CHAP. 31 [XXII.] HE REFUTES THOSE WHO SUPPOSE TH.-^T SOULS, ON ACCOUNT OF SINS COM- MUTED IN ANOTHER STATE, ARE THRUST INTO BODIES SUITED TO THEIR MERITS, IN WHICH THEY ARE MORE OR LESS TORMENTED.
Perhaps, however, the now exploded and rejected opinion must be resumed, that souls which once sinned in their heavenly abode, descend by stages and degrees to bodies suited to their deserts, and, as a penalty for their previous life, are more or less tormented by corporeal chastisements. To this opinion Holy Scripture indeed presents a most manifest contradiction; for when recommending divine grace, it says: " For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of Him that calleth, it was said, The elder shall serve the younger."** And yet they who entertain such an opinion are actually unable to escape the perplexities of this question, but, embarrassed and straitened by them, are compelled to exclaim like others, " O the depth! " For whence does it come to pass | that a person shall from his earliest boyhood show greater moderation, mental excellence, and temperance, and shall to a great extent conquer ^ Wisdom iv. 11. ° Rom. ix. II, 12.
Chap. 32.]
lust, shall hate avarice, detest luxury, and rise to a greater eminence and aptitude in the other \irtues, and yet live in such a place as to be unable to hear the grace of Christ preached? — for " how shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? or how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?"' While another man, although of a slow mind, addicted to lust, and covered with disgrace and crime, shall be so directed as to hear, and believe, and be baptized, and be taken away, — or, if permitted to remain longer here, lead the rest of his life in a manner that shall bring him praise? Now where did these two persons acquire such diverse deserts, — I do not say, tliat the one should believe and the other not believe, for that is a matter for a man's own will; but that the one should hear in order to believe, and that the other should not hear, for this is not within man's power? Where, I say, did they acquire diverse deserts? If they had indeed passed any part of their life in heaven, so as to be thrust down, or to sink down, to this world, and to tenant such bodily receptacles as are congruous to their own former life, then of course that man ought to be supposed to have led the better life previous to his present mortal body, who did not much deserve to be burdened with it, so as both to have a good disposition, and to be importuned by milder desires which he could easily overcome; and yet he did not deserve to have that grace preached to him whereby alone he could be delivered from the ruin of the second death. Whereas the other, who was hampered with a grosser body, as a penalty — so they suppose — for worse deserts, and was accordingly possessed of obtuser affections, whilst he was in the violent ardour of his lust succumbing to the snares of the flesh, and by his wicked life aggravating his former sins, which had brought him to such a pass, by a still more abandoned course of earthly pleasures, — either heard upon the cross, '•' To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise," ^ or else joined himself to some apostle, by whose preaching he became a changed man, and was saved by the washing of regeneration, — so that where sin once abounded, grace did much more abound. I am at a loss to know what answer they can give to this who wish to maintain God's righteousness by human conjectures, and, knowing nothing of the depths of grace, have woven webs of improbable fable.
■THE CASE OF CERTAIN IDIOTS AND SLMPLETONS.
