On the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants 1.38–1.54

But why, when he had said, “which enlightens every man,” did he add, “coming into this world”? From this arose the opinion that he enlightens the minds of newborn infants at their very first bodily emergence from the mother's womb. Although in the Greek it is so placed that it can be understood also of the light itself coming into this world, yet, if it must be taken of man coming into this world, I think either that it was said simply, as many things are found in the Scriptures which could be removed without lessening the sense at all; or, if we must believe that it was added for the sake of some distinction, perhaps this was said to distinguish spiritual enlightenment from this bodily kind, which enlightens the eyes of the flesh whether through the lights of heaven or through fires of any kind; so that he called the inner man “coming into this world,” because the outer man is bodily, like this world; as though he said, “enlightens every man coming into the body,” according to what is written: “I received a good soul and came into an undefiled body.” Either, then, it was said thus, if it was said for the sake of some distinction, “enlightens every man coming into this world,” as though it had been said, “enlightens every inner man,” because the inner man, when he truly becomes wise, is enlightened only by that which is the true light; or, if he wished to call “enlightenment” reason itself, by which the human soul is called rational, a reason which, though still as it were quiet and asleep, yet lies hidden in infants implanted and in a way sown within them, as the creation of an inner eye, we need not resist the view that it takes place when the soul is created, and it is not absurd to understand this as happening when man comes into the world. Yet even this eye, although already created, must remain in darkness if it does not believe in him who said, “I have come as a light into the world, so that everyone who believes in me may not remain in darkness.” That this is done in infants through the sacrament, mother church does not doubt, for she lends them a mother's heart and mouth so that they may be imbued with the sacred mysteries, because they cannot yet believe with their own heart unto righteousness nor confess with their own mouth unto salvation. Nor for that reason does any of the faithful hesitate to call them faithful, a name which certainly comes from believing, although it is not they themselves but others who have answered for them in the sacraments.

It will become too long if we argue in the same way about each testimony. So I think it more convenient to gather many together in a heap, as many as may occur to me or as will seem sufficient, from which it may appear that the Lord Jesus Christ came in the flesh, and, taking the form of a servant, became obedient to the death of the cross, for no other reason than that by this dispensation of most merciful grace he might give life to, save, free, redeem, and enlighten all those for whom, set as members in his body, he is the head for taking possession of the kingdom of heaven, who had previously been set in the death, sicknesses, slavery, captivity, and darkness of sins, under the power of the devil, the prince of sinners; and that so he might become the mediator between God and men, through whom, after the enmities of our ungodliness had been ended by the peace of his grace, we might be reconciled to God for eternal life, snatched from the eternal death which hung over such as we were. For when this has appeared more abundantly, it will follow that those who do not need life, salvation, liberation, redemption, and enlightenment cannot belong to this dispensation of Christ, which was accomplished through his humility. And since baptism belongs to it, by which they are buried with Christ so that his members, that is, his faithful, may be incorporated into him, surely baptism is not necessary either for those who have no need of that benefit of forgiveness and reconciliation which comes about through the mediator. Further, since they grant that infants are to be baptized, being unable to go against the authority of the whole church, which was without doubt handed down through the Lord and the apostles, they must grant that infants need those benefits of the mediator, so that, washed through the sacrament and the charity of the faithful, and so incorporated into the body of Christ, which is the church, they may be reconciled to God, so that in him they may become alive, saved, freed, redeemed, enlightened. From what, except from the death, vices, guilt, subjection, and darkness of sins? And since at that age they have committed none of these through their own life, original sin remains.

This reasoning will be stronger when I have gathered the many testimonies I promised. We have already set down above: “I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” Likewise, when he had gone in to Zacchaeus, he said: “Today salvation has come to this house, since he too is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.” This is said also of the lost sheep, sought and found when the ninety-nine were left, and this of the coin which was lost out of ten. Hence it was necessary, as he says, “that repentance and forgiveness of sins be preached in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.” Mark too, at the end of his gospel, testifies that the Lord said: “Go into the whole world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.” And who does not know that for infants to believe is to be baptized, and not to believe is not to be baptized? From the Gospel of John, although we have already set down some things, note these too. John the Baptist said of him: “Behold the Lamb of God, behold him who takes away the sins of the world”; and he himself says of 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 will never perish.” Since, then, infants begin to be of his sheep only through baptism, surely, if they do not receive it, they will perish; for they will 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 except through me.”

