Part 2
1 Now let them tell
is of many offences unto justification."
us, where there is room in these words for the principle of imitation. "By one," says he, "to condemnation." By one what, but one sin ? This much, indeed, he clearly implies in the words which he adds : " But the free gift [or the grace] is of many offences unto justification." Why, indeed, is the judgment from one offence to condemnation, and the grace from many offences to justification ? If original sin is a nullity, would it not follow, not only that grace withdraws men from many offences to justification, but that judgment leads them to condemnation [not from one sin merely, but] from many offences likewise ? For assuredly grace does not condone many offences, without judgment in like manner having many offences to condemn. Else, if men are involved in condemnation because of one offence, on the ground that all the offences which are condemned were committed in imitation of that one offence, there is the same reason why men should also be regarded as withdrawn from one offence unto justification, inasmuch as all the offences which are remitted to the justified were committed in imitation of that one offence. But this most certainly was not the apostle's meaning, when he said : " The judgment, indeed, was from one offence unto condemnation, but the grace was from many offences unto justification." We on our side, indeed, can understand the apostle, and see that judgment is predicated of one offence unto condemnation entirely on the ground that, even if there were in men nothing but original sin, it would be sufficient for their condemnation. For however much
1 Rom. v. 16.
CHAP. XVII.] OUR RELATION TO ADAM'S SIN. 17 heavier will be their condemnation who have added their own sins to the original offence (and it will be the more severe in individual cases, in proportion to the sins of individuals) ; still, even that sin alone which was originally derived unto men not only excludes from the kingdom of God, which infants are unable to enter (as they themselves allow), unless they have received the grace of Christ before they die, but also alienates from salvation and everlasting life, which cannot be anything else than the kingdom of God, to which fellowship with Christ alone introduces us.
Chap. 16. [xiii.]
And from this we gather that we have derived from Adam, in whom all have sinned, not all our actual sins, but only original sin ; whereas from Christ, in whom we are all justified, we obtain the remission not merely of that original sin, but of the rest of our sins also, which we have added by our actual transgression. Hence it runs : " Not as by the one that sinned, so also is the free gift." For the judgment, to be sure, unless remitted, is from one sin—and that the original sin—capable of drawing us into condemnation ; whilst grace conducts us to justification from the remission of many sins, that is to say, not simply from the original sin, but from all others also whatsoever.
Chap. 17.
" For if by one man's offence death reigned by one ; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of righteous-
1 Why ness shall reign in life by one, even Jesus Christ."
did death reign owing to the sin of one, unless it was that men were bound by the chain of death in that one man in whom all men sinned, even though they added no sins of their own ? Otherwise it was not owing to the sin of one that death reigned through one ; rather it was owing to the manifold offences of many, [operating] through each individual offender. For if the reason why men have died for the delinquency of another be, that they have followed and imitated him as their predecessor in delinquency, it must even result, and that with much greater propriety, that he died for the offence of
1 Rom. v. 17.
18 ON FORGIVENESS OF SINS AND BAPTISM. [BOOK I.
one, whom the devil by his pre-eminent influence so wrought on as to induce him to commit the offence. Adam, however, used no influence to persuade his followers ; and the many who are said to have imitated him have, in fact, either not heard of his existence at all or of his having committed any such sin as is ascribed to him, or [if they have heard of the history], simply refuse to believe it. How much more correct,
1 would the apostle have therefore, as I have already remarked, been in setting forth the devil as the first [offender], and telling us that sin and death had passed from him only upon us all, if he had in this passage meant to speak of imitation and not of propagation ? For there is much stronger reason for saying that Adam is an imitator of the devil, since he had in him an actual instigator to sin ; if, [as it would seem], one may be an imitator even of him who has never used any particular persuasion of such a kind, or of whom he is absolutely ignorant. But what is implied in the clause,
" They which receive abundance of grace and righteousness," but that the grace of remission is given not only to that sin in which all have sinned, but to those offences likewise which men have actually committed besides ; and that on those
[happy recipients of the grace] so great a righteousness is freely bestowed, that, although Adam gave way to him who persuaded him to sin, they at any rate yield not even to the coercion of the same tempter ? Again, what mean the words,
" Much more shall they reign in life," when the fact is, that the reign of death drags much the more down to eternal punishment, unless we understand those to be really mentioned in both clauses, who pass from Adam to Christ, in other words, from death to life ; because in the life eternal they shall reign without end, and thus exceed the reign of death which has prevailed within them only temporarily and with a termination ?
Chap. 18.
f Therefore as by the offence of one [judgment came] uponj all men to condemnation, even so by the justification of One,
[the free gift came] upon all men unto justification of life."