Now a good deal may be said of men's strange vocations, — either such as we have read about, or have experienced ourselves, — which go to overthrow the opinion of those persons who think that, previous to the possession of their bodies, men's souls passed through certain lives peculiar to themselves, in which they must come to this, and experience in the present life either good or evil, according to the difference of their individual deserts. My anxiety, however, to bring this work to an end does not permit me to dwell longer on these topics. But on one point, which among many I have found to be a very strange one, I will not be silent. If we follow those persons who suppose that souls are oppressed with earthly bodies in a greater or a less degree of grossness, according to the deserts of the life which had been passed in celestial bodies previous to the assumption of the present one, who would not affirm that those had sinned previous to this life with an especial amount of enormity, who deserve so to lose all mental light, that they are born with faculties akin to brute animals, — who are (I will not say most slow in intellect, for this is very commonly said of others also, but) so silly as to make a show of their fatuity for the amusement of clever people, even with idiotic gestures,^ and whom the vulgar call, by a name derived from the Greek, Morioncs? + And yet there was once a certain person of this class, who was so Christian, that although he was patient to the degree of strange folly with any amount of injury to himself, he was yet so impatient of any insult to the name of Christ, or, in his own person, to the religion with which he was imbued, that he could never refrain, whenever his gay and clever audience proceeded to blaspheme the sacred name, as they sometimes would in order to provoke his patience, from pelting them with stones; and on these occasions he would show no favour even to persons of rank. "Well, now, such persons are predestinated and brought into being, as I suppose, in order that those who are able should understand that God's grace and the Spirit, " which bloweth where it listeth," s does not pass over any kind of capacity in the sons of mercy, nor in hke manner does it pass over any kind of capacity in the children of Gehenna, so that " he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord."*' They, however, who affirm that souls severally receive different earthly bodies, more or less gross according to the merits of their former life, and that their abilities as men vary according to the self-same mertts, so that some minds are sharper and others more obtuse, and that the grace of God is also dispensed for 3 We here follow the reading ccrriti; other readings are, — curaii (with studied folly), cirrati (with effeminate foppery), and citrati (decking themselves with citrus leaves).
* That is, " fools," from the Greek (xiopos.
5 John iii. 8.
^ I Cor. i. 31.
[Book I.
the liberation of men from their sins according to the deserts of their former existence: — what will they have to say about this man? How will they be able to attribute to him a i:)revious life of so disgraceful a character that he deserved to be born an idiot, and at the same time of so highly meritorious a character as to entitle him to a preference in the award of the grace of Christ over many men of the acutest intellect?
CHAP. ^^. CHRIST IS THE SAVIOUR AND RE- DEEMER EVEN OF INFANTS.
Let us therefore give in and yield our assent to the authority of Holy Scripture, which knows not how either to be deceived or to deceive; and as we do not believe that men as yet unborn have done any good or evil for raising a difference in their moral deserts, so let us by no means doubt that all men are under sin, which came into the world by one man and has passed through unto all men; and from which nothing frees us but the grace of God through our Lord Jesus Christ, [xxiii.] His remedial advent is needed by those that are sick, not by the whole: for He came not to call the righteous, but sinners; and into His kingdom shall enter no one that is not born again of water and the Spirit; nor shall any one attain salvation and eternal Hfe except in His kingdom, — since the man who believes not in the Son, and eats not His flesh, shall not have life, but the wrath of God remains upon him. Now from this sin, from this sickness, from this wrath of God (of which by nature they are children who have original sin, even if they have none of their own on account of their youth), none dehvers them, except the Lamb of God, who takes away the sins of the world; ' except the Physician, who came not for the sake of the sound, but of the sick; except the Saviour, concerning whom it was said to the human race: " Unto you there is born this day a Saviour;"^ except 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 from what does He save them, if there is no malady of original sin within them? From what does He redeem them, if through their origin from the first man they are not sold under sin? Let there be then no eternal salvation promised to infants out of our own opinion, without Christ's baptism; for none is promised in that Holy Scripture which is to be preferred to all human authority and opinion.