See with how great an attestation the apostles who received this teaching declare it. Peter in his first epistle says: “Blessed be God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to the multitude of his mercy has regenerated us into the hope of eternal life through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, into an inheritance immortal and undefiled, flourishing, kept in heaven for you, who walk in the truth of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” And a little later he says: “That you may be found to the praise and honor of Jesus Christ, whom you did not know, in whom now, not seeing him, you believe; whom when you see, you will exult with joy unspeakable and honored, receiving the covenant of faith, the salvation of your souls.” Likewise in another place he says: “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for adoption, that you may declare the virtues of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” And again he says: “Christ suffered for our sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God.” Likewise, when he had recalled that eight persons were saved in Noah's ark, he says: “So baptism in a like figure saves you too.” From this salvation and light, then, infants are strangers, and they will remain in perdition and darkness unless they have been joined by adoption to the people of God, holding fast to Christ, who suffered, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring them to God.

From the epistle of John also these passages have occurred to me, which seemed necessary for 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 will cleanse us from every offense.” Likewise in another place he says: “If we receive the testimony of men, 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 makes him a liar, because he has not believed in the testimony which he 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 does not have the Son does not have life.” Not only the kingdom of heaven, then, but not even life will infants have, if they do not have the Son, whom they cannot have except through his baptism. Likewise in another place he says: “For this the Son of God was manifested, to undo the works of the devil.” Infants, then, will not belong to the grace of the manifestation of the Son of God if he does not undo the works of the devil in them.

Now attend to the testimonies of the apostle Paul on this matter, so many more in number as he wrote more epistles, and as he took more care to commend the grace of God against those who boasted of works and, being ignorant of God's righteousness and wishing to establish their own righteousness, were not subject to the righteousness of God. In the epistle to the Romans he says: “The righteousness of God is upon all who believe; for there is no distinction. For all have sinned and lack 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, to show his righteousness because of the passing over of former sins in the forbearance of God, to show his righteousness at this time, that he may be righteous and the justifier of him who is of the faith of Jesus.” Likewise in another place he says: “To him who works the reward is not reckoned according to grace but according to debt; but to him who does not work, but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, faith is reckoned as righteousness. Just as David also speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits 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 later he says: “But it was not written for his sake only, that it was reckoned to him, but also for our sake, to whom it will be reckoned, who believe in him who raised Jesus Christ our Lord from the dead, who was handed over for our offenses and rose again for our justification.” And a little later he says: “For if Christ, when we were still weak, at the proper time died for the ungodly.” And elsewhere he says: “We know that the law is spiritual; but I am carnal, sold under sin. For what I do, I do not know; for I do not do what I will, but what I hate, that I do. But if I do what I do not will, I consent to the law, that it is good. But now it is no longer I who do it, but the sin that dwells in me. For I know that good does not dwell in me, that is, in my flesh. For to will is present with me, but to accomplish the good I do not find. For I do not do the good that I will, but the evil that I do not will, that I do. But if I do what I do not will, it is no longer I who do it, but the sin that dwells in me. I find, then, the law, when I will 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 making me captive in the law of sin which is in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will free me from the body of this death? The grace of God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Let those who can say that a man is born otherwise than in the body of this death, so that they may also be able to say that he does not need the grace of God through Jesus Christ, by which he may be freed from the body of this death. Likewise a little later: “For what was impossible for the law, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and concerning sin, condemned sin in the flesh.” Let those who dare say that Christ would have had to be born in the likeness of sinful flesh if we had not been born in sinful flesh.

Likewise to the Corinthians: “For I handed on to you first of all,” he says, “what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.” Likewise to the same Corinthians in the second letter: “For the love of Christ compels us, judging this, that one died for all; therefore all died; and he died for all, so that those who live may no longer live for themselves, but for him who died for them and rose again. So from now on we know no one according to the flesh; and if we knew Christ according to the flesh, yet now we no longer know him so. If then anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old things have passed away; behold, they have become new. And all things are from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. How so? Because God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not reckoning their offenses to them, and placing in us the word of reconciliation. So we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were exhorting through us; we beseech you for Christ's sake to be reconciled to God. Him who had not known sin he made sin for us, that we might be the righteousness of God in him. And working together with him we also ask that you not receive the grace of God in vain. For he says: At an acceptable time I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you. Behold, now is the acceptable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” If infants do not belong to this reconciliation and salvation, who seeks them for the baptism of Christ? But if they do belong, they are among the dead for whom he died, and they cannot be reconciled and saved by him unless he forgives and does not reckon their offenses.

Likewise to the Galatians: “Grace to you and peace from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins, to deliver us from the present evil age.” And in another place: “The law was set forth because of transgression, until the seed should come to whom the promise was made, ordained through angels in the hand of a mediator. Now a mediator is not of one, but God is one. Is the law then against the promises of God? By no means! For if a law had been given which could give life, righteousness would indeed be from the law. But Scripture has shut up all things under sin, so that the promise might be given from faith in Jesus Christ to those who believe.”