This " offence of one," if we are bent on [the theory of]
1 See above, ch. 9. 2 Rom. v. 18.
CHAP. XIX.] OUR JUSTIFICATION BY CHEIST. 19 imitation, can only be the devil's offence. Since, however, it is clearly mentioned in reference to Adam and not the devil, it follows that we have no other alternative than to understand the principle of natural propagation, and not that of imitation, to be here implied, [xiv.] Now when he says in reference to
Christ, " By the justification of one," he has more expressly stated our doctrine than if he were to say, " By the righteousness of one ; " inasmuch as he mentions that justification whereby
Christ justifies the ungodly, and which he did not propose as an object of imitation, for He alone is capable of effecting this. Now it was quite competent for the apostle to say, and to say rightly : " Be ye followers and imitators of me, as I also am of Christ ;"* but he could never say : Be ye justified by me, as I also am by Christ ;—since there may be, and indeed actually are and have been, many righteous men, and worthy of imitation ; whereas none is righteous, and at the same time conferring justification, but Christ alone. Whence it is said : " To the man that believeth on Him that justifieth
2 Now if any man had it in his power confidently to declare, * I justify the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness."
you," it would necessarily follow that he could also say, " Believe in me." But it has never been in the power of any of the saints of God to say this except the King of
3 who said : " Ye believe in God, believe also in me ;" 4 saints, so that, inasmuch as He justifies the ungodly, to the man who believes in Him in that capacity his faith is imputed for righteousness.
Chap. 19. [xv.] Sin isfrom natural descent, as righteousness is from regeneration ; how " all" are sinners through Adam, and "all" are just through
Christ.
Now if it is imitation only that makes men sinners through Adam, why does not imitation likewise alone make men righteous through Christ ? " For," he says, " as by the offence of one [judgment came] upon all men to condemnation ; even so by the justification of one [the free gift came] upon all men unto justification of life."
5 [On the theory of imitation], then, those who are in this passage antithetically mentioned as the
1 1 Cor. iv. 16. 2 Rom. iv. 5. 3 Sanctus sanctorum. 4 John xiv. 1. 5 Rom. v. 13.
20 ON FORGIVENESS OF SINS AND BAPTISM. [BOOK I.
" one" and the " one" must not be regarded as Adam and
Christ, but Adam and Abel. For although many sinners have preceded us in the time of this present life, and have been imitated in their sin by those who have sinned at a later date, yet they will have it, that only Adam is mentioned as he in whom all have sinned by following his example, on the ground that he was the very first man who sinned. And on the same principle, Abel ought certainly to have been mentioned, as he in whom alone all men likewise are justified by imitation of his good example, inasmuch as he was himself the first man who lived a holy life. If, however, it be thought necessary to take into the account some critical period having relation to the beginning of the New Testament, and Christ be taken as the leader of the righteous and the object of their imitation, then Judas, who betrayed Him, ought to be set down as the leader of the class of sinners. Moreover, if
Christ alone is He in whom all men are justified, on the ground that it is not simply the imitation of His example which makes men just, but His grace which regenerates men by the Spirit, then also Adam is the only one in whom all have sinned, on the ground that it is not the mere following of his evil example that makes men sinners, but the penalty which generates through the flesh. Hence the terms " all men " and " all men" [used by the apostle in his antithetical clauses.] For not they who are generated through Adam are actually the very same as ' those who are regenerated through Christ ; but yet the language of the apostle is strictly correct, because as none partakes of carnal generation except through Adam, so no one shares in the spiritual except through Christ. For if any could be generated in the flesh, yet not by Adam ; and if in like manner any could be generated in the Spirit, and not by Christ ; clearly " all" could not be spoken of either in the
1 the apostle afterone class or in the other. But these "all" wards describes as "many;"
2 for obviously, under certain circumstances, the " all" may be but a few. The carnal generation, however, embraces " many" and the spiritual generation also includes " many ;" although the " many" of the spiritual are less numerous than the " many" of the carnal. But as
1 The word is " all" in ver. 18. 2 See ver. 19.
CHAP. XXL] NATURAL AND SPIRITUAL BIRTH. 21 the one embraces all men whatever, so the other includes all righteous men ; because as in the former case none can be a man without the carnal generation, so in the other class no one can be a righteous man without the spiritual generation ; in both instances, therefore, there are " many :" " For as by the disobedience of one man many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous."
Chap. 20. Original sin alone is contracted by natural birth.
" Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound."
This addition to original sin men now made of their own wilfulness, not through Adam ; but even this is done away and remedied by Christ, because " where sin abounded, grace did much more abound ; that as sin hath reigned unto death" have added of their own accord—" even so might grace reign even that sin which men have not derived from Adam, but through righteousness unto eternal life." 4 There is, however, no righteousness except through Christ, as there are no sins except through Adam. Therefore, after saying, " As sin hath reigned unto death," he did not add in the same clause " by one," or " by Adam" because he had already spoken of that sin which was abounding when the law entered, and which, of course, was not original sin, but the sin of man's own wilful commission. But [here the case is different ; for] after lie has said : " Even so might grace also reign through righteousness unto eternal life," he at once adds, " through Jesus
Christ our Lord ;" 5 because, whilst by carnal generation only i original sin is contracted, yet by spiritual regeneration there/ is effected the remission not of original sin only, but also 01 the sins of man's own voluntary and actual commission.
Chap. 21. [xvi.]— Unbaptizcd infants damned, but in a most modified way; 6 the penalty of Adam's sin, the grace of his body lost.