CHAP. 34 [XXIV.] — BAPTISM IS CALLED SALVA- TION, AND THE EUCHARIST, LIFE, BY THE CHRISTIANS OF CARTHAGE, The Christians of Carthage have an excellent name for the sacraments, when they say that baptism is nothing else than " salvation," and the sacrament of the body of Christ nothing else than " life." Whence, however, was this derived, but from that primitive, as I suppose, and apostolic tradition, by which the Churches of Christ maintain it to be an inherent principle, that without baptism and partaking of the supper of the Lord it is impossible for any man to attain either to the kingdom of God or to salvation and everlasting life? So much also does Scripture testify, according to the words which we already quoted. For wherein does their opinion, who designate baptism by the term salvation, differ from what is written: " He i•rt^'l?rt' z/i- by the washing of regeneration?" ^ or from Peter's statement: " The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save ns? " * And what else do they say who call the sacrament of the Lord's Supper life, than that which is written: " I am the living bread which came down from heaven; " 5 and " The bread that I shall give is my flesh, for the life of the world; " s and " Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye shall have no life in you?"^ If, therefore, as so many and such divine witnesses agree, neither salvation nor eternal life can be hoped for by any man without baptism and the Lord's body and blood, it is vain to promise these blessings to infants without them. Moreover, if it be only sins that separate man from salvation and eternal life, there is nothing else in infants which these sacraments can be the means of removing, but the guilt of sin, — respecting which guilty nature it is written, that " no one is clean, not even if his life be only that of a day." ^ Whence also that exclamation of the Psalmist: " Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me! " '^ This is either said in the person of our common humanity, or if of himself only David speaks, it does not imply that he was born of fornication, but in lawful wedlock. We therefore ought not to doubt that even for infants yet to be baptized was that precious blood shed, which previous to its actual effusion was so given, and applied in the sacrament, that it was said, " This is my blood, which shall be shed for many for the remission of sins." 9 Now they who will not allow that they are under sin, deny that there is any liberation.
For what is there that men are liberated from, if they are held to be bound by no bondage of sin?
3 Tit. iii. s.
4 I Pet. iii. 21 5 John vi. SI. * John vi. S3.
7 Job xiv. 4.
8 Ps. )i. 5.
9 Matt. xxvi. 28.
Chap. 38.]
CHAP. 35. — UNLESS INFANTS ARE BAPTIZED, THEY REMAIN IN DARKNESS.
" I am come," says Christ, " a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness." ' Now what does this passage show us, but that every person is in darkness who does not believe on Him, and that it is by believing on Him that he escapes from this permanent state of darkness? What do we understand by the darkness but sin? And whatever else it may embrace in its meaning, at any rate he who believes not in Christ will " abide in darkness," — which, of course, is a penal state, not, as the darkness of the night, necessary for the refreshment of living beings, [xxv.] So that infants, unless they pass into the number of believers through the sacrament which was divinely instituted for this purpose, will undoubtedly remain in this darkness.
CHAP. 36. INFANTS NOT ENLIGHTENED AS SOON AS THEY ARE BORN.
Some, however, understand that as soon as children are born they are enlightened; and they derive this opinion from the passage: "That was the true Light, which lighteth every one that Cometh into the world." ^ Well, if this be the case, it is quite astonishing how it can be that those who are thus enlightened by the only-begotten Son, who was in the beginning the Word with God, and [Himself] God, are not admitted into the kingdom of God, nor are heirs of God and joint-heirs with Christ. For that such an inheritance is not bestowed upon them except through baptism, even they who hold the opinion in question do acknowledge. Then, again, if they are (though already illuminated) thus unfit for entrance into the kingdom of God, they at all events ought gladly to receive the baptism, by which they are fitted for it; but, strange to say, we see how reluctant infants are to submit to baptism, resisting even with strong crying. And this ignorance of theirs we think lightly of at their time of life, so that we fully administer the sacraments, which we know to be serviceable to them, even although they struggle against them. And why, too, does the apostle say, " Be not children in understanding," ^ if their minds ha\e been already enlightened \vith that true Light, which is the Word of God?
CHAP. 37. — HOW GOD ENLIGHTENS EVERY PERSON.
That statement, therefore, which occurs in the gospel, " That was the true Light, which lighteth everyone that cometh into the world,"- has this meaning, that no man is illuminated except with ' John xii. 46.
^ John i. g.
3 I Cor. xiv. 20.
that Light of the truth, which is God; so that no person must think that he is enlightened by him whom he listens to as a learner, although that instructor happen to be — I will not say, any great man — but even an angel himself. For the word of truth is applied to man externally by the ministry of a bodily voice, but yet " neither is he that planteth any thing, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase." ^ Man indeed hears the speaker, be he man or angel, but in order that he may perceive and know that what is said is true, his mind is internally besprinkled with that light which remains for ever, and which shines even in darkness. But just as the sun is not seen by the blind, though they are clothed as it were with its rays, so is the light of truth not understood by the darkness of folly.
