we do not believe to have acted either well or ill; so also let us in no way doubt that all are under sin, which entered into the world through one man and passed through unto all men, and from which none sets free save the grace of God through our Lord Jesus Christ. His healing advent is no work for the healthy, but for the sick, since He came not to call the righteous, but sinners; into whose kingdom none shall enter but he who has been born again of water and the Spirit, nor shall anyone possess salvation and eternal life apart from His kingdom, since he who has not eaten His flesh, and he who is unbelieving toward the Son, shall not have life, but the wrath of God abides upon him.
From this sin, from this sickness, from this wrath of God—of which they are by nature children, who, even though by reason of their age they have no sin of their own, nevertheless drag along original sin—none sets free save the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world; none save the Physician who came not for the healthy, but for the sick; none save the Saviour, of whom it was said to the human race: 'This day is born to you a Saviour'; none save the Redeemer, by whose blood our debt is blotted out. For who would dare to say that Christ is not the Saviour and Redeemer of infants? But whence does He save them, if there is in them no original sickness of sin? Whence does He redeem them, if they have not, through the origin of the first man, been sold under sin?
Therefore let no eternal salvation, out of our own opinion, be promised to infants apart from the baptism of Christ—a salvation which the divine Scripture, to be preferred above all human ingenuities, does not promise them. The Punic Christians very rightly call baptism itself nothing else than 'salvation,' and the sacrament of Christ's body nothing else than 'life.' Whence comes this, save from an ancient—as I judge—and apostolic tradition, by which the churches of Christ hold it implanted that, apart from baptism and participation in the Lord's table, no man can attain not only to the kingdom of God, but not even to salvation and eternal life? For this too Scripture attests, according to what we said above. For what else do they hold who call baptism by the name of salvation, but that which was said:
'He saved us by the washing of regeneration'; and what Peter says: 'so also does baptism in like fashion save you'? What else too do they hold who call the sacrament of the Lord's table 'life,' but that which was said: 'I am the living bread, who came down from heaven; the bread which I shall give is my flesh for the life of the world'; 'unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink His blood, you shall not have life in you'? If therefore, as so many and so great divine testimonies concord, neither salvation nor eternal life is to be hoped for by anyone without baptism and the body and blood of the Lord, in vain is it promised to little ones without these.
Furthermore, if nothing separates a man from salvation and eternal life except sins, then through these sacraments nothing else is loosed in little ones but the guilt of sin; concerning which guilt it is written that no one is clean, not even if his life be of a single day. Whence too is that in the Psalms: 'For I was conceived in iniquities, and in sins did my mother nourish me in the womb.' For this is either spoken from the general person of man himself, or, if David says this properly of himself, he was certainly born not of fornication, but of lawful wedlock. Let us therefore not doubt that the blood was poured out even for infants to be baptized—blood which, before it was poured out, was so given and commended in the sacrament that it was said:
'This is my blood, which shall be poured out for many unto the remission of sins.' For they deny that those are set free, who refuse to confess that they are under sin. For whence are they set free, if they are held bound by no servitude of sin? 'I,' He says, 'came as light into the world, that everyone who believes in me may not remain in darkness.' By this saying, what does He show, but that everyone who does not believe in Him is in darkness, and that by believing he brings it about that he does not remain in darkness? What do we understand this darkness to be, but sins? Yet whatever else this darkness be understood to mean, surely he who does not believe in Christ shall remain in it, and it is assuredly penal, not as it were the nocturnal darkness necessary for the rest of living creatures.
Accordingly little ones, if through the sacrament which was divinely instituted for this purpose they do not pass over into the number of believers, will surely remain in this darkness. Although some believe that they are enlightened as soon as they are born, understanding thus what is written: 'There was the true light, which enlightens every man coming into this world.' But if this is so, it is greatly to be wondered at how those enlightened by the only-begotten Son—who was in the beginning the Word, God with God—are not admitted to the kingdom of God, nor are heirs of God and co-heirs of Christ. For even those who hold this opinion confess that this is not granted to them except through baptism.