It may therefore be correctly affirmed, that such infants as
I quit the body without being baptized will be involved in condemnation, but of the mildest character . That person, therefore, greatly deceives both himself and others, who teaches
1 Rom. v. 19. 2 Rom. v. 20. * Rom. v. 21.
4 Rom. v. 21. 5 Rom. v. 21.
6 See Augustine's Enchiridion, c. 93, and Contra Julianum, v. 11.
22 ON FORGIVENESS OF SINS AND BAPTISM. [BOOK I.
that they will not be involved in condemnation ; whereas the apostle says: "Judgment [hath arisen] from one offence to condemnation;"
1 and again a little after: "By the offence of one [judgment came] upon all persons to condemnation." 2 When, indeed, Adam sinned by not obeying God, then his body—although it was a natural and mortal body—lost the grace whereby it used in every part of it to be obedient to the soul. Then there arose in men affections common to the brutes which are productive of shame , and which made man ashamed of his own nakedness.
3 Then also, by a, certain morbid condition which was conceived in men from a suddenly injected and pestilential corruption, it was brought about that they lost that firmness of life in which they were created, and, by reason of the mutations which they experienced in the stages of life, issued at last in death. However many were the years they lived in their subsequent life, yet they began to die on the day when they received the law of death, because they kept verging towards old age. For that possesses not even a moment's stability, but glides away without respite or recovery, which by constant change perceptibly advances to an end which does not produce perfection, but utter exhaustion. Thus, then, was fulfilled what God had spoken : " In the day that ye eat thereof, ye shall surely die." 4 As a consequence, then, of this disobedience of the flesh and this law of sin and death, whoever is born of the flesh has need of spiritual regeneration—not only that he may reach the kingdom of God, but even that he may be freed from the damnation of sin. Hence [arise the two opposite conditions] ; men are on the one hand born in the flesh liable to sin and death from the first Adam, and on the other hand are born again in baptism associated with the righteousness and eternal life of the second Adam ; even as it is written in the book of Ecclesiasticus : "Of the woman came the beginning of sin, and through her we all die." 5 Now whether it be said of the woman or of the man, both statements pertain to the first man ; since (as we know) the woman is of the man, and the two are one flesh. Whence also it is written : " And they
1 Rom. v. 16. 2 Ver. 18. 3 Qen# iiit 10< 4 Gen. ii. 17. 6 Ecclus. xxv. 24.
CHAP. XXIII.] INFANTS BORN IN SIN. 23 twain shall be one flesh ; wherefore/' the Lord -says, " they are no more twain, but one flesh."
Chap. 22. [xyii.]— To infants personal sin cannot be attributed.
They, therefore, who say that the reason why infants are baptized, is, that they may have the remission of the sin which they have themselves committed in their life, not what they have derived from Adam, may be refuted without much difficulty. For whenever these persons shall have reflected within themselves a little, uninfluenced by any polemical spirit, on the absurdity of their statement, how unworthy it is, in fact, of serious discussion, they will at once change their opinion. But if they will not do this, we shall not so completely despair of men's common sense, as to have any fears that they will induce others to adopt their views. They are themselves driven to adopt their opinion, if I am not mistaken, by their prejudice for some other theory ; and therefore, feeling themselves obliged to confess that sins are remitted to the baptized, and being unwilling to allow that the sin was derived from Adam winch they admit to be remitted to infants, they were obliged to charge infancy itself with actual sin; as if by bringing this charge against infancy a man could become the more safe himself, when accused and unable to answer his assailant ! However, let us, as I suggested, pass by such opponents as these ; indeed, we require neither words nor quotations of Scripture to prove the sinlessness of infants, so far as their conduct in life is concerned ; this life they spend, such is the recency of their birth, within their very selves, since it escapes the cognizance of human perception, which has no data or support whereon to sustain any controversy on the subject.
Chap. 23. [xviii.]—He refutes tJiose who allege that infants are baptized not for the remission of sins, but for the obtaining of the kingdom of heave n. 2
But those persons raise a question, and appear to adduce an argument deserving of consideration and discussion, who say that new-born infants receive baptism not for the remis-
8 and sion of sin, but that they may have a spiritual creation
1 Matt. xix. 5, 6.
2 See below, c. 26 ; also Be Peccato orig. c. 19-24 ; also Serm. 294.
3 We adopt this reading after three mss., but the Benedictine text has " non
24 ON FORGIVENESS OF SINS AND BAPTISM. [BOOK I.
be born again in Christ, and become partakers even of the kingdom of heaven, and by the same means children and heirs of God, and joint-heirs of Christ. And yet, when you ask them, whether, if [infants are] not baptized, and are not made joint-heirs with Christ and partakers of the kingdom of heaven, they have at any rate the blessing of eternal life in the resurrection of the dead, they are extremely perplexed, and find no way out of their difficulty. For what Christian is there who would allow it to be said, that any one could attain to eternal salvation without being born again in Christ, — [a result] which He meant to be effected through baptism, at the very time when such a sacrament was purposely instituted for men bein^ regenerated with a view to eternal salvation ? Whence the apostle says : " Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us by the laver
1 of regeneration."
2 This salvation, however, according to him, consists in hope, while we live here below. He says, " For we are saved by hope : but hope that is seen is not hope ; for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for ? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience
3 Who then could be so bold as to affirm, that wait for it."
without the regeneration of which the apostle speaks, infants could attain to eternal salvation, as if Christ died not for them ? For " Christ died for the ungodly."