CHAP. 38. WHAT "lighteth" MEANS.
But why, after saying, " which lighteth every man," should he add, " that cometh into the world," - — the clause which has suggested the opinion that He enlightens the minds of newlyborn babes while the birth of their bodies from their mother's womb is still a recent thing? The words, no doubt, are so placed in the Greek, that they may be understood to express that the light itself " cometh into the world." s If, nevertheless, the clause must be taken as expressing the man who cometh into this world, 1 suppose that it is either a simple phrase, like many others one finds in the Scriptures, which may be removed without impairing the general sense; or else, if it is to be regarded as a distinctive addition, it was perhaps inserted in order to distinguish spiritual illumination from that bodily one which enlightens the eyes of the flesh either by means of the luminaries of the sky, or by the Hghts of ordinary fire. So that he mentioned the inner man as coming into the world, because the outward man is of a corporeal nature, just as this world itself; as if he said, "Which lighteth every man that cometh into the body," in accordance with that which is written: " I obtained a good spirit, and I came in a body undefiled." ^ Or again, the passage, " Which lighteth every one that cometh into the world," — if it was added for the sake of expressing some distinction, — might perhaps mean: \^'hich lighteth every inner man, because the inner man, when he becomes truly wise, is enlightened only by Him who is the true Light. Or, once more, if the intention was to designate reason herself, which causes the human soul to be called rational (and this reason, although as yet quiet and as it were asleep, for all that lies hidden in * I Cor. iii. 7.
so [Book I.
infants, innate and, so to speak, implanted), by the term illuminaiion, as if it were the creation of an inner eye, then it cannot be denied that it is made when the soul is created; and there is no absurdity in supposing this to take place when the human being comes into the world. But yet, although his eye is now created, he himself must needs remain in darkness, if he does not believe in Him who said: " I am come a a Light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness." ' And that this takes place in the case of infants, through the sacrament of baptism, is not doubted by mother Church, which uses for them the heart and mouth of a mother, that they may be imbued with the sacred mysteries, seeing that they cannot as yet with their own heart " believe unto righteousness," nor with their own mouth make " confession unto salvation." ^ There is not indeed a man among the faithful, who would hesitate to call such infants believers merely from the circumstance that such a designation is derived from the act of believing; for although incapable of such an act themselves, yet others are sponsors for them in the sacraments.
CHAP. 39 [XXVI.] — THE CONCLUSION DRAWN, THAT ALL ARE INVOLVED IN ORIGINAL SIN.
It would be tedious, were we fully to discuss, at similar length, every testimony bearing on the question. I suppose it will be the more convenient course simply to collect the passages together which may turn up, or such as shall seem sufficient for manifesting the truth, that the Lord Jesus Christ came in the flesh, and, in the form of a servant, became obedient even to the death of the cross,^ for no other reason than, by this dispensation of His most merciful grace, to give life to all those to whom, as engrafted members of His body. He becomes Head for laying hold upon the kingdom of heaven: to save, free, redeem, and enlighten them, — who had aforetime been involved in the death, infirmities, servitude, captivity, and darkness of sin, under the dominion of the devil, the author of sin: and thus to become the Mediator between God and man, by whom (after the enmity of our ungodly condition had been terminated by His gracious help) we might be reconciled to God unto eternal life, having been rescued from the eternal death which threatened such as us. When this shall have been made clear by more than sufficient evidence, it will follow that those persons cannot be concerned with that dispensation of Christ which is executed by His humiliation, who have no need of life, and salvation, and deliverance, and redemption, and illumination. And inasmuch as to this belongs baptism, in which we are buried with Christ, in order to be incorporated into Him as His members (that is, as those who believe in Him): it of course follows that baptism is unnecessary for them, who have no need of the benefit of that forgiveness and reconciliation which is acquired through a Mediator. Now, seeing that they admit the necessity of baptizing infants, — finding themselves unable to contravene that authority of the universal Church, which has been unquestionably handed down by the Lord and His aposdes, — they cannot avoid the further concession, that infants require the same benefits of the Mediator, in order that, being washed by the sacrai ment and charity of the faithful, and thereby incorporated into the body of Christ, which is the Church, they may be reconciled to God, and so live in Him, and be saved, and delivered, and redeemed, and enlightened. But from what, if not from death, and the vices, and guilt, and thraldom, and darkness of sin? And, inasmuch as they do not commit any sin in the tender age of infancy by their actual transgression, original sin only is left.