Then, being already enlightened, if they are not yet fit for attaining the kingdom of God, they ought at least to receive gladly that very baptism by which they become fit for this; yet we see them resist it with great weeping, and we despise that ignorance in that age, so that we complete in them, even while they resist, the sacraments which we know to be of profit to them. For why does the apostle even say, 'Do not be children in your minds,' if their minds are already enlightened by that true light which is the Word of God? And so that which is set down in the Gospel:
'There was the true light, which enlightens every man coming into this world'—it was said thus, because no man is enlightened save by that light of truth which is God, lest anyone should suppose himself enlightened by him from whom he hears something in order to learn—I do not say if he chance to have some great man as teacher, but not even if an angel. For the word of truth is applied from without by the ministry of a bodily voice; yet neither he that plants is anything, nor he that waters, but God who gives the increase. For a man hears one speaking, whether a man or an angel; but that he may perceive and know to be true what is said, his mind is sprinkled within by that light which abides eternal, which shines even in the darkness.
But just as this sun of ours is not comprehended by the blind—although in a certain manner it clothes them with its rays—so is it not comprehended by the darkness of folly. But why, when He had said 'which enlightens every man,' He added:
'coming into this world'—whence this opinion arose, that at the bodily birth, freshly out of the mother's womb, He enlightens the minds of newborn infants—although in the Greek it is so placed that it can also be understood as the light itself coming into this world; nevertheless, if it must be taken as 'the man coming into this world,' I judge either that it is said simply, as many things are found in the Scriptures which, even if removed, take nothing from the meaning; or, if it must be believed to have been added for the sake of some distinction, perhaps this was said to distinguish spiritual enlightenment from that bodily enlightenment which, whether through the luminaries of heaven or by any fires whatsoever, enlightens the eyes of the flesh—so that He called the inner man 'coming into this world,' because the outer is bodily, like this world—as though He said:
'He enlightens every man coming into a body,' according to that which is written: 'I obtained a good soul, and I came into an undefiled body.' Either therefore it is said thus—if it is said for the sake of some distinction—'He enlightens every man coming into this world,' as though it were said, 'He enlightens every inner man'; because the inner man, when he truly becomes wise, is enlightened by none save Him who is the true light;
or, if He wished to call enlightenment the very reason by which the human soul is called rational—which reason, still as it were quiet and as it were asleep, yet implanted and in a certain manner sown, lies hidden in little ones—as though it were the creation of the inner eye, then it must not be resisted that it comes to be when the soul is created, and that it is not absurdly understood when a man comes into the world. Nevertheless even that eye itself, though already created, must remain in darkness, if it does not believe in Him who said: 'I came as light into the world, that everyone who believes in me may not remain in darkness.'
That this comes to pass in little ones through the sacrament, Mother Church does not doubt—she who furnishes them a mother's heart and mouth, that they may be imbued with the sacred mysteries, since they cannot yet believe with their own heart unto righteousness, nor confess with their own mouth unto salvation. Nor for this reason does any of the faithful hesitate to call them 'faithful,' since the name is derived from believing, although it is not they themselves, but others on their behalf, who have answered amid the sacraments. It would become too long, if we were to argue in like manner over each single testimony.
Whence I judge it more convenient to heap together in a mass many testimonies, such as could occur or such as shall seem to suffice, by which it may appear that the Lord Jesus Christ came in the flesh, and having taken the form of a servant became obedient even unto the death of the cross, for no other cause than that by this dispensation of most merciful grace He might quicken, save, set free, redeem, and enlighten all those to whom, as members set in His body, He is the Head for the seizing of the kingdom of heaven—those who had formerly been established in the death of sins, in weaknesses, in servitude, in captivity, in darkness, under the power of the devil the prince of sins; and that thus He might become the mediator of God and men, through whom, after the enmities of our impiety were ended by the peace of that grace, we might be reconciled to God unto eternal life, snatched from that eternal death which was impending upon such as we.