4 As for them, however, who (as is manifest) never did an ungodly act in all their life, if also they are not bound by any bond of sin in their original nature, how did He die for them, who died for the ungodly ? If they were hurt by no malady of original sin, how is it they are carried to the Physician Christ, for the express purpose of receiving the sacrament of eternal salvation, by the pious anxiety of those who run to Him ? Why rather is it not said to them in the Church : Take hence these innocents : " they that are whole need not a physician, but they that are sick ;"—Christ " came not to call the righteous,
5 There never has been heard,
but sinners to repentance?"
habentes," etc.; which means, "that they may be created in Christ, not having the spiritual procreation," whatever that may mean.
1 Lavacrum. 3 Tit. iii. 5. 3 Rom. viii. 21, 25.
* Rom. v. 6. 6 Luke v. 31, S2.
CHAP. XXIV.] THEIR REGENERATION. 25 there never is heard, there never will be heard in the Church, such a fiction concerning Christ.
Ciiap. 24. [xix.] And let no one suppose that infants ought to be brought to baptism, because, as they are not sinners, so they are not righteous ; how then do some remind us of the Lord's saying,
" Suffer the little children to come unte me, and forbid them
1 and hold that not, for of such is the kingdom of heaven;" the Lord thus commends this tender a^e as meritorious ? Tor if this is not said of infants because of their resemblance to the grace of humility (since humility makes [us] infants), but from the meritoriousness of the life of children, then of course infants must be righteous persons ; otherwise, it could not be correctly said, " Of such is the kingdom of heaven," for heaven can only belong to the righteous. But probably, after all, it is not a right opinion of the meaning of the Lord's words, to make Him commend the life of infants when He says, " Of
" inasmuch as that may be such is the kingdom of heaven their true sense, which makes Christ adduce the tender age of infancy as a likeness of humility. Well, then, perhaps we must revert to the tenet which I mentioned just now, that infants ought to be baptized, because, although they are not sinners, they are yet not righteous. But it would seem as if there were an answer to this view, in the words of Christ
" I came not to call the righteous." Whom then, [O Lord,] didst Thou come to call ? He immediately goes on to say
" —but sinners to repentance." Therefore it follows, that, however righteous they may be, if also they are not sinners, He came not to call them, who said of Himself : " I came not to call the righteous, but sinners." They therefore seem, not vainly only, but even wickedly to rush to His baptism, who does not invite them,—an opinion, which God forbid that we should entertain. He calls them, then, as a Physician who is not wanted for those that are whole, but for those that are sick ; and who came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Now, inasmuch as infants are not held bound by any sins of their own actual life, it is the guilt of original sin
1 Matt. xix. 14.
26 ON FORGIVENESS OF SINS AND BAPTISM. [BOOK I.
which is healed in them by the grace of Him who saves them by the laver of regeneration.
Chap. 25. Infants are described as believers and as penitents. Sins alone separate between God and men. Some one will say : How then are mere infants called to repentance ? Is it possible for them at so tender an age to have anything to repent of ? The answer to this is : If they mnst not be called penitents on the ground of their not having the experience of one that repents, neither must they be called believers, because they likewise have not the faculty
1 because they in a certain sense profess faith by_the_words of those who bring them to baptism, why are they not also held to of believing. But if they are rightly called believers, possess the previous grace of repentance, when they are proved to renounce the world and the devil by the profession again of those who bring them to the font ? The whole of this is done in hope, on the strength of the sacrament and the divine grace, which the Lord has bestowed upon the Church. But yet who knows not that the baptized infant fails to be [ultimately] benefited from what he received as a little child, if on coming to years of reason he fails to believe and to abstain from unlawful desires ? If, however, the infant departs from the present life after he has received baptism, the guilt in which he was involved by original sin being [thereby] done away, he shall be made perfect in that light of truth, which, as it remains unchangeable for evermore, illumines the justified in the presence of their Maker. For it is only sins which separate between men and God ; and these are done away by Christ's grace, through whose mediation we are reconciled, when He justifies the ungodly.
Chap. 26. [xx.] No one, except he be baptized, rightly comes to the table of the Lord. Now they take alarm from the statement of the Lord, when He says, " Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God;"
2 because in His own explanation of the passage He affirms, " Except a man be born of water and of
3 And the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God."
1 See below, c. 26 and 40 ; also Book iii. c. 2 ; also Epist. 98, and Serm. 294.
2 John iii. 3. 3 Ver. 5.
CHAP. XXVIL] ORIGINAL SIN AND THE TWO SACRAMENTS. 27 so they try to ascrihe to unbaptized infants, by the merit of their innocence, the gift of salvation and eternal life, but at the same time, owing to their being unbaptized, to exclude them from the kingdom of heaven. But how novel and astonishing is such an assumption, as if there could possibly be salvation and eternal life without heirship with Christ, [and] without the kingdom of heaven ! Of course they have their refuge, whither to escape and hide themselves, because the Lord does not say,
Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot have life, but—" he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." If indeed He had said that, there could have risen not a moment's doubt. Well, then, let us remove the doubt [which they import] ; let us now listen to the Lord, and not to men's notions and conjectures. Let us, I say, hear what the Lord says not indeed concerning the sacrament of baptism, but concerning the sacrament of His own holy table, to which none but a baptized person has a right to approach : " Except ye eat my flesh and drink my blood, ye shall have no life in you."
