those treasures of wisdom and knowledge which are hidden in Christ. Every one of us, therefore, now knows, now does not know—now rejoices, now does not rejoice—to begin, continue, and complete our good work, in order that he may know that it is due not to his own will, but to the gift of God, that he either knows or rejoices; and thus he is cured of vanity which elated him, and knows how truly it is said not of this earth of ours, but spiritually, “The Lord will give kindness and sweet grace, and our land shall yield her fruit.”360 Ps. lxxxv. 12. A good work, moreover, affords greater delight, in proportion as God is more and more loved as the highest unchangeable Good, and as the Author of all good things of every kind whatever. And that God may be loved, “His love is shed abroad in our hearts,” not by ourselves, but “by the Holy Ghost that is given unto us.”361 Rom. v. 5.
0168 27. Nullius proinde culpae humanae in Deum referas causam. Vitiorum namque omnium humanorum causa superbia est. Ad hanc convincendam atque auferendam talis medicina coelitus venit: ad elatum hominem per superbiam, Deus humilis descendit per misericordiam, gratiam claram manifestamque commendans in ipso homine, quem tanta prae participibus suis charitate suscepit. Neque enim et ipse ita Verbo Dei conjunctus, ut ipsa conjunctione unus filius Dei et idem ipse unus filius hominis fieret, praecedentibus suae voluntatis meritis fecit. Unum quippe illum esse oportebat: essent autem et duo, et tres, et plures, si hoc fieri posset, non per Dei proprium donum, sed per hominis liberum arbitrium. Hoc ergo praecipue commendatur, hoc in sapientiae atque scientiae thesauris in Christo absconditis, quantum existimare audeo, praecipue docetur et discitur. Ideo quisque nostrum bonum opus suscipere, agere, implere, nunc scit, nunc nescit, nunc delectatur, nunc non delectatur, ut noverit non suae facultatis, sed divini muneris esse vel quod scit, vel quod delectatur: ac sic ab elationis vanitate sanetur, et sciat quam vere non de terra ista, sed spiritualiter dictum sit, Dominus dabit suavitatem, et terra nostra dabit fructum suum (Psal. LXXXIV, 13). Tanto autem magis delectat opus bonum, quanto magis diligitur Deus summum atque incommutabile bonum, et auctor qualiumcumque bonorum omnium. Ut autem diligatur Deus, charitas ejus diffusa est in cordibus nostris, non per nos, sed per Spiritum sanctum qui datus est nobis (Rom. V, 5).