For when this has appeared more abundantly, it will follow that those cannot pertain to this dispensation of Christ—which was accomplished through this His humility—who have no need of life, salvation, deliverance, redemption, and enlightenment. And since baptism pertains to this, by which they are buried together with Christ, that they may be incorporated into Him as His members—that is, His faithful ones—surely baptism is not necessary either for those who have no need of that benefit of remission and reconciliation which is effected through the mediator.
Furthermore, since they concede that little ones are to be baptized—they who, without doubt, cannot come against the authority of the universal church, handed down through the Lord and the apostles—they must needs concede that these little ones stand in need of those benefits of the mediator, so that, washed through the sacrament and the charity of the faithful and thus incorporated into the body of Christ, which is the church, they may be reconciled to God, that in Him they may be made living, saved, set free, redeemed, enlightened. Whence, save from the death, vices, guilt, subjection, and darkness of sins? And since they have committed none of these in that age through their own life, original sin remains. This reasoning will then be stronger, when I shall have heaped together the many testimonies which I promised. We have already set down above:
'I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.' Likewise, when He had entered to Zacchaeus, He said: 'This day is salvation come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham; for the Son of man came to seek and to save that which was lost.' This too concerning the lost sheep, sought and found when the ninety-nine were left; this too concerning the drachma which was lost out of ten. Whence it behoved, as He says, that repentance and the remission of sins be preached in His name among all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. Mark too, at the end of his Gospel, attests that the Lord said: 'Going into all the world, preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized shall be saved; but he who does not believe shall be condemned.'
But who does not know that for infants to believe is to be baptized, and not to believe is not to be baptized? And from John's Gospel, although we have already set down some things, attend also to these. John the Baptist concerning Him: 'Behold the Lamb of God; behold Him who takes away the sins of the world'; and He Himself concerning Himself: 'Those who are of my sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me; and I give them eternal life, and they shall not perish for ever.' Since therefore little ones do not begin to be of His sheep except through baptism, surely, if they do not receive this, they shall perish; for they shall not have the eternal life which He will give to His sheep. Likewise in another place: 'I am the way, the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through me.'
Receiving this doctrine, see with how great an attestation the apostles declare it. Peter in his first epistle: 'Blessed be God,' he says, 'the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to the multitude of His mercy has regenerated us unto a hope of eternal life through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, unto an inheritance immortal and undefiled, flourishing, kept in the heavens for you, who by the faith of God are conversant in truth unto a salvation prepared to be revealed openly in the last time.' And a little after:
'that you may be found,' he says, 'unto the praise and honour of Jesus Christ, whom you knew not, in whom now, not seeing Him, you believe; whom, when you shall see Him, you shall exult with joy unspeakable and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls.' Likewise in another place: 'But you,' he says, 'are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people unto adoption, that you may declare the virtues of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvellous light.' And again: 'Christ,' he says, 'suffered for our sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God.' Likewise, when he had recalled that eight men were saved in Noah's ark:
'so also,' he says, 'does baptism in like fashion save you.' From this salvation therefore and this light little ones are aliens, and they shall remain in perdition and darkness, unless through adoption they be joined to the people of God, holding fast to Christ who suffered, the just for the unjust, that He may bring them to God. From the epistle of John also these things occurred to me, which seemed necessary to this question. 'But if we walk in the light,' he says, 'as He also is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son shall cleanse us from every sin.' Likewise in another place: 'If we receive the testimony of men,' he says, 'the testimony of God is greater, for this is the testimony of God. He who believes in the Son of God has the testimony in himself.'