What do we want more ? What answer to this can be adduced, unless it be by that obstinacy which ever resists the constancy of manifest truth ?
Chap. 27.
Will, however, any man be so bold as to say that this statement [of the Lord's] has no relation to infants, and that they can have life in them without partaking of His body and blood—on the ground that He does not say, Except a man eat
(as in the phrase about baptism, "Except a man be born
" as if He were addressing those who were able to hear and to understand, which of course infants again"), but " Except ye eat cannot do ? But the man who says this is inattentive [to the circumstances of the case] ; because, unless all are embraced in the statement, that without the body and the blood of the Son of man men cannot have life, it is to no purpose that the elder age has this provision. For if you attend to the mere words, and not to the meaning, of the Lord as He speaks, this passage may very well seem to have been spoken merely to the people whom He happened at the moment to be addressing
1 John vi. 53.
28 ON FORGIVENESS OF SINS AND BAPTISM. [BOOK L because He does not say [in a general phrase], Unless any man eat ; but [personally], Except ye eat. What also becomes of the statement which He makes in the same context on this very point : " The bread that I will give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world ? 1 For, according to this statement, we find that that sacrament pertains virtually to ourselves, who were not in existence at the time the Lord spoke these words ; for we cannot possibly say that we do not belong to " the world," for the life of which Christ gave His flesh. Who indeed can doubt that in the term world all persons are indicated who enter the world by being born ? For, as He says in another passage, " The children of this world
2 From all this it follows, that even for besjet and are begotten."
the life of infants was His flesh given, which He gave for the life of the world ; and that even they will not have life if they eat not the flesh of the Son of man.
Chap. 28.
Hence also that other statement : " The Father loveth the
Son, and hath given all things into His hand. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life ; while he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God
3 Now in which of these classes must we place abideth on him."
infants—amongst those who believe on the Son, or amongst those who believe not the Son ? In neither, say some, because, as they are not yet able to believe, so must they not be deemed capable of unbelief. This, however, the rule of the Church does not indicate, for it joins baptized infants to the number of the faithful. Now if they who are baptized are, by virtue of the excellence and administration of so great a sacrament, still reckoned in the number of the faithful, although by their heart and mouth they do not literally perform what appertains to the action of faith and confession, surely they who have lacked the sacrament must be classed amongst those who do not believe on the Son; and therefore, if they shall depart this life without this grace, they will have to encounter what is written concerning such—they shall not have life, but the
1 John vi. 52. 2 Geiierant et generantur ; Luke xx. 34.
3 John iii. 34, 35.
CHAP. XXIX.] GOD'S SECRETS WISE AND GOOD. 29 wrath of God abideth on them. "Whence could this result to those who clearly have no sins of their own, if they are not held to be obnoxious to original sin ?
Chap. 29. [xxx.] It is an inscrutable mystery why some infants depart this life balked of baptism, and others not ; through faith we attain to understanding and knowledge. Now there is much significance in what He says. His words are not, " The wrath of God shall come upon him," but " The wrath of God abideth on him." For from this wrath (in which we are all involved under sin, and of which the apostle says,
" For we too were once by nature the children of wrath, even
1 ) nothing delivers us but the grace of God, through as others" our Lord Jesus Christ. The reason why this grace comes upon one man and not on another may be a secret reason, but it cannot be an unjust one. For " is there unrighteousness with God ? God forbid." 2 We must first bend our necks to the authority of the Holy Scriptures, in order that we may each arrive at knowledge and understanding through faith. It is not said in vain, "Thy judgments are a great deep, Lord."
The profundity of this " deep" the apostle, as if with a feeling of dread, notices in that exclamation : " the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God
He had indeed previously noticed the wonderful character of this depth, when he said : " For God hath concluded them all in unbelief, that He might have mercy upon all." 4 Then struck, as it were, with a horrible fear of this abyss, he goes on to say :
" the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God ! how unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out ! For who hath known the mind of the
Lord? or who hath been His counsellor? or who hath first given to Him, and it shall be recompensed unto him again ? For of Him, and through Him, and in Him, are all things : to whom be glory for ever. Amen." 5 How utterly insignificant, then, is our faculty for discussing the justice of God's judgments, and for the consideration of His gratuitous grace, which, as men have no prevenient merits for deserving it, cannot be partial or unrighteous, and which does not disturb us when
