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Book I

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x.iii117 words

A Treatise on the Merits and Forgiveness of Sins, and on the Baptism of Infants

by aurelius augustin, bishop of hippo;

In Three Books,

Addressed to Marcellinus, a.d. 412.

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Book I.

In which he refutes those who maintain, that Adam must have died even if he had never sinned; and that nothing of his sin has been transmitted to his posterity by natural descent. He also shows, that death has not accrued to man by any necessity of his nature, but as the penalty of sin; He then proceeds to prove that in Adam’s sin his entire offspring is implicated, showing that infants are baptized for the express purpose of receiving the remission of original sin.

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Introductory, in the Shape of an Inscription to His Friend Marcellinus.

x.iii.i

If Adam Had Not Sinned, He Would Never Have Died.

x.iii.ii

It is One Thing to Be Mortal, Another Thing to Be Subject to Death.

x.iii.iii

Even Bodily Death is from Sin.

x.iii.iv

The Words, Mortale (Capable of Dying), Mortuum (Dead), and Moriturus (Destined to Die).

x.iii.v

How It is that the Body Dead Because of Sin.

x.iii.vi

The Life of the Body the Object of Hope, the Life of the Spirit Being a Prelude to It.

x.iii.vii

Bodily Death from Adam’s Sin.

x.iii.viii

Sin Passes on to All Men by Natural Descent, and Not Merely by Imitation.

x.iii.ix

The Analogy of Grace.

x.iii.x

Distinction Between Actual and Original Sin.

x.iii.xi

The Law Could Not Take Away Sin.

x.iii.xii

Meaning of the Apostle’s Phrase 'The Reign of Death.'

x.iii.xiii

Superabundance of Grace.

x.iii.xiv

The One Sin Common to All Men.

x.iii.xv

How Death is by One and Life by One.

x.iii.xvi

Whom Sinners Imitate.

x.iii.xvii

Only Christ Justifies.

x.iii.xviii

Sin is from Natural Descent, as Righteousness is from Regeneration; How ‘All’ Are Sinners Through Adam, and ‘All’ Are Just Through Christ.

x.iii.xix

Original Sin Alone is Contracted by Natural Birth.

x.iii.xx

Unbaptized Infants Damned, But Most Lightly; The Penalty of Adam’s Sin, the Grace of His Body Lost.

x.iii.xxi

To Infants Personal Sin is Not to Be Attributed.

x.iii.xxii

He Refutes Those Who Allege that Infants are Baptized Not for the Remission of Sins, But for the Obtaining of the Kingdom of Heaven.

x.iii.xxiii

Infants Saved as Sinners.

x.iii.xxiv

Infants are Described as Believers and as Penitents. Sins Alone Separate Between God and Men.

x.iii.xxv

No One, Except He Be Baptized, Rightly Comes to the Table of the Lord.

x.iii.xxvi

Infants Must Feed on Christ.

x.iii.xxvii

Baptized Infants, of the Faithful; Unbaptized, of the Lost.

x.iii.xxviii

It is an Inscrutable Mystery Why Some are Saved, and Others Not.

x.iii.xxix

Why One is Baptized and Another Not, Not Otherwise Inscrutable.

x.iii.xxx

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.

x.iii.xxxi

The Case of Certain Idiots and Simpletons.

x.iii.xxxii

Christ is the Saviour and Redeemer Even of Infants.

x.iii.xxxiii

Baptism is Called Salvation, and the Eucharist, Life, by the Christians of Carthage.

x.iii.xxxiv

Unless Infants are Baptized, They Remain in Darkness.

x.iii.xxxv

Infants Not Enlightened as Soon as They are Born.

x.iii.xxxvi

How God Enlightens Every Person.

x.iii.xxxvii

What ‘Lighteth’ Means.

x.iii.xxxviii

The Conclusion Drawn, that All are Involved in Original Sin.

x.iii.xxxix

A Collection of Scripture Testimonies. From the Gospels.

x.iii.xl

From the First Epistle of Peter.

x.iii.xli

From the First Epistle of John.

x.iii.xlii

From the Epistle to the Romans.

x.iii.xliii

From the Epistles to the Corinthians.

x.iii.xliv

From the Epistle to the Galatians.

x.iii.xlv

From the Epistle to the Ephesians.

x.iii.xlvi

From the Epistle to the Colossians.

x.iii.xlvii

From the Epistles to Timothy.

x.iii.xlviii

From the Epistle to Titus.

x.iii.xlix

From the Epistle to the Hebrews.

x.iii.l

From the Apocalypse.

x.iii.li

From the Acts of the Apostles.

x.iii.lii

The Utility of the Books of the Old Testament.

x.iii.liii

By the Sacrifices of the Old Testament, Men Were Convinced of Sins and Led to the Saviour.

x.iii.liv

He Concludes that All Men Need the Death of Christ, that They May Be Saved. Unbaptized Infants Will Be Involved in the Condemnation of the Devil. How All Men Through Adam are Unto Condemnation; And Through Christ Unto Justification. No One is Reconciled with God, Except Through Christ.

x.iii.lv

No One is Reconciled to God Except Through Christ.

x.iii.lvi

The Good of Marriage; Four Different Cases of the Good and the Evil Use of Matrimony.

x.iii.lvii

In What Respect the Pelagians Regarded Baptism as Necessary for Infants.

x.iii.lviii

The Context of Their Chief Text.

x.iii.lix

Christ, the Head and the Body; Owing to the Union of the Natures in the Person of Christ, He Both Remained in Heaven, and Walked About on Earth; How the One Christ Could Ascend to Heaven; The Head, and the Body, the One Christ.

x.iii.lx

The Serpent Lifted Up in the Wilderness Prefigured Christ Suspended on the Cross; Even Infants Themselves Poisoned by the Serpent’s Bite.

x.iii.lxi

No One Can Be Reconciled to God, Except by Christ.

x.iii.lxii

The Form, or Rite, of Baptism. Exorcism.

x.iii.lxiii

A Twofold Mistake Respecting Infants.

x.iii.lxiv

In Infants There is No Sin of Their Own Commission.

x.iii.lxv

Infants’ Faults Spring from Their Sheer Ignorance.

x.iii.lxvi

On the Ignorance of Infants, and Whence It Arises.

x.iii.lxvii

If Adam Was Not Created of Such a Character as that in Which We are Born, How is It that Christ, Although Free from Sin, Was Born an Infant and in Weakness?

x.iii.lxviii

The Ignorance and the Infirmity of an Infant.

x.iii.lxix

How Far Sin is Done Away in Infants by Baptism, Also in Adults, and What Advantage Results Therefrom.

x.iii.lxx