35. Ego, inquit, lux in saeculum veni, ut omnis qui crediderit in me, non maneat in tenebris
Chapter 8.—Jesus is the Saviour Even of Infants.
And therefore, if there is an ambiguity in the apostle’s words when he says, “By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so it passed upon all men;”455 Rom. v. 12. and if it is possible for them to be drawn aside, and applied to some other sense,—is there anything ambiguous in this statement: “Except a man be born again of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God?”456 John iii. 5. Is this, again, ambiguous: “Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins?”457 Matt. i. 21. Is there any doubt of what this means: “The whole need not a physician, but they that are sick?”458 Matt. ix. 12.—that is, Jesus is not needed by those who have no sin, but by those who are to be saved from sin. Is there anything, again, ambiguous in this: “Except men eat the flesh of the Son of man,” that is, become partakers of His body, “they shall not have life?”459 See John vi. 53. By these and similar statements, which I now pass over, —absolutely clear in the light of God, and absolutely certain by His authority,—does not truth proclaim without ambiguity, that unbaptized infants not only cannot enter into the kingdom of God, but cannot have everlasting life, except in the body of Christ, in order that they may be incorporated into which they are washed in the sacrament of baptism? Does not truth, without any dubiety, testify that for no other reason are they carried by pious hands to Jesus (that is, to Christ, the Saviour and Physician), than that they may be healed of the plague of their sin by the medicine of His sacraments? Why then do we delay so to understand the apostle’s very words, of which we perhaps used to have some doubt, that they may agree with these statements of which we can have no manner of doubt?
8. Ac per hoc si ambigui aliquid habent verba apostolica quibus dicit, Per unum hominem peccatum intravit in mundum, et per peccatum mors, et ita in omnes homines pertransiit (Rom. V, 12), possuntque in aliam duci transferrique sententiam: numquid et illud ambiguum est, Nisi quis renatus fuerit ex aqua et spiritu, non potest intrare in regnum Dei (Joan. III, 5)? Numquid et illud, Vocabis nomen ejus Jesum; ipse enim salvum faciet populum suum a peccatis eorum (Matth. I, 21)? Numquid etiam illud, Quia non est opus sanis medicus, sed aegrotantibus (Id. IX, 12); hoc 0190 est, quia non est necessarius Jesus eis qui non habent peccatum, sed eis qui salvandi sunt a peccato? Numquid etiam illud, Quia nisi manducaverint homines carnem ejus, hoc est, participes facti fuerint corporis ejus, non habebunt vitam (Joan. VI, 54)? His atque hujusmodi aliis, quae nunc praetereo, testimoniis divina luce clarissimis, divina auctoritate certissimis, nonne veritas sine ulla ambiguitate proclamat, non solum in regnum Dei non baptizatos parvulos intrare non posse, sed nec vitam aeternam posse habere praeter Christi corpus, cui ut incorporentur, sacramento Baptismatis imbuuntur? Nonne veritas sine ulla dubitatione testatur, eos non ob aliud ad Jesum, hoc est, ad salvatorem et ad medicum Christum piis gestantium manibus ferri, nisi ut per medicinam Sacramentorum ejus possint a peccati peste sanari? Quid ergo cunctamur Apostoli verba, de quibus forte dubitabamus, etiam ipsa sic intelligere, ut his congruant testimoniis, de quibus dubitare non possumus?