1 EpL ii. 3. 2 Rom. ix. 14. 8 Ps. xxxvi. 6.
4 Rom. xi. 32. 5 Rom. xi. 33-36.
30 ON FORGIVENESS OF SINS AND BAPTISM. [BOOK I.
it is bestowed upon unworthy men, as much as when it is denied to those who are equally unworthy
Chap. 30. Now those very persons, who think it unjust that infants which depart this life without baptism should be deprived not only of the kingdom of God, into which they themselves admit that none but such as are regenerated through baptism can enter, but also of eternal life and salvation, when they ask how it can be just that one man should be freed from original sin and another not, although the condition of both of them is the same, might really answer their own question, and that on their own terms, [by determining] how it can be so frequently just and right that one man should have baptism administered to him whereby to enter into the kingdom of God, and another not be so favoured, although the case of both is alike. For if the question disturbs him, why, of the two persons, who are both equally involved in original sin, the one is loosed from that bond on whom baptism is conferred, and the other is not released on whom such grace is not bestowed, why is he not similarly disturbed by the fact that of two persons, [whom he assumes to be] equally innocent by nature, one receives baptism, whereby he is able to enter into the kingdom of God, and the other does not receive it, so that he is incapable of approaching the kingdom of God ? Now in both cases one recurs to the apostle's outburst of wonder, " the depth of the riches !" Again, let me be informed, why of two baptized infants one is taken away, so that his understanding under-
1 and the other survives, goes no change from a wicked life, destined to become an impious man ? Suppose both were carried off, would not both enter the kingdom of heaven ? And yet there is no unrighteousness with God.
2 How is it that no one is moved, no one is driven to the expression of wonder amidst such depths, by the circumstance that some children are vexed by the unclean spirit, while others experience no such pollution, and others again, as Jeremiah,
3 whereas all men, are sanctified even in their mother's womb ; if there is original sin, are equally guilty; or else equally innocent if there is no original sin ? Whence this great
1 Wisdom iv. 11. 2 Rom. ix. 14. 3 Jer. i. 5.
CHAP. XXXI.] HUMAN CONDUCT DIVERSE. 31 diversityJ_^cept_in„J^i^t_ibatJG:0.d's judgments . are unsearchable, and His ways past finding out ?
Chap. 31. [xxn.] He refutes those who suppose that souls, on account of sins committed in another state, are thrust into bodies suited to their merits, in which they are more or less tormented. There is no salvation for the man to whom Christ has not been preached.
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
1 And yet said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger."
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, " 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 lust, shall hate avarice, detest luxury, and rise to a greater eminence and aptitude in the other virtues, 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 ?" 2—while another man, although of a tardy 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 characters deserving such diverse issues,—I__do not say, causing the one to believe and the other not to believe, for that is a matter for a man's own will ; but providing that the other should hear in
32 ON FORGIVENESS OF SINS AND BAPTISM. [BOOK I.
order to believe, and that the other should not hear, for this is not within man's power ? Where, I say, did they acquire the merit of such different issues ? If they had indeed passed any part of their life in heaven, so as to be thrust down, or (if you like) glide gently down, to this world, and to tenant such bodily receptacles as are fitted to their own former life, then of course that man ought to be supposed to have led the better life previous to his present body of death, who did not much deserve to be burdened with such a body for the purpose of possessing a good disposition, and of being importuned by the milder desires which he could easily overcome and yet, [strange to say,] 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 his 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,
[was arrested in his career, and] either heard upon the cross,
1 or else joined
" To-day shalt thou be with me in paradise," 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. What answer they can get out of this, I am at a loss to know, in their wish to maintain God's righteousness by human conjectures, who, knowing nothing of the depths of grace, have woven webs of improbable fable.
Chap. 32. The case of the Moriones {certain idiots and simpletons) adverted to ; one of these exhibited a remarkable sensitiveness whenever the name of Christ was insulted, notivithstanding his stupid insensibility to an injury done to himself. * 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 tliem-
1 Luke xxiii. 43.
CHAP. XXXII.] EVEN IDIOTS SUSCEPTIBLE OF GRACE. 33 selves, 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, of bringing 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 say something. Following 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 is there among them that would not affirm that men previous to this life had sinned with an especial amount of enormity, deserving to lose all mental light, so as to be born with sensation akin to brute animals,—men who are (I will not say most slow in intellect, for this is very commonly said of others also, but) so stupid and silly as to make a show of their fatuity for the amusement of clever people, even with
1 whom the vulgar call Morioncs (brainless idiotic gestures, fools), after the Greek designation [for a simpleton Mwpos] ? And yet there was once a certain person of this class, who was so imbued with Christian feeling that although he used to bear with an endurance which almost amounted to an imbecile indifference any amount of injury to himself, he was yet so impatient of any contumelious treatment of the name of Christ, or of the reverence of it in himself, with which he was so 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 created, as I suppose, to understand, so far as they are able, that God's grace and
Spirit, " which bloweth where it listeth,"
2 does not pass over any kind of disposition in the sons of mercy, nor in like manner does it omit from its notice any sort of character in
1 We here follow the reading cerriti; other readings are, curati (with studied folly), cirrati (with effeminate foppery), and citrati (decking themselves with citrus leaves).
2 John iii. 8.
34 ON FOKGIVENESS OF SINS AND BAPTISM. [BOOK I.
the children of wrath, so that " he that glorieth, let him glory
1 They, however, who affirm that souls severally in the Lord."
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 merits, so that some minds are sharper and others more obtuse, [must answer me one question,]—is the grace of God also dispensed for the liberation of men from their sins according to the deserts of their former existence ? What will they have to say in reply on this point ? How, [for instance,] will they be able, to attribute to the man of whom we have been speaking a previous life of so disgraceful a character that he deserved to be born an idiot, and at the same time so meritorious a career as to entitle him to a preference in the award of the grace of Christ over many men of the acutest intellect ?