To the Ephesians also: “And you, when you were dead in your offenses and sins, in which you once walked according to the age of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the children of unbelief, among whom we too all once lived in the desires of our flesh, doing the will of the flesh and of the affections, and we were by nature children of wrath, like the rest; but God, who is rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, made us alive together with Christ, by whose grace we have been saved.” And a little later he says: “By grace you have been saved through faith, and this not from yourselves, but it is the gift of God, not from works, lest anyone be lifted up. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus in good works, which God prepared that we should walk in them.” And a little later he says: “You who were at that time without Christ, alienated from the fellowship of Israel and strangers to the covenants and the promise, having no hope and without God in this world; but now in Christ Jesus you who were once far off have been brought near in the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who made both one and broke down the middle wall of partition, the enmities, making void in his flesh the law of commandments with its decrees, that he might create the two in himself into one new man, making peace, and might change both in one body to God through the cross, slaying the enmities in himself. And coming he preached peace to you who were far off, and peace to those who were near, because 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 way of life, the old man, who is corrupted according to the desires of deceit; 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 for the day of redemption.”

To the Colossians too he speaks thus: “Giving thanks to the Father, who makes us fit for a share in the lot of the saints in light, who rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son of his love, in whom we have redemption in the forgiveness of sins.” And in another place he says: “And you have been filled in him, who is the head of every principality and power, in whom also you were circumcised with a circumcision not made by hand, in the stripping off of the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ, buried with him in baptism, in which you also rose with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead; and you, when you were dead in offenses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he made alive with him, forgiving us all offenses, blotting out the handwriting of decrees that was against us, which was contrary to us, taking it out of the way and fixing it to the cross; stripping himself of the flesh, he made an example of the principalities and powers, confidently triumphing over them in himself.”

And to Timothy: “It is a human saying,” he says, “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 all long-suffering, for an example to those who are to believe in him for eternal life.” Likewise he says: “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a redemption for all.” In the second letter to the same also: “Do not then be ashamed,” he says, “of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but labor with me 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 has now been manifested through the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has made death void and has brought to light life and incorruption through the gospel.”

To Titus also: “Awaiting,” he says, “that blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us, to redeem us from all iniquity and cleanse for himself a people abounding, zealous for good works.” And in another place: “But when the kindness and love for mankind of God our Savior shone forth, not from works of righteousness which we did, but according to his mercy he saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out most richly upon us through Jesus Christ our Savior, that, justified by his grace, we might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.”

The epistle to the Hebrews too, although it is uncertain to some, yet, since I have read that certain people who hold views contrary to this opinion of ours on the baptism of infants have wished to bring it in as a witness for some of their opinions, and since I am more moved by the authority of the Eastern churches, which have it too among the canonical books, we must note how many testimonies it contains in our favor. At its very beginning we read: “In many parts and in many ways God spoke of old to the fathers in the prophets; last of all, in these days, he has spoken to us in the Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the ages; who, since he is the brightness of his glory and the image of his substance, and bears all things by the word of his power, having made purification of sins, sits at the right hand of the majesty on high.” And after a little: “For if the word spoken through angels was made firm, and every transgression and disobedience received a just recompense of reward, how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation?” And in another place: “Since therefore the children shared in blood and flesh, he himself likewise partook of the same, that through death he might make void him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were all their life subject to slavery.” And a little later he says: “Hence he had to be made like his brothers in all things, that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the things that pertain to God, to make propitiation for the offenses of the people.” And elsewhere he says: “Let us hold fast our confession; for we do not have a priest who cannot suffer with our weaknesses; for he was tried in all things according to likeness, without sin.” And in another place he says: “He has a priesthood that cannot pass away. Hence he is also able to save completely those who come to God through him, always living to intercede for them. For it was fitting that we should have such a high priest, righteous, without malice, undefiled, separated from sinners, made higher than the heavens, who does not have daily need, as the high priests do, to offer sacrifice first for his own sins, then for the people's; for this he did once for all, offering himself.” And in another place: “For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made by hand, a copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, to appear now before the face of God for us; not that he should offer himself often, as the high priest enters the sanctuary once a year with blood not his own; otherwise he would have had to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now once, at the end of the ages, he has been manifested for the forgiveness of sins through his sacrifice. And as it is appointed for men to die once only, and after this the judgment, so Christ too was offered once to bear the sins of many; the second time he will appear without sins to those who await him for salvation.”

The Apocalypse of John also testifies that these praises are offered to Christ in a new song: “Worthy are you to take the book and open its seals, because you were slain and redeemed us for God by your blood from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.”