CHAP. 40 [XXVII.] — A COLLECTION OF SCRIP- TURE TESTIMONIES. FROM THE GOSPELS.
This reasoning will carry more weight, after I have collected the mass of Scripture testimonies which I have undertaken to adduce. We have already quoted: " I came not to call the right--eous, l3ut sinners." ■♦ To the same purport [the Lord] says, on entering the home of Zaccheus: " To-day is salvation come to this house, forsomuch as he also is a son of Abraham; for the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost." s The same truth is declared in the parable of the lost sheep and the ninety and nine which were left until the missing one was sought and found; ^ as it is also in the parable of the lost one among the ten silver coins.? Whence, as He said, " it behoved that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem."^ Mark likewise, at the end of his Gospel, tells us how that the Lord said: " Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that beheveth, and is baptized, shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned." ^ Now, who can be unaware that, in the case of infants, being baptized is to believe, and not being baptized is not to believe? From the Gospel of John we have already ad- 4 Luke V. 32.
5 Luke xix. 9, 10.
6 Luke XV. 4.
7 Luke XV. 8.
9 Mark xvi. 15, 16.
Chap. 43-] duced some passages. However, I must also request your attention to the following: John Baptist says of Christ, " Behold the Lamb of God, Behold Him which taketh away the sin of the wodd; " ' and He too says of Himself, " My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: and I give unto them eternal lif^; and they shall never perish." ^ Now, inasmuch as infants are only able to become His sheep by baptism, it must needs come to pass that they perish if they are not baptized, be-I cause they will not have that eternal life which He gives to His sheep. So in another passage He says: " I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father, but by me."^ 41.
FROM THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER.
See with what earnestness the apostles declare this doctrine, when they received it. Peter, in his first Epistle, says: " Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, according to His abundant mercy, who hath regenerated us unto the hope of eternal life, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, to an inheritance immortal, and undefiled, flourishing, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time." + And a little afterwards he adds: "May ye be found unto the praise and honour of Jesus Christ: of whom ye were ignorant; but in whom ye believe, though now ye see Him not; and in whom also ye shall rejoice, when ye shall see Him, with joy unspeakable and full of glory: receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls." 5 Again, in another place he says: " But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His marvellous light." ^ Once more he says: "Christ hath once suffered for our sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God:"'' and, after mentioning the fact of eight persons having been saved in Noah's ark, he adds: "And by the like figure baptism saveth you." ^ Now infants are strangers to this salvation and light, and will remain in perdition and darkness, unless they are joined to the people of God by adoption, holding to Christ who suffered the just for the unjust, to bring them unto God.
CHAP. 42. — FROM THE FIRST EPISTLE OF JOHN.
Moreover, from John's Epistle I meet with the following words, which seem indispensable to the solution of this question: "But if," says he, "we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin." 9 To the like import he says, in another place: " If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God, which is greater because He hath testified of His Son. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made Him a liar; because he believed not in the testimony that God testified of His Son. And this is the testimony, that God hath given to us eternal life; and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life." '° It seems, then, that it is not only the kingdom of heaven, but life also, which infants are not to have, if they have not the Son, whom they can only have by His baptism. So again he says: " For this cause the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil." " Therefore infants will have no interest in the manifestation of the Son of God, if He do not in them destroy the works of the devil.