Chap. 33. Christ is the Saviour and Redeemer 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 that sin which came into the world by one man, and has passed through unto all men ; and that from this sin nothing frees us but the grace of God through our Lord
Jesus Christ, [xxni.] 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 life 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 sinful condition, from this sick state, from this wrath of God (of which by nature they are children who have original sin, even if they in their lifetime add none of their own commission), none delivers 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
1 1 Cor. i. 31.
CHAP. XXXIV.] SACRAMEXTAL GRACE FOR IXFAXTS. 35 it was said to the human race : " Unto you there is born this day a Saviour;"
1 except the Bedeemer, by whose blood our debt is blotted out. For who would dare to say that Christ is not the Saviour and Eedeemer 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 mere whim and will, 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 salvation; and the Eucharist, life, by the
Christians of Carthage. The ancient and apostolic tradition.
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 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 saved us by the washing
[or laver] of regeneration ?" 2 or from Peter's statement : " The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us ? " 3
Then as for those who call the sacrament of the Lord's Supper life, what else do they say than that which is written : " I am the living bread which came down from heaven ;" 4 or that other statement : " The bread that I shall give is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world; 5 or again : "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye shall have no life in you?"
6 If, therefore, as so many important scriptures agree in testifying, neither salvationjior eternaJLlife can be hoped for by any rjaaii_ without baptism and the Lord's body and blood, it is vain to promise
1 Luke ii. 11. * Tit. iii. 5. 3 1 Pet. iii. 21. 4 John vi. 51. 5 John vi. 51. 6 John vi. 53.
36 ON FORGIVENESS OF SINS AND BAPTISM. [BOOK I.
these blessings to infants without these [sacraments]. 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 [original] sin,—respecting which guilty nature it is written, that " no one
1 Whence is clean, not even if his life be only that of a day."
also that exclamation of the Psalmist : " Behold, I was shapen in iniquity ; and in sin did my mother conceive me !" 2 This is either said in the person of our common humanity, or of himself only does David speak. Even if the latter be' the sense, it can have no reference to fornication, of course, because David was born in lawful wedlock. We therefore ought not to doubt that even for the baptism of infants was that precious blood shed, which previous to its actual effusion was so given, and applied in the sacrament, that it was said [by Him who gave His life for us,] " This is my blood, which shall be shed
3 Now they who will not
for many for the remission of sins."
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 ?
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. Some have concluded from the gospel, that infants, as soon as they are born, are enlightened.
Some, however, understand that as soon as children are born they are enlightened ; and they derive this opinion from
1 Job xiv. 4 (Sept.). 2 Ps. li. 5. 3 Matt. xxvi. 28. 4 John xii. 46.
CHAP. XXXVII.] GOD THE UNIVERSAL ENIIGHTENEB. 37 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 the Word in the beginning 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 admitted to be unfit for entrance into the kingdom of God, they at all events ought gladly to receive baptism, because, at least, they are fit 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
2 if their minds have been already enlightened, understanding,"
[according to the hypothesis,] with that true Light, which is the Word of God ?
Chap. 37. How God enlightens every person ; God teaches in one way, man in another ; the Sun ofWisdom shines everywhere, but is not seen by fools. The statement, therefore, which occurs in the gospel,
" That was the true Light, which lighteth every one that cometh into the world," has this meaning, that no man is illuminated except with 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, if 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 anything, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase." 3 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,
1 John i. 9. 2 i Cor. xiv. 20. 3 1 Cor. iii. 7.
38 ON FOKGIVENESS OF SINS AND BAPTISM. [BOOK I.
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.
But why, after saying, " which lighteth every one," should he have added, "that cometh into the world,"—the clause which has suggested the opinion that He enlightens the minds of newly-born babes in the recent birth of their bodies from
\ their mother's womb ? for the words are so placed in the
Greek , that they may be understood to express that the light
itself " cometh into the world." * If, however, the clause must be taken as a predicate of man [" every one who cometh into the world "], I 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 probably 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 lights of ordinary fire. He mentioned, therefore, the inner man as coming into the world, because the outward man is of a corporeal nature, just as this worldly fabric is itself ; as if he said, " Which lighteth every man on his coming into the body," in accordance with that which is written : " I obtained a good spirit,
2 Or again, if the pasand I came into a body undefiled."
sage, " Which lighteth every one that cometh into the world," was added for the sake of expressing some distinction, it might perhaps mean : Which illuminates every inner man, because, when the inner man becomes truly wise, it 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 which faculty, although as yet quiet and as it were asleep, is for all that latent in infants, sown and implanted in their nature), by the term illumination, as_ if it were the creation of the eye within, 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 lc, [scil. ro <puf\ (ptdr'iZ,ii tfuvrx avfyuvov lp%o(tivov il$ rov xofffiov.
2 Wisd. viii. 19, 20.
CHAP. XXXIX.] ORIGIXAL SIX UNIVERSAL. 39 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 Light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness." * Now that this takes place in the case of infants, through the sacrament of baptism, is not doubted by our mother the Church, which uses for them the heart and mouth of a mother, that they may be imbued with the sacred mysteries, seeing that they have not themselves as yet a heart for " believing unto righteousness," nor a mouth of their own to make " confession unto salvation."