'He who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony which God has testified concerning His Son. And this is the testimony, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who has not the Son has not life.' Not only therefore the kingdom of heaven, but not even life shall little ones have, if they shall not have the Son, whom they cannot have except through His baptism. Likewise in another place: 'For this,' he says, 'was the Son of God made manifest, that He might loose the works of the devil.' Little ones therefore will not pertain to the grace of the manifestation of the Son of God, if He does not loose in them the works of the devil.
Now then attend, upon this matter, to the testimonies of the apostle Paul—assuredly the more numerous, the more epistles he wrote, and the more diligently he took care to commend the grace of God against those who gloried in works, and who, being ignorant of the righteousness of God and wishing to establish their own righteousness, were not subject to the righteousness of God. In the epistle to the Romans: 'the righteousness of God,' he says, 'unto all who believe; for there is no distinction.'
'For all have sinned and are in need of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation through faith in His blood, unto the showing forth of His righteousness because of the remission of the sins that went before, in the forbearance of God, unto the showing of His righteousness in this time, that He may be just and the justifier of him who is of the faith of Jesus.' Likewise in another place: 'To him who works,' he says, 'the reward is not reckoned according to grace, but according to debt; but to him who does not work, yet believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned unto righteousness.' As David also declares the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness without works:
'Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord has not imputed sin.' Likewise a little after: 'But it was not written,' he says, 'for his sake only, that it was reckoned to him, but also for our sake, to whom it shall be reckoned—we who believe in Him who raised up Jesus Christ our Lord from the dead, who was delivered up for our offences and rose again for our justification.' And a little after: 'For if Christ,' he says, 'while we were yet weak, at the appointed time died for the ungodly.' And elsewhere: 'We know,' he says, 'that the law is spiritual; but I am carnal, sold under sin. For what I work, I do not understand;'
'for what I will, that I do not; but what I hate, that I do. But if I do that which I will not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Now then it is no more I that work it, but the sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwells no good thing. For to will is present with me, but to accomplish the good I find not. For the good which I will, I do not; but the evil which I will not, that I do. But if I do that which I will not, it is no more I that work it, but the sin that dwells in me. I find therefore a law, when I am willing to do good, that evil is present with me.'
'For I delight in the law of God according to the inner man; but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.' Let those say, who can, that a man is born otherwise than in the body of this death, so that they may also be able to say that the grace of God through Jesus Christ, by which he is delivered from the body of this death, is not necessary for him. Likewise a little after: 'For what was impossible to the law, in that it was weakened through the flesh, God, sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and of sin, condemned sin in the flesh.'
Let those say, who dare, that Christ ought to have been born in the likeness of sinful flesh, unless we had been born in the flesh of sin. Likewise to the Corinthians: 'For I delivered to you first of all,' he says, 'that which I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.' Likewise to the same Corinthians in the second epistle: 'For the charity of Christ constrains us, judging this, that one died for all; therefore all are dead; and He died for all, that they who live may now live no longer to themselves, but to Him who died for them and rose again. And so we henceforth know no one according to the flesh; and though we had known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him so no longer. If then any be in Christ, he is a new creature;'
'old things are passed away; behold, they are become new. But all things are of God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ, and gave to us the ministry of reconciliation. In what manner? Because God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, not reckoning to them their offences, and placing in us the word of reconciliation. For Christ therefore we discharge an embassy, as though God were exhorting through us; we beseech you for Christ's sake, be reconciled to God. Him who knew no sin He made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. And as fellow-workers we also entreat you that you receive not the grace of God in vain. For He says: In an acceptable time I heard you, and in a day of salvation I helped you. Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.'
If little ones do not pertain to this reconciliation and salvation, who seeks them out for the baptism of Christ? But if they do pertain, they are among the men who were dead, for whom He died, nor can they be reconciled and saved by Him unless He remits and reckons not their offences. Likewise to the Galatians: 'Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins, that He might rescue us out of this present evil world.' And in another place: 'The law of transgression was set forth as a grace, until the seed should come to whom the promise was made, ordained through angels in the hand of a mediator. But a mediator is not of one; yet God is one. Is the law then against the promises of God? Far be it!'