Likewise in the Acts of the Apostles the apostle Peter said that the Lord Jesus is the author of life, rebuking the Jews for having killed him, speaking thus: “But you burdened and denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked that a murderer be allowed to live and be granted to you; for you killed the author of life.” And in another place: “This is the stone rejected by you builders, which has become the head of the corner. For there is no other name under heaven given to men in which we must be saved.” And elsewhere: “The God of our fathers raised Jesus, whom you killed by hanging him on a tree. Him God exalted by his glory as prince and Savior, to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins in him.” Likewise in another place: “To him all the prophets bear witness, that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his hand.” Likewise in the same book the apostle Paul says: “Let it be known to you, then, brothers, that through him forgiveness of sins is proclaimed to you; from all the things from which you could not be justified in the law of Moses, in him everyone who believes is justified.”

Whose pride against the truth of God is not crushed by so great a mound of testimonies? Many others indeed could be found, but the concern to finish this work must not be carelessly regarded either. From the books of the Old Testament too I thought it superfluous to bring many attestations of the divine oracles in support of this view, since what is hidden there under the veil, as it were, of earthly promises is revealed in the preaching of the New Testament. And the Lord himself briefly showed and defined the usefulness of the old books when he said that what was written of him in the Law and the Prophets and the Psalms had to be fulfilled, and that this was it: that the Christ had to suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins be preached in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem. And Peter says, as I recalled a little earlier, that to him all the prophets bear witness, that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his hand.

Yet it is more convenient to bring out a few testimonies from the Old Testament itself too, which will serve either as a supplement or rather as a crowning addition. The Lord himself, speaking through the prophet in a psalm, says: “For the saints who are in his land he has made wonderful all my wills in them”: not their merits, but my wills. For what of theirs, except what follows? “Their weaknesses were multiplied,” beyond the weakness they had. For this the law too came in, that the offense might abound. But what does he add? “Afterwards they made haste.” When their weaknesses were multiplied, that is, when the offense abounded, they sought the physician more eagerly, so that where sin abounded grace might superabound. Then: “I will not gather their assemblies from bloods,” he says, since by the many bloods of sacrifices, when formerly they were gathered into the tabernacle or the temple, they were convicted as sinners rather than cleansed. No longer, then, he says, will I gather their assemblies from bloods; for one blood has been given for many, by which they might be truly cleansed. Then follows: “Nor will I remember their names with my lips,” as of those cleansed, as of those renewed. For their names were formerly children of the flesh, children of the world, children of wrath, children of the devil, unclean, sinners, ungodly; but afterwards children of God: a new name for the new man singing a new song through the new covenant. Let men not be ungrateful to the grace of God, the small with the great, from the least to the greatest. It is the voice of the whole church: “I have gone astray like a lost sheep”; it is the voice of all the members of Christ: “All we like sheep have gone astray, and he was handed over for our sins.” See how often that whole passage of prophecy in Isaiah, by which, when it was expounded to him by Philip, the eunuch of Queen Candace believed in him, commends this very thing and drives it home again and again, as if to some proud or contentious people. “A man,” he says, “under a blow, and one who knows how to bear weaknesses; for which reason his face was turned away; it was insulted and not esteemed. He bears our weaknesses and is in pains for us. And we thought him to be in pains and under a blow and in punishment. But he was wounded for our sins and weakened for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him; by his bruise we have been healed. All we like sheep have gone astray, and the Lord handed him over for our sins. And he, because he was ill-treated, did not open his mouth; like a sheep he was led to the slaughter, and like a lamb before him who shears it he was without voice; so he did not open his mouth. In humiliation his judgment was taken away. Who will tell his generation? For his life will be taken from the earth. By the iniquities of my people he was led to death. I will therefore give the wicked for his burial and the rich for his death, because he did no iniquity nor deceit with his mouth. The Lord wills to cleanse him from the blow. If you give your soul for your offenses, you will see a seed of very long life. And the Lord wills to take away his soul from pains, to show him light and to form him with understanding, to justify the righteous one who serves many well, and he himself will bear their sins. Therefore he will inherit many and will divide the spoils of the strong, because his soul was handed over to death and he was reckoned among the wicked; and he bore the sins of many and was handed over for their iniquities.” Note also that passage of the same prophet which he himself, when performing the office of reader in the synagogue, read aloud as fulfilled in himself: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring good news to the humble; he has sent me that those who are in distress of heart may be refreshed, to preach release to captives and sight to the blind.” Let us all, then, acknowledge, and let none be excepted of us who wish to cleave to his body, to enter through him into his sheepfold, to attain the everlasting life and salvation which he promised to his own; let us all, I say, acknowledge him who did no sin and bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that, separated from sins, we might live with righteousness; by whose scars we have been healed, when we were weak like straying cattle.