J 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 draicn, 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 suitable for manifesting the truth, that the Lord Jesus Christ came in the flesh, and, in the form of a servant, became
3 for no other reason than (by this dispensation of His most merciful grace) to give obedient even to the death of the cross, life to all those who are engrafted members of His body, and to whom accordingly He becomes their Head for their gaining possession of the kingdom of heaven ; and furthermore to save, free, redeem, and enlighten them, involved as they had aforetime been in the death of sin, exposed to its infirmities, thraldom, captivity, and darkness , under the dominion of the devil, the author of sin ; that He might thus become the Mediator between God and man, and that by Him (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 everlasting death which threatened such as us. When this shall have been made
1 John xii. 46. 2 Rom. x. 10. 3 Phil. ii. 8.
40 ON FORGIVENESS OF SINS AND BAPTISM. [BOOK I.
clear by more than sufficient evidence, it will follow that those persons can have no possible connection with that dispensation of Christ which is comprised in His humiliation, who have no need of life, and salvation, and deliverance, and redemption, and illumination. And inasmuch as this dispensation has [for one of its instruments] the 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 must of course be inferred 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 apostles, —they cannot avoid the further concession, that infants require the same benefits of the Mediator, in order that, being washed by the sacrament 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 [saved and delivered] from what, if not from death, and the vices, and guilt, and thraldom, and darkness of sin ? Now, inasmuch as there cannot be committed ' any of these in the tender age of infancy by any actual transgression, it follows that original sin [must be inherent in infants].
Chap. 40. [xxvu.] A collection of Scripture testimonies.
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 l To the same purport [the call the righteous, but sinners."
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
2 The same truth is declared in the
that which was lost."
parable of the lost sheep and the ninety and nine which were left until the missing one was sought and found
3 as it is
1 Luke v. 32. 2 Luke xix. 9. 3 Luke xv. 4.
CHAP, xll] scripture proofs, from the gospel. 41 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
2 Mark likewise, at the
nations, beginning at Jerusalem."
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 believeth, and is baptized, shall be saved ; but he that
3 ISTow, who can be unaware
believeth not shall be damned."
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 adduced some passages. However, I must also request your attention to the following : John
Baptist says of Christ, " Behold the Lamb of God, which;" 4 and He too says of taketh away the sin of the world
Himself, " My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me : and I give unto them eternal life ; and they
5 Now, inasmuch as infants are only
shall never perish."
able to become His sheep by baptism, it must needs come to pass that they perish if they are not baptized, because 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."
Chai\ 41.
See with what earnestness the apostles declare this doctrine, after they had once received it. Peter, in his first Epistle, says : " Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, which, according to His abundant mercy, hath regenerated us unto a lively hope, by the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto
7 And a salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time."
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
1 Luke xv. 8. 2 Luke xxiv. 46, 47. 3 Mark xvi. 15, 16. 4 John i. 29. * j^ x 2 7, 28. 6 John xiv. 6.
* 1 Tet. i. 3-5.
42 ON FORGIVENESS OF SINS AND BAPTISM. [BOOK I.
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." 1 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." 2 Once more he says
" Christ hath once suffered for our sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God f
3 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." 4 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 that Christ suffered the just for the unjust, to bring them unto God.
Chap. 42.
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."
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 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 believeth not the record that God gave of His Son. And this is the record, 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." 6 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."
7 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.
3 1 Pet. iii. 18.
4 1 Pet. iii. 21. 1 1 Pet. i. 7-9.
2 1 Pet. ii. 9.
5 1 Jolrn i. 7.
6 1 John v. 9-12.
7 1 John iii. 8.
CHAP. XLIII.] ST. PAUL ON GOD'S GRACE. 43
Chap. 43. Paul was an earnest preacher of the grace of God.
Let me now request your attention to the testimony of the
Apostle Paul on this subject. And quotations from him may of course be made more abundantly, because he wrote more epistles, and because it fell to him to recommend the grace of God with especial earnestness, in opposition to those who gloried in their works, and who, ignorant of God's righteousness, and wishing to establish their own, submitted not to the
1 In his Epistle to the Eomans he
righteousness of God.
writes : " The righteousness of God is upon all them that believe ; for there is no difference ; since all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God ; being justified freely by His grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus ; whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God ; to declare, I say, at this time His righteousness ; that He might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus."
2 Then in another passage he says : " To him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered.
Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth no sin." 3
And then after no long interval he observes : " Now, it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on Him that raised up Jesus Christ our Lord from the dead ; who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification." 4 Then a little after he writes : " For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly." 6 In another passage he says : " "We know that the law is spiritual ; but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do I know not : for what I would, that I do not but what I hate, that I do. If then I do that which I would
1 Rom. x. 3. 2 Rom. iii. 22-26. 3 Rom. iv. 4-8.
4 Rom. iv. 23-25. 5 Rom. v. 6.
44 ON FORGIVENESS OF SINS AND BAPTISM. [BOOK I.
not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Now then, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing ; for to will is present with me ; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not ; but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward 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. wretched man that I am ! who shall deliver me from the body of this death ? I thank God, through Jesus Christ our