'For if a law had been given which could give life, righteousness would altogether be out of the law. But the Scripture concluded all under sin, that the promise, out of the faith of Jesus Christ, might be given to those who believe.' To the Ephesians too: 'And you, when you were dead in your offences and sins, in which formerly you walked according to the age of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of that spirit which now works in the sons of diffidence—among whom we all also formerly conversed in the desires of our flesh, doing the will of the flesh and of the affections, and we were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest;'
'But God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, quickened us together with Christ, by whose grace we are saved.' And a little after: 'By grace,' he says, 'you are saved through faith; and this not of yourselves, but it is the gift of God—not of works, lest perchance any should be lifted up. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God prepared, that we should walk in them.' And a little after:
'you who,' he says, 'were at that time without Christ, alienated from the fellowship of Israel and strangers to the covenants and to the promise, having no hope and without God in this world; but now, in Christ Jesus, you who formerly were far off have been made near in the blood of Christ. For He Himself is our peace, who made both one and, loosing the middle wall of the partition—the enmities—in His flesh, evacuating by decrees the law of commandments, that He might create the two in Himself into one new man, making peace, and might reconcile both in one body to God through the cross, slaying the enmities in Himself. And coming, He evangelized peace to you who were far off, and peace to those who were near; for through Him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.'
Likewise elsewhere: 'as the truth is in Jesus, that you put off, according to your former manner of life, the old man, who is corrupted according to the concupiscences of deception; and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new man, who is created according to God in righteousness and holiness of truth.' And elsewhere: 'Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, in whom you were sealed unto the day of redemption.' To the Colossians also he speaks thus: 'giving thanks to the Father, who has made us fit for a part in the lot of the saints in light, who has rescued us from the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption in the remission of sins.' And in another place:
'and you are,' he says, 'filled in Him, who is the head of all principality and power; in whom also you were circumcised with a circumcision not made with hand, in the putting off of the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ, buried together with Him in baptism, in which also you rose again together through the faith of the working of God, who raised Him up from the dead; and you, when you were dead in your offences and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, He quickened together with Him, forgiving us all offences, blotting out the handwriting that was against us in its decrees, which was contrary to us, and He took it out of the way, nailing it to the cross; and putting off from Himself the flesh, He made a show of the principalities and powers, confidently triumphing over them in Himself.' And to Timothy:
'This is a saying,' he says, 'human and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners, of whom I am the first. But for this reason I obtained mercy, that in me first Christ Jesus might show forth all longsuffering, for the instruction of those who shall believe in Him unto eternal life.' Likewise he says: 'For there is one God, and one mediator of God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a redemption for all.' In the second epistle also to the same:
'Therefore be not ashamed,' he says, 'of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but labour together for the gospel according to the power of God, who saves us and calls us with His holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before eternal ages, but is now made manifest through the advent of our Lord Jesus Christ, who indeed has abolished death, but has brought to light life and incorruption through the gospel.' To Titus also:
'awaiting,' he says, 'that blessed hope and the manifestation of the glory of the great God and of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity and cleanse for Himself a people abounding, zealous of good works.' And in another place: 'But when the benignity and humanity of God our Saviour shone forth, not out of the works of righteousness which we did, but according to His own mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and the renovation of the Holy Spirit, whom He most richly poured out upon us through Jesus Christ our Saviour, that, being justified by His grace, we may be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.'
The epistle to the Hebrews too—although to some it is uncertain—nevertheless, since I have read that certain persons holding views contrary to this our judgment concerning the baptism of little ones wished to employ even it as a witness to certain of their own opinions, and since the authority of the eastern churches, which have it even among the canonical books, moves me the more, it must be observed how many testimonies it contains on our side. In its very beginning we read: 'In many parts and in many ways of old God spoke to the fathers in the prophets; last of all, in these days, He has spoken to us in the Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the ages.'